Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
THE G8 LEADERS have expressed their support for Greece to stay in the eurozone during their summit hosted by US President Barack Obama at Camp David in Maryland.
In a joint statement, the leaders said they agree “on the importance of a strong and cohesive eurozone for global stability and recovery”.
“We affirm our interest in Greece remaining in the eurozone while respecting its commitments,” the statement continued.
In his blog this evening, the BBC’s North America editor Mark Mardell described the statement as “distinctly grumpy” and a very lukewarm gesture of support for Greece.
Regarding ongoing difficulties in the eurozone, the leaders said they welcome ongoing discussion on generating growth “while maintaining a firm commitment to implement fiscal consolidation to be assessed on a structural basis”.
Advertisement
They also issued a note on protecting intellectual property rights:
Given the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) to stimulating job and economic growth, we affirm the significance of high standards for IPR protection and enforcement, including through international legal instruments and mutual assistance agreements, as well as through government procurement processes, private-sector voluntary codes of best practices, and enhanced customs cooperation, while promoting the free flow of information.
The leaders also said that the global economy is showing signs of recovery, but warned that “significant headwinds persist”.
In a press briefing today, Obama said that the leaders had discussed “core issues that affect our common security” and are unified on their approach to Iran.
“I think all of us are agreed that Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear power,” he said, “but that it’s continuing violations of international rules and norms and its inability thus far to convince the world community that it’s not pursuing the weaponisation of nuclear power is something of grave concern to all of us.”
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Hard to know. Scaring the sh1t out of the greek people with an election a few weeks away would certainly follow their MO of thinly veiled threats against uppity countries who are getting to vote, lest democracy breaks out and the people get to make a decision without having a gun to their head.
ya have to love it, greece is sliding the rest of the way down the shitter, spain and italy aren’t far behind, we’re just about managing to thread water by flapping our ears while we have both hands tied behind our backs at great toll to our society, nation, population and sovereignty and the Euro could be about to collapse but they want to make sure you can’t buy knock off Prada or get for free extortionately priced software to use as a hobbyist, or download some crappy film that ought to have made ppl enough money in the cinema anyway! It’s all about priorities! They have theirs that’s for sure!
Ms Merkel and her austerity message ought to be heeded, she is excellence personified. leaders should be judged by their past achievements current intellect & future possible aspirations. Ms Merkel is a leader who leads by example. most other leaders do not lead by example, and as a leader it really ought to be mandatory. Germany is an amazing country, they aren’t a successful world super power by accident.
Ms Merkel does not have OUR interests at heart. It doesn’t matter how sound her plans are if they involve maintaining Germany’s advantage at the expense of the rest of us.
got to love the nutters who drag out the Nazi references.
Finlands been doing quite well (although they are well pissed about having to bail out the likes of Ireland). I wonder why this vast German conspiracy has targeted Ireland but not Finland?
I agree Neil, the irony is that it was a fianna fail decision to attach our sovereign debt to bank debt, a decision the Germans and french were actually a bit annoyed with.
Yeah right, you think the Germans wanted Ireland to let the banks fail??
I don’t think so. I agree though, our inept politicians got Ireland into the mess it’s in. The bank guarantee was the final straw for me.
Thats what I thought and to reward that, theyre getting a better rate than we are are we are getting threatened while we are hearing that no one is gonna let Greece leave the EU or go under but that we are f*cked!??
Not at all! Just wondering why we arent being treated the same.
Why are we getting threats and told that we’ll all die if we vote no yet the Greeks are being told that the EU wont let them sink.
That’s right Caroline. The EU were well aware that Greece had cooked the books. They even rewarded the “head chef” Papademos by letting him be unelected leader of Greece while they delayed elections.
I suppose it suited the IMF to have a guy like that in charge while they asset stripped Greece, leaving the Greek citizens queuing at soup kitchens or medicine sans frontières or placing their children in orphanages because they couldn’t afford to feed them.
It really made me feel sick to have heard Michael Sociopath Noonan crack his feta cheese joke during the week. Reminded me of Enda in Davos. Fine Gael couldn’t give 2 hoots about the ordinary citizen. They’ll do whatever they have to to protect big business and their big wage. For goodness sake Vote NO on 31st May.
Ciara,
Greece got in to the Euro with the help of a small group of American accountants who did their accounts for them. Goldman Sachs is their name, you might have heard of them. The euro should never have happened but it gave Germany a weaker currency than the DM and gave them a much bigger market for their wares. Part of the Maastricht treaty rules was the 60% GDP one that has been brought up in the current treaty, None of the Euro currency founding members had hit this fiscal target in 1999. The Euro was a failure before it started and time has proven that. All that it has achieved is the asset stripping of several nations to make a few wealthy people even more wealthy and powerful. I’m not against the European union, I am of the opinion that the Euro was a big failure and should be disbanded immediately. Go to http://www.zerohedge.com , http://www.golemxiv.co.uk , http://www.hat4uk.Wordpress.com and you will find articles that will enlighten you.
Isn’t the next big push to commericalise (remove poverty) from Africa, I guess everyone has to be 100% behind the IP game.
I thought economies flow from innovation based transaction on high education and cumulative knowledge. If patents can profit from 20 year terms why does copyrighting need 75 years plus the life of the author. Reduce it to the life of the author or 20 years and have student access systems like in Australia and the rate of innovation and transactions would shoot through the roof.
Imagine the works of EMI from the 1980′s being available on soundcloud rights free. Then some bedroom artist samples the works becomes number one and EMI can contract her for 10 years. Cycles and cycles get the juices (financial/innovation) flowing.
Just back from Asia. The reality is Europe is a mess because we have an ageing population, high cost workforce, and now a bank crisis that ultimately came from pension fund managers attempting to build sufficient funds by exploiting local building bubbles.
All we have vs Asia is a good infrastructure (Internet, road, rail, electricity, education) and integration. European countries cannot individually compete (except strangely ourselves) the integration program needs to work.
Short term austerity is not working. Medium Austerity (15 years) & growth will be combined. Which means low interest rates to fuel economical activity, low paye, house tax to keep house prices low, student loans, high vat (which will drive china to lower prices for manufactured goods), no minimum wage, lower social benefits and a ton more of more privatisation, and most radical a relaxed immigration policy.
Old white Europe needs an influx of working Africans and Asians working & contributing tax to fund our health care & living costs. Europe over next 20 years will change it’s demographic like it has been doing for over 10 thousand years.
Meanwhile america’s tea party will …. See America live on Chinese credit.
Putin agrees to partial ceasefire and prisoner exchange with Ukraine as peace talks to begin 'immediately'
Updated
2 hrs ago
16.9k
65
Ceasefire violation
'Bodies and limbs on the ground' after Israeli strikes kill more than 400 people in Gaza
Updated
30 mins ago
35.7k
Analysis
A call to action in St Patrick's Cathedral today hit home hard after scenes in the White House
Christina Finn
Reports from New York
22 hrs ago
91.9k
238
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 157 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 109 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 141 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 111 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 132 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 90 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 86 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 68 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say