New EU Summit on November 19th

The Swedish presidency has called an EU summit on 19 November to decide on the posts of President of the European Council and High Representative on the foreign and security policy.

The summit will be in the format of an EU leaders’ dinner in Brussels and comes after two weeks of consultations between Stockholm and the other EU capitals.

Poland has an interesting proposal – to hold candidate hearings during the summit.

 

Solvency II is Adopted

The directive on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of insurance and reinsurance (Solvency II) has been adopted by the Council. It will provide a common legislative framework for the insurance and reinsurance businesses in the European Union.

Positive Report on the Implementation of the 2008 EU Budget

The European Court of Auditors has issued an overall positive report on the EU budget implementation for 2008. The error rate in the “Agriculture and natural resources” sector is substantially lower.

For Bulgaria the main concerns remain the management and control of funds in agriculture – both under pre-accession funding and from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) after the accession.

 

Mutual Recognition on Supervision Measures

Council Framework Decision 2009/829/JHA lays down rules for the recognition of a decision on supervision measures issued in another Member State as an alternative to provisional detention.

Remembering Communism

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

Napoleon Bonaparte

 

Twenty years ago on that day the Berlin Wall fell down. This was the beginning of the end of Communist rule in Eastern Europe.

Today I would like to say a few words about this disastrous ideology. It has brought huge suffering in Eastern Europe. Millions of decent, hard-working people in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania were killed, imprisoned, tortured, raped, intimidated and abused. Millions more fell victims to Communism in Asia.

This regime was totalitarian, just like Nazism. Totalitarian regimes have one particular feature so well exposed by Juan José Linz – the power is concentrated in a small group that is not accountable to anyone and cannot be stripped of power with peaceful means.

To keep their power, Communist leaders were ready to do everything necessary. And they did it, crushing ruthlessly any resistance, destroying human lives, debilitating culture, and undermining common human values.

This dehumanizing aspect of Communism is probably its most important, and most evil, feature.

Today we are celebrating twenty years of Communism-free Europe. But we should not be celebrating at all.

Communism is alive and kicking, at least in my country. Even today the henchmen of the Communist regime still play an important role in the Bulgarian society. The sons and grandsons of the Communist leaders are active politicians, magistrates, and businessmen. We now know that many of the participants in the transition process to democracy were former agents or collaborators of the Communist state security services.

Worse, even today Bulgarians are nostalgic about Communism. Only 13% believe that today we are “better”, while 62% of Bulgarians say we are “worse” economically than under Communism. Sometimes the idea of a “strong hand” is presented to the public in subtle, tempting tones by experienced political engineers.

Let me be clear. The integration into the European Union is the one and only true external guarantee of the democratic political process in Bulgaria. But this is not enough. Should we forget the past, should we cherish the rotten fruit of authoritarianism, no one and nothing will save us.

 

Report on Trade Restriction Measures

The European Commission has published a report on potentially trade restrictive measures introduced between October 2008 and October 2009 by the European Union’s (EU) major trade partners. 223 new trade restrictive measures were reported as planned or introduced since October 2008.

The report says that a protectionist worst-case scenario has been avoided as the measures taken so far are rather limited in scope, relative to fears and previous experience with economic downturns.

 

Common EU Rules for Exports

The new Regulation (EC) No 1061/2009 establishing common rules for exports has been published in the Official Journal.

The principle set out in the regulation is that the exportation of all goods from the European Union shall be free, with the exception of the restrictions provided for in that regulation.

 

David Cameron on EU – Just a Little Bit Softer

The leader of the British Conservative Party, David Cameron, has delivered a speech on the EU. One issue has obviously dropped off the Tory agenda – there will be no new referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. The reason – holding a referendum now will be like holding “a referendum to stop the sun [from] rising in the morning”.

One of the concrete steps for a possible future Tory government will be to prohibit, by law, the transfer of power to the EU without a referendum. Cameron also proposes a new law “to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament”. The third measure is to require all changes in primary EU law without a new ratified treaty (the so-called pasarelles) to be subject to “full approval by Parliament”.

Cameron demands also new opt-outs for Britain:

• opt-out from the Social Chapter;
• new, better opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights;
• limiting the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over criminal law to its pre-Lisbon level.

Cameron recognizes that these new opt-outs are subject to approval by all the Member states of the European Union.

 

New Commission in February?

Members of the European Parliament believe that the new European Commission will be in place somewhere in the beginning of February, rather than on January, 1st.

One of the top issues during the hearings will be the EU strategy for exit from the economic and financial crisis.

 

GM Drops Opel Deal with Magna and Sberbank

The board of directors of General Motors has decided not to finish the deal for the sale of carmaker Opel to a consortium of the Canadian Magna and Russian Sberbank. The has been a subject of investigation by the European Commission for illegal state aid.

The European Commission has said that it is now ready to examine any revised state-aid package that might be offered by the German government in the light of GM’s surprise announcement.

The German government has claimed that the financial aid for Opel was not conditional. I fail to understand, then, the reaction of Jürgen Rüttgers, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, who said: “General Motors’ behaviour shows the ugly face of turbo-capitalism. That is completely unacceptable.” Rainer Brüderle, Germany’s new economics minister, has also said: “The behaviour of General Motors towards Germany is totally unacceptable.”

To my humble opinion the wording of the German reaction is utterly unacceptable itself. The German government has said in writing to the European Commission that the €4.5bn of government aid for the deal was not dependent on Magna and Sberbank being the winner, and is available to all bidders.

Is it available to all bidders or is it not available or what?