Showing posts with label European Commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label European Commission. Show all posts
Saturday, November 30, 2019
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s Lighter Moments
Friday, August 11, 2017
Are the European Commission’s Expenses Reasonable? - BBC Newsnight
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Europe's Big Guns Warn Greek Voters That A No Vote Means Euro Exit
The eurozone’s three biggest countries have raised the stakes in next Sunday’s Greek referendum with an orchestrated warning to voters that a no vote would mean exit from the single currency and the return of the drachma.
As the Greek economy suffered on its first day of stringent capital controls, politicians from Germany, France and Italy joined the European commission in insisting that the poll was not about whether Athens could secure more favourable bailout terms but was about continued euro membership.
The stark assessment was shared by George Osborne, who told MPs that the UK economy would be affected by the chaos that would result from Greece leaving the eurozone. » | Larry Elliott, Graeme Wearden and Nicholas Watt | Monday, June 29, 2015
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Growing Calls for Jean-Claude Juncker Resignation
There were growing calls for Jean-Claude Juncker to resign as President of the European Commission last night amid allegations that he presided over potentially illegal tax breaks given to multinational companies operating in Luxembourg.
Bloomberg, the influential financial newswire, devoted its editorial to a call for Mr Juncker’s resignation over revelations multinational companies were allegedly allowed to create complicated structures to avoid billions of pounds of tax when he was Prime Minister of the country.
It follows outrage from Conservatives MPs who see him an arch-federalist who believes in an "ever-closer" European Union, who will make it more difficult for David Cameron to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Brussels before holding an in-out referendum in 2017 over his appointment.
The editorial, entitled “Jean-Claude Juncker Needs to Go”, describes Mr Juncker as a “bad choice for the job” who has been “foisted on the bloc's 28 national governments by a European Parliament eager to expand its powers.”
The editors of the financial wire say it is now “becoming clear now just how poor a decision” the appointment of Mr Juncker was after details emerged of revelations of potentially illegal tax breaks given to multinationals in Luxembourg, of which he was prime minister for almost 20 years. » | Georgia Graham, Political Correspondent | Monday, November 10, 2014
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
'You Don't Frighten Me': Jean-Claude Juncker Taunts David Cameron
 |
| Jean-Claude Juncker this week began his five[-]term as president of the European Commission |
Speaking after the first weekly meeting of his new Brussels administration, the president of the European Commission bragged that he was “not the type who trembles, in front of prime ministers or at any other time”.
“I'm not frightened of any prime ministers,” he said. The Conservative leader was humiliated at a summit in July when he tried to stop Mr Juncker, a passionate federalist, from becoming president of the commission.
Mr Cameron was out-voted, after being betrayed by the German Chancellor and Mr Juncker was installed in the commission, taking up his new post this week.
He was then slapped down by Angela Merkel, again, and left isolated at another summit two weeks ago when angrily refusing a commission demand that Britain paid an extra £1.7 billion surcharge to the EU budget.
Chancellor Merkel, with French support and backing from a majority of other EU leaders, told him to pay the bill.
“I don't have a problem with David Cameron. He has problem with the other prime ministers,” boasted Mr Juncker on Wednesday.
Britain faces humiliation over the budget demand after Mr Cameron told MPs that he would refuse to pay the full amount or meet a December 1 payment deadline.
A meeting of EU finance ministers on Friday is expected to tell George Osborne, the Chancellor, that he must hand over the full surcharge to the Brussels budget. In a concession, billed by EU officials as a compromise but unlikely to satisfy Tories, Britain will be allowed to pay the £1.7bilion in instalments. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Wednesday, November 05, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Commission Crusade: Cameron Outmaneuvered in Battle over Juncker
Reading the newspaper hasn't been particularly pleasurable for Jean-Claude Juncker in recent days. First, British historian Timothy Garton Ash compared him to King Louis the XVI, who was executed by the guillotine. Then, the Swiss paper Weltwoche lumped him together with Hitler and Mussolini and the British tabloid Sun described him as "the most dangerous man in Europe."
Juncker had suspected that the British press in particular would go on the attack against him, but he recently had to summon the police after paparazzi climbed over a fence into his property. Furthermore, his 90-year-old father burst into tears when a tabloid accused him of Nazi association. (The older Juncker was forceably recruited into the Wehrmacht following the occupation of Luxembourg.)
The situation is a delicate one: British Prime Minister David Cameron continues to categorically reject Juncker as the next president of the European Commission. Yet a majority in the European Parliament supports the former Luxembourg prime minister. The European Council, made up of EU heads of state and government, has the power of nomination, but the body is divided. » | SPIEGEL Staff | Thursday, June 19, 2014
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The European Commission has imposed tough new restrictions on the export of anaesthetics used to execute people in the US, in a move that will exacerbate the already extreme shortage of the drugs in many of the 34 states that still practice the death penalty.
The EC has added eight barbiturates to its list of restricted products that are tightly controlled on the grounds that they may be used for "capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". The eight include pentobarbital and sodium thiopental – the two drugs on which almost all American executions currently depend.
The EC said its move, which follows restrictions introduced unilaterally by the UK in November 2010, was designed to forward the European Union's stated mission to abolish the death penalty around the world. "The decision today contributes to the wider EU efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide," said the commission's vice president, Catherine Ashton. » | Ed Pilkington in New York | Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
RT: Half-naked girls descended on the European Commission in Moscow to protest against the war in Libya. They brought mattresses with Gaddafi portraits, claiming the European leaders started the war because they do not sleep well.Wednesday’s action saw one of the three girls that had taken off their shirts in front of the Commission building, detained by police.
The slogans of the protest were: "Make Love, not War!", “Send to sleep the spirit of war!” and “Mattress and breasts – forget about war”.
The girls say they wanted to attract attention “to the recent events in Libya, where three mighty superpowers fight against a small defenseless state”. » | Published: Thursday, April 28, 2011; Edited: Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Le Portugal a demandé mercredi à bénéficier d’une assistance financière de l’Union européenne, a annoncé le président de la Commission européenne José Manuel Barroso dans un communiqué."Le Premier ministre du Portugal José Socrates a informé ce jour (mercredi) le président de la Commission européenne José Manuel Barroso de son intention de demander l’activation des mécanismes de soutien financier" de l’UE, a précisé la Commission.
"Le président de la Commission a assuré que cette demande serait examinée le plus rapidement possible (...) et s’est dit confiant dans les capacités du Portugal de surmonter ses difficultés actuelles avec la solidarité de ses partenaires", a ajouté la commission. Peu auparavant, le Premier ministre portugais José Socrates avait annoncé lors d’une allocution télévisée que le gouvernement portugais avait "décidé aujourd’hui même d’adresser une demande d’assistance financière à la Commission européenne". » | AFP | Mercredi 06 Avril 2011
Friday, May 14, 2010
TELEGRAPH BLOGS: Just when you thought the EU could not go any further down the road towards authoritarian excess, it gets worse.
The European Commission is calling for EU powers to vet budgets of the 27 member states before the draft laws have been presented to the House of Commons, the Tweede Kamer, the Folketing, the Bundestag, the Assemblee Nationale, or other national parliaments. It applies to Britain even though we are not in EMU.
Fonctionnaires and EU finance ministers will pass judgement on the British (or Dutch, or Danish, or French) budgets before the elected bodies of these ancient and sovereign nations have seen the proposals. Did we not we not fight the English Civil War and kill a king over such a prerogative?
Yet again we are discovering the trick played on our democracies by Europe’s insiders when they charged ahead with EMU, brushing aside warnings by their own staff economists that monetary union was unworkable without fiscal union. Jacques Delors knew perfectly well that this would lead inevitably to a crisis, but it would be the “beneficial crisis” that would force sovereign parliaments to submit to demands that they would never otherwise accept. Read on and comment >>> Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Friday, May 14, 2010
Friday, August 28, 2009
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: France, Germany and the EU are launching a major offensive to change the system of bonuses paid out to bank employees. Knowing that it won't work anywhere if it isn't implemented everywhere, they are hoping to make it a major issue at the upcoming G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.
The debate surrounding bankers' bonus payments has finally reached Brussels. In an interview with the daily Hamburger Abendblatt, European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen said that the European Union will reach an agreement very soon on limiting the income of bank managers.
Verheugen also told the paper that the European Commission believes that, when it comes to a bank's system of compensation, there should be "no direct relation with a company's short-term profits." Instead, he is confident that the EU's member states and parliament will be able to reach a swift agreement on the issue.
Likewise, Verheugen also voiced his support for measures to impose high taxation rates on the bonuses of bankers whose companies receive state support. "What we're really talking about here," Verheugen told the paper, "is figures arising when a company has been kept alive by the state for a long time." >>> wal/jtw - with wire reports | Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
HAARETZ: The European Commission, fearing violence in Islamic nations over an anti-Koran film being made by a Dutch lawmaker, said Wednesday it has sent a memo to its foreign staff on how to handle inquiries about the film.
The EU's executive office did not put forward a position on the film by
lawmaker Geert Wilders, which has not yet been released. Its memo to EU offices worldwide was meant only to keep them posted on developments in the European Union, the commission said.
In 2006, the appearance in European newspapers of 12 caricatures of the
Prophet Mohammad that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper prompted violent protests in Islamic nations.
EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann says the memo on the film suggests that EU staff abroad handle any questions by stressing that tolerance and freedom of speech are issues we value very highly in Europe.
The Dutch government has been working for weeks to limit fallout in the Muslim world.
It has increased security at its embassies and urged Wilders to scrap his film for the sake of Dutch national interests and the safety of Dutch citizens abroad. Wilders, who is extremely critical about Islam, has refused to do so. EU braces for outrage over Dutch lawmaker's anti-Koran film >>> By The Associated Press
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE:
Pakistan Protests Against Wilders Film
REUTERS:
Anti-Koran Dutch Film "Propagates Hate" – Pakistan | Wed Mar 5, 2008
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)