The European Political Newspaper

The European Union will first divorce Britain and then negotiate a new relationship in the event of Brexit, Reuters reported on Thursday.

If Britain votes out in June 23, 2016 the final exit would come on July 1st, 2018. Negotiations for an EU partnership agreement would begin then. In the meanwhile, trade ties would be disrupted.

The EU is Britain’s biggest trade partner and no doubt a singnificant market for a number of EU member states. But, it is understood that neither Brussels not London would want a prolonged negotiation period before the divorce comes into effect. .

The Treaty of Lisbon envisages a two year transition period for states that leave. The two year period would be used to settle pending budget balances from and to London, the issue of pensions for British EU civil servants, and the relocation of EU agencies from the U.K. However, this would not mean the Britain’s relations with the EU would continue on a “business as usual” mode. The two year period would be disruptive.

EU officials remain confident that Britain will ultimately vote “Remain” on the June 23 referendum on EU membership. However, there are already contingency plans being drawn, beginning with a brief two-day summit planned for Sunday, June 26 in case the vote is to leave. The summit would take place without British participation and could set a roadmap for subsequent action.

The “Out” and “Leave” campaigns believe that London will be able to negotiate a “special status” effective immediately, pointing out that Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world and that the free trade market “from Turkey to Iceland” will continue to be accessible to British products.

However, this will be politically difficult to achieve a minimally disruptive exit. Both Germany and France go to the polls in 2017 and it will be politically impossible to grand Britain special rights during the transition period. Moreover, it is clear that both Brussels and EU member states will try to make the case that leaving the EU does not pay.

Leave campaigners suggest that this is only scaremongering.

In the event of a Remain vote, the Commission has in place a seven member UK Task Force that will help implement the agreement secured by David Cameron in February. The agreement is automatically annulled if Britain votes to Leave.

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Foreign non-profit organisations in China will be supervised by the police, according to a controversial law passed by Chinese legislators on April 28. This is reportedly part of President Xi Jinping’s ongoing efforts to eliminate what the government sees as unwanted influences from overseas.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, earlier versions of the law drew an outpouring of opposition from foreign governments, rights groups and academics for being overly broad and treating foreign nonprofits as a security threat. The final version passed by legislators is narrower in scope and addresses some of these criticisms.

For instance, the new law exempts professional exchanges and cooperation involving foreign hospitals, schools and science and engineering groups and effectively grandfathers in groups already legally registered. But left unchanged in the law is the controversial provision putting the public security ministry in charge of the registration process for the overseas groups.

The law also requires that, once registered, groups publish online annual reports including financial information for all activities. The law authorises the police to search nonprofits’ offices and summon their representatives at will.

“China has a positive, open and welcoming attitude toward overseas nongovernmental organizations that come here to engage in friendly exchanges, interactions and cooperation,” Zhang Yong, vice director of the legal committee of the National People’s Congress, told a press conference in Beijing on April 28.

“But – and I don’t think there’s any need to mince words – there is certainly a very small minority of foreign NGOs which intend to or have already damaged social stability and national security,” he said, adding that nearly 10,000 foreign non-profits operate in China and the vast majority had no way to register legally.

According to The Wall Street Journal’s report, the tenor and aim of the new law fits with a wide-ranging campaign under President Xi to galvanize Chinese society against foreign ideologies and influence and to bolster support for Communist Party rule.

The law warns that any activities that threaten national security or ethnic harmony will be punished.

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Overcoming years of poor health and crisis, the eurozone economy grew at its fastest pace in five years in the first quarter, driven by unlikely stars such as France and Spain.

The eurozone’s economy has thus finally recouped all the ground lost in the recessions of the past eight years after official figures Friday showed that the 19-country single currency bloc expanded by a quarterly rate of 0.6 % in the first three months of the year.

Blowing past both the U.S. and British economies, the latter weighed down by uncertainty over possibly leaving the Europe Union, euro zone growth doubled from the previous quarter, beating even the most optimistic expectations on healthy household consumption and a rebound in investments.

The scale of the increase reported by Eurostat in a preliminary estimate was totally unexpected — the consensus in the markets was for a more modest rise to 0.4 % from the previous quarter’s 0.3 %.

Eurostat said the increase means that the eurozone economy is now 0.4 % bigger than it was in the first quarter of 2008, before the deep recession stoked by the global financial crisis. Since then, the eurozone has had a torrid time, falling in and out of recession as the global financial crisis morphed into a debt crisis that at various times has threatened the future of the euro currency itself.

The eurozone’s recovery of the ground lost over the past few years has lagged other major economies, including the U.S., by years.

Still, it’s a signal that the eurozone’s finally gaining some economic momentum. The first-quarter rise came in spite of concerns stoked by the huge volatility in financial markets in the first couple of months of the year that centered on worries over the Chinese economic outlook and the sharp fall in the price of oil.

In a further positive development, Eurostat reported that the unemployment rate across the region fell to 10.2 % in March from the previous month’s 10.4 %, bringing it to its lowest since August 2011.

Though these figures are encouraging, the eurozone remains afflicted by low inflation. Eurostat said in a separate report that consumer prices in the year to April fell by 0.2 %. That’s down from the previous month’s annual rate of zero and below market expectations for a more modest decline to minus 0.1 %. The core rate, which strips out the volatile items of food, alcohol, tobacco and energy, also declined to 0.8 % from 1 percent. (with AP, Reuters)

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Belgium is updating its precautions for dealing with nuclear accidents.

Health Minister Maggie De Block has reviewed current rules on the distribution of iodine pills from 20km from the epicenter of an accident to 100km. That is in effect the Belgian population as a whole, the Minister explained.

But, there is no reason to worry. In joining Germany and the Netherlands in extraordinary measures to deal with a nuclear accident, Belgium is simply updating its readiness plans.

According to Minister De Bock, this is a reaction to the lessons learned in March 2011 in Fukushima rather than a reaction to concerns raised by Germany and the Netherlands regarding the safety of Belgian nuclear reactors.

Belgium is reflecting on the lessons learned by a nuclear accident triggered by a quake and a subsequent tsunami, which leads policy makers to the conclusion that Iodine tablets must be distributed in a bigger radius from the highly implausible accident, the energy regulator assures the public.

Residents of the region around Fukushima were indeed handed iodine pills after the accident, which provides some protection against radioactive iodine and, therefore, thyroid cancer. Other radioactive elements of course will remain active.

On April 20th, the German government asked Belgium to shut down two nuclear reactors citing security concerns. The German Environment Minister, Jochen Flasbarth, said that this was indeed an unprecedented request, but it reflects serious concerns. German authorities are not satisfied the two reactors are safe. Belgian authorities are completely satisfied that the two reactors are safe.

Concerns by Germans and Dutch focus on Tihange-2 and Doel-3 atomic plants. They were put back in operation in November 2015, after being closed for 20 months pending a safety probe. Belgium’s regulator AFCN stands by the view that the two reactors are safe, but they would work with German counterparts to address concerns Bloomberg reports. It is unclear whether such fears have been addressed.

What is clear is that the Netherlands reviewed its policy on iodine tablets in March, so that pregnant women and minors are given the pills within 100km of the Borssele and Doel reactors.

The German city of Aachen, on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands, keeps in store 300,000 iodine tablets to ward off thyroid cancer. The city is pursuing litigation action against the reactors.

And Belgium is now taking its own precautionary measures.

Belgium has planned to gradually phase out its nuclear sector by 2025. Until that time, Electrabel, plans to make the most out of its assets. Nuclear power provides 50% of Belgium’s domestically produced electricity.  The two reactors in question are operated by Engie, Elactrabel’s Belgian subsidiary. The two reactors currently produce 14% of Belgium’s electricity.

(BBC, Bloomberg, DW)

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In an interview published by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter on Friday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warns that Russia will be scaling up “military-technical” measures against Sweden if Stockholm moves closer to NATO.

“It is every country’s right to decide the arrangements for their safety, but one must understand that if the military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders , then we will of course take the necessary military-technical measures. Nothing personal in it, it is just pure business,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov was clear that if Sweden moved from neutrality to NATO relations would change, not because Sweden would be seen as an aggressor but because its military infrastructure would be integrated with NATO’s supreme command.

The nature of measures to be taken were not specified.

Responding to criticism of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Lavrov argued that that was a direct response to an “armed coup d’etat in Kiev.”

He went on to accuse Foreign minister Margot Wallström to have opened a window to ”Russofobia,” not least by joining economic sanctions against Russia. Defiantly, he said that Russia did not need the rest of the world.

“I just want to say that now we can only rely on ourselves , we have all that is needed . Thankfully left God and our ancestors us a country can be self-sufficient,” Lavrov said.

This is not the first time Moscow has issued stark warning against Stockholm’s closer relations with NATO. In September, Russia’s ambassador to Sweden, Viktor Tatarintsev, was invited to explain a Russian Foreign Ministry warning that if Sweden were to join NATO there would be “consequences” and “countermeasures.”

At the time, the Swedish Foreign Minister, Margot Wallstrom, stated that “we don’t think anyone should be threatening us.” The ruling Social Democratic Party in Sweden has traditionally favored a distance from the Alliance or non-membership. But, Swedish support for NATO membership has been surging. The Swedish opposition too has been rethinking its defense policy, including the Centre Party that moved from its traditional position of neutrality in favor of joining the alliance in August 2015.

Funding of the armed services has increased as have violations of Swedish airspace by Russian jet fighters. At the heart of the argument is Article V and commitment to collective mobilization, that is, a deterrent that Stockholm is considering increasingly useful.

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Five people were killed and at least 36 injured in İstiklal Avenue, Taksim, central Instambul suicide bomb attack on March 19.

The suicide bomb attack took place in front of the local governor’s office of Beyoğlu, as Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin told reporters.

Official government announcement made by Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu, confirm 36 people were injured, including 12 foreign nationals and a child and seven of the victims are already hospitalized and are in critical condition. Doğan News Agency reported that three Israeli citizens were among the injured. This was confirmed by Israel’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. Nahshon could not confirm at the time the number of Israelis in hospital.

A Turkish official suggested to Reuters, that initial findings point to Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or linked group. Germany’s embassy in Ankara kept being closed in the days of EU summit, on 17-18 of March, warning German citizens in Istanbul after the attack to stay in their hotels and follow the media for security updates. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is said to call national security meeting in Ankara.

“We condemn the terrorist bombings that occurred in Istiklal Street” announced Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). “This attack was an act of terror that directly targeted civilians, just like the last Ankara bombing”, HDP continues, as reports on Erdoğan’s struggle to delegitimize HDP, by nominating the party as a terrorist organization.

“Massive bomb blast outside our hotel, I’m ok, very shaken, people dead, awful scenes”, tweeted Skin, the lead singer of Skunk Anansie, being witness of the attack. 

This is the second attack in Turkish ground and comes six days after a suicide car bomb attack in Ankara centre, killing 37 people. Ankara attack’s responsibiity was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a terror group linked to PKK. Turkey had heightened security in Ankara and Istanbul in the run-up to a Kurdish spring festival of Newroz on March 21, which Kurds in Turkey traditionally use to assert their ethnic identity and demand greater rights.

Sources by (AP, Reuters, Doğan News Agency, Hürriyet).

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The Presidential election on 20 March will be an historic, free, fair and peaceful election.

As a country we have travelled a long way in a short period of time. The authorities have rebuilt the state on the ruins of the civil war. President Denis Sassou N’Guesso has worked over the past number of years to consolidate peace and democracy. Efforts by the state have allowed us to build infrastructure and lay the groundwork for a dynamic economy.

This path has not been easy, nor without its obstacles. One should not underestimate the challenges of establishing a viable democracy in a country without a democratic history and culture, with deep divisions created by civil war, and in a region of Africa characterised by instability and conflict.

The people and the Government of Congo together have responded very well to this challenge. Thanks to recentreforms of the electoral law and the constitution, as well as rules on access to state media, our democracy has never been stronger or more vibrant than it is today. The number of new voters on the rolls thanks to a strong mobilisation effort in January and February is truly historic. The Presidential election represents a significant step forward in terms of the democratisation of the Congo.

 
We have 9 candidates standing in the election, which is unprecedented. We are proud that this includes candidates from around the country and a female candidate. They all have free and equal access to state media – a cursory glance at the television news will confirm this – and despite some claims to the contrary, the opposition candidates have been free to conduct very active, vocal, and critical campaigns.

The main issue that the opposition faces is not any perceived lack of democracy, but rather its division in the face of a President who has won the support of his fellow citizens for bringing peace, stability and economic development to the country. Indeed, the trust of the Congolese people in the President and the absence of support for the opposition’s proposals has been shown in recent polls carried out by independent institutes Opinion Way and TNS Sofres. These polls were not directly or indirectly carried out by Congolese interests but rather international, independent media outlets whose credibility has never been challenged.

With President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Congo has succeeded in making major advances in creating solid institutions, economic infrastructure and better public services, especially in the fields of health and education. In recent years our country has contributed significantly to peace and stability in the region, with President Sassou Nguesso working actively to resolve conflicts in the area and notably in the Central African Republic.

We regret that the opposition, instead of proposing concrete proposals for the future and constructive criticism of the President’s record (bearing in mind that most candidates are former ministers or advisors of President Sassou Nguesso), has preferred taking an aggressive stance based on unfounded accusations. I truly hope that the opposition will respect the electoral process and the law and will not hide behind untruths around imagined or fabricated electoral irregularities if it does not win the election. It is the opposition’s responsibility to support free, fair and peaceful elections instead of endangering our democracy for their own gain.

These elections are historic. They will have a substantial impact on the future, the stability and the economic development of Congo. The country has begun to enjoy the fruits of work carried out by President Sassou Nguesso, but much remains to do.

To go further, the experience and wisdom of President Sassou Nguesso are objectively the best advantages Congo enjoys. I am convinced the Congolese people know this.
 

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Salah Abdelslam was arrested on Friday evening in Brussels, Belgium.  “We got him” tweeted Belgium’s Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken. The arrest of Abdeslam, who was not killed during the operation, shows the perception and practice of justice in Europe shows the ethos with which the security services and political leadership operate.

The Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, urgently left the EU-Turkey summit in Brussels. A little later, he was joined by Francois Hollande in a triumphant press conference.

Hollande told the press that France will seek the speedy extradition of Abdeslam to France.

Barack Obama called to congratulate the Belgian PM. On May 2, 2011, Obama, made the choice to give the green light for 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden to be killed in an operation by US special forces in Pakistan.

Catching Abdeslam

At least two people were wounded in the operation, one of whom, Abdelslam, who was shot in the leg. An accomplice, Soufiane Kayal, was reportedly arrested with Abdeslam. A third suspect was arrested but not identified.

The suspect was surrounded in the suburb of Molenbeek where shots were heard earlier this afternoon. Early in the evening it became clear authorities were after Europe’s no.1 fugitive when it was confirmed that fingerprints and DNA of Salah Abdeslam were found in the flat raided by police in the Forest suburb of Brussels on Tuesday.

The Tuesday operation

Six Belgian and French Police Officers raided an apartment on Tuesday, March 15. The officers believed it would be vacant, as both water and electricity supply had been cut off. During the raid, they found three men: one was killed on site, two escaped.

Three officers were wounded on the spot. Throughout Tuesday afternoon a shootout continued in the Forest quarter and two suspects managed to escape. One more police officer was wounded during the shootout.

Evidence suggests that Frenchman Abdeslam, 26, was one of the two people who evaded arrest. The information has yet to be confirmed by the police.

A third suspect was killed by snipers in the Forest apartment during the raid on Tuesday. He was later identified as the 35 year old Algerian illegal immigrant, Mohamed Belkaid. He was only known to the police for one case of robbery.

Paris

Abdelslam is thought to be one of the leading figures of the November 13, 2015 attack in Paris that had a toll of over 130 civilian casualties. His brother Brahim also participated as a suicide bomber.

Abdeslam was driven to Brussels by friends Mohammed Amri and Hamza Attou. They were stopped by the police, who let them go as the suspects had not been at the time identified.

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As the European Council drew to a close on Friday evening, a wave of optimism swept through the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels. “Today we have finally reached an agreement between EU and Turkey”, rejoiced European Council president Donald Tusk, after the common statement of the EU Heads of State at the conclusion European Council meeting of 17 and 18 March 2016 in Brussels.

The EU has agreed with Turkey on 9 points, further to the member states commitment to the implementation of the joint action plan that is already active since 29 November 2015. Member states agreed that progress has been made on many issues, including Turkey’s opening of its labour market to Syrians under temporary protection, the introduction of new visa requirements for Syrians and other nationalities, stepped up security efforts by the Turkish coast guard and police and enhanced information sharing.

On behalf of the EU, €3 billion of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey are already in the process of being disbursed to finance projects of infrastructure and education projects of Syrian refugees. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu underlined that EU’s financing has allowed Turkey to achieve good conditions for the refugees in the country’s ground. “We are proud of this policy, whoever wants to come see our camps”, stressed Davutoğlu.

Turkey has already agreed on a new scheme of rapid return of migrants not in need of international protection crossing from Turkey into Greece from land and water and to take back all irregular migrants intercepted in Turkish waters. One of the main goals of the agreement reached on this EU Council with Turkey’s participation, was “to break the business model of the smugglers and to offer migrants an alternative to putting their lives at risk”.

In order to do so, the EU and Turkey decided to end the irregular migration route by implementing the following additional action points:

• As of 20 March 2016, all irregular crossing migrants are to be returned to Turkey, “in full accordance with EU and international law, thus excluding any kind of collective expulsion”  and in respect of the principle of non-refoulement. This means that all migrants arriving from this Sunday and on, will be duly registered and any application for asylum will be processed individually by the Greek authorities in accordance with the Asylum Procedures Directive, in cooperation with UNHCR. Those that don’t wish to apply for asylum or migrants whose application has been found unfounded or inadmissible, will be returned to Turkey. In terms of financing, the costs of the return operations of irregular migrants will be covered by the EU.

• If Turkey is accepted by Greece as a secure country, for every Syrian being returned to Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU taking into account the UN Vulnerability Criteria. In order to implement this, Greece must legislate on the issue immediately, and is expected to conclude legislation by March 28. This mechanism that will be established under the European Commission, EU agencies and other Member States, as well as the UNHCR, will ensure that this principle will be implemented from the same day the returns start. Honouring the commitments taken by member states on 22 July 2015, 18,000 places for resettlement remain and any further need for resettlement will be carried out through a similar voluntary arrangement up to a limit of an additional 54,000 persons. This means that the ceiling is set at 72,000 persons. As EU sources previously underlined: “if the number of migrant returns comes close to, but does not exceed 72,000, the mechanism will have to be reviewed. If it exceeds 72,000, then the mechanism will be discontinued”.
  
• The European Commission intends to propose an amendment to the relocation decision of 22 September 2015, so as to allow for any resettlement commitment undertaken in the framework of this arrangement to be offset from the 54,000 non-allocated places. Turkey also agreed to take any necessary measures to prevent new illegal migration flows from sea and land and will cooperate with neighbouring states as well as the EU to this effect.
• A Voluntary Humanitarian Admission Scheme will be activated. This means that member states will contribute on a voluntary basis, once irregular crossings between Turkey and the EU have been substantially reduced or come to an end.
• On Turkey’s biggest struggle to accelerate the visa liberalisation process, all participating member states will assist. Provided that all benchmarks have been met, this will allow the European Commission to make an appropriate proposal by the end of April on the basis of which the European Parliament and the Council can make a final decision on the issue with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016.

• On the faster disbursement of €3 billion under the Facility for Refugees, a first list of concrete projects will be jointly identified within a week and once these resources are about to be depleted, “the EU will mobilise additional funding for the Facility of an additional 3 billion euro up to the end of 2018” as Davutoğlu mentioned.
• The EU and Turkey welcomed the ongoing work on the upgrading of the Customs Union and have also reaffirmed their commitment to re-energise the accession process, by opening Chapter 33, on “financial and budgetary provisions”. Preparatory work for the opening of other Chapters will continue “at an accelerated pace, without prejudice to member states’ positions”, the two sides agreed, overcoming Cyprus and Greece’s objections.

• Last but not least, the member states are to work with Turkey in order to improve humanitarian conditions inside Syria, in particular in certain areas near the Turkish border, to ensure the safety of local population and refugees to the area.

For the implementation of the European Commission’s operational implementation in Greece, President  Jean-Claude Juncker has appointed Maarten Verwey, to act as the EU Coordinator to implement the EU-Turkey statement on the ground. Maarten Verwey, is the Director-General of the Structural Reforms Support Service who has been in Greece since October 2015, and will organize the 4,000 people that will be needed; 1500 from Greece, and 2500 from EU member states, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and FRONTEX. The plan will include mobilization of case workers, interpreters, judges, return officers and security officers, with the Greek side focusing on utilisation of police forces and judicial actors.

“The outcome of the EU-Turkey Summit is a very positive one. We have done everything that was possible. We have overcome national egoisms and presented a common and very clear offer to Turkey,” said Manfred Weber, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, as a reaction to the deal reached by the 28 member states and Turkey. “Now the time has come for all of us to start delivering, including those countries that have so far contributed little to manage the crisis”, Weber concluded.

S&D Group leader, Gianni Pittella, suggested that “the agreement with Turkey is a positive step that must be welcomed. The current version of the deal has been improved, thanks to the pressure put on the Council by the European Parliament and the S&D Group”. Pittella still raises doubts and concerns regarding the complicated practical implementation involved but also regarding its legality under international human rights conventions.

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The Former German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, 54, died on Friday at Cologne’s University Hospital of complications relating to leukemia treatment.

He came to office in 2009 as the leader of Chancellor Markel’s junior coalition partner, the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP). That was a comeback for a liberal party that although considered post-war Germany’s traditional kingmaker – having formed governments with Christian Democrats and Social Democrats – it remained out of office for 11 years.

As a foreign minister he is remember for taking a stand against the military intervention in Libya in 2011, taking a stand against French President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron. He also abstained from the UN Security Council vote that authorized the mission. In doing so, Westerwelle was affirming a post-War German tradition against military ventures abroad.

Westerwelle proved more skillful in opposition than in government. His party’s rating slumped as he was personally blamed for frequent coalition infighting. He was literally forced to resign from the party’s leadership in 2011, remaining a foreign minister until 2013. It was perhaps too late for FDP to recover. The liberal Free Democrats did not make the 5% threshold in the legislative elections of 2013, for the first time since 1949.

The liberal politician was 100% behind Chancellor Merkel’s austerity-drive in dealing with the European periphery’s debt crisis, although he was worried that Europe’s unity was being undermined. He urged Britain and France to remain committed to the project of European Integration, which he described as the answer to Germany’s darkest chapter in history, but also the sole credible answer to globalization.

Westerwelle was a libertarian politician, both as regards to human rights and on his socioeconomic agenda.

As an individual he was respected as one of Europe’s most high profile gay politicians that publically appeared with his partner.

He was generally known for being outspoken and had once triggered the rage of Belarussian President, Lukashenko, whom he called “the last dictator in Europe.”  Lukashenko famously responded “It’s better to be a dictator than gay.”

Lukashenko was not his only enemy, as he famously took on the German left, Social Democrats, the Greens, and Die Linke. True to a libertarian tradition he called for tax cuts, trimming unemployment benefits, and welfare.

(DW, ABC, The Guardian)

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Ukrainian officials at last managed to bring down the largest remaining monument depicting late Soviet leader and communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin on March 18. As onlookers rejoiced, a large crane hoisted the massive statue off its platform. A webcam broadcasted live footage on YouTube, drawing thousands of viewers.

Almost 1,000 Lenin statues throughout Ukraine have been dismantled since 2013. The statues had served as objects of contempt and ridicule.

Since an onslaught of nationalist fervour ousted Ukraine’s Russian-backed president in 2014, the parliament has legislated to sever Ukraine’s ties to its communist past. So-called decommunisation efforts in Ukraine have reportedly gained momentum in recent months.

decommunisation’s Lenin statue stood 20m tall. Officials failed to tear the statue down several times this week.

“It would be easy to demolish it: place an explosive, blow it up and everything, but to take it down carefully and transport it to a storage place for totalitarian statues needs more care,” a spokeswoman for the local mayor’s office was quoted as saying.

“The papers on how it was built are all in Moscow, so it’s being taken down with a method of trial and error,” the spokeswoman said. “Relations aren’t so friendly at the moment that [Russian authorities] would reply quickly to a query.”

Tension in Ukraine is particularly volatile in the eastern region, with over 9,000 killed in violent pro-Russian separatist conflict. When a Lenin statue came down in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, in September 2014, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on his Facebook page: “Lenin? Let him fall down. As long as nobody suffers under his weight. As long as this bloody Communist idol does not take more victims with it when it goes. I ordered the police to protect the people and not the idol.”

According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, 941 cities, towns and villages will be renamed and Soviet monuments throughout the country will be removed.

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The leaders of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have reportedly signed a letter objecting to enlarging the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, according to Reuters. The eight EU-member states argued that Nord Stream 2 would have potentially destabilising geopolitical consequences.

A European Commission energy spokeswoman told New Europe on March 17 that she “cannot confirm receipt of the letter. Position on Nord Stream more than known by now”.

The copy of the letter was addressed to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, according to Reuters. “The Nord Stream-2 project that is currently under preparation can pose certain risks for energy security in the region of central and eastern Europe,” the letter, dated March 7, says. “It would strongly influence gas market development and gas transit patterns in the region, most notably the transit route via Ukraine.”

Ukraine is a key transit route for Russian gas to Europe. European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič has repeatedly said Ukraine should remain an important transit country for gas supplies to Europe.

The Nord Stream-2 pipeline plans to double gas supplies shipped directly from Russia to Germany to 110 billion cubic metres per year. Russian gas monopoly Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller has said that the pipeline will boost Europe’s energy security.

Konstantin Simonov, the general director of Russia’s National Energy Security Fund, told New Europe on March 17 that he believes that Nord Stream 2 will be built. “The problem is very simple. If you block Nord Stream, it means that Ukraine will still be the transit country and it’s a question of trust for Europeans to Ukraine. And it’s a very serious question to Europeans: ‘Are you sure that Ukraine will be a stable transit country and are you sure Ukraine will guarantee the stable transit for the next five-seven or ten years or even more,’” Simonov asked.

“Nord Stream 2 is in my opinion the project which – if you are speaking about the point of Third package and idea of Brussels to enlarge infrastructure in Europe, to build new pipes – is absolutely logical from this point of view,” Simonov said.

“The question is what will be the attitude to Ukraine. Let’s imagine that Ukraine will stop the transit of gas to Europe. Is it possible? Of course, it is possible. For example, last month Ukraine stopped Russian trucks because of the political reasons,” he argued. “Next day they will decide that Ukraine must stop the transit of Russian gas.”

Simonov said that Gazprom does not want to pay penalties if Ukraine disrupts the transit of Russian gas to Europe.

Meanwhile, Sputnik quoted EU Head of Delegation to Russia Vygaudas Usackas as saying on March 18 that Nord Stream-2 “does not create new supply sources, but it is a commercial project and there are negotiations”. He added, however, that it should comply with EU law. And TASS quoted Shell Vice President Douglas Buckley as saying on the sidelines of the LNG 2016 Congress that “the fundamentals are good for projects such as Nord Stream expansion”.

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The fingerprints and – according to Belga – DNA of Salah Abdeslam have been found in a flat raided by police in Brussels this week, the Belgian prosecutors confirmed on Friday.

Six Belgian and French Police Officers raided an apartment on Tuesday, March 15. The officers believed it would be vacant, as both water and electricity supply had been cut off. During the raid, they found three men: one was killed on site, two escaped.

Three officers were wounded on the spot. Throughout Tuesday afternoon a shootout continued in the Forest quarter and two suspects managed to escape. One more police officer was wounded during.

Belgian media speculate now that Frenchman Abdeslam, 26, was one of the two people who evaded arrest. The information has yet to be confirmed by the police.

Abseldslam is thought to be one of the leading figures of the November 13, 2015 attack in Paris that had a toll of 130 civilian casualties. His brother Brahim also participated as a suicide bomber.

If this information is verified, this would be the second time the police miss Abdelslam. Immediately after the attacks, Abdeslam was driven to Brussels by friends Mohammed Amri and Hamza Attou. They were stopped by the police, who let them go as the suspects had not been at the time identified.

The suspect killed in the Forest apartment during the raid on Tuesday was identified as the 35 year old Algerian illegal immigrant, Mohamed Belkaid. He was only known to the police for one case of robbery. Belkaid was killed by snipers.

(Belga, BBC, RTBF, France 24, The Telgraph)

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EU leaders arrived at a final deal among the 28 member countries on Friday afternoon, and are preparing now the signing ceremony with the Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Resistance has been high among some leaders. Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel had earlier said: “I hope we find an agreement, but not at any price. We must maintain our values.”

Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel made a similar statement. The main question, beyond Turkey’s approval, remains whether the EU plan violates international law.

There are legal, political and moral issues, but even Angela Merkel was forced to accept a deal, after having blocked Turkeys accession talks for more than a decade.

The EU wants now to be able to quickly start the expulsion towards Turkey of masses of refugees, in spite of the forced islamisation of the Turkish society and of Erdogan’s authoritarian drive, the reality is that there is no alternative to the agreement.

For the EU, the deal would bring some calm and solace months of bitter infighting over how to deal with the migrant crisis. It would essentially see Europe outsource its refugee emergency to Turkey.

“For Turkey, the refugee issue is not an issue of bargaining, but values,” Davutoglu told reporters earlier in the day, staking out the same moral ground that the EU has claimed throughout the crisis.

Davutoglu said he hoped that beyond helping the refugees, the deal would “deepen EU-Turkey relations” with the approval of unprecedented access to Europe for Turkish nationals and the speeding-up of bogged-down EU membership talks.

With more than one million migrants having arrived in Europe in a year, EU leaders were desperate to clinch a deal with Turkey and heal deep rifts within the 28-member bloc while relieving the pressure on Greece, which has borne the brunt of arrivals.

The deal would have clear commitments that the rights of legitimate refugees would be respected and treated according to international and EU law. Within a week, Turkish and EU officials would assess joints projects to help Syrian refugees in Turkey, after complaints that promised aid of 3 billion euros was too slow coming.

Turkey would also be guaranteed that EU accession talks on budgetary issues could start before the summer.

More than 46,000 people are trapped in Greece, after Austria and a series of Balkan countries stopped letting through refugees who reach Greece from Turkey and want to go to Europe’s prosperous heartland. Greece wants refugees to move from Idomeni to organized shelters.

The EU-Turkey plan would be operational despite concerns about Turkey’s subpar asylum system and human rights abuses. Under it, the EU would pay to send new migrants arriving in Greece who don’t qualify for asylum back to Turkey. For every Syrian returned, the EU would accept one Syrian refugee, for a target figure of 72,000 people to be distributed among European states.

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Hong Kong’s newest political party announced itself on social media on March 16. Calling for the secession from mainland China, the newly established Hong Kong National Party, which was formed by a group of university students, Tweeted that its manifesto had been published.

‘We have set up this party because we want to harness the strength and energy from all walks of life in Hong Kong in our fight for independence,” read the manifesto published in the latest issue of Undergrads from the University of Hong Kong.

“We believe in concrete action. We will not rule out any methods of action. We are not after any moral high ground.”

As reported by The Asian Correspondent online, Hong Kong was granted a high degree of autonomy as special administrative region in China in 1997 based on the “one country, two systems” principle, but localism and varying living standards have created an anti-mainland sentiment among Hongkongers.

Last year, Hong Kong was the stage of the massive Umbrella Movement protest which had called for electoral reforms.

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“The European Council president Donald Tusk has presented to the 28 member states, a revised and compromised proposal,” an EU source told New Europe on the sidelines of the EU Summit.

“Tusk recommends that the member states adopt it without any changes”, pointed out the source after the third bilateral talk between Tusk and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Therefore, “Tusk appears to feel comfortable that this proposal will be accepted from Davutoğlu”, the source stressed right after the restart of talks between the 28 EU member states early on Friday afternoon. The source spoke to New Europe moments after Davutoğlu had departed from Justus Lipsius building of the European Council, in Brussels.

As the source stressed, there were 4 problematic issues on the table earlier today and have now been resolved.

On the first issue, the issue of legality, it was been made explicit that everything has to happen in full accordance with the EU and international law, including an additional explicit reference that there cannot be any collective expulsions.

In the question of the cut-off date, the date of implementation of the forthcoming agreement of this summit, that will be the 20 March 2016. “All migrants who arrive to the Greek islands after that date, are then subject to be returned. Of course every migrant will have to be assessed individually”, added the source.

The financial element was the main concern of the Turkish side, because the disbursement appears to be “slow” for Turkish standards. “Therefore, it has been agreed that already this week a list of complete projects will be identified, and [the definition of] a number of [geographical] areas [that this agreement concerns] has been specified”.

“The fourth and most difficult issue was on Cyprus”, the source concluded. There the balance that satisfies both sides compromise was found. It was agreed that there will be a re-energizing of relations and of the EU accession talks of Turkey. On accession talks, it was agreed to accelerate the preparatory work of opening chapters in full accordance with the negotiating framework and it was also agreed that chapter 33 on financial and budgetary provisions will be opened during the Dutch Presidency.

On the agreement, there is a new key element regarding the number of migrant returns. It is now agreed that “if the number of migrant returns comes close to, but does not exceed 72,000, the mechanism will have to be reviewed. If it exceeds 72,000, then the mechanism will be discontinued, as 72,000 is a ceiling”.

On who will be in charge to decide on these returns: “it is the Greek authorities that return people. It is the Greek authorities and can only be the Greek authorities that can take the decisions on whether a person that has the right to stay in Greece or can be returned to Turkey”. The source confirmed that this will take a lot of assistance from Europe, as it is a massive logistical undertaking. On the number of hotspots, more details will be available from the institution responsible on the details, the European Commission, in due course.

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Republican senators indicated on Thursday that they would be willing to support President Barack Obama’s nomination for the US Supreme Court, if the Republicans lost the Presidential elections in November.

Constitutional chess game

A political chess game unfolds over Supreme Court nominations in the US. Certain Republican senators on Thursday indicated they preferred a President Obama nomination for the Supreme Court than one made by his potential successor, Hillary Clinton, Reuters reports.

Among the Senators playing political chess with the Supreme Court nomination are Utah’s Orrin Hatch and Arizona’s Jeff Flake. Therefore, they indicated they would support Merrick Garland – Barack Obama’s nomination – before he leaves office in January, but only if Republicans lose the Presidential election on Nov. 8.

Context

The nomination by President Obama of Merrick Garland on Thursday for the Supreme Court was a bipartisan choice that placed Republicans in a difficult position. The former successful prosecutor of Unabomber Oklahoma City and the Atlanta Olympics bombing investigations is known for being a political centrist.

Senate Republican leaders had officially vowed to filibuster any Obama nomination for the Supreme Court. The filibuster is a tactic used in the U.S. Senate to block or delay action on a bill to obstruct or prevent action by taking an issue to death. Senators talk and talk, until there is not time for a vote. The longest it has ever taken the Senate to confirm a Supreme Court nominee is 125 days, that is, four-and-a-half months. Republicans this time would need to do at least twice as much filibustering. They say they would be willing to do so for “constitutional reasons,” claiming it is constitutionally inappropriate for a President to make such an appointment in an elections.

The chess game

In fewer words, majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reiterated the Republican position on Thursday that no one should be nominated in an election year. McConnel will not see Garland, who is customarily consulting Senators prior to the debate of his nomination.

However, the discussion does not seem to have much to do with constitutional ethics.

Garland is to replace Supreme Court Judge Scalia, that is, a Reagan-nominated extremely conservative judge who died in February, who could be relied upon to fight gay rights, abortion choice, and defend gun ownership. Moreover, his appointment comes at a critical juncture for the Supreme Court that after Scalia’s death is equally divided between liberals and conservatives. Garland would balance without tilting the power scale, but in an arena they Republicans had dominated for quite some time.

On the one hand, Republican Senators asked President Obama to defer the nomination to the next President, hoping he would be a Republican; on the other, some would like now to keep their options open, just in case Hillary Clinton wins and nominates a more outspoken liberal. If Donald Trump wins, an ultra-conservative nomination comparable to Scalia can be depended upon.

The Republican Paradox

Meanwhile, these Republican Senators find that voting for a Supreme Court judge during a Presidential transition period is more ethical than voting during an election year. Of course, it is also hoped that if Hillary Clinton were to win the Presidential elections in November, Democrats would stick to President Obama’s nominee rather than making a more partisan choice.

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After pressure by US Congress and human rights organizations, the US government formally acknowledged that the Islamic State group is committing genocide against Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq and Syria.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that he speaks in front of the journalists to assert that in his judgement the terrorist group is responsible for committing genocides against Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims in all the areas that has under control.

Using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group, Kerry said, “Daesh is genocidal by self-proclamation, by ideology, and by actions — in what it says, what it believes and what it does.” However, he added that he was “neither judge nor prosecutor nor jury with respect to the allegations” and said any potential criminal charges must result from an independent international investigation.

According to AP, while his determination does not carry such legal weight, Kerry said he hoped that groups he cited as being victimized would take some comfort in the fact that the “the United States recognizes and confirms the despicable nature of the crimes committed against them.”

Los Angeles Daily News reported that local Armenians and Assyrians living in the US welcomed Kerry’s announcement. According to the LA based website, many were expecting from the State Department to announce that genocide only applies for the Yazidi minority, a Kurdish speaking minority living in Northern Iraq and practices a monotheistic religion.

However, many US humanitarian groups such as the Knights of Columbus, the Armenian National Committee of America and nearly 30 other organizations sent a letter to Kerry in 2015, saying that besides the Yazidis genocide the US government must also consider the war crimes committed by the IS against the ancient Christian people of Iraq and Syria as genocide too.

According to Nora Hovsepian, chairwoman of the Glendale-based Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region, Kerry’s announcement may also encourage passage of another resolution that calls on US President Barack Obama to encourage Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide which took place beginning in 1915 and resulting in nearly 1.5 million deaths among them alone.

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Latvia’s Antisemitism is a ghost that makes European headlines every March. This week, a Latvian MP of the ruling coalition bloc, Kārlis Seržants, was on the record on Tuesday, March 15, making profoundly anti-Semitic comments.

In an interview with the Russian language public radio LR4, he said that “clever Jews” were responsible for some of the nation’s main problems. Clever Jews who operate “on the edge of the law,” referring to prominent Russian minority activists who, he believes, are Jewish. “I am not a chauvinist, absolutely not,” he specified “and “that is exactly why I am telling that being of Jewish ethnicity means being very smart.” While Russians might also be smart, he specified that Jews are “especially smart.”

The President of the European Jewish Congress, Dr. Moshe Kantor, expressed his profound shock at the remarks of the Latvian MP: “Such racist remarks singling out individual communities in Latvia have no place in democratic discourse within the European Union.”

The former journalist and member of the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) makes part of the Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS), that is, the third largest party but one that emerged at the helm of the current ruling coalition since February 2016. ZZS is the party of the current Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis.

But, perhaps, the heightened attention to this antisemitic stereotyping, that is not unique to Latvia, points towards a greater issue. Anti-Semitic rhetoric, implicit or explicit, is a controversial issue in Latvia, especially in the days leading to March 16. March 16, 1941 is the date of a decisive battle in Russia’s Opochka region, in which Nazi Germany failed to repel the advance of the Red Army. That was a battle in which Baltic volunteers were engaged, including the Latvian Legion, a locally drafted force of Waffen SS.

The Latvian national narrative is that the 140,000 members of the Latvian SS were not really Nazis, but patriots who fought against the Soviet occupier. They were fighting against an army that had occupied Latvia in 1939 – following an agreement with Nazi Germany – deporting thousands of Latvians to Siberia.

Jewish groups and the Russian minority in Latvia are less convinced. Commenting on the event, Efraim Zuroff, of Jerusalem’s Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center told AFP that “anyone who fought for the victory of the Third Reich shouldn’t be a hero.” The Latvian patriotic narrative often omits that about 70,000 Jews were exterminated in Latvia, largely with local collaboration, while the Nazi were hailed as liberators, AFP reports.

On Wednesday, as every year, more than a 1,000 people commemorated the patriotic contribution of the 140,000 Latvian Legionnaires.  The Minister of Culture Dace Melbarde had announced he would join the event, as did a number of Members of the Saeime. Other ministers would not attend, others that they would be “absent,” without making clear whether they would be willing to attend had they been in Riga.

Officially, the administration of Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis does not regard March 16 an official commemoration day for Latvian soldiers. But, for all governments, this is a symbolically loaded issue. In 2014, a Minister of the national conservative alliance resigned, after participating in the event in Riga.

Each year, the event stains the image of Latvia and heightens attention to anti-Semitic attitudes. Unfailingly, it is also an event that Russia uses to discredit the Latvian government.

(AFP, The Baltic Times LR4, LSM.lv, BNS, Jerusalem Post)

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The Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen are responsible for twice as many civilian casualties as all other forces put together, United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said today.

The announcement didn’t come as a surprise as it has been reported repeatedly that the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia, had targeted many times populated territories in Yemen during its campaign against the Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis.

The coalition supports the exiled Yemeni government led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and tries to bring it back in power after being forced to withdraw from Yemen because of military actions performed by the Houthis and military forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Since the start of the airstrike campaign in March 2015, the citizens of the poorest state in the Middle East are witnessing a humanitarian destruction. At least 7.6 million people are now seriously “food insecure” in Yemen. Moreover, on 5 January, the UN reported that civilian casualties in Yemen topped 8,100, with nearly 2,800 of them killed, amid Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, shelling by Houthi groups and other clashes.

On 4 March, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, also told journalists in Geneva, Switzerland that civilian casualties continued to mount in Yemen, during February. Last month, a total of at least 168 civilians were killed and 193 injured and around two-thirds of them were hit by the Arab-coalition airstrikes. In the country as a whole, 117 civilians were killed and another 129 wounded as a result of airstrikes in February, with the largest number of casualties (99) attributed to airstrikes hitting the capital, Sana’a.

Today, it was reported that another airstrike on 16 March, on a market in northern Yemen’s rebel-held Hajja province, caused the death of 119 people, including 22 children. According to reports, after the carnage caused by the airstrike, a panel of UN experts has said the coalition has carried out 119 sorties and called for the urgent need for establishing an international probe for war crimes in Yemen.

After the market massacre, the Arab-coalition spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, told AFP in an exclusive interview that the coalition is “in the end of the major combat phase,” in Yemen. His statement was welcomed by the White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

However, a similar announcement was made in April 2015. Then, al-Asiri, had said that the objectives of the campaign have been met and the Shia rebels, are no longer a danger.

Two days ago, the Dutch MPs asked from the national govenmrent to enforce an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, to pressure the oil-rich country to shop shelling in Yemen. A similar call was made by the MEPs to the EU main policy-makers.

This is not the first time The Netherlands are trying to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. In 2015,  Dutch diplomats in the UN, asked for an independent war crimes inquiry in Yemen. However, the inquiry was blocked by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries such as Bahrain and Qatar which claimed that a war crimes investigation must be launched by the Yemeni government.

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