It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Jean-Claude Juncker: ''It is a question of getting some new winds blowing through Europe... some fresh air into the structures"
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
European Parliament live Live
Has Juncker over-hyped EU investment?
Pope Francis hits out at 'bureaucratic' Europe
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has given details of a €315bn (£250bn; $393bn) investment plan to kick-start Europe's economy.
At its heart is a new €21bn fund that would provide loans for infrastructure projects. Mr Juncker hopes most of the rest of the money will come from private backers.
Only €16bn of the original money would come from the European Union budget.
However, critics doubt it can attract so much private investment.
There was immediate scepticism from the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) whose General Secretary, Bernadette Segol, suggested the Commission was "relying on a financial miracle like the loaves and fishes".
She said she did not believe that €315bn could be raised from €21bn, a leverage factor of 15 which the ETUC argued was "almost certainly unrealistic".
The Commission believes it could create up to 1.3 million jobs with investment in broadband, energy networks and transport infrastructure, as well as education and research.
line
Analysis by BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt
This is the new Commission's big idea. It is the EU's New Deal.
To a large extent it will be judged by its success or failure.
The markets are currently awash with money. The big test is whether they will invest in Europe where the economy is stagnating and confidence is low.
line
"Europe needs a kick-start and today the Commission is providing the jump leads," Mr Juncker said as he detailed his ambitious five-year plan at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Mr Juncker said Europe needed a kick-start and the Commission was offering the jump-leads
He said Europe had to face "the challenge of a generation" head-on, without a money-printing machine, and described his plan as the greatest effort in recent EU history to trigger additional investment without changing the rules.
The plan would take the burden off national governments, already facing big debts after the financial crisis. But they could contribute to the fund if they wished, and would be asked to come up with a list of projects with "high socio-economic returns" that would start between 2015 and 2017.
Illustrating the type of projects he has in mind, Mr Juncker said he had a vision of:
Schoolchildren walking into a brand new classroom equipped with computers in the Greek city of Thessaloniki
European hospitals saving lives with state of the art medical equipment
French commuters charging electric cars on motorways in the same way as petrol stations are used now
Households and companies becoming more energy efficient
The Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) would create the fund's €21bn reserve, according to Mr Juncker, which would then enable the EIB to fund loans worth €63bn. Private investors would be expected to put forward the lion's share of the money, some €252bn.
Pope Francis likened Europe to a grandmother on Tuesday, "no longer fertile and vibrant"
Mr Juncker's speech came a day after Pope Francis addressed the same parliament, criticising an "elderly and haggard" Europe that had become less and less of a protagonist.
Initial reaction to Mr Juncker's plan came from Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told the German parliament that her government supported the package in principle, but it had to be clear to everyone where the projects were in the future.
The Commission president, who came to office at the start of November, said he could not promise how much investment would go to each country, but he argued that investment in one country could only be good for growth in another.
Structural reforms were necessary to modernise Europe's economy and fiscal responsibility was needed to restore confidence in public finance, but now investment had to be boosted as well, he said.
The start of the former Luxembourg prime minister's term as president has been overshadowed by his country's role in a tax break row.
Hundreds of multi-national firms were reportedly attracted to Luxembourg in legal tax avoidance schemes. Mr Juncker was prime minister at the time but denies wrongdoing.
Although a vote against him is due to take place at the European Parliament on Thursday, it is unlikely to attract widespread support.
The coming 2014-2015 Biblical Blood Moon Tetrad is Unstoppable, Phenomenal, and absolutely Unprecedented,
>like no other of the seven previous ones in world history can match<
... the next Biblical Tetrad not to occur for another 600 years --> or the years 2582-83 (as per NASA)...
When questioned about the ongoing global chaos by the national correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows, then Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said,
“I think we are living through one of these historic, defining times. I think we are seeing a new world order.”
originally posted by: Logarock
a reply to: johnnyjoe1979
Reminds me of the video game Armored Core. The world had become a world ruled by corporations which were now at war. There were no such thing as governments anymore. Solders were paid mercenaries with high tech equipment. No need for patriotism or cumbersome ethics of any sort to stir up the people. It is a matter of eating and living in relative security by protecting the hand that feeds you.
originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: Komodo
Two Distinct Events In Our Future?
there is a 'shift' coming .. i'm not sure exactly what it is ...but its' coming, and coming soon...
Soon is relative, but yes, I believe there is a global shift coming. Partly due to social engineering, and partly due to factors we are unaware of at this point in time.
Donald Rumsfeld
"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
from Two Distinct Events In Our Future (ATS)
What I believe to be the first event, as I said in Jibby's thread, will be a game changer for the whole planet, and not necessarily bad. My impression is that this event will shift the paradigm of the masses on a global scale. I get the impression that those in the governing seats around the world hold this knowledge in common expectantly, but even they will be shocked and awed when it happens, because they will not have understood the extent of the impact of this event when it transpires.
Different people and cultures will see this event from different perspectives. Some will see it as a harbinger of what is to come. Some will see it from a religious or scientific point of view. Others will be stricken with fear, because it will threaten the very fabric of what they believe to be reality. But, in all cases, I am impressed that it will change the very foundation of our beliefs as a society. The effect will be profound.
Regarding the first event, I wouldn't say out of control. I would say a global shift in the perception of the masses. A global epiphany, or revelation, if you will.
Regarding the succeeding event. I would say the worlds governments will see this shift as a threat, and create chaos by trying to do damage control on a large scale.
Unity is key. With this, I agree.
originally posted by: stosh64
I also feel it coming. I have my own beliefs what is coming, which I don't choose to discuss here.
It always ends in people on one side or the other bickering and I have never seen any one say, "I never thought of it like that, Thank you for changing my mind on that." On either side of the fence.
I have my faith, and a scenario in my mind that I believe will play out. And yes, I think it will be sooner than later.
If your interested look up Tom Horn or L.A. Marzulli, I tend to follow along that line of reasoning.
originally posted by: ExPostFacto
a reply to: Komodo
There is much more turbulence to come, but there are many whom have in essence left the physical world behind--advancing on a spiritual path. We are shifting perspectives as a collective, our individual world views are clashing with others, and in a grand finale they will settle down. Those still approaching the world from the perspective of self, will conflict with others approaching the world from self. But, those with the perspective of a spiritual nature will rise above the conflict, perhaps becoming the more rationale, the peacemakers, those with nothing to gain from solving the problems of perspectives.
If you understand anything of what I just wrote, then consider yourself enlightened, and on the path to help usher in this new world--or age.
originally posted by: NightFlight
I think the shift is coming and it will be a good one!
Have you noticed that fuel prices are coming down as well as LP gas and home heating oil. Seems that someone knows something will happen soon. I believe that technology is finally catching up with and maybe has surpassed "fossil" fuel use and technology. By that I mean the batteries that power electric cars will power them for a thousand miles or more and electric cars will be way more efficient than gas powered cars. This technology has only just begun. Imagine being able to drive around the globe on one charge.
Also, aircraft may finally get the technology that has been relegated to the "black" projects which is anti gravity or as its called elsewhere mass negation. This will transfer current aircraft technology from jet fuel and av-gas to a electrical/electronic propulsion. Runways will become a thing of the past.
Let's hope so, anyway.
originally posted by: Xtrozero
If this shift doesn't happen what does that tell you?
2nd