Germany approves EU bailout fund

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
29 September 2011 Last updated at 16:40 GMT Chancellor Merkel achieved her majority after intense lobbying Germany's parliament has voted by a large majority in favour of supporting a more powerful fund to bail-out troubled Eurozone economies.

Chancellor Angela Merkel received strong support despite criticism of the plan from some of her ruling coalition.

Many Germans are against committing more money to prop up struggling eurozone members such as Greece.

There are protests in Athens where international inspectors have held talks on further bailout funds.

The measure is expected to pass in Germany's upper house of parliament, where it will be put to a vote on Friday.

In the Bundestag, 523 deputies approved the bill to support the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) - 85 voted against and three abstained in the 620-seat chamber. Nine members were not present.

Dissidents

Some members of Mrs Merkel's coalition had vowed to vote against the bill.

But in the end, 315 deputies voted in favour, meaning that Mrs Merkel did not have to rely on opposition support to get the measure passed.

The outcome of the vote was not in question, however, as the main opposition parties, the SPD and the Greens, indicated they would support the expansion of the fund.

Before the vote, there was intense lobbying by Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their coalition allies to pressure the handful of dissidents to get in line.

Continue reading the main story Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin

Chancellor Merkel got her majority more easily than she might have expected. Fifteen members from parties in her coalition government voted against her, not enough to make her have to rely on the opposition.

The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, supported the government.

As one of its MPs put it in the debate: "We will vote with you because Europe needs this vote. Don't rely on us next time."

In the end, 523 MPs voted with the government and 85 against, including the left group.

Chancellor Merkel emerges not quite unscathed but not as a dramatically weakened leader either.

A reliance on this support would have cast into doubt her ability to get forthcoming votes on both a further bailout for Greece and a permanent successor to the EFSF through the Bundestag.

"The broad majority in parliament clearly shows Germany is committed to the euro and to protecting our currency," said Hermann Groehe, the number two in Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) party.

But Frank Schaeffler of the Free Democrats party - a junior coalition member - argued that bailout measures have made Greece's economic situation deteriorate.

"Despite all arguments, the first bailout did not make the situation for Greece better, but worse," Mr Schaeffler said, according to the AP news agency.

"Expanding the fund will make the situation even worse."

Athens blockade

All 17 countries that use the euro must ratify the commitment made in July to expand the powers of the EFSF and boost its bailout guarantees from 440bn euros (￡383bn) to 780bn euros.

So far, 10 have approved the measure.

As Europe's largest economy, Germany's commitment to the fund would rise from 123bn euros to 211bn.

That bigger fund is already being dismissed as inadequate in the light of the worsening Greek crisis and the threat of it spreading to other economies.

The former President of European Commission Romano Prodi said the German public will come round to supporting the deal

Inspectors from the "troika" of international creditors supporting Greece - the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - returned to Athens on Thursday to decide if the government has done enough to warrant another 8bn euros (￡6.9bn) of loans.

"The climate was positive and creative after the tough measures that were decided," Greece's finance ministry said in a statement.

Public workers blocked entrances to a number of ministries in Athens, protesting against the deep austerity measures the government has imposed as a condition of the bailout.

"Take your bailout and leave," shouted protesters outside the finance ministry, Reuters news agency reported. They said they wanted to prevent Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos from meeting the troika officials.

Taxi drivers, hospital workers and other public sector staff were also due to strike on Thursday, angered by the announcement of new austerity measures including pension cuts and a new property tax.

Without the new loans - laid out under the terms of a bailout agreed last year - Greece will soon run out of money.

New taxes have been approved and deeper spending cuts have been promised, but some decisions have been delayed and privatisation is running behind schedule says the BBC's Chris Morris in Athens.

Many people believe that austerity measures are pushing Greece's crippled economy deeper into recession and strangling any chance of growth.

View the original article here

VIDEO: Germany passes eurozone vote test

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
29 September 2011 Last updated at 13:55 GMT Help

View the original article here

How the plans of Germany to succeed in a free, low-emission nuclear carbon economy

Germany has made some fundamental energy decisions in recent months, which are interesting to study and learn from other countries. The most "famous" decision has recently been phase out nuclear power over the next ten years. This movement is based on years of debate and a social decision Japan Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident away from nuclear energy.

There has been much less attention, however, about the staggering of other energy sources. Not there has been much focus on the way in which Germany can remain Europe's economic power and the second largest exporter to eliminate an important source of energy from the grid in the world.

This gradual story is vital to understand, especially taking into account that Germany plans to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals while to stage nuclear energy. So how is this working?

The coalition that ruled Germany from 1998 to 2005, led by the Social Democrats and the Greens, launched a series of policies to expand renewable energy sources and gradually nuclear power. Last year the coalition Government new and current (a more conservative mix) decided on a new concept of energy which consisted of two main elements.

1. According to the phase of nuclear power, but in a slower time. So they decided to extend the duration of 17 German nuclear power plants for eight to twelve years.
2. According to an ambitious set of short- and long-term energy and climate change policy objectives including:

* a 40% reduction of emissions of GHG by 2020 along with a goal of 80 to 95% of longer term by 2050 (compared to 1990 levels),
* a massive expansion of renewable energy sources in all sectors, for example, an increase of renewable energy in the generation of energy from 17% in 2010 and 35% by 2020 and 80% by 2050
* a target to reduce the energy consumption in buildings by 2020 20% and 80% by 2050.
* A target to reduce the energy consumption in transport in 2020 10% and 25% by 2050.

However, after the nuclear accident in Japan Fukushima, there was a decision to return to the original removal of 2000 timetable, while maintaining rather than the goals of energy and climate change the Government had established the previous year. This approach was endorsed by a large majority, with 85 per cent of parliamentarians to vote in favour of a more rapid elimination and a series of measures (see below) in the gradual of clean energy.

Germany energy transition is based on three strategic criteria.

First, energy efficiency

Although efforts will focus on improving energy efficiency in all sectors, there is a strong emphasis in the construction sector. This is important because of its long-lived capital stock and renewal cycles long at Germany. In other words, Windows of opportunity to change the buildings that remain around decades do not see very regularly, by what you have to understand them when they do so. If you lose window in buildings energy efficiency measures will be more expensive or even impossible.

The approach is twofold. Firstly, is the European Union directive on the energy efficiency of buildings, which provides that all new buildings should consume energy almost zero from 2020 onwards. Germany should of course follow this regulation too. In addition, Germany has been rather than new incentive programs to support the renovation of the buildings. In addition to using revenues from the auction by the regime of emissions trading European ("cap and trade" system for Europe) programme of renewal, Germany has also all reductions of excise for the renovation of the buildings. Together 3.4 billion euros will be allocated to an energy lower consumption, building modernized in Germany sector.

Second, free energy of carbon in all sectors

To achieve the objective in the long term of decarbonization, all sectors must transform its base of fuel to carbon-free energy. In the electricity sector, the focus is on renewable energies, linked with the ambitious objectives indicated above. For some sectors, electricity and heating will play a role if produced by renewable sources of energy or low carbon emission.

In the transitional period will be probably built new plants of highly efficient and flexible gas as energy. New coal fired plants are highly unlikely. With the significant increase in renewable energy sources and the fact that there will be full of auction of emissions under the EU emissions trading scheme, the economy did not add.

Given the important role of the electricity for the decarbonization for many sectors, the early and rapid transition from the renewable energy sector is a key pillar of the transition of the energy system. As noted above, the new objectives of renewable energy are being implemented with regular reviews.

In the transport sector, Germany must implement the EU auto efficiency standards. In addition, Germany has launched a strong innovation program for electric mobility with the aim to have one million electric cars on the market in the year 2020 and six million in 2030. There are currently 42 million of traditional cars on the road.

Third strategic focus on long-term objectives

As noted above, the policy focuses on the reduction of emissions in sectors with the capital reserves of long life, for example, buildings and power plants. These sectors structured gas emissions of greenhouse effect and the demand for energy during long periods of time.

However, one must ensure that the infrastructure of this transition is in place. Therefore, Germany has launched a new legal process for the development of the "target 2050 network" which includes all put infrastructure in place and required settings for a system of dominated electricity from renewable energy sources.

This planning process creates based on the related licensing regulators related investments and offers certainty about the future of the grid. Efforts will be made by special to adjust and roll-out of the necessary infrastructure, including transmission networks that will transport wind energy in the northern regions of the country to the South, intelligent distribution networks that can manage large shares of electric cars and production of energy from decentralized sources, as well as sufficient information storage options to deal with large shares of variable energy sources.

This package of proposals is the basis for the confidence of Germany that can remove a source of energy and phase in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The combination of a combination of policies (emissions trading, rules, regulations, incentives) with the planning and investment in infrastructure in the long term is the way it has chosen to Germany.

While this mix will not necessarily be the same in each country, other countries can learn from the different parts of the German set for the transition to an economy of carbon economically strong and low.

View the original article here