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Greek elections: The debacle of austerity or of reason?

Posted by seumasach on May 9, 2012

Protesilaos Stavrou

Newropmag

7th May, 2012

The national elections in Greece on May 6, 2012 brought seven parties in the parliament. The first feeling one gets is that of uncertainty about the future. Five out of the seven parties have a clear anti-austerity, anti-memorandum agenda, while ND, the party with the most seats claims that it wants to “renegotiate” the terms of the bailout programme. Given that no single party has secured a majority of seats in the parliament, a coalition of forces is necessary to form a government. However with the diversity of views now represented in the new parliament, such a coalition will be hard to find, while there can be no safe predictions about a possible government agenda for the time being.

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Eurozone: concrete steps towards growth

Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012

New Europe

8th May, 2012

On Tuesday 8 May in Athens, amidst the political turbulences that the results of Sunday’s election brought to the country, it was very interesting to watch the Greek Treasury raising easily €1.3 billion in T-Bills at an only slightly increased interest rate.

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France’s president-elect raps Britain

Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012

PressTV

8th May, 2012

France’s President-elect Francois Hollande has launched a scathing attack on the British government saying Britain “is indifferent to the fate of the euro area”.

France’s Socialist leader said Britain is only obsessed with the protection of the interests of the City of London, reportedThe Mail

The British have been particularly shy about the issues of financial regulation, and attentive only to the interests of the City – hence their reluctance to see the introduction of a tax on financial transactions and tax harmonisation in Europe,” said Hollande.

Hollande is an advocate of an EU-wide transaction tax on financial deals and a fresh push for tax harmonization in Europe, to which Britain is opposed.

After Hollande’s victory over Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday night, British Prime Minister David Cameron called him and said he looked forward to “building on the very close relationship that already exists between the UK and France”.

However, Hollande has a closer relationship with opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband as they held high-level talks when he visited London in February.

Hollande believes that a shift in focus away from austerity to growth could be a way towards pain-free economic growth for France and the eurozone saying “austerity can no longer be the only option”. Nevertheless, the British press have accused him of creating “cruel illusion”.


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SYRIZA’s Tsipras to make bailout rejection key bargaining point

Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012

Ekathimerini

8th May, 2012

The leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), Alexis Tsipras, is due to receive at 2 p.m. the mandate to form a unity government from President Karolos Papoulias.

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Occupy the Future of Europe!

Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012

What do YOU want as a future for AEGEE? Occupy the Future of Europe! Franck Biancheri in Enschede

Newropmag

7th May, 2012

On May 2nd in Enschede (NL), Franck Biancheri made a very important intervention at the Agora (General Assembly) of AEGEE-EUROPE, the largest European students network, where he presented to the 1.000 AEGEE delegates both his vision on the future of Europe (Euroland & EU) in the coming decade and the possible strategies for European younger generations to “Occupy the Future of Europe”. 

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Greece: It’s the geopolitics, stupid!

Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012

EU Observer

9th March, 2012

The eurozone decided to grant Greece a second bailout, but this does not mean that the country received a wallet full of money and that the risk of default is gone. Greece and its political elites need sober determination to implement socially difficult reforms also after the April elections.

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France’s foreign policy after Sarkozy

Posted by seumasach on May 5, 2012

 

Issa El Ayoubi

Voltairenet

4th May, 2012

During Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year tenure, France has lost the prestige she enjoyed in Africa and the Middle East. That is why all those who love that country are wondering whether the change heralded by François Hollande will also apply to foreign policy? In the editorial reproduced below, the Syrian daily Al-Watan takes a positive view. The socialist leader judges the states in the region just as harshly as his predecessor but, true to his principles, he should put an end to the unholy Alliance between the “country of human rights” and the religious dictatorships of the Gulf.

 

The first round of the French presidential election is over and the second will take place next Sunday. The French people must choose their president for the next five years. They will not do so on the basis of our concerns, but of their own. They have paid little attention to international issues, even though the outgoing president has staked their future abroad. While the domestic crises they are facing are the result of foreign policy options, these have been absent from the public debate.

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Roland Berger: Close to launching a European rating agency

Posted by seumasach on April 29, 2012

WSJ

26th April, 2012

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)–Roland Berger Strategy Consultants is close to launching a European rating agency, the company said Thursday.

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A history of the world, BRIC by BRIC

Posted by seumasach on April 28, 2012

Pepe Escobar

Asia Times

28th April, 2012

Goldman Sachs – via economist Jim O’Neill – invented the concept of a rising new bloc on the planet: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Some cynics couldn’t help calling it the “Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept.”

Not really. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost 40% of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, and to include four of the world’s top five economies.

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The City should beware the changing eurozone

Posted by seumasach on April 25, 2012

Could we be looking at some yet more radical ideas about how Europe is to be governed? Is Europe moving to more state-led capitalism? What it will almost definitely mean is that European policy-makers will need to find new common ground — which probably means new attacks on those outside the eurozone. Proposals for more intervention and controls on finance and markets are quite likely. For the UK and the City, none of these developments is welcome.

The City does indeed have reason to fear developments in Europe: a cue for British opponents of the City to embrace Europe

This is London

24th April, 2012

For the first time since European monetary union in 1999, France may end up with a Socialist government, following Sunday’s first-round victory for François Hollande.

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Hollande Seeks Wider EU Fiscal Pact

Posted by seumasach on April 25, 2012

CNBC

25th April, 2012

François Hollande, the French Socialist presidential candidate, is not seeking to unpick the European fiscal pact but wants to complete it with tools to promote economic growth, one of his senior advisers signalled on Tuesday

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