20 TH YEAR OF PUBLICATION NUMBER 1017 10 - 16 FEBRUARY, 2013 € 3.50 NEWEUROPE www.neurope.eu A fter 26 long hours, agreement was reached to cut the budget from €942.8 billion to €908.4 billion together with a cut in the ‘commitment ceiling’ from €993.6bn €960bn for 2014-20. “A balanced, future-looking and growth-oriented budget” said Herman Van Rompuy, adding that it was “a leaner budget.” Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said they would have preferred an outcome closer to its own 2011 proposal, which he said was “more ambitious” but deal was “the highest level” that could be agreed. The European Parliament strongly disagreed. Andrew Duff, the pro-federalist UK ALDE MEP, said the deal “forced the EU into deficit budgeting,” which he said was against the treaty and described the negotiators as “idiots” on his Twitter feed. The Presidents of the EPP, S&D, ALDE and Green groups jointly said, “The European Parliament cannot accept today’s deal in the European Council as it is.” Their statement continued, “This agreement will not strengthen the competitiveness of the European economy but weaken it. It is not in the prime interest of our European citizens. “We see with astonishment that EU leaders agree to a budget that could lead to a structural deficit. Large gaps between payments and commitments will only store up trouble for the future and not solve existing problems. We remain firm on the respect of Article 310 of the Treaty which requires a balanced budget.” The parliament may decide the fate of the budget in a secret vote, and idea said to have been initially raised by Joseph Daul, Leader of the dominant EPP Group and gained the support of Martin Schulz. However, deputies are reportedly coming under pressure from national parties to reject this. Martin Callanan, the leader of the UK Conservatives described the idea of the European Parliament holding a secret vote on the results of the budget talks as “a highly cynical and unaccountable act.” Shortly after issuing their statement, Schulz said that an offer to negotiate had been made by Council to the parliament. This is the first time that the European budget has been cut in the 56 years of its existence, and given the European Parliament’s stance it looks as though the real negotiations have just begun. Hollande: EU ‘credibility at risk’ if solidarity lost French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Parliament President Martin Schulz pictured at a family photo on the first day of the EU Summit on the multiannual budget, in Brussels, Thursday 07 February 2013.| BELGA PHOTO POOL ERIC HERCHAFT The “credibility” of the European Union is in danger of being destroyed if parties can- not agree on its long-term budget, Francoise Hollande has warned. Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 5 February, the French presi- dent said that the EU most show it is “capa- ble of taking decisions together, otherwise its credibility is at stake. Not just economic credibility, but political credibility as well”, He was speaking before European lea- ders gather in Brussels on 8 February for a summit that will see tough discussions on the EU’s multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020. Oil fraud hits EU budget In an article published in the monthly ma- gazine “UNFOLLOW” I read that annual tax losses from smuggling marine oil in Greece, a country under EU/IMF/EIB su- pervision, is estimated at €500 million by the Customs Authorities, €1.5 billion by the Ministry of Finance, while the market estimates it at €3 billion (tax losses per year without counting penalties). CLIMATE Page 07 GAY MARRIAGE Page09 Worth waiting for says Van Rompuy, but Parliament disagrees SSAND Page 32 Page 06 Breaking ground in EU Central America deal Progress on EU-US trade deal ‘Further threats’ to Tunisian stability likely Will the EBRD do the right thing for Kosovo EU RELATIONS Page 05 TUNISIA Page 11 TDE Page 08 WORLD Page 15 Deal done!
Transcript
20th Year of Publication number 1017 10 - 16 februarY, 2013 € 3.50
NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
a fter 26 long hours, agreement was reached to cut the budget from €942.8 billion
to €908.4 billion together with a cut in the ‘commitment ceiling’ from €993.6bn €960bn for 2014-20.
“a balanced, future-looking and growth-oriented budget” said herman Van rompuy, adding that it was “a leaner budget.” commission President Jose manuel barroso said they would have preferred an outcome closer to its own 2011 proposal, which he said was “more ambitious” but deal was “the highest level” that could be agreed.
the european Parliament strongly disagreed.
andrew Duff, the pro-federalist uK alDe meP, said the deal “forced the eu into deficit budgeting,” which he said was against the treaty and described the negotiators as “idiots” on his twitter feed.
the Presidents of the ePP, S&D, alDe and Green groups jointly said, “the european Parliament cannot accept today’s deal in the european council as it is.”
their statement continued, “this agreement will not strengthen the competitiveness of the european economy but weaken it. it is not in the prime interest of our european citizens.
“We see with astonishment that eu leaders agree to a budget that could lead to a structural deficit. large gaps between payments and commitments will only store up trouble for the future
and not solve existing problems. We remain firm on the respect of article 310 of the treaty which requires a balanced budget.”
the parliament may decide the fate of the budget in a secret vote, and idea said to have been initially raised by Joseph Daul, leader of the dominant ePP Group and gained the support of martin Schulz. however, deputies are reportedly coming under pressure from national parties to reject this.
martin callanan, the leader of the uK conservatives described the idea
of the european Parliament holding a secret vote on the results of the budget talks as “a highly cynical and unaccountable act.”
Shortly after issuing their statement, Schulz said that an offer to negotiate had been made by council to the parliament.
this is the first time that the european budget has been cut in the 56 years of its existence, and given the european Parliament’s stance it looks as though the real negotiations have just begun.
Hollande: EU ‘credibility at risk’ if solidarity lost
French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Parliament President Martin Schulz pictured at a family photo on the first day of the EU Summit on the multiannual budget, in Brussels, Thursday 07 February 2013.| BELGA PHOTO POOL ERIC HERCHAFT
the “credibility” of the european union is in danger of being destroyed if parties can-not agree on its long-term budget, francoise hollande has warned.
Speaking in the european Parliament in Strasbourg on 5 february, the french presi-dent said that the eu most show it is “capa-ble of taking decisions together, otherwise its credibility is at stake. not just economic credibility, but political credibility as well”,
he was speaking before european lea-ders gather in brussels on 8 february for a summit that will see tough discussions on the eu’s multi-annual financial framework (mff) for 2014-2020.
Oil fraud hits EU budgetin an article published in the monthly ma-gazine “unfolloW” i read that annual tax losses from smuggling marine oil in Greece, a country under eu/imf/eib su-pervision, is estimated at €500 million by the customs authorities, €1.5 billion by the ministry of finance, while the market estimates it at €3 billion (tax losses per year without counting penalties).
climate Page 07
GaY marriaGe Page 09
Worth waiting for says Van rompuy, but Parliament disagrees
Signed Contributions express solely the views of the writers and do not necessa-rily reflect the opinion of the newspaper. NE is printed on recycled paper.
A decade ago, we reported on the cool reception gi-ven by many European nations to Colin Powell’s po-wer point of doom presentation to the UN Security Council, which ultimately ended his career and poli-tical aspirations. What is less well remembered from the meeting is the response of then French Foreign Minister, “ Dominique de Villepin, whose philoso-phical response had an intellectual quality missing from the more war hungry US and UK.”Time has shown that mainland Europe was right and that Powell was a decent man, cruelly used by the Neo-Conservatives.In other news, Italian PM, Silvio Berlusconi was cosying up to Russia, which was vowing to keep oil prices low. Germany was growing concerned by ri-sing unemployment. The Balkans changed, with the dissolution of Yugoslavia, which became Serbia and Montenegro, but expectations were subdued. The Serbian PM, Zoran Djindjic said, “This is a new be-ginning but we should not be euphoric.”
ne 10 YeARS
AGO
MMIn an article by Emil Vandervelde in the Foreign Affairs journal printed in July of 1925, the then Belgian chief of the Socialist Party and former Minister of Munitions and Justice penned an article on “The 10 years of Socialism in Europe” which began with the following passage:“Socialism is that policy or theory which aims at securing by the action of the central democratic authority a better distribution, and in due sub-ordination thereunto a better production, of wealth than now prevails.”“This definition of socialism, taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica, is open to the double criticism of being at once too narrow and too vague. It excludes from socialist ranks anarchists like Elysée Reclus or Kropotkin, who, though they always claimed to be socialists, were actually centralists. On the other hand, it also leaves out the Bolsheviks, whose dictatorship of the minority is the negation, pure and simple, of democracy.”He went on to say that the definition seemed rather vague when com-pare to statements of principles made by all the social-democratic parties, who, “according to a formula derived from Karl Marx, pursue the conque-st of political power by the workers and the socialisation of the means of production and exchange.”If you were listening to the debate held in the European Parliament plen-ary hall in Strasbourg last week with the President of France, Francois Hollande you may have been forgiven for thinking that socialism in Euro-pe has failed and left the building in the sulkiest of moods.Michael Callanan of the European Conservative and Reformists Party stood up and decried the failed efforts of ‘socialism’ personified in the politics of Hollande as he sees France rejecting the parts he is introducing like a transplant failing quickly, the whole system arresting.At the same time facing in France his ‘eurodeputees’ Joseph Daul, Marine Le Pen and Philippe De Villiers of the farthest right and respecting the ‘discours’ which he called ‘of the highest levels’ must have been more than a treat. A laugh was even had when the EU budget was brought up...Socialism is such an interesting word to try and define, especially depen-ding on who you are defining it with. An American friend during the last election campaign called it a definite form of ‘slander’ towards President Obama whenever that word was associated with him, and another Yank balked at my referring to a Conservative as a ‘Liberal’ where that definiti-on comes closer to socialist for them.Coming from a Greek Australian background, where in Greece socialism is welfare but in Australia Liberal is definitely conservative, it’s hard to see through the hazy screen.In Europe the word seems to have a general consensus and is in effect a motto of the treaties creating the Union which has been aiming for ‘a social Europe’ as well as the working of its ‘social’ directives.But Europe, following what will now be five years of Conservative/Li-beral/Market politics has managed not only to topple any semblance of social it is now increasingly doing much more harm than good. In a way which couldn’t have been orchestrated or imagined in 1925 when Vandervelde was penning his thoughts, Europe has managed to promote the fall of democratic process and governance and a complete reign of a market economy, the loophole which apparently caused our glorious crisis to begin with.No one can say for sure, but the result is either a fantastic win for some or a complete ‘fluke’ that has certain cards lined up.A take away from Francois Hollande: “I refuse to condemn Europe to au-sterity without end”. The next unifying step? Unclear... AP
DAVOS – The World Economic Forum’s an-nual meeting in Davos has lost some of its pre-crisis panache. After all, before the meltdown in 2008, the captains of finance and industry could trumpet the virtues of globalization, technology, and financial liberalization, which supposedly heralded a new era of relentless growth. The benefits would be shared by all, if only they would do “the right thing.”
Those days are gone. But Davos remains a good place to get a sense of the global zeit-geist.
It goes without saying that developing and emerging-market countries no longer look at the advanced countries as they once did. But a remark by one mining company executive from a developing country caught the spirit of change. In response to one development expert’s heartfelt despair that unfair trade tre-aties and unfulfilled promises of aid have cost the developed countries their moral authority, he retorted: “The West never had any moral authority.” Colonialism, slavery, the splinte-ring of Africa into small countries, and a long history of resource exploitation may be mat-ters of the distant past to the perpetrators, but not so to those who suffered as a result.
If there is a single topic that concerned the assembled leaders the most, it is economic inequality. The shift in the debate from just a year ago seems dramatic: no one even men-tions the notion of trickle-down economics anymore, and few are willing to argue that the-
re is a close congruence between social contri-butions and private rewards.
While the realization that America is not the land of opportunity that it has long clai-med to be is as disconcerting to others as it is to Americans, inequality of opportunity at the global scale is even greater. One cannot really claim that the world is “flat” when a typical Af-rican receives investment in his or her human capital of a few hundred dollars, while rich Americans get a gift from their parents and so-ciety in excess of a half-million dollars.
A high point of the meeting was the spee-ch by Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, who stressed the marked change in her instituti-on, at least at the top: deep concern about women’s rights; renewed emphasis on the link between inequality and instability; and recognition that collective bargaining and mi-nimum wages could play an important role in reducing inequality. If only the IMF programs in Greece and elsewhere fully reflected these sentiments!
The Associated Press organized a sobering session on technology and unemployment: Can countries (particularly in the developed world) create new jobs – especially good jobs – in the face of modern technology that has replaced workers with robots and other ma-chines in any task that can be routinized?
Overall, the private sector in Europe and America has been unable to create many good jobs since the beginning of the current century. Even in China and other parts of the world with growing manufacturing sectors, productivity improvements – often related to
job-killing automated processes – account for most of the growth in output. Those suffering the most are the young, whose life prospects will be badly hurt by the extended periods of unemployment that they face today.
But most of those in Davos put aside these problems to celebrate the euro’s survival. The dominant note was one of complacency – or even optimism. The “Draghi put” – the notion that the European Central Bank, with its deep pockets, would and could do whatever ne-cessary to save the euro and each of the crisis countries – seemed to have worked, at least for a while. The temporary calm provided some support for those who claimed that what was required, above all, was a restoration of con-fidence. The hope was that Draghi’s promises would be a costless way of providing that con-fidence, because they would never have to be fulfilled.
Critics repeatedly pointed out that the fundamental contradictions had not been resolved, and that if the euro was to survive in the long run, there would have to be a fis-cal and banking union, which would require more political unification than most Euro-peans are willing to accept. But much of what was said in and around the meetings reflected a deep lack of solidarity. One very senior go-vernment official of a northern European country did not even put down his fork when interrupted by an earnest dinner companion who pointed out that many Spaniards now eat out of garbage cans. They should have re-formed earlier, he replied, as he continued to eat his steak.
IMF growth forecasts released during the
Davos meeting highlight the extent to which the world has become decoupled: GDP growth in the advanced industrial countries is expected to be 1.4% this year, while deve-loping countries continue to grow at a robust 5.5% annual rate.
While Western leaders talked about a new emphasis on growth and employment, they offered no concrete policies backing these as-pirations. In Europe, there was continued em-phasis on austerity, with self-congratulations on the progress made so far, and a reaffirma-tion of resolve to continue along a course that has now plunged Europe as a whole into reces-sion – and the United Kingdom into a triple-dip downturn.
Perhaps the most optimistic note came from the emerging markets: while the risk of globalization was that it implied a new inter-dependence, so that flawed economic policies in the US and Europe could torpedo develo-ping countries’ economies, the more success-ful emerging markets have managed globaliza-tion well enough to sustain growth in the face of failures in the West.
With the US politically paralyzed by the Republicans’ infantile political tantrums, and Europe focused on ensuring the survival of the ill-conceived euro project, the lack of global leadership was a major complaint at Davos. In the last 25 years, we have moved from a world dominated by two superpowers to one dominated by one, and now to a lea-derless, multi-polar world. While we may talk about the G-7, or G-8, or G-20, the more apt description is G-0. We will have to learn how to live, and thrive, in this new world.
US Nobel Prize winner for Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, speaks during a panel session the first day of the 41st Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, 26 January 2011 | EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON
Complacency in a Leaderless World
Critics repeatedly pointed out that the fundamental contradictions had not been resolved, and that if the euro was to survive in the long run, there would have to be a fiscal and banking union, which would require more political unification than most Europeans are willing to accept
By Joseph E. Stiglitz
Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is Uni-versity Professor at Columbia University.
04 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
UK announces banking reformsUK Chancellor George Osborne has an-
nounced several banking reforms which he believes will prevent the taxpayer ever
being liable again for future bail outs if banks fail. In future UK banks may be required to sepa-
rate everyday banking activities from the riskier and more volatile aspects of banking by having a ring-fence around the deposits of individuals and businesses, as part of the Banking Reform Bill that was introduced to Parliament on 4 February.
In a bold move the Conservative-Liberal coa-lition government also wants to enforce the new Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to be able to split banks up if they flaunt the new rules.
As it is planned that powers are to be han-ded over to the PRA, a subsidiary of the Bank of England, in holding banks to account over the strength of their ring-fence.
The bill will also give the government more power to ensure that the banks are able to absorb more losses than previously; the banking industry will also be expected to foot the bill, rather than the taxpayer, of meeting the treasury’s costs of working within the new parts of the international regulatory architecture, for example the Financial Stability Board.
In his speech, at JP Morgan’s offices in Bour-nemouth on the south coast, the chancellor said: “Our principles are simple: if you do the right thing, government should support and help you, and remove the barriers in your way. If you do the wrong thing, you should take responsibility for your actions. And sadly, nowhere have these simple principles been broken more clearly and indefensibly than in our banking system over the last decade.”
“Irresponsible behaviour was rewarded, failu-
re was bailed out, and the innocent people who have nothing whatsoever to do with the banks suffered. For many, the financial crash was con-firmation of what they felt about our society, that those who are only out for themselves get away with it, and those who work hard and play by the rules get punished.”
The details of the reform bill have been in the process of being smoothed over since Decem-ber 2011, when the government first responded to the recommendations from the Independent Banking Commission.
In December last year the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards published its recommendations to the government on the
reform bill, after the government had scrutinised the bill for the first time.
The opposition Labour Party have accused Osborne of a partial climb down, as they said the government turned down the prospect of a reser-ve power that would have the option of separating retail and investment banking, that Labour sup-ported and was also recommended by the parlia-mentary commission .
The reaction from the banking industry has been lukewarm so far, believing the reforms are not what is necessary to ensure that banks can push forward the economic recovery.
Anthony Browne, chief executive of the Bri-tish Bankers’ Association reflected: “It is regrett-
able that the Government appears to be ready to put in place reserve powers that would allow them to fully separate banks in the future. This will cre-ate uncertainty for investors, making it more diffi-cult for banks to raise capital which will ultimately mean that banks will have less money to lend to businesses.” No other major economy is consi-dering moving away from the universal model of banking because it undermines banks‘ ability to provide all the services businesses need. Above all, what banks and business need is regulatory certainty so that banks can get on with what they want to do, which is help the economy grow. This decision will damage London’s attractiveness as a global financial centre.”
Another major part of the reforms is to have greater flexibility for customers in changing their banks, which should take no longer than the course of a week, promoting more competition in banking for the four biggest banks in the UK Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Priorities will also be handed to depositors if a bank enters into insolvency, as they will be pro-tected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The UK’s main business lobbying orga-nisation the CBI were positive over more choice in the banking sector, Katja Hall, CBI Chief Policy Director, said:
“It’s right to focus on improving competition in banking because it’s a more powerful driver of culture change than structural reform. A healthy banking sector needs both challenger and esta-blished banks to thrive, so the ideas to boost com-petition, outlined by the Chancellor, will need to be scrutinised in detail to ensure they deliver this. Small businesses in particular should benefit from the ability to switch current accounts quickly and easily.”
The European Parliament is set for a fight with EU heads of state after it voted overwhelmingly to comprehensively reform the common fishe-ries policy (CFP) on 6 February.
The parliament voted by 502 votes to 137 to change the existing policy, which currently al-lows for the overfishing and discarding of certain fish stocks.
This is the first time that the parliament has been allowed input into the CFP after the rules on co-decision, laws made by negotiation bet-ween the parliament and council (heads of state) were altered under the Lisbon Treaty.
Both the institutions are split on policy, alt-hough speaking before the vote, the Irish fishe-ries minister, former MEP Simon Coveney, said that in his country, which currently holds the six-month presidency of the council, there was a ge-nuine desire for EU governments to change the law. He said on 5 February that there was a reco-gnition that the policy was “in need of reform”, and that the Irish government would push for a conclusion within the term of its stewardship of the council.
Speaking during a plenary debate in Stras-bourg, he said that member state governments were “determined to work on a real, fundamen-tal” reformed fisheries policy, adding that such a policy needed to end the practice of discard, which he called “indefensible”, and that it nee-ded to create a sustainable fishing industry that would “protect the fish in the sea, and also coa-
stal communities”.Speaking after the vote, the parliament’s rap-
porteur on CFP reform, Ulrike Rodust, said she was the “happiest person in the European Parlia-ment” after the report’s adoption by MEPs. She said that The “revolutionary” vote has “paved the way for reform” of the CFP. Going further, she said it was “an enormous and profound re-
form”. Echoing comments by Coveney, as well as Green MEP Isabella Lövin, she said that the policy of discard, opposed by “consumers, envi-ronmentalists and society as a whole”, is “ethical-ly unacceptable”. She said that the current EU policy has left the European fishing industry “on the very brink of disaster”.
She said that it was vital that the parliament sorted the issue out swiftly, as if it was concluded during the lifetime of the next parliament that “would simply be too late”. Coveney also indica-ted that there needs to be swift resolution of the reform.
Rodust, said that the efforts shown by MEPs in formulating a position shows that the parliament’s reform “isn’t just a paper tiger”, and that the council “will have to face up to the fact of the parliament’s red lines”, aspects of the reform that the parliament won’t compromise. Chief amongst these is the fact that post-2015 the en-tire European fishing industry will have to be su-stainable, and that any change to the parliament’s discard plans will not be tolerated.
She said that the parliament will stand up to “certain forces” in council that are “doing their utmost” to spoil the reform.
Parliament ready to take on council over fisheriesBy Cillian Donnelly
By Peter Taberner
British Chancellor George Osborne begins reforming the City. | EPA/ANDY RAIN
Members of the Greens/European Free Alliance group hold a placard reading ‘Thanks!’ after they voted for EU common fisheries policy reforms, during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 6 February. |AFP PHOTO / PATRICK HERTZOG
The EU’s Association Agreement with Central America is a comprehensive instrument that addresses political
dialogue, free trade and cooperation. These three complementary components are the driving force of this new generation compact, the first region-to-region instrument for both Europe and Central America. It is also the logical next step in the evolution of our long relationship.
The political dialogue began three de-cades ago when Central America was pla-ying out one of the last Cold War scenarios in the 1980. At that time, the sobering voice of European Union’s member States was a major contributor to dissuade ideological confrontation and help our region achieve a lasting peace. That peace continues to this date, and has allowed Central America to strengthen its integration process and work together towards common purposes. The dialogue between the EU and Central Ame-rica focuses today on governance, transpar-ency, social cohesion, and in strengthening democracy. During the most recent Central America – European Union (EU) Summit on January 26 the leaders discussed today’s secu-rity challenges in Central America, regional integration and the Association Agreement’s perspectives.
The Agreement approaches free trade as an instrument for economic growth, and therefore a facilitator of opportunities for both regions. Honduras and other Central American neighbours offer access to a mar-ket of over 1,000 million consumers as a re-sult of free trade agreements with a variety of Countries, including the United States, Mexico, Chile and Canada. The competi-tive production and market access costs in and from Honduras provide opportunities for European small and medium enterprise, which would have a gateway to that market.
The Central American SMEs would also have the opportunity to participate in EU’s sup-ply chain as providers, and cater for the 500 million plus consumers in the EU. This is an example of the opportunities the Agreement provides, with its reciprocal treatment, mutu-al obligations and the security it inspires for investment.
In 2011, EU27 merchandise trade with Central America grew reaching Eur. 25 bil-lion in imports and 28.5 in exports. EU im-ports from Central America are dominated by office and telecommunication equipment (53.9%) and agricultural products (34.8% in 2010). The most important exports from the EU to Central America are machinery and transport equipment (48.2%) and che-micals (12.3%). Both regions will have the opportunity to improve these figures. The Agreement will facilitate the efforts, which could render positive results for both, Central American companies, and timely benefits for those from EU’s member States, particularly in today’s economic context.
We are aware that the fundamental driver for development is economic growth. Klaus Schwab has straightforwardly articulated the principle that “economic growth without so-cial development is unsustainable; but social development without economic growth is im-possible”. We look forward to making the best use of the opportunities that free trade provi-des to help achieve our development goals. It is vital for Central America to be able to en-gage with the EU’s market place. That means meeting the standards, complying with regu-lations, and dealing with European requisites. It is here where cooperation plays a significant role. Besides cooperation to help us meet those standards, it also implies identifying programs and projects where we can improve both the Government’s role as facilitator for
commercial and productive activities, and the commercial and productive sector to make the best use of the new opportunities.
Cooperation - as our needs - takes up many shapes. We share with the European Union common objectives on social inclusi-on, human rights promotion and protection, labour rights, sustainable energy, sustainable forestry practices, to mention a few. In our region, we also need to cater for food secu-rity, education opportunities, bringing the informal economy into the formal one, shield ourselves from the drug trade - with all the vi-olence and insecurity it carries -, and cater for the improved security of our citizens. These objectives are the substance of cooperation.
In the case of Honduras, the pursuit of development cannot be business as usual. It would be difficult to catch up that way. We have a strategic need to leapfrog into a new development stage. One important element to achieve this is the optimization of use and access to ICTs. We already have In Honduras a substantial geographical coverage on cel-lular networks. The optimization of the use of the cell phone is very likely to yield very positive results, especially in social develop-ment aspects. That requires capacity building for the people that would benefit, such as ag-ricultural producers, teachers and students, doctors and patients, to mention a few. This
is an area where the best practices of many of the EU member States can prove to be highly beneficial.
Central America’s geographical location, a great advantage for trade, has also exposed us to nature’s violent phenomena. Hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts and volcanic eruption have taken their toll. The Stockholm confe-rence on May 1999 where the Consultative Group for Central America gathered in the wake of deadly Hurricane Mitch, is an elo-quent example of EU’s members’ solidarity expressed through cooperation, for which we are thankful. With EU’s help we have learned from these painful lessons and have in place preventive mechanisms both national and regional to try to avoid major damage and to recover from it. This is a permanent work in progress.
The negotiation of the Association Agree-ment itself has been a positive force to stimu-late our integration process. The fact that in Europe we are visible mainly as a group and seldom individually, is prompting new life into the dynamics of the Central America In-tegration System (SICA – as its Spanish acro-nym goes). This is a stimulus for all member countries of SICA to engage and improve the integration process. SICA has a costly institu-tional framework that may be streamlined and made more efficient. Some of the institutions, such as the Central American Parliament, is in need of revamping to play the role it should in today’s stage of the integration process. That takes political will and initiative, that could come about with this “second breath” that the Association Agreement is indirectly providing us with, motivating members States to take a closer look at our future together.
Simply put, the Association Agreement connects the dots between political, social and economic challenges, and places the toolbox of cooperation in the middle. But whether its purpose is to promote our shared democratic principles, our common values on social cohesion, on the green economy or in helping economic growth, it is up to us the Central Americans and the Europeans to take this opportunity and make the best of it.
The Honduran National Congress rati-fied the AA in January of 2013, the National Assembly of Nicaragua in October 2012, and the European Parliament gave its consent on December 2012. The trade pillar is expected to enter into force on May of 2013.
Roberto Flores Bermúdez is the Honduran Ambassa-dor to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg, and to the Nordic and Baltic countries. He
has served as Ambassador to Wash-ington DC, Berlin, London, Geneva and New York. As Foreign Minister he contributed to the reconstruction efforts of his Country after Hurricane Mitch’s devastation. In the late 80’s he was chief negotiator for Honduras in the Central American peace process. He has co-authored two books on territorial and maritime delimitation. Ambassador Flores Bermúdez took up his post in Brussels in September 2012.
Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa delivers a speech during the inauguration of the fourth year of session of the Congress of the term in Tegucigalpa, on January 25, 2013. |AFP PHOTO / Orlando SIERRA
CORRECTION:In Issue 1015 we printed an article on page 8 by Stavros Papagianneas without correctly introducing his biography. This was an op-ed by Mr Papagianneas, an independent Communications Consultant. He is a former Information and Communication Officer for the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation and Press Officer for the Permanent Representation of Cyprus in Brussels.
06 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
Hollande: EU ‘credibility at risk’ if solidarity lostThe “credibility” of the European Union is in danger of being destroyed if parties cannot agree on its long-term budget, Francoise Hol-lande has warned.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 5 February, the French president said that the EU most show it is “capable of ta-king decisions together, otherwise its credibili-ty is at stake. Not just economic credibility, but political credibility as well”,
He was speaking before European leaders gather in Brussels on 8 February for a summit that will see tough discussions on the EU’s multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for 2014-2020.
Once again, he insisted that the budget should concentrate on growth and invest-ment. He said that his position is based on four principles; an expenditure level that will allow for the continuation of common poli-cies, such as cohesion and agriculture; imple-mentation of the growth pact adopted by EU leaders in June 2012; a budget that will sup-port the most vulnerable, “the poorest of the poor”; and a resource system that allows for “real, own resources”.
France’s position “is simple”, he said. “Yes, let’s make savings, but let’s not weaken our eco-nomy”. Without growth policies, he said “we will condemn Europe to endless austerity, and I won’t have that”.
In an aside aimed at those, such as Germa-ny, that want to continue tough austerity po-licies, he said it is necessary to “talk reason to
those who want to make swingeing cuts”, which brought criticism from MEP Joseph Daul, lea-der of the centre-right EPP group, who said that the budget “is going in the wrong direction”.
On the wider issue of EU values, Hollande said that “Europe is a wonderful idea, a great adventure”, that remains “a model envied in all other continents”. But, he said, is currently “having doubts about itself ”, undermined by a renewal in “national interests” that want to cherry-pick the treaties.
That last comment could be interpreted as a reference to the UK, whose Prime Minister, David Cameron, has said he intents to renegoti-ate his country’s relationship with the EU based around the completion of the single market and global trade deals, and then offer an in-out re-ferendum based on that renegotiation. “Europe cannot be just a market”, he said, “nor can it just be a treaty, a set of rules”.
Europe, he said, needs greater integration and solidarity, and a “social ambition”, inclu-ding youth employment guarantees, a finan-cial transaction tax, and a minimum wage, “anything that will enable to imagine our future together”.
He said that the risk to the EU“is not so much indifference, but of separation”, a lack of solidarity. “We need to move together, or we don’t move at all”. He said that Europe needs to “define a new set of goals, a new ambition”.
“It is illusionary to think we abandon what we have already achieved”, he said, but new pro-gress needs to be made. “Together we enter a new stage in democracy”.
By Kostis Geropoulos
By Cillian Donnelly
STRASBOURG – Paris, which will host one of the UN climate negotiation process talks in the near future, wants to make sure that Europe leads by example in the fight against climate change, French President Francois Hollande said, during a debate with members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 5 February.
“Couldn’t we today and the next 50 years have a European energy community where we would set up instruments for energy sa-ving, the development of renewable energies and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as much as we can?” Hollande asked. “Let’s do that. But that, of course, means that there would have to be money made available in the European Financial Framework. And it’s quite true that it’s easy to look for expenditure in the future in order to protect expenditures carried out in the present or in the past,” the French President said.
Hollande said growth should be a priority. “It’s easy to make cuts in research, connectivi-ty, energy, infrastructure but that’s where the future lies,” he said.
Responding to a question from New Eu-rope about the viability of Hollande’s pledge to fight against climate change, Greens Co-
President Daniel Cohn-Bendit from France told a press conference that Paris together with the EU have to set a level that will have to be definitive for the whole world for 2030. “At the moment there are no perspectives for getting renewables up and running for 2030. There’s a target for 2030 but between now and 2030 there’s nothing set. France will have to make a big effort. I’m not sure to be optimistic or not,” Cohn Bendit said.
Greens Co-President Rebecca Harms from Germany told New Europe the fact that
two UN climate summits “are in the hands of the Europeans increase the pressure onto Eu-rope to deliver for better targets and the feasi-bility for an international bidding agreement. Because whatever people are talking about if we don’t find a really good and adequate bid-ding international agreement to protect the climate, then we are lost”.
Harms noted that Europe has to push, perform and lead by example in many fields like the energy sector, agriculture and trans-port. “We can show in many fields that we can
do better for the climate but the crucial point is we have to lead the United Nations process to the next and very international agreement beyond Kyoto,” the German MEP said.
During the plenary session on 6 February, MEPs posed questions regarding the UN Fra-mework Conference on Climate Change.
MEP Matthias Grotte from Germany said Europeans need to keep up the momentum and move towards a carbon-free, sustainable society and “bring the other 194 states on-board with us. It is important that we are uni-ted and we speak with one voice on this”.
MEP Lucinda Creighton from Ireland, whose country holds the current EU Presi-dency, said: “It is worth noting the two EU member states will be playing a leading role in the UNFCCC process leading up to this new post 20-20-20 climate regime since as you know Poland and France will be the con-ference hosts in 2013 and 2015 respectively”.
The three successive EU Presidencies – Ireland, Lithuania and Greece – have com-mitted themselves to preparing and coordina-ting the EU’s position effectively within their respective semesters, Creighton said, adding that the Council will establish the EU’s posi-tion for the Warsaw conference by October of this year and looks forward to the input from the European Parliament.
Hollande: Paris aims high for UN climate talks
French President Francois Hollande addresses members of the European Parliament in Stras-bourg on 5 February. |1
The Eiffel Tower is pictured with its lights turned off during Earth Hour in Paris to raise awareness for climate change and the threat from rising greenhouse gas emissions, 27 March 2010.|EPA/IAN LANGSDON
Shale gas distracts EU “action heroes” from saving the climate
Has environmentalism replaced patriotism as the last refuge of the scoundrel?
I’m not referring here to those bona fide greens whose commitment to saving the earth is demonstrated both by their personal lifestyles and their activism. Rather, I’m calling out politicians and in-stitutions that claim to be defending the earth, when they are really conniving in its destruction, as abject hypocrites.
Last month, two Canadian ministers - Cal Dallas and Diana McQueen - un-dertook a tour of Europe, where they distributed fliers bragging of how the Ottawa government is “showing global leadership in the fight against climate change”. As a new study by Friends of the Earth suggests, the evidence to sup-port this boast is a little threadbare, con-sidering that Canada withdrew from the Kyoto protocol -the main international agreement on climate change - in 2011 and appears determined to extract and export highly polluting tar sands oil.
Star struck by being in the same room as Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of January, José Manuel Barroso gushed that “we all need to be a little more like climate action heroes”. The European Commission chief tried to cast himself as such a hero by indicating that he favoured setting a new target for reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.
Barroso is the least convincing ac-tion hero since Austin Powers. Whene-ver he has mooted ostensibly strong measures in the past, he has offered ener-gy-intensive industries - in other words, the biggest polluters - massive loopholes (particularly in the operation of the EU‘s emissions trading system). This is akin to Batman signing a pact with the Joker.
Our “hero” also used his encounter with Arnie - in Vienna - to state that “su-stainability is now deeply engrained in all our policies”.
That must have been news to Günter Oettinger, the man Barroso appointed as the Union’s energy commissioner. When the then European Community introduced a law providing for freedom of information on the environment back in 1990, it implicitly recognised that su-stainability requires transparency. Yet Oettinger continues to peddle dodgy ideas, without being totally upfront about who put them in his head.
His latest contribution to the annu-al general meeting of the rich and po-werful, the World Economic Forum in Davos offers a case in point. Oettinger
availed of his Alpine sojourn to plug The Carbon Crunch, a recent book by Diet-er Helm. In the transcript of his speech, Oettinger simply calls Helm an “Oxford academic”. There was no acknowledge-ment that Helm was made a personal ad-viser to Oettinger in 2011 or that Helm has his own consulting firm. Helm‘s web-site gives no details of who his clients are - although Oxera, a firm that he founded, indicates that providing advice on ener-gy issues to the private sector is one of its main activities. He also does not appear to have signed up to the EU’s register of “interest representatives”.
These omissions are hugely proble-matic. Helm is something of an evange-list for shale gas. In a 2011 piece publis-hed by the Centre for European Reform (CER), he exulted over how shale gas “turns out to be super-abundant” and predicted that switching from coal to gas could halve Europe’s carbon dioxide emissions. The CER is a little bit more open about its clients than Helm: the la-test available annual report for the “think tank” says that it receives funding from BG Group (formerly British Gas), BP and Shell, along with a number of we-apons manufacturers and banks. The idea that it is a neutral forum for analysis and debate is, therefore, risible.
Helm’s enthusiasm has rubbed off on Oettinger. The “energy roadmap” that Oettinger issued - with Helm‘s assi-stance - says that “as conventional shale gas imports decline”, Europe will have to rely on “potential indigenous shale gas exploitation”.
Promoting shale gas as a panacea is similarly misleading to promoting Cana-
da as an exponent of “global leadership” on climate or Barroso as an “action hero”.
Because it is found in shale rock re-servoirs deep underground, shale gas is more difficult to extract than conventi-onal gas. The method used to extract it - hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” - in-volves widespread ecological damage, both from drilling and the use of chemi-cals such as benzene, a known cause of cancer.
Not everyone in the European Com-mission shares Oettinger’s faith in shale gas. A report for the Commission’s “cli-mate action” department concluded that shale gas activities have a bigger impact on the environment than oil and con-ventional gas. One particularly worrying aspect of its extraction is that it would probably release significant quantities of methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide.
I agree with Helm on one thing: we need an exit route from coal. Despite the EU‘s commitments to reduce fossil fuel use, the amount of energy produced by coal rose by 50% in France and Britain during the first three months of 2012, when compared to the same period in 2011. The exit route should be obvious: subsidise wind and solar power heavily (don‘t leave energy issues up to the mar-ket, as Oettinger has argued). Pinning hopes on a shale gas “revolution” is a dangerous distraction from the work that needs to be done now. The only people who stand to benefit from this distraction are corporations determined to burn every fossil fuel they can find - along with the planet itself.
Frack to the future? Perhaps not. | AFP PHOTO/Karen BLEIER
By David Cronin
5 years of targeting the people traffickers: Happy Birthday, GRETA!
By Gutenberg
Trafficking in human beings – selling people, in other words – has be-come the third most profitable criminal activity across the globe, accor-ding to Neil MacBride, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Speaking in Brussels last month, MacBride explained how the minimal start-up costs and the fact that human trafficking involves “renewable commodities”, which can be used again and again, are making it more attractive to criminals than dealing in drugs or weapons.MacBride explained how US law enforcers are tackling ruthless gangs of traffickers on America’s East Coast. Some use so-called “Romeo pim-ps”, drugs and alcohol to ensnare runaway girls aged as young as twelve, whom they tout from street to street. Others are more sophisticated, befriending affluent suburban girls on social networks and selling them online. Either way, the results are the same. Young people – usually girls – subjected to repeated, unimaginable physical and psychological abuse, day after day, night after night, sometimes for years on end.MacBride came to Brussels to learn more about the situation over here, where a Europe-wide treaty to help fight human trafficking – not just for sexual purposes, but also for all other types of abuse, including labour ex-ploitation and domestic servitude – came into force five years ago.The Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking convention was launched at a summit of heads of state and government in Warsaw in May 2005, and became legally binding on 1 February 2008. Of the 47 Council of Euro-pe member states, only the Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Russia have yet to sign up. Estonia, Greece, Hungary and Turkey have all signed the convention, but not yet ratified it.Under the convention, countries pledge to introduce a series of measures to help prevent trafficking, protect victims and prosecute offenders. Gi-ven that Europe hosts countries of origin, transit and destination for traf-ficking victims, it also provides a framework for international coopera-tion. Being a Council of Europe treaty, the emphasis is firmly on victims and their rights. Crucially, the convention set up an independent group of experts (code-named GRETA) to monitor how well each signatory country puts the convention into practice. Five years on, GRETA has published reports on 16 different countries, based on information gathered from national authorities, NGOs and victims themselves. There are a number of recurring themes. Firstly, shortcomings in data collection often make it difficult to grasp the true scale of the problem and to act upon emerging trends. This is especially true of less well-known forms of trafficking, such as labour exploitation or trafficking within national borders. Restrictions which prevent victims from being formally identified – their willingness to cooperate with the authorities, for example, or immigration status – can keep official figures misleadingly low. A lack of formal identification prevents victims from getting the support that they are entitled to. There also needs to be a clear separation between, on one hand, asylum and immigration controls and, on the other, identifying victims of trafficking. Trained specialists – ideal-ly from different professional backgrounds – are needed to help spot and assist trafficking victims, not under-pressure passport officials.Furthermore, victims and people who work with them must be fully informed about the rights guaranteed by the convention, including enti-tlement to a recovery and reflection period of at least 30 days and access to compensation. It is not enough to guarantee these rights by law. They also have to be applied in practice. Finally, there is a sizeable gap between the number of successful prosecutions for trafficking-related offences and the number of victims identified. Judges, lawyers and the police need specialised training, and sentences need to be sufficiently harsh. Victims need protection against intimidation and reprisals. Despite all this, the convention is relatively new and progress is clearly being made across Eu-rope. For so many countries to have made a clear, legally-binding com-mitment to criminalise and fight trafficking is in itself a huge step forward. As the convention celebrates its fifth birthday, three important challenges lay ahead. Firstly, to talk of truly pan-European standards, those Council of Europe countries which have not yet ratified the convention need to do so, and soon. The convention is also set to extend its reach beyond the Council of Europe’s boundaries. Belarus is due to sign up in the near fu-ture, and countries in North Africa and the Middle East are taking a keen interest. A third challenge lies in Brussels, where Mr MacBride spoke last month. Due to its geographical scope, it is crucial that EU anti-trafficking legislation should build upon, not overshadow, the existing convention. Similarly, to avoid conflicting standards and “forum shopping”, any futu-re EU monitoring activities should harness – not duplicate – the work being done by GRETA. Across Europe, and beyond, we need to be strong and work together to fight the people traffickers. They are dedica-ted and resourceful foes, ruthless in exploiting vulnerability.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE
08 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
The Asian Challenge
By Francisco Jaime Quesado
The challenge of Asia is the challenge of the World. Asia is facing a strong era of growth, with unique implications in terms of innovation and competitiveness. Like in the past, the Asian people are able to give their best in this very de-manding challenge, putting their individual and collective best in giving a new sun to its future. The Asian Challen-ge is an example for all of us in this complex period of crisis and we must see is as a contract of confidence in the future.
Asia is a big challenge to Europe. The global economic si-tuation of Europe is becoming difficult: the european com-panies are facing more and more the strong competition from companies from Middle East and Asia, Public Accounts of most of the european countries are facing unsustainable deficits, Unemployment is very high. That´s why a New Contract of Trust for Europe is more and more an impera-tive. The New Europe must be supported by some strate-gic proposals that demand for a new operational agenda.
This New Contract of trust between Asia and Europe must be supported by some strategic proposals that demand for a new operational agenda. Europe must know how to inte-grate in a positive way most of the chinese citizens that come to develop new businesses. Social cohesion is done with the constructive participation of the citizens and it is more and more necessary an effective attitude of mobilization for this effort. A positive integrative policy is a signal that Eu-rope and Asia have a common road to follow in the future.
On the other hand, Innovation and Technology must be the “enablers” for competitiveness in Europe and Asia. Universities and Companies must perform a new strategic partnership centered in the objectives of the added value, creativity and knowledge. This is the basis for a future ef-fective implementation of the New Eu2020 Strategy, which must be followed by Asia. Europe and Asia have still a strong opportunity to implement an agenda of innovation – the opportunity is more and more know and it can´t be lost.
The excellence of Europe and Asia is more and more the ex-cellence of their Regions. The development of strategic projects like the Poles of Competitiveness, Clusters of Innovations and Knowledge Cities and Regions is the effective confirmation that the basis for a new agenda in these two countries depends on the capacity of its regions. A New Europe and a New Asia are more and more the confidence of the development of New Regions.
Europe and Asia have a unique identity based on their strong culture. The European and the Asian Cultures are a unique asset. Europe and Asia must be able to involve other global partners in the construction of integrated projects focused on the develop-ment of culture as a driver for development. The reinvention of culture is itself a very innovative way to involve more and more the European and the Asian actors in this project for the future.
Europe and Asia have a unique opportunity of self-rein-vention. Where people know who they are and have a strong commitment with the values of freedom, social justice and development. This is the reason to believe that this renewal of Europe and Asia, more than a possibility, is an individual and collective necessity for all of us, effective Global citizens.
Francisco Jaime Quesado is the General Manager of the Inno-vation and Knowledge Society in Portugal, a public agency wi-th the mission of coordinating the policies for Information So-ciety and mobilizing it through dissemination, qualification and research activities. It operates within the Ministry of Science, Te-chnology and Higher Education
Progress on EU-US trade deal
Talks are ongoing between the EU and the United States who are hoping to finalise on a joint
report on how to progress on transatlan-tic free trade that has been delayed since the end of last year.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht travelled to Washington to iron out all of the details as soon as possible, and it was hoped that the accord would be released in time for the EU budget discussions on 7-8 February.
Progress was made as the EU drop-ped its prevention on some United States meat imports, with the ban on live pigs and beef from the United States due to being washed in lactic acid being lifted, in what can be viewed as a gesture of goodwill from Europe for a successful outcome of the talks.
An EU Official explained: “At the moment the talks are continuing, and both sides are hopeful of conclusions being reached, this report is about an alignment between the EU and the US and the possibility of a trade relation-ship, there are a couple of options on the table where there are issues that ideally will be solved for the agreement. As you see with the moves forward with lactic acid on meat, where in Europe meat is washed with water, agreements can be made.”
“There have been hold ups since the report was due for November last year, there has been the election in the Uni-ted States, and the signs from the Ob-ama administration were not clear on
free trade for some time. There are con-fidence building measures in process to prove there is a willingness to move toward on free trade. On the other hand there is a clear ambition to issue this re-port, negotiations are difficult, and free trade deals with the United States have been discussed since the nineties.”
Trade agreement relations between both parties were strengthened at the EU-US Summit of 2011 where the High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth was formed. Since then intense discussions on a regular basis have taken place on how to integrate the trade rela-tionship further
According to Eurostat in 2011 exports from the US into the United States reached €260.7 billion, an incre-ase of €18.4 billion from 2010, produ-cing a trade surplus of EUR76.4 billi-on, as there was €184.3 billion worth of imports from the other side of the Atlantic.
“I think that it is highly likely that an agreement will be made, even though there are bound to be irritations and ob-structions in the process.” said Fredrik Erikson, director of the European Cen-tre for International Political Economy.
“Non-tariff barriers are extreme-ly difficult in these negotiations, both sides now are willing to have talks to reach a full agreement on the regulato-ry issues. There are contentious areas such as regulatory protection and tech-nological issues, compared to Europe-an countries there are regulatory diffe-rences with areas such as shipping. In
the United States there is the Commit-tee for Foreign Investment that reviews foreign transactions that also causes a lot of regulatory barriers.”
Despite the enthusiasm shown by Vice-President Joe Biden for a free trade deal on his European tour, as he conve-yed at the Munich Security Conference, saying a deal would be “good for growth, job creation, and would strengthen our global trading system.”
There have been growing suspicions that the United States is wary of being drawn in to protracted negotiations with a trade bloc that has 27 members, even though talks will only proceed through the European Commission.
“I have heard this time after time.” Erikson explained. “I have heard that European countries have complained about the regulatory authorities that are not part of the United States administra-tion, but both sides can complain, it is difficult but that is what trade policy is about.”
If a joint report is agreed upon, it will follow the progress of the joint statement promoting SME’s released in January, where collaborations took place to try and facilitate trade for SME’s in the context of the Transatlantic Eco-nomic Council.
During several workshops agree-ments were made to take SME’s forward in entering foreign markets, raising sup-port measures for entrepreneurship, ex-changing innovation information from regional clusters, intellectual property rights and access to finance.
French president Francois Hollande (R) shakes hands with US vice president Joe Biden (heart) upon the latter’s arrival at the Elysee Palace, on February 4, 2013 in Paris. | AFP PHOTO/MARTIN BUREAU
In a historic vote, the British parlia-ment accepted gay marriage after a divisive campaign and debate in the
chamber. The vote, seen as a major step towards equality for gay people, was won by 225 votes, despite a small majority of Conservative MPs voting against the proposal. A totasl of 400 voted in favour, 175 against.
This was a ‘free vote’ where members could vote according to their consci-ences, rather than the party whips.
The move was supported by Prime Minister David Cameron but he could only persuade 127 of his 303 MPs to fol-low him, but announced his pleasure at the victory on Twitter, saying, “Strong views exist on both sides but I believe MPs voting for gay people being able to marry too, is a step forward for our country.”
His coalition partner, Liberal leader Nick Clegg was also pleased, “I genuine-ly believe that we will look back on today as a landmark for equality in Britain … No matter who you are and who you love, we are all equal. Marriage is about love and commitment, and it should no longer be denied to people just because they are gay.”
Ed Miliband, the Labour leader also supported the move, saying, “I’ll be vo-ting for equal marriage for a very simple reason: I don’t think that the person you love should determine the rights you have.”
In Strasbourg, Labour MEP, Michael Cashman was jubilant,”Tonight, people from all political parties have joined to-gether and voted for equality. In doing so they have strengthened the institution of marriage.” He added, “Supporting equa-lity is not always easy. To all those MPs who stood up for equality tonight, I say ‘thank you!’”
There was controversy ahead of the vote, with some members complaining about the vitriol sent to them by cam-paigners for and against marriage equa-
lity. There was also disquiet in the Tory camp, with some MPs said to be furious with Cameron for pushing a divisive is-sue at this moment.
There was support and sympathy for Cameron from the French socialist Presi-dent, Francoise Hollande, who has faced mass demonstrations over his continuing attempt to have gay marriages recognized in France.
However, some analysts suggest that the move was a bold one from the Tory leader, who may be trying to ‘detoxify’ his party by supporting a more progres-sive agenda than the old school of his par-ty. His desire to be seen as a modernizer and forward looking also connects with a desire to see off a challenge from his eter-nally dissatisfied right wing. Cameron’s predicament may look similar to US Re-publicans, who have seen the Tea Party’s social conservatism arguable lose them elections and may be bold enough to try to use the same issue to signal their mo-dernization. There has also been support for gay marriage from President Obama, who like Cameron can read the runes of the opinion polls, which are pointing in a different direction to the die hard tra-ditionalists.
While some objected to the chan-ge to marriage from religious grounds, many based their disagreement on the definition of adultery, which in a quirk of English law, is when a married person
sleeps with someone of the opposite sex. In reality this is no obstacle as courts ac-cept a same sex affair as being ‘unreaso-nable behavior’.
The sight of Members of Parliament voicing their concern and alarm over potential adultery in gay marriage was a little difficult for some to accept. It was noted that several members raising this concern were on their second or third marriages, indeed a list of MPs who had committed adultery would make a very long read.
One opponent, Sir Roger Gale thun-dered, ““Marriage is the union between a man and a woman, has been historically, remains so. It is Alice in Wonderland ter-ritory, Orwellian almost, for any govern-ment of any political persuasion to seek to come along and try to rewrite the lexi-con. It will not do.”
Gale is on his third marriage, with two divorces behind him.
There have been changes to laws re-lating to marriage in the past, for examp-le, marriages could have been conducted anywhere prior to the 1753 Marriage Act that limited wedding venues to churches. In 1836 non-conformists and Catholics won the right to be married in their own places of worship.
In 1929, the minimum age for marri-age was raised to 16.
Marital rape was outlawed in the UK in 1991.
Greetings, mortals!
By Andy Carling
Constructive Ambiguity
There are many people making money by selling stuff that’s supposed to help live a long and happy life, from vitamin supplements to creams and potions that make the most furrowed of brows into a baby’s bottom, but if you’re serious about living a very long time indeed, you’re going to want to sit down as I tell you what you’re going to need to do.While our Greek friends extol the Mediterranean diet, and the prospect of overlooking the Aegean sunrise whilst munching on feta and olives, washed down with a little retsina is undeniably appealing, it just won’t do if you’re looking for nearing immortality.Looking at the oldest living organisms on the Earth today, it is obvious that the more God awful, the colder, the more miserable a place is the better chance you’ve got of making it through a reasonable number of millennia.Exactly how God forsaken? High, arid mountain deserts and Antarctica seem to be the popular options. The other advice is, be prepared to slide down the food chain. Quite far. The final advice for the arpirant immortal is learn to clone yourself. Consider it self-recycling.This is how the oldest tree hangs around. Pando, is a colony of Quaking Aspens, which clones itself from an enormous underground root system, and it is likely to be 80,000 years old. There’s a bunch of seaweed in the med that’s meant to be 200,000 years old and there’s tell of an 11,700 year old creosote bush.Perhaps it’s because of ‘progress’ humanity’s tendency to trash everything it touches, but you’ve got to go to odd places for longevity. Elephant island has some 5,500 year old moss. The place is a barren rock on the less popular side of Antarctica, where penguins go to be depressed. It’s just an awful place.When you move slightly higher up the food chain, it doesn’t get much better. One of the oldest creatures is the Greenland Shark, who clocks up 400 years by virtue of being the only shark in very cold water and its flesh is poisonous, which may be why it’s not been captured killed and baked into extinction by the locals. However, it is said to be edible if buried underground for several months.The other pension busting creatures are mainly giant tortoises. Adwaita finally shuffled out of her shell in 2006 at the age of 255, originally a pet of Clive of India.The splendidly named Timothy was for many years the oldest inhabitant of the UK, a spur thigh tortoise (who names there species?) who was found on a Portugese ship by the Royal Navy and became their ships mascot, and by his presence became the last survivor of the Crimean war. Eventually he was put into retirement under the care of the Earl of Devon, who discovered in 1926 that he was a she (take a tortoise on the wild side), a fact that didn’t help reproduction as well as expected and she passed away aged 160 in 2004.But the prize goes to a type of jellyfish, which can go from maturity back to a polyp, making them technically immortal.These, then are the options for longevity, become a tree or moss somewhere horrid, a tortoise, spending centuries worrying about small children turning you upside down or a jellyfish.Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humour.
By Andy Carling
Parliament says ‘I do’ to gay marriage. |AFP PHOTO/CARL DE SOUZA
T he following countr ies have legislated to allow gay marriage:
NetherLANdS – 2001
BeLgIum – 2003
CANAdA – 2005
SpAIN – 2005
South AFrICA – 2006
NorwAY – 2008
SwedeN – 2009
ArgeNtINA – 2010
portugAL – 2010
ICeLANd – 2010
BrAzIL – 2011
deNmArk – 2012
Campaigners hope that the US, France and Britain join the list in 2013.
10 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
Europe needs a comprehensive frame work on corporate social responsibility (CSR), according to two European Parliament re-ports, however a split still exists over how best to achieve responsible company prac-tices.
The two own-initiative reports, authored by Italian centre-right MEP Raffaele Baldas-sarre, and centre-left MEP Richard Howitt, aim at supporting proposals by the Europe-an Commission to foster the conditions for businesses to achieve sustainable growth and engage in ethical business practices.
The reports were voted by parliament on 6 February, but issues remain, primarily the amount of legislation introduced; many MEPs see CSR as a voluntary issue. Accor-ding to Liberal MEP, Nadja Hirsch, vice-chair of the parliament’s employment committee, “the fundamental principle of CSR is its vo-luntary character, which is why we strongly oppose legislation in this domain. However, to conclude that businesses that aren‘t invol-ved in CSR do not care about good working conditions or respecting environmental stan-dards would be plainly wrong”.
However, speaking after the parliament’s vote on 6 February, Ricahrd Howitt, the parliament’s rapporteur on CSR, insisted that tough action is needed “in restoring trust in business; this is vital for the economy”. He said that CSR helps “address the social im-
pacts of the crisis”, which is “inexplicably lin-ked” with irresponsible corporate practices”.
Also peaking after the vote Baldassarre admitted that “there are two opposing in-terpretations of this, one is that it should be entirely voluntary, and the other opinion that tries to regulate some kind of binding struc-ture”.
However, he did say that he believed the parliament “could find a compromise” bet-ween both reports.
According to Baldassarre, the EU “needs to consolidate links between CSR and com-panies, but it is up to the company to decide”. He said that there needs to be an improve-ment in transparency in reporting, with the “possibility of regulating information related to society and the environment”.
He added that it was vital that the EU helps promote small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) involvement in CSR. Cur-rently SMEs make up about 90% of the Eu-ropean economy, but, says Baldassarre, “pa-radoxically, it is larger companies that show a willingness for CSR”.
“SMEs can help with spreading the role of CSR”, he said. “We can have a comprehen-sive framework with broad criteria, and show the role of business is not just to make profits, but has a commitment to the community”.
“I hope this will be the strongest legacy of the European Parliament report”. CD
Some of us are “more equal” than others
The recently published Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) report on Romania regarding the fulfillment of
the country’s commitments to the EU raises a question of principle: how does this process re-flect on the country’s status among EU member states?
In 2007 when Romania acceded to the EU, the CVM was established for a period of three years with clear and simple objectives - to im-plement judicial reforms and reinforce the fight against corruption. Six years later the monitoring continues with no clear deadline in sight. The objectives pursued by Brussels have also broade-ned, touching upon constitutional order or cen-sorship decisions of the Parliament in Bucharest.
This mechanism of cooperation has been transformed into a mechanism of control over the decisions taken in Bucharest. This goes be-yond the agreement in the Lisbon Treaty regu-lating the boundaries of sovereignty transfer, and worryingly it appears to position Romania as a subordinate country.
The decision to adopt this year’s CVM re-port in the plenary of the European Parliament without prior discussion with the Romanian government is perhaps further evidence of this. Ensuring the fulfillment of Romania’s commit-
ments as an EU member state has to be a col-laborative process. It is also necessary to avoid errors or misinterpretations in relation to demo-cratic values.
Since accession to the EU Romania has long been in the spotlight, and it is true that we still have many internal issues to address. However, in all objectivity our position is not unique - other member states have been struggling with familiar challenges. Great efforts have been made in order to improve our institutions and implement judicial reform. We are becoming a trusted partner in the EU and of the internatio-nal community.
Yet, among the recommendations of the la-
test CVM report is a clear request to the Govern-ment of Romania to increase censorship of the press and to limit the freedom of expression in relation to decisions of the judiciary. I find this an astonishing recommendation that is contrary to the founding values of the European Union.
The media is fully entitled to comment on the decisions taken by the judiciary, and on those relating to the expenditure of public mo-ney. By bringing to the attention of the public the conflicts of interest and the public money spent for personal benefit by elected officials and Members of the Parliament, the press in no way infringes on the law.
Magistrates in Romania have sufficient pro-
tection and guarantee not to fear the press or political pressure and this is without resorting to arbitration from Brussels.
The latest report has made it clear that the CVM is not meeting the objectives of its original purpose; instead it is being used as a tool in a wi-der political battle. It might be that it has become a tool for justifying the denial of accepting Ro-mania into the Schengen Area.
This mechanism needs to be either restruc-tured or cancelled. It cannot continue in its cur-rent form, and it cannot continue without col-laboration. Romania is a fully active member of the European Union and deserves to be treated on an equal footing.
Schengen starts here! | EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT
By Corina Cretu MEPCorina Cretu MEP is the Member of the European Parliament, Vicepresident – Group of the Socialists and Democrats
The road to democracy in Tunisia has turned out to be “more complex” than originally anticipated, the country’s
president has told the European Parliament.Speaking in Strasbourg on 6 February,
Moncef Marzouki, told MEPs that the success of democracy in Tunisia depends on whether or not people “turn to wisdom or folly”.
He said that many risks still threaten stabi-lity, not just in Tunisia, but also in other coun-tries affected by the Arab Spring; problems such as regional wars, and young people “who rush onto boats to storm your coasts”.
However, he said that the country would overcome all threats to society. He was spea-king on the day that the Popular Front leader Chokri Belaid was shot dead in Tunis. Follow-ing the president’s speech, a minute’s silence was held in the plenary chamber for “the peo-ple who lost their lives for Tunisian freedom”.
Later in the day, the Prime Minister, Ha-madi Jebali, disbanded the government with
the view to installing a non-partisan, techno-cratic government in response to crowds of angry protesters stirred up by the killing.
“There are many enemies of our peaceful revolution, who want to ensure it fails”, he said. “We reject that message. We will continue to unmask the enemies of the revolution”.
Speaking to journalists later, Mazouki said that Belaid’s assassination is part of a renewed effort to damage the revolution by violent me-ans. But, he said, “we will not countenance this. We have inherited a revolution commit-ted from the outset to peaceful motives”. He warned of “further attempts” to destabilise the country.
He told MEPs that the revolution in Tuni-sia was “not a nationalist or xenophobic one”, with no anti-US or Israeli rhetoric. He said that, while Islamist parties had experienced victories in Libya and Egypt, they represented, “not Islamism triumphing in the wake of the Arab Spring, but those that came over to de-mocracy”. He dismissed the idea of an ‘Islamist Winter’ following the Arab Spring.
“As for future revolutions: everything is at stake”, he said, adding that countries in the region need continued support, “including economic support” from Europe. European Parliament President, Martin Schulz, said la-ter that he would “fight for a European budget that ensures the necessary funding for Tunisia and all the people of the region”.
Tunisia, said Mazouki, wants to “rely on its own resources”, but “also those of Europe”. He welcomed the fact that Germany had recently agreed to convert €60 million worth of debt into development projects, and said that he hoped that France, Tunisia’s biggest creditor nation, “will follow that example”. Earlier in
the day, campaigners warned of the crippling effects of debt on Tunisian society.
Later on, he returned to the security situ-ation, and the ongoing threats to the country. “It is easy to overthrow a system, it is harder to create a system that is socially acceptable”, he said, adding that the country’s security appara-tus is in the process of being “built-up”.
“I labour under no illusions”, he said. “The-re will be further attempts to destabilise Tuni-sia. But the Tunisian people are strong and res-ilient to overcome them. This Tunisian model, of peaceful transition and consensus, is a model for the future, so we will fight all efforts to over-come it. We have too much to lose”.
By Cillian Donnelly
Members of the Tunisian community in France demonstrate on February 7, 2013 in Paris, to protest against the assassination of outspoken opposition leader Chokri Belaid. | AFP
‘Further threats’ to Tunisian stability likely says presidentPrediction made on day of political assassination, government change
Debt ‘suffocating’ Tunisia say campaignersThe 2011 revolution in Tunisia “is now being suffocated” by excessive debt that threatens to un-dermine democratic reforms in the country, say campaigners. Speaking shortly before the Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki, was due to address the European parliament in Strasbourg on 6 Febru-ary, Chamkhi Fathi, president of RAID-ATTAC Tunisia, an anti-economic liberalisation organisa-tion, said that by allowing the country to build-up its debt, Europe is failing in its partnership obliga-tions. He said that debt is the single-most damaging aspect of life in Tunisia.
Foreign debt owed by Tunisia currently stands at around €20 billion, with about €577 million of that owed by the end of this year. The main credi-tors are France, which accounts for 13.4% the debt, the European Investment Bank (14%) and the World Bank (11%). “Any one of these people could help if they acted”, says MEP Marie-Christine Ver-giat, who is one of a number of European and nati-onal parliamentarians who are calling on a morato-rium of Tunisian debt.
“The debt is too onerous”,says Fathi, “and lar-gely because of that debt, Tunisia has seen an in-crease in the social crisis that led to the revolution. That has now become an economic crisis”.
He said that the “relatively peaceful” revoluti-on in 2011 that saw the overthrow of Zine El Abi-dine Ben Ali, has now given way to more tension and violence on the streets. Under Ben Ali, says Fathi, debt rose about 1.7% each year, now that fi-
gure is 3.4%. MEP Eva Joly, chair of the European Parliament’s development committee, also believes that this kind of instability is threatening Tunisian society. Debt, she says, “is forcing Tunisia into po-verty, and paving the way for fundamentalists”.
In addition, says Joly, efforts must be made to repatriate frozen assets to Tunisia. The assets, be-longing to the Ben Ali family and 46 others, were originally frozen to stop the money being launde-red by those associated with the dictatorial regime. At the time says Joly, a former French magistrate. “it was a good thing”. Now, she says “it is vital these as-sets can be repatriated to Tunisia”. Currently frozen assets remain in 16 countries, including in Europe.
In addition, problems of violence against women, curbs against the media, an inadequate ju-stice system (“that isn’t working better than it was before”, according to Vergiat), and violence per-petrated by the police, still persist. But the overar-ching problem remains the debt burden, says Fathi.
Tunisia “is overdosing on debt”, he says. “Our first demand is a moratorium. Tunisia needs all its natural resources. We need to recognise the one-rous debt, which sooner or later we need to abolish. Tunisia needs some chance to build a democracy”.
“I think Europe could benefit from this. Tuni-sia is on the southern border of Europe, it is not a far-off country. It could act as a model for the whole region. What you are doing now is pushing us to ultra-liberalisation, and this is not the way for us”. CD
A Tunisian boy holds a placard during a gathering as part of the festivities marking the second anni-versary of the uprising that ousted long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January in Tunis.Now, anti-debt campaigners say that the spirit of the revolution is being crushed by social and eco-nomic problems created by money owed to foreign institutions and governments. AFP PHOTO / FETHI BELAID
12 EnErgy & climatE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
Tunisian president fears the worst for economic stabilitySTRASBOURG – On 6 February, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said there are ef-forts to undermine the economic stability of his country, including Tunisia’s energy sector.
The situation remains tense in Tunisia whose path from dictatorship to democracy has been seen as a model for the Arab world.
Asked by New Europe if he is afraid of any threats on oil installations south of the country and if he sees a new trend similar to Syria and Algeria of trying to undermine the economic stability of his country, Marzouki told a press conference, “Of course. Well, a country that’s trying to go through successful transition does have a difficult situation because there are po-litical forces within Tunisia that do not want the transition to work. Of course when there is a revolution, there is always an immediate at-tempt for a counter-revolution. There are tens of thousands who supported the Ben Ali re-gime and who don’t want to see this revolution work, they want to see it fail. But once history has taken a certain direction, it never goes back on its steps.”
Late last month, Tunisia said it deployed military forces along its borders with Algeria and Libya to protect oil and natural gas instal-lations, in the wake of the In Amenas hostage-taking attack in January.
The desert shared by Libya, Tunisia and Algeria has long been a smugglers‘ haven but
it has now become a key arms trafficking zone for supplying weapons to jihadists in northern Mali, Tunisian authorities have said.
On 6 February, Marzouki addressed Euro-pean Parliamentarians at an emotional speech at the plenary, following the lethal shooting of a Tunisian opposition leader critical of the Islamist-led government and violence by radi-cal Muslims. A leading member of a leftist al-liance of parties known as the Popular Front, Chokri Belaid was shot as he left his house in the capital, Tunis. The killing comes as Tuni-sia is struggling to maintain stability and revive its economy after its revolution two years ago, which set off revolts across the Arab world, in-creasing social and religious tensions.
Investors have been monitoring the shoo-ting of the Tunisian opposition politician and further violence in Syria.
Justin Urquhart Stewart, the director of Seven Investment Management Limited in London, told New Europe by phone on 6 Fe-bruary oil facilities are seen as a “new soft tar-get”, which means they all need extra security, increasing costs. “This is exactly what we don’t want to have happen right now after what’s hap-pened in Algeria and what’s happening also in Egypt. We are seeing a slow deterioration of an Arab optimism into a level of decay where the optimism turns into something far more nega-tive and hostile and that’s going to be bad for everybody trying to build an economy needing stability,” Urquhart Stewart said.
A new study by the Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) by Manouchehr Takin on the cost of oil production in the world challenges two myths in the industry today: One is that the cost of oil production in the world has reached $100/bbl. The CGES contends that while there has been some increase, the cost is far lower than the figures commonly asserted.
The second is that high production costs caused the oil price rise in the mid-2000s and that they justify the current elevated prices. “I challenge this. The increase in the cost of pro-duction did not cause the price of oil to go up,” Takin told New Europe.
The CGES asserts that the price of oil has risen for reasons other than rising production costs, and in fact the price rise was a cause, and not the consequence, of higher production costs.
In this analysis the CGES studies and dis-putes both how quickly and how far costs are believed to have increased. It points out that over the past decades when the price of oil was in the $20/bbl to $30/bbl range, oil exploration and field development operations were carried out successfully and profitably all over the world, including the so-called high-cost areas. Although costs did increase at a rate greater than inflation,
the CGES study contends that the current fully built-up costs of developing and producing con-ventional oil (excluding taxes and royalties) in most regions of the world do not exceed $30/bbl and for the Canadian oil sands are no higher than $50/bbl. The study provides a global cost of sup-ply curve for conventional crude (and some un-conventional oil). This shows that around 33% of the world’s oil costs less than $10/bbl to pro-duce and nearly 90% has a cost below $20/bbl.
The study also points to the cyclical nature of the oil services sector. When the prices for rigs, equipment and field services go up, the ma-nufacturers start building more rigs and more suppliers and service providers enter the market. The competition results in a moderation and ultimately a reduction of the prices and charter rates in the services sector. The study provides data showing how this has already happened since 2007.
The CGES contends that the rise in oil price from $20-30/bbl to nearly $150/bbl between 2004 and 2008 has not been a consequence of the rise in production costs and these costs do not support the current oil price levels. Even if the cost of production had reached $100/bbl, one cannot apply to the oil market the economic
concept that prices are set by the highest margi-nal cost. The oil market is not perfectly competi-tive. The heavy front-end investment needs and long lead times are substantial barriers that limit new entrants to the oil market.
The oil market is also influenced by govern-ment action. For example, access to low-cost areas is limited by governments and most impor-tantly, state-owned oil producing entities restrict oil production to keep oil prices higher than they otherwise would have been. Similarly, the demand for petroleum products by final consu-mers is influenced by government policies such as taxes and duties. The price of oil is also driven by factors such as global supply and demand, OPEC policy, political uncertainty and specula-tion. While of course production cost can influ-ence oil prices over the long term, in recent years, the cost of production has not played a part in the rise of the price of oil.
The CGES argues that cause and effect are the reverse of the commonly held view: increa-sing oil prices have caused the rise in production costs, and have not resulted from them. Arguing that rising oilfield costs are behind the strong rise in the price of oil is “putting the cart before the horse”.
Through detailed analysis, the study exa-mines how this has occurred over the past few years. High oil prices led to high revenues for oil companies who used those revenues for increa-sing their exploration and production activities. This caused an increase in the prices and charter rates for rigs and other field materials and ser-vices required for those activities. This means higher costs for developing fields and producing oil. The growth of oil and gas industry activi-ties was faster and the cost escalation was more pronounced in offshore areas where there was a need to design and build expensive new capital items such as floating production, storage and offloading vessels. The study carries out a special analysis of the oil sands in Canada and conclu-des that the above arguments also apply to those operations.
High production costs have been widely put forward as a contributor to the rise in oil prices over recent years. This view is prevalent in both the oil industry and the investment community. In this study, the CGES shows that actual pro-duction costs are not as high as commonly per-ceived and also challenges the view that produc-tion costs have played a part in setting the level of oil prices in recent years.
CGES challenges two myths in the oil industry
By Kostis Geropoulos
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki addresses to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, 6 February 2013. |AFP PHOTO/PATRICK HERTZOG
Ukraine wants US help with shale gasThe United States expressed its
desire to work closely with Uk-raine to help the former Soviet
republic exploit its shale gas reserves.On 4 February, US Special Envoy
for International Energy Carlos Pas-cual, a former ambassador to Ukraine, met with Ukrainian officials to discuss Ukraine‘s shale potential.
Ukraine’s Environment and Natural Resources Minister Eduard Stavitsky said Kiev intends to reduce imports of energy resources and increase domestic natural gas production.
Pascual said the US has technolo-gies for ecologically safe production of shale gas and was ready to share its know-how with Ukraine, RIA Novosti reported. Pascual was in charge of US backing of the Southern Corridor, a network of pipelines meant to diversify Europe‘s gas sector, lessening the EU’s reliance on Russia.
Ukraine has long been seeking to alter the terms of the 2009 gas deal it signed with Russia.
The deal ties the price of gas to that of oil, which has risen sharply since 2009, hiking Ukraine‘s gas bill. Russia and Ukraine are debating natural gas contracts after Russian gas monopoly Gazprom sent Kiev a $7 billion bill for
unused 2012 gas covered under a take-or-pay contract.
In January, Shell signed a contract said to be worth $10 billion to explore shale natural gas reserves in Ukraine. Shell plans to develop the Yuzovsky shale gas deposit. Stavitsky earlier said that exploration drilling at the Yuzovsky
block, with estimated reserves of over four trillion cubic metres, was expected to start this year, and production at the field may commence in 2015.
Meanwhile, Russia is unlikely to aggressively pursue shale gas reserves, though it likely is well endowed with these as well, according to reports.
An oil rig in Tioga, North Dakota. Booming production from shale and other “tight oil” formations will push the country’s daily production to 7.92 million bar-rels a day from 6.43 million barrels a day in 2012.|AFP PHOTO/KAREN BLEIER/FILES
EU to Gazprom: Bring it on!
By Kostis Geropoulos
Energyinsider
STRASBOURG – The European Union will pursue pragmatic co-operation with Russia but will not accept any exemptions for Gazprom from EU law, Austrian MEP Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Socialists and Democrats group, told New Europe on 5 February.On 1 February, Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevici-us said Vilnius will not offer any concessions to the Russian gas monopoly as the country seeks a lower price on purchases of natural gas.There is little love lost between Russia and the Baltic coun-tries. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also encouraged a European Commission probe into Gazprom’s market practi-ses in Central and Eastern Europe, a move that has irked the Russian gas giant.On 5 February, Swoboda said in Strasbourg energy security, especially for the Baltic countries, is a very important subject. Lithuania, which will hold the EU’s rotating presidency on the second semester of 2013, has vowed to make energy se-curity a priority.“We are in close contact with the new government in Lithuania and I think we have to have a strategy of pragmatic co-operation with Russia but, on the other hand, make it very clear that any kind of exemptions for Gazprom is not acceptable. There are certain rules that have been decided in the European Union,” Swoboda told New Europe. “Therefore, I’m also very sceptical about any exemptions for South Stream. It’s much more im-portant to go into new resources - in Central Asia and South Caucasus.”Russia has openly disagreed with the EU Third Energy Packa-ge, which is calling on Gazprom to give third-party access to its pipelines, and has called on Brussels to exempt South Stream from EU regulation.Swoboda also referred to Ukraine, arguing that Russia is via Gazprom putting pressure on certain countries. “We should have a very clear position that this is not acceptable for us,” he said.However, Russia‘s energy leverage could be waning. “I think they are no longer in such strong position,” he said. The S&D leader also ruled out a repeat of the gas crisis between Russian and Ukraine in 2006 and 2009. “Because demand is not so high for the moment because of the economic activities, for the mo-ment I don’t any a new gas crisis,” he said.Asked if the EU is becoming too reliant on Russia, Swoboda said Nord Stream has being built and it was a good project at the time. However, times have changed and there is need for more competition. Shale gas from the United States and lique-fied natural gas (LNG) create more possibilities. He added that the EU should prefer pipelines from new sources like Azerbai-jan and Turkmenistan.Meanwhile, German MEP Rebecca Harms, co-president for the Greens party, told New Europe in Strasbourg that there will be a focus on energy in the Council when it meets in March. EU states have to work together for common European interests in gas negotiations with Russia’s Gazprom rather than each mem-ber state negotiating on its own and for its own markets, Harms said. “On Nord Stream, we failed. I think, meanwhile, we have achieved a little bit better conditions because of new connec-tions between western European states and Central European states. But that’s only a first step.” [email protected] follow on twitter @energyinsider
TAP courts steel pipeline producers
PGNiG starts production at Winna Gora
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) said it reached an advanced development stage by courting steel pipeline producers. TAP and German energy company E.ON, a consortium member, said they started the pre-qualification process for steel pipe suppliers who want to submit an expressi-on of interest in the project.
„The main goal of the pre-qualifica-tion is to ensure that there are enough high-quality steel pipes available on the market when TAP starts construction in 2015,“ Sigurd Hamre, project develop-ment director of TAP, said in a statement.
TAP is competing with Nabucco West for carrying 10 billion cubic metres of Azeri gas to Europe. A decision from the
Shah Deniz consortium in Azerbaijan is expected by the end of June.
Meanwhile, TAP Managing Direc-tor Kjetil Tungland said the outlook for the global gas industry in the long term is quite positive. “The shale gas boom in the US has brought down the pri-ce of energy for the first time in years, helping to stimulate economic recove-ry. While shale may not have the same ‘game-changing’ impact in Europe, the continent is now closer than ever to di-versifying its own sources of gas supply,” he said. “The development of the Sou-thern Gas Corridor will be key to this transformation, delivering natural gas from the Caspian basin to western mar-
kets. 2012 has seen huge progress for the Southern Gas Corridor as a whole and for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline in parti-cular,” Tungland added.
“After we submit our Decision Sup-port Package on 31 March 2013, we will await the Shah Deniz Consortium’s deci-sion over which pipeline will win the right to transport the gas in the Southern Gas Corridor in June. Assuming that TAP is the chosen pipeline project that wins the bid to transport Shah Deniz gas to Euro-pe, more important milestones lay ahead, including TAP’s Resolution to Construct, which will be made in September 2013 - one month, before Shah Deniz take their Final Investment Decision,” he said.
Poland‘s state-controlled natural gas uti-lity PGNiG has started production from the Winna Gora gas facility. The Winna Gora well is located in the 850,000 acre Fences concession in the Permian basin, the company said.
The Winna Gora deposit within
the Kornik-Sroda Wielkopolska license contains about 200 mcm in extractable gas, while the costs could be lowered significantly thanks to the location of the deposit, relatively near operational deposits.
PGNiG is also drilling the Miecze-
wo-1K exploratory well in the western part of the Fences concession. Currently below 2,000 metres, the well is a planned test of a Rotliegend structure at a pro-jected 3,360 metres.
PGNiG is the operator and holds a 51% interest.
14 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Poli-cy and Vice- President of the Commission, Catherine Ashton met yesterday with Serbi-an President, Tomislav Nikolić and the Pre-sident of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga in order to facilitate constructive dialogue between the two countries as to solve their issues.
As High Representative Ashton sta-ted: “The dialogue has already produced a number of significant achievements thanks to the constructive engagement from both
sides. We are now tackling the issue of nort-hern Kosovo and the coming weeks will be critical. Both President Nikolić and Presi-dent Jahjaga have assured me of their conti-nued support and commitment to the dialo-gue and their respective European agendas.”
During the meeting, the High Represen-tative reaffirmed the European perspective for both Serbia and Kosovo and encouraged both sides to continue with the efforts nee-ded for further progress towards the Europe-an Union.
Serbia was granted EU candidate status In March 2012. However, it has not yet es-
tablished a date for the beginning of the EU accession negotiations due to unsolved terri-torial issues with Kosovo.
Kosovo, on the other hand, is not yet an official candidate country but has the poten-tial to become one after completing several reforms and promoting dialogue with Serbia.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after NATO launched air strikes against Ser-bian military and police forces accused of trying to purge Kosovo of ethnic Albanians to put down the uprising. Ever since, Bel-grade has refused to recognize Kosovo‘s so-vereignty.
Will the EBRD do the right thing for Kosovo, its newest member?
As Kosovo becomes a member of In-ternational Financial Institutions, such as the World Bank and the Eu-
ropean Bank for Reconstruction and De-velopment, alarm bells are ringing about which model of development these bodies are pushing in the EU’s newest country.
On December 17th, Europe’s youngest and poorest nation, Kosovo, became the 66th member of the European Bank for Reconstruc-tion and Development (EBRD), the institution created two decades ago to promote democracy and market economies in Central and Eastern Europe. In Kosovo, this membership raises ho-pes for economic development and improved wellbeing.
As Kosovo rejoiced at the news that another important International Financial Institution recognized our nation, the more jaded among-st us feared a repeat of the disappointment that followed after we joined the World Bank Group in 2009.
At the time, we had similarly hoped that the World Bank would bring dramatic improve-ments to our country. Instead, one of the main focuses of the Bank’s work in Kosovo has been to advocate for the construction of a third, dirty coal-fired 600 MW power plant outside of our capital city Prishtina, despite the fact that Ko-sovo is already Europe’s most polluted country.
But this is not the kind of development most
of us want to see in our country. NGOs from Kosovo called on the World Bank to abandon the plan before it locked our country into ano-ther 40 years of coal dependency. While relying on coal may have appeared reasonable some decades ago, we no longer can jump on such a solution at a time when energy efficiency and renewables present a better and more affordable alternative and when the threat of disastrous cli-mate change looms upon us so heavily.
A new coal plant would not only create emissions and stifle energy alternatives. Impor-tantly, it would harm our agricultural sector (the main economic driver in Kosovo), worsen wa-ter supply problems when we already suffer dai-
ly cuts, and make living conditions even more unbearable. According to the World Bank’s own data, pollution from the two existing coal plants costs Kosovo over EUR 220m annually, leads to 836 premature deaths, and causes 22,900 cases of respiratory diseases amongst young children, as well as hundreds of other respiratory diseases amongst adults. What, then, makes the World Bank think we need yet another coal plant?
Instead of helping improve our lives, the World Bank aligned itself with politicians who want solutions that generate easy money for themselves so they can stay in power. The Bank trampled on its own stated objective to decrease poverty around the world by agreeing to engage
in a project that will lead to more poverty and more miserable conditions.
Yet, despite the challenges we face, Koso-vars remain some of the world’s most optimistic people. We still hope today that the EBRD will help make things better, even while the World Bank is failing us.
The first steps in the EBRD’s engagement with Kosovo do not necessarily look rosy: du-ring a January meeting with our Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, representatives of the EBRD expressed an interest in financially supporting the new coal plant that the World Bank too pro-motes. And this despite being aware that Koso-vars opposed the World Bank’s support for this project. This is not the way the EBRD should be acting.
The first step the EBRD should take in our country is not to rush into a dirty project but, on the contrary, to reject the new coal plant death trap and instead support investments in renew-able energy, energy efficiency, and modernising our non-functioning grid. Kosovo currently loses 37% of the electricity we produce and im-port -- which amounts to more than the annual generation of our oldest power plant -- due to grid failures and a non-functioning justice sys-tem which could otherwise help put things in order.
Today, our electricity bills keep rising as we are forced to pay for power that will never reach us and for investments that will lead to more deaths and more kids getting sick. Meanwhile, there is a clear path that would lead us to clean, affordable and sufficient energy – a path that would also produce more jobs, preserve our wa-ter resources, and keep our fertile soil protected from pollution and destruction.
EBRD can tap into this opportunity and help make Kosovo an example of modern, clean energy – something we are obligated to do if we want to become part of the European Union.
By Nezir Sinani
Nezir Sinani is an energy expert at the Kosovo Civil Soci-ety Consortium for Sustainable Devel-opment (KOSID). Sinani is a former spokesperson for
KEK, the Kosovo Energy Corporation.
By Elena Ralli
A worker at the construction site of the Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Mother Teresa in Pristina, Kosovo, Serbia, 17 November 2011. Work on the cathedral started in 2007. |EPA/
VALDRIN XHEMAJ
EU High Representative Catherine Ashton with President Jahjaga | EEAS
Ashton meets with Presidents of Serbia and Kosovo to promote dialogue
Hill Wheeler School, in the slum area of Mtomondoni, Mtwapa, Kenya, is a beacon of hope for over 200 child-
ren. The education it provides offers these youngsters a chance to escape the grinding poverty into which they were born.
This school, which is maintained by the UK based Hill Wheeler Charity, is faced with a crisis which threatens its future. A new road funded through a 75% European Commission grant will cut through the school boundary, causing the loss of five classrooms, the school kitchen, the boundary wall and gate as well as part of the play area and well and water sto-rage areas. The school wall has already been marked out to show where demolition will begin. The school will be given no compen-sation whatsoever, and it is believed that other facilities including a clinic and an orphanage are likely to be similarly affected. The EU trumpets its record in the area of developmen-tal aid, and there is no doubt that this road is needed: but let us consider the human cost of this project. As always, it is the most vulnera-ble members of society who bear the brunt in such circumstances.
I have tabled a formal written question to
the European Commission asking them how this situation has been allowed to develop. What impact assessment was carried out be-
fore the funding was agreed, and who oversaw the process. The road must be re-routed, or compensation and alternate land provision
must be made. EU funding must be withheld until we are assured that this small and vulne-rable community is fully protected.
By Nikki Sinclaire MEP
Nikki Sinclaire MEP Member of the European Parliament for West Midlands region
Education is a key part of development and campaigners are concerned that an EU budget deal will involve cutbacks to development spending. AFP PHOTO /
Tony KARUMBA
Kids hit by economic crisis says World Bank, Jacobs Foundation
World Bank and the Jacobs Foundation, a youth and child development foundation based in Germany, joined together at the Eu-ropean Foundation Center in Brussels on 4 February to present new research on children and youth development in times of economic crisis.
Jed Friedman, a senior economist at World Bank, spoke on behalf of the main contributors of the project, Alice Wuermli and Mattias Lundberg, who compiled the research in the book “Children and Youth in Crisis: Protecting and Promoting Human Development in Times of Economic Shocks.”
The findings were a result of the multidis-ciplinary approach of economists and leading psychologists to tackle the developmental problems faced by children during economic shocks.
“Why do we care about economic shocks and kids?” Friedman said. Children are indi-cators of the greater problems that are paired with financial instability. “If mortality rates are rising, that usually indicates nutrition is declining across the board. Those are detri-mental effects that need to be addressed.”
Economic shocks, or unanticipated de-clines in aggregate income, can have various
levels of intensity. The research shows spikes in infant mortality and anxiety or sadness of the primary caregivers of children. The im-plications for children who grow up in finan-cially stressed environments span form early childhood through adolescence.
“The problems of economic shock can
penetrate a child’s life through many chan-nels,” Friedman said. The family household, school, social media and so on all can play a role in the development of a child.
Anxious detachments and decreased interactions from ages zero to five affect a child’s ability to reason and stunt their phy-
sical growth. There is no clear link between economic crisis and risky behavior of a child as they move through school, and there is no compelling evidence that youth leave school prematurely.
World Bank supports social protection goals during times of crisis to avoid such youth issues.
“The primary objectives of safety nets in times of crisis are to protect incomes and avoid irreversible losses of physical assets and human capital, and to help maintain political consensus around the policies needed to re-solve the crisis,” according to World Bank.
Cash transfer programs to families in need, public service activity programs that attract women and parent counseling are such safety nets that would benefit children through early childhood. Ensuring the timely payment of teachers and programs facilitating youth’s transition to work are further recom-mended policies for adolescents.
Friedman said there are holes in the re-search where psychologists just don’t know why developmental problems occur. “These huge unknown areas call for further multi-disciplinary inquiry and use of the diagnostic set of tools available to us,” he said. “Then we can see the differences in diverse, developing countries all over the world.”
By Clare Murphy
Migrant children at a detention centre. | EPA/NIKOS ARVANITIDIS
16 ARTS & CULTURE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
In a hectic, fast paced world, Gavin Pretor-Pinney stands apart. He thinks we’d all be happier if we stopped rushing around and
take time to watch clouds.“I was doing a talk at a literary festival in
Cornwall in 2004. I was asked to do a talk about clouds but was concerned no one would come along. I thought giving the talk an unu-sual name would make people come, so I cal-led it the Inaugural Lecture Of The Cloud Appreciation Society. People actually asked to join afterwards. It started as a joke but some of the best ideas start when you’re in a light-hear-ted frame of mind,” he told Metro newspaper.
The society now has over 31,000 members worldwide, from infants to a 96 year old, and his handbook, The Cloudspotter’s Guide, has sold over 200,000 copies. Not bad for a ma-nuscript that was rejected by 28 publishers.
Although the poet Wordsworth may have wandered lonely as a cloud, this is now a so-ciable activity.
In his cloud lover’s manifesto, he writes, “We think that they are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her displays, since
everyone can have a fantastic view of them.”In his guide he begins by pondering, “You
might well think that cloud collecting sounds like a ridiculous idea. How can anyone colle-ct such ephemeral and free-spirited things as clouds? Surely, they’re just about as uncollec-table as anything gets.” But he concludes, “You don’t have to own something to collect it. You don’t even have to hold it. You just have to no-tice it and record it.”
With this in mind, he asks people to note down their reflections on their spotted clouds, and awards points to noting them, from a
humble 10 points for the common Stratocu-mulus to a magnificent 55 points for “the rare and dramatic waves of the Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud.”
Pretor-Pinney is in his mid-forties and has extolled the virtues of a relaxed, contemplative life, and he says that he enjoys writing about the commonplace things, that we’ve seen so often, we’ve forgotten their beauty.
It’s a commonplace beauty, he says that you don’t need to go somewhere exotic, “The-re are stunning parts of nature around us if we just change our perspective slightly. You’d be happier if you didn’t wish you were some-where else in the world, somewhere without a cloud in the sky – encouraged by the travel industry. If you appreciate the beauty in that you’d be happier.”
Neither is he a technophobe, having seen how many could lovers have discovered each other over the internet. The society’s website gathers members, and their cloud snaps, from all over the world. He collected the best in a book to mark that traditional game, “Clouds that look like things.”
Members include Jorge Fin, who was an economist in Madrid, who left to paint cloud murals, “The clouds caught me,” he says. “I found, within them, a way to poetry that is per-fect for what I want to express,” he says.
Australian, Patti Miller is also in the soci-ety. Her earlier Cloud Club faded away many years ago as it was much harder to bring peo-ple together in the 60s and the club formati-on happened during a prolongued drought, where there were few clouds in the sky.
Richard Parnell watches clouds as part of his job, at the Mayumba National Marine Park in Gabon, and receives praise from the society, “Richard is the only person we know to have included in a published academic paper the startled reaction of a wild gorilla to a particu-larly dramatic cloud formation.”
Although most are based in the UK, mem-bers come from 95 different countries, a Uni-
ted Nations of Cloudwatchers, with many posting photos of clouds on the website and Facebook pages. They’ve also held their first international conference, in Spain last Decem-ber. The speakers even included a representa-tive from the European Space Agency, talking about their very different view of clouds.
To these enthusiasts, every cloud does have a silver lining, that of health, relaxation and perspective.
Gavin Pretor-Pinney will be giving an illus-trated talk on the Pleasures of Cloudspotting in London, at Selfridges on Sunday 17 Februa-ry at 1pm. Admission free.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘Wolke’ (Cloud) by German artist Gerhard Richter is about to be auctioned for an estimated €8.7 - €11.2 million.| AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT
Cloud spotters say no to blue sky thinkingRelax and look at clouds insteadBy Andy Carling
How sad that we can now go up in aeroplanes and see that there are no gods upon the clouds.” -Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Cumulus congestus. With its ominous, shadowy base, this cloud is no longer fair-weather. Congestus can produce brief but sizeable showers, and can keep growing into fierce Cumu-lonimbus storm clouds. The little ones, by contrast, are only scary when they take the form of David Has-selhoff.” -Gavin Pretor-Pinney
More information from: www.cloudappreciationsociety.org and www.facebook.com/cloudappreciationsociety
Tate Britain recently opened an impres-sive new exhibition,
‘Schwitters in Britain’ (until 12 May, 2013), which is dedi-cated to the work of German artist Kurt Schwitters (1887-I1948), who is also known as the ‘master of collage’, from his early years in pre-war Germany, to the latter part of his life spent in Britain.
Indeed art lovers will be drawn into this exhibition, which, along with the artist’s paintings, poems and sculp-tures, is largely devoted to Schwitters’ sophisticated col-
lage works, thus shedding light on a technique born long before World War I, during Georges Braque’s and Pablo Picasso’s cubist period.
While remaining faithful to strict composition principles, collage artists like Schwitters believed in the expressive po-tential of all raw, everyday ma-terials and manufactured ‘found objects’ or discarded items which, by keeping their func-tional identity, added a sense of reality to the dissatisfying illusionism of painting. Schwit-ters used this ‘aesthetics of frag-ment’ in the various art forms
that he experimented with, from poetry based on random phrases and bits of conversa-tion, to sculpture, photography, architecture, graphic arts and advertising.
Educated at the Dresden Academy of Art, which also welcomed his contemporaries, painters Otto Dix and George Grosz, Kurt Schwitters defined his own ideal in 1918-1919 when, having been invited to ex-hibit his work at Berlin’s famous Sturm Gallery, he met innova-tive artists like Italian Futurists and Zurich Dadaists, and start-ed to create ‘assemblages’ with scraps cut out from newspapers and advertisements.
Unexpectedly, one of these scraps contained the four letters MERZ, a word which became his ‘manifesto’, a brand name for all his artistic output. Schwit-ters’ Merz statement was that any raw material such as wire, string or cotton wool was just as legitimate as paint, and that the artist’s choices alone, could determine his creation.
As a prolific writer who reached national notoriety with his long illustrated poem ‘An Anna Blum’ (To Anna Blos-som), Schwitters became an active member of the European Avant-Garde associated to the Bauhaus movement in Germa-ny, Netherlands Constructivists like Theo Van Doesburg, the editor of the periodical ‘De Stijl’, and Russian Suprematists like El Lissitzky.
In his ‘Merz’ journal, pub-
lished from 1923 to 1932, Schwitters defended the ideas of International Constructiv-ism, a movement that origi-nated in Russia and gave art a social purpose by instigating a complete social transforma-tion. Until 1936, he worked on a large sculptural construction in his own house in Hanover, known as ‘Merzbau’, which was unfortunately destroyed during World War II.
However, after 1929, the rise of Nazism in Germany dis-integrated the avant-garde com-munity, as its art was considered unpatriotic and ‘degenerate’. Threatened by the Gestapo due to his connections with Ha-nover’s Resistance, Schwitters fled to Norway.
During the three years he spent in Norway, Schwitters mostly produced collages made of wrapper-paper, newspaper excerpts, photographs and slo-gans, alongside certain figurative works, which mainly depict the beautiful Norwegian landscape.
When the Germans oc-cupied Norway in 1940, how-ever, Schwitters was obliged to flee again, this time to Edin-burgh, where he was detained along with thousands of other German refugees and sent to Hutchinson camp on the Isle of Man. His internment period was particularly creative, as he produced over 200 works, mak-ing use of any material he could get his hands on, from linoleum flooring to porridge, and orga-nized exhibitions with other
artists in the camp.Although he was already
an international renowned art-ist, Schwitters was not really understood or appreciated in Britain at the time and struggled to make a living as his refugee status made him ineligible for funding. Upon his release in 1941, he tried to join the art scene in London without much success.
Aside from his collages, as-semblages and sound poems (his most famous one, ‘Urson-ate’, was performed in London in 1944), Schwitters grew in-creasingly interested in making small sculptures, using bone, wood, stone and plaster, which were often painted in strong pri-mary colours and had sugges-tive shapes.
He later moved to Amble-
side, in the Lake District, where he started building a new Merz construction, the ‘Merz barn’, which was sponsored by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1947, but the work re-mained unfinished, as he died six months into the project.
Although Kurt Schwitters died alone and neglected, his masterpieces, which influenced the Pop Art, Fluxus and Con-ceptual Art movements, can be found today in the permanent collections of the greatest Mod-ern Art museums, like the Tate in London but also New York’s MoMA, Paris’ Centre Pompi-dou and the Sprengel Museum in his native Hanover, which owns the largest part of his work along with important archives.
Kurt Schwitters on the cover of the Avant-garde art journal, ‘Merz’, 1927Source: Wikimedia Commons
18 BRUSSELS AGENDA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
Vochol: huichnol art on wheels ends 3 March, Bozar, horta hall
There’s whole sub-cultures devoted to cars, from the drag racers to customizers, but Mexico is going at it, full throttle. Vochol is a Volkswagen Beetle, decorated with glass beads in the age-old tradition of Mexico’s Huichol culture. The project highlights the artistic ingenuity of one of Mexico’s many indigenous cultures and shows that popular art is still topical in the 21st century. The iconic old goes hand in hand with the iconic new in a folkloric explosion of colour.The patterns usually have a deep cultural or spiritual sig-nificance, sometimes influenced by peyote, a hallucino-genic mushroom used in rituals.
The Vochol car is covered in Huichol designs using 2,277,000 beads fastened to the body of the car using a special heat-resistant resin, by eight artisans from two Huichol families.The images represent Huichol deities and culture. The-se include, on the car’s hood, two snakes above clouds, which represent rain. The back has images of offerings, and a canoe steered by a shaman. The sides show the gods of the sun, fire, corn, deer, and peyote, all impor-tant to the Huichol culture. The roof contains a large sun and four eagles, which represent the union betwe-en man and the gods.There is also an Eye of God, which is a figure with five points. The center represents the source of life, the east represents light, strength and knowledge. The west is associated with the history of the ancestors; the south is associated with agriculture and the north is where his-tory ends or the culmination of the elements.
An initiative of the Foundation for the Arts, Brussels
LAST MINUTE TICKETS FOR SHOWS & CONCERTS AT -50%
Avec le soutien de LA COMMISSION COMMUNAUTAIRE FRANÇAISE
Tickets for half price for performances and concerts on the same day. Arsène 50 offers you every day a wide range of performances, advises you in your choices and takes care of your reservation.
www.arsene50.be
Ticket sale: - At BIP, 2-4 rue Royale (Place Royale) 1000 BruxellesTuesday to Saturday, from 12.30 pm to 5.30 pm- Online on www.arsene50.beTuesday to Saturday, from 2 pm to 5.30 pm
FPA076-NewEurope 84x255.indd 1 8/09/11 12:35
Beetle Juice
Royal Andalusian Riding Schoolroyal andalusian riding school, Forest national, Brussels. april 5-7.
This show may not be new to Brussels but is always sure to delight audiences young and old alike. With their origins da-ting back to the 16th century, the Lipizzans – the ‘stars’ of the show - are Europe’s oldest bre-ed of horses. However, until the 19th century these noble steeds were not known as “Lipizzans”, a name that was taken from the Slovenian village of Lipica. Until that time they were called Spa-nish Karsters and highly prized.
The Lipizzans of Vienna’s Spanish Riding School have made the Piber Federal Stud, located in western Styria, their home since 1920. The stud ca-refully cultivates and develops the knowledge gained from over 400 years of breeding the-se magnificent animals.
Each year the best Lipizzan stallions are selected for trai-ning at the Spanish Riding Scho-ol and enchant visitors from all over the world with their truly unique performances.
The Riding School, suppor-ted by the Andalusian govern-ment, has become synonymous with Andalusian horsemanship.
The horses perform to mu-sic by Manolo Carrasco, the Spanish composer, pianist and conductor who has toured Eu-rope, Japan, China, Mexico and the United States. Carras-co, who also participates in nu-merous music programmes on Spanish television, has relea-
sed 12 albums, including “Có-mo Bailan los caballos Andalu-ces”. Although during the show you get the impression that the horses dance to the music, the music is, in fact, written to the movements of the horses. The harmony that is created is so-mething to behold.
Music, together with the hor-ses and their riders of course, are the most important element of this show.
Carrasco explains, “Music is the basis of all my shows and all the works I’ve done. By perfor-ming with the Royal School of Equestrian Art in Jerez I basi-cally wanted to combine mu-sic and horses. The commit-
ment and the challenge here was to make music specifically for them, highlighting the mo-vements made by horses. I think the challenge was achieved and that combination of music and horses made it a different and unique show.”
The costumes worn by the riders during the show are qui-te something too and are based on outfits from the 18th century with all the gear and clothes han-dmade in in Jerez de la Frontera.
These wonderful shows, whi-ch start at 2pm and 7.50pm and are promoted by Music Hall Promotions, are always popu-lar and sell out fast - so you’ve been warned!
The Twelve, Thon Hotel EURue du la Loi 75Tel 02 204 3922http://www.thonhotels.com/hotels/countrys/belgium/brussels/thon-hotel-eu/bar--restaurant/Open 12-2.30pm (Mon-Fri) and 6-10pm (daily). If you thought hotel restaurant food has to be bland and boring,then think again.Named after the number of stars on the EU flag, this 70-seat restaurant happily bucks the trend and is an ideal place for a spot of lunch or relaxing dinner. The fixed lunch menu is complemented by modern dishes that change weekly. Starters feature pan fried forest mushrooms and Norwegian scallops while the main courses, ranging in price from 15 to 26 euros, include duck confit, Norwegian salmon roulade and Belgian Blue filet steak. All are delicious.The same can be said of the deserts, particularly the deep fried vanilla ice cream in spicy spe-culoos biscuit which is both original and very tasty. Snacks are also served and the open –plan hotel lounge bar is also very pleasant. The Twelve celebrates its first anniversary in April. It’s a ‘hidden gem’ at the heart of the EU quarter that is well worth checking out. Highly recommended.
Campaigners for open data on clinical trials were celebrating after pharmacutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline signed up to a campaign to register and publish the results of every drug trial at alltrials.net.
Campaigners say that because full Clinical Study Reports (CSR) are not always, or often, available which leaves doctors and clinicians unsure about the effectiveness of a medicine.
Leading the campaign is UK doctor and author, Ben Goldacre, and he was delighted. Writing on his website, he explained, “I met with Andrew Witty, the head of GSK, to dis-cuss these concerns, and it was clear that they’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the-se issues.”
Goldacre continued, “I couldn’t be any happier. This is huge, and internationally huge. GSK have made a commitment to post CSRs online. They have also made sensible noises about the practicalities, which shows that they have thought about the implications, and they also discuss prioritising which CSRs to work on first. Because they have discussed these technical details – while I will always wait for
the proof in the pudding – I do not believe this is mere lip service.”
Noting the increase in support for his campaign, he adds, “The eccentric position is now not supporting alltrials.net. There is no serious defense for withholding information about clinical trials from doctors and patients. It is simply unethical, and it harms patients.”
Unique in literary genres, science ficti-on is often a signpost to the science and society of tomorrow. Perhaps the
best example is the TV series, Star Trek. Sin-ce the series began some of the technology in the show has come to pass, at least in nascent form, but there was something else, more im-portant than a gizmo; Lieutenant Uhura, pla-yed by Nichelle Nichols.
She was considering leaving the show un-til persuaded to stay by civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr, who noted that her character was an equal to the others, whose colour didn’t matter and that it was the only example of African Americans being shown as part of the future.
One person inspired by Nichols is Mae Jemison, who became the first woman of co-lour in space in September 1992, on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
The astronaut is coming to the Europe-an Parliament to inspire fellow scientists and politicians, and introduce something that the European Union has been accused of lacking, long term thinking.
Jemison is taking part in a week-long con-ference looking at how the EU collaborates with scientific partners at a global level.
Looking far beyond 2020, Jemison will moderate a session on The 100 Year Starship Initiative, which she heads.
Their mission is to enable interstellar
space travel within the next century, allowing our descendents to travel across the universe, which they say is “the next giant leap forward.”
They point out that “the truth is that the best ideas sound crazy at first. And then there comes a time when we can’t imagine a world without them.” As an example, H G Wells wrote his science fiction novel, ‘The First Men in the Moon’ in 1901, sixty-eight years later, Neil Armstrong went for a stroll on the lunar surface.
The scientists and others involved are taking the project very seriously, for it raises a host of fascinating questions, about much more than an extraordinary journey. As the project says, “We believe pursuing an extra-ordinary tomorrow will create a better world today.”
For interstellar voyages to happen, it will take more than rocket science, as the project begins to look at all the developments that will be needed, for example, what would clothing need to be made from? How will we keep healthy in space?
The initial concept is to travel to Alpha Cen-turi, which we now know, has a planet orbiting it, and there are likely to be more. The first step is being taken already with the project’s first task, “Over 6 months design a human interstel-lar mission using only technologies and capabi-lities that are realities today or can be realistical-ly accomplished prior to 2020.”
Are you ready for some real long term thinking?
Are you a Shakespeare enthusiast?
filmingshakespeare.com
The world’s fi rst digital Shakespearean short fi lm competition
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Alpha Centuri, here we come!European Parliament to consider voyage to the starsBy Andy Carling
By Andy Carling
Publishing trial data is vital say doctors. AFP PHOTO / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT
GSK to open trials data
The International Space Station together with the Endeavour space shuttle, the vehicle that helped build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. | NASA
20 TECHNOLOGY NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
Members claiming to be part of the hacking group Ano-nymous posted three days ago the names and contact data of over 4,000 banking executives to the government
Web site of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center.The file containing the information was published on 3 Februa-
ry night and announced through a Twitter account associated with the Anonymous project “OpLastResort.”
The data, which may come from Federal Reserve computers, included professional and personal contact information for bank presidents, chief operating officers and others, and log-in informa-tion.
Despite the information was deleted from this site, he list was also posted elsewhere online, and remains available through Google‘s web cache.
“The Federal Reserve system is aware that information was ob-tained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product. The exposure was fixed shortly after discovery. It is no lon-ger an issue. This incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system,” spokesman of The Federal Reserve Jim Strader said on 5 February.
However, the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center did not respond to requests from the media.
This action takes place after the activist group released on 26 January a video threatening to expose secret files as a response to the death of Aaron Swartz. The threat became real when last week they began the first phase of OpLastResort by attacking the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
In this occasion, the attack against bankers took place on 4 February, the date that the House Oversight Committee chair-man Rep. Darrell Issa established to receive more information on Swartz’s case. NR
“A secure internet protects our freedoms and rights and our ability to do business.
It‘s time to take coordinated action - the cost of not acting is much higher than the cost of acting”, stated Neelie Kores, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the Di-gital Agenda, during the launching of Commission‘s Cyber Security Strategy and proposed directive on network and information security (NIS) on 7 Febru-ary.
The new action aims to prevent and respond to cyber disruptions and at-tacks that are taking or may take place across Europe. In this way, the EU wants to achieve cyber resilience, reduce cy-bercrime, and develop cyber defence policies, as well as expand industrial and technological resources for cyber-secu-rity, and establish a coherent internatio-nal cyberspace policy.
In order to reduce the increasing number of cyber attacks and threats, the EU opened one month ago its Europe-an Cybercrime Centre, where different experts are building up models of past threats to avoid future disruptions, ex-plained Cecilia Malmström, Commissi-
oner for Home Affairs.We will not be able to reap all the
potential benefits of the online econo-my if we cannot protect our citizens and provide them with a safe and secure Internet environment”, she said, and added that “if we want to be credible in our efforts to fight cybercrime we need better legislation, more resources and better coordination.”
According to the proposed NIS Di-rective, which is a key component of the overall strategy, all Member States, key internet enablers and infrastruc-ture operators such as e-commerce platforms and social networks will be required to ensure a secure digital envi-ronment.
The Directive must be implemented by all EU countries within 18 months of its adoption by the Council and Euro-pean Parliament. It includes measures like the designation of a national NIS authority and the creation of a coopera-tion mechanism among Member States and the Commission to share early war-nings on risks and incidents.
However, only incidents having a si-gnificant impact on the security of core services provided by market operators should be reported to the competent
national authority, which may inform citizens about the threat.
Internet companies and Internet Service Providers are also targeted by the Directive. The Chinese firm Hua-wei is one of those who welcomed Commission‘s strategy and its Global Security Officer, John Suffolk, high-lighted that “the time has come to stop talking about the threat, stop talking about the challenges and start talking about the actions we have taken and will take.”
So far, reactions to the strategy have been varied. ALDE MEP Mariet-je Schaake welcomed the new plan, but pointed out that “we can not lose time in addressing the most difficult que-stions” and explained the Commission didn‘t announce new concrete actions.
In addition, ALDE MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld told viEUws that the strategy is not clear and affirmed that “this strategy is not a strategy, is a mishmash of different measures.”
By Nerea Rial
r Conference Europe25th & 26th of april, Amsterdam
Chinese services provider and mobile ma-ker Huawei has unveiled an smartphone running Windows 8 OS exclusively
available in Africa, as part of Microsoft’s 4Afrika Initiative.
By 2016, the project plans, among other in-itiatives, to give tens of millions of smart devices to African youth and “turn great ideas into a rea-lity that can help their community, their country, the Continent, and beyond,” said Fernando de Sousa, General Manager, Microsoft 4Afrika In-itiative, and added that technology can generate growth in the continent.
In this way, their first step is the adoption of smart devices and both companies are introdu-cing Huawei 4Afrika, a Windows Phone 8 with specific applications designed for citizens living in Angola, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.
The smartphone, which will be out later this month, will be targeted toward university students, developers and first-time smart phone users, and will be connected to a customised app store including applications designed and built by Africans.
The handset is a modified version of Huawei‘s Ascend W1 which was displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month. It has a 4inch touch screen, a 5 megapi-xel camera and can be on stand-by for up to 420 hours between charges.
“By launching the Huawei 4Afrika we will be bringing leading technology within reach for more people in Africa, thereby giving them ac-
cess to a world of new opportunities”, said Peter Hu, Managing Director of Huawei Device, Eas-tern & Southern Africa.
The price has not been revealed, but both Huawei and Microsoft aim to be the most af-fordable Windows phone in Africa.
“We believe there has never been a better time to invest in Africa and that access to tech-nology -- particularly cloud services and smart devices -- can and will serve as a great accelerator for African competitiveness,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, President of Microsoft International.
In addition, Microsoft, in collaboration with the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Com-munications and Kenyan Internet Service Pro-vider, Indigo Telecom Ltd., will deploy a pilot project called “Mawingu” (cloud) to deliver low-
cost, high-speed, wireless broadband and create new opportunities for commerce, education, healthcare across the country.
The tech giant has also announced a new on-line hub through which African SMEs will have access to free, relevant products and services from Microsoft and other partners. Besides, the company will provide free domain registration for the period of one year and free tools for qua-lifying SMEs .
In March, Microsoft will establish the Afrika Academy to help Africans develop both technical and business skills for entrepreneurship and im-proved employability. Also, in partnership with African companies, they will launch an AppFac-tory and a female empowerment portal.
Microsoft, Symantec take down cyber crime operation Tech giant Microsoft and computer security firm Symantec had disrupted a global cyber crime operation, or botnet, that was control-ling hundreds of thousands of PCs without the knowledge of their users. The botnet, called Bamital, was infecting those computers through criminal activities such as identity theft and click fraud on Internet ads, which fund many of the free online services available to consumers. Un-der an order issued by the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, technicians from both firms raided data centres in Weehawken, New Jersey, and Manassas, Virginia. According to a blog post published by Microsoft, the botnet “hi-jacked people’s search results and took them to potentially dangerous websites that could install malware onto their computer, steal their personal information, or fraudulently charge businesses for online advertisement clicks.” More than eight million computers were attacked by Bamital, wrote Richard Domigues Boscovich, Assistant General Counsel, Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, and added that the cyber operation also affected many major search engines and browsers, “in-cluding those offered by Microsoft, Yahoo and Google.” Bamital is the sixth botnet Microsoft has shut down in the past three years, as part of Project MARS, and the second done in coope-ration with Symantec. The two companies said that the malware generated at least $1 million a year in profits for the organisers of the operation.
The European Commission has presented on 4 February its “Licensing Europe” pro-ject, with the first of a series of copyright
roundtables to discuss the next steps to deliver non-legislative progress in the current digital age.
Today, the Internet offers both opportunities and challenges. Despite online content generates about 6.7 million jobs in Europe, and has a big potential to promote continent‘s cultural wealth and diversity, there are still issues that have to be solved, Michel Barnier, Commissioner responsi-ble for Internal Market and Services, pointed out at the presentation.
“The challenge is to establish new models of use and distribution which allow the creativity, efforts made and risks taken to be appropriately rewarded”, Barnier said, and added that the Euro-pean Commission launches its new imitative to solve, above all, four legitimate issues raised by citi-zens and businesses. The first matter concerns the cross-border portability of services offering online access to content, such as music and movies. Not all European citizens have access to new online offers, and one example is the video streaming service Netflix, which now offers 13 episodes of Kevin Spacey’s House of Cards which cannot be enjoyed by all its fans due to outdated copyright rules and practices.
The second one is the online availability of
European films, because only 15% of cinemato-graphic heritage is currently available on the net. Besides, “Licensing Europe” aims to facilitate small businesses obtaining licences for all rights and find solutions to tap into the potential of new text and data mining activities. Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, who called for changes to copyrights’ structures years ago, stated that “we should rather adapt practices to fit new digital opportunities (…) Music piracy is no longer a problem in Sweden, because there‘s a good legal alternative.” But online content also includes television, books, films and even science research. Therefore, Kroes wants citizens to “enjoy a wide choice of lawful digital content, wherever they are: and for that content to be rewarded.”
However, the commissioner highlighted that not only legislative measures are needed, “some-times, pragmatic and easy-to-implement solutions are just as valid. The goal is to adjust current prac-tices or get rid of costly inefficiencies”, she said.
“Copyright protects cultural diversity, rewards creativity and fosters innovation, in the internet era as well”, explained Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou. “ It is the best guarantee of fair remunera-tion for creators and an important incentive for the cultural and creative sectors to continue producing content.” NR
Commission launches copyright discussions
Huawei, Microsoft launch smartphone in Africa
The handset is a modified version of Huawei’s Ascend W1. | HuAWei
By Nerea Rial
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22 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
FINLAND | HOMEWARES
Teknos buys leading paints business in EstoniaTeknos Group has acquired the entire share capital of Kemiflo-ra Kaubandus and its entire paints and coating business in Es-tonia. The acquisition is subject to approval by Estonia’s com-petition authorities, it was reported on 6 February. The annu-al turnover of Kemiflora’s paints and coatings business is mo-re than five million euro. According to Teknos, the acquisiti-on strengthens its position in Estonia, and provides an oppor-tunity to expand the company’s existing operations in line wi-th the company’s growth strategy. Wet paints and powder coa-tings for the metal industry, industrial wood coatings and ar-chitectural coatings represent Teknos’ most significant busi-ness segments in Estonia as well as globally. Teknos is one of major companies in Europe to supply industrial coatings with a strong position in retail and architectural coatings. The com-pany has production in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia and China.
GERMANY | BANKING
Commerzbank profits tumble heavilyCommmerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest bank, said on 4 February its full-year net profit tumbled to just € 6.0 milli-on in 2012 after heavy write downs pushed it into the red in the fourth quarter, The Local reported. The bank said in a statement it booked a full-year profit of € 6.0 million for the whole of 2012, compared with € 638 million a year earlier, after it ran up net loss of € 720 million in the period from Oc-tober-December alone. „On the basis of preliminary, unaudi-ted figures the Commerzbank expects a net loss of approxi-mately € 720 million for the fourth quarter of 2012,” the sta-tement said. The fourth-quarter loss included charges of € 185 million from the sale of Ukrainian subsidiary Bank Fo-rum announced last July, as well as € 560 million in one-off write downs on deferred tax accruals, it explained. For the whole year, Commerzbank booked a total € 980 million in one-off charges. However, underlying earnings, as measured by operating profit, increased to € 1.2 billion in 2012 from € 507 million, the bank added. Revenues before loan loss pro-visions were virtually unchanged at € 9.9 billion, while ad-ministrative expenses were cut to € 7.0 billion from € 7.992 billion. Loan loss provisions rose to almost € 1.7 billion in 2012 from € 1.4 billion in 2011.
LATVIA | EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
Fiscal discipline key for stabil-ity and development in EuropeAccording to Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, strengthening of the fiscal discipline in the EU is the essenti-al precondition for regaining stability. Speaking at a widely at-tended panel recently the model of future Europe and chan-ges was discussed, which affect the region. Experts agreed that Latvia’s experience is a unique example for other EU Member States of the steps to be taken to regain stability after the finan-cial crisis, and that the EU should stick to the decisions made regarding the fiscal discipline. During discussions, experts fo-cused on Latvia’s contributions to ensuring strengthening the competitiveness of Europe which has been achieved by intro-ducing fiscal discipline and implementing the reforms. Latvia’s experience of competitiveness increase and the results achie-ved through implementation of reforms are reflected by the production and export volume growth, which exceeds the pre-crisis figures. Prime Minister V.Dombrovskis presentedLatvia to the forum’s audience as an investment – friendly country.
The government rejected Deutsche Bahn‘s request for an extra billion euro for the controversial rail development in Stuttgart 21, while admitting this would mean the enormous project would be four years late, The Local reported on 5 February.
The national railway operator said last December that the planned travel hub – which would see 57 km of new track and the rebuilding of Stuttgart‘s main train station underground – was going to cost more than the original budget of € 4.5 bil-
lion. The federal government has rejected the request for cash and according to in-ternal documents seen by regional paper the Stuttgarter Zeitung, said that it belie-ved the project would not be finished un-til 2024, despite Deutsche Bahn‘s claim it would be operational in 2020.
The documents, which came from the Transport Ministry, said the government saw “at this point no overlying reason” for agreeing to give Deutsche Bahn the € 1.1 billion to bump up the budget to the € 5.6
billion now said to be necessary. The pro-ject is in any case already largely funded by the government, which owns Deutsche Bahn. “The arguments not to reject further financing are weak,” it added. Deutsche Bahn executives are thought to have told the project‘s advisory board about the lack of cash not only too late, but also inaccu-rately. This is one of the reasons that the government has chosen to reject the next payout, as it could be, it believes, the first of many.
Railway fails to get extra billion for Stuttgart 21
More passangers will be seeing halts. Passengers of an ICE train of the Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) transfer to another train after damaged breaks caused a complete halt of their journey near Gardelegen, Germany, 24 December 2011. The train heading from Berlin to Cologne had to stop, due to a technical disturbance, and the journey of about 400 passengers was hindered for many hours. |EPA/HERMANN HAY
BLStream, a Finnish software company, has secured an investment of € 5.5 million from the Polish company Enterprise Inve-stors’ venture capital fund, it was reported on 5 February.
BLStream, which focusses on mobile software, digital products and corporate solutions, intends to use the newly ac-quired funds for developing its product selection. It is also seeking possible acqui-sitions.
Demand for BLStream’s products appears to be lively, as the company’s net sales grew 50% to € 10.5 million in 2011.
The venture capital company, which now owns 35% of the company through its investment, believes the growth will continue. It expects BLStream to double its business within the space of three ye-ars. The objective is also to increase the company’s Finnish operations.
The use of mobile equipment has increased exponentially throughout the world, which has increased demand for our company. We believe that we can speed up our growth even further with the help of our new partner’s capital, said BLStream’s CEO Ludovic Gaude.
He considers the investment made in the company as proof that Finnish compa-ny can serve as attractive investment tar-gets for foreign venture capitalists.
Enterprise Venture Fund I is a venture capital fund that is managed by Enterprise Investors and which invests in emerging SMEs. The fund typically invests any-where between € 5 million and 20 million for a minority stake.
The headquarters of BLStream, esta-blished in 1999, are located in Helsinki, but the company also has operations in Poland, Germany and the United States.
Software company secures € 5.5 min in Polish funding
Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co said that it is planning to close a site in Germany by the end of October as part of its multi-year restructuring plan, Times Of India re-ported on 2 February.
HP said it was closing its site in Rues-selsheim, Germany, southwest of Frankfurt, and that around 850 jobs would be cut. The
remaining 250 employees may be able to transfer to HP partners or clients.
The restructuring of its enterprise ser-vices business will not affect HP‘s other major sites in Germany, the company said, adding that it would continue to employ about 10,000 people in Europe‘s largest economy.
HP said last year that it was planning to lay off 29,000 employees over two years as it tries to return to growth.
The company, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, began a mul-ti-year restructuring last year aimed at fo-cusing the sprawling company on services targeted at corporations.
Mercator records € 103.6 mln loss in 2012A symbol of Slovenia failed regional ambitions and growing fi-nancial problems, the country's largest food retailer Mercator, on 30 January reported a net loss of € 103.6 million in 2012, ver-sus a profit of 23.5 million in the previous year, Balkans reported. The supermarket chain, which operates stores in Slovenia, Ser-bia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro, while this year planning to sell its units in Albania and Bulgaria, blamed the loss on a fall in the value of some of its assets, including real estate, plus tou-gher competition and a worsening economic situation. Profits were also hit by the depreciation of the Serbian dinar and by an increase of VAT in Croatia.
BELGIUM | BREWERY
AB InBev to acquire Chinese breweryAnheuser-Busch InBev will acquire Chinese Nanchang Asia Brewery Co, a leading brewery in Jiangxi province, to penetra-te the Chinese middle and low-end beer markets.
BELGIUM | PHARMACEUTICALS
Animal feed substance to be grown in ChinaChina’s first methionine plant will be put into operation soon, ending the country’s dependence on imports of the important supplement used in animal feed additives. The plant in Nan-jing, Jiangsu province, is a joint venture by China National Blu-eStar Co and its fully owned French subsidiary Adisseo Group. The factory, owned by Bluestar Adisseo Nanjing Co, or Adistar, will have an annual production capacity of 70,000 metric tons in the initial stage. China needs about 120,000 tons of methio-nine annually, and is totally dependent on imports, according to Bluestar. “The total production capacity of the plant is ex-pected to be 140,000 tons a year to meet the growing demand both in China and in other Asian countries,” said Ru Chen-gjun, Executive Vice General Manager of Adistar.
AUSTRIA | RETAIL
Lidl revamps distribution hub Lidl is to revamp its distribution depot in Mullendorf, Austria, adding approximately 21,500 square feet (2,000 square me-tres) to the space, it was reprted on 30 January. The Schwarz Group-owned discounter is to remodel the warehouse to faci-litate the storage of up to 17,000 pallets, allocating most space to the frozen food area. When finished, the distribution hub will have a capacity of 323,000 square feet (30,000 square me-tres). The project is due for completion in November 2013.
HUNGARY | ENERGY
MVM Partner to supply power to troubled MALMVM Partner, a unit of the state-owned Hungarian Electri-city Works (MVM), will supply troubled alumina maker MAL with power from 1 February, the National Development Mi-nistry said previous Friday, Budapest Business Journal repor-ted. "In the interest of the national economy and the protec-tion of the environment, the government will ensure MAL continuous supply of electricity by means of MVM Partner," the ministry said.
On 5 February, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that the government plans to initiate the withdrawal of French troops out of Mali, in March.
“We will continue to act in the north where some terrorist havens remain,” Mr. Fabius told Wednesday’s Metro newspaper and continued, “I think that from March, if everything goes accor-ding to plan, the number of French troops should fall.” Until now, France deployed approximately 4,000 French troops, as well as armoured vehicles and fighter jets. Moreover, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that the French troops, inflicted “great damage on the jihadist terrorist groups,” and Kidal, the last stronghold of al-Qa-eda linked militants, was now under the control of French forces. Now France is looking forward handing over the ope-ration to a UN –backed African force of approximately 8,000 troops, known as AFISMA. Until today, 3,800 have alrea-dy been deployed.
At the same time, following the mi-nisterial meeting of the ‘Support and Follow-up Group on the situation in Mali,’ the European Commission pu-blished a press release reporting that EU will provide financial (€50 million)
and logistical support to the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA). After the meeting EU High Representative Catherine Ashton admit-ted France’s important role in the Malian operations saying, “France has been in the frontline; the European Union and its member states, along with ECOWAS, the African Union and their members, are working together to provide support across the board.”
The meeting mainly focused on how to ensure sustainable security in Mali, by supporting democracy, economic deve-lopment and human rights. For that re-ason, the Commission’s release stressed that a “free and fair electoral process, the return to full constitutional order and a genuinely inclusive national dialogue are key to address the instability in Mali and restore security and development in the Sahel region across the board.”
French troops will withdraw from Mali in March
Children look at a wall on which are painted (L to R) the Malian, Nigerien and French flags, and writted "Mali, Niger, France, live one people, one goal, one time" | AFP PHOTO / SIA KAMBOU
Austrian crystal maker Swarovski has snapped up a share in the Indian jewel-lery firm Tara Jewels, Austrian Indepen-dent reported on 28 January.
According to information from in-side the company the deal was signed in December by the Swarovski investment firm Crystalon Finanz AG based at Mei-len in Switzerland.
The jeweller based in Mumbai em-ploys 1,740 staff and has 30 stores in India and exports 80% of its output ab-road to locations such as the Swiss chain Christ. Unlike spectacularly unsuccess-ful investment by Swarovski in other projects for example the takeover of the American firm Zale in the eighties the Austrian firm is making a slower and lo-
wer key investment in India.Officially they have taken up just
7.3% of the IPO which involved an in-vestment of € 5.6 million.
According to a Tara balance books the firm which is mostly owned by boss Rajeev Sheth had a turnover last year of around the € 195 million and a profit of € 10 million.
Swarovski invest in India
Hungary has acquired the natural gas business of Germany utility EON, name-ly EON Foldgaz trade (EFT) and EON Foldgaz Storage (EFS). The purchase price has not yet been revealed but according to a press report, the Hungari-an Electricity Works (MVM) was autho-rized to pay up to € 875 million for the assets, portfolio Hungary reported on 1 February.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban that day did not want to reveal the purchase price, saying the contract has not been
signed yet."I’m not sure the purchase price may
be revealed before the signing of the con-tract," he responded to a question how much the state paid for the EON assets.
This means the contract has not been signed yet.
When asked about a press report that the state-held MVM was authorized to pay no more than € 875 million, Orban responded: "this is not unrealistic".
Orban has confirmed late on 31 January the talks between Hungarian
authorities and EON on the purchase of the two companies’, E.ON Földgáz Trade, which conducts gas wholesale activity and Russian natural gas imports, and E.ON Földgáz Storage, which holds a dominant part of Hungary’s natural gas storage infrastructure.
"Hungary’s citizens can now feel safe with respect to the volume of energy supply and also to the price to pay for that," he added.
The purchase price has not yet been revealed.
EON's gas business bought, price unknown
FRANCE | DEFENCE
AUSTRIA |CRYSTALS
HUNGARY |GAS
By Karafillis Giannoulis
24 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
Federico Grandesso talks to Italian MEP Pino Arlacchi and former vice-secretary general of the UN for a further update on the Bersani Coalition. The polls are now two weeks away in Italy.
Can you present some of the most important points in the programme of your coalition?
One of the most important points of our electoral programme is the fight to mafia and the reform of the Italian justice system. A system that satisfy the European standards means: strengthen the administration of civil and penal justice improving substantially its efficiency; reduce the length of the civil trials because now they can last up to ten years and finally bring to an end the grip of the mafias on the Italian society and economy. Our coalition has all the right ideas to succeed in these tasks. Another important topic for us is the fight against tax evasion and this means the recovery of financial resources that we could invest for the growth of the country and for the reduction of unemployment.
Few days ago Mr Berlusconi proposed not only to abolish the property tax (IMU) but even to reimburse it (the one paid last year). This IMU tax is monopolising the attention during this electoral campaign. What do you think about this proposal?
I don’t think that the Italian voters are going to be “seduced” by this proposal; it’s an enormous lie from Berlusconi and I think it will backfire on him. According to the major pollsters the impact of this proposal is very low. But pollsters use to measure only the size of votes that are gained. They don’t measure the loss of consensus that these ridiculous proposals can provoke on the voters. I think that not even Berlusconi’s inner circle gives any credibility to such a proposal. In Italy more than 70% of the population owns its house. Having said that, our idea on this tax is that IMU must be paid only above the 500 euros. Most middle class and all working class family should be exempted from IMU.
In the Senate it will be very difficult for your coalition to have a majority, what do you think about a possible alliance with the coalition of Mr Monti?
I think this partnership will be necessary but also useful. There is only one major issue on which we deeply dissent from Monti: The issue of labour rights. We are a democratic and socialist party, associated with the European social democratic family. We are a worker’s party. Many women and young people also vote for
us because we are very close to their aspirations and rights. We will have 40% women among our next MEPs. Monti is a cold technocrat, with little sensitiveness for these social categories. Having said that, on almost all other crucial issues - the relations with EU, the fight to corruption, the reform of the State apparatus, the necessity to foster growth and competitiveness - our programmes are very similar.
In the electoral pools the third place is occupied by the Five Stars Movement of the famous comic performer Beppe Grillo, what do you think about him?
Beppe Grillo is part of a phenomenon that exits in all European countries, where you have a physiological 20% of “impossible” electorate: Extremists, populists, scovinists, racists, maverick characters that ignore democratic procedures. People that inflames for a while part of the public opinion and of the electorate, and vanish sometimes as quickly as they appeared. In Italy we had always this 20% of diehard voters. In the past they were neo-fascists or ultra-communists. Now we have the movement of Grillo, and the revolutionaries of Mr Ingroia and Mr Di Pietro (Rivoluzione civile), plus tiny extreme right formations.
You had a prominent role in the UN. What’s the right way to manage the crisis in Mali?
First of all we have to replace the French troops with a UN peacekeeping force largely composed by African soldiers. UN can play a fundamental role to consolidate the democracy in Mali, which is still governed by a confused coalition. We need to support a process of democratic transition. But no durable peace can occur in Mali if the discrimination of the Tuareg population will continue to exist. Only through the acknowledgement of the Tuareg’s right to autonomy and to a full citizenship a democratic Mali can survive and stabilise. This process will lead to the marginalization of the local mafias and terrorists groups.
Your coalition seems to suffer a sort of “fatigue”. Do you need a turning point?
Yes, I see a little bit of “fatigue” inside of coalition but I don’t think that there are going to be real turning points. The current distance between the two main coalitions will remain as it is. Maybe we should have done a more courageous and high profile campaign, but it is too late to change.
BULGARIA|ENERGY
Bulgaria cancels pipelineOn 6 February, the Bulgarian government proposed during its meeting that the National Assembly cancels the Burgas-Ale-xandroupolis pipeline agreement. The tripartite arrangement was concluded between Bulgaria, Greece and Russia in 2007 and envisaged the building a 300-kilometre oil pipeline whi-ch to pump up to 50 million tonnes of crude a year from the Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis on the Aegean.In late 2011, the Bulgarian government proposed cancellation of the agreement by mutual consent, based on the analyses fin-ding that it could not be carried out under the terms of the agre-ement signed in 2007. Also in 2011, Finance Minister Djan-kov said Bulgaria will walk out of the €1 billion project alone after 12 months, if Athens and Moscow refuse to voluntari-ly annul the deal.
ROMANIA|ENGINEERING
Adrem Invest eyes AsiaRomanian Adrem Invest, a technical engineering firm, has agreed in January on engineering contracts worth €25 milli-on for the metallurgy sector in Asia, as it aims to increase its share of exports to around 50%, Business Review reported on 7 February. The company has signed three contracts amounting to €13 million with China’s Baoutou Iron & Steel and a con-tract of €2.4 million with South Korea’s Hunday Steel. Adrem Invest entered Uzbekistan after a € 10 million contract with ste-el plant Uzbek Combinat. The Romanian company is already active across markets in Asia, Africa and the US.
ROMANIA|ENERGY
Rompetrol plans expansion Oil and gas company Rompetrol Group, owned by Kazakh–based KazMunaiGaz, plans to invest some $200 million in ex-panding the network of gas stations in Romania. The group also plans to expand its retail network around the Black Sea by at least 50%, according to Senior Vice President Azamat Zhangulov, Romania Insider reported on 6 February. Rom-petrol plans to open 150 new gas stations in Romania, while 200 other stations will be added in Bulgaria, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. The expansion comes as a response to the increasing production at the Petromidia refinery in Roma-nia, according to Zhangulov.
SPAIN|ENERGY
Copisa to build wind farm Spanish construction company Copisa will build its third wind farm project in Romania, after landing a €8 million deal for a wind park at Chirnogeni, in Constanta county, Romania Insi-der reported on 5 February. The Spanish firm will work for fi-ve months and install 32 turbines of 2.5 MW each, as well as a 25-kilometer access road. This is Copisa’s third project in Ro-mania, after building the first two phases of a wind park in Mi-hai Viteazu, also in the Dobrogea region. Copisa runs its own subsidiary in Bucharest.
ROMANIA|RETAIL
Cora to open storeHypermarket operator Cora will open its first shopping cen-tre in Constanta, on the Romanian seaside. The hypermar-ket, which was announced in 2011, will be called Corall, Ro-mania Insider reported on 4 February. Work on the project started in the spring of 2012. The opening was initially set for June 2013, but, according to Romanian daily Ziarul Financi-ar, the hypermarket will open two months ahead of schedule.
Italian MEP Pino Arlacchi and former vice-secretary general of the United Nations.
ITALY|ELECTION SPECIAL
Arlacchi: Italian voters will not be ‘seduced’ by the tax proposal
63rd session of WHO Regional Committee in IzmirTurkey will host the sixty-third session of the WHO Regio-nal Committee for Europe in the city of Izmir on 16–19 Sep-tember 2013. The session was originally planned to be held in Portugal. A high-level delegation from Turkey, led by the De-puty Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Ömer Faruk Koçak, conveyed the Ministry of Health’s support for the ho-sting of the Regional Committee session. The delegation vi-sited WHO/Europe on 9 and 10 January 2013 and met with the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab, di-visional directors and senior programme managers. The city of Izmir, one of the oldest settlements of the Mediterranean basin, has generously offered to host the upcoming Regional Committee session together with the Ministry of Health. Ms Jakab expressed her gratitude for the supportive decision of the Turkish Government and the city of Izmir. The city will also host the 2013 WHO European Healthy Cities Network confe-rence in June. The Network consists of cities around the WHO European Region that are committed to health and sustaina-ble development. The WHO Regional Committee for Euro-pe is WHO’s decision-making body in the European Region.
ALBANIA | BUSINESS
EnergoInvest to build line in AlbaniaA 110 kV transmission line will be constructed in southern Al-bania between Energoinvest d.d. Sarajevo and OST Albania (Albania Transmission). To this effect, EnergoInvest d.d. Sara-jevo Delegation was in Tirana to sign an agreement, AENews reported. The heads of these companies signed the agreement for the construction of a transmission line which is worth KM 33 million. The official investor of this project is the German development bank Kf W, with whom Energoinvest previous-ly conducted negotiations. The signing ceremony of the con-tract was attended by Bosnian Prime Minister Niksic said Al-banian counterpart Sali Berisha. Niksic said that he is confi-dent Energoinvest will gain trust in its work, and will success-fully implement a quality job within the specified time. Nik-sic expressed hope that BiH will have its own representative office in Albania and assured to continue successful coopera-tion with Albania.
FYROM | BILATERAL RELATIONS
Russian trip sparks talks During a recent official visit to Russia, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FYR FYROM, Nikola Poposki met with his host and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Amid the cordial, ami-cable and constructive atmosphere, the two officials exchan-ged their views on overall ties and cooperation between the two countries, MRTOnline reported. In course of talks, Lavrov said that Russia considers FYROM as an important partner in both the bilateral context and in terms of aiding the efforts ai-med at resolving regional problems, underling the Russian po-sition of being against any kinds of changes being made to the existing borders in Europe and specifically in the Balkans. The parties agreed that political ties between the two countries are soaring and there is more room for developing cooperation in all areas of mutual interest, especially economy an commerce areas. In this regard, Poposki said that FYROM wants to bol-ster cooperation with Russia in the energy industry and tra-de, with emphasis on the possibilities of Russian companies making direct investments in FYROM. He also spoke on fina-lising projects such as the construction of a section connecting the FYROM to the South Stream gas pipeline and the deve-lopment of the national gas supply network of the FYROM.
Albania‘s central bank has cut its bench-mark interest rate by reducing it 25 ba-sis points to a record low of 3.75%, in order to boost the sluggish economy. Since July for the first time Albania has cut its benchmark interest rate, AENews reported. According to the bank, the rate reduction should help ensure that inflation meets the bank’s target as infla-tionary pressures are low and have been declining in recent months.
The Bank of Albania, which cut ra-tes by 75 basis points in 2012, said eco-nomic activity this year is positive and similar to 2012 but growth is expected to remain below potential and demand-side inflationary pressures are expected to remain low.
The central bank forecasts annual inflation this year between 0.8 and 3.8 % compared with 2012‘s average inflation rate of 2.0 %, following December’s 2.4 % inflation rate.
The central bank targets inflation of 3 %, plus/minus 1 %age point. Over the last decade, the Balkan nation has wit-nessed growth rates of around 6% which was lowered by repercussions from Eu-rozone crisis. For this year the govern-ment expects 3% growth which is above the 0.5% prognosis by the International Monetary Fund or the 0.6% seen by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. After the monthly mee-ting of the bank’s board, Central bank Governor Ardian Fullani said foreign
demand had been the main driver of economic growth this year and data show this trend continuing in the fourth quarter.
He said that 2.7 % GDP growth po-sted in the third quarter, up from 2.1 % in the second quarter and the first quarter’s contraction of 0.2 %.
“On the other hand, domestic de-mand remains sluggish, due to the lack of fiscal stimulus and the performance of slow consumption and private in-vestment,” Fullani said in a speech after the central bank’s council approved the semi-annual statement. He said that by cutting financing costs, the Bank of Al-bania aims to increase lending for con-sumption and investments.
Central bank cuts benchmark interest rate to 3.75%
Turkish Finance minister Mehmet Simsek recently announced in Ankara that prior end of this year, Turkey will sell a stake in Turk Telekom, the country‘s biggest tele-com company.
This month Turkey plans to sell a 7% stake in Turk Telekom through a seconda-ry public offering in February, as informed by anonymous sources last December, Zaman reported. Sources also claimed that 6.68% stake will be sold through a public offering in the first quarter of 2013. It should be noted that Dubai-based Oger Telecom, part owned by Saudi Telecom -- holds 55%, the Turkish state owns 32% of the shares while 13% percent is traded on the Istanbul Stock Exchange (IMKB) after the company was privatised for $1.87 bil-lion in 2008.
According to Simske, plans to sell stakes in the firm was made three years ago and was mainly due to the fact that the state seeks to sell off a wide range in everything from electricity and industry to state-owned firms.
Simsek informed that the overall value of the state firms up for sale in the coming months, could reach $13.5 million. He predicted that in next two or three months,
many unproductive firms and many pro-duction facilities are going to be put up for bidding. Bringing into light other matters, he mentioned the auction of the country‘s national lottery and within the next year it could earn the state $20 billion in auction
revenue. As reported, the state as per econo-
mic vision for Turkey had reiterated that it is moving ahead to privatize the state’s vast network of subsidised and antiquated enterprises.
Turkey to sell stake in Türk Telekom
A Turkish trade mission event was re-cently held at the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Taguig. Spea-king at the event, president of the Philip-pine-Turkish Business Council Ernesto Chua Co Kiong aid that trade between the Philippines and Turkey may reach $1 billion within the next five years, Zaman reported.
He went on to sea that Turkey views the Philippines as a promising invest-
ment destination and more exchange of good between the two countries is ex-pected. The council said that in last two years, bilateral trade has already doubled to $400 million. Kiong said that the council is calling on Turkish firms to set up operations in Manila. He invited Tur-key to establish showrooms and factories in Manila as will facilitate easy trade and sell. According to him, he said that Phi-lippine ha a growing market and Turkey
can tap this market for mutual benefits. At the trade mission, the visiting Tur-kish delegation also expressed interest in bidding for the Bases Conversion and Development Authority‘s 33.1-hectare Bonifacio South Pointe property.
The council said in a statement that 12 companies have already started put-ting up their facilities in Manila, while another 10 are considering locating their business in the Philippines.
Verdict revision possibleTwo ex-Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac accused of war crimes were first sentenced to 24 and 18 years in prison. On November 16, 2012, the Hague Appellate Cham-ber acquitted the Croatian generals on all points of the indict-ment. Chief Hague Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said that a revision of the verdict to both Croatian generals is theoreti-cally possible, if new evidence is shown, Javno reported. “As I said after the acquittal of Gotovina and Markac, a revision is theoretically possible, and we are considering it as we do in all cases,” Brammertz. He reiterated that a revision of the verdict is plausible but new evidence in this regard was never presen-ted to the court. “This means that there is a theoretical possi-bility, but little likelihood as we have no new evidence,” the chief prosecutor said.
CROATIA|EU AFFAIRS
MEPs push for adhesionHungarian MEP Zita Gurmai (EP Socialists and Democrats) and German MEP Alexandra Thein (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe) recently called on Denmark, Holland, Germany and Slovenia to put aside their internal differences and sign treaty for Croatia’s adhesion, Javno reported. The two MEPs urged the MPs not to endanger Croatian entry. They said in a statement, “The European Parliament remains committed to Croatia’s adhesion.” The two MEPs appealed their counter-parts in national parliaments to desist from using their internal political problems to delay or endanger Croatia’s adhesion in July. Croatia is scheduled to enter the bloc July 1 this year.
SERBIA|DIPLOMACY
Belgrade, Nicosia to boost tiesSerbian and Cypriot officials recently issued a joint communique after their first intergovernmental meeting in Belgrade. Cyprus Fo-reign Minister Erato Kozakou – Marcoullis, Defence Minister De-metris Eliades, Justice Minister Loucas Louca and Communicati-ons Minister Efthymios Flourentzos were present at the meeting. At the meeting, the two countries officials said they are willing to enhance co-operation and vowed to improve economic and tra-de co-operation, Beta news agency reported. In addition, they al-so shared their mutual support on a political level.
SERBIA|LOAN
Calls for EBRD to back SMEsSerbian Minister of Finance and Economy Mladjan Dinkic re-cently presented the concept of the Programme for support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), to European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) officials. The concept was received by Executive Director for Central and So-utheast Europe EBRD Jean-Marc Peterschmitt and the bank’s new Director for Serbia Matteo Patrone, reads a press release.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|EU AFFAIRS
Support for accessionAt recent meeting with Bosnia-Herzegovina Security Minis-ter Fahrudin Radoncic, visiting Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said his country will fully support Bosnia and Herzego-vina (BiH) in its efforts to join the European Union, Fars ne-ws agency reported. Dacic is visiting Sarajevo to participate the forum of the Migrations, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI) sponsored by Bosnia. It should be noted that Serbia is one of the five EU candidate countries. Dacic said that Ser-bia wants BiH to get a candidate status and date for commen-cement of negotiations as soon as possible.
The Croatian government recently ad-optednew labour market measures which ensures that unemployed youth receive health and pension insurance as well as €220 monthly, Javno reported. The new labour measures received €61 million from the state, about €12 million more than in 2012. The programme was laun-ched by the government early this year in order to reduce 21% jobless rate in the country, highest since 2003.
At present there are 370,000 unem-ployed people in Croatia, and the figure is soaring. Since 1 January, 12,000 went jobless. Measures as contained in the pro-gramme include employer subsidies, tax relief and self-employment support. They focus on raising employment opportuni-ties for special social groups including the disabled, the elderly, war veterans and Roma. Employers are subsidised to pro-vide professional training. When hiring people older than 50, the employer will receive 50 percent of the worker‘s gross wages from the state.
The 2013 budget also envisage salari-es for public workers. According to some analysts, the measures are not enough to reduce unemployment rate. “These measures cannot significantly increase
employment. The measures do not con-tribute to skill increase, or new know-ledge for long-term employment,” Iva To-mic, a researcher at the Zagreb institute of economics said.
He called for closer co-operation between the state and the labour market. “The state cannot create jobs … it should reduce the number of employees, but al-low the private sector to easily and quic-kly create jobs, through reducing bureau-cracy and administrative barriers, review tax policy, encourage innovation,” Tomic said.
Teo Matkovic, professor at the Zagreb law faculty, believes that the new labour measures can help the unemployed to earn a job. “If the measures are well targe-ted, organised, monitored and integrated with other activities, they can moderately increase job-finding chances or a better salary. But it‘s not a magic wand that can help all unemployed,” Matkovic added.
Labour Minister Mirando Mrsic said predicts that unemployment growth will continue through spring and will gra-dually decline in the summer and after Croatia’s EU accession mid-year. He ex-pects more job openings than job losses, by end of this year.
Croatia adopts new labour market measures
A woman walks near the flags of the EU and Croatia flying at the Croatian Government building in Zagreb, Croa-tia, 9 December 2011. |EPA/ANTONIO BAT
Secretary-General of the Government Zarko Sturanovic recently presented the adopted Government’s agenda for 2013. He said that the government of Monte-negro has adopted measures to lessen the negative effects of the financial crisis and create conditions for the growth of the Montenegrin economy the top priori-ties of its work for this year, Montenegro Times reported. He said that economic policy for this year pays emphasis on fur-
ther consolidation of the public finances, creation of conditions for foreign invest-ments and further stabilisation of the sector of finance.
Sturanovic also said that the restric-tive public expenditures policy and the existing and new structural reforms will be implemented. The government has also prioritized restructuring public debt and drafting an action plan for the suppression of grey economy in order
to create more tax revenues this year. It will also review the enforcement of all concession agreements, as well as private investments in hotel and tourism sector, the Secretary-General noted. In line with a precondition for Montenegro’s’ GDP growth, the government also plans to adopt measures which envisage further valorisation of the available resources in energy, transport, tourism, agriculture and processing industry sectors.
Government tries to face economic crisis
International bodies have slammed Bos-nia and Herzegovina for failing to prose-cute traffickers. In 2011 lack of state-level prosecutions pushed the country down from a tier one rating to tier two in 2012 on the UNHCR list of countries fighting trafficking. As a result, a multi-agency task force in the country has introduced series of amendments that will harmonise legal codes on human trafficking in the country‘s four judicial districts, ensuring the prosecution of trafficking crimes, Fars news agency reported. The amendments
aim to bring all four jurisdictions accor-ding to European standards but that pro-cess is gradual one, since each operates independently. So far, the state legislature is the only jurisdiction that conforms to those standards. The amendments would also define the consumption of services from trafficked persons as criminal.
Members of all areas of the BiH go-vernment were involved in the amend-ments process under the supervision and suggestion from the OSCE and the Coun-cil of Europe (CoE). Republika Srpska
recently agreed to begin implementing the working group recommendations. However the Brcko District and the Fede-ration of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) are yet to comply. To convince them a conference was held few weeks back at the BiH parliamentary assembly. “Only by working together can we put an end to this terrible trade in human suffering, and the unimaginable pain caused by hu-man trafficking,” said Fletcher Burton, the head of the OSCE Mission in BiH, at the conference.
BiH introduce amendments to prosecute human traffickers
Giant Greenhouse Built in ReykjavíkThe construction of a 3,000-square-meter greenhouse for lettuce and spinach, run by the company Lambhagi, was re-cently completed in Ulfarsardalur in Reykjavík. Construc-tion began around two years ago and 1,500-square-meters of the greenhouse were put into use about a year ago, Iceland Review reported on 1 February. Now that the building has been completed, production capacity will be doubled by around 250 tons per year. According to owner of Lambhagi Hafberg Þorisson, as the building is largely automated the increase in production capacity will not require many more additional staff. ”This is a hi-tech greenhouse, everything is controlled by computers and the equipment among the best in the world. Everything is automated, the heating, irrigation, seeding, electricity and climate control. Our production is all very environmen-tally-friendly,” he added. Lambhagi is a family company which was established around 30 years ago. The number of permanent staff totals 14. Investment in the greenhouse reportedly totals $ 1.97 million (€ 1.45 million).
SWITZERLAND | WATCHMAKERS
Swatch profits beat forecasts in 2012The world‘s biggest watch-making group Swatch said on 4 February its net profit soared 26% last year, beating market expectations and boosting its share price, The Local re-ported. Swatch, popularly known for its brightly coloured plastic-cased watches, saw its net profit balloon to 1.6 bil-lion Swiss Franks ($ 1.76 billion). Hailing „a high level of capacity utilisation, innovative production methods and traditionally strong cost controls,“ the group also said its operating profit swelled nearly 23% year-on-year to 1.98 billion Franks. Analysts had expected a more modest in-crease in the watchmaker‘s net profit to 1.4 billion Franks on an operating profit of 1.8 billion. Earlier, Swatch, which often publishes parts of its results in advance, had reported that its 2012 sales rose by 14% to 8.1 billion Franks. The Swiss company said its all-important watches and jewelle-ry division had seen its operating profit leap 20.8% to 1.6 billion Franks, despite large-scale investments in marke-ting to promote its luxury Omega brand during the Lon-don Olympics. The group said it had especially seen strong growth in sales of its mid-range and high-priced products. While Swatch‘s low-end plastic watches are perhaps its most recognisable, the Swiss company operates in every price range, from the Flik Flak kid‘s watches to prestigious timepieces under, for instance, the Breguet brand which can cost more than one million Franks apiece. The Biel-based group is also Switzerland‘s leading provider of watch making components, and in 2012, its production unit saw its operating profit swell 37.3% to 442 million Franks.
ICELAND | HEALTH WORKERS
Iceland hospital nurses to get pay raiseDirector of Landspítali National University Hospital Bjorn Zoega has announced that he will increase the sa-laries of nurses in line with the government’s recent con-tribution of funds in an effort to resolve the ongoing wage dispute at the hospital, Iceland review reported on 1 Fe-bruary. Due to discontent with their wages and with no solution in sight, 270 nurses at Landspítali have handed in their resignations to take effect as of 1 March.
Switzerland‘s biggest bank on 5 Febru-ary reported a 1.9 billion Swiss Franks loss for the fourth quarter in the wake of a series of lawsuits, scandals and a wave of restructuring, RTE Ireland reported.
UBS, based in Zurich, attributed the loss mainly to „net charges for provisions for litigation, regulatory and similar mat-ters as well as net restructuring charges and an own credit loss.“
In contrast, UBS made a net profit of 323 million Franks in the fourth quarter of 2011 despite a $ 2 billion rogue tra-ding scandal.UBS said it ended the full year 2012 with a loss of more than 2.5 billion Franks, compared with a profit of 4.1 billion Franks for 2011.
The bank also said on 5 February that it is to buy back approximately 5 billion Franks of its own bonds in an at-tempt to reduce its funding costs.
Sergio Ermotti, who was appointed chief executive in November in the wake of a major trading scandal, said the bank nonetheless „made decisive progress in executing our strategy last year and star-ted 2013 in a strong position.“
UBS is one of the world‘s largest ma-nagers of private wealth assets and is on the list of the 29 „global systemically im-portant banks“ that the Bank for Interna-tional Settlements, the central bank for central banks, considers too big to fail.
The reputations of UBS and the wi-der global banking sector were battered
last year by an industry-wide investiga-tion into alleged manipulations of the benchmark Libor interest rate, short for London interbank offered rate.
In December, UBS agreed to pay some $ 1.5 billion in fines to internatio-nal regulators. In admitting to fraud in its Japanese unit, UBS became the second bank, after Britain‘s Barclays, to settle over the rate-rigging scandal.
UBS has also seen its reputation
bruised by a London trial into a tra-ding scandal and ongoing tax evasion probes. In September 2011, the bank an-nounced more than $ 2 billion in losses and blamed a 32-year-old rogue trader, Kweku Adoboli, at its London office for Britain‘s biggest-ever fraud at a bank.
Britain‘s financial regulator fined UBS, saying its internal controls were in-adequate. Adoboli has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Lawsuits contribute to big UBS loss in fourth quarter
the Swiss bank UBS reflects the sun in Zurich, Switzerland. Swiss bank UBS has reported on 25 October 2011 a pre-tax profit of 980 Million swiss francs for the third quarter of 2011, exceeding analysts’ expections. UBS explained that the result in-cluded the loss of 1.849 billion from the rogue trading incident that happened earlier this year. |EPA/ALESSANDRO DELLA BELLA
Norwegian engineering company Aker Solutions has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Aberdeen-based Enovate Systems Limited - a leading technology company within subsea well control equipment, Nor-way Post reported on 1 February.
The financial details of the acquisition are undisclosed.
Enovate, which currently employs 62 people, has developed a wide range of unique and patented components and products for use in open water work-over systems, in riser work-over systems, rig
less intervention systems and drilling sa-fety systems.
Specific advantages are superior cutting and sealing capabilities and the unique use of complete metal-to-metal sealing solu-tions which significantly reduce the proba-bility of leakage and improve safety, accor-ding to Aker Solutions.
The company was established in 2002 and has cooperated with Aker Solutions for several years, specifically within the subsea and the oilfield services and marine assets business areas.
In the financial year 2012, Enovate had revenues of approximately £ 15 million with an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of £ 5 million.
The company will continue to be de-veloped as an independent supplier of well control components to subsea integrators, oilfield equipment manufacturers and oil companies. Aker Solutions is committed to invest in increased capacity and further development of the product range in close collaboration with current customers.
Aker Solutions acquires Enovate
Swiss private bank Julius Bar on 4 Febru-ary posted a 15% hike in its 2012 net pro-fit over the previous year, beating analyst expectations amid healthy cash inflows as global financial markets began bouncing back, The Local reported.
Net profit at the bank, which speci-
alizes in wealth management, jumped to 298 million Swiss Franks ($ 328 million) last year, while its assets under manage-ment swelled 11% to 189 billion Franks, it said in a statement. “We remained well in favour with clients in all our markets in 2012,” company chief executive Boris Col-
lardi said in the statement. Analysts had expected the Zurich-based bank to rake in a net profit of 275 million Franks last year, while managing 189.3 billion in assets.
Net inflows at Julius Bar were, mean-while, down 5.7% last year at 9.7 billion Franks.
Julius Bar reports higher earnings
NORWAY | BUSINESS
SWITZERLAND | BANKING
SWITZERLAND | BANKING
28 EASTERN PARTNERSHIP NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
AZERBAIJAN|ENERGY
EBRD approves loan The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said its board of directors has endorsed the first loan from the Community Energy Efficiency Program (CEEP) for a private organisation in Azerbaijan. The Signing of a loan agreement is expected soon. AccessBank Azerbaijan (ABAZ) became a loan borrower. The EBRD Board of Directors ap-proved a loan of $4.2 million to finance the increase of energy efficiency of the new headquarters of ABAZ. The total cost of the project is $13.8 million. The loan will be directed towards applications including low-emission glazing, electric automa-tion system, using the heating/cooling system with variable use of cooling agents, the use of lighting-class T5.
AZERBAIJAN|DIPOLMACY
Baku, Kiev to ink dealsAzerbaijan and Ukraine are preparing to sign eight co-ope-rative agreements that will expand the scope of co-opera-tion and strengthen co-operation, Ukrainian ambassador to Azerbaijan Alexander Mishchenko said. “Today, our countries have 125 agreements. This is a big number, but it proves not only the quantity but also the quality of our relations,” he told a press conference on the 21st anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Among the areas in which new agreements are expected, Mishchen-ko sited scientific and technical co-operation, simplification of the procedures for obtaining citizenship, as well as the strengthening of co-operation between the regions of the two countries.
GEORGIA|DIPLOMACE
Venice Commission in GeorgiaPresident of the Venice Commission, Gianni Buquicchio, is visiting Georgia. The president is being accompanied by the Venice Commission Deputy Secretary– Simona Granata-Menghini, The Messenger reported. It should be noted that Venice Commission is the Council of Europe’s advisory body for legal affairs. During his visit to Georgia he met President Saakashvili, Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, parliamenta-ry speaker Davit Usupashvili as well as lawmakers from Pre-sident Saakashvili’s UNM party and Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition, civil society representatives and chairmen of supreme and constitutional courts. Buquicchio advised Georgians to prove to the world that the country is capable of maintaining cohabitation between the new government and the president
GEORGIA|DIPLOMACY
Russia eyes better tiesRussian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashe-vich recently stated that Moscow expressed hope that talks between Russia and Georgia held last December could “entail fruitful results and positive shifts in bilateral rela-tions, of course, in those areas where it is real and possible.” He was referring to the meeting held between Russia’s De-puty Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Georgian PM’s special representative for relations with Russia Zurab Abas-hidze in Switzerland, Civil Georgia reported. It was recalled that the officials at the time agreed to continue direct talks on trade, economy and humanitarian issues. Speaking at a meeting, Lukashevich said that Moscow was intending to continue this dialogue with Tbilisi. He made the statement when asked whether there were talks between Tbilisi and Moscow on possible restoration of diplomatic relations, as well as on “disputed territories” and on the issue of “return of Georgia to the CIS”.
Azerbaijan and Poland will hold a spe-cial conference on the level of energy co-operation between the two countries. At a Baku press conference following his visit to Poland, industry and energy minister Natig Aliyev has said that Poland, as well as Azerbaijan, are interested in the deve-lopment of energy co-operation. Poland is looking to lessen its dependence on Russi-an gas. “Poland has already passed the path of integration into Europe. It is a country
which uses all the European principles of market economy, and therefore the expe-rience of Poland is important for Azerbai-jan,” Aliyev said.
Aliyev said Poland is a very important country for Azerbaijan, as it is one of the biggest countries in Europe. “Poland had survived the global financial crisis, showing a high rate of economic growth,” he said.
During his visit, Aliyev discussed en-ergy ties with the minister of economy of
Poland Janusz Piechocinski and minister of finance and treasury Nicholas Budza-novski. “The main focus of the talks was the theme of energy co-operation. As part of the agreements with the Fund for Euro-pean Studies it was decided to hold an in-ternational energy seminar in Baku”, Aliyev said. According to the minister, the visit to Poland can be described as a very fruitful. The relations between the two countries are developing at a very high level.
Baku, Warsaw to boost energy co-operation
The Sangachal oil and gas terminal in Baku. Azerbaijan and Poland are looking to expand energy ties. |NEW EUROPE
Richard Morningstar, US Ambassador to Azerbaijan has said the prospective ope-ning of the airport in Khojaly may create tensions in the peace talks. “The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs said that the parties need to abstain from steps that may affect the peace process,” he was quoted as saying.
Khojaly Airport was closed on 25 February 1992, after being occupied by Armenian forces during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The airport was re-built during 2010–11, and its opening has already been delayed for over a year.
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, tasked with achieving a negotiated re-
solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh con-flict, previously issued a statement in which they expressed their concern that the planned opening of the airport could lead to further increased tensions.
The potential opening violates inter-national law, including several provisions of the Chicago Convention – in particu-lar, articles 1, 2, 5, 6, 10–16, 24 and 68. Legally, Khojaly airport cannot operate, unauthorised flights through Azerbaijani airspace are not permitted, and any viola-tions could have dangerous consequences, according to an Azeri press release.
The International Civil Aviation Or-ganisation (ICAO), a specialised UN
agency, is also supportive of Azerbaijan. Following the Armenian invasion of Na-gorno-Karabakh and the seven surroun-ding regions, four UN Security Council resolutions were passed requesting the im-mediate withdrawal of Armenian forces. Despite their non-implementation, Azer-baijani territorial integrity has been recog-nised and unequivocally reconfirmed by the UN and its governing bodies.
Operating flights from Khojaly Air-port would represent an expansion of the Armenian military occupation into Azerbaijani airspace with potentially disastrous consequences, the statement said.
Khojaly Airport opening raises concerns
Azerbaijani minister of culture and tourism Ebulfaz Garayev recently had a meeting with the secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation Taleb Rifai in Baku. WTO will hold a session of tourism sphere within framework of II World Intercultural Dialogue Forum, scheduled to take place on 29 May - 1June in Baku, news agenci-
es reported. Tourism ministers of WTO member states will be invited at the event, with WTO offering technical support to ap-plication of e-visa system in Azerbaijan. The sides also discussed several projects realised with collaboration between the two orga-nisations. It was noted that the ministry of culture and tourism has developed new
draft law on tourism.WTO experts will stay in Baku on Fe-
bruary 3-12 to discuss the document. The parties also exchanged views on participati-on of Garayev in the meeting of tourism mi-nisters of Silk Way countries, to take place during ITB Berlin International tourism exhibition.
Minsk, New Delhi ink dealOn 6 February, a Belarusian Potash Company said it had sig-ned a contract to supply one million tonnes of potash to In-dian Potash Ltd (IPL) at $427 per tonne. Belarusian Pota-sh Company (BPC), a joint venture trader of global potash major Uralkali and Belaruskali, said it would supply potash to IPL from this month to January 2014. “The delivery pri-ce of potash fertiliser for India has been set at $427 per ton-ne on a CFR basis. BPC's shipments under the contract with IPL will total 1 million tonnes of potash,” the statement said.
BELARUS|ECONOMY
Belarusian ruble in MoscowThe Belarusian ruble has been for the first time traded at Moscow Exchange by BPS-Sberbank which became the first foreign member of the FX Market of Moscow Exchange, Bel-TA reported. “We hope that our participation in the FX Mar-ket of Moscow Exchange will give an additional impetus to trading the Belarusian ruble in Moscow and raising its sha-re in the total volume of trades,” Deputy Chairperson of the Board of BPS-Sberbank Alla Dubenetskaya said as she re-ceived the certificate of Moscow Exchange. “Direct access to the FX Market of the Moscow Exchange opens up new bu-siness opportunities,” she added. Dubenetskaya expressed confidence that the bank will have many counteragents be-cause any participant of the Moscow Exchange can become a counteragent.
BELARUS|DIPLOMACY
Delegation to visit CambodiaA Belarusian parliamentary delegation led by Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly Vladimir Andreichenko will pay an official visit to Cambo-dia on 10-13 February, BelTA quoted the lower chamber of the Belarusian Parliament as saying. Andreichenko is sche-duled to meet with Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Cambodian Par-liament Heng Samrin, Governor of Siem Reap Province Sou Phirin. The parliamentary delegation will be accompanied by representatives of Belarusian state administration bodies and business circles. Belarus’ delegation will also meet wi-th representatives of Cambodian ministries and organisati-ons. During the official visit to Cambodia the sides will sign a number of agreements, including the cooperation agree-ment between the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus and the National Assembly of the Cam-bodian Parliament.
BELARUS|DIPLOMACY
Minsk, Kiev to boost tiesIssues of mutual trade and economic co-operation were dis-cussed during a trip of Belarus’ General Consul in Odessa Va-lentin Filipchik to Kherson Oblast of Ukraine, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said. The diplomat met with Vice-Chair-man of the Kherson Oblast State Administration Valentin Podvysotsky to discuss the ways of intensifying economic interaction, further steps in the implementation of the agre-ements on trade and economic, scientific-technical and cul-tural cooperation between Kherson Oblast of Ukraine and Gomel and Mogilev Oblasts of Belarus. The Belarusian di-plomat also met with representatives of the Kherson Regi-onal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the busine-ss community. Filipchik provided information on the eco-nomic development of Belarus, export opportunities for en-gineering and agriculture industries, said the press service.
On 7 February, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavitski said his country plans to begin impor-ting natural gas from Europe, through Hungary and Slovakia, in the first quar-ter of 2013, Interfax reported.
He added that there are outstanding technical issues with Slovakia, but prac-tically all issues with Hungary have been worked out. “With Slovakia there are technical issues we are agreeing while all issues with Hungary have been actually resolved… We are counting on the first quarter,” Stavitsky said.
Ukraine already imports gas from Europe through Poland in a bid to red-uce dependence on gas supplies from Russia, which is locked in a dispute with Kiev over the terms of its existing gas contracts. Kiev has rejected a €5.1 bill from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom for unused gas it was contracted to buy last year. Stavitsky said there were "no grounds" to pay the money. Ukraine says it used 27 billion cubic metres of Russian gas in 2012 but the contract stipulated payment for 52 billion cubic metres.
Ukrainian media reported in Janua-ry Kiev was considering importing gas through Slovakia, and also from lique-fied natural gas terminals in Turkey via Bulgaria and Romania.
Stavitsky previously said Ukraine was working on two new routes for im-porting gas from Europe in a “reverse
mode”. Kiev plans to buy gas not only from its current partner, Germany’s RWE, which started supplies to Ukraine in November 2012, Stavitsky said. “Talks are underway and they are coming to a finish,” he said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said in January Kiev was intere-sted in importing gas from Europe, be-cause European contracts have no “take-or-pay” clauses or penalties for buying less gas than contracted – the core issue in Kiev’s dispute with Russia over gas.
But the EU is also at odds with Uk-rainian President Viktor Yanukovich over the imprisonment of opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year jail sentence for abuse-of-office meted out in October 2011 after a trial which the West said is politically motivated.
On a visit to Lithuania on 6 January, Yanukovych criticised other European countries for failing to back Ukraine against Gazprom.
"In the past three years we have had no support, even sympathy in the issues of the gas force majeure relations Ukra-ine has had," he said.
Ukraine had hoped to get some com-ments on the $7bn demand from the Eu-ropean Energy Community. "Not once did we get a reply and this is a problem."
Kiev wants gas from Europe
A Gazprom employee works at the gas measuring station Sudzha, just 200 metres from the Ukrainian border, Kursk region, Russia, 13 January 2009. |EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
On 7 February, Prime Minister of Bela-rus Mikhail Myasnikovich said 1.6 trilli-on Belarusian rubles were allocated from the central budget in January 2013 to implement upgrade projects at Belaru-sian companies. The premier attended a session of the Minsk City Hall which re-viewed the work of the Minsk City Hall in 2012 and discussed plans for 2013, BelTA reported.
He reminded that this year the go-vernment is going to focus on economic modernization. In January 2013 some 1.6 trillion Belarusian rubles out of the planned 11 trillion was allocated from the central budget to support projects
in the real economic sector. “The go-vernment will support investments first of all by subsidizing interest rates,” My-asnikovich said. The companies that are actively involved in upgrade projects are supported by the government. “Unfortu-nately, Minsk-based companies are not among the leaders. I do not see an active involvement of the Minsk City Hall in the process,” the premier said.
Upgrade projects will inevitably push up the import of machines and equipment. “We will support it, becau-se it is impossible to work on outdated equipment. However, intermediary and consumer import should be reduced.
Take it as a direct instruction of the go-vernment,” Myasnikovich said.
The resources should be channelled into the projects with the biggest return. “Therefore, economic operators should be responsible for efficient management of the resources and make sure invest-ments will pay back handsomely over a short period of time,” he said. He added that foreign investors and transnational corporations should be actively involved in upgrade projects.
“Minsk generates a quarter of Bela-rus’ GDP. Therefore, what you do is very important for the country,” Myasniko-vich said.
Minsk allocates funds for modernisation
The Moldovan Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin called on holding early parliamentary elections in Moldova. Vo-ronin said an alternative of the elections could be the “colour revolution”, Pano-
rama reported. “National authorities are ruled by criminal organisations. The country is uncontrollable”, the leader of the Moldovan opposition claimed.
Voronin said Moldova needed early
elections because the Alliance for Euro-pean Integration was paralysed by internal fights and disagreements.
“The only alternative is early elections or a colour revolution,” Voronin said.
Communists insist on early electionsMOLDOVA|POLITICS
BELARUS|BUDGET
UKRAINE|ENERGY
30 EURASIA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu
10 - 16 February, 2013
TAJIKISTAN | BANKING
Russia restructures Barqi Tojik’s debtThe government of Tajikistan plans to discuss with Russia the restructuring of Barqi Tojik’s debt. The Tajik state-owned uti-lity now owes 320.7 million somoni to open joint-stock com-pany (OJSC) Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the San-gtuda-1 hydroelectric power plant, Asia-Plus reported. Barqi Tojik top manager Abdullo Yorov said that the next meeting of the Tajik-Russian commission for trade and economic coo-peration will take place this month. At the meeting with Russi-an officials, the company aims to increase the issue of restruc-turing Barqi-Tojik’s debt at the meeting, Barqi Tojik top ma-nager Abdullo Yorov said. Noting several problems, Yorov ex-pressed hope that all issues would be resolved during the me-eting. Barqi Tojik also plans to ask Russia for a raise in the ra-te of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP until repay-ment of the debts and improvement of the financial situation of Barqi Tojik. “Under an agreement between Barqi Tojik and Sangtudinskaya GES-1 on the purchase of electricity genera-ted by the Snagtuda-1 HPP, the electricity rate set by Sangtu-dinskaya GES-1 rises 4.0% annually,” said Yorov. He infor-med that the company acquires electricity from Sangtudin-skaya GES-1 at the rate of 2.25 cents (11.8 dirams) per one kWh, while domestic electricity rate set by Barqi Tojik is 8.6 dirams per one kWh entailing an increase in debts. In additi-on, the low collection of funds from the public and enterpri-ses also led to an increase in Barqi Tojik’s debt.
TAJIKISTAN | SOCIAL EQUALIT Y
Poverty rate declinesReferring to the official poverty statistics data, the minister of economic development and trade, Sharif Rahimzoda announ-ced that the poverty rate in Tajikistan has witnessed a decline. The Tajik poverty rate reportedly decreased from 50 percent in 2008 to 46.7 percent in 2009, 45 percent in 2010, 41 per-cent in 2011 and 38.3 percent in 2012. He stressed that the poverty rate is on a sustainable downward trend in the coun-try and last year it decreased to 38.3%, Asia-Plus reported. The minister said that the government is adopting measures to in-crease the level of middle-income people in Tajik society. Ra-himzoda said, “We should determine our criterion for middle class. The World Bank has its criterion for income groups. Of course, we compare our country with neighboring countries.” He noted that Tajikistan has not yet determined its criterion of the middle class but he gave the example of Kazakhstan whe-re representatives of the middle class include people having higher education, a private house, a car, a deposit account at a bank and who have a holiday abroad at least once a year.
KYRGYZSTAN | ECONOMY
China, Kyrgyzstan to enhance economic cooperationThe draft framework agreement among the Kyrgyz Ministry of Economy and the Association of International Cooperati-on of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce was recently appro-ved by the Kyrgyz government, Irinnews.org reported. The agreement envisaged that the parties will take all necessary steps to set up joint cooperation and implementation of in-vestment projects in various sectors of the Kyrgyz economy. The Association has expressed strong interest in enticing di-rect Chinese investments for implementing economic pro-jects in Kyrgyzstan and also assists in establishing business ties between Chinese and Kyrgyz business structures. The Asso-ciation plans to establish a representative office in Bishkek, in order to cooperate and facilitate the implementation of joint investment projects in the country.
Kazakhstan’s authorities are planning to suspend petroleum product imports from Russia. Kazakhstan’s ministry of oil and Gas recently stated that the country might introduce a ban for some time on petroleum product imports from Russia, Gazeta.kz reported. At present the impor-ted products make up about 1.3 million tons a year. The ministry has two drafts of the government’s resolution. The first one envisages a complete ban on imports of high-octane petrol and diesel fuel for half a year. The second one provides for quantitative constraints on the volume for the same period. Media reports claim that Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas National O&G Company will be allotted the role of the sole operator of petroleum product imports from Russia.
Reconstruction of the country’s lar-gest oil refineries based in Pavlodar and Shymkent is responsible for the shortages of petroleum products in Kazakhstan. The work on the refineries is expected to be completed by 2016. Last year Russia ex-ported to Kazakhstan 1.3 million tons of petroleum products exempted of export duties within the customs union of Kaz-akhstan, Russia and Belarus. In accordance with the intergovernmental agreement, Kazakhstan is supposed to deliver crude to Russia in exchange. However, the method to calculate the crude volumes is subject to approval. Kazakhstan’s minister of oil and Gas Sauat Mynabayev said last month that since the methods are being ratified,
Kazakhstan is supposed to deliver 1.2-1.5 million tons of crude in exchange for the petroleum products imported in 2012. He mentioned that the price of the crude will be lower than that of crude exported from Kazakhstan to countries outside the CIS. According to him, such conditions could yield an adverse impact on Kazakhstan’s budget revenues. This means in the cur-rent year Kazakhstan will be substantially augmenting far more profitable tolling operations with China, with the crude to be processed in China reaching 500 000 –
600 000 tons. However according to Myn-bayev, it is not possible for Kazakhstan to substitute for all crude imports through re-lying on alternative ways.Meantime, Mos-cow recently hosted a meeting of Russia’s Vice PM Igor Shuvalov and Kazakhstan’s Vice PM Kairat Kelimberov to discuss energy cooperation. Russia’s Gazprom Neft is the largest Russian supplier of pe-troleum products to Kazakhstan. Last year light petroleum products imported by the company to Kazakhstan stood at over 550 000 tons.
Petroleum product imports from Russia suspended
Igor Shuvalov, Deputy Prime Minster of Russia is in talks over a Kazakh suspention of petroleum products.| EPA/MARTIAL TREZZINI
German ambassador to Tajikistan Doris Hertrampf recently met energy and in-dustry minister of Tajikistan Gul Sherali in Dushanbe.
In the course of talks, the sides dis-cussed issues of bilateral Tajik-German cooperation in energy and industry, in particular the construction of small hydro power plants and establishment of joint ventures for the production of solar batte-ries in Tajikistan.
Other topics which were also covered at the meeting includes the possibility of cooperation on the CASA-1000 project, as well as cooperation in other industrial sec-tors, Asia-Plus learnt from Tajik energy and industry ministry.
The Tajik minister initiated a proposal to expedite upgrading small hydropower plant "Oksu-1" and the construction of a small hydropower plant "Oksu-2" in Murg-hab district of Badakhshan.
The German government is upgrading and constructing these plants at the expen-se of free aid. Last year in March, the Ger-man company "Fichtner" completed preli-minary calculations on the feasibility study of the project of construction of small hy-dropower plants in Murghab district, by presenting its findings to the company "Pamir Energy". The project states moder-nisation of HPP "Oksu-1" (800 kW) and construction of HPP Oksu-2 "(1000 kW).
Talks with Germany over energy
According to 2012 data unveiled by the Statistical Agency of Kazakhstan, the Kaz-akh Assay Chamber examined and licen-sed 150 thousand gold and silver items to be sold on the market, Gazeta.kz reported. The agency noted that the production of the precious metals soared by 9% during one year but still these figures are equal
compared to 2011. Currently, the Kazakh Assay Chamber officially cooperates only with 80 market participants and from this year it will be working officially with lar-ge, medium and small-sized companies, which import, produce and sell jewellery. It was reported that the list of companies registered in the organization witnessed a
decline. According to Natalya Kuzmina, Head, Test Room of Kazakh Assay Cham-ber, the two main jewellery suppliers in Kazakh market are Russia and Turkey. Rus-sia is the largest producer of jewellery items in the post-Soviet area and Turkey’s gold market is one of the nearest for Kazakhstan. In addition, Turkey also exports silver.
On 7 February, Russian newspaper and airline owner Alexander Lebedev went on trial for alleged “hooliganism” on charges that carry a maximum prison sentence of five years.
But Judge Sergei Kostyuchenko ordered the case to be sent back to the
prosecutor’s office because of “viola-tions”.
The case, critics say, has political overtones. Lebedev’s investigative news-paper Novaya Gazeta frequently exposes corruption in Russia’s ruling circle.
Lebedev is accused of “hooliganism
based on political hatred” after punching businessman Sergei Polonsky during a 2011 TV talk show.
Before the hearing Lebedev said: “I think it is made up from start to finish.”
The former KGB agent, who served in the Soviet Embassy in London during the Cold War, has criticized corruption and a lack of democracy under Vladimir Putin’s 13-year rule, without publicly at-tacking the Russian president.
“We are counting on an acquittal,” Lebedev told reporters at the court in Moscow. When asked if a fair trial is pos-sible, the businessman said, “Why not?”
The trial should restart within a “few weeks,” Vadim Samsonov, a lawyer for Polonsky, said by phone from Moscow. The delay is strictly “technical,” he said.
On 4 February, Russian aviation authorities grounded Lebedev’s Red Wings Airlines because of safety viola-tions found during a check. The autho-rities said the decision wasn’t directly connected to the crash of a Red Wings plane in December at Moscow’s Vnuko-vo airport, which killed five of the eight people, all crew, on board.
RUSSIA|DIPLOMACY
Russian-Finnish co-operationRussian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto, on 11 February in Moscow, the Kremlin reported. Putin and Niinisto will share on major issues of the countries’ bilateral trade, eco-nomic and investment agendas. Russia’s business elite will be invited to the talks to discuss practical co-operation. The delegations are also expected to tackle cross-regional, pan-European and international ties, including EU-Russia partnership and co-operation within the UN, Baltic bloc and the Northern Europe, Ria Novosti reported.
RUSSIA|TIME ZONE
Medvedev sticks on timeOn 7 February, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he has no immediate intention of reversing his deci-sion to leave Russia‘s clocks on summer time the whole year. The move he made in 2011 when he was president has been widely unpopular as it has plunged the sprawling nation into darkness until late morning throughout the winter. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated that Russia could switch back the time soon. “There is no clear conclusion about this issue, and this is proved by sur-veys,” Medvedev told a televised Cabinet meeting. “That’s why the government believes that changing the system at the current time is not a good idea.” Izvestia, a newspaper owned by Putin ally Yury Kovalchuk, reported earlier that an announcement would be made soon to switch perma-nently to winter time by turning the clocks back an hour.
RUSSIA|ENERGY
Gazprom plans price cuts On 8 February, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom officials said the company expects to hand back $4.7 billion to Eu-ropean consumers via price cuts in 2013, news agencies reported. Meanwhile, Gazprom aims to pay 2012 dividen-ds of seven to eight roubles per share, down from 8.97 for 2011. But for the current year it expects dividends to rise to between eight and nine roubles.
RUSSIA|ENERGY
Srbijagas, Gazprom talk gasOn 7 February, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Srbijagas General Director Dušan Bajatovi met in Moscow to dis-cuss the work on the planned South Stream gas pipeline project. Natural gas supply to Serbia was on the agenda, Gazprom said. South Stream project documentation is in preparation to enable the start of construction of infra-structure. The Serbian parliament will adopt a law as soon as possible giving the project the status of national signifi-cance, Gazprom said. The Russian company supplied Ser-bia with 0.74 billion cubic metres of natural gas in 2012.
RUSSIA|DIPLOMACY
Japan, Russia in airspace rowOn 7 February, two Russian fighter planes briefly crossed into Japanese airspace off Hokkaido, Japan‘s Defence Mi-nistry said, Kyodo reported. The Japanese government has asked the Russian government to investigate the incident, the Ministry said. Japan‘s Foreign Ministry said two Russian Su-27s violated airspace for just over a minute over the island of Rishiri, near Hokkaido in the country’s north, and that Japan then scrambled four F-2 fighter jets.
On 6 February, Russian President Vladi-mir Putin said his country would have its facilities ready in time to host the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. “Overall, work is going according to plan,” Putin told a top International Olympic Committee delegation on a tour of venues. “I have no doubt that all the sites will be ready on time and with the appropriate quality,” he told the IOC delegation.
IOC President Jacques Rogge also toured sites built for the Sochi Games, which open on 7 February next year.
“I am impressed by the fantastic vo-lume of work that has been undertaken,” IOC delegation member Gilbert Felli said. Russia says, however, that the cost of staging the Games will reach $50 bil-lion - almost five times more than the original price tag, putting Sochi on track to become the most expensive Olympic Games to date.
Putin also warned officials against allowing corruption to push costs even higher. “The main thing is that no one steals anything, so there are no unex-plained increases in costs,” he was quo-ted by Russian news agencies as saying.
A day after Putin toured Olympic
sites along with delegates from the IOC, the Kremlin leader fired Akhmed Bila-lov, vice-president of Russia’s Olympic Committee, amid the cost overruns and delays. “People who do not fulfil their obligations on such a scale cannot lead
the Olympic movement in our country,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak told reporters.
The games at the Black Sea resort of Sochi are considered a matter of national pride and one of Putin‘s top priorities.
Sochi will be ready for 2014 Olympics, says Putin
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks at a ceremony celebrating the one year countdown to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics opening at the Bolshoi Ice Dome rink in the Black Sea city of Sochi, 7 February 2013.AFP PHOTO/NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA
Billionaire businessman Alexander Lebedev, left, and his lawyer Genry Reznik arrive in a court in Moscow, 7 February 2013. |AFP PHOTO/ALEXANDER NEMENOV
Judge sends Alexander Lebedev case back to prosecutorRUSSIA|CRIME
10 - 16 February, 2013Welcome back!Italian election results may turn upside-down as Silvio promised will abolish the property tax in-troduced by Monti and will give back the money paid last year. 80% of Italians are apartment ow-ners. More intelligent than Monti, the Greeks, withdraw the property tax before introducing!
EU budget loses billions from marine oil contrabandI n an article published in the monthly maga-
zine “UNFOLLOW” I read that annual tax losses from smuggling marine oil in Gree-
ce, a country under EU/IMF/EIB supervision, is estimated at €500 million by the Customs Authorities, €1.5 billion by the Ministry of Fi-nance, while the market estimates it at €3 billion (tax losses per year without counting penalties).
Allegedly, there are some 1,500 fuel tanks illegally storing smuggled oil in Greece, mostly located in Lavrion, 60km south of Athens.
This is the essence of the story and if one takes the version of the Ministry of Finance, for the €1.5 billion tax evasion per year the corre-sponding VAT (at 23%) is €350 million per year. Considering the market estimates, the annual VAT losses (which concern both the Greek and EU budgets) rises to €700 million per year.
In addition to this, one must consider that as Greece is not collecting these taxes, some €3 billion is lacking from the national budget at the end of the year and therefore falls on the back of the EU support mechanism, meaning on the back of the citizens of the Member States.
As to the famous Task Force of the Euro-pean Commission, established in Greece on initiative of President Jose Manuel Barroso in order to reform the administration and …save the country from the catastrophe, as the Greeks say, “they sleep standing-up on their
feet and they even pay for the hotel.”Beneficiaries of this practice include, among
others, ship-owners involved in bunkering ser-vices and certain refineries. Indeed, as ship-ow-ners buy duty free diesel oil for refueling ships on route they deviate and sell it illegally to others, thus ending up in the 1,500 illegal fuel tanks. From there the smuggled fuel is treated for chan-ging color (the refineries are obliged to color dif-ferently the duty free oil) and it is sold in the mar-ket. In this way, the marine fuel oil is smuggled to the market as diesel oil for road vehicles.
Since this procedure involves fuel tax and VAT losses it concerns both the Greek govern-
ment and the European Commission.However, it seems that the Commission
maintains multifaceted privileged relations with the shipping industry. Indeed, on the one hand, it excludes shipping from participating in the Emissions Trade Scheme and CO2 taxation (as we recently reported: Shipping polluters avoid paying billions to EU, Kallas speaks, Hedegaard hears no evil, EU Budget loses, Commission and Shipowners: a “friendship” far from “teleia phillia” ), thus violating EU Directive 2009/29, which requires from the Commission to have already made a relevant proposal. On the other hand, it seems that it also disregards the smugg-
ling of marine diesel involving Greek refineries and shipping companies.
In the magazine “UNFOLLOW” published in Athens, the story appears in page 66 of the is-sue February 2013 and we can e-mail a scan of it to the Commission and to others who might be interested.
I do not know who and why in the Europe-an Commission is serving the interests of the shipping industry by not applying community legislation. This is a matter that the Commission should urgently investigate.
However, we would like to address a questi-on to President Jose Manuel Barroso along with Commissioners Siim Kallas and Connie Hedeg-aard and ask how they justify the two cases, one involving refineries, bunkering and smuggling of marine fuel in Greece (causing EU budget los-ses) and the other concerning carbon dioxide ta-xation in international maritime transport (again causing EU budget losses).
Last but not least, we raise this issue as the 27 Heads of States and Governments come to Brussels to decide the Budget, when every billi-on counts!
As to the role of the European Commission as guarantor of the Treaties and European legiti-macy, it seems that recently it has become a mat-ter of philosophical brainstorming than anything else. Vassilis Koronakis
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Disco fever to shuffle racism off the dancefloor
A small group of Londoners, fed up with the English Defence League, a motley collection of racist hooligans who protest against Islam, have whipped up a disco inferno as they plan to ‚re-capture‘ the EDL‘s initials in a Googlebombing campaign for their new group, the English Disco Lovers who want to bring back the good times of tolerance and, knock on wood, their love train is pretty hot stuff as their Facebook group overtook the defence league‘s page in popularity this week, giving the anti-racists cause for celebration.It‘s a case of don‘t stop till you get enough Likes.The group started in September last year and say there ain‘t no stoppin us now as they look set to give the bump to the islamaphobic group‘s inter-net profile.The defence league has failed to raise ten percent of the numbers they used to bring to demonstra-tions and their leader is imprisoned after entering the US on a false passport. The group have cam-paigned for many years against illegal immigrati-on, but their leader is im prison for it.The disco lovers are following in a tradition of using music to protest racism. In the late 1970s,
as disco was being born in the clubs of New York, the far right National Front was at its height of po-pularity in the UK and musicians came together under the organisation, Rock Against Racism to campaign successfully against the far right.Armed only with a mirroball logo and a mot-to, Unus Mundus, Una Gens, Una Disco (One World, One Race, One Disco) they have turned Facebook into funky town.The move isn‘t just for fun as the founder and their followers recognise that disco is a fusion of sounds, from many cultures and their campaign is asking people to think about it and say let‘s groove and recognise that we are family.Although we may never say goodbye to racism and intolerance, this group aim to turn the beat around and keep tolerance stayin‘ alive.If that‘s the way you like it, and you can say that I feel love for people from other cultures and religi-ons, think about it and visit their Facebook page, because that‘s where the happy people go and you won‘t be having the last dance. It only takes a minute.Now, that‘s a rappers‘ delight.
