European leaders meet in Brussels to save Greece and the euro - Photo: The Council of the European Union
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The leaders of the 17 eurozone countries reached an agreement in the early hours of Thursday 27 October to deal with the growing economic crisis.
Stock markets are being watched closely by analysts of the situation, for market reactions; in early trading in Europe and in Asia markets were moving up, and by 09:00 Swiss time the euro was trading $1.40 higher.
Three key ingredients of the deal are:
- write off half of Greece’s sovereign debt
- ensure that Europe’s banks are better capitalized to be able to face any future government loan defaults
- raise the eurozone’s bailout fund to $1.4 trillion.
Additionally, governance of the eurozone will be tightened and the role of the European Central Bank is under review.
Further details of the agreement, reached after difficult negotiations, will be hammered out later.
Le Monde in France refers to the “forceps” deal which will increase social costs for its employers. Banks will be recapitalized to the tune of $106 billion, amid fears voiced by banks that they will be less competitive as a result.
The news was greeted in Switzerland mainly with relief that the ministerial meeting which closed at 04:00 had resulted in an agreement after weeks of talks, and with hopes that calming the crisis will at the least ease pressure on the over-valued Swiss franc. TSR public television refers to it as a last-chance summit.
Links to other sites: BBC, Financial Times, Le Monde (Fr)
Morocco's pavillion at the Francophonie summit is serving tea, part of efforts to share the cultural richness of French-speaking countries
Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Early reports in the 1990s that the number of French speakers in the world was falling have proved wrong, the world summit on Francophonie is hearing, as the event, which officially meets 22-24 October, gets underway with pre-summit sessions starting Wednesday 20 October, in Montreux. The number of French speakers has grown from 200 to 220 million since 2007, a measure of those who speak, read and write the language. If only speakers are measured, the number would appear to be considerably higher, but precise figures are difficult to obtain.
A major concern at the summit, is the sharp fall in the number of students learning French in countries where it is not the first language, for example in Italy and in Algeria, a former colony, reports Le Temps.
US President Barack Obama will present his “Nuclear Posture Review” (NPR) Tuesday 6 April, a document Congress asks each president to prepare, which outlines the government’s stance and programme on nuclear weapons. Obama’s review is expected to show deep cuts in the US nuclear arsenal and will be a dramatic shift away from the armaments programme of former President George W Bush. Two key components, according to US media that have spoken to unnamed US officials, appear to be reductions of thousands of warheads and more restrictions on when they may be used. The details are being published two days ahead of the US-Russian meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, to sign a new Start Treaty, negotiated in Geneva, Switzerland. The treaty signing will be followed by a Washington summit on nuclear proliferation.
Links to other sites: Business Week/Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, US NPR 2009 terms of reference published in June 2009 by the US Dep’t of Defense
Princess Astrid and Prince Leopold from Belgium visit the REI Foundation in Cartagena (photo, Jared Bloch)
Cartagena, Colombia (Geneva Lunch) - Princess Astrid of Belgium, a longtime advocate of mine survivors rights, has made a strong plea to other world leaders to fully support landmine survivors. Her appeal, in her role as head of the Belgian delegation, came at the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World in Colombia, which has just ended.
The summit served as the second review of progress made by the Mine Ban Convention to ban the production, use and stockpiling of anti-personnel land mines. The Princess commended the efforts undertaken by the Colombian Government in support of the Summit, and also noted that “there still remains much to be done on behalf of survivors everywhere.”
The princess and her husband, Prince Leopold, joined other summit participants in visiting the Fundation REI, a Colombian rehabilitation centre that works closely with landmine survivors and others with disabilities.
The foundation provides several services: advocacy for the rights of the disabled, physical and psycho-social theraputic services, pre-vocational training and professional reintegration, and production of prosthetic devices for disabled individuals.
Several landmine survivors and patients at the clinic described for summit guests how Fundation REI has empowered them to recover their lives in the wake of their accidents.
The four emerging major markets known as the BRIC nations are holding their first summit this week in Moscow to discuss common issues, one of which is the idea of an investment alternative to the US dollar. Brazil, Russia, India and China together account for 15 percent of the $60.7 trillion global economy, reports Reuters, which quotes Goldman Sachs as saying that in 20 years the four could “dwarf” the G7 economies and China’s economy could be larger than that of the US.
