Presenting a key policy document on Europe, the leader of the opposition Christian Democrats in Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble, has said that the war in Kosovo would further the cause of EU enlargement. He was presenting a paper written in conjunction with his old colleague, Karl Lamers. The paper recalled the paper, "Reflections on European politics", published in 1994, which outlined the theory of the "hard core" - a doctrine which the new paper reaffirms vehemently. In the 1994 paper, Lamers and Schäuble had famously said that if Eastern Europe could not be stabilised by the EU then Germany might have to resort to "traditional means" to do so on its own. The authors did not say whether they considered the present war to be an example of that.

The document also emphasises that European integration affects domestic policy and the internal structures of member states. "European policy becomes immediately domestic policy and vice-versa." It says that Germany has a "leading function in Europe" and that the Maastricht treaty means that '"any politician who tries to pursue 'another policy' will be guilty of infringing the treaty." [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4^th May 1999]

Mayday meetings across Europe have been used to express opposition to NATO's attacks on Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands of trades unionists demonstrated against the war in Germany, where they were addressed by the former Finance Minister, Oskar Lafontaine who was making his first public appearance since his resignation. To the applause of some 12,000 people, Lafontaine said that the military planning of the war had not been thought through and that it was a mistake to ride roughshod over the United Nations. The Defence Minister, Rudolf Scharping, was greeted with chants of "Murderer, murderer!"

Elsewhere in Europe, similar Mayday celebrations took on an anti-NATO tone. In Kiev, Sofia and Moscow demonstrations were held against NATO. In Sofia some 20,000 people chanted "NATO's fascists are today's terrorists." In Madrid, 20,000 demanded rights for the Kosovo Albanians and an end to the war. 10,000 demonstrated in Istanbul. [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3^rd May 1999]

Jürgen Trittin, the Green German Environment minister, has replied to these protests by saying that the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia should continue. He was specifically responding to a suggestion by members of his own party that the bombing should stop for one day so that aid organisations could bring aid into Kosovo. On the other hand, Mr. Trittin criticised the attacks on civil targets in Yugoslavia, singling out the attacks on TV stations as wrong and counterproductive. His remarks came against the background of increasing unrest within the Green party over the war. Green party leaders fear their members will go over to the PDS, the successor to the Communist Party. [Handelsblatt, 5^th May 1999]

The German Chancellor has also defended what he has interestingly referred to as NATO's "double strategy" of bombing Yugoslavia and simultaneously "seeking a political solution". He insisted that there was broad support for German policy from all political parties except the Communist PDS. The Chancellor repeated his government's opposition to the use of ground troops. The argument over the war dominated what would otherwise have been a budget debate in the Bundestag. [Tagesspiegel, 6^th May 1999]

The United Nations is trying to find two appointees as special reporters on Kosovo. In a search for one politician from Western Europe and one from "Eastern" Europe, it has chosen the Slovak Foreign Minister, Eduard Kukan. It also initially selected the former Austrian Chancellor, Franz Vranitzky, but he has announced that he does not want the job. Eduard Kukan has been named in Slovakia as an informer of the Communist secret police in Czechoslovakia, the StB. A former student of the Moscow Institute for International Relations, he also served in the Secretariat of the Communist party. Perhaps most intriguingly, Mr. Kukan was Czechoslovak ambassador to Ethiopia during the reign of colonel Mengisthu, which should have taught him a thing or two about genocide. Mr. Franz Vrantizky's past is perhaps less colourful, but he did make a name for himself when he helped shoe the Mafia-Communist alliance into power in Albania following the armed rebellion there in 1997. It was subsequent to the coup against the democratic government in Tirana that the KLA began its insurrection north of the border in Kosovo in early 1998. [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3^rd May 1999]

Now that Vranitzky has withdrawn, the name of Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister and former Bosnia big-wig, is being advanced as the new favourite. Bildt was the main architect of what many commentators attacked as Western appeasement of Serb aggression against Croatia and Bosnia from 1991 to 1995. [Handelsblatt, 6^th May 1999]

The former German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, has called for Serbia to be admitted to the European Union. He told a Dutch newspaper that Serbia and other Balkan states ought to join. This was the only way to ensure peace and stability in the region, he said. Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia were ancient European countries and if they fulfilled the criteria for 'democracy, human rights and the recognition of borders.' He presumably thinks that NATO is also recognising borders in its attacks on Yugoslavia on behalf of Kosovo. [NRC Handeslblad, Amsterdam, 5^th May 1999]

2. The new European Commission

 

Waiting for the new Commission

When the European Commission "resigned" in March - "resigned" in inverted commas, because all the Commissioners have remained in their posts ever since - it was felt that a new Commission would be appointed as swiftly as possible. Tony Blair, for instance, leaped on a "reform" bandwagon, insisting that the mass resignation, evidently a disaster, was in fact a great success and an opportunity for swift "root and branch reform." Whether it will be "root and branch" remains to be seen (although this is unlikely as many Commissioners are either going to be formally reappointed or recylced as MEPs). Swift, however, it will not be. Although Romano Prodi was confirmed in his post until September, the new Commission will not be confirmed by the newly elected European Parliament until then. In other words, it will have taken six months for the new team to be installed. [Handelsblatt, 6^th May 1999]

 

Mr. Prodi spells it out

The new president of the European Commission, who was confirmed in his post by the European Parliament on 5^th May, has said that the euro will not help Europe's chronic joblessness. "Although international monetary stability is a fundamental condition, the true factor for growth will be a new "round" of liberalisation of international exchanges, negotiated within the framework of the World Trade Organisation. This is something for which the European Commission has a fundamental competence." In other words, the euro is not going to help stem the rise in unemployment and Europe will have to wait several more years - it took nearly a decade to negotiate the last 'round', which Europe is busy smashing up - before there can be any hope of recovery. Meanwhile, people in many countries are becoming increasingly sceptical that 'free trade' is a more important priority than stimulation of domestic demand and production. They see 'free trade' as little more than an excuse for rapacious asset-stripping by foreginers, especially in the fragile economies of Central and Eastern Europe. [Actualité européenne, 5^th May 1999]

Mr. Prodi also insisted that the European construction was pro-American, even in the monetary domain. Emphasising again and again the need to have "a stronger Europe" - he dwelt long on the need to reinforce the powers of the Commission to "give political leadership" - he said it would "facilitate a better and more durable balance between the two sides of the Atlantic and would lead to a model with two motors. This will without doubt be more stable than a system based on one single currency." He also devoted much of his speech to emphasising the need for Europe to develop its own defence capability and expressed approval for "a grand international conference on the Balkans." He called for this conference to integrate the Dayton accords with the Rambouillet agreement, saying that these accords could be "placed in a framework which would be definitive for the whole region once the Yugoslav Federation has returned to the European family of nations." [Le Monde, 6^th May 1999] 

 

New German commissioners to be red and green

The next two German commissioners are to be drawn from the ranks of the Social Democratic Party and the Green party. This was confirmed at a meeting of the governing coalition in the Chancellor's office late on 5^th May. "This is a coalition agreement," said a spokesman. "It is an irrevocable decision." The SPD is likely to appoint Günter Verheugen currently State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, while the Greens have not yet decided whom they will choose - although they have said it will be a woman. [Handelsblatt, 6^th May 1999]

 

How Commissioners are being recycled

Remember how the European Commission "resigned" in March? Well, all 20 Commissioners have remained in their posts, continued to draw full pay, and will cash in 3 years' salary when they leave. Furthermore, a clutch of them are even nor preparing to continue riding the euro-political merry-go-round by getting themselves elected as members of the European Parliament. Not only will Jacques Santer, the man who used to run the Commission, be ensured of a safe position on a Luxembourg list, but also Emma Bonino and Franz Fischler and going to become MEPs.

 

Trade dispute worsens

Not content with its war against the US over bananas, the European Union is now accentuating the one over hormone-treated beef. A committee of EU veterinary experts has reported that the hormone-treated beef permitted in Canada and the United States can cause cancer. (The Americans, by the way, are famously unconcerned about health issues of this kind.) This makes it likely that the Commission will continue to forbid the import of this beef into Europe. [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3^rd May 1999]

 

 

3. Other European News

The euro has continued to fall, hitting a new low against the dollar. On Friday 30^th April it fell to $1.0552. European Central bankers are understandably starting to sound a little nervous. Almost daily people like Hans Tietmeyer, Wim Duisenberg, Jean-Claude Trichet, Ernst Welteke and Jürgen Stark are saying that it has now sunk enough and that they are not deliberately adopting a policy of neglect towards the euro rate. These declarations have made no difference. Instead, the markets are concentrating on the apparently contradictory statements emanating from the ECB, interpreting them as signs of policy weakness. The market view is that the ECB has signally failed to manage its message as well as Alan Greenspan does at the Fed. The markets are also, naturally, looking at the underlying weakness of the euro-zone economy and drawing the appropriate conclusions. They are also aware that the US grew at a rate of 4.5% in the first quarter of 1999 while the prediction had been for 3.3%. Growth in Europe, by contrast, is so weak that some analysts are not ruling out further cuts in euro interest rates, which would naturally drive the exchange rate down even further. [Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Finanzmarkt, 3^rd May 1999]

To add to the gloom, one of Germany's biggest banks reported on Monday that there was not recovery in sight for the euro-economy. Total economic production is 0.9% lower than at the same time last year and further economic contraction is expected for the second quarter of 1999. Although the recent cuts in rates would normally boost confidence, the figures coming out of industry only give cause for pessimism. Both orders and expectations of production are down. [FAZ - Wirtschaft, 4^th May 1999]

The markets are also, naturally, factoring in the war in Kosovo. It is reported that the markets feel that only an early end to the conflict could halt the euro's collapse, even though the currency's fundamental weakness would of course persist. [FAZ - Wirtschaft, 4^th May 1999] This all explains why, contrary to the announcements of the euro-propagandists, Asian countries have shown total reluctance to use the euro as a reserve currency. The head of the Hong Kong monetary authority told the Financial Times that, "EMU has not actually been tested yet. The time that it will be tested is when there will be a real recession in Europe."

Speaking on the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of the Council of Europe - the continent's primary "human rights" body - the president of the Council's parliamentary assembly, Lord Johnston (formerly Sir Russell Johnston) has said that, "The defence of democracy is a never-ending task." "The war in the Balkans," he added, "should encourage us to continue our work." And for good measure: "The dominant characteristic of the Council's action in the next five years should be interference in the internal affairs of member states." Lord Johnston need have no worry: the Council will certainly be doing so, especially since the integration of the European Convention on Human Rights gives the Strasbourg Court the right to overturn criminal convictions in British courts. It has already indicated that it will do so for the two boys who murdered Jamie Bulger. [Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6^th May 1999] N.B. In recent years the Council of Europe has admitted all the former Warsaw Pact countries from Eastern Europe and several prominent members of the former Soviet Union, in the first place Russia itself but also Ukraine and, most recently, Georgia. This means that many of the "judges" who sit on the Strasbourg court are either "human rights activists" (of the kind whose activity the House of Lords ruled was incompatible with an impartial judicial activity) or old Communist functionaries.

The public minister in Perugia has called for Giuliano Andreotti, seven times prime minister of Italy, to be sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the murder of a journalist in 1979. The prosecutor of Palermo called for 15 years in prison three weeks ago. Mr. Andreotti was one of the principal architects of the Maastricht treaty, playing an especially important role when an "ambush" was conducted on the British government at a summit in Rome, forcing Britain to accept the Intergovernmental Conference which led to the treaty. [Le Monde, 4^th May 1999]

As part of the general trend towards ethnic regionalisation in Europe and the dismantling of nation-states, France has agreed to sign the Council of Europe's charter on regional languages. Naturally, this kind of thing appears cosy and laudable at first sight. But it is an important constitutional principle in France that all citizens be treated equally and one of the ways in which this is done is through the French language. Nothing, of course, prevents the teaching of regional languages, as they have been taught in France for many decades. But the charter is a clear attempt to pull the rug from under the feet of nation-states and to stoke up secessionist claims in various corners of different countries. It furthers the claims of those who wish to promote "trans-border" languages (i.e. German) at the expense of the authority of the French state. It will also disturb the constitutional balance in favour of those regions where some people (even if only a very few) speak these various dialects. [Actualité européenne, 3^rd May 1999] N.B. There are now several thousand registered "Cornish speakers", the language having in fact died out in the 1970s.

A 25 year-old Nigerian deportee died on a plane from Vienna to Sofia after having offered resistance to his minders. They restrained him and put tape over his mouth. This caused him to lose consciousness and when the plane arrived in Sofia he had died. [Der Standard (Vienna), 3^rd May 1999]

The French government has moved swiftly to try to limit political fallout from the arrest of the former prefect of Corsica. Bernard Bonnet was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly ordering the police to burn down a restaurant. The Jospin government has been severely embarrassed by the affair because, uniquely for a French département, it has increasingly tried to bring the affairs of the Mafia-riddled island under the direct control of Matignon (the prime minister's office). [Le Monde, 6^th May 1999]