Magazine : 23rd February

Spain's rail ambitions : Ave Madrid. The Economist (en)

" ... The new passengers reflect a revolution in Spanish travel. Domestic airlines have lost a fifth of their passengers in the space of a year. And long-distance trains have gained almost a third.
document. This shift is the consequence of an ambitious programme for high-speed rail. The streamlined AVE trains, with their sleek corridors, work tables and spectacular views, are stealing the show ...

... The opening of the Barcelona-Madrid line a year ago marked the beginning of the end of airlines’ dominance. In its first ten months it carried 2m passengers; in 2008 its share of the total market rose from 28% to 38%. Josep Valls, of the ESADE business school, predicts that trains will carry most long-distance travellers within two years ..."

English is Coming. Charlemagne, The Economist (en)

" ... European efforts to resist the rise of the English language have now reached the same point. The latest Anglo-surge comes from the European press, with a dramatic increase in the number of heavyweight publications launching English-language websites, offering translated news stories and opinion pieces ...

... Editors’ motives are a mix of idealism and commercial ambition. Bosses at Spiegel have a political dream to create a platform where “Europeans can read what other Europeans think about the world,” says Daryl Lindsey, who runs the magazine’s international edition. But an English presence is also a “calling card” when pitching to international advertisers. It has proved helpful to journalists seeking interviews with world leaders. Kees Versteegh of NRC Handelsblad talks of creating a European “demos”, but also admits to frustration at publishing some “very fine pieces” in Dutch that the rest of the world never notices ...

... Thanks to EU enlargement to the east (and poor language skills among British and Irish visitors to Brussels), this is almost always English. That means Britons find it ever harder to justify learning other languages. Even when they do, they have to speak other languages extremely well to avoid inflicting halting French, say, on rooms of fluent English-speakers. And it carries other costs. In Brussels, native English-speakers are notoriously hard for colleagues to understand: they talk too fast, or use obscure idioms. Mr van Parijs has a prediction: Europeans will become bilingual, except for Anglophones, who are becoming monolingual ..."

Shrewsbury, turning into a ghost town. France24 (en)

" ... In the commercial centre of Shrewsbury, on the border between England and Wales, shops are closing one after the other. “All the shops seem to be closing. Even on this street, there’s just Woolworths,” said an alarmed resident in the city's centre. “Extra Personnals is closed down there, and I think there’s a place at the bottom of the hill looking to close" ..."

19th December Charlemagne in the Economist

The magnificence of Nicolas Sarkozy. Charlemagne, The Economist (en)
" ... Amid all this manoeuvring, France often angered small countries, which felt pushed around. A multi-speed Europe is a risky idea that could break up the EU. But Mr Sarkozy was surely right that future global co-operation will take different, ad hoc forms. It is “untrue” that institutions stop Europe from taking decisions, he said. Europe’s problem is a lack of political will. Like Bosquet’s in 1854, Mr Sarkozy’s judgment was both harsh and correct. ..."

USA : 18th November Joseph E. Stiglitz and the Bush Legacy

The Seven Deadly Deficits. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Mother Jones (en)
" ... George W. Bush assumed office, most of those disgruntled about the stolen election contented themselves with this thought: Given our system of checks and balances, given the gridlock in Washington, how much damage could be done? Now we know: far more than the worst pessimists could have imagined ... behind those losses lie even greater missed opportunities ...
... the trade deficit: Over the past decade, the nation has been borrowing massively abroad—some $739 billion in 2007 alone. And it is easy to see why: With the government running up huge debts, and with Americans' household savings close to zero, there was nowhere else to turn. America has been living on borrowed money and borrowed time, and the day of reckoning had to come. We used to lecture others about what good economic policy meant ...
... The laws of nature and the laws of economics are unforgiving. We can abuse our environment, but only for a while. We can spend beyond our means, but only for a while. We can free ride on the investments made in the past, but only for a while. Even the richest country in the world ignores the laws of nature and the laws of economics at its peril ..."

Identity : 31th October 2008

The euro Seeking shelter . The Economist (en)
" ... Even solid ex-communist countries such as Poland want to speed up their preparations to meet the conditions for joining the common currency. And rich EU members that stayed out by choice, Sweden and Denmark, are thinking again. Joining the euro, at least in some eyes, means a loss of national identity ..."

Magazines : Weekend 17-19th October

Europe and the financial crisis : The end of the beginning? The Economist (en)
German education : Bottom of the form. The Economist (en)
The Caucasus : After the war . The Economist (en)

A deep recession would be a big challenge for the European Union. Charlemagne, The Economist (en)
" ... FEW governments enjoy recessions. But the looming one poses a special threat to the European Union—a group of countries held together by overlapping pacts of solidarity. In the EU, solidarity is guaranteed by law, rhetoric and plenty of money. Take away the money, and it can start to look awfully fragile ...
... It is a cliché of European politics that the EU achieves its greatest advances in times of crisis. That seems optimistic this time. Generosity and enlightened self-interest are at the heart of the European project. But neither today’s enlarged EU nor Europe’s single currency has been through a really deep recession: European solidarity is facing its severest test. "

No Sex With Humans for Euro-Politicians. Elaib Harvey, The Brussels Journal (en)
" ... In a letter, 37 MEPs asked Hans-Gert Pöttering, the President of the European Parliament, to curtail the “encouragement of prostitution by members of the EU Parliament”. Every hotel, which is used by the 785 MEPs and their staff on business trips, should give a “guarantee statement” that denies access for prostitutes to the rooms. Furthermore, MEPs should be banned from welcoming prostitutes in their hotel rooms .."

Barroso and Sarkozy plead for permanent EU presidency. Elitsa Vucheva, EUObserver (en)
" ... "We need a president of the Council [the institution representing EU member states] that does not change every six months," Mr Barroso told journalists at the end of an EU leaders' meeting in Brussels on Thursday (16 October). "To lead [EU] member states, we need a very strong presidency." ...
... (Sarkozy)"It is not because one is not president of the Council that one can say nothing in Europe. France will continue to say things [after its presidency ends on 31 December]. We will perhaps still have the right, no?" he said. ..."

EU-15 mostly on track to meet Kyoto targets. Leigh Phillips, EUObserver (en)
" ... The EU-15 as a whole, excluding member states that joined in 2004 and 2007, should meet its collective target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent for the period 2008-2012 compared with 1990, the Kyoto agreement's baseline year ...
... The EEA figures show that as of 2006, four EU-15 Member States - France, Greece, Sweden and the UK - had already reached a level below their Kyoto target ...
... Eight additional other states - Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal - project that they will achieve their targets in the future ... While Denmark, Italy and Spain are behind ..."

Teaching. One hell of a profession . Cafe Babel (en)
" 6.25 million of them in Europe are shaping future generations. Their work conditions, like their salaries, vary inevitably from one country to another, whilst training to become a teacher is as trying as ever. Are young people still feeling called by the calling?

Webzines : 15th October

Barroso Urges EU to Endorse Crisis Rescue Plan at Critical Time. Deutsche Welle (en)

" ... "I am pleased to see that there is now a consensus on the necessity and on the substance of a coherent effort," Barroso said of the plan worth an estimated 2 trillion euros ($2.7 trillion). "I expect confirmation and strengthening of this consistent and coherent effort by the European Council." ..."

Germany's Merkel Pushes for Financial Rescue Package . Deutsche Welle (en)
"... Reminding parliamentarians that the threat to financial market stability has not yet passed, Merkel stressed the importance of calming the situation by passing her government's package "as soon as possible." Both the Bundestag and the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, are set to vote on the bailout on Friday ..."

In Finance Crisis, Iceland Doesn't Want to Be an Island . Deutsche Welle (en)

" ... Under a currency swap agreement, Iceland on Tuesday, Oct. 14, secured 200 million euros ($270 million) from each of the central banks in neighboring Norway and Denmark, but talks to secure a much larger loan from Russia continued ...

... On a third front, Iceland is also in discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), though Haarde said the country has not formally requested a loan. If it does, it would become the first western European country to turn to the IMF since 1976 ...

EU leaders have second thoughts on bank rescue and green goals. Lucia Kubosova, EUObserver (en)

" ... Almost completely overshadowed by the financial crisis, the Lisbon treaty part of the summit agenda will boil down to Ireland's report on reasons why the Irish voters rejected the document, with answers on if and when Dublin could repeat the referendum due in December at the earliest ...

... For several leaders, it is the fourth time in less than two months that they are gathering under the initiative of France - currently holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency - following an extraordinary session on Georgia and two previous gatherings on the financial crisis ..."

[Comment] Where would we be now without the euro? Hans Martens and Fabian Zuleeg, EUObserver (en)

" ... It is easy to forget that not very long ago, a financial crisis in Europe went hand-in-hand with currency turmoil. In volatile financial markets, speculation often focuses on exchange rates, especially in cases where countries aim to maintain a level of parity with other currencies ...

... As former European Central Bank Executive Board member Otmar Issing recently put it in The Japan Times: "It is not difficult to imagine what would have happened during the recent financial-market crisis if the euro-area countries still had all their national currencies: immense speculation against some currencies, heavy interventions by central banks and finally a collapse of the parity system." ...

... This is no longer possible within the euro zone, but we can see it happening on its fringes. To maintain the Danish krone's parity against the euro, its central bank had to increase interest rates on 7 October and maintain the higher rate subsequently, despite coordinated global interest rate cuts which included the ECB. Other currencies are faring even worse, with the Icelandic krona in free-fall ... "

Sarkozy: “Arabic Is the Language of the Future”. The Brussels Journal (en)

" ... President Nicolas Sarkozy called Arabic the "language of the future, of science and of modernity," and expressed the hope that "more French people share in the language that expresses great civilizational and spiritual values."
"We must invest in the Arabic language (because) to teach it symbolizes a moment of exchange, of openness and of tolerance, (and it) brings with it one of the oldest and most prestigious civilizations of the world. It is in France that we have the greatest number of persons of Arabic and Muslim origin. Islam is the second religion of France," Sarkozy reminded his listeners ..."

Article : 8th October The Real Great Depression

The Real Great Depression : The depression of 1929 is the wrong model for the current economic crisis. Scott Reynolds Nelson, The Chronicle (en)
Article found via One for the economists among us from Douglas Muir, A Fistful of Euros

Webzines : 24th September

Sticky, Sweet, Stupid, Scary. Takuan Seiyo, The Brussels Journal (en)

Europe's digital library versus Google . Benjamin Lasry, CafeBabel (en)
" ... The European digital library will allow everyone, easily and quickly, either from their own country or from abroad, to access European artistic and literary works, explained Viviane Reding ...
... the commission estimates that it would cost 225 million euros to digitise five million works from European libraries, not counting paintings and manuscripts. In brief, europeana.eu won’t become a worthy competitor to Google overnight. In addition to this is the problem of authors’ rights: though the works that would be in the public domain could be accessed without problems, No solution has been found for accessing works protected by authors’ rights yet. This means then that the works that Europeana will make accessible in November will all be pre-20th century ..."

Europe's population would soon decline without migrants, says EU stats office.
" ... The EU's total population was up 0.48 percent last year - some 2.39 million people, reaching 497.5 million inhabitants, Eurostat said on Tuesday (23 September). The union is now getting very close to the ‘500 million' Europeans rounded-up number widely quoted by Brussels public figures ...
... The role of immigrants in maintaining Europe's population is larger even than these figures suggest, says Eurostat, as once they become established in their new countries, they also contribute to the natural change in population by having more children on average than native-born Europeans ... "

Webzines : Weekend 20th September

Eurocrats Step In Where MEPs Fear to Tread. Elaib Harvey, The Brussels Journal (en)

Romania: EU dreams, but prostitution and poverty reality. Mocanu Madalina, Cafe Babel (en)
" ... Right opposite the Mausoleum is a car park, ostensibly for visitors to the building. During the day, the car park becomes an ad-hoc car wash, with or without the consent of the owners. By night, the area is transformed into a paradise for pimps, prostitutes and truck drivers. The authorities seem powerless to intervene. And although many local residents display profound respect for the monument dedicated to national heroes, poverty has long since degraded the purpose and dignity of the Mausoleum ... For many people in Marasesti ... there is still deep scepticism as to exactly how much real long term impact EU membership will have on the daily lives of people in Vrancea County."

Lukashenko Calls on West to 'Accept' Belarus . Deutsche Welle (en)
"... "Belarus does not want dialogue with the West through the 'iron curtain' it has built on its border," Lukashenko said in an interview with Western journalists ahead of the parliamentary polls. "We want dialogue in all areas."
"We want you to accept us and to recognize our elections," Lukashenko said"

Czech Republic seeks EU institute on totalitarianism. Renata Goldirova, EUObserver (en)
" ... The Czech Republic, sitting at the EU's helm from January 2009, is to seek the establishment of a new European body that could serve as a research institute into totalitarianism and a museum of victims of totalitarian regimes. "The institution could cover our totalitarian past from Portugal through Greece to the Baltic States," ..."

Russia’s armed forces : Advancing, blindly The Economist (en)

" ... What Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, has called a “punch in the face” for Georgia may have been an attempt to demonstrate the restoration of Russia’s military power. But it also exposed the poor results from Russia’s recent surge in defence spending. This has doubled in nominal rouble terms since 2004. Yet much of the extra money has been eaten away by inflation ...

... On September 16th, Mr Putin announced a 27% increase in spending next year on “national defence and security”. Yet much of that money goes on maintaining Russia’s nuclear deterrent. During the cold war it was the West that relied on nuclear weapons to offset the Soviet Union’s conventional superiority; now it is the other way around ...

... Outside experts estimate that one-third of defence spending is embezzled or otherwise mis-spent ... “the Russian army is a black hole” into which money simply disappears. The result is a military fantasy in which Russia sends barely functional bombers and warships on long-range missions. Take the Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only aircraft-carrier ... It has undergone interminable repairs since being commissioned in 1985. It took part in rare exercises in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean between December 2007 and February this year ... Russia’s announcement in July that it will build five or six more aircraft carriers has been met with derision. Russia does not have shipyards able to build such vessels; the Admiral Kuznetsov was built in a shipyard that is now in Ukraine ..."

Russia and its neighbours : Bang, crash. The Economist (en)

" Ever since Vladimir Putin and his ex-KGB friends came to power in Russia, they have had one big advantage: a booming economy, rising prices for oil and gas exports, and strong capital inflows from abroad. All of a sudden, that has changed ... As regulators and politicians in Moscow struggle to contain the damage, and firms worry about bonds due later this year, a big question is how the economic turmoil will affect Russian politics at home and its policies abroad ..."

Webzines : 18th September (en)

Do we say gypsies, Roma or Rroma? Saimir Mile, Cafe Babel (en)
Central Banks Intervene in Financial Markets . Deutsche Welle (en)

Brussels aims to slash EU fishing fleet. Renata Goldirova, EUobserver (en)
" ... Mr Borg listed a number of obstacles that stood in the way to achieve "truly sustainable fishing in EU waters." The list is topped by the overcapacity in the EU fleet as at present, the fleet is capable of catching between two and three times the maximum sustainable yield ... "

Balkans model to underpin EU's 'Eastern Partnership'. Valentina Pop, EUobserver (en)

"EU policies applied to the Western Balkans - such as a regional free trade area - are inspiring the "Eastern Partnership" with Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and "hopefully" Belarus, participants at a conference organized Wednesday (17 September) by the German Konrad Adenauer think-tank learned ..."

Do Washington’s Favorites Want to Survive? The Brussels Journal 9en)

" ... The fact is that there won't be any Georgians or Ukrainians in the not-too-distant future. By coincidence, Washington's two favorite beacons of liberty happen to be the two countries with the world's fastest rate of population decline. By mid-century they will have barely half as many inhabitants as they do today, and half of those who remain will be elderly. Hardly men of military age and women of child-bearing age will remain. Their economies will implode long before the mid-century mark, as soaring retirement costs crush state budgets, and young people emigrate to escape the burden of supporting the elderly ..."

Webzines : 17th September (en)

Parliament saved €3 million by meeting in Brussels. Valentina Pop, EUObserver (en)

France’s Decline – How Christian/Muslim Was/Is France? Tiberge, The Brussels Journal (en)
" ... French Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie accompanied the Pope on most of his visit to France. She must have built up an appetite, since Tuesday evening she broke the Ramadan fast in a mosque in the Parisian suburb of Evry-Courcouronnes and praised Islam and its contribution to France. To do this after being at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris, where the Pope delivered his impressive speech, bespeaks her total indifference to the gulf between Islam and Christianity. Like her boss, President Sarkozy, Mrs Michèle Alliot-Marie believes all religions are equal ..."

Europe's Banks at Risk as US Bails Out Insurance Giant AIG . Deutsche Welle (en)

Webzines : 16th September (en)

EU finance ministers reject stimulus package. Leigh Phillips, EUObserver (en)

Opinion: EU Doing Little, But All It Can on Georgia. Christoph Hasselbach, Deutsche Welle (en)

" ... So which is the better strategy -- the confrontational approach pursued by NATO or the diplomatic and humanitarian course charted by the EU? It's legitimate to criticize the EU's vagueness and welcome de Hoop Scheffer's candor. Nonetheless, the EU is likely to achieve more than NATO ... "

From Magna Carta to Sharia Law – Britain’s Decline. A Millar, The Brussels Journal (en)
" ... The establishment of sharia law in Britain, even on a minor scale, not only undermines British law and culture of equality ‘under the law,’ with cases judged by a jury of one’s peers, but is implicitly menacing to people of all non-Muslim religions, atheists, conservatives, women, homosexuals, and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds ..."

French EU presidency wants EU closer to NATO. Valentina Pop, EUObserver (en)
"The French EU presidency is to put forward a security package at the December summit aimed at relaunching the European security and defence policy (ESDP) with strong links to NATO ...
... From logistical shortcomings such as aircraft interoperability to stalled national investments for defence and the political "gulf" between NATO and the EU, the current ESDP has a number of areas that are "not satisfactory", Lieutenant General Patrick de Rousiers, France's military representative to the EU, said during the conference organised by Security and Defence Agenda, a Brussels based think-tank ...
... (Also) the UK's deputy permanent representative to NATO, Paul Flaherty, (who) said: "One of the main weaknesses of ESDP throughout the international community is the connection between the S and the D – security and defence." ..."

Magazine Weekend : 13th September

A worrying new world order. Charlemagne, The Economist (en)
" ... Seen from Brussels, the Georgian crisis has exposed a tectonic shift in the global balance of power. It is not just that Russia is back. The crisis has also confirmed Europe’s sense of an America in relative decline ...
... Russian officials fought against displaying the EU flag at the press conference, wanting only French and Russian flags on the podium. Their disdainful message was clear: Russian leaders cut deals with powerful countries, not insignificant clubs. Yet that is to miss a key point. Mr Sarkozy’s weight as a negotiator stemmed from a mandate, agreed by 27 EU heads of government, to demand that Russia pull back its troops ...
... Some talked of an “apolar world”, a phrase coined by Niall Ferguson, a British historian ...

... Alexander Stubb, the Finnish foreign minister, talked of a new “era of overlapping systems”, in which assertive nation-states challenge the idea of an open global system, governed by international rules, common values and multilateral organisations ...

... Europeans had imagined the new world would be a “post-modern” paradise of dialogue and compromise, but that was “a bit naive”...

... The neo-polar order is easier to define by what it is not. The old multipolar world, as dreamt of by Mr Chirac and his friends, supposed that a European pole would form in opposition to American “hegemony”. But that is not happening ..."

Magazine : 3rd September

Russia and Georgia : Put out even more flags. The Economist (en)

"...the war in Georgia found little support in Ingushetia, not long ago engaged in a bitter ethnic conflict with North Ossetia. Rather, Russia’s actions in Georgia have created a general sense of injustice, says Mr Mutsolgov. “What about the thousands of Ingush who have been forced out of their homes by Ossetians?” Many Ingush refused to fight in Georgia. “People here say ‘it is not our war’ ”. The seeds of many conflicts in the Caucasus, as of Russia’s own problems, were planted by Stalin’s ruthless nationalist policies in the 1930s and 1940s. Today’s Russia is planting new ones. "