Sunday, June 24, 2007

Angela Merkel’s Successful EU Summit in Brussels

Europe's Marathon Talks Clinched a Deal

SPIEGEL.de (smd/reuters/ap)* - Europe can breathe a sigh of relief after a marathon night of negotiations ended in a deal. After German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the stakes by threatening to go ahead without Poland, Warsaw was finally placated with a number of concessions and all 27 countries agreed to move forward with a new draft treaty to replace the defunct constitution...

The compromise with Poland includes the postponement of the new voting system until 2014, and it will now not be fully implemented until 2017. In essence, it means the Poles can maintain their current level of influence in the EU for another 10 years. Under the current system Poland has 27 votes on the EU's decision-making council, compared with 29 for Germany, although its population is twice as big...

Blair, who leaves office on June 27 and who 10 years ago had pledged to place Britain in the heart of Europe, could go home with a deal which let London continue to control over its own national affairs. "The most important thing here is that the constitutional treaty was put to one side," Blair said on June 23. "This deal gives us a chance to move on."

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* Excerpts of the linked article, dated June 23, 2007

The Globe's Power Structure – USA, EU, China, India

While the USA got 0.3 the EU with its 27 states counts 0.5 billion inhabitants whereas China's amount to 1.3 and India's to 1.1 bln.

Europe and United States, 1944-2006:

Two Destinies in an Uncertain World
© Prof. Gérard Bossuat...*

Europeans already know a great deal about Chinese or Indian powers because of delocalisation and Asiatic investments in Europe. The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barosso, said in October 2005: »Now, China ranks third in the world in terms of its volume of foreign merchandise trade, after the EU and the US. How many of you think it will remain in third position? Europeans know that EU uses growth of China or India. EU is the first partner of China and its first provider of advanced technologies. The Commission thinks Europe doesn't have to be afraid by the growth desire of Indian and Chinese peoples ("desire for growth on the parts of the Indians and Chinese")«...

What future for EU in the transatlantic relation?

Although we know that the European Union is not an equal partner with the United States, it is deeply involved in international relations, and often on its own terms. Is Europe able to be anything else than on a spoke of the world wheel operated by Washington, as Josef Joffe suggests?...

An Atlantic partnership is acceptable if European Cultural, Linguistic, Social and Economic diversities are preserved. And however Europe feels a threat through Globalisation which is so often seen as an instrument of Americanisation. The European Union is weak but not drifting...
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*
Institute of European Studies - University of California, Berkeley (California), 2006 - Excerpts


Thursday, June 21, 2007

US Droughts & Green Lawns - Corporations as Offenders

e-glob, Washington (DC) - Americans feel it's their god given right to have green lawns and to cool children with hoses. They get very mad at their neighbors for not maintaining an emerald colored lawn. They are so crazy about this, that they actually have imported lawns into desert communities, such as Las Vegas and Arizona. This puts pressure on the water supply, of course.

As for the kids and the hoses, some folks have real built-in-pools, some have little wading pools. It's hard to get kids to want to shower, and they sort of don't really understand when they are over heated and don't always recognize that water will cool them off. So moms everywhere allow them to play under lawn sprinklers and hoses. This keeps them from getting heat stroke while they are playing. If you told them to go cool down in the shower, they would refuse because that's like a punishment to a little kid. Whereas romping under a sprinkler or a hose is a treat. In the city where no one has a lawn, some people figure out how to take the covers off fire hydrants and the city kids play in that. It's also fun. But the cities hate that, so they have devised specialized locks for the hydrants that keep the kids out of the hydrants. [
click for more]

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

France, Germany, Poland – prior to the EU summit

EU summit threat as Poland hints at veto

“Poland has threatened to wreck this week's EU summit on a new treaty to replace Europe's failed constitution by calling for the reopening of talks on how power is wielded within the union.

Amid the worst row in years between Poland and Germany, which is driving the new treaty and seeking to salvage as much as possible from the defunct constitution, Warsaw made it plain that it could block a deal unless its views were accommodated. …” (Guardian UK - by Ian Traynor, Brussels)

A forthcoming EU leadership role of France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy was outlined (by FK) at the SPIEGEL FORUM on Politics (in German language).

One of its posters (a German who resides in Poland) provided an interesting and detailed
political background information.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Multicultural Blogs - update

Referring to the introduction, here’s a further update:

NEWS

New Blogger Template l EU+NATO l Greenhouse Gas Concentration

New "Blogger" Experiences l NATO+EU Considerations

"Blogger" Blogs l Gwen Stefani Honored l Weird Spy Case


Sarkozy's Majority (France) l "Blogger" News l LyricWiki

France’s Conservative Party Won Parliamentary Majority

President Nicolas Sarkozy's party (UMP) won a clear parliamentary majority on June 17 in elections seen as crucial to his vision for opening up France's economy, although the opposition thwarted a landslide victory by capitalizing on voter fears of giving Sarkozy too much power. However, the UMP will face little resistance to the rash of planned measures, within a few weeks, in order to make France's sluggish economy more competitive and less protective. …

Read more at ABC News...

Multicultural Blogging - daily

For two years we’re running the multicultural blog INTERNATIONAL STUFF on a daily schedule. While my main correspondent "e-glob" resides in Washington (DC), I stay currently in Germany’s Rhine-Main area (Wiesbaden, Mainz, Frankfurt); formerly I had resided - among other international locations - in France [Paris] and in the USA [Dallas-Fort Worth (Texas), San Francisco (California), Manhattan (New York)].

At the Haplif Navigation Center (lower part of the page)
a selection of topics of the ‘International Stuff’ blogs (previously 1320, currently 790 posts) may be clicked.

Some current issues are summarized at News.

More information:
Success of the blog INTERNATIONAL STUFF [Google Groups & Usenet]

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Interacting with the Haplifnet

The four moderated HAPLIFNET blogs (3 English, 1 German) are basically administered at Groups Google. Thus, we made them available at Blogger™, too.

In the future, I’ll post here some further themes additionally, and you are cordially invited to submit any comments...

HAPLIF BLOGGING - international [worldwide] {haplifnet}

HAPLIF BLOGGING - international [worldwide] {haplifnet} Google Groups

HAPLIF BLOGGING international - DEUTSCH {haplifnet}

HAPLIF BLOGGING international - DEUTSCH {haplifnet} Google Groups (in German language)

DESIGNER FASHION [Europe + worldwide] {haplifnet}

DESIGNER FASHION [Europe + worldwide] {haplifnet} Google Groups

GOVERNANCE - global vs. regional {haplifnet}

GOVERNANCE - global vs. regional {haplifnet} Google Groups

Welcome - Willkommen - Bienvenu

Welcome to the Haplifnet !

This blog on politics, economics, culture, and media is basically in English.

In addition, German or French are appreciated, too.