LSE panel discussion on Greece with former ministers from Greece

Now is the time to learn more, and so why not turn to academia instead of the media to do so.

Last week, on 28 April, the London School of Economics held a panel discussion titled "The Greek Fiscal Crisis and the Future of the Euro-Zone" with two recent ministers of economy and finance from Greece and two more economists: Professor George Alogoskoufis, Dr Yannos Papantoniou, Professor Wim Koesters & Simon Tilford.

The mp3 of the event is available here, the video in this list. It's worth watching and listening, especially if you make it to the last third of podcast and questions like "What is wrong with national statistics in Greece?" pointed at former ministers of finance...

By the way: The LSE podcast are worth listening/watching for many other topics, too!

Greece: 110,000 million Euro & smiling faces

Diplomatically spoken: I took note of the Eurogroup statement issued Sunday evening.

I don't want to talk about the decision itself, it's big enough for the traditional media to notice, so why spend a blog post on the matter? Just wanted to leave a little comment regarding EU communication:

If I was responsible for the press releases at the Spanish EU Council Presidency, I wouldn't have written "110,000 million" when I could have written "110 billion" and I wouldn't have chosen a photo with smiling faces for a press release announcing an international aid package that should leave anybody involved sweating and crying.*

But luckily, I am neither responsible for the Spanish presidency's communication nor for financial decisions that are beyond human imagination.

* Alan Fisher at "The Europe Blog" has a much more appropriate picture for the news.

Greece, boredom and representative democracy

I am so bored by news on Greece.

I have understood that the country is in financial trouble and that this could threaten the Eurozone and the Euro. I have understood that Eurozone leaders aren't willing to give unconditional help but that some kind of support might be necessary to get Greece out of the shit. I have also understood that not everyone in Greece seems to share the assessment of the situation.

But why do we need so many reports around this topic? I as a citizen cannot do anything about that, this kind of thing is exactly why I have elected officials and their administrations. That is why I have representative democracy supported by technical experts. Let them take a decision that doesn't ruin our monetary system and then let's move on.

Since I will not get an informed idea what would be the best solution because that is a pretty complex matter and I don't have an administration around me to explain all the concrete consequences, I won't have an informed opinion about the topic.

So I also don't need press and blog discussions about this or that monetary fund and this or that measure to save money and there. They don't explain the real consequences, they talk about the politics of the matter, making the situation more complicated instead of easier.

I don't know, maybe I am wrong, but I am bored to death hearing about the Greece thing in the press.

PS.: To our politicians: Just take a decision and explain it to us. If we don't like it, you won't be re-elected.

Is Greece a natural disaster?

Two years ago, Stephen Colbert wanted to convince the US to join the EU, but now he is happy "about the self-destruction of Europe". And he knows why P.I.G.S is a perfect acronym on our continent.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Greece's Economic Downfall - Scheherazade Rehman
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

For those of you who have watched the full seven minutes: Yes, you heard correctly - a satirical American news show dares to quote from an actual article of the Lisbon Treaty, something European news don't even consider doing (not even as a joke)...

FYROM & Greece: The dispute over the word "Macedonia" continues

According to EurActiv, the Greek and the Macedonian prime ministers will meet on Friday to discuss the stupid name issue they have been running for years.

I have said what I think about this over a year ago already. And I still think that the name of a country should not be part of serious discussions between two European countries, one of them being a member of the European Union.

So Greece, let Macedonia call itself "Macedonia" (instead of "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" - FYROM), and Macedonia, promise that you don't want any territory in today's Greece. Then shake hands and let the EU candidate country Macedonia advance on its path towards the European Union and let us come closer to a united European continents where countries don't fight over names or territories but work together for their citizens.

Thanks in advance for being reasonable!

OSCE remains divided after Corfu informal meeting

The Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt who will co-lead the EU-Council presidency from Wednesday concludes in his blog - not very surprisingly - that the OSCE remains divided over the concept of security after the informal foreign ministers meeting on Corfu.

The disagreement that one could already see at last year's Helsinki summit is a division mainly between Russia and the EU (plus the USA).

Russia wants to replace NATO by a NATO-like OSCE - which means influence for Russia - that does not care for human rights, democracy, and non-military security issues which seems unacceptable to the Union.

I have doubts that the newly launched "Corfu Process" will change anything, in particular after the continuing division over the Russian-Georgian war in 2008.

Greece with foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis takes over the OSCE chairmanship - updated

Since January, 1, Greece has taken over the chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) from the Finns.

Their foreign minister Alexander Stubb has been blogging several times during the Finnish chairmanship, notably during the Russian-Georgian crisis, which called my attention earlier this year. I doubt that Dora Bakoyannis, number 78 on the Forbes list of the most powerful women and first female foreign minister of Greece, will get the attention of the European blogosphere with extensive online appearance.

According to the OSCE press release - which is aggressively general - the most important issue seems to be Georgia:

In particular, we intend to proceed with a swift and co-ordinated course of action to try and find a compromise arrangement that would allow the Organization to continue its activities throughout Georgia, in order to assist all efforts for the peaceful resolution of the crisis.

The last time we have heard about the OSCE was in early December, when the Russian proposal to establish a new pan-European security strategy was rejected by the rest of the OSCE countries. The only remark in the press release is that Greece will "build on the discussions" at the ministerial OSCE Council in Helsinki, which means that on the diplomatic level they cannot bury the initiative but it won't come up politically.

The next OSCE presidency (2010) will be held by... Kazakhstan, a nation that ranks particularly low in all fields of democracy and good governance, according to the 2008 Freedom House "Countries in Transit" report.

Update (22 January 2009)

Oops, have I been deliciously tagged by Ms Bakoyannis personnally today...?

Tracking: European parliament elections 2009 (XVIII)

The mastermind of the Swedish social democrats' anti-EU faction will run in the 2009 EP elections.

EU citizens living in Malta will need to register in order to be able to cast their European vote in 2009, which contradicts statements made earlier this year.

The Communist Party of Greece has published its anti-EU "Electoral Declaration". This party received almost 10% at the last EP elections in 2004 and is represented with three deputies in Brussels/Strasbourg.

The British Liberals have chosen "Security" as their major topic for the 2009 EP elections. However, the recently published Eurobarometer (I have discussed it here) makes some of them hesitate.

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Under the category "Tracking: European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.

For an overview over all articles in this category have look at the overview article.

For the five newest post see also the sidebar.

Tracking: EP elections (XI) - supplemented

In Estonia, several high political figures are planning to run for the European elections in 2009 (or at least they are considering it). The names mentioned are Edgar Savisaar, former Prime Minister and controversial Center Party leader, Andrus Ansip, current Prime Minister of Estonia, and Siim Kallas, current EU Commissioner.

In Poland, political parties also get ready for next year's elections.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister and member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has participated in the PES (Party of European Socialists) manifesto discussion.

An Irish businessman and Labour member launched a pro-European group to inform about the EU's work ahead of the upcoming elections.

And the Greek opposition leader Papandreou confirms that the stupidities of the past will be continued in the future saying "the Euroelections will not only be a vote on the course of Europe, but they will have the character of a referendum for the government and its policies to which an end must be put".

Supplement: Dutch right-wing liberals from VVD will rally against Turkish EU membership during the 2009 EU parliament election campaign, demanding a 10-year moratorium on the issue

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Under the category "Tracking: EP elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009. So far: (10), (9), (8), (7), (6), (5), (4), (3), (2), (1).

Next round in the Greek-Macedonian nonsense war of words

Different news sources (also here) report that Greece and Macedonia, or in diplomatic terms, the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM), will return to the negotiation table on 14-15 August to try to resolve the pending name dispute between both countries.

For those of you who are not aware of or not familiar with the issue, I recommend reading the respective Wikipedia article on the naming dispute.

For me, this is ridiculous diplomatic nonsense!

It is a waste of time and money, a typical play of over-nationalistic or over-regionalistic politics that are used by the political idiots of our days to avoid the real issues hidden behind this proxy war of words. And both sides are equally responsible. If some basic intelligence would rule, this kind of things would stop happening.

But I have the feeling, that those narcissistic politicians together with sophisticated diplomats prefer to remain stuck on nothing than to actually work on something...

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Addendum:

You really want to get into it? Then have a look at this!