1. NEWEUROPE17th Year, | Number 863 | December 6 - 12, 2009 | € 3.50 www.neurope.eu
With 13 of 27 heads of state, European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliament
President Jerzy Buzel and incoming European Union
President Herman Van Rompuy, the European People’s
Party has near-total dominance over the European political
landscape. In an interview with New Europe, EPP President
Wilfried Martens said it’s clear that most of Europe
embraces his party and its conservative policies. He said the
EPP managed to do it despite numerous critics, primarily in
the media, whom he said have taken pot shots at the party
because of its influence and its belief, he said was found to
be true, that the worldwide economic crisis was the result of
extreme liberal market policies. “We strictly abide to sensi-
ble economic policies which traditionally combine free mar-
ket spirit with social peace and stability throughout Europe,”
he said, adding that everyone else is out of touch with
European society. He said despite its political stronghold
that the EPP continues to fend off what he said were mis-
perceptions spread by its enemies and rivals. And with
Barroso back for a second term, he said some people in
Brussels should be shaking in their boots.
With a more political Commission and social market economy
·Page 4,5
A more political Europe
ANALYSIS
George Papandreou, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Greece, and the Chairman-
in-Office of the OSCE, writes about renewing Europe’s Security Dialogue. ·Page 3
CLIMATE CHANGE
For two weeks to come, leaders, politicians, the UN and basically anyone who cares about
the future of the earth will be congregating in Copenhagen. ·Pages 17-24
European People’s Party President Wilfried Martens (L) and the group’s Secretary General Antonio Lopez-Isturiz

2. THE DEBATE
Page 20 |NE Special Supplement
NEW EUROPE CLIMATEDecember 6 - 12,2009
One tenet upon which we can all agree, regard-
less of our ethnic origin,is the importance of en-
suring that we, as citizens of our respective
countries, can live in peace and security with
available employment, food safety, fresh water
sources and harmony with all of our neighbors,
including the wildlife with which we share our
planet and on which we depend for natural re-
sourcesthatcontributeservicestoourwell-being.
The specter of climate change that for years
merely loomed in the background as a dark
shadow upon our landscape has now taken cen-
ter stage as we watch our dreams of creating a
better world upturned by this worldwide phe-
nomenon that impacts each and every one of us.
We at BLUEnature based on Andros Island in
the Greek Cyclades have already begun acting
upon a pledge to help our neighbors, our fellow
Greek and international citizens and our govern-
ment mitigate the deleterious effects of climate
change that have already crept into our lives.
The annual global value of natural ecosystem
goods and services is a startling €26 trillion,more
than 2 times the value of what humans produce
every year.In particular,annual coastal ecosystem
services have been valued at more than US$ 20
trillion, ranking among the most valuable of all
ecosystems in the world,especially as coastal wa-
ters contribute 50% to the world’s fisheries.
Ensuring the availability of our needs should be
paramount in the minds of those who will de-
bate and decide the course of our future in
Copenhagen. Ultimately, however, we are re-
sponsible for their decisions since we select those
who represent our voices.
“The protection of the environment is an issue of
democracy. When we discuss the quality of
democracy today, we can only envision an eco-
logical democracy, the epicenter of which is the
protection of the environment.”Karolos Papou-
lias,PresidentoftheHellenicRepublic,24-07-07
Konstantinos Mentzelopoulos has served as an
investment banker; an adviser to the Commis-
sion of the European Union; a European agri-
cultural industry consultant, an Ambassador of
the EU Natura 2000 Networking Program for
exemplaryenvironmentalmanagementofanEU
Special Protection Area and is currently working
for the establishment of a Marine Protected Area
in the Northern Cyclades in Greece.
C.J. Alexander, MBA, JD, has served as a California
attorney, a European agricultural industry consultant,
anEUenvironmentalprojectadministrator,andiscur-
rently working for the establishment of a Marine Pro-
tected Area in the Northern Cyclades in Greece.
BLUE NATURE
A World United in Its Wisdom
ADVERTISEMENT
It is the second time in history
that the very existence of hu-
manity is threatened; the first
being the nuclear threat of the
Cold War. This time the
threat is not about the two
leaders of the planet’s super
powers pressing the button
that will ignite the first nu-
clear missile, but about the
button we press everyday to
turn on our lights, our cars
and industrial engines. Economic growth, as
currently measured, is based on our ability to
have access to energy and raw materials.The
plants of our planet, through photosynthesis
captured the carbon dioxide that existed in
the earth’s atmosphere and transformed it
into organic matter that was gradually trans-
formed into oil,natural gas,lignite etc deeply
buried in the ground. The industrial revolu-
tion allowed us to bring this carbon to the
surface, so that we can burn it and produce
energy and thus partially reverse a natural
process that took billions of years to be com-
pleted. We now know that in this way we are
not only depleting the planet’s invaluable, fi-
nite resources, but we are simultaneously al-
tering the planet’s climate to a much less
hospitable one, if hospitable at all.
In many places of the world this is more ev-
ident everyday. Ironically enough this is the
case in the parts of the world that have con-
tributed the least to this madness.Today’s 20
million climate refuges are expected to grow
up to 500 million by 2050 if inaction is the
decision taken in Copenhagen. In Africa,
every year, people have to walk more and
more kilometres to find water, and wood to
boil it so that they can drink it.Kilimanjaro`s
ice cap may have disappeared by 2020. All of
Africa’s ice caps are melting away, draining
out rivers and lakes and these are not the only
ones.The source of water for much of South
America, the Andean ice caps are retreating
very fast.In 2007 the Amazon
River dried out for days, while
Lake Titicaca is expected to
dry out by 2050. What’s
worse,the Himalayan glaciers,
source of the Yangtze,
Brahmaputra,Ganges,Huang
Ho, Indus, Mekong and Sal-
ween, that provide access to
water for 22% of humanity are
melting down fast.
Managing to reduce carbon
concentration in the atmosphere through in-
creasing ecosystems’ carbon intake capacity,
while rapidly halting Greenhouse Gas emis-
sions, will be crucial for our civilization’s sur-
vival. Three times the amount of carbon
found in the atmosphere is deposited in ter-
restrial ecosystems.Halting deforestation and
promoting non commercial afforestation
might prove to be the most significant pillar
of mitigation. The proposed US climate bill
commits 5 billion USD annually for forests.
The EU zero, which is without doubt very
peculiar for the global leader of climate ac-
tion. The annual global needs are 17-33 bil-
lion USD and should be directed to
developing countries.
It is a long way to a just and adequate inter-
national legally binding climate agreement
and we are just a breath away from Copen-
hagen. Many say we should compromise for
a political agreement there. In other words
wait and see.
Can the planet wait for us any longer? And
what are we about to see?
Kriton Arsenis is a Greek Member of the European
Parliament and a Member of the Group of the Pro-
gressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the
European Parliament, he is on the Committee on
the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety,
the Committee on Fisheries the Delegation for re-
lations with the Maghreb countries and the Arab
Maghreb Union and on the Delegation to the Euro-
Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly
SEALING THE DEAL
Natural ecosystems
are key ally to mitigation
Kriton Arsenis MEP
“GreenshiftEuropeisamovementpromotingICTs
to fight climate change,”says Vin Sumner,CEO of
UK-based Clicks & Links,and an expert in apply-
inginformationandcommunicationtechnologiesto
address climate challenges. Sumner and Cheryl
Miller,founderofZenDigital.be,haverecentlyjoined
forces behind Greenshift Europe to promote ICTs
for building“smart,”sustainable communities across
Europe. “First and foremost, we aim to lower the
footprintofICTitself,”saysSumnerabouttheprin-
ciples behind Greenshift Europe.“Then,we look at
howICTscanmakethewaywedothingstoday,like
powering our homes and public buildings, smarter
and more energy efficient.
GREENSHIFT EUROPE
Enabling Smart,Sustainable Cities