Europe Readies for Cross-Border Direct Debit Launch

By Agence France-Presse

Expatica.com

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debit programme lets companies and individuals organise standardised monthly euro payments in 32 countries from a single bank account.

Brussels -- Europe steps up a drive to harmonise electronic payment systems with the launch of a cross-border direct debit programme on Monday but there remain notable gaps in the service.

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) direct debit programme lets companies and individuals organise standardised monthly euro payments in 32 countries from a single bank account.

The main beneficiaries will include the likes of mobile phone companies, energy or telecommunication suppliers.

For example, a Polish nurse working in Ireland could have a mobile operator in Warsaw debit a Dublin account each month to pay her elderly mother's cell phone.

Some 2,500 participating banks will offer the service in November and all European banks must make it available within a year, according to the European Central Bank.

However, cross-border direct debits are not available in France -- which is to delay implementation until November 2010, the deadline for the 16 countries that use the euro currency.

"It's also up to the banks at this stage," says the European Banking Federation (EBS) while insisting that "the majority" are ready to come on board.

The transformation of everyday financial transactions across Europe began with the arrival of euro notes and coins eight years ago and then the launch of European bank transfers.

The SEPA system covers the 27 European Union countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

It is based on BIC and IBAN identification numbers which follow a standardised format across Europe....(Original.)

Joe Biden in Poland & Czech Republic

US Vice President Seeks to Smooth Feathers in 'New Europe'

By Gregor Peter Schmitz
Spiegel

US Vice President Joe Biden heads to Eastern Europe on Tuesday, the first such trip by a high-ranking Washington official since President Barack Obama scaled back the missile shield program in September. Many are concerned that the US is turning its back on the region.

It's good to be the US vice president these days. Joe Biden gets to fill his days with such pleasant duties as speaking to Democratic campaigners in New Jersey, addressing a group of supporters in Pennsylvania and attending banquets with party allies. It seems that wherever he goes, President Barack Obama's deputy is greeted with applause.

But this week is likely to be different. On Tuesday, Biden begins a four day visit to Eastern Europe, stopping at Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania, where he is not very popular. Poland and Czech Republic are particularly unimpressed by the Obama administration because the US president recently put the missile shield -- that had been promoted by his predecessor George W. Bush as a defence against Iranian midrange and long-range missiles -- on ice. Instead of the complex system involving long-range rockets envisioned by Bush, Obama wants a system that uses more conventional SM-3 rockets based on ships or in Turkey, the Balkans and perhaps also in Eastern Europe.

It wasn't just the decision itself that angered the Poles and the Czechs as much as the way it was communicated. Obama first called his Eastern European counterparts in September via a phone call at around midnight European time -- after the first reports had appeared in the US media. The reaction in Poland was harsh. The Polish tabloid Fakt wrote "the US has sold us out to the Russians." Former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek complained that Obama's decision demonstrated that the US "was no longer interested" in the region....(Remainder.)

Europe Concerned as Dollar Decline Continues

A number of European countries have embarked on a slow recovery following the economic collapse late last year. But with the euro now at a 14-month high against the dollar, euro zone officials worry exports could suffer.

By Spiegel
Photo: Reuters

The signs of a recovering global economy are everywhere. Global stocks are up 75 percent from the deep lows seen in the darkest days of the financial crisis, many banks and other financial institutions are reporting a return to profits and a number of countries have emerged from recession.

But one development has some in Europe concerned that the path to recovery in Europe's single currency zone could be riddled with obstacles: The dollar continues to weaken against the euro. The result is that European exports -- one of the primary engines behind Europe's fragile recovery -- are becoming more expensive in the United States and in a number of Asian countries that have pegged their currency to the dollar.

On Tuesday, a euro was going for $1.4976, just off its 14-month high of $1.4994 seen on Monday. Many, though, expect the dollar to continue its fall against the euro with a return to the $1.60 rate seen in the summer of 2008 a possibility.

'Excessive Volatility'

Finance ministers from countries belonging to the 16-member euro zone addressed the issue at a Monday meeting in Luxembourg. "It is a problem that we are working on," Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's finance minister and chairman of the euro group, told reporters. "We spent quite a long time discussing exchange rates."

Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, said that Europe has "a vested interest in a solid and stable currency system" adding that "excessive volatility and disorderly movements on exchange markets are bad for economic and financial stability."...(Remainder.)

Václav Klaus, from Russia with love

He describes himself as "a European dissident" and the Russian media has welcomed him with open arms. On a state visit this week, the Czech President showed that he is keen to develop economic and personal ties with Moscow — a policy which Hospodářské Noviny remarks is not without its disadvantages.

By Ondřej Soukup and Vladimír Šnídl
Hospodářské Noviny
Photo:  AFP

Václav Klaus' state visit to Russia comes just a few days after he provoked an outcry in Europe by imposing yet another obstacle to his signing of the Lisbon Treaty. In Moscow he told his hosts that he was "seriously concerned by the plan to reinforce European integration."

Klaus is one Czech politician who is not afraid of adopting a strongly pro-Russian stance, unlike Mirek Topolánek's government, which backed a policy of stronger links with the United States until it collapsed in April.

On the occasion of a visit to the United States in September, Klaus declared that Moscow was much less of a threat to the Czech Republic than an over-regulated European Union. In a recent interview with [the neo-conservative American daily] the Washington Times, he averred that "the political system and freedom in Russia is now the highest and the best in the history of Russia in the last two millennia."

Russian media idol

When he was prime minister from 1992 to 1997, Václav Klaus generally adopted a pro-western line. It was only after he left the government that he began to explicitly criticize European integration and the United States. This change of course was later confirmed when he expressed his reservations about NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999.

It was also during this period that the Russian media first took an interest in him. Today, many Russian journalists actively promote Klaus to the extent that he now occupies much more space in the Russian media than all of the other Eastern European leaders. His statements on "the gratuitous Russophobia" of the Western elites are especially popular with pro-Kremlin journalists, and also with the renowned Russian political analyst Mikhaïl Delyagin, who in a recent article on the Lisbon crisis presented an alleged quote from Klaus, which states that accession to the European Union has resulted in considerable financial losses for the Czech Republic....(Remainder.)

Constitutional Debate Erupts as Early Elections are Canceled

I'm interested in this for a number of reasons.  First, my other half is from the Czech Republic.  And, second, this election can have consequences for the EU and the geopolitical landscape.

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The Czech Republic hashes out exactly what the judiciary can and can't do in its still fledgling democracy.

By Bruce I. Konviser
GlobalPost

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — When the Constitutional Court struck down a constitutional amendment last month, which was to pave the way for early elections, the political establishment was shocked that the court had asserted itself in such a manner.

Others supported the decision, saying the ruling was not only a breakthrough for the court but was also a watershed event for the country's still fledgling democracy.

Early elections seemed inevitable after the government collapsed in the spring following a vote of-no-confidence in parliament. In an effort to hasten the cumbersome process toward early elections, parliament passed a new amendment that the Constitutional Court subsequently nixed, ruling against what it called a retroactive and stop-gap measure.

The ruling has unleashed a constitutional debate about the fundamental duties and authority of the judiciary. As the Czech Republic’s democracy continues to develop, such a debate is both reflective of the country’s journey toward a strong democracy and integral to it.

Many political leaders could barely contain their rage at the ruling. President Vaclav Klaus went so far as to call the court's decision “wrong.” (By definition, of course, the Constitutional Court cannot be wrong. Regardless of what anyone thinks of a particular ruling the constitution means what the court says it means.)...(Remainder.)

Belgium to Rent Jail Space in the Netherlands

Strapped for space in its prisons, Belgium has decided to rent 500 jail cells from its neighbor the Netherlands until new ones can be built, the justice ministry said Friday.

By Agence France-Presse
Expatica.com

Brussels - Strapped for space in its prisons, Belgium has decided to rent 500 jail cells from its neighbour the Netherlands until new ones can be built, the justice ministry said Friday.

The move was approved Friday by the cabinet and is expected to be finalised in coming weeks in consultation with the Dutch government and once approved by the Belgian parliament, a ministry statement said.

"The aim is to use the cell space as quickly as possible" in the Tilburg prison in the southern Netherlands, said Justice Minister Stefan De Clerck.

"It is of course a temporary measure given that from 2012 the new Belgian prisons should be able to open," he added.

In an address to parliament Tuesday, Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy said that "urgent measures" were needed to overcome the problem with the kingdom's prisons....(Remainder.)

Why the Swiss Are Afraid of Minarets

By Michael Soukup
Spiegel

A poster featuring a Muslim woman in a chador surrounded by minaret towers that resemble missiles is causing outrage in Switzerland ahead of a referendum next month on whether to ban mosques from having minarets. The campaign is proving so controversial that even some die-hard members of the country's far right are uncomfortable with it.

Wangen bei Olten has already been lost. The small Swiss municipality at the foot of the Jura Mountains has become home to a minaret.

The Christians in the village fought hard to prevent it -- they collected signatures, lodged official complaints, spoke publicly against it and even the local Catholic and evangelical communities registered their opposition.

But nothing worked. Switzerland's highest court approved the building plans of the local Turkish cultural association and now a six meter (20 foot) tall minaret provides graphic proof of the victory won by the Olten Türk Kültür Ocagi.

"The minaret is only the first step," Daniel Zingg warns in appearances across the country. The former television repairman is a member of the Federal Democratic Union (EDU), a Christian party on the far right of Switzerland's political spectrum. Zingg, 53, sees minarets as symbols of Muslim victories over newly conquered lands -- as precursors to the introduction of Islamic Shariah law.

How times have changed in Switzerland. In the 1960s and 70s, politicians in Zürich and Geneva welcomed the construction of two mosques as symbols of the country's sophistication and open-mindedness. Nowadays, Switzerland's anti-minaret activists like to quote Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Minarets are our bayonets," he said. "The domes are our helmets, the mosques our barracks and the believers our army."...(Remainder.)

A Price Too High, A Hand Too Bloody

By Abby Zimet
Common Dreams

Six-and-a-half years and too many deaths after Tony Blair sent British troops into Iraq, a commemorative service for those killed turned into a searing critique of the war after the Archbishop of Canterbury blasted policymakers who went to war "without really measuring the price" and the father of a dead soldier refused to shake Blair's hand, calling him "a war criminal." Peter Brierley, whose son Shaun died in 2003, has since become an anti-war activist.

"I'm not shaking your hand. You've got blood on it." – Peter Brierley to Tony Blair.

(Original.)

Greek Socialists Win in a Landslide

By Rachel Donadio and Anthee Carassava
The New York Times
Photo:  Simela Pantzarzi (European Pressphoto Agency)

ATHENS — Socialists won national elections in Greece on Sunday, trouncing a center-right government crippled by corruption scandals and a growing economic crisis.

With 88 percent of Greece’s 10 million votes counted, according to The Associated Press, the Socialist Pasok Party was leading with 44 percent of the vote to 34 percent for the center-right New Democracy Party, a margin expected to give the Socialists their largest victory ever and a comfortable majority in Parliament.

“Today we set off together to build the Greece we want and need. We have no time to waste,” the Socialist leader, George Papandreou, said in his victory speech. “We want it, we can do it, we will succeed.”

“Nothing will be easy,” he added. “But I will always be honest and upfront with the Greeks.”

In conceding defeat, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis said he had failed to persuade Greeks to accept the two years of austerity measures he had called for to steer the country out of its economic crisis. “The voters did not approve of this policy. It was their choice, and I respect it,” he said.

Mr. Karamanlis also stepped down as leader of the New Democracy Party, which suffered its worst performance since the restoration of Greek democracy in 1974 after years of military dictatorship. He said he would call a party congress to elect a new leader within a month....(Remainder.)

Brussels Welcomes US Move Toward Global Governance of Internet

By Leigh Phillips
EU Observer

BRUSSELS - The body responsible for managing the development of the internet, Icann, has cut its umbilical cord to the US government, a move the European Union has been demanding for four years.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees domain names - the .com, .eu, .org and so on at the end of a web address - as of 30 September will no longer be subject to review by the US Department of Commerce.

Instead, independent review panels appointed by Icann Governmental Advisory Committee (Gac) and Icann itself with the involvement of governments around the world. will perform this task.

Since 2005, the EU has been calling for reform of the governance of the internet, saying that the internet is a global resource and should not be tied to one national government - a position echoed by many other countries and a number of companies.

In June of this year, the European Commission raised the volume on the issue, publishing a policy document that an independent judicial body be set up, which information society commissioner Viviane Reding described at the time as a "G12 for internet governance," which would serve as a "multilateral forum for governments to discuss general internet governance policy and security issues."

Wednesday's move comes close to satisfying the EU demands, and Ms Reding welcomed the development....(Remainder.)