but this european council is an important building block on this way. thank you. >> thank you mr. president. and now i would like to ask to take mr. president the european commission. >> thank you very much, mr. president. honorable members. the commission's fundamental point for the council was crystal clear. european union needed to give a comprehensive response making a firm commitment to the euro and to the irreversibility of our currency. it is indispensible to have more discipline, structural reforms for investment, more convernlance and credible mechanisms of solidarity. all these elements belong together. and over the past 18 months we have achieved some progress in the european union as a whole on the backs of existing treaties with european union institutions taking the deigssigses. as a result we now have the strategy for growth. we have a substantially with the so-called six pact which will come into force today and will apply to all 27 member states. we have the european through which we coort nate our fiscal and mark ro economic policies and implement our agenda for g

, what will be the role of the different european institutions -- the european court of justice, commissioners, etc.? >> the council was clear on this. insofar as we are not changing the scope and the competencies' of the various institutions, there should be no problem at all. take the european court of justice. as you know, we have not wanted it to be in a position to judge whether a budget were right or wrong, proper or improper, but simply to make decisions in respect to whether the golden rule was being upheld, which is written into the agreement, so that does not require any changes. in respect to automatic sanctions, as a political agreement entered into by a certain number of states saying "we will require sanctions even before the government dealt agreement has been adopted." it is a sign of political will and determination. what we are saying is before we adopt our intergovernmental agreement, we ask the commission to oversee and uproot these rules. according to the legal adviser to the council, this poses no difficulty. those familiar with the way the european institutions work know this. it might have b

will convene a meeting of the european council by the and of generally beginning of february i convened that meeting after consultation with the president of the european commission the polish prime minister and the danish prime minister the current president of the council and the upcoming president of the council. on the agenda. we will have first of all the implementation of the decisions we have taken in october and in december and of course the most important one these the as you mentioned the fiscal compact and the intergovernmental treaty so the implementation of those decisions will be on our agenda and second point will be. the discussion we couldn't have at the last latest european council on the economy on competitiveness and. employment especially on employment the president of the european commission prepared a report it was already distributed we hadn't had the occasion to discuss it i think in times of stagnation. in times of even because of course i use recession it is very important to have those topics on the agenda and not only speaking on fiscal consolidation so we h

germany and france on negative watch with the possibility of a downgrade it did so ahead of the european council meeting where engler merkel and nicolas sarkozy were supposed to thrash out a response to the european debt crisis this is let some critics to believe the agency is exerting pressure on the european council and trying to influence the course of the talks the financial crisis will be causing in the eurozone is no longer a crisis of individual countries on the periphery we think it has taken on sort of a more systemic trajectory has been spreading into some core countries and also financial institutions of the core countries ergo standard and poor's warning to downgrade practically the entire eurozone would also include the european financial support facility the euro zone's financial backstop critics say that becoming an additional player in the game of european politics standard and poor's could further complicate current attempts to create central control over fiscal deficits and state borrowing while others suggest that rating agencies cannot be blamed for sounding an alarm on the f

do you think the european council will take a decisive step in tackling this new crisis so they think we correct yes that's right next friday the biggest series lender of last resort who's going to stand behind the banks and sovereign so we're having these tick problems at the moment. there's a debate going on between that the french who don't want the european commission to have a say over national projects. the germans don't want to see your of all this being issued and having common liability for other people's debts we hope that will be a political compromise and something could be announced next week but we are worried that the markets may have got a bit of head of themselves in seeing him thinking that we're at the end of the road ok well i don't think we have more more time that's my only last question was where the you think russia will increase public spending if the ruling party will get a significantly less vote still when it's a good lesson but then that they predict yeah well i think i think probably north so there's already some increased spending programs in budge

rally fizzle out fairly soon. >> if there's two meetings, the merkel and sarkozy meeting and european councileeting prove to be either a fiasco or immediamediocre we could see t n gains melt away. >> no, i think you're fairly correct there, charles. but everything does rely quite heavily on what is announced from the euro-zone and need to see fairer measures made in the direction of more fiscal integration and reducing the independence of the ecb or certainly moves towards allowing smaller european nations to exit the euro-zone more efficiently than has been previously proposed, so we need to see some firm decisions being made this week otherwise there will be pressure on bond price, yields continue to increase and although there's some distance away from the 7% levels we have seen, there's no reason if we see no -- if we don't see firm decisions made this week those bond prices or yields creeping above back into dangerous territory. >> let's have a look at the united states. it was interesting. obviously last weekend it ended high as far as the real economy was concerned. 120,000 jobs being

is that something that you, the european council, will be worried about four years from now?> it's important to remember that the divergence you refer to is on one particular policy area. the bulk of policy areas that the eu deals with, even the bulk of economic policy making will be at the level of 27. we have a single european market, indeed the world's largest market with common rules for that policy. environmental standards, consumer protection rules. we'll continue to be done at the level of 27. external trade policy as well. and all the things that relate to external economic relations will still be done at the level of all 27. so one can, of course, overemphasize this divergence. the bulk of the eu, the core business of the eu remains something that is for every member state. >> angela merkel, the german chancellor, let's say, pulled no punches when she was asked this particular question, that i asked you before. she said we really don't have time to negotiate with weak and uncommitted members of the europe onuan europe on. >> i'm not going to comment on what individua

we heard from the european council. how do you get to closer integration?ow do you get this fiscal compact? do you do this with only the 17 countries that use the euro or with all 27? that is still very much up in the air. the reason that matters because if you were to start having just the country that use the euro making fiscal decisions about the european union as a whole and not allowing countries, say denmark and britain, to be involved in those decisions you could see a split happening, what some people are calling two-tier, even three-tier europe, because there are some companies out, like poland, who do want to join the euro. it's complicated. a the lo of politics going on, a lot of domestic politics going on. decisions have to be made, does germany get its way and have a legal compact, meaning the countries that violate fiscal rules would lose some of their sovereignty. would the european commission be the ones that penalize these governments? it's complicated. what we're talking about is the future direction not only of the euro but of europe. if

but we will get another set of proposals probably today or tomorrow from the president of the european council, who will chair the summit this week. those are going to be out there. diplomats i've spoken to or from some of the smaller member states say that france and germany have a deal but we need to see the details and we need to see the fine print because if we want to know exactly how they plan to make this work. it was important to have a sense of confidence and togetherness about them at the beginning of this critical week, they say. that was really highlighted by a news from standard & poor's. there's no guarantee all countries will automatically sign off on whatever france and germany suggest. >> are those other countries speeling they will have to hand over some sovereignty as some critics of the plan will see that is the price to pay. >> there's a general feeling that some sovereignty will have to be handed over, some control over national budgets will have to be shared with others. the critical question is who will that sovereignty be handed over to germany and other countries have

the leaders will formally present the idea to european council on wednesday. it will be discussed at a eu summit thursday and friday. merkel and sarkozy also called off a plan to issue a eurozone common bond saying it would not solve the crisis. >>> the plan to strengthen the eurozone's fiscal yield eased tensions over night. slipped to around 5.9% at one point. this was the first time in about five weeks that it dropped to the 5% level. the yield recently reached 7%. that's a level that would make it difficult for the country to rebuild finances on its own. the yield of spanish bonds also fell to about 5.1%. >>> let's get a check on tokyo markets. tokyo stocks are down this tuesday morning after the u.s. credit rating agency s&p warned it may downgrade sovereign debts of eurozone nations. the nikkei trading at 8,651. that's down half a percent. the topix is down 1/3 of a prt. many are holding back from trading to keep an eye on the credit problems. they shrugged off the german and french leaders' pledge atz that would likely take awhile to accomplish. althoug

but my job at the european council is to stand up for britain's interests and that's what i did. >> incoming the steps taken by the prime minister, given that the other members of the european union refused to agree to even the very modest proposals he put forward, what chance does my right honorable friend think that the is an event occurring this country to regain control over such matters as those covered by -- [inaudible] >> i am grateful to my honorable friends question but i'm not as pessimistic as him that there is no prospect for be balancing powers within the european union. i think there are possibilities and opportunities. we did that in terms of the bailout fund and i think there will be opportunities in the future. >> the coordination of european union policy is very clear. it requires the u.k. government to engage with all governments in the formulation of u.k. policy. that's clearly didn't happen investigation. so how will the prime minister now explained to belfast and others that adopting an isolationist policy is anything other than damaging and dangerous? >> i don't

european council president was one of the did he go gates. medvedev said 41% of the russia's foreign reserves are in the euro. he said it's important for russia that european countries overcome their difficulties and protect the euro. he stopped show of revealing the scale of support, but several media report that an adviser to the president said a maximum $20 billion will be provided. on friday last week eu leaders agreed at the summit to provide a maximum 200 billion euros in loans to the imf. they're hoping to draw funds in return from countries outside the eu including emerging economies. >>> japan's financial regulator has decided to punish citibank's japanese operations as early as friday. it says the bank failed to explain fully about investment risks. the financial services agency plans to order citibank to partially suspend its operations for one month. the bank was allegedly lax and kept selling financial products such as mutual funds without explaining to investors that they could lose some of their principal. risk explanations are

the european council president has offered to the british what he called a technical role when eu and leaders meet at the end of january. but tensions between britain and france are still high. the bank of france chief says credit rating agencies should downgrade britain before france. >> fears of isolation in europe after the british prime minister vetoed plans for a new eu treaty last week. to have evacuated. britain will not have a vote on the content of the treaty, but representatives have been officially invited to join discussions on its -- which means david cameron will have a front row seat when decisions are made on tough new rules for the eurozone. but there is clearly no love lost between britain and france. when the head of the bank of france heard his country could face a credit downgrade, he said if there is any talk of downgrading, britain should be first in line because, it said, it has a bigger deficit, more inflation, as much -- as much debt as france and slower growth. all other eu member states already agreed to the sitter the new treaty but they have not seen a dr

i mean these are preliminary preliminary talks between the top level officials you have the european council president herman van rompuy and european commission a chief. who had met with president medvedev before the summit which is yet to start and they were talking about the role that russia could play in helping to resolve the eurozone crisis and one of the things on offer is possibly a contribution of about ten billion euros or dollars again about still not clear to the international monetary fund that we have to remember that there is a european financial stability fund this is the one that was set up when the eurozone crisis started however russia prefers to contribute through the i.m.f. and of course this will be very clearly looking for really beneficial agreements we know that moscow for example has been advocating for a long time now the reform of the i.m.f. to have more influence to our developing nations and this could be a win win situation depending on the agreement they come up with of course this comes after last week's will fractious summit of the leaders to rally behind ton

but my job at the european council is to stand up for britain's interests and that's what i did. >> inwelcoming the steps taken by the prime minister, given that the other members of the european union refused to agree to even the very modest proposals he put forward, what chance does my right honorable friend think that the is an event occurring this country to regain control over such matters as those covered by -- [inaudible] >> i am grateful to my honorable friends question but i'm not as pessimistic as him that there is no prospect for be balancing powers within the european union. i think there are possibilities and opportunities. we did that in terms of the bailout fund and i think there will be opportunities in the future. >> the coordination of european union policy is very clear. it requires the u.k. government to engage with all governments in the formulation of u.k. policy. that's clearly didn't happen investigation. so how will the prime minister now explained to belfast and others that adopting an isolationist policy is anything other than damaging and dangerous? >> i don

change the treaties to create a fiscal union and introduce tougher budget rules however the european council president thinks they can achieve the same goals without altering existing treaties which would need lengthy ratifications the verses prime minister warned wouldn't sign any need to see if it. role in the european markets credit ratings john fund and who is that it has the sense of urgency is it threatened to downgrade fifty year is a country's and that bailout fund danish year and more messerschmitt told r.t. that brussels is taking the way and wrapping nations that's. the dilemma here is that each time we talk about it leadership from brussels it means that unelected people are to lead to countries unelected people to tell the voters what to do these governments around that have actually been elected are now under control by the bureaucrats here from a bus in brussels and if that's what we mean by having more leadership i will certainly refrain from that i would certainly say let's go the other way round we have now in europe governments that were elected that have been put under ad

sense that since the response, will the prime is to take the straightforward message we tested european council to vote one thing, most likely choose in the house of commons would be the perception of a calculated assault from brussels? not even in their interest on the well being of u.k. financial services industry, and on the 1.3 million people in all our constituencies who work in the? >> the honorable gentleman is entirely right. of course, we want to see a greater rebalancing of our economy and we want to see more jobs in manufacturing in aerospace and technology but the economy that we inherited is very dependent on financial services. i do think we should at least celebrate the fact it is a world-class industry, a world-class industry not just for britain but actually for europe. it's vital we safeguarded. we do see it on the continued regulatory attack from brussels, and i think there is an opportunity, particularly if there's a treaty at 27 to ensure some safeguards, not just for that industry but to give us greater power and control in terms of regulation here in this house of commons

treaties to create a fiscal union and introduce tougher budget rules however the european council president believes that they could achieve the same goals without altering existing treaties which would need a lengthy ratification process also aside from this the british prime minister warned that he wouldn't agree to anything that could damage the u.k.'s role in europe's marketplace and the united europe body the center right alliance calling itself the european people's party is meeting ahead of the key summit on thursday and friday to try and thrushes its ideas as well well as talk of more of this and gets more perspective in it and go to london there dr leigh rather a very good evening you're with the taxpayers alliance as well as the bridge group campaigning against a centralised europe it's good to have you on the program let's talk about the british prime minister british prime minister david cameron taking his conservative party out of that alliance the european peoples party i just spoke about i think you regret that decision. absolutely not the european peoples party is historical

the european council last week. the european union members, you're not more tightly united for better european future. the decisions, i have discussed it with my colleagues, and i felt. we have this new feeling of unions. this will keep way beyond the crisis. it is nothing less than the vision of a real political, the first contours' are showing now. so sketch. it is much more than just is stability mechanism. political union means that we're going to grow together with sustainable growth, growth that is turning toward the future and which will create more jobs. and therefore the agreement that we had will be even more important, but i repeat, we all have to fill our task. and all of us have to have laws that take into account other countries' situations. every national following is at a point now where they have to change their mind. they have to take into account the situation of the other. we have to take lessons from each other. we have been through it. we're going through one of the worst crisis, we're going to

pushing to change treaties to create a fiscal union and introduce tougher budget rules however the european council president believes they can achieve the same goals without old tree existing treaties which would need lengthy ratifications and the british prime minister. he wouldn't agree to anything which damaged the u.k.'s role in the european market credit ratings giant standard and poor's is also added to the sense of urgency is it great if the eurozone countries the bailout for just earlier this week let's talk them to investigative journalist tony goes is on the line now from london tony even if the british prime minister was to make good on his threat and refused to sign any new treaty do you think merkel and sarkozy would have enough support then to push through their agenda but it's quite possible since britain is out of the euro zone but you know i have to say here greece won't bother asking the people this is actually was possibly living in a democratic europe kevin and when major changes are being made to worth affectively is a form of european sovereignty i mean as most of the countri

s guarding its own national interest saying it won't cite any harm its financial sector the european council president has proposed amending existing treaties to avoid lengthy battle fiction ratings giant standard and poor's has now put the whole new alert warning all twenty seven member states are facing a downgrade financial analyst you know how all the veld says if leaders fail to reach a solution of brussels the euro is basically would do what if by the weekend there is no agreement on how we should go forward or do agreements is very very good or not detailed enough the markets willing to interbreed that kind of result was more or less the end of the road for the euro and that point in time we will have a real existential crisis of the eurozone which means that in a very short period of time also germany will come under pressure the big question is whether we will have automatic sanctions when countries are more following the rules in order to save the euro you need this. all these members don't and eventually all the european member countries to be prepared to give in on some aspects o

treaty is to create that fiscal union introduce tougher budget rules however the european council president believes that they can achieve the same goals without altering existing treaties which would need a lengthy ratification process the british prime minister warned that he wouldn't. to anything which damaged the u.k.'s role in the european market all this credit ratings giant standard and poor's is added to the sense of urgency as it threatens to downgrade fifteen euro zone countries as well as the bailout fund investigative journalist tony goes looking says countries need to return to their own currencies if they do escape being ruled by brussels i think ultimately it's quite clear to me the euro has been a failure and that the individual countries if they want to retain their sovereignty as i believe individual countries do then they're going to have to go back to their original country currencies the drachma to the to the etc and what we're discovering here i think is the playing out of a plot which has been going on for the last fifty years or so across europe which is in order to

it says as the new proposal heads to the european council for its consideration, we'll get a good lookinent's two largest economies have truly found common ground or if they have merely diluted their principles into meaninglessness. and then lefigaro, the scenario of a multispeed europe. and under pressure sarkozy cannot allow his partners from the eurozone a choice on what to do about the single currency. he wants to set them on a forced march to save the common currency. so they have to get it done by friday is the real deadline or they'd have to kiss the euro good-bye. it's unlikely that will happen. they're going to make sure that it doesn't go downhill. >> zain verjee in london, thanks. >>> rod blagojevich back in court this hour for a sentencing hearing on federal corruption charges. he's making his way actually to the courthouse right now. among other things, the former illinois governor was convicted of trying to sell president obama's old senate seat. his lawyers are going to argue for minimal or even no prison time. prosecutors, well, they want slightly more. our ted rowlands

the european com last week -- council last week has said that the european union members, euro or not, will be more tightly united for a better european future. these decision i have discussioned it with my colleague, and i felt they all feel the same thing. we have this new feeling of union, and this will keep way beyond the crisis. it's nothing else than the vision of a real political union, the first contours are showing now. the first sketch. it's much more than just a stability mechanism. a political union means that we're going to grow together with sustainable growth, growth that is turned towards the future, and which will create more jobs in europe. [applause] therefore, the agreement that we had a year ago with the euro-plus pact will be even more important, but i repeat we all have to fulfill our task, and all of us have to pass laws that take into account other country's situations. every national parliament is at a point now where they have to fake intoing the the situation of the other parliament before they pass along, and we have to take lessons from each other. some t

the european council last week had the members that will be more tightly united for a better european future. the decision, i've discussed it with my colleagues. they all feel the same thing. we have this new feeling of unions. this will keep way beyond the crisis. it is nothing else than the vision of a real political union. this is much more than just the stability. it means we will grow to get their with sustainable growth. it is growth that has turned toward the future. it will create more jobs in europe. >> therefore it the agreement that we had a year ago with the euro will be the most important all and all of us have to take laws that take into account the situation. every national parliament is at a point where they have to change their minds. they have to take it to the other policies before they passed a law. they have to take the lessons from each other. we have been through one of the worst crisis we have ever known. we will know the origin of the crisis. we are all in agreement to fight. we're all in agreement as opposed to what one to pursue. this was unthinkable a few m

well the latest sanctions coming from the european foreign affairs council today they put one hundred forty three organizations and seventeen individuals on a sanctions list already existing of course which puts as a free says on the most of all as this abounds now to be honest of business is a rather watered down version of what some countries in the e.u. would have wanted to begin with for example the u.k. and germany have been calling for definitely stronger sanctions center earlier this week france had been urging e.u. countries to immediately impose acid free an asset freeze on the central bank of iran as well as a suspend imports of oil from the country however this didn't go down well with some countries such as in spain and greece and italy because they significantly rely on rain at all and they have said there will be no sanctions on oil in iraq this is coming at a time when there economies are already battered as it is so divisions among you countries clearly some of them i think of their national interest which is which is only natural at this point so again they have come

. >> our credibility has been restored day, after day, as a set of the european council meeting. succeeded in laying the foundations for greater confidence in the euro, our common currency. when i say us, this includes the 17 member states of the eurozone, but i wish to emphasize that we have also received support from countries that are not yet members of the euro area, which have not yet adopted the eurocurrency, and which after consulting parliaments have decided to support us and take the necessary measures. we will see what measures they will take. one country alone has distanced itself, and that is the united kingdom. we had a meeting with david cameron, and the united kingdom, like us, depends on a stable euro because the euro impacts the whole of the european world in the same boat. host: pedro da costa, go ahead. guest: i think angela merkel can talk about how they have restored credibility, but that is a judgment other people will make, not she. the markets did not seem to have confidence. the public dispensing to have confidence. if you look to the individual -- if the

sense that since the response, will the prime is to take the straightforward message we tested european councilto vote one thing, most likely choose in the house of commons would be the perception of a calculated assault from brussels? not even in their interest on the well being of u.k. financial services industry, and on the 1.3 million people in all our constituencies who work in the? >> the honorable gentleman is entirely right. of course, we want to see a greater rebalancing of our economy and we want to see more jobs in manufacturing in aerospace and technology but the economy that we inherited is very dependent on financial services. i do think we should at least celebrate the fact it is a world-class industry, a world-class industry not just for britain but actually for europe. it's vital we safeguarded. we do see it on the continued regulatory attack from brussels, and i think there is an opportunity, particularly if there's a treaty at 27 to ensure some safeguards, not just for that industry but to give us greater power and control in terms of regulation here in this house of commons.

he believes integration and cooperation between the countries of the cooperation council has reached the level as european countries have with one currency or political economic and social area solidarity and openness of the whole society so i don't check. and i have absolutely no doubt about it just look at the components of the persian gulf cooperation countries either within the council or economic agreements within the customs union or advisory council the directions are many i have mentioned those that have just occurred to me all these issues have been on the agendas of the e.u. and other unions on is another example in southeast asia all these components will certainly lead to integral unification the cooperation council is exactly that kind of union in terms of integral unification it's a union addressing the problems of its brothers in yemen after other important affairs the cooperation council acts as an integral union you could say that these moves by the council testify it was created and developing in the right direction to consolidate all the positive forces in the region have to. do think t