European Union

Russia's athletes have been banned from the Olympic Games in Rio. The International Court of Arbitration for Sport decided in the last instance, rejecting the appeals of 68 athletes affected by the case. As bitter as the decision is for individual athletes it was inevitable, commentators argue.

Same-sex marriages are forbidden by law in Romania. Three million Romanians have now called in a petition for this ban to be enshrined in the constitution. Now parliament must decide whether a referendum will be held on the issue. The Romanian press comments:

The axe attacks in a regional train in Wurzburg that left several wounded have an Islamist background according to the current state of investigations. The act carried out by a 17-year-old Afghan boy was apparently the result of a rapid and unnoticed radicalisation. Some commentators are convinced that immigrants are dangerous and that politicians are trying to cover this up.

According to the French public prosecutor's office the Nice lorry driver spent months planning the attack. Five suspected accomplices have been taken into custody. The 31-year-old Tunisian drove a truck into a crowd on Bastille Day, killing 84 people. What lessons must political leaders learn from this attack?

Can and should NATO learn from the EU?

When a group within the Turkish military attempted a coup to overthrow the current government under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) last Friday, the world knew that chaotic times will be ahead. This was however not the first coup d’état in Turkish history. While Erdoğan is now ‘able to do whatever he wants’ and working on restoring his power in Turkey, it would be interesting to see how the international community deals with the country. And even more striking would be to see and hear the reactions by the two organisations most important for Turkey, NATO and the EU. The lack of NATO’s responses and measures suggest that it may have to learn a lesson from its counterpart, the EU.

The international community has responded to the events in Ankara and Istanbul immediately after the clashes: UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon called for calm, US President Barack Obama demanded to Turkey to support its democratic institutions, German Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the attacks in Turkey, and even the newly elected British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson expressed his concerns about the situation unfolding in Turkey.

European Council President Donal Tusk called for a return to constitutional order and Frederica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, warned the Turkish government to take steps against the constitutional order and said that the rule of law needs to be protected, but another voice remained rather neglected. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg did condemn the occurrences in Turkey, but solely called for calm and restraint.

Whereas the EU takes the lead in criticising the Turkish government and Erdoğan’s reaction after the failed coup, NATO seems to be impotent. The EU has the necessary instruments to sanction Turkey at its disposal: economic sanctions, suspending visa liberation and EU accession negotiations, and it could even withdraw the country’s candidate status. Following Frederica Mogherini, ‘no country can become an EU member state if it introduces death penalty’. NATO, on the other hand, is not indifferent or stunned, but it does not possess any sanction instruments vis-à-vis its member states. But saying that NATO is paralysed would do the alliance wrong. According to the North Atlantic Treaty, it cannot interfere in a member states’ domestic politics. As a reaction, US Secretary of State John Kerry therefore stated that NATO will nevertheless observe closely the events in Turkey and that the Alliance ‘has a requirement with respect to democracy and NATO will indeed measure very carefully what is happening’.

Gauging the measures at disposal of the EU and NATO leads to the question whether the Alliance could and should learn from the EU in regard to treating (candidate) member states. Since NATO has evolved over the past decades and transformed from a military alliance to, what Wallander and Keohane have coined, a ‘security management institution’, it has acquired a much broader political dimension than initially anticipated. So far NATO has not recorded any incidences in which it was forced to interfere in the domestic affairs of one of its member states. Yet, the alliance is founded on democratic principles and has committed itself to democratic values and norms; this counts for both candidate states and allies within the organisation.

The country at the Bosporus is a vital ally, however, and should not be just suspended or kicked out as suggested by John Kerry. Rather, suspension should go hand in hand with additional measures. In any way, Turkey plays a strategic not only for NATO but also for the EU – it borders both Syria and Iraq, and is therefore a vital ally in the fight of terrorist threats. Hence, not only the EU, but maybe even more importantly, NATO and its allies should take stricter measures to urge Turkey to return to constitutional order.

 

By Nele Marianne Ewers-Peters, PhD Candidate, University of Kent, Canterbury

The post Chaotic Turkey, paralysed NATO, lead-taking EU?! appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

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Trips and meetings of Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

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General : With unemployment in the EU remaining above 8%, 77% of Europeans want the EU to do more to tackle the issue, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey. Reacting to the results of the Europe-wide study, Thomas Händel, the head of Parliament’s employment committee, urged EU leaders to “endeavour to ensure investment and high-quality, sustainable employment”. Read on to learn more about the EU’s role in the fight against unemployment.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : With unemployment in the EU remaining above 8%, 77% of Europeans want the EU to do more to tackle the issue, according to the latest Eurobarometer survey. Reacting to the results of the Europe-wide study, Thomas Händel, the head of Parliament’s employment committee, urged EU leaders to “endeavour to ensure investment and high-quality, sustainable employment”. Read on to learn more about the EU’s role in the fight against unemployment.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Matteo Renzi is politically cornered. Troubled banks – or more precisely Monte dei Paschi di Siena - have left the Italian premier facing a problem with no good answers.

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Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

OPINION on the future of ACP-EU relations beyond 2020
Committee on Foreign Affairs
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Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP