Posted by seumasach on May 9, 2012
Babis Papadimitriou
9th May, 2012
If the electorate wants a government but without the memorandum, then we’ll probably have to head back to the polls, and the parties might as well give the people a chance to explain what exactly they were looking for when they cast their ballots.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Greek crisis, SYRIZA | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 9, 2012
Protesilaos Stavrou
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.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Greek crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
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.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: european construction | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
Eurozone crisis: EU moves to loosen grip of austerity
8th May, 2012
The European executive has responded to the electoral earthquakes in France and Greece by calling for a shift towards growth across the EU as the new firebrand leftist leader in Athens stepped up his country’s rebellion against austerity.
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Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
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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Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
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.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Greek crisis | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
Just as we had Norway earmarked as a front line state in our new cold war against Russia in the “High N orth”, the Russians have smoothed their way in their with a commercial agreement. Is commerce and cooperation beginning to trump the Wests’ bankrupt security agenda on all fronts.
Pricey ice: Russia, Norway sign megabuck Arctic agreement
5th May, 2012
A multi-billion-dollar agreement on Arctic shelf development has been signed by Russian oil company Rosneft and Norway’s Statoil.
Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
Russia’s key partners for cooperation will be countries and organizations in the CIS. With this in mind, Putin wants to boost the efficacy of the Union State with Belarus, integration between Europe and Asia through the Customs Union and the Common Economic Space, and hopes to establish the Eurasian Economic Community by January 1, 2015.
The Eleven Orders of Putin: Earmarks for Russia’s development in the next six years
8th May, 2012
President Vladimir Putin has announced 11 Executive Orders within hours of his inauguration. These orders set Russia’s strategic aims in foreign, domestic, social and military policy.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Eurasian Economic Community, polycentric model of international relations, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
Not so long ago Ukraine was one of the main focuses of US foreign policy. But the empire is ebbing away and overstretch leads them to neglect crucial frontier outposts.
Taras Kuzio
9th May, 2012
The Ukrainian government is negotiating the issue of rouble-denominated government bonds, making the country no longer reliant on International Monetary Fund assistance. Ukraine’s 2010 IMF assistance package of US$15.6 billion was suspended in March 2011 because of the country’s refusal to continue with IMF reforms, in particular raising household utility prices to reduce subsidies to the state gas company Naftohaz Ukrainy. This confirms what the Nikolai Azarov government has been discussing since summer 2011.
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: dollar collapse, End of empire, Russian diplomacy, the Eurasian Union | Leave a Comment »
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
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”.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Occupy the Future of Europe! | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 8, 2012
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.
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: Greek crisis | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 