A recent clash between French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and EU Trade Commissioner
Peter Mandelson has cast a cloud over the debut of France's presidency of the European Union. President Sarkozy openly criticized Commissioner Mandelson on his work in regard to the WTO trade talks, threatening to veto any deal that includes a reform of EU farm subsidies by saying that he would block any WTO agreement that would sacrifice farm production on the "
altar of global liberalism".
Aloys Rigaut, President of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) reacted: 'This is a bad start of the French presidency. Under the current design of the
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) system, consumers suffer from high food prices, taxpayers money is spent unwisely and delevoping countries are hurt by high import tariffs. In a context of food price increases, free trade is an opportunity for lower prices, and Sarkozy's comments against liberalism are simply disgraceful'.
The presidents of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC)’s member organisations were gathered in Varna, Bulgaria, from 9 to 12 October. Young liberal leaders were due to discuss the Lisbon Treaty and the response to the Irish no, but following the continuing plunge of stock markets on 10 October, they preferred to interrupt their normal programme in order to formulate a common response to the financial crisis.
Reacting to the recent turmoil on the world’s capital markets, the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) calls for deliberation instead of acting for the sake of acting. During a property market boom in the United States in the last couple of years, banks were happy to lend to low-income homeowners. When property prices tumbled, they struggled to pay their mortgage, which in effect caused the banks' trouble.
The democratic world is today relieved by the news on the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, former Bosnian Serb wartime leader. Radovan Karadzic was the political leader of Bosnian Serb forces during the devastating war in 1990s. The troops under his command were responsible for numerous atrocities, including the massacre of over 8000 civilians in the town of Srebrenica and the four-year long siege of the capital city of Sarajevo - the longest and one of the most brutal sieges in the history of modern warfare.