EADS chief faces German parliament over BAE merger plans

The chief executive of the defence and aerospace firm EADS will be called before Germany's parliament on Wednesday as concerns about its planned merger with BAE Systems continued to worry Europe.

Tom Enders, head of the Franco-German company, who is a former German paratrooper, will be asked to reassure politicians that the £29bn merger will not lead to job cuts, threaten national security, or shortchange German shareholders.

The political grilling comes after Germany's government called for the terms of the £29bn deal to be altered in EADS' favour, and listed a string of concerns.

Germany's economic ministry called the 60:40 split "incorrect" and requested it be changed to "closer to 70:30".

Investment bankers, who stand to collect almost £50m in fees if the deal goes ahead, are also said to be privately fighting over the terms. One EADS adviser told Reuters: "The ratio could be changed up to three percentage points in favour of EADS." Each firm denied there were any formal discussions to change the ratio.

The politically sensitive deal will be discussed by British, French and German defence ministers in Cyprus on Wednesday or Thursday. The UK government has begun an inquiry into the deal to examine the impact on British jobs and exports, and any potential threat to national security. Under British takeover rules the companies have until 10 October to submit merger proposals or request an extension. Defence analysts said they expected the firms to submit outline details before the deadline but warned that of political wrangling over terms and ringfencing of nationally sensitive projects to continue over months to come.

"This is very, very, early days. Politicians are broadly relaxed this is moving in the right direction, despite comments," said Howard Wheeldon, director of policy at the arms industry trade body ADS. "They will have to go to shareholders and governments and truly convince them of valuation and strategy.

"It comes down to how the national interests of each country are going to be protected and what each country is going to demand [in] the deal."

Germany, via Daimler, and France, via direct state holdings and the industrial group Lagardère, hold a 22.225% stake each in EADS. SEPI in Spain owns just over 5%. Those stakes would be reduced in line with the 60:40 split ratio giving the national governments much less power over the combined company.

Britain does not have an equity stake in BAE but holds a "golden share", meaning it can block deals on security grounds. BAE and EADS are suggesting that the French and German governments are also awarded "golden shares" in the combined company.

As well as securing the agreements of European leaders, BAE and EADS will also have to persuade American politicians to support the deal.

BAE holds a "special security arrangement" with the Pentagon that allows it to work on some of America's biggest, most sensitive, security projects, including the $1.5 trillion F-35 joint strike fighter programme.

BAE is only able to hold this special status because it has set up an American subsidiary run by security-cleared US citizens at arms' length from its UK headquarters.

EADS also has such an arrangement but it is not as extensive as that held by BAE and it does not allow the Franco-German company as much access.

The US air force secretary, Michael Donley, said the US defence department needed more details to be able to assess the security implications of the proposed tie-up.

There is a concern that BAE's SSA could be downgraded if the deal went ahead.

Sources close to BAE said the company would pull out of the deal if there was no way to maintain the high-grade SSA.


Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/25/eads-chief-german-parliament-bae-merger

Environmental Audit Committee publishes report on Protecting the Arctic

The Environmental Audit Committee has today published the report of its inquiry into Protecting the Arctic.

• Report: Protecting the Arctic
• Inquiry: Protecting the Arctic
• Environmental Audit Committee

In a report on Protecting the Arctic, published today, the Environmental Audit Committee calls for a halt on oil drilling until:

• A pan-Arctic oil spill response standard is in place
• A stricter financial liability regime for oil and gas operations is introduced that requires companies to prove that they can meet the costs of cleaning up
• An oil and gas industry group is set up to peer-review companies' spill response plans and operating practices, reporting publicly
• Further independent research and testing on oil spill response techniques in Arctic conditions is conducted, including an assessment of their environmental side-effects
• An internationally recognised environmental sanctuary is established in at least part of the Arctic

Chair of the Committee, Joan Walley MP, said:

"The oil companies should come clean and admit that dealing with an oil spill in the icy extremes of the Arctic would be exceptionally difficult.

The infrastructure to mount a big clean-up operation is simply not in place and conventional oil spill response techniques have not been proven to work in such severe conditions.

Drilling is only currently feasible in the Arctic during a short summer window when it is relatively ice-free.

We heard compelling evidence that if a blow-out occurred just before the dark Arctic winter returned it may not be possible to cap it until the following summer - potentially leaving oil spewing out under the ice for six months or more with devastating consequences for wildlife"

The report also looks at the effect that climate change is having on the Arctic. It warns that a collapse in summer Arctic sea-ice, increased methane emissions from thawing permafrost, melting of the Greenland ice-sheet and changes to the thermo-haline circulation could all have disastrous consequences for the world - pushing up sea levels and transforming weather patterns.

Temperature rises in the Arctic are already affecting the UK's weather, according to evidence submitted to the inquiry. The UK is warming more slowly when compared with the rest of continental Europe, as the decrease in the thermo-haline circulation means that less heat is being brought to Britain by the Gulf Stream.

Chair of the Committee, Joan Walley MP, added:

"The shocking speed at which the Arctic sea ice is melting should be a wake-up call to the world that we need to phase out fossil fuels fast.

Instead we are witnessing a reckless gold rush in this pristine wilderness as big companies and governments make a grab for the world's last untapped oil and gas reserves."

The report points out that there are already more proven fossil fuel reserves in the world, than can be burnt safely if we want to keep global temperature rises below dangerous thresholds. The MPs accuse the Government of failing to demonstrate how future oil and gas extraction from the Arctic can be reconciled to commitments to limit the overall temperature increase to 2oC. And they call on it to rethink its approach to combating climate change by tackling the supply of fossil fuels, as well as demand.

Caroline Lucas MP, a member of the Committee, said:

"This hard hitting, cross party report comes at a time when the race to carve up the Arctic is accelerating faster than our regulatory or technical capacity to manage it.

The Arctic oil rush is bringing unprecedented risks to the area, and it’s now clear that the consequences of any potential oil spill would be catastrophic.

The UK government now has a responsibility to respond to this EAC report and show vital leadership on the issue by doing all it can to urgently secure a moratorium on Arctic drilling – starting with companies registered in this country."

Joan Walley MP, concluded:

"Concerns over climate change should be recognised internationally as a limiting factor on any new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic."

Source: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environmental-audit-committee/news/announcement-of-report-publication1/

UK Parliament ponders shift from Westminster

LONDON (AP) — Welcome to Eastminster?

After hosting record-breaking athletes and jubilant crowds, east London's Olympic Park could find its next tenants are British lawmakers who may have to temporarily quit their storied home amid major repairs to the centuries-old complex.

House of Commons lawmaker John Thurso told colleagues Thursday that officials are considering how best to handle badly needed improvements at the Palace of Westminster to remove asbestos, improve weatherproofing and upgrade electric supplies and water.

He said about 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) of repairs had already been delayed. The medieval Palace of Westminster hosted legislative sessions from around the 13th century, but became Parliament's permanent home only in the 16th century after King Henry VIII moved out. Although the 900-year-old Westminster Hall is still in place, most other buildings in the complex were rebuilt after a major fire in 1834.

Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords — Britain's unelected upper chamber — meet at the palace, hosting Queen Elizabeth II once a year in a lavish ceremony.

Lawmakers last moved from their traditional chambers when bombs fell on Parliament during World War II, setting the Commons on fire. Legislators returned only in 1950, after the House of Commons was rebuilt.

Thurso said if lawmakers left Westminster and held sessions elsewhere, the repairs could likely be completed in two to three years. Trying to carry out improvements during Parliament's vacation periods would stretch the work to at least 10 years, he said.

"I have found that it is usually better to take two or more years and get the job done than to be inconvenienced and unable to work properly for 10 years," said Thurso, who formerly worked as a hotelier.

Meg Hillier, a lawmaker with the opposition Labour Party, urged legislators to relocate to the now-vacant media center at Olympic Park. She represents Hackney South and Shoreditch, close to the Olympic Park.

"It could happily house Parliament in the interim while the work is done," Hillier said.

Conservative lawmaker Michael Fabricant insisted that Birmingham in central London, Britain's second largest city, should host Parliament during any break from London.

Thurso said all options for a possible relocation "can be placed on the table."

"Such a project would be a major undertaking and a final decision will not be taken for some time," he told the House of Commons.

Source: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/UK-Parliament-ponders-shift-from-Westminster-3862883.php

No need for Assembly when we still have our ancient parliament

Cornwall has a constitutional, customary and chartered right to its own parliament and judiciary. Its legitimate powers far exceed any that can be prescribed by whatever form of devolved assembly.

The Cornish people's irrevocable right to their own sovereign parliament is unique within the island of Britain.With such an indisputable right, it seems unpatriotic that some Cornish people strive for a devolved assembly which would merely give an illusion of some small degree of power. Surely their own parliament, the oldest surviving on earth, is worthy of their support.

"Power devolved is power retained," said Enoch Powell.

Two Conservative MPs – George Eustice and Sarah Newton – calling for the Cornish Assembly campaign to be ditched, said in the WMN recently Cornwall must "reject the politics of victimhood and isolation".

Victimisation. Yes, Cornish people have been, and continue to be, victimised over a period of some 1,000 years and more, by:

The ethnic cleansing of the Cornish from Exeter by Athelstan (Tribal leader of Wessex – 936AD)

The imposition of partial Norman French rule 1068 AD, and the removal of the Cornish head of State with the later replacement by a Norman Earl.

The creation of a Norman French Duke in 1337.

Being forced to resist (at great loss of life) excessive taxation 1497.

Being forced to resist (again at great loss of life) an imposed English religion in 1549 and the subsequent attempted extermination of their language.

Being double-taxed as foreigners from 1337 to 1837.

Suffering multiple forms of discrimination and assimilation, particularly since the 1950s, leading eventually to effective ethnic cleansing.

Although being the elder of the indigenous people of Britain, being denied the right of inclusion into "The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities" by an England- dominated Westminster Parliament in 2012.

Isolation – No.

The Cornish diaspora of some six million people of Cornish descent around the world does not invite the description "isolation".

The Cornish nation is the best situated in the island of Britain with regard to trade by sea. Pythaes of Massilia, a Greek recorder in 310BC, described the Cornish as being "civilised in their mode of life owing to their contact with foreign merchants".

Cornish people have not merely a "sense" of identity, but the actual identity of being a nation in their own right, in that they are descendants of the very earliest inhabitants of Britain, this recently verified by the latest scientific genetic study of the peoples of Britain.

They say – "In ancient times Cornwall had its own Stannary Parliament."

The Cornish trading system which predates both Greeks and Romans required its own governmental and legislative system which has continued until now, making the Cornish Stannary Parliament effectively the oldest surviving parliament on Earth.

It has long been recognised by successive extant Royal Charters, British governments and European governmental institutions.

They say – "…to create a modern day "Stannary Chamber" made up of the chairmen of all the parish and town councils to perform a scrutiny role…."

 

The ancient Cornish Stannary Parliament in this modern day is performing an exemplary "scrutiny role" by at the moment revealing and resisting the "actual assimilation" of Cornish people into a non-existent England to the west of the Tamar and, into a false sense of Englishness. The actual assimilation of Cornish people is also being conducted by misinformation by all forms of media, and mis-education by an imposed English state educational system. For George Eustice, a Cornishman, to even suggest such a degradation of the ancient Stannary system as a false "Stannary Chamber" may be seen as a desire on his part to further the "policy of assimilation".

As devolution may be seen to threaten the existence of the Duchy, and therefore the Duke, perhaps the devolutionists may be better employed by supporting Cornwall's own parliament with its irrevocable chartered right to convene, thereby assisting in the continuance of Cornwall's rightful status of one of the four nations of Britain and Cornwall's inclusion in "The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities" with the subsequent benefits and protection deriving from European acceptance.

"The Cornwall Council considers the Cornish to be a national minority under the convention".

It would be refreshing if these MPs would cease to indulge in such comments and support the Cornish people by assisting in their inclusion into the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

Source: http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/need-Assembly-ancient-parliament/story-16892124-detail/story.html

Government faces new claims over rendition flights from British airports

THE UK government faces new questions over what it knew about allegations of extraordinary rendition flights from British airports.

The European Parliament is to press the UK, and other member states, about the CIA process of moving suspects around the world.

It had been claimed that, between October 2001 and July 2003, Prestwick Airport was used on four occasions by CIA-sponsored planes to refuel aircraft which were involved in transporting suspected terrorists to countries where they may undergo torture.

However, a Westminster committee said it found no evidence to support this.

Alyn Smith, an SNP MEP, said: “The allegations about extraordinary rendition are well known and the alleged treatment meted out to those in custody would add up to a succession of human rights violations on an incredible scale.

“Abduction, detention without trial, disappearance, secret prisons and torture have no place in any civilised society no matter what offence people are suspected of.

“I’m pleased that the European Parliament motion, which I believe will pass without difficulty, is putting new pressure on all member state governments to investigate and make it 
clear what went on in their countries.”

Source: http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/government-faces-new-claims-over-rendition-flights-from-british-airports-1-2517606

PREVIEW-UPDATE 1-G4S boss readies for more Parliament grilling

(Reuters) - Embattled security firm G4S will be forced to relive its embarrassing London Olympics staffing failure on Tuesday when its boss returns for a second showdown with British lawmakers demanding to know how the debacle was allowed to happen.

Group Chief Executive Nick Buckles and David Taylor-Smith, who is the group's UK and Africa CEO, w ill be pressed for further explanation of the recruitment failure which has hit shares and raised questions about its prospects on future deals.

"Everyone now accepts that G4S let the country down before the Olympics began. We need to ascertain the reasons why this happened and who else was responsible for the pre-Olympics shambles," Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee and a member of Parliament for the opposition Labour party, told Reuters.

Vaz said the committee had quizzed Home Secretary Theresa May, who is in charge of domestic security, on Thursday, and had received a detailed letter outlining the department's oversight of the contract and the minister's meetings with Buckle and the Olympics organizers during the run-up to the Games.

G4S, the world's largest security firm, which in Britain runs services for airports, prisons, immigration and the police, admitted just 16 days before the Games began that it could not supply a promised 10,400 venue guards.

It eventually raised 7,800 at peak times, leaving the military to make up the shortfall.

The failure embarrassed the government, one of G4S's core clients which accounts for more than half of its 1.8 billion pounds British revenue. More than 20 percent of its pipeline of potential UK work also stems from that market.

Those numbers mean the UK public sector is one of the biggest global clients for the group, whose revenue for 2012 is forecast at just over 8 billion pounds according to a Reuters poll of 21 analysts.

G4S has said it expects to take a 50 million pound ($79.7 million) loss over the contract failure, but the potential for a longer-lasting reputational blow goes beyond the UK market.

A week before it conceded recruitment problems, the company told Reuters it expected its work at the 2012 Games would help it win a bigger share of a four-year cycle of global events whose safety and security budget has been estimated at more than $10 billion.

INTERNAL REVIEW

Buckles' return to Parliament also comes at a time when his tenure as chief executive hangs on the soon-expected result of an internal management review into the failure.

The board's decision could be swayed by whether the group wins any of nine imminent British prison deals, that will indicate the government's appetite to work with G4S at a time when its Olympic woes have put its plans for increased private sector involvement under scrutiny.

G4S's first attempt to repair the damage came in July when Buckles was hauled before the Home Affairs Committee to explain why the army had to be asked so late to fill his firm's shortfall.

But his nervy appearance begged more questions than answers and ended with him admitting the company's reputation was in tatters.

Buckles, a 27-year company veteran, has nevertheless been backed to stay in his post by major shareholders, many of whom stood by him in November despite an earlier debacle when he had to pull a 5.2 billion pounds bid for Danish cleaning firm ISS.

The group has largely prospered under Buckles, who has presided over a share price rise of some 70 percent and an increase in its market value to 3.5 billion pounds since being elevated to CEO in July 2005, a year after a transformational merger between Group 4 Falck and Securicor.

Last month Buckles, who put his uncertain first appearance in Parliament down to a lack of preparation time, said G4S had not lost any customers in the Olympic fallout and had received "a lot" of supportive letters from clients around the world.

Yet shares in the FTSE 100 member have yet to fully recover from the Olympic crisis and remain around 11 percent lower than before the company's shock admission of failure.

Analyst Kean Marden at brokerage Jefferies said institutional shareholders' support would likely result in Buckles keeping his job, but the biggest threat would come when G4S seeks further UK public sector business.

"The prison contracts are the more appropriate litmus test (for Buckles)," Marden said. "It'll be the degree to which G4S participates in the next wave of prison outsourcing, but also how the police outsourcing momentum develops over the next six months as well."

Tuesday's committee meeting will also hear testimony from Olympic organising chiefs Paul Deighton and Seb Coe. ($1 = 0.6275 British pounds) (Editing by David Holmes and Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/07/britain-g4s-hearing-idUSL6E8K7M6B20120907

Parliament: Student visa checks in 'chaos'

LONDON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of immigrants allowed into England as students are actually not in school but working illegally, a Parliament committee charges.

A program to check the immigrants' visa status is in "chaos," the panel says, three years after it was put in place, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The U.K. Border Agency abandoned existing checks on foreign students in 2009 before a new monitoring program was fully in place, Commons Public Accounts Committee said in a report issued Monday.

As a result, between 40,000 and 50,000 immigrants claiming to be students came to the United Kingdom in the first year alone but worked instead, the report claimed.

Since then, the Border Agency has been "playing catch-up," said Margaret Hodge, the chairperson of the committee.

"The result of the agency's poorly planned and ill-thought out course of action was chaos: an immediate high level of abuse of the new system and a surge in the number of student visas," she said.

The report was released a week after authorities revoked London Metropolitan University's ability to accept foreign students after it failed to address what immigration minister Damian Green called "serious systemic failings."

The vice-chancellor of LMU, Malcolm Gillies, said Tuesday the university would "fundamentally contest" the revocation, The Guardian reported.

Gillies said the Border Agency had changed its requirements at least 14 times in the last three years and that it had failed to notify the university of its concerns over the past six months.

He added that the agency had not checked its findings with the university before banning it from accepting foreign students.

Gillies said the university would contest the decision in court this week. If the order stands, he said it would affect to 2,600 foreign students and cost the school $47.6 million.


Source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/09/04/Parliament-Student-visa-checks-in-chaos/UPI-88821346768539/

CAG has only done its job

The Comptroller & Auditor General's Report on allocation of coal blocks has created countrywide uproar and the working of Parliament has been stalled.

Questions are being raised about the mandate of CAG and whether it has overstepped its jurisdiction. The role of CAG should be understood in the context of our constitutional framework.

The framers of the Indian Constitution recognised its importance as a key instrument in ensuring the accountability of the Executive to Parliament and gave it an exalted position so that it can work without fear or favour.

Dr B R Ambedkar observed in the Constituent Assembly that he is, 'probably the most important officer in the Constitution of India, and his duties are far more important than the duties even of the judiciary'.

Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President, had commented that CAG, 'has the power to call to account any officer, however highly placed, so far as State money is concerned'.

In India we have adopted the British system of parliamentary democracy. Britain had to undergo centuries of struggle to secure Parliament's supremacy over the Executive (Monarchy), dating back to Magna Carta (1215) and Bill of Rights (1688) and culminating in enactment of the Exchequer and Audit Act of 1866, which created an independent office of CAG, which would audit all government departments and make a report to Parliament to be examined by its Committee of Public Accounts.

The institution of public audit has been evolving all over the world in keeping with the deepening of democracy and the need for accountability of government in view of its increasing role in a complex technocratic world.

In order to strengthen parliamentary control, the UK Audit Act was amended in 1983 and CAG made an Officer of the House of Commons and legal backing given to him for conducting economy, efficiency and effectiveness audit.

During the 1990s, advanced Commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand amended their Audit acts and made provisions similar to that in UK, and made CAG an officer of Parliament with powers to conduct efficiency audit of government operations.

The US Government Accountability Office since its inception, has been recognised as a legislative branch agency and reports on a wide variety of subjects from federal fiscal issues and debt control to aviation security, gun control and counter-terrorism matters.

In continental countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium there are Audit Courts and these act like judicial bodies. The French Cour des Comptes has the power to recover improperly expended public funds or cash deficits from defaulting officers.

The Indian CAG's role in conducting performance audit should be understood in this background. In the past it has received massive support from Parliament, its Public Accounts Committee and general public and earned their goodwill.

This has emboldened it to bring out perceptive reports on matters of national importance. The country is facing a severe shortage of electricity due to the inadequate production of coal and demand is being met by resorting to heavy imports at huge costs.

Government has formulated a policy that private players may be brought in for production of coal as the public sector Coal India and its subsidiaries are unable to meet the demand.

The CAG's Report highlights loopholes in the implementation of this policy. Most of the private players who were allotted coal blocks are simply sitting on it, without augmenting production, as they were given mines practically for free. The value of the coal reserves, which have been allocated to 57 parties, is of the order of Rs 1.86 lakh crore, based on normative valuation of difference between cost of production and sale price.

This wind-fall profit to private players would not have accrued had a system of auction been adopted.

How a private player can secure extraordinary benefits becomes evident in the manner in which coal blocks have been allocated for power projects owned by Reliance Power Ltd. 

Out of four contracts for Ultra Mega Power Projects three have been bagged by RPL including Sasan with 3960 MW capacity each. Two coal mines were allocated for Sasan and a tariff of Rs 1.196 per unit fixed for a 20-year period. Subsequently, a third coal block, Chatrasal, was also allocated to Sasan after de-allocating it from NTPC, with the provision that surplus coal could be used for its Chitrangi project.

As the tariff for these two plants, Chitrangi MP and UP, has been fixed higher (Rs 2.450 and Rs 3.702), as they have to source coal from the market, they will get the benefit of using 9 million tonne of coal annually from the captive mines of Sasan plant, which would substantially reduce its cost of production.

The Coalgate controversy focuses attention on a key policy issue- the role of the private sector in coal exploration and electricity generation. Surely it cannot be the policy of the government to whittle away the role of public sector Coal India, NTPC etc and palm off valuable national assets to the private sector at disadvantageous terms.

It must be recognised that there is enough space both for the public sector and the private sector in view of the country's vast infrastructural need. But there is a caveat- the private sector should not be allowed to thrive at the cost of the public sector and should play by the rules of the game.

The situation which has emerged today is a typical case of 'nationalisation of losses and privatisation of profit', to quote economist J K Galbraith. The CAG Report would be able to serve its purpose, if corrective action is taken and a pragmatic policy evolved to meet the country's vast infrastructural need for coal and power.

The supreme audit institutions are internationally recognised as the guardian of national finance working on behalf of Parliament.

Any attempt to undermine the institution of CAG will seriously dilute Parliament's ability to hold the government of the day to account and damage our fragile democracy.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2197813/CAG-job.html