—शशी पौडेल
झण्डै साढे छ दशक पहिले कोइला र फलामको ब्यापारका निम्ति भनि सुरु भएको युरोपियन युनियनको यात्रा अहिले सम्म आइपुग्दा २८ मुलुकहरु यसको सदस्यराष्ट्र हुन पुगेका छन् । यी २८ युरोपीयन युनियन राष्ट्रहरुमा बसोबास गर्नेहरुको संख्या साढे पचास करोड रहेको छ भने यसले बिश्वको एक चौथाइ भन्दा बढी अर्थतन्त्र ओगटेको छ । Continue reading
The European Parliament approved plans to hear whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose revelations about US snooping on EU leaders sparked uproar.
According to Daily Morning star, from London – the Parliament’s civil liberties committee voted 36 to 2 to quiz Mr Snowden via an interactive video link from Russia, where he has found temporary asylum. Continue reading
The European Union’s neoliberal austerity dogma is adding to public-sector debt across the continent, EU figures revealed today.
Official statistics body Eurostat said government debt in the eurozone had risen to 92.2 per cent of GDP in the first quarter of 2013, up 4 per cent on a year ago, while it rose to 85.9 per cent from 85.2 per cent across the EU as a whole.
Since the 2008 financial crash EU countries such as Germany and Britain have blamed excessive government spending for the economic crisis and prescribed sweeping cuts to jobs, public services and employment rights as a cure. Continue reading
Germany’s economic output dropped more than expected in the last quarter of 2012 as the EU languished in recession, the bloc’s statistics agency Eurostat warned today.
The contraction in Europe’s largest economy deepened the recession across the 17-country eurozone.
Eurozone output shrank by 0.6 per cent in the quarter – the steepest fall since 2009, when the world’s economy was in its deepest recession since World War II. Continue reading
Prime Minister David Cameron has turned to the issue of Europe to try to take votes from Ukip and improve Tory fortunes 2015.
His government had already guaranteed a referendum if the transfer of significant new powers to Brussels is proposed. But he went further in his 23 January speech, promising more ‘repatriation’ of powers and a referendum on the UK’s European Union membership in 2017. Continue reading
What a bind David Cameron finds himself caught in. Trapped between his fat-cat friends who love the EU business-friendly policies and attacks on workers, and his party’s racist right who hate the EU out of blind nationalism. Continue reading