Category: UE citizens

The British Broadcasting Company, known as the BBC Radio , is located in Regent Street, London since 1992. During the Second World War the BBC became the most important source of information in Great Britain and worldwide.

The BBC has given voice to important political figures, such as Winston Churchill and members of the Royal family. At the beginning of the history, the BBC was set out to inform, educate and entertain.

During the war the role of BBC Radio was particularly important for Italy, Germany and France because in these countries Nazi and Fascist propaganda banned the circulation of information. During 1953 Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation was the shot in the arm that gave rise to televised news journalism as we know it today.

Twenty million British citizens watched Her Majesty Coronation through a small black lit electric box in their living rooms. The Coronation marked the first time in broadcast history that demand for television exceeded that for Radio. The BBC’s first Director-General Lord Reith, was responsible for the shape and direction of the early BBC.

Since 1941, the year in which Charles de Gaulle, French general and statesman, leader of the Free French during World War Two and the architect of the Fifth Republic, spoke on the radio, a lot of things at the BBC have changed: “I did nine months training before I qualified for my job; now in the digital age they do two weeks training”, said Pam Taylor, a BBC Radio technician for Sound, that we met for a BBC radio tour.

She continued to say that nowadays working in this agency is very difficult because they need more computers and less people, so the social structure of the BBC has changed during the last few years. Among these changes, the most evident interests the architecture of the building.

Last year just behind the historical building ( BBC Broadcasting House ) a new office was built. Inside there are modern designs mostly by Italian designers. But there is a sector who speaks Italian: the Guglielmo Marconi’room (25 April 1874-20July1937).Without Marconi’s telegraphic pioneering, the would be no Radio no Television, and no BBC.

But it was the BBC that took ispiration from those early broadcasts out of Marconi’s Chelmsford factory and admittedly over some considerable period of time and experimentation created what we today understand as broadcasting.

One of Britain’s leading historians, and significant Marxist intellectuals of the 20th century, Eric Hobsbawm, died at hospital in London some days ago. He was 95 and the cause was pneumonia, said his daughter, Julia Hobsbawm.

His family said: “He will be greatly missed not only by his wife of fifty years, Marlene, and his three children, seven grandchildren and great grandchild, but also by his many thousands of readers and students around the world.”

In fact he was one of Britain’s most prominent historians, who focused on labor movements in the 19th century and what he called the “pre-political” resistance of bandits, millenarians and urban rioters in early capitalist societies.

Eric John Hobsbawm was born in 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt, to Leopold Percy Hobsbaum , a British merchant from the East End of London who was of Polish Jewish descent, and Nelly Grün , who was from a middle-class Austrian Jewish family background.

A clerical error at birth altered his surname from Hobsbaum to Hobsbawm. He was schooled in Vienna in the interwar period before leaving for Berlin in 1931, after the death of both parents.

During the Weimar Republic he became a passionate Communist and a true believer in the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1933 he fled to London when Hitler came to power, where he was forbidden by his uncle to join either the Communist Party or the Labour Party, so he concentrated on his studies at St. Marylebone Grammar School in London and then he attended King’s College, Cambridge, where he was elected to the Cambridge Apostles.

Graduated from King’s College with highest honors in 1939 he received a doctorate (PhD) in History from Cambridge University for his dissertation on the Fabian Society.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Engineers and the Royal Army Educational Corps and in 1943 he married his first wife Muriel Seaman, in fact that marriage ended in divorce in 1950 following by the marriage with Marlene Schwarz in 1962.

He began teaching history at Birkbeck College in the University of London in 1947, then He became Reader in 1959, Professor between 1970–82 and an Emeritus Professor of History 1982. Eric Hobsbawm helped found the academic journal Past & Present in 1952 and during this period he also wrote jazz criticism for The New Statesman and Nation under the pseudonym Francis Newton.

He retired in 1982 but stayed as Visiting Professor at The New School for Social Research in Manhattan between 1984–97.

In 1998, the Blair government made him a Companion of Honour and he was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006. His masterwork remains his incisive and often eloquent survey of the period he referred to as “the long 19th century,” which he analyzed in three volumes:

“The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848,” “The Age of Capital: 1848-1875” and “The Age of Empire: 1874-1914.” His best-known work was 1994’s The Age of Extremes – about 20th century communism, capitalism and nationalism – which was published in the United States with the subtitle “A History of the World, 1914-1991” and it has been translated into 40 languages and has received numerous international prizes. This is also the volume which introduced the influential idea of “invented traditions”. Among his final publications were Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism (2007), On Empire (2008) and his final book, How To Change The World, which was printed in 2011. Fractured Times,” a collection of essays on 20th-century culture and society, is scheduled to be published by Little, Brown in Britain in March 2013.

The BBC reported that Eric Hobsbawm said he had lived: “through almost all of the most extraordinary and terrible century in human history” and he would like to be remembered as: “somebody who not only kept the flag flying, but who showed that by waving it you can actually achieve something, if only good and readable books”.

Eric Hobsbawm during his life became a friend of the Marxist historian Ralph Milliband, father of the current leader of the British Labour Party Ed Milliband. The Labour leader said about Hobsbawm : “he was an extraordinary historian, a man passionate about his politics and a great friend of my family. His historical works brought hundreds of years of British history to hundreds of thousands of people. He brought history out of the ivory tower and into people’s lives. But he was not simply an academic, he cared deeply about the political direction of the country. Indeed, he was one of the first people to recognise the challenges to Labour in the late 1970s and 1980s from the changing nature of our society.”

 European Council The latest European Council conclusions go in the right direction in tackling the Eurozone crisis but the situation is so urgent that the Commission must table legislation by September in order to implement the four concepts in the Van Rompuy policy paper rapidly, says the EP in a resolution passed on Wednesday setting out its formal response to last week’s summit.

The resolution, adopted by a large majority (501 votes to 132, with 38 abstentions), welcomes the steps taken to break the vicious circle between banks and sovereign debt and the commitment to growth-friendly fiscal consolidation.

It also hails the summit conclusions as “an important step on the road to a fully fledged banking union” The Van Rompuy paper is a “good starting point”, says Parliament, but more work is needed, and this must involve not only the EU institutions and national parliaments but also the social partners and civil society.

MEPs welcome the commitment to making the EU budget a tool for growth but stress that agreement on the multi annual budget plan can

Upon arrival in the United Kingdom many young foreigners feel lost within the complexities of the administrative systems, which might be related to Immigration, Study, Employment and other related matters.

As far as employment is concerned all foreigners entering the United Kingdom, should take into account one thing which is a “Must”.

In fact, the first steps to take, very much depend on the citizenship of the person who wants to establish himself in the UK.

We can sum up the status basically in three categories:

European Union citizens;

“Extra European Union” citizens: North America

“Extra European Union citizens”: Rest of the World As

far as the first category is concerned, it is correct to say that European Union citizens have the right to enter and to establish themselves freely in the UK and they face no restrictions when applying for a job. Once they have established themselves, they can start looking for a job. In Order to do so, the first step to be undertaken is to apply for a National Insurance Number.

The latter is a “legal must” in order to work in the UK lawfully with full taxpayer status. Whilst establishing oneself in the UK might be easy for some citizens, sometimes finding a lawful job is far from easy.

As a matter of fact, to avoid disappointment and/or deception, they must ensure that their employer is genuine.

The British system offers many checks, in order to verify the authenticity of the employer: Companies house, Regulation authorities, etc… A first recommendation is not to trust some internet jobs offers, especially when these ask for money in order to recruit: These are called “Advance fee frauds”.

They are only looking forward to benefit from your temporary economic vulnerability, in order to defraud you. Furthermore, make sure you have a copy of your contract where all your duties and rights are clear, understandable and conform to the European Standards: work time table, breaks, holidays, sickness leave, … Please note that, in spite of being a full member of the European Union, citizens from Bulgaria and Romania have a special Status: while they have the right to enter and to live in the UK, they do not have the right to work, unless they apply for special permission to do so.

The procedures to follow in order to obtain the said permission can be found on the UK Border Agency website.

This is the only Authority responsible for immigration; visit the web site: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk

As far as “Extra European Union Citizens” are concerned; being nationals of North America, they have the right to enter, to live and to work in the UK.

They have a special status that is clearly outlined on the UK Border Agency web site. Finally the third category, which is made up of “Extra European citizens”, who are nationals of the rest of the world, except from North America, need to apply for a work Visa before landing and/or mooring at any UK Border.

To apply, we recommend carefully consulting the UK Border Agency instructions on the above mentioned web site. To check Employment issues we would recommend checking the following web site: www.direct.gov.uk.

There, workers, employees, employers and professionals can find full information about their status, that’s to say their rights, duties, health care, insurance, etc… Abiding by the Law is the first step any citizen must think about.

Unfortunately this world is a “small world” and London is nothing but a micro reality of a phenomenon, which is spread all over the world. Irregular jobs are everywhere and sometimes both employee and employer may decide upon a “gentleman’s agreement”, the terms of which state tacitly as follows: both parties –the employer and the employee- will easily manage their professional relationship: both of them will be able to dismiss each other’s offer: the employer because of the depressed economic circumstances; the employee because her/his own private agenda.

This temporary “fix”, may end up to be harmful for each party, especially when the professional relationship becomes permanent Whilst the employer might lose a loyal and trustworthy employee; the employee might be losing years of Ni contributions, the right to paid leave and holidays, but above all this the right to paid sickness leave.

The consequences could even be worse because the parties might be caught. They could face criminal charges and will need to pay a large “fine” to the government.

Quite often citizens coming from different countries other than North America need to apply for a work Visa to enter in UK.

This work visa normally entitles them to obtain a work permit lawfully. Unfortunately (or may be fortunately, it depends on one’s point of view….!) many “Extra European Union Citizens” manage to cross the frontiers “unlawfully” and as such, quite often, they are compelled to work illegally.

It goes without saying that such illegal employment very often results in “exploitation” for the employees compared to “hyper” financial benefits for the employer.

This issue is of the utmost importance and it might differ from one citizen to another. Whilst a European Union citizen, with whichever status, does not incur into the risk of facing problems: an “Extra European Union citizen” coming from countries other than Canada or the United States, will firstly be liable because of the breach of the employment rules. Secondly he/she will have committed a “criminal offence” for having crossed the UK borders unlawfully.

Thirdly he/she will have to endure the ignominy of being isolated in a removal centre, awaiting the first plane due to take him/her back to his/her country of origin.

Everywhere around London there are “Law Centres” which provide free legal advice regarding different legal matters; Employment Law included.

Whilst, on the one hand, according to the Roman Empire, Roma used to be “Caput Mundi”, nowadays we would say that London is a 21st century “opportunity- caput mundi”.

In this City there exists a liberal life style, which could be dangerous for both Parties: employees, employers and/or professionals. There are as many opportunities as traps.

This is why attention to detail and great care is of the highest necessity, so as to protect one’s own rights and so as to carry out one’s duties in a civic and lawful manner.

European Central Bank :The monetary analysis indicates that the underlying pace of monetary expansion remained subdued in the first four months of 2012. The annual growth rate of M3 fell to 2.5% in April, down from 3.1% in March, following strong inflows into money in the first quarter of the year.

The moderation in annual M3 growth in April was mainly driven by outflows from overnight deposits belonging to non-monetary financial intermediaries (which includes entities like central counterparties, investment funds and securitisation vehicles).

The annual growth rate of loans to the private sector (adjusted for loan sales and securitisation) declined to 0.8% in April (from 1.2% in March), owing to negative loan flows to non-monetary financial intermediaries.

At the same time, monthly flows of loans to non-financial corporations and households were moderately positive in April and the annual rates of growth (adjusted for loan sales and securitisation) stood at 0.7% and 1.5% respectively in April, broadly unchanged from March.

Question: I have two questions: first, to put it bluntly, if you are aware of the downside risks to the euro area economy and the kind of tensions that we have at the moment – which are almost in panic mode – can you tell us about the deliberations surrounding your decision not to cut rates today?

Second, can you give us a bit of a feeling, from the ECB’s point of view, as to how functional, or dysfunctional, both the interbank market and the bond market are right now?

Draghi: I will start by saying that one has to appreciate the background against which this decision was taken today. We still have very low nominal rates and negative real rates. We also have, as you said, dysfunctional markets – the interbank market is very dysfunctional, it is not working – and there is a certain amount of fragmentation in most of the other financial markets in the euro area. I am saying this because, in such a situation, price signals have a relatively limited immediate effect. It is mostly quantitative signals, quantity policy measures that would address such a situation.

Let me also give you a few reasons why, in the end, we decided to take this stance. The baseline scenario of our staff projections has not changed. At the same time, we have to acknowledge that this baseline scenario is based on assumptions, such as an abatement of financial tensions in the future and, overall an ongoing buoyancy in external demand.

After the cut-off date for these projections, which was 24 May, several soft data, such as the Purchasing Managers’ Index, orders, confidence indices, have all pointed in another direction, and it is not upward. At the same time, I have to say that, during the first quarter, the hard data pointed in the opposite direction: construction production rose by 12% in March, new orders rose by 0.5%, total export and import values went up by 3% in the first quarter and German GDP growth rebounded by 0.5% in the first quarter.

So you see; there are conflicting signals. We are fully aware that the most recent soft data point to the downside, which is why you will find several references to downside risks in the Introductory Statement. We will monitor all developments closely and we will stand ready to act.

Question: We hear that you, Mr van Rompuy, Mr Barroso and Mr Juncker are in a committee to save the euro zone and will present a master plan or a road map going forward in June. Can you tell us what your precise role on that committee is, and, are you not concerned that, by getting involved in such an extremely political process early on, you might undermine the ECB’s independence?

My second question is on Greek banks. You hinted in the European Parliament last Thursday that, after the capital injections, the Greek banks have access to your operations again. Can you confirm that all of the big banks have full access to regular ECB refis now? And, if not, where are the remaining problems?

Draghi: As regards the first question, we have been requested by the European Council to perform this role with the other institutions. I do not think that this will present any threat to the ECB’s independence. One has to see what the outcome will be. It is better to be part of the outcome, rather than outside the process. Having said that, work is now in progress: as you may all understand, it is potentially very important work and we will certainly contribute with all our skills and expertise to this work. In addition, we are all convinced that this work is, in a sense, the beginning of a process which will give substance to a European vision for the medium- and the long-term.

With regard to the Greek banks, I have said that we welcome the fact that the four Greek banks which were lacking capital have been recapitalised and, therefore, have been readmitted as counterparty to monetary policy operations.

Question: Mr Draghi, you have just said that some of the problems in the euro area have nothing to do with monetary policy. I would say the only problem that has to do with monetary policy is that the inflation rate has been significantly higher than 2% for the past one and a half years. What other problems would you say have to do with monetary policy?

Draghi: I think our primary mandate is maintaining price stability in the medium term. The inflation rate has been higher than 2% for some time now, due essentially, to oil prices, commodity prices and the use of indirect taxation like value added taxes. All these factors in a sense raise the rate of inflation, but we should consider that they are one-off factors: in other words, they are an adjustment in the price levels. And only if you have second-round effects or pass-through effects you can see the effects of this in the rate of inflation. But we have seen that inflationary expectations have remained firmly anchored and now they are even more anchored than they were before. So, since we run our monetary policy with a medium-term perspective, the question we have always asked ourselves is when is the inflation rate going to go down below or close to 2%? And we had repeated oil price increases in the previous months, so this profile shifted progressively to 2013. You remember that originally we said that by the end of this year we go below 2%, then we said it is going to go below 2% in the next year – now we have the first hints that this shifting might actually stop. And in fact we would not exclude it coming back.

Question: The question was what other problems would you say have to do with monetary policy?

Draghi: I think I implicitly responded to that. Our primary mandate is price stability and we think that if we achieve this objective in the medium term with all our necessary instruments we really contribute in the best possible way to growth.

http://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/html/index.en.html

May is approaching, and May is the month of Transeuropa Festival. While Europe will be subject to tensions and attempts at weakening its social and civil unity, the third edition of the Transeuropa Festival will take place, proposing new visions for the emergence of an alternative Europe.

Transeuropa Festival is a unique transnational festival of culture, arts and politics, taking place in 14 cities all over Europe from the 9^th to the 20^th May (Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Bologna, Bratislava, Cluj-Napoca, London, Lublin, Paris, Prague, Rome, Sofia, Warsaw), including an outreach event in Cardiff and with a closing forum in Rome on the 2^nd and 3^rd of June.

Transeuropa Festival aims at challenging the risks of a cultural crisis, a crisis in the imagination, where citizens are blocked in an oppressive, divided, exclusive present. Through its action, the Festival shows that alternative models are possible, both in the political and cultural realms. Transeuropa Festival promotes political and cultural exchange across Europe and collective action for alternative visions on the economic crisis, migrations and democratic participation.

Transeuropa Festival will open on the 9^th of May with a transnational event, a common and shared gesture happening simultaneously in all the Festival’s cities, simple and powerful at the same time: a walk taking place simultaneously in all Festival cities.

At the core of the festival are two weeks of debates, performances, art exhibitions and installations, films, living libraries and simultaneous activities, prepared throughout the year by European Alternatives and the Transeuropa Network.

The Festival will be closed by a European Forum taking place in Rome at Teatro Valle on the 2^nd and 3^rd June, a moment of debate and action where representatives from all the Festival cities will converge, bringing together the results of the Festival.

In London the main festival activities will take place from the 16th to the 20th of May. 

-16th of May: The Hidden Tales of London at Dans Le Noir Restaurant. A dinner in the dark illuminated by theatrical monologues curated by Ice and Fire Theatre Company;

-17th of May: Carte Blanche to the Cinematheque de Tanger at Human Rights Action Centre: screening of six short films selected by the Cinematheque de Tanger. With Danielle Arbid, Khalid Abdalla, Yto Barrada and Omar Kholeif. In partnership with Iniva.

-18th of May: Seeds of Democracy: Europe and the Balkans at Goldsmiths University with Vanja Calovic.

-19th of May: The UK in Europe’s economy and Europe’s economy in the world at LSE with David and Judith Marquand, Mary Kaldor, Cui Hongjiang, Giandomenico Majone, Sony Kapoor and many others. With the support of the European Commission in the UK.

-20th of May: Precariousness: from a state of mind to a social condition at UCL with Guy Standing, Shiv Malik, Letizia Gambini, Susan Nash and Viola Caon.

The full programme of the festival in London is available on www.transeuropafestival.eu/programme/cities/London

James Caan urges regulation reform LONDON – 11th April 2012 – Government must stop piling unnecessary and often silly rules and regulations on top of small businesses if the economy is to grow, said noted businessman and entrepreneur James Caan.

“It’s not the government’s role to create jobs, that’s the role of small business and entrepreneurs. Government needs to get out of the way and let us do what we do best,” Caan said. Caan supports the Federation of Small Businesses and the European Small Business Alliance’s recently tabled declaration in the European Parliament urging a halt to excessive rules and regulations affecting small firms.

“Chancellor Osborne has declared that red tape reform has saved businesses £3.3 billion but think about that.

That means those rules and regulations, prior to their repeal, were costing businesses £3.3 billion. I could put a lot of people to work with £3.3 billion,” said Caan, CEO of the venture capital and investment firm Hamilton Bradshaw.

Caan also noted a British Chambers of Commerce survey where 1,200 small and medium-sized businesses said they felt “choked” by government regulations. He said the BCC has estimated allowing employees to request flexible working hours will cost businesses £4.8 million a year.

The “working time directive,” which gives employees extra time off if they become ill on holiday, could cost small businesses an estimated £102.9 million a year, Caan added. Caan said experts have estimated EU regulations alone have drained £124 billion from the UK economy since 1998. Caan’s latest book, “Start Your Business In 7 Days” (www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670920648.html) literally is flying off the shelves of UK bookstores following its March 1 release. [photo chron.com]

Caan said he took the time to write a book that takes people through the entrepreneur’s journey and helps them understand the difference between a hobby, a lifestyle and a real business. Reviewer John Vincent, co-founder of “Leon Management Today,” said of the book, “Caan shows a real desire to help the reader.

His insights have substance. I like the balance between theory, deep practicality and psychology.”