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Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1744 of 24 June 2024 amending Decision 2014/512/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine.

Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1738 of 24 June 2024 amending Decision 2014/145/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.

Press briefing ahead of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council will take place on 12 July at 14.30. The briefing will be "off the record".

Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1744 of 24 June 2024 amending Decision 2014/512/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine.

Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1738 of 24 June 2024 amending Decision 2014/145/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.

Press briefing ahead of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council will take place on 12 July at 14.30. The briefing will be "off the record".

NATO leaders backed Ukraine's "irreversible" path into the Western military alliance as expected on Wednesday (10 July), but stopped short of providing a concrete timetable and framework.

One of the terminals of the port of Açu on its inner side, in a channel dredged to a depth of 14.5 metres to receive vessels of up to 3.7 metres draught and a variety of cargoes. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

By Mario Osava
SÃO JOÃO DA BARRA, Brazil, Jul 10 2024 (IPS)

With barely 10 years in operation, the port of Açu is now the second in Brazil in cargo transport and seeks to become an industrial and energy transition hub. But so far it has contributed little to local development, causing environmental and social damage.

The megaproject, which is presented as “the largest private deep-water port and industrial complex in Latin America”, occupies 130 square kilometres in the municipality of São João da Barra, some 30 kilometres from the city and 320 kilometres northeast of Rio de Janeiro, in the state of the same name.

It channels 30% of Brazil’s oil exports and 24 million tonnes of iron ore transported through a 529-kilometre-long pipeline from the mine of the Brazilian subsidiary of the British transnational Anglo American, in Conceição do Mato Dentro, a municipality in the neighbouring southern state of Minas Gerais.“It’s an enclave without social, political and economic interests in the surrounding territory, with no connection to local reality": José Luis Vianna da Cruz.

In 2023, 84.6 million tonnes of cargo will pass through this port, 27% more than in 2022. This growth averages 30 % annually since it started operating in October 2014, according to its management.

“Here you can arrive and leave by sea and land without the queues of trucks that affect other ports, such as Santos,” Brazil’s largest, located in the neighbouring state of São Paulo, said Eugenio Figueiredo, president of the Port of Açu Operations management company.

Its location outside urban centres is one of the local advantages he mentioned to a group of journalists, including from IPS, who visited the port on 4 July. In addition, the main export products do not arrive by road. Oil comes by sea from offshore wells in the Atlantic and iron ore by pipeline.

The Port of Açu, the second largest cargo port in Brazil, stretches into the sea to receive giant ships destined to transport iron ore and oil. Credit: Wikimedia commons

The depth, of 14.5 metres at the terminals sheltered within a canal and 25 metres at the advanced jetty in the sea, is another favourable point to facilitate access for giant ships. Being private speeds up the operations, lacking the bureaucracy of public ports, according to Figueiredo.

So far, the company reports that it has invested the equivalent of 3.7 billion dollars in this mega-infrastructure, and plans to invest a further 4.070 billion over the next 10 years.

Oil, energy transition and industry

Being some 80 kilometres away from the Campos Basin, where offshore oil fields were discovered in the last four decades, allows Açu to offer a base for oil companies that is not only a port. A helicopter pad enables the rapid transport of people and light equipment to the oil platforms.

The large industrial area already hosts two flexible pipeline factories for deepwater oil exploration and extraction. A 1300 megawatt natural gas-fired thermal power plant is also operating in the area and another with a capacity of 1700 megawatts is under construction.

The president of the Port of Açu Operations, Eugenio Figueiredo. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Of the 130 square kilometres of the industrial port complex, 40 kilometres make up the Caruara Private Natural Heritage Reserve, the largest conservation area of restingas, a coastal ecosystem of sandy, not very fertile soils and low vegetation. The remaining 90 square kilometres are under port and industrial occupation, with 22 companies already installed.

The reserve was created after the company that owns it delimited the area of the port and industrial complex, with two objectives: the environmental protection of the restinga and, in the part closest to the urban centre, to prevent encroachment by the population.

The complex also aims at energy transition, initiated by the natural gas-fired power plants. Plans include the future production of green hydrogen, harnessing the great potential of photovoltaic and wind power generated in the sea near the coast, where favourable winds blow.

The increasingly large wind turbine blades will have to be manufactured locally, and space available for this industry is another advantage of the Açu complex, Figueiredo said.

The map shows the 130 square kilometres of the Açu Complex, with 40 kilometres in green representing the Caruara Reserve, a coastal ecosystem of sand, lagoons and low vegetation. The rest is destined for the port and the industries being installed in its logistic hub. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Logistical bottleneck

The port is now seeking to attract more agricultural exporters from the closest states, Minas Gerais and Goiás, already present since 2020. For this, Minas Port, one of the companies operating in the port, inaugurated on 4 July two warehouses with a capacity for 65,000 tonnes of grain.

“It is a super-port, with a fantastic terrain, successful in the export of iron ore and oil, and with a strategic location in the centre-east of Brazil, which demands large scale ports. But it has a fragility: its land connection”, said economist Claudio Frischtak, specialised in infrastructure and president of Inter.B Consultoría, interviewed in Rio de Janeiro.

The port is remote from major agro-export production regions and access roads are inadequate. Its future expansion depends on a railway connecting to the existing network of Brazil’s Vale group, the country’s largest iron ore exporter, which lies some 300 kilometres away, he said.

That distance could be more than halved if Vale builds an 80-kilometre section already agreed with the local government, and another 87-kilometre section under study.

But Prumo Logística, controlled by US fund EIG and owner of the port of Açu, is hoping that a railway will be built between Rio de Janeiro and Vitoria, the capital of the central-eastern state of Espírito Santo, which would reduce to 50 kilometres the stretch needed to connect the port to an extensive rail network, Figueiredo said.

Moreover, the success of the industrial project requires attracting investors, a difficult feat without “reasonable logistics”, with rail and good roads, said Alcimar Ribeiro, an economist and professor at the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro (UENF).

Economic alternatives to the Açu complex are necessary because the Campos basin, a nearby source of oil, is already “mature”, with a declining production. “In 2010 it represented 87% of Brazilian oil production, today only 20%,” Ribeiro told IPS in São João da Barra.

Flexible pipes used in deep sea oil exploration, manufactured by the two industrial plants installed in the Açu Complex. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

Far from local development

The area of influence of Açu, mainly São João da Barra, with its 36,573 inhabitants according to the 2022 census, and Campos dos Goitacazes, with 483,540 inhabitants, has been in economic decline for several decades, after the sugar cycle ended.

The port offers 7,000 direct jobs, including those of companies installed in the area, 80% of them to local workers, according to Caio Cunha, manager of Port Relations and the Caruara Reserve.

But most of them are temporary jobs, in the construction of port expansions and currently of the second thermoelectric plant, Ribeiro explained.

In addition, local employees are generally low-skilled, with outsiders being hired for more skilled jobs, says Sonia Ferreira, leader of the neighbourhood association SOS Atafona, a beach district in São João da Barra, which has lost more than 500 homes to erosion by the sea.

One positive effect of the port is that it has sparked young people’s interest in studying, she acknowledged. But she hopes the port will make structural investments in health, education and urban infrastructure, to effectively improve the quality of local life.

Caio Cunha, manager of Port Relations and the Caruara Reserve at the port of Açu. In the background, photos of native fruits. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

The central problem is that the megaproject is “an enclave without social, political and economic interests in the surrounding territory, with no connection to local reality. It only lacks a wall to separate itself, having its own heliport, hotel and shopping mall, for its self-sufficiency”, said sociologist José Luis Vianna da Cruz.

Having automated operations, the port and the companies located here employ few workers, said this professor at the Fluminense Federal University with a doctorate in regional development, by phone with IPS from Campos.

The megaproject did increase tax revenues for local municipalities, but did not reduce poverty nor unemployment in the region.

Da Cruz also questions the number of jobs reported by the port – 7,000 – and argues they would not compensate for the unemployment caused by the expropriation of the land of 1,500 families who lived there to make way for the port and industrial complex.

Many of these families received less than fair compensation or are still fighting for their rights, he added.

The current owners of the port are not to blame. It was the Industrial Development Company of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Codin) which prepared the land where the port is located at the beginning of this century.

But the salinisation of lagoons and the water table, which affected farmers and even the water for urban consumption, was due to the improper disposal of mud removed for deepening the canal where 11 port terminals were installed, according to Da Cruz, author of several studies on the socio-environmental impacts of local projects.

Le directeur de l'Ecole primaire publique (EPP) de Timba, circonscription scolaire de Djougou, Ezin Akoko a été déchargé de ses fonctions. La décision du ministre des enseignements maternelle et primaire, Salimane Karimou date du 4 juillet 2024.

L'instituteur Ezin Akoko n'est plus directeur de l'Ecole primaire publique (EPP) de Timba. Il a été déchargé par le ministre de l'enseignement maternelle et primaire. C'est pour légèreté dans l'exercice de ses fonctions de directeur d'école.

En attendant la nomination d'un nouveau directeur à la tête de cette école, le directeur départemental des enseignements maternel et primaire (DDEMP) de la Donga est chargé de désigner un directeur de l'unité pédagogique pour assurer l'intérim de Ezin Akoko.

Les grandes tendances du Baccalauréat 2024 au Bénin sont connues. Au plan national le taux d'admissibilité est de 56,93%. Voir les détails ci-après

EU member states on Wednesday (10 July) blasted Hungary for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's solo diplomatic initiative on Ukraine but did not discuss ways to rein in Budapest's potential future efforts.

Le 28 juin, le Gouvernement du Bénin a élevé Christopher Broughton au rang d'Officier de
l'Ordre National du Bénin pour son engagement et ses efforts inlassables dans le sens du renforcement des
relations entre le Bénin et les Etats-Unis, ainsi que pour son dévouement exceptionnel au développement et à
la croissance économique du Bénin.
M. Broughton a reçu cette distinction à l'issue d'un séjour de près de neuf ans au Bénin, en tant que Directeur
Résident du Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) à l'Ambassade des États-Unis. Les programmes du MCC
au Bénin sont gérés par des organismes publics autonomes connus sous le nom de Millennium Challenge
Account (MCA), dont les équipes sont composées de professionnels béninois engagés dans le développement
de leur pays.
M. Alidou Akadiri, Vice Grand Chancelier de l'Ordre National du Bénin a remis à M. Broughton cette distinction
honorifique, instituée par le décret numéro 2024-1008 du 27/06/2024, au nom du Président de la République
du Bénin, Grand Maître de l'Ordre.
L'Ambassadeur des Etats-Unis au Bénin, M. Brian Shukan et la Représentante du Ministre d'Etat chargé du
Développement et de la Coordination de l'Action Gouvernementale, Faizatou Gbian Moukaila, ont participé à la
cérémonie, ainsi que le Coordinateur National du MCA-Bénin II, M. Gabriel Degbegni, et le Coordinateur
National du MCA-Bénin Régional, M. Afiss Bileoma.
Depuis 2004, le MCC est un partenaire privilégié du Bénin, qui a bénéficié de 545 milliards de francs CFA à travers
trois accords de subvention, dont un accord de subvention régionale en cours pour la reconstruction de
l'autoroute Bohicon-Dassa Zoumé. Le Gouvernement du Bénin a contribué à hauteur de 123 milliards de francs
CFA à cet accord de subvention régionale. C'est la première fois qu'un gouvernement hôte apporte une
contribution plus élevée que celle du MCC pour la mise en œuvre d'un programme.
Le Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) est une agence indépendante du Gouvernement des Etats-Unis, qui
se consacre à la réduction de la pauvreté dans le monde à travers la croissance économique. Créée en 2004, le
MCC accorde des subventions et une assistance limitée dans le temps aux pays qui respectent des normes
rigoureuses en matière de bonne gouvernance, de lutte contre la corruption et de droits démocratiques. Le
U.S. Embassy Cotonou, 01BP 2012, Cotonou
Telephone : (229) 21 30 06 50, Fax : (229) 21 30 03 84
https://bj.usembassy.gov/embassy/cotonou/
Bénin est l'un des quelques pays à avoir établi un partenariat avec le MCC depuis sa création il y a deux
décennies.

Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), cut-off from many other far-right parties in the European Parliament, managed to launch its own parliamentary group, the third coalition to the right of the EPP in the European Parliament on Wednesday (10 July).

Le ministre des Enseignements Maternel et Primaire a suspendu trois (03) enseignants en service dans le département du Mono. C'est à travers une décision en date du 6 juin 2024. Selon la note, ces enseignants se sont irrégulièrement absentés de leur poste de travail. « Est suspendu pour compter de leurs respectives d'absence irrégulière au poste, le mandatement des salaires des agents concernés », précise la décision.

Au Bénin, les inhumations doivent avoir lieu dans un délai de 30 jours au plus tard après le décès. Elles sont également soumises à l'obtention préalable d'un permis d'inhumer.

Le décret n° 2024- 991 du 19 juin 2024 portant règlementation du secteur funéraire au Bénin fixe un délai pour procéder aux inhumations. Selon l'article 56 du décret, « les inhumations ont lieu dans un délai de trente (30) jours au plus tard après le décès, sauf prorogation accordée par le Procureur de la République compétent ». « Passé ce délai, il est procédé à une inhumation en fosse commune », précise le décret.

Avant de procéder à l'inhumation, il faut un permis d'inhumer. Il est délivré par le Secrétaire exécutif de la mairie du lieu de sépulture sur présentation d'un certain de pièces. Il s'agit entre autres d'une demande de permis d'inhumer adressée au secrétaire exécutif de la mairie ; d'une pièce d'identité du demandeur, personne qualifiée à pourvoir aux obsèques du défunt ; le certificat de décès ou l'acte de décès du défunt ; la quittance d'achat de fosse de sépulture dans un cimetière ; la copie du titre de propriété des lieux, lorsque l'inhumation est prévue à domicile ou dans un cimetière familial.

« Les établissements assurant la conservation de dépouilles mortelles communiquent à la fin de chaque mois au ministère en charge de la Sécurité publique, la situation des dépouilles mortelles abandonnées ou ayant excédé le délai de trente (30) jours, le cas échéant, prorogé, sous peine de sanctions », informe l'article 57 du décret.

A.A.A

With the right in flux, increasing fragmentation of the political landscape in member states, and the need for von der Leyen to secure a governing majority in the European Parliament, group formation has never looked so messy.

Dans le village de son enfance, le conseiller fédéral milite pour l’extension des autoroutes, pour le rejet d’une protection absolue de la nature et, mezza voce, pour le nucléaire.

No one has come out on top in France's recent snap parliamentary elections, French President Emmanuel Macron said in his first reaction to the election results in a letter to the French published in the regional daily press on Wednesday (10 July).