What to do in an Ecomic Crisis? EU: Cut Emissions
This sounds like a terrible joke. What does the European Union decide to do during times of economic crisis, potentially the worst crisis since the Great Depression (yes, that one also hit Europe)?
Right, cut back on emissions.
What?
Yeah, I’m serious. West European members of the EU want to pass a new treaty that would cut emissions considerably. This while economies worldwide are suffering.
There is good news, however: Poland and Italy have threatened to veto any agreement that would cut emissions in a way that would hurt their economy. Poland, and other Eastern European countries, said they were not quite willing to play ball, with Poland taking the lead in the opposition.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said: “Poland is ready to introduce a veto if there will be attempts to force us to achieve an agreement.”
Poland does not stand alone, however. Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi has sided with the Polish. “Our businesses are in absolutely no position at the moment to absorb the costs of the regulations that have been proposed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Sarkozy, French President, commented: “I’m not giving up on the timetable. We’ll strive to find a good compromise within two and a half months.”
Here’s an idea: abolish the existing treaty, for it is no good, and stop talking about another until at the end of 2009, when the current economic crisis will be over and done with.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
