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Die EU-Außenminister:innen treffen sich am Montag (12. Dezember), um sich auf weitere Sanktionen gegen den Iran wegen der Militärhilfe für Russland zu einigen und die Europäische Friedensfazilität (EFF) mit zusätzlichen 2 Milliarden Euro für Waffenlieferungen an die Ukraine aufzustocken.

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 12-15 December plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 12-15 December plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 12-15 December plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

The European Parliament’s spokesperson will hold a last-minute briefing on the 12-15 December plenary session today at 16.30.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

By External Source
Dec 12 2022 (IPS-Partners)

A joint mission to Ethiopia by Education Cannot Wait (ECW), and Norway’s International Development Minister has drawn attention to one of the world’s largest education crises that have left 3.6 million children out of school. The number of out-of-school children has spiked from 3.1 million to 3.6 million, according to UNICEF. However, ECW-funded schools provide children with ‘whole-of-child’ interventions, including school feeding, psychosocial support, teacher training, school materials, accelerated learning, gender transformative approaches, and the construction and rehabilitation of school facilities.

 

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Jana Bittó Cigániková (SaS) felszólalásával folytatódott hétfőn a kormány leváltásáról szóló rendkívüli parlamenti ülés. A képviselőnő a kormány szemére vetette, hogy csalódtak benne a demokratikusan gondolkodó választók, és emiatt erősödnek a szélsőségesek, valamint a Smer és a Hlas.

Le nouveau texte de compromis sur le règlement sur les données (Data Act), diffusé jeudi dernier, introduit des changements importants dans la partie destinée à faciliter le passage d’un fournisseur de services cloud à un autre.

Gas savings in Germany are below the level necessary to avoid gas shortages, warned the German grid agency - the 20% cut in gas consumption was missed last week amid a cold snap.

Guerre en Ukraine : « l'attitude bipolaire » de la Bulgarie
En Bulgarie, la « lune de miel » avec les réfugiés ukrainiens est terminée
Guerre en Ukraine : l'exil bulgare des Bessarabiens d'Odessa
Des Balkans à l'Ukraine : « Il faut écouter les enfants qui ont grandi en temps de guerre »

/ Radio Slobodna Evropa, Ukraine, Bulgarie, Populations, minorités et migrations

Ministerpräsident Pedro Sánchez kündigte am Sonntag ein neues soziales Hilfspaket mit speziellen Mechanismen zur Eindämmung der Lebensmittelpreise an, das jedoch noch vor Jahresende von Spaniens linker Regierungskoalition gebilligt werden muss.

Nachdem der Korruptionsskandal rund um die Vize-Präsidentin des Europaparlaments, Eva Kaili, übers Wochenende Wellen schlug, fordern mehrere EU-Politiker, NGOs und Wissenschaftler:innen eine umfassende Überarbeitung der Ethikregeln und mehr Transparenz bei staatlichem Lobbying.

The author is Executive Director, Financial Transparency Coalition

By Matti Kohonen
LONDON, Dec 12 2022 (IPS)

The European Court of Justice on November 22, 2022, made a ruling that reversed much of the progress we have made in a decade in the fight against corruption, economic and natural resource crimes, tax abuses and other forms of illicit financial flows across the world. In the ruling, the court declared invalid the part of the European Union’s Anti Money Laundering Directive that allowed public access to registries about companies’ beneficial owners (that is, the real people who own or actually control them).

Matti Kohonen

This has a direct impact in the fight against environmental crimes, particularly illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing which is devastating the world’s fisheries resources, accounting for up to one-fifth of global catches.

The financial secrecy surrounding the owners of vessels is a key driver of IUU fishing as secrecy makes it harder to catch the real perpetrators of this illegal trade. In a report published by the Financial Transparency Coalition in October 2022, we discovered that among the top 10 operators of vessels reported to be engaged in this illicit practice, one was based in Spain while a total of 30 vessels were flagged to Italy, making it the highest European flag jurisdiction for IUU fishing. In total, we found that 12.8% of all vessels engaged in IUU fishing were flagged to a European country.

The ECJ ruling makes it impossible for a member of the public to investigate these linkages further. In Spain and Italy, the commitment to open up the registry was made in principle but remains unimplemented. This decision takes all pressure off to implement open beneficial ownership registries in these two countries that are most responsible for IUU fishing in the continent.

This is a welcome present to owners of IUU fishing vessels who often use complex corporate structures to hide their identities and evade punishment. Underscoring this problem, in our investigation we found the individual shareholder data was only available for 16% of industrial and semi-industrial vessels engaged in IUU fishing.

But the ECJ’s ruling impact will be felt well beyond Europe’s borders. Most of the world’s IUU fishing takes place in Africa which loses US$11.5bn in illicit financial flows linked to IUU fishing every year. A significant proportion of this illicit catch in Africa is caught in West Africa, with US$9.5bn losses in this region alone, with much of the fish caught there by foreign fleets ending up in Europe. In total, the European continent imports some US$14bn worth of seafood from the global South each year, making it a key market for seafood products.

The court’s decisions rested on a narrow interpretation of the purpose of the beneficial ownership registry, limited to fighting money laundering and terrorist financing. Fishing related offences are not yet recognised as ‘natural resource crimes’ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global anti-money laundering regulator, while illegal logging and illegal wildlife trade (IWT) related offences are already included in their definition of what constitutes money laundering. If this were to be upgraded by FATF, we could claim most, if not all, IUU fishing offences as money laundering crimes.

The ECJ decision also rests on a narrow interpretation of the ‘right to private life’ as a fundamental civil right as subscribed in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that partly lays the legal foundation for the EU. Worryingly, the court did not consider any evidence of the benefits of public access to beneficial ownership information in both fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, let alone the risks that natural resource crimes pose to other rights, such as the right to a healthy environment recognised as a human right by the UN General Assembly in 2022.

Ultimately, the real winners of this ruling are the thousands of companies engaged in IUU fishing and other environmental crimes across the world, and which benefit from money laundering at the tune of billions of euros per year. The ruling undermines collective action to make the money trail of these crimes more traceable, at a time when countries especially in the global South are desperate for funds amid a cost of living crisis and high inflation.

Reacting to the ruling, the European Council signalled that member states should ensure that any natural or legal person demonstrating a legitimate interest has access to information held in the beneficial ownership registers, including especially journalists and civil society organisations as long as they can demonstrate legitimate interest in relation with fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

However, this is insufficient since this will likely only apply to journalists and civil society in the same country as the registry, and application processes generally take a long time. Also one will need to know the company of interest before accessing any information, blocking the option of looking through public registries to spot risks and red flags.

The EU Parliament should be expected to start negotiations on a new anti-money laundering directive next spring. It must not allow the ECJ ruling to stand, for everyone’s sake.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

The author is Executive Director, Financial Transparency Coalition

Découvrez les meilleurs conseils pour soutenir votre système immunitaire et éloigner les rhumes, des meilleurs aliments à consommer pour faire le plein de vitamines à la quantité d'exercice nécessaire.

From 20 November to 10 December the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) in co-operation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, delivered four online training sessions aimed at improving the capacities of investigative journalists and civil society on data-journalism, data analysis and visualisation through the use of open data and digital tools.

Twenty participants, selected among 516 applicants representing various media and civil society organizations committed to exposing corruption, successfully completed the online course that focused on the theory and practice of data visualization, data analytics and data storytelling.

“The current digital format of media and information distribution, the wide availability of open source data visualization software, as well as the open data published by governments and business, are key in increasing transparency and accountability of public and private sectors if used and monitored properly. Watchdog activities play a critical role in ensuring this. It is therefore important that such watchdog groups have up-to-date knowledge on innovative tools and instruments to identify, monitor, analyse, use and re-use government disclosures on its decisions and expenditures of public funds,” said Eni Gjergji, Economic Adviser at OCEEA.

The training marked the start of the implementation of activities in Ukraine in co-operation with the Ministry of Digital Transformation. They were organized in the framework of the extra-budgetary project, Promoting good governance and a positive business climate in the OSCE region through digitalization and the use of open data funded by the United States and Poland.

Wie EURACTIV erfahren hat, soll Bosnien und Herzegowina noch diese Woche der Status eines EU-Kandidaten zuerkannt werden.

534630

The OSCE held a regional workshop on Fostering Women’s Participation in the Energy Sector in Central Asia, jointly with the Qazaq Green Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Association and with in-kind support from UNDP Kazakhstan in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 7-8 December. The event offered a platform for 30 representatives from energy ministries, industry, women’s energy associations, and academia from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to discuss regional opportunities and challenges facing women in the energy sector.

“The energy transition cannot be achieved without women’s equal participation and leadership. This is why we are supporting policymakers and industry representatives across the region to implement tailored solutions and overcome existing barriers,” Giulia Manconi, OSCE Project Manager said.

While women’s potential as key drivers of change is increasingly being recognized, there remains much to be done to create an inclusive sector and make lasting change. “We need to create a conducive environment with corporate practices that are supportive of family and work-life balance, allowing women to be mothers without sacrificing their career ambitions,” the participants shared.

“Initiatives like this are also crucial to help women build confidence and overcome challenges instilled by gender stereotyping. This will in turn help women to achieve their full potential for success and leadership in the energy sector,” said Ainur Sospanova, CEO of the Qazaq Green RES Association.

The participants underlined their readiness to foster the implementation of measures needed to create positive change. Case studies from global and regional initiatives were explored and a number of concrete actions that could be implemented in Central Asia were identified, including:

• tailored gender action plans to be implemented across energy organizations and companies;
• workshops and training for all energy professionals, also aiming to engage more senior managers and men;
• the establishment of a regional talent pool of women in energy to foster networking and facilitate personal and professional development;
• investments in gender balanced human capital development to meet the requirements of the evolving energy sector.

The Workshop was organized within the framework of the OSCE Project on Promoting women’s economic participation in the energy sector for energy security and sustainability in Central Asia, co-funded by Austria, Germany, Italy, Norway and Poland.

Alekszandar Vucsics, szerb elnök kísértetiesen ismerős érveléssel kér engedélyt a koszovói békefenntartást vezető NATO-tól arra, hogy a Szerbia által el nem ismert Koszovóban élő szerbek védelmére odavezényelhessen ezer szerb katonát.

Es ist immer noch möglich, dass Ungarn einem EU-Darlehen in Höhe von 18 Milliarden Euro an die Ukraine im nächsten Jahr zustimmt, sagte der tschechische Vizeaußenminister Jaroslav Kurfürst am Sonntag.