European Union

On 3 February 2016, the 28 member states agreed on how to finance the €3 billion EU refugee facility for Turkey. This will allow the EU to deliver additional humanitarian assistance to refugees in Turkey and their host communities. The help is mainly focused on meeting immediate needs by providing food, health services and education.

“We are working continuously to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. The agreements between the EU and Turkey are a vital part of this. They aim at targeting human traffickers and launching projects which will help give those in and around the refugee camps the hope of a better future. Europe is following  up on its decision to make 3 billion euro available for the Turkey Refugee Facility and we will continue to work hard with our Turkish partners to turn this into concrete results”, said Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, which is currently holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU.

This agreement puts into practice the commitment made by the EU at its summit with Turkey on 29 November 2015 to provide €3 billion additional resources to assist Turkey in addressing the immediate humanitarian and development needs of refugees and their host communities. €1 billion of this will be financed from the EU budget and the remaining €2 billion by contributions from the member states according to their share in EU GNI.

The facility will include a governance and conditionality framework. Its respect is an essential element for the execution of assistance actions.

The distribution of member states' contributions is set out in the following table and graphic: 

[1] Contributions made by member states could be adjusted downwards in 2017 according to the final contribution from the EU budget, without prejudice to the total amount planned for the instrument and without prejudice to the prerogatives of the budgetary authority.

[2] National contributions for the Facility will not be taken into account for the calculation of a member state's deficit under the Stability and Growth Pact.

[3] A contribution from Cyprus in the amount of € 2.3 million will be made to the EU budget for Jordan and Lebanon.

When talking about Yemen, one of the most common phrases amongst analysts is that “it’s complicated.” True, to a very large extent. Tribal politics, new movements being infiltrated by old power political structures and when looking at the political actors involved, it becomes less clear how the conflict falls under the ‘Sunni-Shia’ divide that seems to be a top theme when discussing MENA politics. Yet the fact that Yemen is “complicated” does not mean there is no clear power political dynamic.

In a nutshell, if former president Ali Abdullah Saleh did not form an alliance with the Houthis, a group who he has fought six wars with since 2004, including one in 2009 where he requested Saudi support via area bombardment, they would not have been able to stage a coup on Sana’a in September 2014. Before Saleh stepped down, he warned that if he let go of power, Yemen “would turn into another Somalia,” indicating his vengeful intentions. By looking at Yemen today, not only is it clear that Saleh has taken his revenge on his own people for revolting against him, but also against the city that has suffered the most as a result of the Saleh/Houthi tactical alliance: Taiz – the birthplace of the 2011 revolution.

Taiz city, whose province is directly on the old North-South border is currently under a siege imposed by Saleh and Houthis forces. All roads that lead outside the city are blocked. Food prices have soared dramatically as it has become scarce due to the Houthis blocking aid and hospital have run out of medical supplies, including oxygen. The largest public hospital in Taiz, Al Thawra has been forced to close multiple times over the past year and it is only able to function if medical supplies are smuggled through the mountains. Those who do attempt to smuggle basic living needs into the city are usually caught by Houthi and Saleh forces and shot or kidnapped.

When looking at the logistics supporting anti-Houthi forces in Taiz, it is clear that power politics have to a large extent influenced the assistance of the resistance movement. Taiz is well known for being an Islahi (Muslim Brotherhood) stronghold, which despite being the perceived lesser evil in Yemen’s context still has unstable relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). This has politicised the resistance movement because of a fear of what may come after the Houthis leave Taiz and how local successors would serve the security of their Arab allies. In some ways it looks as though the Arab coalition has learnt its lesson from its experience in Aden. After Aden province was liberated a security vacuum emerged, which gave enabled sporadic ISIS and Al Qaeda attacks. To ensure this mistake is not repeated in Taiz, there needs to be a guaranteed form of security for a post Houthi order. The main problem with this is that the more days go by, the more lives are lost as a result of daily shelling and the deadly siege. Moreover, there is some evidence for an alternative view that the lack of assistance to anti-Houthi forces in Taiz is because the UAE does not want to extend its military assistance to allies of the Muslim Brotherhood, however much the Saudis under King Salman are willing to ally with anyone against Iran.

Saleh needs to be beaten at all fronts

In light of these tensions within the Saudi-led coalition, what external powers need to do beyond defeating Saleh and Houthi militias militarily is to undermine them diplomatically and financially. While no party in the anti-Houthi movement recognises Saleh’s legitimacy, there are still ways to corner him. One of Saleh’s sons, Ahmed, is still living luxuriously in the UAE. Last April Riyadh even expressed suspicion towards Abu Dhabi’s intentions in Yemen, though this is unlikely to extend past the discontent of political officials in the foreseeable future because both are still in a formal military alliance. Saleh needs to be beaten at all fronts, not just militarily, because it is becoming clearer that as long as Saleh has the capability to destroy he will not surrender under any circumstances regardless of whether chaos will lead him to regaining power or not.

If a solution is not found, Europe will potentially face an influx of Yemeni refugees. Russia’s involvement has also become increasingly apparent, with Houthi and Saleh officials meeting with Russian ambassadors in Sana’a. As a consequence Yemen risks becoming another Middle Eastern political quagmire for EU policy. The policy mistake made in Syria must not be made in Yemen. With the growth of AQAP, terrorism remains a threat and EU policy should not look towards beating it through collusion with a former dictator who has perpetuated terrorism. A policy that aims for stability in Yemen should work in conjunction towards democracy and self-determination to ensure leaders who refuse to give up power do not have the tools to destroy all around them.

The post Why a military defeat of the Houthis is not enough for Yemen or Europe appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Plenary sessions : Social benefits for migrant workers in the UK, honesty versus populism and how to ensure respect for different countries' views on EU integration were the key issues raised by Parliament's political group leaders in Wednesday’s debate, with a view to the UK’s forthcoming EU membership referendum. The debate is Parliament's input to the 18-19 February EU summit, which will also focus on migration.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Social benefits for migrant workers in the UK, honesty versus populism and how to ensure respect for different countries' views on EU integration were the key issues raised by Parliament's political group leaders in Wednesday’s debate, with a view to the UK’s forthcoming EU membership referendum. The debate is Parliament's input to the 18-19 February EU summit, which will also focus on migration.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

This is the Wednesday edition of our new Brussels Briefing. To receive it every morning in your email in-box, sign up here.

Donald Tusk, left, arrives at Downing Street for dinner with David Cameron on Sunday

There is a time in every EU policy debate when the technical becomes the political. That’s what happened yesterday when, after months of painstaking work by some of London and Brussels’ most seasoned mandarins, European Council president Donald Tusk published a 16-page “New Settlement for the United Kingdom within the European Union”. The EU’s political leaders now have two weeks to decide whether they will sign onto the deal before a high-stakes summit where the agreement is to be finalised.

For those following the debate closely, there were few surprises. Critically, Mr Tusk’s proposal includes an “emergency brake” that will allow David Cameron, the British prime minister, a four-year limit on benefits to newly-arriving EU migrant workers – at least for a while, since how long he can keep that brake engaged remains to be negotiated. Also left unclear is the efficacy of a second “emergency brake” that would allow London to force eurozone decisions onto the agenda of an EU summit. How and when that brake can be pulled is a sticking point with France, which wants to make sure Britain cannot veto further eurozone integration efforts.

But by in large, the substantive fight is over and things now move into the realm of the political, both inside Westminster and in other EU capitals – most of which got their first look at Mr Tusk’s draft at the same time as the rest of the world. In London, the political hothouse that always develops over Europe heated up quickly. Even within Mr Cameron’s own cabinet, there were grimaces – and open challenges – among known euroceptics like Chris Grayling, leader of the House of Commons, and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. Avowed Brexiteers were less constrained. Steve Baker, leader of the Conservatives For Britain group, accused Mr Cameron’s Europe minister of being “reduced to polishing poo”. The reviews were about as kind in Britain’s popular press. The cover of the best-selling Sun tabloid shouts this morning: “Who do EU think you are kidding Mr Cameron?” The equally influential Daily Mail calls the renegotiation deal “The Great Delusion!” on its cover.

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DRAFT REPORT on the fight against trafficking in human beings in the EU’s external relations
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Barbara Lochbihler

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU’s energy commissioner, will have to choose his words carefully next week.

On February 10, he will release the European Commission’s long-awaited “gas package”, and he must manage expectations among an unusually varied bunch of interests. There are eastern Europeans who want assurances that they will be safer in the face of any supply cut by Russia. The Norwegians need comforting too, looking for signs that there will still be EU demand for their gas in the years ahead. Environmentalists want Brussels to stress that the longer term trajectory is a greener, more efficient continent burning less gas.

According to an early draft of the plan seen by Brussels Blog, there appears to be a little bit for everybody – but not yet enough to keep everybody happy. Take Norway. It wants to want to maintain its status as the EU’s favourite gas provider. But their companies need assurances that Europe has a long-term appetite for gas at a time they’re looking to invest in infrastructure in the Barents Sea, above the Arctic circle. Just in case the message wasn’t getting through, Oslo wrote to Mr Arias Cañete about the issue again last week.

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Plenary sessions : The EU needs to overcome its paralysing fears and divisions and to manage migration and refugee flows effectively, said many MEPs in Tuesday's plenary debate with the Dutch Presidency and the Commission. Protecting the EU's external borders effectively is vital to safeguard the Schengen passport-free area, they observed. Some also called for zero tolerance of racist and violent attacks against migrants and refugees.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : The EU needs to overcome its paralysing fears and divisions and to manage migration and refugee flows effectively, said many MEPs in Tuesday's plenary debate with the Dutch Presidency and the Commission. Protecting the EU's external borders effectively is vital to safeguard the Schengen passport-free area, they observed. Some also called for zero tolerance of racist and violent attacks against migrants and refugees.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Undeclared work represents a major problem in Europe, which accounted for 18.4% of the EU's gross domestic product in 2012. Not only do governments miss out on revenue, but workers are also less protected. On 2 February MEPs approved a proposal to establish a European platform to tackle the issue. How will it work? Watch our interview with report author Georgi Pirinski, a Bulgarian member of the S&D group, to find out more.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Undeclared work represents a major problem in Europe, which accounted for 18.4% of the EU's gross domestic product in 2012. Not only do governments miss out on revenue, but workers are also less protected. On 2 February MEPs approved a proposal to establish a European platform to tackle the issue. How will it work? Watch our interview with report author Georgi Pirinski, a Bulgarian member of the S&D group, to find out more.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/34e413ce-c9b3-11e5-889e-bc764e08d9b2_7.68_thumb_169_1454421236_1454421056_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The very first informal meeting of EU Trade and Developmentm ministers takes place on 2 February 2016, in Amsterdam.

Download this video here.

Plenary sessions : Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves called on the European Union to act decisively regarding the migration crisis during a speech in plenary. "Let us now gather our wits and strengths," he told MEPs. "Leave behind the indecision, finger pointing and ducking of responsibility. We will handle this migration crisis if we show the resolve of our forebears."

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves called on the European Union to act decisively regarding the migration crisis during a speech in plenary. "Let us now gather our wits and strengths," he told MEPs. "Leave behind the indecision, finger pointing and ducking of responsibility. We will handle this migration crisis if we show the resolve of our forebears."

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of our new Brussels Briefing. To receive it every morning in your email in-box, sign up here.

For most of Europe, the sharp decline in oil prices since the summer has been an economic boon, lowering costs for everyone from energy-intensive manufacturers to run-of-the-mill consumers. But the one place in Europe where the free-fall has been no boon at all has been the Kremlin treasury, where oil and gas sales account for more than half of revenues. Already, Russian officials have announced a 10 per cent cut in spending for this year’s budget, and have toyed with the possibility of aggressively hedging against future losses. Now comes word that President Vladimir Putin may be putting pressure on seven of Russia’s largest state-owned companies – including energy giant Rosneft and airline Aeroflot – to at least partially privatise as a way to raise funds.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs approved on 3 February Parliament's position on the Trade in Services International Agreement (TiSA), which is currently being negotiated by the EU and 22 World Trade Organisation partners. Read on for more on the agreement and check out our infographic explaining TiSA.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs approved on 3 February Parliament's position on the Trade in Services International Agreement (TiSA), which is currently being negotiated by the EU and 22 World Trade Organisation partners. Read on for more on the agreement and check out our infographic explaining TiSA.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Parliament endorsed draft EU legislation establishing a “European platform” to enhance cooperation in combatting undeclared work in a vote on Tuesday. The platform would enhance cooperation among EU member states' labour ministries, trade unions and employers' associations about how best to tackle a problem that is damaging the EU economy and distorting the labour market. The undeclared economy accounts for 18% of EU GDP.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Parliament endorsed draft EU legislation establishing a “European platform” to enhance cooperation in combatting undeclared work in a vote on Tuesday. The platform would enhance cooperation among EU member states' labour ministries, trade unions and employers' associations about how best to tackle a problem that is damaging the EU economy and distorting the labour market. The undeclared economy accounts for 18% of EU GDP.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP