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This report in The Economist magazine shows that Germany no longer runs the European Union in the way it has previously. During the austerity crisis with bank bailouts in many countries in southern Europe Germany played a key role. Merkel was perceived as the dominant partner in the relationships with French presidents Sarkozy and Hollande. Britain perceived Germany's increased dominance during that period as a threat. Brexit Leave campaign played on these fears and a diminished British role. Merkel's handling of the migration crisis also played into the hands of Brexit Leave campaigners with poster pictures of migrants crossing European borders in large numbers on British buses. Merkel changed course on migration policies and gradually reversed it to where Germany no longer welcomes economic migrants preferring that they stay in their home countries with German aid to these countries. Merkel's CDU is now facing challenges from a fragmented electorate with many parties and its own diminished role. Gradually the perception of Germany's role is now also reversing. Even though the new president of the European Commission is Ursula Leyen from Germany, there are more Spaniards, French, Italians and Belgians, work in the commission and parliament than Germans, More Director General roles are held by Italy. Germans in Brussels also do not take directions from Berlin, and are actually more Francophile and federalist in their thinking. Germans opinion is more diverse and plural than the idea of a dominant German view. Greens in Germany are coming first in polls showing how much is changing. These multilayers and different strands of thinking make Germany introverted as it is at present. Leyen is seen as more European in outlook and a more European Germany may be the result than a German Europe.  This may play a part in any new elections in Britain or a second referendum on Brexit as polls suggest there is a shift in opinion in Britain underway. ...

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Adam Taylor explains what Brexit is about. What should be added is that Brexit is a child of the time in 2015-2016 when Angela Merkel was ill prepared to tackle the sudden wave of migrants from North Africa from wars and population growth outstripping what little progress was made, making decisions to let in close to a million migrants. Migrants are now being returned back to their home countries and the issue has faded. The austerity policies in the EU with Greece, Spain and Portugal as bad poster childs for the EU are also largely over, with economic recovery in Europe.  As a result confidence is growing in the future of the European Union. What pessimists including Mr. Trump saw as a breakup of the European Union is no longer the case. Britain's long negotiations and divisions for Brexit are now reinforcing an opposite conclusion- that it is beneficial to stay in the European Union. Fully 68% in a Eurobarometer Survey of 27 EU countries by the European Commission in March 2019 think so, only 17% think it is not beneficial. In Britain also a majority now support membership in the EU. The European Union and Britain have a lot to learn from this experience and the divisions generated, which is likely to be part of the acquired experience of a new generation of leaders.  ...

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Margrethe Vestager, Danish regulator returns as head of the anti-trust division of the European Commission for a second five year term, just as tech companies are increasingly seen as having unfair business practices that do not benefit society as a whole. One change she hopes to make this time is to use "interim measures" a cease and desist order for companies to stop improper behaviour immediately, rather than go on with investigations for years. These investigations end up with fines but not the structural changes to enforce competition that are immediately needed.

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Figures from the European Commission and the ECB show that the ECB's balance sheet reached 32% of eurozone GDP in March 2012. Comparable figures for the U.S. Federal Reserve for March 2012 are 19%, Bank of England 21% and the Bank of Japan 30%. The ECB's balance sheet in March 2012 is at 3.023 trillion euros. ECB president Mario Draghi says this is high but "it will be managed very well."

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It was a Labour government in 2005 that inroduced the rule that allowed a migrant who remained inthe UK for 5 years to be able to apply for leave to remain and to have path to citizenship. It is now 20 years since then and this has done  a great deal of damage in the UK as it faces divisions in society that affect the plans to improve lives of the people and invest in building infrastructure. European Commission of Humnan Rights also drafted these rights in wanton fashion not accepting the rights of any people in any nation to live in their own neighborhoods without what are called asylum hotels and migrants. Denmark had such laws before 2015. Denmark changed these laws, and the UK finally is set to change these laws that hurt growth and investment in Britain with unnecessary distraction from the task of building infrastructure and investing in public services from migrants illegally entering the country. Under the new rules in Denmark temporary residenc epermits are granted only for 1-2 years at a time, no permanent visas are granted. To gain permanent status one has to have full time job for several years and speak fluent Danish. Shabana Mahmood, the new UK head of the Home Ministry says-  “Denmark shows us how to be firm but fair: removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to their borders while providing refuge to those in genuine need. “That is why we will follow the Danish model to restore order and control to our borders.” Mahmood's position is supported by Green and Labour voters is shown More in Common polling. This is important for Labour to succeed. She says about illegal migrants and the strain on public services- “The levels of illegal migration are putting immense strain on our country, and our public services – creating division within communities across the country. “Illegal migration is undermining the contract between government and its citizens – eroding support for the asylum system entirely.” ...

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Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, provides a five point proposal to strengthen the European Union and take the steps to a closer political union. She says the Maastricht Treaty does not provide the strong foundation the European Union needs and the steps are already underway to change this. The fiscal compact for financial discipline in the eurozone that all members of the eurozone agreed to is one such step. Other steps remain for a closer union and she suggests the time is now for an open debate inside the EU countries about what people want to see the EU become by 2020. As a timetable a treaty on political union could be ratified between 2016 and 2019, with it going into effect once two thirds of the countries have approved it with referendums. Countries would have the opton of political union or staying in a close form of association but not union.

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The cost of the first bailout for Greece of May 2010 is 53 billion euros for eurozone funds and 20 billion euros for IMF funds, according to the European Commission. The cost of the second bailout for Greece of March 2012 is 142 billion euros for eurozone funds and 12 billion euros for IMF funds. The eurozone took back 11 billion euros following the failure of negotiations.

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The European Commission responds to the VW emissions scandal with on the road testing using portable devices approved by the European parliament in Feb. 2016.

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Germany's calls for closer political and fiscal union for the eurozone countries to complement and support the euro currency arrangement. German chancellor Merkel calls it "more Europe," "step by step." It all hinges on French president Hollande and how well the Socialist party does in the elections to the National Assembly on June 10 and June 17, 2012. If he does well and gets a working majority with other like minded parties he will not need the support of parties that are opposed to giving up sovereignty. Hollande's mentor is Jacques Delors, a former president of the European Commission and a strong supporter of the idea of European Union. England under the Conservatives remains Euro-skeptic. France and Germany were driven closer by the idea of European Union by necessity, because of history and three wars. The European Union had strong support after 1945 from French and German leaders, Monnet and Adenauer, who struggled with political opposition but won over skeptics, with the process continued by German chancellor Kohl, a mentor of Angela Merkel....

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The former head of U.S. Homeland Security ministry, Mr. Chertoff, and the former head of NATO, Mr. Anders Rasmussen, say the U.S. and European allies are not prepared to meet Russian meddling in elections two years after the U.S. elections and elections in the last year in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Both co-chair Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity. They expect 20 elections between now and 2020, and see 20 opportunities for Russian meddling in these elections- suggesting the response to the recent meddling is very inadequate. They cite the shift from fake news to hyper partisan narrative used in the Italian election. This approach uses some content that is true to weave a narrative that leads to an exaggerated version of events. It was used on immigration to appeal to immigrant weary Italians to lead to a situation where the anti-immigrant party Northern League attracted a large portion of the vote. This approach is not new as it was used by pro-Brexiters with ads showing an unending wave of immigrants crossing European borders. Suggesting Britain itself was facing this wave of immigration, using pictures of immigrants from Africa crossing the borders of Hungary and Austria. Placed on buses and billboards this influenced the election, including hyper narrative stories about what how the UK was sending 350 million pounds a week to the European Union which could go to the NHS instead. Britain's Liberal Party leader Nick Clegg and Joe Biden former Vice President are members of the new Commission. ...

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Eurobarometer Survey conducted by the European Commission on what people say about staying inside the European Union show increasing support inside the UK and inside member countries of the EU. In a survey done in March 2019, Eurobarometer Survey involving 1000 people in each of the 28 countries of the EU shows 53% of respondents in the UK supporting Remaining in the European Union, 35% Leave , and 12% undecided. Asked whether Britain had made the right choice to leave the EU in the referendum 54% of respondents said Britain made the wrong choice, only 38% said yes. There is a definite shift in sentiment that reflects the way the changes in the EU since the referendum was held- with only a trickle of immigration to Europe and now return of some refugees to their home countries, economic aid to African countries to reduce migrants. The economies of Europe that struggled through austerity policies such as Spain have show strong growth of 3% over 3 years, and of Portugal and Greece recovering. News at the time of austerity policies, uncontrolled immigration to Europe, affected public sentiment at the time of Britain's first referendum on EU membership. In the EU countries there is a definite upturn in sentiment- 66% would vote to remain in the EU, only 17% would vote to leave. The chaoic Brexit process in the UK has also led to the upturn. 68% of respondents in the EU countries said their countries had benefited from membership in the European Union, the largest support seen in 25 years. ...

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How transgender issues played out in the 2024 election. Pamela Paul looks at the effects across Europe of the Cass Commission's 4 year research for Britain's National Health Service concluding that gender affirming approach is mistaken. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Department of Health and Human Services, are not a taking a science based approach to this important issue for parents of children, and the serious unease this is causing across the Nation in 2024, is shown in this report in the NYT. This type of unease added to the anxieties about efforts to change the cultural identity of the US based on its history of European settlers, first from Spain and later from France and Britain, over the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century putting politics before history. Not being alarmed enough about a general price increase of 30 percent over 3 years in groceries and housing costs created a general sense of unease in the Nation. ...

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How to get smaller supply chain companies with less than investment grade ratings to shift to renewable energy contracts that last 5-10 years when banks have strict lending criteria. Walmart has a solution working with Schneider Electric. Consider that companies are tackling emissions across their entire supply chain. For Walmart this means cutting one billion metric tons of emissions by 2030. Under Gigaton PPA Walmart suppliers can form a group to buy energy. So that Amy's Kitchen, Great lakes Cheese, and Levi Strauss collectively purchased a12 year renewable energy purchase agreement  from a wind farm in Kansas operated by Danish energy company Orsted. Energize is a similar program funded by drug companies Pfizer, Biogen and others for their supply chain and delivered by Schneider Electric. Consider that for Microsoft's 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, 96% come from the supply chain. It needs to cut emissions by half by 2030, a big challenge. In the European Union the solution being considered is for the European Commission to offer state backed and market backed guarantees for deals. Guarantees would be offered by member states of the EU or banks and insurers to provide backing for purchase agreements buyers to overcome credit constraints. ...

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Foreign born population after a series of restrictive Immigration Acts dropped from 15% in 1890 to 12% in 1930, to 5% in 1970. The effort of 1924 Act was to make the southern and eastern European immigration that jumped by 1924 to 41% of total to much lower numbers. A look at the Immigration Act of 1924 under the Coolidge administration sponsored by senators from Washington state and Pennsylvania, Albert Johnson and David Reed, by Chishti and Gelatt in MPI. It shows the prejudices of the early Europeans from one country to Europeans from other countries that followed, after the British, the Germans, the Irish, the Italians and Polish, as the immigration waves shifted to Eastern and southern Europe in the period between 1880 and 1920. During this period Southern and Eastern European immigrants that made up 16% of the population reached 41%. In 1882 Chinese immigration to the US came under the Chinese Exclusion Act restricting it. The Dillingham Commission of 1911 stated the merits of different racial types with northern European and western European preferred to southern and eastern European. Still only 1% of the immigrants entering America were turned back between 1880 and 1924.  The 1917 Immigration Act set up an "Asian Barred Zone" that included Japan, a head tax of $8 on immigrants, requiring proof of read and writing of all immigrants, vetoed by president Woodrow Wilson. The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 set the first quotas at 358,000. Under the Immigration Act of 1924 it was revised to 165,000. President Hoover asked for strict consular restrictions so that between 1929 and 1945 immigrant numbers fell below 100,000 a year.  ...

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Volodymyr Zelensky is given the Charlemagne Prize in Aachen, Germany. After World War II the border town of Aachen in Germany where the grave of Charlemagne is situated, decided to set up a prize for leaders who supported European unity. Charlemagne is the king from eighth century Europe who united France, Italy, Germany and Eastern Europe into a European state, and supported the Carolingian Renaissance and revival of Christianity. Winners of the prize include Monet, Schumann and Konrad Adenauer. Giving the prize to Zelensky and the people of Ukraine is a way to symbolically bring the people of Ukraine into the European community of nations and do this in a solemn commitment with an "obligation of the highest ethical value." Present at the ceremony were Chancellor Scholz, the city officials of Aachen, Ursula Leyen of the European Commission and the prime minister of Poland. Scholz committed Germany to supporting Ukraine as part of the European family in an historic setting that goes back over a thousand years. Mr. Zelensky spoke in Ukrainian and said this must be the first time Ukrainian was spoken inside these walls in Aachen. Dr. Kurt Pfeiffer, its founder in 1950, set the goal of the Charlemagne Prize award- "the prize reaches into the future and at the same time embodies an obligation- an obligation of the highest ethical value. It is directed at a voluntary union of the European people's without constraint, so that in their new found strength they may defend the highest earthly goods- freedom, humanity and peace- and safeguard the future of their children and their children's children." ...

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Horst Seehofer says there should be unlimited cooperation on security between EU and Britain after Brexit. Privately France has taken this position. The EU Commission and Merkel have taken the position that Theresa May's position hurts European security. Seehofer faces a challenge from the right wing parties in Bavaria's election and chose to take a different position than chancellor Merkel. 

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EU Commission president Leyen announces Pfizer will supply EU with 1.8 billion doses of Pfizer vaccine to 2023. The increased supplies will include booster shorts to increase immunity. Another change is the new date for 70% of European Union population to be vaccinated, which is now advanced to end of July instead of end of September. With new waves of the coronavirus affecting Europe, and criticism of the EU's earlier effort in securing vaccine supplies, more urgency has gone into the new effort in 2021. Leyen told Pfizer CEO Albert Bouria- "If I may say so, engineer the mRNA in a way that it can adapt to potential escape vaccines," at a joint press conference. Leyen thanked Pfizer for its enormous effort in boosting vaccine manufacture and delivery. This will help accelerate the vaccination effort in Europe after the slow start in March and April of 2021. Bringing much needed optimism and new hope of a lasting recovery both in economic activity, health and in the mood in Europe, which can then spread from the US and Europe to the rest of the world. ...

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The sentiment index for businesses and households from the European Commission stands at 90 in March 2013, well below its long term average of around 100.

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The European Commission forecast for 2013 shows a decline in GDP of 0.3% for the eurozone economies. The forecast shows a return to growth with GDP increasing by 1.4% in 2014 for the eurozone. The larger European Union is expected to grow by 0.1%. Unemployment is expected to increase from 11.4% to 12.2%.

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A review of the aid program for Greece done for European leaders meeting in Brussels on October 23, 2011, shows that most of the money sent to Greece has gone to pay off bondholders (mostly European banks that lent to Greece). For the initial bailout program of the European Union and the IMF in May 2010, international loans amount to $91 billion. Of this $52 billion has gone to repay bonds that came due between May 2010 and September 2011, according to this review. The report was prepared by the European Commission in coordination with the IMF and the ECB. Greece owes over $300 billion dollars and Greece's borrowing extends far beyond the country's size and ability to repay, creating extraordinary risks to the financial system in Europe. The initial bailout program based its lending on little or no haircuts for the bondholders, who are mainly the European banks (mostly French and German banks) that loaned the money, which creates another set of risks, and a logjam, because taxpayers in the stronger financial countries such as Germany are equally adamant on not paying for the excess lending of the French and German banks. The financial leaders in Germany, Finance Minister Schauble, Axel Weber, the former head of the Bundesbank, and other prominent financial experts have also adamantly insisted on following prudent financial practices, and are opposed to using the European Central Bank to buy the sovereign bonds of France, Italy and Spain....

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Jens Spahn, CDU leader and minister in Merkel's government says it is OK for Germany to leave the European Commission for Human Rights if it is slow to grasp that refugee status is about protection and also about how many asylum claims the people of a country are comfortable with. Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Austria, the UK and the US, and many Germans now feel this way and feel unease at the high levels of migration asylum, illegal and other that they face. Migration to Germany slowed but has picked up again. Failed states, economic distress, civil wars,  in Africa and Latin America have led to illegal immigration from Syria, Libya, North Africa, Arab world, Afghanistan, Central American countries and Venezuela. Is Asylum automatic? Are there decisions that have to be made in Europe and America if whole states are mismanaged or face climate distress or gang conflict leading to mass migration? These questions have to be debated and not decided by a Merkel at whim or some other leader. ...

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Anti-trust regulators at the European Commission filed formal charges against Google on April 14, 2015. The regulators said "Google systematically positions and prominently displays its comparison shopping service in its general search results pages, irrespective of its merits."

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The European Union plans to rebuild its solar panel industry by manufacturing in the home country. This means shifting away from supply channels where China controls 80% of production. Chancellor Merkel failed to see the risks of letting German companies be decimated by China's subsidy program supporting solar panel makers in China. A system of customs duties failed when China threatened to retaliate with duties on German car exports. In the end Germany like the US under president Obama and Trump after 2010 failed to support domestic solar panel makers.  Now subsidies are accepted way of competing with China for both the US and the EU. The US under the Biden administration is fully committed to compete with China by developing its own solar panel manufacturing industry with the kind of help China is giving to its own solar panel makers. The EU is following the same path. From 200 gigawatts in 2023 the EU's target is 600 gigawatts from solar by 2030. The 400 gigawatts will come from through a policy of make at home in the EU, including raw materials, polysilicon, wafers, and assembly. Subsidies are now the way the US and the EU plan to get back what they lost to China, their critical manufacturing advantage through errors in policy. The European Commission is also changing the rules to accomodate the move. A story of one more critical advantage surrendered through the orthodoxy of free markets without policymakers understanding what they were doing. ...

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German chancellor Angela Merkel arrived for a meeting of eurozone leaders in Brussels on October 23, 2011. She said: "I believe that now we have reached a more realistic view of the situation in Greece and that we will provide the necessary means to be able to protect the euro." Germany has insisted that bondholders take writeoffs of between 50-60% of Greek debt so that Greece would have sustainable debt. A review of Greece's debt by the European Commission in coordination with the ECB and the IMF shows that Greece's debt situation is totally unsustainable and will require a bondholder writeoff of around 60%. according to that report a 60% writeoff for bondholders would be required to bring Greece's debt below 110 percent of GDP by 2020. This has supported the German "realistic" view and Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, who heads the euro group of finance ministers stated that "we agreed yesterday (Friday, Oct. 21) that we have to have a significant increase in the banks' contribution." France also backed away from the plan it was supporting for the European Financial Stability Facility (the fund established to lend to troubled countries) to borrow from the European Central Bank, something Germany opposes. French finance minister Francois Baroin, said the issue was "not a definitive point of discussion for us,... what matters is what works." The Dutch support the Germans on these issues and Dutch finance minister, Jan Kees de Jager, said the use of the European central bank was "no longer an option." Options being considered are for the European Financial Stability Facility to offer insurance against a portion of losses on Italian and Spanish bonds....

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Mario Draghi, former head of the European Central Bank, who ran ECB policy to rescue the Euro currency in 2012 is being asked to form a new government by the president. Mr. Conte's coalition failed to get the support of Matteo Renzi's left party in parliament leading to its collapse.  Italians are wary of the austerity policies of Mario Monti,  professor and EU bureaucrat appointed by premier Berlusconi to the EU Commission, who was appointed  during the eurozone financial crisis in November 2011 by the president.  At the time prime minister Berlusconi had lost the confidence of EU officials. Mario Draghi has a different history after his work at the European Central Bank counteracting the austerity approach of German finance ministry. He also steered the ECB policy at a difficult time for Italy with rising interest on debt. Today Italy has lost about 89,000 lives, and 8.8% of GDP was lost in 2020. Moderate factions of all parties right and left wing are expected to support Draghi. Draghi also has the advantage of 200 billion in euro funds coming from the EU for Italy's recovery in 2021. Germany today is not the austerity policy Germany of 2011, as it supports going big and spending for the recovery. ...