Fischer: L' Europa sta svanendo

[Hyperion]

Meh,qualcuno l' ha capito...Alcune frasi:

"Il resto del mondo non starà ad aspettare l' Europa mentre essa sta litigando sulle riforme istituzionali e questioni di politica estera".

Avvisa che c'è il rischio che aumenta ogni giorno che l' UE diventi il parco giochi per superpotenze emergenti (ma va,qua già lo si è per la superpotenza attuale,perchè no anche per le emergenti?).

In USA guardano già India e Cina come le prossime potenze.Gli dicono "Chi è l' Europa?Dov'è l' Europa?"

Fischer una volta visionario,ora dice che non ha più uno scenario "della migliore situazione possibile-best case scenario",ma una visione "realistica",secondo la quale,gli stati membri concentreranno la loro sovranità in alcune materie importanti,mentre continuano a giocare un ruolo importante nel funzionamente dell' unione.

Anche se si dichiara "non troppo pessimista"- non prevede la spaccatura dell' unione in un nucleo di pochi stati che hanno mentalità di integrazione- Fischer ha anche un worst case scenario : l' UE non potrà fare la riforma interna per il 2009,e non potrà mettersi d' accordo per il prossimo budget.

L' alternativa sarà una ri-nazionalizzazione dei poteri,che indebolirà completamente l' UE e diventeremo il parco giochi per potenze staniere per il 21esimo secolo -"buonanotte Europa".

'Europe is increasingly fading away'

30.03.2007 - 08:44 CET | By Honor Mahony
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The rest of the world will not wait for Europe while it bickers over institutional reform and external policy issues, says Joschka Fischer, ex-German foreign minister, warning that the risk of it becoming a "playground" for upcoming super powers grows by the day.

Tempered by his time in the US where politicians are already looking to China and India as the next powers to be, the former politician-turned-Princeton-professor has a very sober view of the European Union's position in the world as it dusts itself off from recent 50th birthday celebrations.

"Here in the United States, I hear 'who is Europe, where is Europe?' They are looking for China and for India. Europe is increasingly fading away beyond the horizon in the Atlantic," Mr Fischer tells EUobserver in an interview.

"This is a development which is definitely accelerating, so when you talk with the [US] political elite, the weaker Europe is, the less interest you will find."

Relating a recent incident where a former Indian foreign minister came to lecture at Princeton and said that the 21st century will see three superpowers – India, China and the US – Mr Fischer said "I was sitting there and I thought, 'why the hell is nobody in Europe realising what is going on!'"

Under-performing
"Europe must defend its own strategic interests," he said noting that France, the UK and Germany are "under-performing in a globalised world."

Even Britain, which puts such store by its 'special relationship' with the US and continues to have an ambivalent relationship with the EU, will have to come on board if it is to have any influence in Washington.

"If the UK wants to defend its national interest number one [the special relationship], it must be in a position to deliver Europe, but to deliver Europe, it must be more European."

Mr Fischer, who was consistently one of Germany's most popular politicians while foreign minister between 1998 and 2005, said that Europe cannot change "geopolitics" as it is linked to the Middle East, Russia, the Caucasus, Africa – all creating "enormous pressure" from the outside.

This means Europe must look out for its "common interests." These include internal and external security issues as well as economic concerns.

Taking energy security as an example, Mr Fischer says "[Russian president] Putin is playing a game with oil and gas supplies. What's the European reaction? It can't be a national one. It's an illusion."

"If Poland were to have a shortage in its oil and gas supplies, knowing the division of labour in the common market this would hurt immediately and lead to the shut down of plants in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in France, in Benelux, in Scandinavia."

He also cites the recent controversy over the planned US missile defence shields to be placed in Poland and the Czech Republic saying this is something that should be discussed in the European framework and not only in NATO, as it is a European interest.

Europe still lacks "legitimacy"
Institutional reform remains the key, according to Mr Fischer, with the bloc currently trying to restart treaty talks after the EU constitution was rejected in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

Reforming the EU's institutions would not only make further enlargement possible as well as give the bloc more flexibility in a globalised world, it would also help get Europe's citizens emotionally on board.

"In the old days, Europe was self-evidently in the shadow of the two great wars. The process of self-destruction, the partition of my country, of Berlin, and the continent, the confrontation of the two superpowers – East and West – on European soil, this all created a certain emotional and rational self-evidence for the European project and for the West."

At the moment, however, Europe is "just in between."

"It is strong enough, especially in economic terms…but it is not transparent enough, it is not legitimate enough that people understand the importance of the European project."

People are not interested in institutional reform, he says, but they well know how to tell a "lousy" result from an "excellent" result.

Reform will create efficiency which in turn creates "legitimacy," he says adding "as long as Europe is a weak factor in security, people will understand that it is not relevant."

Goodnight Europe?
Once known for his visionary and federalist view of the European Union – a speech in 2000 on the creation of a European federation caused political waves throughout the bloc – he now says he does not have a "best case" scenario for Europe but a "realistic" vision.

In this realistic scenario, member states pool their sovereignty in "certain important points" while also "playing a dominant role in the framework of this European Union."

Although he is "not too pessimistic" about the future of Europe – he does not see it breaking into a core Europe of just a few integration-minded member states - Mr Fischer does have a worst case scenario.

In this situation, the bloc would not have carried out internal reform by mid 2009 – the ambitious date set by the current EU presidency, Germany - and would then not have the political strength to agree its next long term budget three years later.

He sums it up so: "The alternative will be that a re-nationalisation [of powers] will weaken Europe and we will be the playing ground for superpowers in the 21st century - this means goodnight Europe."


http://euobserver.com/9/23803

E sempre un miracolo che quando i politici non hanno più la loro carica ,all' improvviso si svegliano e gridano allo scandalo...Benvenuto nella realtà Fischer...Ci volevano gli Americani per dirti che l' UE politicamente è uno scherzo?

[Lupus in Fabula]

[bom-bim-bom]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/bf6a00e4-e14...b5df10621.html

Europe tops US in stock market value

By Tony Tassell

Published: April 2 2007 21:48 | Last updated: April 2 2007 21:48

Europe has eclipsed the US in stock market value for the first time since the first world war in another sign of the slipping of the global dominance of American capital markets.

Europe’s 24 stockmarkets, including Russia and emerging Europe, saw their capitalisation rise to $15,720bn (€11,819bn) at the end of last week, according to Thomson Financial data. That exceeded the $15,640bn market value of the US.

The rise of the euro against the dollar, growth of east European markets such as Russia and stock market outperformance spurred by improving profitability have seen Europe close a long-held gap with the US. Ian Harnett at Absolute Strategy Research, who identified the move, said this marked a “seismic shift” in markets.

The last time Europe eclipsed the US in market capitalisation was likely to have been before the first world war, said Mike Staunton, stock-market historian at London Business School. The shift mirrors a trend in the debt world, where European activity has caught up, and in some cases overtaken the US.

European shares have outperformed the US, with their market capitalisation rising 160 per cent since the start of 2003 in dollar terms, said Thomson Financial. That compared with a 70.5 per cent rise for the US stock market. Over that time the euro has risen 26 per cent against the dollar.

Europe trails the US on the indices of market capitalisation compiled by FTSE and MSCI and which are used by fund managers as benchmarks.

However, these have a reduced or no weighting to shares that cannot be freely traded such as holdings of governments or controlling family shareholders. Europe has more companies with such stakes.

[Hyperion]

Ah,già.Può rimanere la consolazione che come mercanti,l' UE rende bene...Nel frattempo loro decidono per noi pure dove metteranno i loro missili ,ma noi possiamo rallegrarci perchè l' UE + Russia (oltre 500 milioni di persone) ce l' hanno fatta a sorpassare l' USA (dei 200 milioni) in valore di borsa.

Mah...Nel frattempo,esiste anche questo:




Se USA dovesse tagliare le spese militari a livelli più "europei" e convogliare i soldi in attività più produttive,non basterebbe nemmeno la Russia per superare il valore di borsa.Dovremmo dire "il valore di borsa dell' UE+Russia +la costa del Nord Africa+Turchia"...