Category: Featured

By David Haworth, in Brussels

The European Commission and the European Parliament are beginning to feel the rough edge of voter sentiment about them.

Neither institution is well regarded – and becoming less so all the time.

Of course European Union (EU) officials say nothing about the tsunami of complaint, criticism and contempt that the speed of emails exposes them to.

But the email blowback from voters is uncomfortably there.

BY MARK ROWE

THE ADDED value created by Spain’s textile and clothing sector will fall by 8.8% in 2009, according to forecaster Business Monitor International (BMI). Currently, ranks Spain’s entire textile industry as 13^th in the world in terms of textile and clothing manufacturing value added, which BMI priced at US$12.45 billion in 2008.

The recession also appears to be casting a medium-term shadow over the sector, with textile and clothing value (T&C) added also falling by 3.3% in 2010, reflecting difficult international economic conditions, said BMI: “We see a recovery beginning to set in only from 2012, with growth of 0.2%,” said a spokesman. “The industry’s trade performance will also reflect the especially difficult international economic situation. This year [Spanish] T&C exports will fall 7.8% to US$9.74 billion, with imports down 3.2% to US$17.76 billion. As a result there will be a T&C trade deficit of US$8.01 billion. The reason is a fast shrinking domestic market: Euromonitor estimates that the resulting contraction in the Spanish textile and clothing industry will cause make it shed up to 30% of its workforce over the next five or six years.

ENDS

By David Haworth, in Brussels

On the basis that you only notice a door close if you’re on the wrong side of it, the next six months of Sweden’s European Union (EU) leadership will see the launching of a five year justice plan for more citizens’ rights and better law enforcement coordination.

“One of the first duties of the state is to protect its citizens. Without security, there can be no freedom for European citizens,” a Swedish government briefing letter blandly asserts.

By Leah Germain, International News Services

So what does swindling investors out of US$65 billion get you these days? A 150-year prison sentence and a whole lot of bad publicity. Now from Bernie Madoff’s venerable standpoint, one-and-a-half centuries sounds like a painfully long sentence, especially if you are serving that time in a real American prison and not the infamous Club Fed, a low-security Florida prison facility reserved for white-collar criminals where 18 holes of golf and lobster cookouts are  rumored to be among the inmates’ daily activities.

By Leah Germain, International News Services

So what does swindling investors out of US$65 billion get you these days? A 150-year prison sentence and a whole lot of bad publicity. Now from Bernie Madoff’s venerable standpoint, one-and-a-half centuries sounds like a painfully long sentence, especially if you are serving that time in a real American prison and not the infamous Club Fed, a low-security Florida prison facility reserved for white-collar criminals where 18 holes of golf and lobster cookouts are  rumored to be among the inmates’ daily activities.

By David Haworth, in Brussels 

After a decade as the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy supremo, Javier Solana is to step down this autumn – sadly for him – he could not wait long enough for the creation of the world’s first multinational ‘foreign minister’ post.

“Enough is enough,” the former Spanish foreign minister and for four years head of NATO, says the EU High Representative of Foreign and Security Policy and added that he remains “calm and satisfied.”

By Alan Osborn, International News Services

A Swiss university has launched a course to bring modern business skills to the elite public servants of tomorrow – the people who run the key international organisations and agencies that increasingly shape the modern world. The International Organisations Master of Business Administration (IOMBA) programme has been set up by the University of Geneva.

 By David Haworth, in Brussels

No sooner has Sweden unveiled plans for the next six months of political endeavour in the European Union, than the wheel has fallen off before the new model can even be test driven. The Swedes who assumed the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1, had predicated their efforts on a quick reappointment of Jose Manuel Barroso, 53, the genial European Commission president, for another five years’ office.

By Paul Cochrane, in Beirut

June has been a month of elections in the Middle East. As happens every now and again in a region pretty thin on democracy and heavy on dynastic rule, there are elections that matter. The outcome of the Lebanese and Iranian elections fall in this rather rare category, with the Lebanese result retaining a status quo the West is happy with, while the Iranian 'result' is further souring relations with the US and Europe.

By Alan Osborn, International News Services

The European Commission re-opened for business on Monday last month (May 25) after a week of muddle and inaction caused by a fire in an electrical shaft that caused no injuries but seemed to put all business on hold for a few days. Happily for many of the 2,000 EU employees who work in the building, the week of the fire contained two public holidays and it was an easy matter to stretch these to a full week off from the office.