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Az összevont megyei és helyhatósági választásokon arányaiban kevesebb volt az érvényes szavazat, mint 2017-ben, illetve 2018-ban, valamint a korábbi választásokon. A megyei választáson 7 %-kal volt kevesebb az érvényes szavazat, mint 2017-ben – tájékoztatott a belügyi tárca.

Algen bergen das Potenzial, nicht nur die Ernährung der Europäer:innen zu verbessern, sondern auch zur Verringerung von Kohlendioxid (CO2) beizutragen, erklärte EU-Fischereikommissar Virginijus Sinkevičius in einem Exklusivinterview mit EURACTIV.

Die Kommission bestätigte, dass die Nichtaufnahme von Ausgabenbeschränkungen in den neuen slowakischen Haushalt den bereits erreichten ersten Meilenstein des nationalen Konjunkturprogramms rückgängig machen und Auswirkungen auf den Ruf [der Slowakei] und die Finanzen haben würde.

Elrendelte a rendőrökre lövöldöző embercsempészek letartóztatását a Budai Központi Kerületi Bíróság – tudatta a Fővárosi Törvényszék.

A megalapozott gyanú szerint a hat külföldi állampolgárságú gyanúsított anyagi ellenszolgáltatásért segítséget nyújtott 21, Magyarországon érvényes tartózkodási engedéllyel nem rendelkező szír állampolgárnak ahhoz, hogy az államhatárt jogellenesen átlépjék.

A gyanúsítottak közül ketten az illegális határátlépőket egy kisbuszban az M5 autópálya bevezető szakaszán Csehország felé szállították. Az intézkedő rendőrök felszólítására nem álltak meg, gáz-riasztó fegyverrel több lövést is leadtak a rendőrök felé. A másik négy gyanúsított a hierarchikusan szervezett, konspiratívan működő embercsempész-csoport tagja. Ők biztosították az illegális határátlépők szállításához a gépjárművet, amelyben a gáz-riasztó fegyver is volt.

A gyanúsítottak cselekménye bizonyítottsága esetén alkalmas vagyoni haszonszerzés érdekében, államhatár átlépéséhez több személynek segítséget nyújtva, felfegyverkezve, bűnszervezetben elkövetett embercsempészés megállapítására. Az ügyészség szökés, elrejtőzés és bizonyítás megnehezítésének veszélye miatt indítványozta a gyanúsítottak letartóztatását.

A gyanúsítottak külföldi állampolgárok, magyarországi kötődéssel, bejelentett lakóhellyel nem rendelkeznek. A terhükre rótt bűncselekményt szervezetten, több országon keresztül valósították meg. Magyarországra a bűncselekmény elkövetése céljából érkeztek. Mindezekre, illetve a kiszabható büntetés mértékére figyelemmel okkal kell tartani attól, hogy szabadlábon hagyásuk esetén jelenlétük az eljárásban nem biztosítható.

A gyanúsítottak közül ketten a hatósági intézkedéssel szembeszegültek, az őket üldöző rendőrök elől elmenekültek, velük szemben aktív ellenállást tanúsítottak: többször hirtelen a rendőrautó irányába rántották a kormányt, az autóra üvegeket dobáltak, a rendőrautó és a rendőrök felé több lövést adtak le gáz-riasztó fegyverből. Mindezek alapján kettejük esetében megállapítható, hogy szökést kíséreltek meg és szándékosan ki akarták vonni magukat az eljárás hatálya alól.

Az egyik gyanúsított saját bűnösségére is kiterjedő beismerő vallomást tett, ezért esetében nem, a másik öt társánál azonban megalapozottan feltehető, hogy kényszerintézkedés hiányában a büntetőeljárásban részt vevő, vagy más személyek befolyásolásával, illetve bizonyítékok megsemmisítésével, elrejtésével a bizonyítást megnehezítenék. Enyhébb kényszerintézkedés alkalmazásának sem objektív, sem szubjektív feltételei nem állnak fenn, ezért a bíróság szerint a kényszerintézkedés célja csak letartóztatással érhető el.

Mindezek alapján a Budai Központi Kerületi Bíróság egy hónapra elrendelte a hat külföldi állampolgárságú gyanúsított letartóztatását.

 

The post Letartóztatták a rendőrökre lövöldöző embercsempészeket appeared first on .

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about the German conservatives warning against fully reforming the unemployment benefits, Poles showing unwavering to Ukraine despite the recent missile explosion on its territory, and so much more.

At the first meeting with his EU counterparts, the new Italian agriculture minister reiterated the arguments against the French colour-coded nutritional label Nutri-score as the forthcoming EU-wide food labelling scheme.

L’Autriche était avant la guerre en Ukraine l’un des États membres de l’UE les plus dépendants du gaz russe, avec plus de 80 % de ses importations totales en provenance de Russie. Ces importations ont à présent été réduites à 21 %.

Comme de nombreux élevages de bovins européens, les élevages de taureaux de combat reçoivent des subventions de l’Europe au titre de la PAC. Une anomalie pour les militants anti-corrida ; un principe de non-discrimination pour les éleveurs concernés.

Österreich, das vor dem Krieg in der Ukraine lange Zeit von russischem Gas abhängig war und damit zu den am stärksten abhängigen Ländern der EU gehörte, hat seine Gasimporte aus Russland auf 21 Prozent gesenkt, teilte die Regierung mit.

Washington's envoy for war crimes said on Monday (21 November) the United States was monitoring allegations of Ukrainian forces summarily executing Russian troops, and said all parties should face consequences if they commit abuses in the conflict.

Bulgaria’s caretaker government and Lukoil Neftochim Bulgaria have agreed that it can continue operating and exporting oil products to the EU until the end of 2024, as long as it pays its taxes in full, despite European Commission warnings this...

Le Premier ministre polonais Mateusz Morawiecki a promis à son homologue finlandaise Sanna Marin de l’aider à convaincre le Premier ministre hongrois Viktor Orban dont le pays est l’un des deux États devant encore ratifier la demande d’adhésion de la Finlande à l’OTAN.

Over 45,000 families in North Macedonia are at risk of being left without heating after the government decided to cap pellet prices at €6.50, a price which wholesalers have refused to sell at.

Le soutien des Polonais à l’égard de l’Ukraine reste sans faille, même si l’explosion survenue dans un village polonais la semaine dernière a probablement été causée par un missile de défense aérienne ukrainien.

Following two days of torrential downpours, thousands of hectares of Albania are underwater with citizens being evacuated and the army being drafted in to help rescue entire families. The entire country has been impacted by heavy rains with many streets...

Recreational use of nitrous oxide - also known as laughing gas - is on the rise in EU countries despite risks of harm associated with the drug, a new report from the EU drugs agency shows.

By Ndongo Samba Sylla and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
DAKAR and KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 2022 (IPS)

The ongoing plunder of Africa’s natural resources drained by capital flight is holding it back yet again. More African nations face protracted recessions amid mounting debt distress, rubbing salt into deep wounds from the past.

With much less foreign exchange, tax revenue, and policy space to face external shocks, many African governments believe they have little choice but to spend less, or borrow more in foreign currencies.

Ndongo Samba Sylla

Most Africans are struggling to cope with food and energy crises, inflation, higher interest rates, adverse climate events, less health and social provisioning. Unrest is mounting due to deteriorating conditions despite some commodity price increases.

Economic haemorrhage
After ‘lost decades’ from the late 1970s, Africa became one of the world’s fastest growing regions early in the 21st century. Debt relief, a commodity boom and other factors seemed to support the deceptive ‘Africa rising’ narrative.

But instead of long overdue economic transformation, Africa has seen jobless growth, rising economic inequalities and more resource transfers abroad. Capital flight – involving looted resources laundered via foreign banks – has been bleeding the continent.

According to the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, the continent was losing over $50 billion annually. This was mainly due to ‘trade mis-invoicing’ – under-invoicing exports and over-invoicing imports – and fraudulent commercial arrangements.

Transnational corporations (TNCs) and criminal networks account for much of this African economic surplus drain. Resource-rich countries are more vulnerable to plunder, especially where capital accounts have been liberalized.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Externally imposed structural adjustment programs (SAPs), after the early 1980s’ sovereign debt crises, have forced African economies to be even more open – at great economic cost. SAPs have made them more (food) import-dependent while increasing their vulnerability to commodity price shocks and global liquidity flows.

Leonce Ndikumana and his colleagues estimate over 55% of capital flight – defined as illegally acquired or transferred assets – from Africa is from oil-rich nations, with Nigeria alone losing $467 billion during 1970-2018.

Over the same period, Angola lost $103 billion. Its poverty rate rose from 34% to 52% over the past decade, as the poor more than doubled from 7.5 to 16 million.

Oil proceeds have been embezzled by TNCs and Angola’s elite. Abusing her influence, the former president’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos acquired massive wealth. A report found over 400 companies in her business empire, including many in tax havens.

From 1970 to 2018, Côte d’Ivoire lost $55 billion to capital flight. Growing 40% of the world’s cocoa, it gets only 5–7% of global cocoa profits, with farmers getting little. Most cocoa income goes to TNCs, politicians and their collaborators.

Mining giant South Africa (SA) has lost $329 billion to capital flight over the last five decades. Mis-invoicing, other modes of embezzling public resources, and tax evasion augment private wealth hidden in offshore financial centres and tax havens.

Fiscal austerity has slowed job growth and poverty reduction in ‘the most unequal country in the world’. In SA, the richest 10% own over half the nation’s wealth, while the poorest 10% have under 1%!

Resource theft and debt
With this pattern of plunder, resource-rich African countries – that could have accelerated development during the commodity boom – now face debt distress, depreciating currencies and imported inflation, as interest rates are pushed up.

Zambia’s default on its foreign debt obligations in late 2020 has made headlines. But foreign capture of most Zambian copper export proceeds is not acknowledged.

During 2000-2020, total foreign direct investment income from Zambia was twice total debt servicing for external government and government-guaranteed loans. In 2021, the deficit in the ‘primary income’ account (mainly returns to capital) of Zambia’s balance of payments was 12.5% of GDP.

As interest payments on public external debt came to ‘only’ 3.5% of GDP, most of this deficit (9% of GDP) was due to profit and dividend remittances, as well as interest payments on private external debt.

For the IMF, World Bank and ‘creditor nations’, debt ‘restructuring’ is conditional on continuing such plunder! African countries’ worsening foreign indebtedness is partly due to lack of control over export earnings controlled by TNCs, with African elite support.

Resource pillage, involving capital flight, inevitably leads to external debt distress. Invariably, the IMF demands government austerity and opening African economies to TNC interests. Thus, we come full circle, and indeed, it is vicious!

Africa’s wealth plunder dates back to colonial times, and even before, with the Atlantic trade of enslaved Africans. Now, this is enabled by transnational interests crafting international rules, loopholes and all.

Such enablers include various bankers, accountants, lawyers, investment managers, auditors and other wheeler dealers. Thus, the origins of the wealth of ‘high net-worth individuals’, corporations and politicians are disguised, and its transfer abroad ‘laundered’.

What can be done?
Capital flight is not mainly due to ‘normal’ portfolio choices by African investors. Hence, raising returns to investment, e.g., with higher interest rates, is unlikely to stem it. Worse, such policy measures discourage needed domestic investments.

Besides enforcing efficient capital controls, strengthening the capabilities of specialized national agencies – such as customs, financial supervision and anti-corruption bodies – is important.

African governments need stronger rules, legal frameworks and institutions to curb corruption and ensure more effective natural resource management, e.g., by revising bilateral investment treaties and investment codes, besides renegotiating oil, gas, mining and infrastructure contracts.

Records of all investments in extractive industries, tax payments by all involved, and public prosecution should be open, transparent and accountable. Punishment of economic crimes should be strictly enforced with deterrent penalties.

The broader public – especially civil society organizations, local authorities and impacted communities – must also know who and what are involved in extractive industries.

Only an informed public who knows how much is extracted and exported, by whom, what revenue governments get, and their social and environmental effects, can keep corporations and governments in check.

Improving international trade and finance transparency is essential. This requires ending banking secrecy and better regulation of TNCs to curb trade mis-invoicing and transfer pricing, still enabling resource theft and pillage.

OECD rhetoric has long blamed capital flight on offshore tax havens on remote tropical islands. But those in rich countries – such as the UK, US, Switzerland, Netherlands, Singapore and others – are the biggest culprits.

Stopping haemorrhage of African resource plunder by denying refuge for illicit transfers should be a rich country obligation. Automatic exchange of tax-related information should become truly universal to stop trade mis-invoicing, transfer pricing abuses and hiding stolen wealth abroad.

Unitary taxation of transnational corporations can help end tax abuses, including evasion and avoidance. But the OECD’s Inclusive Framework proposals favour their own governments and corporate interests.

Africa is not inherently ‘poor’. Rather, it has been impoverished by fraud and pillage leading to resource transfers abroad. An earnest effort to end this requires recognizing all responsibilities and culpabilities, national and international.

Africa’s veins have been slit open. The centuries-long bleeding must stop.

Dr Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist working at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Dakar. He authored The Fair Trade Scandal. Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich and co-authored Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story. He also edited Economic and Monetary Sovereignty for 21st century Africa, Revolutionary Movements in Africa and Imperialism and the Political Economy of Global South’s Debt. He tweets at @nssylla

IPS UN Bureau

 

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