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Steht Belinda Bencic vor dem ganz grossen Wurf? Die Chancen auf den Jackpot sind gross für sie, glaubt Fed-Cup-Captain Heinz Günthardt.

Botswanas Präsident Mokgweetsi Masisi hat sich eine zweite Amtszeit gesichert. Masisis regierende BDP-Partei erhielt in der Parlamentswahl am Mittwoch mehr als 51 Prozent der Stimmen, wie der Oberste Richter des Landes, Terrence Rannowane, am Freitag mitteilte.

La 549e édition de la foire d'automne à Bâle commence samedi et attend plus d'un million de visiteurs.

Faber, der Gesellschaftskritiker, der Polarisierende, ist in Wahrheit nicht wohl mit diesem Image. Der Zürcher Musiker kann sich gut vorstellen, einen Kiosk zu betreiben, anstatt auf Tour zu gehen - doch nun erscheint erst einmal sein Album "I Fucking Love My Life".

The Bundestag's Council of Elders decided that there should be a climate tax for the official trips of MPs, starting in 2020. For the first time, the Council has started to debate the building blocks of Germany's recently proposed climate package. EURACTIV's media partner Der Tagesspiegel reports.

La montée des eaux du fleuve Mono continue de faire des victimes dans la commune d'Athiémé. Après le décès d'un homme présentant des troubles psychologiques, il y a quelques jours, la commune a enregistré mercredi dernier, un second cas de noyade dans le village de Ahoho.
Selon l'information rapportée par l'ABP, « la victime serait allée à la pêche quand le drame est survenu. Son corps sans vie a été plus tard retrouvé à l'issue d'intenses recherches ».
Le niveau de l'eau dans la commune selon la même source demeure au seuil critique de 8,30 m.
Inondés, la plupart des services administratifs de la commune ont dû suspendre leurs activités.

F. A. A.

This report is for the media and the general public.

SUMMARY

On 25 October at 10:45 (Moscow time), a convoy of 27 vehicles arrived at the Donetsk Border Crossing Point (BCP). All 27 vehicles were checked by Russian Federation border guards and customs officers prior to their crossing into Ukraine.

DETAIL

Leaving the Russian Federation

On 25 October at 10:45, the Observer Mission observed the arrival of a convoy of vehicles from the Russian Federation at the gate of the Donetsk BCP. The group consisted of 27 vehicles: one escort minibus and 26 new vehicles of different types without licence plates.

Details of the vehicles are as follows: one escort minibus, type “Mercedes Sprinter” with “LPR” plates; six ambulances, type “Gazel Next”, with a sign "Reanimation" in front and "Urgent medical help" on the sides, in Russian language; five ambulances type “Gazel”, with signs "Urgent Medical help" on the sides in Russian language; six tractors with excavators  fixed, type “Belarus 821”; three graders, type "Orel"; two trucks type “Kamaz Frigo”;  three dump trucks type “ Kamaz”; and one small excavator for road works, loaded in one of the “Kamaz” dump trucks. No passengers were observed in the escorting minibus.

All vehicles, except for the escort minibus, were new, and without licence plates. The vehicles queued in the customs area and underwent border control procedures.

By 12:12, all vehicles had left the BCP towards Ukraine.

Heidi Klum strahlt immer noch über beide Backen. Seit ihrer Heirat mit Tom Kaulitz schwebt das Model auf Wolke 7. In einem Interview spricht sie über ihre Hochzeit, das Verliebtsein und ihre Kinder.

Written by Micaela del Monte and Silvia Kotanidis,

© EC – Audiovisual Service

The hearings of the Commissioners-designate before the European Parliament’s committees took place between 30 September and 8 October 2019. The plenary vote on the entire Commission was originally planned for 23 October in Strasbourg, after a presentation by the Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen of the full College and its programme. However, three Commissioners-designate did not successfully complete the hearings process, making it necessary for three Member States to nominate new candidates and for committees to carry out new hearings. The new Commission will not, therefore, now be able to enter into office on 1 November, as scheduled. The outgoing Commission will thus remain in office until the formal appointment of its replacement, although questions arise as to its powers in that period.

Background

Following the election by Parliament of Ursula von der Leyen as President-elect of the Commission, her next step was to announce, after a decision taken in common accord with the Council according to Article 17(7) TEU, the names and portfolios of the Commissioners-designate. They then had to undergo public hearings before the committees responsible for their portfolios, prior to the vote of consent of Parliament (a majority of the votes cast) on the President-elect and the Commissioners-designate (including the Vice-President appointed by the Council as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) as a body.

Ultimately, following that consent, the appointment of the Commission is done by the European Council, acting by qualified majority (Article 17(7) TEU). The hearings to which Commissioners-designate are subject are not required by the Treaties, but have long existed in a practice which has been codified in the Rules of Procedure of Parliament (Rule 125 and Annex VII). For the ninth term, the Conference of Presidents decided that the hearings would be held between 30 September and 8 October, with the plan being to vote subsequently on the Commission as a body at the Parliament’s plenary session of 23 October.

This process of scrutiny of the candidates and the ensuing hearings, which represent a fundamental democratic exercise, implies a possible need to adjust the steps and timetable. Indeed, after the scrutiny of the declaration of financial interests of Commissioners-designate László Trócsányi (Neighbourhood and Enlargement) and Rovana Plumb (Transport), the Committee on Legal Affairs concluded that both were unable to take up their duties in the Commission. Being a precondition for the holding of a hearing according to the Rules of Procedure (Article 2 of Annex VII), neither could proceed to that step.

In addition, after a first unsatisfactory hearing on 2 October, the Committees on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and on Industry, Research and Energy requested the hearing of Commissioner-designate Sylvie Goulard (Internal Market) be resumed on 10 October, with, in the end, a negative outcome. With three Commissioners-designate not having successfully passed Parliament’s scrutiny, new appointments are required. As the date originally scheduled for a vote in Parliament on the Commission as a body has now passed, the new Commission cannot therefore take office on 1 November 2019 as required.

The notion of a ‘caretaker’ Commission

The question that arises is what are the consequences if the Commission is delayed in taking office, since the Juncker Commission’s term of office comes to an end on 31 October 2019. What limits are there, if any, on the exercise of the Commission President’s functions, and those of the College, and under what rules?

The Treaties do not explicitly take into account a possible delay in Commission taking office. Neither Article 17 TEU, setting out the term of office and the details of the procedure leading to the Commission’s election, nor any other provisions of the Treaties provide for this situation, although similar events have occurred more than once in the past (see below).

Article 246(6) TFEU, however, deals with a comparable situation, according to which, when all members of the Commission submit their resignation collectively, they are to remain in office and continue to deal with current business until they are replaced, for the remainder of their term of office. This provision embodies the principle, quite widespread in the life of both EU and national institutions, of institutional continuity. The Treaties do not define the powers of the ‘prolonged’ Commission, however some argue that the Commission must act as a ‘caretaker administration’ not only when it resigns collectively as a College but also when, as in this case, the new Commission does not take office immediately after the expiry of the term of office of the previous College.

In this context, ‘current business’ would include all daily, routine business as well as all acts that cannot be postponed to the next College. Against this background, the adoption of new legislative proposals would seem excluded except for emergency reasons. Some limited case law has helped in framing the scope of the Commission’s room for manoeuvre when the notion of ‘current business’ comes into play.

In 2003, the question arose in the case Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale v Commission of whether a State aid decision issued by a resigning Commission was lawful. On that occasion, the Court affirmed that the adoption of a State aid decision by the Commission after its collective resignation did fall within the scope of a caretaker administration, insofar as it did not constitute a new political initiative and the supervisory function of the Commission constituted part of the fulfilment of an ‘essential task of the Community’. In this sense, the Court considered that the Commission had not exceeded the powers entrusted to a ‘caretaker administrator’ but ‘confined itself to applying to that case a legal scheme of long-established rules and principles’.

In another case in 2012, European Parliament v Council, the Court argued that the same reasoning could be applicable ‘a fortiori in circumstances in which a pre-existing proposal remained pending’. In fact, in that specific case, the Barroso I Commission formally amended one of its own proposals – which was then adopted as Regulation 1286/2009 – in respect of its legal basis, to take account of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. This decision was taken at a time when the Barroso I Commission’s term of office had ended, but the new Commission had not yet formally entered into office. The Court also ruled in this case that such a ‘step was essential if the Union legislature was to continue with the pending procedure after the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force’. However, the Court did not provide additional clarifications on what should be considered as ‘essential’.

The current circumstances, the precedents in jurisprudence and the principle of continuity of institutional work allow a reasonable belief that the current Commission will work in a ‘current business’ mode until the new Commission does take office. Although some commentators expect that the new Commission will come into office in December 2019, how long the ‘caretaker’ administration continues will depend on new Commissioners-designate being nominated by France, Hungary and Romania, the agreement thereon of the President-elect, and those candidates then completing the hearings process successfully. After that, the entire College would need to obtain the consent of Parliament in a plenary vote.

A look back

The current situation is not an extraordinary one. The Prodi Commission was appointed to a term running until 22 January 2005, although its end was brought forward to 31 October 2004 under Article 45 of the Act concerning the 2004 enlargement. The Barroso I Commission should, therefore, have started on 1 November 2004. Due to uncertainties as to whether Parliament would support three of the Commissioners-designate initially put forward by Barroso (Rocco Buttiglione, László Kovács and Ingrida Udre) the vote of Parliament was postponed from 27 October to 18 November 2004. After election by Parliament, the Barroso I Commission (with two of those three candidates replaced, and the third taking a different portfolio than originally proposed) took office on 22 November 2004, i.e. three weeks after the statutory date.

Likewise, the Barroso II Commission took office with a few months of delay, starting work on 10 February 2010, instead of 1 November 2009, due to the delayed process of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, which was finalised only in November 2009 and which consequently delayed the process of election of the Barroso II Commission which fell under the Lisbon rules. On that occasion, the Commission spokesperson, Johannes Laitenberger, declared that the Commission’s mandate was extended ‘based on the principle of institutional continuity’ so that the Commission could work in a ‘caretaker capacity’.

Read this ‘at a glance’ on ‘Commission as ‘caretaker administration’‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Bergluft tut nicht nur der Seele gut, sondern hat auch positive Effekte auf die Gesundheit. Darum sollten Sie öfters wandern gehen.

Face au constat de certaines écoles privées qui ont entrepris de fonctionner en journée continue, le ministre des enseignements maternel et primaire Salimane Karimou ordonne le respect des normes en la matière.
Dans un communiqué rendu public ce jeudi 24 octobre 2019, le ministre des enseignements maternel et primaire souligne que « cette pratique contraire aux dispositions de l'article 11 alinéa e du décret n°2007-279 du 16 juin 2007 fixant les conditions générales de création ou d'ouverture, d'extension, de scission, de gémination, de transfert, de fermeture, de changement de dénomination des établissements maternel, primaire et secondaire général ne saurait être encore tolérée ».
Il exige que les promoteurs de cette pratique se conforment rigoureusement et sans délai à l'esprit et à la lettre des textes en vigueur.
Le ministre rappelle les conditions d'un fonctionnement en régime spécial notamment l'article 76 du même décret qui stipule que « toute personne désireuse d'ouvrir un établissement privé des enseignements maternel, primaire et secondaire général à régime spécial utilisant une langue de travail outre que le français et ou exécutant des programmes d'études autres que ceux en vigueur en République du Bénin, doit produire un dossier comprenant sous peine de rejet : une demande d'autorisation d'ouverture, la précision des programmes d'études à exécuter, de même que la masse horaire, le calendrier scolaire, les diplômes envisagés et un engagement légalisé à respecter la constitution, les lois et règlements en République du Bénin ».
Les promoteurs d'écoles qui ne se conformeront pas aux textes en vigueur seront tenus seuls responsables des conséquences qui découleraient de leur comportement.

A.A.A

European Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen will meet the new candidates for commissioners from France, Thierry Breton, and Hungary, Oliver Varhelyi, on Monday, a commission spokeswoman said Friday. Earlier on, candidates from France, Hungary, and Romania were rejected by the European Parliament. The new Romanian government is sill yet to nominate a new candidate. The von der Leyen commission will take office with at least one month delay.

Ambassadors from the 27 EU member states shelved a decision on how long to extend the Brexit deadline after 31 October during their meeting on Friday. There was agreement on the need for an extension among ambassadors, but its length will be discussed early next week. British MPs are expected to vote on Monday on UK prime minister Boris Johnson's call for an election on 12 December.

Der Leitindex SMI stieg am frühen Freitagnachmittag auf 10'142,19 Punkte. Damit hat die Schweizer Börse eines neues Rekordhoch erklommen.

Beim FCL eskaliert der Machtkampf. Auf der einen Seite steht Hauptinvestor Bernhard Alpstaeg, auf der anderen die Aktionäre Samih Sawiris, Hans Schmid und Marco Sieber.

Le Maroc a signé le 23 octobre 2019, un accord pour la construction d'un complexe pétrochimique.
Les documents ont été paraphés avec les partenaires russes en marge du forum économique Russie-Afrique, tenu à Sotchi les 23 et 24 octobre.

L'accord pour la construction de la raffinerie de Nador a été signé par le directeur général de la société MYA Energy, Youssef El Alaoui, le président de la Banque de développement de la Fédération de Russie (VEB), Daniil Algulyan, et le vice-président du Centre russe pour l'exportation, Nikita Gusakov. Estimé à près de deux milliards d'euros, il est destiné à « la construction d'une raffinerie en utilisant l'expertise et les dernières technologies russes pour le raffinage et le stockage de produits pétroliers ».
Selon la compagnie MYA Energy, ledit projet va permettre au Royaume de contribuer à la réglementation “IMO 2020”, signée par le Maroc dans le cadre des engagements de la COP 22 à Marrakech.
Cette réglementation implique la réduction des émissions de soufre.
En partenariat avec les experts russes, la société marocaine procédera à la réalisation du projet.
Le futur joyau sera doté d'une capacité de raffinage de 100.000 barils par jour, et pourra atteindre la capacité de 200.000 barils par jour.
Le projet de construction d'un complexe pétrochimique au Maroc sera aussi source de milliers d'emplois directs et indirects dans la région du nord du Royaume et mettra à profit les installations portuaires de Nador West Med.

A.A.A

Die Unfallversicherung Helsana hat die Leistungen für einen bei einem Diebstahl schwer verletzten Mann zu Unrecht um die Hälfte gekürzt. Der Versicherer war der Ansicht, dass sich der Portugiese an einem Kampf beteiligt habe und deshalb mitschuldig sei.

437018 Marina Živaljević

Parliamentary oversight of the security sector was the topic of a two-day workshop organized in Podgorica by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro for members of the country’s parliament and parliamentary staff on 24 and 25 October 2019.

Peter Vanhotte, a former Belgian MP with over 15 years of experience working with parliaments in the region and around the world, led the interactive workshop. The participants examined the basics and practical approaches of parliamentary oversight of the police, defence and intelligence, the relevant legislative framework, and how classified information should be handled.

John Corrigan, the Mission’s Security Co-operation and Governance Programme Manager, said that while challenges may vary from country to country in the region, it must be acknowledged that all parliamentarians are confronted by a rapidly changing environment, in which information is more available, more instantaneous and more difficult to verify than ever before.

“This makes parliaments a uniquely valuable resource that should be proudly recognized and supported. It is the intention of the OSCE to continue to work together to build Montenegro’s parliamentary capacity to deliver high-quality information services to parliamentarians for its citizens,” said Corrigan.

Both through the Democratization and the Programme for Security Co-operation and Governance, the Mission will continue to support the parliament in its efforts to further strengthen the parliamentary services and its efficiency, as well as the work and the oversight role of the parliamentary committees.