Japan remains calm - the West panicks

Just read this piece from a Japanese insider - when this catastrophe is over, we seriously have to question Western media coverage.

Silent vigil in front of the European Parliament

To show compassion and solidarity with people in Japan, several Green MEPs have organized a silent vigil in front of the European Parliament this evening. People were standing together holding candles as it is normally done on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.

CC BY-NC-SA/André Feldhof

Sven Giegold, Green MEP from Germany and co-initiator of the vigil, reiterated that the tragic events in Japan should teach everybody to treat dangerous technologies more carefully in future:

Update: More photos are here.

Flawed arguments about Strasbourg

"We reserve us all possibilities given by the treaty, also the option to go to the Court of Justice of the European Union." - Laurent Wauquiez, French minister for European affairs

When Michiel van Hulten reported in February that MEPs are fed up with the traveling circus between Brussels and Strasbourg, the political establishment reacted to it like a horse reacts to a fly. "I urge you not to engage in polemics that will damage Europe’s standing. That would only play into the hands of the Euro-sceptics", said France's ambassador to the EU. Joseph Daul and Martin Schulz, respectively leaders of the EPP and the S&D group, dismissed the report as “a waste of time”, adding "that this was not an issue MEPs should deal with".

The European Parliament in Strasbourg
by night, CC BY-NC-SA, by m4tik

Now that MEPs voted to scrap a trip to Strasbourg per year, the French government and other stakeholders are howling with rage. French members of the EPP group "denounce the attacks on Strasbourg" and ask the French government to take the case to the ECJ; Wauquiez is seriously considering to follow suit (possibly in vain).

You hear that there is a lot of emotion and not so much rational thinking behind these arguments. Bernd Posselt, German member of the EPP, has even compiled a list of "preconceptions" that the pro-Brussels camp is supposed to have, and he completely boycotts the Brussels seat.


But many of the pro-Strasbourg arguments are flawed. I went through some of Posselt's arguments to start with.



Posselt: The "democratic deficit of Europe will get worse if Europe becomes more centralized", as centralization would "go against the general movement of history" and "concentrations of powers increase the risk of abuse of powers".

==> Many observers say that the Parliament needs to be close to the institutions it controls, and that it could not fulfill its function if it were to work from the distance. Besides, when it was decided in the 1950s where to base the EEC, Robert Schuman supported decentralization of European institutions and "was joined in his ideas by Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, small countries that were afraid that their cities could not integrate a large number of foreigners." There was never a political motivation for the decentralization of the institutions. Instead, "the ministers were unable to decide on a site, choosing three provisional capitals and therewith bringing about de facto decentralization."


Posselt: "In Brussels the Parliament is more in the category of “and others” after NATO, the Council and the European Commission, while in Strasbourg, it is the center of attention."

==> Quite the contrary, the existence of "Brussels" and of face-to-face relations led to a European public sphere that allows for the shaping of opinion through discussions between different stakeholders (albeit in a bubble). Opinions could not be negotiated as well if they had to travel back and forth between Brussels and Strasbourg.
In addition, the disappearance of the European Parliament from Strasbourg would for the first time give adequate visibility to the Council of Europe and the European Court on Human Rights.


Posselt: "To abandon Strasbourg would be a shock to the European identity which was much defined after the war by the contested border region of Alsace."

==> Plain wrong. The identity in Alsace after WWII, partly German and partly French, was bounced around between Alsatian affection for France and the repulsion that France showed for Alsace. "The Alsatian became the “lowest creature in France that one [could] mock . . . without facing a consequence". Had Alsatians "been proud of their 'double culture' before the war, now there was a 'desire to forget the language and the culture, to undergo assimilation and to be like the other French in order to not longer have anything in common with the German enemy.'"


In conclusion, many arguments in favor of a Parliament in Strasbourg are based on historical or ideological reasons. And many of them are flawed. The Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights would deserve more limelight than they have, while the Parliament should check decision-makers in Brussels as it is supposed to do. Instead, as several commentators suggest, new European institutions could fill the vacant space in the Strasbourg buildings.


Update (17/04/2011): A new paper published by 90 MEPs suggests a similar direction as I have taken here. It wants to make Strasbourg the European City of Justice by moving the ECJ over there. 

Gaddafi's fall and the African Union

Should Muammar Gaddafi's government fall - and things are looking like it will - this will mean an end to mass murder, an end to political oppression in Libya - but also and end to much of the African Union.

The African Union, created in 2001 by Gaddafi himself, unites 53 African states. It is modeled on the European Union, has an African Union Commission in Addis Abeba, Ethopia, and a Pan-African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa. Gaddafi's objectives in launching the African Union are questionable - after failed Libyan expansion attempts to Chad and financial and military involvement in many other countries, his aims were certainly not only generous. In 2009, he served a year as African Union chairman himself; after missing reelection, he "criticized the AU for "tiring" him with long meetings and making declarations and reports without asking him." But Gaddafi provided 15% of the African Union membership fees, according to Geoffrey York from the Globe and Mail. Below, a chart of what else he financed.

Picture Source: theglobeandmail.com

Besides giving funding, the Libyan revolution leader was a fervent supporter of the Pan-African movement in ideological terms (he had his reasons, having failed to win favor of the Arab League countries, to the point that he hissed in 1998 that the "Arab world is finished"). Laura Seay, a political scientist at Morehouse College in Atlanta who specializes in African politics, esteems that “without Gadhafi, the pan-African movement is dead.” She does not see anybody with the personal conviction and the financial resources to fill the gap. The African Union is already facing financial difficulties; without Gaddafi's money and support, it may be difficult to sustain much of its activity.

Maybe the EU could give a hand to the African Union?

Control values? Control the media!

In three European countries citizens are deeply at odds with their leaders, and public opinion in these countries is shaped in different ways. The media play an important role in it.

• In France, a country with a history of very complicated state affairs (Clearstream, Dreyfus, Bettencourt), the foreign minister lost her job over something as simple as flying in a plane that belongs to a friend of dictator Ben Ali's. (And a controversial statement on the repression of protesters.)
  
• In Germany, the defense minister is under heavy fire for plagiarism in his PhD thesis. But a whopping 68% of the population still support him.
• And in Italy, thousands of Italian protesters all across Europe joined demonstrations against their prime minister on 13 February. Yet, many Italians, in particular elderly women, still support the prime minister. Of those who demonstrate against him, quite a few believe that he will somehow manage to remain in power after all.

Apparently

• in France you don't get away with stuff unless you control the public sphere (Sarkozy does. MAM didn't)
• in Germany you get away with quite a lot as long as you control the public sphere (Guttenberg receives favorable coverage from BILD)
• in Italy you get away with everything because you own the public sphere. And those defying you are either retarded or criminal

It strikes me how public opinion in these societies, all of them rather critical of politics and of political elites, would be so volatile depending on the way in which the media cover these affairs. It strikes me in particular because it touches values as well.

• France is gloating because a morally correct politician who didn't do anything "illegal or improper", is no longer "chef de la diplomatie française".
  
• Über-correct Germany has a new debate about the acceptability of cheating.
  
• And Italy spends more time debating "bunga bunga" than fighting unemployment.

Values are shaped because of media coverage. And coverage is dependent on political influence over the media.

I find that worrying.

China and EU start into Year of Youth

Today was the official launch of the EU-China Year of Youth in Beijing. 40 days after the European launch event in Brussels, 200 young people from China and the EU met in Beijing to kick off what will hopefully be a year of fruitful exchanges. They discussed potential EU-China cooperation projects, ranging from environmental protection to world heritage and intellectual property.

The cooperation is managed by the European Youth Forum (YFJ) on the European and the All-China Youth Federation (ACYF) on the Chinese side. Both have launched websites on the year of exchanges (China, EU) and an array of events and conferences is being planned in the EU and in China.

On the European side, the French are the most active organizers. They are trying to export the French language to China via a blogging competition (offline!) and a film festival for young Chinese. Second are the Germans with events on sport and social development.

But before you believe that the EU is relegated to being a spectator in culture, there are also some political EU-China Youth Events. Tomorrow marks the beginning of a a China photo exhibition in the European capital (I will try to cover it), other events include the European Youth Week or an EU-China Youth Culture Week. And also in China, some interesting things are taking place, such as the Shenzhen Universiade in August (college olympics).

Who knows, maybe we can even increase links between European and Chinese bloggers. China has a growing blogosphere (see English coverage here, here, here, here and here) and more conversation can certainly reduce a lot of cultural prejudices.



Launch video of the EU-China Year of Youth 2011

For a strong EU condemnation of the murder in Libya

During the Tiananmen Square massacre in China in early June 1989, the Chinese army charged into a group of 100,000 protesters gathered in the center of Beijing - between 400 and 3000 protesters were killed, according to different statistics. Others estimate that more than 3000 protesters lost their lives.
The European Community issued a statement on June 6th (not available) and strongly condemned the "brutal repression taking place in China" at the European Council meeting on 26./27. June 1989 in Madrid:

"The European Council requests the Chinese authorities to respect human rights and to take into account the hopes for freedom and democracy deeply felt by the population [...] In the present circumstances, the European Council thinks it necessary to adopt the following measures:

raising of the issue of human rights in China in the appropriate international fora; asking for the admittance of independent observers to attend the trials and to visit the prisons

interruption by the Member States of the Community of military cooperation and an embargo on trade in arms with China

suspension of bilateral ministerial and high level contacts

postponement by the Community and its Member States of new cooperation projects,

reduction of programs of cultural, scientific and technical cooperation to only those activities that might maintain a meaning in the present circumstances"

During the last few days, more than 100 protesters have died in Libya, maybe even more than 200. Allegedly, snipers fired into the crowd, intentionally killing individual demonstrators. A tank intentionally crushed two demonstrators to death in their car. Facebook and Twitter have been blocked, international reporters are forbidden to report from Libya. Onlookers fear the worst.

For the European Union, Libya has an important role as a watchdog. Gaddafi makes sure that the number of migrants flowing into the EU remains low. Esther Saoub, German correspondent in Cairo, believes that the EU will remain silent for some time in view of the protests in Libya: "Should the courageous demonstrators, who have these days dared to raise their voice, hope for support from Europe, their hope is probably in vain. Of course, Muammar Al Gaddafi is not popular with anybody in Europe save his friend Silvio Berlusconi, but since when are door guards ever popular? Still, nobody would have the idea to organize entry into an elite disco through grassroots democracy. Why should the EU be the first to have this idea?" (My translation)

Given the situation, the EU should be as courageous towards Libya as it has been towards China in 1989. So far, nothing has been issued by the High Representative yet, neither on the pages of the EEAS, nor via Twitter. There is nothing that excuses the intentional murder of citizens, and there is nothing that excuses a cowardly EU statement on this murder. After the events in Egypt and the sudden love of EU politicians for human rights once Mubarak had fallen, everything but a strong condemnation of the murder in Libya would be hypocrisy. And it would show how much less important human rights are to us today than they were in 1989. Be courageous, Cathy Ashton.


Update (20/02/11, 6:25 p.m.): Cathy Ashton has just issued two statements. One on the elections in Uganda, one on women's shelters in Afghanistan...
Update (21/02/11, 12:30 a.m.): The declaration on Libya is out. "Extremely concerned", "We condemn the repression against peaceful demonstrators", "immediately refrain from further use of violence", "human rights [...] must be respected and protected", "immediately cease the blocking of public access to the internet and mobile phone networks", "legitimate aspirations and demands of the people for reform" - it's about as courageous as the Tiananmen declaration. An international conference on North Africa is to follow. Will economic sanctions be employed?
Update (21/02/11, 9.30 a.m.): Also read reactions to Ashton's declaration here and here.
Update (22/02/11, 8.34 p.m.): EU suspends negotiations on EU-Libya Framework Agreement.