Europe
Klaus: Czechs will approach EU Presidency with "sobriety"
Czech President Vaclav Klaus said during talks with Senate Chairman Premysl Sobotka in Prague yesterday that the country should not set excessive goals for its forthcoming EU presidency. "We both have the feeling of certain sobriety," Klaus said, explaining their approach to the EU presidency, scheduled for the first half of 2009.
Sobotka told journalists that the Czech Senate's ratification of the Lisbon Treaty would be dependent on the approach Ireland takes towards the Treaty. Jiri Hanak argues in Pravo that Sobotka's statement is "crafty". He believes that Ireland will only change its "no" if the rest of the EU put adequate pressure on it, but that the EU cannot exert that pressure unless all remaining member countries, including the Czech Republic, ratify the Treaty.
Klaus was the EU's only senior politician to explicitly welcome the Irish "no" in June, while other countries' leaders suggested that the ratification process should continue. Klaus repeated this opinion yesterday. The continuation of the ratification in other countries makes no sense unless Ireland changed its mind, he pointed out. The Czech government has already said that the ratification process in the country would be suspended until the Constitutional Court assesses the Treaty's compatibility with Czech law.
Czech press survey CTK Ceskenoviny 2 EUobserver
Agriculture Commissioner: EU 'honest broker' and 'valued partner' in Doha trade talks - had nothing to do with the collapse;
Der Spiegel: EU fuelled one of the most grotesque disputes in the talks
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has an article in the Yorkshire Post, noting that "as I was packing my suitcase for the flight home [from the failed Doha trade talks], I felt encouraged by the role which the EU had played in the agricultural discussions." She argues, "no-one was laying the collapse of the talks at the door of the EU. More than that, the EU had energetically urged the talks forward." As a result of "reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy", she says, "the EU is no longer a 'bad pupil' in multilateral trade talks: it is a highly valued partner. Whatever the next decade may hold for the CAP, I am confident of this: the days are over in which the CAP acted as a brake on international trade talks. As it showed last month in Geneva, the EU now has its foot firmly on the accelerator."
Der Spiegel has a feature on the breakdown of the talks, noting "it was EU representatives who fuelled one of the most grotesque disputes at the recent round of WTO talks. The issue was cold cuts. Italian makers of the original Parma ham are upset by the fact that meat factories abroad use their regional designation for ordinary ham from the United States. Some Italian negotiators called for "an immediate ban on such brand name piracy." It also notes, "In the end, even the Germans failed to muster the necessary enthusiasm for further liberalisation. Minister of Agriculture Horst Seehofer, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), is in the middle of Bavarian state parliamentary elections and wants the support of Bavarian farmers, who tend to oppose the lowering of trade barriers."
In the FT, Lord Haskins, former Chairman of Northern Foods, looks at the ongoing food crisis, arguing "Rather than return to protectionism...the priority should be to reduce barriers to trade in food, to enable those countries that have to import to purchase their needs from elsewhere, expeditiously and without penalty."
Keenan: EU may limit Ireland's flexibility in dealing with economic problems
Brendan Keenan writes on Ireland's economic problems in the Irish Independent. He notes, "Last December, on what now seems like another planet, then finance minister Brian Cowen projected a government deficit for this year of less than one per cent of output (GDP). Incredibly, as output growth stalls and tax revenues fall, there is a real chance that the actual figure could be more than 3pc of GDP - which would break EU limits under the Maastricht Treaty." He argues that "There is a feeling that he and Mr Cowen will be reluctant to set a target any higher than 3.5 percent of GDP. And, of course, the EU Commission has a say in the matter. A figure as low as that implies spending cuts well beyond the 1bn euros already announced...Few observers would doubt that taxes will also rise in 2009."
Fierce competition in the EU Commission
Welt reports on the problems facing the EU Commission, with a focus on the looming reduction in the number of Commissioners prescribed by the Nice Treaty, which will mean not all countries are permanently and directly represented. The French EU presidency has already produced one possible answer: one Commissioner per geographical area e.g. Germany and Austria, the Benelux countries or Ireland and the UK. However many countries are unwilling to accept this compromise, particularly ones with general elections in the near future. The article suggests that this problem is a key reason for pushing through the Lisbon Treaty within the next year, meaning another referendum for Ireland in the near future, with December being the most likely choice. However, citing the Red C poll commissioned by Open Europe, Welt suggests that the Lisbon Treaty would be rejected again if there were a second referendum in Ireland.
Centre for European Reform: Lisbon Treaty substance will be "salvaged" irrespective of Irish No vote
On his blog, Telegraph Brussels Correspondent Bruno Waterfield picks up on a recent piece from Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, who suggests that whatever happens in response to the Irish No Vote - even if the Lisbon Treaty is buried - the substance will quickly be "salvaged". Waterfield argues that "It has become clearer and clearer following June's Irish No, along with previous referenda rejections in France and the Netherlands, that Europe's political establishments can no longer carry people with them when it comes to the EU."
CER Grant Telegraph Waterfield Open Europe blog
Doug Bandow: An EU constructed only by preventing people from voting can never compete with the US
In an article in American magazine The National Interest, Doug Bandow cites Open Europe's Red C poll of Irish voters. Bandow argues that even if the "eurocrats" can make the Irish to vote "yes" in a second referendum, "the result won't be what they really desire: a Europe capable of competing with the United States and other great powers. A quasi nation which can be constructed only by preventing people from voting, and by coercing those who do vote, is not going to generate the sort of loyalty, let alone enthusiasm, needed to forge a new nationality."
EU Chemical Agency claims REACH directive no burden despite 2.3 billion euros cost
In an interview with Reuters, Geert Dancet, Executive Director for the EU's Chemical Agency (ECHA), defends the new EU chemicals regime 'REACH'. Despite claims that it is the most complex EU directive ever, and taking into account that it may cost up to 2.3 billion euros over 11 years, Mr Dancet has said that the regulation "will be of huge benefit overall", adding that "the cost of registration is not prohibitive...and is affordable for the industry in general".
O'Brien: EU needs to gain acceptance and understanding from voters
Dan O'Brien argues in the Irish Times that "The EU's most urgent task is not to deal with an illusory democratic deficit, but to close its yawning legitimacy deficit whereby voters are willing to believe wild and often baseless accusations against it. As recent referendums in Ireland, France and the Netherlands have shown, this is not easy. Unless it can be addressed more effectively, the union's long-term future may be in doubt."
Meanwhile, in an article in Le Figaro, Pierre Lequiller, head of the National Assembly's EU Committee, makes four proposals for bringing the EU closer to its citizens. He calls for training seminars in Brussels for national MPs to learn about Europe; the application of those elements of the Lisbon Treaty relating to national parliaments ahead of ratification of the Treaty; meetings of the European Commission in capital cities around Europe; and a yearly debate bringing together national and European parliamentarians, at which the Presidents of the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament would give speeches.
Economist: Polish waiters, Lithuanian builders and Latvian hotel staff could be missed
The Economist's Certain Ideas of Europe blog comments on the return home of thousands of Eastern European immigrants who arrived in the UK and other Western European states after expansion of the EU in 2004. With Eastern European economies growing faster than their Western counterparts and with Eastern currencies strengthening against the Euro, the Institute for Public Policy Research estimates that about half of the arrivals since 2004 have returned home. The blog points out that despite initial fears at the level of migration, the UK could miss the Eastern Europeans when they're gone.
Economist Certain Ideas of Europe blog
Unemployment figures reach a 10 year high in Spain, following the economic troubles in construction after the burst of the Spanish housing bubble.
UK use of passenger data risks EU fallout
The Telegraph reports that UK ministers are preparing to announce plans to further the use of "passenger name record data". This would allow the government to access much more information about passengers, giving them access to around 200 million names and addresses every year. Ministers also hope to extend their reach to Eurostar and ferry passengers. It is reported that the move could be in breach of EU laws.
World
Rwanda has formally accused senior French officials, including former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President Francois Mitterrand, of involvement in the 1994 genocide.
Yuri Popov, head of the Russian delegation to a joint commission in South Ossetia, has confirmed that Russia will intervene to defend citizens if fighting between South Ossetia separatists and Georgian forces escalates.
UK
The front page of The Telegraph reports that David Miliband has lined up "ultra Blairite" Alan Milburn to take over as Chancellor. The former Health Secretary, "a hate figure for many of Brown's allies", is understood to be happy about the offer.
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