20th February
2004
Campaigners demand referendum on EU Constitution
While
leaders of the EU’s “Big Three” triumvirate of
France, Germany and the UK were holding a meeting on the future
of Europe's economy, protestors gathered outside to demand that
citizens of EU member states be given the chance to vote in
referenda on any proposed constitution.
With three huge placards depicting
French president Jacques Chirac, UK prime minister Tony Blair
and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder blocking their ears,
pro-referendum movements from the same countries launched a
joint call for the right to vote on what would be an historic
decision.
If leaders can come to a deal
on the Constitution, which they failed to do last December,
it must still be ratified by each member state according to
its own legislative system. The likelihood of this going smoothly
in all 25 of the EU’s disparate member countries (the current
15 plus the ten which will become members on May 1) seems remote,
and it is clear that many mainstream politicians would like
to increase them by making the process as undemocratic as possible.
As things stand only Ireland,
Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have
clearly stated that they will hold a referendum.
More information about the campaign
to persuade the other 19 to join them can be found at http://www.european-referendum.org/action/berlin.html
Amnesty:
EU failing to “ensure that fundamental rights and freedoms
are fully guaranteed in practice”
Human
rights group Amnesty International has criticised the EU over
what it sees as its failure to protect individuals who may be
subject to the European Arrest Warrant. This controversial document,
which gives police officers the power to demand the arrest of
suspects outside their usual jurisdiction, has so far been implemented
by eight of the fifteen EU member states. It replaces extradition procedures between EU member states and
will enable prisoners to be handed over by the authorities of
one EU state to another within a period of only 60 to 90 days
and without of the usual safeguards of their rights.
The rotating Presidency of the
Union is currently held by Ireland, and in a letter to Irish
Justice Minister Michael McDowell, Amnesty International EU
Office Director Dick Oosting said: :
"In
the absence of a proposal from the Commission and the urgency
of the situation in the light of implementation of the European
arrest warrant, it is for the Presidency to ensure that this
gap is filled by a proposal designed, at a minimum, to protect
the rights of individuals affected by EU judicial cooperation
such as those who may find themselves the subject of a European
arrest warrant", the letter says, adding that “in
a number of Member States, implementation has been mired in
difficulties in national parliaments due to lack of trust in
the standards of criminal justice in other Member States and
the lack of common standards in the application of basic procedural
safeguards in criminal proceedings.
The absence of such common standards and the lack of
mutual trust upon which to base the principle of mutual recognition
is in practice likely to lead to severe difficulties in the
application of the European arrest warrant.”
Every EU member state has signed
the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), which means that they are obliged
to refuse to surrender an individual where surrender would result
in a serious breach of that person’s human rights.
A number of recent extradition cases between EU Member
States have demonstrated that judges are prepared to find that surrender
to an EU Member State might result in a breach of that person’s
fundamental rights and, on that basis, must be refused.
According to Amnesty, the European Arrest Warrant does
not offer the same safeguards as does this traditional extradition-based
system.
European
Commission wants even more of our moolah
European Commission President
Romano Prodi last week unveiled proposals for the EU budget
in the period 2007-2013, calling for large increases. The total
amount member states will have to contribute for EU projects
will rise from 133 billion euro in 2007 to 158 billion in 2013.
The four main spending priorites outlined in the proposals are
sustainable growth (including cohesion funds for poorer areas),
preservation and management of natural resources, including
agriculture spending, "citizenship, freedom, security and
justice" and "the EU as a global partner".
Spending in the field of sustainable growth - attempting to
boost competitiveness in the EU - will rise by 28 percent over
the period, home affairs by 122 percent. Spending on agriculture
will stay roughly flat over the period while the foreign policy
budget will rise by 38 percent.
A majority of the European Parliament will support the proposals,
though left members were critical. Those from the poorer, southern
countries questioned the budget's priorities while those from
the North were more critical of the overall increase. Erik Meijer,
of the Dutch Socialist Party, a member of the United Left Group
(GUE-NGL), pointed out that "while, on grounds of solidarity,
I do not object to transfers of wealth to poorer countries as
such, I think it will be difficult to sell the idea of a bigger
budget to a Dutch public which now associates the EU with extravagance,
corruption and waste."
Unlike the Parliament, the member
states were largely unenthusiastic, with net contributor sucg
as the Netherlands and Germany signalling their displeasure. It is only weeks since six net contributors wrote to the Commission
demanding a budget ceiling of 1% of GNP. However, the Commission
always follows the general rule when asking for a pay rise -
demand 20% and you met get 5 - so the increase was to be expected.
It must be remembered that the Commission is not part of the
budgetary authority, but merely makes a proposal which the two
institutions of the authority, the Council (which directly represents
the member states) and Parliament then consider.
With Swedish finance minister
Bosse Ringholm describing the proposals as "completely
unrealistic" and others, including the UK's Gordon Brown
and Germany's Hans Eichel queuing up to attack them, it may
be that the Brussels pickpockets will be thwarted in their attempts
to get their hands on still more taxpayers' dosh.
Nordic Green-Left
Alliance founded
Meeting
in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, Five Nordic left-wing parties
last weekend founded “the Nordic Green Left Alliance”
(NGLA). The alliance includes the Left Alliance of Finland (Vasemmistoliitto/Vänsterförbundet),
the Left Party of Sweden (Vänsterpartiet), the Socialist People’s
Party (SF) of Denmark, the Norwegian Socialist Left Party, (SV),
Norway, and the Left-Green Movement in Iceland (VG).
A
spokesperson for the parties involved said that “The alliance
has been formed in order to strengthen the international cooperation
and contacts in between the Nordic parties, and on a European
and a global level as well.”
In
its platform the alliance states:
“We
base our political work on the pillars of solidarity: international
solidarity among the peoples of the world, social justice and
an equitable distribution of wealth, gender equality, and solidarity
with future generations, who depend on us for an ecological
sustainable development.
We
are a Nordic alliance, but it does not mean that we are regionalists.
On the contrary, internationalism is a basic foundation of our
parties, and international solidarity one of our main philosphies
and activities. European and worldwide cooperation with progressive
green and left-wing forces will be a priority for our alliance.”
Parliamentarians
from the member parties are expected to join the same groups
in international Parliamentarian institutions such as the Nordic
Council, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
and the European Parliament. The parties from Finland, Sweden,
and Denmark currently work together in the “Nordic Green
Left” a subgroup within the United Left Group (GUE-NGL)
in the European Parliament.
In
the statutes of the alliance, approved by the parties at the
weekend meeting in Iceland, the Nordic alliance specify the
independence of each national party.
Nato destroys
important Hungarian conservation site
The European Environmental Bureau,
which brings together all of the EU’s major environmental
NGOs, is urging new NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer to review the decision to install a NATO radar facility
in one of the last intact and protected areas of Hungary. At
the same time, a number of groups in Hungary itself are planning
to try to stop the work through more direct forms of action.
NATO plans to deploy three wide-range
strategic radar stations in Hungary, two replacing functioning
but outdated locators at Bankut (northern Hungary) and Bekescsaba
(southeast Hungary). But the third installation is to be built
at the 682 meter peak of Zengo in the Mecsek
Mountains in southern Hungary.
This has been part of the East-Mecsek Landscape Protection Area
since 1977 and is the habitat of numerous unique, protected
and highly protected plant species.
The plans also threaten the
livelihoods of more than ten thousand people living within a
radius of a few kilometres from the site who earn their living
from the natural environment in tourism, ecotourism, and medical
tourism. Planning and licensing of the project was conducted
without any involvement of the local population, and affected
communities only learned about the project from the press after
these processes were completed.
The global anti-war movement was right: Iraq war based
on lies
Mainstream
newspapers will tell you that absolutely no-one was right about
Iraq. Even those opposed to the war did not do so, apparently,
because they had made a correct assessment of the situation.
What these increasingly surreal publications ,mean, of course,
is that none of them (though there are honourable exceptions),
nor the politicians and other "opinion-formers" and
"decision-makers" with whom they spend their time,
knew what on earth was going on. Either they got it wrong, or
they lied, or both. But Spectre and the rest of the world's
left press got it right. We don't count, apparently, but the
fact that we got it right is in the public record. Australia's
Green Left Weekly,
issue #570, February 11, 2004 (here) has done
the world the service of reminding us all how right we were,
and how wrong were the handful of warmongers. " On February
14-16 last year," GLW recalls, "at least 12 million
people took to the streets to oppose the war on Iraq. In Australia,
around a million people mobilised in the largest coordinated
action in this country’s history. Now, 12 months later,
the warmongers in Canberra, London and Washington are desperate
to justify their murder -- but it won't wash. The millions were
right ? this was a war based on lies." Go here
for more. Or see John Pilger's exposure of the liar Blair here
* Pilger:
Blair's mass deception is here
. Finally, in the grinning, God-bothering liar's own words here
