Britannia Radio

This is total unadulterated ‘spin” .  Firstly the “massive” sum of 
money involved.  This is a total figure for 27 countries!  Our 
percentage share of that would be around € 15.6 bn and that needs 
translating into sterling at 0.84p to the Euro and you have  £13bn.   
Compare that to what British taxpayers have coughed up already it is 
chickenfeed.

Both parties here are already thinking of EXTRA funds for this 
purpose on top of current spending.

It is also “spin” in that it is merely a public relations target to 
which individual member countries can sign up to ! It is merely a PR 
exercise by the Commission who have to be seen to be doing something!

Note that they have no EU funds!  Where have they all gone?

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EUOBSERVER   20.11.08
Brussels plans €130 billion stimulus package
    LEIGH PHILLIPS

A massive €130 billion prime-the-pump operation to stimulate the 
European economy is currently being planned by the European Commission.

First revealed by German weekly Der Spiegel's online edition, the EU 
executive is constructing a package that would see each of the 27 
member states commit one percent of their GDP to fiscal stimulus 
measures to pull the bloc out of its downturn and stave off the 
greater threat of deflation.

The plan would see the commission itself commit some money, although 
the EU executive itself has limited funds, and so member states 
themselves would have to provide the bulk of the cash, according to a 
source close to the commission discussions who spoke to the German 
magazine.

A German economy ministry spokeswoman on Wednesday (19 November) 
confirmed to Le Monde that such a plan was in the works.

"That represents one percent of gross domestic product for each 
member state," the unnamed official told the French paper.

The commission hopes to finish drafting the plan by next Wednesday 
(26 November), with European leaders considering the package at the 
final 2008 summit on 11 December.

The move may run into resistance from some member states, whose 
public finances have little room to manoeuvre without borrowing the 
money for such an initiative, particularly at a time when the 
economic crisis is putting pressure on government revenues.

Until now, Germany has strongly resisted pan-European measures, 
although it has already adopted domestic stimulus measures amounting 
to €32 billion over two years - equivalent to just over one percent 
of GDP. It is unclear whether this already announced sum would be 
included in the commission's plan or be considered in addition to the 
EU package.

A stimulus package of such size would be a major turnaround for most 
European leaders, who from long ago abandoned support for such 
Keynesian financial strategies on both the left and right side of the 
political spectrum.

However, the downturn has been of so considerable a scale and speed - 
the eurozone officially entered its first-ever recession last Friday 
- that liberal hostility to government intervention is crumbling 
across the board.

The ideas of British economist John Maynard Keynes - who advocated 
government interventionism - were last popular in the 1940s and 1970