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The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission has provided precious support to the process of constitutional and legislative change in Kazakhstan, writes Igor Rogov.

The European Commission prepares to reject Italy's budget on Tuesday (23 October) due to an “unprecedented” breach of EU fiscal rules. But Rome sticks to its guns and presented the breach as a “difficult but necessary decision” taken by the government.

Steve Bannon's demolition derby is behind the curve of EU politics, writes Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in 't Veld.

Alakhbar - Des rencontres B to B entre entreprises françaises et mauritaniennes sont organisées, depuis ce lundi à Nouakchott, par OPPAFRIKA, la...

Russia said on Monday (22 October) it would be forced to respond in kind to restore the military balance with the United States if President Donald Trump carried through on a threat to quit a nuclear arms treaty and began developing new missiles.

In der Provinz Trentino haben am Sonntag Regionalwahlen stattgefunden. Dabei konnte die rechtspopulistische Partei Lega ihren Stimmenanteil gleich vervierfachen. In der Nachbarprovinz Südtirol sah das anders aus.

Although Moscow is aware that the revolution in Armenia had domestic causes, it is not entirely sure that in terms of geopolitics things will remain the same in the future, write Vasif Huseynov and Ayaz Rzayev.

Aleksandra Peeva, has successfully defended her dissertation at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The dissertation with the title "Political Goals, Economic Constraints: Explaining the Motivation and Effects of Economic Sanctions" was supervised by Prof. Marcel Fratzscher, Ph.D. (DIW Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Wolf (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).

We congratulate Aleksandra on her success and wish her all the best for her future career!

 Tegnap este az oktatási tárca vezetője aláírta azt a miniszteri rendeletet, amely alapján a kisebbségi oktatás elemi osztályaiban tanító pedagógusok megkapják a plusz órákért járó többletjuttatást – közölte az RMDSZ sajtóirodája. Mint ismert, a kormány Valentin Popa volt  oktatási miniszter kezdeményezésére tíz nappal a tanévkezdés előtt megvonta a kisebbségi iskolák tanítóitól a román nyelv és irodalom oktatásának a jogát. Ezt megelőzően, júliusban az oktatási minisztérium arról is rendelkezett, hogy a magyar tanítók nem kaphatnak túlóradíjat román nyelvórákért. A bérezésre vonatkozó rendelettel a tanítók október elején szembesültek, amikor a románnyelv-oktatás feladatát – egy sürgősségi kormányrendelet révén – visszakapták, az érte járó fizetést viszont nem. A képviselőház oktatási szakbizottságának tagja, Szabó Ödön elmondta, hogy az RMDSZ-nek a minisztériumban, a parlamentben és más intézményekben dolgozó szakembereinek közös munkája révén sikerült megváltoztatni a rendeletet.

 Az Államelnöki Hivatal tájékoztatása szerint az igazságszolgáltatást érintő törvényekkel kapcsolatos konzultációra hívja Klaus Johannis államfő a parlamenti pártok képviselőit.  Az ütemterv szerint 15 órától a Szociáldemokrata Párt, fél 4-től a Liberálisok és Demokraták Szövetsége, 4 órától a Nemzeti Liberális Párt, fél 5-től a Mentsétek meg Romániát Szövetség, 5 órától az RMDSZ, fél 6-tól  a Népi Mozgalom Párt, 6 órától pedig a nemzeti kisebbségek parlamenti frakciójának küldöttségét fogadja az elnök. Az elnöki hivatalban tartandó konzultációsorozat előzménye, hogy tegnap közzétett jelentésében a Velencei Bizottság megállapította: a büntetőjogi törvénykönyvek módosítása szükségszerű volt ugyan, a reformfolyamat azonban nem zajlott megfelelően. Az Európai Bizottság szintén tegnap felszólította a kormányt, hogy vegye figyelembe a Velencei Bizottság ajánlásait.

 Írta egy dél-koreai újság washingtoni diplomáciai forrásokra hivatkozva. A helyszínt még nem jelölték meg. Kim Dzsong Un észak-koreai vezető és Donald Trump amerikai elnök júniusban Szingapúrban találkoztak először. Kim akkor ígéretet tett arra, hogy a Koreai-félsziget atommentesítése érdekében fog dolgozni, Trump pedig hosszú távú biztonsági garanciákat és az amerikai-dél-koreai hadgyakorlatok felfüggesztését helyezte kilátásba az észak-koreai nukleáris arzenál felszámolásáért cserébe.

 Veszélybe kerül az európai autógyártási rendszer, ha Nagy-Britannia megállapodás nélkül lép ki az Európai Unióból – figyelmeztet az Európai Autógyártók Szövetsége. A szövetség Twitter-üzenetben sürgette a tárgyaló feleket, hogy kerüljék el a rendezetlen kiválást. Egyes autógyártók, mint például a BMW menekülési terveket készítettek. Ha London megállapodás nélkül távozik az EU-ból, az autóiparnak az újra bevezetett vámtarifák miatt növekvő költségekkel kell szembenéznie, amely az EU-ban gyártott és az Egyesült Királyságban értékesített járművek árát 1700 euróval, az Egyesült Királyságban gyártott, de az EU-ban megvásárolt autók árát akár háromezer euróval is növelhetné.

REPORT on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Georgia
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Andrejs Mamikins

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

REPORT on the implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Moldova
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Petras Auštrevičius

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

REPORT on the 2018 Commission Report on Serbia
Committee on Foreign Affairs
David McAllister

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

REPORT on the 2018 Commission Report on Kosovo
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Igor Šoltes

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

The EU generics industry has accused the US government of intervening in the ongoing discussion in the EU on the introduction of a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) manufacturing waiver.

Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) is not a silver bullet solution for climate change but a vital tool for reducing industrial emissions and enabling clean hydrogen production, argues Graeme Sweeney.

Americas

The US Air Force is procuring more updated Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) from Raytheon. The awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee option is valued at $62 million and provides for more missiles that integrate the Form, Fit, Function Refresh (F3R) of the AMRAAM guidance section. Friday’s contract involves foreign military sales to Norway, Turkey, Japan, Romania, and Australia. The Air Force’s AMRAAM F3R project is a comprehensive effort to mitigate the effects of parts obsolescence and diminishing manufacturing sources in the missile’s guidance section to extend the missile’s lifetime well into the 2020s. The F3R effort includes the substantial redesign of subsystems that include a new ASIC design, new hardware and a new signal processor. Work will be performed at Raytheon’s factory in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by December 2020.

Honeywell International is being tapped to support the Air Force’s fleet of C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft. Under this $7.8 million firm-fixed-priced order the company will be responsible to upgrade 85 Versatile Integrated Avionics/Avionics Integrated Units (VIA/AIU) to the 905 configuration. The upgrades are part of the Galaxy’s Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) avionics program. The VIA software system has six primary “partitions” or applications that include flight management, com/nav/surveillance/identification (CNSI), communication management, display services and all-weather flight control. The C-5M VIA/AIU repair and upgrade effort is a key component to the overall Core Mission Computer/Weather Radar aircraft modification/installation kit that replaces the current mission computer, and replaces the weather radar with a commercial off-the-shelf color weather radar. Work will be perfumed at Honeywell’s location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is expected to be completed by June 14, 2020.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp will support the Directed Energy Directorate with Solid State Laser Effects and Modeling efforts. The awarded cost-reimbursement type contract is priced at $36 million and allows the company to develop innovative diagnostic and test methods, increase the fidelity, realism and confidence of predictive models, measure and consolidate laser vulnerability data and support the general high energy laser system research environment. The Directorate focuses on four research areas: Laser Systems, High Power Electro magnetics, Weapons Modeling, Simulation and Analysis, and Directed Energy and Electro-Optics for Space Superiority. Among other things, the Directorate develops future offensive and defensive laser concepts, and models the synergy of directed energy and kinetic weapons at mission level. Work will be performed at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Work under this contract is expected to be completed by October 2022.

Canada’s Surface Combatants program is picking up pace as Lockheed emerges as the preferred bidder to design the next fleet of Royal Canadian Navy ships. This brings Lockheed one step closer to land the potential contract worth more than $45 billion. The company pitched BAE’s Type 26 design to the government of Canada and Irving Shipbuilders, a Canadian firm that would actually build the ships. BAE and Lockheed are now set to negotiate the specific terms of the deal, which would cover the construction of 15 frigates and associated equipment and services. What follows now is a due diligence process, which includes negotiations with Lockheed on intellectual property rights, an assessment of combat systems performance an assessment of the company’s financial capability to deliver the project and verification of various other administrative matters. If all goes well the Canadian government could award the contract in 2019 with construction expected to be begin by the early 2020s.

Middle East & Africa

South Africa’s Denel Vehicle Systems is adding a new version of the RG31 Mk5 to its portfolio. The baseline of the 4 by 4 MRAP is usually used as an armoured personnel carrier (APC), the new version however integrates the Tactical Remote Turret 30 (TRT-30). The remodelled vehicle’s TRT-30 armament suite consists of a Russian 30 mm 2A42 dual-feed cannon and a 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun. The gunner can remotely control the weapons via a flat-screen man machine interface (MMI) and twin control handles. The TRT is also fitted with an automatic target tracker (ATT) that gives the gunner more accuracy while the vehicle os moving. Dubbed the Ibululu, the platform is equipped with a 205 kW Cummins engine that accelerates the 16 ton vehicle to speeds of up to 62 mph, and an Axle Tech 4000 (5G) suspension that allows for cross-country mobility.

Europe

Aero Vodochody is taking first orders for its new L-39NG jet trainers. Czech Defence Minister Lubomir Metnar recently announced that the country will buy six L-39NGs to replace its outdated fleet of L-39 Albatros aircraft. “The Ministry of Defence and the military are interested in these aircraft, negotiations are, of course, already taking place and we will acquire these aircraft,” Metnar told Ceska Televize. The NG is the latest multi-role, advanced jet trainer aircraft designed by the company and is intended to provide enhanced military flight training capabilities required for fourth and fifth-generation fighters. The company hopes to export the new platform to various global customers and estimates that it could deliver more than 100 L-39NGs over the next decade.

Asia-Pacific

The Indonesian government plans to renegotiate its partnership with South Korea in the K-FX development program. The agreement between the two countries was formalised in 2014, and outlined that Indonesia will contribute about $1.9 billion to the project which has an overall value of $7.9 billion. Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs is seeking to negotiate a way for Indonesia to pay its contribution, of which about $200 million is unpaid. Reuters says that “Indonesia’s request on the financial terms of the deal comes as it is trying to support the rupiah, which is trading near a 20-year-low, and to reduce the use of foreign exchange reserves.” The KF-X program will likely be South Korea’s largest defense acquisition program, that sees for the delivery of 120 jets for its own air force, and 80 to Indonesia.

Today’s Video

Watch: AUSA 2018 Association U.S. Army defense exhibition