12/12/2011 GMT with George Alagiah

The dust settles on the EU summit and exposes new divisions and

worries about the future. Odd man out. Britain's David Cameron is

feeling the heat at home and abroad. Nicolas Sarkozy promises a legal

framework in weeks. But his presidential opponent it says he'd

renegotiated. -- we negotiate it. Welcome to GMT. I'm George Alagiah.

Also in the programme... What is America's legacy in Iraq? We ask

Iraqis for their views. Italy's jobless youth demand a future. A

new survey sees unemployment rising up the list of worries around the

world. It's early morning in Washington, 8pm in Hong Kong and

midday here in London, where David Cameron is due to make a key speech

in the next few hours explaining his lone opposition at last week's

European summit. He'll do so against a backdrop of criticism at

home and abroad. In France, the head of the financial regulator

said Mr Cameron's action now shows that the British right is the

stupidest in the world. Here his coalition government partner, Nick

Clegg, says he's "bitterly disappointed". The politics aside

there's still the question - will the deal solve the problem?

Britain's Parliament is getting ready to hear from the Prime

Minister, David Cameron. Many of his own MPs will welcome his

decision to veto European Union treaty changes. But his coalition

partner, Nick Clegg, has said he is bitterly disappointed, and the

Liberal Democrats are said to criticise Mr Cameron for isolating

Europe. Senior figures, however, are trying to maintain calm in the

coalition. I think the public and particularly the business community,

which we want to continue investing and growing out of at a crisis, are

not terribly interested in these tribal arguments. What we badly

need is complete reassurance that we are fully committed to working

in the European Union, millions of British jobs depend on it.

President Sarkozy, of France, has told Le Monde newspaper that the

legal aspects of last Friday's European summit deal will be worked

out in the next 15 days. In the meantime, French Socialists have

accused him of bowing to pressure from Germany.

TRANSLATION: If I'm elected President I will renegotiate this

deal to include what is missing today. I mean efficiency on the

markets. Let's hope we won't be downgraded before that. I really

hope, for the interest of my country. But in Brussels, Europe's

economic affairs commissioner has said the new EU treaty will -- is

better than first seemed. Well we would certainly have preferred a

treaty at 27, this is called Compact treaty is, policy Wise,

bold and effective and legally viable. It looks likely that 20

sixth of the 27 members of the European Union will agree to the

new accord setting out tougher Budget rolls. Britain is the

notable exception. Later, David Cameron will explain why. We can

now speak to the former British Europe minister, Labour MP Denis

MacShane. What do you think David Cameron it should and could have

done at this summit? Frankly, avoided taking a decision at 2:30am

when they are all exhausted. We now face a triple crisis. Firstly, the

diplomatic blunder that has left Britain utterly isolated. Secondly,

you have without precedent in Britain the Deputy Prime Minister,

number two and the government, open the attack in his Prime Minister.

How do governments survive like that? Thirdly, what worries me is

you are getting around the world the words Britain and isolated

being linked. Some quite unpleasant stuff in European papers saying how

the English hate Europe. I don't think we do. That, unfortunately,

is the impression David Cameron has given to 26 other countries in

Europe. Let's take the substance and what he thought he was trying

to oppose. You've got Nicolas Sarkozy today saying that clearly

there are two Europe's, I am quoting this. One that once more

solidarity between member states and more regulation, and another

that doesn't. Wasn't David Cameron to -- right to oppose greater

regulation? Tony Blair opposed the Working Time Directive it. What he

did was go and see Gerhard Schroeder and say, what do you

want? What the Germans wanted was no directive from Brussels imposing

and taking over deals on German companies without a lot more

consultation. That was the deal. Tony Blair worked with Europeans,

so did Margaret Thatcher. David Cameron hasn't picked up the phone

to a single European leader and said, look, this is what I want,

this is important for Britain, can you help me? Last Thursday, what

they were wanting with things like the financial transaction tax, they

were looking for boat -- they were looking for a budget oversight. You

are not telling me the Labour Party would have said, OK, come and have

a look at our books. We are all agreed that if we want in the

eurozone, Epping give his agreed now that there has to be some

mutual sharing of budgets, those are no secrets in any case. What we

have to stop other debts of Ireland, Greece and Portugal, but they ran

up. But had he not drawn a line in the sand their round them and gone

along with this treaty, it would have been much harder further down

the track to say, by the way, on the financial transactions tax,

Britain doesn't want it. The Labour party presumably doesn't want that

either. But the diplomatic blunder is that David Cameron has quit all

relationships with other centre- right parties in Europe. He has

that party of his dreams, he is so isolated. It's the diplomatic

handling, it's the process that is so damaging. When in the New York

Times you read the line, Britain is isolated. That frightens me because

investors all over the world of thinking, where do we put our money

tomorrow? If they see a Britain that seems to be disconnecting

itself from the world's biggest market and which is at odds with 26

other countries... In the past Britain has always had a few

friends, big or small friends, David Cameron has left a cell alone.

What about here at home? The Liberal Democrats have said this

won't make any difference to the coalition government, it will run

until 2015. That clearly is something that most people will be

glad of. The last thing people in Britain want his political upheaval.

That I agree with. We are only 18 months into a government that is

meant to be stable. I just find it constitutionally weird that you

have the Deputy Prime Minister openly trashing the Prime Minister.

Who represents Britain now - Nick Clegg or David Cameron? What do

civil servants say and do, who do they take orders from? This may be

a new constitutional Era we're getting into, but it is profoundly

worrying. The country needs to unite around commonsense policies

to get us out of this mess. We need to find partners everywhere in the

world, including east of Calais will stop Mr Cameron unfortunately,

in the way Mrs Thatcher would never have done, left Britain utterly

isolated and alone. This is very Britain is not the only country

where the outcome of Friday's European summit is proving divisive.

In France, the opposition Socialist candidate for the presidency says

he would seek to renegotiate the deal if elected next year. That may

not be entirely surprising, coming from a politician running against

Nicolas Sarkozy. But the view from the financial market seems to be

equally sceptical. Ratings agency Moody's has declared the talks as

failing to produce the size of policy measures. It is threatening

to review the credit ratings of all EU states within the next three

months. I'm joined now from Paris by a professor of economics at the

Institute of political Studies. What do you think at the summit

achieved last Thursday? I am trying to think about it. I am not finding

much about the conclusion of the summit. Apart from fiscal rules,

and the fiscal sanctions, there is not much more than that. But the

fiscal rules and sanctions are important. After all, if you don't

have fiscal rules you can allow people to go on having bigger and

bigger budget deficits. Well, they are important but not that

important. They are not up to the point. The problem has not been

fiscal indiscipline. Look at the case of Ireland or Spain or even

Italy. They were respecting the stability pact. Even for Ireland

and Spain, they have a surplus. Clearly the problem is not with

fiscal discipline. The problem lies somewhere else. What do you think

the summit leaders should have been talking about? There are at least

two ways to decree the fiscal deficit. There is restriction and

there is growth policies. If you constrained the other countries to

have an austerity programme then you will lose growth. Then the

ratings agency will attack the euro area because there is no growth,

and or to repay the debt to one where there is no growth. It is not

as simple as it is presented. why do people like you always make

it sound as if it is either financial discipline or growth?

Presumably you can have both, the financial discipline imposed, as

this EU treaty is trying to do, and you can encourage growth. There is

no historical example where austerity led to growth. A lot of

study has been done on the subject, and especially by the International

Monetary Fund. There is no such a thing as an austerity programme

leading to growth. Of what are we speaking? We are speaking of dreams.

It would be the best in the world if fiscal austerity led to growth.

There would be the end of trade- offs for the government, and it

would make the task of government fairly easy. The problem is not

that. The problem is we are now in the middle of a recession. We have

a jumping unemployment rate, we have a rate of growth which is

going down each day, if not each minute. We are really advising at

the lowest level the prospective for growth for the next years.

have to leave it there. Thank you for your comments. Let's take a

look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world

today. Syria is holding local elections today despite the

continuing violence between security forces and opposition

supporters. The Syrian government says the elections are part of

reforms it's introducing in response to the protests. But the

opposition has rejected the move and called for a boycott. Turnout

is expected to be very low with many voters not willing risk going

to the polls fearing violence. Russians are rallying in support of

Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Claims of fraud in this month's parliamentary

elections won't affect the votes legitimacy or the result, despite

President Medvedev launching an Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri Al-

Maliki, is due at the White House today, and top of the agenda will

be America's impending military withdrawal from his country. All US

troops are due to leave by the end of the year. BBC Arabic have been

asking ordinary Iraqis what this means to them. This is what is left

of the American presence on the streets here. Some personal

belongings and products left over by troops. They are sold on the

markets. Iraqis come to get a good bargain. A pair of sunglasses that

normally costs around $50 will sell here for $5. There has been no sign

of American troops on the streets of Iraq for more than a year, when

they pulled out from the cities. Which is why the impact of the

withdrawal seems invisible on the ground, even though it marks a

momentous political event. It is also what time of reflection for

many Iraqis, who are still gauging whether the American invasion

brought good or evil to their country. Cancellation macro the

positive sides are more than the negatives. They ousted Saddam and

brought the end of the old regime. TRANSLATION: What have they done to

us? They harmed us, people are killed. Saddam heard us, they came

after him and did the same. There is no democracy, no freedom. They

are occupiers, they have brought sedation and sectarianism. Despite

ongoing attacks in several parts of the country, life goes on. But many

things remind people every day of the state their country has sunk

into since the ousting of the old regime. The people are completely

indifferent about whether the American leave or not. The issues

of their health, education, work, freedom, infrastructure, they can

go safely from place to place. That is what concerns people. As nearly

a decade of foreign presence sets on history, whole generations here

that only new wall look for a better future. As for the legacy of

the last eight years, it remains Still to come, a very lucky

Australia and tells the story of a close encounter with a great white

First, let's get the business. I said the dust is settling over

Europe, it has exposed some strange things. Yes, this light market

euphoria we saw on Friday after the agreement, that has gone. The

markets have been Digest in this agreement, and although it is a

step in the right direction, more is needed. That was backed up by

Standard and Poor's, they said more summits are needed. They also said

it is likely another big shock is needed before everybody starts

reading from the same page. They are talking about the German bank

raising money from the markets. There has been criticism about it

eurozone leaders are. What are the markets looking for?

Some kind of announcement from EU leaders that would help the ECB to

undertake quantitative gazing at and unlimited purchases of

government bonds. But that has not materialised. Mario Draghi last

week said that under no to circumstances would the ECB

purchase bonds without a change in the treaty, it is not legal.

The markets want the ECB to step in. Let's go back to an event which

started this. RBS, the bail-out from the British taxpayer. The

regulator here has come out with a report, trying to make sense of

that. It is our financial watchdog, criticised for having an park and

no bite. The taxpayer owns a lot of RBS, but they are looking at the

deal when RBS bought ABN-AMRO. That should not have gone ahead. Very

critical towards RBS management, but the FSA said it failed to

challenge RBS. Why has nobody been held to account?

Under the current legal system, they do not have a case. Without

doubt, RBS management made a huge error, but you would have to be

able to prove they were negligent or fraudulent, and they do not have

a case. But they say that, going forward, the rules that govern the

management of bags will be much tougher, so if it happens again,

the management will be on the Hawk. Bank chiefs in charge of a bank

that fails may not be able to take one of the job at another bank, and

they could lose financial -- they could face financial consequences

themselves. It is the same old story, the eurozone crisis.

This is GMT. The headlines.

David Cameron was shortly tell the UK parliament why he refused to

sign the eurozone rescue treaty. In France, Nicolas Sarkozy has said

Unemployment is -- has joined corruption and poverty as the most

talked-about topics across the globe. Almost one-fifth of the

11,000 respondents of a survey said they discussed a job losses with

friends and family over the previous month. This week, we are

looking at how unemployment is affecting young people around the

globe. We are taking a journey from Tuscany in the north of Italy to

Naples in the south, meeting young people, for whom the future looks

The city of Prato in northern Italy is dominated by factories making

textiles. They once employed thousands of people. But the

recession has not been kind. In recent months, benefactress like

this have been forced to close. Italy, like Greece, Spain and

Portugal, in serious financial difficulty. In the 1980s, the

Government spent too much money, and now it has to pay that money

back. For students at the local college, that means jobs are hard

to come by. The Head Teacher says the future looks bleak.

TRANSLATION: I am not just worried former students, but for the whole

new generation. I and my father, I am very worried. Travel south to

the rural areas, the problem is much worse. This is Pompeii, in the

shadow of Mount Vesuvius, traditionally known for farming and

agriculture. Unemployment here has always been high, but over the last

few years, it has jumped, and particularly amongst young people.

The rate of unemployment is now the highest in Italy. It now stands at

42%. But here, instead of protesting about the problems, they

are making music. They say it gives them a voice. TRANSLATION: The

crisis in Italy is huge. We have a weapon against the economic crisis.

It is the music. TRANSLATION: Sometimes, I do small jobs to get

money for me and my parents, but it is so difficult. It is all about

who you know. Many want to leave Italy, but with the crisis now

engulfing Europe, finding a job elsewhere can be just as difficult

Joining Li Na from Geneva, Jose We have just seen the problem of

youth unemployment in Italy. How universal is this problem? Yes,

unfortunately, it is quite widespread. The crisis was very

synchronised in many countries. Developed countries, Curate, the

United States, and eight stronger impact in the developing countries.

-- a stronger impact. The young people are some of the most

formidable. -- most vulnerable. In some countries, the or unemployment

rate among young people is three or four times the rate for adults. But

there are other situations, Kim people with temporary jobs, or in

long-term on employment -- young people. There are many difficult

situations. Why do you think young people of being hit

disproportionately? Well, there are a number of special circumstances,

characteristics of young people. One of the most important, they are

younger, they have never had work experience before. Employers look

not only for technical competence but also for some work experience,

teamwork abilities, communication abilities, etc, and many of them to

not have that experience. They are in a catch 22, a vicious circle.

That is why it is so important to have programs that allow them to

have that kind of internship or work experience. Briefly, looking

into the future, what do you think the consequences of this kind of

youth unemployment are? The social consequences? We have been warning,

even before the crisis, a lot of human suffering for the young

people, it is a waste of human capital, and you could have a lost

generation, or a generation marred by the experience of not entering

the labour market in time. The long term scarring effects, it is clear

that they will find it more difficult to find jobs in the

To a species we definitely know about, the Great White Shark. The

surfer has had a close shave after an encounter with one. It leapt out

of the waves, taking a chunk out of his surfboard, but luckily, he

To close to Mall, the bite that missed a surfer by a whisker. The

board-erves ahead of the intended main course, Stephen King. I am the

luckiest guy on two legs. Unbelievable. The shark swam off

with only a mouthful of surfboard. It left Stephen with a few minor

injuries. Just as I was taking off, there was a banned from the side, I

cartwheel through the air. The thrashing beside me. He says he has

never seen one here in 22 years of surfing. But unlike his board, he

made it back to shore in one piece. Very relieved, we are lucky that he

is with us still. They have been a few fatal shark attacks around

Australia this year, experts say there is always some danger.

have got to be realistic, this is their territory. We are just the