EUROPE
FROM ONE OF MY CONNECTION IN BRUSSELS
Harold,
The mills of G'd grind slowly but they grind small. Eventually some MEPs will ask why they did not have a say in the appointments in what was a party political stitch-up. The present position is fragile. The Council is overreaching itself. In the 1970s it did the same thing and was taken to Court by the EP. It was only after that the Council (governments) agreed to hold elections for the Parliament. These matters take time but are inevitable. Direct elections were agreed by governments in 1951 and again in 1957 -- it took several decades to make them do what they had agreed to. Before they preferred to nominate members of the Parliament, in much the same way as they prefer to nominate for the new posts and also the Commission.
Patience! The outcome is inevitable. Timing itself depends on the accumulation of people with civic courage and a sense of democratic outrage.
Shalom
David
Harold
Here is another case in point.
LYMEC President Aloys Rigaut reacted to the news: “We can only warmly welcome such judgement! This is yet another blow to the directive which required member states to store communication data of all their citizens for at least six months. While the actual content of phone calls and emails is not stored, the persons involved in the communication a s well as all surrounding data is. For a phone call this means telephone number, name and address of the caller and the person called, duration of the call, in case of mobile phones the locations from and to where the call was made. For emails the name, address and IP-address of all persons involved, time of sending, as well as the whole header of the email message has to be stored. That data is collected for 500 million citizens and kept for six up to twenty-four months. Is that proportional to the terrorist threat? We do not think so.”
LYMEC Vice President Alexander Plahr adds: “This rightly is the beginning of the end of the data retention directive! In two big member states the implementation of the directive has already been declared unconstitutional, in many more the courts are still occupied by it, all across Europe the data retention directive is heavily criticised by civil society, political groups and human rights organisations. However, every day the laws implementing this directive are still effective in the parts of the European Union where the constitutional courts have not yet annulled them, is a day to long! Therefore we call on the European Commission to now immediately revoke the directive!"
Subject: Re: Farage offers apology to bank clerks in free speech row-reply
David
David
Thanks
How do you see it "bursting open" when the majority of the MEPs' are drinking from the well.
Machiavelli was and still is correct in his perceiving of Power and Politics. (PAP)
Sincerely
harold
Mr Farage seems to have waved a red rag if not a damp dish cloth.
David
Subject: Damp Rag costs €3000 - Nigel Farage MEP
Damp Rag costs €3000
UKIP MEP Nigel Farage was informed this afternoon by Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament had decided to fine him €3000 for his comments relating to Herman van Rompuy and Belgium.
The fine represents 10 days pay, and is the maximum allowable under the rules of the European Parliament. Mr Buzek imposed it after Mr Farage declined earlier today to apologise for his comments.
Mr Farage said, "Free speech is an expensive business in the European Parliament."
He announced that he intended to appeal against his sentence. ENDS
Notes to Editors:
for further information, please contact:
Nigel Farage MEP, +44-7802-597692
Mark Croucher, EFD Media, +32-470-841644
Mark Croucher
Head of Media
Europe of Freedom & Democracy Group
Office: +32-2-283-2517
GSM: +32-470-841644 (Belgium)
+44-7961-583457 (UK)
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