Erstellt am: 23. 11. 2011 - 14:59 Uhr

Bailouts and Eurobonds

Reality Check: Eurobonds, South Africa media law, Egypt protests, Cambodia floods, Google invests in Bletchley Park.

The president of the EU Commision, Jose Manuel Barroso, reckons he has a solution to the Euro crisis: Eurobonds. Instead of (or maybe as well as) each country issuing their own bonds, the Eurozone as a whole would issue bonds, which would be backed by all the member countries. This would mean that the struggling economies such as Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy could borrow money more cheaply - but it would also mean the richer countries shouldering more of the total debt, and being potentially even more exposed to countries that cannot pay their debts. Not surprisingly, this is going down like a lead balloon in Germany and France, or perhaps I should say like a bailout at an EU summit.

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy say they want changes in the EU treaty, to prevent Euro Zone countries from "diverging in the budgetary, economic and fiscal areas". However, treaty changes would be a long and complicated process, with each country having to ratify changes separately.

The idea of Eurobonds is to be discussed by Merkel, Sarkozy and Italy's new Prime Minister, Mario Monti, tomorrow, but it seems unlikely that Germany and France will change their position, as oru Brussels correspondent, Cornelia Primosch, told Joanna Bostock.

South Africa media laws

South Africa's parliament has overwhelmingly passed contoversial media laws that Archbishop Tutu says could be used to outlaw investigative journalism. Steve Crilley spoke to political scientist, David Welsh, at the University of Cape Town, about the significance of this law and the likelihood of it
passing into law, given opposition it will almost certainly receive in the Upper House, as well as potential challenges in the Constitutional Court.

Protests in Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood is generally thought to be the largest and best organised political group in Egypt, but they are not taking part in the current wave of violent protests. They are also saying next week's elections must go ahead. Egyptian journalist Sammy Khamis talks to Riem Higazi about the significance of this.

Floods in Cambodia

While the floods in Thailand have been hitting the headlines, in Cambodia, 1.5 million people are affected by the worst floods in 60 years. The Red Cross reports on the situation on the ground. Elisabeth Byrs, at the International Federation of the Red Cross - is the spokesperson for the office of coordination of humanitarian affairs and she told Joanna Bostock about the situation.

Google and Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park in southern England it often considered to be the birthplace of the modern computer. It is the historic site of Britain's code-breaking operations during World War II, most famously the breaking of the Enigma code. Now Google is investing in the Bletchley Park National Codes Museum as a part of the world's technological heritage. Peter Barron, head of Google's public relations, told Steve Crilley about Google's interest in the site.

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