From Volume 37, Issue 28 of EIR Online, Published July 23, 2010

Western European News Digest

Merkel to Russia and China with Industrial Leaders

July 14 (EIRNS)—German Chancellor Angela Merkel is leading a delegation of half her Cabinet and leading business leaders—two planeloads full—to Russia, China, and Kazakhstan, for five days, beginning today. Traveling with her are representatives of 25 companies, including the CEOs of Volkswagen, Siemens, and Airbus, proposing that German industry aid in Russia's modernization.

Already, ten economic cooperation deals were signed at the German-Russian summit in Yekaterinburg, the centerpiece of which is a set of railway deals totalling investments of close to EU3 billion: Russian Railways and Siemens struck a deal that will provide Russia with 240 modern trains worth EU2.2 billion, and in 2011, Russia will receive from Siemens, Desiro commuter trains. They will run to airports in Moscow and other large cities, and will be the primary mode of transportation at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Furthermore, Siemens and Synara will supply 220 electric freight locomotives made at the plant in Verkhnyaya Pyshma near Yekaterinburg.

Germany and Russia also agreed to accelerate the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline along the Baltic Sea bed, and Germany's Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and Russia's Vnesheconombank signed a contract for more than EU100 million to help Russia to set up more small to medium-size companies. More contracts for German machine producers are expected, as Russia wants to rely on Germany as a strategic partner for its industrial modernization program.

Euro-Idiots Attack German Constitutional Court

July 16 (EIRNS)—Former Italian Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, a Euro-fanatic, attacked the German Constitutional Court today as a "serious obstacle" in the way of the European superstate. "In perspective, the serious obstacle is the German Constitutional Court, which objects to further concessions of sovereignty in favor of European institutions." Padoa-Schioppa praises German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who decided in favor of bailouts, "despite some of her illustrious advisors." He says that those who do not believe in the euro "do not understand that the world is no longer made of markets and nation-states." An Anglophile former director of the Bank of Italy, Padoa-Schioppa repeatedly attacked the Treaty of Westphalia in a 2006 book, claiming that nation-states are at the origin of wars.

Germany Now Below 5 Million Industrial Jobs

July 15 (EIRNS)—Job losses in core branches of German industry continue at an unabated pace. As the Federal Office of Statistics in Wiesbaden said today, the month of May, for the first time ever, saw employment in productive industry at 4.9 million. For a leading industrial nation with 82 million citizens, this is a fairly ridiculous situation, just showing how much the nation, which, as of 20 years ago, still had about 9.5 million jobs, has been deindustrialized. Compared to May 2009, there are 300,000 fewer jobs. The biggest job losses occurred especially in the machine-building sector, with 4.4%; in the electro-technical sector, with 4.6%; in the metal-processing industry, with 5.7%.

The situation in eastern Germany is particularly worrisome: There, 15% of those who were employed in productive industry, lost their jobs in 2009, which corresponds to the drastic drop in the production of machines and other industrial components by 13.5%.

European Dairy Farmers Fight for your Food

PARIS, July 12 (EIRNS)—This morning, dairy farmers from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Italy, Germany, and Spain will demonstrate against the proposals of the EU's "High Level Group on Milk (HLG) established "last October with the purpose of discussing mid-term and long-term arrangements for the dairy sector given the expiring of dairy quotas on 1 April 2015." The demonstration was called by the European Milk Board (EMB) and FUGEA (European Coordination Via Campesina).

Created in 2009 by then-EU Agriculture Commissioner and free-trade maniac Mariann Fischer-Böl, the HLG, after meeting with all the main players in the dairy market, proposes to replace the current EU and state market support mechanisms (considered unbridled competition) with private regulation schemes. The latter rely on a combination of hypothetical good will of giant food cartels offering a supposedly fair price to small dairy farmers, and the creation of financial "futures" derivatives markets "to protect" farmers!

Reached for comment, a prominent leader of the French independent milk producers' organization APLI told EIR that the HLG proposals will only further the certain death of the industry. Since April 2009, he said, in France alone, over 1,000 dairy farmers each month have closed their businesses.

Expose Conspiracy To 'De-Tremontize' Italian Government

July 13 (EIRNS)—At a private dinner organized by well-known TV anchorman Bruno Vespa (rumored to be the illegitimate son of Mussolini) a few days ago, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, central banker Mario Draghi, opposition figure Pierferdinando Casini, and others, met to plot what some media have now called the "de-Tremontization" of the Italian government. Berlusconi, who is under political blackmail, would get backing from Casini's UDC party, in exchange for dumping Tremonti (and his policies). As the dinner was leaked to the media, Tremonti and his allies in the Lega Nord party immediately issued an ultimatum to Berlusconi: If you go that way, the Lega will open a government crisis, and we will have early elections.

Berlusconi is under heavy political blackmail, because: 1. Former ally Gianfranco Fini has formed an internal faction in Berlusconi's PDL, which claims to have enough Parliament votes to steal the majority. 2. Leading figures of Berlusconi's praetorian guard are being investigated as part of a secret, illegal freemasonic political/business ring. In particular the national coordinator of the PDL, Denis Verdini, is accused, together with former P2 member Flavio Carboni, of manipulating government contracts for wind power, and conspiring to appoint their friends to key government posts.

Independent of the political motivation of the scandals targeting Berlusconi, Italy's Prime Minister is also a cause of his own troubles. When Berlusconi appointed Verdini as national coordinator of PDL a few years ago, well-informed sources told EIR that Verdini was a known member of the pro-British (as opposed to pro-U.S.) faction of the freemasonry in Florence. All the intricacies of the situation notwithstanding, "that dinner was aimed at launching the de-Tremontization of the government," the daily Il Riformista wrote today.

All rights reserved © 2010 EIRNS