Social(ist) activist Naomi Klein declares war on capitalism

Canadian global warming alarmist Naomi Klein declares war on capitalism and "rogue companies":
"Your business model is at war with life on this planet. It's at war with us. And we need to fight back." 

Klein does not have much sympathy for fellow warmists (like Al Gore), who ask people to change light bulbs and plant trees. Although Klein does not openly admit it, what she really is working for is the abolition of the traditional American free market system:

"And, you know, one of the things about deregulated capitalism is that it is a crisis creation machine, you know? You take away all the rules and you are going to have serial crises. They may be economic crises, booms and busts. Or there will be ecological crises. You're going to have both. You're just going to have shock after shock after shock."

In the interview with Bill Moyers, Klein explains why she thinks that climate change is a "historic moment to usher in the next great wave of progressive change":

NAOMI KLEIN: It can be and it must be. I mean, it's our only chance. I believe it's the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. And we've been kidding ourselves about what it's going to take to get our emissions down to the extent that they need to go down. I mean, you talk about 80 percent lowering emissions. I mean, that is such a huge shift.

And I think that's part of the way in which, and I don't mean to beat up on the big environmental groups, because they do fantastic work. But I think that part of the reason why public opinion on this issue has been so shaky is that it doesn't really add up to say to the public, you know, "This is a huge problem. It's Armageddon." You know, you have "Inconvenient Truth." You scare the hell out of people. But then you say, "Well, the solution can be very minor. You can change your light bulb. And we'll have this complicated piece of legislation called cap and trade that you don't really understand, but that basically means that companies here can keep on polluting, but they're going to trade their carbon emissions. And, you know, somebody else is going to plant trees on the other side of the planet and they'll get credits."

And people look at that going, "Okay, if this was a crisis, wouldn't be we be responding more aggressively? So wouldn't we be responding in a way that you have, we've responded in the past during war times, where there's been, you know, that kind of a collective sense of shared responsibility?" Because I think when we really do feel that sense of urgency about an issue, and I believe we should feel it about climate change, we are willing to sacrifice. We have shown that in the past. But when you hold up a supposed emergency and actually don't ask anything of people, anything major, they actually think you might be lying, that it might not really be an emergency after all. So if this is an emergency, we have to act like it. And yeah, it is a fundamental challenge. But the good news is, you know, we get to have a future for our kids.

The UN annual mega beach party about to begin in Doha: Locals urged to stay away from waterfront promenade

"The Corniche offers an unrivalled view of the city, particularly at sunset where Doha’s glittering skyline seemingly melts into water under the setting sun."  
(image by wikipedia)

The annual UN mega beach party is due to open on Monday in Doha. Having looked at what has happened in the previous COP gatherings, the Qatari organizers have made the necessary preparations: Locals are asked to stay away from the Corniche, Doha's waterfront promenade, which is reserved for the beach party:

"We would ask everyone to carefully plan their journeys and try to avoid the busiest areas if possible. These will be around the QNCC, the DEC [Doha Exhibition Centre] and the Corniche," 

Alanoud Al-Meghaisib, the head of the Accommodation, Transport and Volunteers department of the Organising Sub-Committee for COP18/CMP8.

PS

The organizers also expect that the non sinking Pearl island will be a huge success among the more discerning COP climate  tourists delegates:

"Built on top of an old pearl diving site, this luxury development on the edge of Doha is set on an artificial island shaped like a string of pearls.

With a selection of award-winning international restaurants and cafes, most with outside seating and marina views, it is a popular place to meet friends for a meal. 

The walkway around the Porto Arabia marina is always lively, with people taking an after-dinner stroll alongside the mega-yachts, or visiting the luxury clothing stores." 

For the more adventurous, there is this option:

For the more adventurous, a trip to the inland sea – Khor Al-Adaid – should not be missed.  To reach this large saltwater inlet, you must navigate 130ft dunes in a journey that is not for the faint-hearted. On reaching the natural wonder of the inland sea, you can swim in the warm waters and view the Saudi Arabia border. Trips, which can last for a half day, full day or can include a night at a traditional Bedouin camp, can be organised via tour operators.  

A visit to the the local "Ascot", the Al-Shahaniya camel racing stadium, is also expected to be a hit among the delegates:

During the winter racing season, locals gather regularly to watch the camels as they hurtle along the purpose-built stadium at speeds of up to 40kmph.  Drive out to Al Shahaniya, about 60km west of the city, to visit the stables and watch the camels train, or join the locals on race day as they drive alongside the track, cheering on the camels, which are ridden by radio-controlled robot jockeys. 

The megalomaniac Green Climate Fund

The annual UN mega climate jamboree, due to begin on November 26 in Doha is - fortunately - not expected to produce any tangible "results". However, it is going to formally endorse the Korean city of Incheon as the host city for the headquarters of the so called Green Climate Fund. 

The bureaucrats in charge of the fund and the Korean hosts seem to have megalomaniac plans for this totally useless (taxpayer funded) organisation, which will distribute cash to developing countries (dictators of the third world can't wait to lay their hands on the money!), supposedly suffering from human caused global warming:  

Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Mexico and Namibia had all vied to host GCF, an entity often referred to as the World Bank of the environmental sector. GCF’s first full year of operation will be 2020. By that time it is expected to be funded at $100 billion. If GCF expands according to current plans — which calls for core member nations to raise more capital — the fund will grow to $800 billion by 2027.

“The GCF organization will steadily expand in the future and it will have more and more affiliated groups as well,” President Lee Myung-bak told the press Saturday.

“I think it’s a blessing for the Korean people,” Lee added. “For the first time in our history, we will host one of the biggest international organizations.”

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The Songdo district is on reclaimed land in western Incheon linked to Incheon International Airport by the 7-mile long Incheon Bridge. The Incheon City government, which has run up a large deficit in developing Songdo International Business District (IBD), has been struggling to bring it to life by attracting foreign investments. The city has pledged to provide 15 floors of the district’s 33-story I-Tower building to the GCF secretariat. Once fully staffed the GCF headquarters will expand out into considerably more space.
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The GCF could ultimately become bigger than the IMF or the World Bank if member nations meet their fundraising commitments, said Kim Sang-hyup, senior presidential secretary for green growth.

I am afraid that President Lee Myung-bak - or at least his successors - will be in for a great disappointment. If there is any sanity left in the western paymaster countries the Green Climate (scam) Fund will never get the $800 billion - ore even a fraction of it. And neither will there be any need to "expand out into considerably more space" in the struggling Songdo International Business District. But even the first hundreds of overpaid international climate bureaucrats expected to fill the 15 floors in Songdo, are far too many. 

The U.S. Congress should and could play a major role in making the life span of the Green Climate Fund as short as possible. 

EU parliament president Martin Schulz full of praise for China's communist leadership

A leading candidate for the "Useful Idiot of the Year" award.

Martin Schulz, the socialist president of the European Parliament, is full of praise for the corrupted Communist party authoritarians in charge of China. This is what the enthusiastic former bookseller recently told China Daily:

Martin Schulz believes that the wheel has turned a full circle in the perceptions that Europe has on the Communist Party of China. Schulz, the current president of the European Parliament, says frequent exchanges between the CPC and the political parties in Europe have helped broaden understanding and removed most of the misconceptions.

The leader of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, however, admits that he was one of the early skeptics when the CPC mooted the idea of regular political dialogues between the two sides.

"Most of the interactions that take place now are conducted in an open-minded and pluralistic manner," says Schulz, who heads the European Parliament of 754 members from the 27 member states.

Since May 2010, the CPC and the eight political groups of the European Parliament, such as the European People's Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, have held four closed-door political dialogues on global challenges and Sino-EU cooperation in Beijing and Brussels. -

Schulz, a bookseller-turned politician, says that the CPC has not only played a pivotal role in China's major achievements during the last decade but also provided the strong and decisive leadership that was needed to take the nation forward.

After this lavish praise Schulz can expect a red carpet welcome the next time he jets in to Peking for yet another closed-door "exchange" with the red authoritarians. Behind those closed doors Herr Schulz will not have to meet any of China's persecuted dissidents and human rights activists, who - together with the millions languishing in one of the most extensive and repressive camp systems in the world - remain behind another type of closed doors. 

If there is a "Useful Idiot of the Year Prize", Martin Schulz must be one of the top candidates to receive it this year. 

The European Environment Agency joins the other scaremongers ahead of the Doha climate jamboree

Just like before earlier UN climate conferences, there is once again a coordinated scaremongering effort by the climate alarmists ahead of the the Doha UN climate jamboree, due to start next week. Today it was the taxpayer funded  European Environment Agency's turn to publish its "report":

"Every indicator we have in terms of giving us an early warning of climate change and increasing vulnerability is giving us a very strong signal," observed EEA executive director Jacqueline McGlade.

"It is across the board, it is not just global temperatures," she told BBC News.

"It is in human health aspects, in forests, sea levels, agriculture, biodiversity - the signals are coming in from right across the environment." 

• Observed climate change has "already led to a wide range of impacts on environmental systems and society; further climate change impacts are projected for the future";
• Climate change can increase existing vulnerabilities and deepen socio-economic imbalances in Europe;
• The combined impacts of projected climate change and socio-economic development is set to see the damage costs of extreme weather events continue to increase.

Professor McGlade probably did what she is expected to do in order to keep her well paid job. However, one of the scientists who wrote the report, was a little more honest in his description of what has happened:

One of the report's authors, Andre Jol, head of the EEA's vulnerability and adaptation group, added: "We know that the main increase in damage costs from natural disasters has not been from climate change, as such, but more as a result of an increase in wealth, people and infrastructure in risk areas.

"But one of the key messages from the report is that in the future, with projected increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme events, we know that climate change will contribute to the increase in the cost of damage from extreme events."

Read the entire article here

What Jol actually meant, was that that human related climate change/global warming has not contributed to the frequency and intensity of "extreme events". However, in order to safeguard his job, Jol did what warmists usually do when facts contradict their message: talk about all the terrible things to come in some distant future ... 

CIA sets an example:Closes its climate change office

A most welcome decision by CIA:

The Central Intelligence Agency has disbanded its Center on Climate Change and National Security, a unit formed in 2009 to monitor the interplay between a warming planet and intelligence and security challenges.
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Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, has been the most vocal critic of the C.I.A.’s climate change work. He welcomed the closing of its office.

“Closing the Climate Change Center at the C.I.A. was the right decision,” Mr. Barrasso said in a statement. “I offered an amendment on the Senate floor to eliminate the center because it was unnecessary, wasteful and totally out of place. It’s critically important for the C.I.A. to focus its resources on preventing terrorism and keeping Americans safe.”

Hopefully CIA's wise decision will inspire other agencies and institutions  - also outside of the U.S. - to follow suit. There are scores of useless "climate change offices" left to be closed. Waste of taxpayers' money should be prevented everywhere! 

A great haiku by Herman Van Rompuy

"In the dead of night/ an owl's hoot echoes in the void./ Hardly a soul listens," 
Herman Van Rompuy

Sometimes Herman's haiku are spot on:


Meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece, Antonis SAMARASby HermanVanRompuy1 view

Great news from Germany: Climate change is "not the highest priority" for Merkel

Climate change is - fortunately - "not the highest priority" for this lady.

As always before UN mega climate meetings, the global warming lobby - which nowadays also includes the World Bank - is desperately trying to scare politicians into "action". In Germany, chancellor Merkel's climate advisor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber is doing his part in the scare mongering campaign, but the "world famous physicist and climate researcher" appears to be rather frustrated with his boss, for whom global warming is "not the highest priority":

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a leading German climate scientist and the government's chief advisor on climate-related issues, warns that the goal of keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius by 2100 will only be possible with a massive rethinking of priorities. "We're currently on a course to see a 3.5 to 4 degree (6.3 to 7.2 degree Fahrenheit) change by the end of the century," Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), told SPIEGEL. "We've stressed time and again, that we need nothing less than a new industrial revolution, but many politicians haven't listened. They've just sat back."

Schellnhuber says that the European Union could easily achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020 relative to 1990, instead of the 20 percent it has committed to. Schellnhuber asked Chancellor Angela Merkel to form a "coalition of the willing." But unfortunately, he said, climate change is "not the highest priority" for Germany's leader.

Read the entire article here

The fact of the matter is that heads of state and government in all major countries pay only lip service to the global warming religion. If they would really believe in the enviro-fundamentalist teachings, they would certainly all gather in Doha and make the necessary decisions. But instead they concentrate on other, more urgent - and real - problems. 

Maybe it is time for Merkel to hire a new climate advisor?

Swedish economist: "Has Putin lost his mind?"

"Has Putin lost his mind?"

The Swedish economist and Russia expert Anders Åslund has written an excellent analysis of Vladimir Putin's recent energy decisions. Putin's strange measures contradict Russia's national interest, but the silver lining is that they will speed up the downfall of the dictator:
Putin's recent energy decisions are probably the most costly for the Russian energy sector since the de facto confiscation of Yukos in 2004, and they contradict Russia's national interests. Why did Putin do anything so harmful?
The most plausible explanation is that Putin's cronies want to rob Gazprom empty and turn Rosneft into their new slush fund. After one national champion has been robbed empty, a new one is created. But Rosneft is likely to fail as spectacularly as Gazprom. Because of Gazprom's unwise investment decisions, some people will extract tens of billions of dollars from Gazprom, while Novatek and Rosneft may pick up Gazprom's pieces for pennies after its collapse. This can be the robbery of the millennium.
If this is the case, corruption has gone completely out of all control. The recently exposed corruption cases of $100 million in the Defense Ministry, $200 million in the Glonass program and $500 million involving the funding of the APEC summit would appear to be diversionary maneuvers to hide the real catch.
Yet this cloud has silver linings. The extraordinary mismanagement of the Russian energy sector might actually speed up the country's economic diversification. The decline in energy rents will likely expose more corruption in the energy sector and weaken Putin's hold on power.
In all likelihood, Putin has just made the greatest mistakes of his political career. The biggest question is why Putin is carrying out this massive destabilization of his own political and economic regime. Has he lost his mind? Or does he desire destabilization to alter the nature of his regime?

Read the entire article here

Forbes contributor compares China's outgoing president with George Washington

"A great man"?

One wonders why Forbes magazine has chosen to be the "home" of fervent advocates of  two of the leading authoritarian and corrupt regimes in the world, Putin's Russia and Communist China? 

Mark Adomanis always seems to find a way to promote Vladimir Putin's mafia state, and now a "contributor" by the name of Ralph Benko compares China's outgoing leader with George Washington!:

A mark of progress is the immediate relinquishment of the role of commander-in-chief of the armed forces by outgoing leader Hu Jintao (in contrast to his predecessor, Jiang Zemin) and the investment of these powers in Xi.  As A. Greer Meisels noted in  “Power Transitions with Chinese Characteristics” inThe National Interest, “…with this move, Hu Jintao has guaranteed that this was the first clean transfer of power the CCP has seen in two decades. This is no small feat.”  This is an astute observation … and an understatement.

Hu’s act of remarkable humility bears a striking similarity to that of George Washington’s stepping down, after two terms, from a presidency he could have held for life.  It may be seen, in retrospect, as one of the most important political moments in modern Chinese — and world — history.  Voluntarily relinquishing power is a decisive move away from the Dynastic and toward humanitarian republican principles.  This act distinguishes Hu as a great man.

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China’s renaissance began with the restoration of sovereignty by Mao; continued with the generation of prosperity by Deng; was maintained by Jiang’s gamely defending China as a precariously intact nation; was furthered by the implementation by the great Hu of democratic reforms culminating with “the first clean transfer of power.”  Xi Jinping now is charged with helping China fulfill her destiny of regaining full dignity and stature, as a benevolent presence, in the councils of world leadership with cool-headed implementation of more democracy and priority embrace of human rights.

Read the entire article here

China's dissidents do not share Mr. Benko's naive view of the Chinese George Washington. This is what one of them, Yue Jie recently wrote in Foreign Policy:

With Hu's reign coming to an end, the Chinese people have realized that after Mao Zedong, no Chinese leader has been as hostile to the West as President Hu. Instead of launching political reforms, he tried to use the Chinese model of "crony capitalism" to compete with the Western democratic system. And the state of human rights in China took a huge step backward.

Leading German economist on the euro: "We are destabilizing our political system with this excessive rescue policy ..."

Hans-Werner Sinn is one of the few European economists, who dare to speak out about the failure of the euro. Sinn was one of  the early supporters of the euro project, but in an interview for the German Der Spiegel he now admits his mistake:

Sinn: I was too quick to endorse the euro because I thought it would liberate the continent from endlessly fluctuating exchange rates. My mistake was that I believed that the nations of Europe would adhere to the Maastricht Treaty and not socialize the debts of Southern European countries. Older colleagues had already pointed to this danger at the time.

In the interview Sinn says that he still hopes that the euro can be fixed, and that Greece and Portugal after a temporary exit could return to the common currency. However, when one reads his analysis, it is quite obvious that he is all but hopeful about the future of the euro (and rightly so):

Sinn: I hope that it can be fixed. The euro crisis proceeds in phases, and we are always told that there is no alternative to the next phase, because otherwise the euro would crumble. So there was supposedly no alternative when the European Central Bank (ECB) granted its TARGET loans, when it forced the German central bank, the Bundesbank, to purchase sovereign bonds from Southern European countries against its will, and when increasingly larger rescue funds were approved. Now, they are planning to create a banking union to socialize the debts of banks in Southern Europe. The next step will be the introduction of euro bonds …
SPIEGEL: … which the German government vehemently rejects.
Sinn: By the time France is hit by the crisis, as everyone fears will happen, the German government will no longer be able to refuse this demand. This development will ultimately lead to a system that has little in common with a market economy. The ECB and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the permanent successor to the current rescue fund, will then direct the flow of capital -- with the approval of euro-zone governments -- into countries where it no longer wants to go. This will result in growth losses throughout Europe, and money will continue to be thrown out the window in Southern Europe. Furthermore, it will create considerable discord because it makes closely allied countries into creditors and debtors.

Sinn does not agree with those who say that Greece's and Portugal's exit would cause enormous turmoil:

Sinn: I don't agree with the prognosis. If Greece exited the monetary union, the Greeks would purchase their own goods again, and wealthy Greeks would return to invest. And if Portugal leaves, it will have similar positive experiences. The Ifo Institute has studied some 70 currency devaluations and found that recovery begins after one to two years. We are, of course, also suggesting just a temporary exit. Greece and Portugal have to become 30 to 40 percent less expensive to be competitive again. This is being attempted through excessive austerity measures within the euro zone, but it won't work. It will drive these countries to the brink of civil war before it succeeds. Temporary exits would very quickly stabilize these countries, create new jobs and free the population from the yoke of the euro.

In Sinn's analysis, the most serious danger with the euro is this:

Euro-zone member states have made available €1,400 billion ($1,780 billion) in bailout loans, €700 billion of which has been contributed by the Bundesbank through its TARGET loans. On top of this, there is the ESM with €700 billion, which is to be leveraged to €2,000 billion with the help of private investors. This stabilizes the capital markets, but it also destabilizes the remaining stable European states and wipes out the savings of retirees and taxpayers. We are gradually sliding into a trap from which we will no longer be able to escape. This risk is, in my opinion, the greatest risk of all.

SPIEGEL: But other economists arrive at different conclusions when they analyze the situation. Honestly, if you were the chancellor, wouldn't you also take the safest apparent route forward, just as she is doing?

Sinn: I understand very well that politicians always have to bridge the gap until the next election, even if long-term dangers increase as a result. But as an economist, my time horizon is longer.

SPIEGEL: Isn't it perfectly reasonable to be extremely cautious in this situation?

Sinn: You can't convince me that it makes sense to stand by idly and watch as we take on increasingly greater risks. We are destabilizing our political system with this excessive rescue policy ...

SPIEGEL: ... but not if the rescue succeeds.

Sinn: I think that is rather unlikely because it would give us the wrong prices and thus result in a lack of competitiveness in the countries that are receiving public loans. I can't save drug addicts by meeting their demands for more drugs.

Read the entire interview here

Alarmist hedge fund manager Jeremy Grantham urges scientists to be arrested

Alarmist hedge fund manager Jeremy Grantham in Nature:

"Be persuasive. Be brave. Be arrested (if necessary)"

"It is crucial that scientists take more career risks and sound a more realistic, more desperate, note on the global-warming problem. Younger scientists are obsessed by thoughts of tenure, so it is probably up to older, senior and retired scientists to do the heavy lifting. Be arrested if necessary. This is not only the crisis of your lives — it is also the crisis of our species’ existence. I implore you to be brave."

Indeed, Grantham is probably right about one thing - it would be nice to see more of the global warming hoaxsters sit in jail.

Rooting for the Gallic rooster

Applaudes for CAP, the cornerstone of  EUSSR

Quote of the week:

"There can be no question of withdrawing even one euro from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)." 

Jean-Marc Ayrault
Prime Minister, France

Ayrault's boss, fellow socialist Francois Holland, will instead push for European Union to raise taxes at the "summit" later this week. Let us hope that  le coq gaulois sticks to his guns. If so, the EUSSR will be one step closer to its final destination, which it shares with all other failed empires ....

The European Union in a nutshell

The 500-million European parliament building in Strasbourg, where the parliament's 754 members meet 12 times a year at a cost of $230 million.

Citizens all over Europe have to try to make ends meet amid a growing number of austerity measures and a worsening recession. But life in the huge bureaucracy called the European Union continues as if nothing would have changed:

Reuters is to be congratulated for publishing the following brief facts about the European Union:

• The European Parliament shifts its base once a month from Brussels to Strasbourg in France, at an annual cost of 180 million euros ($230 million).
• The European Council, which represents member states, is building a new ‘Europa' headquarters right next door to its existing marble-and-glass building, at a cost of 310 million euros.
• The European Court of Auditors, another EU institution, announced on November 6 that 4 percent of spending in the last EU budget had been "irregular", although this was largely due to mismanagement by member states.
• EU civil servants get generous health and pension benefits and free private education for their children in Brussels' leafy neighborhoods.
• EU institutions have cellars stocked with nearly 47,000 bottles of red, white and sparkling winewith a total value of 515,000 euros, according to a response to questions from German Member of the European Parliament Martin Ehrenhauser.

"Probably Europe's most bizarre set-up is the 500-million euro parliament building in Strasbourg. The parliament's 754 members meet 12 times a year there, even though they also have a complex in Brussels.

Each time the parliament moves to Strasbourg, more than 5,000 people travel the 350 km (217 miles) from Brussels, many of them in two specially laid-on high-speed trains or on charter flights. A lorry picks up a trunk of documents from each lawmaker's Brussels office on Friday evening and delivers it to his or her office in Strasbourg's gleaming, glass parliament by Monday morning.

"I've yet to go to a meeting in my constituency where someone doesn't say, ‘Why on earth do you still go to Strasbourg and Brussels?'" says Edward McMillan-Scott, the British leader of a campaign to abolish the Strasbourg seat. He commissioned a 2011 study that put its total cost at 180 million euros a year.

But the system is written into the EU's treaties.

This year, parliament cut back one trip. France said that was against EU treaties, and Paris took the parliament to the European Court of Justice. A preliminary opinion sided with the French, and a final judgment is expected in the next few weeks."

(image by wikipedia)

The Brussels eurocrats never miss an opportunity to regulate and control the lives of citizens - and companies

The Brussels bureaucrats are constantly working to find new ways of increasing control and regulation of citizens - and companies:

After weeks of wrangling over the issue, the European Commission approved a draft law that would create a gender quota for non-executive directors of stock-listed companies across the European Union. If approved, the new regulations would stipulate that women occupy 40 percent of the seats on the non-executive boards of Europe's roughly 5,000 publicly traded companies by 2020. In instances where candidates' professional qualifications were the same, women would also be given preference, should they be under-represented in that company. Companies that do not adhere to the rules could be sanctioned.

The proposal is a watered-down version of one put forward by the quota's long-time champion, European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who vowed not to give up after her first effort was blocked by the Commission in September.

But the proposal must still be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, the powerful EU body that comprises the leaders of the 27 member states. This may prove difficult because a few countries, including Germany and the United Kingdom, are opposed to a legally binding gender quota.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert spoke out against approving the law after its announcement on Wednesday, a position that was emphasized once again on Thursday by one of the quota's biggest opponents in Germany, conservative Minister of Family and Women's Affairs Kristina Schröder, who favors a voluntary regulation she has dubbed the "flexi-quota."
"Europe shouldn't decide on things that member states can better regulate themselves," she told the daily Wiesbadener Kurier.

Read the entire article here

Leftist and left-leaning German newspapers appear to be for the new proposal, but fortunately at least  one conservative paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, is questioning the wisdom of Mrs. Reding's efforts:

"Still, the EU is sawing off its own branches, so to speak. Reding's wish for the European Commission to be yet more political, if that is possible, opposes the wishes of the individual member states who support the Union. The mantra 'more Europe,' which has been accepted amid the debt crisis, will not be parroted in every area. On the contrary, the general competence of the EU, often supported by the member states, is actually considered a cause of Europe's crisis of confidence. When moral interventionism is piled on top of all that, it's time for the Union to reflect upon its condition."

PS

If Mrs. Reding, a Luxembourg politician, currently serving as European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, succeeds in her efforts, the logical next step for her is to start working on an extension of the law, calling for mandatory quotas for homosexuals and lesbians in the boardrooms. And why not also quotas e.g. for muslims, atheists, children, retired people, you name it ....

There are still thousands of unheard of new regulations waiting to be introduced by the unelected and overpaid  eurocrats. And they know, that every new European directive and regulation leads to an even bigger bureaucracy to control the lives of ordinary citizens .....