treaty and had to vote again to argue the lisbon treaty makes the e.u. more democratic and accountable is proposed to us that is absurd argument that is absolutely bizarre and totally fine i think what i think has a very steady. stephanie go ahead you want to it is easily defeated how can the european union really argue that it's democratic steffen go ahead. first the recent went to and from the least been treated worse that you wanted to make it more efficient when it comes to decision making he wanted you to say i was going to power to the elite international and i plan to go to a new nation stone fan continue continue your point go ahead it's very it's very difficult to argue when there's somebody who interrupts or go ahead steph and you continue this country once again the research i reserve for the earliest going treaty was to make a more efficient and more democratic in relation to the enlarged european union up to twenty seven member states not absolutes along right long term plan to centralize power harry what do you think about that i mean i wan

in the lisbon. three i'm joined by stephan unique in stockholm he's director of corporate relations at the center for european policy studies in london we go to robert oulds he's director of the bruges group and in amsterdam we cross to harry vaughan he is a dutch socialist party member of parliament and another member of our crosstalk team on the hunger or a gentleman crosstalk grows in effect you have differences of opinion here so i wanted to be shown first of all i'd like to go to harry when the when the lisbon treaty was being sold peddled to the europeans if i remember correctly the one of the selling points was that they would never be bailouts of member countries but that's what how they watered it down saying look this is we're never going to go that far you know where you know we're not going to violate the sovereignty of other countries we're not going to certainly pay for people to make mistakes in my memory failing me because i remember that that was the selling point i know that was on

keen to amend the lisbon treaty to allow bailouts to cash strapped neighbors host peter lavelle asks his guests whether this heralds the end of the organization as a whole coming your way in half a minute. keep . a low in welcome to cross talk i am peter lavelle european union leaders need to consider what is called a minor change to the lisbon treaty that minor changes a guaranteed financial bailout of weaker members is this legitimizing moral hazard and is it even.

young boys and let's take a look at some teams that are through to the next stage sporting lisbon are unreachable in group c. while the second spot is still consistent between. the two teams are left for it but if the patient spots and they are up let's go but. with the greeks boosting their chances after an away win in spades by our liberties in group b. and have already qualified for the next round of group eight matches for city have cemented their place in the next stage after a convincing thrill when they get a red bull draw against you then to use was enough for left to go through while they tally and will be holding for better luck next year. meanwhile said sky are also continuing their europa league campaign as they host swiss side laws on thursday the moscow side a group with a one hundred percent record but the match could be postponed due to the freezing weather here in the russian capital. close to but we're experiencing difficulties because of the cold weather and that beach is in a great condition but they will have to play in what amounts to injury prone circumstances h

. >> eu leaders have agreed to make changes to the lisbon treaty to create permanent rescue mechanism for eurozone countries in financial difficulties. they make loans to the greek and irish economies earlier this year. there are worries that countries like portugal and spain could still be in trouble. >> the eurozone continues to cause control, with national debts and deficits soaring above you targets. financial problems in greece and ireland have led to emergency bailout totaling tens of billions of duress. eu leaders meeting in brussels have agreed to set up a permanent scheme to help any eurozone countries with dangerous debts. >> to make sure we are fully prepared to defend the european union pay future -- the european union's future, we have agreed on a treaty change. the main features of the permanent mechanism to be in place from 2013. >> the permanent safety net will place a temporary 750 billion euro bailout fund. loans given to countries in distress are part of the new scheme. there will come with strict terms attached. >> we spoke this evening about how we would transform

be built it will be a noisy certainly but it will be also in different organisations the fact that lisbon was a good meeting that there was a successful nato russia council meeting that there was also a successful meeting of contributors to myself. gives a good back to the work we are having here in a standoff and continue with contacts between the people union and the russian federation the continued contacts individual states have among themselves in various combinations all these create a network of good will and they would network of mutually supporting exchanges it is out of network because this continuous process of consultation incorporation that we are going to overcome current mistrust and current difficulties that always responded rapidly to the clear gas crisis both during the departure of by ts and asked me. in all. what is always sea analysis of the stability of current is democracy at the moment it is obvious that the euro two thousand and ten has been difficult to carry a stand there were major upheavals most in the north and the south but there are also very positive devel

mr president of the west and the east deemed the lisbon summit in which you participated was a crucial turning point in the relations between russia and nato as well as between russia and the west do you consider as a milestone meeting or do you believe that in the long run it might turn out to be not quite so good for those still in the. it is all in our own hands this summit can be historic and so it actually was in the spirit and i want to especially given the situation we were facing two years ago that i would get it can turn out to be a meeting that did not live up to the expectations and i would like to recall the developments of two thousand and eight as the previous u.s. administration suggested a well known idea that has been deploying missile defense interceptors embraced all seem at holden to and the czech republic which was debated issue up in our country this idea was perceived as an eye. weakening military capabilities of the russian federation we've brought opposition to the attention of nato entities at some point the situation became serious serious that i had taken on

why we shouldn't have a democratic vote on it well i'll give you one constitutional reason and the lisbon treaty you said successive leaders have promised a referendum of course that's true but since the implementation of that has been cheating that's become rather a moot point as now do you think we missed the boat on a referendum no i don't i think gordon brown had absolutely no right to sign the lisbon treaty stroke constitution it was the same thing at the manifesto commitment by labels to have a referendum on that they played with words david cameron played with words once he got into power he said oh no we cannot we're now because he's been ratified he could say he could have said yes we can't just what nick clegg wanted one of the straight in or out so no this is why our campaign is so simple laura it's a straight show we stay well shall we go down the clash over punk rock song group used to sing that's where we keep an eye on that so the man in the street can understand it we don't want to get carried away with this treaty that constitutional that discussion let's center on the ba

obviously a month ago in lisbon when they signed off with nato when they pledged to keep combat troopsere to 2014. what is the meaning of july 2011 versus 2014 and that will be some of the things that we're all interested to hear from the president. >> is there a general agreement among the secretaries and among the president and among the people who make these kinds of decisions and influence these decisions that the counterinsurgency strategy now is working? >> that is the case that is going to be made. they believe it is working but, again, it's sort of cautious optimism that nothing is irreversible yet. but, yes, they believe that there are signs of progress and more signs of forward progress than any steps backward. >> does there seem to be any opposition out there that is significant to argue in places of power for troop reductions earlier than this? >> that is, politically, this isn't going very well with the president's own party. you saw on our own nbc/"wall street journal" poll when we asked about the deadline, a majority of democrats were not in favor of it. it is really onl

missed the boat on a referendum no i don't think gordon brown had absolutely no right to sign the lisbon treaty stroke constitution it was the same thing at the manifesto commitment by labels to have a referendum on that they played with words david cameron played with words you know with the if you are crashing and burning at the moment there's never been a chime postman's first to have the discussion arlen's in and out of trouble at the moment in the e.u. in the i.m.f. of step ten to bail them out so early on and would be in a lot more trouble if they didn't have that kind of backup so isn't the e.u. a force for good and i think we should be bailing out ireland i mean that's my own personal view i thought it is ironic i was watching the budget this week in ireland their stand up to a million euros in the one percent losses at four percent to seven hundred fifty thousand by their child benefit is crazy the amount they passed in child benefit their corporation tax they keep it at twelve and a half percent no wonder countries are companies are relocated from germany from portugal from spa

and in lisbon, the president medvedev was very specific in his proposals. boiling down to the fact that part of responsibility for ensuring security in europe should be taken upon by nato. and part of responsibility of joint responsibility that is should be taken upon by russia. and here to say we could agree with nato and that's to say with the united states too on the exchange of information, on joint control over those facilities. the military experts can agree upon all those things. if a good will is to be exercised there. but if in a very dumb nature people will ignore your interests, we'll do whatever we want to do there, and then we'll regard that as a threat to ourselves. then we'll have to react somehow. i want the american public to hear this. >> larry: and you've said it straight and we'll be right back with more of the prime minister of russia, vladimir putin, after this. >> larry: we will touch some other bases with the prime minister of vladimir putin of russia coming to us tonight from moscow. what's your assessment of president obama? >> tra

and already rains have started. 15 in madrid, 14 in lisbon for the high, 1 in london. bitterly cold yet again across the rest of central and eastern europe. all right. that's all for me. i'm going to leave you now with your extended forecast. >>> before wrapping up this newscast, here are the top stories for this hour. the south korean military has held a live fire exercise on the border island shelled by north korea last month. the exercise on yeonpyeong island began at 2:30 p.m. and ended after 4:00 p.m. on monday. the exercise is the first on the island since the north attacked it on november 23rd. south korean troops used military equipment including a self-propelled howitzer called a k9 with a firing range of 40 kilometers. they fired shells into waters on their disputed side of the sea border, known as the northern limit line, which north korea does not recognize. ahead of the exercise, about 100 residents were told to evacuate to air raid shelters. on friday, north korea demanded the south immediately cancel its plan to carry out the drill. it said, if the south

between lisbon and paris. there is a part of the sidewalk where you have to walk between the utility pole and the bay window. this is happening all over the city, and we can do better to make sure we have standards about creating value through our utility poles for the city and county of san francisco. there is public notice on private property, but for the public, there is no notice. this as a few things. it establishes a different review process, starting a three-tiered system based on visual impact. there will be tier one, relatively small, and it will have of permitting process that will not necessarily go through a review. tier 2 will have a different process, depending on whether it is installed in a protected location. that would be next to a park or in a commercial district or adjacent to a historical landmark for a historical a significant district. it would require further review by the planning department for the recreation and parks department. 23 would have no size limits, but they would require a

what has changed is the administration at lisbon with the nato conference there in november, you knows able to come out and say publicly that, you know, 2014 is going to be -- that's -- december 2014 is a withdrawal date and nato has also said that there will be a nato mission that goes past that. it won't be necessarily combat troops, but it will be continuing. i think this has sent an important signal to the taliban, the afghan government, which was very concerned about us withdrawing, to the pakistanis, that they can continue playing footsie with the taliban, but the united states will be in the region for a long time. that may change some of their calculations. >> peter, let me ask you one other question here. we -- we talked to a lot of folks here in our day-to-day lives that talk about afghanistan, and who consider it a lost cause, a lost cause now and that it will always be a lost cause. and that we should go. talk to us about the ramifications of staying and of leaving. because i've heard you publicly take on this question of whether afghanistan is a lost cause. >> yes, it's c

we saw it in lisbon. it is not a huge surprise. but the fact is if he is going to be challenged from the left in 2012 it is going to be an anti-war change? >> it may be. this is a very important issue for the president and his base. the president needs two things to happen to assure his re-election, the unemployment number needs to go down and he needs to have supporters, a base. the war issue is important not just to liberals but liberals and centrists and basically everybody who voted for him. i don't believe 2014 is the new 2011. he wanted to start a drawdown in 2011. they are sticking by that. it is not just the policy, it is whether or not the president seems to be winning, whether or not the president seems to be getting his way, standing up in many cases to the pentagon, the people he will be standing up against to the foreign policy consensus that say endless escalating wars is the way to go. whether the president is standing by his principles and getting his way will have an impact on whether or not the base stands by him.

and coming out of lisbon summit, we once again reaffirmed the central the of article 5 as the central tenet of the nato alliance. and i reiterated my determination and the american people's determination to always stand by poland in its defense and its security needs. and that commitment is exemplified by the joint adoption at lisbon by nato and of nato-wide missile defense capacity. it's exemplified by the air force detachment that will be placed in poland as part of our ongoing relationship and the retraining process. it is indicated by sm-3s, the interceptors that are going to be located in poland as a part of our phased adopted the approach to missile defense. and most importantly, it's reaffirmed by the fact that not only are we to nato allies, but strong bilateral allies, and that bond between our two countries is not breaking. i know there was a mouthful. sorry. [laughter] >> [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> we also discussed the tremendous sacrifices the polish military are making as a part of th

persistent rain to contend with. 14 degrees in lisbon. 9 in madrid. 7 in london with cloudy skies. frigid in central areas. minus 10 in berlin. way below seasonal averages. moscow you coming in at minus 9 with snow flurries. here's your extended forecast now. >>> taking a look at our top stories. china has penalized 16 domestic and foreign banks for helping to allow the flow of speculative foreign funds into the country. china's state administration of foreign exchange announced on wednesday that it took punitive action against 79 regional ba s banks -- branches of 16 banks for violating its regulations. the list includes the bank of china, icbc, industrial and commercial bank of china and japan's yamaguchi bank. one branch was suspended for 14 months for allowing the foreign funds by overlooking insufficient documents. two officials in charge of the operation at that time were fined. the other banks in question have also been partially suspended or fined. the chinese government has been vigilant for the influx of speculative you hot money in an effort to prevent it helping to acce

they agreed to a minor -- to minor changes to the lisbon treaty to help solve sovereign debt problems. some countries are calling for joint eurobonds, but the angela merkel opposes that idea. >> european leaders have their sights set on achieving their best terms for the euro. they are bent to restoring peace after the dispute over the eurobond. >> i want to give a clear signal of unity for europe and the euro. we irresponsibility for sound economic management and solidarity -- we have responsibility for sound economic management and solidarity. >> if they want to create a permanent stability mechanism for struggling eu members. there is agreement that is needed, but how is the divisive issue. >> we do need a new mechanism to help the euro zone a sort out its problems and issues. that is important for britain, but we do need to make sure that britain is not liable to spend money under that mechanism. >> while heated debate is expected about how the system will operate, it is likely to take place behind closed doors. ropean leaders and know that financial markets want signs of resoluti

between lisbon and paris.a part of the sidewalk where you have to walk between the utility pole and the bay window. this is happening all over the city, and we can do better to make sure we have standards about creating value through our utility poles for the city and county of san francisco. th

as the nato summit meeting in lisbon last month underscoardz, we're proceeding at base pace with the missile defense system in europe designed to provide full coverage for nato membersen the continent as well as deployed u.s. forces against the growing threat posed by proliferation of ballistic missiles. the final phase of the system will also augment our current defenses against intercontinental ballistic missiles from iran targeted against the united states. all nato allies agreed in lisbon that the growing threat of missile proliferation and our article v commitment of collective defense requires that the alliance develop a territorial missile defense capability." and it goes ton talk about that capability. then he says, and this is critical with respect to this debate, "as of today" -- the president's letter to the leadership. "in signing the new start treaty, the russian federation issued a statement that expressed its view that the extraordinary events referred to in article ivx require a buildup to the united states of america such that it would give threat to the russian fede

what lisbon gives us is another set of metrics that we cannot judge our progress as we go forward. so from july 2011, the transition to afghan control of security has to occur between 10 and 2014. and after 2014, the proof that we are in an enduring partnership with the afghanis. those metrics, added to what we had in 2011, give a signpost by which we can judge our progress. and i think that's an important context. the second, on s.t.a.r.t., for me, all of the joint chiefs of our very much behind this treaty, because of the transparency, because of the reality that both the united states and russia are going to have to recapitalize their nuclear arsenals, both the delivery vehicles and the weapons. to have transparency, to understand the rules by which to put structure to that activity, we need s.t.a.r.t. and we need it badly. i think the last piece that oftentimes get overlooked that when you start -- when you're thinking about s.t.a.r.t. is that this is a relationship between our countries. and in a context that secretary clinton just put forward, much more than just the nuclear

temperatures not bad, though. 90 degrees in lisbon. pretty mild out here. and berlin is going to be 1 degree. it's been a while since we saw that figure rise above the freezing mark. so do enjoy that break in the frigid weather. minus 8 in moscow. more snow for you. minus 3 in stockholm. here is your extended forecast now. am ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> huge rice cakes have been offered to a shrine in central japan to wish for a safe year in prosperity in the coming new year. some 350 farmers offered five rice cakes of different sizes in an annual ceremony at the shrine in nagoya city on thursday. the largest one was 1.5 meters in diameter and weighed more than 400 kilograms. the farmers, wearing white, walked slowly carrying the rice cakes to the hall of worship. >> the cakes will sit in the shrine until the morning of january 8th. they will then be cut into pieces and distributed to celebrants. >>> that's all now on "newsline." stay tuned for more on nhk world. world. i'm ross mihara. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

corporation between the former and as many analysts say to make war on the agreements to achieve the lisbon in a report by spotlights. the words from the new strategic concept adopted by the alliance made opposes no threat to russia i considered the major political achievement of the it's been summit. have agreed. defacing c'mon threats like terrorism drug trafficking and the proof aeration the weapons of mass destruction and pledged to embark on a new era of cooperation we've worked hard to reset the relations between the united states and russia which has led to concrete benefits for both our nations now we're also resetting the nato russia relationship the most dramatic step forward in russian media ruination is the prospect of a new missile defense shield for europe the us the ship was a stumbling block in relations between moscow and the west known the two sides seemed ready to make it in joint pool chipped in we try to show would be responsible for handling ruled missiles from the east and they did from the west. we have agreed with our nato partners that we will pursue dialogue on eu

same i often taxpayers' money i mean i seriously have a real nice re-establish minor change to the lisbon treaty that minor change is a guarantee financial bailout of weaker members is this widget amazing moral. home. in india policies are made of the move go on both.

and that rain will push into paris and the low countries, lisbon, as well as the rest of portugal and parts of spain. temperatures are going to be doing better. we're not going to be seeing those freezing temperatures anymore. 5 in london, 5 in paris for the high, 10 for madrid, minus 7 for berlin, snow flurries in vienna, kiev and warsaw, minus 7, but dry in stockholm. here's your extended forecast. >>> 2010 is the year of the tiger and the chinese zodiac, 2011 will be the year of the rabbit. the outgoing and incoming animals came face-to-face in an event in the japanese city of osaka. the annual event was held at the famous tower. a tiger cub and a pair of rabbits symbolized the passing of the year. the president of the firm that owns the tower reflected on 2010 on behalf of the tiger. >> the head of a local zoo responded for the rabbits. >> visitors took pictures of the animals in the hope of a bright new year. >>> that concludes this edition of "newsline." i'm james tengan in tokyo. thanks for watching.

>> as members of the house would be aware, i travel to lisbon over the weekend and it was a meeting of8 countries, the 48 countries who participate in the international security assistance force in afghanistan. this was a nato summit. president karzai, president obama, prime minister cameron, the president of france, mr. sark cozy amongst others. this was to bring together partners to discuss and determine the future strategy of afghanistan. the meeting heard a report from general petraeus who is the supreme commander in these operations in afghanistan. the message he very clearly gave was that the momentum of the insurgency has been checked and that progress is being made and that we now can move to the transition, the process of transition, where security leadership will move from our forces to local afghan forces. transition will happen in classified places, depending on conditions on the ground. district by district, province by province. it will be a rigorous method and it will only occur when afghan forces are able to take security leadership. as i have said to this house before,