EU Leaders' Rejection Of “Multiculturalism” Aimed At Far-Right Demagogues (4/1)

  • “The multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and be happy about one another, has utterly failed.”— German Chancellor Angela Merkel in October 2010.
  •  “Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have... failed to provide a vision of society to which [minorities] feel they want to belong.” — British Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2011.
  •  “Multiculturalism is a failure. The truth is that in our democracies, we cared too much about the identity of the migrant and not sufficiently about the identity of the country that welcomed him.” — French President Nicholas Sarkozy in February 2011.

This remarkable convergence in the timing and shifts in the public stances of major conservative European leaders stems from a common motive –“protecting your right flank” in a era where popular discontent with the effects Muslim migration in Germany, Britain and France has reached the boiling point, according to a well-informed article in Foreign Policy Magazine.

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EU Leaders Claim “Grand Bargain,” With Loose Ends -- Will Bond Markets Share This Confident View? (3/25)

Concluding their two-day summit meeting, EU leaders said that they had achieved consensus a set of measures to tackle the eurozone crisis – including better ways to handle any assault on the euro via the acutely beleaguered economy of Portugal.

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Sarkozy Played Crucial Role In Catalyzing International Action at UN On Libya (3/18)

As a U.S. Senator put it about the U.S. approach to Libya: “One test in foreign policy: at least be as bold as the French; unfortunately, we’re failing that test.” Part of a small Washington cohort of critics crying outrage about U.S. inaction, that jibe from Senator Lindsay Graham, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee, came on Wednesday. By the next day, the Obama administration had joined  France, Britain and some other EU countries,  together with the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity, in pushing for a no-fly zone. The potential resolution, when it finally materialized, included even more aggressive military measures against the Libyan regime, possibly including covert help to Libyan rebels on the ground. That emerging diplomatic front succeeded in obtaining approval from the UN Security Council, of a much stronger resolution on Libya than most diplomats even a few hours earlier believed possible.

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EU Summit Seeks "Grand Bargain" on Euro: Will New Pact Convince Markets? (3/23)

The EU summit meeting on March 24-5 has been billed for months as a crucial moment, a deadline for the European Union leaders to sign off on a long-promised grand bargain to shore up the credibility of the euro. The ambitions of the summit are twofold: to consolidate the ultimate solvency of weaker member states saddled with crushing sovereign-debt loads and also to put in place new rules aimed at preventing similar crises in future. Success depends on a central trade-off: Germany and its prosperous EU neighbors, including France, will pledge more funds for bail-out loans in exchange for eurozone-wide acceptance of measures promoting fiscal convergence and movement toward common economic governance.

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Libya: New Scenario Seems to Exclude Ground Intervention by EU or U.S. (3/16)

As Moammar Gaddafi threatened fierce retribution against rebels in Benghazi, the Obama administration executed a dramatic policy shift toward the Libya, swinging behind a European-led push for a Security Council resolution authorizing international action to protect Libyans against Gaddafi loyalists.

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