JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)
LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Renzi to Rome mayor: 'Govern or go home'-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 08:56-Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said in TV talkshow that if the mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, and his administration "know how to govern they should do so, if not they should go home". Italy's capital has been hit by corruption scandals involving city officials with links to the mafia.
Failure to reach deal would lead to Greek EU exit, says central bank-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 11:50-"Failure to reach an agreement would [...] lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and – most likely – from the European Union," the Bank of Greece said in its Monetary Report published Wednesday.
Commission sets up support service to help states reform-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 15:55-The European Commission Wednesday announced it is establishing a 'structural reform support service'. The new set-up will offer "tailored expertise and practical technical support" for member states wanting to carry out "growth-enhancing administrative and structural reforms," said vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis. It is to start work on 1 July.
Majority of Germans favour Grexit-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 08:57-Fifty eight percent of Germans would favour Greece leaving the eurozone in case of default, according to a YouGov poll published on Wednesday (17 June). Twenty eight percent of respondents would prefer Greece to stay and 14 percent don't know. Forty nine percent, against 41, think a Grexit is possible.
Grexit fears hang over Eurogroup meeting By Eric Maurice-june 17,15-euobserver
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:33-Greece and its creditors were preparing for a crucial Eurogroup meeting on Thursday (18 June) amid growing concerns of a Greek exit from the eurozone or even the EU.The alarm was raised by a Bank of Greece report warning that the crisis could get out of control and "relegate" Greece "to the rank of a poor country in the European South" if no deal was reached before 30 June to lend €7.2 billion to Greece."Failure to reach an agreement would mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and – most likely – from the European Union," Greece's central bank warned in its annual report on monetary policy.
"A manageable debt crisis, as the one that we are currently addressing with the help of our partners, would snowball into an uncontrollable crisis, with great risks for the banking system and financial stability."The consequence would be "a collapse of all that the Greek economy has achieved over the years of its EU, and especially its euro area, membership"The bank's governor is Yannis Stournaras, finance minister from 2012 to 2014 in Antonis Samaras' centre-right government."The central bank has been warning the Greek government for several months, explaining the consequences and the risks of the situation. It is more on the creditors' side than on the governement's side," an EU source told EUobserver."Stournaras is a good technician, while the government doesn't weigh all the consequences," the source said, adding that the bank's report "reflects the pessimism of the creditors"."[He] has a seat at the European Central Bank's governing council. He is aware of the debates and he sends message."The speaker of the Greek Parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou, said the central bank's report was "unacceptable".“Stournaras has contributed to the fiscal, memorandum-based policy. He now tries, in a non-democratic way, to prevent the ultimate debt write-off claims of the government,” she said.Meanwhile, talks for an agreement were still stuck on Wednesday, with Greece and the institutions (the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) waiting for the other side to present a new proposal.The discussion between eurozone finance ministers at the Eurogroup could "be pretty short", said another EU official, adding that "many gaps remain between the institutions and the Greek authorities"."Ministers will certainly conclude that the ball is in the Greek camp," the source said.The divergences between Greece and its lenders are "not only a fiscal gap, it has very much to do also with the structure of the tax system and with pensions," the source explained.This "has a fiscal impact in the short run and fiscal sustainability implications in the medium- and long-term which are much more important than people realise."The IMF and ECB chiefs, Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi, will participate in the meeting. But if no progress is made, an emergency summit of EU leaders could be organised during the weekend.A regular EU summit will take on 25-26 June. But it would be very late by that time to draw up an agreement to be endorsed by all member states before 30 June, especially where a parliament vote is needed.Whenever a deal is clinched, "a hell of a lot of work," will still have to be done, said the EU official.
EU states agree to extend Russia sanctions By Andrew Rettman-june 17,15-euobserver
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:35-EU countries have agreed to extend the life of Russia and Crimea sanctions, despite Kremlin diplomacy.They took the decision by consensus at a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday (17 June).It is to be rubber stamped, with no political debate, by EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.One or other minister could, in theory, call for a discussion and block the move.
Normally, it never happens.But the abnormal and volatile nature of the Greek bailout negotiations adds an element of uncertainty.
Tsipras
The Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, is to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin at a business forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.Tsipras has, in the past, criticised the EU sanctions regime, while Russia has said it might dip into its $350 billion reserve fund if Greece requests help.The timing of Friday’s meeting has given EU and US diplomats sleepless nights on whether Tsipras will threaten to sell his EU veto in order to gain leverage in the bailout talks.But one EU source said Tsipras has given EU Council president Donald Tusk a face-to-face pledge that he won’t.Another source said Greece, and other sanctions critics, such as the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, didn’t put up a fight at the ambassadors’ meeting on Wednesday.A third source said EU states want to get the sanctions out of the way so that leaders can devote time to Greece and to the migrant crisis at next week’s summit.“We don’t want the summit to be dominated by a debate on Russia”, he told EUobserver.“It’s also a good idea to take the sanctions decision at a low, technical level in order to minimise the political reaction by Russia”.
Extension
The economic sanctions are to be extended from their expiry date, in July, until the end of the year.They were adopted last July after flight MH17 was shot down over the conflict zone in east Ukraine and after the regular Russian army crossed the border.They ban Russian banks, arms firms, and energy firms from buying long-term debt on international markets.They also ban Russian arms and energy firms from buying high-end technology.The Crimea sanctions, which ban almost all forms of business activity, are to be extended by one year.The EU ambassadors, on Tuesday, also got a first look at the EU foreign service’s “action plan” on how to counter Russian propaganda.
Putin
For his part, Putin has tried to target potential EU veto-wielders.He met with Finnish president Sauli Niinisto in Moscow this week and with Italian leader Matteo Renzi in Milan last week.He also met the Czech and Slovak heads in Moscow in May and the Cypriot and Hungarian heads in February.None of the meetings yielded a sign that they would break EU solidarity on Ukraine, however.Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s distribution, last month, of a visa-ban list of 89 EU officials and politicians soured relations.An EU diplomat told this website the real list is believed to be much longer.“It could be in the hundreds or even the thousands. But they won’t reveal its full extent because they would lose the element of surprise, when an EU visitor lands in Moscow and gets turned back”, he said.
Paradigm shift' needed for EU circular economy By Peter Teffer-june 17,15-euobserver
Brussels, Today, 19:14-Sirpa Pietikainen is going to buy a new smartphone soon because the applications on it don't function properly and it needs rebooting several times a day.But the centre-right MEP from Finland has mixed feelings about the purchase.“I'm not going to buy a new phone because I want new glass; or because I want new aluminium; or because I'm craving for acrylic. I don't want new aluminium. I want to have a faster, better functioning telephone”, said Pietikainen in an interview with EUobserver.
“Because they need to sell new phones, the lifetime is shorter every year. My life quality is not better now that I'm buying a new mobile phone every third year”, she added.Pietikainen's criticism of the phone industry's “linear” business model extends to the entire economy.It is time to move towards a 'circular economy', she said.Circular economy refers to a system in which materials are maximally reused, repaired, and recycled, and waste is reduced to a minimum.On Wednesday (17 June), the European Parliament's environment committee adopted her report - "Resource efficiency: moving towards a circular economy".
'Strong signal'
The text calls on the European Commission to present by the end of the year an “ambitious proposal” on circular economy, and to propose a binding target to make the use of resources more efficient by 30 percent in 2030, compared to 2014.The report is non-binding, but praised nonetheless by environmental NGOs as sending a “strong signal” to the commission, which indicated shortly after taking office it would scrap a legislative proposal on recycling and waste.Will the commission, which has promised to publish its circular economy strategy before the end of the year, deliver? It depends on who the commission listens to? Will it listen to businesses that think they will benefit from the circular economy, or to “those unprofitable coal mines”, who argue that new legislation is “destroying my business and the European economy”, said Pietikainen.“Businesses need to change sooner or later. The longer you wait, the harder it is.”The current way resources are being used in the economy is unsustainable, Pietikainen wrote in her report.
Paradigm shift
What is needed, is “a true paradigm shift like with Copernicus or Galileo Galilei”, said Pietikainen, referring to Polish and Italian astronomers whose ideas changed how the world is viewed.“We are not in a neutral regulatory environment … Our regulation is always a reflection of our world view. If our world view has been 'abundant, without limits', our regulation is accordingly. It disincentivises these kind of resource-efficient ways”, she noted.To counter that, the EU should “abolish all environmentally harmful subsidies” and make sure that EU funding is provided to the most 'resource efficient' projects.Citizens also have a role to play.
We should eat less meat, buy more locally produced food and reduce food waste. And we should rethink if we really want to own a car.“We need to change the pattern of ownership”, said Pietikainen, adding that the idea of owning things is “very territorial”.“It's very deep-rooted in us. My phone is my phone, it's not a leased phone, no one can take it away from me. No matter that I already have three phones - as I do at home - that I don't use because they are all outdated.”She adds that consumers can only improve their behaviour if the regulatory, legal and commercial environment allows them to.“Voluntary actions and consumer awareness is important, but it’s not enough if you don't have good products to choose from.”A case in point is the two 330ml plastic bottles of sparkling water Pietikainen grabbed just after leaving the parliament's committee room.“I need to drink something”, she said, adding she would rather the parliament installed a water dispenser.“Your life is not better if you can use every day 10 plastic bottles with water and throw them away. … We have to be aware why we make the wrong choices.”
Being green in the EPP
Pietikainen, who was environment minister in Finland in the 1990s, is not a typical member of the centre-right EPP group, the largest in the European Parliament.One EP source called her “the greenest member of the EPP”.“I wouldn't take the credit of being the most green”, she said, adding the 218-strong group has “a number of us who think very much in these lines”.“I hope it’s gradually changing,” she says of those who have yet to be convinced.
Le Pen becomes group leader in EU parliament By Eric Maurice-june 17,15-euobserver
BRUSSELS, 16. Jun, 15:52-Far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders unveiled their newly formed group, Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENF), at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday (16 June).Le Pen will be co-president along with Marcel de Graaff, from Wilders' PVV party.Wilders himself is not an MEP.But he told press: “Today is D-Day, today is the beginning of our liberation … We are the voice of the European resistance."Le Pen said the group is "strong, convinced, coherent, and ambitious" and will "fight with all its strength to defend our peoples”.She added that Europe has "nothing to offer" to migrants and that "a concerted dissolution of the euro is the most sensible solution for Europe".The bulk of the ENF is comprised of MEPs from Le Pen's National Front in France, Wilders' Dutch PVV party, Austria's Freedom Party, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, and Italy's Lega Nord.Under parliament rules, a group must have at least 25 MEPs from seven different states.ENF passed the threshold thanks to Janice Atkinson, a British eurosceptic formerly with Ukip, and two MEPs from Poland's Congress of the New Right: Michal Marusik and Stanislaw Zoltek.With 37 members, it’ll be smaller than the existing eurosceptic group, the 46-strong Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), led by Britain's Ukip and Italy's 5-Star Movement.
Le Pen senior out
National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s father, who was suspended from his party in May over revisionist remarks, isn’t part of ENF.Marine Le Pen, who leads the biggest French delegation in the EU assembly after her party's victory in last year's European election, had struggled to cobble together a group over the past year.On Tuesday, she ironically thanked parliament president Martin Schulz for his help."By treating us as second-class MEPs and administratively persecuting us, he gave us a new energy”, she said.The creation of ENF was possible because Marusik and Zoltek were deemed more acceptable after they severed ties with Janusz Korwin-Mikke, their Polish KNP colleague, who had made racist, revisionist, and sexist remarks.It was also possible because Atkinson, who was expelled from Ukip in March over false expenses claims, accepted to join because Jean-Marie Le Pen was excluded."I'm happy that he was expelled from the party, my decision [to join] was easier”, she told press.
Influence
Having a group will give Le Pen and her allies more influence in the EU parliament.The new group will also receive €1.09 million a year in EU funds to do its work.As group leaders, Le Pen and De Graaff will be able to attend the parliament's conference of presidents, which decides the EU parliaments’ agenda.The ENF will also be able to name shadow rapporteurs, the MEPs who monitor the legislative process, and will participate in trilogues, the negotiations between parliament, the European Commission, and member states which finalise new laws.It means that ENF deputies will have more access to information and more leverage on decisions than if they had remained non-attached MEPs.
Agree to disagree
But previous attempts by far-right deputies to form groups have fallen foul of internal divisions."We will disagree, but we have more in common than what we disagree about," Atkinson said, comparing the new group to the EFDD, where she was previously seated."We have more in common in this group than in EFDD”, she noted, adding that the 5-Star Movement and Ukip tend to vote against each other 80 percent of the time.Wilders also said that the ENF "will try to find consensus as much as possible”.“If not," he added, “we will choose according to our national interests".
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)
LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
Renzi to Rome mayor: 'Govern or go home'-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 08:56-Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said in TV talkshow that if the mayor of Rome, Ignazio Marino, and his administration "know how to govern they should do so, if not they should go home". Italy's capital has been hit by corruption scandals involving city officials with links to the mafia.
Failure to reach deal would lead to Greek EU exit, says central bank-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 11:50-"Failure to reach an agreement would [...] lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and – most likely – from the European Union," the Bank of Greece said in its Monetary Report published Wednesday.
Commission sets up support service to help states reform-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 15:55-The European Commission Wednesday announced it is establishing a 'structural reform support service'. The new set-up will offer "tailored expertise and practical technical support" for member states wanting to carry out "growth-enhancing administrative and structural reforms," said vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis. It is to start work on 1 July.
Majority of Germans favour Grexit-By EUOBSERVER-june 17,15
Today, 08:57-Fifty eight percent of Germans would favour Greece leaving the eurozone in case of default, according to a YouGov poll published on Wednesday (17 June). Twenty eight percent of respondents would prefer Greece to stay and 14 percent don't know. Forty nine percent, against 41, think a Grexit is possible.
Grexit fears hang over Eurogroup meeting By Eric Maurice-june 17,15-euobserver
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:33-Greece and its creditors were preparing for a crucial Eurogroup meeting on Thursday (18 June) amid growing concerns of a Greek exit from the eurozone or even the EU.The alarm was raised by a Bank of Greece report warning that the crisis could get out of control and "relegate" Greece "to the rank of a poor country in the European South" if no deal was reached before 30 June to lend €7.2 billion to Greece."Failure to reach an agreement would mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and – most likely – from the European Union," Greece's central bank warned in its annual report on monetary policy.
"A manageable debt crisis, as the one that we are currently addressing with the help of our partners, would snowball into an uncontrollable crisis, with great risks for the banking system and financial stability."The consequence would be "a collapse of all that the Greek economy has achieved over the years of its EU, and especially its euro area, membership"The bank's governor is Yannis Stournaras, finance minister from 2012 to 2014 in Antonis Samaras' centre-right government."The central bank has been warning the Greek government for several months, explaining the consequences and the risks of the situation. It is more on the creditors' side than on the governement's side," an EU source told EUobserver."Stournaras is a good technician, while the government doesn't weigh all the consequences," the source said, adding that the bank's report "reflects the pessimism of the creditors"."[He] has a seat at the European Central Bank's governing council. He is aware of the debates and he sends message."The speaker of the Greek Parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou, said the central bank's report was "unacceptable".“Stournaras has contributed to the fiscal, memorandum-based policy. He now tries, in a non-democratic way, to prevent the ultimate debt write-off claims of the government,” she said.Meanwhile, talks for an agreement were still stuck on Wednesday, with Greece and the institutions (the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) waiting for the other side to present a new proposal.The discussion between eurozone finance ministers at the Eurogroup could "be pretty short", said another EU official, adding that "many gaps remain between the institutions and the Greek authorities"."Ministers will certainly conclude that the ball is in the Greek camp," the source said.The divergences between Greece and its lenders are "not only a fiscal gap, it has very much to do also with the structure of the tax system and with pensions," the source explained.This "has a fiscal impact in the short run and fiscal sustainability implications in the medium- and long-term which are much more important than people realise."The IMF and ECB chiefs, Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi, will participate in the meeting. But if no progress is made, an emergency summit of EU leaders could be organised during the weekend.A regular EU summit will take on 25-26 June. But it would be very late by that time to draw up an agreement to be endorsed by all member states before 30 June, especially where a parliament vote is needed.Whenever a deal is clinched, "a hell of a lot of work," will still have to be done, said the EU official.
EU states agree to extend Russia sanctions By Andrew Rettman-june 17,15-euobserver
BRUSSELS, Today, 18:35-EU countries have agreed to extend the life of Russia and Crimea sanctions, despite Kremlin diplomacy.They took the decision by consensus at a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday (17 June).It is to be rubber stamped, with no political debate, by EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.One or other minister could, in theory, call for a discussion and block the move.
Normally, it never happens.But the abnormal and volatile nature of the Greek bailout negotiations adds an element of uncertainty.
Tsipras
The Greek PM, Alexis Tsipras, is to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin at a business forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.Tsipras has, in the past, criticised the EU sanctions regime, while Russia has said it might dip into its $350 billion reserve fund if Greece requests help.The timing of Friday’s meeting has given EU and US diplomats sleepless nights on whether Tsipras will threaten to sell his EU veto in order to gain leverage in the bailout talks.But one EU source said Tsipras has given EU Council president Donald Tusk a face-to-face pledge that he won’t.Another source said Greece, and other sanctions critics, such as the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia, didn’t put up a fight at the ambassadors’ meeting on Wednesday.A third source said EU states want to get the sanctions out of the way so that leaders can devote time to Greece and to the migrant crisis at next week’s summit.“We don’t want the summit to be dominated by a debate on Russia”, he told EUobserver.“It’s also a good idea to take the sanctions decision at a low, technical level in order to minimise the political reaction by Russia”.
Extension
The economic sanctions are to be extended from their expiry date, in July, until the end of the year.They were adopted last July after flight MH17 was shot down over the conflict zone in east Ukraine and after the regular Russian army crossed the border.They ban Russian banks, arms firms, and energy firms from buying long-term debt on international markets.They also ban Russian arms and energy firms from buying high-end technology.The Crimea sanctions, which ban almost all forms of business activity, are to be extended by one year.The EU ambassadors, on Tuesday, also got a first look at the EU foreign service’s “action plan” on how to counter Russian propaganda.
Putin
For his part, Putin has tried to target potential EU veto-wielders.He met with Finnish president Sauli Niinisto in Moscow this week and with Italian leader Matteo Renzi in Milan last week.He also met the Czech and Slovak heads in Moscow in May and the Cypriot and Hungarian heads in February.None of the meetings yielded a sign that they would break EU solidarity on Ukraine, however.Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s distribution, last month, of a visa-ban list of 89 EU officials and politicians soured relations.An EU diplomat told this website the real list is believed to be much longer.“It could be in the hundreds or even the thousands. But they won’t reveal its full extent because they would lose the element of surprise, when an EU visitor lands in Moscow and gets turned back”, he said.
Paradigm shift' needed for EU circular economy By Peter Teffer-june 17,15-euobserver
Brussels, Today, 19:14-Sirpa Pietikainen is going to buy a new smartphone soon because the applications on it don't function properly and it needs rebooting several times a day.But the centre-right MEP from Finland has mixed feelings about the purchase.“I'm not going to buy a new phone because I want new glass; or because I want new aluminium; or because I'm craving for acrylic. I don't want new aluminium. I want to have a faster, better functioning telephone”, said Pietikainen in an interview with EUobserver.
“Because they need to sell new phones, the lifetime is shorter every year. My life quality is not better now that I'm buying a new mobile phone every third year”, she added.Pietikainen's criticism of the phone industry's “linear” business model extends to the entire economy.It is time to move towards a 'circular economy', she said.Circular economy refers to a system in which materials are maximally reused, repaired, and recycled, and waste is reduced to a minimum.On Wednesday (17 June), the European Parliament's environment committee adopted her report - "Resource efficiency: moving towards a circular economy".
'Strong signal'
The text calls on the European Commission to present by the end of the year an “ambitious proposal” on circular economy, and to propose a binding target to make the use of resources more efficient by 30 percent in 2030, compared to 2014.The report is non-binding, but praised nonetheless by environmental NGOs as sending a “strong signal” to the commission, which indicated shortly after taking office it would scrap a legislative proposal on recycling and waste.Will the commission, which has promised to publish its circular economy strategy before the end of the year, deliver? It depends on who the commission listens to? Will it listen to businesses that think they will benefit from the circular economy, or to “those unprofitable coal mines”, who argue that new legislation is “destroying my business and the European economy”, said Pietikainen.“Businesses need to change sooner or later. The longer you wait, the harder it is.”The current way resources are being used in the economy is unsustainable, Pietikainen wrote in her report.
Paradigm shift
What is needed, is “a true paradigm shift like with Copernicus or Galileo Galilei”, said Pietikainen, referring to Polish and Italian astronomers whose ideas changed how the world is viewed.“We are not in a neutral regulatory environment … Our regulation is always a reflection of our world view. If our world view has been 'abundant, without limits', our regulation is accordingly. It disincentivises these kind of resource-efficient ways”, she noted.To counter that, the EU should “abolish all environmentally harmful subsidies” and make sure that EU funding is provided to the most 'resource efficient' projects.Citizens also have a role to play.
We should eat less meat, buy more locally produced food and reduce food waste. And we should rethink if we really want to own a car.“We need to change the pattern of ownership”, said Pietikainen, adding that the idea of owning things is “very territorial”.“It's very deep-rooted in us. My phone is my phone, it's not a leased phone, no one can take it away from me. No matter that I already have three phones - as I do at home - that I don't use because they are all outdated.”She adds that consumers can only improve their behaviour if the regulatory, legal and commercial environment allows them to.“Voluntary actions and consumer awareness is important, but it’s not enough if you don't have good products to choose from.”A case in point is the two 330ml plastic bottles of sparkling water Pietikainen grabbed just after leaving the parliament's committee room.“I need to drink something”, she said, adding she would rather the parliament installed a water dispenser.“Your life is not better if you can use every day 10 plastic bottles with water and throw them away. … We have to be aware why we make the wrong choices.”
Being green in the EPP
Pietikainen, who was environment minister in Finland in the 1990s, is not a typical member of the centre-right EPP group, the largest in the European Parliament.One EP source called her “the greenest member of the EPP”.“I wouldn't take the credit of being the most green”, she said, adding the 218-strong group has “a number of us who think very much in these lines”.“I hope it’s gradually changing,” she says of those who have yet to be convinced.
Le Pen becomes group leader in EU parliament By Eric Maurice-june 17,15-euobserver
BRUSSELS, 16. Jun, 15:52-Far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders unveiled their newly formed group, Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENF), at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday (16 June).Le Pen will be co-president along with Marcel de Graaff, from Wilders' PVV party.Wilders himself is not an MEP.But he told press: “Today is D-Day, today is the beginning of our liberation … We are the voice of the European resistance."Le Pen said the group is "strong, convinced, coherent, and ambitious" and will "fight with all its strength to defend our peoples”.She added that Europe has "nothing to offer" to migrants and that "a concerted dissolution of the euro is the most sensible solution for Europe".The bulk of the ENF is comprised of MEPs from Le Pen's National Front in France, Wilders' Dutch PVV party, Austria's Freedom Party, Belgium's Vlaams Belang, and Italy's Lega Nord.Under parliament rules, a group must have at least 25 MEPs from seven different states.ENF passed the threshold thanks to Janice Atkinson, a British eurosceptic formerly with Ukip, and two MEPs from Poland's Congress of the New Right: Michal Marusik and Stanislaw Zoltek.With 37 members, it’ll be smaller than the existing eurosceptic group, the 46-strong Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), led by Britain's Ukip and Italy's 5-Star Movement.
Le Pen senior out
National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s father, who was suspended from his party in May over revisionist remarks, isn’t part of ENF.Marine Le Pen, who leads the biggest French delegation in the EU assembly after her party's victory in last year's European election, had struggled to cobble together a group over the past year.On Tuesday, she ironically thanked parliament president Martin Schulz for his help."By treating us as second-class MEPs and administratively persecuting us, he gave us a new energy”, she said.The creation of ENF was possible because Marusik and Zoltek were deemed more acceptable after they severed ties with Janusz Korwin-Mikke, their Polish KNP colleague, who had made racist, revisionist, and sexist remarks.It was also possible because Atkinson, who was expelled from Ukip in March over false expenses claims, accepted to join because Jean-Marie Le Pen was excluded."I'm happy that he was expelled from the party, my decision [to join] was easier”, she told press.
Influence
Having a group will give Le Pen and her allies more influence in the EU parliament.The new group will also receive €1.09 million a year in EU funds to do its work.As group leaders, Le Pen and De Graaff will be able to attend the parliament's conference of presidents, which decides the EU parliaments’ agenda.The ENF will also be able to name shadow rapporteurs, the MEPs who monitor the legislative process, and will participate in trilogues, the negotiations between parliament, the European Commission, and member states which finalise new laws.It means that ENF deputies will have more access to information and more leverage on decisions than if they had remained non-attached MEPs.
Agree to disagree
But previous attempts by far-right deputies to form groups have fallen foul of internal divisions."We will disagree, but we have more in common than what we disagree about," Atkinson said, comparing the new group to the EFDD, where she was previously seated."We have more in common in this group than in EFDD”, she noted, adding that the 5-Star Movement and Ukip tend to vote against each other 80 percent of the time.Wilders also said that the ENF "will try to find consensus as much as possible”.“If not," he added, “we will choose according to our national interests".
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