India-EU News & Analysis

[nithish]

EU frees Indian antibiotics from countervailing duty

Some Indian broad spectrum antibiotics will now become more competitive in the European Union with the EU scrapping the countervailing duty (CVD) on import of these drugs from India.

This development is a significant boost to Indian pharma majors such as Ranbaxy Laboratories, Lupin Ltd and Surya Pharmaceutical Ltd.

According to a recent EU communiqué from Brussels, the EU Council Regulation has repealed the CVD, thereby reducing the overall duty burden on those products from India.

The antibiotics covered include amoxicillin trihydrate, ampicillin trihydrate and cefalexin. CVD is imposed by a country to protect the local industry from subsidised imports. The duty is over and above the basic Customs duty.

This case was first initiated in 1997 and duties imposed in 1998.

After a review in May 2005, the EU had imposed ad valorem duties ranging from 17.3 per cent to 32 per cent on these products from India. Exports of these products from India to EU had fallen drastically as a consequence of the CVD. The EU companies which claimed that they were affected by Indian imports included DSM and Sandoz.

The EU move followed the results of a review investigation covering the period from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010.

The probe concluded that even if the CVD is allowed to lapse, subsidised imports from India are not likely to cause material injury to the EU's pharma industry.

This was because the local industry had developed positively over the review period despite significant and increasing imports of such products from other countries that were priced similarly to Indian exports, the regulation said.

It added that if the CVD measures were repealed, Indian export prices were not likely to be harmful to the EU industry as it (EU industry) was already facing competition from other exporting countries with the same pricing behaviour without suffering any material injury.

“It was therefore concluded that material injury was not likely to recur, should measures be allowed to lapse,” the regulation said.

However, the European Commission will continue to monitor for two more years the import volumes of the items concerned. “Should there be a significant change in these quantities, the Commission will give consideration to what action, if any, is to be taken,” the regulation said.

Ms Moushami Joshi, Partner, International Trade at Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, which represented the Indian companies (Ranbaxy, Lupin and Surya), stated that the repeal of the measures and termination of the investigation is a welcome relief for antibiotics exports from India especially since the duties had been in force for over 13 years.

India's schemes — allegedly involving the granting of subsidies — that were investigated by the EU included Advance Authorisation Scheme, Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme, Focus Market Scheme, Export Oriented Units/Special Economic Zones and Export Credit Scheme.

[Rony]

Islamic Activism in Europe: The Role of Converts

[RajeshA]

Italy turns to China for help in debt crisis

[Hari Seldon]

Italy is both too big to fail and too big to save. And it is going under as surely as Greece is, much slower only. Its possible though not very likely that civil wars may be written into EU's future. The serbs ought to be happy they weren't allowed into the eurozone which is set to fall apart soon.

[Rony]

The Crisis of Europe and European Nationalism

When I visited Europe in 2008 and before, the idea that Europe was not going to emerge as one united political entity was regarded as heresy by many leaders. The European enterprise was seen as a work in progress moving inevitably toward unification — a group of nations committed to a common fate. What was a core vision in 2008 is now gone. What was inconceivable — the primacy of the traditional nation-state — is now commonly discussed, and steps to devolve Europe in part or in whole (such as ejecting Greece from the eurozone) are being contemplated. This is not a trivial event.

Before 1492, Europe was a backwater of small nationalities struggling over a relatively small piece of cold, rainy land. But one technological change made Europe the center of the international system: deep-water navigation.

The ability to engage in long-range shipping safely allowed businesses on the Continent’s various navigable rivers to interact easily with each other, magnifying the rivers’ capital-generation capacity. Deep-water navigation also allowed many of the European nations to conquer vast extra-European empires. And the close proximity of those nations combined with ever more wealth allowed for technological innovation and advancement at a pace theretofore unheard of anywhere on the planet. As a whole, Europe became very rich, became engaged in very far-flung empire-building that redefined the human condition and became very good at making war. In short order, Europe went from being a cultural and economic backwater to being the engine of the world.

At home, Europe’s growing economic development was exceeded only by the growing ferocity of its conflicts. Abroad, Europe had achieved the ability to apply military force to achieve economic aims — and vice versa. The brutal exploitation of wealth from some places (South America in particular) and the thorough subjugation and imposed trading systems in others (East and South Asia in particular) created the foundation of the modern order. Such alternations of traditional systems increased the wealth of Europe dramatically.

But “engine” does not mean “united,” and Europe’s wealth was not spread evenly. Whichever country was benefitting had a decided advantage in that it had greater resources to devote to military power and could incentivize other countries to ally with it. The result ought to have been that the leading global empire would unite Europe under its flag. It never happened, although it was attempted repeatedly. Europe remained divided and at war with itself at the same time it was dominating and reshaping the world.

The reasons for this paradox are complex. For me, the key has always been the English Channel. Domination of Europe requires a massive land force. Domination of the world requires a navy heavily oriented toward maritime trade. No European power was optimized to cross the channel, defeat England and force it into Europe. The Spanish Armada, the French navy at Trafalgar and the Luftwaffe over Britain all failed to create the conditions for invasion and subjugation. Whatever happened in continental Europe, the English remained an independent force with a powerful navy of its own, able to manipulate the balance of power in Europe to keep European powers focused on each other and not on England (most of the time). And after the defeat of Napoleon, the Royal Navy created the most powerful empire Europe had seen, but it could not, by itself, dominate the Continent. (Other European geographic features obviously make unification of Europe difficult, but all of them have, at one point or another, been overcome. Except for the channel.)

Underlying Tensions

The tensions underlying Europe were bought to a head by German unification in 1871 and the need to accommodate Germany in the European system, of which Germany was both an integral and indigestible part. The result was two catastrophic general wars in Europe that began in 1914 and ended in 1945 with the occupation of Europe by the United States and the Soviet Union and the collapse of the European imperial system. Its economy shattered and its public plunged into a crisis of morale and a lack of confidence in the elites, Europe had neither the interest in nor appetite for empire.

Europe was exhausted not only by war but also by the internal psychosis of two of its major components. Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union might well have externally behaved according to predictable laws of geopolitics. Internally, these two countries went mad, slaughtering both their own citizens and citizens of countries they occupied for reasons that were barely comprehensible, let alone rationally explicable. From my point of view, the pressure and slaughter inflicted by two world wars on both countries created a collective mental breakdown.

I realize this is a woefully inadequate answer. But consider Europe after World War II. First, it had gone through about 450 years of global adventure and increasingly murderous wars, in the end squandering everything it had won. Internally, Europe watched a country like Germany — in some ways the highest expression of European civilization — plunge to levels of unprecedented barbarism. Finally, Europe saw the United States move from the edges of history to assume the role of an occupying force. The United States became the envy of the Europeans: stable, wealthy, unified and able to impose its economic, political and military will on major powers on a different continent. (The Russians were part of Europe and could be explained within the European paradigm. So while the Europeans may have disdained the Russians, the Russians were still viewed as poor cousins, part of the family playing by more or less European rules.) New and unprecedented, the United States towered over Europe, which went from dominance to psychosis to military, political and cultural subjugation in a twinkling of history’s eye.

Paradoxically, it was the United States that gave the first shape to Europe’s future, beginning with Western Europe. World War II’s outcome brought the United States and Soviet Union to the center of Germany, dividing it. A new war was possible, and the reality and risks of the Cold War were obvious. The United States needed a united Western Europe to contain the Soviets. It created NATO to integrate Europe and the United States politically and militarily. This created the principle of transnational organizations integrating Europe. The United States also encouraged economic cooperation both within Europe and between North America and Europe — in stark contrast to the mercantilist imperiums of recent history — giving rise to the European Union’s precursors. Over the decades of the Cold War, the Europeans committed themselves to a transnational project to create a united Europe of some sort in a way not fully defined.

There were two reasons for this thrust for unification. The first was the Cold War and collective defense. But the deeper reason was a hope for a European resurrection from the horrors of the 20th century. It was understood that German unification in 1871 created the conflicts and that the division of Germany in 1945 re-stabilized Europe. At the same time, Europe did not want to remain occupied or caught in an ongoing near-war situation. The Europeans were searching for a way to overcome their history.

One problem was the status of Germany. The deeper problem was nationalism. Not only had Europe failed to unite under a single flag via conquest but also World War I had shattered the major empires, creating a series of smaller states that had been fighting to be free. The argument was that it was nationalism, and not just German nationalism, that had created the 20th century. Europe’s task was therefore to overcome nationalism and create a structure in which Europe united and retained unique nations as cultural phenomena and not political or economic entities. At the same time, by embedding Germany in this process, the German problem would be solved as well.

A Means of Redemption

The European Union was designed not simply to be a useful economic tool but also to be a means of European redemption. The focus on economics was essential. It did not want to be a military alliance, since such alliances were the foundation of Europe’s tragedy. By focusing on economic matters while allowing military affairs to be linked to NATO and the United States, and by not creating a meaningful joint-European force, the Europeans avoided the part of their history that terrified them while pursuing the part that enticed them: economic prosperity. The idea was that free trade regulated by a central bureaucracy would suppress nationalism and create prosperity without abolishing national identity. The common currency — the euro — is the ultimate expression of this hope. The Europeans hoped that the existence of some Pan-European structure could grant wealth without surrendering the core of what it means to be French or Dutch or Italian.

Yet even during the post-World War II era of security and prosperity, some Europeans recoiled from the idea of a transfer of sovereignty. The consensus that many in the long line of supporters of European unification believed existed simply didn’t. And today’s euro crisis is the first serious crisis that Europe has faced in the years since, with nationalism beginning to re-emerge in full force.

In the end, Germans are Germans and Greeks are Greeks. Germany and Greece are different countries in different places with different value systems and interests. The idea of sacrificing for each other is a dubious concept. The idea of sacrificing for the European Union is a meaningless concept. The European Union has no moral claim on Europe beyond promising prosperity and offering a path to avoid conflict. These are not insignificant goals, but when the prosperity stops, a large part of the justification evaporates and the aversion to conflict (at least political discord) begins to dissolve.

Germany and Greece each have explanations for why the other is responsible for what has happened. For the Germans, it was the irresponsibility of the Greek government in buying political power with money it didn’t have to the point of falsifying economic data to obtain eurozone membership. For the Greeks, the problem is the hijacking of Europe by the Germans. Germany controls the eurozone’s monetary policy and has built a regulatory system that provides unfair privileges, so the Greeks believe, for Germany’s exports, economic structure and financial system. Each nation believes the other is taking advantage of the situation.

Political leaders are seeking accommodation, but their ability to accommodate each other is increasingly limited by public opinion growing more hostile not only to the particulars of the deal but to the principle of accommodation. The most important issue is not that Germany and Greece disagree (although they do, strongly) but that their publics are increasingly viewing each other as nationals of a foreign power who are pursuing their own selfish interests. Both sides say they want “more Europe,” but only if “more Europe” means more of what they want from the other.

Managing Sacrifice

Nationalism is the belief that your fate is bound up with your nation and your fellow citizens and you have an indifference to the fate of others. What the Europeanists tried to do was create institutions that made choosing between your own and others unnecessary. But they did this not with martial spirit or European myth, which horrified them. They made the argument prudently: You will like Europe because it will be prosperous, and with all of Europe prosperous there will be no need to choose between your nation and other nations. Their greatest claim was that Europe would not require sacrifice. To a people who lived through the 20th century, the absence of sacrifice was enormously seductive.

But, of course, prosperity comes and goes, and as it goes sacrifice is needed. And sacrifice — like wealth — is always unevenly distributed. That uneven distribution is determined not only by necessity but also by those who have power and control over institutions. From a national point of view, it is Germany and France that have the power, with the British happy to be out of the main fray. The weak are the rest of Europe, those who surrendered core sovereignty to the Germans and French and now face the burdens of managing sacrifice.

In the end, Europe will remain an enormously prosperous place. The net worth of Europe — its economic base, its intellectual capital, its organizational capabilities — is stunning. Those qualities do not evaporate. But crisis reshapes how they are managed, operated and distributed. This is now in question. Obviously, the future of the euro is now widely discussed. So the future of the free-trade zone will come to the fore. Germany is a massive economy by itself, exporting more per year than the gross domestic products of most of the world’s other nation-states. Does Greece or Portugal really want to give Germany a blank check to export what it wants with it, or would they prefer managed trade under their control? Play this forward past the euro crisis and the foundations of a unified Europe become questionable.

This is the stuff that banks and politicians need to worry about. The deeper worry is nationalism. European nationalism has always had a deeper engine than simply love of one’s own. It is also rooted in resentment of others. Europe is not necessarily unique in this, but it has experienced some of the greatest catastrophes in history because of it. Historically, the Europeans have hated well. We are very early in the process of accumulating grievances and remembering how to hate, but we have entered the process. How this is played out, how the politicians, financiers and media interpret these grievances, will have great implications for Europe. Out of it may come a broader sense of national betrayal, which was just what the European Union was supposed to prevent.

[Klaus]

Possible breakthrough in Belgium's political impasse.

Eurozone member Belgium, without a government for 459 days as its French- and Dutch-speaking components squabble, is under notice from ratings agencies of a possible downgrade should it slip deeper into crisis.

The country's political problems intensified late on Tuesday when caretaker premier Yves Leterme announced he would step down to run for a senior job at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Divisions between northern Dutch-speaking separatists and southern French-speakers proved insurmountable.

The long impasse has underlined the widening gulf between the wealthier 6.2 million people of Flanders and the 4.5 million French-speakers of struggling Wallonia.

Di Rupo has been trying to draft an agreement to devolve more powers to the country's three language regions - Dutch, French and German.

Eight parties are involved in the talks but not the largest party in Flanders, the separatist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA).

Albert II warned in July that the continuing deadlock, which has seen Belgium have the dubious record of being the world's longest country without a government (except Somalia) , threatened both its economic future and Europe as a whole.

"If this situation lasts much longer, it could negatively and concretely affect the economic and social well-being of every Belgian," said the sovereign, who ascended to the throne in 1993.

"Our current situation is a cause for concern among our partners and could damage our position in Europe, and even the momentum towards European integration which has already been undermined by populism and euroscepticism," he said.

Must be something to be compared with Somalia, on any index.

[Rony]

Rupture With Vatican Reveals a Changed Ireland

Even as it remains preoccupied with its struggling economy, Ireland is in the midst of a profound transformation, as rapid as it is revolutionary: it is recalibrating its relationship to the Roman Catholic Church, an institution that has permeated almost every aspect of life here for generations.
This is still a country where abortion is against the law, where divorce became legal only in 1995, where the church runs more than 90 percent of the primary schools and where 87 percent of the population identifies itself as Catholic. But the awe, respect and fear the Vatican once commanded have given way to something new — rage, disgust and defiance — after a long series of horrific revelations about decades of abuse of children entrusted to the church’s care by a reverential populace.

While similar disclosures have tarnished the Vatican’s image in other countries, perhaps nowhere have they shaken a whole society so thoroughly or so intensely as in Ireland. And so when the normally mild-mannered prime minister, Enda Kenny, unexpectedly took the floor in Parliament this summer to criticize the church, he was giving voice not just to his own pent-up feelings, but to those of a nation.His remarks were a ringing declaration of the supremacy of state over church, in words of outrage and indignation that had never before been used publicly by an Irish leader..

While most people have not abandoned their religion, many seem to have abandoned the habit of practicing it. The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, recently estimated that only 18 percent of the Catholics in his archdiocese attended Mass every week.

[uskumar]

Two interesting articles regarding EU-India Free Trade talks.
Article about the status of the talks

Why the Free trade talks havent been successful

[Rony]

Christians outraged as BBC drops B.C./A.D. dating method

British Christians are incensed after the state-funded BBC decided to jettison the terms B.C. and A.D. in favor of B.C.E. and C.E. in historical date references.

The broadcaster has directed that the traditional B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, or Year of the Lord) be replaced by B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) in its television and radio broadcasts.

The BBC said in an official statement that since it is “committed to impartiality, it is appropriate that we use terms that do not offend or alienate non-Christians.”

It described the terms B.C.E. and C.E. as “a religiously neutral alternative to B.C./A.D.,” although critics quickly pointed out that the new terms, like the old, were anchored around the birth of Jesus Christ.

The new edict drew immediate accusations that the network was guilty of political correctness run amok as the BBC’s phone lines were jammed with irate listeners and readers.

Retired Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, a leading British evangelical, told journalists that “this amounts to the dumbing down of the Christian basis of our culture, language and history.”

“These changes are unnecessary,” said Nazir-Ali, “and they don’t actually achieve what the BBC wants them to achieve. Whether you use Common Era or Anno Domini, the date is still the same and the reference point is still the birth of Jesus Christ.”

The network also drew fire from Britain’s Plain English Campaign, whose spokeswoman, Marie Clair, said “it sounds like change just for the sake of change. ... It is difficult to see what the point of the changes are if people do not understand the new terms.”

[sum]

^^ Wah, EU is really trying to beat even desh in "uber secularism"

[Rony]

The BBC is actually right in discarding BC/AD system and so should we. We need to adopt and propagate our own Indian national calender also called as Shalivahana era (thats 78 CE as a base when the Andhra Satavahana's defeated the Shakas and established the Shalivahana era ).

P.S. OT for this thread but i always wondered why Shalivahana era is popularly known as Saka era. I would have assumed that the Indian victors name should have been popular, but in this case, it looks like the 'foreign' losers name became more popular.

[paramu]

Panchag and Panchangam has to be made popular and every daily routine for Indians
http://www.panchangam.com caters to all time zones in the world.

Example
http://www.mypanchang.com/hindufestivals2011.php

[vishvak]

Christians outraged as BBC drops B.C./A.D. dating method

British Christians are incensed after the state-funded BBC decided to jettison the terms B.C. and A.D. in favor of B.C.E. and C.E. in historical date references.
...
Retired Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester, a leading British evangelical, told journalists that “this amounts to the dumbing down of the Christian basis of our culture, language and history.”

Is not this extremely right wing views imposed in a first world country?

Very sad state of affairs to even hear of such Christian outrage.

[Philip]

Another Vatican scandal,remember P-2 and the Vatican bank?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 64712.html

The mysterious suicide that has rocked the Vatican

Mario Cal's death at an institution with links to the Papacy has put corruption claims in the spotlight, says Michael Day

Xcpt:

On a Monday morning in July, a gunshot rang out in the administration section of Milan's San Raffaele hospital. Seconds later, a frightened secretary entered the office of the institution's vice-president, Mario Cal, and found him lying in a pool of blood. Mr Cal clung briefly to life, but the Smith and Wesson revolver had done its job. Before long he died on one of his hospital's own operating tables.


The suicide of the hospital administrator went largely unnoticed outside Italy. But for the powers that be at the Vatican, it was more dreadful news. The global scandal over clerical paedophilia may be the story that dominates the headlines, but as the Vatican attempts to repair its stained reputation and mend diplomatic fences after spats with Beijing and Dublin, the death of Mario Cal was an ugly reminder of problems much nearer home.

Three hundred miles north of the capital, in Italy's second city, the battle is on to prevent a third body blow to the Vatican. This time cardinals are having to deal not with a moral abyss but a financial chasm – a shortfall of €1.5bn on the balance sheet of Milan's San Raffaele teaching hospital, an institute with links to the Vatican whose founder, Don Luigi Verzè, is a priest and a good friend of the city's most famous son, Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

The San Raffaele is highly regarded for the quality of its medical care and its research. But as Mr Cal's death made clear, it is in a crisis.

Thanks to bad investments and profligate expenses unrelated to medical care that would make a tycoon blush – including personal aircraft, hotels in Sardinia, and mango plantations in South America – the hospital is on the verge of collapse, something that was said to have been distressing Mr Cal greatly, and would have proved a huge embarrassment to the Vatican.

Underlining the gravity of the situation, Milan's chief prosecutor, Edmondo Bruti Liberati, announced on Friday that the organisation was under investigation for fraudulent bankruptcy.

In mid-September the Vatican proposed a €250m rescue package. But the proposals appear to have received a cool reception from the authorities. Now the Holy See has until 10 October to come with a better plan, or the institution is almost certain to be declared bankrupt at a hearing two days later.

Meanwhile, questions are being asked about the suicide and the nature of the institution in which it took place. How was the hospital able to build up such colossal debts? Who placed Mr Cal's gun in a bag away from the body before the police arrived? And why did a hospital administrator in one of Western Europe's safest major cities feel the need to keep a pistol in his desk?

Ongoing judicial investigations into the death and the hospital's disastrous finances may provide answers to these questions. Some observers are forthright with their suspicions, however, Vatican expert Paolo Flores D'Arcais, editor of the cultural magazine MicoMega, told The Independent: "I suspect we are talking about illegality and I hope that sooner or later that prosecutors will investigate it." Backing for his views emerged on Friday with news that Mr Liberati's "preliminary analysis" of files and paperwork in the office and at the private residence of Mr Cal has revealed "evidence of criminality" in the hospital's accounts. But the determination shown by the Vatican to save San Raffaele is also making waves.

The insititution appears so important that this summer Don Verzè was joined by Pope Benedict XVI's right-hand man Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in the rescue operation. It wasn't as if the cardinal, the Vatican's head of state, didn't have enough on his plate with the seemingly endless child sex abuse scandal and its diplomatic consequences – as well as having to work in an atmosphere at St Peter's that is said to be poisonous.

But Cardinal Bertone, whose influence on the Vatican's purse strings, insiders say, has been achieved (and whom antipathy towards has been further fuelled) by placing friends and confidants in all the Holy See's key financial posts, was aware of the huge financial commitment the church was preparing to make in Milan, and felt obliged to step in. In mid-September, the Vatican Bank offered to stump up €250m to keep San Raffaele afloat, with some contributions coming from the businessman Vittorio Malcanzana, a friend of Cardinal Bertone. La Stampa reported last week that some at the Vatican doubt the wisdom of making such a huge financial commitment.

There has been talk of jobs being saved. But there may be other motives. Cardinal Bertone has said that he would like to create a larger centre of excellence, by merging the San Raffaele with other hospitals. Which begs the question: why is the Catholic Church so keen to be a major investor in the healthcare of Italy – a rich nation, with one of the highest life expectancies in the world – when poor countries lack a basic health infrastructure?

One suggestion is that medical care is profitable. "Nuns do much of the work nurses would do without paying them... and the church doesn't pay tax on the money it makes," says James Walston, a professor at the American University of Rome.

However, for Mr D'Arcais the Vatican's interest revolves around the exercise of power. "You have to understand the Vatican is not just about religion," he says. "It seeks to have greater power and influence, and what could be more important than having a pivotal influence on education, medical care and bioethics?"

...Neither the Vatican nor San Raffaele were prepared to comment.

[Klaus]

Possible breakthrough in Belgium's political impasse.

Continuing on this path: Feuding Flemish and French speaking politicians agree on institutional reform.

That could yet prove difficult since the divide negotiators need to bridge is no longer simply linguistic but increasingly political, with Flanders leaning heavily to the right and Wallonia to the left.

The latest deal on devolution was seen as essential to any progress in the Belgian crisis.

"Dialogue eventually won the day over cynicism," said Wouter Van Besien, the head of the Flemish Green party.

The eight parties taking part in the two-month negotiations on devolution had reach a deal on some of the key points last month and have now ironed out their differences on the remaining issues.

[Prem]

http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/e ... ll-of.html
European Union predicts shortfall of one million doctors and nurses by 2020

Overseas-trained doctors accounted for 37% of UK-registered doctors in 2008.
25% of practicing physicians in the United States and 28% of U.S. medical residents come from abroad. Of these, 25% were trained in India and Pakistan.At the same time, U.S. lawmakers suggest we save money by training fewer doctors, according to the UCMC Dean editorial.The mounting shortage of physicians nationwide is expected to grow to 90,000 by 2020.Compare this to China where typically 3-4 newly qualified doctors will rent a flat together to defray their costs (BusinessWeek). The U.S. has one public health professional for every 635 people. The rate in China is one per 7,000.

[Philip]

The EU is in acute crisis due to the Eurozone financial woes as EU nations start defaulting,and even Italy is trembling as well leading to "Bunga-Bunga" Boy Berlo's imminent exit.But is this just a smoke screen fo him to "buy" a new govt. a month later?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/no ... sign-italy
Silvio Berlusconi vows to resign as Italy's prime minister

Media tycoon's reign as Italy's longest-serving prime minister nears end after he loses majority in lower house of parliament

[Philip]

"Rome burns while Europe fiddles"!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Italy's financial meltdown: while Rome burns, the eurozone fiddles

Italy becomes first major economy to require international bail-out as debts hit “totally unsustainable levels”, prompting questions about whether eurozone has political will or financial firepower to intervene.

Angela Merkel: EU needs more power to rein in spending
France and Spain could be next to suffer Euro crisis
This time, trouble over the channel is deadly serious
UK banks face huge losses on Italian debt

[Agnimitra]

Not sure where else to post this news item:

Revealed: publisher owned by the Catholic Church sells p0rn0graphy

Germany's biggest Catholic-owned publishing house has been rocked by disclosures that it has been selling thousands of ***** novels with titles such as Sluts Boarding School and Lawyer's Whore with the full assent of the country's leading bishops....

[pgbhat]

How new India views old Europe ---- Shashi Tharoor

Given this, the EU's effort to write human-rights provisions into a free-trade agreement with India, as if they were automobile-emissions standards, gets Indians' backs up. Trade should not be held hostage to internal European politics about human-rights declarations. On the actual substance of human rights, India and the EU are on the same side and have the same aspirations. Once this irritant is overcome, negotiations over the free-trade agreement, which have long been in their "final" stages, can be concluded, and should transform trade.

Of course, there are serious structural impediments. Ironically, despite its human-rights rhetoric, the EU has long favoured China over India: for every euro that the EU invests in India, it invests €20 in China. Admittedly, this is partly India's fault, because it has not created an equally congenial climate for foreign investment.

The danger is that India could write off Europe as charming but irrelevant, a continent ideal for a summer holiday, not for serious business. The world will be poorer if the Old Continent and the rising new subcontinent fail to build on their shared democratic values and common interests to offer a genuine alternative to US-Chinese dominance.

[vishvak]

How new India views old Europe ---- Shashi Tharoor

Given this, the EU's effort to write human-rights provisions into a free-trade agreement with India, as if they were automobile-emissions standards, gets Indians' backs up. Trade should not be held hostage to internal European politics about human-rights declarations. On the actual substance of human rights, India and the EU are on the same side and have the same aspirations. Once this irritant is overcome, negotiations over the free-trade agreement, which have long been in their "final" stages, can be concluded, and should transform trade.

Of course, there are serious structural impediments. Ironically, despite its human-rights rhetoric, the EU has long favoured China over India: for every euro that the EU invests in India, it invests €20 in China. Admittedly, this is partly India's fault, because it has not created an equally congenial climate for foreign investment.

The danger is that India could write off Europe as charming but irrelevant, a continent ideal for a summer holiday, not for serious business. The world will be poorer if the Old Continent and the rising new subcontinent fail to build on their shared democratic values and common interests to offer a genuine alternative to US-Chinese dominance.

What makes India avoid incorporating human rights provisions, described broadly to encompass issues, in the air force deal to purchase fighter jets?

[Murugan]

Letter From London

Indiana Jones? No, India & the Joneses

Sudeshna Sen

I can’t make up my mind whether I should drone on about the eurozone crisis or not. It’s been boring me to tears for over a year now, and now, it seems, it’s boring everyone else too, even though it’s driving the global markets bananas. I’ll start off with it, though, and go on to more fun things that have been happening around the world. On the eurozone, I’ll restrict myself to just telling you about the fascinating stuff that’s landing in my inbox. I’ve got one — or maybe three — reports from people, including one from a University of London thinktank of political economists, RMF, which passionately argues the case that the eurozone should be allowed to break up, or else, peripheral nations face years of stagflation.

Well, it’s nice to have one’s conclusions validated by experts. I’ve got similar stuff from the kind of bank economists and analysts who tend to influence what the trigger-happy guys on their trading floors will do, especially in the run up to their annual bonus time. They have, apparently, finally come to the conclusion that all the austerity and fiscal discipline stuff ain’t working, because the Greeks and Spanish and Italians will not overnight transform into hardworking, saving, Germans, Chinese and Indians. It took the Chinese, us, and most other emerging-nation people I speak to a week to come to that conclusion, about a year ago.

As a Colombian diplomat told me, after we’d been to one of these what-to-doabout-the-world dos, it isn’t about what we emerging nations understand about each other’s problems, poverty, unemployment, income inequality, growth issues. It usually takes us about three minutes to understand each other completely. It’s what the Europeans and Americans don’t get about themselves, or the rest of the world. They seem to live in some never-ending story fairytale. I’ve got another lot of analyst reports, however, whichargue exactly the opposite of the above, and claim that any break up of the eurozone will be a global disaster on par with whatever asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.

The reason I rarely use analysts’ quotes or reports in my writing is because I get a wide spectrum sample, and I know that not one of them has the foggiest idea what to do about the eurozone, or agrees about it. If ML says one thing, Citi says another, and XYZ or ABC says something else altogether. That should give you some idea of why global markets are so volatile. What is clear, through the events of the past week though, is that Ms Merkel and Germany are getting increasingly isolated in the global community. Bond market traders have been selling Italian, Spanish and even triple-A-rated Austrian and French bonds. Attacking the core, as someone put it, instead of the periphery.

It’s also absolutely clear that nobody has the patience to wait for Ms Merkel to do her political and fiscal union thingie, or more tortuous reforms, however much she may hate being dictated to by markets. Nobody is buying the Teutonic theory that Germanic fiscal discipline is the answer for all Europe. It would be nice if she gets the fact that if everyone in Europe became like Germany — sellers — there will be no buyers left for German goods, but obviously, she — or the German people — still don’t. Frankly, as a senior Latin American journalist told me, we don’t really care if Europe wants to implode, explode, have another war or sink into historical oblivion. For regions like us, this is the first time in almost 200 years we have a chance to get everything together, a chance at prosperity, to get out of poverty cycle, both economically and politically.

We — Asia, India, China, LatAm, Africa, and everyone outside the G7 or 8 — have a future, finally. All we want is for these ageing, antiquated, but unfortunately still relevant, rich nations to sort themselves out instead of dragging all of us down with them. I don’t think they will, not in a hurry or without causing a lot of global pain. The developed world, from US to Europe, is going through what you and I would call an existential crisis, the kind you get when you’re the CEO and suddenly made redundant.

Which brings me to the other thing I want to talk about, something that didn’t make too many waves in India, but has political and foreign policy experts, columnists and writers in the west spewing opinions and analyses. The US has announced — with the usual American superpower grandiosity — that it will now become an Asia-Pacific power. Essentially, it’s going to station troops in Australia, poke its nose into the South China Sea equations, Burma, and as far as everyone can tell, set up a military and strategic presence in Asia to counter the rise and rise of China. Sigh. They still, obviously, haven’t learnt a thing from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and history. Why we, in India, should worry, seriously, about this geopolitical move is because a massive (or even minimal) American military and political presence in Asia is going to annoy the daylights out of China. What with Af-Pak on one border, China on the other, and Americans in Australia and Burma, we should be getting very, very worried about this shift in US foreign policy. Given that India’s track record in foreign policy is traditionally an unmitigated disaster when it comes to geopolitical influence or regional clout, I suspect we’re gonna get clobbered.

Subtly, or maybe with a few dozen bombs. I hear a lot of talk about globalisation and linkages, both economic and geopolitical. The trouble with India is that we’re incredibly insular, and we tend to be so obsessed with our own internal strife, we forget that the world around us is changing, dramatically. And if we don’t catch the bus soon, we’re going to be left behind. As usual.

ET 21st November 2011

[Vipul]

India, EU finalise give-&-take in FTA.

Negotiations for the ambitious India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) is on in “full steam” and in the final stages of “give-and-take”, even as the euro zone crisis has gripped all its 27 member-countries.Both sides recently concluded technical negotiations on trade in services, the main sticking point. The two now need to close the gaps that still remain pertinent to tariffs and procurement.

India has demanded significant relaxation for the movement of its workers and professionals in services, which would entail liberalisation in EU’s Schengen visa regime, according to officials in the ministry of commerce and industry here.

“The deal can be signed tomorrow if the EU moves slightly from its position. The EU is a $16-trillion market, so we would want significant opportunities for our professionals and market access for our goods,” a senior official from the ministry who is part of the talks told Business Standard.

So far, 13 rounds of formal negotiations have taken place since the launch in June 2007. The last round was from March 31 to April 6 here. While the EU wants to gain more access into Indian markets, India is looking at the EU as an important destination for its information technology professionals, architects, engineers, teachers and chefs.

“This is a very important deal for the EU and India. There are some important issues and only an ambitious agreement will bring significant benefits. But the EU and India are working with full steam ahead to find solutions acceptable to both sides. Intense negotiations will, therefore, continue over the coming months to effectively solve the remaining core issues between now and the EU-India Summit scheduled for February 10,” said John Clancy, EU’s trade spokesman, last week.

A statement released in Brussels also indicated the talks are currently in a “crucial phase”, with both sides seeking a mutually beneficial outcome.It also said both sides would be meeting often, alternatively in Delhi and in Brussels, to reach an agreement before the Summit, which takes place annually.

Expert-level negotiations on non-tariff barriers would take place during the week of November 21, while chief trade negotiators from the EU and India would meet on December 5. Thereafter, senior officials would look into furthering the talks in the middle of next month. The statement released by the EU also mentioned that the deal, once implemented, would result in gains to the tune of ¤5 billion for India and ¤4 billion for the EU.

Last month, the commerce department had sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention in stepping up the talks. In October, the EU’s director general for trade, Jean-Luc Demarty, had met commerce secretary Rahul Khullar on this issue and had asked to India to wrap up the talks during the summit.

The EU had been unrelenting on demands for more tariff concessions in India’s automobile sector, which has resulted in severe opposition from manufacturers in India, who protest that cheaper imports here would mean massive job losses. Similar problems have arisen with the wines and spirits sector. The EU has also demanded stronger implementation of intellectual property protection norms, that might affect the country’s generic drugs industry, which exports 67 per cent of its produce. As much as 90 per cent of the bilateral trade in goods and services would be covered under the pact with the EU, India’s largest trading partner.

[Prabu]

Climate talks: Jayanthi Natarajan applauded for stirring speech in Durban

Termed deal-breaker, India takes on rich nations

[Klaus]

Dominique de Villepin to run for French presidential election.

in September a French appeals court confirmed his acquittal over a political scandal in which he was accused of having smeared the future president.

Villepin said he was "worried" to see "France humiliated by the law of the markets which imposes more and austerity".

But opinion polls suggest that the 58-year-old former diplomat would win only one per cent of the vote.

France will vote in the first round of a presidential election in April and potentially a second round in May, followed by parliamentary elections in June.

[ramana]

How new India views old Europe ---- Shashi Tharoor

Given this, the EU's effort to write human-rights provisions into a free-trade agreement with India, as if they were automobile-emissions standards, gets Indians' backs up. Trade should not be held hostage to internal European politics about human-rights declarations. On the actual substance of human rights, India and the EU are on the same side and have the same aspirations. Once this irritant is overcome, negotiations over the free-trade agreement, which have long been in their "final" stages, can be concluded, and should transform trade.

Of course, there are serious structural impediments. Ironically, despite its human-rights rhetoric, the EU has long favoured China over India: for every euro that the EU invests in India, it invests €20 in China. Admittedly, this is partly India's fault, because it has not created an equally congenial climate for foreign investment.

The danger is that India could write off Europe as charming but irrelevant, a continent ideal for a summer holiday, not for serious business. The world will be poorer if the Old Continent and the rising new subcontinent fail to build on their shared democratic values and common interests to offer a genuine alternative to US-Chinese dominance.

Its very rich of Europe to talk about Human Rights abuses after slaughtering six million jews and others less thant 70 years ago!

Also Europe is the home of black money laundering and tourism.

[anishns]

Didn't find a suitable thread so posting here...

Liege attacker profile: Belgian killer Nordine Amrani a known criminal

The 33-year-old Amrani was well known to the police before he went on the rampage in the eastern Belgian city of Liege, opening fire on a square packed with children and Christmas shoppers, killing three people and wounding another 75.

Possible RoP er ???

Added later:

Seems like it is: (Now waiting for possible Paki connection)

Belgium: Grenade attack outside courthouse linked to sentence in honor killing case

The Karachi Post in Pakistan claimed that the attack was linked to a sentence in an honour killing case. It said the parents of Sadia Sheikh were sentenced on Monday when there had been a bomb alert in the court.

UPDATE: One of the attackers was named Nordine Amrani. (Thanks to Robert for the link.) This is a Muslim name. Nordine = nur deen, light of the religion, and Amrani is related to Imran, the father of Moses according to the Qur'an (cf. sura 3, "The Family of Imran," ahl-e-Imran).

However, not sure about the credibility of JihadWatch so take it FWIW

[JE Menon]

Nordine Amrani is most probably Muslim of North African (Tunisia/Algeria in particular) extraction. We shall see.

[pgbhat]

^ Correct. The first name actually sounds Moroccan.

[Murugan]

Its very rich of Europe to talk about Human Rights abuses after slaughtering six million jews and others less thant 70 years ago!

Also Europe is the home of black money laundering and tourism.

Europe, the rich europe consisted of colonizers - france, spain, portugal, england, germany, italy. barring few scadanavian nations the rest of europe is actually written off by european themselves. East europeans are ready to work below pukistani/bangladeshi labourers in England and france.

Gradually, portugal, italy and spain (all of them were brutal, inhuman colonizers) are being written off, if not by europeans than by credit rating agencies.

Tharoor-ji, why single out india. You also have romantic association with europe?

A dated article in guardian speaks more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ion-labour

Other europeans in Germany

http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110427-34645.html

in France

http://libcom.org/library/eastern-europ ... sh-example

As well as the official entries into France, the number of illegal workers has also grown. Some networks (mainly Romanians and Ukrainians) control street hawking and prostitution (37percent of the prostitutes working in France come from Eastern Europe).

[Murugan]

pgbhat wrote:
How new India views old Europe ---- Shashi Tharoor

The danger is that India could write off Europe as charming but irrelevant, a continent ideal for a summer holiday, not for serious business. The world will be poorer if the Old Continent and the rising new subcontinent fail to build on their shared democratic values and common interests to offer a genuine alternative to US-Chinese dominance

So slavish Shashi-ji wants india to accept dominance of failing nations of europe. Slavish Sashi-ji, why cant India be a genuine alternative to US-Chines dominance? Why we cant be The alternative ourselves, hain ji?

I mean, if europe feels that they should create an alternative to US Chinese dominance, they will come to us. Who needs the alternative more? India or Europe.

And, if Europe is investing €20 in China for every € 1 in India, europe has already found an alternate, at least against US dominace.

[Agnimitra]

Its sad how the West is sacrificing the East Europeans while making a deal with Islamism. Will Russia step up? I doubt it.

Russia’s Putin pumps up Serb defiance in Kosovo as tensions with ethnic Albanians rise

By Associated Press, Published: December 13
MITROVICA, Kosovo — Nobody questions Vladimir Putin here.

Images of the Russian prime minister are plastered all over the walls in Serb-run northern Kosovo as Russian flags flutter in the wind. Tens of thousands of Serbs in the region have recently sought Russian citizenship.

Banners reading “Russia Help!” or displaying Putin’s portrait with the message “He’s Watching After You” hang across the streets of Mitrovica, the divided northern Kosovo town that has been the center of recent tensions between Serbs and majority Albanians.

Moscow has become the champion of the Serb defiance against Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. The local Serbs are frustrated by Belgrade’s refusal to use force to save them from ethnic Albanian rule.

Banners reading “Russia Help!” or displaying Putin’s portrait with the message “He’s Watching After You” hang across the streets of Mitrovica, the divided northern Kosovo town that has been the center of recent tensions between Serbs and majority Albanians.

The Kosovo Serbs have been desperately courting Moscow to press their sense of abandonment over Belgrade’s enthusiastic pursuit of European Union membership, which could lead to Serbia dropping its designs on a territory it considers its spiritual homeland. {Slavs -- esp. Serbs -- and Indics -- esp. our Sikhs -- are in the same boat?}

“These traitors in Belgrade will trade us for EU membership,” said Milorad Jovanovic, a Serb from Mitrovica. “Only Putin and mother Russia and can save us from extermination.”

[...]

Beyond handouts and diplomatic opposition to Kosovo statehood at the United Nations, Moscow’s interest in the Kosovo Serbs is at best marginal.

Moscow recently rejected some 22,000 Kosovo Serb applications for Russian citizenship, citing its strict citizenship laws.

[Agnimitra]

^^ The West is making a deal with Turko-Arab Islamism, which is the new ideological hero-stooge for social re-engineering. At present, Iran is the thorn in the side of this alliance.

[Philip]

Sacre bleu!
Chirac guilty!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/de ... corruption

Jacques Chirac found guilty of corruptionFormer French president given two-year suspended sentence for embezzling public funds while he was mayor of Paris

The suspended sentence goes on Chirac's criminal record but means he does not have to go to prison. The court said it took into account his age, health and status as a former head of state when determining the sentence.

The prosecutor had earlier requested that the case be dropped, saying there was not enough evidence to prove intentional corruption, but the court disagreed, saying "his guilt results from longstanding and reiterated practices" of illegal party financing.

"For all those who could have expected a rejection of the case against him, or at least no penalty, the ruling can appear disappointing," said one of Chirac's lawyers, Georges Kiejman. "What I hope is that this ruling doesn't change in any way the deep affection the French feel legitimately for Jacques Chirac.

[Philip]

Lovely piece by British gadfly and Mayor of London,Boris Johnson,on the true relationship between the "froggies" and "le rosbif"!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/colu ... rmany.html

EU crisis: The Frogs do love us – they’re just hopping mad with Germany
Our entente with the French is still cordiale, but they badly need someone to shout at, writes Boris Johnson.

Xcpt:

There is a scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that captures the current dialogue between Paris and London. One evening King Arthur arrives with his knights at a darkened castle. He tells the figure on the battlements that he has come to recruit noble knights in his quest for the grail. For some reason the guard turns out to have a heavy French accent.

In fact, the whole castle is occupied by French knights, and they treat the English king with disgraceful rudeness.

First, the guard tells Arthur that he has no interest in obtaining a Holy Grail, since they already have one in the castle. When Arthur says he would like to have a look at this marvel, the French knight refuses, and concludes: “I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough whopper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.” The French then cry “fetchez la vache”, and use a trebuchet to bombard the Knights of the Round Table with a dead cow.

If you cut out some of the raspberry blowing and bottom-flashing, that is just about the level of the current diplomatic broadsides from Paris. David Cameron goes to the dark castle in Brussels in his quest for common sense, and ever since they have been peppering us with dead cows. Various French ministers have queued up to say rude things about Britain and the British economy. In an amazing breach of diplomatic convention, the French prime minister has called for Britain’s credit rating to be downgraded and announced that he would much rather be French than these so silly British.

In a bid to calm things down, Nick Clegg has been forced to ring the French up and ask them to stop being so jolly insulting.

“This is quite unacceptable,” the Liberal Democrat leader is supposed to have fumed at the French government.

I don’t know if the French have been chastened by this rebuke, but I think we should urge Nick to relax. Look at the polls. Anyone would think that Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron began that summit with a secret meeting, at which they agreed to help boost the other’s domestic ratings. “I’ll bash you if you’ll bash me,” they said. “Our voters will love it!” And hey presto. The Prime Minister takes a principled opposition to plans for a Fiscal Union (FU), and shoots ahead of poor old Ed Miliband in the polls.

[nithish]

Slovenia invites Indian investments and tourists

In order to increase the bilateral trade with India, the southern European country of Slovenia is inviting investments in its auto sector while its engineering companies are open to transfer technology to Indian corporates, said the country's envoy.

"We invite Indian auto component companies to invest in Slovenia. Our pharma companies can cooperate with Indian drug manufacturers in generics. We would also invite Indian movie makers to look at Slovenia as a shooting locale. Our country is more beautiful than Switzerland but at half the cost of the latter," Slovenian Ambassador Janez Premoze told reporters here Tuesday.

According to him, Slovenia offers easier access to European markets for Indian companies.

He said the bilateral trade between India and Slovenia during Jan-Sept 2011 is around 191 million euros (approx $250 mn).

Slovenia has exported goods worth around 60 million euros to India and imported around 131 million euro worth of goods from India.

"We are also looking at cultural and academic exchanges between India and Slovenia," Premoze added.

Slovenia opened its consular office here Tuesday to setrve the southern part of the country.

"We are negotiating with couple of parties to outsource the visa processing activities. In two months time it will be decided. Currently visas are issued in New Delhi," Premoze said.

He said around 10,000 Indian tourists visit Slovenia every year.

Honorary Consul Amit Goel said: "Slovenia has a wonderful landscape with Alps in the north and the Adriatic Sea in the south. The coastline is just 46 km long but is home to hundreds of yatches belonging to people from northern Europe."

He said Slovenians are interested in Indian culture with some attending the cultural festivals in India every year.

"We plan to take a Bharathanatyam troupe to Slovenia in near future," he remarked. (IANS)

[JE Menon]

>>Our country is more beautiful than Switzerland but at half the cost of the latter,"

It's true. I've spent some time there. The place is bloody gorgeous, and unspoilt. Especially the mountain resorts like Bled. You can comfortably go hiking in the Julian Alps and so on. Totally beautiful place. The capital Ljubljana is not half-bad either...

[svinayak]

How is the cost for travellers and what about veg food in that region

[JE Menon]

Don't know what the costs are like at present, but a few years ago it was reasonable. They have come much closer to EU standards now, I'm sure; it is an EU member state now.

Forget veg food, unless you plan to go plain salad (or just bread and cheese sandwiches of various combos), or are in a position to have food specially cooked (or to cook yourself). Getting Indian stuff there is not easy (actually I wasn't really looking - am pretty comfortable with eating just about anything so long as it doesn't move on the plate), but it was pretty obvious, and things are not likely to have changed much. I'm talking now about the capital. About the mountain resorts etc, expect nothing Indian cuisine friendly.

Having said that, it's a bloody beautiful country. Truly. It's a day trip by bus to Austria from there if you get a schengen visa.

[svinayak]

I was looking out for the family who may want to enjoy