Via euronews: Dutch peacekeepers ‘acted illegally’ over Srebrenica
massacre
http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/27/a-hague-court-rules-dutch-soldiers-acted-illegally-ahead-of-1995-srebrenica/
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June 26, 2017
German Economy: Only the World Can Stop Germany as Business Climate Hits Record - by Carolynn Look
tt seems the sky is the limit for Germany’s economy.
Business confidence -- logging its fifth consecutive increase -- jumped to the highest since 1991 this month, underpinning optimism by the Bundesbank that the upswing in Europe’s largest economy is set to continue.
With domestic demand supported by a buoyant labor market, risks to growth stem almost exclusively from global forces.
“Sentiment among German businesses is jubilant,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said in a statement. “Germany’s economy is performing very strongly.”
Read more: Only the World Can Stop Germany as Business Climate Hits Record - Bloomberg
Business confidence -- logging its fifth consecutive increase -- jumped to the highest since 1991 this month, underpinning optimism by the Bundesbank that the upswing in Europe’s largest economy is set to continue.
With domestic demand supported by a buoyant labor market, risks to growth stem almost exclusively from global forces.
“Sentiment among German businesses is jubilant,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said in a statement. “Germany’s economy is performing very strongly.”
Read more: Only the World Can Stop Germany as Business Climate Hits Record - Bloomberg
The Netherlands: Going Dutch; Netherlands Pains To Find New Government And Might Embrace Christian Traditionalists - by Marcel Michelson
More than three months after indecisive parliamentary elections, Dutch
political parties are still at loggerheads to find a government with
majority backing in parliament.
Following several permutations, and excluding the ultra-right PVV party of populist Geert Wilders, the next government looks set to become a centre-right coalition with the CHU Christian traditionalists. Perhaps it is wise to name a neutral cabinet instead.
While some people in Britain and France would like to see a more proportional electoral system like in the Netherlands, the Dutch elections resulted in a myriad of 13 elected parties splitting 150 seats out of 28 parties that participated.
The VVD liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte lost five percent points of the votes but remained the biggest party with 33 seats, ahead of the PVV that obtained 20 seats, Christian CDA at 19, centrist D66 also at 19 and Green Left at 14 seats, a gain of 10. SP also had 14 seats.
Read more: Going Dutch; Netherlands Pains To Find New Government And Might Embrace Christian Traditionalists
Following several permutations, and excluding the ultra-right PVV party of populist Geert Wilders, the next government looks set to become a centre-right coalition with the CHU Christian traditionalists. Perhaps it is wise to name a neutral cabinet instead.
While some people in Britain and France would like to see a more proportional electoral system like in the Netherlands, the Dutch elections resulted in a myriad of 13 elected parties splitting 150 seats out of 28 parties that participated.
The VVD liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte lost five percent points of the votes but remained the biggest party with 33 seats, ahead of the PVV that obtained 20 seats, Christian CDA at 19, centrist D66 also at 19 and Green Left at 14 seats, a gain of 10. SP also had 14 seats.
Read more: Going Dutch; Netherlands Pains To Find New Government And Might Embrace Christian Traditionalists
June 24, 2017
EU-Brexit talks 'will not consume EU', Angela Merkel warns Britain - by Jennifer Rankin
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel,
has warned Theresa May that the EU will not allow itself to be consumed
by the Brexit negotiations, as the British prime minister’s offer on
citizens’ rights was dismissed by Europe’s leaders as vague and
inadequate.
Emerging from a two-day summit in Brussels, where the issues discussed ranged from tackling the spread of terrorist propaganda on the internet to plans for cooperation on defence, Merkel insisted that her priority was not the Brexit talks, but steering the EU to a better future.
In response to May’s offer on citizens’ rights after Brexit, she also warned that the UK and the EU had a “long way to go” if they were going to reach agreement on the issue.
In a symbolic joint press conference with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Merkel said: “That was a good beginning, but – and I’m trying to word this very carefully – it was not a breakthrough.
Read more: Brexit talks 'will not consume EU', Angela Merkel warns Britain | Politics | The Guardian
Emerging from a two-day summit in Brussels, where the issues discussed ranged from tackling the spread of terrorist propaganda on the internet to plans for cooperation on defence, Merkel insisted that her priority was not the Brexit talks, but steering the EU to a better future.
In response to May’s offer on citizens’ rights after Brexit, she also warned that the UK and the EU had a “long way to go” if they were going to reach agreement on the issue.
In a symbolic joint press conference with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Merkel said: “That was a good beginning, but – and I’m trying to word this very carefully – it was not a breakthrough.
Read more: Brexit talks 'will not consume EU', Angela Merkel warns Britain | Politics | The Guardian
EU: It′s cool to be pro-EU with popular French President Emmanuel Macron
A year ago, the European Union was in a world of woe. The UK wanted
out, populists were rising in the polls and Donald Trump predicted more
countries would follow in the footsteps of Brexit - and that they'd be
better off for it. EU public relations staffers were continuing their
desperate search for that elusive "narrative" that would make Europeans
feel like they were part of a winning team.
All eyes were on the Dutch elections in March,the first domino in the lineup. If far-right nationalist Geert Wilders made significant gains on Prime Minister Mark Rutte, it would be the harbinger of a bigger disaster to come: French voters choosing the National Front's Marine Le Pen as their next president.
Rutte's win, if not particularly inspiring, provided the EU with some space to breathe. And by then it was obvious that newcomer Emmanuel Macron and his just-created "En Marche" movement were encroaching on France's old guard from both the left and the right with an undeniable energy, derived in part from being pro-EU and proud of it. By the time Macron made the long dramatic walk to give his acceptance speech accompanied by the EU - not the French - anthem, the tide of public sentiment had already turned in the EU's favor, with Macron sitting atop the crest of the wave.
Last week that feeling was quantified and described as a dramatic rebound by the Pew Research Center in a survey on public approval. It found that people in nine of the 10 member states surveyed - all but Greece - now view the EU favorably, "including 74 percent in Poland, 68 percent in Germany, 67 percent in Hungary and 65 percent in Sweden." That's true even in the UK, according to Pew.
Read more: It′s cool to be pro-EU with popular French President Emmanuel Macron | Europe | DW | 22.06.2017
All eyes were on the Dutch elections in March,the first domino in the lineup. If far-right nationalist Geert Wilders made significant gains on Prime Minister Mark Rutte, it would be the harbinger of a bigger disaster to come: French voters choosing the National Front's Marine Le Pen as their next president.
Rutte's win, if not particularly inspiring, provided the EU with some space to breathe. And by then it was obvious that newcomer Emmanuel Macron and his just-created "En Marche" movement were encroaching on France's old guard from both the left and the right with an undeniable energy, derived in part from being pro-EU and proud of it. By the time Macron made the long dramatic walk to give his acceptance speech accompanied by the EU - not the French - anthem, the tide of public sentiment had already turned in the EU's favor, with Macron sitting atop the crest of the wave.
Last week that feeling was quantified and described as a dramatic rebound by the Pew Research Center in a survey on public approval. It found that people in nine of the 10 member states surveyed - all but Greece - now view the EU favorably, "including 74 percent in Poland, 68 percent in Germany, 67 percent in Hungary and 65 percent in Sweden." That's true even in the UK, according to Pew.
Read more: It′s cool to be pro-EU with popular French President Emmanuel Macron | Europe | DW | 22.06.2017
June 23, 2017
German Bundestag Election 2017: Angela Merkel v Martin Schulz – latest poll tracker puts Merkel 11% ahead - by Reiss Smithl
 |
| Angela Merkel |
The survey puts the CDU and it sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) on 36.5 per cent, ahead of the SPD on 25 per cent.
Read more: German election 2017 polls: Angela Merkel v Martin Schulz – latest poll tracker | World |News | Express.co.uk
June 21, 2017
Global Economy: Back to the Global Vertical -a politically dangerous development - by Andres Ortega
In many ways, we are once again moving from the horizontal to the vertical dimension of global affairs.
This “verticality” is making itself especially felt in social terms. Social classes are back on the agenda, although not in the traditional Marxist sense of class struggle.
Rather, we are now coping with the decline of the middle classes and the emergence of a broader “precariat.”
The social escalator is not working as in previous eras, despite renewed growth in many economies following the crisis. Benefits that were taken for granted, such as full-time jobs with social security protections, are disappearing in significant numbers.
Perhaps we are witnessing what Dennis J. Snower calls the “great decoupling,” which he labels “dangerous,” unlike its predecessor, which was “convenient.”
When economic progress is not mirrored or is not linked to social progress, discontent is generated in those left behind. This decoupling ends up manifesting itself in politics.
This is what may be going on in many countries amid the prospect of recovery, an uneven emergence from the crisis and, before that, globalization, which is now generally acknowledged to have produced winners and losers.
The decoupling phenomenon is arising when the advanced economies, both industrial and post-industrial, are recovering from the crisis.
As Marc Fleurbaey of Princeton University argues, we must “prepare people for life and support them in life.”
Central to that is the commitment to education, particularly amid the challenge of technology and its controversial impact on employment and the concept of work.
A smart policy approach in that regard, as Ylva Johansson, the Swedish Employment Minister, points out, is not protecting specific jobs (which may be dying) as protecting workers (which need to be actively equipped and/or a guided toward a new one).
Somehow or other, although no one knows how, remedying the great decoupling will induce the vertical to become more horizontal again. Or so one hopes.
Failing to achieve this will only accentuate more verticality. And vertical moments, as we know, tend to be the more dangerous ones.
Editors note EU-Digest: but the situation is not hopeless. Change is possible. People can and will make the difference. All that is required is for responsible, well educated, socially conscious people, with new ideologies to start speaking out. The outdated, corrupt, political systems in many places of the world must be replaced before it leads to a catasthrophy
If it was possible in France, for a new party to be created within a one year time span prior to their Presidential and parliamentary elections, and for that party to win decisively, in both the Presidential and Parliamentary elections, it can also be done elsewhere.
The old and established parties have failed the people. The political establishment on both the left and the right have become corrupted by corporate influence and greed. It is high time for change, because the status quo is not acceptable anymore.
Read more: Back to the Global Vertical
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