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European DisUnity News Roundup
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Brown attacks EU push towards federal state
Brown is tipped (not least by himself) to be Blair’s most likely successor as Labour leader.
Gordon Brown launched his most outspoken attack on the European Union yesterday, accusing its leaders of planning a "federal state" with harmonised taxes that would be a recipe for economic failure. "The credibility of Europe is at stake," the Chancellor warned. He insisted that economic reform was not just "desirable" but an "urgent necessity" if the EU economy is not to fall further behind the United States. Mr Brown’s remarks, in an article for the Wall Street Journal Europe, left little doubt that he has privately ruled out a referendum on the euro before the next election. His stridently sceptical tone will alarm Tony Blair, who insisted on Wednesday that a referendum before the next election remains an option. Rather than making the case for Britain to be at the centre of the EU - as the Prime Minister wants ministers to do - the Chancellor put the onus on Europe, saying it had to adopt the British and American model of deregulation before it could move forward. He also appeared to undermine Mr Blair’s attempts to play down the importance of the EU constitution when he accused European leaders of having a "federal" agenda. "As long as Europe clings to the outdated view that the single currency will be followed by tax harmonisation and then a federal state, confidence about future economic growth will remain low," wrote the Chancellor.

Mr Brown’s comments came two days before Mr Blair travels to Berlin for talks on Iraq and the future of the EU with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and President Jacques Chirac of France. Mr Blair is keen to mend fences with both leaders following disagreements over Iraq and before an intergovernmental conference on the EU constitution opens in Rome next month. A Treasury spokesman said that Mr Brown was outlining the responsibilities the EU had to face up to before a meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Dubai this weekend. Mr Brown painted a picture of a Europe held back by outdated economic and political ideologies. It was throttled by regulation, inflexible labour markets and product and capital markets that desperately needed to be liberalised. He added: "Every proposed regulation should be put to the costs test, then the jobs test, and then the ’is it really necessary?’ test."
99 % of all EU dictats would fall at one hurdle, at least...

Yesterday, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the former French president who chaired the Convention on the Future of Europe that drew the initial blueprint for the constitution, said the whole exercise could fail if the federalists pushed nations such as Britain too far. Addressing a conference in Brussels he said efforts to force Britain and others to accept tax harmonisation would fail. He said: "This is a fragile situation, and if anyone tries to make big changes to what we have proposed, the balance will change and that could bring the whole structure tumbling down."
What he’s saying is, "sign or don’t sign". But don’t try to water down the constitution, Tony.

Franco-German pact ignores critics’ cries of profligacy
The leaders of Germany and France announced a grandiose multi-billion pound investment programme yesterday, despite criticism that their spending is already out of control. At their meeting in Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and President Jacques Chirac announced a vast programme that would include spending on 10 infrastructure programmes designed to boost growth in the sluggish euro zone. Both countries have run up huge budget deficits, in breach of the European Growth and Stability Pact, which limits government overspend to three per cent of GDP. Both countries are expected to breach the limit next year, too.

But the two leaders airily waved away questions about how they planned to finance the projects, which unofficial estimates have suggested might cost £35 billion. They said it would include public and private funding and loans from the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. "We did not talk about figures in detail," Mr Schroder said after six hours of meetings between the two. "We’re not talking here so much about state funding in the specific sense, rather about projects that would be financed by the European Investment Bank, which is why I can’t talk about exact figures at this stage." M Chirac did little to clarify the funding issue: "There’s nothing to be gained from talking about figures," he said.
EU politics - there’s never much room for ugly realities.
"The most important result of this meeting is our shared conviction that Europe cannot wait for growth, but must seek it out." Despite the mention of the European Investment Bank, the institution only puts up a maximum of half the funding on any project. That would leave France and Germany still looking for vast sums from elsewhere.

The initiative will be presented to other European Union members later this month. But it is sure to be criticised by smaller euro zone states which have asked Brussels to impose financial penalties on France and Germany for their budgetary profligacy. The project would cover telecommunications, transport infrastructure, research and development and sustainable development. Other initiatives discussed included plans to develop the Galileo satellite and to merge the high-speed railway networks between the two countries.

Mr Schroder, who has recently started much-needed structural reform in Germany, was quick to dismiss criticism that either his fiscal policy or the Franco-German initiative was endangering the future of the growth and stability pact. He said he thought it was a mistake that the word "growth" was often excluded from the pact’s title. "We are now in a stage - the third year of stagnation in Germany - where we have to stress the importance of growth," he said. "In the pact itself there is room to give impetus to growth." In their joint declaration, the leaders criticised what they saw as the European Commission’s anti-industrial stance, and gave warning of the "danger of the de-industrialisation of Europe" through over-regulation.
Going to need the slave nations to come up with the goods, after all.
Their defence ministers also discussed plans to merge two shipbuilders - Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft of Germany, and the French company DCN.

There was also a commitment to the controversial idea of developing an autonomous EU military capability despite criticism that it would duplicate and undermine Nato. There was a commitment to transforming the European security and defence policy into a full-scale defence union "so that the EU can emerge as a full and equal partner on the world stage". The defence union would be open to all EU members, an offer sure to anger Washington.

Yesterday’s meeting, including cabinet ministers and an entourage of aides, was part of the consolidation of the Elysee treaty which was signed between the two countries 40 years ago. Other projects under the pact include an annual Franco-German day on January 22, the creation of a joint history book for schools, and eventually, dual citizenship.
It gets complicated here. The proposed constitution includes dual citizen status for all EU members (national citizenship & "EU citizenship"). Therefore, French and German citizens would be triple citizens, not dual. That is, until the problematic national citizenships are revoked.

M Chirac spoke of the importance of French and German language learning to intensify co-operation, although observers were quick to point out that neither Mr Chirac nor Mr Schroder speak the other’s tongue. The gathering came two days’ before the leaders are due to meet Tony Blair in Berlin to discuss the European position on Iraq. They will also try to gain his backing for the investment project, which is entitled "Germany and France for more growth in Europe".
Franco-German axis? Nonsense!

EU plan to outlaw smoking in bars
Or "Hypocrisy and Autocracy: EU gotta love/hate the weed."
The European Commission is drawing up plans for a ban on smoking in bistros, bars and cafes across the European Union, ignoring the message from Swedish voters in last weekend’s euro vote that Brussels is meddling too much in national affairs. Legally, Brussels lacks the power to dictate tobacco policy, but EU officials believe that they can force through the rules as a health and safety measure aimed at protecting workers from the effects of passive smoking. The proposals are certain to face strong resistance from some EU governments which may be able to veto the idea. They will also be opposed by sections of the European Parliament, and may not come into force for several years.

David Byrne, the European health commissioner, said the plans were at an early stage but would ultimately take the form of restrictive laws. "My officials are working to try to see in what way we can bring forward policy that is directed at this problem," he said. "There might ultimately be legal exposure for employers in circumstances where workers have been exposed to this risk." It was crucial to protect employees who were often exposed to smoke for hours on end, he told the Brussels news agency EUpolitix.com.

Perversely, the EU continues to spend £700 million a year, or one per cent of its budget, on subsidies for tobacco farmers in Greece, southern Italy and the Loire Valley in France.
CAP: perverse? Well who’da thunk?!

Terry Wynn, a Labour Euro-MP and chairman of the European Parliament’s budget committee, said this situation made a mockery of Mr Byrne’s anti-smoking drive. "It’s a nonsense to try to stop smoking while you’re spending a billion to grow the stuff. It does the credibility of the EU no good whatsoever," he said. Mr Byrne, a straight-laced Irishman, has made it a personal crusade in Brussels to cut smoking.
Aaaah, that good ol’ Kremlin-flava EU democracy.

Ireland and Holland already impose smoking bans on restaurants, forcing diners out on to the pavement if they want to light up. But smoking is still a way of life across Mediterranean, and EU newcomers such as Poland and other East European states are still cigarette societies. Mr Byrne said smoking played its part in the death 500,000 Europeans a year and was too important an issue to be left in the hands of national governments.
No comment necessary.
Posted by: Bulldog 2003-09-19
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=18870