Feed aggregator

Üzembe helyezték a hóágyúkat a Hargita megyei sípályák működtetői és remélik, hogy pár napon belül kezdetét veszi az idei síszezon, amennyiben az időjárás megengedi.
Kategória: Aktuális/Csíkszék

(B2) Les Européens doivent s'impliquer dans la « reconstruction de la Syrie. Qui d'autre peut le faire? » Cela ne fait aucun doute pour l'envoyé spécial de l'ONU en Syrie, Staffan de Mistura. Alors que la rumeur de sa démission a circulé ces derniers jours, celui qui est chargé d'encourager et de mener les négociations politiques entre les parties impliquées […]

Árpási Botond írása

A kormány által tervezett új valuta bevezetése elleni tüntetések szervezőire csaptak le a biztonsági erők Zimbabwéban. Az új fizetőeszköz és az afrikai ország hazai pénzügyi rendszerének átalakítása a gyenge lábakon álló gazdaságot stabilizálni hivatott kormányzati gazdaságpolitikai intézkedések részei – azonban sokan a mindent romba döntő hiperinflációtól tartanak, írja a Foreign Policy.

POZSONY. Száműzik Szlovákiában a kocsmákból a játékautomatákat, megtiltják a segélyezetteknek a szerencsejátékokat és lecsökkentik a szóban forgó játékok betiltását célzó petíciók hatályossági küszöbét - egyebek mellett ezeket a változtatásokat tartalmazza az az intézkedéscsomag, amelyet kedden hagyott jóvá a parlament.

Pour arrêter les trafiquants, le travail d’investigation doit être solide (Crédit : UNODC)

(BRUXELLES2) 21 agents de la police de Puntland ont participé à une formation sur les techniques d’investigation, organisé du 16 au 20 novembre, par le Bureau régional de l’Office des Nations Unies contre la drogue et le crime (ONUDC) en Afrique de l’Est, en coopération avec la mission européenne de renforcement des capacités maritimes en Somalie (EUCAP Nestor).

Enquêtes et poursuites judiciaires au coeur de la formation

La formation a été organisée pour « soutenir les interventions en matière d’application de la loi en Somalie », à Garowe (la capitale du Puntland), explique-t-on à la mission. La Somalie est en effet, un « carrefour » pour les migrants et réfugiés de l’Afrique de l’Est. En découle un crime organisé, puissant, qui s’appuie sur un juteux trafic d’êtres humains, contre lequel les autorités ont bien du mal à lutter. Concrètement, il s’est agi d’apprendre à 21 agents de police, à « identifier, enquêter, démanteler et poursuivre les éléments criminels favorisant les activités transnationales du crime organisé ».

Eucap Nestor met l’accent sur le cadre juridique

Une formation qui répond à une demande des autorités. « Nous avons des difficultés complexes pour enquêter sur les trafiquants de drogue comme de migrants et les poursuivre » explique ainsi le commissaire de police de Puntland. La formation apportée par la conseillère juridique d’EUCAP Nestor, Juha Sepponen, a porté sur la législation relative aux enquêtes criminelles afin de « rafraîchir et d’améliorer les connaissances des participants sur le cadre juridique de la conduite des enquêtes criminelles ». 

Le Puntland, carrefour du trafic dans la région

Une évaluation menée par l’ONUDC indique que le Puntland est « un carrefour important des mouvements migratoires mixtes émanant de l’Éthiopie et de la Somalie. Les migrants, les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile, les mineurs non accompagnés, les enfants séparés et les victimes de la traite se rassemblent dans la ville portuaire de Bossaso, principal point d’embarquement pour les mouvements de la mer d’Arabie au Yémen. »

(Leonor Hubaut)

Lire aussi : Une Finlandaise à la tête d’EUCAP Sahel Niger, une Roumaine à EUCAP Nestor

Dear Mr Tomlinson,
Dear UK Parliamentarians,

I read your letter with great interest. Your concern for the status of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens living and working in Europe bodes well for the future negotiations, especially since we have assumed that one of the main reasons for the vote for Brexit was the rejection of the free movement of people and all the rights it entails, as defined by the European treaties.

In your letter you state that the European Commission, and in particular Mr Barnier, are attempting to prevent negotiations, thereby creating 'anxiety and uncertainty for the UK and EU citizens living in one another's territories.' It is a very interesting argument, the only problem being that it has nothing to do with reality. Would you not agree that the only source of anxiety and uncertainty is rather the decision on Brexit? And that the only way to dispel the fears and doubts of all the citizens concerned is the quickest possible start of the negotiations based on Art. 50 of the Treaty?

Immediately after the referendum I declared, on behalf of the 27 EU Member States and the European institutions, that we were ready to launch the negotiation process as early as the following day. I still stand by that declaration.

In your letter you called on me 'to resolve this matter once and for all' at the European Council in December. This would in effect mean the start of the negotiations already in December. The EU stands ready to do so, but that can only happen on the condition that Art. 50 has been triggered. Let me reiterate, however, that the decision about triggering Art. 50 belongs only to the UK, which we fully respect.

Just like you, I would like to avoid a situation where citizens become 'bargaining chips' in the negotiation process. In order for this not to happen, we will need precise and comprehensive solutions, which, other than nice-sounding expressions, will provide citizens with genuine guarantees of security.

Finally, I want to reassure you that today, and for as long as the UK remains a member of the EU, the Treaties guarantee the rights of all EU citizens, including UK citizens, as regards their residence, work, social security and health. People are not only protected by the substantive EU law against discrimination, but also by the European Court of Justice if their rights are not respected. This obviously concerns not only those citizens who currently live in other Member States, but also those who decide to do so in the future.

Mercredi 23 novembre, le Parlement européen a décerné au film allemand Toni Erdmann le prix Lux 2016. Les eurodéputés l'ont préféré à A peine j'ouvre les yeux (France, Belgique, Tunisie, Emirats arabes unis) et au franco-suisse Ma vie de Courgette. Les trois finalistes bénéficieront du soutien du prix Lux, récompense existant depuis 2007, pour la distribution et le sous-titrage au sein des 28 Etats membres. Présent au Parlement européen de Strasbourg lors de la cérémonie, Toute l’Europe a rencontré les équipes des films en compétition.

An EU scheme offering EU member states technical help with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was backed by the Regional Development Committee on Tuesday.
Committee on Regional Development

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

An EU scheme offering EU member states technical help with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was backed by the Regional Development Committee on Tuesday.
Committee on Regional Development

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

An EU scheme offering EU member states technical help with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was backed by the Regional Development Committee on Tuesday.
Committee on Regional Development

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

An EU scheme offering EU member states technical help with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was backed by the Regional Development Committee on Tuesday.
Committee on Regional Development

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

It has been a bumper year for elections – whatever one may think of their outcomes – and now an unscheduled one looms on the EU horizon.

The surprise decision by Martin Schulz to step down as President of the European Parliament and seek his political fortune back home in Germany introduces yet another factor of volatility in Brussels.

Media headlines tend to highlight the personalities in contention, but the most important issue may well turn out to be the democratic process itself.  Right now, the main focus in the Schulz succession race is the unexpected decision by French MEP Sylvie Goulard to challenge Guy Verhofstadt for the Liberal candidacy for the Parliament’s top job.

Former Belgian premier Verhofstadt is a political veteran who now must face down competition from one of the Liberals’ up-and-coming names.

Aged 51, Goulard has won widespread respect as a comparatively youthful writer and commentator on the European political economy, as well as being a redoubtable parliamentarian. (In the interests of full disclosure, she, like Verhofstadt, is also one of the 50 or so members of Friends of Europe’s Board of Trustees.)

“The process is really about the comfortable accommodations between party managers that exist inside the Parliament”

Liberal MEPs’ choice of candidate is about much more than these two hopefuls. The process of choosing a successor to Martin Schulz for the increasingly powerful post of Parliament president is really about the comfortable accommodations between party managers that exist inside the Parliament.

The Parliament presidency has long been a stitch-up between the centre-right European People’s Party group (EPP) and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats. They’ve been taking it in turns to occupy the job for most of the last six decades: only five of the 25 presidents have come from outside these groups, the last being more than a decade ago.

The European Union’s democratic credentials are notoriously shaky, of course. To boost its credibility, a new form of election was devised in 2014 to determine who should become president of the European Commission. Of the ‘Spitzenkandidaten’ put forward by the transnational parties, the EPP’s Jean-Claude Juncker was unsurprisingly chosen over Schulz and Verhofstadt.

Tentative and minor attempts like this to democratise the process of filling the EU’s top jobs impress few people. If anything, they must share some of the blame for the dramatic advances enjoyed by populist parties across Europe.

Whether a Liberal MEP can succeed in breaking the mould of recent Socialist-EPP dominance by becoming president of the European Parliament remains to be seen. What matters far more is that the EU’s institutions should brace themselves for radical reform. It may well be that popular elections for the Commission presidency are impractical, but convincing moves towards making the selection process more transparent cannot be avoided indefinitely.

“Tentative and minor attempts like the Spitzenkandidaten process impress few people”

A first step towards this will be to ensure that it is not only the EU’s old war horses who contest its most important posts. The sense of behind-closed-doors deals has to be confronted by a much more open process. Sylvie Goulard’s apparently unwelcome defiance of Verhofstadt’s ‘incumbency’ of their party’s choice of candidate should be mirrored by younger newcomers becoming the Socialist and EPP contenders.

It’s time for Europe’s mainstream political parties to stop bemoaning the successes of populists on both the far right and far left, and instead respond in ways that will win back electoral support. That means abandoning practices within the EU that, rightly or wrongly, look to outsiders like political fixes.

Related content

• Friends of Europe: Report: State of Europe 2016 seeks way ahead for Europe in crisis
• Europe’s World: What’s really needed is structural reform of the European Parliament, by Adriaan Schout and Judith Hoevenaars
• Debating Europe: Should the President of the European Parliament be decided by a ‘stitch-up’?

IMAGE CREDIT: CC / FLICKR – Friends of Europe/ Gleamlight

The post We need more dark horses to enter the Parliament presidency race appeared first on Europe’s World.

Un système européen offrant aux États membres une aide technique en matière de réformes structurelles, nécessaires pour encourager la croissance et l’emploi, a été soutenu en commission du développement régional mardi.
Commission du développement régional

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

L'Institut Culturel Roumain accueille la nouvelle séance de Palabres animée par Christine Lecerf, spécialiste de littérature autrichienne, journaliste et productrice à France Culture. Le domaine roumain sera représenté par Paul Celan et Razvan Radulescu. Les domaines autrichien et ukrainien seront aussi représentés à l'occasion de cette rencontre.
Sur l'initiative du CIRCE (Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Centre-Européennes) de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne.
Entrée libre
29 novembre à 19h30 (...)

/ Région parisienne, Roumanie

The European Union is the result of an economic integration process geared to reach a neoliberal utopia. It was designed to eliminate, neutralise or severely limit all national policy instruments capable of standing in the way of trade and capital flows, and to narrow down member states’ policy choices to deflation strategies, mainly focusing on wages and taxes. Some have referred to this as “negative integration”, with the EU more about repressing national sovereignty than creating European instruments, capacities and accountability.

Member states lost their monetary and exchange policies, and saw their budgetary policies limited, first through the Growth and Stability Pact and then, even more so, through the Fiscal Compact. The result is a new process of economic divergence and social disaster. Peripheral economies have accumulated systematic external deficits, financed through growing external debt. After the financial crisis, private debt was made public and several countries became insolvent. To make matters even worse, the European institutions pushed an insane austerity strategy that continues to prolong the economic crisis. The self-evident failure of this strategy is deeply rooted in the countless flaws in the EU’s institutional design. For those who share this point of view, the question is what changes are needed for the Union to work, as well as whether a transformation of today’s failed design can really be enacted.Without any presumption of being comprehensive, I would highlight five necessary reforms:

• Place the European Parliament at the centre of European democracy, with the power to dismiss the Commission and the right to propose legislation.
• Ensure that the European Central Bank puts full employment at the centre of its mandate, and make its price-stability objective, which the Bank has consistently failed to deliver, more flexible. The ECB itself must be fully accountable to the European Parliament, including provisions for the dismissal of its governing council.
• Make EU fiscal policy focus its rules for national fiscal policies on debt sustainability rather than annual deficits, which are necessary for counter-cyclical fiscal policy. We must have the creation of a real European budget financed by surplus countries, focused on public investment and highly redistributive to reduce the Union’s internal asymmetries.
• Abolish all off-shore and other privileged tax jurisdictions within the EU, and establish a minimum corporate tax rate for all member states to abide by, avoiding a race to the bottom on corporate taxation.
• Promote a debt restructuring procedure that can return peripheral countries’ public debt to sustainable trajectories and significantly reduce their debt repayments.

These changes amount to the EU abandoning a model by which countries are forced to compete through internal devaluation, and instead building a solidarity economy. This will only be possible
once all members accept that the integrity of the Union depends on significant and systematic financial transfers from the core to peripheral economies to compensate for today’s devastating imbalances. All EU policies should be reducing those imbalances through the development of peripheral economies, not through imposing a race to the bottom on wages, which will only contribute to economic stagnation, as we can already see.

So are these reforms possible? I have grown more and more sceptical for several reasons. First, the economic and social crisis has fuelled discontent with the EU’s institutions and the European
project itself. The Union was built on a promise of development and prosperity that has failed to deliver, which is obviously true for the peripheral economies, but also for the working classes of
surplus economies. Second,the EU leadership’s total disregard for the democratic will of peoples in several member states destroyed one of the most important elements needed for a successful process of integration: democratic legitimacy. The EU was already found wanting before the economic crisis, but this degree of disrespect for national democracies will make people increasingly wary of further integration under Europe’s leaders.

Third, there was an enormous amount of irresponsibility exhibited by the EU’s leadership, and some national leaders, when it came to pushing an explanation for the crisis. Their analysis was based on moralistic tales, or borderline racist theories, about “competent” and “hard-working” people on the one hand, and “sloppy” and “lazy” people on the other. These narratives have helped waken political monsters that Europe had hoped to bury. Finally, and crucially, there is an institutional obstacle. The European treaties are among the most armoured pieces of legislation in the world. Many of the required changes will need unanimous support, but that only comes after overcoming the European institutions’ lack of democratic accountability and the dearth of political power for the Parliament. In the EU, institutions with power are undemocratic and institutions that are democratic are given no power.

I had hoped that after crushing the Greek government and seeing the United Kingdom vote to leave, the EU’s leadership would pause and reflect on the road the European project is taking. But their
bitter response to Brexit couldn’t have been more disappointing. The sad truth is that today, in Brussels and Berlin, I can’t see any sign of change – only stubbornness and vindictiveness.

I believe that it’s our responsibility not to give up on the European project. But far greater is the responsibility not to give up on the social rights for which Europeans have fought so hard. If conflict
between the current EU and the rights that have given shape to our democracies becomes unavoidable, it will be wise to choose the way of a peaceful separation. Even if the Union fails, we’ll always have Europe.

IMAGE CREDIT: palinchak/Bigstock.com

The post Europe’s stubborn Union appeared first on Europe’s World.

Bírálja két román kutató a Székelyföld története című monográfiát. A román szakemberek úgy vélik, a mű kizárólag a magyar történetírás álláspontját közvetíti, teljesen figyelmen kívül hagyva a Kovászna és Hargita megyei románság térségbeli jelenlétét.
Kategória: Aktuális/Háromszék

Almaz-Antey has started developing a new generation of medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems. Almaz-Antey also makes Buk-M2E complexes capable of striking aerodynamic targets at a distance from 3 to 45 kilometers and at altitudes from 15 meters to 25 kilometers. Meanwhile, Russia continues developing S-500 system

The lawyer for Sami Lushtaku, a former guerrilla commander who is now mayor of Skenderaj/Srbica, filed a complaint to Kosovo’s Supreme Court against his conviction for war crimes.

Le Premier ministre Abdelmalek Sellal a affirmé mardi à Tunis que l’Algérie et la Tunisie avaient franchi de « grands pas » dans la préservation de leur stabilité sous la « direction éclairée » des présidents des deux pays.

« L’Algérie et la Tunisie ont franchi de grands pas dans la préservation de la stabilité sous la direction éclairée des présidents des deux pays, une fierté pour nous », a déclaré M. Sellal à l’issue de l’audience que lui a accordée le président tunisien Béji Caïd Essebsi.

Représentant le président de la République Abdelaziz Bouteflika aux travaux de la conférence internationale sur l’investissement en Tunisie, le premier ministre a indiqué qu’il était porteur d’un message « d’espoir et de paix » exprimant son souhait de voir cette rencontre sanctionnée par des résultats positifs.

Le Premier ministre Abdelmalek Sellal est arrivé mardi matin à Tunis accompagné du ministre des Affaires maghrébines, de l’Union africaine et de la Ligue des Etats arabes, Abdelkader Messahel, et du ministre de l’Industrie et des Mines, Abdeslem Bouchouareb.

Le Premier ministre Abdelmalek Sellal a eu un entretien mardi à Tunis avec son homologue français Manuel Valls. Cette rencontre, tenue à la demande de M. Valls, a eu lieu en marge de la conférence internationale sur l’investissement en Tunisie « Tunisia 2020 » qui regroupe mardi et mercredi plus de 2.000 participants d’une quarantaine de pays. Les discussions entre MM. Sellal et Valls se sont déroulées en présence, notamment du ministre des Affaires maghrébines, de l’Union africaine et de la Ligue des Etats arabes, Abdelkader Messahel, et du ministre de l’Industrie et des Mines, Abdeslem Bouchouareb. Cette rencontre a permis d’aborder les relations bilatérales et les questions d’intérêt commun.

Sellal reçu à Tunis par l’émir du Qatar

Le Premier ministre Abdelmalek Sellal a été reçu mardi à Tunis par l’émir du Qatar, cheikh Tamim Ben Hamad Al-Thani. L’audience s’est tenue en marge de la conférence internationale sur l’investissement en Tunisie « Tunisia 2020 » qui regroupe mardi et mercredi plus de 2.000 participants d’une quarantaine de pays. Les discussions entre M. Sellal et l’émir du Qatar se sont déroulées en présence du ministre des Affaires maghrébines, de l’Union africaine et de la Ligue des Etats arabes, Abdelkader Messahel, et du ministre de l’Industrie et des Mines, Abdeslem Bouchouareb.