PEOPLES NEWS – Issue 102. April 2014

national | eu | other press Saturday April 12, 2014 12:13 by Gary Boyne - Peoples Movement

The latest issue of Peoples News

PEOPLES NEWS – Issue 102. April 2014 out now
Table of Contents below

This fortnightly journal contains comment on developments in the EU from an Irish and democratic perspective

Back issues of the newsletter are available from the website http://www.people.ie/english5.html

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PEOPLES NEWS

Index of Issue 102

P 1 The EU Secret State
The EU, led by the Council of the European Union, has constructed two complimentary regimes for controlling and limiting access to the documents it produces and holds “Ireland holds the undesirable position of being the only country currently undergoing a banking crisis that features among the top-ten of costliest banking crises along all three dimensions [..fiscal cost, increase in debt and output loss..].

P 3. Further EU expansionism
EU expansionist ambitions in Georgia: Emboldened by its success in Ukraine, the recent EU Summit called on Georgia to sign the EU Association Agreement in June, ahead of schedule.

P. 5 Busting the myth that the EU is the consumers’ friend
New corporate transparency rules will not include tax measures: Plans to make companies reveal how much tax they pay country by country have been abandoned

P. 5 At last – is it time to print some money!
The European Central Bank over the next months will consider various options of 'quantitative easing' - also known as money printing.

P. 7 Youth and poor hit hardest by EU austerity
A new report by the charity Caritas depicts "an unfair Europe" struggling with "disturbing" poverty levels

P. 8 Smoke and mirrors on TTIP as EU/Canada trade agreement progresses
The EU Commission launched a 90 day public ‘consultation’ last week in a bid to address "misconceptions and misrepresentations" about plans to include controversial rules on investor protection into an EU-US free trade deal

P. 9 David Cronin reports from the front line!
David Cronin, an Irish journalist and author based in Brussels writes: “I spent seven hours today (March 31st) in a police station cell. Why, because I tried to disrupt a feast of flesh-pressing between weapons dealers and top EU political figures?”

P. 10. “European Citizens’ Initiative” - down the drain?
So why then did 1.9 million citizens of 13 EU countries feel it necessary to sign up to a petition expressing opposition to EU moves to liberalise water and sanitation services?

P.11 Germany in renewed push for Eurozone parliament
German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said discussions on revising the treaty to secure the eurozone's architecture will begin after the May EU elections

P.12 Do new pension rules facilitate a hidden bank bail-out?
Tapping pension funds is at the heart of plans unveiled by the European Commission to kick-start business investment

P.12 Anglo once again!
The European Central Bank is reported to be putting the government under pressure to sell the long-term government bonds associated with last year’s Anglo promissory note deal and at a faster pace than the timetable originally outlined

P.13 Centenary of the formation of the Irish Citizen Army
Their Constitution was short and to the point