Agrégateur de flux

You can read here the article on the refugee issue, which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 7 October 2015.

Image: Photo of Secretary of Defense McNamara at a press conference taken by Marion S. Trikosko, 1965. From the Library of Congress.

At a maritime conference in Sydney held on Tuesday, U.S. Admiral Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, in an apparent reference to Chinese actions in the South China Sea, commented:

“Some nations continue to impose superfluous warnings and restrictions on freedom of the seas in their exclusive economic zones and claim territorial water rights that are inconsistent with (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). This trend is particularly egregious in contested waters.”

Earlier, at a gathering of Asia-Pacific defense officials in Hawaii last week, Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, reiterated Beijing’s hope for mutual cooperation in the South China Sea, telling his counterpart, U.S. Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command:

“(We) hope the U.S. side can pay great attention to China’s concerns, earnestly respect our core interests, avoid words and actions that harm bilateral ties, and reduce activities which cause misunderstandings or misjudgments.”

The pair of comments follow a series of dangerous maneuvers both in the air and on the sea in recent months, including last year’s barrel roll by a Chinese warplane over a U.S. Navy patrol jet.  Adding to Beijing’s concern, a top U.S. commander suggested last month that U.S. ships and aircraft should patrol close to artificial islands which China has built in the South China Sea.  And last week, one of the U.S. Navy’s most advanced aircraft carriers docked in Japan, as part of a deployment to strengthen defense ties between Japan and the U.S.

Concern over potential misunderstandings and a possible escalation of tensions over territorial claims have led both nations to set up a military hotline along with rules of airborne engagement, which were announced last week.

Some analysts have downplayed the fears, however, arguing miscalculation concerns over incidents in the maritime realm are exaggerated and can artificially increase tensions, raise threat perceptions, and justify arms build-ups.  Last month’s attack by Thai coast guard vessels on Vietnamese fishing boats certainly had the potential to escalate, yet was handled diplomatically.  While threats may indeed be exaggerated for a domestic audience for political gains, the potential for escalation is real should diplomacy fail.  Many geopolitical analysts and diplomats failed to predict the nationalist outburst and rioting in Vietnam that followed the movement of a Chinese offshore oil drilling rig into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone in May of last year.  Rioters attacked Chinese and other Asian factories in an industrial zone outside of Ho Chi Minh City, Chinese workers were attacked and at least two were killed at a Taiwanese steel plant in central Vietnam, and some 3,000 Chinese workers were hastily evacuated from Vietnam.

Despite a long history over rules of engagement and efforts at diplomacy, miscalculations have occurred in the past –  the Gulf of Tonkin incident leading to greater American involvement in the Vietnam War is still being debated to this day.  In his book In Retrospect, the Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara, describes how the U.S. destroyer Maddox “was attacked by torpedoes and automatic weapons fire” in international waters.  While U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to retaliate, he did send a second destroyer, the C. Turner Joy, to the region.  Just two days later, low clouds and thunderstorms added to the confusion over whether the Maddox and Turner Joy were under another attack, both ships reporting “more than twenty torpedo attacks, sighting of torpedo wakes, enemy cockpit lights, searchlight illumination, automatic weapons fire and radar and sonar contacts”.  A patrol commander aboard the Maddox later that day communicated to Washington:

Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful.  Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonar men may have accounted for many reports.  No actual sightings by Maddox.  Suggest complete evaluation before any further action taken.

Despite the message and amongst the confusion, President Johnson authorized that day the launch of naval aircraft, which flew 64 sorties against the Vietnamese patrol boat bases and a supporting oil complex, and submitted a resolution to Congress requesting their support for U.S. combat operations in Southeast Asia.  The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave Johnson great leeway in exacerbating America’s involvement in Vietnam and led to the ultimate withdrawal of U.S. military forces after their failure to defeat the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong.

One would think with the advanced technologies and greater communication available to today’s diplomats, the same set of events has little chance of happening.  Yet surely that was the same consensus held back then, and despite the plethora of information available today, how one interprets the actions and intent of the enemy will always be subject to debate.  The fog of war has not gone away.  

 

A Holdkő Kulturális Alapítvány pályázatot hirdet eszköztámogatásra szervezeteknek, cégeknek, alapítványoknak, intézményeknek, önkormányzatoknak és egyéni vállalkozóknak.

Netanyahu glowers at the UN (Photo: CNN)

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently spoke at the UN General Assembly meeting on behalf of the Jewish state. He spoke at length about Iran (67 mentions by my count), the peace process and PA President Abbas’s comments the previous day before the international body, Syria, ISIS and generally about Israel’s courage and fortitude in the face of a hostile world.

Read the full text of the speech here.

Peace with the Palestinians
On the subject of peace, Bibi expressed his frustration with Abbas for refusing to return to the negotiating table without preconditions. He stated,

“I am prepared to immediately—immediately—resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever. Unfortunately, President Abbas said yesterday that he is not prepared to do this.”

He continued,

“Well, I hope he changes his mind, because I remain committed to a vision of two states for two peoples, in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state” [emphasis mine].

For such an articulate speaker, Netanyahu has a strange blindspot to his own preconditions. The italicized clause above, immediately following his bemoaning Abbas’s unwillingness to negotiate without preconditions, actually lays out two preconditions of its own!

1) That a future Palestinian state will be demilitarized and
2) That it will recognize a Jewish state.

The first point is generally understood (although certainly not universally accepted) to be a starting point for an eventual peace plan. The second point however is extremely controversial, seen by many as a roadblock created by Netanyahu specifically to tie Abbas’s hands and prevent the Palestinian leadership from sitting down at the table in the first place.

Global opinion of these points aside, Netanyahu is literally laying out two preconditions to peace talks, in the same breath that he is scolding Abbas for refusing to set aside his own preconditions.

“I’m prepared to resume peace negotiations without any preconditions. Abbas said he is not prepared to do this. I hope he changes his mind.”

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) October 1, 2015

Dealings with Iran
Speaking to Iran, Netanyahu invoked the awe-inspiring story of survival that is the Jewish people, enduring through millennia versus all odds and against countless enemies. He invoked the Babylonians, the Romans and the Nazis. He then cautioned:

“[The Iranian] regime would be wise to consider this: I stand here today representing Israel, a country 67 years young, but the nation-state of a people nearly 4,000 years old. Yet the empires of Babylon and Rome are not represented in this hall of nations. Neither is the Thousand Year Reich. Those seemingly invincible empires are long gone.”

This is amazing and worth reflection. But the reason I mention it is: the Iranian (Persian) people have been around even longer than the Jews. Does it mean they (or anyone!) will last forever? Of course not. But survival through the ages is a strange point to rub in the noses of a people that are arguably even older.

Resolution Overkill
Later, Netanyahu stated,

“In four years of horrific violence in Syria, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives. That’s more than ten times—more than ten times—the number of Israelis and Palestinians combined who have lost their lives in a century of conflict between us. Yet last year, this Assembly adopted 20 resolutions against Israel and just one resolution about the savage slaughter in Syria.”

On this point, I couldn’t agree with him more. In my opinion, one of the gravest sins that the international community has made regarding Israel is attempting to hold the Jewish state to standards which no other nation is held.

It is bad for Israel — it paints them a pariah. It’s bad for the UN — it undermines their role as a just, deliberative body. And perhaps most relevantly, it’s bad for the Palestinians and the peace process — it is easy for Israel to dismiss all judgement when they are so obviously and unfairly being held to unattainable standards. Due to this over-scrutiny, bordering on the absurd, Israel can casually bat away all criticism. Though not every critique is unfair, when seen through the lens of such hypocrisy, Israel can simply say: It’s not us. It’s you. And when reflecting on the overbearing burden of attention paid it, they are right. It isn’t them.

Israel is not perfect, but can anyone really claim them worthy of 21—out of a total of 25!—UN resolutions in a year? With all the atrocities happening in the world, anyone who believes that 85% were perpetrated by Israel is either lying or ill-informed.

Down the Hall, a Deputy Speaks Out
On the same day that Netanyahu addressed his colleagues at the UN, his deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely gave her own address. At a UN meeting of countries who donate to the PA, she took the floor and equated all Palestinians to terrorists. As reported by Haaretz, after speaking about the Jewish right to ascend to the Temple Mount (something that is currently causing riots in the region):

“Hotovely continued with criticism of the Palestinians, saying that while an Israeli child dreams of being an engineer so he can be part of the start-up nation, a Palestinian child dreams of being an engineer so he can prepare explosive devices and perpetrate terror attacks.”

The following speaker was Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. He informed the body that he had “written [an] address but I don’t plan to give it because I can’t not respond to what we’ve heard from the Israeli representative.”

According to Haaretz:

“The incident became particularly embarrassing when Hotovely interrupted Judeh several times to argue with him. This was contrary to protocol for the meeting, which was not an open discussion but a series of short speeches. One person in the room said that the meeting’s chairman, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, had to call Hotovely to order twice.”

For those who are less familiar with the role of a foreign minister in Israel, it is equatable with an American Secretary of State. Currently, the position is being handled by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Hotovely is his deputy.

While I stand by my argument that Israel is vastly, and unfairly, over-scrutinized at the UN, it probably wouldn’t hurt if they rounded up an actual diplomat to represent them before the international body. I’m just saying.

Follow me on Twitter @jlemonsk

Der Rat hat am 1. Oktober 2015 einen Beschluss über den Abschluss des Freihandelsabkommens der EU mit Südkorea angenommen. 

Das im Oktober 2010 unterzeichnete Abkommen sieht die schrittweise Liberalisierung des Handels mit Waren und Dienstleistungen vor. Es enthält Regeln zu handelsbezogenen Fragen, wie Wettbewerb und staatliche Beihilfen, Rechte des geistigen Eigentums und öffentliches Beschaffungswesen. 

Es ist das erste einer neuen Generation von Freihandelsabkommen und das erste Handelsabkommen der EU mit einem asiatischen Land. 

Alle Mitgliedstaaten der EU haben das Abkommen ratifiziert, so dass es nun abgeschlossen werden kann. Die meisten Bestimmungen des Abkommens werden bereits seit dem 1. Juli 2011 vorläufig angewendet. 

Südkorea ist der zehntgrößte Exportpartner der EU, und die EU der viertgrößte Exportpartner Südkoreas. 

Öffnung des Handels, Verbesserung des Marktzugangs, Beseitigung nichttarifärer Hemmnisse 

Die meisten Zölle wurden im Juli 2011 aufgehoben, als sich beide Parteien verpflichteten, innerhalb von fünf Jahren 98,7 % der Zölle (Handelswert) abzuschaffen. Ab dem 1. Juli 2016 werden nur noch für einige wenige landwirtschaftliche Erzeugnisse Einfuhrzölle erhoben. 

Das Abkommen eröffnet neue Möglichkeiten des Marktzugangs für Dienstleistungen und Investitionen. Es enthält besondere Vorschriften für elektronische Geräte, Kraftfahrzeuge und Fahrzeugteile, Arzneimittel, medizinische Geräte und Chemikalien, so dass auch nichttarifäre Handelshemmnisse beseitigt werden. Handelspolitische Schutzmaßnahmen, technische Handelshemmnisse, gesundheitspolizeiliche und pflanzenschutzrechtliche Maßnahmen sowie Zoll- und Handelserleichterungen werden ebenfalls erfasst. 

Dem Abkommen sind Protokolle über Ursprungsregeln und über Amtshilfe im Zollbereich sowie über kulturelle Zusammenarbeit beigefügt. Es enthält auch Bestimmungen über Handel und nachhaltige Entwicklung, die sowohl sozialen als auch ökologischen Belangen Rechnung tragen. 

Umsetzung 

Ein Handelsausschuss überwacht die Umsetzung des Abkommens sowie die Handelsbeziehungen im Allgemeinen. Auch ein Streitbeilegungsverfahren ist vorgesehen. Der Handelsausschuss erstattet einem Gemischten Ausschuss Bericht, der auf Grundlage eines Rahmenabkommens EU–Südkorea, mit dem das Freihandelsabkommen verknüpft ist, eingesetzt wird.

Der Beschluss wurde ohne Aussprache auf einer Tagung des Rates (Wettbewerbsfähigkeit) angenommen.

Thirty two participants representing eleven countries and twenty-four industrial and governmental organisations met for the second edition of the European Reference Open Architecture Standard for a Modern Integrated Electronic Mission System in Military Land Vehicles (LAVOSAR II) workshop, held at the European Defence Agency (EDA) on 9 July 2015. 

Very positive comments after the first LAVOSAR workshop organised in 2014 resulted in the continuation of an initiative to promote and develop an open architecture standard for military land vehicles. It is important to underline the fact that previously involved industry unanimously supported the idea and joined in for the second session.

Whilst LAVOSAR I focused mainly on mission systems of land vehicles of participating member states, LAVOSAR II went one step further to specify in more detail areas not covered before, e.g. selected aspects of maintenance and logistics. Several work packages which are currently under investigation in the ongoing LAVOSAR II study were incorporated in the workshop agenda. These included elements such as Architectural Domain Analysis and Requirements, Workflow and Procedure Update, Through Live Capability, Open Reference Architecture Standards Update, Alignment with NATO General Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) and Architecture Contribution to the EDA Repository.

An important aspect of the LAVOSAR project is how it dovetails with NATO General Vehicle Architecture (NGVA) standardization efforts. As highlighted by Member States at the CapTech Ground Systems meetings, the LAVOSAR work should  complement other international organisations’ efforts regarding the construction of an efficient open architecture Marek Kalbarczyk, EDA moderator of the CapTech stressed the importance of the initiative: “Implementation of open architecture to mission systems for land vehicles would bring not only whole life cost savings of between 10 - 25% to Member States, but would also simplify logistics and increase operational functionalities.”

Lively and fruitful discussions held throughout the workshop added substantial value to the ongoing LAVOSAR II study and will be integrated in the study results to advance work in the open architecture domain.

More information: 

• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop Study Presentation
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 1
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 2 
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 3  
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 4
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 5
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop 6
• LAVOSAR II Industrial Workshop Minutes  
• News "LAVOSAR Study Delivers Results" (16 June 2014)

A „Telephelyfejlesztés a területi kohézióért” című pályázati konstrukció keretében 59,89 millió forint uniós támogatást nyert el a Fonte Viva Kft. A cég Somogyváron a közel 100 millió forint összköltségű projektje során irodaépületét és eszközparkját fejlesztette.

A Fonte Viva Kft. 2002-ben alakult vállalkozás, melynek fő tevékenysége ásványvíz gyártása és palackozása.

A két főbb tevékenységből álló projekt egyik fő eleme az ásványvíz termelési folyamathoz kapcsolódó technológiai fejlesztés, a beruházás másik fő pillére pedig az irodai és kapcsolódó helyiségek felújítása, fejlesztése volt.

Az ásványvíz termelési technológiai fejlesztés keretében egy komplett automatizált vastalanító berendezés beszerzése mellett a meglévő levegőszállító rendszer kapacitás növelését eredményező kompresszor telepítésére került sor, amely egy önálló, a korábbinál kétszer nagyobb teljesítményű berendezés a gépi kapacitások kihasználására, a direktvíz közvetlen felhasználásának, így több késztermék előállításának céljából.

A megnövekedett termelési igény kielégítésére megfelelő hatékonyságú és műszaki állapotú kompresszorokra van szükség. A műszaki felmérés során kiderült, hogy a megnövekedett igény kielégítésére olyan mértékű felújításra szorulna a korábbi kompresszor, mely teljes mértékben gazdaságtalan és sem hosszútávon, sem rövidtávon nem garantálja a megfelelő működést. Ezért elkerülhetetlenné vált az igények kielégítése érdekében egy új, hatékony csavar kompresszor beszerzése a technológiai PET palack fújás ellátására, mely a többi egységgel együtt képes a megnövekedett gyártási mennyiségek biztosítására.

A projekt keretében megvalósított fejlesztés továbbá kiterjedt a meglévő iroda épület külső, illetve az eddig kihasználatlan emeleti rész belső felújítására, melynek eredményeként közvetlenül nőtt az irodai és kapcsolódó helyiségek területe. A fejlesztés eredményeként továbbá a Fonte Viva Kft. a munkahelyek számának megtartása mellett 4 új munkahelyet is teremt.

Az 59 891 827 forintos támogatást elnyert, 99 819 711 forint összköltségvetésű fejlesztés 2014. november 10-én indult és 2015. szeptember 14-én zárult.

Nicolas Hulot, ministre de la Transition écologique et solidaire, a annoncé le 28 août 2018 sa décision de quitter le gouvernement. Rendue publique sur l'antenne de France-Inter, sa démission intervient au lendemain de la réforme du permis de chasse dont le prix a été réduit de moitié. Au sein du gouvernement d'Édouard Philippe, il a dévoilé, le 6 juillet 2017, son plan climat d'action contre le réchauffement climatique anticipant la fin de la vente des voitures essence et diesel. Il a préparé par ailleurs une loi empêchant tout nouveau permis d'exploration d'hydrocarbures en France. Un désaccord est survenu avec son homologue de l'Agriculture, Stéphane Travert, autour de la législation d'un pesticide interdit "tueur d'abeilles". Longtemps animateur vedette d'Ushuaïa Nature sur TF1 entre 1987 et 2011, il s'était présenté à la primaire 2012 d'EELV.

Tir de missile Kalibr en mer Caspienne. Source : twitter. C'est lors d'un entretien télévisé avec Vladimir Poutine que le ministre russe de la Défense Sergeï Choïgou a informé le président russe que la flottille de la Caspienne avait procédé à une frappe...

Click on me !

Article de Julien Gonzalez, paru dans Le Figaro Vox, le 6 octobre 2015. Alors que se tenait au Palais du Luxembourg un colloque sur l'expatriation, Julien Gonzalez estime que ce que la France nomme depuis trop longtemps «expatriation» est en fait une émigration économique.

Cet article Julien Gonzalez – Figaro Vox – Derrière l’expatriation, le chômage des jeunes Français est apparu en premier sur Fondapol.

Egy-két éven belül el kell indítani azt a folyamatot, amelynek eredményeként Pest megye leválhat Budapestről, a régiós határok újragondolásával - mondta a Magyar Időknek Csepreghy Nándor, a Miniszterelnökség fejlesztéspolitikai kommunikációért felelős helyettes államtitkára.