I'd distributed leaflets of a than Labour MP and minister in a district of a "new town". Since this candidate was one of the Labour spokespersons for European affairs as well, I get involved quite a lot of discussions ...
Collapse of Budget Talks Deals New Setback to European Union
By JAMES KANTER and ANDREW HIGGINS
Published: November 23, 2012
BRUSSELS — A summit meeting of European leaders collapsed Friday amid bitter discord over a new budget for the European Union, delivering a further blow to a 27-nation grouping already struggling to contain a debt crisis, social discontent fueled by rising unemployment, and doubts about the long-term viability of the euro currency.
Leaders abandoned efforts to set the shape of a trillion-euro long-term budget and called for a new round of talks early next year to try to reach a deal.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, who along with the leaders of the Netherlands, Sweden and several other countries had pushed hard for deep cuts, blasted proposals that left spending on the union’s administrative machinery intact.
This, he said at a news conference, showed that “Brussels continues to exist as if in a parallel universe,” referring to the headquarters for the European Union, which employs about 33,000 people in the European Commission, the union’s main administrative arm.
There's another chance to hammer out a deal, and Cameron limited his criticism to Brussels bureaucracy, not those countries like Poland that are net recipients.
That's probably the reason the Euro is holding its value against the US dollar.
I hope they come out with an agreement, because Europe is still a big trading partner for the US.
I disagree. The EU budget talks have a direct relationship to whether the world's trading partners want to keep trading with Euro countries - with the threat that inflation will impact their currency if some countries leave the Euro.
But, here's some good news that should have been completed long before now.
Quote:
Trade Deal Between U.S. and Europe May Come to the Forefront
By JACK EWING
Published: November 25, 2012
FRANKFURT — A free-trade agreement between the United States and Europe, elusive for more than a decade but with a potentially huge economic effect, is gaining momentum and may finally be attainable, business and political leaders say.
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Laurent Dubrule/Reuters
Karel De Gucht, the European Union trade commissioner, has said that negotiations for a free-trade agreement with Canada are in their final stages, which puts pressure on the United States to follow suit.
Arduous negotiations still lie ahead, but if technical hurdles can be overcome, supporters of a pact argue, it could rival the North American Free Trade Agreement in scale and be a cheap way to encourage growth between the European Union and the United States, which are already each other’s biggest overseas trading partners.
“There is now, for the first time in years, a serious drive towards an E.U.-U.S. free-trade agreement,” Karel De Gucht, the European trade commissioner, said in Dublin earlier this month.
Within days, if not hours, of President Barack Obama’s re-election, numerous European leaders, including Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and David Cameron, the British prime minister, were urging Mr. Obama to push for a free-trade agreement. The Europeans hope that eliminating frictions in U.S.-E.U. trade would provide some badly needed economic growth.
54 per cent want Britain to leave the EU provided it could keep its close trade relationship with the bloc ... ... ... According to ComRes, people are evenly divided on whether Britain should remain a full member of the EU. Some 46 per cent agree, while 45 per cent disagree. Those aged 18-34 are the most likely age group to agree (71 per cent), compared to 34 per cent of those aged 65 and over.
They could, but only with new treaties.
(I know that some UK-politicians here are referring to Switzerland - but they forget e.g. that Switzerland is a Schengen country with all consequences coming from that ....)
The Eurosceptics think they can leave the Union but retain all the benefits of membership, that's not going to happen. Once we're out they won't owe us anything, and might want to settle a few old scores like De Gaulle did.
And what if Britain left? It could grab a few benefits quickly. The nation would save about £8 billion ($13 billion) a year in net budget contributions. Freed of the common agricultural policy, its food could become cheaper. If it pulled out of the single market, it could do away with annoying labour directives. The City would not have to worry so much about a financial-transaction tax and creeping European finance rules.
Yet these gains would be greatly outweighed by the costs of a British exit, which would dent trade with a market that accounts for half of Britain’s exports. The carmakers that use Britain as their European operations base would gradually drift away, along with large parts of the financial-services industry. Britain would have to renegotiate dozens of bilateral trade deals from a much weaker position than it enjoyed as a member of the EU. It would cut a greatly diminished figure on the world stage. It would have bought some sovereignty, but at an extraordinary cost to Britain—and its partners.
Married to the daughter of Viscount Ridley; worth £1.5 million; has ridden across Turkmenistan and Mongolia on horseback. Went to the National Leathersellers College; was a director of the British Leather Company and senior president of the European Tanners Confederation. So yes. Obscure.
I never said he wasn't rich, he's a tory MP, but he's hardly a household name.
He's a tit, as far as I can see.
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cicerone imposter
1
Reply
Sun 9 Dec, 2012 09:40 am
@Walter Hinteler,
Even then, wouldn't it remain that England would remain one of EU's trading partner? It seems like a self-defeating move to take away trade from England? There's a thing called comparative advantage. Most countries benefit from foreign trade - even when they were once enemies.
Sorry for interfering into your conversation. I'm new here. But imho no one in Europe would worry for United Kingdom separation. Recent years UK authorities do everything to hinder EU getting out of crisis and carrying on normal economical development. Particularly it concerns UK blocking of EU budget and establishing of banking union. All in all Britons always were standing separately from the other EU members starting with pounds and ending with UK foreign political course. What can you say about country which considers relationship with USA "most important bilateral relationship" in the world just because the United States is "most rich and mighty" country? You would hardly find anyone else in EU with such an experience of licking the American ass, excuse my French. And trying to hold UK in European Union means trying to keep American fifth column US use for various subversive actions destabilizing the Union.
