EU-NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS DECLLINING IN IMPORTANCE

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.(TAKE OVER 3 WORLD REGIONS)

National governments declining in importance'

Today @ 09:19-OCT 17,13-http://euobserver.com/regions/121416

By Honor Mahony

BRUSSELS - As more key powers are transferred to Brussels, it poses an existential question for central governments.A recent study on public finances by the European Commission found that member states, even traditionally centralised ones, have “generally increased” their decentralisation in recent decades.This is true for not only for policies such as local infrastructure but also for education, social protection, housing and health care.Meanwhile, regional and local public spending has increased in most member states and local authorities are broadly accounting for a larger share of the general government deficit.To this trend comes the transfer of core state activities such as budget planning and spending to the EU level."In my opinion national central governments will become less important and will lose more power. They will become more and more impotent," says Franz Schausberger, founder of the Austria-based Institute of the Regions of Europe.

Regions have to become stronger

To compensate, he notes, "regions have to become stronger so that the citizens can strengthen their identity and participate in regional and local democracy."But Schausberger, who is also a professor of modern history at Salzburg University, says calls for decentralisation are not to be conflated with the "separatist" movements of Flanders, Scotland and Catalonia."The independence movements in these countries have different historical, political, economic and mostly nationalistic causes.""If people with the regions are satisfied then the common Europe will be strong. If not, then we will have the contrary development. I always say that decentralisation is the contrary of separatism."To the criticism that regionalism, particularly in richer areas, can seem like a call to close the door to less well-off regions, Schausberger answers that solidarity “must exist in Europe.”That richer regions such as Salzburg pay a bigger contribution to the common Austrian pot than poorer regions is clear to a "certain limit"“In economically good times, it is no problem that the regions are paying into a common pool for the whole state, but if there is an economic crisis, then they also feel it," he says, in reference to Catalonia, where there is a strong independence movement and anger at the level of transfers its makes to the rest of Spain.“They say: it is no longer so easy for regions to pay and they look for something in return – such as own taxes and fiscal decentralisation. Then the central government has to discuss with them. If they don’t they will look for a radical solution.”The other danger the current economic crisis brings with it, according to Schausberger, is the “general trend” across Europe of central governments cutting back on regional spending.

New EU EU treaty

In Austria, which along with Belgium and Germany, is considered to be a fully federalised state, “there are a lot of discussions, as well as concrete moves, to reduce local and regional democracy."“But you need to offset national governments losing power. People should have the possibility to identify more and more with their regions as a counterpart to the not very transparent but more powerful Europe.”His answer is a new treaty convention with a “major focus” on decentralisation. Brussels should stick to “major issues” such as economic governance and stop trying to regulate in the minutiae.“The national level will never disappear but there should be an equal importance between Brussels, national and regional levels,” he said.

Brussels: An EU capital in the making

15.10.13 @ 09:26-http://euobserver.com/regions/121455

By Honor Mahony

BRUSSELS - It is possible to go to the European quarter in Brussels and think: how on earth did this happen?

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  Renovations to make way for the European Parliament around 10 years ago (Photo: EUobserver.com)

Why are there two motorways running between the European Commission headquarters and the European Parliament? Did city planners set out to make such a utilitarian, soulless place? And, at the weekend, where is everyone? Finally, after some reflection, how did Brussels become the EU capital anyway? The brief answer to the last question is: by accident. And, as is the nature with uncertainty, short-termism thrived. Old town houses were torn down to make place for the mushrooming EU buildings. Property speculators bought up neighbourhoods expressly to let them fall into disrepair. Town planners turned a blind eye. Nobody had a grand plan.The result gave architects a new term: "Brusselisation."

Brusselisation

“It means: ‘exactly what not to do.’ It means you have a nice Art Nouveau building but you need to build another building so you just knock it down,” says Carlo Luyckx, head of the Brussels-Europe liaison office.
Marco Schmitt of the Association du Quartier Leopold, a residents' group from the EU quarter, said "the EU buildings are very badly integrated into the district. And very removed from the public.""Unfortunately they reflect the impressions citizens have of the EU being distant and incomprehensible,"he added.He noted that locals from the quarter filed official complaints when the European Parliament was being built as well as the recent "House of History" near it just to "change the mentality, and the way decisions were taken in European quarter."On top of this urban mismanagement comes Brussels thoroughly complex position in the Belgian political landscape.It is both a distinct region and a capital city. It is situated in Dutch-speaking Flanders, but is a predominantly French-speaking city.And then there is its almost incomprehensible governance structure. This small metropolis of around 1 million people is divided into 19 municipalities - essentially one-time villages seeing no compelling reason to co-operate with one another. The city has a mayor and 10 deputy mayors. The municipalities also have mayors. And deputy mayors.The fragile nature of the Belgium state lends yet another layer of complexity.It is often said that the only thing that is keeping the French-speaking south and the Dutch-speaking north of the country together - despite a strong separatist movement in Flanders - is that no one can figure out what to do with Brussels.

Fuelling the imagination

Professor Eric Corijn, from the Free University of Brussels, believes that Brussels’ lack of self identity could help it to become the capital of the EU, not just in the de facto way that it is now, but also in a more fundamental way.“The city is very multi-lingual and very diverse. In that sense it has a unique position in regards to other world cities,” he said.He notes that whereas London, Paris and Amsterdam are great, multicultural cities they are rooted in being the central city in a national state. So Brussels' "weakness" as a national city could make it easier to become a "city of European-ness."It still needs to work on "fuelling the imagination."What is missing, for Corijn, is a "great university, a great museum, the parades, the concentration of artists. In that sense, Brussels is not the capital of Europe."But urban planners are working - albeit slowly - on this aspect. In 2008, they and the EU authorities agreed the Urban Project Loi.A new European Commission building is to be built by 2022 that is more pleasant to look at, greener and with more open spaces than the current ones.Past mistakes are being, if not fixed, then softened.The notorious Rue de la Loi, one of the duo of urban motorways in the quarter that delivers a snarling, beeping cacophony of commuters into Brussels every morning - has since been reduced to slightly more bearable four lanes. Cyclists now have their own path.The 250,000 m2 European Parliament, which saw dozens of local buildings destroyed to make way for its opening and was nicknamed the "Caprice of the Gods" for the way it came about, is now more integrated.The unattractive concrete space in front of it is being used for cultural events. The "parlementarium" and the forthcoming "House of Europe" give the interested something to look at other than just the outside of the parliament.Meanwhile, buildings in the EU quarter are more likely to be bought for residential use than to be made into office blocs.By 2015, a train link is supposed to link the EU quarter to the airport while the Rond point Schuman, a busy round-about that marks the heart of the district, is to get a face-lift.“It is all about thinking about the quarter in a less functional way,” says Ann de Canniere, from ADT the agency in charge of developing the area.She notes that the EU institutions are much more involved than they were before realising their image in Brussels itself is tied up with their building policy.But part of turning Brussels into a vibrant capital of the EU is making sure the around 40,000 EU staff are also integrated.
Since 2008, Corijn has been teaching a special master class to explain all things Belgian to eurocrats. About 300 people have been through the courses which cover multi-lingualism, governance and decision-making.
“One of the elements is to mobilise the Europeans living in Brussels to make them feel more affinity with Brussels," he said.“Most of the expats think they are only here for a few months or a few years. But in reality, most of them stay in Brussels even after their pension,” he added.

A city for the ages?

Corijn admits it is an uphill struggle to turn Brussels into the real capital of Europe because the EU itself has an image problem.It is associated with being untransparent and bureaucratic. National ministers go home and blame Brussels for unpopular decisions, affecting the city’s international reputation.Nevertheless, Luyckx, whose office's remit is partly about making Bruxellois have a sense of belonging to the EU capital, feels that the city’s residents are “much more positive” about having the EU in their midst.And this even though it happened only by default, after the six founding members could not agree on a capital and decided Brussels would do for the time being. This ambivalent situation continued until 1992 when the EU leaders for the first time formally said Brussels should be a seat of the European parliament.But such non-committal beginnings need not dictate the future. At least according to some.“If you look at history of the planets, the cities that people continue to talk about for 1000s of years afterwards have always been cities where people of many different cultures came together,” said Luyckx.

 

10/17/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

Vatican and Palestine: The long path towards peace

Abu Mazen's audience with the Pope

Today the Pope and Abu Mazen met 30 years after Arafat’s first visit to the Vatican. The agreement signed with the Palestinian government on the status of Catholic churches in Jerusalem back in 2000 is still at the centre of ongoing negotiations. Today, the President extended an official invitation to Francis to visit the Holy Land

GIorgio Bernardelli vatican city Two key elements emerged from President Abu Mazen’s audience with the Pope today. One was the hope that the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations would lead to a just and lasting solution of the conflict. The other was the hope that Christians would receive recognition for their contribution to Palestinian society. These two cardinal questions are what diplomatic relations between Palestine and the Holy See have been hinging on for approximately the past twenty years.The first official face-to-face meeting between a Pope and Palestinian representatives took place in 1979 when John Paul II met representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) during a visit to the UN headquarters in New York City.Then on 15 September 1982 Yasser Arafat paid his historic first visit to the Vatican, where he met Wojtyla. Numerous other visits followed. The Vatican established diplomatic relations with the PLO on 26 October 1994 and this was followed by another very important step on 15 February 2000: the Pope and the PLO signed an agreement for the liberation of Palestine just before Wojtyla travelled to the Holy Land. This raised the Holy See’s relations with the Palestinian National Authority to the same level as its relations with Israel, with which a similar agreement had been signed in 1993.The Basic Agreement between the Holy See and the Palestine Liberation Organization covers two very important points: the Holy See called for “an equitable solution for the issue of Jerusalem” based on “a special statute for Jerusalem, internationally guaranteed”. The Palestinian Authority on the other hand committed itself to ensuring “freedom of religion and conscience for all.” The Basic Agreement is still just a declaration of principles that needs to translate into a legal framework with a set of concrete standards to regulate the presence of the Catholic Church in Palestine in a number of different areas.But as was the case when the Holy See signed the agreement with Israel in 1993, negotiations with Palestine over the finalisation and implementation of the agreement are still dragging on. The Bilateral commission held its last session in the Vatican in September and negotiations were said to be in the advanced stages. The two parties are scheduled to meet again in Ramallah at the beginning of 2014.Abu Mazen met Benedict XVI as many as six times; five times in Rome and one in the Holy Land during a pilgrimage in 2009. The memory of Ratzinger’s visit to the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem is still fresh in Palestinians’ minds, with the wall separating the Palestinian territories from Israel in the background. This scene could be repeated soon: Today Abu Mazen officially invited Pope Francis to visit the Holy Land next spring. Israeli president Shimon Peres and King Abdullah of Jordan have already extended similar invitations to Francis.
Importantly, since the UN General Assembly passed a motion changing Palestine's "entity" status to "non-member observer state" in 2012, the Holy See has been referring to Palestine as the State of Palestine. The Vatican even made a €100 thousand donation to this State about a month ago, for the restoration of the Church of the Nativity roof.

National Geographic meets Sha-bat

A promotional video from Beit Hillel for its new ‘Israeli Shabbat’ initiative depicts the Dati and Hiloni tribes’ summit

By Renee Ghert-Zand October 18, 2013, 12:47 am 0-The Times of Israel

 

Only seven more floors to go in the Shabbat elevator, as seen on the Beit Hillel promotional video. (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)

All Israeli Jews are members of the same tribe, but it’s a known fact that they like to move around in two different packs: religious and secular.This reality is made very clear in a promotional video from Beit Hillel for its new “Israeli Shabbat” initiative. Beit Hillel is a national-religious organization founded in 2012 to counter religious extremism and bridge the secular-religious divide. The video is a parody of a classic National Geographic film in which an anthropologist provides voiceover commentary for film footage of the “natives” observed in their natural setting.“The clip is a fun, amusing way for us to publicize our upcoming ‘Israeli Shabbat,’” said Beit Hillel spokesman Meir Sterman about the organization’s idea to bring secular and religious Jewish families together for a Shabbat dinner.Sterman told The Times of Israel that several thousand families have already signed up to host or be hosted on October 25.“We’re still working on placing the 250 people who called in yesterday,” he shared. Registration continues through next week.

The Dati tribe prepares for the Sha-Bat ritual. (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)

“Religious and secular people see each other every day and say ‘Shalom,’ but they don’t get to know one another well, or take the opportunity to sit down and eat a meal together,” Sterman noted. “The point of this initiative is to connect people and bring them closer together to discover what they have in common, while at the same time recognizing and respecting their differences.”So, which idiosyncratic Shabbat-related customs and behaviors of religious and secular Jews would catch the eye of an satirical anthropologist? At the home of a religious family living in the concrete jungle of Gush Dan, it would be how the mother marks her territory by mopping the floor an hour before Shabbat and warns the children not to dare tread on it, and how the father grunts at the Shabbat table while gesticulating with his hands. The custom of not speaking between making the hand washing blessing and saying the Hamotzi blessing over the challah is clearly unfamiliar and fascinating to the video’s narrator.

The Hiloni Tribe documents its Sha-Bat ritual. (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)

Over at the nearby home of a secular family, it appears that one of the Shabbat rituals is documenting everything with a cell phone camera. The anthropologist narrator also observes that the mother of the family gets the last word when it comes to deciding what the family will do Shabbat morning (she marches her reluctant brood, lugging backpacks, down the street on their way to a nature hike).The different packs meet by chance in the street and the religious invites the secular to its home for a Shabbat meal. The religious mother urges everyone to run to get the Shabbat elevator, with the secular mother asking with genuine curiosity, “What’s a Shabbat elevator?” She is promptly enlightened as both families are squeezed comically into a tiny lift that stops on every floor before reaching the religious family’s 13th floor apartment.“On Friday night, everyone takes a break, so it’s a perfect time for people to get together and get to know one another,” said Sterman.“We’re hoping to make this an annual thing. But really, why should anyone wait to do this only once a year?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18M64F8lFMM

Russia: Lift Iran sanctions in exchange for int’l control of nuke program

Economic pressure undermines attempts to solve the diplomatic crisis, says Russian deputy FM

By Yoel Goldman October 17, 2013, 5:48 am 7-The Times of Israel

Russia reportedly proposed on Wednesday the lifting of all economic sanctions on Iran if the Islamic Republic agrees to have its nuclear program placed under international control.Speaking in Geneva, after the wrap of a 2-day meeting between the P5+1 and Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov alleged that sanctions “undermine” attempts to solve the diplomatic crisis, reported Russia Today.“The beacon, the main arrangement that we follow is the proposal by [President] Vladimir Putin that the recognition of Iran’s right to [uranium] enrichment as part of its inseparable rights under the Non-proliferation Treaty should be accompanied by the introduction of full comprehensive international control over the Iranian nuclear program,” Ryabkov told reporters.The lifting of sanctions will be tricky, the deputy foreign minister admitted, citing a “low level of trust” between Tehran and the West.He described the Geneva meeting as “better than many people thought, but worse than what we hoped for.”In Washington, a group of Senators rebuffed efforts on the part of the Obama administration to negotiate with Iran, and called for tougher sanctions to be levied on the Islamic Republic.“No one should be impressed by what Iran appears to have brought to the table in Geneva,” said Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. “Tehran has broken its word far too many times to be trusted. Due to its complete disregard for previous international agreements, we must take a firm stand in all negotiations regarding the nuclear capabilities Iran is permitted to retain.”The administration for its part expressed cautious optimism.White House spokesman Jay Carney said the talks contained a “level of seriousness and substance that we have not seen before.”While cautioning not to expect a prompt breakthrough, Carney said the US “found the Iranian presentation very useful.”The sides released a statement at the end of talks calling the meetings “substantive and forward looking.”Iran wants painful international sanctions to be lifted in exchange for possible concessions it had been previously unwilling to consider, such as increased international monitoring of its nuclear program and the scaling back of Iran’s uranium enrichment — a potential path to nuclear arms and the centerpiece of its impasse with the West.

Earlier in the day, Iranian deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran would be open to surprise inspections of its nuclear sites,’ according to AFP, quoting the semi-official Iranian outlet IRNA.Israeli media indicated that Iran was also willing to reduce the level to which it will enrich uranium.While specific proposals were not made public Thursday, reports carried by Israeli TV indicated that Iran was proposing a six-month period of confidence-building gestures between the sides, followed by a six-month period in which agreed changes would be implemented in the Iranian nuclear program.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the West to demand the complete dismantling of the Iranian “military nuclear” program, including an end to all uranium enrichment on Iranian territory, arguing that the capacity for even low-level enrichment would enable Iran to speed toward the bomb if and when it chose to do so. Jerusalem has also pushed for sanctions to remain in place.The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment Thursday on the apparent diplomatic advances made in Geneva.AP and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report