the powers that be it's created the euro zone was germany germany and france in the names of francois mitterrand and also john chancellor kohl knew the project was incomplete and they expected that those who would follow them will complete the project but what do instead is the development of tremendous imbalances between the into the eurozone countries it is not possible to expect the german who will always have a surplus unless of the counter is such as greece and portugal have deficits ok and therefore this is how we created the let me growth padron let me jump. in here i mean people i mean we just heard that other countries would follow the it would follow the political union thing but people didn't vote for that i find that inherently undemocratic and that giving people a choice ok i mean what happens on the net when the next guy really comes in in

greece are they going to vote against the the this austerity package they are bred of course they are and not only in greece we already hear echoes of this in france this is where francois hollande the leading member of the opposition who looks likely to win the next presidential race and france is already saying why do we have to have the sauce and i think this is the key you can see the leaders signing up for it because the exchange is clear in germany you give me the cash to survive given my debt probably and i'll give you my sovereignty but will the public actually comply will they agree to accept the pain of this us territory and will they agree to submit the most important sovereign aspect which is your first school your budget to technocrats in brussels that are not answerable to your population through a ballot box so i think that although there are many europeans who would like to see a united states of europe there are many. who would not and this question is what

did we all sign up for the issue today is that the debt burden is so severe that people will sell their sovereignty for cash right now but will they actually deliver what germany is expecting and i fear that we're going to have a meltdown have a breakdown because even though they promised they're not going to deliver. also in london i mean i do steve what is the political will right here because it seems to me and pippa is absolutely right you know merkel just wants to win the next election is not a cozy is praying he's going to get in and then we'll worry about it then i mean it's kicking the can down the road to keep kicking it down because the politicians have no political will they have no. fortitude to really deal with this issue because again the at the end of the day it is bailing out banks the bankers get paid everybody else gets screwed. well the issue goes back to what we started our discussion on which is the political will and it's interesting the latest couple of comments because we need to bear in mind that kindly greece and spain and italy

story they they have governments that are not necessarily democratically elect their technocratic prime minister they both have prime ministers who were technically imposed by germany and france and i'm not sure that if we were having an election tomorrow their result will be that you know the greeks would like mr hopper the most as a prime minister and the would like a modern mongers a prime minister you might have a very different result there and it looks like there is a trend develop we mean in some other southern european countries like spain and portugal we've seen the results of the elections in spain that's completely changed what was happening in the prime minister all so i think having him having a union means that you need to think about all your members and you need to be inclusive and at the moment the problem with european union is that although

initial stages in its inception was going to be an inclusive union giving to the less developed member states opportunities to develop sort of structural funds through the financing that the commission of the law established back in the eighty's and we now move to a union which is basically dominated by two if not one country doing whatever they want keeping the common currency low because we need to put that into the equation germany right now has significant exports because their currency the euro is a is a low current yet the most guys are very much going to dawlish mark i'd like to go to people here it's an old car and see it's a long car and see actually four of the four of the four germany very high current see for. golding greece and ireland ok there's a bit of that was a sort of activity difference here i want to say here just to be really provocative here and i don't want to be mean spirited at all but it looks like the germans won

the second world war in europe paper what do you think about that well look i think i think that there are a lot of people who are going to look at it that way i think the fundamental issue here is that this is the end of the social welfare state in europe outside of germany not because people are choosing to end it but because they have run out of money to pay for it and i think the critical social question that confronts each of these countries individually is what will be the new deal between the citizens and their state about what is the state going to deliver because the state is not going to be able to deliver retirement at the old age it is not going to be able to deliver the pension benefits that everybody had expected and it's not going to be able to deliver the same size of a civil service that's going to shrink and so these are massive domestic political social questions and personally being american and free market i think this is in

one way a very very important episode in history the end of the social welfare state in southern europe is going to give a blast of oxygen to the entrepreneurial class which i welcome but it's a massive social dislocation and therefore we have to understand this can be very you know to go through but you have no choice if you have no money ok dimitry jump in there it's a very interesting thesis we just heard but you know but do you know that it's not the end of the world in germany or in france is on the end of the well everywhere as we impose in greece and portugal and ireland and that is not what the eurozone or european union supposed to be united states of the in the united states of america new york sends a lot more tax dollars to the federal treasury the receives in terms of government expenditures on low. like delaware in the in the opposite direction he receives a lot more than it sends to the federal treasury so you cannot have

a euro zone. with only one power to dictate the terms of the game so clearly one's ones the governments begin to understand this as you say there is an intellect and the ideological shift if you look at the last polls in greece you will see that the left has been gaining as well as the altar right now this is not a healthy situation and i am sure that you will see the same thing in portugal and you will see alternately the same thing in as you're seeing in france for the socialist actually present their shrink headed to gain support against mr sarkozy who did it has no idea what a european leader was spectacular leadership is supposed to be ok so clearly you will see a transient transformations that will to be taking place interesting frank is close in london again do what dimitri had to say following on paper is fascinating because what we have is the center the middle dropping out everywhere and we have

going to extremes i mean this whole currency crisis and debt is creating a really intense political crisis as well because people are looking for written answers that have not been usually considered in the center. well when people are looking for answers the problem is that in greece for example people are looking to demonstrate their way that they did these like the government the current government so effectively you don't see forward thing happening because the left or their right wing parties have a solution to offer it's basically evolved i guess the current government and against the current situation so the problem with with all of these southern european countries any goes back to you know what these our strategy as what what is that politicians strategy he's all right what is the alternative and we've we've talked about a common fiscal policy in european union the key question for me there is who's

going to be responsible for that are we going to establish a treasury in brussels are we going to give more power to brussels are we going to increase the democracy deficit that we already are in your eyes and you wager many more questions we have time to answer i want to make on i guess all it's going to make all of my guests it today in london and in new york and thanks to our viewers for watching us here are going to see you next time and remember cross talk. to. people in the.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images kobold has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are old today.

aphids approves draconian new austerity measures as the city explodes with rage and what protesters say is a sell out of national sovereignty to foreign interests. syria brushes off fresh arab league initiatives targeting the assad regime and washington is thought to be limbering up for military action. equal opportunities to study work and earn but he will put in outlines his plans for social reform his latest real action uncle. untainted by association the ethics of london's twenty twelve olympic games or undermine the sponsorship deal with

a controversial dow chemical company that activists claim has blood on its hands after the bhopal disaster in india. that this is our carriage last and welcome to the. unprecedented humiliating sellout of greece's sovereignty and future that's the view of greek protesters the approval of a massive new austerity package those pastors are running battles tore through the capital with hundreds of buildings looted or set ablaze by rage mobs one of three hundred m.p.'s hundred ninety nine voted in favor of those who the bell rang out of their parties. the measures were demanded by pieces from national creditors and for a second one hundred thirty billion euro bailout but needs the cash to pay off the interest on its massive debts to keep its rapidly shrinking economy from defaulting

greek journalist. explains more from the capital. of the greek hello make years finally passed. it was. always had seen violence. hard to violence in the streets of athens it was the worst day since the violence we had the in two thousand and eight we have seen i guess young people who did who did the youth breaking marbles throwing molotov cocktails and then their policemen answering or throwing tear gas is we have seen fires all in the streets are around a scene that must wear our own greek parliament they have also looted many many stores around around the streets and these harsh measures include even a lowering the minimum wage by twenty percent this is very hard because the net

wades. that somebody will receive it's four hundred euros and with unemployment i mean come on being a much higher than the twenty percent so people say that they will not stay at home they will continue to riyadh and we will continue to demonstrate but on the other hand people are really angry and we expect more violence well germany's finance minister will thank schober has declared that promise is on enough anymore saying that greece will have to implement reforms to prove it's not a bottomless pit but investment advisor petra young says whatever happens in greece there's no saving it from a collapse that will be felt across europe. in every possible respect greek greece is not a tragedy and it is due and the reason for that is simply because the reason no way that they are going to be able to implement whatever austerity they're talking

about against such a backlash of public opinion whatever happens there the problem for the rest of the euro zone is that not only we have to basically prepared to defend the whole integrity of the euro and actually if you read what's been said behind the behind closed doors you can see there's a spirit that you know what we may have to do three things we may even have to end up ditching portugal from the euro zone but we're we have to defend is italy and that's really going to fall on the shoulders of the technocrat mario monti and this is going to be our cataclysmic event during the course of the latest april does the euro survive at the moment i think probably a shrunken euro it's sixty forty it can do but ultimately we're going to see swinge in recession even worse of the recession read out of we've already been receiving through why do european union and that's bad for everybody in the world ultimately within the next maybe it weeks greece is going to be forced to default and that's

going to be quite cataclysmic. coming up later today are to cross talk program focuses and what's behind the international drive to save greece. the change is clear in germany you give me the cash to survive given my debt problem and i'll give you my sovereignty but will the public actually comply will they agree to accept the pain of this austerity and will they agree to submit the most important sovereign aspect which is your this goal your budget to technocrats in brussels that are not answerable to your population through the problem is that generally in france are not managing the greek economy they are just managing the greek debt. over the last over the last couple of days i haven't heard anything about how we can return the economy to growth. damascus has swiftly rejected

a brand new arab league package of initiatives on syria the proposal backs the opposition and calls for joint arab a un peacekeeping force in the country the group has also said its cutting all diplomatic ties with us at the government that says the u.n. general assembly is set for more talks on the syrian issue they told monday multi-user english to report stuff from cairo. syria will probably see un peacekeepers most likely to arrive in the country in order to try and remain stalled peace in the country again the arab league meeting in cairo on sunday took them about eleven hours to come up with a with a decisive response to the situation in the country has seen a lot of bloodshed over the past eleven months we started in march and of course the arab league has asked for tightening sanctions which have already been imposed on syria they aborted the observers program which was in january of this year very conflicting numbers as to how many people have been killed depending on whom you

ask really the opposition says hundreds of people are being killed on a weekly basis of the same time the authorities are saying that around two thousand syrian military officers have been killed since the unrest have begun also you have the mounting pressure from washington from the white house who have put together a sort of a coalition of the so-called friends of syria who are going to meet in february february twenty fourth to be precise in tunisia which is part of the arab league in order to figure out further details about what exactly they're going to do about the bloodshed that's going on in syria there are concerns that the rebels are being supported by by al qaida and these statements from the al qaeda leader and somebody who did a voice his support for the syrian opposition who did encourage all muslims the world over to come and join forces and that reinforced by the information from the

iraq intelligence. fighters war being transported from iraq into syria in order to fight on the rebel side when you put all of that together with the fact that washington d.c. is absolutely adamant about coming into talks with the syrian president they have essentially dismissed him as a leader and end up with a very volatile situation which really is incredibly hard to solve so again right now all we can do is observe. well author and journalist shira tensing thinks the u.s. and al-qaeda are fighting side by side in syria to protect a common interests we know the united states and the european union. all but military intervention. could happen should happen some sources even saying british just special forces already in the ground or maybe there is already foreign intervention we know there is some grounds of foreign intervention we have heard about al-qaeda. in syria now once again the united states and european union

states as usual supporting al-qaeda as they did in afghanistan prior to nine eleven will they never learn it is shocking to hear a american statesman like john mccain calling for intervention presumably u.s. troops and al-qaeda side by side fighting against president assad of syria this really shows up what exactly the americans are up to they are not protecting the interests of u.s. citizens and or european union leaders our very statement to back any armed attacks we saw with lethal consequence in aleppo twenty eight dead in december forty four dead in damascus this is this is getting out of hand is getting dangerous but the u.s. has continued its course for regime change saying it's only a matter of time before that assad government collapses and as history shows him watching tonight find a way around the barriers including the u.n. if it decides to push through its agenda on syria. what's in

a mandate having failed to reach international consensus on syria it's been a complete waste of time washington prepares to act around the u. way for the time being the administration firmly rules out any form of u.s. military intervention in syria but the pentagon is busy laying out an attack strategy on syria just in case should the president call for action experts say history shows the absence of international consensus would not be an obstacle to washington if it decides to go ahead with intervention the united states sees the u.n. as a tool of convenience if the u.n. is supple and going along with the united states then the united states is fine to have a u.n. sanction for its actions but when the u.n. and the people of the world or the countries of the world resist then the united states says the u.n. is unwilling to do its job and then uses other instruments like nato or other military arrangements they did that in the case of yugoslavia they did that in the

case of the iraq war whenever the u.n. doesn't go along the u.s. then says well to heck with you one will use some other instrument for the exercise of american power last year the u.n. security council authorized me to to protect civilians in libya but the mission resulted in regime change the libyan authorization of force was very specific and it didn't authorize regime change in the countries that partook in their operation clue you know actually for exceeded the u.n. mandate and their operations i think that's symbolic of the fact that these libya that these u.n. mandates really are meaningful in the terms of international law and it's just the reality of nato countries have flooded libyan rebels with weapons despite a u.n. arms embargo u.s. government wants to you one but they want the u.n. to do the u.s. bidding way in the united states uses the united nations in regard to be israeli palestinian question is very emblematic when the united nations passed resolutions which it has done repeatedly demanding that the israelis get out of the west bank

and earlier gaza and earlier this summer. the united states didn't enforce those resolutions they didn't demand that they be enforced when it came to the united nations saying the palestinians have a right to be recognized the united states acted as if there was a crime against humanity that the united nations there take up the issue of palestinian rights we can see here a manipulation of the united nations when it does what the united states wants fine but when it stands with the palestinian people which it has repeatedly over and over again then the united states government republican or democrat found a way to condemn the united nations. the u.s. also did not support the resolution on syria put forward by russia which would call for all sides in the conflict to stop the violence and to start a dialogue instead it chose to take sides in a civil war. one might describe the u.s. attitude towards the u.n.

as use it if needed go around it if you don't like it but while an almost carte approach to the world body might suit washington it makes for a bad recipe for the ability i'm going to check on reporting from washington r.t. . what about twenty minutes we have more in-depth discussion on the standoff over syria today we speak to investigative journalist so when stanley who believes it's incredibly difficult to verify information coming out of that country here's a taste of that interview. i find it all seems to me basically. although both sides deny differences in in military intervention essentially in political differences there is different trends in the syrian opposition mainly between people who support outside intervention and the protestors who don't so you've got groups like the syrian national council which are now openly in favor of a no fly zone which to me seemed ridiculous because you know there isn't any even claimed that i know of. the syrian regime for all its many crimes there's no claims

that it's bombed people so no fly zone just seems a political pretext to invade to me. now russia's prime minister and presidential candidate for the new putin has presented his vision of improved social policies his latest pre-election article called building justice is focused on the overall well being of the average russian well there for more on his proposed changes let's join r.t. correspondent of peta all of them are a pizzeria well what life changes can the average russians expect if putin is elected as president. well in his latest article before the presidential elections he outlined his his plans for the social future of russia the current prime minister saying it will with one in every eight russians living below the poverty line this is something that has to be tackled now he said that everybody should have the ability whether it be through education or through work to raise their

social standings no he said that the government does have a big role to play in this and it better the more effective spending of government funds was needed especially in terms of health care now what he said is that if he's elected president to be looking to to give more power over what it wants what government money is given to regional governments how that the give the big pond to give those regions more control over how they spend it of course they work in live in those regions they know where that money needs to be spent best that's one of the plans he wants to see brought in now in terms of public sector pay this is always a major issue we want to see that increased. not just public all public sector workers you want to see people to be working in higher education and scientists receive better pay for the work they're doing to bring that tape up onto a par with europe and say the united states no good news if you are a professor in

a university the the prime minister saying that if he's elected president by twenty eighteen we'll be looking to increase the wage of the average universe not the best of like two hundred percent. however most of those people working in the scientific community and in university shouldn't get too complacent to be approved the same the increases in wages will be based on performance related they will be performance related increases they won't just be sweeping across the board now. in terms of small businesses another issue that was on the table for the prime minister to discuss he was saying that this was the late it's. aereo type about the small businessman in russia a hangover from the dark days of the the ninety's where if you ran a small business then you would usually. people thought there was a stereotype that people thought that you would have connections to corruption and perhaps even organized crime know not to be a putin wants this stereotype to be to be quashed in the get the government must

give you a small business and small businesses the support they need to be able to develop you know the birth rate has always been an issue in recent years in russia that to me again saying that we need to increase the birth rate especially in some reason regions very important to do that and in order to do that we have to be able to make sure that families can afford to have more children so there will be extra government funds made available for for mothers to have to encourage them to have a second child families to have a second child in some regions they'll be further payments made available for families and have say a third or fourth child those regions that have really serious demographic problems no more higher birth rate more people being born they meet somewhere to live another issue for me appearing to discuss who's housing now he wants to make more social housing more state funded housing available to people but he also want to see more people get on the property ladder.