Trump's Election Triggers Deep Concern in Europe & EU politicians fearing for their future.

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Trump's Election Triggers Deep Concern in Europe & EU politicians fearing for their future. (Spiegel).

The European Union is facing what the Americans like to call a "perfect storm." Russian President Vladimir Putin is pursuing expansionism on the back of violence and propaganda, Turkey is transforming into a dictatorship and populists are driving Britain out of the EU and have risen to power in Poland and Hungary -- and may soon take the reins elsewhere as well.

Two days after the US election, Europe finds itself gripped by a mixture of disbelief and desperation, only imperfectly masked by formulaic messages of congratulations sent to Washington. Chancellor Angela Merkel even made her cooperation with Trump dependent on his adherence to fundamental values. A German head of government admonishing a newly elected US president to uphold freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human dignity? Normally such a thing would be the height of impudence.

But almost nothing seems normal these days -- neither in European relations with the US nor elsewhere. Current events in Turkey, for example, would likely be the top issue of concern for the EU if it weren't for Trump's election. With the civil war still raging in Syria, Turkey plays a key role in European security, but the NATO country is sliding toward a dictatorship and the refugee deal with the EU is threatening to collapse. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doing booming business with Putin and even hopes to discuss buying a missile defense system with the Russian president.

With Britain's departure, the EU is losing its second-largest economy and a country with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Europe's economy remains unstable and right-wing populists are on the rise in France, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany -- and they are already in power in Poland and Hungary. The European Commission believes the same values Merkel admonished Trump to respect are under threat in Poland.

Many in Brussels are concerned that the EU is facing the same fate as the US -- namely that Front National leader Marine Le Pen could end up being elected president in France and that Frauke Petry, head of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany, could even take over the German Chancellery. Such a thing might seem unimaginable, but many thought that Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections was unimaginable too.

The anger that many voters feel against government institutions and the establishment, the anger that propelled Trump to the presidency, is also widely present in Europe. 

But nobody has yet found an answer for how to oppose it. The skepticism, she adds, isn't just fueled by concerns about having been left behind by globalization, but also by the desire to return to nationalist identity. Hmmm.......They all ignored the voters their complaints thought they could do without the voter now the time of reckoning is coming. Read the full story here.

Iran Raps 'Rare' EU Clauses in Trade Deals which cover snap back sanctions and new sanctions.

Iran Raps 'Rare' EU Clauses in Trade Deals which cover snap back sanctions and new sanctions. (IFPnews).

Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, Iran’s deputy minister of roads and urban development, told the Financial Times that European government should prevent the inclusion of what he described as “very exceptional terms and conditions” in trade agreements with Iran.

Fakhrieh Kashan warned that such terms and conditions were effectively discouraging investments in the Iranian economy.

He said export credit agencies were specifically demanding premiums on insurance that made banks insist on putting what he described as “unacceptable terms” in contracts related to “political risk” in doing business with Iran.

Fakhrieh Kashan emphasized that Iran will not accept any clauses in trade agreements which he said foresee such possibilities like snapback sanctions and new sanctions against Iran.

European businesses, he said, are in fact trying to devise deals in which political risks are inserted alongside commercial risks – what he said is totally rejected by the Islamic Republic.

If anyone needed guarantees against political risks, it was Iran, Fakhrieh Kashan said in reference to the impact of western sanctions on the Iranian economy.

“Why should Iran accept very exceptional terms and conditions in its contracts with European companies? This is not called a normal relationship,” he said.

Fakhrieh Kashan emphasized that European countries should take the adequate measures to prevent their businesses from including political risk in contracts, warning that any failure to do so will be against the nuclear agreement with Iran.


“This is where European countries are failing to be committed to the nuclear agreement. One of the main reasons the signing of contracts in various sectors has been delayed is this issue.”

'Visa-Free Regime With 'Islamist' Turkey May Increase Terrorist Risk in EU': EU Report.

'Visa-Free Regime With 'Islamist' Turkey May Increase Terrorist Risk in EU': EU Report. (SP).

The proposed visa liberalization for Turkish citizens travelling to the EU could potentially have an impact on the terrorist risk in the EU in as far as the movement of terrorists of Turkish citizenship to and from the Schengen area is concerned, an extract from the report, seen by The Telegraph newspaper, reads.


Criminals could also take advantage of the unrestricted entry to the European Union to pursue their own goals, including through drug trafficking, importing illegal firearms and people smuggling into Europe, the report revealed.

"It can be expected that, as soon as Turkish citizens will obtain visa-free entry to the EU, foreign nationals will start trying to obtain Turkish passports in order to pretend to be Turkish citizens and enter the EU visa free, or use the identities of Turkish citizens, or to obtain by fraud the Turkish citizenship. This possibility may attract not only irregular migrants, but also criminals or terrorists," the report stressed.

Turkey is yet to meet five out of the 72 total requirements, notably those related to data protection and anti-terrorism laws, among other issues. Hmmm......Giving Turkey visa free travel is pure madness. Read the full story here

Related: 

Theresa May says UK may block Turkey & Balkans EU membership!

EU Proposes to Extend Border Controls inside Schengen Area for another six months.

EU Proposes to Extend Border Controls inside Schengen Area for another six months. (Novinite).

The European Commission has proposed to extend for up to six months temporary controls at internal Schengen borders in five Member States which attract the majority of refugees and migrants streaming into Europe.

The proposed recommendation, to be decided upon by the Council of the EU, takes into account the fact that despite the significant progress made by Greece, not all of the serious deficiencies identified in the country’s external border management could be adequately and comprehensively addressed within the three months' limit, the Commission said in a statement on Wednesday.

The five countries - Austria, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden - have already temporarily reintroduced controls at some of their borders to curb the the threat to internal security resulting from the secondary movements of irregular migrants.

The reintroduction of controls is foreseen under the Schengen Borders Code, which sets out a specific procedure for exceptional circumstances where the overall functioning of the Schengen area is put at risk by serious and persistent deficiencies at an EU external border.

The Commission has recommended that Austria kept controls at its borders with Hungary and Slovenia; Germany – at its land border with Austria; Denmark – at its ports with ferry links to Germany as well as the Danish-German land border.

The recommendation gives Sweden the right to keep border controls in the country’s harbours in the south and west as well as at the Oresund bridge, while Norway is to keep border checks at its ports with ferry links to Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

EU hopes to grant Turkey visa-free travel in migrant deal, but the U.K might Veto this 'madness'.

EU hopes to grant Turkey visa-free travel in migrant deal, but the U.K might Veto this 'madness'. (AA).

The European Union is set to give conditional approval on Wednesday for Turks to gain visa-free access to the Schengen zone, meeting a key demand by Ankara to keep a migrant crisis deal alive.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, will say Turkey must still meet further measures to access the passportless Schengen area without visas by June, sources told AFP on Tuesday.

Ankara has demanded that the visa requirement be scrapped in exchange for taking back migrants who land in Greece under a seal signed in March, but there are still widespread concerns among EU states, especially over human rights issues in Turkey.

"The Commission will put forward a plan to include Turkey in the list of countries exempted from visas," a European source told AFP, adding that "only 64 out of the 72 criteria are fulfilled" and that the offer, therefore, remains conditional.

Turkey has to meet a list of 72 criteria – ranging from biometric passports to respect for human rights – that were set when Brussels and Ankara first talked about 90-day visa-free travel to the Schengen area.

EU member states and the European Parliament must still approve the Turkey visa plan after it clears the Commission, which is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Germany and France have proposed an emergency brake or "snap back mechanism" under which it could halt visa-free travel if large numbers of Turks stay in the EU illegally or if there are a large number of asylum applications by Turks.

Even politicians in favor of EU membership, such as Home Secretary Theresa May,have signalled that further enlargement needs to be reconsidered for countries with "poor populations and serious problems with organised crime, corruption and sometimes even terrorism".

Ministers have emphasised that the UK has the right of veto over future prospective members, while insisting the talks with Turkey and other countries are unlikely to be rushed and, as such, the issue will not come to a head for a while.

Theresa May says UK may block Turkey & Balkans EU membership!

Last month, George Osborne said a Turkish agreement was "not on the cards any time soon" and insisted the UK would not allow any free movement deal with countries which weren't closely aligned in terms of size and prosperity . Hmmm.....Once again the U.K. can make the difference and stand for freedom.

Turkey has become such a thorny issue, that its prospects of joining the EU are receding.

Turkey has become such a thorny issue, that its prospects of joining the EU are receding. (BBC).

                              EU referendum: Will Turkey's EU hopes affect UK vote?

The question of whether Turkey and six Balkan countries will join the European Union and, if so, what it will mean for the UK has become a live issue in the EU referendum campaign.

Campaigners wanting to leave the EU say such a further enlargement could result in a migration "free-for-all" and pose a "serious and direct threat" to UK public services. Is there any truth in this?

Nothing will happen for at least three years, because European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker imposed a five-year moratorium on enlargement in 2014.

Seasoned EU-watchers say Montenegro and Serbia are, to coin a phrase, at the front of the queue, while there are major hurdles to overcome with Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

As for Turkey, the challenges it faces in meeting the membership criteria are so big, and it has become such a thorny issue, that its prospects are receding.

In short, yes. Turkey has a customs union with the EU, but its troubled relations with the Republic of Cyprus have always been a unique stumbling block - a situation exacerbated by Cyprus' own admission to the EU in 2004.

Turkey would also be the first country with a majority Muslim population to join the EU, in itself a major development.

Some see a future advantage for Europe if many young Turkish workers fill jobs, as ageing populations cause the labour force to shrink.

But the migrant crisis, caused by the five-year civil war in Syria, has fueled doubts among those EU politicians who, in principle, have always been in favor of letting Turkey in.

More than two million Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey, a country which already had a population of nearly 76 million.

EU leaders are desperate to uphold free movement rules, enshrining the right of any EU national to live and work elsewhere in the union. They are nervous that admitting a country of Turkey's size could make this untenable.

Under a recent agreement with Turkey to curb the migrant influx to Greece, the EU undertook to "re-energise" the stalled accession talks.

But there are major concerns about Turkish human rights violations, including curbs on the media and rule of law - all key issues when judging a country's fitness to join the EU.

At the same time, economic hardship, Islamist terror and the migrant crisis have fuelled a nationalist backlash in much of Europe, often expressed as hostility to Islam.

Even politicians in favour of EU membership, such as Home Secretary Theresa May, have signalled that further enlargement needs to be reconsidered for countries with "poor populations and serious problems with organised crime, corruption and sometimes even terrorism".

Ministers have emphasised that the UK has the right of veto over future prospective members, while insisting the talks with Turkey and other countries are unlikely to be rushed and, as such, the issue will not come to a head for a while.

Last month, George Osborne said a Turkish agreement was "not on the cards any time soon" and insisted the UK would not allow any free movement deal with countries which weren't closely aligned in terms of size and prosperity.

Hmmm......Thank God for Churchill, 'we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender'.Read the full story here.

Related:

  Theresa May says UK may block Turkey & Balkans EU membership!

Theresa May says UK may block Turkey & Balkans EU membership!

Theresa May says UK may block Turkey & Balkans EU membership! (ConservativesHome).

It is time to question some of the traditional British assumptions about our engagement with the EU.  Do we stop the EU going in the wrong direction by shouting on the sidelines, or by leading and making the case for taking Europe in a better direction?  

And do we really still think it is in our interests to support automatically and unconditionally the EU’s further expansion?  

The states now negotiating to join the EU include Albania, Serbia and Turkey – countries with poor populations and serious problems with organised crime, corruption, and sometimes even terrorism.  

We have to ask ourselves, is it really right that the EU should just continue to expand, conferring upon all new member states all the rights of membership?  

Do we really think now is the time to contemplate a land border between the EU and countries like Iran, Iraq and Syria?  Having agreed the end of the European principle of “ever closer union”, it is time to question the principle of ever wider expansion. Hmmm..........Make your choice gentlemen ...Them or Us. Full speech can be read here

German Neo-Nazi Lands Spot on European Rights Group

German Neo-Nazi Lands Spot on European Rights Group. HT: Forward.

European Jewish leaders slammed the appointment of a German neo-Nazi lawmaker to the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee.

Udo Voigt, the former head of the far-right National Democratic Party, was named this week to the parliamentary committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. Voigt, 62, has lauded Adolf Hitler and is notorious for his relativization of the Holocaust.

“It is surreal and the ultimate insult to the Jews of Europe and to the European Union itself,” Moshe Kantor, head of the Brussels-based European Jewish Congress, said in a statement Tuesday.

He urged all lawmakers “to refuse to allow this man to participate in the workings of the committee.”

Kantor added that none of this would have happened if Germany had banned the NPD, which has some 7,000 members nationwide.

Voigt gained his seat in the European Parliament in May when the NDP won about 1 percent of the German popular vote — the new threshold for admission to the body.

World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer said “it was already bad enough that Voigt was able to get elected” after Germany removed the 5 percent vote threshold for international elections this year. His appointment to the committee is “disgraceful and unacceptable,” Singer said, joining calls for the EU to establish a higher threshold to prevent extremist fringe groups from gaining a foothold. The next such election is scheduled for 2019.

“The idea of a neo-Nazi as a guardian of European human rights is sickening,” said Stephan Kramer, newly appointed director of the American Jewish Committee’s European Office on Anti-Semitism, based in Brussels and Berlin.

Just prior to his election, Voigt received a one-year suspended sentence in Germany for incitement to hate. Hmmmm......."Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

The European Union prepares the ‘solidarity clause’ framework for military use against citizens.

The European Union prepares the ‘solidarity clause’ framework for military use against citizens. HT: Stratrisk.

See also: EU prepares the ground for military use against the citizens

The EU creates a legal framework for Europe-wide deployment of police and military units . At the same time, the EU Commission is working intensively on the creation of a single EU police unit as well as an EU public prosecutor (more here ).

The use of the “European Gendarmerie Force” (EUROGENDFOR) is made ​​possible by the “solidarity clause” as Heise reported. At the unit, headquartered in Vicenza, Italy, all EU Member States are involved, the Gendarmerien, so police forces with military status are used.

One of the founding countries of the EUROGENDFOR include Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and the Netherlands. We provide our services to the police unit of the EU, NATO or the UN.

“The ‘solidarity clause’ is redundant, since the EU already has mechanisms for mutual assistance in case of disasters. Secondly, the clause amplifies the course to a militarization of domestic politics, since upon request military can be used in another Member State.

“On Tuesday, the representatives of the EU Member States in the Council adopted a decision on the so-called ‘solidarity clause’. Were a disaster or a loosely defined crisis to occur, the organs of the European Union would be obliged to assist using all the instruments at their disposal. This includes military resources”, warned Member of the Bundestag Andrej Hunko.

The proposal on ‘arrangements for the implementation by the Union of the Solidarity Clause’ was jointly presented by the Commission and the EU High Representative in 2012. A country can invoke the “solidarity clause” if a crisis “overwhelms its response capacities”. Mention is made of operational, policy and financial instruments and structures.

Andrej Hunko continued:

“The adoption at the General Affairs Council took place in secret: the point was not mentioned on the agenda of  the meeting. The press was not informed. Yet this is one of the most controversial clauses contained in the EU treaties. 

That is precisely the reason why agreement on the details of the solidarity clause was postponed to a later point at the time of the signature of the Lisbon Treaty.

The ‘solidarity clause’ boosts the role of the two intelligence-service-style EU situation centres. But it also creates the legal framework for deployment of the special police units of the ‘ATLAS network’ being developed by the Commission.

From Germany, the GSG 9 is involved; last year this Federal Police Special Forces unit was able to head a large-scale ATLAS exercise encompassing several countries for the first time.

The ‘solidarity clause’ is superfluous, since the EU already has mechanisms for mutual assistance in disaster situations. At the same time, however, the clause strengthens the course towards militarisation of home-affairs policy, since military personnel can be sent to another Member State on request.

I am concerned that this is about the home-affairs version of the Article 5 clause on mutual defense: it would apply in situations which ‘may have an adverse impact on people, the environment or property’.

Even politically motivated blockades in the areas of energy and transport and general strikes are covered.

The text explicitly refers to crises which originate outside the territory of the Member States. The Left Party parliamentary group rejects this blurring of the lines between internal and external security.

Instead of militarisation of home-affairs policy through the deployment of military forces inside other Member States, we need reinforcement of the civilian mechanisms of solidarity within the EU.”

Press release of 24 June 2014 by the General Affairs Council:  

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/genaff/143353.pdf

British Politician: ‘Everyone in Brussels knows that Juncker drinks far too much. I would call him an alcoholic.'

British Politician: ‘Everyone in Brussels knows that Juncker drinks far too much. I would call him an alcoholic.' HT: DailyMail.

New EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker faced shock new claims about his drinking last night.

A former Tory Foreign Office Minister who has worked with him closely said he drinks so heavily he ‘dribbles’ during meetings and is often ‘incapable of working after lunchtime’.

And a newspaper in Mr Juncker’s native Luxembourg carried lurid details of a drinking binge he allegedly embarked upon.

The prominent British politician, who served as Minister for Europe, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘All the stories about Juncker’s drinking are true. I know because I had to work with him. He is a complete drunk.

‘I regarded it as pointless talking to him after 12 o’clock because at times he seemed incapable of working, so drunk you couldn’t get any sense out of him. It is every bit as bad as people say. I have seen him so p****d that he was dribbling.

‘Everyone in Brussels knows that Juncker drinks far too much. I would call him an alcoholic. Talk to European politicians in private and they will all tell you about his drink problem.’

The politician, who spoke to The Mail on Sunday on condition of anonymity, said Mr Juncker’s drinking was not the only reason he was unfit to be EC President.

‘He is totally wrong for the job and isn’t any good. I was talking to a senior French politician only the other day and he agreed with me that Juncker is useless.’

Mr Juncker, 59, has been dogged by rumours of a drink problem for years.

Summit tables were said to have been awash with alcohol during his 20-year tenure as Prime Minister of Luxembourg. He resigned as a result of a spy scandal last year.

The newspaper Letzebuerg Privat (Luxembourg Private), has referred to him as the country’s ‘drunken stupor premier’.

Last year it ran a front-page report, accompanied by a photo of him guzzling drinks, in which it was alleged that he quaffed ‘a Campari, three glasses of wine and three Sambucas in only two hours’.

German journal Der Spiegel said: ‘Juncker no longer cares what others think about him'. Hmmmm......Why choose a 'Drunk'? Because lots of 'dirt' around to pressure him in doing what you want. Read the full story here.

'Moderate Iran' - 258 Iranian MPs Condemn EP Resolution.

'Moderate Iran' - 258 Iranian MPs Condemn EP Resolution.(Fars).

Iranian lawmakers in a statement on Tuesday deplored the recent Human Rights resolution of the European Parliament against Iran as blatant meddling in the country's internal affairs.

The Friday resolution of the European Parliament which called the recent presidential elections in Iran undemocratic is shocking and a kind of meddling in Iran's internal affairs, the statement signed by a number of 258 Iranian parliamentarians said.

The Iranian lawmakers said that the West's double-standard approach towards political systems and their negligence towards despotic regimes and those lacking democracy is not hidden to anyone and is a well established fact.

The resolution adopted by the EP in its Friday meeting in Brussels has called for meetings between EU delegations and Iranian dissidents and opposition leaders and criticized the presidential elections in Iran.

The European's move has angered officials in Tehran as it has been adopted after the western states voiced their consent and pleasure in the betterment of ties with Iran following a breakthrough deal over Tehran's nuclear program.

On Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry, in reaction to the European Parliament's Friday resolution against the human rights situation in Iran, summoned Greek Ambassador to Tehran Nikolas Garilidis and conveyed Tehran's official protest to him whose country holds European Union (EU) presidency.

Speaking at a meeting with Garilidis, the director-general of West Europe affairs at the Iranian Foreign Ministry dismissed as “unacceptable and unrealistic” the European Parliament’s resolution which accuses Iran of human rights violations.

“Such injudicious measures and positions run counter to the common interests of the European Union and the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Iranian official said.

On Monday, Iranian lawmakers worked out an eight-paragraph plan which includes several retaliatory measures against the recent Human Rights resolution of the European Parliament against Iran.

In their plan of action, the lawmakers have called on the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to take tit-for-tat measures against each and every European country which has signed the resolution.

The bill requires the government to reconsider its political and economic relations with those European countries that have voted for the EP resolution as long as they have not taken back their votes.

No European official and delegation can meet any Iranian real and legal entity without Iran's prior consent and legal permission.

The government will also be bound to reconsider its combat against the transit of narcotics via Iran given the heavy costs and sacrifice of human lives that such a combat incurs on Iran and taking into account the Europeans' hostile stance displayed in their recent resolution against Tehran.

The bill further reminds Iran's experience about the former US Embassy (spy den) in Tehran, and necessitates the government to turn down demands by the European Parliament or western human rights organizations for opening an office in Iran.

The bill also underlines that the government will be duty-bound to reconsider its cooperation with the UN Human Rights Commission for as long as the Western countries ignore human and Islamic culture and rights and adopt a double-standard policy in this regard.

It also requires the government to treat the officials and nationals of the European countries in the very same manner that they treat Iranian nationals upon their arrival and departure from their countries.

The resolution adopted by the European Parliament in its Friday meeting in Brussels has called for meetings between EU delegations and Iranian dissidents and opposition leaders and criticized the presidential elections in Iran.

The Europeans' move has angered officials in Tehran as it has been adopted after the western states voiced their consent and pleasure in the betterment of ties with Iran following a breakthrough deal over Tehran's nuclear program.Hmmm....As i said before Any European leader thinking of using Iranian gas, shipped trough turkey better have his head examined.

Dubai to EU: How to get Schengen residency? Simply start a small business in Belgium, say consultants.

Dubai to EU: How to get Schengen residency? Simply start a small business in Belgium, say consultants.HT: E24/7.By Majorie van Leijen

Start a business in Belgium, and you will gain a residency permit that is applicable for all Schengen countries.

This is the advice of Dubai Europe, a consultancy office located in Dubai.

Thousands of people around the world are eager to obtain the Schengen residency, because it means access and right to settle down in most European countries.

However, for non-EU citizens the residency permit is not easily acquired, as most countries in European have narrow immigration policies in place.

Belgium is the most flexible option, argues Elena Yusupova, Director at Dubai Europe.

For entrepreneurs, self-employed individuals and investors Belgium offers a relatively easy path to resident status.After three years, this status can be transferred to citizenship status.
There a few requirements other than the potential of a successful business in the country.

Dubai Europe focuses on small business potential. “People who would like to set up a small business such as a coffeeshop, a restaurant, a dry cleaning service or a taxi service are among the people we would like to support increase their chances of gaining residency.”

Small business entrepreneurs like these would enter Belgium on the basis of an entrepreneur or self-employed individual programme. Either as an employee, owner or stakeholder of a company the person would become eligible for this visa programme.

However, larger companies are prioritised, explains Elena. Furthermore, the application process may take years.
“We are here to help small business people submit the most appealing business plan. We have the support of the Belgian authorities and a certain number of applications we may submit.”

“Once you have the residency you have certain rights. When your business does not succeed, you will receive support from the Belgium government. We do not want people to come to Belgium with the fixed plan to benefit from these services.”

However, requirements for the successful applicant are few. There are no language requirements, no tests scores and no presence in the country needed. At most, the resident must enter the country every six months.

“This programme is designed for entrepreneurs, who may not want to live in the country as they have businesses elsewhere.

“Our focus is primarily on business people who already have something established, but would like to add a branch in Belgium.“Three years after the residency is obtained, the person may apply for permanent citizenship.

“It is here where the success of a business becomes important. If the authorities see that little effort was done and the person depended mainly on government support, such application is likely to be rejected, in addition to a ban to re-application,” explains Elena.

Apart from the entrepreneurs route Belgium also offers investors the possibility to gain a residency. Investment in a Belgian company or Belgian holding makes a person eligible for this residency.Read the full story here.

European Union approves Schengen Visa waiver for UAE.

European Union approves Schengen Visa waiver for UAE.(E24/7).

The Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament, has ratified the agreement between the Parliament and the Greek Presidency of the European Union, on amending the regulations to exempt citizens of the United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Peru and 15 other Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean countries from the requirement of obtaining visa to enter into the unified visa zone of 'Schengen'.

A statement from the European Parliament said: "This exemption should be reciprocated on the basis of agreements signed between the EU and each of these countries. It will start when the bilateral agreement comes into force."

Earlier, the European Parliament had proposed an exemption of UAE citizens from the requirement of obtaining entry visa. It was approved by the Commission and the Cabinet.

Mariya Gabriel, who prepared the report and led the European Parliament group to negotiate with the Presidency of the European Union, said: "The agreement today has double importance as we progress towards expanding the cooperation with those countries, on the other hand we send a positive message to European citizens, clarifying measures on putting non-European countries in the positive list."

Suleiman Hamed Salem Al Mazrouei, Head of the UAE Mission to EU, UAE Ambassador to Belgium, said the achievement is a fruit of huge efforts exerted by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in line with the directives from Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister.

He added that the procedures for exemption are almost complete.

The EU has a positive list including countries, whose nationals are allowed to enter into EU without visa, and another list for countries, whose nationals must obtain prior entry visa.
The European Parliament is expected to vote for this agreement in April.

Ukraine Plans to Agree on Russian Gas Price This Week - PM

Pissing of your only gas provider in Winter....Not the smartest move.

Ukraine Plans to Agree on Russian Gas Price This Week - PM.(RN).

Kiev plans to agree on Russian gas prices and resume talks about a three-party gas consortium to manage Ukraine’s pipeline network next week, the country’s premier said on Sunday.

Ukraine, which has few energy resources of its own, relies heavily on gas imports from Russia. At the same time, Ukraine has been a major transit country for Russian gas supplies to Europe. Ukraine has been embroiled in several gas rows with Russia in the past few years over gas siphoning and gas prices, occasionally interrupting supplies to Europe, which gets around a quarter of its gas from Russia.

In early 2009, Russia halted all deliveries via Ukraine's pipeline system for two weeks after the two nations failed to agree a price for Russia’s gas deliveries to Ukraine. The gas deal that was eventually signed later that year tied the price for Russian gas to international oil prices, which have since risen significantly, boosting Ukraine's bill.

An intergovernmental Russian-Ukrainian commission will convene in Moscow on Tuesday amid anti-government protests in Ukraine.
“The sides have come to an agreement that it’s time to settle the [gas price] issue. We didn’t ask for discounts, we discussed only European-level [gas] prices and I hope we would finally resolve this issue during the meeting,” Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said in an interview with Ukraine’s Inter TV.
He also said his country was ready to resume talks with Russia about creating a gas transport consortium with the involvement of European partners to manage and modernize Ukraine's dilapidated gas pipeline network.

"Another issue of extreme importance for is the resumption of talks about the three-party consortium involving Europe and providing absolutely transparent terms for [gas] transit via Ukraine and for management of our pipeline network,” Azarov said.

Kiev and Moscow discussed the possibility of a three-party consortium back in the early 2000's. However, when West-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko came to power in Ukraine, the project was put on hold. The Ukrainian authorities said at the time that leasing out the gas transport network would jeopardize Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Ukraine’s refusal to consider a gas consortium prompted Russia to launch the Nord Stream and South Stream gas pipeline projects to pump natural gas directly to European consumers, bypassing transit states.

Ukraine’s first deputy premier, Sergei Arbuzov, said the Russian-Ukrainian deals to be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting will be directed “solely at improving our country’s economic security” and none of them envisages the country’s accession to the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Related:  Russia – Ukraine Gas Dispute

"Yes We Scan Too" - Mass Surveillance of Personal Data by EU Member States and its Compatibility with EU Law.

"Yes We Scan Too" - Mass Surveillance of Personal Data by EU Member States and its Compatibility with EU Law.HT: BlacklistedNews.

A new study says so. It’s titled “Mass Surveillance of Personal Data by EU Member States and its Compatibility with EU Law.”

Sergio Carrera is a Spanish jurist. Francesco Ragazzi is Netherlands-based Leiden University Professor of International Relations.

They co-wrote the study. They did so with Didier Bigo, Nicholas Hernanz, Julien Jeandesboz, Joanna Parkin, and Amandine Scherrer.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs commissioned it.

The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) republished it with EP permission. It’s called SEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe No. 61/November 2013. More on it below.

The lead study authors hold America and EU nations responsible for violating European law. They want it stopped. They want European parliamentarians acting responsibly to do so.

They said NSA, Britain’s GCHQ, as well as comparable intelligence operations in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden breached EU charter provisions.

EU agencies like Europol and IntCen (EU Intelligence Analysis Centre) illegally use stolen data. According to Carrera:

 ”It’s no longer credible to say the EU has no legal competence and should do nothing on this. Sorry, we don’t think this is acceptable.” ”We are witnessing a systematic breach of people’s fundamental rights.”

Ragazzi added:

“The bigger the crisis, the more the system of checks and balances should be reinforced. This is what distinguishes democracies from police states.”

 Apologists claim national security as cover. Britain’s EU ambassador, John Cunliffe, replicates others saying “national security is the sole responsibility of member states.”

Carrera and Ragazzi urged European parliamentarians (MEPs) to use “all their powers at their disposal” to break what they call a wall of silence.

 The EU parliament should block a European/US trade agreement unless NSA and GCHQ fully disclose their surveillance operations, they say.

 They want EU countries to draft a “professional code for the transnational management of data.”

 They want legislation to stop online companies from improperly cooperating with intelligence agencies. They want whistleblowers like Snowden protected.

They want a permanent oversight body on intelligence matters created. They said “(s)urveillance of population groups is not a new phenomenon in liberal regimes.”

 NSA/GCHQ revelations remind them of previous intelligence service transgressions. Information Snowden revealed far exceeds earlier lawlessness.
He disclosed “a reconfiguration of surveillance that enables access to a much larger scale of data than telecommunications surveillance of the past,” they said.

 The purpose and scale of today’s surveillance “are precisely at the core of what differentiates democratic regimes from police states.”

 Intelligence services haven’t provided acceptable explanations of their activities. Oversight is largely absent.

Under European law, individuals own their own data. It’s a core principle. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights protects it.

So does the EU Treaty. At issue is whether unauthorized access to private information is theft. If so, are responsible parties criminally liable?

Channels permitting lawful searches exist. The EU/US Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (MLAA) covers criminal investigations and counterterrorism activities.

Snowden’s revelations show NSA and its EU counterparts violated European law. The EU Charter of Fundamental rights protects everyone, not just EU citizens.

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees universal privacy. US constitutional law prohibits illegal searches and seizures. It does so for US citizens.

Bringing America into compliance with European law requires  legislation doing so. An international digital bill of rights is needed.

 Getting it won’t be easy. Nor will changing US law. Congress supports NSA lawlessness. Pending congressional legislation legitimizes it.
The study authors concluded the following:

 ”Practices of large-scale surveillance have to be carefully examined from a fundamental rights perspective.”

 The implications are far-reaching. They go well beyond the “traditional dilemma between the rights of citizens to data protection and the right of the state to depart from the rule of law in the name of national security.”

They raise fundamental questions about what kind of societies we want. What kind are acceptable? What lines must never be crossed? What freedoms are too precious to lose?

Fighting terrorism and organized crime legally is acceptable. Breaching legal standards can’t be tolerated.
NSA and their European counterparts were caught red-handed doing it. What’s done about it matters most.
Meta-data-mining and freedom can’t coexist. Carrera and Ragazzi et al said:
“(I)n a democracy, large-scale surveillance restructures the very notion of security and protection of human beings as well as the conception of freedom and fundamental rights.”
Mass surveillance “disrupts social cohesion.” Inaction by European authorities to stop lawless practices assures they’ll continue. “(S)ilence could be interpreted as complicity.”

 ”The controversies raised by the recent revelations will not vanish easily. Action, or lack thereof, by the European Parliament will be watched carefully.”

 ”The Commission has already asked the Director of the NSA and the UK representative in Brussels to account for what has happened.”

 ”Letters have been sent but no answers have been received. The credibility of the Commission itself is at stake, and more generally that of the EU institutions.”

"Sanctions that Benefit" - Turkey to import at least 5 mln Tonnes Iranian oil in 2014.

"Sanctions that Benefit" - Turkey to import at least 5 mln Tonnes Iranian oil in 2014.(Taz).

Turkey will take at least the same 5 million tonnes (100,000 barrel per day) of Iranian crude in 2014 that it is taking this year, as any more cuts in the volumes from Iran would "threaten" its economy, the Turkish energy minister said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Turkey is also importing 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year from Iran and would buy more if it was available, Taner Yildiz said in a briefing during the World Energy Congress in South Korea.

The European Union and the United States believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons, while Tehran says its programme is for power generation. Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme have cut its oil exports in half from pre-2012 levels and cost it billions of dollars a month in lost revenue.

"Now we are importing about 5 million tonnes and if we (reduce more) than that, then that would threaten our energy supply security," said Yildiz.

Turkey's energy demand doubled in the last ten years and will double again in the next ten, he said.
Turkey is also ready to take more Iraqi gas to help meet its energy needs if Iraq increases its gas output, he said.

The United States in June renewed six-month waivers on Iran sanctions for Turkey and eight other economies in exchange for their agreeing to reduce purchases of oil from Iran.

This week six world powers and Iran held two days of nuclear negotiations that the United States described as the most serious and candid to date. Western diplomats said Tehran hinted it was ready to scale back sensitive atomic activities to secure urgent sanctions relief.Hmmmm.......I've posted many times before about this Sanctions scam, it only gets more obvious as time passes where Turkey's allegiance lays.More here.

Related: 

As expected Obama will give BFF Turkey a waiver from sanctions, they 'only' import 45 percent of their oil from Iran and aid Iran avoiding sanctions.

Erdogan’s Turkey: Less nationalism, more Islam.

"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..." [Note: this is actually a poem that Erdogan was quoting. He spent four months in prison because of this speech.]

Erdogan’s Turkey: Less nationalism, more Islam.(TOI).

Despite reforms, Israeli experts believe the Turkish prime minister wants little more than to advance his own religious agenda.

Two dramatic announcements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent shivers down the spines of many of the country’s secularists in September. Erdogan annulled a decades-long ban on wearing headscarves in public institutions and ended the daily reciting of the pledge of allegiance in primary schools. Both decisions took effect last week.

The changes are part of a larger campaign by Turkey’s Islamist government to implement a “democratization package” meant to address European requirements on minority rights and civil freedoms needed for the country’s bid for EU membership to be considered.

“Turkey is progressing irreversibly toward democracy. This package is a fundamental and historic phase of this progress,” Erdogan told journalists in Ankara on September 30, as he introduced the reforms. He added that it was but one step in a longer democratization process which began with the first victory of his Justice and Development party in 2002.

Israeli experts on Turkey, however, questioned the significance of Erdogan’s overtures towards the country’s minorities, viewing his actions as assertions of his own Islamist tendencies and his antipathy toward the harsh republican model instated by Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

“These moves could be viewed as part of Erdogan’s ongoing efforts to undo the Kemalist state,” said Dror Zeevi, who teaches modern Turkish history at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba.

Erdogan is genuinely interested in mitigating Turkey’s harsh secularism and nationalism, but is doing so selectively, Zeevi said. “[Erdogan] justifiably believes that secularism has something anti-democratic about it,” Zeevi noted. “The problem is that his democracy goes only so far. When people demonstrate against him at Gezi park, he goes wild. I don’t believe he’s entirely democratically inclined.”

If Erdogan were a true democrat, Zeevi continued, he would have agreed to discuss the demands of the large Greek Orthodox minority to recover property confiscated by the state in the 1920s and 1940s. Armenian grievances might also be addressed.

“He didn’t do all of this. Instead, he took very symbolic steps. Under the guise of openness towards minorities, Erdogan is advancing his own agenda.”

An op-ed published in the New York Times last week by Turkish researcher Halil M. Karaveli, claimed that far from helping Turkey’s minority, Erdogan was increasingly playing with sectarian fire.

“Erdogan is turning Turkey into a powder keg in an attempt to shore up his own political base,” Karaveli wrote. “He is intentionally activating the longstanding fault lines separating religious and secular Turks — and most dangerously the divide between the country’s Sunni majority and its Alevi minority. If he continues to do so, Turkish democracy itself could become a casualty of his confrontational policies.”

Anat Lapidot-Firilla, a Turkey researcher at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute, said Erdogan was trying to push a worldview which is much more “religious and conservative” than “nationalistic.” She added, however, that it was still too early to judge whether his program will succeed.

“There are two opposing trends here,” Lapidot-Firilla said, referring to the simultaneous freedoms granted to the Kurdish (non-Sunni) minority and Erdogan’s emphasis on Turkey’s Sunni Islamist character. “It’s like a puzzle that doesn’t really come together.”

Whatever Erdogan’s intentions, it is doubtful whether the European Union will embrace Turkey in the near future, she added. Europe enjoys using Turkey’s membership bid as a means of pressuring it into implementing civil rights reforms, all the while depriving the huge Muslim country of membership in the predominantly Christian EU.

“Everyone is very happy with Turkey remaining in the EU’s waiting room, neither entering nor exiting,” she said.Hmmmm.......Erdogan: "Democracy is like a train. We shall get out when we arrive at the station we want." Read the full story here.

Video - U.S. Explodes with 100 Anti - NSA Protests.

U.S. EXPLODES WITH 100 ANTI-NSA PROTESTS. HT: WND.

EU Parliament votes to scrap US data-sharing deal unless Washington reveals spying practices.

EU Parliament votes to scrap US data-sharing deal unless Washington reveals spying practices.(RT).

The non-binding resolution, which was passed by 483-98 with 65 abstentions on Thursday, said the US should provide full disclosure about its email and communications data. If Washington fails to agree, two EU-US transatlantic information-sharing deals could be revoked.

Both data-sharing deals – the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) and Passenger Name Records (PNR) were agreed shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, despite apprehension surrounding whether or not they would give the US too much access to European data.

The TFTP provides the US Treasury with European stored data on international financial transfers, while the PNR covers data provided by passengers when booking tickets and checking in on flights. It then passes this information to the Department of Homeland Security.

Plans to abandon the agreements must be approved by EU governments and the bloc’s executive Commission. While their approval looks highly unlikely, the vote served to prove the simmering anger which exists within the assembly, caused by recent NSA leaks.

Thursday’s vote comes ahead of next week’s talks on a potential EU-US free trade deal. The deal will be negotiated by the European Commission, but parliament can veto the final agreement. Calls from some members of parliament to suspend the talks in light of the NSA surveillance leaks were rejected. 

France was originally among those calling for the talks to be suspended. However, French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that the meetings could go ahead as planned, after the EU and US agreed to hold talks next Monday to clarify the extent of Washington’s spying operations. 

The European Commission has asked the US to reveal how much data it has access to, and for what purpose. A joint EU-US expert group will be set up to discuss the matter.
Former surveillance contractor Edward Snowden revealed in May that the US runs an electronic spy operation codenamed PRISM, which he says collects data from European and other users of Facebook, Google, Skype, and other US companies. Washington later confirmed the existence of PRISM but did not provide details of the program. In a separate leak, the US was accused of eavesdropping on EU offices and officials.

Snowden has applied for asylum in 21 countries, seeking to evade US jurisdiction, but has already received rejections from ten nations. Venezuela and Bolivia say they are willing to consider his applications once they are received.

Snowden is believed to be held up in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The US has voided his passport, preventing him from leaving the airport’s international transit zone. Read the full story here.

Turkey should not join the European Union because it is not part of Europe, German Finance Minister.

Turkey should not join the European Union because it is not part of Europe, German Finance Minister.(HD).

German minister’s EU remarks on Turkey ‘unacceptable’.

Turkey should not join the European Union because it is not part of Europe, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said July 3, bluntly underlining Berlin’s opposition to Ankara’s long-running membership bid while prompting an immediate reaction from Turkish officials.

“We should not accept Turkey as a full member ... Turkey is not part of Europe,” Schaeuble said at an election rally in Düsseldorf.

Schaeuble’s remarks are “extremely unacceptable and groundless,” said a senior Turkish diplomat, adding that he was unable to “read either Europe or Turkey” and was unaware of the institutional relationship between the EU and Turkey.

Germany pressed the 28-member bloc to delay a new round of membership talks last week, in response to Ankara’s crackdown on anti-government Gezi Park protesters. Brussels postponed the negotiations until fall, but said the path to Turkey’s membership was still open.

Merkel’s critics have accused her of making a show of her opposition to Turkey’s membership to curry favor with conservative voters before elections, scheduled for September.

Turkey became an associate of the bloc in the 1960s but accession talks launched in 2005 became bogged down in a dispute over Greek Cyprus and opposition from Paris and Berlin. “These kinds of expressions cannot be accepted, furthermore, they don’t reflect the reality either. The history, the values and the prospect of a common future; these are all factual aspects which prove that a Europe without Turkey is unthinkable, unimaginable,” the senior diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Hürriyet Daily News today.

“Although the pace is down, still, the institutional relationship is on track, with one more negotiation chapter having been opened just recently. The full EU membership is still a strategic goal for us,” the diplomat said. “I do not know what the basis of Mr. Schaeuble’s assumption is; this is a question which should be answered by him. Yet, one should not forget that such assumptions are not befitting the contractual basis of the relationship between Turkey and the EU and should not also forget the principle of pacta sunt servanda [a principle of international law which means in Latin that agreements must be kept],” he said.Read the full story here.