FOLLOWING THE EUROPEAN UNION

The bureaucrats in the government agancies may have another idea, but once the political issues become clear, I believe the Poles will get their way. The EU is another matter.

georgeob1 wrote:

The bureaucrats in the government agancies may have another idea, but once the political issues become clear, I believe the Poles will get their way. The EU is another matter.

From Walter's article, it actually seems as if "the bureaucrats in the government agencies" like the idea of visa waivers for the Poles. The highest hurdle, according to the article, seems to be the "get tough on immigration" wing of Congress Republicans.

The anti immigration-wing of the Republican Party is mostly WASP - they didn't like the Irish or the Italians either.

Makes sense. No more socially conservative, Christian, small-business-starter-uppers with a legendary reputation for family values. We all know how much Republicans hate those.

George Bush is seeking to overcome European hostility to US foreign policy by acknowledging the divisions caused by invading Iraq, and saying he wants to close Guantanamo Bay. But the US president rejected as "absurd" opinion poll findings which show that the European public sees the US as a danger to world peace.
[...]
Mr Bush, whose arrival in Vienna was greeted by 6,000 protesters, reacted angrily when asked about European perceptions of the US. In a Harris poll, 36 per cent of 5,000 people interviewed in five EU countries described the US as a greater threat than Iran or China. "Absurd ­ that's my statement ", said the President when asked about the findings, "we will defend ourselves but, at the same time, we are working with our partners to spread peace and democracy".

Mr Schüssel supported Mr Bush, describing the poll results as " grotesque", and adding that Europeans "should be fair from the other side of the Atlantic. We should understand what 11 September meant to the American people".
[...]

Italy reforms 'rejected' at polls

Partial results from a constitutional referendum in Italy show that voters have rejected plans to boost the powers of the prime minister and regions.

More than 60% of voters opposed the reforms, according to results from a large proportion of polling stations.

The reforms were promoted by the previous centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi. He argued that Italian politics needed more stability.

The current centre-left government of Romano Prodi campaigned against them.

Just over half the 47 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots in the two-day referendum.

Mr Prodi is deeply opposed to the reform bill, which was sponsored by the populist Northern League party. [..]

Under the reforms the prime minister would be granted powers to dissolve parliament, appoint and dismiss ministers and determine the general direction of government policy.

These were all powers that were deliberately kept out of the hands of the prime minister in the 1948 constitution, as a way of preventing the emergence of another figure like fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. [..]

But most significantly this bill would give greater autonomy to Italy's 20 regions.

They would gain control over education, healthcare and law and order, and would win special representation in the nation's supreme court.

Some estimates say regional government would take control of around 40% of public expenditure.

Chirac uses rare TV appearance to back de Villepin

· French president denies rumours of shake-up
· Socialists say he is distant figure, cut off from reality

Kim Willsher in Paris
Tuesday June 27, 2006
The Guardian


President Jacques Chirac last night dismissed claims that his government was more unpopular than ever, rejected calls to sack the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, and refused to rule out running for a third term. In a surprise television interview, his first for a year, the French leader sidestepped questions about the crisis in his right-of-centre administration and shrugged off claims that the political climate in the country was "apocalyptic".
He seemed determined to make the most of his 30 minutes live on air, attempting to quash rumours of a big shake-up in the government and pledge support for Mr de Villepin.

EU members urged to admit to CIA renditions
States under pressure to come clean on complicity Rights watchdog proposes new national security laws

David Gow Brussels

More than a dozen European governments yesterday came under severe pressure to own up to their secret services' role in handing over suspected terrorists to US intelligence after Franco Frattini, the EU justice commissioner, admitted for the first time that European territory had been used for "extraordinary renditions".

Hitler jibe at EU presidency

A euro-sceptic member of the European Parliament (MEP) raised eyebrows and a certain amount of amusement in the parliament building last week by aiming an anti-Hitler war song at Austria's Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose country currently holds the EU's six-month rotating presideny.

"Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Schuessel?" trilled UK Indepence Party (UKIP) MEP Gerard Batten, replacing the Nazi dictator's name with of the Austrian government leader.
"We are the boys who will make you think again. We are the boys who will stop your little game," he added, recalling the soldier's song made famous by a long-running British TV comedy series, 'Dad's Army'.
His intervention came after Schuessel, briefing MEP's on a Brussels summit he hosted the previous week, said that the bloc's leaders agreed there will be no "substantial" changes to the disputed proposed EU constitution.
The EU is battling to keep the pact alive despite its rejection by French and Dutch voters last year.
"The message is loud and clear, the political elite knows best, full steam ahead with the constitution and do not listen to the people," Batten told the Brussels EU assembly.
The UKIP MEP, whose party made significant gains in the 2004 EU-wide election, drew laughter when he protested that the EU's anthem, Ode to Joy, was written by Beethoven, a "fervent opponent of European political integration under Napoleon".
As if to demonstrate his knowledge of the anthem, he read it out in heavily accented German, adding that it was not only the EU's official anthem, but also that of the international freemasonry.
Unchallenged, Batten then returned to the British wartime song, including a rendition of the line "who dou think you are kidding Mr. Schuessel, if you think old England's done?". saying that the song's words "sum up the attitude of Britons to the European Union."

Anyway- I've been waiting for you to come on somewhere Francis. I have a question.

Are those restrictions on the showing of American movies in French television still in place. There was a big argument at a GATT meeting about it.

What is or was the reason for those restrictions?

Are such restrictions on television programming and films common in Europe, or are they found only in France?

Finns turn jargon of Unio Europaea into poetry with weekly Latin readings

Nicholas Watt in Helsinki
Monday July 3, 2006
The Guardian


Sniffy classicists, who have always looked down at the European Union as a pale imitation of their beloved Roman Empire, will be delighted. Having pinched the Romans' idea of a single currency, the EU has now decided to embrace Latin.

Finland, which is running the EU for the next six months, is to publish weekly news bulletins in Latin on its special EU presidency website.

Leaders of the Unio Europaea, who have had a wretched year grappling with the Constitutio Europaea, will be reaching for their dictionaries at their next shindig in Bruxellae.

The EU's notorious jargon, which baffles all but the saddest Brussels anoraks, turns into poetry when translated into Latin. The miserable Common Agricultural Policy becomes the majestic ratio communis agros colendi, which literally means "common scheme for cultivating the fields".
Classicists can catch up with the news in Latin every Wednesday thanks to two energetic Finnish Latin scholars. Tuomo Pekkanen and Reijo Pitkaranta already have a cult following among Finnish classicists who tune in every Sunday night to Nuntii Latini, a five-minute Latin news bulletin broadcast on YLE, Finland's BBC equivalent.

Dr Pitkaranta said: "Latin is not dead - it is still very much in use in different forms across the world today. Italians, French and Spaniards all speak a new form of Latin. I hope that EU documents are soon translated into Latin which is such a clear language."

Mia Lahti, the editor of the Finnish presidency's website, said: "Using Latin is a way of paying tribute to European civilisation and it serves to remind people of European society's roots, stretching back to ancient times."

Classicists hailed the initiative by Finland which is the only country, along with the Vatican, to broadcast news in Latin even though the Roman empire never reached Scandinavia.

Dr Bruce Gibson, a classics scholar at Liverpool University, said: "Finland has a distinguished tradition of classical scholarship and respect for the classics. The Finns are experts in languages: many Finns are fluent in Swedish and English as a matter of routine.

"Though their own language is not a descendant of Latin, perhaps the Finns realise that Latin still provides a common linguistic and cultural heritage to Europe, and therefore are doing everything to promote it during their presidency. Other European nations closer to home might want to take note."

Boris Johnson, the Conservative MP who recently wrote a book comparing the EU unfavourably with the Roman Empire, was impressed. The author of The Dream of Rome said: "I think this is wonderful, I hope everybody reads it. The best and most significant step for European integration would be to oblige every child in Europe from the age of 14 to read Book Four of [Virgil's] The Aeneid.

"It is the best book of the best poem by the greatest poet. That would do far more than anything else to build up a common European culture. That is what is missing now: an awareness of our European civilisation and common roots."

UK and 10 others miss deadline for setting targets

David Gow in Brussels
Tuesday July 4, 2006
The Guardian


The EU's ambitious greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS) is in further disarray as 11 of its 25 governments, including Britain, face warnings of legal action from the European commission for failing to meet last Friday's deadline for submitting their plans to cut carbon dioxide between 2008 and 2012.
The ETS is central to Europe's claims to be leading the battle against global warming. It was undermined in May when emission permit prices plunged after Brussels admitted that the 9,000 power stations and industrial plants covered had emitted 66m tonnes less than their target in 2005, the first year of the scheme.

Last Thursday, a day before the deadline, David Miliband, the environment secretary, proposed UK targets for the second phase of the ETS that would cut emissions by 8m tonnes a year and allow industry to emit 238m tonnes annually. The government, which dropped legal action against Brussels last year over revised plans to raise allowances to industry, hopes to escape punishment by submitting its "challenging" plan "as soon as possible". The EU expects this in mid-August.
Britain also hopes for lenient treatment by cutting more emissions than Germany, the EU's biggest polluter, which is cutting just 15m tonnes a year from its targets, and France, which is due to propose a 4.2% cut but would still have an emission total 20m tonnes higher than actual output in 2005. Both missed the Friday deadline but may be exempted from a formal warning.

Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner, has told his staff to prepare warning letters for Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland (the EU president), Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Britain. These, rather than formal notices, will be sent on July 17. Mr Dimas wants to cut emissions on average by 6% in the second phase but green campaigners are urging cuts of 9%.

The ETS is also under fire from British industrialists and the eurosceptic thinktank Open Europe, which said it was "an environmental and economic failure" and "an administrative nightmare". Open Europe said Britain had been set a tougher target than others, with the ETS costing UK firms about £1.5bn over three years and allowing German firms to make almost £1bn by selling their surplus permits.