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European and Moroccan News Roundup
Just a couple of articles of interest, from the Telegraph. All EFL.Plans for separate EU military HQ 'dropped' Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg - dismissed by British officials as the "Chocolate Four" - have dropped plans to create a separate military headquarters for the European Union, Germany said yesterday. [T]hey have retreated after meeting strong resistance from more pro-American European countries, led by Britain, Spain and Italy. Instead of having a separate headquarters, Britain has proposed an EU military planning "cell" within Nato. Other ideas include teams of "mobile" EU planners who could operate from national headquarters. The creation of a separate headquarters would have separated the EU's "rapid reaction force" from Nato, destroying an agreement with America that the force would be "anchored" within the transatlantic alliance. Sanctions loom as EU find French in breach Perfidious Gaul's still at it. Risking the worst crisis since the launch of the euro, Brussels is to rule tomorrow [Wednesday] that France is in reckless breach of borrowing limits fixed by the Maastricht Treaty. The European Commission is in no mood to show mercy after Paris ignored a deadline last Friday to show that it is taking "effective" action to bring its budget deficit below 3pc of GDP, or face sanctions. The EU ultimatum, agreed by finance ministers last June, had full legal authority. A spokesman for Pedro Solbes, the economics commissioner, said it was "quite clear" that France was making no serious effort to abide by Treaty rules designed to ensure the long-term viability of the euro. The commission is still fuming over comments by Jean-Pierre Rafarrin, the prime minister, that French growth was not going to suffer in order to satisfy "accounting equations of some office or other in some country". It will decide over the next two weeks whether to press for the "nuclear option" of full sanctions against France, which could reach [euro] 7.5 billion in fines. Brussels forecasts that the French deficit will reach 4pc this year, yet France is pressing ahead regardless with tax cuts worth 0.5pc of GDP and a major programme to build new aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and fighter jets. Mr Raffarin is hoping to stave off sanctions by invoking a murky let-out clause exempting states from the deficit limit in "exceptional circumstances". But special pleading is unlikely to wash with EU finance ministers who will make the final decision on France's fate in November. The Dutch finance minister, Gerrit Zalm, has threatened to go to the European Court unless France is punished. "We gave up the sovereignty of our own currency because we had a very good treaty. If this treaty is not applied, then we are in serious trouble," he said. The French may have to rely on the Germans to block sanctions. Is that going to happen, TGA?! Berlin is also in breach of the Pact, though it has made the right noises and tightened fiscal policy just enough to keep the Commission at bay. But the German government is itself deeply divided. Hans Eichel, the finance minister, is afraid that discipline will disintegrate altogether in the euro-zone if Germany fails to take a lead now. And it was Berlin that imposed the Pact in the first place. But Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has so far shown he views the Franco-German partnership as paramount. Pupils thrown out of window Or: Why Morocco gets it better than most Muslims states - they're taught the concept of cause and effect at an early age. Two Moroccan schoolboys were injured yesterday when their woman teacher threw them out of a first-floor classroom window for being too noisy. One, aged nine, was taken to hospital in Casablanca with a broken shoulder and head injuries. The other, aged 10, was only slightly hurt. An education official said the teacher had warned the pair she would throw them out. "They did not listen. They should have," he said. Unassuming Fatima's mysterious ability to instill discipline in her classes was the subject of many reverential conversations in the staff room... I'd like to see a few of these Moroccan 'education officials' employed in the UK. Posted by: Bulldog 2003-10-07 |
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