EU finance ministers were to try again yesterday to amend rules for securing a stable euro, weighing new ideas that go a long way to meet German and French demands for more slack to spend their way out of economic downturns.
EU nations have been deadlocked for months on rewriting the euro's "Stability and Growth Pact" while leaving intact the key requirement that a euro-zone nation's annual budget gap cannot exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product.
Luxembourg Premier Jean-Claude Juncker, who presides over the reform talks, said last week negotiations had degenerated into finger-pointing.
Yesterday's meeting was not expected to be much different, and the EU leaders may be left to strike a deal tomorrow when they open a two-day summit in Brussels.
Germany and France -- the two biggest euro-zone economies and the most notable offenders of the euro rules -- want more leeway to reverse economic downturns.
Officials said Juncker had gone far to meet their concerns, proposing that violators of the euro stability pact invoke their own mitigating circumstances to escape punishment.
Germany wants credit for the costs of German unification as well as its payments to the EU budget that total 22 percent of total outlays. France wants to use its spending on research and defense as an excuse to break the 3-percent norm.
The Netherlands, Sweden and others oppose weakening the 3-percent norm
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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