The EU will save Greece on condition that... In this time when the financial trials and tribulations of the EU are keeping the world awake at night, opinions are fourteen to the dozen but are often misjudged or plain wrong. To give an example - people still mix up the idea of Greece leaving the eurozone for a while or for good with the idea of it leaving the EU, but there is no question of it leaving the EU, and it has never even been dreamt of! The exact opposite is more accurate - the EU institutions are falling over themselves to support Greece, granting exemptions to aid rules, for example, with the most recent decision approved by the EP and the Council of Ministers a week ago to increase to 95% the EU share of rural development funding (the same 95% also applies to Romania, Latvia, Ireland and Portugal). Not to mention bending the rules of the cohesion policy to provide virtually 100% EU funding for selected projects, and areas like the control of illegal immigrants arriving from Turkey, to name but two.
The fact is that only European solidarity can get the Greek economy back on its feet, on condition, of course, that the Greeks cooperate by getting into the habit of paying their taxes, getting rid of red tape, reducing military spending and so on. Flying in the face of the facts, superficial commentators continue to write about Europe abandoning one of the cradles of its civilisation!
Iran's nuclear weapons. What if Iran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb were nothing but rumour? It is understandable that Iran's neighbours, the big powers and the International Atomic Energy Agency should be concerned, but what if it is in Tehran's interests to get people to believe that it is on the point of developing the ultimate weapon, rather than actually doing so? The experts and specialists explain that the most difficult part is not getting hold of the technology, but rather ensuring the weapons get where they are intended and ensuring they are properly maintained and available at all times (it is well known that the UK and France share the cost of running their nuclear arsenals because it is simply too expensive otherwise).
What is more, the Iranian authorities are well aware that they would never be able to use a nuclear weapon because half an hour later their country would be destroyed. It is easier, cheaper and politically useful to keep the world in suspense and then at the last moment negotiate withdrawal from nuclear weapons research, and I believe such a move would be more fitting to the aspirations of the majority of the Iranian population and the traditions and glories of the Ancient Persian civilisation.
Travails of an MEP. Recent tragedies in the EU, due to differences in race, in which Europeans carried out the attacks in Italy and were the victims of the attacks in Belgium, lead me to a subject I decided to leave to one side last month because it did not, then, seem important enough - the misadventures of an MEP who was held prisoner by the Israeli police for a week, Paul Murphy (GUE/NGL, Ireland), who had been part of the maritime support operation for the Palestinians in Gaza, embarking in one of the two boats blockaded by the Israeli navy to prevent them reaching the Palestinian shores.
Back in Europe after his detention in Israel, Murphy held a press conference in Strasbourg (reported upon in detail in EUROPE 10496). He said that the Israeli authorities had initially promised him and the other prisoners that they would soon be allowed to return to Europe, but then deliberately made some of them miss their planes, confiscating computers and mobile phones and only allowing a single phone call in seven days (which was listened to). He was made to suffer from sleep deprivation and it was only international action and the Irish ambassador that finally got him recognised as a “political prisoner” and therefore given the right to have something to read. Murphy went on to call for suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement and the revocation of accreditation for Israeli embassy staff at the European Parliament. I am not aware of how these demands were accepted. Yet some observers (myself included) wonder if, in the face of events in the EU, the Middle East, the southern rim of the Mediterranean and elsewhere, the suffering described by Paul Murphy requires suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement. (FR/transl.fl)