Euroblogs in German

Yesterday I looked at the euro crisis and euroblogs on Bloggingportal.eu, the multilingual aggregator. As I said:

Increasingly Europeans realise that they are in the same boat, although some design the improved vessels for the future, some recall scrapped luxury liners of past glory, some see the Titanic fatally heading towards the iceberg (while deck-chairs are being arranged) and some remind us of the harsh and unjust treatment (austerity) which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty.

German and Germany

According to Wikipedia, German was (2007) the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union (18 per cent of EU population; plus the mother tongue of 4.6 million in the enclave Switzerland). Some 32 per cent of people in the EU were able to speak German, making it the second most widely understood language after English (51%).

In political terms, the rest of the European Union and the eurozone have been waiting for Merkozy to stop fiddling, while the UK prime minister David Cameron can mostly watch and hope on the sidelines, so it is impossible to ignore Germany, the most populous nation of the EU in addition to having the strongest economy.

Indeed, together German speaking Germany (82 million) and Austria (8.4 million) represent about 27% of the population in the eurozone and about 18% of the EU total (Eurostat).


Euroblogs in German

In the spirit of cross-border discussion and understanding, Europaeum - @mteu on Twitter – one of the Bloggingportal editors, has compiled an English presentation of the active EU blogosphere in German, including Austrian ones, three from the Baltic states and a Franco-German blog.

Martin then continued with an entry with German language blogs listed on Bloggingportal, which have published since July 2011, a much longer list including a number of policy blogs and blogs by MEPs.

If your euroblog is still missing (or someone else's), you can propose the blog on EU politics or policy areas to Bloggingportal.eu.



Ralf Grahn

Eurozone: Budget consolidation in Austria

On 26 April 2010 the Council examined the updated stability programme of Austria, which covers the period 2009 to 2013:



COUNCIL OPINION on the updated stability programme of Austria, 2009-2013; OJEU 27.5.2010 C 137/7.


The Opinion describes the effects of the financial and economic crisis, which pushed the Austrian economy into the deepest recession in post-war history. Public finances deteriorated significantly. The Council decided on 2 December 2009 that an excessive deficit existed in Austria and issued a recommendation to correct the deficit by 2013.

In comparison with the 3 per cent government deficit and 60 per cent government debt to GDP, the reference values of the Stability and Growth Pact, the Opinion offers the following picture:

The Austrian stability programme estimates the general government deficit in 2009 at 3.5 % of GDP. Government gross debt is estimated at 66.5 % of GDP in 2009, up from 62.5 % in the year before.

The Council makes the evaluation that overall, in 2010 the budgetary strategy set out in the programme is consistent with the Council recommendation under Article 126(7) TFEU. However, from 2011 on, taking into account the risks, the budgetary strategy may not be consistent with the Council recommendation under Article 126(7) TFEU.

The consolidation path outlined in the programme, starting in 2011 is not underpinned by appropriate measures. In addition, the budgetary strategy is not sufficient to bring debt-to-GDP ratio back on a downward path.

In view of the new assessment and in the light of the recommendation under Article 126 TFEU of 2 December 2009, the Council of the European Union invited Austria to:

(i) substantiate the measures deemed necessary to underpin the planned consolidation from 2011 onwards, in order to achieve the recommended average annual fiscal effort of 0,75 % of GDP and bring the general government deficit below the 3 % of GDP reference value by 2013; and seize, as prescribed in the EDP recommendation, any opportunities beyond the fiscal effort, including from better economic conditions, to accelerate the reduction of the gross debt ratio back towards the 60 % of GDP reference value;

(ii) further improve the budgetary framework to reinforce fiscal discipline at all levels of government through enhanced transparency and accountability notably by aligning legislative, administrative and financing responsibilities between the different levels of government and by strengthening enforcement mechanisms under the internal stability pact.

Austria is also invited to submit in time for the assessment of the effective action under the excessive deficit procedure an addendum to the programme to report on progress made in the implementation of the Council recommendation under Article 126(7) of 2 December 2009 and to outline in some detail the consolidation strategy that will be necessary to progress towards the correction of the excessive deficit.

The Opinion is useful as an example of the periodic assessment of a eurozone government’s economic and budgetary policies, as well as peer pressure towards action.




Ralf Grahn

Euroblogs in German ─ where are they?

With 18 per cent of the EU population, German is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. A further 14 per cent can speak German, which means that almost a third of EU inhabitants (32%) are able to speak the language of Goethe (Wikipedia: Languages of the European Union).

There are German quality media, universities, think tanks, public administrations, world class businesses etc., but how about Euroblogs?



Let us take a look at the Euroblogs updated during the last week on the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu.



Among Journalists / Media we have Planet in Progress (Die Zeit) with one post.


Among Individuals Euro-Police is fairly active, with 11 posts either in German or in English monitoring the European police, e-comm, with five posts on EU (and Austrian) telecommunications law, and Martin Ehrenhauser, who as MEP should be in that category, with five posts on politics in the European Parliament.


Further there is Blog von Andreas Grieß, with two posts, Skablog, by Ska Keller, who like Ehrenhauser belongs to the MEP category, with two posts.



One post has been recorded by Zur Politik (Tom Schaffer), Der Nachbar (as EurActiv editor perhaps more correctly belonging to the Journalists / Media category), Europa-Transparent (Hajo Friedrich) and Reflexionen (Michael Scharfschwerdt).



Among the German and English bilingual blogs, Mount EUlympus (Andre Feldhof) has posted in English lately, once during the last week, and Jan’s EU-Blog (Jan Seifert) has one post in German, about fifty-fifty lately.



In the category MEPs / MPs / Political parties we find Peter Pilz Tagebuch with five posts, which mainly focus on Austrian politics. ─ This as good a place as any to ask, how Euroblogs and EU affairs should be understood. In my view, Bloggingportal.eu should be inclusive rather than exclusive. National and European spheres should be allowed to overlap, and national politics are of interest to European readers and they influence EU politics. On the other hand, are there limiting criteria which should be applied when approving blogs on Bloggingportal.eu?



Holger Krahmer (MEP) has two posts, while the MEPs Helga Trüpel and Silvana Koch-Mehrin have one post each during the last week.



In the Network category the webzine Die Euros has nine posts.



Among the Civil society /NGOs, Netzpolitik.org has three posts and Junge Europäische Föderalisten and der Universität Erfurt one blog article posted during the last week.


I found no updated blogs in German in the categories Commissioners, Governments or Think tanks / Academic / Federations.

***

Where are the German Euroblogs?


After looking at the Euroblogs in German, I have some questions.

Increasingly Germany can be said to be the leading EU member state (to the extent that there is a lead state), and Austria is a mid-sized member. In addition, there are German minorities in a number of member states as well as a sizable population in Switzerland and expats all over the world.

In relation to the many German speakers, there seem to be few Euroblogs in German on Bloggingportal.eu. In some categories, there are none, and in no category are the German blogs among the most active.

Have German blogs on EU affairs failed to announce their interest?

Are there not more German Euroblogs out there, and if so, why?


Ralf Grahn



P.S. Read about the real EUSSR through the good, the better and the best Euroblogs on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu.

European Council President: Eliminating unwilling countries

The previous post looked at the dual membership of the European Union and NATO as a requirement for hopefuls (member states and candidates). In our opinion, due to their ambiguous relation to NATO and EU defence, Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Malta and Sweden had disqualified themselves from filling the posts of President of the European Council and double-hatted High Representative.

I should have mentioned that Denmark has an opt-out in place concerning the common security and defence policy, although it is a NATO member.

***

We turn to other evolving core areas of the European Union.


Schengen agreement

The Schengen agreement abolishes border controls between the member states. Ireland and the United Kingdom have opted out.

(Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania are not yet inside.)


***

Eurozone

Denmark and the United Kingdom have opted out of the common currency. Sweden has not bothered to join, despite its treaty obligation to adopt the euro.

(Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania have committed themselves to entry, but have not made it yet.)

***

Justice and home affairs

Ireland and the United Kingdom have opted out of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters under the Treaty of Lisbon. Denmark has opted out of justice and home affairs (JHA) as well as EU citizenship (de iure).


***

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Under the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – politically binding since December 2000 – would become legally binding. Poland and the United Kingdom have opted out.


***

Lisbon Treaty

Let us use political ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon as a proxy for being in the European mainstream.

Ireland has voted no and the Czech Senate has not voted on the amending treaty. The Polish President has refused to sign, although the Parliament has approved the Lisbon Treaty.

(In Germany the Constitutional Court has not given its verdict, but the political ratification process is concluded.)

***

Summing up

If we strike the unwilling or negligent countries, we are left with the talent pool coming from 17 EU member states: Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

By ratifying the Lisbon Treaty the Czech Republic might join before the elections to the top offices, but the opt-outs elsewhere seem to be more firmly rooted.

According to these criteria, the EU member states outside one or more core areas at this point are: Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

***

Is it unreasonable to expect that the President of the European Council and the empowered High Representative come from member states engaged in all the core areas of EU policy (or committed to joining)?


Ralf Grahn

Populist Euroscepticism

Fabian Guy Neuner has started a blog, Embracing the Union, with the aim to face up to the destructive power of populist Euroscepticism. The address of Embracing the Union is:

http://embracingtheunion.blogactiv.eu/

Neuner’s first post ‘Now is the time! Lessons from Dublin and Vienna’ (26 June 2008) discusses the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. Neuner sees the ‘no’ vote in Ireland as a victory for targeted misinformation which uses people’s fears to mobilise the masses.

On the same day as the first post, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) leadership caved in to populist pressure by proclaiming that they would put further treaty ratifications to a plebiscite. In Neuner’s view, populism nurtured by Euroscepticism has the power to make leaders drop their commitment to European integration in order to remain in power (or at least increase their chances of doing so).

Neuner sets himself the objective of critically discussing the EU’s democratic credentials and discrediting the myths that permeate the debate on Europe.

***

It is always a pleasure to see a new critical and constructive Euroblog in English. I wish Neuner good luck in his endeavour and I look forward to his following posts.


Ralf Grahn

Very latest EU

From 12 until 15 October 2007 I have fed my Finnish blog with some web columns and notices about the European Union. The topics include the EU and globalisation, Turkey’s maturity for EU membership, military assistance within the EU and NATO, the need for the European Union, consolidated versions of the Reform Treaty, ’civil’ members of a military alliance to be and self-inflicted marginalisation.

The adress is:

http://grahnlaw.blogs.fi


The postings have the following headings:


EU globalisaatiossa

Turkki ja EU:n laajeneminen

Sanoma euroskeptikoille

EU:n ja Naton turvatakuut

Uudet EU-sopimukset päivitettyinä

Puolustusliiton siviilijäsenet

Arkaaisessa marginaalissa hyvä olla?



Regards
Ralf Grahn