Strasbourg, France European Union President Herman Van Rompuy, signalled Wednesday that the bloc's working in formulating new anti-deficit rules is nearing completion.
EU states pledged greater discipline in their budgets after Greece's debt and budget deficit crisis threatened to spill over to its neighbours in the eurozone.
But efforts to agree on the new rules aimed at preventing such scenarios in future, have so far faltered.
Despite that failure, Van Rompuy said he was ready to make final proposals on the subject to EU finance ministers on Monday.
'I will submit a draft of the global report (on the reforms) to the task force on September 27,' Van Rompuy told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
He rejected criticism that EU finance ministers had achieved little, claiming that since the task force's first meeting in May it had 'covered an enormous amount of ground in a very short time.'
But Van Rompuy conceded that 'more work is needed' on the contentious issue of penalties for EU budget breakers.
Germany has called for an EU treaty change to enforce greater discipline, but others do not want to embark on such a lengthy process, given that the last change in EU rules took almost 10 years to get approved.
Some have suggested that profligate countries should have their EU funds cut. But France says this should not involve agricultural subsidies, while Spain and Poland want to ring-fence regional handouts.
By presenting his report on Monday, Van Rompuy will anticipate parallel proposals that the European Commission, the EU's executive, is expected to unveil on September 29.
Those suggestions 'may positively contribute to keep the momentum,' said Van Rompuy, who according to some observers is engaged in a power struggle with the commission on who gets to write the new budget rules.
EU leaders are meant to agree on a final package at a summit in Brussels on October 28-29.
'This spring we won the battle of the euro. Next month I am confident we will draw the final right lessons (from) this crisis,' Van Rompuy said. End of Quote
Barroso calls for stronger US links
EUROPEAN COMMISSION president José Manuel Barroso has called for deeper ties between the EU and the US, saying the two are “indispensable” allies in the global arena.
In a speech in which he pointed to the limits of American power, Mr Barroso said a convincing response to issues such as global security and economics was “ultimately impossible” without active co-operation between Europe and the US.
He also suggested Europe has already overcome the worst of the financial crisis, echoing the view of European Council chief Herman Van Rompuy that the EU authorities “won the battle on the euro” during the Greek debt crisis.
“This phase of the crisis was the biggest ‘stress test’ that Europe has faced for many decades. We have passed it,” Mr Barroso said.
The bulk of his address at Columbia University in New York, however, was devoted to Europe’s ties with the US.
Mr Barroso has been pressing for a renewal of Europe’s links with Washington after tension over climate change policy and an apparent snub by President Barack Obama when he cancelled an EU-US summit, an event that has since been rescheduled.
Mr Barroso said no other partnership was as intense and rich as the transatlantic one, adding that the EU and US shared the same “fundamental values” of liberty and democracy.
“No country, no matter how powerful it may be – not even the United States – is able to tackle the challenges of the 21st century on its own,” he said.
“We either stand together and prosper or we fall separately. This is a fact of life in the 21st century.”
Mr Barroso, who is known to be concerned that the EU/US relationship is not living up to its full potential, called for joint action on the economy, trade, development policy, climate change and security.
Europe and the US should be to the fore in the G20 group of developed and developing countries as it battles the financial crisis, he said. End of Quote
Nero Fiddles While Rome Burns
There is something going on right now that the world has a right to know about if they cannot see it already, and l do not believe the majority of the worlds populace can see what is going on?
The two quotations mentioned above come from the president of the EU Council of Ministers Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the EU Commission Jose Manuel Barroso.
Both of these men appear to be working in tangent with one another - just as the Bible said would be the case with the Antichrist and the False Prophet as they set out to achieve a New World Order.
I recall while watching DVDs by the late and great Barry R Smith that he had said that the planners behind the New World Order where planning to destroy the American economy so that the world economy could be shifted over to Europe under the control of the Antichrist.
That is exactly what is going on right now and yet most people are either too blind, or too stupid, or both, to see what is going on.
As the old saying goes Nero is fiddling while Rome burns: meaning that as the economy crumbles around him all that the American president is doing is trying to achieve Middle East peace instead of trying to rectify the economic markets.
That in itself is a very commendable thing to try and achieve, but really, not right now at this particular time in history as his country melts around him.
Under the control of Barak Obama as the US economy falls to pieces, at the same time under the direction of their newly appointed full time president Herman Van Rompuy the EU economy has overcome its difficulties and is now going gangbusters, so much so that it makes one wonder if this has not been planned all along and has all been a part of a much larger plot; it now seems that it might have been?
As the American economy falls to pieces it is sure to affect the rest of the world; on the other hand who will be there to lift the world out of its doldrums - the EU president will be there and he will do for the rest of the world what he did for Europe.
As the founder of the EU Henri Spaak had said send us a man to lift us out of this economic morass into which we are sinking and whether he be from God or the Devil we will accept him - BUT - as students of Bible Prophecy know they will not get a man from God but will instead get a man from Satan.
[Just quietly, l do not believe that the Australian economy is going as well as they would like us believe either and that the only portion of our economy that is keeping us buoyant is the minerals sector.]
Statement: The Antichrist will be the dictator who is going to lift the world out of an economic collapse.
