In the news:

Fayyad says Palestinians ready for statehood by August

With 2-year plan in final phase, Palestinian Authority PM says it's time to challenge Israel's exclusive control over vast tracts of the West Bank.

In August 2009, Fayyad presented a two-year plan for building state institutions, including schools, courts and infrastructure. The idea was to generate momentum for independence regardless of crisis-prone Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. With his plan in its final phase, Fayyad said it's time to challenge Israel's exclusive control over vast tracts of the West Bank.

Europe needs budgetary federation

Now we see the EU pushing for a scenario in which the union may be able to dictate the fiscal budget planning for the various countries within the EU. Below are quotes which reveal the growing "central control" that is being proposed by the EU, which translates to even greater losses in national sovereignty:

At the time of the launch of the single currency, many sceptical analysts warned that monetary union without fiscal union would inevitably result in centrifugal tendencies that would blow the euro apart, a position long rubbished by most EU leaders after the single currency's initial success.

In May, amid the Greece chapter in the ongoing crisis, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy had made similar comments: "We are clearly confronted with a tension within the system, the infamous dilemma of being a monetary union and not a full-fledged economic and political union. This tension has been there since the single currency was created. However, the general public was not really made aware of it."

And this:

Lisbon Treaty weathers stormy first year

A year to the day after the Lisbon Treaty came into force, the European Union is wrestling with a set of serious crises, ranging from the threat of a eurozone breakup to an intractable dispute over the bloc's 2011 annual budget.

Broad criticism has been leveled at European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and top EU diplomat Catherine Asthon, two new posts created under the Lisbon Treaty, while eruptions of nationalist sentiment across the Union have alarmed the document's chief architects.

Such are the union's current difficulties that member states, driven by Germany, are already contemplating the need for further adjustments to the treaty...

But tweaks in treaty language that result in a transfer of power from national to EU level could prompt unpredictable referendums in Ireland and the UK.

And isn't that the "bottom line" on what we are seeing across the globe? This quote essentially says it all: "result in a transfer from national to EU level". That seems to be the order of the day.

Ms Ashton in early 2010 attracted harsh criticism for skipping top-level EU meetings. But the official launch, in accordance with its original deadline, of the European External Action Service (EEAS) on 1 December, has been heralded as an important success.

So the "important success" is the creation of troops who can move to various borders across Europe and impose a military force which controls such borders. As mentioned and discussed before on this blog - this "important success" is probably the most important aspect of the first year of the Lisbon Treaty - something prophecy watchers will follow VERY closely.

The following, concluding paragraph basically says it all:

Former MEP and Lisbon-treaty critic Jens-Peter Bonde was scathing: "Powers belonging to elected national parliaments have been moved by the Treaty to our common EU institutions, but the EU system is not subject to democratic control ... The non-elected EU leaders ... can now travel to China and Korea to lecture them on democracy until they are asked how many votes they had in the last European elections."

Ouch. The truth presented here is bold but oh so accurate. There is very little in the way of democracy within the EU and that situation is growing worse not better. More foreshadowing as we approach the Tribulation.