From Volume 7, Issue 15 of EIR Online, Published Apr. 8, 2008

Western European News Digest

Brits Move To Ban Small Parties from European Parliament

April 3 (EIRNS)—A European elected official warned in a discussion with EIR, that the Lisbon Treaty process includes the elimination of small parliamentarian groups inside the European Parliament, the only supranational legislative assembly, ever.

On April 1, British MEP Richard Corbett presented a parliamentary rule modification before the Constitutional Affairs Committee, which passed. That change will raise from 20 to 30 the minimum number of MEPs needed to form a parliamentary group, and the number of represented member-states from six to seven, thus, seriously undermining the ability of small parties, and of MEPs without affiliations, to participate in the legislative process. French lawyer Christophe Beaudoin, from the anti-Lisbon Treaty website observatoiredeleurope.com, wrote that if implemented now, "60 Eurodeputies, though democratically elected, would be almost excluded from parliamentary work." Thus, the EP would be dominated by mainstream pro-Lisbon Treaty representatives, the right-wing PPE and left-wing PSE. It is to be noted that the only open opposition to the Lisbon Treaty and related anti-national sovereignty policy in the EP comes from small parliamentary groups across the political spectrum.

Richard Corbett, a Labor Party, Fabian Society, Oxford-Hull creation, is a prominent member of the EP Constitutional Affairs Committee and a key enforcer of the anti-nation-state EU policy. He personally led the Lisbon Treaty ratification through the EP last February.

Dreams of NATO Fanatics: Mini-Nukes, World Governance

PARIS, April 2 (EIRNS)—The defense establishment-connected satirical Paris weekly Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that the NATO Bucharest summit (April 2-4) would discuss new types of weapons, wars, and world governance.

Le Canard then denounced the five retired generals' report, "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World," adding ironically that, in order to fight terrorism, these retired gentlemen offer the best of all remedies: the use of mini-nukes, including for first strikes. France does not possess this type of miniaturized bomb, but on March 21, while inaugurating the new French submarine Le Terrible, President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a speech on deterrence, adopted a similar approach. By declaring that a nuclear weapon made it possible to launch a warning to an aggressor, for example, thanks to a high-altitude explosion, which then could neutralize all energy sources of a country and make the adversary blind, deaf, and mute.

Axing of Transrapid a Wedding Gift to New Entente Cordiale?

March 28 (EIRNS)—The coincidence of the meeting in London between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and of the decision of the German government yesterday to scrap the maglev project in Munich, is puzzling. The decision against the maglev project threatens to add this technology to the list of other pioneer technologies that have been sacrificed by Germany—nuclear power, high-temperature reactors, manned space missions, along with the German mark—as concessions to win approval from London and Paris for Germany's reunification following the fall of the East German communist government. The same German government that is throwing the maglev away, is also planning to scrap the German Constitution for the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

The Thyssen-Krupp firm, producer of the maglev train's engine, will enter negotiations with the Chinese now, on sale of the technology to China, where maglev projects have a better chance of being realized.

One may see a specific financial blackmail in this disaster, namely a threat by the powers that run the Anglo-Dutch (now joined by the French) financial system, against the German economy and its banking system. Furthermore, Chancellor Angela Merkel is a raving anglophile, as can be seen in her instant adoption of Tony Blair's global warming hoax as the key feature of her "foreign policy." Throughout her two and a half years in office, Merkel has not once mentioned the maglev among what she calls "future technologies."

Irish PM Resigns To Save 'Yes' Vote on Lisbon Treaty

April 3 (EIRNS)—Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has resigned in what the press is reporting as a bid to save the "yes" vote in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Ahern has been the target of an anti-corruption tribunal and is suspected of having received illegal payments from property developers. The issue has been at the center of a dispute between the ruling party and the main opposition party, both of which support the Treaty. Ahern's resignation was aimed at preventing his corruption from becoming a key issue, whereby the Treaty referendum would become a vote of confidence in him.

Irish sources have told EIR that his resignation stole the headlines from the fact that the Irish parliament yesterday introduced the Lisbon Treaty referendum bill. The referendum will most likely take place on June 10 or 12. The public debate will intensify over the next ten weeks, and the supporters of the Treaty are doing everything to ensure that a yes vote prevails.

Sarkozy's France Will 'Disappear' If It Joins NATO

PARIS, April 3 (EIRNS)—In an interview with the website Marianne 2, influential French strategic analyst Emmanuel Todd issued a scathing attack on President Nicolas Sarkozy's reinforcement of the French contingent in Afghanistan, and attempt to return to the NATO integrated command. Asked whether anything justifies an enhanced deployment into Afghanistan, Todd replied, "One can imagine everything from Nicolas Sarkozy, even that he doesn't know where Afghanistan is. But I cannot imagine that people around him don't know ... that this war is lost."

The Afghans will defeat the invaders, continued Todd. "The social organization of the Pashtuns is designed for war, just as that of the Somali clans: War is the normal state of those societies, therefore its duration poses no problem. As long as the belligerents are supplied with weapons from the outside, it is obvious that those social systems will win over a few thousand men come from far away and confronted with difficulties.

"Why do those who govern us want us to participate in a lost war? ... If we become aligned, if we lose our independence, we disappear. De Gaulle understood that: [under those conditions] France does not exist on the world scale, cannot justify its [permanent] seat at the UN Security Council, and its possession of nuclear weapons. The world will want nothing to do with the France of Sarkozy.... France will be on the side of evil."

The End of Scandinavian Neutrality?

PARIS, April 2, (EIRNS)—On March 28, ending the country's long tradition of neutrality, the Finnish Parliament approved Finland's participation in NATO's Response Force (NRF), though limited to peace partnership missions. Sweden, which was also supposed to approve its participation in the NRF before the Bucharest NATO summit, which opened today, delayed its final decision, under pressure from the Social Democrats which oppose Sweden's participation.

Italy: 110,000 Families Are Defaulting on Mortgages

April 3 (EIRNS)—The chairman of the Italian anti-trust authority, Antonio Catricalà, reported yesterday that 110,000 families are defaulting on their home mortgages, and an additional 420,000 are under stress because of the increase in mortgage rates.

All rights reserved © 2008 EIRNS