Europe Intelligence Wire articles from September 2008

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from September 2008

HIGHLIGHTS - Pitera's Anti-corruption Bill Criticised by PSL.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) PSL has criticised Julia Pitera from PO for lack of results of work on draft anticorruption bill. Pitera replies that working within the state's structures is time consuming. The bill remains with the...

INBRIEF.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Marek Balicki decided to leave Polish Social Democracy (SDPL). He claimed that after the break-up of the Left and Democrats (LiD) the left-wing needs strong representation in parliament, which is impossible in...

PSL Criticises Pitera's Anticorruption Draft Bill.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) The Polish Peasant Party (PSL) has criticised Julia Pitera from Civic Platform (PO) for her draft anticorruption bill. Stanislaw Zelichowski, the head parliamentary PSL faction claims that Julia Pitera cannot...

Ministry Introduces Supervisor to PZPN.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Sport Minister Miroslaw Drzewiecki introduced a supervisor to the Polish Football Association (PZPN). The decision is said to be the result of disputes within the board of PZPN. The supervisor, Michal Zablocki...

Public Media to Be Reformed on Basis of SLD Plans.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) The Civic Platform (PO) and Polish Peasant Party (PSL) coalition would like the new media bill to be introduced as quickly as possible, in order to change the managing boards in Polish Television (TVP) and...

Panic on European Bourses Hits Warsaw, Indices Plummet Again.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) While until the end of the trading session in Warsaw the investors had no idea that Congress would reject the $700bn rescue plan for the US banking sector, Monday was still one of the worst days on WSE in a...

No Liberation of Energy Prices for Households.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Mariusz Sfora, the head of Energy Regulatory Office (URE) announced that prices of energy assigned for household use will not be liberated from 2009 January 1, although the market is still set to be liberated...

FinMin and Central Bank Deliver Contradictory Statements on ERM2.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) According to Finance minister Jacek Rostowski, Poland can enter the ERM2 mechanism in H1 of 2009. At the same time, he stresses that doing so requires changing the Constitution, so that all legal obstacles to...

RPP on GDP Growth and its Policy after Introducing Euro.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) According to the "Principles of Monetary Policy in 2009" issued by the Monetary Policy Council (RPP), the slowing pace of GDP growth in the world's largest economies may result in a decreased pace of economic...

Ministerial Plans For Postal Service Market Liberalisation.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) The Infrastructure Ministry has prepared assumptions to the bill regulating the ZL6bn postal services market after its liberalisation. Experts were surprised, because Poczta Polska (PP) national postal service...

Unemployment Rate Will Not Return to the Level of 10 Percent.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) At the end of September the unemployment rate will remain at 9.3 percent and should only go up to 9.6-9.7 percent by the end of the year - this is the forecast of the Work and Social Policy Ministry. These...

Less Companies Profitable.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) The number of unprofitable companies and sectors of the economy is growing. Some of them are experiencing serious problems, while others are investing intensively to be prepared when the economy slows down....

Piechocinski's Ideas for Road Building.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Vice chairman of the parliamentary infrastructure committee Janusz Piechocinski of the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) has an idea for the co-financing of local road building programmes. He proposes that local...

Insurance Fund Customers Patiently Await Better Times.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) During the first half of this year investors deposited almost ZL384m net in capital funds offered by insurance companies. This is less than in 2007, when the balance amounted to ZL4.5bn. However it is a good...

Firms to Be Awarded EUR24 Billion.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Jaroslaw Pawlowski, Deputy Regional Development Minister announced that in the period 2007-2013, EUR24 billion will be awarded to Polish firms, or foreign firms that plan to invest in Poland. The funds are...

INBRIEF.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) On 29 September, Polish oil and gas company PGNIG signed a contract with Germany's Verbundnetz Gas (VNG) for the purchase of around 500 million cubic metres of gas per year. The contract will remain effective...

Kulczyk to Swallow Up Aurelian Oil and Gas.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) In the summer Aurelian Oil & Gas (AOG) presented investment plans which involved looking for land gas in Poland, in the region of Poznan. It is known now that Kulczyk Investment House (KIH) will be the key...

Warsaw Stock Exchange Temps Hungarians.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) The road show for investors will last until the end of October and then the Hungarian OTP will make its debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (GPW). This was announced by the bank's president Sandor Csanyi...

PZU Management to Present New Strategy.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) During the PZU supervisory board meeting today the insurance giant president Andrzej Klesyk will present the new strategy for the upcoming years. Sources close to the Treasury Ministry say the new strategy will...

Selling Brown Coal.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) From 1 October the price of brown coal from the Adamow Mine will be higher by 9.56 percent. Adamow, besides Konin, is the only coal supplier for Patnow-Adamow-Konin Power Plant Complex (PAK). The mine says that...

PHF to Get Rid of Polfas by End of 2009.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) By the end of 2009, Polski Holding Farmaceutyczny (PHF) intends to sell its affiliates Polfa Tarchomin, Polfa Pabianice and Polfa Warszawa to either sector investors or consortia. "Our schedule foresees...

KGHM and Unions Select Mediator, Dispute Continues.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) On Monday, the representatives of the management board of copper giant KGHM and Solidarnosc trade unions signed a list of grievances from the talks in which they had attempted to settle their dispute over...

Schools Get Software.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) The Education Ministry has wasted no time in presenting the winner of the tender for school software. The educational software will cost ZL178m. Just as "PB" predicted, MCSI and PWN will equip junior-high...

PKE Launches New Installation at Jaworzno III.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) On 29 September, Elektrownia Jaworzno III power station has launched its new flue gas desulphurisation installation. Thanks to the investment, which consumed around ZL150m, the facility now meets the EU's...

Katowice Invites Cisco and Symantec.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) In a few years Silesia may be no longer associated with coal. Katowice is preparing a tender for a technology park, which may host several interesting companies. The mayor of Katowice Piotr Uszok and a...

Grupa Kety Expects Lower Sales in Q3.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Grupa Kety aluminum holding has presented its preliminary financial guidance for Q3; according to the document, its consolidated sales during this period are to amount to around ZL290m-300m, which would...

Fish Will Soon Rule Stock Exchange.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) If anyone thinks that the fish companies' assault on the marked ended with Seko's entrance, they would be wrong. A company from Bochnia is about to make its debut. "In order to hasten our development we...

Simple's New Investor Sees Future as Bright.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Former ABG's CEO Boguslaw Mitura has acquired a nearly 30-percent stake in IT firm Simple. He is also present in ABG and Atlas. Apparently, Mitura has already managed to reach an agreement with Simple's...

Yawal Takes Another Aim at Old Acquisition Target.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) According to Yawal's CEO Piotr Knapinski, the aluminum parts manufacturer still has a chance of conducting the ZL72m takeover it has been planning for months. The company acquired the necessary funds in...

AD Dragowski Debuts on WSE Big Time.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) When the investors watched with terror how the main WSE indices plummeted on Monday, AD Dragowski property intermediary made a spectacular entrance on the stock exchange. At the end of the day, its share price...

ECONOMIC REVIEW HEADLINES.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Below is an overview of articles that will appear in the forthcoming issue of the PNB Economic Review: One Can Get Used to Stock Market Swings - interview with TFI Allianz Polska fund manager Cezary...

Rocky Road to Euro Zone.
September 30, 2008... (From Polish News Bulletin) Recently, the investors have had a chance to hear the first clear declaration concerning the date of euro adoption in Poland. Even though a few days after announcing intention to enter the euro zone in 2011 PM...

Male teachers crucial as role models.
September 30, 2008... (From Government News Network) ] TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCY FOR SCHOOLS 30 September 2008 Male teachers crucial as role models The countdown commences to recruit tomorrow's male primary school teachers Male primary school...

Austria vandals deface Muslim graves.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Authorities in Austria today said 90 Muslim graves were vandalised over the weekend by suspected rightwing extremists. Officials said some tombstones were toppled and others sprayed with black paint in the...

Back to black: Phoenix Dance resurrects the race issue.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) How many times can Phoenix reinvent itself before it lies dead in the ashes? Since its founding in 1983 the Leeds-based company has been through at least half a dozen artistic directors, and just as many changes...

The sound of the Musikverein is pure gold.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Mysterious thing, acoustics. Despite decades of scientific research and the development of arcane mathematical models to determine how to produce the best-sounding space for live classical music, no one can...

700,000 people on waiting list for affordable rural homes.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Waiting lists for affordable housing in rural areas have risen by more than a third in the last five years, it was revealed today. Nearly 700,000 people are now waiting for an affordable home - 37% more than...

Viagra to be prescribed online.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Viagra is to be prescribed online for the first time to British patients, which could encourage men embarrassed by their impotency to seek treatment. Lloydspharmacy is prescribing Viagra, and other similar...

Football League review: the 10-point guide to the weekend.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Is there a more intimidating ground in the Football League than Ninian Park? In the nicest possible way, it's a horrible place for visitors, the away fans penned into the Grange End and surrounded on all sides...

Tories propose new bursaries for apprentices.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The Conservatives today unveiled plans to introduce a "vocational pathway" into higher education by introducing bursaries for apprentices interested in doing a degree. David Willetts, the shadow innovation,...

The Tories' presidential debate.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Now here's an interesting prediction from a breakfast fringe meeting at the Tory conference today. John McCain will beat Barack Obama on November 4, but serve only one term. In consequence the next presidential...

I have no link to Denis O'Brien.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Stephen Glover has taken me to task about my London Evening Standard column on The Independent's revamp. You can read and enjoy it here . Dogs will eat dogs, but one innuendo requires rebuttal. Glover...

How can you make expensive places cheaper?
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) It's not like I hadn't been warned that Copenhagen would be pricey. The city regularly features in surveys of the world's most expensive destinations , and for weeks before, every time I mentioned where I was...

Everton appeal against Cahill red card.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Everton have lodged an appeal with the Football Association over midfielder Tim Cahill's red card against Liverpool on Saturday. Cahill was dismissed in the 80th minute of the 2-0 Merseyside derby defeat at...

Government worker faces charges over loss of secret Iraq papers.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) A government official who left highly classified documents about al-Qaida and the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces on a train is to be charged under the Official Secrets Act, the Guardian understands....

US elections briefing: Power shifts from NY to DC.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) From Mississippi to Capitol Hill Over the weekend, the spotlight returned from Mississippi, scene of Friday's presidential debate, to Capitol Hill - where late last night party leaders announced they had...

England name squad for India Tests.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Having already drawn the sting from their latest squad announcement by announcing that Michael Vaughan would be excluded from the Test team for India the England selectors have settled the one remaining question...

The close-up.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Tell me about your outfit. I bought this T-shirt dress from a shop in the Brunswick Centre in London. I had a very close friend who had a brain haemorrhage just before Christmas and in February he finally...

'Tis the season to be godless.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The season of turkey, goodwill and consumerism might seem a long way off yet, but a December performance of "Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People" that includes a turn by Richard Dawkins and the Guardian's...

Talking Horses.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Curlin, Big Brown, Duke Of Marmalade and now Raven's Pass. This year the Breeders' Cup Classic could very well live up to its billing as the world championships of racing. Meanwhile, back on this side of the...

Financial market turmoil pushes interbank rates higher.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) World central banks desperately tried to stave off collapse of the global banking system today with massive injections of cash into money markets buckling under the news of another rash of bank failures. ...

If you only do one thing this week ? learn first aid.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) As every Casualty fan well knows, the world is a dangerous place: "Grampa, do you really think you should be driving that oil tanker with the dodgy brakes so soon after your operation?" "Don't worry little...

Panic grips the UK banking sector.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Panic swept through the banking sector today despite attempts by the authorities to draw a line under the turmoil in the financial sector. Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland slumped almost 20% at one point...

Yanko Design: Wow that's amazing! What's it for?
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) If Takashi Yamada had asked me, I'd have told him he had little chance of achieving fame and, perhaps, fortune by starting a blog devoted to cutting-edge design. Luckily, he didn't ask me. After five years, his...

Mourinho holds his tongue after Milan show talk is cheap.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) It's a good thing Jose Mourinho spent all that time learning the language. The Artist Formerly Known as the Special One had plenty to say this week, taking pops at the Italian press, Claudio Ranieri and even a...

Even the bar runs dry as Somerset's long drought continues.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) After years of waiting, nothing came. And what a tedious unravelling it made. I don't know how long your team has been waiting to win their title, but commiserations if the barren run is, like Somerset's,...

The week in money.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Newspapers have been dominated by the problems of Bradford & Bingley and the attempts of Republicans and Democrats to forge a deal to solve the US credit crisis. But there were other financial and consumer...

The rehabilitation of Romy Schneider.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The death of one of the German-speaking world's best-known female actors could hardly have been more prosaic. Romy Schneider was found by her partner Laurent Petin , in their Paris apartment, sitting lifelessly...

Would Tottenham fans rather have Hodgson than Ramos?
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) You don't change a winning formula, they say. If you're Roy Hodgson, you don't necessarily change a losing formula either. Premier League benches have been elongated this season but the Fulham manager declined...

How the council tax freeze would work.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The Conservatives say that plans to introduce a two-year freeze in council tax will save a typical band D household over ?200 - ?70 in the first year, and ?140 the year after. The party says the costs will...

Where is Britain's national pride? Not in pop music.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Tony Christie is celebrating his transformation from cheeseball crooner to coolish dude by releasing an album called Made in Sheffield, comprised entirely of songs by writers from that city, including Jarvis...

Tory transport plans received mixed response.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Rail groups hailed but business criticised Conservative plans , unveiled today, to scrap the third runway at Heathrow and build a ?20bn rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. John...

Banking crisis: Iceland takes control of Glitnir.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The Icelandic government has seized control of one of the nation's biggest banks, Glitnir, the latest victim of the crisis gripping the world's financial markets. The move will stoke long-held fears that...

Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The concept of using web-based programs like Google's Gmail is "worse than stupidity", according to a leading advocate of free software. Cloud computing ? where IT power is delivered over the internet as...

Catalan derby goes nuclear as Barcelona leave it late.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Prostitution, violence and robbery; fraud, fireworks and face-offs; injustice and indignation; pigs, police and politicians; sirens blaring, lights flashing, bodies strewn across the ground. The lastest Catalan...

Speech proves an instant political hit for Osborne.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Some Tory frontbenchers hang around the media room hoping someone will ask them a question. When George Osborne arrived after his speech today he was mobbed (see my cameraphone snap of him briefing the...

What George Osborne said.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) On Labour and big money Our economy suffers from a crisis of confidence. And our government is all crisis and no confidence. The Brown boom has ended in bust. Unlike New Labour we are not bedazzled by...

Why was 1970s children's TV so good?
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) I hate those TV programmes in which various people of my age queue up to talk nostalgically about 1980s pop music and, reaching still further back into nostalgia land, 1970s children's television. But... it has...

Three strikes and Labour's out.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) George Osborne had three key political tasks in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham today. Task number one was to nail Gordon Brown as the man who got Britain into the unfolding...

Wachovia agrees to Citigroup takeover.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The US woke up to the demise of yet another high-street banking name today as the troubled finance group Wachovia agreed to a rescue takeover by the world's biggest bank, Citigroup . Federal regulators...

B&B mortgage customers await rate verdict.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Thousands of landlords who took out buy-to-let mortgages with Bradford & Bingley face an anxious wait to see whether the Treasury will honour the terms of their deals that have left them "significantly better...

Deft Osborne comes up with the answers.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) With the global financial system in meltdown, George Osborne faced two big problems in his speech today. The first was to be heard at all on a day when the Bradford & Bingley was nationalised , shares were...

Japan's new PM faces crisis within days of taking office.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Taro Aso, Japan's new prime minister, is facing his first political crisis just days into the job with the resignation of his transport minister following a ferocious verbal assault on the country's teachers....

Integration pains.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Bradford & Bingley savers no doubt breathed a collective sigh of relief as the announcement came through this morning that their money would be safely transferred to Abbey owner Santander. They might not be...

Airline industry slams Tory plans to scrap third runway.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) A stunned British aviation industry rounded on the Conservative party today after David Cameron pledged to scrap a third runway at Heathrow in favour of a north-south high-speed rail link . British Airways ,...

Belarussian elections badly flawed, observers warn.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Western observers today said parliamentary elections in Belarus over the weekend were seriously flawed after the opposition failed to win a single seat. In a damning assessment, election observers said...

Councils 'spitting' over George Osborne's council tax plan.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Tory plans to freeze council tax for two years (George Osborne actually said "at least" two years) has caused serious rumblings within the umbrella body representing councils in England and Wales, the Local...

Banking shares plunge as crisis deepens.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Shares in Britain's banks plunged today in febrile market conditions caused by bail-outs of banks in the UK, continental Europe and the US. The nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley , the rescue of...

Ospreys embarrass Irish visitors with star-studded display.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) Describing the move from Ravenhill to the brighter lights of the Liberty Stadium, Tommy Bowe erred on the side of diplomacy, but he must be a relieved man. Bowe, playing at outside centre rather than wing,...

Notts captain backs Patel for Test call-up.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) The Nottinghamshire captain Chris Read has predicted that Samit Patel will soon bounce back from the disappointment of a failed championship challenge to prove himself an England player at Test as well as...

Unlocking your inner perv, again.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) I wasn't sure what to expect from Belle Toujours, a sort of sequel, four decades on, to the 1967 film Belle de Jour. The original, directed by Luis Bu?uel, the Spanish surrealist born in 1900, was pretty...

The Live Art Almanac: a radical look at how theatre should work.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) What would theatre be like if Pina Bausch was asked to work with lap dancers in Shoreditch and Simon McBurney commissioned to create spectacles outside black garage and grime clubs? What about getting...

More jobs to go at Sydney paper.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) More ructions are expected at Australia's Fairfax Media after revelations that the company has boosted its planned staff cull at the Sydney Morning Herald from 60 to 70 journalists. In Melbourne, the number of...

Egyptian editor jailed over 'false news'.
September 30, 2008... (From Guardian Unlimited) An appeals court in Egypt yesterday sentenced Ibrahim Issa, the outspoken editor of the independent daily al-Dustor, to two months in jail. The sentence, cut from six months, is likely to provoke an outcry...