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Blöffnek nevezte a magyar miniszterelnök csütörtökön Brüsszelben azokat a sajtóértesüléseket, melyek szerint az Európai Bizottság több mint 50 ezer hazánkban tartózkodó menekült tagállamok közötti elosztására készülne javaslatot tenni. „Ha ilyen ajánlatot kapunk, akkor majd el fogunk gondolkodni róla” – közölte Orbán Viktor.

Iran’s Parliament speaker said Thursday he expects a heated debate among Iranian lawmakers before they vote on the nuclear deal between his country and six world powers in about a month.

Ali Larijani, formerly Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, predicted Iran’s debate would be even more dramatic than the one now taking place in the U.S. Congress because of opposition from some members.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said last Saturday that he opposed a parliamentary vote on the agreement because its terms would turn into legal obligations if passed by lawmakers.

But Larijani said that according to the Iranian constitution, the agreement needs to be discussed and approved by the Iranian Parliament.

He said that’s why a 15-member parliamentary committee is examining the deal, including its legality and the supervision and surveillance Iran will be under.

It will report to Parliament in a few weeks on its assessment, he said, “and I think Parliament will have to make its decision in about a month.”

Larijani told a briefing for invited reporters that he personally believes “this deal is a positive thing — a good thing,” but he wouldn’t predict the result when Parliament votes.

The agreement calls for limiting Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

Iran insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful but the United States and Western nations believe Tehran’s goal has been to produce nuclear weapons.

Larijani again accused the United State of playing “the role if a bully” during negotiations.

He said Iranian parliamentarians have found “serious and major faults” with the agreement including a mechanism for U.N. sanctions to “snap back” in place if any of the six powers — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France or Germany — determines that Iran is failing to meet its obligations.

“For us, this is not possible,” Larijani said. “We cannot go back to the situation that we were in before the implementation of the agreement.”

For example, the agreement requires Iran to redesign its nearly built reactor at Arak so it can’t produce plutonium for nuclear weapons. But Larijani said “once you remove the core of the Arak reactor, you cannot put it back — this is impossible.”

Nonetheless, Larijani said Iran also achieved some of its goals including being able to enrich uranium inside the country, despite limitations and restrictions. “Another success for us was the lifting of sanctions,” he said.

The post Iran Parliament speaker expects heated debate on nuke deal appeared first on New Europe.

France and Germany agreed on Thursday to propose a permanent and mandatory system for the redistribution of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe.

In a joint press conference with Ireland’s Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, the French President, Francois Hollande, commented that there “… do not assume their moral obligations so we will need to go further,” Hollande said at a joint news conference Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. This could be a reference to any of the three countries openly objecting to asylum quotas, including the Czech Republic, Britain, and Poland.

The French presidency announced that France and Germany would jointly submit in Brussels a plan for the “fair distribution” of refugees so as to avoid   “dramas followed by tragedies.” In a balancing statement the French presidency added that the plan would also ensure  “the return of irregular migrants to their countries of origin, and bring the necessary support and cooperation with countries of transit and origin.”

From Brasilia, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, confirmed that the Franco-German axis had come to a common position on the need for binding quotas to share the burden. “That is the principle of solidarity,” she said. She sided economic size and GDP as a factor to be taken into account in the distribution, but emphasized this was a policy for those coming from war torn regions alone.

The post Merkel and Hollande propose mandatory quotas for asylum seekers appeared first on New Europe.

India has failed to integrate women into the labour force, and the reason for this is piety, according to analysts.

As reported by Pakistan’s English language newspaper Dawn, India’s female labour force dropped from 34% to 27% between 1999 and 2011.

Ultimately, survival is linked to the country that first gets its women into the active workforce. But how?

One way to do this is through public transportation. There is, however, another problem: harassment. Almost all have been groped, rubbed against, gotten stare-downs, have been subjected to sexual innuendos and overall manhandling during rush hours.

As for efforts to create women-friendly transportation solutions like the pink taxi, but these have not been able to scale as solutions, reported Dawn .

The post Bussing gender equality in India appeared first on New Europe.

(crédit : présidence luxembourgeoise)

(B2 à Luxembourg) La Haute représentante de l’UE, Federica Mogherini, a eu des mots assez durs sur le bal des pleurs, un tantinet hypocrites, qui ont marqué la publication de la photo d’un enfant syrien, mort noyé sur les rivages turcs. « Nous sommes tous choqués par ces images. Cela nous rappelle la réalité des évènements dramatiques, même quand nous ne les voyons pas… ».

J’en ai marre…

Devant la presse, l’ancienne ministre italienne des Affaires étrangères a aussi tenu à ajouter un zeste de colère…. « J’en ai un petit peu marre du fait qu’on demande aux hommes/femmes politiques de donner une réaction émotionnelle. Oui. Nous devons réagir. Mais de manière cohérente et rationnelle. Il ne faut pas simplement être choqué, mais ensuite être responsable, et prendre les décisions qui découlent de ce sentiment. (…) Notre travail (à nous Politiques) n’est pas d’exprimer de la tristesse, ou d’exprimer une minute de silence mais de faire des propositions, d’améliorer le contexte pour prendre des décisions, et ensuite de veiller à ce que ces décisions soient traduites dans les faits. Et ce rapidement ! »

L’Europe ne peut pas être fière d’elle-même

« Dans l’Union européenne, face à cette crise de migrations et des réfugiés, nous n’avons pas beaucoup de raisons d’être fier » a-t-elle remarqué, notant une exception : l’opération lancée contre les trafiquants et migrants, EUNAVFOR Med. « Il est important de souligner que l’UE a pu travaillé ici de façon rapidement, de façon efficace, avec un soutien des Etats membres ». C’est la preuve selon elle que « lorsque nous agissons de la sorte, de façon rapide et décidée, nous voyons les résultats ».

Nous n’avons plus le luxe d’attendre

Elle a ensuite lancé un appel à un peu plus de conscience européenne. « Cette crise sans précédent, nous ne pourrons pas y faire face par le biais d’une approche isolée des Etats membres, par une politique intérieure ou extérieure uniquement, il faut que l’Europe agisse vite dans la solidarité et la responsabilité. Chacun commence à comprendre qu’on ne peut plus s’offrir le luxe de pouvoir de reporter les décisions à plus tard. »

Commentaire : que dire de plus … De façon très modérée, sans nommer l’un ou l’autre, la Haute représentante de l’UE a su – à mon sens – trouver les mots justes pour souligner et fustiger l’attitude un tantinet égoïste, voire autiste de plusieurs dirigeants européens qui, depuis des mois, ont feint d’ignorer cette crise qui arrivait, renvoyant aux pays de « première ligne » (Italie, Grèce, Malte et Bulgarie au départ), toute responsabilité d’agir…

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes

Eyes were on the European Central Bank on Thursday as the International Monetary Fund has come short of recommending to Frankfurt a second wave of quantitative easing, saying instead “it would be advisable to consider.”

And with good reason: headline inflation in the Eurozone stands currently at 0,2% or 0,1% annualized. This is very close to deflation. And deflation can derail hard made gains in fragile GDP surge and a small reduction in unemployment.

In fact, the ECB lowered somewhat its growth projections for 2016 to 1,4%, down from 1,5% and for 2017 to 1,7%, from 1,8%.

The ECB’s inflation target of 2% is going to be missed not only for 2015, but perhaps for some years to come.  In the short term, as demand from China is weakening, as well as oil and gas, deflationary pressure increases.

With interest rate at zero, quantitative easing is most obviously the weapon of last resort.

The ECB did oblige. It has stack to the fulfillment of its € 1 trillion asset buying programme. Nonetheless, Draghi expressed “willingness, readiness and capacity” to act if need be, retaining the € 60 bn a month bond buying programme beyond September 2016. In making the message even more explicit, the ECB raised states it would allow itself to buy as much as 33% — as opposed to 25% — from each issue of sovereign bonds of the Eurozone’s 19 member states. In addition, increasing the volume of purchase beyond €60 bn a month is still on the table.

The Euro lost 1% against the US dollar, given that the FED continues to consider a rise in interest rates before then end of the year.

The post ECB: whatever it takes… for as long as it takes appeared first on New Europe.

Contexte :La situation est aujourd’hui globalement stabilisée. La fin du mois d’août a cependant été marquée par la réapparition de tensions à l’est du pays.

Undoubtedly, this unprecedented for Chinese standards event was a demonstration of superpower credentials. 12,000 factories closed down in the industrial area surrounding Beijing, one for every single soldier that was to take part in the Tiananmen Square military parade on Thursday, September 3rd. And that was just to clear the air.

In a spectacular show of military might, China celebrated the 70th anniversary since the end of the Second World War. The parade featured all major weapon systems, including J-15 fighter jets, Z-19 attack helicopters, a truck-mounted version of the DF-41 intercontinental missile, and drones. 17 countries joined the parade, with 1,000 troops, with Russia’s 154 commandant regiment leading the pack with 85 soldiers. Others included Serbia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia.

On the podium next to the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, besides Communist Party veterans, stood Vladimir Putin. Tony Blair and Gerhard Shroeder were the only heads of state present at the scene, even if former, since acting ones declined. The two leaders of thee western world were only meters away from Omar al-Bashir, indicted by the international criminal court for mass atrocities and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Surprisingly, it was South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye rather than North Korea’s Kim Jong Un that had been invited.

France and Italy attended at the level of the Foreign Minister and Britain by Cabinet minister Kenneth Clarke.

In front of a cheering crowd waving with red flags, the President vowed that China would “never seek hegemony or expansion” and announced the reduction of the People’s Liberation Army by 300,000, out of a 2,3 million strong force. Thereon he talked about continued Japanese aggression. Perhaps in anticipation of that speech, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan had declined an invitation to attend.

The post China presents superpower credentials appeared first on New Europe.

Le 24 août 2015, le contre-amiral Georges Bosselut, commandant supérieur des forces armées aux Antilles (FAA), a présidé une dernière cérémonie sur la base navale militaire de Fort-de-France, avant de passer le commandement au contre-amiral Olivier Coupry.Lire la suite...

La proposition d'établir des quotas décriée en mai, est désormais une nécessité selon la France et l'Allemagne. Ils devraient concerner non plus 40.000 mais 120.000 personnes.

Date de parution: Jeudi 03 Septembre 2015Auteur: Marie BellanNom de l'editeur: LesEchos.frImage de l'editeur: Description: Le chiffre est sans appel. Selon un sondage CSA réalisé pour « Les Echos », Radio Classique et l’Institut Montaigne, 71 % des Français se disent favorables à laisser les entreprises « fixer librement le temps de travail, par accord avec leurs salariés ». C'est aussi le cas de 67 % des salariés du secteur privé, en première ligne. Il n’y a pas d’équivoque, il ne s’agit pas seulement de négocier l’organisation du travail (l’annualisation du temps de travail par exemple, qui est déjà négociée dans les entreprises). Mais bien de revenir sur la durée légale du travail, les fameuses 35 heures. Un sujet au cœur du débat politique de ces dernières semaines.Type de parution: L'institut est citéType de média: WebLien: http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-france/social/021302184789-sept-francais-sur-dix-prets-a-laisser-lentreprise-fixer-leur-temps-de-travail-1150368.php

The European Commission First Vice President, Frans Timmermans, and European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos just finished a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister, Vasiliki Thanou, where they discussed the problems Greece is facing with the increase in refugee and migratory influx to the country.

On exiting the meeting, Avramopoulos stated that the migratory and refugee issues,  “have taken uncontrollable dimensions”, and described Greece as “one of the main points of entry.”

On his side, Timmermans expressed his agreement, and said that:

“Europe faces a crisis without precedent, it’s a terrible crisis, that will last for a along time, so we need structural solutions especially for those countries most affected by this crisis, and Greece is one of them.” … “I am overwhelmed by the attitude of the Greek population, very welcoming. The humanitarian element prevails in every discussion in Greece … people want to make the right moves, but they need assistance. And the European Commission is there, with the help of the Greek government, to offer that assistance.”

Timmermans reaffirmed that the Commission stands ready to help.

“That’s why we are here today, to discuss with the Greek government the best way that we can quickly implement the decisions that are necessary for us to be able to assist financially and with people an material so as the situation becomes better, because it is very difficult.”

The visit comes one day after Avramopoulos sent Thanou an official letter outline the steps that the Greek government needs to take in order to open the flow of funding from the European Commission.

Timmermans also stated that Europe is facing an “unprecedented humanitarian and political crisis” as it struggles with the huge influx of refugees and migrants.

The Commissioners will now head for a meeting with FRONTEX before departing later in the evening for the island of Kos, where the situation is thought of as one of the most difficult in the country.

 

Additional reporting by Irene Kostaki in Athens

The post European Commission: Migratory and refugee crisis have taken ‘uncontrollable’ dimensions appeared first on New Europe.

United Nations staff in the Central African Republic (CAR) learned on 30 August that a girl was allegedly sexually abused around a year ago by a member of the French military force there, known as Sangaris, according to the world body’s human rights chief.

Plenartagung : Technologische Entwicklungen und der Zugang zum Internet sind wichtig für das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung, können jedoch instrumentalisiert werden, um gegen Menschenrechte zu verstoßen. Am Dienstag (8.9.) stimmt das Plenum über einen Bericht über die Auswirkungen von Ausspähungs- und Überwachungssystemen auf die Menschenrechte in Drittstaaten ab. Die Berichterstatterin und niederländische EU-Abgeordnete Marietje Schaake (ALDE) erklärt im Interview, wie die EU als Beispiel vorangehen soll.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2015 - EP

Séance plénière : Si l'accès à Internet est un élément clé de la liberté d'expression, les nouvelles technologies peuvent parfois mettre à mal les droits de l'Homme. Le 8 septembre, les députés voteront un rapport sur l'incidence des systèmes d'intrusion et de surveillance sur les droits de l'homme dans les pays tiers. Nous avons rencontré la rapporteur Marietje Schaake (ALDE, Pays-Bas) avant le vote : selon elle, la technologie européenne ne devrait pas contribuer à des violations des droits de l'Homme.

Source : © Union européenne, 2015 - PE

Russia has yet to react to the military doctrine Ukraine approved Wednesday in which they are declared an opponent, according to AP. The doctrine comes after recent claims from Russia that they haven’t sent troops and equipment to Ukraine, and calls for Russia to seek NATO membership.

Russia’s denial is the result of accusations that they sent militia to the East of Ukraine, where separatist rebels oppose Ukraine joining NATO.

President Petro Poroshenko’s recent moves to change the constitution to transfer the power of regions including the east may have spurred the declaration.

On the doctrine, Poroshenko said it “not only officially establishes the Russian Federation as Ukraine’s military opponent, but states the task of relocating military units and creating the necessary military infrastructure in the eastern and southern regions.”

The doctrine will now go to Poroshenko for approval.

The doctrine comes seven days after Poroshenko met with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Belgium.

The post Ukraine declares Russia ‘military opponent’ appeared first on New Europe.

Beverly Barrett

Last week we convened in Montreal, Canada for the 9th general conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), which took place from 26-29 August at University of Montreal.  This was the first general conference of the ECPR to take place outside of Europe, and the francophone region of Quebec welcomed participants from around the world. The conference program included 59 sections, 372 panels and 1430 papers.

 

Panel on Ideas in the Global Governance of Knowledge (Photo credit: Mari Elken)

The Global Governance of Knowledge Policies: Europe of Knowledge in Context was the title of the Section 54. This section was organized by the UACES’s European Research Area – Collaborative Research Network (ERA-CRN) and co-chaired by Meng-Hsuan Chou (Nanyang Technological University in Singapore) and Mitchell Young (Charles University in Prague) who facilitated the nine panels among research and higher education policy scholars.

 

Mitchel Young and Meng-Hsuan Chou (Photo credit: Mari Elken)

An overview of some of the panel topics includes Regionalism and multi-level governance of higher education and research.  This panel made comparisons between the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) of the Bologna Process and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) higher education policies on degree compatibility, quality assurance, and recognition of degrees.  Global collaboration and competition in science, technology and innovation addressed international initiatives for research policy across countries in Europe and beyond.

 

The panel Researching the governance of knowledge policies: methodological and conceptual challenges made further comparisons among countries engaging in research innovation and explored ways to avoid methodological nationalism.  The panel Trade agreements and the supranational shaping of knowledge policies discussed the progress of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations while explaining the relationship to the services sector of higher education. Themes on higher education governance, international cooperation in education, and research policies were dominant throughout the session over three days. All panels were well-attended and led to lively, high-quality discussions.

 

ERA CRN lunch meeting (Photo credit: Mari Elken)

Next year the 10th general conference of the ECPR will take place in Prague, Czech Republic at Charles University from September 7 to 10, 2016.  We welcome scholars at various stages in their careers to participate in the ECPR and the ERA-CRN workshops and activities in the future. At the moment the network is preparing an application for the ECPR Standing Group ‘Politics of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation’; if you would like to join, please sign up here.

 

The post Europe of Knowledge in Context (ECPR 2015) appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Múlt vasárnap lehetőségem volt csatlakozni ahhoz a delegáciohoz, amely elrepült Litvániába, hogy átvegye a jelképes kulcsokat  a balti légtér védelme céljából. A  siauliai-i légibázison a norvég légierő F-16osai települtek (egy másik, olasz kontingens Észtországban) tőlük vette át a Gripen  kontingens szeptember 1-vel a feladatot, egyben a Baltic Air Policing (BAP) vezető nemzeti feladatait. 
Ezt a poszt most csak a norvégokkal foglalkozik. Sikerült kint összeszedni a mérségkelten informativ PPT-t és persze közelről körbe lehetett járni a norvég F-16sokat is.

Ez itt a négy norvég F-16-os egyike, amelyik készülséget ad.

A hivatalos program előtt a két gép kapott egy gyakorló riasztást. Egy mikrobusz elszáguldott mellettünk.
 Aztán elgurultak a felszállópálya felé.
 Mind a ketten.
 Szépek voltak és zajosak. Hamarosan két Gripen is a levegőbe emelkedett.
 A harmadik kiállítási tárgyként várta, hogy a sajtósok lefotózzák és háttere legyen (egy Gripennel együtt) a hivatalos események utáni sajtótájékoztatónak.
Nem néztem még meg ilyen közelről eg F-16-ost. Bár a legutóbbi Roskilde-i Airshown megtehettem volna. Most, hogy a dán légierő modernizációba beleolvastam egy kicsit, elmondhatom, hogy a dán, norvég, holland és belga F-16-sok hasonlítanak egymásra. 1975-ben az European Partner Air Forces csoport keretében együtt rendeltek talán 2xx db F-16 A/B, és amikor azidő úgy hozta, akkor együtt is modernizálták F-16AM/BM Block 15 MLU-ra.

 Ha jól értem ez a Sniper célzó pod
A norvég és a magyar parancsnok egyeztet a hivatalos program végén. Háttérben az egyik régi hangár. A BAP gépeit nem ezekben tárolják.
 Ott pihen a negyedik F-16-os.


 A sajtóhírekben is (talán) megjelent kulcsátadás. A hivatalos ceremónia és ünnepi beszédek után a norvég és olasz parancsokok átadták a balti légtér "kulcsát". Az olaszokat Németország eurofighterek váltják az Ämari légibázison. A program folytatódott, de erről majd egy másik posztban.
 Nem sokkal később megérkezett az olasz légierő szállítógépe, hogy hazavigye az olasz kontingenst (legalábbis gondolom azt a részét, akik az ünnepségre átjöttek a bázisra)
 A KC-767-es légiutántöltésre és képes.
  A mikrobusz fölött, a gép szárnyán (és a másikon is) látható egy légiutántöltő konténer. A kép közepén egy merev léguitántöltő cső is látható a gép farka alatt, így bármely NATO-gépet tudja utántölteni (még utána kell nézzek, miért is létezik ez a két verzió)

Itt már mi is a kifutópályán vagyunk, hogy megkezdjük a felszállásunkat.

(köszönet a HM-nek, hogy csatlakozhattam a delegációhoz)

Le discours anticapitaliste d'un pape venu du Sud ; une lettre de l'ancienne ministre de la culture du Mali Aminata D. Traoré à propos des migrants perdus en mer ; l'industrie des « prêteurs rapaces » aux Etats-Unis ; la géopolitique de l'Arctique au prisme de l'ours polaire : voici une sélection (...) / États-Unis, Animal, Capitalisme, Inégalités, Migrations, Pauvreté, Religion, Arctique, Frontières - La valise diplomatique