Western European News Digest

British Feed Fears of Russian Bear

Aug. 29 (EIRNS)—The London Daily Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard today pushes British propaganda warning against a Russian cutoff of oil flow to the West. Evans-Pritchard quotes an unnamed "high-level business source" who told him that Russian oil companies are under orders from the Kremlin to prepare for a supply cut to Germany and Poland through the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline. It is believed that executives from lead-producer Lukoil have been put on weekend alert. "They have been told to be ready to cut off supplies as soon as Monday [Sept. 1]," the source said.

Evans-Pritchard also quotes former CIA chief James Woolsey saying that "Russia is behaving in a very erratic way. There is a risk that they might do something like cutting oil to hurt the world's democracies, if they get angry enough."

Contrary to Evans-Pritchard's psywar, Russian Prime Minister Putin said yesterday in a CNN interview, that Russia has no intention of cutting energy flows to the West.

Soros Outfit Looks Next to Ukraine, Moldova

Aug. 26 (EIRNS)—Today's Moscow Times reports on a provocative study just released by the George Soros-founded European Council on Foreign Relations. The ECFR calls on the European Union to strengthen ties with Ukraine and support for Moldava, as moves against Russia. Reporting on Georgia, Soros's ECFR demands "specific commitments to Ukraine," and other countries in the region, in the wake of Russia's military action in Georgia. These should involve "stronger engagement for democracy, prosperity, and security in the broader region," but keep "tough measures toward Moscow on the table if Russia resists."

The EU should also back an international commission of inquiry into the Georgian conflict to establish its causes, says Soros. While conceding that harsh actions against Russia would be "counterproductive," this sophistry is no less provocative, and reveals the true nature of the British EU-empire drive.

On Sept. 9, Ukraine will participate in an EU summit.

Poland Fails To Rally 'New Europe' vs. Russia

Aug. 29 (EIRNS)—A call by the Polish government for an initiative for a common anti-Russian position of the "New Europe" states in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, apparently did not attract much attention. Only three Presidents—those of Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia—convened in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, today, agreeing on a resolution that calls for increasing EU aid to rebuild Georgia and to accelerate the perspective of EU membership for Georgia and Ukraine. The details are to be worked out at a meeting in Warsaw before the special EU Summit in Brussels on Sept. 1.

Rome and Berlin Move Against Russia Sanctions

Aug. 30, (EIRNS)—Italian media report today that Rome and Berlin protested to Paris over French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's demands for sanctions against Russia.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to the Rome daily Il Messaggero, telephoned French President Nicolas Sarkozy to demand an explanation. Berlusconi then met with President Giorgio Napolitano to deliberate on an Italian position which would not "isolate Moscow."

In Germany, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called sanctions "unreasonable," while the chairman of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, Ruprecht Polenz (CDU), has said that even discussing sanctions on the eve of the Sept. 1 EU summit, would be a useless provocation against the Russians. The German government, reports Corriere della Sera correspondent Danilo Taino, is afraid that the U.S. government and other Western countries want to block the North Stream pipeline.

U.K. To Launch 'Plan B' for Lisbon Treaty?

Aug. 29 (EIRNS)— After the visit by U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband to Ukraine on Aug. 27, the London Financial Times went full-steam ahead to influence the Sept. 1 EU summit on Georgia crisis, by calling for the West to promise Ukraine an EU membership. "The West should respond—and the EU must play a big role in that response," the Financial Times writes in its first editorial. "An EU move now would help head off the difficult issue of Ukraine's NATO membership bid.... While united over EU accession, Ukrainians are split over NATO."

The editorial lies: "While EU membership brings no security guarantees, it confers the political backing of a 27-member bloc." An EU membership application process for Ukraine would be as provocative as a NATO membership, as any future Ukraine crisis could be used to push the Lisbon Treaty through the back door. If the treaty were implemented, it would create a militarized European Union, among other measures.

Rocard Calls for Public Credit Creation

Aug 30 (EIRNS)— In a well-received intervention at a Socialist Party cadre school in La Rochelle, France, today, former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard—a supporter of a New Bretton Woods-style monetary system—stated that the international financial crisis we are living through is "far greater than anything that has been said here so far." He was the last speaker on the panel of seven of Socialist elected officials, in the round table on the political economy necessary to deal with the present crisis. Most of the speakers focussed on the financial crisis, several of them harshly attacking the drift of finance capital as being responsible for it.

Rocard went beyond his previous proposals, this time, acknowledging that "we made a big mistake in limiting our means of intervention into the economy, notably by agreeing to eliminate the Bank of France, which before had been the key for public investment, and [the situation] today forces states to borrow from private banks paying high interest rates."

Germany, Denmark To Sign Fehmarn Bridge Treaty

Aug. 28 (EIRNS)—Germany and Denmark will sign an agreement on Sept. 3 to build a bridge that will significantly expedite travel and trade between Scandinavia and the European mainland.

German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee and his Danish counterpart, Carina Christensen, are scheduled to meet in Copenhagen to sign the treaty, allowing the construction of the Eu5.6 billion ($8.2 billion) bridge that will span the 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) divide between Puttgarden on the German island of Fehmarn, and Roedby on the Danish island of Lolland. Both islands are in the Baltic Sea.