Habeas Corpus
Justice & Democracy
Nigel Farage MEP on the Greek tragedy inflicted by the EU authoritarian madness...
[Daniel Hannan MEP, journalist, writer and lover of William Shakespeare on the ideal of free and democratic Europe versus the authoritarian EU]
News : EUROPE
2019
Has Brussels pushed Brexit talks to the brink?
or the Arrogant Madness of EU fundamentalists
with Tim Sebastian in Conflict Zone by Deutches Welle (DW)
With just weeks to go before the UK’s planned exit from the EU, the Irish border issue remains unsolved and a disastrous no-deal departure is still on the table. But has inflexibility in Brussels pushed Brexit talks to a dangerous endgame? Philippe Lamberts, an MEP and member of the European Parliament's Brexit Steering Group, tells DW's Conflict Zonethat the British have responsibility for the Good Friday Agreement and the EU "will decide for what we are responsible.”
Conflict Zone is Deutsche Welle's top political interview. Every week, our hosts Tim Sebastian and Michel Friedman are face-to-face with global decision-makers, seeking straight answers to straight questions, putting the spotlight on controversial issues and calling the powerful to account.
Neo Nazism at the heart of German institutions, that is at the heart of the EU leading power
The Ceska Murders and Germany denegation of Nazism
... more in Al Jazeera
2016
A Tunisian criminal -well known to French police for previous armed attacks- strikes again murdering a hundred persons while crowds were celebrating Bastille Day in Nice
The lone terrorist used a hired lorry -full of arms and explosives- to kill at least 84 people in a terrorist attack during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, it emerged on Friday.
Many children were among the death toll in the Riviera city following a "cowardly and barbaric" atrocity (while no security forces were protecting the people
celebrating the National Day of the French Republic! otherwise the lorry would
had found the access to the zonee forbiden).
As hundreds remained in hospital, including 18 in intensive care, anti-terrorist judges opened an investigation into ‘mass murder’.
... more in The Telegraph - France 24 - BBC - The Guardian - The Independent - Libération
Lire aussi:
Abdelhamid Abaaoud n'est pas le "commanditaire" des attentats du 13 novembre 2015, d'après le patron de la DGSE dont les propos ont été révélés mardi. Il a préféré rester "discret" sur l'identité du véritable cerveau des attaques... [+]
Boris Johnson spells out a 5 points plan for a much brighter future for the UK & the rest of Europe by breaking free from the antidemocratic yoke of the EU bureaucracy
... In the old days, the Lefties used to dismiss the EU as a bankers’ ramp. Tony Benn thought it was unacceptably anti-democratic. Jeremy Corbyn used to vote against it in every division. Why has it suddenly become so fashionable among our nose-ringed friends? I tried to think which of the EU’s signature policies they were so keen on. Surely not the agricultural subsidies that make up most of the budget, and that have done so much to retard development in the Third World. They can’t – for heaven’s sake – support the peak tariffs that discriminate against value added goods from Sub-Saharan Africa. Nor can they possibly enjoy the sheer opacity of the system – the fact that there are 10,000 officials who are paid more than the Prime Minister, and whose names and functions we don’t know.
They can’t really be defending the waste, the fraud – or the endless expensive caravan of crémant-swilling members of the European Parliament between Brussels and Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Are they really demonstrating in favour of the torrent of red tape that has done so much to hold back growth in the EU? It seems an odd sort of campaign theme: what do we want? More Brussels law-making! When do we want it? Now!
Naturally, Lefties might want laws to protect the workforce – but they would surely want those laws to be made by politicians that the people could remove at elections. No: the more I thought about it, the odder it seemed. It was incredible that these young and idealistic people should be making a rumpus about the euro – the key policy of the modern EU – when that project has so gravely intensified suffering in many southern EU countries, and deprived a generation of young people of employment.
...These fears are wildly overdone. The reality is that the stock market has not plunged, as some said it would – far from it. The FTSE is higher than when the vote took place. There has been no emergency budget, and nor will there be. But the crowds of young people are experiencing the last psychological tremors of Project Fear – perhaps the most thoroughgoing government attempt to manipulate public opinion since the run-up to the Iraq War.
When Geldof tells them that the older generation has “stolen your future” by voting to Leave the EU, I am afraid there are too many who still believe it. It is time for this nonsense to end. It was wrong of the Government to offer the public a binary choice on the EU without being willing – in the event that people voted Leave – to explain how this can be made to work in the interests of the UK and Europe. We cannot wait until mid-September, and a new PM. We need a clear statement, now, of some basic truths:
1) There is no risk whatever to the status of the EU nationals now resident and welcome in the UK, and indeed immigration will continue – but in a way that is controlled, thereby neutralising the extremists.
2) It is overwhelmingly in the economic interests of the other EU countries to do a free-trade deal, with zero tariffs and quotas, while we extricate ourselves from the EU law-making system.
3) We can do free-trade deals with economies round the world, many of which are already applying.
4) We can supply leadership in Europe on security and other matters, but at an intergovernmental level.
5) The future is very bright indeed. That’s what Geldof should be chanting.
...read the full article in The Telegraph
Read also:
'A Pure Theory of Democracy' by Antonio Garcia-Trevijano clicking here
The UK votes to break free from the antidemocratic yoke of the EU and saves again Europe from tyranny
Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October
Mr Cameron made the announcement in a statement outside Downing Street after the final result was announced.
He said he would attempt to "steady the ship" over the coming weeks and months but that "fresh leadership" was needed.
The PM had urged the country to vote Remain, warning of economic and security consequences of an exit, but the UK voted to Leave by 52% to 48%.
England and Wales voted strongly for Brexit, while London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backed staying in.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed it as the UK's "independence day" but the Remain camp called it a "catastrophe".
The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 as the markets reacted to the results.
Watch Prime Minister David Cameron dignified resignation
Watch Boris Johnson, MP:
Watch George Galloway: We are not leaving Europe we are rejoining the world
...more in the BBC - The Guardian - The Telegraph - The Independent
Lea también:
Ante el Brexit ¡Viva Gran Bretaña! ... [+]
Why the United Kingdom should break free -next 23rd June- from the yoke of the anti-democratic EU to save again Europe from tyranny (as already did in II World War)
Watch The Great Debate on the EU Referendum
EU Referendum campaign suspended by the barbaric murder of the Hon. Mrs Jo COX, Member
of the UK Parliament ...[+]
Deeply horrified by the barbaric crime ending the life of the Hon. Mrs Jo Cox, at Habeas-Corpus.net we join in sorrow with all who love Mrs Cox and care for the UK.
Read husband Brendan Cox's statement:
'Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full' ... [+]
Thomas Mair: Man arrested in connection with Jo Cox attack was a 'loner' with 'history of mental health problems'... [+]
Jo Cox murder: Labour MP's 'security was being increased' after 'three-month harassment campaign' before she was shot and killed ... [+]
Jo Cox killing: vigils held across the UK live ... [+]
Julian Assange's arbitrary detention must end at once, UN panel finds. Sweden must drop immediately the fake case against the founder of Wikileaks.
WikiLeaks chief, who has been holed up since 2012 in the Ecuadorian embassy, has won UN backing.
A United Nations panel has decided that Julian Assange’s three-and-a-half years in the Ecuadorian embassy amount to “arbitrary detention”, leading his lawyers to call for the Swedish extradition request to be dropped immediately.
A Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed that the UN panel, due to publish its findings on Friday, had concluded that Assange was “arbitrarily detained”.
The WikiLeaks founder sought asylum from Ecuador in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over rape and sexual assault allegations, which he denies.
The panel’s findings were disclosed to the Swedish and British governments on 22 January, and will be published on Friday morning. Their judgment is not legally binding but can be used to apply pressure on states in human rights cases.
... more in The
Guardian - BBC - The
Independent - El Confidencial - El Español - Democracy Now - Le Figaro - La Repubblica - Wikileaks - Justice For Assange
Also read:
Find in Wikileaks how Henry Kissinger, when he was US Secretary of State, ruined the author of a 'Pure Theory of Democracy' and thus the chance of Spain having a true representative Democracy ... [+]
Julian Assange accuses UK minister of insulting UN after detention finding:
Foreign secretary Philip Hammond dismisses panels finding as ridiculous but WikiLeaks founder hails sweet victory ... [+]
Julian Assange decision by UN panel ridiculous, says Hammond -disqualifying himself as UK Foreign Secretary ... [+]
Assange celebra su "victoria histórica" y pide que finalice su "detención ilegal" ... [+]
Julian Assange: "Es una victoria innegable e histórica":
El fundador de Wikileaks celebra la decisión de Naciones Unidas, que ha considerado "arbitraria" la orden de arresto contra él. Amenaza con tomar medidas legales si la detención se mantiene... [+]
Julian Assange: The Untold Story Of An Epic Struggle For Justice ... by John Pilger
U.N. Panel Calls for Julian Assange's Freedom from "Arbitrary Detention" ... [+]
Assange feels vindicated by U.N. panel ruling he's being 'arbitrarily detained' ... [+]
Assange Calls On Sweden, Britain To Allow Him Freedom After UN Panel Report:
he has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012... [+]
Julian Assange: UN ruling is 'legally binding':
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has described a UN ruling, that he has been arbitrarily detained by the UK and Sweden, as a "victory" for himself and the "independence of the UN... [+]
2015
The EU for Deutchland über Alles drive by the totalitarian idiocy of oligarchies of states parties
'Devastated and humiliated': Greek deal poisons Europe as backlash mounts against 'neo-colonial servitude'
'It is now perfectly clear to a lot of people that the only way out of neo-colonial servitude is to break free of monetary union,' said one Syriza rebel ... more in The Telegraph
Greece put its faith in democracy but Europe has vetoed the result ... [more in The Guardian]
Greeks brace for unrest as Tsipras returns to push cuts through parliament ... [more in The Independent]
Tsipras seeks backing for eurozone deal ... [more in the BBC]
Deal on Greek Debt Crisis Exposes Europe’s Deepening Fissures... [more in The New York Times]
Greece makes last-minute deal to avoid economic meltdown, much worse than the deal that was rejected by Referendum one weeks ago ... [more in MSNBC]
"El único Estado duradero es áquel en que todos
las personas son iguales ante la Ley"
Aristóteles
"Democracy cannot defend itself"
["La Democracia no puede defenderse a sí misma"]
HM Queen Elizabeth
“Nos tendremos que arrepentir en esta generación, no sólo de las palabras odiosas y las acciones de la gente malvada, sino también del aterrador silencio de la gente buena”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Noticias : EUROPA
Despite that most countries claimed to be democratic, they have not democracy but oligarchy of state parties [which is the caused of institutional corruption]; that is why Egypt, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Cambodia, Russia, China, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, all East european and hispanic countries, indeed, most countries of the world are such a burden for the fundamental rights of their people. Germany leader of the European Union has not Democracy, but the same oligarchic regime that brought Hitler to power. The EU is not promoting democracy at all. Most people mistake individual liberties for the political -individual and collective- freedom they lack. Do read this book if you want to know what to do to bring Democracy to your own country:
'A Pure Theory of Democracy'
by Antonio García-Trevijano
translated by Miguel Rodríguez de Peñaranda
published by University Press of America
"This is not a democracy," Antonio García-Trevijano denounces in the first pages of this book. To confront the great lie that Europe does have democratic regimes, a lie rooted in people's confounding of the liberties they enjoy with the political freedom that they lack, the author builds a realistic theory of democracy to end the false idea that corruption, state crime, and public immorality are democracy's (undesirable) products and not the natural and inevitable fruits of oligarchic regimes. Thanks to a superb review of the events that mark the history of democracy, the author reveals the obstacles that, from the 17th century English revolution, the United States' War of Independence, and the French Revolution, opposed political freedom, deviating old Europe's democratic possibilities toward the current parties' state. There exist important theories of the state and of constitution, but none that can be called a theory of democracy. Antonio García-Trevijano's original theory, a modern synthesis of Rousseau's pure democracy and Montesquieu's political freedom, responds to European need for a theory of democracy as a real alternative to the corrupted parties' regime that was engendered by Western pragmatism during the Cold War.
About the authors:
Antonio García-Trevijano was born in Granada, Spain, in 1927. He has been a prominent figure of Spanish politics since the late sixties and is arguably one of the most important intellectual figures of the 20th century. His work, 'A Pure Theory of the Republic', will be published this year by University Press of America.
Miguel Rodríguez de Peñaranda was born in Madrid, Spain, in 1974. He is a writer and a translator. He is the author of several books on the fields of philosophy, poetry, religion, and political theory and is the translator of 'A Pure Theory of Democracy' and the forthcoming 'A Pure Theory of the Republic'.
Buy this important book in Amazon or in the University Press of America
Read by Antonio García-Trevijano 'Frente a la gran mentira' (the Spanish original book) clicking here
2014
The fraud of Democracy in the EU
Voters can't name their MEPs as poll highlights disengagement with EU
Only 11% say they would be confident of naming one of their MEPs, against 52% who could name their MP
Only one in 10 UK voters say they can name a member of the European parliament in their region, and even fewer have ever contacted one, according to a new poll that highlights widespread public disengagement with the EU.
The Opinium/Observer survey, conducted a fortnight before European elections later this month, shows that people are five times more likely to be able to name their local MP than any of their MEPs.
Just 11% say they would be confident of naming one of their MEPs, against 52% who say they could name their MP and 31% who could name one of their local or county councillors. Just 8% say they have made contact with an MEP, while 79% say they have never considered doing so.
While there is clearly a low level of engagement with MEPs, the poll shows that more people (43%) think the European parliament is important in the way Britain is governed than those who think it is unimportant (37%).
With turnout in the European elections likely to be low – in 2009 it was just 34% – the findings will alarm members of the EU establishment who fear that voter apathy and lack of involvement with the European project is allowing anti-EU forces such as Nigel Farage's Ukip to gain a bigger foothold in the European parliament.
... more in The Guardian - BBC - The Independent - The Telegraph - El Mundo - Voz Populi - Libertad Digital - El Confidencial
Read also:
La reunificación alemana ha costado 2 billones de euros a los europeos ... [+]
Alex Salmond: 'Scotland is a nation of drunks' ... [+]
El ex canciller alemán Schröder deja en ridículo la política exterior de Merkel y la UE sobre Ucrania ... [+]
George Galloway urges Scotland to say 'naw' ... [+]
Never mind the threat of Ukip, the electorate has been consumed with anger and alienated for years .... [+]
There is a remedy to improve representative Democracy: 1) All MP must be elected by absolute majority, the constituent electors deciding in a second ballot who of the two front runners will be their representative in Parliament. 2) Separation (not division) of powers, between Legislative and Executive, to achieve this goal the Prime Minister to be in charge of State's administration must be elected by all UK electors in a separate election, by absolute majority, that is with second ballot between the two front runners until one obtains 50+% of the national vote. Coalitions are anti-democratic and will bring institutional corruption in the long run. For more information please read “A Pure Theory of Democracy” by Antonio Garcia-Trevijano
Thanks.
Meizoso
Corruption in the European Union
The European Commission describes corruption across 28 member bloc as 'breathtaking' in the first report of its kind.
A European Union study found “breathtaking” levels of corruption across the 28-country bloc, costing the region at least 120bn euros ($162bn) a year. The study included a survey of public perception of corruption, which found that more than three-quarters of Europeans agree that corruption is widespread in their home countries and four out of ten consider it an obstacle.
Nearly two-thirds of the businesses surveyed said using political connections or paying under the table were necessary in order to succeed or to access certain public services. Greece, Croatia and Romania see especially high levels of bribery, according to the report, while Denmark, Sweden and Finland remain the region’s best performers.
... more in AlJazeera - BBC - The Guardian - The Telegraph - El Mundo - La Repubblica - Le Figaro
Europe's New Mafias
In the midst of a changing criminal underworld, AlJazeera investigates the spread of mafia-style activity from East to West.
No one paid the two men much attention as they approached the bank. It was around three in the afternoon in a small French town and customers had been coming and going to the cash machine all day. If anyone spared the two a thought, they would probably have assumed they were - just like anyone else - about to withdraw some money.
But then, as the men huddled together around the ATM - incidentally making it difficult for passers-by to see what they were doing - one of them opened his jacket and pulled out a rectangular steel panel. He swiftly pressed it into place over the cash machine’s keyboard (that it fitted perfectly was no accident), and then they walked away...
... more in PEOPLE
& POWER at AlJazeera
2013
The lack of representative Democracy in the EU and most of its member states leads to serious violations of fundamental rights of persons
State mafias that collaborate with dictatorships: the case of crimes against refugees from the republic of Kazakhstan
The murky extradition attempt from Spain of dissident Mr. Alexandr Pavlov
The secuestration of Mrs Alma Shalabayeva, wife of opposition leader Mr Mukhtar Ablyazov, and their young daughter from Italy... and so on
It was around midnight when some 30 armed men dressed in black burst into the villa in a well-to-do Rome suburb where Alma Shalabayeva and her young daughter had been living for the past eight months. Twenty more armed men were swarming outside.
After ransacking and searching the house, one of the gunmen, an Italian man with a gold chain, screamed “Russian bitch” at her and, minutes later, “I am the mafia!” Ms Shalabayeva’s brother-in law, who had been visiting with his wife and daughter, emerged from a room, his face bloodied by a beating.
Terrified, Ms Shalabayeva quickly understood that they were looking for her husband, Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakhstan opposition leader and former energy minister who fled his homeland in 2009 fearing for his life, later gaining political asylum in the UK. He is currently being pursued by Kazakhstan in London’s High Court for the alleged misappropiation of at least $6bn from BTA. Bank, of which he was former chairman.
“At that moment I had only one feeling – they had come to kill us?.?.?.?They were just going to kill us all without a trial and investigation and nobody would ever know,” recounts Ms Shalabayeva, describing events in May this year that have sent shockwaves through the Italian government, leaving it struggling to explain its actions and raised the concerns of the UN rapporteur for human rights.
She was hastily deported to Kazakhstan. Rome’s readiness to hand over the wife of a political refugee has raised questions about commercial links between Italian elite and resource-rich Kazakhstan, frequently criticised for its human rights record.
... read more in The Open Dialog Foundation
Read also:
Kazakh dictatorship demands to Spain the extradition of Alexandr Pavlov [it is known the murky relationships of Spain authorities with Kazakh dictator and with Putin] ... [+]
La Justicia española decide en los próximos días de julio la extradición de un disidente kazajo ... [+]
Arrest warrant for Kazakh billionaire accused of one of world's biggest frauds:
Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling $5bn in one of world's biggest frauds, found guilty of lying to high court over assets ... [+]
Banker Mukhtar Ablyazov 'fled to France on coach': Mukhtar Ablyazov, the millionaire banker sentenced to 22 months in prison for contempt of court, has fled the UK and is understood to be hiding in France, a court heard... [+]
Fugitive former bank boss from Kazakhstan is set to be stripped of £150m assets as judge brands him 'cynical and devious':
Mukhtar Ablyazov is accused of £3billion fraud.
Judge has imposed 22-month jail term for contempt but he has fled abroad.
£150m of assets seized, including £18m mansion in London.
His property portfolio is worth £70m alone... [+]
'Cynical and devious' Kazakh bank boss set to be stripped of £3bn assets: Fugitive's £18m London home may be seized after ruling in 'epic' fraud case ... [+]
Mafia sequestration and deportation of Kazakh mother and child shakes Italy ... [+]
Pope Benedict XVI resigns
El cardenal Mahony, encubridor de pederastas, insiste en ir al cónclave ... [+]
Un Vaticano tenebroso y corrupto obligó a dimitir a Benedicto XVI:
Ante las intrigas, corrupciones, impedimentos, soledades, complots, divisiones, ambiciones de poder, y la impotencia para tomar decisiones, el Papa decidió renunciar al Pontificado dejando a la Iglesia en una encrucijada de la que no se sabe si hay salida ... [+]
Vaticano, Balestrero nunzio in Colombia
lascia a sorpresa la segreteria di Stato ... [+]
Ior, così la guerra del denaro
ha avvelenato il Vaticano:
Manovre oscure e sospetti di riciclaggio. Il comando delle finanze della Santa Sede è saldamente nelle mani degli uomini di Bertone. Chi si è opposto alla linea è stato defenestrato ... [+]
How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions.
Papacy used offshore tax havens to create £500m international portfolio, featuring real estate in UK, France and Switzerland
Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square and Pall Mall.
But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.
Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.
Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds £500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent £15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.
The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.
... more in The Guardian - Publico
Watch also:
2012
December
BBC Newsnight - Britain outside the EU
Al Jazeera Correspondent : The Greek Resistance
Read also:
Markets dive after Mario Monti -unelected PM of Italy- announces resignation and mafia boss Berlusconi his intention to return to power: Italian and Spanish stock markets plunged and borrowing costs shot up after Mario Monti announced that he would step down as prime minister in the coming weeks... [+]
The EU takes the prize for being out of touch and tis HHRR violations: Telegraph View: as the European Union is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a referendum on Britain's membership is looking increasingly inevitable... [+]
El absurdo premio Nobel para la Unión Europea ... [+]
False hope springs eternal in the eurozone:
It’s remarkable that the single currency has survived – but the worst is far from over ... [+]
La Eurocracia y los consumidores ... [+]
November
The lost generation of Europe's young and unemployed
...more in AlJazeera
Nigel Farage of UKIP [United Kingdom Independence Party] debates on the nightmare of the European Union
Nigel Farage challenges Chancellor Merkel of Germany
Read also:
El pánico financiero y la austeridad que impone Alemania le reportan grandes beneficios y favorecen la apuesta de los grandes especuladores contra las deudas soberanas de los países del sur de Europa:
Los economistas reiteran hasta la saciedad que la imposición merkeliana de austeridad es un error, pero siguen sin entender que se trata de una truculenta estrategia del Gobierno y la banca alemana para desvalijar al sur de Europa con el fin de tapar el enorme agujero financiero alemán. Este expolio es posible debido a una desregulación jurídica que desde 2000 ha desplazado el capitalismo productivo por un “mercado casino” sin supervisión administrativa, en el que ha quedado suprimido el delito de información privilegiada y que funciona mediante apuestas en las que no hay que identificarse. Esta bolsa privada y sin transparencia, localizada en Nueva York y Londres, está en manos de un cartel compuesto por seis megabancos norteamericanos y seis europeos, todos quebrados y rescatados por sus Gobiernos, es decir, por los contribuyentes.
Este es el verdadero origen de la crisis: un nuevo capitalismo de casino y de apuestas en productos financieros tóxicos —como las hipotecas subprime—, que ahora especula con la deuda soberana de los países del sur. La causa de la crisis, pues, no es ni la burbuja inmobiliaria española, ni el endeudamiento —las deudas inglesa y alemana eran superiores—, ni la indisciplina fiscal. La burbuja ha sido hipotecaria: de titulizar y revender hipotecas tóxicas en el mercado. Precisamente, el Deutsche Bank fue uno de los mayores implicados, según reveló el Senado americano. Este banco ha colocado productos a sus clientes a sabiendas de que perderían dinero, tanto en Norteamérica (paquete “Gemstone VII”) como en Alemania, donde el Tribunal Supremo le condenó en 2011. Los ciudadanos alemanes fueron las primeras víctimas de la voracidad de sus bancos.
...Semejante giro depredador contra la propia zona euro lo motivó la filtración del informe confidencial del supervisor financiero alemán, el BaFIN (confirmado por otro de Merrill Lynch), que valoraba en 800.000 millones los activos tóxicos del país en 2009. Dichos datos delatarían que una Alemania especulativa había reemplazado a su reputado capitalismo industrial. En vez de procesar a los responsables, cerraron filas e iniciaron el descrédito del sur para desviar la atención y sojuzgarlos
...Se entiende cómo funciona un ataque especulativo tomando el paradigmático caso del imperio mediático alemán, Kirch. En 2001 los directivos de Deutsche Bank (Ackermann y Baumann) difundieron rumores falsos de que el grupo no podría pagar su deuda y que no conseguiría financiación. (¿Les suena de algo?) Provocaron la mayor quiebra contemporánea para apoderarse de él. En 2011 la justicia alemana esclareció el asunto y el presidente Ackermann, íntimo amigo de Merkel, dimitió y propuso una indemnización de 1.000 millones de euros para silenciar el escándalo. Como se ve, antes de Grecia, ya estaban curtidos en especulación contra empresas alemanas.
...La Comisión Europea no ha detectado el cartel del líbor, ni el entramado especulativo sobre la deuda griega oculta, ni destapa el club bancario que controla el mercado casino de Londres (denunciado todo por la prensa norteamericana). Tampoco indaga quiénes son los beneficiarios del ataque especulativo que está desahuciando a los Estados del sur. ¿Seguirán la UE y el comisario Almunia haciendo la vista gorda a esta manifiesta vulneración del derecho de la competencia? Lo que sí sabemos es que su antecesor, lord Brittan (diseñador del mercado casino con Thatcher), se colocó como vicepresidente de UBS. Otro vicepresidente de la UE, Solbes, es hoy asesor de Barclays.
El Gobierno alemán, el gran desahuciador, pretende apropiarse del capital del sur hasta las elecciones de 2013. España tiene que resistirse al rescate draconiano y reaccionar para desenmascarar esta política perversa de austeridad con movilizaciones y demandas judiciales. El Tribunal de la UE (caso Sint Servatius, 2009) declaró justificada la restricción a la libre circulación de capitales si “socava el equilibrio financiero de las políticas sociales”. Más aún, si tal especulación socava la soberanía económica y la estabilidad de un país miembro. Presenciamos pasivamente la destrucción del mercado único europeo y la imposición de un mercado único euro-alemán.
Thomas Mann ya nos alertó: en vez de una europeización de Alemania, se está implantando una alemanización económica de Europa.
...lea el excelente artículo de Manuel Ballbé es catedrático de Derecho de la UAB y Yaiza Cabedo, abogada; en el El País
Los economistas reiteran hasta la saciedad que la imposición merkeliana de austeridad es un error, pero siguen sin entender que se trata de una truculenta estrategia del Gobierno y la banca alemana para desvalijar al sur de Europa con el fin de tapar el enorme agujero financiero alemán. Este expolio es posible debido a una desregulación jurídica que desde 2000 ha desplazado el capitalismo productivo por un “mercado casino” sin supervisión administrativa, en el que ha quedado suprimido el delito de información privilegiada y que funciona mediante apuestas en las que no hay que identificarse. Esta bolsa privada y sin transparencia, localizada en Nueva York y Londres, está en manos de un cartel compuesto por seis megabancos norteamericanos y seis europeos, todos quebrados y rescatados por sus Gobiernos, es decir, por los contribuyentes.
Este es el verdadero origen de la crisis: un nuevo capitalismo de casino y de apuestas en productos financieros tóxicos —como las hipotecas subprime—, que ahora especula con la deuda soberana de los países del sur. La causa de la crisis, pues, no es ni la burbuja inmobiliaria española, ni el endeudamiento —las deudas inglesa y alemana eran superiores—, ni la indisciplina fiscal. La burbuja ha sido hipotecaria: de titulizar y revender hipotecas tóxicas en el mercado. Precisamente, el Deutsche Bank fue uno de los mayores implicados, según reveló el Senado americano. Este banco ha colocado productos a sus clientes a sabiendas de que perderían dinero, tanto en Norteamérica (paquete “Gemstone VII”) como en Alemania, donde el Tribunal Supremo le condenó en 2011. Los ciudadanos alemanes fueron las primeras víctimas de la voracidad de sus bancos.
...Semejante giro depredador contra la propia zona euro lo motivó la filtración del informe confidencial del supervisor financiero alemán, el BaFIN (confirmado por otro de Merrill Lynch), que valoraba en 800.000 millones los activos tóxicos del país en 2009. Dichos datos delatarían que una Alemania especulativa había reemplazado a su reputado capitalismo industrial. En vez de procesar a los responsables, cerraron filas e iniciaron el descrédito del sur para desviar la atención y sojuzgarlos
...Se entiende cómo funciona un ataque especulativo tomando el paradigmático caso del imperio mediático alemán, Kirch. En 2001 los directivos de Deutsche Bank (Ackermann y Baumann) difundieron rumores falsos de que el grupo no podría pagar su deuda y que no conseguiría financiación. (¿Les suena de algo?) Provocaron la mayor quiebra contemporánea para apoderarse de él. En 2011 la justicia alemana esclareció el asunto y el presidente Ackermann, íntimo amigo de Merkel, dimitió y propuso una indemnización de 1.000 millones de euros para silenciar el escándalo. Como se ve, antes de Grecia, ya estaban curtidos en especulación contra empresas alemanas.
...La Comisión Europea no ha detectado el cartel del líbor, ni el entramado especulativo sobre la deuda griega oculta, ni destapa el club bancario que controla el mercado casino de Londres (denunciado todo por la prensa norteamericana). Tampoco indaga quiénes son los beneficiarios del ataque especulativo que está desahuciando a los Estados del sur. ¿Seguirán la UE y el comisario Almunia haciendo la vista gorda a esta manifiesta vulneración del derecho de la competencia? Lo que sí sabemos es que su antecesor, lord Brittan (diseñador del mercado casino con Thatcher), se colocó como vicepresidente de UBS. Otro vicepresidente de la UE, Solbes, es hoy asesor de Barclays.
El Gobierno alemán, el gran desahuciador, pretende apropiarse del capital del sur hasta las elecciones de 2013. España tiene que resistirse al rescate draconiano y reaccionar para desenmascarar esta política perversa de austeridad con movilizaciones y demandas judiciales. El Tribunal de la UE (caso Sint Servatius, 2009) declaró justificada la restricción a la libre circulación de capitales si “socava el equilibrio financiero de las políticas sociales”. Más aún, si tal especulación socava la soberanía económica y la estabilidad de un país miembro. Presenciamos pasivamente la destrucción del mercado único europeo y la imposición de un mercado único euro-alemán.
Thomas Mann ya nos alertó: en vez de una europeización de Alemania, se está implantando una alemanización económica de Europa.
...lea el excelente artículo de Manuel Ballbé es catedrático de Derecho de la UAB y Yaiza Cabedo, abogada; en el El País
October
The contradiction of awarding the Nobel Prize to the undemocratic European Union which serves not Peace in Europe
Read also:
Germany shocks EU with fiscal overlord demand:
Germany has stated its exorbitant price for keeping Greece in the euro and agreeing to mass bond purchases by the European Central Bank... [+]
Roman Catholic Priest with 'insatiable egotism' on the run with £1m and a married woman: A Croatian priest bedevilled with "insatiable egotism" has gone on the run with more than £1 million pocketed from an illegal land sale and in the company of a married woman, according to reports... [+]
Nazi flags fly as Merkel tells Greeks the worst is over... if the sacrifice themselves another 10 years
Tens of thousands gathered at the barricades of a massive police operation to protect the German Chancellor as she met with Greek leaders who are searching for a new package of budget cuts to secure bail-out funds largely underwritten by the German taxpayer.
The centre-Right Mrs Merkel had arrived in Athens with the state plane flying the flags of both Greece and Germany.
The gesture set a tone of understanding and humility from the German camp but failed to make a dent in the wave of anger directed at the woman blamed for pushing Greece ever deeper into depression.
The message sent to Mrs Merkel from the streets was unremittingly bleak.
Banners screamed: "Angela, Save the world, Kill Yourself" and "Out with the Fourth Reich".
... more in AlJazeera - The Telegraph - The Guardian - El Confidencial - France 24
Read also:
Greek anti-fascist protesters 'tortured by police' after Golden Dawn clash:
Fifteen people arrested in Athens says they were subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation ... [+]
Le maire de Londres, Boris Johnson, fustige le "tyran" François Hollande ... [+]
Germany told to 'come clean’ over Greece
German Chancellor Angela Merkel must “come clean at long last” and admit that Greece will need help for another seven or eight years, the German opposition leader said over the weekend.
“The Greeks must stand by their commitment, but we must give them time. We cannot tighten the screws any futher,” said Peer Steinbruck, the Social Democrat candidate for chancellor. He said the political and economic fall-out from Greek ejection from the euro would be devastating and must be avoided.
The plea came amid reports that Berlin is so worried that a Greek crisis would spin out of control that it is ready to back the next €31bn payment to Athens under its EU-IMF Troika rescue, despite failure to comply with the terms. Wirtschaftswoche, a German news magazine, said Greece’s parliament merely needs to vote on a list of detailed reforms.
It cited warnings from a top EU official that “domino-effect” dangers are too great to allow the ejection of Greece from EMU. Authorities across the world – including the Bank of England – fear a surge of capital flight from Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Italy if the sanctity of monetary union is violated.
Diplomats say concerns go beyond financial damage. Both EU and US officials are worried that the fragile security system of the Western Mediterannean could start to unravel if Greece is alienated and withdraws from Nato under populist leaders in the future... [+]
Read also:
Pope’s Butler Indicted in Vatican Leak Case ... [+]
El Vaticano abre sus tribunales para juzgar la traición del mayordomo del Papa: El juicio que comienza el próximo sábado sienta en el banquillo a Paolo Gabriele, otrora hombre de confianza de Benedicto XVI, acusado de filtrar documentos secretos de la Curia ... [+]
Nido de cuervos en el Vaticano: La detención del mayordomo del Papa ha dejado al descubierto una guerra de poder en el Vaticano. El cardenal Bertone ha enviado al exilio a algunos de sus colaboradores más queridos. Benedicto XVI trata de obtener una tregua, pero la lucha es encarnizada ... [+]
Se buscan más cuervos ... [+]
Los casos de pederastia salpican al cardenal Bertone ... [+]
September
Václav Klaus warns that the destruction of Europe's democracy may be in its final phase. 'Two-faced' politicians have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy.
The new push for a European Union federation, complete with its own head of state and army, is the "final phase" of the destruction of democracy and the nation state, the president of the Czech Republic has warned.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Václav Klaus warns that "two-faced" politicians, including the Conservatives, have opened the door to an EU superstate by giving up on democracy, in a flight from accountability and responsibility to their voters.
"We need to think about how to restore our statehood and our sovereignty. That is impossible in a federation. The EU should move in an opposite direction," he said.
Last week, Germany, France and nine other of Europe's largest countries called for an end to national vetoes over defence policy as Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, urged the creation of a directly elected EU president "who personally appoints the members of his European government".
Mr Westerwelle, in a reference to British opposition, called for nation states to be stripped of vetoes on defence to "prevent one single member state from being able to obstruct initiatives" which "could eventually involve a European army". ... [+]
Read also:
Violence Erupts as over 200.000 Greeks Strike to Protest Austerity ... [+]
Spain Recoils as Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a Next Meal ... [+]
Catalonia called snap elections on Tuesday in a drive for greater independence from Madrid as its leader demanded "self determination" for the region... [+]
Athens descends into violence as 200,000 march against austerity:
Police respond with tear gas to firebombs thrown from sidelines of demo against €12bn cuts... [+]
Anti-cuts protests erupt on streets of Athens and Madrid ... [+]
Deutschland sollte Spanien harte Konditionen für weitere EU-Hilfen auferlegen. Spanien sollte kein Geld mehr bekommen, wenn es sein politisches und wirtschaftliches System nicht in seinen Grundsätzen ändert und das Mitspracherecht der Bürger garantiert... [+]
Germany ought to condition any European help to Spain in order to bring Democracy to the political and economical system and eradicate the corruption and nepotism of Spanish institutions ... [+]
Alemania debe condicionar la ayuda europea a España para democratizar a fondo el sistema político y económico para acabar con la corrupción y nepotismo de las instituciones españolas ... [+]
Read also:
Fate of eurozone rests in the hands of German judges: Decision is likely to give financial rescue fund the go-ahead against a background of German disillusion with single currency ... [+]
Germany's Constitutional Court said it will examine whether to postpone its long-awaited verdict on the eurozone's permanent rescue fund and the EU fiscal pact after a new legal challenge by a leading eurosceptic politician... [+]
A better Europe is possible, let's break this anti-democratic Union and set the people free
Read also:
Crisis of faith in the spiritual home of the euro:
The rise of the Dutch Socialist Party could end Holland's reputation as a Brussels-friendly member of the beleaguered Eurozone club, reports Harriet Alexander ... [+]
Mayor defends monument to fascist leader convicted of war crimes:
An Italian Fascist leader convicted of using poisonous gas against enemy soldiers in Africa was "not a war criminal", said the mayor of the town which has erected a monument in his honour... [+]
July
Very British, insightful and truthful eurosceptic politician - Nigel Farage- gains worlwide following ... [+]
Eurozone crisis live: Spanish 10 year bonds break through the 7% yield barrier...
Well, that was shortlived. It seems the Finnish threats on the eurozone are now being played done. More details as we get them. Some decisive news coming from Europe. In a newspaper interview, Finland's finance minister Jutta Urpilainen said the country would rather leave the eurozone than continue bailing out struggling countries.
According to AFP, she said: "Finland is committed to being a member of the eurozone, and we think that the euro is useful for Finland"
Finland will not hang itself to the euro at any cost and we are prepared for all scenarios.
The country still has a prized AAA credit rating and fears any shared responsibility could damage that status... [+]
Read also:
Euro break-up: Let Germany lead the northern core and France the rest: The respected economist and Telegraph columnist summarises the argument for an orderly break-up of the eurozone if a struggling member was forced to leave that won him the Wolfson Economics prize...[+]
Finland warns of euro exit: Finland would consider leaving the eurozone rather than paying the debts of other countries in the currency bloc, Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen has said... [+]
Reino Unido podría cerrar sus fronteras a los griegos y otros europeos en crisis... [+]
Los socios de Merkel proponen que Grecia empiece a usar el dracma:
Cada vez más políticos hablan abiertamente de Grecia fuera del euro. Tras el anuncio del FMI, el ministro de Economía germano no lo ve "improbable"... [+]
June
The Genius of Mutual Indebtedness or the Euro-Titanic sinking
by Nigel Farage
...more in United Kingdom Independence Party
Read also:
The End of the World as We Know It ... [+]
Dithering Europe is heading for the democratic dark ages:
A Greek economy run by Brussels will ignore the lessons of history, leading to more misery, writes Boris Johnson... [+]
Eurozone must reform or break up, says David Cameron:
The European Union will either have to break up or face “perpetual stagnation” without major reform, David Cameron will warn today... [+]
Las consecuencias de las elecciones griegas son muy diferentes a las que pronostican los grandes medios ... [+]
Eurozone crisis live: Spanish borrowing costs hit new high as market rally fades ... [+]
Spain and Italy to be bailed out in £600bn deal, it emerged at the G20 summit on Tuesday night... [+]
Confiar en la unión monetaria es ladrar a la luna ... [+]
La libertad de prensa y la democracia se resienten en todo Europa: El Consejo de Europa elabora un informe en el que, entre otros casos, señala a España por las ruedas de prensa en las que no se admiten preguntas ... [+]
Spanish bailout: the bitter fruits of 4 decades of corruption and impunity
...supported by the anti-democratic drive of the European Union
...Unlike in Greece and Ireland, the prospect of a bail-out in Spain has not led to a rise in feeling against Germany, whose Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been accused of trying to impose excessively harsh austerity measures.
The Spanish government has not dithered in belt-tightening programmes, and among many of the demonstrators in La Linea, there is an acceptance that Spain is the author of its own misfortunes.
Mr Fernandez, the lawyer, conceded Spain's 8,700 municipalities were part of the problem: the country, he said, should halve the number of local government offices to save money. Massive over-reliance on the construction sector was also weakness, he added.
"It started off as a small problem with excess spending in the late 1970s, but now the issue has rolled and rolled," he said. "It is a small stone that has become a giant rock."
Certainly the Spanish problems, which started with overspending in regional governments, have become very big mountains indeed. On Thursday, credit agency Fitch slashed Spain's rating by three notches, from A to BBB.
Worse still, Fitch said Spain would likely remain slumped in recession this year and next, rather than stage a mild recovery in 2013, denting hopes of reducing the 25 per cent national unemployment rate.
...more in The Telegraph - Voz Populi - El Confidencial - BBC - The Guardian - France 24 - Publico - Libertad Digital
Read also:
Open letter to Chancellor Merkel: Sacrifice Spain
By Spengler [David P. Goldman author of 'How Civilisations die', among other excellent books]
...Now the international consensus has collapsed, elite opinion is confused and Germany has become the arbiter of the European financial crisis. The US administration's economic policy has produced poor results and the American president wants to blame his problems on you. Your neighbors, the IMF, and the Obama administration are trying to persuade you to extend Germany's credit to paper over the indebtedness of the rest of Europe. Yet common sense makes clear that Germany's resources are finite, while German voters fail to understand why they should put their future in jeopardy to support countries plagued by corruption and inefficiency.
...read the full excellent article by David P. Goldman in Asian Times
Jede weitere Rettung treibt Europa auseinander: Europas Steuerzahler haften mit bis zu 100 Milliarden Euro für die Rettung von Spaniens Banken – mit unklarer Perspektive. Das Krisenmanagement offenbart, wie tief die Risse in Europa sind... [+]
Ist Spanien das nächste Griechenland? Mit Spanien ist nun der viertgrößte Euro-Staat unter dem Rettungsschirm. Wird das Land europäischer Dauerpatient, so wie Griechenland, dann platzt der Euro. Doch Madrid steht besser da als Athen... [+]
Was passiert jetzt genau mit Spanien?: Wer zahlt jetzt genau das Hilfsgeld an Spanien, wann, und welche Gegenleistungen muss das Land bringen? Hier sind 15 Fragen zur EU-Hilfe. Und die Antworten dazu... [+]
Market rally over Spain bailout fades: ...But much of the early risk asset gains was lost, as initial strength in Spanish sovereign debt evaporated, pointing to wariness over Madrid’s fiscal position.
“Spain’s benchmark yields are on quite an El Toro bareback ride,” said Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak.
“The market opened bid, meaning yields moved lower at the outset ... However, investors seem somewhat concerned that the bailout will add to its [Spain’s] budget deficit and drove bonds lower.”...[+]
Spanish bailout stock market rally fizzles out: Shares in London and major European markets moved sharply higher in early trading – but the euphoria was short-lived ... [+]
Fears that Spain's bailout relief may be short-lived: Mariano Rajoy warns that 2012 will be marked by more job losses and a deeper recession... [+]
Rajoy le frivole menteur se félicite d'avoir évité "une intervention extérieure" ... [+]
Mariano Rajoy, dos au mur, appelle l'Europe à la rescousse des banques mafieuses ... [+]
Spain’s Premier Steps Up, With Caveats for Europe: ... Adding to European uncertainties about him, Mr. Rajoy tried to persuade Spaniards on Sunday that the decision to accept the $125 billion bailout was neither a concession to European pressure nor a recognition of the gravity of Spain’s crisis, and that it would not carry any of the onerous conditions of austerity that have roiled Greece.
“Nobody pressured me; I was the one who pressured to get credit,” Mr. Rajoy said at a news conference in Madrid. The agreement, he added, improved “the credibility of the European project, the future of the euro, the solidity of our financial system and the possibility that credit will flow again.” ... [+]
Spain's Handling of Bankia -directed by corrupt politicians- Repeats a Pattern of Denial ... [+]
Global Mafia Identified at Bilderberg: Including Possible VP Candidate!
The EU's 'beneficial crisis' has spun out of control
'Europe' expected to be united through emergencies, but this one will tear it apart.
So battle-weary have our media become in covering the slow-motion collapse of the euro that it took them quite a while to wake up to the gravity of the crisis building up over the latest episode – the impending bankruptcy of Spain. On Thursday –while even the EU’s economic affairs commissioner was warning of the “disintegration” of the eurozone, and a former Spanish prime minister spoke of “a total emergency, the worst crisis we have ever lived through” – one internet summary of the day’s top stories (headed by “Jeremy Hunt”) ranked Spain only 20th on the list.
Even those commentators who have tried to put this latest crisis into perspective often revealed how hazily informed many of them are about the history of the EU, and what a central role the creation of the euro has played in it. The BBC’s Robert Peston, for instance, was not the only one to “explain” how the idea of a single currency was concocted by Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand after the fall of Communism in 1989. One cannot, however, grasp the significance of the euro without realising that its history goes much further back than that.
As long ago as 1957, Jean Monnet – who was the real organising genius behind the gradual building of “Europe” into a single, unified state – suggested that it was only through monetary and economic union that the “political union which is the goal” could be achieved. “There are no premature ideas,” he wrote, “only opportunities for which we must learn to wait.” ... [+]
May
Greek and French elections: ...voters turn to parties who had opposed austerity measures
Greece's young leftist Tsipras delivers political earthquake
Governing parties backing EU-mandated austerity in Greece are on course for a major drubbing as hard-hit voters, venting their fury in elections, defected in droves, according to exit polls.
In a major upset that will not be welcomed by the crisis-plagued country's eurozone partners, the two forces that had agreed to enact unpopular belt-tightening in return for rescue funds appeared headed for a beating, with none being able to form a government.
After nearly 40 years of dominating the Greek political scene, the centre-right New Democracy and socialist Pasok saw support drop dramatically in favour of parties that had virulently opposed the tough austerity dictated by international creditors.
The latest figures showed New Democracy leading with between 19 – 20.5% of the vote, followed by the radical leftist party, Syriza, with as much as 17% and socialist party Pasok with between 13 – 14 %. And for the first time since the collapse of military rule, ultra-nationalists were also set to enter parliament with polls showing the neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) capturing as much as 8%. ... [+]
The socialist François Hollande wins French presidential election with the votes of the far right ... [+]
France, Greece and Germany election results send austerity shockwaves through Europe: The stunning victory of the French Socialists and wipe-out of mainstream parties in Greece sent shock waves on Sunday night crashing throughout the continent of Europe... [+]
Otra vez, la excepción francesa ... [+]
Sarkozy, otro presidente engullido por la crisis: La crisis económica ha engullido hoy a otro gobernante europeo, el presidente francés, Nicolas Sarkozy, derrotado por el socialista François Hollande... [+]
El candidato a gobernar Grecia amenaza con impagar la deuda: El líder de la coalición de izquierdas, llamado a formar Gobierno, dice que las condiciones del rescate "ya no son válidas"... [+]
Leader of left-wing Syriza party says Greeks voted against the "barbaric bailout" and austerity pledges are "null and void", while British 10-year borrowing costs drop to historic lows... [+]
El partido antirrescate griego se rebela contra Alemania y las primas se disparan... [+]
Eurozone crisis live: Contingency plans 'underway' for Greek exit ... [+]
Emanuela Orlandi 'was kidnapped for sex parties for Vatican police': A teenage girl whose disappearance in Rome has remained a mystery for 30 years was kidnapped for sex parties by a gang involving Vatican police and foreign diplomats, the Roman Catholic Church's leading exorcist has claimed... [+]
April
European Union alienates us all - as foretold 40 years ago
With chilling candour, a paper from a senior government official laid out the difficulties that Britain would face in the proposed Common Market.
All across Europe, from riots in Greece to those protest votes for Marine Le Pen and George Galloway, we see signs of how alienated people now feel from the “political class” which rules over our lives, out of touch with the rest of us, without meaningful opposition, no longer responsive to any democratic control. I am reminded of a document I discovered in the National Archives at Kew in January 2002, when sifting through papers released under the 30-year rule relating to Britain’s negotiations to join the Common Market. It was a confidential 1971 memorandum, clearly written by a senior Foreign Office official, headed “Sovereignty and the Community”.
With chilling candour, this paper (from FCO folder 30/1048) predicted that it would take 30 years for the British people to wake up to the real nature of the European project that Edward Heath was about to take them into, by which time it would be too late for them to leave. Its author made clear that the Community was headed for economic, monetary and fiscal union, with a common foreign and defence policy, which would constitute the greatest surrender of Britain’s national sovereignty in history. Since “Community law” would take precedence over our own, ever more power would pass to this new bureaucratic system centred in Brussels – and, as the role of Parliament diminished, this would lead to a “popular feeling of alienation from government”.
...[+]
Spain's woes to deepen as it double-dips into recession: Spain is set to officially confirm that it fell back into recession in the first quarter of the year, marking the beginning of what is expected to be another rocky week for the ailing eurozone economy... [+]
Could democracy derail the euro?: Like a tidal wave, the crisis that has overwhelmed southern Europe smashed into the northern core last week... [+]
Ukraine's former PM 'on hunger strike'
Yulia Tymoshenko accuses guards of kicking her as she was taken to hospital by force, says her lawyer.
Tymoshenko, who has a severe spinal condition and needs hospital treatment, was taken last week to a clinic in the eastern city of Kharkiv where her jail is located, but was returned to prison a day later after refusing treatment.
Her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said on Tuesday that prison officials kicked her in the stomach while taking her to the hospital by force.
Prison authorities declined to comment.
The west has condemned Tymoshenko's seven-year sentence for abuse of office as politically motivated.
...German President Joachim Gauck has turned down a visit to Ukraine amid growing concern at the health of jailed former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she was "deeply preoccupied" after reports that Ms Tymoshenko was assaulted by guards.
The Ukrainian opposition leader alleges that three men punched her in the stomach on her way to hospital.
Russia's foreign ministry has appealed to Kiev to "show a human approach".
A spokesman in Moscow urged the Ukrainian authorities to "fully safeguard" her legal rights.
...The daughter of Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Friday that her mother's condition has deteriorated badly since alleged beatings by prison guards.
...more in The Guardian - BBC - AlJazeera - The Telegraph
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte resigns over austerity measures
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, and his cabinet, have resigned after failing to reach agreement on reducing the country's budget to meet European guidelines... [+]
Estalla la bomba holandesa en el corazón de la Eurozona: Cuando todos los ojos del fin de semana estaban puestos en los resultados de la primera vuelta de las elecciones francesas, en Holanda estallaba una nueva bomba que amenaza con dinamitar los cimientos de la Eurozona por donde menos se esperaba, para consuelo de los países periféricos europeos, España entre ellos. El respiro que Rajoy y los suyos asociaban a Hollande, conmiseración presupuestaria, erraba en la última vocal. Era una ‘a’. La dimisión del Primer Ministro holandés, Mark Rutte, esta misma tarde pone de manifiesto la dimensión de nuevo problema al que se enfrenta la Unión.
En efecto, los principales partidos que forman la coalición de gobierno eran incapaces, tras siete semanas de negociación, de llegar a un acuerdo sobre cómo recortar los 14.000 a 16.000 millones de euros necesarios para cumplir con el Pacto Fiscal europeo que limita el porcentaje de déficit público sobre Producto Interior Bruto al 3% en 2013. El ultraderechista Geert Wilders daba por rotas las conversaciones justo cuando parecía que el trato se encontraba más cerca que nunca... [+]
Breaking the eurozone's self-defeating cycle of austerity: While a beleaguered IMF and ECB try to hold the line, voters all over Europe are rebelling against their punitive fiscal orthodoxy ...[+]
Divine intervention is needed to save the euro, said top EU officials; a joke? Corrupt and feudalist Spain the biggest problem...
The best hope for saving the euro is for the Pope to pray for divine intervention, according to an email written in the office of Herman Van Rompuy, the man charged with preserving the European Union's single currency.
The message was an April Fool's day joke that was intended for internal consumption only but was leaked yesterday, as are most genuine documents on the euro's survival.
New talks were needed, the "communique" said, and should include Pope Benedict XVI, as Sovereign of the Vatican City State, which uses the euro.
"The presence of His Holiness the Pope affords an opportunity to pray for divine intervention to save the euro. This is now seen as the most credible strategy," concluded the spoof press release, crafted by one of Mr Van Rompuy's aides.
The press office of the Council of EU, whose official letterhead was used for the joke statement, is not said to be amused after receiving calls asking about the "April 1 summit".
"I glad someone thinks this is a laughing matter, but it's no joke for us," said one official.
...more in The Telegraph - The Guardian - AlJazeera - BBC - El Mundo - Libertad Digital - Publico - El Confidencial - Voz Populi - France 24 - La Repubblica
Read also:
Europe votes to end expensive parliament's 'Travelling Circus': MEPs have voted by a massive majority to end the European Parliament's monthly journey to Strasbourg by having a single seat for the EU assembly in Brussels...but France and EU treaty oppose this rare rational decision...
Violent protests erupt in Spain over government austerity measures: Police make dozens of arrests as hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets in cities across Spain to demonstrate against government labour reforms... Worse to come...
Robert Miller with the main City and business news as European Union finance ministers prepare for their meeting in Copenhagen, Spain's government debt and troubled banking sector fuel market speculation that a rescue deal will be needed...
Billions of euros of European Union money have been spent in Madeira, yet the island is swimming in debt...
Crisis de la Zona Euro: el liderazgo mediocre de Merkozy, Rajoy y compañía...[+]
La gripe española y el mal negocio del euro ...[+]
March
The EU police state and the IV Reich
Euroland will pay for this monetary madness:
The flood of cheap money from the European Central Bank is storing up grave trouble for the future.
When something looks dangerous, it generally is. And few things look quite so high-wire right now as the European Central Bank’s efforts to hold the euro together by flooding the banking system with free money.
This week, the ECB injected a further 529.5 billion euros via “long-term refinancing operations”, or LTROs, bringing the tally to more than 1 trillion euros.
When Mario Draghi, the new ECB president, embarked on the programme shortly before Christmas, it was hailed as a masterstroke which had saved the eurozone from financial and economic calamity. Even the Jeremiahs of Germany’s Bundesbank, proud keepers of the sacred flame of monetary conservatism, were stunned into grudging acquiescence by the evident seriousness of the crisis. But now the doubts are beginning to set in, and with good reason.
The measures adopted are so extreme that it is no longer possible to know where they might lead, or what their eventual consequences might be. There is no precedent or road map for this kind of thing. All we do know is that they fail to provide any kind of lasting solution to the single currency’s underlying difficulties, which are still largely unrecognised and unaddressed. If Draghi’s intention was to buy time, it’s not being well used.
It might be argued, of course, that a sticking-plaster solution is better than no solution.
...more in The Telegraph - The Guardian - El Confidencial - Voz Populi - El Pais - France 24 - La Repubblica - BBC - Al Jazeera
Read also:
Entérense, el peligroso IV Reich alemán es ya una realidad...
The creation of the European Union police state
Greece could default within hours: So this is it. After three years of high drama, the European Union is staring at its first ever sovereign default. And ironically, unlike every other deadline so far, this one looks set to happen precisely on time...
Prosigue la metástasis griega: ...Después de haber gastado más de 200.000 millones de euros para que el Estado heleno no quiebre, ahora se plantea la necesidad de aprobar un tercer paquete de 50.000 millones más para salvar a Grecia. Esto es insostenible y no servirá para nada. El riesgo de un default desordenado de ese país cobra de nuevo una virtualidad extraordinaria y, en cualquier caso, la hipótesis de una salida de la patria de Aristóteles del euro adquiere cada vez mayor virtualidad...
Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull France out of Europe's passport-free zone on Sunday unless the EU tightened its borders against illegal immigration in a "make or break" campaign rally before 60,000 supporters outside Paris...
'Financial Times' contra el Cuarto Reich de Angela Merkel
Rise of the Fourth Reich, how Germany is using the financial crisis to conquer Europe
French election and the EU:
Adieu or au revoir to Europe?...
Charlemagne:
Mario, put on your toga.
Italy’s impressive prime minister has changed domestic and European politics...
Vatileaks:
Rocking the Holy See.
A string of leaked documents is shaking things up at the Vatican...
Mientras, en la UE hacen como que arreglan algo...China buys the best and most influential of Europe...
Corrupt Spain is the biggest problem of the Euro zone...
La pícara España es el problema más grave de la EU...
February
The EU authoritarian nightmare is driving entire populations to disaster:
Officials from the EU and the International Monetary Fund made two grave errors when they swooped into Greece in mid-2010 and dictated the now hated "Memorandum".
The regime of drastic cuts has tipped the economy into a violent downward spiral. They thought that private industry would muddle through as the state went through the austerity mincer. What the EU-IMF "Troika" did not fully understand is how many firms were really part of the state in disguise.
"The Greek government outsources everything," said one official with close knowledge of the events.
Faced with the guillotine, the state first slashed procurement contracts and then stopped paying its bills altogether. The government is now €7bn (£5.8bn) in arrears to private companies, including €3bn in unpaid VAT refunds for exporters. It is why business has borne the brunt of the fiscal squeeze, suffering 450,000 job losses, and why Greece's unemployment has soared to 21pc.
At the same time the banking system seized up. More than €60bn of deposits were withdrawn. By November, no Greek bank could issue a letter of credit accepted anywhere in the world, with calamitous implications for trade. "Greece became a leper, and is now stuck in Catch-22," said one official.
Hellenic Petroleum was unable to import basic fuel. The reason why Greece's reliance on oil imports from Iran jumped from 15pc to 70pc in a two-week period in November was because Tehran agreed to take on the credit risk.
...more in The Telegaph - The Guardian - BBC - Al Jazeera - El Mundo - Voz Populi
Read also:
Thieves raid Greece's Ancient Olympia Museum: Armed robbers wearing hoods steal between 60 and 70 items after breaking in and tying up female employee...
German President Christian Wulff has announced his resignation, after prosecutors called for his immunity to be lifted concerning corruption...
German president quits over scandal: Christian Wulff announces resignation amid allegations that he received financial favours before becoming head of state...
More in Al Jazeera - Libertad Digital - El Mundo
Germany drawing up plans for Greece to leave the euro: Plans for Greece to default, potentially leaving the euro, have been drafted in Germany as the European Union begins to face up to the fact that Greek debt is spiralling out of control - with or without a second bailout...
This euro deal is a recipe for revolution: The austerity measures imposed on Greece -a country that has been suffering from 5 years of recession- threaten to do such damage to its economy that its debts will actually increase...
El rescate a Grecia implica una severa cesión de soberanía...
Britain has for the first time refused to sign off the European Union budget in a protest at “material errors” worth €4 billion in the 2010 Brussels accounts, the 17th failed audit in a row...
Un ministro alemán aconseja la salida de Grecia del euro
Germany’s Friedrich Urges Greek Exit From Euro, Spiegel Says
Eurozone heading into recession, says EU: The eurozone economy is heading into its second recession in just three years, while the wider European Union will stagnate, the EU said, warning that the area has yet to break its vicious cycle of debt...
Germany’s interior minister called for Greece to leave the eurozone on Saturday as hopes that the world’s richest countries would stump up more cash to help the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fight Europe’s debt crisis faded.
Greece sinks to its knees: The recent bail-out, which imposes strict new austerity measures on the Greeks, will deepen a crisis that has already driven up the suicide rate by 40 per cent. David Blair reports from Athens on a nation that eyes the future without hope...
Debt crisis live: The European Central Bank has temporarily suspended the use Greek bonds as collateral after S&P downgrades Greece to "selective default," while Portugal awaits approval of the next tranche of its €78bn bailout...
Motín inglés contra el autoritarismo de la UE...
Greek crisis gives Germany something to sing about
Greece's coalition parties face a noon deadline to tell the EU whether they accept the mad terms of a "new bailout" deal as the unelected government keeps threaten the Greek people with Hell as they want to break free from undemocratic EU .
The FT has a story this morning suggesting as many as half of the capital-boosting proposals put forward by 30 European banks may be rejected as not sufficiently credible. Remember these banks were forced to come up with plans to increase their capital cushions after the European Banking Authority in December found that together they needed to raise €115bn to meet their regulatory targets.
The EBA board are due to discussed submitted plans at a meeting next week. Some experts have a pointed finger at Commerzbank as one bank likely to find filling its capital shortfall a big ask. Since then the German bank has generated €3bn of capital toward its €5.3bn stress test shortfall and local regulators have played down concerns.
Spanish bank Santander was found to have the largest shortfall - of €15bn - but has insisted it has found ways of filling the gap. Only Italy's Unicredit opted for a rights issue to raise capital - and look how well that went.
...more in The Telegraph - The Guardian - Al Jazeera
Read also:
"El desencanto de Europa"
How 'magic' made gigantic Greek debt disappear before it joined the euro
Fire and fury as Greek bail-out protesters clash with police: Greek police fired tear gas at protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs outside parliament in Athens, as lawmakers inside debated deeply unpopular austerity measures to secure a bail-out programme aimed at helping the country avoid bankruptcy...
Greece passes yet another bailout vote as country burns: The Greek parliament approved a deeply unpopular austerity bill to secure a second $130bn (£110bn) bailout and avoid a messy default after a day of street battles between police and protesters left Athens in flames...
¿Por qué es la Unión Europea impopular?
Grecia aprueba más recortes en medio de incendios y graves disturbios
El parlamento griego aprueba los recortes ante la indignación de la calle
Grecia arde por la aprobación de aún más sacrificios para el pueblo en el parlamento de corruptos: El primer ministro logra sacar adelante la votación en una jornada de violentas protestas...
Más de 40 diputados griegos expulsados de sus respectivos partidos por no votar en favor de una nueva hipoteca impuesta por la UE que deberá pagar el sacrificado pueblo
Grecia nos puede liberar: El Calvario de los griegos ha pasado a formar parte de las conversaciones políticas y económicas desde que se produjo el primer rescate de ese país va a hacer pronto dos años. Como era previsible, todo ha ido empeorando y todos los actores se encuentran atrapados en un callejón sin salida, porque la arrogancia y la falta de realismo son muy malas compañías para buscar soluciones a los problemas, también a la crisis financiera. Pero no hay mal que por bien no venga: la salida de Grecia del euro puede provocar cambios importantes en las políticas suicidas de la eurozona, que tienen un olor de solución final. Esos cambios beneficiarían especialmente a países como el nuestro en los que se ha renunciado con demasiada ligereza a elaborar un proyecto autónomo para intentar salir del pozo. Excuso decir las consecuencias que puede tener el observar cómo Grecia, una vez superados los primeros días de confusión tras su salida del euro, recupera un mínimo tono vital sin caer en las llamas del infierno que tantas voces, muchas de ellas interesadas, pronostican.
...Creo que la apuesta catastrofista de las políticas de rescate, patrocinadas por Alemania y sus compañeros de viaje, que se presentan como la única opción para salvar la moneda única, aunque ello suponga la condena vital de los países afectados, ha sido un error de cálculo que el caso griego va a poner de manifiesto: Grecia no va a quedar abandonada, entre otras cosas porque tiene una posición estratégica muy valiosa, realzada por los acontecimientos que se suceden en Oriente Medio como la guerra civil de Siria y la posible actuación de Israel contra Irán. Un escenario bélico en el Mediterráneo que parece no preocupar a las potencias europeas, enfrascadas en sus rescates y en sus miserias reglamentarias, pero que sí preocupa a otras potencias, el mundo anglosajón y la propia Rusia, cada vez más alejadas de los desvaríos continentales.
La vieja Europa, y no digamos Alemania, ha sido fecunda en crear problemas a lo largo del último siglo y medio. Parecía que todo eso solo estaba en el archivo de la memoria, pero no es así. Los españoles somos menos sensibles porque nuestra experiencia histórica ha sido diferente. Quizá por ello y también por la debilidad política de nuestro evanescente proyecto nacional asumimos sin chistar las imposiciones ajenas. Otros, en cambio, no lo harán. Confiemos en obtener algún beneficio del ejercicio de dignidad de esos otros.
...lea el excelente articulo de Manuel Muela Martín-Buitrago en Voz Populi
El caos griego degenera: "¿Quién se cree el señor Schäuble para ridiculizarnos?" Alemania e Italia cargan contra el país heleno por incumplir sus promesas; los políticos griegos responden que no tolerarán más insultos...
Single currency's struggle takes its toll on Europe: The diverse nature of the 17 countries brought together in monetary union has never been so apparent...
Evangelos Venizelos warns Germany is 'playing with fire' on Greece: Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos accused European leaders of "playing with fire" by trying to oust the beleaguered country from the eurozone amid fears they want to delay releasing the €130bn (£108bn) bail-out until after Greek elections in April...
Greece is being forced out of eurozone, Venizelos claims: Greek finance minister says troika is shifting terms of €130bn bailout deal as part of move to force country out of eurozone...
...Creo que la apuesta catastrofista de las políticas de rescate, patrocinadas por Alemania y sus compañeros de viaje, que se presentan como la única opción para salvar la moneda única, aunque ello suponga la condena vital de los países afectados, ha sido un error de cálculo que el caso griego va a poner de manifiesto: Grecia no va a quedar abandonada, entre otras cosas porque tiene una posición estratégica muy valiosa, realzada por los acontecimientos que se suceden en Oriente Medio como la guerra civil de Siria y la posible actuación de Israel contra Irán. Un escenario bélico en el Mediterráneo que parece no preocupar a las potencias europeas, enfrascadas en sus rescates y en sus miserias reglamentarias, pero que sí preocupa a otras potencias, el mundo anglosajón y la propia Rusia, cada vez más alejadas de los desvaríos continentales.
La vieja Europa, y no digamos Alemania, ha sido fecunda en crear problemas a lo largo del último siglo y medio. Parecía que todo eso solo estaba en el archivo de la memoria, pero no es así. Los españoles somos menos sensibles porque nuestra experiencia histórica ha sido diferente. Quizá por ello y también por la debilidad política de nuestro evanescente proyecto nacional asumimos sin chistar las imposiciones ajenas. Otros, en cambio, no lo harán. Confiemos en obtener algún beneficio del ejercicio de dignidad de esos otros.
...lea el excelente articulo de Manuel Muela Martín-Buitrago en Voz Populi
El caos griego degenera: "¿Quién se cree el señor Schäuble para ridiculizarnos?" Alemania e Italia cargan contra el país heleno por incumplir sus promesas; los políticos griegos responden que no tolerarán más insultos...
Single currency's struggle takes its toll on Europe: The diverse nature of the 17 countries brought together in monetary union has never been so apparent...
Evangelos Venizelos warns Germany is 'playing with fire' on Greece: Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos accused European leaders of "playing with fire" by trying to oust the beleaguered country from the eurozone amid fears they want to delay releasing the €130bn (£108bn) bail-out until after Greek elections in April...
Greece is being forced out of eurozone, Venizelos claims: Greek finance minister says troika is shifting terms of €130bn bailout deal as part of move to force country out of eurozone...
January
¿De que Europa hablan nuestros políticos?
...Otra vez los europeos, y cada país en particular, nos veremos obligados a optar entre la democracia y el totalitarismo, porque eso, y no la prima de riesgo, es lo que se juega...
...Es evidente que los problemas de la Unión Europea, que se han agudizado con la tormenta financiera desatada hace cinco años, son en parte el resultado del reequilibrio ideológico y económico que se ha producido desde la caída del Muro de Berlín en el otoño de 1989 y la reunificación alemana que la siguió. En aquellas fechas, los vientos del capitalismo financiero o del neoliberalismo, como lo llaman otros, empezaron a circular con facilidad en el espacio común europeo: el modelo político y social, simbiosis de éxito entre lo público y lo privado, empezó a ponerse en entredicho para dejar paso a la sublimación de lo privado, con olvido de todo lo demás. Fueron los tiempos del saneamiento de las cuentas públicas y de los preparativos de la unión monetaria, dos objetivos, aparentemente loables, que, sin tardar, se iban a poner al servicio de una empresa, la globalización financiera, cuyos resultados lastimosos estamos recogiendo ahora ante la sorpresa farisaica de algunos y la desesperanza y el desconcierto de la mayoría. Maastricht en febrero de 1992 fue el arranque del drama.
...Ya hemos llegado al punto en el que ésta Europa a la que se invoca como justificación sólo ofrece miserias sociales y déficits democráticos en sus instituciones, dominadas por Alemania, con el argumento de que no hay otra opción. No es verdad: Europa tiene en su seno diferentes tradiciones, desde la tolerante y democrática hasta la autoritaria o totalitaria. Creíamos que la primera se había consolidado para hacer confortable la vida de los ciudadanos en un proyecto común europeo. Pero se ha dejado perder en nombre de intereses y de políticas espurias, sedicentemente liberales, que se imponen ignorando la voluntad de los electores. Error tras error, un modelo de esperanza y de éxito se nos aparece como un crucero de lujo, el Costa Concordia tan de actualidad, sin capitán. Otra vez los europeos, y cada país en particular, nos veremos obligados a optar entre la democracia y el totalitarismo, porque eso, y no la prima de riesgo, es lo que se juega. De momento, los viejos fantasmas emergen gracias a la ayuda inestimable de unos dirigentes europeos, al servicio de la potencia alemana, que pretenden conjurar el peligro abriendo un expediente risible a Hungría, sin hacer la menor autocrítica y sin renunciar a los propósitos que conducen a la escombrera política y social.
os españoles somos parte de ese proyecto fallido y estamos sufriendo las consecuencias. Encima tenemos gravemente dañado nuestro sistema constitucional, convertido en obstáculo, al parecer insuperable, para el buen gobierno. Por eso, es oportuno preguntarse y preguntar en qué Europa se piensa cuando se la invoca, no vaya a ocurrir que estemos, como el pintor, agarrados a una brocha sin escalera.
Lea este excelente artículo completo de Manuel Muela en VozPopuli.com
Watch Mr Nigel Farage MEP, chair of the UK Independence Party
17 January 2012 at the EU Parliament
Mr Nigel Farage MEP on the undemocratic, nepotistic appointments to the top post of the European Union
25 November 2009 in the EU Parliament
Hopeful or hopeless?´:
Europe struggles to find a strategy to grow out of its debt crisis
Que detengan a Keynes, es peligroso
The Greek parents too poor to care for their children
Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all - their children.
One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils.
"I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother."
In the last two months Father Antonios, a young Orthodox priest who runs a youth centre for the city's poor, has found four children on his doorstep - including a baby just days old.
Another charity was approached by a couple whose twin babies were in hospital being treated for malnutrition, because the mother herself was malnourished and unable to breastfeed.
Cases like this are shocking a country where family ties are strong, and failure to look after children is socially unacceptable - and it's not happening in a country ravaged by war or famine, but in their own capital city.
One of the children cared for by Father Antonios is Natasha, a bright two-year-old brought to his centre by her mother a few weeks ago.
The woman said she was unemployed and homeless and needed help - but before staff could offer her support she had vanished, leaving her daughter behind.
...Its chief psychologist Stefanos Alevizos, says that when a parent puts a child into care, the child feels its entire foundations have been shaken.
"They experience the separation as an act of violence because they cannot understand the reasons for it," he says.
But The Smile of a Child's Sofia Kouhi says the biggest tragedy, in her eyes, is that those parents who ask for their kids to be taken into care may be the ones who love their children the most.
"It is very sad to see the pain in their heart that they will leave their children, but they know it is for the best, at least for this period," she says.
...more in BBC - Libertad Digital
Read also:
Europa se queda corta si solo castiga a Hungría sin entrar en su propia pérdida de calidad democrática
>> NOTICIAS
>> EUROPA
The failure of the anti-democratic European Union
El fracaso del corrupto proyecto Unión Europea
by Antonio García-Trevijano & Roberto Centeno
16 June 2016, Brussels ... [+]
Fair Trials International is a unique human rights charity. We campaign for fundamental rights for people facing the ordeal of criminal charges in a country other than their own. In addition to providing legal assistance and advocacy to individuals in need, we fight the underlying causes of injustice in cross-border cases through our policy interventions, research and training.
Misuse of the European Arrest Warrant
The Guardian, Thursday 16 December 2010
Julian Assange may ultimately succeed in his bail application, but the threat of extradition to Sweden will still hang over him (The Julian Assange case: a mockery of extradition?, 14 December). The public interest in Assange's case is understandable, but his case illustrates a wider, less publicised problem. Last year alone, Europe's fast-track extradition system was used to extradite nearly 700 people from the UK. Our work at Fair Trials International leaves us in no doubt that this system, designed to deliver justice, is in fact causing many serious cases of injustice.
A central concern in the Assange case is that Sweden seems not even to have laid charges. The European arrest warrant should, by law, be used only to prosecute or to enforce a sentence. Serious though the allegations may be, there is no basis to extradite Mr Assange, unless for the purposes of conducting a criminal prosecution. We have seen many cases of overseas prosecutors reaching for the quick-fire, tick-box EAW, rather than using other legitimate means of investigating alleged crimes. Michael Turner and Andrew Symeou are just two of those we have helped, and who experienced horrendous periods in detention after being surrendered, before even being questioned by police.
In such cases as these, less drastic tools should be used. Sweden should ask the UK to assist with its investigations, starting by questioning Assange. The EAW, used properly, is a key weapon in the fight against serious cross-border crime. It should not, however, be the measure of first resort.
Catherine Heard
Head of policy, Fair Trials International
Read also:
The European arrest warrant is being used to have thousands of people flown out to face charges that wouldn't stick in the UK
Extradition agreement under review as Theresa May launches inquiry
European arrest warrant in spotlight
Extradition treaty review will take a year:
The review, conducted by a panel of experts selected by the Home Office, will examine whether judges should be given powers to bar extradition and deal with some cases in British courts. Existing legislation allows the US and European Union countries to have British citizens arrested and sent for trial abroad without presenting the level of evidence that would be needed for a prosecution in the UK.
The panel will examine whether the Extradition Act and European Arrest Warrant are being used to unfairly pursue Britons. It follows the case of Gary McKinnon, a Scot who faces decades in a US jail for computer hacking crimes allegedly committed at his north London home. There has also been alarm at the use of European warrants to send people to countries with legal systems less robust than the UK's, and where they can face years locked up on remand.
Last night, the former home secretary David Blunkett, who signed the Extradition Act and has admitted he may have "given too much away" to the Americans, said that sensible discussions with Britain's extradition partners could resolve "any irritants quite speedily".
But he said Ms May's announcement of the scope of the review appeared "to kick these issues into the long grass" because the panel will not report until the end of next summer.
Shami Chakrabarti, of the civil rights group Liberty, also raised concerns about the time the review will take, saying: "A number of hard cases could be more urgently addressed by activating a 'forum' provision that has sat dormant on the statute book for four years."
By activating these provisions now, "judges would have the discretion to protect people who should most obviously be dealt with at home from being shunted off to Europe, the US or anywhere else", she added.
Por favor firme la petición para que en la Unión Europea se luche contra la corrupción institucional que destruye la democracia y la justicia:
Apoye la campaña para liberar a Mijail
Khodorkovsky
A true Europe versus authoritarian & corrupt EU
...more in Daniel Hannan and in the UK Independence Party
The EU needs to stand up to the nationalists
by Fernando Savater
I want to live in a society where talent is recognised regardless of borders, ethnicity or religion – now who will lead us there?
In The Journey to Reims, one of Rossini's oddest and most amusing operas, a motley cast of characters from every country in Europe, en route to the French town of Reims for a coronation, get stuck at an inn, for want of horses to resume their journey, and have to share lodgings there. I find this libretto an excellent metaphor avant la lettre for the EU's present predicament. European countries have no alternative to sticking together in many essential social, cultural and economic respects. Yet they seem incapable of making any headway towards goals that are more ambitious but ultimately no less necessary. They lack significant joint projects and shared democratic values and convictions. Basically, they're short of horses.
A look at the EU's top officeholders shows that member states are not prepared to entrust the common undertaking to strong leaders, opting instead for low-profile moderates who can create – or get us to resign ourselves to – consensus. And it is becoming an established axiom that the people of Europe don't want to form a more forceful and prominent union.
For many Spaniards of my generation, it is hard not to see this attitude as a convenient failure and as a source of frustration. Those of us who were young during Franco's dictatorship were subsequently carried away with a perhaps naive enthusiasm about Europe, summed up in a dictum attributed to the philosopher Ortega y Gasset: "Spain is the problem, Europe the solution." But this solution seems to have fallen pretty far short of our greatest expectations. We now understand that Europe, the European Union, is doubtless a solution, but not any old Europe and any old union: the solution is a Europe on terms that now seem seriously compromised, if not cast off for good.
I still believe a worthwhile Europe is one that represents and defends its citizens, not its turf. One that protects political rights (and duties, of course) and legal safeguards, rather than privileges and those hollow traditions used to conceal them from outsiders. A Europe that maintains the integrity of existing democratic, constitutional states against the threat of divisive ethnic demands, which are invariably retrograde and xenophobic. A Europe of freedom and solidarity, not a continent closed to those knocking at its gates to escape political persecution or economic necessity. An open-minded, co-operative, helpful and compassionate Europe, not one jealously guarding its benefits. A Europe of rational hospitality.
This EU is in need of militant Europhiles who are capable of holding out against shortsighted national politicians. Nationalistic leaders and groups are on the rise in every European country: we've seen it in the Czech Republic and other eastern countries, but also in England, Ireland, even France. These nationalists espouse tough protectionism against the outside world and extreme neoliberalism at home, with an out-and-out hooligan mindset and procrustean values fixed on keeping out all those dreaded Others. In other words, Europeans who are only uncompromising about whatever benefits their narrow (and very Christian) interests. Their brand of fundamentalism defines European roots selectively, privileging the most conservative and exclusive view of a tradition whose richness lies precisely in the controversies of its contradictions.
But there is another danger, that of the frivolity of the good multicultural conscience that opposes exclusive Christianity – not for the sake of democratic secularism – but to champion other religious dogmas that also claim to be above the civil laws, even above the western version of human rights. A desirable Europe is one in which religious and philosophical views are everyone's right and no one's duty, much less an obligation of society as a whole. A radical, and consequently secular (which doesn't mean anti-religious), political space in which civil laws prevail over any fideist, ethnic or cultural considerations, and in which there is a clear-cut distinction between what some may call a sin and what all of us must judge to be a crime.
A Europe whose academia allows for the professional mobility of students and professors, but whose universities are not in the service of business interests and rapid returns on investment. A Europe of talent without borders, not unbounded pay cheques and profits.
Of course we need horses to pull us, but also charioteers who know where we wish to go. I believe we can still make it in time.
[Translated from Spanish by Eric Rosencrantz.]
...more in The Guardian
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Useful informations, constructive critique, citizens and journalists wishing to cooperate are most welcome: info@Habeas-Corpus.net
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