Western European News Digest

Italy's Guarino Exposes EU Superstate

Nov. 12 (EIRNS)—Constitutional expert Giuseppe Guarino, professor emeritus of the University of Rome, has written a paper demonstrating that the European Union is already a federal state. His findings are additional evidence in support of the Constitutional challenge against the European Union's Lisbon Treaty filed by Prof. Dr. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider in Germany.

Professor Guarino has reviewed all EU- and non-EU-originated legislation, from 2000 to 2008, in the case of Italy. He concludes that the EU legislation is greatly predominant, in terms of number of bills and number of pages. "Since EU regulations and directives are applied to all EU member countries, it is believed that analogous results shall be found for all EU member-states," Guarino writes.

In a discussion with EIR, Guarino noted that the Lisbon Treaty process has not even been concluded. Although all member-countries have formally ratified the Treaty, according to Guarino, national parliaments will be called again to vote on the two protocols attached to the Treaty that deal with concessions to Ireland and the Czech Republic—the last two countries to ratify.

Those protocols have not yet been drafted, but they have been negotiated and announced formally at two European Council meetings, which have a binding legal status. Once drafted, according to Guarino, they must be approved by national parliaments.

It is possible that if public opinion in nations other than Ireland and the Czech Republic is informed of the content of the protocols, those nations might demand the same concessions, thus opening a Pandora's box.

Latvian Leader: EU Is Like Soviet Union

Nov. 13 (EIRNS)—Former Latvian President Vaira Vike Freiberga, after declaring her candidacy for the presidency of the European Union, called on the EU to stop acting like the Soviet Union. She is the only publicly declared candidate, although Britain's Tony Blair has been widely mooted.

She attacked the EU for operating in "darkness and behind closed doors," adding that "the European Union should stop working like the former Soviet Union."

Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that her attack has generated a buzz among political circles who are trying to figure out how leaders of the EU are to be chosen—comparable to the Cold War practice of "Kremlinology," when Western analysts would try to determine the meaning of leadership changes in Moscow.

Italian Senate Blocks Mezzogiorno Development Bill

Nov. 14 (EIRNS)—The Italian Senate blocked yesterday an amendment to the budget law, which concerned the establishment of a bank for the development of Southern Italy, called the Banca per il Mezzogiorno. The amendment had been introduced by the government, to accelerate a project sponsored by Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti. The Senate justified the move through a Senate rule that says no amendment to the budget law can be voted on if it is not discussed in committee beforehand. A formal challenge against the amendment was brought by Sen. Enrico Morando, a supporter of globalization, who played a negative role in the recent vote on a New Bretton Woods resolution sponsored by Sen. Oskar Peterlini.

The government will now reintroduce the amendment into the Chamber of Deputies Budget Committee.

French Presidential Candidates Groomed

PARIS, Nov. 12 (EIRNS)—Le Parisien today revealed that on June 22, IMF managing director Dominique Strauss Kahn held a large get-together to measure his own strength and that of his networks for the Presidential election in 2012.

Among the powerful financial networks mentioned by Le Parisien, is Strauss Kahn's former heads of Cabinet when he was Economics and Finance Minister, Mathieu Pigasse, one of the three people who run Lazard Frères in France. Another is François Villeroy de Galhau, the president of the surveillance council of Fortis Bank France, the new European banking behemoth, since its takeover by BNP Paribas. Le Parisien reports that he has become close to White House economic advisor Larry Summers and U.S. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner.

European Commission Flushed Out on Fascist QALY

Nov. 10 (EIRNS)—In a written response to an inquiry by Italian Member of the European Parliament Cristiana Muscardini, the European Commission has revealed that it encourages member governments to study the British utilitarian anti-life system of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY)—which the British have made an intrinsic part of the Obama Nazi health-care reform package.

Spokesman Androulla Vassiliou wrote that the Commission "does not intend to comment" on the euthanasia policies implemented in Great Britain as a result of the Liverpool Care Pathway, as Muscardini had asked in her question, citing British media. The Commission reports that it receives many solicitations "from health professionals, public health promoters and patients," on the "sustainability" of health systems and on current access to quality care. After having stated that the Commission "invites member states not to reduce [health] budgets," it reveals that "the EU aims at promoting cooperation among member states on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and encourages research on HTA models, such as QALY, at the European level, so that patients benefit from the most effective health treatments without jeopardizing the financial sustainability of health systems."

Britain Moving Ahead To Buy New Nuclear Plants

Nov. 9 (EIRNS)—After decades of funding and propagandistically arming the Malthusian anti-nuclear movement worldwide, it dawned on British ruling elites a couple of years ago that, much as it might be distasteful, Britain, itself, would have to start building some new nuclear plants, or face an inevitable, literal dark age. Over the next 13 years, Britain will be shutting down all but one of its nuclear reactors, due to advanced age. Nuclear energy today supplies about 20% of its electricity.

The government has spent the past two years rallying public support, empaneling review groups to make the case for nuclear, and announcing that it will build about ten plants over the next 15 years. Today, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband reported to Parliament on the ten sites that had been selected. The U.K. will be buying the reactors abroad, as it has a very small and limited nuclear industry.