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The European Commission has unveiled measures aimed at helping the EU member states to prevent the radicalisation that leads to violent extremism. A Communication paper was tabled to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on June 14.

To address the root causes of today’s radicalisation, the EU Commission has proposed a combination of actions that span across several policy areas, bringing together competent authorities and societal and community actors at all levels (local, regional, national and European).

The Communication paper focuses on seven specific areas. These include: supporting research, evidence building, monitoring and networking; countering terrorist propaganda and hate speech online; addressing radicalisation in prisons; promoting inclusive education and EU common values; promoting an inclusive, open and resilient society and reaching out to young people; the security dimension of addressing radicalisation; and the international dimension.

To ensure the implementation of these proposals, the EU Commission has committed a budget of €25m over the next four years.

Teachers and youth workers will be key to transmitting the EU’s shared values and to building relationships with young people so they become engaged citizens, according to Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner on Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

Navracsics announced the creation of a network that will organise visits of local role models, entrepreneurs and athletes, as well as former radicalised people to schools, prisons and sports clubs.

“We also want to support those working in prisons, so that they have the knowledge and skills to deal with radicalisation,” he said. Detainees will also be reintegrated by supporting education and training programmes in prisons.

For instance, the Erasmus+ exchange programme is one of the EU programmes to be used in de-radicalisation efforts. This programme will also expand to cover people outside the EU, aiming to bring 200,000 persons together in total, in online discussions by 2020.

“While prevention and avoiding that people becoming radicalised in the first place is our priority, in parallel, our core security approach needs to be reinforced,” said Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner in charge of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship. This will be achieved by enhanced information sharing on suspected individuals.

“Those returning to Europe from conflict areas are a particular concern and that is why we will propose a review of the Schengen information system,” he said.

As regards the internet, Avramopoulos said he considers it be the “most important battleground to counter radicalisation,” because it is where youth are “exposed to the poison of terrorist content and recruitment”.

“The recent attack in Orlando, perfectly demonstrates it. The perpetrator was strongly radicalised on his own, purely by using the internet.”

A database of deleted terrorist content will be also built as a joint referral mechanism developed with internet companies. “Alongside this mechanism, we will intensify work with civil society,” added Avramopoulos.

He also referred to the Radicalisation Awareness Network Centre of Excellence, which is part of the EU Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) that was launched in October 2015. He said that the group can organise local events at a Europe-wide level.

“Through this network, more than 2,400 local practitioners are working together and learning from each other on addressing the root causes of radicalisation,” said Avramopoulos.

The post EU Commission to combat violent radicalisation appeared first on New Europe.

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Oscar Pistorius, 29, is to be sentenced on Friday for the murder of his partner Reeva Steenkamp.

He was found guilty in March for her murder, as the court overturned a manslaughter verdict after prosecutors appealed.

The Supreme Court finally ruled that Pistorius murdered Mrs Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day of 2013, with four shots. This was barely a year from the peak of his career, when he became the first amputated athlete to compete with able-bodied athletes in the London 2012 Olympics.

South African paralympic and Olympic sprinter, Oscar Pistorius (R) posing with his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp (L) at the South African sports awards ceremony in Johannesburg 04 November 2012. EPA/FRENNIE SHIVAMBU

The South African Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius faces at least 15 years in jail without the right to appeal.

On Tuesday, the court heard Barry Steenkamp, that is, the 73-year old father of the victim. He asked that images of his daughter’s body be made public so people could see the wounds. He said he thought of his daughter “morning, noon and night… every hour.”

Barry Steenkamp, father of Reeva Steenkamp, gives evidence in the Oscar Pistorius sentencing hearing at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, 14 June 2016. EPA/DEAAN VIVIER / POOL

The murder of his daughter triggered a stroke the day she was found and he is now facing a severe heart condition. After his daughters’ passing away, the family was also faced with financial ruin. Pistorius offered money, allegedly in confidence, using it later as a legal argument for his defense.

The State Prosecutor Gerrie Nel is seeking a maximum sentence, suggesting Pistorius has shown no remorse.

Pistorius’ defense wants the leniency provided by South African law in special circumstances, which in this case would be his disability, in combination with the fact that the former athlete is a first-time offender. They also argue Pistorius is suffering from depression and should be in a psychiatric facility rather than a prison.

A file picture dated 08 September 2008 shows Oscar Pistorius of South Africa in action during the men’s 100m – T44 heat at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL

 

(BBC, DW)

The post Oscar Pistorius to be sentenced on Friday appeared first on New Europe.

If Turkey goes on undermining rule of law principles and stripping Members of the Turkish Parliament of their immunities, then it should not expect to be granted an EU visa-free regime, said Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on Tuesday in a debate with Selahattin Demirtaş, co-chair of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). They also voiced solidarity with Mr Demirtaş’ efforts to revive the Kurdish peace process talks.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

If Turkey goes on undermining rule of law principles and stripping Members of the Turkish Parliament of their immunities, then it should not expect to be granted an EU visa-free regime, said Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on Tuesday in a debate with Selahattin Demirtaş, co-chair of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). They also voiced solidarity with Mr Demirtaş’ efforts to revive the Kurdish peace process talks.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

If Turkey goes on undermining rule of law principles and stripping Members of the Turkish Parliament of their immunities, then it should not expect to be granted an EU visa-free regime, said Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on Tuesday in a debate with Selahattin Demirtaş, co-chair of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). They also voiced solidarity with Mr Demirtaş’ efforts to revive the Kurdish peace process talks.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Circular Economy aficionados are busy in June. Both the legislative proposals on waste and the broader circular economy action plan are on this month’s institutional agenda!

Today the Industry Committee (ITRE) discussed the draft opinions on the waste proposals. Tomorrow, the Environment Committee (ENVI) will discuss the draft reports. Next week, the action moves to the Council where Member States will discuss and adopt conclusions on the Circular Economy Action Plan on Monday 20 June. If you have had your ears open, you’ll have an idea of what is in those conclusions.

Make sure to follow our blog and @fleishman_eu Twitter stream

And of course, take a look at our Circular Economy Timeline and let us know whether you have any questions!

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Oil prices fell on June 14 as traders worried over the referendum on June 23 when Britons will vote whether to remain or leave the European Union.

“I think they [traders] are nervous because a few days ago it would see as it was quite possible that ‘Remain’ was going to be there and there was no weakness [in oil price],” Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management, told New Europe on June 14.

“Now we have had a couple of polls saying the other way around. And even though the betting companies, who I tend to trust more than the polls, tend to say ‘Remain’ the markets are being reflecting more the nervousness of the polls so if that carries on like that we will see more nervousness in the market over the next few days,” he added.

Brent crude oil futures fell by 69 cents to $49.66 a barrel by 0842 GMT, dropping for a fourth day in a row, while US crude futures lost 77 cents to $48.11 a barrel, Reuters reported, noting that Britain’s “Out” campaign has increased its lead over the “In” camp before the referendum, according to two opinion polls published by ICM on June 13.

Urquhart Stewart noted that a Brexit is a broader issue that goes beyond the UK. “If there is a vote to leave, then that could have a material effect on the rest of the EU in terms of confidence of trade. Any failure in confidence to trade could actually then weaken the oil price – the fear of falling demand,” he told New Europe. If it seems to be an interruption in trade in UK and Europe or take it a step further, the Brexit seen as an opportunity for the Dutch to have a referendum or other concerns about the EU that would be detrimental on the overall EU confidence level and that could impact on the oil price,” the London-based expert said.

The oil price fall on June 14 came despite a US government forecast on June 13 that shale oil output is expected to fall in July.

Oil prices have been on a climb recently due to supply problems across the globe, including Canada, Nigeria and Libya.

According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the world oil market would be more balanced in the second half of 2016 as outages in Nigeria and Canada help to speed the erosion of a supply glut.

The post It’s Elementary: Brexit fears, nervous polls drop oil prices appeared first on New Europe.

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Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are expected to meet on Tuesday to discuss the road to a unified Democratic front before next month’s party convention in Philadelphia, AP reports.

Washington DC goes to the polls on Tuesday, June 14, in what is the last encounter in a primary that has already yielded Hillary Clinton as a presumptive nominee.

The Vermont senator is committed to preventing Donald Trump from becoming the next President but his endorsement of Clinton will have policy strings attached. Sanders wants from Clinton an unequivocal commitment to his policy agenda.

Speaking to NBC, the Vermont Senator says the meeting will allow him to explore her commitment to “working families and the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, health care for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free.”

Hillary Clinton has good reasons to heed the Vermont Senators’ agenda.

On the one hand, Sanders earned nearly 10 million votes and 22 states during the nominating process. On the other, many of the demographic groups to whom he is appealing have turned their backs on Clinton, especially young and first time voters; being seen to take on his agenda on income inequality, campaign finance reform and Wall Street excesses is key to unifying the electorate in what has been a highly polarized 13 month campaign.

Several polls, including an Ipsos/Reuters one in May, suggest that 59% of Sanders’ followers are unwilling to “convert” to Clinton. Last week Sanders met President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden who have already endorsed Clinton. Until last week the Occupy DNC Convention Facebook group was planning to contact superdelegates to convince them to switch allegiance; the platforms has 25,000 members.

Meanwhile, Sanders has begun deploying some of his crowdfunded money and national attention to boost the chances of progressive liberals campaigning to gain the nomination for a Democratic ticket to contest Senate seats. He is starting with $2,4 million.

In doing so, he remains true to his initial commitment to lead a “political revolution” in a system of nominations within the Democratic Party he has time and again called “rigged.”

Sanders’ is testing his muscle, supporting his own candidates in primaries beginning this Tuesday in Nevada, in a three way primary. Control of the Senate will be key for major reforms pushed by a Democratic President, that is, an advantage that Barack Obama did not have.

An early test of his clout will come Tuesday in Nevada, where a Sanders-backed congressional candidate, Lucy Flores, competes in a three-way primary. An e-mail by the Sanders campaign yielded $390,000 for Mrs Flores, while the Senator has already contributed to her campaign.

(AP, NBC, CNN)

The post Sanders meets Clinton to discuss the policies of unity appeared first on New Europe.

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For the first time in history, investors are willing to pay Germany for the privilege to lend it money. Germany’s benchmark 10-year Bund yields reached minus 0.005% on Tuesday; they stood at 0.6% at the start of this year.

German negative yields is a sign of market panic.

Despite negative yields, demand for German Bunds surges as the world fears Brexit and US unemployment figures signal the economy is not growing as fast as it was hoped.

Both bookmakers and polls suggest on Tuesday that a Leave vote is increasingly more likely on June 23rd, a sentiment bolstered as The Sun tabloid openly endorsed the campaign with a headline reading “BeLeave in Britain.”

The European Central Bank will by such bonds until its breaks even with its own deposit rate of -0.4%. Swiss and Japanese bonds are also in negative yield territory.

Japan is also following a quantitative easing program and despite the fact that it is expected to reach a 250% debt-to-GDP ratio, the country continues to sell its bonds at subzero yields.

Meanwhile, despite the ECB’s €80bn-a-month bond-buying programme, inflation in the 19-country eurozone is at record-low levels. Figures indicate particular deflationary pressure across Europe, including Italy, Switzerland, Britain, but also Poland.

A prolonged period of zero-interest rate environment across the developed world has hurt savers, the insurance sector, banking, and all the so-called fixed income sectors. It is feared Brexit would spur market panic and a broader banking crisis, reigniting recession in Europe and beyond.

(Reuters, Wall Street Journal, FT)

The post Fearing Brexit markets flock to German Bunds appeared first on New Europe.

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There has been a reported increase in cases of young refugee girls being forced to marry before their arrival in Germany. It’s a phenomenon that has German lawmakers thinking about tightening legislation against child marriages.

As reported by Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has expressed its concern that migrant children who entered into marriages abroad may be forced to continue living in such marriages upon arrival in Germany.

“We need a clear law,” Thomas Kutschaty, a Social Democrat (SPD) and justice minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia told the daily Bild newspaper.

According to the report, there are hundreds of child brides living in Germany. The recent wave of migration to Europe has seen that number of minors married to each other or to adults increase significantly. In May, a judgment by a court in the Bavarian city of Bamberg made it clear that these marriages are not valid in Germany.

In Germany, the age of majority is 18. The youngest age allowed for marriage is 16, and then only if the other partner is a legal adult, and parents or a family court has granted permission.

The post Germany considers stricter legislation against child marriage appeared first on New Europe.

This is a day of reckoning for France’s union barons. Thousands of protesters are expected to take to the Paris streets again today, seeking to shame politicians into dumping already watered-down plans to reform labour laws. But all that noise may belie a more uncomfortable reality for Philippe Martinez, the union ringleader for the strike. He may have badly overreached.

The gruff, mustachioed boss of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) said the demonstrations would be “massive”. His reputation is on the line in what Le Journal du Dimanche has dubbed the “final round” of his battle with the government. The New York Times does a smart job of looking at the stand-off. The piece highlights the complex undercurrents in the French labour movement – notably a bloody succession battle to lead the CGT as its fortunes have waned – that are driving militant action in what is ironically “one of the least unionised countries in Europe”.

And here lies the danger for Mr Martinez. The CGT-led strikes have been a costly nuisance but the disruptions don’t seem quite as bad this week. The rubbish in Paris is finally being collected again. The government seems to be standing its ground (albeit to protect far weaker reforms). Public patience is wearing thin. And most importantly, attention has turned to the football – and France won its first game. If turnout is mediocre on Tuesday, what Mr Martinez described as a protest airplane “just taking off” in late May could appear to be running low on fuel.

Read more

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Litter is on the European Parliament’s agenda for June 15. MEPs will debate the definition of litter and proposals aimed at achieving the 50% reduction target of land-based litter by 2030.

Last month, Czech MEP Miroslav Poche called for the definition of littering to be clarified as “any action or omission by the waste holder, whether wilful or negligent, that results in litter”.

The European Parliament is also proposing that EU countries restrict single-use products for the sake of litter prevention.

According to the Clean Europe Network (a Europe-wide platform where organisations share experience, expertise and best practice), the current discussions in the European Parliament are “one step in the legislative process – but a very important step”.

The post MEPs debate how to reduce litter by 2030 appeared first on New Europe.

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The leaders of four political parties in Spain debate on Monday ahead of June’s 26 elections. The televised debate was hardly surprising in terms of content, but was the first of its kind.

This is the first time Spaniards get a four-leaders debate since the end of the Francoist regime in the 1970s. Traditionally, only two parties debate, the center right and the center left. However, since the last electoral encounter on December 20, 2015, Spain no longer follows tradition.

The traditional pendulum between the Popular Party (PP) and the Socialists (PSOE) has come to an abrupt end, with Podemos and Ciudadanos joining the political landscape. The previous election yielded a hung parliament with parties unable to conclude a five-month long negotiation to form a government.

Other than a pledge not to leaved Spain ungoverned, there is nothing that suggests Spain will be any closer to a government come June 27. The most recent Metroscopia poll published by El País on Sunday give PP 28,9%, that is, a 3,5% lead over the second Unidos-Podemos platform with 25,4%. The difference since December is that the Socialists are now in the third place with 20,8% and the liberal Ciudadanos fourth with 15,9%.

The two-hour long event was marked by all candidates turning their criticism against the incumbent Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and his party’s record on corruption. Rajoy mostly responded “to govern is difficult; to preach is easy.”

Podemos focused its criticism on his party’s handling of Spain’s double digit unemployment crisis.

The Socialist leader, Pedro Sanchez, focused his criticism on the anti-systemic opposition of Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Podemos, a party born from the indignados, which is the Spanish vein of the anti-austerity occupy movement that has recently allied itself with the communist United Left.

Mr Iglesias likens himself as the next Prime Minister of Spain, urging PSOE to chose between  who will need the support of the Socialists to become prime minister, urged Mr Sánchez to throw in his party’s lot with Unidos Podemos. “There are only two options: the PP or a progressive government,” he said. Sanchez has ruled out an alliance with PP.

Albert Rivera of Ciudadanos accused Podemos of planning to take Spain out of the EU, but also criticized PP for failing to reinvigorate the Spanish economy. Rivera, unlike Sanchez, has never ruled out a coalition government with PP.

The post Spain: four leaders debate for two possible governments appeared first on New Europe.

Should energy and sugary drinks be allowed to claim on their labels that the caffeine in them boosts alertness and concentration? Parliament's public health and food safety committee fears this could affect children and teenagers, who are the main consumers of energy drinks. On Wednesday 15 June, committee members discuss whether to vote against a European Commission proposal allowing this. We talked to Christel Schaldemose, in charge of steering the plans through Parliament, why she opposes it.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Should energy and sugary drinks be allowed to claim on their labels that the caffeine in them boosts alertness and concentration? Parliament's public health and food safety committee fears this could affect children and teenagers, who are the main consumers of energy drinks. On Wednesday 15 June, committee members discuss whether to vote against a European Commission proposal allowing this. We talked to Christel Schaldemose, in charge of steering the plans through Parliament, why she opposes it.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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Russian hooliganism in Paris has costed €150,000 to the Russian national football team, that has also been handed a suspended disqualification from Euro 2016 cup.

This decision was taken by UEFA on Tuesday, after Russian fans took part in violent clashes in Marseille. “Charges relating to crowd disturbances, use of fireworks and racist behavior had been brought against the RFU (Russian Football Union),” the governing body UEFA said on Tuesday in a statement.

The ethics committee had decided to impose a fine of €150,000 euros and a suspended disqualification of the Russian national team, valid until the end of 2016. “Such suspension will be lifted if incidents of a similar nature (crowd disturbances) happen inside the stadium at any of the remaining matches of the Russian team during the tournament,” the statement continues.

French authorities consider banning alcohol at the football premises, due to the violent clashes between the Russian and UK fans.

The post UEFA hands suspended disqualification to Russian team, fines €150,000 appeared first on New Europe.