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The United Nations Security Council today extended for another five months its interim peacekeeping force in Abyei, a resource-rich area contested by Sudan and South Sudan, calling on both sides to swiftly resume regular meetings to resolve the oil-rich territory’s final status.

Via Richard Bistrong

Corruption is an affliction that blights much of the world. A perception study last year by Transparency International found that two-thirds of the world’s countries score below 50 on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

For many former communist countries still undergoing a period of cultural and institutional transition, corruption is a major barrier on the road to achieving its goals. It hinders competitiveness and makes investment decisions more difficult, while adding additional layers of cost and diminishing the ability for countries to provide adequate levels of welfare for their citizens.

Despite its shortcomings, one of the greatest single achievements of the European Union has been its success at mentoring and assisting former communist and Soviet states in their bid to transition to a functioning Western style democracy.

Romania is an interesting example of this process. Following the country’s accession to the European Union in January 2007, the country’s efforts to tackle corruption were modest at best. An investigation in 2012 into corruption levels in Romania by the  European Commission expressed serious concerns over the political situation and the ability to comply with fundamental principles of the Union.

Recently, however, evidence of progress has been more encouraging. Last year, the country’s National Anticorruption Directorate (NAD) successfully convicted 1,138 leading public figures, including top politicians, businessmen, judges and prosecutors. Furthermore convictions against high-level politicians and businessmen saw a significant increase compared to 2013; a shift in the anti-corruption drive that has continued into 2015 and has had a substantial social impact. A 2015 poll suggested that 60 per cent of Romanians trust the NAD, in contrast to only 11 per cent who express trust in parliament.

Perhaps the most high profile individual to be tainted by the clampdown on corruption is the country’s former Prime Minister, Victor Ponta, who stood down last month following mass protests triggered in part by charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering leveled against him. Other notable examples include Romanian media mogul, Adrian Sârbu, who was charged last year with tax evasion, money laundering and embezzlement and who is expected to stand trial in February 2016.

Ponta and Sârbu’s cases are particularly interesting as they indicate the endemic nature of corruption as well as its ability to traverse national borders with seeming impunity. One of Sârbu’s most notable business partners was Ronald Lauder, former US ambassador to Austria and son of the cosmetics tycoon Estée Lauder. Quick to identify the significant opportunities presented by the nascent media industry in Eastern Europe, in 1994 Lauder founded Central Media Enterprise (CME). By 1997, the news and entertainment company owned TV stations in Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.

According to the New York Times, in Ukraine Lauder engaged with two local businessmen, Vadim Rabinovich and Boris Fuchsmann, whom the FBI and European law enforcement agencies suspect of having ties to Russian organized crime. In 2001 CME was investigated by US federal prosecutors over allegations it paid at least $1 million in bribes to Ukrainian officials for a valuable television license. These connections and allegations culminated in the magnate facing a lawsuit seeking $750 million in damages filed by rival broadcaster Perekhid Media Enterprises Ltd.

These examples demonstrate that while country’s like Romania have much work still to do in addressing rampant corruption, the fact that even serving Prime Ministers and leading international businessmen are no longer free from the spotlight of the justice system is enormously encouraging. The European Union deserves at least some credit for this transformation. It must not allow progress to slide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REUTERS/Antonio Bronic

Mon article sur la proposition de la Commission de créer un corps de gardes-frontières et de gardes-côtes européens est ici. Bonne lecture!

À deux semaines de l'élection présidentielle, la Centrafrique a organisé dimanche un référendum émaillé de violences. De quoi faire craindre des débordements lors du scrutin du 27 décembre. Le point avec Lewis Mudge, chercheur à Human Rights Watch.

An army base is a serious status, an element of long-term strategic planning that ensures economic and public safety to several countries, while entailing certain challenges. The question about the Russian army base in the second largest city of Kyrgyzstan - Osh - had been repeatedly discussed at the top level in both countries over the years

Le 14 décembre dernier entrait en gare de Tblissi, capitale de la Géorgie, un train de fret en provenance de Chine. Le premier ministre géorgien Irakli Garibachvili présent pour l'occasion se "réjouissait que ce train soit décoré symboliquement des drapeaux de la Géorgie, de l'Azerbaïdjan, de la Turquie, du Kazakhstan et de l'UE. Il est désormais possible en un temps inouï, 8 à 10 jours, d'amener une cargaison en Géorgie et de là en 3 à 5 jours jusqu'en Europe".



S'incrivant dans le projet chinois de "Nouvelle Route de la Soie, cet axe ferroviaire passant par le Kazakhstan et la Géorgie est la première portion d'une ligne qui reliera directement Pékin aux grandes villes européennes en une dizaine de jours. Il permettra de réduire de manière significative le coût et le temps de transport des marchandises entre l'Asie et l'Europe qui prend une quarantaine de jour par voie maritime.

Il est à noter que cet ligne évite de passer sur le territoire russe. Le projet originel prévoyait que la ligne emprunte une portion du trans-sibérien et fasse étape à Moscou. Le manque d'intérêt des autorités russes pour l'entretien et la mise aux normes de cette ligne ainsi que la crise économique russe auront eu raison de ce projet.


Les premiers effets de l'embargo décrété par Moscou contre la Turquie commencent à se faire sentir. L'usine Toyota de Saint Petersbourg est en chômage technique, faute d'avoir reçu les pièces détachées nécessaires à la production et fabriquée ... en Turquie !

Selon le vice-gouverneur de St Petersbourg, Toyota n'a pu recevoir aucun des certificats de douane qui permettent aux pièces de franchir la frontière. Renault-Nissan s'est plaint de retard similaires. Tout cela s'ajoute à la crise que connaît l'industrie automobile russe : les ventes ont baissé de 42% cette année en raison des conditions économiques difficiles. On se souvient que General Motors et Volkswagen ont déjà quitté la Russie en début d'année.
C'est le géant de l'électronique Toshiba qui vient d'annoncer qu'il retirait du marché russe son département télévision et électroménager. Le directeur général de Toshiba-Russie avance comme raison "la compétition très élevée et les fluctuations du taux de change du rouble". Pour Kunihiro Nomura de l'organisation japonaise du commerce extérieur, (JETRO) : "C'est la décision de chaque société membre de JETRO, parce que l'économie russe est en crise et que la situation va en se dégradant. Bien sûr que les sociétés réduisent leur activité". Durant le 3ème semestre 2015 le marché de l'électroménager a diminué de 2.4%, soit 11,2% qu'à la même époque l'année dernière.
Lors du Forum économique de Moscou consacré aux menaces qui pèsent sur l'économie russe, l'entrepreneur Dmitri Potapenko a vivement mis en cause la politique économique du Kremlin. "Je ne vois pas de défis venant de l’extérieur", a déclaré d’emblée l’entrepreneur, se targuant d’avoir développé depuis plusieurs années des relations commerciales avec certains pays européens et la Chine. "En revanche, les quatre coups qui [nous] ont mis KO ont été portés exclusivement par nos pouvoirs économiques". Ces quatre coups sont, selon lui, l’embargo russe sur les produits européens, le décret présidentiel qui destine à la destruction les produits placés sous embargo mais ayant franchi la frontière, les taux d’emprunts exorbitants et la taxe sur les poids lourds, qui a soulevé un vent de contestation des routiers dans tout le pays depuis sa mise en place en novembre.
En plus des investissements chinois, et après le prêt de 100 millions d'euros sans intérêts consenti par la Suède, c'est au tour de la Pologne d'ouvrir une ligne de crédit d'un milliard de dollars au bénéfice de l'Ukraine.

Je laisse le mot de la fin au géostratège indépendant Xavier Moreau qui intervient ici sur la chaîne tout aussi indépendante Libertés TV, où il nous chante les louanges forcément désintéressées d'un Poutine "homme de la longue durée" et qui décidément "fait du bien à la Russie"...

So, according to the front page of today’s Daily Express, the EU referendum result is already done and dusted and Britain has decided to leave. Really?

Yes, a majority of voters want Britain to quit the EU, if the results of a poll by Survation are to be believed.

(Readers here will remember that last month the Sun newspaper commissioned Survation to do a poll and subsequently ran an entirely untrue front page story claiming that 1-in-5 British Muslims ‘have sympathy for jihads’).

Claimed the Daily Express on their front page today:

“Fifty-one per cent of people who expressed a firm opinion in a survey of more than 10,000 adults across the country supported exit from the European Union.”

Please look at the sentence above again. It is, actually, a classic example of how numbers can be twisted with clever words.

On first glance it may seem from the Daily Express report that just over half of those 10,000 people polled favour exit from the EU.

But actually, the Daily Express sentence didn’t say that at all. It said only that 51% of people who “expressed a firm opinion” want Britain to leave the EU.

It’s a convoluted and misleading way to present numbers. Let’s look at the facts.

Survation asked 10,015 people in an online survey the following question:

‘Imagine there was a referendum today with the question “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?” How would you vote?’

• 40% said they wanted Britain to remain a member of the European Union (-2 since the last poll, which is statistically insignificant and within the margin of error)
• And 42% said they wanted Britain to leave (+2 since the last poll, which is statistically insignificant and within the margin of error)

So where does the 51% figure come from? Well, 51% represents just over half of all those who provided either a ‘remain’ or ‘leave’ answer.

But many could be forgiven for thinking the Daily Express ’51%’ meant that just over half of 10,000 people polled wanted Britain to leave the EU.

That seems to be what Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU party, UKIP, wants people to believe. In a centre-piece article in today’s Daily Express – a major funder of UKIP – Mr Farage concluded from the poll:

“This new landmark poll of 10,000 people showing that the ‘leave the EU’ side is now ahead demonstrates that the tide has turned.”

There’s more…

There’s something much more interesting about the Survation survey that doesn’t get a mention on the Express front page, and is only briefly referred to at the end of their story.

It’s this: many Britons haven’t yet made up their minds about the country’s future in the European Union.

Almost a fifth – 18% – of those surveyed by Survation responded that they were “undecided” on whether or not Britain should remain a member of the EU. Furthermore, that figure hasn’t changed since Survation’s previous poll on the EU referendum question last June.

That almost-a-fifth-of-voters-who-are-undecided could dramatically and decisively swing the EU referendum result one way or the other (so long as they actually vote). And as yet, nobody, not the Daily Express, not Survation, and not even those voters themselves, yet know which way they will vote.

So rather than the EU referendum result being decided, done and dusted some two years before it might take place, the referendum decision is right now completely undecided. Despite today’s Daily Express headline, the referendum result is far from being ‘in the bag’.

This means that for both sides of the referendum campaign, there is everything to play for. Especially since we don’t yet even know when the referendum will take place, and neither the ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’ campaigns have yet started in earnest.

And although today’s Daily Express editorial asserted, “Among people who have already made up their minds a majority now want us to leave the EU…”, there’s something that should never be forgotten:

In a democracy, those who have made up their minds today, can change their minds tomorrow.

*Join the discussion about this article on Facebook.

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Related stories by Jon Danzig:

• Daily Express business model: selling prejudice and bigotry?
• Are some newspapers stirring up trouble?
• The value of being ‘citizens of Europe’

To receive regular updates on this and other ongoing stories, please click the ‘Like’ button on my Facebook page: Jon Danzig Writes

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According to @Daily_Express #Britain is leaving the #EU. Really? Read my Facebook today: https://t.co/Oqf5fi4fsk pic.twitter.com/eGQXZdTXWK

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) December 15, 2015

The post Britain is leaving the EU, says Daily Express. Really? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Egy európai és egy tagállami komponensből álló Európai Határ- és Parti Őrség (EHPŐ) felállítására tett javaslatot kedden az Európai Bizottság a schengeni külső határok integrált ellenőrzésének biztosítására. Az EHPŐ-t végső esetben a feladattal megbirkózni képtelen tagállam akarata és jóváhagyása ellenére is a helyszínre lehet majd vezényelni a javaslat értelmében.

L’ex-journaliste canadien d’Al-Jazira Mohamed Fahmy, condamné pour "soutien au terrorisme" a été gracié le 23 septembre après 438 jours dans une prison du Caire. Déchu de la nationalité égyptienne, il vit aujourd’hui à Vancouver. Témoignage.

Farmers in the rain-dependent district of Chakwal in Punjab province of Pakistan are finding relief in beekeeping as the groundnut crop suffers a blow from shifting rainfall patterns. Drought conditions in the district have worsened over last six years, making crop raising less viable and prompting migration of many farmers to nearby urban areas. But […]

Washington et Moscou sont particulièrement actifs afin de mobiliser la communauté internationale et de faire pression sur les parties syriennes, en vue d’aboutir à une solution politique. Mais les obstacles restent importants.

A magyar kormány a céllal egyetért, de a móddal nem.

Brüssel will einen besseren Schutz der EU-Außengrenzen. Nie zuvor reisten so viele Menschen illegal in die Europäische Union ein wie in diesem…