r.t. brussels well the european reaction to the possible downgrade housman very say fall with some calling it a wake up call this claim it amounts to a political attack but sir francis lynn the managing director of brokerage holdings . these rating agencies should have downgraded the ratings of euro zone country already after two years actually more than two and a half years the s. to nowhere close to a solution what they have really have really tried to do patchwork trying to really come to market crisis we go over and they want to bet on economic growth to solve the crisis but the problem is there is no economic growth in europe if there's no economic growth your debt becomes a real burden and this is exactly what's happening to europe if germany will have to bail out of this country stand germany's credit on credit rating was solved and of course. if you want to play hardball just let this country go to the war and then germany. and i think that way germany came maintain its aaa rating but short of a catastrophic or privatization due to changes in the constitution this duma will set in

r.t. brussels. r.t. is coming to you live from moscow holding their breath and gyptian zone are waiting for the results of the country's historic parliamentary election the muslim brotherhood has already claimed victory and demanded that the new parliament form a government something the military rulers say they will not allow thousands of people remain skeptical over the ballot calling for the army to step down. as gauging the mood on the streets of cairo. this was the first of three rounds of voting for the lower house of parliament nine out of twenty seven provinces have voted including cairo and alexandria the remaining provinces will vote the rest of this month in january and then they will be voting for the upper house of parliament this entire election process will not be over before march the muslim brotherhood is showing the largest support base at this stage and this is not unexpected it is the largest the oldest and the most well organized political group in here in egypt despite the fact that

r.t. that all discussions and brussels won't be bringing solutions to the us problems. every week we have a new emergency meeting every week we have new hopes every week we have new disappointments and i cannot hear anything with which which comes close to a solution the only thing that producing day in brussels. was a test to feed the rule have bad consequences in the coming future i think most of the politicians among this ural family don't really know what is on sixty behave like a first class passenger in a titanic that is already sinking and what polluted and say right now ok we have time nothing everything is all right but this ship is sinking and. to keep it alive will stay with us here on r.t. still to come the u.k. seeks to review an extradition law with the us. we need to make sure that we all be equal and we'll be fair to all citizens and that is the case of the way we look at why m.p.'s are demanding better protection for british citizens plus. find out what came out of the international conference on afghanistan future and why the key player in stabilizing

r.t. brussels the greek prime minister lucas papademos expressed his support for a brussels centric e.u. but patrick young of investment firm devi advisors says these struggling members shouldn't trust the e.u. leaders as they are simply creating an illusion of action. everything greek has been devalued for the course of the last year months well democracy as we all know is an instant greek world and that too has been quite clearly devalued over the course of this agreement i mean we are seeing here a curious kind of i mean france and germany are basically saying we know best we know how the euro zone should be run and this is what should happen not to might be a reasonable idea if their own behavior had actually been exemplary but for those who look back say a decade we used to have a thing called the stability and growth pact and the stability and growth pact said any person who has a budget deficit of more than three percent of g.d.p. will be strictly strictly told of what they've done in the eurozone what do we find nearly a decade later well we've got you know this physicist turned

r.t. brussels but even if leaders do agree to redraw the way the e.u. works treaty changes can't happen overnight something financial analyst says could see this summit becoming all talk and no action. every week we have a new emergency meeting every week we have new hopes every week we have new disappointments and in my opinion this e.u. summit will lead to nothing because i cannot hear anything with dread which comes close to a solution the only thing that they are producing there in brussels is with a test or a fee catastrophe of rescue efforts and this will lead next week more or less to chaos catastrophe and collapse of the whole system possibly because as long as we don't have any solution for this you are a problem and we are short in time at the moment we rule from bad consequences in the coming future i think most of the politicians among this year or family don't really know what is on sick they behave like first class passengers in a titanic that is already sinking and what politicians say right now ok we have time nothing everything is all r

r.t. live from moscow the year has been dealt a severe blow at eleventh hour talks in brussels as the u.k. and hungry refused to sign up to new e.u. treaties marathon even talks left the core euro zone states making further agreements while all the european countries join in it to work out budget rules and changes let's get more now from our city he's an absence for us tess of germany and france have been stressing the importance of getting everyone on board at this summit it's not looking great right now so what next. well in view of the lack of a unified e.u. treaty including the all the twenty seven countries it seems like the direction it's taking is there will be a two speed europe basically those who are on board the franco german plan and those who aren't while the scoreboard right now is that it's seventeen a plus six or seven thousand euro zone countries plus six of the non euro countries are on board sweden and the czech republic said they will have to consult their parliament before giving an answer while the u.k. and hungary have been a staunchly against this now this is not un

r.t. brussels. well the financial fallout is also being acutely felt across the atlantic as r.t. reports later the david and goliath standoff of the occupy protesters some believe military maneuvers on the cards against activists on the new tents and placards. the latest israeli bombing of gaza has left at least one palestinian civilian dead and dozens wounded. stepping up its assault on hamas militants but the campaign is putting more innocent lives in the firing line. as the latest from israel. early this morning friday at least three israeli airstrikes targeted a hamas training camp in the gaza strip now in some of the shrapnel from one of those bombs that hit nearby homes at least one palestinian civilian was killed and some thirteen have been injured most of them women and children this follows an israeli airstrike last night thursday in which two high ranking palestinian militants were killed while traveling in a car in a crowded area in gaza city that was the first israeli strike in a concentrated area since the israeli gaza were back in two thousand and eight two thousand

r.t. brussels from the onset of the euro crisis discussions have been right about who's to blame for the reckless borrowing that started it all from populist leaders to profit addicted banks if you have escaped having the finger pointed at the british you in. these the responsibility lies squarely with person belin. the first people to break the rules i think was in two thousand and three with the french and the germans by breaking the maastricht treaty sixty percent of g.d.p. rule so they've been breaking the rules everybody's be breaking the rules they continue to break the rules so the whole thing is a complete shambles and they're trying to strap sell a tape all over it but it's not working for thing it we are now what we're seeing the end game it's over if the euro had been a horse they would have shot it under professional economists i've been thirty five years of professional economists this isn't about politics this is a bit about economics and i've never known in the history of the world politics beat economics water doesn't flow uphill last long and short of it forget my politics it doe

r.t. brussels on its cross live to paris santo to play idea line a professor of political science at paris where. you know many thanks for speaking to us here an aussie as we were talking after a heated debate on iraq as has the french president insisting that there be no two speed europe yet can't agree as a whole and seventeen year is a member in a few others are working on their own financial treaty are we really seeing a fatal split and here well it's clear that there's no agreement for you know twenty seven countries which is not surprising even among the seventeen countries in the euro zone but very different situations between greece on the one hand and germany on the other so it is a major split no doubt about it. bridges oppose for very specific reasons that it's opposed because it doesn't want to be in tax and financial transactions but from a legal point of view of course if one member of the twenty seven members of europe is against changing the creatures then it's difficult to change to keep it so it is a major speech and didn't you go and do you believe that tighter fiscal re

r.t. brussels now may be a financial rollercoaster for many in europe as it struggles to fix its finances but some international best is on making record profits from the chaos the ethics of making money is just one of the subjects discussed by max and stacy in the kaiser report coming up later today. if the bank breaks the law they changed the law if the government is failing to do what they were elected to do they change the definition of what it is they're supposed to be doing or they change the statistics that they are reporting to somehow reflect them in a better light because this is how in fact they make money they probe the financial orifices and they root out of the detritus that they find there as call lateral for five hundred trillion dollars worth of collateralized j.p. morgan sprinkler bonds which are the basis for jamie diamond christmas bonus. now around forty five tons of radioactive water has reportedly leaked out of the fukushima nuclear plant in japan that was badly damaged in march quake and tsunami some of the toxic water may have found its way into the pacific ocean

r.t. brussels. russia which is a permanent member of the u.n. security council has taken over the rotating presidency for december and moscow's ambassador to the un criticized the international approach to syria when a similar situation in yemen has only led to calls for dialogue what we don't understand is that. if that can be done in yemen that cannot apply to syria in syria as a mile from the outset the message which has been set up from some quarters capitals is their. help those who go into dialogue they should stop it immediately that there is no future in the arab league initiative we believe that this is something very counterproductive and this is something which has exacerbated the situation in syria but what can be a general attitude and principle is that the international community is not there to smell blood and to found confrontation but the international community is there to prevent further bloodshed and to encourage it. this is what the united nations is about this is what the security council is about. the person essentially in

r.t. brussels for nothing loser u.k. and told me that britain's decision asserted isolated a little be punished because of it. i don't think david cameron had any choice to do what he did because firstly his own backbenchers would not allow him to sign the deal and secondly the british people wouldn't have allowed him to say that he'll because if he did it with then put out a referendum david cameron look at the answer he didn't want which would be that britain would leave the european union are britain isolated now well of course they're isolated because what will happen is that we will be in a minority of one it will be twenty six countries as ourselves alfonso's all of that and i'm sure that merkel and sarkozy who punishes for this and it will be the city along with the faces the burden because what will happen no if you will see directive after directive a directive which will be designed to have the city along the river quite frankly would be better off house it's not a forge but the euro let's be frank could never

r.t. brussels a lot of unused and international consultant and former beltre m.p. says the ratings agencies are meddling in an issue that's not their business. there is something basically wrong when the rating agencies should become players in the game i mean you don't ask a referee before the field almost starts but if things are deemed says he referees that's what he does this is a way of influencing went in the euro zone countries are going to try to decide on friday i mean this is an additional correct way of doing things it is up to governments to decide what their policies is going to be not to rating agencies in germany it is always profiting from its economic dominance but actually what it is doing is telling other countries you should do as we do voting laws are put in the constitution is there are limits on budget deficits and so on now this is totally unacceptable from a democratic point of view and also it misplaces the problem the problem is not the government's overspending that is a problem yes the problem is that we we the people gave so much money

r.t. brussels international consulting and author adrian thinks the fiscal union will only produce more cracks within the e.u. in this particular instance i would tend to favor the british position here because britain from the murray beginning understood and we still understand far better than the european colleagues the importance of national sovereignty and the importance of having a summer in currency the pound sterling has been issued by the bank of england since sixty nine before and it definitely would not have been a good idea for britain to cede their sovereignty and what europe is now suffering many of the countries especially the smaller ones is a problem of sovereignty i think that we will probably start seeing the europe's elites very soon because greece will definitely not be able to comply would be a deficit required portugal italy spain undoubtedly will also be the problem people are realizing. it's a little bit like a procrustean bed a bed which is one size that must fit all in greek mythology are stories that made a bit he said anybody who was shorter than it he would stretch

r.t. brussels. offer more insight on the debt woes i'm joined now by a lot of a new survey says that a former belgian and pay many thanks for joining us here on yesterday we again saw a long time partner. pushing for new measures to save the euro and then hours later standard and poor's issues this downgrade warning for all the eurozone members what do you make of the timing. well first of all like you mark before i go into the matter there is something basically wrong when the rating agencies should become players in the game i mean you don't ask a referee destroyed a field almost starts but if things. keep referees that's what he does mean why didn't we hear about these agencies in the seventy's in the fifty's so there is something basically wrong in the system now whether this agency do a good job that's another matter that they need it you need a referee to do those things but what's happening not what is happening now is not going to bring a solution whenever she in the region. you know what th

r.t. brussels bulldog pay from the u.k. independence party told me earlier that the french and german leaders may use the s. and p. downgrade warning to push for fiscal union at a summit with other e.u. leaders just bit later this week. the french and german leaders and the the european political style bushman have a long history of using any crisis any skills as a lever in order to push push through more. political union and i think they probably will try and do that but i would make make the point that this summit of on thursday and friday will be the ninth summit this year each one of this summit come out with some proposals each one of these proposals tens of been greeted in greeted as it is a friendly way by the market and when it has sunk in how little these these proposals do to actually do anything substantive or material to solve a crisis the markets then plunge straight back i suspect that that is what will happen this time and i say this not in a body in sorrow in sorrow for the peoples of europe who are having t

r.t. brussels. well the summit has been called a do or die moment for the year u.k. . nigel farage says in order to save the single currency in european states will have to sacrifice their sovereignty to brussels. i think of a next twenty four hours the seventeen politicians not peoples will agree that they are going to push on that they are going to give incredible dictatorial powers to i'm elected bureaucrats based in brussels the markets will remain extremely nervous and remember that even the package they're talking about today will take until march to implement and i think in the meantime the eurozone in particular the mediterranean countries are extremely vulnerable indeed and i do not discount the a breakdown of the markets will overwhelm the whole euro problem and that the euro zone countries and the e.u. institutions will find themselves simply not big enough to cope with believe you me if we were to put this your aid package to the electorates of greece of portugal ireland this really of spain they would all say no because you know the better solution is to h

r.t. brussels as we await the tuesday morning reaction from europe the latest downgrade threats let's look at the implications they may have the embattled block francis loan is a managing director of brokerage and soon holdings he joins us live now from i thank you for joining us now fifteen euros a nations in one swoop has condemned page and finally broken through to all these countries do you think. well actually it's not all over do you ever since last year when their crisis first broke for greece this rating agency should have downgraded their readings of euro zone country already after two years actually more than two and have years they're still nowhere close to a solution i like the us where the federal reserve just start to use the printing press and of course euro because it is of a seventeen different countries. germany. we feel we feel it has to be lender of last resort if you will let the u.c.b. to print money but of course another solution is that you see be less money to i'm mad that i have in directly alemany to it is better countries but when you come around to it finally g

r.t. brussels. well for inside only use current woes and downgrade warnings by started in polls let's talk now to lord dark with a new from the u.k. independence party is joining us on the line from brussels all dharmas very good evening thanks for being on r.t. good evening let's start if we can with this new treaty being pushed by the french and german leaders not to create that fiscal union they're talking about the british side the british pm threatening to veto it if the u.k.'s entries are protected will britain be heard and safeguarded more importantly well. there's a there's a new treaty proposal and there are two things a british prime minister should do was one is he should threaten to veto it and secondly he should keep his election promise which was induced by the house of commons and hold a referendum. what i ask you both started in paul is hearing so much about them lately just one of the ratings is of course but this latest one by standard and poor's saying it's decisions have nothing

r.t. brussels fassel top business has had a poll for more on this certain nick now that the u.k. has decided to opt out always seeing what stockhausen's want about a two speed europe and if so. what all the dangers of that well to a certain extent we've always had a two speed europe we've had the ones in the euro zone and the ones not in the euro zone now the disagreement they had last night just makes a complex situation more complicated the members of the euro bloc need to act in a concerted fashion to reduce the deficit and get control of that they need mechanisms in which to do that and they need the e.c. to use their structures moved to do that now britain can block the musing structures because they belong to the us a whole and is this the thin end of the where dollar we now going to see all the countries following the lead of at the u.k. and hungry to actually exit the e.u. or thought it and i think that for be a little bit dramatic i mean the e.u. is britain's biggest trading partner by far it wants of a successful euro but it is jealous of its sovereignty it doesn't want

r.t. brussels. and coming up shortly in the program reaching boiling point. between. this country and as you can see it's there certainly most of the people who are making will. this is. a war with. thousands of labor union members take to the streets of new york to demand an end to konami inequality. in egypt results of the first stage of parliamentary elections are due to be announced on friday by the ballot has been boycotted by manny protesters who are still demanding an end to the military rule while a record number of people turned out for the country's first free election since the ousting of president mubarak and they doubt it will bring any change our correspondent policy reports from cairo. this was the first of three rounds of voting for the lower house of parliament nine out of twenty seven provinces have voted including cairo and alexandria the remaining provinces well vote for the rest of this month and generally this entire election process will not be over before march now with the brotherhood ensuring the largest support base at a stage in a sense not

r.t. brussels. international consulting author adrian sal bucci says the fiscal union only produce more cracks within the european union. in this particular instance i would tend to favor the british position here because britain from the very beginning of them stood and they still understand far better than the european colleagues the importance of national sovereignty and the importance of having a sovereign currency the pound certainly has been issued by the bank of england since sixty ninety four and it definitely would not have been a good idea for britain to cede that sovereignty and what europe is now suffering many of the countries especially the smaller ones is a problem of sovereignty i think that we will probably start seeing the euro very soon because greece will definitely not be able to comply with the deficit require of portugal italy spain undoubtedly will also be the same problem definitely i think that people are realizing that the euro is a little bit like a procrustean bed a bed

r.t. brussels. but the european reaction to the possible downgrade has been varied say far with some calling it a wakeup call while others claim it amounts to a political attack but france's learn the managing director of break rich holdings believes it's long a fifteen. rating agencies should have downgraded the ratings of eurozone country already after two years actually more than two where they have years they are soon nowhere close to a solution what they have really have really tried to do a patch work trying to really come to market so the crisis would go over and they want to look back but you cannot be proved to solve. the crisis but the problem is there is no economic growth in europe if there is no economic growth of your debt becomes a real burden and this is exactly what's happening to europe if germany will have to bail out of this countries then germany's credit on credit rating will solve and of course. if you want to play hardball just let this country go to the wall and then germany

r.t. brussels. let's talk to them in pain who's following all this with a keen eye the u.k. independence party the national ferrars was in brussels for snow thank you for joining us standing critic and britain the said no to tighter controls leaving us countries to sort themselves out really sure the u.k. is now being pushed further so it. well let's hope so because we don't want to be part of a political union we don't want to be part of an economic and monetary union what david cameron has done is to say look can we have some small concessions please president sarkozy told him to take a running jump and he's vetoed the treaty so on the face of it i should be cheering david cameron and say isn't this marvelous that a british prime minister has finally stood up and said something but of course the reality is that these seventeen countries are determined to press on with this euro project a mistake them though i believe that is actually leave britain now in a really difficult position because we're still members of the union we're still bound by all its legislation and yet wha

r.t. brussels. well for more on the situation in syria we can now talk to dr marcus papadopoulos he's the editor of politics first online magazine joining us there in london while the un human rights council is accusing syrian government forces of crimes against humanity in their actions against protesters but these findings are based on just over two hundred testimonies from witnesses with russia calling the report biased is moscow right to question these conclusions. well i think that russia has been behaving in a very responsible manner in relation to the ongoing violence in syria and also in accordance with international law and i think that moscow israelites question the conclusions in this report this report needs to be approached in the same way that a court of law would approach it with impartiality each statement needs to be analyzed and also in particular the sources need to be scrutinized and if we do that with this report that the testimonies are based on members of the syrian opposition

r.t. brussels what is coming to you live from moscow now coming shortly in the program here reaching boiling point. for you three fourths of this country as you can see it's very soon we are stuck because the people reading all the morning making their decisions now we have thousands of labor union members take to the streets of new york to demand an end to economic inequality. german chancellor angela merkel says the eurozone needs a new fiscal union with stronger controls and regulations in a keynote speech addressing the parliament merkel said there was no quick fix to the eurozone state crisis that's somewhat details on this now talk to a head of economics that you know you're asking university and one of them are your climate in the netherlands for us thank you for coming on the program today so well call talking about the need for a new treaty so that eight fiscal union can be formed if achieved how will that help resolve the ongoing ever playing eurozone crisis or what you choose to think here or crawls. budgetary problems of the various members but i think it is not growing sorry not

r.t. brussels. well for more on the outcome of this week's e.u. summit i'm joined by international consultant and author adrian always good to talk to you again adrian former italian prime minister romano prodi said the most important outcome of the summit is the fact that europe will move forward without britain and london will no longer stay in the way of its decisions what do you make of that view. well in a way i can relate to what romano prodi has said because britain has been standing in the way of many decisions in the european union but in this particular instance i would tend to favor the british position here because britain from the very beginning of them stood and they still understand far better than the european colleagues the importance of national sovereignty and the importance of having a sovereign currency the pound sterling has been issued by the bank of england since sixty ninety four and it definitely would not have been a good idea for britain to cede their sovereignty and what europe is now suffering many of the countries es

r.t. brussels. let's get more on this now might have it up is that he said nick will make now would be to have decided to opt out are we seeing what suckers he's been warning out of two speed europe and if so what are the dangers that the dangers are it makes life much more complicated in europe you've got one huge group which wants to do things one way and on the very edge got one country possibly a couple more who want to do things in a slightly different way now if the euro zone wants to impose all sorts of new rules it needs ways in which to administer those rules and that's probably the best ways to use the existing structures in brussels except they belong to the e.u. and countries like britain possibly hungry in the czech republic we want them to use those institutions to deal with their business and we've had a bit of a turnaround for the last eighteen from previously giving in a phatic no hungry is actually now asked for more decision time do you think it's like that we might see countries

r.t. that brussels is taking the reins they're wrapping nations if 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 are 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 bust process 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 administration by the bureaucrats in brussels that not democracy that's not leadership that's a failure of democracy that's the downfall of the european idea here in brussels the only thing that's on the institutions mind is that they want to make this treaty change with as little influence from the member states as ever possible that's why we have this morning heard this around poit our own elected president claiming that now you can make these changes even without chang