Three prominent scholars have launched a petition, calling on Europeans and Europe’s institutions to oppose a contagious trend born in Orbán’s Hungary toward a return to national egoisms.

Jean-Michel De Waele, Political Science Professor at Université Libre de Bruxelles, Ildikó Szabó, retired Sociology Professor in Debrecen University and Paul Gradvohl, Professor at Université de Lorraine call on the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, as well as to all citizens, to react on these developments in the name of Europe.
The calling into question of fundamental rights in Hungary will be a very important test for Europe in the coming months. This test covers all the liberticidal laws of the Union, but also on the European horizon of post-Cold War, in other words, opening the possibility of another European political culture, the authors of the petition argue.
“The choice is simple: on the one side, national egoisms and economic and cultural decline, and on the other one, the creation of a new political and cultural space,” they state.
Only the impulse of European civic solidarity can lead Union out f the impasse, the three scholars call on Europeans.
To read the full text of the Petition and to sign, click here it (it’s easy; I did it in one minute).
 http://lapetition.be/en-ligne/petition-1…

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The Danish EU Presidency has a small problem. Its foreign minister Villy Søvndal doesn’t know where is Transnistria, and probably would find it difficult to locate Moldova on a map of Europe. Sixty six Brussels-based journalist witnessed the embarrassment of the minister, who was asked by a Romanian journalist what about Moldova in the Danish enlargement plans, and if he saw a solution to the Transnistria frozen conflict, which Russia created to cool down Moldova’s EU aspirations.

The minister, who is not a career diplomat, stumbled upon the name of Moldova, and found an easy way out by saying that all countries should be treated according to their merits. On Transnistria, he didn’t even venture to pronounce the name, but in a very honest Scandinavian style confessed he had no knowledge on the issue.
Right, we have Ashton and it’s probably her services that will take care of Transnistria as presidency time goes by. But the minister also said he was going to deputise Ashton on certain occasions. If I was her, I wouldn’t send him on a mission to Tiraspol. He might get lost on his way.

The Danes said they will conduct a low-cost presidency. I think they made a very good point. Showing up in times of crisis is bad taste.
But I think the Danes had one more message to deliver: they wanted to send a message to Sarkozy, the bling-bling President who offers Dupont fountain pens and Hermes handbags to other heads of state and government.
What Sarkozy is going to get from the Danes is only an alarm clock, at the unit price of 90 euro.

It looks much cheaper if you look at it, but it’s Danish design from 1939 by Arne Jakobsen, a booklet explains.
Anyway. The Danes have an issue with Sarkozy, because reportedly he offended their Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at the 9 December summit, basically telling her to shut up, because her country is not in the eurzone, and because she is new. Thorsten-Schmidt won the elections last September as leader of the Social Democrat party.
Sarkozy too has elections in April-May. From what I heard, the Danes were wishing him retirement from political life. The Dane who showed me this alarm clock told me: the clock is ticking for Sarkozy.

Brazil has passed the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy, according to a new study published by the Centre for economics and Business Research (CEBR). The same paper predicts that by 2020, the Germany, Britain and France would retrocede to rank 7, 8 and 9, from the current positions 4, 7 and 5. France, which holds presidential elections in April-May, appears as the fastest declining large European nation. And according to the same study, the fastest growing world economies are Russia and India.

According to the Center for Economics and Business Research, the world’s 10 largest economies are:
1. US
2. China
3. Japan
4.Germany
5. France
6. Brazil
7. UK
8. Italy
9. Russia
10. India
And according to the same source, the the world’s 10 largest economies in 2020 will be:
1. US
2. China
3. Japan
4. Russia (+5)
5. India (+5)
6. Brazil
7. Germany (-3)
8. UK (-1)
9. France (-4)
10. Italy (-2)
2020 is by the way the year chosen by Barroso for his “Europe 2020” initiative. It would be interesting to conduct a survey how many of his collaborators believe in this project. But we can make an educated guess.
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At the turn of the year, the EU shows a sorry image of itself. Greece may be bankrupt economically, but Hungary is certainly the worst failure in democracy since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

With its two-third majority in Parliament, the centre-right Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is passing legislation limiting the independence of the Central bank, a ‘financial stability act’ contrary to EU policies, as well as a new election law designed to cement Fidesz on power for years. It also closed the only critical radio station and prepares to ban new churches such as the evangelical. Romas are sent to work in scheme reminiscent of labour camps. Protestors, including opposition leaders, are being detained. On 1 January an authoritarian new constitution enters into force.
At the same time, Hungary is asking the EU and IMF for ‘precautionary aid’ as “a kind of insurance policy” against possible future financial difficulties. S&P downgraded Hungary to “junk”, largely because of its confrontational ways with the Commission. Barroso prefers to ignore what Hungary is doing, but now he will not be able to play one of the three Chinese monkeys. The centre right European family EPP, the European Peoples’ Party, to which Fidesz is affiliated, has a similar problem. And overall, Europe has a problem, because bad example is contagious. In times of crisis, epidemics can turn to pandemics.

Herman Van Rompuy spoke a few days ago of 2011 as “annus horribilis”, which perhaps one day could be seen as an “annus mirabilis”, year of wonders.

We’ve seen many horrors in 2011, like the Japan tsunami and the Norway mass killing. And a couple of wonders too: the end of the Berlusconi era, the indignados-Occupy Wall street movements, and the Arab spring. And the US left Iraq.
I’m not optimistic about the Arab spring and I’m not proud of how it’s been handled by European capitals. Sorry Mr. Van Rompuy, but I don’t think that we would change any time later our opinion about 2011. But in spite of the gloomy recession mood, I wish 2012 could be a better year.
Politically Europe needs change, as the current attempts to reform capitalism are unconvincing. The French Presidential elections provide a big opportunity; however, the Socialist candidate François Hollande has so far disclosed no real project. If he does, that would be a miracle. If he doesn’t, the surge of Marine Le Pen will be even more frightening.
A surge of democracy is looming in Russia on the occasion of the presidential elections. The EU is just an observer to the downslide of democracy in Russia, Turkey and many other places on earth. If the EU was more straightforward with its own problems, if it could stop for example the authoritarian tendencies in Hungary, it would be more credible in its external action.
It’s difficult to imagine a miracle happening in the Berlaymont these days. But I remember the Delors years, when the Berlaymont was a factory of ideas and big projects for Europe. And that was several EU treaties before. That’s why I say the EU institutions don’t need treaty change. They need political courage, or continue their decline into irrelevance. One can be indifferent about their fate, but our continent will be quite insignificant without the EU.

It’s not easy to do your job as a Brussels journalist these days. Herman Van Rompuy’s spokesperson gave the floor to only two colleagues to ask a question at the EU summit final press conference. And he made sure that they would be from Poland and ask how nice indeed the Polish EU Presidency has been.

So I couldn’t ask Barroso and Van Rompuy my simple question. When the leaders will meet in a couple of weeks in their new intergovernmental format, will the two of them be there, or will they watch the whole thing on television?

Anyway, we will watch television and we will see. But I managed to ask Parliament President Jerzy Buzek another simple question: how many are the EU members today? Are they 27 as we used to know, or 28 with Croatia, or 25 without UK, or 17 as eurozone, or 23 as eurozone plus euro-plus, or do I miss a figure as I usually do when I play loto? Watch his answer.

Whether we like it or not, the EU is becoming a two speed union. Sarkozy says there is “too much integration” among the 27 and too little among the 17 eurozone members.

It may look like a forced marriage, but eurozone countries need to build a real union.

Britain for one is happy about the development and plans to repatriate powers from Brussels, and to become more influential  via-a-vis the rest of the union. Cameron said he wanted to re-shape the Union as a network rather than a bloc.

With a budget prey to austerity, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the EU would become a much loser union than it is today.

Logically, big decisions would be taken in the eurozone, while the EU would rather be a discussion club.

Does this mean that the EU would become more likely to open to Turkey? Britain for one would be favourable, as it has no doubts about the geopolitical advantages of such option. Maybe France and Germany will be less opposed in the near future.

This doesn’t mean however that Turkey wouldn’t need to make deep transformations and recognise Cyprus.  But let’s assume that for the sake of EU membership Turkey would take those steps.

Then it’s hard to imagine that Turkey would be denied EU membership. For those for whom the arrival of a large Muslim country would be too bitter to swallow, maybe Turkey’s membership would be made to coincide with Christian Ukraine joining as well.

What looked absurd yesterday is not impossible today. As they say, crises always offer opportunities.

The eurozone breakup is no longer taboo. Germany and France discuss plans for a radical overhaul of the European Union that would involve setting up a smaller eurozone.

Italy, a founding country of the EU, is at near breaking point with yields on its debt bonds at levels seen as unsustainable.

Markets reacted sharply, stocks sank, raising fears of meltdown.

11.11.11 will be a day to remember for Europe and the world. For most of Brussels bubble, it is supposed to be a holiday. Last time the Commission was closed on 1 November, All Saints Day, in spite of the fact of the proposed Greek referendum that sent a wave of panic across Europe and the world. But tomorrow the institutions will work. The Polish EU Presidency has even scheduled a briefing ahead of Tuesday’s European affairs ministers’ meeting on 11.11.11 at 11hrs.

What else could 25 European affairs ministers discuss if not what is France and Germany plotting behind their back.

The European Commission today broke a taboo by not rejecting the assumption that Greece may leave not only the eurozone, but also the EU, because current treaties do not provide an exit from the euro.

Will Papandreou resign may be interesting in the moment I’m writing, but obviously he is finished.

His call for a referendum was a major mistake, another one was to lie that he had told EU leaders beforehand about his plan. Commission spokesperson Karolina Kottova today said the EU executive learned the news at the same time as we did, from newswires.

But Greece is not the problem. The EU and the eurozone would suffer a blow in case of a Greek disorderly default, Sarkozy may lose his country’s triple A and the elections next May, but Europe and the euro would survive.

I don’t think Greece will leave the EU, even if it returns to the Drahma. The EU is good at finding legal solutions to such problems.

The problem is Italy, as it is “too big to fail” and would trigger a tsunami effect across the eurozone, leaving little safe heaven. Berlusconi reportedly promised a confidence vote over his austerity measure two weeks from now. Having seen various Italian politicians doing their show in Brussels, I think  what would reassure the markets is if he quits and if Mario Monti takes over in a caretaker capacity. We want Mario Monti as Pulcinella!