UKIP MEPs

• 30 NOV 2011

By Adrian Lowery | This is Money, Daily Mail

George Osborne admitted today that a drastically reduced growth outlook for the UK economy has left his plan to eliminate the Government's budget deficit by 2015 in tatters.

Delivering his Autumn Statement to a lively House of Commons, the Chancellor was forced into a significant revision to his much-vaunted 'Plan A' deficit reduction plan, with borrowing set to be £112billion more over the next four years than his Budget estimate.

New forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility show just 0.9 per cent growth this year, compared to 1.7 per cent predicted in March, and a drastically downgraded 0.7 per cent growth for next year, for which the OBR had forecast 2.5 per cent in March.

With growth in following years also coming in lower than was forecast in March, that means tax revenues will be lower and benefits spending higher, ruining the Chancellor's plans for a zero deficit by 2015.

Read entire article

See also:
UK body warns of risk of EU defaults (Irish Times)
Crippled Britain: Country grinds to a halt as millions go in strike (Daily Express)
David Cameron labels strikes 'damp squib' (The Inependent)
The £250m in green tax breaks to protect British business from EU environmental rules (Mail Online

Still much to do on economy, warn UKIP

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:31:04 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

UKIP

UKIP Leader Nigel Farage welcomed George Osborne's autumn statement but warned there was still much more to be done to rescue the ailing economy.

Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP Leader, responded to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement this afternoon:

"There are good things in this statement, and some honesty, but the Chancellor is kidding himself if he thinks he has got close to dealing with the problems that beset this country.

"The government's program to help small business is to be welcomed, but could be improved upon. It should end Employers' National Insurance, which is little more than a tax on jobs, across the lifetime of this parliament to get more people into work.

"But no matter how he cuts it, you cannot cut the deficit without cutting spending. He intends to continue the coalition’s suicidal energy policy subsidies. He accepts without apology his intention to borrow, on average more than £100 billion per annum, until 2015.

"He intends to increase the international aid budget and of course he leaves unanswered questions about the UK's liabilities to the EU direct, and indirectly through the IMF, when it comes to the eurozone bailouts.

"The Chancellor could have done much more to get this country's economy back on track."

READ MORE: Statement to face EC scrutiny

www.ukip.org

Eurozone finance ministers approve extension of EFSF: statement in full

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:29:06 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

The Telegraph

Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to increase the capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bailout fund. Here is the full text of a statement from the EFSF:

Euro area finance ministers agreed on November 29 on the terms and conditions to extend EFSF's capacity by introducing sovereign bond partial risk participation and a Co-Investment approach.

Ministers also adopted amended EFSF guidelines concerning intervention in the primary and secondary debt markets and precautionary credit lines in order to use leverage.

Klaus Regling CEO of EFSF commented: 'Both options are designed to enlarge the capacity of the EFSF so that the new instruments available to the EFSF can be used efficiently.'

Under the partial risk protection, EFSF would provide a partial protection certificate to a newly issued bond of a member state.

The certificate could be detached after initial issue and could be traded separately. It would give the holder an amount of fixed credit protection of 20-30 percent of the principal amount of the sovereign bond.

Read entire article

Desperate eurozone chiefs look to IMF as lender of last resort

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:27:46 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

Desperate eurozone chiefs look to IMF

By Leigh Phillips | EUobserver

BRUSSELS - With little interest materialising in the private sector to boost the eurozone's rescue fund, the region may ultimately be forced to turn to the International Monetary fund (IMF), eurozone finance ministers conceded on Tuesday (29 November).

First talks on the idea looked at options on how to leverage the rescue mechanism, the European Financial Stability Fund, or possibly open new IMF credit lines.

The latter option could see the European Central Bank channelling loans to the IMF and then on to embattled eurozone states. The ECB and Germany have stubbornly resisted the idea of the Frankfurt institution to lend directly to governments, but with strong IMF conditionality attached to such cash, ministers are hoping the fudge will be sufficient to win over opponents.

"We also agreed to rapidly explore an increase of the resources of the IMF through bilateral loans, following the mandate from the G20 Cannes summit, so that the IMF could adequately match the new firepower of the EFSF and co-operate even more closely," eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after the meeting.

The desperate turn to the international lender comes as efforts to achieve a boost in the fund’s firepower to the hoped-for €1 trillion failed.

Read entire article

See also:
Eurozone rescue plan enters endgame (EurActiv)
Eurozone may ask IMF for more help as crisis deepens (Irish Independent)
Eurozone agrees to explore ways to boost IMF bailout fund firepower (The Telegraph)

Holding the EU together by Money Printing and Force

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:25:48 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

International Business Times | By Greg Hunter

The European Union is frantically trying to come up with a plan to fix the debt crisis that is threatening to cause a worldwide financial calamity. It seems every day there’s a new idea to save the union. The latest is some sort of backdoor bailout through the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Why doesn’t the European Central Bank (ECB) just take care of the bailout by itself? It legally can’t according to the treaty that formed the European Union. That hasn’t stopped the central bank from bailing out countries anyway. But now, debt levels are reaching a critical stage as in a possible default, and the biggest problem is Italy. Todayonline.com is reporting, “If Italy defaults on its debt of 1.9 trillion euros, the fallout could spell ruin for the euro zone and send shockwaves throughout the rest of the world. Yesterday, Italy’s borrowing rates skyrocketed to record highs in a 7.5 billion euro bond auction. The yield on its 3-year bonds surged to 7.89 per cent, 2.96 percentage points higher than last month, while yields on 10-year bonds spiked to 7.56 per cent, up 1.5 percentage points.”

The key to saving the euro is Germany because it is the richest of the EU countries and can use its industrial might to help support a bailout fund. But, Germany has been reluctant to bail out deeply indebted countries. Now, calls to bend to pressure to save the day and keep the union together are reaching a fevered pitch. The Guardian UK reported earlier this week, “The Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, urged Germany to save the EU from “a crisis of apocalyptic proportions.” The Moody’s ratings agency predicted that a euro exit by any country would trigger a cascade of sovereign defaults across the eurozone. Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the influential Bruegel think-tank in Brussels, said that “real businesses” as well as the financial markets were now “pricing in a break-up scenario … If disaster expectations build up and a growing number of players start positioning themselves to protect themselves from it, the consequences could become overwhelming.”

Read entire article

Major Central Banks act as eurozone crisis rages

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:24:46 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

* Major central banks boost dollar liquidity for banks
* Italy starts emergency liquidity tenders for banks
* Euro zone ministers agree bailout fund leveraging rules
* Dutch finmin says EFSF falling short, IMF needs to come in
* G20 source says no progress on bolstering IMF resources

By Robin Emmott and Kirsten Donovan | Reuters

BRUSSELS/LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The world's major central banks acted jointly on Wednesday to provide cheaper dollar liquidity to starved European banks facing a credit crunch as the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis threatened to bring financial disaster.

The surprise emergency move by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the central banks of Britain, Canada and Switzerland recalled coordinated action to steady global markets in the 2008 financial crisis.

The euro and European shares surged on the news, which came after euro zone finance ministers agreed to ramp up the firepower of their bailout fund but acknowledged they may have to turn to the International Monetary Fund for more help.

In a related move, Italy's central bank started emergency cash tenders for banks which have been squeezed particularly hard in recent weeks as Rome's borrowing costs have soared towards 8 percent, a level seen as unaffordable in the long term.

"We are now entering the critical period of 10 days to complete and conclude the crisis response of the European Union," Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said as EU finance ministers met.

Read entire articl

Wolfgang Schauble admits what has long been known: euro bail-out fund won`t halt crisis

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:23:45 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

Europe's "big bazooka" bail-out fund is not ready and won't stem the debt crisis that on Tuesday pounded Italy and the European Central Bank (ECB), admitted Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's finance minister.

By Louise Armitstead | the Telegraph

Mr Schauble said eurozone finance ministers, who are meeting in Brussels, could not agree on the terms of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

He told Germany’s Handelsblatt that although Europe needed a fund “capable of action”, plans for the EFSF were too “intricate and complex” for investors to understand.

The finance ministers, who were meeting ahead of a full Ecofin summit today, acknowledged the €440bn (£376bn) fund would not win support to leverage it up to €1 trillion. Its capacity would be between €500bn and €700bn instead – a total that is unlikely to be big enough to rescue Spain and Italy.

Eurozone finance ministers also agreed to explore ways of boosting the IMF's resources through bilateral loans so that the international lender can match the leveraged capabilities of the eurozone's bailout fund.

However, the ministers concurred that the €8bn of international aid to Greece should be disbursed before Athens runs out of cash in two weeks. Evangelos Venizelos, Greece’s finance minister, said: “In Greece we have all the necessary conditions in order to go ahead with the next disbursement.”

Read entire article

Euro crisis: Italy at risk of insolvency, European finance ministers warned

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:22:55 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

Mario Monti must tackle Italian tax evasion to avoid other eurozone economies being damaged, says report

By Ian Traynor | The Guardian

European finance ministers were warned on Tuesday night that Italy's liquidity crisis could leave the eurozone's third biggest economy insolvent with devastating impact on the fate of the single currency and its big core economies, Germany and France.

Eurozone finance ministers met in Brussels in their latest attempt to plot a path out of the EU's worst crisis. With Mario Monti, the new Italian prime minister and finance minister, reporting to the session on his austerity package aimed at saving Italy and shoring up the euro, a confidential report from the European commission and the European Central Bank said Monti would need to do more than already promised.

The report, obtained by the Guardian, said Monti had to go further in his promises to combat rampant tax evasion in Italy, which is estimated to amount to 20% of gross domestic product.

"The sovereign debt crisis has now moved from the periphery to Italy and other core euro area countries. Pressure on Italian sovereign bond yields is particularly acute, reflecting investors' mounting concerns with the sustainability of Italy's large public debt" – almost €2tn, (£1.7tn) – the report said.

"The risks of a full-blown sovereign liquidity crisis can increase rapidly in the absence of a determined policy response … Persistently high interest rates increase the risk of a self-fulfilling 'run' from Italy's sovereign debt. A liquidity crisis could then turn into a solvency crisis, whose repercussions for other large euro area countries would be very acute given their exposure to the Italian economy."

Italy on Tuesday easily raised €7.5bn on the bond markets, but at exorbitant rates above the 7% sustainability threshold.

Read entire article

See also:
Rome Pays High Price at Bond Sale (WSJ)
Getting Nostalgic About The Lira? (Open Europe)

Public support for EU on social policy in `dramatic` nose-dive

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:21:11 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

By Leigh Phillips | EUobserver

BRUSSELS - A regular European Commission social issues survey out on Tuesday (29 November) has shown that the public’s belief that the EU is having a positive impact on employment and social policy - policies with the biggest impact on ordinary peoples' lives - has sharply declined in almost all countries.

“Compared with 2009, there has been a substantial fall in the number of people who think that the EU has a positive impact,” the survey says.

Across a series of eight questions dealing with such issues as boosting employment, fighting poverty and protecting social services, between 48 and 67 percent of respondents thought that the EU was having a positive impact.

This is down from between 62 and 78 percent for the same questions in the last such survey in 2009.

The downturn in support is a marked shift from backing for EU social policy efforts prior to the crisis. Such backing had generally remained stable for years, as the surveys note.

Read entire article

See also:
Eurobarometer Nov-2011 Survey (Employment & Social Policy) (EU Commission)

Eurozone approves 8bln euro loan instalment to be added to Greek debt

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:19:33 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

Daily Express

Eurozone ministers have offered Greece an eight billion euro Christmas rescue package to stem an immediate cash crisis - yet they have failed to resolve fears that the common euro currency might be doomed.

The 17 finance ministers insisted they found a veneer of credibility to coat the euro's rescue fund with enough leverage to deal with potential financial crises much bigger than the one facing peripheral Greece.

And they called on the International Monetary Fund for resources to help further protect Europe's embattled currency.

"We made important progress on a number of fronts," said Jean-Claude Juncker, the ,eurozone chief.

After saying earlier that the eurozone's rescue fund would be able to leverage up to one trillion euro, the fund's chief remained vague on how beefed up it was after the meeting in Brussels.

Read entire article

Greece asks for support to absorb EU regional aid

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:18:48 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

EurActiv

Athens will need technical assistance to ramp up its capacity to absorb EU regional funding, the Greek Minister for Development, Competition and Shipping, has told the European Parliament.

Addressing the Parliament's Regional Development Committee, Michalis Chrisochoidis stressed that Greece will be unable to solve its debt problem without investment in growth-enhancing projects.

“Our goal is to promote useful projects and infrastructures for the citizens that will initiate the development process, but will also provide relief and solutions to major problems of unemployment and especially youth unemployment," the Greek minister told MEPs on Tuesday (22 November).

€14 billion remain blocked

Chrisochoidis, who has officially announced his candidacy for president of the PASOK party, highlighted the few bright spots in Greece's economic performance such as the substantial increase in exports of manufactured goods, which rose 50% in October 2011 compared to October 2010.

If elected, Chrisochoidis would replace George Papandreou who resigned as prime minister earlier this month but remains head of PASOK.

He outlined the increased rate of absorption of EU regional funds and amendments to EU rules that allowed the European Investment Bank (EIB) to fund small businesses. A new Investment law that has already attracted projects proposals for up to €1.5 billion, he said.

Read entire article

More Violence in Kosovo: NATO Tells Troops to Use Live Ammunition

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:17:32 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

RT

Youtube.com

Seriously? Senate Considering Repeal of Anti-Torture Measures

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:16:17 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Yesterday, the ACLU and over 30 other organizations sent a letter to the Senate asking them to oppose an effort in Congress that threatens to revive the use of torture and other inhumane interrogation techniques. If passed, an amendment introduced by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to the Defense Authorization bill would roll back torture prevention measures that Congress overwhelmingly approved in the 2005 McCain Anti-Torture Amendment, as well as a 2009 Executive Order on ensuring lawful interrogations. It would also require the administration to create a secret list of approved interrogation techniques in a classified annex to the existing interrogation field manual.

Read entire article

Pakistan: US Attack on Base Lasted �Almost Two Hours� as Calls to Stop Were Ignored

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:14:04 GMT

• 30 NOV 2011

Pakistani Military Spokesman Angrily Rejects Claim They Started It

By Jason Ditz | Antiwar.com

Questions continue to grow over the Friday night US attack on a Pakistani military base today, with new reports coming out of Pakistan saying that the air attacks against the base lasted for almost two hours.

The Army statement says that the base repeatedly broadcast calls for a ceasefire over the course of the two hours and that those calls were repeatedly ignored, with the attack, carried out by warplanes and helicopters, killing 24 soldiers

Read entire article