EURCP February 2010

1^st with EU President Herman Van Rompuy on duty, New Treaty activated

Our name & mission "The European Union Review & Call to Prayer"

 

 

Newsletter publishers: Hugh & Norma Davis 

WEB http://euprayer.com/ Now available as noted   

 

.JOIN THE 22 EUROPEAN PRAYER WALL MOVEMENT

You too can join with "Sentinelles De Priere"  and the 22 prayer walls in Europe, with 5 different languages, perhaps including yours. Contact Emmanuel Duvieusart, Pasteur fondateur  http://ccea.sentinelles.free.fr/US/  - [MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE]

 

Another prayer partner in the EU:  Prayer for Berlin From: webmaster@gebet-fuer-berlin.de Contact them

 

Open up WEB pages and read the full articles or use google.

1 PRAY for and with the Christian prayer and spiritual activities in the nations of Europe

2* PRAY for internal EU government policies of all non-Parliament branches and Eurozone's

3* PRAY for EU Parliament,  treaty revisions and enlargement policies

4 PRAY for family, Human Rights, Religion and ethical policies of the EU

5 PRAY for the Middle East policies of the EU

6 PRAY for the immigration policies of the EU & EU international relations

7 PRAY for EU policies on national emergencies, security and terrorism

8 PRAY for all 27 EU national governments, social issues and MEP elections

9 PRAY for EU employment, economics and business concerns, warming

 1   WORD STUDY : "I sought for a man"¦ who would make a wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land"¦" Ezekiel 22:30. Are we responding to God's search personally and corporately?

 

We have all heard the story of the young Dutch boy who found a hole in a dike and kept it from getting larger by putting his finger in it. It was only a small hole; but if it had gotten larger the North Sea would have come in and flooded his country. He helped to take back the land the Sea would have destroyed.

This is an illustration of "standing in the gap for the land".

 

1 Timothy 2:1- 3 urges us to pray for rulers and leaders "first of all" so we can live peaceable, Godly lives. Each of us who responds to this call is helping to"stand in the gap", through prayer and intercession, to hold back the waters of materialism, humanism and all of the works of the enemy of God and His people. If we just place ourselves in the small openings we see in the walls; we can help keep the walls strong and keep the enemy from taking our freedoms and hindering God's purposes for our time. We can be part of the answer to God's search for those who will work with Him in keeping the walls up and repaired around our Christian values and His purposes. Some of these walls have crumbled; we believe God wants us to work with Him in repairing and building them up again.

 

The following texts illustrate God's plan to use His people in ministries of prayer and intercession:

 

11 Chronicles 7:14 is another text that tell us; we can change things through our prayers - according to God's plans and purposes for His world, and our land.

 

In Luke 10, we find another story that illustrates how God uses His people in breaking down enemy defenses and building up His walls:

Verses 1-2: tell us that Jesus sent 70 of His followers to go before Him to places He would later visit.

In Verse 18-20 Jesus told them that He had seen fall from heaven. In other words, they had helped defeat Satan by responding to Jesus' call on their lives.

 

Our countries, and the world, need for us to work with God in keeping the walls of protection strong around Christian values and God's plan for our time. May we work with Him in this - through prayer.  

SPECIAL NOTE

- The new EU government will be confirmed at the end of January, possibly on January 26. Please pray for the key leaders, President Herman van Rompuy who is a praying man and for Catherine Ashton who has already expressed very anti-Isareli views. Pray for God's people in the European parliament and in the other European institutions. Some friends of ours have plans to start an EU based prayer group for Israel, consisting of EU-officials who support Israel.

TARGETED PRAYER - For God's guidance and anointing for the new EU President

 

1   Frattini: Europe must assert their religious identity [FR] [fr] [de]

  http://www.euractiv.com/fr/culture/frattini-europe-doit-affirmer-identit-religieuse/article-189285  

Published: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Europe must assert their religious identity if it wants to face the challenges of globalization and immigration, said yesterday (January 26) Franco Frattini, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Addressing the meeting of EU Council,

 

Mr. Frattini has deplored the lack of common European identity.

On the one hand, we recognize more correctly the influence of the religious identities on other people, as Muslims, he said, but another when we talk about our own religion, we keep our distance.

The political conflict has led to the removal of EU treaty references to Christian roots of Europe, a Europe that is undeniably Judeo-Christian, secular and a product of the Enlightenment, showed our weaknesses, "said the former European Commissioner. [OPEN THE WEB PAGE]

TARGETED PRAYER -  Pray to be reminded of the roots from which the culture of Europe has grown. Will God renew our life in Him in this time?

 

2   Spain aims to bring EU states into line

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/214a4926-fbda-11de-9c29-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1

By Tony Barber in Madrid

Published: January 7 2010 22:23 | Last updated: January 7 2010 22:23

The European Union should apply "corrective measures" against member states that fail to meet their obligations under a new 10-year plan to improve the bloc's competitiveness, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's premier, said on Thursday night. In a proposal likely to stir controversy among other EU governments, Mr Zapatero said the European Commission should be granted powers to police compliance with the plan, which is expected to be adopted in March and is known as the "2020 strategy".

      He said the EU was at its most effective when all 27 states operated under binding common rules, such as that governing competition policy. It was the absence of strong enforcement, he added, that had doomed the Lisbon agenda - a plan approved 10 years ago that aimed, and failed, to make Europe the world's most competitive economy by 2010."What failed? Compliance. Because compliance was purely rhetorical," he told reporters. "The Lisbon treaty allows for more co-ordination, and for that to be truly effective, we need to equip the European Commission with new powers," he said. "If Europe wants to keep its economic strength and wants to compete and become more prosperous, Europe has to unite. Anything else is a waste of time."

TARGETED PRAYER - unity on essentials, diversity on preferences

 

2 . EU commission 'embassies' granted new powers

http://euobserver.com/9/29308/?rk=1

 - 21.01.2010 - 09:15

The EU has converted 54 out of the European Commission's 136 foreign delegations into embassy-type missions authorised to speak for the entire union.

TARGETED PRAYER - eu growing influence

 

 

2. EU commissioner hearings to go ahead without staff protests -

http://euobserver.com/9/29230/?rk=1

08.01.2010 - 12:49

The hearings of the nominee EU commissioners by MEPs next week will go ahead without disruption after European Parliament chief Jerzy Buzek indicated to staff unions that the assembly would sign up to a court case over pay.

TARGETED PRAYER - resolution of case over rate of pay

 

3  The new European Commission[fr][de] 

http://www.euractiv.com/en/priorities/new-european-commission/article-180216

Published: Friday 13 March 2009    | Updated: Thursday 3 December 2009   

 

The selection of a new European Commission, never the simplest of political tasks, has this year been more complex than ever. Politically and institutionally, 2009 came with a whole range of permutations regarding the 'how?', 'when?' and 'who?' of the next EU executive

 

Barroso unveils new EU Commission line-up (27 November 2009)

EU civil servant pay row goes to court (07 January 2010)

Brussels pledges antitrust overhaul (07 January 2010)

 EU's new regional chief: Europe can prove 'added value' (19 December 2009}

TARGETED PRAYER - read the web and pray for the players/officers

 

EU Commission Calendar

•           1 Dec. 2009: Entry into force of Lisbon Treaty.

•           11-19 Jan. 2010: Commissioner hearings in European Parliament.

•           26 Jan. 2010: Final vote of the European Parliament on the full Commission (9.00-11.00 debate in plenary; 11.00-12.00 political group meetings; 12.00-13.00 vote in plenary).

•           1 Feb. 2010: New Commission expected to take office.

 

2    Storm clouds gather over new European Commission (2nd Roundup)

 http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1525209.php/Storm-clouds-gather-over-new-European-Commission-2nd-Roundup

Jan 13, 2010, 20:07 GMT

 

Brussels - Storm clouds gathered over the proposed new European Commission on Wednesday as the European Parliament's main political groups attacked key candidates in a tit-for-tat row.

The dispute carries echoes of a power struggle in 2004, which led to the unprecedented rejection of two candidates, and creates uncertainty as to whether the European Union will be able to swear in a new executive on February 1, as had been hoped. At the centre of the dispute stands Bulgaria's nominee for the role of EU aid commissioner, Rumiana Jeleva, a 40-year-old former foreign minister seen as one of the country's political stars.  The conservative politician's lustre appeared to dim abruptly at her parliamentary confirmation hearing on Tuesday, as liberal and socialist members of the legislature (MEPs) accused her of lying about her ties to Bulgarian firm Global Consult on her official declaration of her financial interests..

TARGETED PRAYER - "those in authority let them be servants"  Mark 9:35 (NIV

 

3    MEPs to test skills and spirit of new EU commissioners

http://euobserver.com/9/29232/?rk=1

- 11.01.2010 - 09:16

Brussels politics swings back into action on Monday as MEPs begin the hearings of the European Commissioner nominees, kicking off with the highly anticipated questioning of the EU's new foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton..The 26 commissioners will come before the parliamentary committees that are most relevant to their portfolio for a three-hour grilling on their competency for the job as well as their independence and whether they are sufficiently committed to the EU. The beginning of the hearing process comes after weeks of discussion and a certain sense of limbo in the EU capital as officials, lobbyists, consultants and journalists wait for the new commission to be fully established following two and a half months of a caretaker executive since the last commission's mandate ran out on 1 November.

TARGETED PRAYER - pray for the christians that they seek peace and hope

 

3. Spain champions Turkish entry into EU 'family'

 http://euobserver.com/9/29331/?rk=1

- 25.01.2010 - 09:28

The Spanish EU presidency has strongly advocated Turkey's entry into the union. But most Europeans would say No if asked in a referendum.

TARGETED PRAYER - how culturally compatible would this relationship be

 

3   2012 'realistic deadline' for Croatia's EU entry 

  http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/2012-realistic-deadline-croatia-eu-entry/article-189181

 25 January 2010 - Enlargement & Neighbours 

 In Croatia there is a "significant gap" between the political elite, which is "resolutely turned towards EU integration", and public opinion, which is "still lukewarm on the issue," according to Jacques Rupnik, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris. The Balkan specialist spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

TARGETED PRAYER - there appears to be need for a spiritual outpouring

 

4   Pope Benedict XVI urges Italy to respect  migrants 

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8450657.stm

 Page last updated at 15:29 GMT, Sunday, 10 January 2010

The Pope said violence was not the answer to the problem

Pope Benedict XVI has called on Italians to respect the rights of illegal migrants.

It comes after a wave of violence against African farm workers in southern Italy which left some 70 people injured. Police have evacuated hundreds of Africans by bus from the town of Rosarno, in Calabria. Correspondents say the problem is closely related to organised crime in the region.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke out strongly in favour of the rights of poor African farm workers, who have been the target of violence in recent days.

TARGETED PRAYER - pray for the people who have no home and little hope

 

4   E.U. Leaders Call for Sanctions Against Reform Busters

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/world/europe/09iht-union.html

By STEPHEN CASTLE

Published: January 8, 2010

* [eurcp note; WHO IS Van Rompuy and what will he do]?

MADRID "” Europe will be unable to afford its extensive social programs without economic change, the European Union's new permanent president, Herman Van Rompuy, warned Friday, supporting calls for sanctions against countries that fail to honor pledges to reform their economies.

  At a news conference marking the start of Spain's presidency of the E.U., Mr. Van Rompuy shared the spotlight with the Spanish prime minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and with the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. They went out of their way to resemble the "Three Amigos," but the crowded stage highlighted the difficulty the bloc is having streamlining its leadership.

The E.U.'s six-month rotating presidency was supposed to be scaled back by the recently enacted Lisbon Treaty, which created Mr. Van Rompuy's job. But on Thursday Mr. Zapatero set the political agenda by calling for a new European economic reform plan, which is about to be drawn up, to be made binding on national governments.

 

On Friday, all three leaders agreed on the need for a more strictly enforced reform program "” an idea that would need the support of all 27 governments and that will probably be viewed with suspicion in Germany and Britain.

 

Those governments will be watching closely to see if the plan suggests a significant expansion of economic governance in the E.U., removing power from national governments.

On Friday none of the three E.U. leaders would give any detail on what would be proposed or what sanctions could be applied. But Mr. Van Rompuy made the clearest case for such a change.

The political mood, he said, had been transformed by the financial crisis and the global politics of the climate change conference in Copenhagen last month. "The balance of power has shifted," Mr. Van Rompuy said, "and Europe is more on the defensive now than it was a few years ago."

 

He said that with huge budget deficits and the prospect of growth of only around one percent as the bloc emerges from the financial crisis, Europe faces a big challenge. "We cannot on a solid basis pay for our social model, or what I call our European way of life," Mr. Van Rompuy argued, adding: "We now have a window of opportunity for a strategy."

 

Next month E.U. leaders will meet to discuss plans for the new "2020" program to increase research and development, address labor market failings, and focus on areas such as the digital economy, energy and green growth. The idea is to get final agreement by the end of June. The E.U.'s last such project, the Lisbon agenda, was supposed to make the bloc the world's most competitive economy by 2010, something it manifestly failed to do.

 

On Thursday Mr. Zapatero called for greater economic union, suggesting that the European Commission should gain more of the kind of powers it enjoys to enforce anti-trust decisions, and ensure a level playing field in the bloc's single market.

 

Mr. Van Rompuy described the idea as "very ambitious" but said that many E.U. nations feel a greater "sense of urgency" than a few years ago.

 

Mr. Barroso pointed out that proposals to increase pressure on E.U. nations to carry through reforms were rejected five years ago, but that the climate had changed since the onset of the financial crisis.

At the Madrid news conference, the three men largely managed to avoid contradicting each other, though their appearance showed that changes designed to streamline the EU have "” in the short term "” simply produced an extra president.

 

Mr. Van Rompuy's job was designed to provide continuity and to take over the leadership job occupied by the prime minister of the country that holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.

Defending the new arrangement, Mr. Van Rompuy said that "in a democracy it is not one man or woman who decides."

At one point he and Mr. Barroso both deferred to the other as neither appeared eager to answer one questioner ahead of the other. Then came the only minor disagreement of the afternoon, in response to a question about whose phone should ring in a crisis. Mr. Van Rompuy said the world was "more complicated than that." Mr. Zapatero said it would be "advisable for the phone to ring in the office of the permanent president of the council" "” Mr. Van Rompuy.

TARGETED PRAYER - pray for the president of the european union

 

5 . New EU-Mediterranean club opens in Barcelona

http://euobserver.com/9/29312/?rk=1

 - 22.01.2010 - 10:50

A new club of regional and local officials from European, North African and

Middle Eastern countries - "Arlem" - was inaugurated on Thursday in

Barcelona, as part of a broader EU policy to build bridges with Maghreb and

Mashreq people.

TARGETED PRAYER - pray for god's hand in this growing relationship

 

5   Israel And Iran-The Gathering Storm

http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15213442

Jan 7th 2010 | JERUSALEM AND TEL AVIV

From The Economist print edition

Raiders of Osiraq SHORTLY after four in the afternoon on June 7th 1981, the late King Hussein of Jordan looked up from his yacht off the port of Aqaba and saw eight Israeli F-16 jets, laden with weapons and external fuel tanks, streaking eastward. He called his military staff, but could not find out what was going on. An hour or so later, the answer became clear. After a ground-hugging infiltration through Saudi Arabia, the jets climbed up near Baghdad and bombed Saddam Hussein's Osiraq nuclear reactor.

TARGETED PRAYER - pray for the middle east as the spirit would lead

 

5   Israel to deploy Iron Dome artillery defense

http://www.examiner.com/x-7095-NY-Israel-Conflict-Examiner~y2010m1d9-Israel-to-deploy-Iron-Dome-artillery-defense?cid=examiner-email

January 9, 8:49 AMNY Israel Conflict 

Get alerts when there is a new article from the NY Israel Conflict Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use. Email Address  Include other special offers from Examiner.com

On time, Israel has developed the Iron Dome anti-missile system, and is ready to deploy it.  It is meant to handle short-range artillery and rockets.  Other systems are for longer-range missiles  (www.imra.org.il, 1/6).An earlier article explained that it was a poor system of defense compared with its rival, but was the more remunerative for certain influential people

TARGETED PRAYER - israel's protection and security.

 

6  . Haiti offered millions in EU emergency assistance

http://euobserver.com/9/29291/?rk=1

 - 18.01.2010 - 17:39

Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere is to receive some €118 million in fresh European Union cash for humanitarian aid, it was announced on Monday (18 January).

TARGETED PRAYER - feed my lambs

 

7   A worsening political crisis in Afghanistan

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15207296&fsrc=nwl

AP/AFP

This was supposed to be the month when Afghanistan would put an end to nearly eight months of political crisis and get on with beating back the Taliban insurgency. Western diplomats had talked optimistically of Hamid Karzai moving past his fraudulent re-election as president, with the appointment of a government of talented technocrats. And plans for another round of elections (this time for the parliament) would be quietly dropped, letting Stanley McChrystal, the American commander of NATO forces, concentrate on using the extra troops granted to him by Barack Obama to "secure the population" rather than just polling stations.

TARGETED PRAYER - only a spiritual victory will really work

 

8   Greece and Austria outline plan for Balkan enlargement

http://euobserver.com/9/29347

VALENTINA POP 27.01.2010 @ 09:25 CET

The foreign ministers of Greece and Austria have sent a joint letter to EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton, outlining their common vision for what the bloc should achieve in 2010 in the western Balkans. The EU should complete accession talks with Croatia, respond to Serbia's bid to join the bloc, start membership negotiations with Macedonia and abolish visas for Albanians and Bosniaks, the document quoted by DPA says.

TARGETED PRAYER - Prayer that the foreign ministers will be lead by the Holy Spirit in keeping with God's plan for this region

 

9 . Greek deficit 'endangers' euro, EU commission says

http://euobserver.com/9/29328/?rk=1

25.01.2010 - 09:29

Soaring public deficits in euro countries such as Greece weaken the credibility and "endanger" the cohesion of the common currency, according to a leaked European Commission paper.

TARGETED PRAYER - Biblical idea balanced budget