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In Dänemark wurden drei Personen wegen des Verdachts der Planung von Terroranschlägen verhaftet. Dies teilte Flemming Drejer, Leiter der Abteilung für Einsätze beim dänischen Sicherheits- und Nachrichtendienst (PET), auf einer Pressekonferenz am Donnerstag (14. Dezember) mit.

Schwedens Entwicklungshilfe würde davon abhängen, wie die Länder mit den schwedischen Ausweisungsbeschlüssen umgehen, erklärten die konservative Minderheitsregierung und ihr parlamentarischer Verbündeter, die rechten Schwedendemokraten.

Chaque semaine, des travailleurs du secteur médical partent à l'étranger, un exode que la libéralisation des visas risque d'accentuer. Pharmacienne à Mitrovica, Erona n'a pas (encore) prévu de partir, mais va profiter de cette nouvelle liberté pour aller voir des membres de sa famille aux quatre coins de l'Europe et enfin pouvoir « rêver plus grand ».

- Articles / Kosovo, Une - Diaporama, Populations, minorités et migrations, Santé, Courrier des Balkans, Libéralisation des visas

Chaque semaine, des travailleurs du secteur médical partent à l'étranger, un exode que la libéralisation des visas risque d'accentuer. Pharmacienne à Mitrovica, Erona n'a pas (encore) prévu de partir, mais va profiter de cette nouvelle liberté pour aller voir des membres de sa famille aux quatre coins de l'Europe et enfin pouvoir « rêver plus grand ».

- Articles / Kosovo, Une - Diaporama, Populations, minorités et migrations, Santé, Courrier des Balkans, Libéralisation des visas

Credit: WRF
 
The resounding consensus of the recent World Resources Forum Conference: in order to achieve wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries, humanity needs to rethink how it values resources.

By Mathias Schluep
ST. GALLEN, Switzerland, Dec 15 2023 (IPS)

While the COP28 presidency celebrated an “historic deal” to transition away from fossil fuels, we must remind ourselves that the future wellbeing of human societies in a livable planet depends on more than that.

Keeping fossil fuels in the ground is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. To achieve the ultimate goal, we need to fundamentally rethink the value of natural resources and reassess their link to long-term human wellbeing.

Having a world climate conference with a tunnel vision on fossil fuels does not help us in that.

At stake is the long-term ability of human societies to provide for wellbeing, especially in light of a growing global population and widening inequalities. Over the past decades, resource use has significantly improved living standards for many, particularly in high-income countries, but this now comes at an unprecedented cost to the environment and human health.

According to the UN International Resource Panel, today resource extraction and processing are responsible for 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress, 50% of carbon emissions and 1/3 of air pollution health impacts.

The use of resources has more than tripled since 1970 and, if current trends continue, global material consumption is predicted to double again by 2060. This growth is especially prominent for metals and non-metallic minerals, which are the backbone of major industries and the enablers of the energy and digital transitions.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that global demand for critical raw materials will quadruple by 2040 – in the case of lithium, demand is expected to increase by a factor of 42.

Resources are the bridge between economic productivity and ecological balance. A bridge that, in most policy and governance frameworks, has often remained invisible. The main reason for this lies in an economic model not valuing natural resources.

Economists have severely downplayed the dependence of economic activity on resources and the natural systems that generate them. This has contributed to overexploitation, environmental degradation and the exacerbation of global challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Distorted economic incentives and market signals are now ubiquitous, such as in the well-known cases of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest or the depletion of fish stocks due to overfishing. Others are less discussed, especially in relation to the mining sector, which will become the engine of the global economy.

If not responsibly managed, mining activities can lead to soil erosion, habitat destruction and contamination of water sources, impacting the local ecosystems and nearby communities who depend on those ecosystems.

A prominent example is the handling of mining waste and mining tailings, the residue remaining after mineral processing. Recent research reveals that a third of the world’s mine tailings facilities are located within or near protected areas, posing a significant threat to biodiversity and ecosystem integrity in the event of facility failures or accidents.

Unfortunately, these accidents are not as uncommon as one may think. The disaster of the Brumadinho (Brazil) tailings storage facility in 2019 unleashed a toxic tidal wave of around 12 million cubic meters, which killed 270 people and destroyed a significant area of the Atlantic forest and a protected area downstream.

Economic models are human-made and can be changed. If we are serious about sustainability and long-term human wellbeing, they must be transformed to better account for the unreplaceable value that natural resources provide.

This shift, advocated for by participants at the World Resources Forum 2023, requires acknowledging the interconnectedness of economic, ecological and social systems, underpinning the need for new accounting models to integrate ecological and social indicators.

Profound changes need to permeate climate negotiations and international policies, if future COPs are to play a meaningful role in preserving life on this planet. This year we witnessed once again how climate change discussions tend to overlook the central role played by the excessive and irresponsible use of resources, and apply a tunnel vision focused on CO2 emissions which are a key aspect to tackle, but essentially a symptom of a more profound ill.

The cure goes through integrating natural resource management in the institutional fabric and extending the relevant policy options beyond the prevailing energy supply. Ecological health and human wellbeing are interlinked objectives which call for reassessing our values and rethinking how we use natural resources.

Mathias Schluep is Managing Director World Resources Forum

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Car makers have called for a regulatory pause following a deluge of legislation aimed at ensuring vehicles are in line with Europe's environmental targets. But agreeing to this would derail climate objectives and hurt consumers, writes Monique Goyens.

Die deutsche Industrie hat die Einigung über das neue EU-Lieferkettengesetz kritisiert. Sie warnte davor, dass die neuen Unternehmensregeln die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Europas untergraben und die Wirtschaft ausbremsen würden.

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

L'Autriche soutient l'intégration des pays des Balkans occidentaux à l'Union européenne (UE), essentiellement pour des raisons économiques. Mais la région est aussi vue depuis Vienne comme la porte d'entrée en Europe occidentale des migrants qui remontent depuis la Grèce et dont l'arrivée est instrumentalisée par les populistes autrichiens pour des enjeux internes. L'analyse d'Adelheid Wölfl, correspondante historique dans les Balkans du journal autrichien Der Standard.

- Articles / Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Roumanie, Serbie, Libéralisation des visas, Elargissement UE, Blocage UE

Polen sollte gleichgeschlechtliche Partnerschaften legalisieren, sagte Polens neuer stellvertretender Justizminister Arkadiusz Myrcha. Allerdings dürfte Polens konservativer Präsident dieser Idee skeptisch gegenüberstehen.

The final flight of Italy's Vega rocket has been delayed after crucial parts went missing, while the latest test of Europe's new Ariane 6 has been aborted, the European Space Agency said, the latest glitches to affect Europe's troubled sector.

The Secretariat building in New York City, where staff of the UN Secretariat carry out the day-to-day work. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 15 2023 (IPS)

Going back to the 1970s, thousands of UN staffers were given legal status opting for permanent residency in the US– after their retirement.

But that longstanding privilege now seems to be in jeopardy forcing retirees to return to their home countries uprooting their lives in the US.

The United States Immigration and Nationality Act has for long allowed long-serving UN staff members, who held the traditional G-4 visa status, and who met certain criteria, to apply for Legal Permanent Residency, also known as a “Green Card,” under the “Special Immigrant” category (EB-4), upon separation on retirement.

The UN’s Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC) last week sent an “urgent notice” to staffers that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has temporarily suspended accepting applications to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (I-485 form) under the “Special Immigrant” category (EB-4).

This development may affect the ability of staff members who hold G-4 visas to continue to reside in the United States following their separation from service on retirement.

The suspension may also affect recent retirees; children of current or retired staff members, as well as a surviving spouse, who have been planning to apply for Legal Permanent Residency under the “Special Immigrant” category.

The UN has advised staffers to seek legal advice from an immigration firm about their future status in the US.

Speaking off-the-record, a long-time UN staffer told IPS the programme is in jeopardy with no clear indication when it will resume or get resolved.

The reason is apparently a backlog of applications, but it may even be political, he said. ”You may never know”.

Basically, he said, it has been suspended because of some changes that came into effect early this year in the immigration laws –and also due to the existing backlog of applications.

“This means no priority processing for G4 visa holders from the UN. The situation is quite serious as it was taken by surprise many in the Secretariat”.

“We have been told that within 30-days, we have to leave the US upon separation unless the individual manages to change the status by going through an immigration lawyer. I don’t see it restored in the near future. A big disappointment and a mess to say the least.”

Most UN staffers who own apartments or house and property—and are on short notice– will have to dispose them before they leave the US while others with children in US colleges will have to make adjustments.

“It’s an absolute nightmare”, said one staffer whose retirement is due in February next year when he will be forced out of the US.

Meanwhile, In Geneva, which houses more than 40 international organizations, mostly affiliated to the United Nations such as the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), staffers apply for “resident permits” on their retirement.

After they have lived 5-10 years, including years spent at the UN, they are entitled to permanent residency leading to Swiss citizenship.

Currently, the US is home to over 9,000 staffers who work in the Secretariat and in UN agencies in New York, including the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN children’s agency UNICEF and UN Women– with some on retirement after living the US for over 30 to 40 years.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Denmark arresting three people for allegedly planning terrorist attacks, the new Polish government eyeing the legalisation of same-sex civil partnerships, and so much more.

Aujourd’hui dans L’Expresso : un possible « PACS » en Pologne, bras de fer verbal entre la Commission et la Slovaquie, la France sous pression pour son refus d'harmoniser la définition du viol au niveau européen et accord sur la réforme du marché de l'énergie de l'UE.

Le président serbe Aleksandar Vučić et son ancien mentor Vojislav Šešelj se retrouvent pour mener ensemble la bataille électorale de Belgrade, dimanche 17 décembre. En Serbie, l'extrême-droite occupe une place de plus en plus prépondérante dans l'espace politique, une normalisation qui s'accompagne d'un révisionnisme historique généralisé.

- Articles / Courrier des Balkans, Vucic, Serbie, Politique intérieure, Seselj