EUReview & Call to Prayer (EURCP)

November 2005

Calling Christians in Europe to pray...before it’s too late

"... that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made... for kings and all who are in authority... “ (1 Tim. 2:1-2)

http://www.euprayer.com/ Hugh & Norma Davis Publishers

Visit the New Connection for EURCP – “Sentinelles De Priere” – http://ccea.sentinelles.free.fr/US/

Emmanuel Duvieusart, Pasteur fondateur, email info@sentinelles.info  14 prayer walls in Europe

PRAYER NEEDS these EURCP articles below which may explain why these types of prayers are important at this time. Read the articles and then pray specifically as God leads

PRAY that German Christians focus their early prayers on their Chancellor, that she may seek the benefit of her roots as a pastor’s daughter as she seeks guidance for her new responsibility that could change Europe and the world

PRAY that her [Merkel’s] influence on the EU will bring about an increase in life preserving values and promotion of participatory democracy with continuing freedom of faith and religious practice.

PRAY [One view from a leading Missionary in Europe] about the concern that, according to some, that there may be more witches and warlocks in France than priests and pastors which leaves a dearth of Christian values in French society. Pray for evangelism and a faithful Christian witness.

PRAY for an increased outreach to young immigrants in who are isolated from mainstream French society

PRAY for President Barroso of the Commission, that he will be a successful administrator and one to encourage the right balance between economic free markets and human social services

PRAY for the right kind of Commission leadership in building cultural understanding in Europe’s increasingly multicultural society. Pray that Christian influence in the EU will be significant.

PRAY that the developing structure of the EU will be one that respects national and cultural diversity and promotes economic prosperity as well as social fairness and goodwill.

“EUReview & Call to Prayer (EURCP)”has two main objectives at this time:

      1)    To continue to encourage “First Sunday in May Prayer for the EU Day” in churches and organizations in the European Union, and in other parts of the world, as well.

2)  To identify and contact Christian prayer and intercession leaders, groups and teams in all of the 25 EU member capitols.

We believe we should encourage these prayer leaders and groups to pray for the national and the European Union issues which potentially impact the lives and ministry of individual Christians, churches and ministries across Europe, and the world. [SEE THE ATTACHED PROPOSAL]

GERMANY

Merkel elected German chancellor  [112205]

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4458430.stm

German politics One last shot

The grand coalition under Angela Merkel at last agrees a programme—but it is one with plenty of faults

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=5175780

Nov 17th 2005 | BERLIN From The Economist print edition AP

DEAD on arrival. That was a common reaction to the programme agreed by Germany's main political parties, which formally creates a grand coalition and will lead to the election of Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), as chancellor next week. A coalition of thieves, the dregs of both parties, economic madness: unions, employers and political pundits rushed to trash the deal. The screaming and yelling may in fact be a sign that the leaders of the centre-right CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have simply spread the pain equally. And, although the “coalition contract” will be the platform for the new government, it will not be its bible. What counts may not be the content, but that the parties struck a deal at all.

OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST

German road clears for grand coalition 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/11/news/germany.php

Merkel's Foreign Policy Man is a Brussels Fan

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1782904,00.html?maca=en-bulletin-433-html

Merkel alarms Blair over EU constitution

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/24/wger24.xml&site=5

FRANCE

Edito - France: "The Suburban Effect"

Written by Thierry Warin    

http://www.newropeans-magazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2974&Itemid=110

Thursday, 17 November 2005 

There are two ways in French to talk about suburbs: “la banlieue” and “en banlieue.” Say you live in “la banlieue,” and everybody knows it is in a public housing project. Say you live “en banlieue,” and it is likely to be outside Paris, for instance Neuilly, like the Minister of Interior Nicolas Sarkozy. In both locations, there is a suburban effect: negative in the first case and positive in the second one.

In a democratic country, many ways exist to express one’s discontent with the government. By definition, none of them involve violence. So why do some people use violence as a means of protest? Much speculation has taken place in the international press as to the root of the problem. Some believe it is a clash of civilizations, others see it as a religiously rooted problem, still others believe it is a manifestation of a lack of effective integration policies that do not recognize minorities, and some alarmists in Russia even fear that the riots were driven by the CIA. In French national newspapers, the discussion seems to focus on the more pragmatic issue of restoring law and order. When politicians talk about the suburbs, one may infer that they believe it is an immigration issue.

Sarkozy ratchets up his challenge to Chirac

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/16/news/france.php

PARIS Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy increased calls Wednesday for France to introduce measures to help minorities find jobs, once again challenging President Jacques Chirac. Buoyed by an opinion poll showing strong voter support for his tough response to France's worst civil unrest in almost 40 years, Sarkozy fanned controversy over how to bring disaffected youths into mainstream French society. "I challenge the idea that we all start at the same starting line in life," Sarkozy told L'Express magazine in an interview.

EUROPEAN UNION COVERNANCE

Charlemagne Whipping the commission into shape

The beleaguered president of the European Commission

http://www.economist.com/World/europe/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=5165742

Nov 17th 2005 From The Economist print edition

JOSÉ MANUEL BARROSO, president of the European Commission, is Europe's whipping boy du jour. Jacques Chirac told him to keep out of the European Union constitutional debate because he was so unpopular in France. Before he took office a year ago, the European Parliament made him reshuffle his commission. A recent cover of a Brussels magazine shows him measuring himself against a wall, and falling far short of the mark set by a noted predecessor, Jacques Delors.

There are two theories over why, as the magazine concludes, “Barroso is no Jacques Delors”. One is that it is his own fault. He sucks up to critics (latest example: offering France EU money for riot-torn areas). He has failed to stop commissioners squabbling (an old-fashioned turf war has broken out between the competition and enterprise chiefs). The second theory blames the circumstances. The defeat of the constitution, the euro area's economic troubles, digestion of ten new members; even the sainted Mr Delors would not have risen above such things. Moreover, Mr Barroso was not the first choice of any big country; he was merely the first whom nobody was ready to veto. Without strong support from at least one big country, and preferably two or three, no commission president has much authority.

Plan D to bridge gap between Europe and its citizens

http://europa.eu.int/newsletter/index_en.htm

On 7-8 November the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Commission held a Stakeholders’ Forum in Brussels on "Bridging the gap: how to get Europe and its citizens together".

In an open and relaxed atmosphere, more than 200 participants coming from European institutions, the world of communication and journalism, and civil society decided on the topics to be covered during the workshops which dealt with the following questions: how can Europe and its youth be brought closer? Should European affairs be taught in schools? What message should be conveyed? What role and responsibility do the media have? "The aim" of this new approach to dialogue is "to launch a new form of communication" on the challenges facing Europe which will "have a constructive outcome," said Anne-Marie Sigmund, President of the European Economic and Social Committee when opening the forum.

Bicultural Europe is doomed

By Mark Steyn (Filed: 15/11/2005)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/11/15/do1502.xml&site=15

Three years ago -December 2002 - I was asked to take part in a symposium on Europe and began with the observation: "I find it easier to be optimistic about the futures of Iraq and Pakistan than, say, Holland or Denmark." At the time, this was taken as confirmation of my descent into insanity. I can't see why. Compare, for example, the Iraqi and the European constitutions: which would you say reflected a shrewder grasp of the realities on the ground?

National parliaments to show Commission yellow card
http://euobserver.com/?aid=20362&rk=1

18.11.2005 - 17:34 CET | By Mark Beunderman EUOBSERVER / THE HAGUE - The EU's national parliaments have struck a deal on stronger oversight of EU law, plotting a scheme that resembles the "yellow card" procedure foreseen in the EU Constitution. The bold move was announced by Lord Grenfell, member of the British House of Lords and current president of the network of member states parliaments, COSAC, speaking at a parliamentary conference in the Hague on Thursday (17 November).
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The constitution's yellow card provision states that the European Commission should review a legislative proposal, if at least one third of national parliaments send a "reasoned opinion" arguing that the proposal falls outside the commission's mandate.

No legal framework

The alternative plan hammered out by national parliaments broadly follows the early warning mechanism in the constitution, except that national MPs now lack the legal framework that would force Brussels to reconsider its initiatives once the one-third threshold is reached

LINKS OF INTEREST

Netherlands and UK could derail EU budget deal - 21.11.2005

http://euobserver.com/?aid=20377&rk=1

European flag turns 50 

http://euobserver.com/?aid=20356&rk=1

Italy issues coin commemorating EU Constitution

http://euobserver.com/?aid=20341&rk=1

EU-Western Balkans relations

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-129607-16&type=LinksDossier&_lang=EN&email=7581

Hungary PM: No spending cuts despite EU threat

http://euractiv.cabestan.com/Go/index.cfm?WL=32729&WS=7581_7618&WA=3058

SELECTED EU ANALYSIS

CDU [DE] faces same tax and EU fight as [UK] Conservatives

By David Cameron

(Filed: 15/09/2005)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=JFEROLQDRYYE5QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/opinion/2005/09/15/do1502.xml&site=15

The challenge for the CDU in Germany, where I have spent the past two days, is to prove that they have the right answers to the country's problems: sluggish growth, a fiscal deficit, over-regulated business and an out of date "social model". With Gordon Brown's Britain heading in the same direction, we will face a similar challenge in Britain in 2009. The best way to create prosperity is to keep taxes and regulation as low as possible and to maintain sound public finances. So we need to reduce business taxes and regulation, control spending and reduce borrowing. But Conservatives have made this case for years, yet polls have continued to put Labour ahead on the economy. What's gone wrong and how do we put it right? Our reputation for economic competence suffered when the pound was forced out of the ERM - but that was 13 years ago. I've always thought that when it comes to Black Wednesday, there are two types of politician - those who learnt the lesson and realised we should never give up control over interest rates, and those who failed to learn that lesson, campaigned for the euro and still insist it's a matter of when, not if, we should join.

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A world-class economy must constantly improve infrastructure and skills to add value in a competitive world. These things cost money, and the party that understands the need to reduce taxes should also accept the obvious conclusion: tuition fees are here to stay, and road users will have to pay for new roads. When it comes to regulation, we need to go beyond slogans. We'll never cut it back unless we challenge the risk-averse culture of modern society and ask people to accept more responsibility for their lives.

And we must challenge the culture of the EU. Not just resisting new regulations, but fighting to end the EU's damaging social role, leaving it to focus on its real job: making the single market work properly and championing free trade. Angela Merkel, the CDU leader, is grappling with this issue. In a recent interview she praised British labour market flexibility and Eastern European simplified tax regimes.

Those who believe that pressure for deeper integration in Europe has somehow gone away are wrong. With the centralising agenda rejected in referendums, now is the time to press home the arguments for radical change: returning employment and social regulation to national control. There are encouraging signs that a euro-sceptic Conservative government would not be isolated in calling for such changes. The CDU manifesto calls for the "recovery of competences" from the EU. It would be bizarre if we were to adopt a position of silence when countries like Germany were moving in the opposite direction. Euro-enthusiasts are fond of transport metaphors, so here's one: the EU has taken the wrong fork in the road, to a low-growth, high-unemployment future. The EU needs to turn around and take a different path

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EUReview & Call to Prayer Ministries is conducting this multi-denominational ministry under the mission program of the Assemblies of God, Western Europe office, outside of Brussels, Belgium. The mailing address there is: EMC/EURCP (Gerald Branum.) 45 Chaussee de Waterloo, 1640 Rhode Saint Genese, BELGIUM   EURCP@aol.com  

also contact http://ccea.sentinelles.free.fr/US/ Emmanuel Duvieusart, Pasteur fondateur, email info@sentinelles.info  14 prayer walls in Europe

ATTACHMENT - National Capitol Prayer Groups and a European Newsman’s analysis of current events

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EUReview & Call to Prayer Ministries is conducting this multi-denominational ministry under the mission program of the Assemblies of God Western Europe office outside of Brussels, Belgium. The mailing address there is: EMC/EURCP (Gerald Branum.) 45 Chaussee de Waterloo, 1640 Rhode Saint Genese, BELGIUM

(Your comments are welcome. Your assistance is needed. Can you help mobilise Christians to pray and participate? This call to prayer needs to be prepared by Europeans in other languages and with greater distribution!)


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