Tag Archives: European Commission

Matt Taibbi ~ Everything Is Rigged, Continued: European Commission Raids Oil Companies In Price-Fixing Probe

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RollingStone May 15 2013

Lord Oakeshott

We’re going to get into this more at a later date, but there was some interesting late-breaking news yesterday.

According to numerous reports, the European Commission regulators yesterday raided the offices of oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway as part of an investigation into possible price-rigging in the oil markets. The targeted companies include BP, Shell and the Norweigan company Statoil. The Guardian explains that officials believe that oil companies colluded to manipulate pricing data:

The commission said the alleged price collusion, which may have been going on since 2002, could have had a “huge impact” on the price of petrol at the pumps “potentially harming final consumers”.

Lord Oakeshott, former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said the alleged rigging of oil prices was “as serious as rigging Libor” – which led to banks being fined hundreds of millions of pounds.

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Patrick Donahue ~ Cyprus Rejects Deposit Levy in Blow to European Bailout Plan

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Zen-Haven March 19 2013

Cyprus’s parliament rejected an unprecedented levy on bank deposits, dealing a blow to European plans to force depositors to shoulder part of the country’s rescue in a standoff that risks renewed tumult in the euro area.

Cypriot legislators in the capital Nicosia voted 36 against to none in favor of the proposal in a show of hands today. There were 19 abstentions. Hammered out by euro-area finance chiefs over the weekend, the deal had sought to raise 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) by drawing funds from Cyprus bank accounts in return for 10 billion euros in international aid.

Stocks dropped and the euro fell to a three-month low against the dollar at the prospect of impasse in Cyprus. European officials including Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem had said that Cyprus must contribute to its own bailout, while stressing that the Cypriot situation is unique. German coalition lawmakers said that Cyprus can expect no aid without meeting the terms.

“Cyprus has rebuffed the outstretched hand” of its partners, Hans Michelbach, a German lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc and the ranking member on parliament’s finance committee, said in an e-mailed statement. The vote is “an act of collective unreason” and “the people of Cyprus must now pay a high price.”

Nicosia Talks

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Ethan A. Huff ~ Six Crucial Things To Watch Out For When Buying Vitamins And Supplements

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NaturalNews February 27 2013

Not all vitamins and dietary supplements are the same. Many popular supplement brands, in fact, contain artificial additives, synthetic flow agents, chemical colorings, and even imitation vitamin compounds that your body does not recognize and cannot fully process. So how can you know whether or not the vitamins and supplements you buy are safe and effective? Here are six helpful tips on what to watch out for when buying vitamins and supplements.

1) Synthetic vitamins. There is a big difference between the natural vitamins found in food and the so-called vitamins added to many popular dietary supplements. Whole-food based vitamins are uniquely bioavailable, and occur naturally in foods, plants, and herbs. Synthetic vitamins, on the other hand, are produced in a laboratory, and may be derived from toxic sources such as coal tar and petroleum.

How can you know the difference? Synthetic vitamins are typically listed on ingredient labels by their isolated names — ascorbic acid (vitamin C), riboflavin (vitamin B2), and dl-alpha tocopherol acetate (vitamin E) are all examples of synthetic vitamins commonly added to vitamins and supplements, including multivitamin formulas. Stick with whole food-based vitamins and supplements, including those that clearly delineate their being derived from plants or other natural sources.

“In addition to being synthetic, isolated vitamins are missing all their naturally occurring essential synergistic co-factors and transporters,” explains the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). “A synthetic vitamin can stimulate a cell’s metabolism, but it cannot upgrade or replace the cell’s components with superior, better quality elements. The results? A degraded cell.” (http://www.organicconsumers.org/nutricon/qa.cfm)

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Alex Newman ~ Icelandic Taxpayers Win Key Case Against European Establishment

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The New American February 4 2013

Photo of Icleandic man exiting Landsbanki branch in Reykjavik, Iceland: AP Images

In a major victory for taxpayers in Iceland, an obscure transnational court ruled against the European Union and a similar supranational body last week, deciding that the tiny population of the island nation was not responsible for the massive liabilities of a private Icelandic bank that went bust during the 2008 economic meltdown. Establishment analysts blasted the decision as a “blow to global banking,” but Icelanders and proponents of the free market celebrated the verdict as a big win for the people and market principles — after all, they argue, citizens should not be forced to pay for the reckless and potentially criminal actions of a few bankers, widely criticized as “banksters” in recent years.

The Luxembourg-based European Free Trade Association (EFTA) court, of which the Icelandic government is a member, issued its landmark ruling on January 28 addressing two key charges against national authorities. Despite Iceland’s not being a member of the EU, one of the cases against the country was filed by the European Commission, a sort of “executive branch” in the sprawling, increasingly powerful, and out-of-control European superstate. The EFTA “Surveillance Authority” also filed a case alleging a violation of its rules.

The first complaint was that the Icelandic government failed to obey an EU directive ordering it to pay about $25,000 worth of “insurance” to every foreign depositor by extracting it from domestic taxpayers — a proposition that would have devastated the 300,000 or so Icelandic citizens and their already-ruined economy for generations to come. While the bankrupt bank’s assets have been used to compensate foreign depositors, the EFTA court ruled that citizens were not responsible for the liabilities.
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F. William Engdahl ~ Cancer Of Corruption, Seeds Of Destruction: The Monsanto GMO Whitewash

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The Intel Hub | December 21 2012

Because of the power vested in the EU Commission in Brussels, Belgium, with command over a space encompassing 27 nations with more than 500 million citizens and the largest nominal world gross domestic product (GDP) of 18 trillion US dollars, it’s perhaps no surprise in this era of moral promiscuity that powerful private lobby groups such as the tobacco industry, the drug lobby, the agribusiness lobby and countless others spend enormous sums of money and other favors—legal and sometimes illegal—to influence policy decisions of the EU Commission.

This revolving door of corrupt ties between powerful private industry lobby groups and the EU Commission was in full view recently with the ruling of the European Food Safety Administration (EFSA) trying to discredit serious scientific tests about the deadly effects of a variety of Monsanto GMO corn.

cartoon_gmo_cornCancer of Corruption

In September 2012, Food and Chemical Toxicology, a serious international scientific journal, released a study by a team of scientists at France’s Caen University led by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini.

Before publication the Seralini study had been reviewed over a four-month period by a qualified group of scientific peers for its methodology and was deemed publishable.

It was no amateur undertaking. The scientists at Caen made carefully-documented results of tests on a group of 200 rats over a two-year life span, basically with one group of non-GMO fed rats, a so-called control group, and the other a group of GMO-fed rats.

Significantly, following a long but finally successful legal battle to force Monsanto to release the details of its own study of the safety of its own NK603 maize (corn), Seralini and colleagues reproduced a 2004 Monsanto study published in the same journal and used by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its 2009 positive evaluation of NK603.

Seralini’s group based their experiment on the same protocol as the Monsanto study but, critically, were testing more parameters more frequently. And the rats were studied for much longer—their full two year average life-time instead of just 90 days in the Monsanto study.

The long time span proved critical. The first tumors only appeared 4 to7 months into the study. In industry’s earlier 90-day study on the same GMO maize Monsanto NK603, signs of toxicity were seen but were dismissed as “not biologically meaningful” by industry and EFSA alike. It seems they were indeed very biologically meaningful.

The study was also done with the highest number of rats ever measured in a standard GMO diet study. They tested also “for the first time 3 doses (rather than two in the usual 90 day long protocols) of the Roundup-tolerant NK603 GMO maize alone, the GMO maize treated with Roundup, and Roundup alone at very low environmentally relevant doses starting below the range of levels permitted by regulatory authorities in drinking water and in GM feed.” [1]

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Amy Goodman ~ The Growing Global Movement Against Austerity

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Nation Of Change | November 15 2012

Amaia Engana didn’t wait to be evicted from her home. On Nov. 9, in the town of Barakaldo, a suburb of Bilbao in Spain’s Basque Country, officials from the local judiciary were on their way to serve her eviction papers. Amaia stood on a chair and threw herself out of her fifth-floor apartment window, dying instantly on impact on the sidewalk below. She was the second person in two weeks in Spain to commit suicide as a result of an impending foreclosure action. Her suicide has added gravity to this week’s general strike radiating from the streets of Madrid across all of Europe. As resistance to so-called austerity in Europe becomes increasingly transnational and coordinated, President Barack Obama and the House Republicans begin their debate to avert the “fiscal cliff.” The fight is over fair tax rates, budget priorities and whether we as a society will sustain the social safety net built during the past 80 years.

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Julie Lévesque ~ The Nobel War Prize

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Global Research | October 17 2012

The Nobel Committee did it again. The essence of its highest award, the Nobel Peace Prize, has been perverted. It’s been turned into a propaganda tool, a form of institutionalized revisionism, for which war is upheld as a peaceful endeavour, creeping alongside power struggles called “humanitarian interventions” in a fantasy tale we call history.

Neither Henry Kissinger, nor Barack Obama and the European Union (EU) deserved a peace prize. How can the EU deserve a peace prize when it’s been using its military might in the Middle East and Africa for over a decade? As David Swanson notes:

“Europe [...] has not during the past year — which is the requirement — or even during the past several decades done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.  Ask Libya.  Ask Syria.  Check with Afghanistan.  See what Iraq thinks.  Far from doing the best work to abolish or reduce standing armies, Europe has joined with the United States in developing an armed global force aggressively imposing its will on the world.  There were good nominees and potential nominees available, even great ones [...]

The West is so in love with itself that many will imagine this award a success.  Surely Europe not going to war with itself is more important that Europe going to war with the rest of the world!”  (David Swanson, Why Europe Did Not Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize)

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Kassandra ~ ENISA: When In Greece Do As Greeks Do

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New Europe Online | October 8 2012 | Thanks, Jonathan

OLAF ~ the last resort of EU legitimacy

ENISA is the Greek based European Agency for Network and Information Security, under DG CONNECT (former DG INFSO). Its Chief Accountant, in the context of his duties, having reported financial irregularities was removed from his position by Udo Helmbrecht …for doing his job conscientiously and later was …fired!

The Chief Accountant took the case to the European Court of Justice which ruled this week that the Chief Accountant of ENISA was dismissed illegally from his duties after he reported financial irregularities about the agency. However, Udo Helmbrecht, in a move reminiscent of the Greek “patents” case fired the Chief Accountant just before the Court ruling was announced.

The Court Case

The Chief Accountant addressed the European Court of Justice which examined the case and confirmed that the dismissal was illegal because it violated Commission Decision C(2004) 1597. Moreover the Court concluded that the excuse brought forward by the Executive Director to the Management Board for the dismissal of the accountant was groundless. It should be added that the dismissed Chief Accountant had excellent performance reports and the Court of Auditors had praised his work to the Executive Director.

The Court annulled all the decisions pertaining to the dismissal of the accountant and ordered ENISA to pay all legal costs.

Another Lost Case

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Vatican Bank Chief Tedeschi Dismissed (Thanks, VK)

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BBC News | May 24 2012

The director of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, has been removed from his post for dereliction of duty, the Vatican says.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi

The bank’s board of directors unanimously passed a no-confidence vote in Mr Gotti Tedeschi, a statement said.

It said he had failed “to carry out duties of primary importance”, but it did not elaborate.

In 2010 Italian police launched an investigation against Mr Gotti Tedeschi as part of a money-laundering inquiry.

Members of the board believed his dismissal was needed to “maintain the vitality of the bank”, the Vatican statement said.

The board will now look for a new director to restore relations with the international financial community, “based on mutual respect for accepted international banking standards”.

Mr Gotti Tedeschi declined to comment on his dismissal. He told journalists: “I’d rather say nothing, otherwise I’d say ugly things.”
Transparency

But in remarks to the Reuters news agency, he said: “I have paid for my transparency.”

The moves comes as Moneyval, the Council of Europe body tasked with counteracting money laundering, prepares to rule at the beginning of July on whether the Vatican meets international standards on financial transactions.

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Poland Announces Complete Ban on Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Maize

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Anthony Gucciardi | Natural Society News | April 5 2012

Following the anti-Monsanto activism launched by nations like France and Hungary, Poland has announced that it will launch a complete ban on growing Monsanto’s genetically modified strain MON810. The announcement, made by Agriculture Minister Marek Sawicki, sets yet another international standard against Monsanto’s genetically modified creations. In addition to being linked to a plethora health ailments, Sawicki says that the pollen originating from this GM strain may actually be devastating the already dwindling bee population.

“The decree is in the works. It introduces a complete ban on the MON810 strain of maize in Poland,” Sawicki stated to the press.

Similar opposition to Monsanto occurred on March 9th, when 7 European countries blocked a proposal by the Danish EU presidency which would permit the cultivation of genetically modified plants on the entire continent. It was France, who in February, lead the charge against GMOs by asking the European Commission to suspend authorization to Monsanto’s genetically modified corn. What’s more, the country settled a landmark case in favor of the people over Monsanto, finding the biotech giant guilty of chemical poisoning.

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Eurozone Nightmare ~ $50 Silver By Summer & End of the Cartel (Ranting Andy)

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SGTBull07 | February 23 2012

SGT talks to Ranting Andy Hoffman about the fall of Greece at the hands of the IMF and banksters, Silver to $50 by summer which will help to break the backs of the criminal banking cartel.

Part 1

Part 2

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Plans Revealed for Greek Default on March 23

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Bob Adelmann | The New American | February 20 2012

Writer Bruno Waterfield’s claim that Germany has drawn up plans to deal with the inevitable Greek default was published in the British newspaper The Telegraph a little after 8 p.m. Saturday night. Within hours his claim was confirmed separately by blogger John Ward with times, dates, and consequences all spelled out by those drawing up the plans.

Parliament House, Athens, Greece

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble has increasingly voiced his opinion that the economic implosion taking place in Greece would result in its bankruptcy despite official protestations to the contrary from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. One official close to Schauble said, “He just thinks the Greeks cannot do what needs to be done. And even if by some miracle they did what has been promised, he … [is] convinced it will not pull Greece out of the hole.”

Schauble’s opinion gained increasing credence by a report issued last week by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (EC, ECB, and IMF — the “troika”). According to their report, even if Greece were successful in accomplishing all that it has promised in order to secure the next round of financing, it will still fall far short of bringing down its debt load to manageable levels. Waterfield went on to say that Schauble, behind the scenes, is pushing Greece to declare itself bankrupt and demand a 70 percent “haircut” from the banks holding the bulk of its debt.

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Mike Shedlock ~ Brussels Hit by First Coordinated Strike in Nearly Two Decades (And More)

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Global Economic Trend Analysis | January 27 2012

The Financial Times reports Brussels hit by strike as EU leaders meet.

A general strike brought widespread disruption to Belgium on Monday, as European Union leaders arrived for a summit in Brussels with a focus on boosting employment across the region. Trains, shipping, air travel and public transport were all hit by the trade union action, called in response to reforms enacted hastily by the new government of Elio Di Rupo.

It is the first time in nearly two decades that unions from all sectors of the economy have co-ordinated a strike. As well as schools, the postal service and other branches of the public sector, some private enterprises were affected as unions flexed their muscles.

The strikes in the EU’s capital are a reflection of union discontent across the continent, worried that austerity measures will jeopardise the recovery. A Europe-wide “day of action”, bringing together unions from across the continent, is planned for February 29.

Voter distress and open dissent is no where close to peaking.

Spain to Miss Deficit Reduction Goals

Courtesy of Google Translate, please consider Spain deficit to Hit 6.8% in 2012 and 6.3% in 2013, according to IMF

6.8% is far from the 4.4% that the European Commission has imposed
IMF predicts two years of recession, with declines of 1.7 and 0.3% in 2012 and 2013

Spain will not meet deficit reduction goals of the European Commission in 2012 and 2013. Specifically, the IMF projects that the deficit will be within 6.8% of GDP in 2012 and 6.3% in 2013, when Brussels requires, at most, a deficit of 4.4% this year and 3% next.

The agency, predicts a recession of two years for the Spanish economy, ending the last three months of this year with a contraction of 2.1%. This indicates the organization in the latest update to its Global Growth Outlook, published today in Washington.

France Halved 2012 Growth Forecast to 0.5 Percent

Yahoo! Finance reports EU leaders struggle to reconcile austerity, growth

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