Sarkozy faces another tough week

Already under attack from Europe over Roma expulsions, unions over pension reform and the press over financial scandal, President Nicolas Sarkozy now faces yet another tough week.

But – with his rock-bottom opinion poll ratings falling once again – France’s mercurial leader appears determined to press on regardless, despite strikes, street protests and a barrage of international criticism.

With less than two years to run before he must seek re-election, Sarkozy opened the newspapers on Sunday to find his personal approval rating falling four points to 32 percent in an IFOP poll carried out for the Journal du Dimanche.

For more: Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Beleaguered Sarkozy faces another tough week

Is Turkey becoming more democratic, or less so?

After a polarizing campaign that became more a referendum on his government than on the 26 proposed constitutional reforms, Mr. Erdogan was rewarded with a decisive victory: 58 percent of voters approved the changes in a charter that had been imposed by the military after a 1980 coup. Many of the changes are indisputably liberal and will strengthen democracy in a Muslim country that is a NATO member and has aspired to join the European Union.

For example, military officers will be subject to civilian trials; the rights of women, the elderly, handicapped people and children will be enhanced; restrictions on unions will be lifted; and individuals will have greater privacy rights and the ability to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

But the constitutional package, which was presented to voters for a single, up-or-down vote, also contains a sweeping reorganization of the Constitutional Court and Turkey's other top judicial body, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors. Each would be expanded, and the power of appointment would be shifted to the president and legislature. Until now, Turkey's judiciary has been a bastion of secularism and thus of resistance to Mr. Erdogan. The Constitutional Court struck down his initiative allowing women to wear head scarves in state schools and came within one vote of outlawing his party.

Now Mr. Erdogan will have the power to place his appointees in a dominating position. The opposition charges that the courts will become merely another arm of the ruling party -- which, it claims, is carrying out a "creeping coup" against the secular state. While some of the critics' rhetoric may be exaggerated, Mr. Erdogan's actions give cause for concern. In the last several years his government has used questionable tax charges to lean on opposition media. Sprawling investigations of alleged coup plotters have swept up not just military officers but also businessmen and journalists.

For more: Is Turkey becoming more democratic, or less so?

Report lists Ireland as second richest EU country after Luxembourg

Ireland remained the second richest country in the 27-member EU last year, according to the Central Statistics Office’s annual compendium of statistics, entitled Measuring Ireland’s Progress 2009.
Gross domestic product (GDP) per head, when adjusted for differences in the cost of living in different countries, was 31 per cent above the EU average. Although sharply down from its peak in 2007, when it stood at 48 per cent above the average, Ireland remained fractionally above the Netherlands, the country with the third highest standard of living. Luxembourg is by far the richest country among the 27, with per capita average GDP 168 per cent above the average, while Romania is the poorest at less than half the average.the second richest country in the 27-member EU last year, according to the Central Statistics Office’s annual compendium of statistics, entitled Measuring Ireland’s Progress 2009.

Gross domestic product (GDP) per head, when adjusted for differences in the cost of living in different countries, was 31 per cent above the EU average. Although sharply down from its peak in 2007, when it stood at 48 per cent above the average, Ireland remained fractionally above the Netherlands, the country with the third highest standard of living.

Luxembourg is by far the richest country among the 27, with per capita average GDP 168 per cent above the average, while Romania is the poorest at less than half the average.
For more: Report lists Ireland as second richest EU country - The Irish Times - Fri, Sep 17, 2010

EU can't agree on how to halt rule-breakers - by Sarah Collins

There was no agreement among EU leaders on how to punish countries that break the bloc's debt and deficit limits, Taoiseach Brian Cowen confirmed yesterday.

The quandary facing the 27-member union is how to make sure profligate states never again bring the single currency into disrepute as events in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain continue to animate bond markets.
Before the summer, leaders signed up to allow their peers greater scrutiny of spending plans and a new timetable for submitting budget outlines to Brussels, but deep divisions remain over what kind of sanctions to apply to those countries that persistently flout the rules.

For more: EU can't agree on how to halt rule-breakers - European, Business - Independent.ie

Roma: a problem that won't go away for the EU

The Roma people are an ethnic group with origins in South Asia and Eastern Europe who are widely dispersed with their largest concentrated populations in Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe. Also there are more recent diaspora populations in the Americas and, to a lesser extent, in North Africa and the Middle East..In addition there is a subgroup of the Romani people who live primarily in Central and Eastern Europe. In the EU there are an estimated 10-million Roma and nearly 90% of them live below the poverty line. Turkey which is an aspiring EU member has 2.7 million Roma living within its borders.

France's stepped-up removal of Roma migrants this summer, part of what President Sarkozy has called a crackdown on crime, has caused quite a stir in the EU. President Sarkozy says the expulsions are a matter of security and that the European Commission should come up with Europe-wide solutions rather than criticizing France. He said there had been no expulsions based on ethnicity. On the other hand President Sarkozy was unrepentant as to his actions and vowed during a EU Heads-Of-State meeting in Bruxelles to continue dismantling illegal immigrant camps.

The French policy also involves offering Roma families a financial incentive to return to Romania and Bulgaria. The row has underscored differences in Europe over how to deal with problems related to immigration, persistent unemployment and ethnic minorities, particularly at a time of economic slowdown and social hardship. Presently more than 400 camps have been dismantled in France and about 1000 Roma have already been deported to Romania and Bulgaria.

There are about 400.000 Roma of which 15000 Roma from Romania and Bulgaria in France. Even though as EU citizens they are allowed in, there is a three-month limit on people who don’t have jobs or incomes. France is enforcing that, and clamping down on the illegal camps in which the Roma live.

France is also not the first EU country deporting the Roma people: Italy also deported Roma last year, but pretty much got away with it.Some countries in the EU, such as Spain, have treated the Roma problem more humanely, investing resources to integrate the Roma economically and socially into society, instead of marginalizing and deporting them.

EU-Digest 

US Economy: Ending tax cuts for top 2 percent a step in the right direction - by Dave Zweifel

As the US continues to suffer the effects of the Great Recession and the national debt keeps growing, the president’s sensible proposal to extend the infamous George W. Bush tax cuts to American families earning less than $250,000, but letting them expire on incomes above that mark, has the Republicans and some all-too-familiar “blue dog” Democrats emitting cries of anguish for the nation’s wealthiest 2 percent.
“Class warfare,” the GOP leaders shout, claiming that any tax increase in this economy would cause every calamity except, perhaps, stopping the earth from rotating.

Class warfare? Yes, there’s class warfare occurring in this country, but it’s not what the GOP and the blue dogs claim. It’s the other way around: a war being waged by the country’s privileged financial elite against the great American middle and lower financial classes with the help of politicians whose coffers are kept brimming by the privileged people. It began in 1981 with the introduction of Reaganomics and it has continued unabated, with the possible exception of Bill Clinton’s second term, ever since.

Taxes were cut, deficits soared and during all that time, the wealthiest 1 percent in the United States increased their share of the country’s financial wealth from less than 25 percent to more than 35 percent today. The bottom 99 percent’s piece of the economic pie dropped from 75 to 65 percent.

For more: Plain Talk: Ending tax cuts for top 2 percent a step in the right direction

Greece's finance minister says country's recession could be less sever than forecast

The Greek finance minister says his country's recession may be less severe than had been predicted under the economic turnaround plan that helped it stave off financial collapse earlier this year.

George Papaconstantinou says his government hopes Greece's economy will shrink less than the four per cent predicted under the bailout plan.

He spoke Thursday after meeting with French counterpart Christine Lagarde — part of a two-day road show to woo investors in London, Paris and Frankfurt.

For more: Greece's finance minister says country's recession could be less sever than forecast | Markets | Headline News | Canadian Business Online

Denmark: Best country for entrepreneurs? Hint: Not the US. - by Brian Anthony Hernandez

If entrepreneurial performance were an Olympic sport, Denmark and Canada just stole the gold medal from the perennially favored United State. The U.S. lands third in a report from the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, which evaluated 71 nations in terms of entrepreneurship and performance.

“The global perception of the country as a land of opportunity and as the mecca for individuals wanting to do something new and different seems to be somewhat challenged by the facts,” wrote the report's authors, Zoltan Acs of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and Laslo Szerb of Hungary's University of Pécs. Those facts, according to their report: Stacked against other major economies, the U.S. lacks high-growth business and cultural support for entrepreneurship and is frail in the technology sector.

The weaknesses caused the United States to rank an unlikely sixth in entrepreneurial attitudes — society’s feelings toward entrepreneurship, based on education and social stability — and eighth in entrepreneurial activity: what citizens are doing to improve the quality of human resources and technological efficiency.

Best country for entrepreneurs? Hint: Not the US. - CSMonitor.com

EU might react legally against France on Roma - by Cerise Negulici

Commissioner Viviane Reding that the European Commission must take legal lawsuit against France over its exile of Roma. Ms Reding termed French dealings a dishonor. She regretted the fact that a betrayal official memo opposed reassurance provided to her by France.

France expressed it bewilderment in reply to her statement on Tuesday.It exiled approximately 230 Roma on Tuesday only, sending them to Romania from Paris and Marseille. In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry articulated disappointment at the EU commissioner's declaration. According to a ministry spokesman he did not feel that the EU minister's remarks can perk up circumstances for Roma.

Since mid-August, France has exiled more than 1,000 Roma to Romania and Bulgaria, and dislocated more than 100 of their camps, in a stir that President Nicolas Sarkozy calls a clean-up on crime.

For more: EU might react legally against France on Roma | French Tribune

Netherlands: Dutch Police arrest Drunk Delta Pilot in Cockpit:- Airline Captain Was Planning to Fly from Amsterdam to New York

A Delta pilot has been arrested and fined for allegedly being drunk as he was preparing to fly from Amsterdam to Newark Liberty International Airport, outside New York City.

The Dutch National Police Corps has not identified the pilot but says he is a 52-year-old captain from Woodbury, N.J.

Delta issued a statement about Flight 35, saying that it was "canceled out of concern that a crew member appeared to be unfit for duty."

Note EU-Digest: This probably was  only one of the many pilots caught flying under the influence of alcohol. Why not test every pilot going on a flight as to his or her level of alcohol content in the blood? It's a simple breathalyzer test which takes less than 2 minutes. Far less time consuming than the "security tests" the flying public already have to endure every day. Best of all, it will save lives. 

For more: Drunk Delta Pilot Arrested in Cockpit: Airline Captain Was Planning to Fly from Amsterdam to New York

Soccer UEFA Cup: Dutch soccer newcomer Twente proud after tremendous night against Champion Milan

Playing in their first match in the competition against the champions FC Internazionale Milano in Group A, Twente were trailing to Wesley Sneijder's 13th-minute strike when Janssen fired high into the top left corner, leaving Júlio César grasping at air. A Diego Milito own goal on the half hour gave Twente the lead, only for Samuel Eto'o to strike four minutes before the break to earn Inter a 2-2 draw.

At the start fans behind the home goal unfurled a banner that spanned the entire stand with the Twente and fan club logos emblazoned over a map of Europe. As the home support roared their side on, it is clear the Dutch champions will enjoy the ride.

For more: Twente proud after tremendous night on UEFA.COM

Guy Carpenter reports on European casualty insurance law - by Gill Montia

Guy Carpenter & Company has released a report on the recent developments and trends in the Continental European legal environment that impact on the casualty insurance industry.

The study has been developed in conjunction with law firm, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, and its network of insurance law practitioners in jurisdictions across Continental Europe.

It highlights European Commission consultations regarding cross-border road traffic accident claims and an Austrian Supreme Court ruling on premium arrears.

For more: Guy Carpenter reports on European casualty insurance law

US economy: Grim US economy: An opportunity in adversity?

For the better part of a year, a small band of investors and economists has been arguing that the torrent of grim news on jobs and the stagnating US economy is shrouding an immutable fact: The recovery is at hand – you just can’t see it yet.


But therein lies the opportunity for investors like John A Paulson, the hedge fund executive who made billions by betting on a housing crash, and Bill Miller, the mutual fund manager at Legg Mason Capital Management who is best known for his 15-year streak of beating the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index.

The bad news bulls do not dispute that the relentless beat of lost jobs and sagging house sales represents a serious economic threat. But they argue that in many respects this avalanche of bad news has little bearing for a growing number of corporations that are making money by relying more on technology, borrowing at rock-bottom rates and increasing sales to galloping overseas markets in China, Brazil and India. 


For more: Grim US economy: An opportunity in adversity? - The Economic Times

Germany asks US to give up its IMF veto - by Alan Beattie

The US should give up its veto over important decisions in the International Monetary Fund in return for Europe accepting a smaller say, Germany has proposed.

The suggestion, which experts say will be strongly opposed by the US, addresses a politically highly symbolic dispute about voting power and seats on the fund’s executive board. Shifting power towards emerging market countries is one of the central elements in the Group of 20 nations’ drive to make the fund and other international institutions more representative.

Last month the US used a procedural manoeuvre to force the European countries to agree reforms to the executive board by November 1. The 24-member board currently has nine European executive directors, and negotiations have been under way to increase representation from emerging markets, particularly in Asia.

For more: FT.com / Europe - Germany asks US to give up its IMF veto

EU nearly doubles eurozone growth forecast

Europe nearly doubled its growth forecast Monday to at least 1.7 percent for 2010, highlighting recovery in Germany but warning about rising strains in Ireland’s banking system.

The European Union raised its core eurozone growth prediction on data from its seven biggest members, having forecast just 0.9 percent in the spring, but was at pains to remain prudent.

Encouraged to see “revival ... particularly in Germany,” Brussels warned that risks “remain elevated” with a “multi-speed” recovery accentuated by problems with national finances in Ireland and elsewhere.

For more: Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - EU nearly doubles eurozone growth forecast

The Myth of "Decoupling" and the Chinese Consumer - by Charles Hugh Smith

The "China decoupling" story holds that as China's households grow wealthier then China will no longer need export markets in the E.U. and the U.S. The story is appealing but the facts don't support it.

A single statistic completely undermines the "China will decouple from the U.S. because Chinese domestic demand will absorb all its production capacity" story: The proportion of the China's GDP contributed by the household sector (wages, salaries and consumption) peaked at 56 percent in 1983 and has since dropped to 36 percent—roughly half the size of the consumer economy in the U.S. That means that China's households are receiving a smaller piece of the pie as China's GDP grows, even the annual average wages of workers in urban areas of China increased from 12,422 yuan ($1,832) in 2002 to 29,229 yuan ($4,311) in 2008.

Another factor is that Chinese households are prodigious savers: China boasts a savings rate of 38%, fully ten times that of the U.S. But Chinese savers have few choices on where to invest their money: they can either leave it in a savings account which draws 2.25%, less than the inflation rate of 3.1%, or invest in real estate or domestic stocks.

Those proclaiming the coming decoupling and rise of the Chinese consumer neatly glide over the fact that investment, including foreign direct investment (FDI), accounts for 44% of China's economy, a higher level than Japan or South Korea ever reached in their modernization drives. This is an economy that is exquisitely dependent on massive inflows of capital to sustain its growth; the entire household sector is a mere 80% of direct investment.

For more: The Myth of "Decoupling" and the Chinese Consumer | Benzinga.com

Golf - Paul McGinley: 'It's very important we win the Ryder Cup again'

 My views are very strong," Paul McGinley says as, in his role as a vice-captain of the European Ryder Cup team, he displays the conviction his players will need if they are to wrest back the trophy from the United States in less than three weeks. "We're a European team. We're a European Tour. And even though a lot of our players are playing in America we have to draw the line. We need to finish the qualification for a European team on European soil."

Earlier this summer McGinley predicted a handsome European victory, but he sounds more cautious now. "A couple of months ago we were quite clear favourites – but things have changed. We have been hurt by Lee Westwood's injury. There's no doubt about that. It's going to be an unknown factor until Lee turns up that week and we see how he feels, having not competed since the Open. That's a disappointment for Europe.Earlier this summer McGinley predicted a handsome European victory, but he sounds more cautious now. "A couple of months ago we were quite clear favourites – but things have changed. We have been hurt by Lee Westwood's injury. There's no doubt about that. It's going to be an unknown factor until Lee turns up that week and we see how he feels, having not competed since the Open. That's a disappointment for Europe.

For more: Paul McGinley: 'It's very important we win the Ryder Cup again' | Sport | The Guardian

Iranian Diplomats Defect In Finland, Belgium

Iranian opposition members say another Iranian diplomat has defected in Europe -- this time in Belgium. The Europe-based Green Wave opposition movement said Farzad Farhangian, press attache at the Iranian Embassy in Brussels, walked out on September 10 and flew to Oslo. In Norway, former Iranian consular official Mohammed Reza Heydari confirmed that Farhangian "left the embassy after informing the ambassador that he was leaving and he came here without anyone [else] knowing about this."

For more: Iranian Diplomats Defect In Finland, Belgium - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2010

Russian cruise industry experiencing significant increase

Several positive trends have been noted in river cruises for the Russian tourist industry. According to tourism experts, sales have increased by 30%, and the tourist flow has improved by 20-25% compared to the previous year.

As for the sea cruises, at the beginning of the summer that segment began to show steady growth in the number of bookings. Experts estimate that the flow of tourists has risen by about 70% compared to the same period last year.

For more: Cruise News Russian cruise industry experiencing significant increase - eTurboNews.com

US economy: Tax cuts for all but the wealthiest 2 percent of taxpayers will benefit the US economy

The Treasury Department estimates that extending all the tax cuts would deny the Treasury almost $3.7 trillion in revenues over the next decade, swelling the national debt.  Allowing the reductions for the wealthiest 2 percent to expire would narrow that loss to just under $3 trillion by raising $679.6 billion in new revenue from the wealthy, the Treasury estimates.

Based on president Obama's and his advisers calculations, the very small increase in the top tax bracket isn't going to harm the rich or the economy, since that was the rate that was in effect during the booming 1990s, the longest sustained economic expansion in U.S. history.

Unfortunately the "always say no" Republicans warn of disaster if all the tax reductions aren't extended,  while  at the same time some of the "sponsored" Democrats in Congress appear increasingly wary of the administration's approach.

For more news go to EU-Digest