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[CyclopsRock]

Yet you don't want a unified voice for foreign and security policy and prefer 28 people not deciding on anything?

Eh? The prospect here is economic sanctions - due to the EU, we have to do it as a bloc, because there's no point (is it even possible?) to block trade with Russia in the UK because we have a common market with 26 countries between us and Russia. But the lack of a common goal, aim, desired outcome etc here is a great example of why I wouldn't want our military reach limited in the same way (Edit: and our military reach isn't limited by our membership of the EU in the same way our ability to enact sanctions in.)

 

[Marc]

Climate change, environmental protection and land management, worker rights and social justice, competition regulation, cultural preservation and ideological promotion, defence, trade...

Curious, are you a believer in the freedom of movement ideology?

It ties in to a lot of these things so wondering about yours and other pro-europe views.

 

[CyclopsRock]

Oioi.

Sky News Newsdesk ‏@SkyNewsBreak 10m
AP: Dutch minister says EU imposing new sanctions on officials over #Russia's actions in #Ukraine

Let's see! Is CR's wet dream about to come true?!

And Marc, I can absolutely guarantee to you that he does support the freedom of movement ideology.

 

[CyclopsRock]

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/144090.pdf

Here we go. Most of it's the usual tutting bullshit. The relevant bits are...

6) The Council agrees to accelerate the preparation of targeted measures agreed at the
Special meeting of the European Council on 16 July, in particular to establish immediately a list of
entities and persons, including from the Russian Federation, to be listed under the enhanced
criteria adopted by the Council on 18 July, then to expand the restrictive measures with a view to
targeting individuals or entities who actively provide material or financial support to or are
benefiting from the Russian decision makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the
destabilisation of Eastern-Ukraine, and to adopt additional measures to restrict trade with and
investment in Crimea and Sevastopol, at the latest by the end of July.

7) The Council recalls the previous commitments by the European Council and remains ready
to introduce without delay a package of further significant restrictive measures, if full and
immediate cooperation on above mentioned demands fails to materialise. To this end, the Council
requests the Commission and the EEAS to finalise their preparatory work on possible targeted
measures and to present proposals for taking action, including on access to capital markets,
defence, dual use goods, and sensitive technologies, including in the energy sector. The results of
this work will be presented on Thursday, 24th July.

So my pants remain unwet for now, at least. It mostly sounds like they're just adding a few more oligarch's to their list and that they might do some stuff in the future (cough cough no they won't, re: defence at least). And sadly, it seems like they're still keen to keep the sanctions based around specifically individuals and companies related to the Crimea, rather than Russia in general. It falls well short of the Level 3 sanctions that were hoped for by some.

 

[Zornica]

Man, the EU's pretty pathetic. What would Russia have to do for more significant sanctions to have to happen? That's a genuine question. They've invaded Georgia, annexed a bit of a sovereign neighbour, and now either trained separatists to shoot a passenger plane out of the sky, or otherwise put their own troops in sheep's clothing to do it. If the line hasn't been crossed yet, does it actually exist?

you must feel pretty stupid by now - at least I hope you do

sounds like the good guys version, or as I'd like to call it, the "white version". To bad this isn't a black/white conflict with good and evil sides. It's mostly black with shades of grey. If anything we should sanction the Americans for driving us deeper and deeper into this mess, for pressing their cowboy mentality, for escalating the conflict further and further. If this was handled by the OSCE like it should've been from the start, most of this would've never happened. But no, someone had to decide to "fuck the EU".
But hey, you sit on your island miles away, so why should you care?

What exactly is their to gain from sanctions?
other than destroying 20+ years of good neighbourly relations with Russia all over a completely worthless country because of an absolutely ridiculous dispute. A country ruled by fascists, willing to wage war against it's own citizens - funded by our money no less. As long as those citizens are evil and pro-russia and "destabilizing" the country it's ok to kill them, and ofc it was totally different when our guys did the same thing months ago, right?

 

[CyclopsRock]

you must feel pretty stupid by now - at least I hope you do

sounds like the good guys version, or as I'd like to call it, the "white version". To bad this isn't a black/white conflict with good and evil sides. It's mostly black with shades of grey. If anything we should sanction the Americans for driving us deeper and deeper into this mess, for pressing their cowboy mentality, for escalating the conflict further and further. If this was handled by the OSCE like it should've been from the start, most of this would've never happened. But no, someone had to decide to "fuck the EU".
But hey, you sit on your island miles away, so why should you care?

What exactly is their to gain from sanctions?
other than destroying 20+ years of good neighbourly relations with Russia all over a completely worthless country because of an absolutely ridiculous dispute. A country ruled by fascists, willing to wage war against it's own citizens - funded by our money no less. As long as those citizens are evil and pro-russia and "destabilizing" the country it's ok to kill them, and ofc it was totally different when our guys did the same thing months ago, right?

I have literally no idea what you're talking about.

 

[CyclopsRock]

So, anyway, moving on from that...

What does everything think about the demographic challenges facing (somewhat uniquely) the EU? Notably that birth rates are low, the number of people retiring is high and typically EU economies provide fairly significant state pensions? There are only a handful of countries within the EU growing without the aid of immigration, and even with immigration studies have suggested that in 50 years, there will be more retirees than workers even assuming a net intake of 1m immigrants a year. This is obviously a long term problem, but we also know that the EU has a problem with youth unemployment too, so the idea of having more kids (even if there were a way to safely encourage this) isn't without its problems either.

So what's the solution, kiddos?

 

[anonymous_abc]

So, anyway, moving on from that...

What does everything think about the demographic challenges facing (somewhat uniquely) the EU? Notably that birth rates are low, the number of people retiring is high and typically EU economies provide fairly significant state pensions? There are only a handful of countries within the EU growing without the aid of immigration, and even with immigration studies have suggested that in 50 years, there will be more retirees than workers even assuming a net intake of 1m immigrants a year. This is obviously a long term problem, but we also know that the EU has a problem with youth unemployment too, so the idea of having more kids (even if there were a way to safely encourage this) isn't without its problems either.

So what's the solution, kiddos?

A huge challenge indeed. I don't think there is an easy solution, as with most of these problems.
It's difficult to force people to procreate.
I think fair taxation would go a long way to bridge the financial shortfall. Tax dodging and avoidance needs to be stopped. Starbucks UK should pay full taxes in the UK. All the cross border and inner country trickery needs to stop.

Globally there isn't really a problem with too few young people, more like the opposite, if this means Europe will have to be cut down to size I think that is ok. The population size needs to be sustainable, that is the number one concern.

 

[Maledict]

As Carlos Slim remarked recently, this isn't a problem you can solve by tinkering around the edges. Ultimately we need to look at a completely different way of running society to make it work under a low birthdate, living longer paradigm. He suggested a 3 day working week as the solution, which coming from the worlds richest man and an arch-capitalist is an interesting proposal.

Ultimately though, whilst it's Europe's problem now, by the end of the century it's going to be everyone's problem. As society's industrialise and develop, the birth rates drop and fall to levels which aren't sustainable.

 

[anonymous_abc]

As Carlos Slim remarked recently, this isn't a problem you can solve by tinkering around the edges. Ultimately we need to look at a completely different way of running society to make it work under a low birthdate, living longer paradigm. He suggested a 3 day working week as the solution, which coming from the worlds richest man and an arch-capitalist is an interesting proposal.

Ultimately though, whilst it's Europe's problem now, by the end of the century it's going to be everyone's problem. As society's industrialise and develop, the birth rates drop and fall to levels which aren't sustainable.

It will be a long time till we have a global problem of a too small population.
Mother Earth surely wouldn't mind us reducing the population a bit.

I would welcome a drastically reduced work week. Isn't going to happen any time soon though. Such changes take a long time to be accepted by the current societal mindset.

 

[QuicheFontaine]

A huge challenge indeed. I don't think there is an easy solution, as with most of these problems.
It's difficult to force people to procreate.
I think fair taxation would go a long way to bridge the financial shortfall. Tax dodging and avoidance needs to be stopped. Starbucks UK should pay full taxes in the UK. All the cross border and inner country trickery needs to stop.

Globally there isn't really a problem with too few young people, more like the opposite, if this means Europe will have to be cut down to size I think that is ok. The population size needs to be sustainable, that is the number one concern.

Uh, this is a bit of an alarming remark! What exactly do you mean?

 

[anonymous_abc]

Uh, this is a bit of an alarming remark! What exactly do you mean?

I don't think a birthrate of 1.5 is currently a problem. Of course I do not mean euthanasia.
I meant it more in an economical sence, I'm sure a low birthrate will be economically painfull. In the grand sceme of things, i.e. globally however probably not as a European carbon footprint on the earth is significantly larger than many others.





In other news

Spanish jobless rate below 25% for the first time in two years

However the Spanish unemployment rate is still the second highest in Europe, with 5.6 million Spaniards out of work.

"These figures are much better than expected and while there's an important seasonal element, seasonally adjusted figures are also strong," said Jose Luis Martinez, economist at Citi in Madrid.

BBC
Let's hope that is just the start.

 

[CyclopsRock]

I don't think a birthrate of 1.5 is currently a problem. Of course I do not mean euthanasia.
I meant it more in an economical sence, I'm sure a low birthrate will be economically painfull. In the grand sceme of things, i.e. globally however probably not as a European carbon footprint on the earth is significantly larger than many others.

Though "the wider economy" is only one aspect - another is the more day-to-day taxing and spending of the governments who find they have more mouths to feed than people paying in. The choice at that point comes down to increasing taxes or decreasing things like pensions - even a minimum income system can only reduce the burden so far when you have so many more people not working than working.

Another problem is that people are living longer but aren't necessarily able to work much longer.

 

[QuicheFontaine]

I don't think a birthrate of 1.5 is currently a problem. Of course I do not mean euthanasia.

Hey, I didn't bring up euthanasia! Why are you talking about euthanasia all of a sudden?!

Spoiler

;-P

 

[CyclopsRock]

http://www.cityam.com/1407891254/markets-go-cold-euro-recovery

There's a bit of detail about recent developments of the Eurozone economy in there, but the stand out one to me Is that two separate analyst groups have predicted growth of 0.1% for the next two quartets.

What can the Eurozone do to improve its economies, and is there anything that you think needs to occur at the EU (Not just EZ) level?

 

[anonymous_abc]

http://www.cityam.com/1407891254/markets-go-cold-euro-recovery

There's a bit of detail about recent developments of the Eurozone economy in there, but the stand out one to me Is that two separate analyst groups have predicted growth of 0.1% for the next two quartets.

What can the Eurozone do to improve its economies, and is there anything that you think needs to occur at the EU (Not just EZ) level?

That article really isn't all that detailed. But of course in this capitalist society of ours economies always have to grow x-fold or be considered a failure.

Not really sure what the EU can do apart from taking money into its hand in order to get the economy going. More money for youth unemployment programs is needed too.
Pay for it how I hear you ask, raise taxes on the rich and better off, I'm quite happy to pay more tax if it means a better more socially just Europe for us all.

And looking at the Euro / Dollar exchange rate over the last few years it really doesn't look that dramatic. In any case yay exports get cheaper...

Spoiler

*rolleyes*

 

[CyclopsRock]

Note: "The World's Greatest Newspaper", so it's obviously accurate.

Our way of life, indeed.

 

[Dascu]

So Belgium finally presented its EU Commissioner, Marianne Thyssen, the current Christian-democrat MEP. Took us long enough to make a rather obvious pick.

 

[anonymous_abc]

So Belgium finally presented its EU Commissioner, Marianne Thyssen, the current Christian-democrat MEP. Took us long enough to make a rather obvious pick.

Is that good? We need opinions.

The Germans are sending Günther 'Inglisch Spiking' Oettinger in the race again.
For Internet and Technology... *Argh....

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Does the EU even have an army?
It probably should.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Does the EU even have an army?
It probably should.

28 of them actually.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Note: "The World's Greatest Newspaper", so it's obviously accurate.

Our way of life, indeed.

Glad the EU is cracking down on this.

will help keep the leccy bills somewhat reasonable

 

[CyclopsRock]

Does the EU even have an army?
It probably should.

Hohoho. With it's direction decided by whom?

Fuck that for, as they say, a game of soldiers.

 

[QuicheFontaine]

Note: "The World's Greatest Newspaper", so it's obviously accurate.

Our way of life, indeed.

The EU is trying to sabotage the UK economy because we're making everyone else look bad by comparison. Reducing the wattage on kettles means it takes longer to make a cup of tea, which builds an inefficiency into every product and service in the UK.

 

[CyclopsRock]

The EU is trying to sabotage the UK economy because we're making everyone else look bad by comparison. Reducing the wattage on kettles means it takes longer to make a cup of tea, which builds an inefficiency into every product and service in the UK.

More fool them - in our office, we have a plumbed in super duper hot tap thing (about 95oC) so we're SUPER efficient at making tea. Alas, we also have a nice bean to cup espresso machine with a milk frother and jug (with a thermometer - that's how I know the temperature of the hot tap!) and we spend at least half an hour a day perfecting our milk-frothing skills so it probably balances out.

 

[QuicheFontaine]

More fool them - in our office, we have a plumbed in super duper hot tap thing (about 95oC) so we're SUPER efficient at making tea. Alas, we also have a nice bean to cup espresso machine with a milk frother and jug (with a thermometer - that's how I know the temperature of the hot tap!) and we spend at least half an hour a day perfecting our milk-frothing skills so it probably balances out.

I used to work in an office with one of those! Amazing stuff. I don't know if it increases efficiency though, I think we just brewed up more often. There's always a trade off.

And spending all day mucking about with an espresso machine and a milk frother is just reinforcing Northers' stereotype of what you creative types get up to in London.

 

[CyclopsRock]

I used to work in an office with one of those! Amazing stuff. I don't know if it increases efficiency though, I think we just brewed up more often. There's always a trade off.

And spending all day mucking about with an espresso machine and a milk frother is just reinforcing Northers' stereotype of what you creative types get up to in London.

Whilst frothing up some milk last week, me and a colleague tried to estimate roughly how much our coffee fun cost the company each week. We worked out that, if you take our billable rate and multiply it by the time we spend making, drinking, discussing, drawing-leaves-with-foam-over-and-over-again-till-we-finally-get-something-that-doesn't-look-like-an-abortion, we'd cost the company something in the region of £500 a week (that's just for the two of us). We currently have 3 interns sitting here breaking up boxes for lack of anything else to do, it'd honestly be cheaper top send them round the corner every 20 minutes to get us whatever we want from our hipster independent coffee fuck house.

Uhh I think I've gone off topic.

 

[Dascu]

Yo!

http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/structure/index_en.htm

It's going to be interesting to see how they manage to coordinate the different Directorates-General. Very interested to see how Ansip will manage the Digital Single Market. Will we finally be able to freely sell and trade software, music and eBooks online?

 

[CyclopsRock]

HAR HAR HAR

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29139503

[quoteThe UK will oversee financial services in the new 28-strong European Commission - a surprise appointment expected to please the UK government.[/quote]

Take that, Frankfurt. Take that, Tobin Tax!

And another glorious step for EU democracy as someone who's never won an election in his life in any country gets one of the top jobs in the EU.

 

[Walshicus]

And another glorious step for EU democracy as someone who's never won an election in his life in any country gets one of the top jobs in the EU.

No, but your man David Cameron (who sadly was elected) made that decision.

I love how you can turn the states appointing Commissioners (and then being voted on by Parliament) as a negative for the EU rather than the states themselves. Most Europhiles *want* an elected executive; it's the Intergovernmentalists like the Tories who resist that.

 

[Mr. RHC]

Why give Cameron anything at all? He should leave the Union, it would be for the better.

 

[CyclopsRock]

No, but your man David Cameron (who sadly was elected) made that decision.

I love how you can turn the states appointing Commissioners (and then being voted on by Parliament) as a negative for the EU rather than the states themselves. Most Europhiles *want* an elected executive; it's the Intergovernmentalists like the Tories who resist that.

What's that got to do with me? Or Cameron, for that matter? The EU has a huge democratic deficit. This has been built into it since day one. Cameron didn't make that decision, and nor did he decide that the guy couldn't be elected to the post; We can't very well have a vote to elect someone when the position that they're filling wasn't even public knowledge.

 

[anonymous_abc]

BBC

One bright side is definitely the commission is no longer the place to send unwanted B-Team politicians from home.
9 former (vice/) presidents
13 former ministers

 

[CyclopsRock]

BBC

One bright side is definitely the commission is no longer the place to send unwanted B-Team politicians from home.
9 former (vice/) presidents
13 former ministers

Hmm, alas that's certainly not the case in the UK. I'd guess around seven, maybe eight people in the UK know who our guy is. I can't even remember his name and I linked to an article about him yesterday. Even his own parents don't know who he is.

Besides, what do most presidents do when they're not president anymore? I'm not being snarky but - again, in the UK at least - usually by that point they absolutely are unwanted.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

Yeah, Hill has been pretty low key, first time I've really taken in his name. Never made as much of a spash as lord strathclyde did while leader.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Hmm, alas that's certainly not the case in the UK. I'd guess around seven, maybe eight people in the UK know who our guy is. I can't even remember his name and I linked to an article about him yesterday. Even his own parents don't know who he is.

Besides, what do most presidents do when they're not president anymore? I'm not being snarky but - again, in the UK at least - usually by that point they absolutely are unwanted.

Well some explicitly left office to join the commission.
And I think anyone who gets to be premier has some serious political skills, even a former PM will not have lost all that. So it is fair to say there are many big hitters on that list.

 

[anonymous_abc]

So that's a wrap then.

MEPs have voted by a large majority in support of the new European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker.

The vote went 423 for, 209 against and there were 67 abstentions. It means the Commission can take office next month.

BBC

As we have known for a while various damp squibs on the list.
Let's see what Junker makes of it.

Vytenis Andriukaitis (Lithuania) Health and food safety

Miguel Arias Canete (Spain) Climate action and energy

Dimitris Avramopoulos (Greece) Migration and home affairs

Elzbieta Bienkowska (Poland) Internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs (small and medium-sized businesses)

Corina Cretu (Romania) Regional policy

Johannes Hahn (Austria) European neighbourhood policy and enlargement negotiations

Jonathan Hill (UK) Financial stability, financial services and capital markets union

Phil Hogan (Ireland) Agriculture and rural development

Vera Jourova (Czech Republic) Justice, consumers and gender equality

Cecilia Malmstroem (Sweden) Trade

Neven Mimica (Croatia) International co-operation and development

Carlos Moedas (Portugal) Research, science and innovation

Pierre Moscovici (France) Economic and financial affairs, taxation and customs

Tibor Navracsics (Hungary) Education, culture, youth

Guenther Oettinger (Germany) Digital economy and society

Violeta Bulc (Slovenia) Transport and space

Christos Stylianides (Cyprus) Humanitarian aid and crisis management

Marianne Thyssen (Belgium) Employment, social affairs, skills and labour mobility

Karmenu Vella (Malta) Environment, maritime affairs and fisheries

Margrethe Vestager (Denmark) Competition

 

[CyclopsRock]

Do they invent a new comission every time a new country joins?

Also, anyone know what the Regional Policy commissioner of a supranational body does? These are both genuine questions.

 

[John Dunbar]

lol, that finnish dude has "jobs and growth". fucked it up in finland, now getting paid to fuck it up in the eu.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Do they invent a new comission every time a new country joins?

Also, anyone know what the Regional Policy commissioner of a supranational body does? These are both genuine questions.

Well for one the commission titles and responsibilaties are in constant flux, no two commissions are the same and yea I would say till now they have always invented new positions.

So only because the EU is supranational doesn't mean there are no regions within this body!
The EU has always been big on promoting regions, their cultures, languages et al.

 

[El Topo]

Oettinger as the digital economy and society commissioner is hilarious.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Oettinger as the digital economy and society commissioner is hilarious.

Yea, den Bock zum Gärtner machen...
Possibly worse than him being Energy-Commissioner last time round.

 

[CyclopsRock]

Well for one the commission titles and responsibilaties are in constant flux, no two commissions are the same and yea I would say till now they have always invented new positions.

So only because the EU is supranational doesn't mean there are no regions within this body!
The EU has always been big on promoting regions, their cultures, languages et al.

Unless they're Basques. Trololol. But really, if we all agree that the EU should be there to perform the functions best performed at a pan-European level like borders and trans-national infrastructure etc, how does it end up dealing with regions? Very literally, what is it that they do? Fund local markets selling ancient recipe cheese or something? It just seems like something that's so far from their purview.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Unless they're Basques. Trololol. But really, if we all agree that the EU should be there to perform the functions best performed at a pan-European level like borders and trans-national infrastructure etc, how does it end up dealing with regions? Very literally, what is it that they do? Fund local markets selling ancient recipe cheese or something? It just seems like something that's so far from their purview.

An excerpt of what the current / previous Commissioner for Regional Policy (Hahn, Johannes) did.

• 1 October 2014 - More than €45 million of EU regional funds to connect Krakow airport to the city centre [Poland]
• 11 March 2013 - European Commission approves EUR 30 million of EU Regional Funds for a cutting edge research hub in North West England [United Kingdom]
• 18 October 2013 - EUR 69 million of EU regional funds to upgrade the Rostock-Berlin railway line [Germany]
• 22 May 2013 - More than EUR 96 million of regional funds to improve water quality in Portugal [Portugal]

More

 

[CyclopsRock]

An excerpt of what the current / previous Commissioner for Regional Policy (Hahn, Johannes) did.

More

Christ. It literally sounds like it's just "anything". I mean, everything's in a region. Fuck it, build a space port in Gibraltar.

 

[anonymous_abc]

Christ. It literally sounds like it's just "anything". I mean, everything's in a region. Fuck it, build a space port in Gibraltar.

That would probably create jobs in said region, so probably fair game.

 

[CyclopsRock]

That would probably create jobs in said region, so probably fair game.

Heh, yeah. They're really good at that.

 

[Maledict]

Can someone explain the current rush of headlines in the UK press that basically says the UK has been hit by a 1.7 billion extra bill to support Europe because of the strength of our economy, whilst Germany and France are both getting rebates because their economies aren't doing so well?

It's the British press, so I trust them as far as I can throw them when it comes to talking about Europe so would appreciate a more neutral answer that (hopefully) doesn't sound as insane as the above.

 

[cartesian]

Unless they're Basques. Trololol. But really, if we all agree that the EU should be there to perform the functions best performed at a pan-European level like borders and trans-national infrastructure etc, how does it end up dealing with regions? Very literally, what is it that they do? Fund local markets selling ancient recipe cheese or something? It just seems like something that's so far from their purview.

Christ. It literally sounds like it's just "anything". I mean, everything's in a region. Fuck it, build a space port in Gibraltar.

Well, it sounds like you've already made up your mind, but I'll attempt a very brief explanation anyway. The what part is much easier than the why.

Put rather simplistically, European Union 'regional policy' basically describes a pooled trans-European grant funding system targeted towards investment proposals designed to stimulate economic growth and regeneration in comparatively deprived or otherwise economically-lagging areas of Europe. This is often called "cohesion" - the idea that the EU should work to lift-up the drag on the European economy and ameliorate internal disparities; to foster integration within economies, not just between them.

It's often pretty practical stuff - training workers, increasing industrial capacity, (literally) building bridges, and so on. Project approval generally has some (perhaps theoretical?) link to wider EU policy objectives; for example, you can find many examples of the EU funding scientific or industrial research, in line with the EU's stated aim of promoting European competitiveness on the global stage. Other times it's about providing coordinated financing for economic clusters that span national borders. Projects range from installing broadband infrastructure in rural Lithuania, to expanding the capacity of Italian port, to accelerating the construction of tram lines in Manchester.

I guess you could say it's vaguely like a prototype European tax-and-spend system, in that we're all paying into a pot that could potentially fund public works anywhere within the EU - except, of course, that it's member-state fees instead of individual taxes. You may feel that there's no reason for the EU to do this; that states could effectively carry out their own regional policies, as indeed many of them already do. But I see no harm in adding a supplementary European dimension; it is, at the least, an important experiment, given that regional disparities in some parts are actually increasing.

 

[s_mirage]

Can someone explain the current rush of headlines in the UK press that basically says the UK has been hit by a 1.7 billion extra bill to support Europe because of the strength of our economy, whilst Germany and France are both getting rebates because their economies aren't doing so well?

It's the British press, so I trust them as far as I can throw them when it comes to talking about Europe so would appreciate a more neutral answer that (hopefully) doesn't sound as insane as the above.

Only going on the British press myself at the moment but if it is as is stated, it's yet another indication that despite election results suggesting a voting shift towards Eurosceptic and far right parties across Europe, the EU bureaucrats continue to be as blase as ever. This kind of thing punishes countries that have been fiscally responsible, and will just help further fuel support for parties like UKIP in the negatively affected countries.

While it can certainly be argued that a country's contribution should change based on its wealth, that should be a matter for negotiations, not sudden demands.