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Parliament's International Trade Committee will hold an extraordinary meeting on 29 June in Brussels to decide whether the 116 amendments tabled to Parliament's draft recommendations to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiators should be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole, the political groups represented in the committee decided on Monday.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Parliament's International Trade Committee will hold an extraordinary meeting on 29 June in Brussels to decide whether the 116 amendments tabled to Parliament's draft recommendations to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiators should be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole, the political groups represented in the committee decided on Monday.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Parliament's International Trade Committee will hold an extraordinary meeting on 29 June in Brussels to decide whether the 116 amendments tabled to Parliament's draft recommendations to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiators should be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole, the political groups represented in the committee decided on Monday.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Parliament's International Trade Committee will hold an extraordinary meeting on 29 June in Brussels to decide whether the 116 amendments tabled to Parliament's draft recommendations to Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiators should be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole, the political groups represented in the committee decided on Monday.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Good evening. We can start this press conference from today's Eurogroup meeting in which we have a number of issues. I will start by Greece given the urgency of its situation.

Greece

The Eurogroup today took stock of the situation regarding the programme of Greece. Regrettable to say that too little progress has been made in the talks between the institutions and Greece  That is no agreement has yet is in sight.  

Let me recall that at the basis of which we work is the agreement of the Eurogroup of 20th Feb and the statement that we agreed upon in February. In that agreement, there were two kinds of flexibility. One, we said we would allow the institutions to take into account the current economic situation in Greece and if necessary, adjust the fiscal targets and timelines considering the economic situation and the deterioration of this economic situation in Greece.

Second flexibility which we allowed was to replace measures both  fiscal measures and reforms by other measures being put forward by the greeks after having been being assessed by the institutions. So there was also flexibility within the current MoU to replace measures.

The institutions have made used of those two kind of flexibilities during their talks with the Greek authorities. But as we stand now, too little measures that have been put forward and been assessed are to be credible and serious and to be put in a new agreement. Therefore, the talks of the last weeks have not progressed.  

Today in our meeting, we sent a strong signal to the Greek authorities that it's really up to them to submit new, additional proposals in the coming days to fully engage with the institutions, within the framework of the Eurogroup statement of 20th Feb.

As of today, it is still possible to find an agreement and extend the current programme before the end of this month. But the ball is clearly in the Greek court to seize that last opportunity. We feel that an agreement must be credible. It has to be credible from the perspective of sustainable finances and economic recovery in Greece. But also it has to be credible from the point of view of the credibility of our monetary union and the eurozone as a whole. We think that it is still possible but if such an agreement is sent to the Eurogroup in the coming days we will judge it on that: the credibility both of Greece and for the eurozone as a whole.

Finally, let me again stress that time is really running out. The current programme expires by the end of this month, There are of course parliamentary procedures to consider. Therefore, very little time remains.

Cyprus and Portugal

Today we also discussed the situation in Cyprus.

We welcomed that the Cyprus programme has been brought back on track, and the prior actions have been complied with. As we have adopted a statement, which will be distributed, and I do not need to go into great detail. Let me just emphasise that we welcomed the progress and reforms in the financial sector, including the new foreclosure framework, which is an essential step towards addressing the very high level of non-performing loans in the financial sector.

Important challenges remain for the remainder of the Cypriot programme, notably to reduce the stock of arrears. This must remain a key priority.

Given the overall positive picture, we endorsed in principle the updated MoU and the next ESM disbursement). National parliamentary procedures are now underway.

We also reviewed the situation in Portugal on the basis of a debrief by the institutions on the main findings of their second post-programme surveillance mission. The IMF participated and they call it 'post-programme monitoring'. The ESM also participated it and the name is the 'early warning surveillance'. We welcomed the progress made and the expected strengthening of the economic recovery in Portugal. At the same time, fiscal and structural challenges remain, but we are confident that Portuguese efforts will be maintained,

The developments in Portugal and Cyprus, taken together with our discussions earlier this year on post-programme surveillances in Spain and Ireland, demonstrate a clear pattern of countries taking the necessary measures to turn around their economies and sparking growth. I think the success of the programme has been proven in all of these countries.

Once again I would like to commend the authorities and the people of Portugal and Cyprus for their continued efforts, in which they show ownership and commitment to reforms can clearly pay off.

Euro area economy

We had discussions on a broad range of important issues for the euro area economy.

To start off, Christine Lagarde debriefed us on the IMF's recently concluded Article IV review of the euro area. The IMF sees as we do a strengthening of the cyclical recovery underway, but this is for a large part driven by temporary factors, so we need to keep focusing on ways to increase our growth potential and to push forward structural reforms that are needed in that sense

There is broad agreement within the Eurogroup on the policy priorities identified by the Fund, namely structural reforms, appropriate fiscal policies and making sure the financial sector can fund their economies. In particular, one of the messages of the Fund is to use wisely the yields savings stemming from unusual low interest rates.  We had a discussion on this topic being prepared by the Commission and agreed that low interest rates open up a window of opportunity to consolidate public finances, invest, for example, in infrastructure and reform our economies. It is an opportunity that we must use well. We will return to this topic later in the year.

 There is substantial overlap between the Fund's priorities for the eurozone and the draft 2015 euro area recommendations proposed by the Commission - which is part of the European Semester. We endorsed these draft recommendations and we are committed to monitor their implementation over the coming years so they will be put into our working programme in the Eurogroup. We must keep the reform momentum and the Eurogroup intends to keep on pushing on concrete progress and greater ownership in this area.

A l’issue de la seconde escale à Abidjan dans le cadre de la mission Corymbe 129, l’aviso Commandant l’Herminier a réalisé une série d’exercices au bénéfice des deux nouveaux patrouilleurs ivoiriens et de leur équipage, avant d’apporter son soutien à une intervention ghanéenne de lutte contre les narcotrafics.

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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Le 19 septembre 2014, sur ordre du Président de la République, la première opération militaire aérienne française était menée en Irak par deux Rafaleet un ravitailleur C135 contre le groupe terroriste Daech. Suite aux missions de reconnaissance et de renseignement effectuées les jours précédents par un avion de patrouille maritime Atlantique 2de la Marine nationale, cette opération avait pour objectif de détruire un dépôt logistique de Daech repéré dans la région de Mossoul.

Brigadier General Franz Xaver Pfrengle has been appointed as new Mission Commander for the EU Training Mission in Mali (EUTM Mali). General Pfrengle, from Germany, takes up his duties on 28 July  2015. He will succeed Brigadier General Alfonso García-Vaquero Pradal, who had been in the position since October 2014. 

EUTM Mali assists in the reconstruction of effective and accountable Malian Armed Forces so that they are capable of ensuring the long-term security of Mali and, under civilian authority, restoring of the country's territorial integrity. To this effect, EUTM Mali delivers training to units of the Malian Armed Forces and develops autonomous training capability. The mission also  provides advice to the Malian authorities in reforming the army. 

The decision was taken by the EU's Political and Security Committee. 

Un an et demi après leur engagement sur le théâtre de l’opération Barkhane, les drones Reaper viennent de franchir les 5 000 heures de vol au-dessus de la bande sahélo-saharienne. Prenant part à  toutes les missions depuis leur arrivée sur le détachement air de Niamey, les drones MQ-9 Reaper démontrent quotidiennement leur plus-value, tout en complétant parfaitement l’action des drones Harfang déjà en place depuis le début de l’opération en août 2014.

Un an après les élections, Marine Le Pen va annoncer le 16 juin la création de son groupe au Parlement européen, l'Europe des Nations et des Libertés. Ce qui lui permettra d'empocher jusqu'à 17,5 millions d'euros de financements dans les quatre ans à venir.

Le ministre de l’Économie a appelé à avancer sur la construction d’un noyau dur de la zone euro, afin de sortir de 10 années de glaciation de la construction européenne. 

/ Turquie, Région parisienne

Un livre sur le 13ème RDP par le 13 lui-même, avec la collaboration de l'auteur de ce blog.

Le 2juin 2015, le groupement tactique interarmes (GTIA) Vercors a organisé un cross de solidarité sur le camp M’Poko à Bangui. Cette activité de cohésion avait pour but de récolter des dons parmi les militaires de l’opération Sangaris, au profit des associations Terre Fraternité et l’Entraide Montagne.

Alors que les ministres de l’Intérieur des pays de l’UE se rencontrent ce mardi 16 juin à Luxembourg pour discuter de l’éventuelle répartition de 40 000 réfugiés arrivés en Grèce ou en Italie, Rome ne cesse de hausser le ton. Le bras de fer entre l’Italie, qui réclame davantage de solidarité, et la France, qui ne veut pas dévier de sa ligne de fermeté, s’est d’ailleurs durci au cours des dernières heures. Le président du Conseil, Matteo Renzi, a même dévoilé en partie son fameux « plan B » qui pourrait être mis en œuvre si le « plan A » - autrement dit l’aboutissement à une entente au sein de l’UE - échouait.

Le 13 juin 2015, dans le golfe d’Aden, le bâtiment de commandement et de ravitaillement (BCR) Var, navire de commandement la Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150), a effectué une rencontre à la mer avec le JDS Ikazuchi, un destroyer japonais de la classe Murasame. Cette interaction a été l’occasion de procéder à un entraînement conjoint ainsi qu’à un échange de personnels entre les deux bâtiments, dans le cadre de la coopération bilatérale entre les marines française et japonaise.

Amilyen nagy, olyan halk és sokoldalú. Amilyen kicsi, olyan különleges. Az előbbi megállapítás a C–17 Globemaster III szállító repülőgépre vonatkozik, utóbbi pedig az MH Pápa Bázisrepülőtéren települt stratégiai légi szállító képesség (SAC) programra, amelynek csak az egyik eleme a szállítási feladatok végrehajtásáért felelős Nehéz Légiszállító Ezred (HAW).

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