Category: Featured

By David Haworth, in Brussels

Next Monday, (19/10) Mrs. Catherine Day will deliver the most important speech of her life.

Who is she, you’ll probably ask. Indeed, for someone of immense influence this tall, blond middle-aged Irishwoman is a reclusive figure, shy – not writing very much, still less seeking out audiences.

But, as the secretary general of the European Commission, the lady is the power behind Commission president José Manuel Barroso’s throne.

By Raghavendra Verma, in New Delhi

India is the latest example of a country struggling against a Maoist insurgency fuelled by rural inequality, showing how emerging market governments worldwide risk harbouring violent rebel groups while promoting economic development.

By Raghavendra Verma, in New Delhi

India is the latest example of a country struggling against a Maoist insurgency fuelled by rural inequality, showing how emerging market governments worldwide risk harbouring violent rebel groups while promoting economic development.

In Peru, the notorious Maoist guerrilla group ‘The Shining Path’ continue operations, funded by the illicit drug trade, after a major insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s failed to achieve its political ends. In Nepal, an armed insurgency was successful, ending with a peace accord in 2006, its Communist Party of Nepal (Unified-Maoist) (CPN-UM) joining the country’s parliament and briefly leading its government.

By David Haworth, in Brussels

By the time you read this, Ireland’s second attempt to ratify the Lisbon Treaty may have succeeded and thunderous pieties about the nation’s wisdom, maturity and farsightedness in reaching the “right” decision will be heard in all the continent’s chancelleries.

By Katherine Dunn and Alan Osborn, International News Services

Has President Obama lost it? Many Americans are now saying so following the slump in his public approval ratings in recent months. Few presidents were elected with such jubilation as Mr Obama last November, and not just in America. He rode the crest of an unprecedented worldwide wave of acclaim to the presidency. Now the criticism and backbiting has begun.

 By Mark Rowe

As with the Arctic – where sea ice is disappearing faster than most scientists had anticipated - Antarctica is thought to hold fossil fuel resources, along with new drugs, industrial compounds and some commercial applications.

By Emma Jackson, International News Services

Global news agency International News Services Ltd – in association with world-leading business publisher Aroq Ltd - has released a major new e-book compiling global textile regulation news and analysis since 2001. This comprehensive 157 page report offers clothing and textile companies, consultants and lobbyists a survey of the sector’s rapid evolution to a free, global market in the last 10 years.

 By David Haworth, in Brussels

Among many things the ambitious Swedish presidency of the European Union hopes to achieve in the next five months is a revival of the so-called ‘Lisbon Process’. The what? A few may recall this initiative was launched in 2000 to chart the way the EU would become “the world’s most dynamic, knowledge-based economy.” Rhetorically it became a bouncy castle for politicians, left and right, who could jump up and down with ‘Lisbon’, confident of its crowd-pleasing potential, in Brussels and Strasbourg at least.

By David Haworth, in Brussels

The European Commission and the European Parliament are beginning to feel the rough edge of voter sentiment about them.

Neither institution is well regarded – and becoming less so all the time.

Of course European Union (EU) officials say nothing about the tsunami of complaint, criticism and contempt that the speed of emails exposes them to.

But the email blowback from voters is uncomfortably there.

BY MARK ROWE

THE ADDED value created by Spain’s textile and clothing sector will fall by 8.8% in 2009, according to forecaster Business Monitor International (BMI). Currently, ranks Spain’s entire textile industry as 13^th in the world in terms of textile and clothing manufacturing value added, which BMI priced at US$12.45 billion in 2008.

The recession also appears to be casting a medium-term shadow over the sector, with textile and clothing value (T&C) added also falling by 3.3% in 2010, reflecting difficult international economic conditions, said BMI: “We see a recovery beginning to set in only from 2012, with growth of 0.2%,” said a spokesman. “The industry’s trade performance will also reflect the especially difficult international economic situation. This year [Spanish] T&C exports will fall 7.8% to US$9.74 billion, with imports down 3.2% to US$17.76 billion. As a result there will be a T&C trade deficit of US$8.01 billion. The reason is a fast shrinking domestic market: Euromonitor estimates that the resulting contraction in the Spanish textile and clothing industry will cause make it shed up to 30% of its workforce over the next five or six years.

ENDS