THE HANDSTAND

european news
European Union Mulls Options
to Counter Surge of Euro

By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, November 14, 2004
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?

BRUSSELS -- Finance ministers from the 12-nation eurozone are to meet Monday for talks clouded by the euro's record surge against the U.S. dollar, which is adding to high oil prices in threatening Europe's fragile recovery.

Some sources suggest they could issue a declaration aimed at curbing the euro's rise, which saw it surge above the symbolic 1.30 dollar mark last week, although they may hold off on such a statement.

"Several ministers are concerned about the very high level of the single currency and the situation on exchange markets, in particular the Asian dimension," said one EU source. Ministers are gathering amid signs that the appreciation of the euro is starting to eat into growth, already threatened by surging world oil prices in recent months.

Provisional figures from EU statistics office Eurostat Friday showed eurozone GDP was up a mere 0.3 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter.

Italy's Domenico Siniscalco last week claimed that "a coordinated intervention is being talked about again," while his boss Silvio Berlusconi warned that eurozone growth "won't get any better unless there is a supranational intervention that alters the euro's value."

Equally, German economics minister Wolfgang Clement has called on the ECB "to do its part to calm the situation."

For all the mounting political pressure for ECB intervention, EU sources were wary of predicting the outcome of Monday's talks. "What is possible ... is that there will be a declaration on the
euro," one source said.

The Asian angle on the euro's rise against the dollar is also causing concern in Europe. EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia warned last week that the undervaluation of China's currency -- which is pegged to the greenback -- was an economic headache for Europe. "The fixed exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the renminbi (yuan) is creating problems. ... We have to remind some Asian countries that they have to create more flexible exchange rates," the Spanish commissioner said. Foreign critics have long argued that the yuan's decade-old peg to the dollar has now left the Chinese currency seriously undervalued, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage in global markets.

The European Commission has said it and EU member states share European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet's concerns over the "brutal" rise of the currency. "Excess volatility and disorderly movements in exchange rates are undesirable for economic growth," spokesman Gerassimos Thomas said.

On Tuesday the eurozone ministers will be joined by their counterparts from the rest of the 25-member EU. Agenda items will include the decisions on structural reforms taken at a November 5 summit, plans to reform the budget rules underpinning the euro, and Greece's massive deficit overrun.

At the summit, leaders endorsed a report by former Dutch prime minister Wim Kok calling for swifter implementation of the so-called Lisbon reform program, ambitiously aimed at making Europe the worlds most dynamic economy by 2010.

The debate on budget rules -- enshrined in the EU's Stability and Growth Pact -- will center on the commission's proposed reforms to introduce budgetary flexibility at times of economic downturn.

And on Greece, ministers will discuss the reasons behind the massive revisions to its official figures, postponing any decision on disciplinary action until December, sources said.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

The European Commission wants to give the EU cops at Europol the right to access giant databases of individual bank accounts - while the European Union's own 200,000 bank accounts remain unaudited.

The proposals, intended to give Europol a role in fighting financial fraud, were published in an EU Working paper in June and repeated by Europol at a tax crime conference in Prague last month. Delegates were told that the EU will support the establishment of central registers of bank accounts, as exist already in France and Germany.

Meanwhile the UK's serious fraud office (SFO) is deciding whether to investigate the European Commission, based on evidence presented by EU whistleblower, Marta Andreasen, the former chief account who was sacked after claiming that corruption and misuse of public funds were rife within the commission.

The documents she has handed to the SFO show that the Commission has 200,000 accounts in 45 different banks. The EU Court of Auditors has refused to sign off the budget every year since 1994 because the accounts are so riddled with errors or are unverifiable.

THE HILL OF TARA
Guardian newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1348030,00.html
"It is Ireland's most sacred stretch of earth and one of the most important
ancient landscapes in Europe. The Hill of Tara, with its passage tomb,
earthworks and prehistorical burial mounds, is the mythical and ceremonial
capital of Ireland, dating back 4,000 years.

But now the landscape in county Meath, north-west of Dublin, is the subject
of a campaign to save it from what one archaeologist has called the "worst
case of state-sponsored vandalism ever inflicted on Irish cultural
heritage".

More than 50 senior academics have joined a protest against state plans to
build a four-lane motorway through the valley and create a 10-hectare
(25-acre) floodlit motorway exchange half a mile from the hill itself,
slicing through what historians say is a hinterland of settlements and
burial grounds."

The Meanest Man in Town is Closing the Famous BEWLEY'S Quaker Coffee Houses he bought in Grafton Street and Westmoreland St. DUBLIN, Ireland. Readers Internationally are requested to write to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at the Dail to make him buy these two Socialist and Artist's Havens.

Austrian Greens in heated discussion over neutrality

Austrian Greens have provoked a fresh discussion over the country’s neutral status.

In a knife-edge decision recently, with just one vote in the majority, the party’s leading body adopted the paper "Safe in Europe".The document aims at redefining security policies in Europe after the end of the Cold war.

Security begins with closing nuclear plants, promoting social rights and a foreign policy that prevents conflicts - while the use of military force is the very last resort, say the Greens.

The paper is currently being widely discussed in the country, because it touches upon the traditional Austrian neutral status, without explicitly saying that the party is ready to end it."Being neutral is no answer to the question of what Europe should be doing", said, Peter Pilz, the security policy spokesman of the party, according to Standard. He has mentioned the possibility of a referendum to change Austria's neutral status.

The leader of the Austrian Social Democrat opposition party Alfred Gusenbauer described the Green move as a "fundamental change of direction".

Vice chairman of the Green party Eva Glawischnig has, however, inserted some conditions. She says that the European Parliament should first be able to control common EU security policies - powers not even the new European Constitution would hand to the Parliament.

Post-war neutrality
Austria's neutrality was one of the conditions for the withdrawal of post-war Soviet occupation forces, paving the way for an independent Austria in 1955. To end neutrality a qualified parliamentary majority is needed, requiring the votes of the opposition greens and social democrats - parties traditionally opposed to the idea.

The conservative People's Party and the right-wing Freedom Party, which form the current Austrian government, want to end neutrality.

Austria should rather be called "alliance-free", they think.

EU battle groups
The Austrian minister of defence, Günther Platter, has been quick to pick up on the issue, saying he is ready to pledge soldiers to future EU battle groups. Austrian daily Kurier quoted the minister as saying that "From a military point of view participation in multinational military outfit is do-able"

So far there has been no mention of the number of troops Austria would pledge for the EU battle groups.

The EU battle groups project will see the creation of six or seven groups of 1,500 soldiers, which could be sent to international trouble spots from 2007, according to the "Headline Goal 2010" document, adopted by EU defence ministers in Brussels in May.

On 25 November, EU defence ministers will meet in Brussels where each of them is to announce their contribution to the common battle groups.

STRUCTURE OF THE EU CONSTITUTION
Professor Anthony Coughlan
Excerpts:
The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe has 448 Articles divided into four parts. With its Protocols and Declarations it is some 800 pages long. Following its signing in Rome in October 2004 it will go around for ratification by all 25 EU Member States by November 2006. Some 10 countries will hold referendums on it. It cannot legally come into force if any one of them says No. One of the Declarations states that if all 25 States do not ratify it they will meet to discuss what to do, but there is no legal mechanism for imposing the Constitution on a country that does not want it,
or forcing such a country to leave the EU. In theory if 23 States said Yes and two said No, the 23 could set up a new Union based on the proposed Constitution, while the existing 25 would retain the existing EU with its resources, structures, euro-currency and institutions. But two EUs of this kind side by side is quite unrealistic.

The edited text of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe may be consulted at http://ue.eu.int/igcpdf/en/04/cg00/cg00087.en04.pdf The Reader-Friendly Edition of the EU Constitution by Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde is the most useful text to enable citizens to understand the Constitution, because of its invaluable Index and Glossary. This is available on the internet at www.euabc and at www.EUobserver

Part 1, with 60 Articles, is the core constitutional part. It lays down the Union's general principles, sets out its objectives and values, its Institutions and the respective powers and competences of the EU on the one hand and its Member States on the other. It is clear and readable, even if much longer than the US Constitution. People should read it with great care. Its provisions are short, if deadly for national Constitutions. Thus Article I-1: "This Constitution establishes the European Union"; Article I-6: "The Constitution shall have primacy over the laws of the Member States."; Article I-7: "The Union shall have legal personality"; Article I-12: "The Member States shall exercise their competence to the extent that the Union has not exercised, or has decided to cease exercising, its competence."

Part 2 (54 Articles) is the Charter of Fundamental Rights. For the first time this gives the EU Court of Justice power to decide our human rights in all areas covered by EU law. The ECJ in Luxembourg should not be confused with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which is not connected to the EU and has over 40 European States as members. Part 2 is important in that the Constitution could create new rights or take away existing ones. It would supersede the Irish Constitution, which is clear about rights, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, in areas affected by EU law, whereas the meaning of some of the rights in the Charter is anything but clear - the right to human dignity for example, or the right to good administration. The inclusion of a human rights code with full legal effect is further evidence that this is a truly Federal Constitution for a new EU. Unless adequately restrained the doctrine of the legal supremacy of the EU Court of Justice would allow the new EU human rights law to displace national provisions in highly sensitive areas of social policy, unrestrained by democratic accountability or control.

Part 3 (322 Articles) is the largest part. It sets out the detailed policies and functioning of the EU - free movement of goods, services, capital and labour; social policy; agricultural and fisheries policy;
economic and monetary policy; foreign and security policy; crime and justice policy; EU financing etc. Much of this is already EU law, apart from the new powers the Constitution gives the EU, but the Court of Justice will interpret these provisions as having the force of constitutional imperative if the Constitution is ratified. That is why the provisions of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe are more significant than those of a conventional EU treaty.

Part 4 (12 Articles) gives general and final provisions dealing with ratification and amendment of the Constitution, the admission of new Members and provision for a State to leave the EU. It provides for succession by the new European Union to the rights, responsibilities and assets of the existing Union. It carries over the 100,000 pages of the acquis communautaire and entrenches the case-law of the ECJ as the source of interpretation for this and for the Constitution.

Protocols: The 36 Protocols or agreements on particular topics attached to the Treaty now become part of the EU Constitution and are as legally binding as its substantive text. They include Ireland's Abortion Protocol(No.31), which generated controversy at the time of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. They also include the Eurotom Protocol(No.36). The Euratom Treaty, which supports nuclear power, was due to end in 2007 after being in existence 50 years. It is now given an indefinite lease of new life by being made part of the EU Constitution. In addition there are 48 Declarations, which are not legally binding but are statements of political intention by the States making them.

7. "LOYAL" SUPPORT FOR EU FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY ... EU DEFENCE MOVES FROM "MAY" TO "WILL"

The Constitution provides for a unified foreign and military policy for the EU State. Art.1.40 lays down that "Before undertaking any action on the international sceneSeach Member State shall consult the others within the European Council or the Council." EU Members are thus constitutionally precluded from conducting a meaningful independent foreign policy. The Constitution provides that the Union's competence in matters of common foreign and security policy "shall cover all areas of foreign policy and all questions relating to the Union's security, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy that might lead to a common defence."(Art.I-16). It lays down as a constitutional imperative that "Member States shall actively and unreservedly support the Union's common foreign and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity and shall comply with the Union's actions in that area." The word "loyalty" here again shows which is superior.

Article I-40(3) of the Constitution requires all Member States, including the military neutral ones, to "make civilian and military capabilities available to the Union for the implementation of the common security and defence policy" and to "undertake progressively to improve their military capabilities." The Constitution points to the end of the formal military neutrality of Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Austria by replacing the Nice Treaty provision that the progressive framing of a common defence policy "might lead to a common defence, should the European Council so decide" with the Constitution's provision that it "will lead to a common defence, when the European Council, acting unanimously, so decides." (Art.I-41).

"Enhanced cooperation", permitting sub-groups of States to use the EU institutions for closer integration amongst themselves may now be undertaken in the security and military area, as was not permitted by the Nice Treaty. Here it is to be called "structured cooperation". This inner group of States is likely to be bound by a mutual defence pact, will work closely with NATO and will be served by the EU Foreign Minister. The Constitution does not require EU actions in the military field to be in accordance with the United Nations Charter, which is the foundation of modern international law. As a superpower-in-the-making the EU reserves the right to ignore the Charter if need be.

10. EXTENSIVE EXTRA POWERS FOR THE EU

The Constitution extends EU powers to make laws that override national law in over 40 new policy areas or matters, in addition to the 35 areas agreed in the 2003 Nice Treaty and the 19 areas in the 1998 Amsterdam Treaty. Under the Constitution national vetoes disappear for most things. The new areas transferred to the EU include judicial cooperation in criminal and civil matters; harmonisation of legislation on criminal proceedings, sanctions and the definition of offences; border controls; asylum and immigration; civil protection; Europol and Eurojust; energy; culture; services of general interest(i.e.public services); structural and cohesion funds etc. Article I-12 lays down that "Member States shall coordinate their economic and employment policies within arrangements as determined by Part 3, which the Union shall have competence to provide." This opens the way to extensive economic supervision and coordination powers for the Union over its Members. It goes well beyond what is possible under the existing EU treaties and could potentially cover such things as taxation policy, national public spending, pensions policy and industrial policy.

11. AN IDEOLOGICAL CONSTITUTION

The Constitution of any normal State lays down the rules and institutional framework for political decision-making. It does not seek to pre-empt the ideological content of those decisions. That is left to political debate between the parties of Left and Right, abiding by the Constitution's decision-making rules. The EU Constitution is different. It enshrines a particular economic system based on an extreme neo-liberal ideology, which it seeks to clamp as a constitutional imperative on 450 million Europeans. The Constitution turns the fundamental principles of classical laissez-faire, free competition across national and State boundaries on the basis of free movement of goods, services, capital and labour, into constitutional imperatives, implemented by the rules and Institutions it establishes and enforced by the EU Court of Justice. It enshrines as constitutional principle the monetarist economic policy of the European Central Bank, whose sole brief in setting interest rates and controlling the money supply of the eurozone is to ensure stability of prices, not maximise economic growth, foster employment or advance social cohesion. The Constitution encourages the privatisation of public services and permits the imposition of such policies on countries outside the EU through the trade and investment agreements the EU concludes under its Common Commercial Policy. It lays down as one of the objectives of the EU "a highly competitive social market economy", but there is no definition of the term "social market", which is taken from the German Constitution, or anything to indicate that something other than maximising competition is
implied. These ideological objectives and values of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe seek to pre-empt society's fundamental political choices into the indefinite future, as no other modern Constitution seeks to do.

THE ALTERNATIVE TO THE EU CONSTITUTION

If the proposed Constitution is rejected the EU will continue on the basis of the Treaty of Nice, with the voting arrangements which that treaty laid down for an EU of 27 States. It would be appropriate then to revisit the Laeken Declaration and to have a genuine debate among Europe's parliaments and peoples on the kind of Europe that people really want. Almost certainly that is not a Europe which is a State or superpower in its own right, run by a narrow elite, within which the ancient countries of Europe are constitutionally reduced to the status of subordinate provinces. It is more likely to be a Europe of cooperating independent democratic States, where powers are repatriated back to the EU Member States from Brussels, as the Laeken Declaration mooted but which the Convention that drafted the Constitution totally ignored. It is likely to be a Europe where national parliaments and voters have their democratic rights restored and where democracy, political self-determination and representative government are reestablished for the peoples and nations of our continent.

* * *

This analysis has been compiled by the National Platform EU Research and Information Centre, 24 Crawford Avenue, Dublin 9, Ireland. It draws from many sources and has been checked for legal accuracy by authorities on European law; its political judgements are those of its compilers. The National Platform is affiliated to The European Alliance of EU-critical Movements(TEAM), which links together some 60 organisations in 20 different European countries that are concerned on democratic and internationalist grounds at EU developments (See http://www.teameurope.info). The National Platform's secretary is Anthony Coughlan, who is an economist and Senior Lecturer Emeritus in Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin, and who may be contacted at 00-353-1-8305792.

EXPERIMENTAL NUCLEAR REACTOR
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan is determined to host a multibillion-dollar experimental nuclear reactor amid an intense contest with France and is ready to discuss ways to appease the losing side, an
official said. Two days of negotiations in Vienna between six nations failed to secure an agreement on whether France or Japan would host the revolutionary International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project.

"We will discuss what we can do to become the host," Takahiro Hayashi, deputy director of Japan's Office of Fusion Energy, told AFP. "What we have proposed is that the host and non-host should share responsibilities," Hayashi said. "That includes other projects."

Sources at the commission in Brussels said Tokyo might agree to a tradeoff scenario in which it lets ITER go to France if Japan gets to be host country for a new international scientific computing centre.

Satoru Ohtake, the director of nuclear fusion at Japan's science and technology ministry, who attended the talks Monday and Tuesday, was to return to Japan on Thursday, Hayashi said. The French minister for science, Francois d'Aubert, is in turn due in Japan next week.

The United States and South Korea back building ITER at Rokkasho-mura in Japan, while China and Russia back the European Union's site of Cadarache in southern France.

ITER is a test bed for what is being billed as a clean, safe, inexhaustible energy source of the future. The project, emulating the sun's nuclear fusion, is not expected to generate electricity before 2050.
The ITER budget is projected to be 10 billion euros (13 billion dollars) over the next 30 years, including 4.7 billion euros to build the reactor. The EU plans to finance 40 percent of the total.