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ARI 5/2016 - 18/1/2016
Cristina Gortázar Rotaeche
¿Qué obligaciones tiene Europa ante el desafío de la crisis de los refugiados?

C onservationists have brought a new perspective to their work, by showing the release of sea turtles, from the point of view of the turtle.

Deputy Finance Minister said that Russia will not seek foreign loans as long as Western financial sanctions are in place.

With 14 million people facing hunger in southern Africa as the El Niño weather pattern, the worst in over three decades, exacerbates drought, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it faces critical funding challenges in scaling up food and cash-based aid.

With 14 million people facing hunger in southern Africa as the El Niño weather pattern, the worst in over three decades, exacerbates drought, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that it faces critical funding challenges in scaling up food and cash-based aid.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said that Russian government expects that country's economy will growth in 2016 despite crisis.

Should a controversial statue come down?

Why Ethiopia dropped plans to expand its capital after deadly protests

Each week about 200 Syrian refugees are being given safe passage from Melilla, an autonomous Spanish enclave on the North African coast to Spain, as Chris Morris reports.

Americas

• Raytheon has been given an $85 million contract to supply Griffin A & B Block II/III missiles to the USAF. Delivery of the missiles is expected to be January 31, 2017. The missiles are the two variants of the AGM-176 Griffin mini-missile. The Griffin A is an unpowered precision munition that can be dropped from a rear cargo door, or a door-mounted launcher of an aircraft, while the rocket-powered Griffin B can be employed as an air-to-surface or surface-to-surface missile. Both are currently being used on a variety of weapons platforms including LCS vessels, C-130 aircraft and UAVs.

• The foreign military sales approval process has been described as “tortuous” by the US Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus. Mabus made calls for continual streamlining of the approval process which he claimed frustrated all parties involved. The announcement comes amid frustrations felt by companies such as Boeing over large purchase orders by the governments of Kuwait and Qatar. Kuwait and Boeing are currently awaiting approval of a $3 billion deal for twenty-eight F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets which Mabus viewed as symptomatic of a larger problem in place.

• All variants of the F-35 fighter jet are to get design overhauls since the discovery that the fuel tanks could over-pressurize in certain flight profiles; 154 F-35s have been delivered to date. Lockheed Martin has already received contracts to implement fixes on F-35A and F-35B, and are currently putting together a proposal for engineering works on the F-35C. Fuel tank ruptures have potentially devastating consequences, especially for fast moving aircraft such as the F-35s, with the potential to cost millions of dollars worth of damage.

Europe

• Belgium’s government is looking to buy the Patriot air defense system as part of its new strategic defense plan. The plan, if approved by the parliamentary defense select committee, could potentially see over $600 million used to purchase a battery of the system. Defence minister Steven Vandeput said the system would be used not only as part of Belgium’s defense from ballistic missile threats, but could be utilized by other NATO allies in places where such a system is most needed such as on the Turkish-Syrian border. The announcement comes alongside the news that Poland may also install the system in their country in a procurement that could reach $5 billion.

• Running contrary to earlier reports, Serbia’s up and coming defense shopping list will not include the S-300 system. With limitations to its current budgets, the system was not part of discussions with Russian officials who visited Belgrade for a defense and trade summit last week. Instead, requests to buy MiG-29 fighters, the short-range Tor missile system and medium-range Pantsir-S1 systems have been made. Keeping their budget in mind, it’s been reported that these will be supplied from refurbished existing stocks rather than fresh off the production line. News that they were looking to buy the long-range S-300 system was seen as a counter-measure to recent plans for NATO to establish its own missile defense shield in Croatia.

Asia Pacific

• The suspense surrounding India’s Rafale jet acquisition continues. With plans seemingly already in place for the deal to be finalized, India is looking to negotiate a new option to the existing deal to buy thirty-six fighters from Dassault. A visit to New Delhi by French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week was initially seen as a final dotting of i’s and crossing of t’s on negotiations ahead of President Hollande’s visit next week. The Indian government seems to be more confident that the $9.1 million deal will be ready for the visit, claiming the contract to be “politically ready”.

• China will receive its first batch of Su-35 fighters by the fourth quarter of this year with completion due in the next three years. It’s unknown how many will be delivered in 2016, but twenty-four fighters have been ordered in total at a cost of $2 billion. Beijing is the first foreign customer of the latest multi-role jet, although there have been fears that the purchase is only being made in order to reverse engineer key technologies for China’s own indigenous fighters.

• Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircraft has failed to detect nuclear material over North Korea. Since the apparent hydrogen bomb test by the DPRK earlier this month, the Japanese have been conducting environmental tests to monitor radiation levels near where the testing took place. Earlier monitoring posts had also failed to detect any such material which prompted Tokyo to send four T-4 training aircraft and one C-130 to collect further air samples.

Today’s Video

• Japanese sniffer aircraft sent to DPRK:

How to make money from recycling electronic waste

A new wrinkle added to a complicated few days of diplomacy

One of my biggest frustrations on watching BBC TV’s ‘Question Time’ is that when UKIP representatives make incorrect statements about the EU, there’s usually nobody on the panel or in the audience to correct them.

Take last Thursday’s broadcast of Question Time. Among those appearing on the panel was UKIP MEP, Patrick O’Flynn, who made a number of statements about the European Union that were wrong.

As I discovered, shouting at the telly made not a blind bit of difference. He carried on regardless, without anyone in the studio able or willing to put him right.

So instead, I’ll share with you here on my ‘EU ROPE’ blog three examples of Mr O’Flynn’s misleading statements on Question Time and explain how they were wrong.

Mr O’Flynn said:

“On the flooding it turns out that there are regulations from the EU that stop us dredging the rivers that have arguably made the flooding worse.”

UKIP has been trying to blame the EU for Britain’s flood disaster. This is completely without foundation.

The anti-EU party, along with some of the media, have claimed that the EU Water Framework Directive ‘bans dredging’. But that’s not true; the directive doesn’t ban dredging.

Whether or not to dredge is a decision of each member state, not the EU, and based on the local situation. The UK Environment Agency recently announced that it had spent £21m on dredging in the past two years, so clearly, dredging hasn’t been banned at all.

It’s also been claimed that the EU directive prevents dredged sediment being spread elsewhere. Again, this isn’t correct, unless the sediment contains toxic substances, in which case dredging could poison land and rivers endangering the health of humans and wildlife.

Experts have commented that dredging can sometimes be an effective measure against flooding, but sometimes it can make matters worse. It’s up to our UK government agencies to decide whether to dredge, and not the EU.

Furthermore, the EU has emergency funding of about £125 million to help Britain’s flooded areas. So far, the British government has turned down this fund, with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, claiming that Britain can afford to deal with the flooding from ‘our own resources’.

Mr O’Flynn also asserted:

“You can’t sack the European Commission. It’s unelected. We’re not a democracy.”

This is also incorrect.

The laws and regulations of the European Union are debated and democratically agreed (or rejected) by the elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), in collaboration with the European Commission.

We elect MEPs to represent Britain in the European Parliament; it’s nonsense to claim this is not democratic.

The European Commission comprises 28 Commissioners, one from each EU member state, appointed every five years.

The President of the Commission is decided by a majority vote of the democratically elected heads of each EU member state, which of course includes the UK.

However, the choice of Commission President has to be agreed by a vote of the European Parliament, which can reject the candidate for President.

Once Parliament has democratically approved the appointment of the EU Commission President, the President-elect selects the 27 other EU Commissioners, on the basis of suggestions made by each EU member state, including of course the UK.

However, EU Parliamentary committees assess the suitability of each proposed Commissioner.

Then, the Commission as a whole requires the democratic consent of the European Parliament, to whom the Commission is ultimately responsible.

In fact, the European Parliament has the democratic power to sack the entire Commission of the European Union at any time during its 5-year tenure. This is the same as national governments that can be booted out of office by national Parliaments if they lose a vote of confidence.

The European Parliament is one of the world’s largest democratic assemblies, representing over 500 million citizens.

The Parliament has elected representatives from all the main political parties in Europe – conservatives, socialists, liberals, greens, variants of the extreme left and extreme right, as well as anti-EU parties, such as UKIP.

I have visited both Parliaments of the EU, in Brussels and Strasbourg, and witnessed democracy at work by hard-working elected MEPs. It’s an insult to them, and to all of us who voted in the European elections, to suggest that the EU is not democratic.

The EU is not quite the same as our democratic system in the UK, but the European Union is still a democracy none-the-less. It’s not perfect, but there is no perfect democracy in the world.

In the UK, we don’t get to vote for who sits in the Cabinet or holds ministerial positions. We don’t directly elect our Prime Minister. We don’t elect our Civil Service. We have an unelected second chamber, and an unelected ‘head of state’.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others.”

Over the past few decades, however, much more democratic power has devolved to the European Parliament, and I hope this ongoing process of democratisation will continue in the years and decades to come.

Only one-third of the British electorate actually vote in the European Parliament elections. Maybe that’s why so many might wrongly believe Mr O’Flynn’s claim that the EU is not democratic.

Mr O’Flynn also stated on Question Time:

“The Governor of the Bank of England is admitting that untrammelled freedom of movement for working class jobs has caused massive wage compression over ten and fifteen years for working people in this country.”

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney (himself a foreign worker) didn’t say anything of the sort.

Let me be frank about this: Mr Carney did not say migrant workers bring down the salaries of existing British workers. In fact, Mr Carney has strongly praised ‘free movement of people’ as being good for Britain and Britons.

Mr Carney actually asserted that foreign workers are helping to increase the UK’s productivity. On the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme, presenter John Humphrys asked Mr Carney if “cheap foreign labour” was actually stopping productivity increasing.

But Mr Carney replied, “I would really dampen down that explanation.”

He explained that most of the increase in labour supply has been down to British workers taking more hours, and older workers staying in employment. Over the last two years, increases in those factors have been 10 times as important as migration, Mr Carney asserted.

Contrary to the implications made by Mr O’Flynn on Question Time, the Bank of England Governor has consistently supported Britain’s continued membership of the EU.

In a lecture last October, Mr Carney said Britain’s membership of the EU since 1973 had improved the dynamism of the economy and increased the prosperity of all people in Britain.

Mr Carney added that “the UK is the leading beneficiary” of the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour enshrined in European treaties.  

Furthermore, Mr O’Flynn’s description of ‘free movement of people’ across Europe as “untrammelled” is also misleading.

There is not “untrammelled” free movement of people. Yes, as EU citizens we have a right to live, work, study or retire in any other EU/EEA countries. But under EU rules, we cannot just move to another EU country unless we have the means to look after ourselves.

It’s a myth to suggest that it’s possible for EU migrants to come here, or for British migrants to go to another EU country, and immediately start claiming benefits. It’s only free movement if you can afford to move.

*Read response from Bank of England Press Office to the comments by Mr O’Flynn: BBC Question Time: Response from Bank of England

* Join the discussion about this article on Facebook.

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Other stories by Jon Danzig:

• EU referendum: It’s going to get nasty
• What Nigel Farage told British expats in Spain
• UKIP’s Hall of Shame

To follow my stories please like my Facebook page: Jon Danzig Writes

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I managed to get through to the James O’Brien phone-in show on LBC radio. James asked me, “Jon, have you changed your view as a result of this sparkling re-negotiation presided over by our wonderful Prime Minister, David Cameron?’ (4 minutes)

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

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#UKIP MEP @oflynnmep gives the wrong answers on #bbcqt about the #EU. Please share my blog: https://t.co/2DAG3TZnLb pic.twitter.com/vAfte5zXgO

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) January 17, 2016

Wrong answers on #bbcq by UKIP MEP @oflynnmep Join the discussion on my #Facebook page: https://t.co/0XZ5lyEa7n pic.twitter.com/crttc6lyV8

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) January 17, 2016

Multiple wrong answers on #bbcqt by #UKIP MEP @oflynnmep Please share my blog: https://t.co/ASKwmoy7fa pic.twitter.com/awXaJnPd2V

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) January 18, 2016

Response from @BankofEngland regarding comments by #UKIP MEP @oflynnmep on @BBCQuestionTime about #migrant #labour https://t.co/rDB9CqUgcA

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) January 18, 2016

 

The post Wrong answers on BBC Question Time appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

A brutális 2016-os évkezdés, különösen a kínai részvénypiaci esések és az olajár nem szűnő szakadása továbbra is kiemelt helyen tartja a feltörekvő piacokat a befektetők horizontján. Az erős és drámai jóslatok közepette nem könnyű kiigazodni, de a Franklin Templetonnál úgy látják érdemes még mélyebbre menni. A kincsek ugyanis olyan országokban rejtőzhetnek, melyekről szinte senki nem beszél, pedig egyesek szerint innen várhatók a jövő nagy befektetési robbanásai.

Anna és Bence a kórház bejáratánál megtorpant egy percre. Úgy tűnt, ez a nap kitörölhetetlen lesz az életükből. Leginkább Annáéból.

Bence azonban hajthatatlan volt, tudta: nem szabad itt ácsorogni, mert a lány a végén még meggondolja magát. Jelzésképpen megszorította Anna kezét, akinek a szeméből előbuggyantak a színtiszta átlátszó kövér könnycseppek. Sírt. Hiába ölelte a fiú újra és újra magához, magában az egyre növekvő türelmetlenséggel, a vággyal, hogy legyen már ennek vége.

Kis lépcsőzés után a lány abbahagyta sírást és még egy gyengécske mosolyt is erőltetett az arcára, mellyel tulajdonképpen bárkivel el tudta volna hitetni, hogy végre erőt vett magán. Csak Bencével nem. A fiú aggódott. Nem akart immáron sokadszorra visszafordulni, nem akart többször idejönni. Anna azonban, ahogy meglátta a nőgyógyászat fehér tábláját és a váróteremben ülő nőket, újra megállt, magához ölelte a kedvesét és keserves zokogásba kezdett. Bence megértően simogatta az arcát, majd hirtelen egy csókot nyomott a lány ajkára, hogy így próbálja meg elviselhetőbbé tenni a helyzetet. Érezte a lányban végre több elszántság van, mint eddig bármikor, mert az előző napokban még egyáltalán nem jutottak el a váróteremig. Még ott, a lépcsőfordulóban alig hallhatóan a fülébe suttogta érveit, azaz az ésszerű érveket, hogy még túl fiatal ehhez, mert a lányok tizennyolc évesen nem tesznek ilyet, hogy hiba volt összeállni azzal a fiúval, de mindenre van megoldás, és jelen pillanatban ez a legegyszerűbb, még ha kényszerű és kockázatos is egyben. Mikor Anna lehajotta a fejét, akkor már szinte hangját felemelve szólt a lányhoz, hogy ezzel legalább tiszta lappal kezdhetnék ezt a kapcsolatot, még ha oly súlyos árat is kell érte fizetniük. Anna erre már csak bólogatott, de mélybarna szeme mintha csak megfagyott volna, oly ridegen tekintett most kedvesére.
De belépve a váróterembe már csak egy gondolat járt a fejében: akárhogyan is, de túl kell ezen esni, túl kell élni valahogy. Pedig mennyire valószerűnek tűnt még nem is olyan rég, hogy itt hagyja ezt a várost, és a távoli Olaszországban, tizenhét évesen az édesanyja mellett kezd majd új életet, ott ahol született, ott, ahonnan apja Magyarországra hozta.

A váróterem fehér falai, a fehér üveges ajtók látványa oly erősnek hatott most. Fázott, a hideg rázta, mert idegen helyen volt és mert ismeretlenek vették körül. Nem tudta mi fog történni vele, de érezte, hogy innen már nem lesz visszaút. Még félt, ez a félelem, most már enyhülni kezdett, Bence látványa oly megnyugtató hatással volt rá, megnyugodni azonban nem volt képes. Tudta: ahhoz a bizonyos kezdethez ezt a küszöböt át kell lépnie. El akarta oszlatni kételyeit, el akarta végre feledni az örökké visszatérő kérdéseket, hogy jól cselekszik-e. Hogy nem gyilkos-e. Esélyt akart magának, amit többet soha ront el, esélyt, hogy újra kezdhesse, azt, a már oly végzetszerű életét.

Amikor az orvos kiszólt, ő már lesütött fejjel, de határozottan lépett oda, s hagyta, hogy a nővér karon fogja és elkísérje a műtőig. Még egyszer hátranézett Bencére, aki éppen akkor egy újságot vett elő kabátja belső zsebéből, hogy elüsse valahogyan az időt.

Szerző: Aranyi Péter

Tags: tárcanovella

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