The EU Hanging By A Thread: Will A Leader Emerge?

With every passing day the news regarding the future of the EU grows dimmer and dimmer. We know a radical transformation is in store for the revived Roman Empire, as the next stage in development will come in the form of 10 kings, and from these 10 kings a leader will arise - a leader known biblically as the antichrist. We would expect that to come sooner rather than later, as the EU seems to be hanging on the edge of a cliff.

"We Have A Week To Save The Eurozone

Italy's prime minister, Mario Monti, has warned of the apocalyptic consequences of failure at next week's summit of EU leaders, outlining a potential death spiral whose consequences would become more political than economic.

The Italian leader is to hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the French president, François Hollande, and Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, in the hope that the single currency's big four countries can pave the way for a breakthrough at next week's meeting.

Speaking to the Guardian and a group of leading European newspapers, Monti said that, without a successful outcome at the summit, "there would be progressively greater speculative attacks on individual countries, with harassment of the weaker countries". The attacks would be focused not only on those who had failed to respect EU guidelines, but also on those like Italy, which he said had abided by the rules "but which carry with them from the past a high debt".

Monti said he could see the beginnings of the process "even in the Italian parliament, which has traditionally been pro-European and no longer is".

Starving Greeks Queue For Food In The Thousands As Debt-Wracked Country Finally Forms A Coalition Government...But How Long Will It Last?

Starving Greeks queued around the block for free food handouts yesterday as the country's politicians managed to end a crippling stalemate to form a coalition government.

Young children as well as the elderly waited in line in Athens to collect the parcels of fruit and vegetables donated by farmers from Crete to help ease the devastating austerity faced by many Greeks.

Conservative Antonis Samaras was sworn in as prime minister and head of a three-party coalition that will uphold the country's international bailout commitments.

The move ends a protracted political crisis that had cast grave doubt over the country's future in Europe's joint currency and threatened to plunge Europe deeper into a financial crisis with global repercussions.

His New Democracy party will join forces with the socialist PASOK party, which came in third place, and the smaller Democratic Left led by Fotis Kouvelis.

All three parties broadly back Greece's pledges to bailout creditors for further austerity and reforms, although they have pledged to renegotiate some of the terms for the rescue loans.

The face of the crippling poverty gripping the country was plane to see as hundreds of poverty-stricken Greeks queued in a central Athens park for free vegetables.

As more than four years of recession and dwindling incomes take their toll, tens of thousands of businesses have closed, unemployment is above 22 per cent and many Greeks see emigration as their only hope for a decent life.

EU Super-President Back In The News

"Some foreign ministers suggested to examine the creation of a double-hatted post of President of the [European] Commission and President of the European Council."

It also describes as an "important step" the potential "nomination of a top candidate for the next European elections that could also be a candidate for the position of commission President."

The hodge-podge of remarks pointing toward the new post reflects member states' mixed emotions about giving more power to Brussels in order to fight the crisis.

The "Future of Europe Group" has been meeting since March and aims to produce a final manifesto in September.

Besides Westerwelle, it includes the foreign ministers of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

France - which changed foreign ministers after elections in May - has missed some of the meetings and was not on Westerwelle's list of countries which endorse the interim communique.

Among other bold ideas, it speaks of a future "European Army," a "European Border Police" and giving the European Parliament "the ability to initiate legislation" alongside the commission.