EU: New Pact for Europe - all about the initiative

The euro-zone crisis has provided a strong new impetus for European integration, but that now risks being undermined amid increasing tension over how best to meet the many complex financial, economic, political, social and global challenges we face. Efforts to overcome the current malaise are being hampered by profound disagreements over the future course of reforms; mounting socio-economic problems and political instability in many EU countries; different interpretations of the causes and consequences of the crisis; growing Euroscepticism and an increasing reluctance among both citizens and elites to further pool sovereignty at European level. And while the EU is preoccupied with itself, Europe keeps on losing ground as the global shift continues.

The New Pact for Europe project was launched by the King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium) and is supported by a large transnational consortium. This project aims to promote a Europe-wide debate on reform proposals addressing three fundamental questions which need to be answered to develop an effective response to the multi-dimensional crisis Europeans are facing:

• What is at stake if 'Europe' cannot tackle the various challenges we face? ('What do we need the EU for?')
• What kind of collaboration is needed at European level to respond to the crisis? ('What needs to be done?')
• How can the answers to these two questions be translated into action to make the EU more effective and to command broader-based public support? ('How should it be done?')

A Reflection Group and an Advisory Group provides input to, and inspiration for, the elaboration of a New Pact between policy-makers and European citizens and between Member States:
The Reflection Group includes top opinion-makers from different EU Member States, who have a genuine interest in the success of European integration, are realistic and pragmatic but at the same time able to think 'out of the box', and ready and able to communicate through the media.

The Advisory Group brings together high-ranking policy-makers, academics, NGO representatives and other stakeholders – a mixture of past and current national and European leaders from different sectors and backgrounds.

Read more: About the initiative - New Pact for Europe - Profile

EU: We want a United States of Europe says top EU official - by Bruno Waterfield

EU-United we stand Divided we fall

A campaign for the European Union to become a "United States of Europe" will be the "best weapon against the Eurosceptics", one of Brussels' most senior officials has said.

Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission and the longest serving Brussels commissioner, has called for "a true political union" to be put on the agenda for EU elections this spring.

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the Commission as government and two chambers – the European Parliament and a "Senate" of Member States," she said last night.

Mrs Reding's vision, which is shared by many in the European institutions, would transform the EU into superstate relegating national governments and parliaments to a minor political role equivalent to that played by local councils in Britain.

Under her plan, the commission would have supremacy over governments and MEPs in the European Parliament would supersede the sovereignty of MPs in the House of Commons.

Note EU-Digest: Stronger unity is the only way for the EU to get true leverage on the overall state of World Affairs, regardless if Eurosceptics like the idea or not. United Europe will stand and divided it will fall. Anyone who believes any one country in the EU can go at it alone, while surrounded by world super powers like Chia, Russia and the US is dreaming.


Almere-Digest

The Netherlands: Sharia proponent Haitham al-Haddad Upcoming Visit To Almere Causing Major Controversy

Haitham al-Haddadto speak in Almere

The City Council of  Almere has been embroiled in a controversy as to a speaking engagement of Haitham al-Haddad in Almere. Cleric Haitham al-Haddad  is a controversial Sharia proponent from England. 

He comes to Almere on Februari 7 at the invitation of the Organization of Muslim Youth Almere.

Show van Dijk member of the PVV ( Freedom Party)  political fraction in the Almere City Council said that  the Muslim Clerc Haitham al-Haddad should not be allowed to speak in Almere. He noted that Haitham al-Haddad in the past has made some very radical statements about non-muslims which are unacceptable in a secular and multi-cultural society like the Netherlands. Also the SP (Socialist Party) representative in the Almere City Coincil said they were against Haitham al-Haddad presentation in Almere.
 
The VVD (Conservative), Liveable Almere ( Right-Wing) and Green (Liberal) political fractions in the City Council stated that based on Dutch laws guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression, Haitham al-Haddad should be allowed to  give his talk on Sharia Law, as long as the content of his talk does not violate Dutch laws and the politicians suggested that the format of the presentation not be one of a formal lecture, but rather an open discussion..

It might be good to note that all aspects of a Muslim's life are governed by Sharia. Sharia law comes from a combination of sources including the Quran (the Muslim holy book), the Hadith (sayings and conduct of the prophet Muhammad) and fatwas (the rulings of Islamic scholars).

In Europe so-called Islamic "peace judges" or arbiters are settling criminal cases, not just in Germany but in many other European countries as well. Muslim immigrants generally prefer their own judges and do not trust secular Western legal systems. Thus, Islamic shadow justice systems are making inroads into Western societies. 

"Under Sharia law to settle disputes can be innocent, but it can also undermine Western ideas of fairness," Der Spiegel reports. 

Journalist Joachim Wagner, author of a new German study on parallel justice, says that the world of the Islamic shadow justice system is "very foreign, and for a German lawyer completely incomprehensible. It follows its own rules. The Islamic arbitrators aren't interested in evidence when they deliver a judgment, and unlike in German criminal law, the question of who is at fault doesn't play much of a role." The arbitrators "talk with the perpetrator's family who are generally the ones who have called the arbitrator, and with the victim's family," Wagner says. "They ask: Why did this happen? How bad is the damage? How serious is the injury? But for them, a solution of the conflict, a compromise, is the most important thing." 
  
Reportedly, at least 85 Sharia courts now operate in the UK, dispensing rulings that are often illegal, per British jurisprudence.

Muslim states which embrace Sharia Law are able to enforce public morality and as a result have greatly reduced women’s mobility and their participation in the public sphere.

In 2008, a Dutch-Turkish woman was raped by her nephew. But the Dutch-Turkish Imam Bahauddin (Bahaeddin) Budak advised her not to inform her relatives about it. If she would go pulic about the crime and sue her nephew in court, her life might be in danger. 

He also advised her to forgive the perpetrator. Such crimes are very common among Turkish, Moroccan, Pakistani, Iraqi and Iranian immigrants in Europe many of whom still regard women as sex objects. There is also a strong tendency to cover up crimes such as rape. Women who dare to talk about it in public, or who report such crimes to the police, very often face serious repercussions, since the so-called "honor of the family" is at stake. 

In too many cases, these defenseless victims are subsequently even killed by family members. Budak was also a Muslim religious teacher at the "Inholland university of applied sciences" in Amsterdam. Inholland's director Cor de Raadt had Budak temporarily suspended, but a lot of Dutch Muslims complained about De Raadt's decision and showed solidarity with Imam Budak. 

A Dutch professor in Theology at Amsterdam University noted: "Sharia Law is an archaic law which should not even be qualified as a law. It does not belong in any shape or form in Europe, or for that matter in any other self respecting Democratic society". 

Almere-Digest 

The Netherlands: What is Almere and Flevoland doing to attract foreign companies to the area and what were the results in 2013?

The Scottisch press recently  reported that some of Scotland's fastest growing technology employers are seeking to band together to attract talented digital experts to move north of the Border.

Senior figures at internet dating company Cupid, Tesco Bank and flight comparison website Skyscanner have held talks about how they can persuade the technology industry's rising stars to come to Scotland.

Phil Gripton, the new chief executive of Cupid said: "I have been talking to those at Skyscanner and Tesco Bank.

"We are trying to work together to make Edinburgh a much more attractive place to bring in digital talent."
He said that with other potential employers such as Virgin Money and the Scottish Government, digital experts have substantial career options in Edinburgh and Scotland more generally.

Mr Gripton is among those who have been tempted to move north after he relocated from Manchester to Edinburgh on initially joining Cupid as managing director of its dating services business a year ago.

He formally took over as chief executive from Bill Dobbie on December 1 and has succeeded in bringing in a number senior staffers with experience at major digital employers such as Skype and Match.com to the business as he reshaped the team around him.

This raises an immediate question as to comparable efforts made in the Almere- Flevoland area.

Is there a report available as to what efforts have been made in  2013 in getting foreign companies to settle in the province of Flevoland and Almere, and how many jobs have been created as a result of this.

So far the only answer Almere-Digest was able to get on this question was that the City of Almere foreign promotion was being done together with Amsterdam. Unfortunately concrete facts about the results were unable to come by.

Almere-Digest

Europe's Most (And Least) Affordable Cities according to the European Backpacker Index For 2014

Almere City Lake - the Netherlands

The European Backpacker Index for 2014 ,published last week, rates 51 major European cities by price and was designed to assist budget-minded consumers plan and compare destinations “at a glance.”

“Parts of Europe are still amazing bargains from a global standpoint,” Roger Wade, founder of Price of Travel, a website that helps travelers compare expenses in major cities around the world, said in an email.

“The 10 or so cheapest cities on the list are still far cheaper than any place in the United States, and this includes such popular destinations as Budapest, Krakow, Istanbul, and Prague,” bargain cities that are still far less expensive than their counterparts a bit to the west.

“There are huge sections of Europe where backpackers can live it up on US$50 or less per day, and most of these places are less crowded and touristy than the expensive cities as well,” said Wade, who researched and compiled the list of cities from cheapest to most expensive.

Bucharest (Romania), Kiev (Ukraine) and Sofia (Bulgaria) are the cheapest tourist cities on the new European Backpacker Index; Zurich (Switzerland), Stockholm (Sweden) and Oslo (Norway) ranked as the most expensive.

The Daily Backpacker Index daily rate for Bucharest is currently $24.69 a day; for Zurich, it’s $123.60 a day.

The index is based on the price of a hostel bed (one night in the cheapest bunk at the least expensive hostel in a good location with good reviews),two public transportation rides, three budget meals, the average cost of one cultural attraction and three inexpensive beers (or wine) for each day in each city. (Non-drinkers might have dessert and coffee or attend a local music performance instead, the listing notes.)

“The most significant changes this year had to do with currency fluctuations rather than changing prices. Most notably, the Turkish Lira is down about 20% since the beginning of 2013, so Istanbul and the rest of Turkey are quite cheap and really great value at the moment,” said Wade.

“The Pound and Euro have strengthened a bit so the most popular cities are all a little more expensive for the rest of us, but that could be reversed by summer because they are always bouncing around. Most museums and attractions kept their prices steady this past year, although a few of the most famous ones do seem to push them up a little every year.”

Valletta (Malta), Vilnius (Lithuania), Interlaken (Switzerland) and Santorini (Greece) are new this year, Wade said, mostly because of readers’ requests. Santorini was added in part “because many people are skipping Athens lately,” he said.

Links after each city provide general background and weather information, and more detail about prices.

Now in its fourth year, the index has been updated for 2014. During the past four years, Wade said, most changes to the lists have been refinements to the research process by him and currency fluctuations. Overall, he said, “most places have been pretty steady.”

It was “mildly surprising” but interesting that so many museums and public transportation systems have continued to keep prices stable, Wade said. “I think many people cynically assume that prices go up every year, but Europe is still mostly struggling economically and it’s nice that most cities are resisting the temptation to raise money just by raising prices.”

For travelers with slightly higher budgets than typical backpackers, and who prefer hotels, the Europe 3-Star Traveler Index for 2013 is a similar ranking, but uses a centrally located and well-rated 3-star hotel room, taxi rides and a higher allowance for food prices.

Almere-Digest

NSA turns "Get Smart" TV comedy into a reality show - Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices - by Jacob Appelbaum, Judith Horchert and Christian Stöcker

When it comes to modern firewalls for corporate computer networks, the world's second largest network equipment manufacturer doesn't skimp on praising its own work. According to Juniper Networks' online PR copy, the company's products are "ideal" for protecting large companies and computing centers from unwanted access from outside. They claim the performance of the company's special computers is "unmatched" and their firewalls are the "best-in-class." Despite these assurances, though, there is one attacker none of these products can fend off -- the United States' National Security Agency.

Specialists at the intelligence organization succeeded years ago in penetrating the company's digital firewalls.

A document viewed by SPIEGEL resembling a product catalog reveals that an NSA division called ANT has burrowed its way into nearly all the security architecture made by the major players in the industry -- including American global market leader Cisco and its Chinese competitor Huawei, but also producers of mass-market goods, such as US computer-maker Dell.

These NSA agents, who specialize in secret back doors, are able to keep an eye on all levels of our digital lives -- from computing centers to individual computers, and from laptops to mobile phones. For nearly every lock, ANT seems to have a key in its toolbox. And no matter what walls companies erect, the NSA's specialists seem already to have gotten past them.

This, at least, is the impression gained from flipping through the 50-page document. The list reads like a mail-order catalog, one from which other NSA employees can order technologies from the ANT division for tapping their targets' data. The catalog even lists the prices for these electronic break-in tools, with costs ranging from free to $250,000.

In the case of Juniper, the name of this particular digital lock pick is "FEEDTROUGH." This malware burrows into Juniper firewalls and makes it possible to smuggle other NSA programs into mainframe computers. Thanks to FEEDTROUGH, these implants can, by design, even survive "across reboots and software upgrades." In this way, US government spies can secure themselves a permanent presence in computer networks. The catalog states that FEEDTROUGH "has been deployed on many target platforms."

The ANT division doesn't just manufacture surveillance hardware. It also develops software for special tasks. The ANT developers have a clear preference for planting their malicious code in so-called BIOS, software located on a computer's motherboard that is the first thing to load when a computer is turned on.

Another program attacks the firmware in hard drives manufactured by Western Digital, Seagate, Maxtor and Samsung, all of which, with the exception of the latter, are American companies. Here, too, it appears the US intelligence agency is compromising the technology and products of American companies.

Other ANT programs target Internet routers meant for professional use or hardware firewalls intended to protect company networks from online attacks. Many digital attack weapons are "remotely installable" -- in other words, over the Internet. Others require a direct attack on an end-user device -- an "interdiction," as it is known in NSA jargon -- in order to install malware or bugging equipment.

Note EU-Digest : NSA turns "Get Smart" TV comedy into a reality show. Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry,^[1] the show stars Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86), Barbara Feldon (as Agent 99), and Edward Platt (as Chief). Henry said they created the show by request of Daniel Melnick, who was a partner, along with Leonard Stern and David Susskind, of the show's production company, Talent Associates, to capitalize on "the two biggest things in the entertainment world today"—James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.^[2] Brooks said: "It's an insane combination of James Bond and Mel Brooks comedy."

Read more: Catalog Reveals NSA Has Back Doors for Numerous Devices - SPIEGEL ONLINE

NSA Scandal requires EU Cyber-Barriers and "foreign Telecoms need to meet EU standards -- by Susan Crawford

The smooth flow of online communication and commerce between Europe and the U.S. is at risk of interruption, thanks in part to naked opportunism on the part of European telecommunications giants. If the governments involved fail to keep online barriers between the continents low, the Internet’s potential to be an engine of global economic growth will be constrained.

Take Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) (DTE), the largest provider of high-speed Internet access and wireless services in Germany and the largest telecommunications organization in the European Union. To expand, the company will have to acquire additional communications companies; in order to do so, it hopes to free itself from the German government’s 32 percent ownership in the company. It has also expressed a desire to diversify into non-telecommunications lines of business, such as technical-services delivery.

The snooping scandal at the U.S. National Security Agency may help Deutsche Telekom achieve both these goals. T-Systems International GmbH, the company’s 29,000-employee-strong distribution arm for information-technology solutions, has been losing money selling systems-integration and data-processing services. Now, in response to customers’ loss of trust in American services, Reinhard Clemens, T-Systems’ chief executive officer, says he wants to refocus the company on providing cloud services.

Deutsche Telekom has also proposed to help Europe avoid NSA surveillance by creating “Schengen area routing,” a network for the 26 European countries that have agreed to remove passport controls at their borders. This network would supposedly allow these nations to securely exchange data among themselves. Conveniently, the Schengen area does not include the U.K., which is now known to be closely cooperating with the NSA.

Deutsche Telekom undoubtedly thinks that it will be able to collect fees from network operators in other countries that want their customers’ data to reach Deutsche Telekom’s customers -- and that the company has the market power to raise those tolls ever higher. As things stand, networks already try to avoid Deutsche Telekom’s wires when routing Internet traffic to German customers because the company refuses to swap traffic on a no-payment basis -- the common practice of competitive carriers around the world.

With hundreds of lobbyists in Berlin, Deutsche Telekom can see to it that if any German legislator is asked what to do about the NSA problem, he or she will respond with “Secure routing of traffic.” Surely this secure Schengen area routing would be even smoother if Deutsche Telekom owned more of the telecommunications operators involved.

Meanwhile, European telecom regulators, anxious to help European companies avoid the risk of being bought up by Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. or Carlos Slim, the Mexican wireless monopolist, are encouraging consolidation -- with Deutsche Telekom’s full support. “Now is the right time” for consolidation, Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Officer Rene Obermann said in November.

Read more: NSA Scandal May Help Build Cyber-Barriers - Bloomberg