The Defenders

Brussels a Riot With Spy vs Spy

By El Periódico de Catalunya
Presseurop

Europe’s political and administrative capital is also a hotbed of international espionage where secret services vie for economic, technological, geopolitical and military supremacy.

Brussels is a nest of spies. In the aftermath of the Cold War, foreign secret services did not downsize activities in the Belgian capital: on the contrary, they redoubled their efforts and the range of their objectives. Brussels-based espionage is now so widespread that the European Commission recently circulated an internal memo to its directors to take precautions against recurrent attempts to “obtain confidential and sensitive documents” concerning Commission activity.

The memo said “some countries, lobbyists, journalists and private organisations are trying to obtain classified information”, adding that “people linked to secret services” are operating undercover as “interns, journalists, EU countries’ attachés to the European Commission and computer technicians”.

“Along with Washington DC and Geneva, Brussels is one of the three key cities for secret services the world over,” explains Kristof Clerix, author of the book Vrij spel. Buitenlandse geheine diensten in België (“Foreign Secret Services in Belgium: Beyond the Law?”) “The methods remain the same as during the Cold War: to gain people’s trust and then exploit it. What has changed is the use of new technologies and the ever-increasing importance of economic issues,” notes Clerix, a staffer for the Belgian journal of international politics MO.

“In political and military terms, Brussels is now even more interesting for spies than it was during the Cold War,” Clerix points out, especially since Brussels-based NATO no longer confines itself to allied defence, but has launched military operations in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan and extended its influence into the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. The EU, moreover, now has foreign and defence policymaking powers, and is even developing large-scale military and political operations (in Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, the Congo, Somalia)....(Click for remainder.)

Brussels Warily Watches Voter Turnout Decline

Austrian Green Party candidates for EU elections Eva Lichtenberger (L) and Brigitte Lunacek at a news conference in Vienna Apr. 17, 2009. Despite important transnational issues, such as energy security, public health threats, there is no sign Europeans will reverse a downward trend and turn out in greater numbers June 4-7.(Herwig Prammer/Reuters)

Will social media help, or will it take structural reforms to engage voters?

By Teri Schultz
Global Post

BRUSSELS, Belgium — European politicians admire many things about Barack Obama, and one of them is the way he used “social media” to pull in record numbers of voters and make them feel that he was personally devoted to making their lives better.

Can the European Parliament follow that lead? Can it tweet and Flickr itself out of obscurity?

So far, it seems it can’t.

Every five years, Europeans are called to the polls to choose the lawmakers who will control a growing proportion of the rules and regulations that govern their daily lives. (See my introduction to this year's European Parliament elections.)

And every five years the proportion of European Union citizens casting a ballot has shrunk.

Voters prefer to pay attention to national elections, even though as much as 80 percent of the legislation their country’s leaders will be required to implement now originates at the European Union level.

This year, despite enormously important transnational issues — the global economic crisis, energy security, public health threats — there is no sign Europeans will reverse the downward trend and turn out in greater numbers June 4-7.

And, some experts say, no one should be surprised. “If you’re a voter, it’s totally rational for you to be completely turned off,” said Simon Hix, a political science professor at the London School of Economics and one of the foremost analysts on voting behavior in EP elections.

While EP voter turnout is low (45.5 percent in 2004), it is still not as small as turnout for the U.S. mid-term congressional elections (36.8 percent for the House, 29.7 percent for the Senate in 2006). But, Hix said, there’s a possibility EP turnout could dip to 35 percent this year or even lower. Anything below 30 percent overall would raise “serious legitimacy questions” for the parliament, he said. Experts worry that turnout could be in the teens in some of the newer member states....(Click for remainder.)

Belgium's €1bn Diamond Bail-Out

By Stanley Pignal
The Financial Times

The diamond industry is set to be the latest to be bailed out by the Belgian authorities as a group of banks agreed to fund a €1bn credit facility for gem dealers.

The banks have agreed to take diamonds as collateral if the government alters lending rules to allow them to take the gems on to their books.

The money, part of a package to encourage banks to resume lending to the sector, is needed "to restore confidence in the diamond trade", said Freddy Hanard, head of the Antwerp gem association.

The Belgian capital's gem industry has asked the Flemish regional government for a €200m ($275m, £176m) temporary guarantee to underwrite the scheme. The city's 1,800 diamond dealers are struggling amid a 30 per cent slump in sales volumes and a decline in prices, in spite of moves from mining groups to limit production.

Many dealers are facing liquidity problems because they are unwilling to sell at a loss gems bought at the height of the market in 2008. They have seen their credit lines withdrawn after banks questioned the value of the unpaid invoices they usually use as security against loans. Using gems as collateral would give Antwerp's dealers an entirely new source of credit....(Click for remainder.)

Belgian City Plans 'Veggie' Days

By Chris Mason
BBC News

The Belgian city of Ghent is about to become the first in the world to go vegetarian at least once a week.

Starting this week there will be a regular weekly meatless day, in which civil servants and elected councillors will opt for vegetarian meals.

Ghent means to recognise the impact of livestock on the environment.

The UN says livestock is responsible for nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, hence Ghent's declaration of a weekly "veggie day".

Public officials and politicians will be the first to give up meat for a day.

Schoolchildren will follow suit with their own veggiedag in September.

It is hoped the move will cut Ghent's environmental footprint and help tackle obesity....(Click for remainder.)

Belgian Ex-PM Accuses Commission of Inaction in Face of Crisis

By Honor Mahony
EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ex-Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has strongly criticised the European Commission for failing to be more active in tackling the current economic crisis.

Mr Verhofstadt, who heads the Liberal list in Belgium's Flanders region for the June European elections, accused the commission of staying "silent" in the face of Europe's recession.

"It is the duty of the commission to take the initiative", said the politician, referring to the institution's right to propose laws.

Speaking in Brussels to promote his new book, Emerging from the crisis, how Europe can save the world, Mr Verhofstadt, a strong EU federalist, said the only way to bolster the EU is to massively increase it's spending, recapitalise banks, issue eurobonds, set up a European financial supervisor and a single European bank for bad assets.

He drew parallels with Japan, which, with it's similarly over-heated housing market and ageing population in the 1990s plunged into recession and then took about a decade to come out of economic stagnation.

Mr Verhofstadt noted that it was only when Tokyo implemented a plan to rescue the banks that Japan's economy started to recover.

"Recovery must come from the resumption of lending by the financial markets rather than from any government stimulus package."

He poured scorn on the fact that there is no single European recovery plan, rather "27 separate ones" and how little is being spent by governments. With automatic stabilisers such as welfare payments included, the EU as a whole is spending only half of what the US is using to tackle the crisis (€600bn).

Mr Verhofstadt also argued that Europe "for purely economic reasons" as well as for environmental reasons should "switch to a low-carbon economy."...(Click for remainder.)

EU Citizens Call for 'More Europe' at Brussels Event

By Elitsa Vucheva
EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU-wide action against global warming, common healthcare and education systems and a more transparent and accountable union topped a list of 15 recommendations for the "economic and social future of Europe," put forward by ordinary people from across Europe in Brussels on Monday (11 May).

"The EU should aim to reduce global warming and phase-out fossil fuels by promoting renewable energy from water, solar, wind, hydrogen, waste and residues from industry," reads the number one recommendation from the two-day "European Citizens' Summit."

The participants said the EU should "intensify its efforts towards establishing a common health-care system" and "create the same working conditions and rules for all EU citizens based on a harmonised Labour Code."

A harmonised European educational system came fourth, followed by the need to "create incentives to prevent production entities from moving to countries with lower wages," and to put in place measures promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

The event was organised by a group of independent foundations, universities and think-tanks from all EU member states, led by the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation, and co-financed by the European Commission.

It was preceded by the opening of a pan-European online debate in December, where some 250,000 people took part. In March, 1,605 randomly selected citizens from all 27 member states participated in national consultations to draft the recommendations.

The list of 15 was finalised by the 150 guests in Brussels.

Other advice included work on the poorly co-ordinated crime-fighting information systems among member states, improving security on the EU's external borders and bettering "treatment of illegal migrants."

Stricter financial regulation, boosted social protection and a higher level of "transparency and accountability of [EU] politicians and civil servants" were also among the main concerns....(Click for remainder.)

Concern in Brussels Over Last Six Weeks of Czech Presidency

By Jamie Smyth
Irish Times

THERE WAS a sense of irony when one of Mirek Topolanek’s last acts as Czech prime minister and figurehead for his country’s six-month EU presidency last week was to chair a jobs summit.

But the 53-year-old chairman of the Czech Civic Democratic Party did not see the funny side of a reporter’s question on what advice the soon-to-be-redundant prime minister could offer millions of workers losing their jobs. “I will lose a job but not work because you will find work if you look for it, and that’s the advice for everybody else,” he said in a typically blunt response that may have been inspired by his admiration of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Czech government’s collapse, which most observers blame on Civic Democratic Party infighting stirred up by Eurosceptic president Vaclav Klaus, leaves a weak technical government led by civil servant Jan Fischer to close out the presidency.

For the EU, the changeover could not happen at a worse time, coming in the face of the worst economic crisis in 60 years and with the Lisbon Treaty still not implemented in all states.

But it also underscores the poor diplomatic skills shown by Topolanek over the past five months as EU president.

Right from the start, the Czech presidency offended some of its EU partners when it unveiled the Entropa sculpture by Czech artist David Cerny. The 16m x 16m satiric artwork, which was hung in the Council of Ministers building in Brussels, poked fun at EU stereotypes. Italy was represented by masturbating footballers while Bulgaria was a Turkish toilet. The Bulgarians did not get the joke and a diplomatic protest followed....(Click for remainder.)

Is the U.S. Getting a Raw Deal?

A piece of French Roquefort blue cheese is displayed in a shop in Paris January 16, 2009. (Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

Beef accord will keep prices low on coveted Roquefort cheese, but might not help Americans sell more steak.

By Teri Schultz
GlobalPost

BRUSSELS — The European Union and the United States have agreed to take a breather in a decades-long transatlantic trade tiff. The two sides struck a temporary deal lowering Europe's trade barriers on U.S. beef and America's on some of the EU's most notable exports, such as Roquefort cheese.

The agreement — which will not be finalized until it is formally ratified by the U.S. Congress and the parliaments of all 27 EU states — was reached in a phone call Wednesday between EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. In a joint statement, they described it as an “understanding that provides a pragmatic way forward” and pledged to work to get it finalized as quickly as possible in all relevant capitals.

The truce has been a long time coming. Since the 1980s, the EU has been blocking meat from U.S. cattle fattened with growth hormones, which EU health authorities say pose health risks and can even cause cancer, in the case of one of the hormone estradiol 17. But a 1998 ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO) determined the EU ban was not acceptable and gave the U.S. the right to impose sanctions on European products in return. Europe still refused to budge.

After negotiations carried out over two presidential terms failed to produce a breakthrough, the Bush Administration retaliated in its last days, levying tariffs to go into effect May 9 that would have increased import costs on products — from truffles to chewing gum — from every EU nation except Britain. In one headline-grabbing example, duties on France’s Roquefort cheese would have tripled, a dire prospect for French farmers accustomed to selling one-fifth of their output of Roquefort to American consumers....(Click for remainder.)

Ivan Playing With His Ball in the Back Yard

Spring is Bustin' Out All Over