A newspaper cutting showing the faces of victims killed on Bloody Sunday is stuck to a memorial dedicated to them, in the Bogside area of Londonderry, Northern Ireland on June 15, 2010. The Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday will be published today after 12 years and a cost of £190 million pounds (275 million dollars, 230 million euros), the 5,000-page report examines the events of January 30, 1972 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, when 13 civilians were shot dead by British soldiers at a civil rights march. AFP PHOTO/Peter Muhly
Bloody Sunday (1972) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bloody Sunday (Irish: Domhnach na Fola)?sometimes called the Bogside Massacre?
Bloody Sunday – The Saville verdict on Britain’s masacre of the innocents in Northern Ireland, Tom Griffin
Blogger Splintered Sunrise sums up the mood of a historic day:
It would seem that on the big issue ? the innocence of those shot on Bloody Sunday ? Saville has been unambiguous. From the reaction of the crowd in Derry, and specifically the families, that is the main thing they were looking for. After not only seeing their loved ones killed, but then seeing them being traduced by the now discredited Widgery report, what they wanted first and foremost was that vindication ? the formal acknowledgement that those killed were unarmed civilians whose deaths were unprovoked and unjustified. That is also what?s behind the warm response to David Cameron?s statement ? notwithstanding Cameron?s obligatory encomia to the British military, Cameron will get credit for playing this straight, and the frank admission of injustice by a Tory (and unionist) British prime minister means an awful lot, especially since the state took this long to admit any fault whatsoever.
MAIN FOCUS: British condemn Bloody Sunday | 16/06/2010
British Prime Minister David Cameron issued an official apology on Tuesday for the fatal shots fired by the British army at Northern Irish demonstrators on Bloody Sunday in 1972. The apology followed the publication of an extensive investigation, which has received across the board acknowledgement in the European press.
‘Bloody Sunday Inquiry’ publishes report into British Army killing of activists in Northern Ireland
from Wikinews
A Euroblogger’s report from the EPP Summit
When the Euroblogger enters unknown territory, she or he doesn’t know whether he or she is walking into a gold mine or a mine field – and my participation at the EPP Summit ahead of the June European Council meeting was such a move into unknown territory.
Disarray in Berlin is bad for Europe
Belgian elections: a new start?
On June 13, federal elections took place in Belgium. The results are along the lines of the predictions. Both the Flemish nationalists of the New Flemish Alliance (NV-A), headed by Bart De Wever, and the Francophone Social Democrats (PS), led by Elio Di Rupo, emerged as the winning parties.
Flemish nationalists triumph in Belgium
The N-VA, a nationalist party, secured a sweeping victory in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium in national elections held on Sunday (13 June), paving the way for more powers to be delegated to the regions in the country that hosts the EU institutions.
MAIN FOCUS: Separatist protest vote in Belgium | 14/06/2010
The Flemish separatists have emerged as the strongest party from Belgium’s early parliamentary elections. In the Francophone southern half of the country the Socialist Party came out well ahead of outgoing Prime Minister Yves Leterme’s Christian Democrats. Although the separatists’ victory does not mean Belgium will fall apart, it poses a major problem to Europe, writes the press.
Separatist party wins big in Belgian election
European Council and Project Europe 2030: Challenges and opportunities
On Thursday, 17 June 2010 the European Council says something positive about Project Europe 2030 ? Challenges and Opportunities: A report to the European Council by the Reflection Group on the Future of the EU 2030.
Germany wary of French EU vision
Why the fuss about Obama?s anti-British campaign?
I was interviewed on the radio yesterday about the so-called Special Relationship, and the possible harm that was being done to it by President Obama?s attacks on BP. ?British Petroleum?, he calls it, but it changed its name to BP years ago. And most of its staff are American, and the actual oil well was operated by an American company, and so on. It is not fair to blame Britain for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. What does President Obama think he is doing?
Fiscal Austerity: The cases of Ireland and Spain
Paul Krugman looks at Ireland and Spain for evidence that fiscal austerity reassures markets ?
The countries responded differently, however. Ireland quickly embraced harsh austerity; Spain has had to be dragged into austerity, and still faces major political unrest.
So, how?s it going? ? if by ?markets impressed? you mean a CDS spread of 226 basis points [Ireland], compared with 206 points for Spain; not to mention a 10-year bond rate of 5.11 percent, compared with 4.46 percent for Spain.
The eurozone retreats into a beggar-thy-neighbour cul-de-sac
by Simon Tilford
Almost every member of the eurozone is rushing to slash public spending. While there is no doubting the scale of the fiscal challenge, the eurozone economy is not strong enough to cope with the contractionary effects of a generalised budgetary tightening. And if the eurozone falls back into recession, there will be no chance of putting public finances on a sustainable footing. Furthermore, excessive austerity in Europe will make it even harder to bring about the necessary rebalancing of the global economy, risking a protectionist backlash in the US. Unfortunately, these risks will receive scant attention when European leaders come together for this week’s summit in Brussels.
FT video: The end of the Franco-German axis?
Background note European Council 17 June 2010: Europe 2020 strategy
As we have seen during the course of several blog entries, the draft agendas and the General Affairs Council (GAC) were not particularly informative. The draft conclusions of the European Council are kept under wraps. A short while ago, the only document (admittedly) submitted to the European Council was the annotated draft agenda from 7 May. No clarifying background notes had been published.
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