MemHT Portal • The man tipped to be Europe’s first president is already considering new EU taxes to fund the rising cost of Brussels and the welfare state.

Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, broke his silence before Thursday’s summit to choose the president — but only at a meeting of the secretive Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen.
Times

See also:
Italian MEP on Bilderberg and Trilateral nominations for EU President and foreign minister (Youtube)

]]> • Italy is to push for the creation of a European Army after the "new Europe" takes shape at this week's crucial EU summit following the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.

Franco Frattini, the Italian Foreign Minister, said that the Lisbon Treaty had established "that if some countries want to enter into reinforced co-operation between themselves they can do so". This was already the case with the euro and the Schengen accords on frontier-free travel, and could now be applied to "common European defence".
Times

]]> • Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, a top candidate for the new European Union president job, laid out his views on future EU financing at a dinner of the secretive Bilderberg group last week.

The event took place at Val Duchesse, a former priory on the outskirts of Brussels, on Thursday (12 November), with guests including Belgian industrialist and Bilderberg chairman Etienne Davignon, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and luminaries from the worlds of international politics and business, according to Belgian broadsheet De Tijd.

The Belgian leader is reported to have said in a speech that: "New resources will be necessary for the financing of the welfare state. Green tax instruments are a possibility, but they are ambiguous: This type of tax will eventually be extinguished. But the possibilities of financial levies at European level must be seriously examined and for the first time the large countries in the union are open to that."
EUobserver

See also:
Favourite to be EU president backs European national anthem (Telegraph)

]]> • EUOBSERVER / COMMENT - The EU's budget simply doesn't make sense. In its current form, the budget is hugely complex, off-target, unmanageable and hopelessly out of date.

The fundamental problem of waste and mismanagement involving EU money lies primarily with the budget itself – not with the member states, although they should not entirely escape blame.
EUobserver.com

]]> Only 9 percent of 2008 EU budget accounts is cleared by the Court of Auditors

• The Court of Auditors annual report on the 2008 accounts shows no improvement on the previous year, even if many here would like to believe that things have become better. More than 10 years after the resignation of the discredited Santer Commission and following many promises of reform, the picture remains quite the same: the EU funds are out of control.

The accounts are deemed to be reliable by the auditors who, however, fall short of stating that they give a true view of the finances of the EU and they only leave it at "fair view". They reiterate their concerns about the weaknesses in the accounting system and their impact in the quality of the financial information.

The report reveals that 10 years after the introduction of administrative reform, the European Commission still does not operate an integrated accounting system and the directorates introduce the transactions in their local systems, two of which have not even been blessed by the Chief Accountant of the EC, this situation affecting the control environment significantly.

On the legality and regularity of the EU expenditure the European Court of Auditors only cleared 9% of the total budget, a percentage similar to past years (Administrative expenditure and Education and Citizenship). 

As for the rest, the auditors gave an ADVERSE OPINION on 43% of the budget related to Cohesion funds, Research, Energy and Transport, External Aid, Development and Enlargement.

For the remaining 48% they gave a QUALIFIED OPINION mainly due to the level of errors found in the expenditure of Rural Development funds. The court specifically identified 11% of the latter payments which should not have been made, that is equivalent to 1.3 billion euro that have been misappropriated!
MartaAndreasen.com

]]> • SWEDISH PRIME minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has raised the prospect that he might not be able to achieve unanimity among deadlocked EU leaders over the choice of the bloc’s new foreign policy chief and the first president of the European Council.

Embarking on fresh efforts to forge consensus before a special dinner summit in Brussels next Thursday night, he said he might have to resort to a majority vote to settle the matter.

“I’m not working with that in mind but it’s very correct of you to point out that the decision finally needs to be taken by qualified majority if needed,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Irish Times

]]> • Chancellor Angela Merkel put Berlin's emboldened role in the international arena on display by calling on America to accept it must channel its interests through global institutions.

The sharp comments underpinned her country's rising standing on a day the German leader was marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the city's divisions.

While remaining a Western ally, Mrs Merkel's Germany has sought to extend the consensual approach it takes to its near neighbours to the international political system.

"We Europeans are used to this," she said. "We have voluntarily given up many of our powers to Brussels and to the European Union. But our American partners..."
Telegraph

]]> • EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Consultations on filling the EU's new posts are only "half-way" through, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on Monday (9 November) in Berlin, while warning that a Franco-German deal is not sufficient to get the names pinned down.

"I am now phoning all the EU heads of state and government to hear who they want to fill these posts. I am half-way through my consultations," Mr Reinfeldt told journalists on the fringes of the Berlin Wall commemoration, according the Swedish presidency website.
EUobserver

]]> • UK foreign minister David Miliband yesterday ruled himself out as a candidate for the new EU 'top job' of High Representative for Foreign Policy, centre-left sources told EurActiv.

Miliband, who until yesterday was seen as the European centre-left’s arguably strongest candidate for the prestigious High Rep position, said in a meeting with Party of European Socialists (PES) president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen that he was not interested in the job.
EurActiv

]]> • Now that the Czech Republic has announced it will ratify the Lisbon Treaty, the EU will be even closer yet to becoming a unified monster state, with more than half a billion inhabitants. Inhabitants is the correct term, since “citizens” would indicate a set of political rights. The people living in the EU should rather be called “subjects,” since they have no influence whatsoever on the constitution of the centralized European government, the “European Commission.” The Europeans are allowed to vote for members of the European Parliament, but this body has about as much political power as the ineffectual German parliament meeting at Frankfurt in 1848. Political power in the EU is firmly in the hands of the European Commission, which is set to obtain even more power under the Lisbon Treaty. This infamous treaty does not hold the peoples of Europe in high regard. As a matter of fact, it is only halfway through the treaty (originally presented as a “Constitution”) that one finds the first references to the people.
Pravda

]]> • EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The vast majority of experts advising the European Commission on greater financial regulation are drawn from the same institutions that helped cause the crisis, claims a new report published on Thursday (5 November).

The document, A captive Commission - the role of the financial industry in shaping EU regulation, accuses the EU executive of listening almost exclusively to the finance industry both before and after the onset of the financial crisis over a year ago.

Its authors, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (Alter-EU), a coalition of some 160 civil society groups, say the commission continues to draw insufficiently from the considerable expertise to be found in academia and civil society groups.

"The commission only seems to be interested in listening to the advice of the finance industry, rather than acting in the interests of society," said Paul de Clerck, a member of ALTER-EU's steering committee.
EUobserver
Alter-EU Report (pdf)

]]> • Last formal round of negotiations before Copenhagen summit ends without a breakthrough.
The latest round of international talks on climate change broke up today (6 November) without resolving major disputes over the ambition of a new global climate pact and how to pay for it.

Little progress was made on defining emission-reduction targets for rich countries or on agreeing finance for developing countries, the UN said at the end of five days of talks in Barcelona.

The talks were the last formal round of negotiations before a climate conference in Copenhagen next month at which the UN hopes a pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol will be agreed.

“Without these two pieces of the puzzle in place, we will not have a deal in Copenhagen,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who has been shepherding the talks.

But a meaningful deal is still in reach, he said. “Copenhagen can and must be the turning point in the international fight against climate change – nothing has changed my confidence in that.”
European Voice

]]> • One more opinion poll showing majority of Icelanders opposed to joining the European Union was published today. According to the poll 54 percent of Icelanders now oppose membership while only 29 percent favour the step. 17 percent are uncertain. If those uncertain are excluded 65 percent are opposed to EU membership and 35 percent in favour.

This is the third poll in a row showing an absolute majority against EU membership. Here are the results of the three polls on the question if Iceland should join the EU or not including this one.

August 4:   No 48,5 percent   Yes 34,7 percent
September 15:   No 50,2 percent   Yes 32,7 percent
November 5:   No 54 percent   Yes 29 percent

The poll was carried out by the Research Center of Bifröst University for the TV channel Stöð 2 between September 26 and October 4. Some 859 people were polled and 65 percent responded.
EUnews.Blogspot, sourced from Visir

See also:
Concern over Iceland EU bid as public support tanks (EUobserver)
 

]]> • EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU military chiefs are nervous that their advice will not carry the same weight once the new Lisbon Treaty is in place and that the planned diplomatic service will not contain enough experienced military personnel.

Europe's chiefs of defence gathered in Brussels on Wednesday (4 November) to review all military operations under the EU flag and to witness the handover of power from outgoing EU military committee chair, Frenchman Henri Bentegeat, to Sweden's Hakan Syren.

But the hotter topic - dealt with in "informal talks" - was the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the current EU military set up, the two generals told journalists after the meeting.
EUobserver

]]> • He is a devout Roman Catholic with his own Facebook page and a penchant for writing Japanese-style poems. But his best qualification for the post of EU president is that few have ever heard of him.

The man who is now favourite for the job is a 63-year-old Belgian Prime Minister called Herman who has come to the fore because he is the man with the fewest enemies among his fellow EU leaders. Herman Van Rompuy is less federalist than the Luxemburg candidate. He is less linked with Afghanistan than the Dutch candidate. He is certainly less linked to Iraq than the British candidate and his country is more committed to the euro.
Times

]]> • The European Commission is pressing for a “root-and-branch reform” of the European Union’s €140bn-a-year budget in a proposal that is stirring outrage among Europe’s regions, which risk losing their grip on vast sums of financial aid.

A Commission document obtained by the Financial Times says the EU should impose tighter national controls on funds that at present are passed directly to Europe’s regions and extend recent cuts in agricultural subsidies. It says the EU should concentrate its regional aid budget, worth almost €50bn a year, on individual member states rather than poor regions within them.
Financial Times
Leaked Commission document

]]> • THE KEY factor in persuading the Irish electorate to ratify the Lisbon Treaty in the second referendum was a sense of vulnerability arising out of the economic crisis, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said in Dublin yesterday.

“The key theme to emerge in the research was the sense of economic vulnerability,” the Minister told the annual international affairs conference at the Royal Irish Academy.

“In terms of the ‘switcher’, the person who changed from voting No the last time to Yes this time, the economic crisis was a big factor and had impact on the politics of Ireland’s engagement with Europe. That does suggest though for the future that we have significant work to do, to re-engage with significant cohorts of our own population in terms of the European Union.

“A lot of the statistics that came out of the research into the last referendum [in June 2008] indicate that those under 40 do not have the same enthusiasm as older generations would have for the European ideal.” He added: “The economic crisis had a very fundamental impact on the state of mind of the voter in Ireland.”
Irish Times

]]> In a world of FIAT currencies, the creation of money and credit out of thin air leads to further debasement of the currency, lowering its purchasing power and creating more financial bubbles in the process [FFEUD ed]

• The European Central Bank left eurozone interest rates unchanged at one percent on Thursday (5 November), but signalled it will start a gradual exit from emergency lending measures initiated since the credit crunch began.

"Not all liquidity measures will be needed to the same extent as in the past," the bank's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, told journalists.

"Enhanced credit support on which we embarked is not for eternity," he added.

Since global credit supplies started to dry up in mid-2007, the ECB has flooded the financial sector of the 16-member eurozone with huge amounts of liquidity in a bid to help banks lend to the wider economy.
EUobserver

]]> Every family in the country is now facing a tax liability of £4,350 to prop up Britain’s banking system after Alistair Darling announced the biggest bail-out in history.

• The Chancellor confirmed that the Government would pump an extra £25.5 billion into Royal Bank of Scotland, and declared that it was the only way to keep the business alive.

Taxpayers have poured a total of £53.5 billion into RBS, including the £20 billion part-nationalisation last year and another £8 billion that was set aside as insurance against further trouble in the future.

In total, the Government has put £74 billion of taxpayers’ money into the banks, including RBS, Lloyds and HBOS, since the start of the financial crisis last year.
Telegraph

]]> An FoE report says 'cap and trade' carbon markets have done little to reduce emissions but have been plagued by corruption and inefficiency

• The government's reliance on carbon trading schemes is inefficient and could cause a financial crisis similar to that seen with sub-prime mortgages, says Friends of the Earth (Link to this video).

The world's carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn today.
Guardian

See also:
EU carbon tax on new Commission's agenda early next year (EurActiv)

]]> • Prague, Nov 4 (CTK) - One of Czech President Vaclav Klaus's goals may be to have the Czech Republic regain its lost sovereignty, for example by its departure from the EU, Petr Hajek, deputy head of the Presidential Office, said on Prima TV Wednesday.

He alluded to Klaus's words that the Czech Republic will cease to be a sovereign state after the Lisbon treaty comes into force.
Prague Monitor

]]> • Tony Blair’s dream of becoming Europe’s first president is set to be decided amid celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Every EU leader will be in the German capital on Monday to commemorate one of Europe’s defining moments but the next phase of the European project is likely to be foremost in their minds.

It will be the first chance for Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish Prime Minister, who is in charge of drawing up a shortlist for the job of president of the European Council, to canvass opinion since the Czechs became the final country to sign the Treaty of Lisbon.
Times

]]> David Cameron: A Europe policy that people can believe in

• Yesterday in Prague, the Czech Constitutional Court rejected the one remaining challenge to the Lisbon Treaty, and the President of the Czech Republic signed it.

The Lisbon Treaty has now been ratified by every one of the twenty seven member states of the European Union, and our campaign for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty is therefore over.

Why? Because it is no longer a Treaty: it is being incorporated into the law of the European Union.
Conservatives website

See also:
We must have a referendum – and not just on the EU (Telegraph blogs: Daniel Hannan)
Our new European policy is confused and essentially cosmetic - and I cannot defend it from the frontbench (ConservativeHome Blogs: Roger Helmer)

]]> • Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, Iceland's Minister of Finance and chairman of the junior coalition partner the Left Green Movement, said on Tuesday at the Nordic Council’s 61st Session in Stockholm that although his government had applied to join the European Union the Icelandic people didn't want to become members. Sigfússon was responding to a question directed to him about the situation of Iceland's EU application.
Ríkisútvarpið

]]> • EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a swipe at Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who last week met ahead of the EU summit to talk through their positions on the topic of the day.

Speaking after a meeting of EU leaders last week, Mr Sarkozy said "if they have to meet regularly before each council, that could raise questions."
EUobserver.com

]]> • Tony Blair and his allies will launch a last-ditch bid this week to crown him European president. His friends are urging him to speak directly to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to persuade them he is the man for the job.

Sweden, which holds the presidency of the EU, has said that it will now begin consulting intensively about names to hold the post created by the Lisbon Treaty.

Downing Street sources said Gordon Brown would be 'hitting the phones and speaking to member states' to campaign for Mr Blair. 'We want to build a consensus around the best names,' said one.
Daily Mail

]]> • David Cameron, leader of the UK Conservative opposition, has abandoned talk of holding a referendum on the EU's latest treaty but has promised to seek repatriation of powers in key European Union policy areas should his party come to power next year.

In a speech as keenly watched in Brussels as among his own backbenchers, Mr Cameron said he would "not rush into some massive euro bust-up" and, in a pointed message to the most eurosceptic wing of the party - for whom Europe has long been a thoroughly divisive issue - he said he was not willing to "concoct a new pretext for a referendum."
EUobserver.com

]]> • Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, has signed the EU Lisbon Treaty into law after a court cleared the final legal obstacle standing in its way.

Mr Klaus was the last head of state to sign the Treaty. It now has legal force across the European Union's 27 countries.

"I announce that I signed the Lisbon Treaty at 15.00 [2pm GMT] today," said Mr Klaus, speaking in the Czech capital, Prague.

He had signalled he would put pen to paper after getting a British-style opt-out to the Charter of Fundamental Rights at an EU summit in Brussels last week.
Telegraph

]]> • Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the British, German and French leaders, will meet on the margins of a European Union summit today for discussions that will be sifted for clues on who they would prefer as the bloc's first full-time president and new foreign policy supremo.

No announcements are expected at the summit, and the formal selection process is likely to be put off for a special meeting of the EU's 27 national leaders, perhaps in the second half of next month after the Czech Republic has completed ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

But EU leaders will have a good chance to probe each other's views at a summit dinner tonight, and if Mr Brown, Ms Merkel and Mr Sarkozy were to agree on a choice for president - now or later - he or she would be a strong favourite.

The contest for the presidency is a consummate piece of EU political theatre, with its array of officially unnamed candidates running for a job that does not yet exist and has never been precisely defined.
Financial Times
 

]]> • "A group of nine former Iron Curtain countries led by Poland are also blocking the move, demanding to know exactly how much it will cost each nation before they sign up. Green campaigners believe that failure to agree a funding plan for Copenhagen backed by hard cash could be a mortal blow to the talks, which are aimed at setting emissions cuts across the world."
Times

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