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This behind the scenes account  shows how the NATO communique with policy declaration was prepared by July 6 before European leaders and Mr. Trump set foot in Brussels on July 11. It shows to what lengths key members in the Trump administration will go to achieve American objectives in preserving the NATO alliance. Particularly now that Russia is taking an aggressive stance to NATO near its borders.  General Mattis at Defense Department pushed for the 4 30's initiative which is about preparing a rapid deployment force to be ready by 2020. This is in the communique. Also in the communique is the setup of a command post in Norfolk, Virginia, ready to act to deploy forces in Europe. U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kailey Hutchinson, received the demand from National Security Adviser Bolton to have ambassadors from all countries work overtime to get the declaration done by July 6. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General supported this effort. All were concerned that there should be no repeat of the mess that happened for the G-7 communique when at the last minute president Trump refused to sign on, leading to derisive comments about Canada's Justin Trudeau. It was seen as critical to preserve the sense of unity in the U.S. alliance with Europe. This time there was no disruption even though Mr. Trump acted unpredictably in Brussels. ...

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Italy and Spain get Germany's chancellor Merkel to agree to direct recapitalization of eurozone banks by the European rescue fund instead of the government having to ask for rescue funds as happened for the $125 billion aid request from Spain. The condition is that a European banking regulator with wide powers to regulate eurozone banks has to be setup first. This means Spain will have to provide the initial funds to recapitalize its banks but can reduce the stress this places on its debt by letting the banks get aid directly from the European rescue fund later this year. This is one of the short term measures needed to restore market confidence. Italy pushed hard for the rescue fund to be allowed to buy Italian or Spanish bonds in the private markets to reduce the high yields on Spanish and Italian government bonds, which reached 7% for 10 year Spanish bonds in June 2012. Merkel agreed to this with fewer strings attached. These are the immediate short term measures which were very important for Spain and Italy. Through marathon 14 hour discussions described by Monti as "hard and tense," the Italian and Spanish governments stood firm on these short term measures, and at one point indicated their willingness to let the talks collapse if Germany did not agree. France's president Hollande stood by Italy and Spain in the negotiations. Other long term fixes such as a European authority for country fiscal policy review and a detailed road map were left for future meetings in October 2012....

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A loss for the Christian Democrats and Angela Merkel in Hamburg. Coming regional elections in other states will determine the future of the ruling coalition.

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European Central Bank president, Mario Draghi, addressing the European Parliament in Brussels on April 25, 2012, supported both sides in the issues facing the eurozone, calling for continued vigilance on structural reforms to improve competitiveness of countries in the eurozone such as Spain and Italy, and at the same time saying it was imperative to generate economic growth. He told the European parliament: "The uncertainty about the present situation is very, very, high... Any exit strategy is premature given the current economic situation." Saying that the fiscal compact had been negotiated recently to control spending, yet what Europe needed was also a growth compact- "but my most present thought right now is to have a growth compact." He emphasized that it was now upto governments and banks to pick up the ball. The ECB's achievement was buying time with its 3 year loans to banks in Spain and Italy and other EU countries in Dec. 2011-March 2012, which he described as no ordinary achievement. Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel seized on Draghi's comments to show they were doing the right thing. Merkel conceded that growth was needed, saying sustainable initatives would be good for Europe, that what Germany was opposing was simply stimulus spending that would increase debt without the structural reforms to improve competitiveness. Hollande for his part said he would call for eurozone bonds to pay for industrial and infrastructure projects, and a financial transactions tax....

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A detailed look at how Enel is trying to penetrate the Russian power market. It is investing $6 billion in Russia. Mr. Fulvio Conti, CEO of Eni, has a clear idea how he is going to operate in Russia. He has developed close ties with Gazprom, has Gazprom as a partner in ownership of former Yukos gas assets which supply power plants it is acquiring ownership of (OGK-5's constellation of power plants in western Russia.) Eni uses Gazproms pipeline network to get the gas to its plants. In this way Eni feels it has a winning model to convert gas into electricity with low risk. Eni can then wait for what it expects will be gradual progress towards liberalization of electricity markets in Russia, so that prices will be higher and give Eni good margins. It will also put Eni ahead of German and other European competitors. Russia's electricity market is expected to grow rapidly as its economy grows. It needs $120 billion in investment to build further its electricity infrastructure and foreign investment is needed in this area. Eni has also offered Gazprom reciprocal ownership of power plant assets in Italy in its negotiations, to build a win-win situation....

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Women do twice as much of the caregiving for elderly parents and small children as men. About 41% of mothers say this makes it harder for them as working parents. About 20% of the female workforce in U.S. is giving elderly care. This adds up to more stress, decreased working hours, decreased income, needing leave of absence, and missing promotions or training. Only 14% of working people in the U.S. have even one day of paid leave to care for a new baby or seriously sick family member- a startling statistic for America, showing lack of family friendly policies at most companies.

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Except in Britain where there is concern about the government's handing of the crisis in nursing homes most European leaders have improved their standing with voters with their coronavirus response. Public confidence has increased for Germany's Merkel, Italy's Conte, France's Macron, and Spain's Sanchez. France's Macron enjoys a personal popularity rating of 44% and satisfaction with his government's response has increased to 42%, after a decline in mid-April when there was a jump in cases. In Italy satisfaction with the government response is at 66%, and Conte remains popular. Mr. Sanchez's response to the coronavirus crisis in Spain is approved by 46% of voters. Most European leaders have shown unity and composure in the crisis, strengthening the community spirit in the European Union.

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Scholz called Lindner, the head of the  Free Democrats, who as Finance minister in the coalition with Greens and SPD, was instrumental in blocking much needed infrastructure and other investment in the German economy.  Scholz said of Lindner that his attitude was "disrespectful," "egoistic" and "small-minded." Lindner wrote a paper calling for cuts in investment, welfare cuts and reducing climate change action preparing to leave the coalition to join the opposition Christian Democrats. Yet Lindner's FDP has less than 4% popular support and the timing is poor for his actions. For once the SPD and the Greens decided to stand upto this kind of behaviour and Scholz fired Lindner.

Scholz called for a confidence vote in mid-January as both sides plan on taking it to the voters in an new election.

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Malas and Parkinson describe the effect of scenes of Syrian refugees on television being welcomed in Germany on displaced people in Syria and Iraq. Many young men are now willing to take risks and make their way to Europe. A similiar situation is taking place for the 800,000 people in refugee camps in northern Nigeria after attacks by the Boko Haram militant group.

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Corruption in Greece, just as the Greek economy burdened with some of the largest debt in the European Union. The threatens to weaken the EU with the prospect of Germany and other countries having to help Greece avoid adefault on its debt. This would only draw markets attention to other economies like ireland, Britain and Italy which are also burdened with large debt.

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Starmer of the UK's plan for Ukraine is clearly a stop gap plan in the chaotic manner in which DJT plan for disbanding NATO was conducted. This gives time for the Europeans to act. Meanwhile Leyen's EU -Leyen was Defense Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany- put out a $158 billion plan for funding defense. Merz of the CDU is clear how his coalition with SPD will act for independence from America on Europe's defense. Within weeks or months one can expect the Federal Republic take the lead for the defense of Europe, with the partnership of France, and the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the UK. As Merz said clearly- “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA." European perceptions of recent happenings in the Ukraine war and the war's progression from the beginnings over three years will matter in 2025 as Europe, as Germany, France and Britain take on the role of bringing a fair peace to Europe that closes the war and does the reconstituting of defense architecture of Europe under new institutions that needed to be taken up in the 1990's after the fall of the Berlin Wall. ...

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The US envoy to Belarus responds to overtures from Belarus's leader Lukashenko for improved relations, release of hundreds of political prisoners including the husband of a opposition leader who is thought to have won the last Belarus open elections in 2020. Today it is not realized that politicians with lack of vision or foresight - Bush, Obama, Merkel, failed to grasp that in 2020 two events happened that were linked- the Belarus electons bringing another pro-EU government on Russia's border which was squashed before it could take office and the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong also squashed in 2020 by China PRC. Crimea was made part of Russia in 2014 when Ukrainian protesters in Kviv and Lviv near Poland ousted the government of pro Russia leader Yanukovych in the Maidan revolution. Russia under Putin responded 2014-2020 with a simmering effort to take parts of eastern Ukraine that were close to and sympathetic to Russia. This was an effort to counter NATO or pro-EU countries coming to Russia's borders in the way JFK opposed pro-Russian regime in Cuba. Obama and Merkel never understood or grasped this or were too involved in the eurozone, migration crises (Merkel) or war in Afghanistan (Obama). The result was that in 2020 Russia helped squash the election results in Belarus with another pro-EU government impending. Within 2 years Russia under Putin with tacit Chinese support invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022. Belarus shares a border with Russia and it is closely allied with Russia in the Eurasian Economic Zone that includes former Soviet Bloc countries such as Kazakhstan. Gradually following the recovery of the Russian economy by 2010 the emphasis shifted to create something similar to the Soviet Union, a bloc of countries in central Asia and in Eastern Europe that are part of a Russian sphere of influence. For much of the period of the Obama/ Merkel administrations in US and Germany this was ignored as most of the politicians never gave Russia the importance it sought, not accepting that the economic power was not measured only in GDP- also in science and technology, nuclear technologies, space, in energy resources, and Russia's position in Northern/Central Europe and Central Asia since 1700.  It is this situation that the DJT administration faced with US challenges of the Mexican and Venezuelan drug and people trafficking in the western hemisphere has responded with the Monroe Doctrine to reassert American influence in Latin America by respecting Russia's effort to have some measure of influence on its borders, that the US seeks on it's borders. Without Russian or Chinese intervention in Latin America and with the the Monroe Doctrine in place America can protect the interests of the American people and the people of Latin America for free and good government. What Bush, Obama, Merkel lost sight of is that by each power having some strong measure of influence in their regions, and the tendencies for benevolent influence put in place, there is significantly more room for respecting the hopes and aspirations of people in their regions through democratic or other people oriented forms of government than by the situation in which economically the US was dominant after the fall of the Berlin Wall but other influences would lead to US decline- open but not free trade with China, and the recovery of the Russian economy, drug and people trafficking by gangs in Latin America where the Monroe Doctrine for US leadership had prevailed till the 1960's. ...

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The Economist quotes experts saying that drug innovations would not be affected by price controls on drugs. Pricing reforms can accomplish the reverse, spur innovation by doing as Britain and Germany are doing- pioneering comparitive reviews of drugs effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses aimed at reimbursing firms for new drugs based on their performance. Sanford Bernstein, a financial advisory firm, says in its study that a 20% reduction in what Medicare pays for drugs would not kill off innovation, it would reduce earnings per share of big pharma firms by 3-8%. As drug research is now done in many countries, and its a globalized industry, innovation is not likely to be automatically affected by price reductions in one country like the USA, according to Alna Garber of Stanford University and Patricia Danzon of Wharton Business School.

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EU leaders meeting in Brussels agreed on Dec. 12 for a single banking supervisor for large banks in the eurozone. The European Central Bank will act as the supervisor with powers to force banks to raise capital buffers and close banks it considers unsafe. The Federal Reserve, U.S.'s central bank, has similiar powers in the U.S. Germany's finance minister Schauble says the national parliaments would be able to ratify the new supervisor by Feb. 2013, and the new supervisor should be in place by March 2013. Differences between Germany and France on which banks should come under the supervision of the ECB were resolved by giving the ECB resposibility for banks that have over 30 billion euros in assets, are over 20% of a country's GDP, or operate in at least two countries. At least 3 banks in each country in the eurozone would come under ECB supervision. The remaining smaller banks would remain under national supervision as Germany had insisted earlier. The focus now is on coming up with a common resolution authority for winding down failing banks, a function performed by the FDIC in the U.S. These are two of the three major parts of the new European financial architecture to support the euro currency. The third is deposit insurance, which is provided by the FDIC in the U.S. system. It is a major step forward and clears the way for direct recapitalization of banks in Spain and Ireland, two countries affected by having to take on responsibility for failing banks. By breaking the link between sovereign debt and failing banks the new agreements makes it possible for these countries to return to economic growth....

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Hugo Dixon says the deal made by eurozone leaders for Greece in July 2011 favors private creditors. The bondholder haircut was much smaller, eurozone governments and taxpayers will make up the difference. This he says is like a cat in the bag presented to the receiver as a pig as long as he does not look inside, called a "poke." Dixon says that if Greece cannot implement austerity measures under a new government and the deal has to be renegotiated bondholders may face a larger haircut than the 20% under the current arrangement. It would have been better he says to do this now but the ECB's threats may have led to the German and French governments treating private creditors with kids gloves.

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Bishop Droge of the Evangelical Church Berln-Brandenburg, with over 1 million members, speaks to DW.com before the services at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church following the Christmas market attack near the church. Bishop Droge reminds Germans that the church itself is destroyed from the war and still in ruins as a reminder of what violence and hate has done and can do. Not only is it a reminder of this, says Bishop Droge, it is a church of reconciliation, a reminder of reconciliation. In the rubble of the bombed out ruins of the Coventry Cathedral in England, the church's provost pulled out nails to form a cross.  The Kaiser Wilhelm church contains this "Cross of Nails." This he says is the message of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, and the message that carries one through the difficult times, which itself were apparent before the Christ child appeared in that far away period because of the oppression at that time. A quietly stirring message from Bishop Broge that all Germans can hear. ...