Transatlantic Politics

Yesterday’s  record fine against US giant Intel - $ 1.45 billion - is yet another example of EU’s double standards when it comes to American companies and Russian monopolies.

Not that TransatlanticPolitics is contesting the accuracy of the EU commission’s findings  - the bloc’s guardian of fair competition rules - but it is at least dubious that no probe has been launched into any Russian company/monopoly on the EU market.

"Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years," competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

"If we smell that there is something rotten in the state, we act."

It seems however that Gazprom’s actions on the EU market have no smell, despite its ownership of half of the trading floor in one of Europe’s major gas hubs in Austria - Baumgarten.

No formal inquiry has been launched by the EU into this matter, although Gazprom basically has free access to priviliged information about all the gas being traded there.

"Knowing, for example, that one company’s future contracts become mature on this particular date, another county needs gas on that date, if you know all the pricing information, you can undercut these limited opportunities that began to emerge at Baumgarten for more market-based pricing of gas giving this arbitrage a possibility. So, it’s crucial that the EU is examining the operation of that gas hub and information systems and make sure the information is not being used by one company or another company to undercut competition," US deputy assistant secretary of state Matt Bryza told EUobserver in April. Similar statements here.

 Asked about this issue, a spokesman for the EU commission said the matter was not relevant, since Gazprom could only follow the amounts of gas currently traded and not influence any future transactions.

So much for Europe’s level playing field..

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Hillary’s charm tour in Europe ended in a big mockery, as she found herself lost in translation. When in Geneva, Hillary gave Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov a plastic button, after Joe Biden’s announcement last month that the Obama administration has to hit the ‘reset button’ in US-Russian relations.

"You got it wrong" - Lavrov said. Instead of "reset", the button read "overload" or "overcharge" in Russian. Whooops… Sorry, wrong button.

No problem, DeeDee, thank God you’re not the POTUS and don’t have a real button to play with.

And hopefully this embarrassment will put an end to such gimmick-diplomacy. What exactly was that button supposed to mean? A fresh start with Russia, based on what? Down at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Hillary did not sound so much different than Condi. Hell, she even called Poland and the Czech Republic "visionary" for signing up for missile defense, a plan that really pisses off Russia.

Of course, her hawkish talk may have been just a way to soothe fears in Europe after that Obama letter offering to scrap missile defence in return for real Russian help against Iran. But one can hardly say what’s more naive: to think that such trade-off would really work or to believe that the Kremlin would buy this "fresh start" thing based on a gimmick which wasn’t even spelled correctly.

But the reset-button episode was not the only gaffe. While in Brussels, Hillary also managed to misspell two of her counterparts names during a press conference - she called the EU top diplomat Javier Solana a cream candy - ‘Solano’ - and the EU commissioner for external relations ‘Benina’ - when her real name is Benita. Both were standing right next to her and rolled their eyes thinking "oh boy, why can’t the Americans learn the names of the people they talk to?"

Maybe all of this is just a warm-up for gaffe-master Biden, who is in Brussels this week to convince Europeans to commit more troops to Pakistan. Sorry, Afghanistan. Or just call it AfPak, like most of the Obamites now do. Is much easier. Also solves the eternal question of how it’s spelled correctly - Iran or Iraq?

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It’s common popular knowledge that Skype calls are allegedly un-spyeable. Investigative journalists frequently tell their sources to use this Estonian-designed computer-to-computer telephone system in order to avoid being wire-tapped. Provided the computer itself is bug-free, as well as the webcam/microphone used. And of course, with no mobile phone around, which can be used as an eavesdropping device, even if it’s turned off.

A recent decision of the European Union’s judicial coordination body - Eurojust - indicates that popular knowledge is not so far from the truth. Eurojust decided to support Italian prosecutors who claim that their anti-Mafia and drug dealers investigations would be so much easier if Skype allowed them to tap into conversations.

So far, VoIP programs are not subject to EU or US wiretapping or data retention legislation. Skype told EUobserver it had "extensively debriefed Eurojust on our law enforcement programme and capabilities" and said it did cooperate with police and prosecutors "where legally and technically possible."

German authorities apparently also tried to tap into Skype conversations and commissioned an IT firm to develop Trojans which could perform this task, according to documents obtained by Piraten Partei, an European movement promoting freedom on the Internet. However, the Bavarian’s efforts proved unsuccessful, as the German police publicly admitted.

Of course, Eurojust claims that wiretapping Skype and other voice-over-IP programs (VoIP) such as Yahoo messenger talk, InternetCalls etc, would only take place as part of criminal investigations, with a court order. But once they have the power and it is technically and legally possible, who can really guarantee that no abuses will happen?

Update: After some media frenzy on the matter, Eurojust decided to drop its plans and announced it had issued the statement "prematurely" and that it was "incorrect". Lovely EU institutions, aren’t they? Very professional and consistent…

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Guess what: these pretty windmills have no impact in reducing CO2 emissions. At least not in Europe, world leader against climate change.

This is what the German Green Party secretely acknowledges, in emails obtained by Spiegel Online.

Here is how it goes: the EU has set up this emission trading system. Heavy pollutors and energy companies can buy them. It’s supposed to be an incentive to switch to eco-friendly technologies.

But in fact, the actual amount of CO2 stays the same, no matter how many wind turbines the Europeans erect.

Not to mention the fact that in Germany, for instance - leading country in renewable energy technologies - the more companies make the switch to renewables, the cheaper CO2 certificates get. So in fact, the incentive is the other way around, giving energy companies a reason not to invest in such costly technologies with no impact.

It’s the economy, stupid!

That is exactly what happened in recent trading. A certificate to emit a ton of CO2 cost almost nothing. As a result, there was very little incentive for big energy companies to invest in climate friendly technologies.On the contrary. Germany was able to sell unused certificates across Europe — to coal companies in countries like Poland or Slovakia, for example. Thanks to Germany’s wind turbines, these companies were then able to emit more greenhouse gases than originally planned. Given the often lower efficiency of Eastern European power plants, this is anything but environmentally beneficial.

Indeed, when it comes to climage change, investments in wind and solar energy are not very efficient. Preventing one ton of CO2 emissions requires a relatively large amount of money. Other measures, especially building renovations, cost much less — and have the same effect.

"Do the Greens think that this problem (of climate change) will solve itself if we just screw solar panels onto our rooftops?" says one e-mail.

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So Biden has made quite an impact with his "hit the reset button" with Russia remark at the Munich security conference over the week-end. But this comes as bad news for Eastern European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Romania - hailed as "special partners" by the previous Bush administration. Not to mention Georgia and Ukraine.

On the planned missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, Biden said the US would "continue to develop missile defenses to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven to work and cost effective."

"We will do so in consultation with our NATO allies and Russia."

Well, since Russia has consistantly opposed this project and with Germany and France not very keen on the project either, chances are pretty slim that the shield is ever going to be installed, despite serious political damages to the Eastern European governments involved, after they put their credibility at stake with the Bush-backed plan.

Here’s some background from the Wall Street Journal:

In advance of Mr. Biden’s speech, White House aides had said the vice president would announce that the U.S. was prepared to reconsider plans for a missile-defense system in Eastern Europe. Moscow has long opposed such plans. Mr. Biden’s actual remarks appeared vaguer. A senior administration official traveling with Mr. Biden said the administration toned down the language because of unease in Washington that Moscow was behind last week’s proposed eviction of the U.S. from an air base in Kyrgyzstan used to support the military in Afghanistan.

So the Obama administration would have no problem in scrapping the missile defense shield and it is probably a matter of months until they will do so, the moment Moscow signals some opening.

Already the Russian envoys reacted warmly to Biden’s statements.

"The U.S. sent a very strong signal, and the signal was heard," Russian foreign minister Sergei Ivanov told reporters. "It’s obvious the new U.S. administration has a very strong desire to change, and we’re ready to cooperate with this administration on all levels."

Sad day for Eastern Europe. A new entente between big European countries - France, Germany, UK - Russia and the US could only come at the expense of Eastern Europe, still seen by Moscow as its own backyard.

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