NEWEUROPE19th Year of Publication | Number 1006 | 11 - 17 November , 2012 | € 3.50 www.neurope.eu

Failure to deliver on the European Union’snew budget would damage the credibility ofthe EU, the Greek Deputy Foreign Ministerhas said.

In an interview with New Europe, MinisterKourkoulas, said that “Greece considers thenext MFF as a crucial crash-test for the EU.What is at stake here is nothing less than thecredibility of the Union and the future direc-tion of the EU integration project as a whole”.

Kourkoulas spoke about the budget, themulti-annual financial framework (MFF),currently proving controversial as memberstates haggle about details of the €1 trillionfund, its place in helping to overcome the cur-rent financial crisis in Greece and theEurozone, and his own country’s prioritiesgoing forward. “In a time of crisis our responseshould involve more not less Europe”, he says.“It is necessary to retain the size of the EU

budget as proposed by the Commission, so asto halt the EU moving from a crisis to a fullblown recession. To reduce it, in a time of cri-sis, would be counter-productive”.

One of the possible policies being talkedabout as a possible sector facing cuts is cohe-sion policy, a priority area for Greece. Changesin economic reality since ht last budget shouldnot be allowed to decide spending for the nextperiod, says Kourkoulas. “Greek GDP hasshrunk 14,3% since 2009”, he points out. “Weneed to become aware that the macroeco-nomic picture has changed compared to thepast when annual changes were marginal.Therefore, it is vital that the allocation ofregional funding reflects the actual economicsituation in regions and member states. Thiswill allow Greece to combine its developmenteffort with the requirements of the adjust-ment program”.

Wary of Republican Mitt Romney'scampaign remark that Russia was theUnited States' top geopolitical foe,Russian President Vladimir Putin wel-comed Barack Obama's re-election andconfirmed he had invited the USPresident to visit Russia in 2013.

Jim Collins, a former US ambassadorto Russia and director of the Russia andEurasia Program at the CarnegieInstitute in Washington, told NewEurope on 7 November “the reset” inRussian-American relations that beganduring Obama’s first term has beenaccomplished to a large extent. He saidWashington and Moscow have to devisea new agenda for their relations. “Wehave got to move on now,” he said.“Perhaps a new term will be coinedabout what we do in the next four years.”

In April 2009, Obama and thenRussian president Dmitry Medvedevdefined an agenda to "reset" the strainedties between the two superpowers. “Ifyou look at the items that were on thatagenda as constituting the building of anew foundation for relations it has beenpretty well put in place,” Collins said.

Collins called for devising a new agen-da for US-Russia relations. “Now, as thedue term for the American Presidentbegins, my own view is that there is anew agenda that has to be defined,” theambassador told New Europe.

One element is missile defence. “Ithink that it is imperative that theAmericans and Russians find a way toresolve the issue of developing a co-operative missile defence for Europe

and Eurasia,” Collins said.The second element on the agenda is

rethinking the goal in terms of US-Russia relations vis-à-vis Afghanistanand Central Asia and the region. Collinsnoted that the American and allied roleis going to change at the end of 2014.“What is Russia’s role going to be then?”Collins asked. “We have to figure it out

because the Afghan question is notgoing away. I think a new set of issueshave to deal with the Asia Pacific andsecurity in that region,” the Carnegieexpert said.

Another element on the agenda iseconomic co-operation now thatRussia finally joined the WTO,Collins said.

Obama, Putin to tackle Middle East, Asia-Pacific

The EU’s crucial ‘crash test’

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US-Russia ‘Reset,’ Part IIEU-ASIAThe 9th Summit of theAsia-Europe Meeting,ASEM, in Ventiane, Laos,brings together 51 leadersfrom Europe and Asia...

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CRISISA renewal of economic andmonetary union at EUlevel is needed if Europe isto pull itself out of the cur-rent financial crisis...

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ENERGYEcologists are seriouslyconcerned about the futureof the Caspian Sea due tothe start of oil productionat the Kashagan...

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US ELECTIONFour years ago, the newlyelected president gave his vic-tory speech behind bullet-proof glass as many observersthought that you had to becrazy .. ·Page 11

US President Barack Obama shakes hands with then-Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin during ameeting at Putin's home Novo Ogaryovo in Moscow, Russia, 7 July 2009. Over three years later,President Obama and President Putin have to draw a new agenda for US-Russia relations. |EPA/SHAWN THEW

A curious internet site, named ‘Bivol’has been operating in Bulgaria sinceJuly 2010. In this country, where youngpeople are very ‘tech-savvy,’ it is notunusual to discover a multitude ofinternet sites, covering all the spectrumof activities, from e-commerce to musicand movie downloading, to news…But the case of ‘Bivol’ is different; thissite is one of the most active in the so-called ‘investigative journalism.’

Strange case of Bivol

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Ode to avanishing world

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ARTS &CULTURE

NE 10 YEARS AGO"At least my election didn't cost as much as his!"

The Shooting Gallery

Bet that headline grabbed your attention, now if not then! Thankfully, Prodi's relaxation didn't find favour and a strict 3%rule was enforced. For a while, for some. In other news, the Greek alpha Bank continued its"strong upward trend." Ah.Right, what else was there? In Russia, President Putin said that he thought the West approved and supported his country'sfight against terrorism. Putin also called for "new approaches" in the work of law enforcement agencies. Looking elsewhereToyota and Lexus cars were well thought of in Germany and Italy had trouble with Fiat, where politicians wanted the com-pany's Sicilian plant re-opened as soon as possible. But it was the financial prudence of the Eurogroup that lead the newsand gave us all the basis of a prosperous future.

Jobs for the girlsWomen should be allowed on the boards of Europeancompanies. This may come as a shock to those of youthat thought this was a given, that the rights, argumentsand pioneering spirit advanced by the likes of MaryWollstonecraft, Harriet Tubman and EmmelinePankhurst, had been won and were a given; but appar-ently not. It still remains a sore point in the European Union as towhether or not there should be mandatory quotas forwomen to be represented on the executive boards ofcompanies throughout Europe.The EU’s Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding thinksthat more women should be elected to the executiveboards of European companies, as highlighted by theongoing row over the appointment of Yves Mersch tothe currently male-only executive board of theEuropean Central Bank. There have been calls for himto withdraw his candidacy to make way for a femalenominee. It is a disgrace, the argument goes, that top-level economic decision-making is in the hands of amen only clique.Maybe so, but will a woman on the board of the ECBreally reverse its current policies, will more women onthe boards of big business really put an end to corporateraiding and malpractice? More women in boardrooms will no doubt reduce theinstances of brash sexism and harassment that plaguecorporate culture, and will give a certain amount of vis-ibility to women in positions of power, but does thisamount to gender equality, a vindication of the rights ofwomen?Writing in the pages of this edition of New Europe,David Cronin argues that feminism is not about womenbeing forced to adopt what are traditionally seen as malecharacteristics, namely toughness and ruthless ability,and which are seen as vital attributes for life as a corpo-rate leader. The last few years of economic meltdownhave hit the vulnerable, not least through the policies ofthe IMF and EBC, women included. Studies also showthat the gender pay-gap has widened in several coun-tries, and that welfare reductions hit women harder thanmen. A reversal of policy is needed, not the promotionof already privileged women to high-level positions. AsMr Cronin writes, for all her good intentions, Redingseems keener to “help advance women of status, than tohelp advance the status of women”.Reding herself, speaking at an event in the EuropeanParliament on 7 November, the same day GermanChancellor Angela Merkel reinforced her belief in thepreservation of austerity measures in the same institu-tion, said that while she did not necessarily like the ideaof quotas, she did like what they could do. But what doquotas do for the millions women across Europe, unableto find work, and who see their governments forced toadopt damaging spending cuts? Will a few new jobsreally solve their, and Europe’s, problems?

MANAGING EDITOR

Alia Papageorgiou alia@neurope.eu

SENIOR EDITORIAL TEAM

Kostis Geropoulos (Energy & Russian Affairs)

kgeropoulos@neurope.eu

Cillian Donnelly (EU Affairs)cdonnelly@neurope.eu

Andy Carling (EU Affairs)

acarling@neurope.eu

Ariti Alamanou (Legal Affairs)

aalamanou@neurope.eu

Louise Kissa (Fashion)

lkissa@neurope.eu

Alexandra Coronakis (Columnist)

acoronaki@neurope.eu

DIRECTOR

Alexandros Koronakisakoronakis@neurope.eu

EXECUTIVE LAYOUT PRODUCER

Suman Haque

suman@neurope.eu

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ISSN number: 1106-8299

02NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012 ANALYSIS

The 9th Summit of the Asia-Europe Meet-ing, ASEM, which took place last week inVentiane, Laos, brought together 51 leadersfrom Europe and Asia. Sixteen years afterthe launch in 1996 of this successful forumof dialogue and cooperation, Europe, Asiaand the world have changed significantly.Asian nations have become strong eco-nomic players, lifting hundred of millionsof people out of poverty, and gaining self-confidence on the world stage. In Europe,countries from the east and west havejoined forces in an enlarged EuropeanUnion turning it into the most ambitiousand developed political expression of ourcontinent in its history. Globalisation, inter-dependence, redistribution of power, pres-sure over natural resources are among thekey trends shaping the 21st century.

Against this scenario, European-Asianrelations are therefore today more relevantthan ever. It is not surprising that five ofthe EU's strategic partners are ASEM par-ticipants, with which we meet regularly andat the highest levels, and that on the occa-sion of the Vientiane Summit we will bevisiting Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar,Thailand and Vietnam and will have nu-merous bilateral meetings with our fellowAsian leaders.

Building on these dense relations, ourdiscussions in Vientiane in the next two

days will concentrate around three keyobjectives:

Firstly, we need strong, sustainable andinclusive growth. The world economy hasundergone its most testing time since the1930’s, following the outbreak of the finan-cial crisis in 2007.

The economic and financial pressures inEurope are only one part of a wider set ofproblems worldwide. The EU is takingsteps needed to reduce public debt, ensure ahealthy banking system and lay the foun-dations for sustained growth and a stablecommon currency. But, also others need todo their part. In particular we look to Asiancountries to consolidate their public finance,to rebalance their growth model as appro-priate and work with us to support a sus-tained global recovery.

Secondly, to foster growth we need tosupport world trade. This involves not onlyfostering domestic demand, but, also avoid-ing protectionism. Asia’s trade with the EUhas held up well in the difficult years since2007, a tribute to the openness of the EUmarket and our schemes of tariff prefer-ences for developing countries – Gener-alised System of Preferences and'Everything But Arms', as well as our ef-forts in macro-economic stabilisation.However there is still a huge potential totap in the bilateral trade between the EUand Asia. The free trade agreements con-cluded with the Republic of Korea andbeing negotiated with Singapore, Malaysia,

Vietnam and India, and in the future Japanshould help unlock that potential; and wemay explore FTAs with other countries.But, the need to support world trade canalso be seen in the commitment againstprotectionism and veiled trade barriers. Wetrust that our Asian partners will remaincommitted to open economies and to thecommonly agreed multilateral trade rules.

Thirdly, we need stability and security andthe best way to achieve it is through negoti-ated solutions and common institutions. Asiawould benefit from stronger institutions toprevent conflict and to tackle non-traditionalsecurity threats effectively at regional andglobal level. We commend ASEAN forsteering the development of wider co-opera-tion initiatives in East Asia in fora such asthe Asean Regional Forum (ARF), and theEast Asia Summit. Being a committed Asianpartner, the EU has just acceded this year tothe ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Coopera-tion and is already an active member of theARF. We look forward to make a positivecontribution to the regional debates and westand ready to share our own experiences inareas like crisis management, conflict resolu-tion and preventive diplomacy.

The EU brings to Asian partners itsworld's largest internal market by value, itspartnership as first trading and investingpartner and biggest aid donor, as well as itsscientific and technical strengths.

As recognised by the recently awardedNobel Peace Prize, the EU also brings an

experience in regional integration and aforeign and security policy aimed at pro-moting prosperity, peace and stability,together with a system of governmentbased on respect of the rule of law andhuman rights.

While the economic aspects of our rela-tion have been dominant in the past, thepolitical and security dimension hassteadily grown in importance. The EU isdeveloping broad security dialogues withmany Asian countries focusing on issueslike combating piracy, terrorism and cy-bercrime. The EU also assists in the con-solidation of democracy, like for example,cooperating with ASEAN to secure peacein Aceh and contributing to the peaceprocess in Mindanao Against this back-ground, the forthcoming ASEM Summitwill offer an opportunity to address a widerange of issues of mutual interest, tostrengthen our cooperation and to launchfurther joint initiatives. It will be also theoccasion to welcome new colleagues fromBangladesh, Norway and Switzerland.Another sign of the continued attractive-ness of ASEM and of strong and closeEUAsia relation.

The EU will look forward to host thenext ASEM summit in Brussels in 2014.

Herman Van Rompuy is the President ofthe European Council and Jose ManuelBarroso is the President of the EuropeanCommission

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

Asia and Europe Meeting (ASEM): a strong partnership for peace and prosperity

By Herman Van Rompuy & José Manuel Barroso

03NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

Herman Van Rompuy (C) President of the European Council delivers a speech next to President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso (L) and Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong (R) at the closing of the

ninth Asia-Europe (ASEM 9) summit in Vientiane on November 6, 2012. The two-day bi-annual summit is being held in the capital of the Southeast Asian landlocked communist nation between November 5-6.

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New Europe spoke with the Greek DeputyForeign Minister Kourkoulas on topicaleconomic and budgetary questions as well asthe Eurozone, see discussions below.

What is the significance of the Multian-nual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-20for Europe

Greece considers the next MFF as a cru-cial crash-test for the EU. What is at stakehere is nothing less than the credibility ofthe Union andthe future direction of the EUintegration project as a whole.

To tackle this challenge the EU needs tofoster the right conditions for the transitionto a new growth model by utilizing theMFF as a tool for strengthening social co-hesion while simultaneously promoting in-

vestment in high return sectors and sup-porting appropriate structural changes inmember states.

There are disagreements about the over-all size of the EU budget. What is the Greekpoint of view?

In a time of crisis our response should in-volve more not less Europe. It is necessaryto retain the size of the EU budget as pro-posed by the Commission, so as to halt theEU moving from a crisis to a full blown re-cession. One should keep in mind that thisis not a national budget. This is not justabout operational expenditures but rather aflexible multi-level investment instrumentwhich could have multiplying positive ef-fects spread through 2020 and beyond. Toreduce it, in a time of crisis, would becounter-productive.

Furthermore, one should not forget that inaccordance with the Lisbon Treaty new poli-cies (e.g. migration) have been added to theEU mandate. To implement them adequatelyone needs to have access to the necessary in-struments. Having said that, Greece stronglysupports measures towards “better spending”goals. We consider this to be a necessary con-dition for the achievement of credible EUspending and, hence, credible EU policies.

What could be the role of MFF in over-coming the Greek crisis

The Greek economy has undergonethrough an unprecedented fiscal adjustmentin the course of the last two years. This is atestament to the efforts of the Greek peopleand the spirit of solidarity demonstrated by

the governments and people of Europe. Tocut this effort short, by sharply reducing thesize of the MFF will ultimately prove detri-mental to our collective sacrifices.

We are confronted by a crisis which can-not be contained in specific countries.Therefore, there is an urgent need to doeverything we can and use every availableinstrument in our disposal to address it. Forthis purpose we need to remember that notall Euros are the same. A single Euro spendthrough the MFF in cohesion or innovationpolicies could have a much greater impactcompared with the equivalent amount spendthrough a national budget.

Within the MFF what are the priorityareas for Greece?

Obviously Cohesion Policy is of crucialimportance. We are confronted by a contra-dictory condition in the sense that the co-hesion allocation calculations take intoaccount data from 2008-10 which paint amisleading picture.

For instance, Greek GDP has shrank14,3% since 2009. We need to become awarethat the macroeconomic picture has changedcompared to the past when annual changeswere marginal. Therefore, it is vital that theallocation of regional funding reflects the ac-tual economic situation in regions and mem-ber states. This will allow Greece to combineits development effort with the requirementsof the adjustment program.

In addition to that, we need to address theissue of sufficient funding for Migration Pol-icy. Greece is at the forefront of migrationflows into the EU and we must ensure that

our response is adequately funded in order tobe proportionate to the challenge we face.

Last but not least, we consider of crucialimportance the reform of the current OwnResources arrangement. Europe needs to beable to stand on its own feet in accordancewith the expenditures matched by revenuesprinciple. To this end, we support the intro-duction o f a Financial Transactions Tax anda pan-European VAT. This will lead pro-gressively to the elimination of rebates andother correction mechanisms.

How do you see the prospects for theEurozone ?

It was clear from the start that the bare-bones EMU described by Maastricht wouldneed to be bolstered up at some point. Asym-metries among members, the potentiallydestabilizing character of a one-size-fits allmonetary policy were explicitly mentionedand understood back in the late 1990s.

However, what we are facing currently is agrowing convertibility risk in debtor coun-tries translated into high interest rate pre-miums in conjunction with a significant riskof a feedback loop between banks and sov-ereigns. The appropriate response shouldcombine short term measures to contain thecrisis, as well as a long term reforms to cor-rect system deficiencies. These could startwith a Banking union coupled with robustinstitutional provisions ensuring the credi-bility of the new arrangement, followed by afinancial and an economic union. Moreover,the new institutions need to have the neces-sary inbuilt flexibility to adapt to situationswe cannot currently envision.

ECONOMY

Greece moving forwardEconomic measures are helping stability

04NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

INTERVIEW

The Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitrios Kourkoulas stresses the need for continued support to Greece via the EU measures in place and to be continued during the bailout programme in the 'exceptional' case of Greece.

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A renewal of economic and monetaryunion at EU level is needed if Europe is topull itself out of the current financial crisis,the German Chancellor Angela Merkelhas said.

Speaking before a meeting of the Euro-pean Parliament ion 7 November, thechancellor said that a common economicand monetary policy that “defines theframework of the financial markets in Eu-rope”, and with a strong and effective su-pervisory body overseeing the banks is thebest way for the EU to overcome its cur-rent debt problems.

She added that such a renewal of policywould need to a common fiscal and eco-nomic policy. “The crisis shows us thatsome member states could put the Euro-pean Union in trouble”, she said.

In a wide-ranging, and sometimes-sen-timental speech, she outlined her positionon the future of European integration,based on the experience of the once-di-vided Germany (she said that 1989 was a“happy moment” for both Germany andthe EU, and the “development of ourcountry cannot be separate for the EU),and the toughs of some of the EU’s illus-trious predecessors, such as Jacques Delors,whom she quoted during her speech toMEPs.

She reiterated her commitment to fiscalconservatism and spending cuts, sayingthat this policy will lift EU member statesout of the financial problems they are cur-rently in. “The European union is a uniqueconstruct, and all European member statesshould use structural reforms to fight the

causes of the crisis”, she said, adding “insome countries this affects the citizens”.But, she said, that these kind of measuresneed to be pursued, saying that austerityreforms “are showing the first successes” inIreland, Spain, and “even Greece”.

Meeting her centre-left opponents half-way, she said that “it was not enough tospend money. Above all, it must be imple-mented well in a targeted way. We mustlook at our policies in this way”.

She said that she was concerned rightnow, not just with the mid-term situationof Europe’s finances, but also on creating acloser Europe, both politically and eco-nomically. She said that the recent award ofthe Nobel peace prize (she will be attend-ing the prize giving ceremony in Oslo) wasa “very valuable political signal” and a sym-bol of how Europe should progress. She

said that the freedoms won in Europesince the collapse of the Soviet unionshould be “the basis for a united and deci-sive Europe”.

She admitted that there have been “er-rors made when economic and monetaryunion was created”, which now “must beanalysed”, and said that the EU’s financialfuture “would be decided in the next twoweeks”.

The European institutions, she said,must be strengthened in order to “upholdthe rules”, and added that national parlia-ments must also be involved in the widerdecision-making process in order to “verycarefully rebuild that confidence” in Eu-rope. She finished by saying that whenpeople ask her “will the European experi-ment stand the test of the crisis. I reply, asa physicist, it is no longer an experiment”.

FINANCIAL CRISIS

Merkel: certain member states could ‘put EU in trouble’

05ANALYSIS

German chancellor Angela Merkel arrives to address members of the European Parliament in Brus-

sels on 7 November for a special meeting on the future of Europe and efforts to solve the current fi-

nancial and economic crisis. German Chancellor Merkel told EU lawmakers that Europe's nations

must integrate more and allow Brussels to police national budgets when necessary if the bloc is to

maintain unity and prosperity.

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By Cillian Donnelly

NEW EUROPE

The UK and Germany have a lot in com-mon, and “are at the same end of the spec-trum” with regards the EU budget,German Chancellor Angel Merkel said.She was speaking after a meeting on 7November, described as “open, warm andfriendly” with British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron in Downing Street. Earlier during the day, she spoke at theEuropean Parliament in Brussels, in whichshe said that “I want a strong UK in theEuropean Union”. She also expressed con-fidence that the EU’s financial future“would be decided in the next two weeks”.The meeting is part of a series of talks inEU capitals the run-up to an EU leaderssummit in Brussels held on 22 November.The Downing Street talks were aimed atresolving the current budget dispute.Cameron has threatened to veto thebudget, which covers the period 2014-2020, arguing that its proposed 5% increaseon the previous period is too much, andany rise should instead be in line with in-

flation. On 31 October, Cameron suffereda setback in parliament, after a number ofbackbench rebels, joined by the oppositionLabour Party, defeated the government ina debate on the budget, urging the primeminister to push for a cut in resourceswhen EU leaders gather at the end of themonth to discuss the issue.Prior to the meeting, the chancellor saidthat as net contributors to the EU budget,the UK and Germany share a lot in com-mon. She said that she also wants to seeother European countries “drawn closer tothe fold”.Any agreement, she said, must be “some-thing that will stand-up in the court ofpublic opinion back home”, she said.This was echoed by David Cameron, whosaid that during the budget talks he wouldbe “trying to get a good deal for the Britishtaxpayer, a good deal for Britain”. Alludingto the backbench revolt, he said that hewould only settle for a deal “which I canput before my parliament, and in front of

the British people”.He also restated his position on the budgetincrease – the prime minister wants a “real-term freeze” allowing only for the rate ofinflation - and said that he believed it is“wrong for the EU budget to increase at atime when we are having to make difficultdecisions, not just in Britain, but all overthe European union in terms of getting ourbudgets back towards balance”.He said that the outcome of talks shouldresult in “at best a cut, at worst, a freeze”.David Cameron held talks with AngelaMerkel on the future EU budget, in Lon-don on 7 November, in a meeting that wasdescribed as ‘open, warm and friendly’. Thetalks came after the German chancellorspoke in the European parliament inwhich she said a strong UK is vital for thecontinuation of the European Union.Cameron, however, restated his belief thatthe EU budget should not be increasedabove the acceptable rise in inflation.

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11 - 17 November , 2012

EU BUDGET

UK-German budget talks ‘warm and friendly’

In September 2003 seventeen year old Shafilea

Ahmed was about to leave home to spend an evening

with friends when an argument broke out with her

parents over what she was wearing. Shortly after she

was dead, suffocated with a plastic bag.

Like so many second or third generation British Pak-

istani girls, Shafilea had white friends, wanted to

wear western clothes, and had ambitions to become a

lawyer. Instead, she drank bleach as a cry for help

when her parents tried to marry her to a cousin in

Pakistan. Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, both facing

long stretches in prison for murder, have now become

the latest in a growing number of Europeans accused

and convicted of what have become known as “hon-

our killings”.

In 2010 the UK saw a 47% rise in honour-related

crimes, and officials working with the police believe

the figure to be much higher.

Figures are similar in Austria and Germany, with the

Scandinavian countries now adapting their tactics to

the new phenomenon.

These countries are not only taking action to face up

to a growing national threat, they are leading the list

of countries to sign up to the Council of Europe’s

Convention on preventing and combating violence

against women, the first international treaty that

makes it possible for countries to work together to

stop crimes against women, including forced mar-

riage and honour crimes.

It is tempting to ascribe a religious justification to

honour killings, especially in a climate where Islam is

all too easily confounded with terrorism and violence

in the popular imagination.

That assumption is wrong. No religious text legit-

imises honour killing, and religious leaders across all

denominations condemn it. The practice is thought

to pre-date both Islam and Christianity, and was lim-

ited to certain areas of Europe, an ugly side effect of

specific cultural codes.

As society has opened and borders become less of a

barrier, it has spread, and not just amongst commu-

nities coming from outside Europe: a UK judge re-

cently convicted a white couple for assaulting their

daughter for bringing “shame” on the family because

she had a black boyfriend.

Sad as it is to see the rash of cases coming before Eu-

ropean courts, it is at least a sign that society is wak-

ing up to the truth behind “honour”. False

sensitivities about race and religion should not stand

in the way of us calling a crime a crime. Yet simply

relying on convictions isn’t enough to put a stop to

behaviours that come from a misguided deference to

tradition.

Putting an end to honour killing means altering at-

titudes, something which is notoriously difficult even

with “benign” habits, such as over-eating or smoking.

Change can only be effective if codes are re-cast; de-

taching the “honour” from the killing, and showing

it in its true light – an act of irrational violence

against victims who are in the vast majority young

and female.

By Gutenberg

The crimes that dishonour us all

Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition has an-nounced a raft of new welfare proposals, in thehope that it will be attractive to voters a yearbefore the federal elections.

Included in the package is an increase inchild benefits, the unpopular €10 surchargeto visit a doctor will be cancelled, and therewill be a reduction in pension contributionsthat will be cut from 19.6% to 18.9% ofsalaries.

There are also further benefits for parentswho wish to stay at home and educate theiryoung children, due to an agreement betweenthe Christian Social Union(CSU) and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

Disputes between the three members ofGermany’s coalition on welfare measures havebeen apparent since the last federal elections in2009, where Angela Merkel’s Christian De-mocrat Union along with the CSU and FDPjoined to create a commanding block of 323seats in the Bundestag.

So far the polls are indicating that Merkel islikely to retain the Chancellorship next year,against the challenge of the Social Democraticcandidate Peer Steinbruck.

Klaus Peter Schoppner , a political analystwith pollsters Emnid, said; “The reason for thereductions in payments like the health charge,is mainly because it is a bureaucratic paymentthat most patients do not like, and this is agreedupon between the three coalition parties.”

“In particular the CSU want to put this for-ward as the family is especially an importantissue to Bavarian people, more so than in otherstates. The SPD is not that strong right nowand this is a decision by the coalition that willfend off potential criticism from them overwelfare assistance.”

Schoppner dismissed the claims that theFDP will struggle to be a part of any coali-tion after the elections next year, as theymay not receive the 5% of the electorate

support necessary to return to parliamentand be a part of a government

“The FDP will be OK, they are the partythat appeal the most to right wing voters andthey are more of natural base for the right wingthan the CDU. Four years ago they increasedtheir share of the vote to win 32 extra seats inthe Bundestag . Only around 25% of the elec-torate will have decided who they will vote forup to now, that leaves a lot of potential for theFDP to win votes.”

There was also a commitment to spend mostof a further EUR750 million allocated onspending for infrastructural projects, alongsideguarantees for low income earners over pensionprovision.

As the total package results in a modest in-crease in public spending, apart the settling ef-fect the measures may have on the coalition, it

can also be seen as a message to the rest of Eu-rope not to expect a large stimulus programmethis year.

Recently Eurostat figures have revealed thatthe amount of public debt across the Eurozonehas risen to 90% of GDP in the second quar-ter of this year, an increase of 1.8% from the firstquarter, Germany also reported an increase ofpublic debt just under 2% of GDP for the firsthalf of this year.

“The additional spending the coalition be-lieves can be carried out alongside achieving abalanced budget as conditions are generallypositive at the moment, certainly compared tomany other European countries, because thereis still growth and there is a good revenuestream coming into the German government.”Explained Michael Danderstadt, an analystwith the SPD leaning Friedrich-Ebert-

Stiftung think tank“The message that this may send to Eu-

rope is that a very small stimulus is possibledue to the strength in the economy, and thatas the spending is happening to improvedomestic demand, it may possibly help therest of Europe too. There has been criticismthat due to austerity Germany is restrictingits own demand, the figures tell us the econ-omy is producing more than it consumes.”

Although the welfare measures do not sig-nal to less secure European countries thatspending your way out of trouble is the answer.

Danderstadt added “Of course Germany issaying to the rest of Europe they will have tobalance their budgets more, and moving awayfrom cuts is not the way forward for everyoneif they are not in a good position where theirtax revenues are high.”

POLITICS

German coalition unveils welfare plansHopes to woo voters ahead of 2013 elections

European Union spending in 2011 showedthat the area of rural development, environ-ment, fisheries and health was the most “errorprone” policy area, accounting for over 7% ofmisused funds.

Overall, the 2011 annual accounts, presentedby the European Court of Auditors on 6 No-vember, were similar to those of the previousyear.

While revenue and commitments were freefrom material error, payments had an esti-mated error rate of 3.9%. The level of error in2010 was 3.7%.

The error rate calculated for rural develop-

ment, which, at €13.9 billion, represented 11%of 2011 revenue, was 7.7%. This was ahead ofregional policy, energy and transport, whichhad an error rate of 6%.

According to the report, five of the sevenareas areas of EU spending were effected bysome level of material error, with the excep-tions being external relations, aid and enlarge-ment, and administrative expenditure.

Speaking at the launch of the report in theEuropean Parliament in Brussels, VitorManuel da Silva Caldeira, president of theCourt of Auditors, said that the error rate for2001 “was consistent with previous years”, butthat it must still serve as a kind of warning forthe European Union.

“There are too many cases of EU money nothitting the target”, he said. “This year it mat-ters more than ever to spend more efficiently”.Overall control systems for spotting errors, hesaid, “are only partially effective”.

He added that rural development, cohesionpolicy and research all continue to carry highrisk of auditing errors. While, he said that“there have been improvements in the currentprogramming period”, there is “still a way togo to get up to standard”, on eliminating error.

“Error does not mean fraud”, the EUCommissioner for Taxation, AlgirdasSemeta, said, but instead represented“weaknesses” in procedure.

Also speaking at the launch of the report, he

echoed the words of the president, saying that“today, more than ever, public money must bespent in line with reasonable spending”. Hesaid that “a sound and innovative basis for thenext financial period” is of “paramount impor-tance if the new multi-annual financial frame-work and improving the financing of the EU”.

He said that it was encouraging that theerror rates remained under 4%,a nd were sta-ble, while the risk profile of transactions in-creased in 2011.

In line with the court’s recommendations,he said the European Commission was work-ing on a way to improve and simplify the de-sign of its rules of procedures as regardsbudgetary control and auditing.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

EU budget: rural payments biggest problem

06NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

German coalition party secretaries Patrick Doering (FDP), Hermann Groehe (CSU) and Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) arrive to address the press on 5 November, following

a coalition summit at the Chancellery in Berlin. Angela Merkel's fractious coalition struck a hard-fought deal on disputed government benefits, trying to present a united

front with less than a year until elections. After seven hours of negotiations, the parties agreed to axe an unpopular doctor's office fee from January 2013.

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ANALYSIS

At least twice over the past few years, the Ital-ian MEP Licia Ronzulli has created a stir sim-ply by bringing her young daughter to work.The resulting media coverage has filled mewith an unpleasant sense of déjà vu.

Back in the 1990s, I was an assistant to anIrish politician, Patricia McKenna, who had achild during her first term in the EuropeanParliament. Once, McKenna was shown on themain evening news bulletin minding her babyand participating in a committee meeting at thesame time. For days afterwards, a popular radiotalk show in Dublin received numerous callsfrom irate men (and, if I remember correctly, afew women). Most callers argued that nobodycould do a job properly, while simultaneouslyattending to an infant's needs. Behind their at-tempts to sound reasonable lurked sexist mind-sets. The subtext of the argument was thatparliaments are clubs for boys; any girls wishingto join would have to play by rules that the boyshad written.

As a bearded bloke, I feel slightly ill-at-easeaddressing issues of gender. Yet I'm convincedthat feminism is an ideology that merits sup-port from men. Every positive change is in-complete unless the discrimination faced by oursisters and wives is eliminated.

So why am I less than excited about effortsby Viviane Reding, the EU's justice commis-sioner, to place more women in corporateboardrooms?

Lest I be misunderstood, I think it is dis-graceful that over one-third of large companiesin the EU have no women on their boards ofdirectors and that 97% of all large firms are

chaired by a man. The culture engendered bythese male-dominated groups is likely to bedespicable. Since the eruption of the economiccrisis, a number of books have documentedhow sexual harassment was rife on Wall Streetand - worse - how little, if any, action was takenagainst male bankers who sexually abused fe-male colleagues. There is no reason to surmisethat the behaviour of high-flying male busi-nessmen is more exemplary this side of the At-lantic.

The data I have cited comes from a surveythat the European Commission conducted ofalmost 600 firms. Reding wishes to have quo-tas introduced whereby there would be a min-imum of four women on each board of ten.Assuming the quotas are respected, this meansthat a total of 2,400 women would be pro-moted by the 600 or so top corporations.

At most, then, Reding's initiative will bene-fit a few thousand women but make no differ-ence to the other 250 million women in theUnion. Is this something to celebrate?

It's a safe bet that Viviane Reding, person-ally knows some of the women who would bepromoted if her initiative is implemented (atthis stage, it is unclear if it will be because anumber of Reding's fellow commissioners areopposed). As a wealthy Sorbonne-educatedChristian Democrat, Reding appears moreeager to help advance women of status, than tohelp advance the status of women.

Reding's desire to promote women who arealready in privileged positions cannot distractfrom how the institution she represents is caus-ing immense harm to ordinary women throughits slash-and-burn economic policies.

Women are frequently the first victims of the

austerity agenda that the European Commis-sion is overseeing. In Spain, the ministry forgender equality has been abolished altogether.Spending on child care - a vital service forwomen working outside the home - has beenreduced drastically in Estonia and Bulgaria. InIreland, the reduction in special needs assistantsis placing an extra burden on the mothers ofchildren with learning difficulties. The closureof schools in Greece puts extra strain onwomen. The gap between women's and men'spay has reportedly widened in Lithuania andthe Czech Republic. Studies in Britain haveshown how benefit reductions affect youngwomen far more than men. This is particularlythe case with cuts to allowances for singlemothers as over 90% of lone parents in the UKare women.

Germaine Greer seems to have attracted moreattention lately for her comments about theAustralian prime minister's dress sense than any-thing else. This is a pity as many of Greer's teach-ings remain as relevant today as they ever were.

"If women can see no future apart from joiningthe masculine elite on its own terms, our civili-sation will become more destructive than ever,"she has written. "There has to be a better way."

This better way cannot be achieved simplyby striving for some kind of equilibrium be-tween the levels of testosterone and oestrogenin the headquarters of corporations. Nor can itbe achieved by trying to make capitalism a bitmore maternal. It can only be achieved by re-placing the rotten system we have at the mo-ment with something more humane.

Feminism is not about women being astough as men. It is not about MargaretThatcher declaring war on the Falkand Islandsor Angela Merkel wrecking Europe's welfarestates. The equality it aims for is an inclusiveone, not an equality confined to 600 or so cor-porations. Feminism is the antithesis of com-petitiveness, that inequality-widening doctrineenshrined in EU law. By weakening labourrights, competitiveness makes it easier forbosses to exploit women.

Causing a stir: MEP Licia Ronzulli, with her baby in a wraparound baby carrier, participates in a vote during the plenary ses-

sion of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, September 2010.

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GENDER EQUALITY

Gender equality means more than stilettos in the boardroom

By David Cronin

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08NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

An Agenda for Creativity

The idea and concept of a New Agenda for Creativityis back again. New Ideas, New Solutions, the Europeancitizens want to build a new collaborative Agenda forthe future. That´s a new collaborative platform betweenthe different actors, with the strategic challenge of re-inforcing the central competences of society and qual-ifying them as the unique ways of creation of value andmodernity. Europe is facing also a unique opportunity.There is more and more a sense of the importance ofthis Creative Europe in the different time that all ofus want in the future.The challenge of the Creative Europe demands aneffective Partnership Contract between all the actors(States, Universities, Companies, Civil Society), inorder to build a real Strategy of Confidence in theimplementation of the different policies. The focuson Innovation and Knowledge as the drivers of cre-ating added value with international disseminationis a unique challenge that may be the answer to anew way of interaction between those who have theresponsibility of thinking and those that have the re-sponsibility of producing goods and services.The Creative Europe demands for an active entre-preneurial culture and attitude - “social activeclasses” in Europe have most of the times an effec-tive negative attitude towards the financial risk, thefocus on innovation and the share of a culture of pos-itive dynamic. We need Europe to have a new chal-lenge. Europe must be able to be the real Platformof a more Entrepreneurial Society, centered in newareas of knowledge and new sectors of value. In aModern and Active Society, the key word is Co-cre-ation. To promote a dynamic and active creationprocess involving each citizen is the big challenge forthe next years in Europe.In the future, a Europe of the Ideas must be themost complete example of positive attitude towardsthe future. The Talents must be the new competitiveadvantage of this new Europe of the Ideas pushed bythe “enablers” of Modernity, Added Value and Ex-cellence. A very clear idea that suits the big challengethat our society really faces and that requires new an-swers for different questions. The act of global par-ticipation in such a demanding society is an exerciseof commitment between the individual creativity andthe collective cooperation. This is the key for theright future for Europe.It´ s time to believe in a new cycle for Europe. Theseare in fact the “drivers of change” for Europe andcivil society must be able to understand this newchallenge and address effective answers to the dif-ferent stakeholders of the system. The challenge ofthe Creative Europe is in a large sense giving a newopportunity to the reinvention of Europe. The Rein-vention of Europe is the reinvention of its people andinstitutions. It ´s the conviction that in fact we havea future as individuals and society.

Francisco Jaime Quesado is the General Manager ofthe Innovation and Knowledge Society in Portugal,a public agency with the mission of coordinating thepolicies for Information Society and mobilizing itthrough dissemination, qualification and research ac-tivities. It operates within the Ministry of Science,Technology and Higher Education

New Europe content partner

By Francisco Jaime QuesadoMILAN – The debate about improvingeconomic governance within the euro-zone is shedding new light on the system’sweaknesses. It was already evident whenthe Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992that a monetary union without some-thing similar in the fiscal domain wouldbe unsustainable in the long run. Then,for the common currency’s first decade,that fundamental flaw was papered over.

Now the eurozone – with a centralizedmonetary policy, run by the EuropeanCentral Bank, alongside 27 national fiscalpolicies – has come to look like a mock-ery of economic common sense. Early on,important states like France and Ger-many stopped taking seriously the Euro-pean Union’s Stability and Growth Pact(SGP), which was supposed to guaranteefiscal discipline and coordination amongthe member states.

With the euro’s introduction boostingintra-European trade and lowering infla-tion in many member states, fiscal obli-gations were simply ignored. The euroquickly became the world’s second mostimportant currency, and it proved to be ashield against external financial turbu-lence. Optimism soared and prudencefled – reflected in premature eurozonemembership for countries like Greece, aswell as in the gap between the pace of EUenlargement and that of institutional in-tegration.

In other words, Europe’s decision-makers ultimately overlooked the basicrequirements of a monetary union in aheterogeneous economic area:

• A sizeable common budget for theprovision of public goods.

• Fiscal transfers from more prosperousareas to lagging or distressed regions.

• Some form of mutualization of pub-lic debt, carried out under stringent rules.

• Above all, a central bank with all ofthe prerogatives and instruments neededto serve as lender of last resort.

Satisfying these conditions would, ofcourse, lead to fully-fledged politicalunion, but the process could be gradual,starting with a banking union, a fiscalunion, or a central bank with lender-of-last-resort status – a functionalist ap-proach that might be more politicallyviable. Some will oppose greater solidar-ity nonetheless, disregarding the elemen-tary fact that enhanced interdependencein a monetary union requires it, and ig-noring the Lisbon Treaty’s affirmation ofEurope’s “social market” model.

A monetary union that does not bene-fit all of its participants will not survive forlong. After the eurozone’s sovereign-debtcrisis erupted, defaults were avoided byestablishing the European Financial Sta-bilization Mechanism (since replaced by

the European Stability Mechanism), andby crafting a more pragmatic and rein-forced role for the ECB (acting with theEuropean Commission and the Interna-tional Monetary Fund). And a new “fiscalcompact” foresees enshrining memberstates’ commitment to budget balance –and to reducing public debt to within60% of GDP in 20 years – in their con-stitutions.

But any assessment of European eco-nomic governance must acknowledge theslow, contradictory nature of intergovern-mental decision-making, in which a mis-conceived notion of national interest,together with upsurges in popular anti-EU sentiment and electoral pressure, hasled to a stop-and-go process, punctuatedby financial-market swoons. Viewed inthese terms, the European political classhas clearly failed to exercise leadership.

The challenge now is twofold: how tocope with the financial crisis while creat-ing a safer economic future through bet-ter governance. Excessive emphasis onfiscal rigor, unaccompanied by measuresto stimulate growth, has reinforced reces-sionary trends, placing additional strainon national budgets and debt/GDP ra-tios. That drives up affected governments’borrowing costs further, fueling a down-ward spiral.

Any lasting solution requires Euro-peans to acknowledge that they now facea common problem that can be resolvedonly by greater cohesion and financial sol-idarity. The ECB must become a genuinecentral bank for Europe. The Europeanbanking system must be turned into abanking union with the ECB responsiblefor prudential supervision. The fiscalcompact must be implemented quickly,and progress on harmonizing fiscal poli-cies should continue.

But fiscal discipline must be accompa-nied by policies that promote growth,without which balanced budgets and debt

reduction cannot be achieved. The Eu-rope 2020 strategy, approved two yearsago in part to improve economic gover-nance, is a good starting point, offeringthe basis for the “growth compact” thatsome EU governments have sought.

The path to improved European eco-nomic governance leads through the EU’spolitical institutions, with “more Europe”presupposing further strengthening of theEuropean Parliament and the EuropeanCommission, and the abolition of vetopowers in the European Council. The ar-gument that strengthening Europe’scommon institutions would reduce na-tional sovereignty appears very weak, forthe simple reason that in today’s global-ized economy sovereignty is more appar-ent than real.

Parallel with these changes, Europeanleaders must publicly acknowledge that ifthe euro collapses, Europe will quickly re-vert to competitive devaluations, intra-EUprotection, and “be gga r thy-neighbor”policies, all of which were evident in the1970’s and 1980’s. European public opin-ion must be made aware that increasing in-terdependence means that theexchange-rate stability and gradual com-pletion of the single market implied by theeuro really do benefit all participants.

Europe’s political class needs to find thecourage to take the next steps toward acloser union. The small price that nation-states will have to pay is negligible com-pared to the likely consequences ofinaction.

Carlo Secchi, a former member of theEuropean Parliament, is Professor of Eu-ropean Economic Policy at Bocconi Uni-versity in Milan, Vice-president of theInstitute of International Political Studies(ISPI) in Milan, and Chairman of theItalian Group of the Trilateral Commis-sion. Copyright: Project Syndicate/Eu-rope’s World, 2012.

The signing ceremony of the Treaty of Lisbon at the Jeronimos Monastery, in Lisbon, Portugal, 13

December 2007. The process towards a fully-fledged political union, could be gradual, starting with

a banking union, then a fiscal union; a functionalist approach that might be more politically viable.

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POLITICS

More leadership for more Europe

By Carlo Secchi

The chosen one

The marathon length of the only election that reallymatters to the world has been called tiresome, a farceand a waste of money, but this is not the point. The longhaul is the true test of candidates and their political skills,not only of themselves, but the team around them.If an aspirant for the toughest job in the world, leadinga superpower and dealing with an increasingly truculentelectorate is not easy, indeed, most fair-minded folkwould consider it an almost impossibility. When youconsider the sheer size and scale of the country, its amaz-ing cultural diversity most would say that it is just toomuch for one man – and it will be a man.The road to power has been as rocky as it was longand there has been even more scandal than usual, butthis is modern politics. But, one man will emerge vic-torious and assume a responsibility so huge that evenmany other heads of state will only vaguely recognizethe sheer burden.Although there has been much hype, much speculationand the professional pundits have been punding awayuntil not one viewer’s eyes remain unglazed.But, amid the noise, this is a vitally important election,one that will affect every person on earth. It will matter.It will matter to all of us who emerges victorious as thePresident of China.In Europe, we can have a Hell of a lot more fun whenit comes to electing the next President of the Euro-pean Commission. I understand that a Philip Morrisis a front runner.As has been demonstrated by many of the office hold-ers, no actual skill or ability is required to be head hon-cho of the commission, so how shall we select the nextoffice holder?We need to have something that can test stamina anda co-operative spirit in tense and trying circum-stances. One idea leaps to mind, one that will helpconnect the aspirant presidents to the electorate andbring democracy into the process by holding a publicvote. We need to adapt the format of ‘I’m a celebrity,get me out of here.’The show, taking place in a jungle has attracted leadingpoliticians, such as the UK’s Lembit Opik and NadineDorries, so it is already part of the political process andwell understood by the European electorate.Let’s set the candidates loose in the jungle, feed themthe private parts of repulsive creatures and generallyabuse them. It’s character building and the victor willhave the enthusiastic support of the public as they takeon challenges.I’m thinking the candidates could also demonstrate theirpolitical skills, say by debating a directive on sustainableant based food supply or a ten point action plan on ‘whatto do about those hungry lions encircling the camp’.Can they work in a collegiate manner? Let’s see themwork out how to distribute soap between them.In an age of austerity, will they co-operate wellenough to win enough food? Can they distribute itbetween themselves without going off and whiningto the cameras?But where should the contest be held? How aboutGuyana? More specifically, how about holding the con-test in Jonestown?Frankly, I don’t see any other way of bringing the Com-mission into the 21st Century.

ACarling@NEurope.eu

By Andy CarlingAs I posted in this newspaper previ-ously, all global players, includingJapan, the EU and China, an impor-tant country in the region, are respon-sible for maintaining peace, stabilityand prosperity through internationallaw. All states have a responsibility toprotect peace, ensure the safety of itspeople, and protect its sovereignty, ter-ritorial land and sea, and Japan willfulfill such responsibilities based on in-ternational law.

China can play an increasingly con-structive role in this endeavour as ourimportant neighbour and friend.

On the other hand, there are issuesin which drawing a clear line is neces-sary even between friends, especially inupholding the rule of law. Let me raisethree concise points below.

First, the Cairo Communiqué andthe Potsdam Declaration, pronouncedduring the Second World War, did notlegally define the territories of Japan asa result of WWII. These are politicaldeclarations which stipulated the Al-lied power’s basic policies of post-WWII settlement. The legaldocument that determined the postwar legal order is the San FranciscoPeace Treaty that embodied the ele-ments of those political declarations.In the Peace Treaty, the Senkaku is-lands were not included in the areawhich Japan had to renounce. Instead,they were brought under the US ad-ministrative control and were reverted

to Japan in 1972. Let me add that, incontrary to what some argue, there isno reference in either the Cairo Com-muniqué or the Potsdam Declarationthat Japan should renounce theSenkaku islands.

Second, in spite of these legal andhistorical facts, there are argumentsthat during the process of the negoti-ations to normalize Japan-China rela-tions and the conclusion of the Treatyof Peace and Friendship betweenJapan and China, there was a mutualunderstanding to temporarily shelvethe issue. Such arguments are com-pletely against the facts. The fact isthat Japan has never recognized theexistence of a territorial dispute thatneeds to be solved, nor was there any“agreement” of such kind.

Lastly, the meaning of the maps inthis context. It goes without sayingthat the territories are delineated basedon international law. Territorial claimsrequire legal foundations, and mapsalone do not suffice. Our governmentdid make some references to mapsprinted in China in the 1930s and1950s, but it has been merely to sup-port our point that China had neverexpressed any objection to Japanesesovereignty over these islands until the1970s. Only after a UN organ indi-cated the possibility of the existence ofpetroleum resources in surroundingwaters in 1968, did China start tomake assertions over the islands.

Kojiro Shiojiri, Ambassador of Japanto the European Union

09NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

CONSTRUCTIVE AMBIGUITY

An aerial view of Uotsuri Island, one of the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea,

claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Drawing a necessary line between friends

By Kojiro Shiojiri

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10NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

Democratic progress in Ukraine has taken abackward step following recent elections, asenior human rights figure has said.

Speaking to New Europe, Jean-ClaudeMignon, President of the Parliamentary As-sembly of the Council of Europe (PACE),said that reports coming out of the countryfollowing elections, which resulted in a re-sounding victory for President ViktorYanukovych’s Party of the regions (PR), high-lights continuing problems in the country.

The election results received widespreadcondemnation for international organisationsand observers, such as the European Parlia-ment ad the Organisation for Security andCo-operation in Europe (OSCE).

“I am completely in line with the opinionthat has been formed by the observers”, saysMignon. “And, according to the observers, theyhave stated that democracy is regressing. Thatmeans, not stagnating, but actually regressing”.

Ukraine is one of the 47 members of theCouncil of Europe (CoE), and served chairof its committee of ministers between Mayand November 2011.He said that as a mem-ber of the Council of Europe, “Ukraine hasmade commitments, and those commitmentsmust be respected”.

“Obviously, Ukraine is a member of theCouncil of Europe, and not the EU, and thisis a specific example of where the EU has aninternational role. It is not our vocation totake sides where there is a violation of non-compliance, our role is to carry out parlia-mentary diplomacy”.

“The word ‘sanctions’ is not in the spirit ofthe Council of Europe”, he says.

He did say, however, that “certainly we havethe power to denounce where counties do notrespect the rules. We think that if they havevoluntarily joined the Council of Europe,they should follow the principles of the

Council of Europe”.He did say, however, that the country still

has a role to play in ensuring stability in theneighbourhood region, particularly in relationto Moldova, which is undergoing democratictransitions at present. In March this year, theelection of a new president, Nicolae Timofti,ended a 3-year political stand-off, althoughthe country continues to face problems withthe breakaway republic of Transnistria.

The reforms in the country, says Mignon,are going well. “Moldova is respecting itscommitments to the Council of Europe. I amglad to see they finally elected a president, andthat the elections were in good order.Moldova is a good partner for the Council ofEurope. Obviously, we want to settle theTransnistria situation, and we have made con-crete proposals. I hope to go to Chisinau soon,and hopefully we can find a solution to the

problem. In this respect, Romania is alsohelping a lot, and we would also like Ukraineto be a partner in this process”.

Jean-Claude Mignon, who was elected aspresident of PACE at the start of 2012, waspeaking following meeting with EuropeanParliament President, Martin Schulz. Bothinstitutions have vowed to work closely topromote the principles of parliamentarydemocracy, co-operation and human rights.It was, according to Mignon, a highly satis-factory meeting.

“We decided to renew our relationship, andincrease our co-operation”, he says, which westill do in many ways; through the conferenceof presidents, the parliamentary assembly, thechairs of committees and other personalities.We have seen that we have a lot in common”.

“The Council of Europe contains 47 mem-ber states, of which 27 are also members of

the European Union, so both can workclosely, especially under Štefan Füle and theneighbourhood policy. So, those 20 countriesconcerned with neighbourhood relations arealso members of the Council of Europe. Ourmonitory in these countries is very efficient,and the European Parliament can benefitfrom this work carried out by our assembly”.

In addition to increase co-operation withthe European Parliament, the big issue fac-ing the both Council of Europe and the Eu-ropean institutions, is the accession of the EUto the European Convention of HumanRights. Mignon says that he would like to seetalks concluded before the European elec-tions in 2014.

“Basically, some countries still have reser-vations on the accession”, he says. “It is mineand Martin Schulz’s job to show that thesereservations have no grounds”.

A woman walks past a campaigning tent of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's Regions Party and opposition party Batkivshchyna in the western city of

Lviv on 26 October, on the last day of campaigning before the country's parliamentary elections.

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Democracy in Ukraine ‘regressing’By Cillian Donnelly

Yves Mersch, the candidate to fill thevacant place on the executive board ofthe European Central Bank (ECB)should withdraw himself from the nom-ination procedure, one MEP has toldNew Europe.Sven Giegold, economic and financespokesman for the Greens was speakingafter Spain rejected the appointment ofMersch, itself following a rejection of hisappointment by the European Parlia-ment last month.The appointment of Yves Mersch to theexecutive board of the ECB, criticised bythose who felt it represented a continuationof sexist recruitment policies, has beenknocked-back after it was rejected by Spain,who objected to the appointment of Mer-sch, whose appointment was expected to bepushed through on 5 November.

According to the MEP, “Mr Merschshould think about his position, and itslegitimacy. He should withdraw hisname”. This, says Giegold, should allowMersch to withdraw “with honour”.The European Parliament voted lastmonth to reject the appointment of YvesMersch. who was due to replace anotherman, Gonzalo Paramo, and meaningthat the board would have no femalerepresentation.Following the vote in parliament on 25October, MEPs, Giegold and SylvieGoulard (Liberal) wrote to EuropeanCouncil President, Herman VanRompuy, insisting that the decision beupheld, despite being not legally bind-ing. Those behind the rejection of Mer-sch, argue that the European Council –who have the final say in the appoint-ment – should respect the vote of theparliament, and also encourage gender

diversity in appointments to board-rooms across the union.Conservatives in the European Parlia-ment have condemned the delay inappointing Mersch, saying that it ham-pers the Union’s ability to combat thefinancial crisis in the Eurozone.EU heads of state, who ultimately havethe final say, are also split; with certaincountries like Finland and France infavour of more female representation onsenior public boards.Under normal procedure, says Giegold,after the European Parliament hasrejected this sort of proposal, it shouldask the council to nominate an alterna-tive candidate, however, whether thiswill happen is uncertain at this point intime. The parliament has informallydelivered a list of female candidates forconsideration.The real issue, says Giegold, is not about

quotas, but about diversity. “There is nota shortage of women who share the samepoint of view as Mr Mersch”, he says,but with top-level decision-making inthe ECB and elsewhere, “there is amedieval situation” with regard to gen-der representation. In answer to thosecritics who suggest that quotas are notthe way to promote equality, and insteadcreate their own kind of imbalance,Giegold says that campaigners like himand his colleagues are not trying toimpose anything like what his critics aresuggesting. “We are only demanding onewoman”, he says.“The real issue is not to ensure diversitythrough quotas as such, but through achange in the nomination procedure”,such as through the simultaneous nomi-nation of a man and a woman. “Coun-tries, and the European Council, need tochange their methods”.

ECONOMY

ECB candidate ‘should withdraw’By Cillian Donnelly

Four years ago, the newly elected president gavehis victory speech behind bulletproof glass asmany observers thought that you had to becrazy to want to be president as the tough de-cisions that would have to be made woulddoom the victor to a one term presidency.

Of course, Obama’s strongest point was thathe wasn’t George Bush, but there was more.Across the world, his grace, his eloquence andhis demeanor won admiration, even as peoplefretted that he could never rise to the future heseemed to promise.

There was a star quality about Obama and asense that he had tapped into the zeitgeist.How would the Republicans respond to whatlooked a little like a revolution?

The GOP chose a path that led to their de-feat in 2012 and one that looks like leading tonowhere. The Tea Party started out as a spon-taneous protest against the bank bailouts butsoon became part of the GOP attack machine,energetically promoted by the Fox News net-work and started using dog whistle politics,hoping to use any tactic to weaken the presi-dent. It was about race.

The smears about Obama were repeated andboosted by almost exclusively white Teapots.The evangelical right were energized into con-demning this Kenyan Muslim interloper.

But this is where the 2012 election waslost. While the extremism and semi-dis-guised racism went unchecked, the GOPstrategists found they had reached a stagewhere the lunatics had taken over the asy-lum. They couldn’t put the Tea Party genieback in the bottle.

When it came to the primaries, the GOPselection process turned into a freak showas the desperate and deranged treaded theboards up and down the land, gaining hys-terical support from those who were alreadytrue believers and looks of horror fromeverybody else.

The sane and the sensible stayed away, Rom-ney saw his chance and took it. By virtue ofagreeing with every person or pressure grouphe met, he gained support, but what won it forhim was that he was clearly the sanest candi-date on parade.

Romney had to win the nomination by pan-dering to the conservatives, and then fight theelection by pandering to centrists, a tactic he

seemed comfortable with.On his side were the billionaires behind the

Super Pac’s, who will now be looking at ROI,return on investment, having spent enormoussums, such as Sheldon Adelson, the biggest po-litical donor in history, who is said to have spent$37.5 million promoting a Romney victory.Karl Rove, who has the dubious honour ofbeing referred to as ‘Bush’s brain’ is likely to behaving a series of difficult meetings with highlevel donors, who are significantly out ofpocket.

The financing of the elections and the end-less stream of attack ads should be looked atvery seriously and Obama, freed from havingto campaign again, could be in a position to re-

form campaign financing.But things have changed and a party can no

longer win by only appealing to white voters.Without a drastic change, the Republicans maynever win again, unless the Democrats handthem victory.

First they will have to deal with the Tea Party,their own creation. This will not be easy, but thesmart minds in the GOP know that has tohappen, especially now they have outlived theirusefulness. But they will not go quietly.

“Whatever solution is for GOP, it's not tomove to the center. Do that, have no reason toexist. Go conservative or go home.” TweetedBryan Fischer of the American Family Associ-ation, whose grip on reality can be demon-strated with a tweet he sent after polls opened,“Rapidly decaying magnetic energy fieldaround earth indicates maximum age of earthat 20,000 years.”

The Republicans will have to move awayfrom these supporters and, as they say, learn toembrace the ‘reality based community.’

For Europeans, there is an equally urgentmessage. Obama’s victory speech showedhim at his best, when he can reach out andinspire. He can offer something special inpolitics, that he can ask people to becomebetter, to raise up themselves, their neigh-bours and their country.

Europe has Barroso and Van Rompuy. Com-pared with the re-elected president, they lookvery small indeed, but more damning is theirinability to inspire or to reach out beyond theirinstitutions to the public.

Unless the EU can reach out to Europeans,in all their diversity, the future of the union maynot be any brighter than Mitt Romney’s.

US ELECTION

The victory that wasn’t meant to happenAnd why it was inevitable

11NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

President Obama celebrates his victory with his family.

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The United States re-elected PresidentBarack Obama by a wider margin than ex-pected, but what a second term means toEurope remains in question. Before he can address a foreign affairs agendathat likely includes a potential US-EU freetrade agreement, Obama must complete abudget deal. The budget must cut the U.S.’shuge public deficit to avoid the impending fis-cal cliff, but reaching an agreement will not beeasy given the persisting – and perhaps wors-ening – polarization in Congress. Can Obama and his colleagues get their acttogether? “Surely they can do so as swiftly as Euro-peans have,” Christian Leffler, managingdirector of the European External ActionService, deadpanned Wednesday 7 No-vember at a discussion on the election’s im-

pact on the EU. Though in jest, Leffler’scomment represented the uncertainty that re-mains in Brussels and elsewhere despite Eu-ropeans getting the U.S. president theywanted. Among others, Leffler was joined byAmericans Thomas J. White, deputy chief ofthe U.S. Mission to the European Union, andPeter Chase, vice president for Europe of theU.S. Chamber of Commerce. They came to-gether to discuss future transatlantic trade aswell as conflicts in Iran, Syria, Russia andChina. As in the presidential debates, though, theU.S. economy led the discourse. White andChase conveyed optimism in future biparti-san cooperation but emphasized thataborted budget talks will have bad conse-quences. “The Fiscal cliff is very real,” White said.“Clearly, too, the country is still fairly evenlydivided. The only way to address the budget

challenge is bipartisan support.”White predicted Obama would meet withRepublican congressional leadership in thefirst weeks following the election. Sureenough, Obama spoke with House of Repre-sentatives speaker John Boehner (a Republi-can) on 7 November, according to the NewYork Times. Boehner, a Republican, seemedas willing to move toward a compromise whenhe spoke to the media later in the day. “Mr. President, this is your moment,” the NewYork Times quotes Boehner. “We’re ready tobe led — not as Democrats or Republicans,but as Americans. We want you to lead, not asa liberal or a conservative, but as president ofthe United States of America.”Although EU-Asia Centre Director FraserCameron lamented the stubborn relation-ship between the executive and legislativebranches that came to a head with formerPresident Bill Clinton and House Speaker

Newt Gingrich, Chase looked further backto the Ronald Reagan – Tip O’Neill years asan example of how the U.S. government cancome to a budget agreement. The agreement is imperative to restore con-fidence in the investment sector. Plummet-ing from the fiscal cliff could cause the U.S.economy to contract 4%, and already on 7November the Dow Jones index fell 2%. “Political leaders are forced by necessity tomake the deals they need to make,” Chasesaid. “We actually can’t fail this time.”Later White noted that traditionally, presi-dents have more leeway in regards to foreignpolicy in their second terms. They also havemore experience and can bypass the touch-and-feel introductions with foreign leadersnecessary with first-term presidents. The speakers agreed both a U.S.-EU freetrade agreement and partnerships in tradewith Asia would be beneficial. Chase said anFTA would lead to more investor confidenceand in turn spur growth. Leffler noted Eu-ropeans shouldn’t be worried about the U.S.forsaking the EU for emerging economiesgiven that, currently, America’s cumulativeinvestment in such economies is only 7% ofwhat is has invested in Europe.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Uncertainties remain even after Obama re-electionU.S. fiscal cliff, partisanship put international trade on hold

By Andy Carling

By Andrew Wagaman

Ecologists are seriously concerned about thefuture of the Caspian Sea due to start of oil pro-duction at the Kashagan. The frail ecology ofthe Caspian is subject to threat of sewage, in-dustrial and household waste, sunken oil wells,and moreover, the start of oil production at theworld largest oilfield Kashagan. The experts sayit would be very difficult to remedy the situa-tion in case of emergency. They appeal to theheads of the Caspian countries to stop uselessdiscussions and take real actions for protectionof the sea.

Thus, the chairman of the EcologicalUnion of Associations and Enterprises ofKazakhstan Tabigat (Nature), Mels Eleusi-zov, during an international video conferenceresponding the journalists’ questions, made anot very pleasant statement for the gover-nment, that development of Kashagan is pre-mature and that there are still no effectivemeasures of protection in case of emergencyat the deposit.

This year, 4 November is a day, when nineyears ago five Caspian countries signed “Fra-mework Convention on protection of the Ca-spian marine environment” in Tehran. The dateis not round, however, it is essential. It showsthat the question of conservation of such a uni-que lake as Caspian is open to all the five sta-tes: Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan andTurkmenistan.

Remind that today the Tehran convention isthe only document regulating the commonobligations of the Caspian countries concer-ning environment protection.

Nevertheless, according to the ecologists, allthe five countries care little about preservationof the unique water basin. Today, the Caspian isseverely affected by offshore oil production, ra-dioactive, industrial and household waste. Lite-rally, the sea is poisoned by a large number ofheavy metals.

Every year, tension grows among the envi-ronmentalists, especially before the approa-ching date of getting “the first oil” at theKashagan deposit. This week, during the inter-national video conference timed to the nine-year-old of signing “Framework Conventionon protection of the Caspian marine environ-ment”, experts of the five Caspian countriesstated their ways to save the sea.

Thus, the senior researcher of the Instituteof Geosphere Dynamics of the Russian Aca-

demy of Sciences (RAS), Boris Golubov, saidscientists and savers of all five Caspian statesshould have worked together long before, andnot individually. “We must develop commonscientific approaches to resolve the environ-mental problems of the Caspian”, the Russianscientist stated.

Golubov reminded that the rich oil and gasreserves attract more and more oil producingcompanies to the Caspian. They are the mainsources of environmental pollution. He alsoadded that there is a growing militarization ofthe region.

In this regard, according to him, it is neces-sary to develop a new protocol within the Te-hran convention, which would reflect a newand common policy of protection the Caspian.The Russian ecologist called to create a unifiedmonitoring system of the seabed.

However, the head of Department of ecolo-gical and environmental policy of the Ministryof Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbai-jan Rasim Sattarzadeh did not agree with Go-lubov that oil production has the main threatfor the Caspian.

“Oil produced and must be produced. It isjust necessary to minimize the risks – use mo-dern technologies and methods of control”,Sattarzadeh said, speaking through the videolink.

According to the Azerbaijani scientist, today

the most actual problem is that of protectionthe Caspian Sea from pollution caused by land-based sources and inflowing rivers Ural and Ki-gach. The Azerbaijani representative once morereminded of importance and significance of theTehran convention today. However, Eleusizovdisagreed. “I believe that the Framework Con-vention is almost not working and all the mee-tings relating the Caspian ecology are a uselesstalking”, Eleusizov said. He supported Golu-bov’s speech and agreed that the main threatfor the Caspian environment is oil production.“The problem of the sea protection today is un-derestimated by all Caspian countries. Weshould keep in mind, that the Caspian Sea is alarge land-locked lake, and not the Gulf of Me-xico, and the Caspian would not be able to clearitself in case of pollution from oil spills,” Eleu-sizov noted.

He reminded, that in the Soviet times theCaspian shelf was a prohibited area, however,since discovery of oil there started active oilproduction and birds and fish began die.

“During the Soviet period we had a large andserious accident at the Tengiz deposit. The wellhad been burning for 14 months. We all toge-ther hardly extinguished it. Then, literally spea-king, the drill pipes were spat out underpressure of a thousand atmospheres,” he said.

According to Eleusizov, there was an ecolo-gical assessment after the accident at Tengiz.

The result was disappointing: the Caspian hasalmost no protection.

“I believe that development of Kashagan oil-field is premature. There is no necessity to rushto produce oil at the sea shelf. We should con-centrate our oil production onshore. And letleave Kashagan for the future generations,when there will be developed latest and moreadvanced technology, which will prevent harmto the nature, because price of reckoning wouldbe very high,” the ecologist said.

According to him, there is a high probabilityof accidents with beginning of industrial pro-duction at Kashagan. “More than a 1,000 kilo-metres of pipes were built for oil production atthe deposit. This distance is almost equal to theone from Astana to Almaty. And if we take intoaccount, that these pipes are complex, and therecould be a human factor, if someone does nothonestly weld the pipe, it would burst the way,that nobody would be able to put out the fire”,he said.

Eleusizov recalled that they should not for-get about the aggressive Caspian environment,which could easily corrode casing of pipes. Be-sides, they must be replaced every six years thatwould lead to great expenses, and even incomefrom selling the oil could hardly compensatesuch expenses.

The Kazakh ecologist also stated that besidesoil production, there old sunken oil wells, whichpresent great danger to the Caspian and needto be conserved. There is a serious question ofpreserving a livestock of sturgeon species of fishand Caspian seals. “In short, there are a lot ofproblems. They won’t be resolved, until societyand, mainly, the Caspian countries, their leaderstake up the issue of the Caspian”, Eleusizovsaid.

Meanwhile, Russian expert Aleksei Ku-cheiko offered to create a united system ofspace monitoring of the Caspian. “At the Ca-spian Sea every coastal country makes partialspace analysis of its own territory. For example,space analysis in Russia is conducted by order ofLUKoil company. The Tehran convention onprotection of the Caspian marine environmentcan probably unite these systems into one”, Ku-cheiko said.

According to him, this initiative could be ex-pensive, however, would open new possibilitiesfor investigating the processes hold at the Ca-spian. “Joint monitoring programme will allowto easily watch the Caspian water area,” theRussian expert added.

ENERGY|ENVIRONMENT

Oil production at the Kashagan threatens Caspian ecosystem

By Kulpash Konyrova

On 7 November, Azeri state energy companySOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said thatBP, Statoil and Total have agreed to acquire acombined 29% in the Trans-Anatolian naturalgas pipeline project (TANAP). "BP and Sta-toil intend to acquire 12% each in the project,

while Total will take 5%," Abdullayev told re-porters. A spokeswoman for BP-Azerbaijansaid BP is working with other participants ofthe project in order to speed up technical andcommercial aspects of its implementation.Construction of the TANAP pipeline from the

Turkish-Georgian border to Turkey's borderwith Europe is expected to start at the end of2013. Abdullayev said it is planned to completepreparation of the main project on TANAP by2017. "The work is speedily underway," he said.

Turkey has a 20% stake in TANAP, while

SOCAR holds 80%. SOCAR offered in Sep-tember to sell BP, Statoil and Total 29% of thetotal, taken out of its stake.

Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an intergov-ernmental agreement on TANAP implemen-tation in June.

ENERGY|GAS PIPELINE

SOCAR: BP, Statoil and Total buy into TANAP gas pipe

12NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ENERGY & CLIMATE

A platform at giant oilfield Kashagan in Kazakhstan’s section of the Caspian Sea.

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Russian gas monopoly GazpromDeputy CEO Alexander Medvedevsaid the route for the South Streamnatural gas pipeline would bypassCroatia by moving from Serbia andHungary. The decision caught Zagrebby surprise. Gazprom recently signedoff on final investment decisions forSouth Stream with the Hungarian and

Serbian governments.Croatia's state-owned pipeline oper-

ator Plinacro said it was unaware ofGazprom's decision. A planned off-shoot to Croatia was cancelled, withthe route going from Serbia directly toHungary at the town of Subotica, ac-cording to Poslovni.

The 470-kilometer pipeline is de-

signed to ship as much as 63bn cubicmetres of Russian gas across the BlackSea to southeastern and central Eu-rope, bypassing Ukraine. It’s a rival tothe Nabucco project that plans to shipCaspian gas via Turkey.

South Stream stakeholders areGazprom, Italy’s ENI, Germany’sWintershall and Electricite de France.

ENERGY|GAS PIPELINE

South Stream to bypass Croatia

On 5 November, Tokyo Gas Co said thatthe Japanese company along with JapanPetroleum Exploration Co and NipponSteel & Sumikin Engineering Co areconsidering a $5bn pipeline from Russia'sFar East to an industrial hub near Tokyo.Tokyo is looking for new energy suppliesfollowing the Fukushima disaster.

The proposed 1,400 kilometre offshorepipeline would start in Russia's Sakhalinisland and trace a course south along thePacific coastline to near Japan's capital,

Tokyo Gas said."The pipeline idea has come about as

one possibility in our continued efforts todiversify sources of crude materials," theTokyo Gas spokesman said on 5 Novem-ber. "That idea was discussed at our inter-nal study group."

Construction of the pipeline, if ap-proved, would take between five andseven years and cost as much as $5bn, theAsahi Shimbun reported.

The pipeline would also reduce the cost

of gas imported by ship. Japanese powercompanies drove up prices of liquefiednatural gas (LNG) in 2012 as theyscoured the world for fuel to run powerstations, with all but two of the country'snuclear reactors shut down after theFukushima disaster.

The Japanese government plans togive priority to a separate project toimport LNG from Vladivostok, aRussian city on the Sea of Japan, atleast in the near future.

ENERGY|GAS PIPELINE

Japan considers gas pipeline from Russia’s Sakhalin

Rosneft's takeover of TNK-BP, ex-pected to close in the first half of 2013,will make the Russian-listed companyRosneft one of the world’s biggest oilproducers with 23bn barrels of oil re-serves and produce at just over 4mnbarrels per day. But the deal may alsoallow Russia to impede the SouthernGas Corridor and Shah Deniz projectsin which BP is a leading player, expertssaid.

“Deliberately or not, neither sidesays much about the fact that, as part-of-the-package, Rosneft will have theright to assign a representative to theBP board. It is obvious that this per-son will be [Rosneft CEO] IgorSechin, [Russian President Vladimir]Putin’s close associate and ‘energy-Tsar,’” Gulmira Rzayeva, Leading Re-search Fellow at the Center forStrategic Studies of Azerbaijan inBaku and Ilham Akbarov, an energyexpert based in Germany, wrote in ane-mailed article that appears in Natu-ral Gas Europe on 5 November.

The experts wrote that the deal asnow structured is mutually politicallybeneficial for both Moscow and BPrather than financially. “Now withRussia's direct participation in itsboard, BP maybe has a political re-sponse to Baku and [Azeri state oilcompany] SOCAR for the last twoyears of tension on key decisions re-

garding existing and upcoming gasprojects? And has Moscow in turn fi-nally found the best way to impedethe Southern Gas Corridor and ShahDeniz projects in which BP is a lead-ing player?” they asked.

“Or maybe Putin and Sechin ac-knowledge that - whether they like itor not - in the long term gas from theCaspian will be strategically importantfor European markets so why notprofit from it? Gazprom has sale andpurchase agreements with the South

East European and Balkans marketsbut the terms of those agreements donot go beyond the year of 2022. All themarkets that are completely relianton Gazprom do not want to deepentheir gas import dependence onGazprom and are waiting for the gascoming from Shah Deniz,” Rzayevaand Akbarov wrote. The EU is tryingto lessen its dependence on Russiangas by supporting the Southern GasCorridor but now Russia has gainedinside influence.

13NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ENERGY & CLIMATE

GASFALL

Gazprom is being forced to sign revised gas price deals withEuropean consumers. Following a meeting of GazpromDeputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev with PGNiG Pres-ident Grazyna Piotrowska-Oliwa in Warsaw, the Russian gasmonopoly said it found a mutually acceptable mechanism onprice for natural gas with Poland's state-controlled gas com-pany. The price adjustment concerns gas supplies to Polanddelivered through the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. "This is animportant step to restoring the competitiveness of PGNiG'slong-term contracts," Medvedev said on 6 November.Konstantin Simonov, head of Russia's National Energy Se-curity Fund (NESF) in Moscow, told New Europe on 9November Gazprom has very difficult relations with someconsumers. But he reminded that a range of European con-sumers have received price cuts from Gazprom since 2010.In February 2012, Medvedev said Gazprom had reduced itsgas prices by an average of 10% in its long-term contractswith GDF Suez, Germany’s Wingas, Slovakia’s SPP andTurkey’s Botas. Late in October, RWE Transgas, the Czech unit of Ger-many's RWE, won a court case in Vienna against Gazprom,which was demanding hundreds of millions of euro undertake-or-pay clauses.The European Commission has also launched a formal in-vestigation to determine whether Gazprom has abused itsdominant position on the EU market, mostly in former So-viet satellite states in Eastern Europe.Simonov said the Commission investigation factored inGazprom’s decision to lower prices for PGNiG, forcing theRussian company to be more flexible with east Europeancountries. “If you are speaking about this case, our relationswith Poland, of course I think the decision of EuropeanCommission was a serious argument for Gazprom becausethe Commission blamed Gazprom for dividing the marketof west Europe and east Europe,” Simonov said. “First of allGazprom was tolerant with western countries now maybethe new trend is that Gazprom is more tolerant with eastEuropean countries because we also signed a new contractwith Bulgaria,” he said. However, he explained that Bulgariahas an important role in Russia’s South Stream gas pipelineproject and “that is why it’s possible to say that it was specialgift for Bulgaria for the agreement to build South Stream”.But Gazprom has defended its long-term contracts, thetake-or-pay principle and the linking of the price of gas tothe price of oil. Gazprom noted that the revised PGNiG contract doesnot call into question the “fundamental principles ofnatural gas trading”.Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Russia to preserveits share in the European market. “Gazprom must be moreflexible in this case. But we see that Gazprom does not wantto change this system. That is why it’s still a very seriousquestion what will be the future model of our relations be-cause discounts is a good idea but what will happen withlong-term contracts, what will happen with correlation be-tween gas prices and oil prices?” Simonov asked “This is themain question of our relations - not with Poland but withEuropean Commission.”He said Gazprom wants to avoid a legal battle with theCommission. “For Putin gas business is priority number one.That is why we can give some political benefits for othercountries if we want to see our implementation of our gas in-terests,” Simonov said.

KGeropoulos@NEurope.eufollow on twitter @energyinsider

By Kostis Geropoulos

ENERGY INSIDER

Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin speaks to journalists after his meeting with Russia's President Vladimir

Putin, 22 October 2012.

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Putin ally may impede SouthernGas Corridor, Azeri experts say

Supporters of Turkish EU membership oftenclaim that this would prove that democracy andIslam are compatible. But it is the Turks them-selves who have demolished this argument.

In a keynote speech by İbrahim Kalın, PrimeMinister Erdoğan’s chief adviser, at the IstanbulForum in October, Dr Kalın spoke of a post-Western political order in which the West doesnot have a monopoly over the democracy de-bate and the global human rights discourse.Furthermore, he claimed that the failure of sec-ular humanism to secure freedom, rationalityand equality has led to the search for a post-secular age.

In fact, the European model of seculardemocracy, politics and pluralism seems to havelittle traction in the Arab and larger Muslimworld.

It is often asserted that the EU is a commu-nity of values, and after the start of accessiontalks with Turkey in October 2005 Enlarge-ment Commissioner Olli Rehn emphasizedthat pluralism and free speech are basic valueswhich cannot be compromised. However, DrKalın said there was “a mental gap” between Is-lamic and Western notions of what constitutessacred, religious rights and freedom of expres-sion. Consequently, Turkey has expanded theclassical definition of foreign policy as advanc-ing a state’s national interest to include value-based considerations. As Turkey now occupiesa pivotal place in the new geopolitics, it accord-ingly seeks to pursue a value-based and princi-pled foreign policy.

Dr Kalın failed to define these values, but asTurkish foreign policy is determined by inter-nal dynamics, the answer can be found in astatement by Mustafa Özel, a driving force be-hind MÜSIAD, the Islamic Independent In-dustralists and Businessmen’s Association, in1996. According to Özel, the preservation ofTurkey’s domestic unity cannot be preservedthrough an ideology imported from the West

but through a true connection with Islam, “thekey source of our world view”.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu,is well-known for a foreign policy which hasbeen dubbed “neo-Ottoman” and builds onprinciples outlined in his key work, “StrategicDepth” from 2001. According to ProfessorDavutoğlu Turkey’s strategic depth rests on itsgeographical and historical depth and on en-gagement with the countries with whichTurkey shares a common past and geographyas well as shared interests and common ideals.

In a speech in Sarajevo in October 2009Davutoğlu explained: “Like in the 16th Cen-tury, when the Ottoman Balkans were rising,we will once again make the Balkans, the Cau-casus and the Middle East, together withTurkey, the centre of world politics in the fu-ture. That is the goal of Turkish foreign policyand we will achieve it.”

A new world orderIn a speech made at an AKP congress in

Konya in April the Foreign Minister was morespecific. “On the historic march of our holy na-tion the AK Party signals the birth of a globalpower and the mission for a new world order(nizam-i âlem).

This is the centenary of our exit from theMiddle East … whatever we lost between1911 and 1923, whatever lands we withdrewfrom, from 2011 to 2023 we shall once againmeet our brothers in those lands. This is abounden historic mission.”

It should be noted that nizam-i âlem is anOttoman concept, according to which theworld order in all its aspects – political, socialand economic – was ruled by religion (Islam).

A fortnight later Davutoğlu outlined his vi-sion for the Middle East in the Turkish parlia-ment. “A new Middle East is about to be born.We will be the owner, pioneer and servant ofthis new Middle East.” However, this vision hascollided with reality.

Prime Minister Erdoğan’s cordial relation-ship with his “brother” Bashar al-Assad and

the “long-term strategic partnerhip” betweenTurkey and Syria have turned to hostility withTurkey’s support of the Free Syrian Armyagainst the Assad regime.

However, Turkey’s attempt to draw the UNSecurity Council into the conflict with supportfor a safe zone for Syrian refugees has failed.And NATO has been content to express itssolidarity.

Iran’s support for Assad reflects the strugglefor regional hegemony betweeen Turkey andIran and threatens Turkey’s policy of “economicinterpendence” with Iran. Around 90 percentof Iran’s exports to Turkey consists of hydrocar-bons, as Iran has become Turkey’s largest sup-plier of crude oil and its second larger supplierof natural gas.

Turkey’s relations with Russia have also be-come strained after Turkish F-16s forced a Syr-ian airliner flying from Moscow to land inAnkara on suspicion that it was carrying arms.Another consequence of the conflict is thatTurkey has had to abandon joint plans for a freetrade zone with visa-free travel together withSyria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Erdoğan has offered to build a trilateralmechanism together with Iran to deal with thecrisis but after the failure of the Sunni rebels toseize Aleppo the issue may be solved on thebattlefield. Turkey’s nightmare is a Kurdish al-liance between Turkey’s PKK and Syria’s PYD(Democratic Union Party) with support fromIraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government.

Together with the standoff between Turkeyand Israel after the Mavi Marmara incidentand Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus,Davutoğlu’s policy of “zero problems withneighbours” has seen its day. All that remains isto resolve the standoff with Europe, and PrimeMinister Erdoğan has given the EU until 2023,when the Turkish Republic will celebrate itscentenary, to make up its mind.

Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turk-ish affairs in the Danish and international press.

POLITICS

Turkey and the new world orderBy Robert Ellis

14NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ANALYSIS

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu during a joint press conference on October 20, 2012: well-known

for a foreign policy which has been dubbed “neo-Ottoman”

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The contraction of media freedom across Eu-rope has stakeholders asking the EuropeanUnion, particularly the Commission, to utilisethe scope of its powers. In a public hearing on 6 November about thereport "EU Charter: standard settings formedia freedom across the EU,” document rap-porteur Renate Weber (ALDE, Romania)said the Commission has shied away from ad-dressing the checks against journalism thathave spread during the economic crisis. Be-sides the blatant censorship in Hungary,threats against journalists have surfaced instricken member states such as Greece andItaly. Even in the United Kingdom, broad libellaws discourage investigative journalism. In addition, issues of media pluralism and theindependence of media from governmentshave been disregarded. The EU has previous

directives to ensure these sort of things but hasnot applied them. “Hopefully, having a report with a set of stan-dards will enable the Commission to be bolderin the future,” Weber said. “We need the po-litical will to be bold enough to do thingsabout this. Media freedom has deterioratedduring the economic crisis for a few reasons.Some media depend on government moneyto continue publication, and there are some in-stances of criminal organisations taking con-trol of media advertising markets. Also,journalists who remain employed are afraid tolose their jobs, so their allegiances no longerfall first and foremost with the public. Theyreport what others tell them to report. Europe generally remains ahead of other partsof the world in regards to media freedom, butits success is relative. “The picture is clear: Media freedom is not adone deal in the EU,” said Eleonora

Gavrielides, director of the press and informa-tion office of the Republic of Cyprus. “We arehumbled by our own significant flaws… Thediscussion must go on with more enthusiasmand commitment to a common goal.”The question is how far procedures should goin establishing things like media councils andregulatory bodies that ensure media standards;such measures could have “unforeseen conse-quences” in leading to more restrictions anddependence. In a way, it would make govern-ments the watchdog of the watchdog. “We believe the very idea of legislators defin-ing standards is totally counterproductive, be-cause that’s what journalists are supposed tobe doing,” said Ivar Rusdal, president of theEuropean Newspaper Publishers’ Assocation.“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach.”Another issue of scope is related to media plu-ralism. Because media is supposed to providea public forum for a diversity of opinions and

viewpoints (often called the marketplace ofideas), it’s detrimental for media conglomer-ates to grow. However, Rusdal and otherspointed out that the sharing of informationbetween sister medias facilitates journalists’jobs, especially in terms of information re-garding the economic crisis. They contendedthe real issue was the transparency of such par-ent companies in acknowledging the concen-tration of ownership. Commissioner for Digital Agenda NeelieKroes had her head of cabinet, AnthonyWhelan, attended in her absence. Whelanagreed with Weber that the violation of medialiberties was an urgent issue, also pointing outhow the media’s bumpy digital restructuringtransition has curtailed investigative journal-ism and led to cheaper journalism that paysthe bills. However, he refuted the contentionthat his boss has been “rather silent” on jour-nalists’ human rights.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

European media freedom in peril, says ParliamentBy Andrew Wagaman

A report into funding of global health initia-tives says that many countries are failing tomeet their commitments, leaving many of theworld’s poorest without access to even basicservices.

The Action for Global Health (AfGH) net-work, made up of more than 15 organisationsacross six countries will release their report, ‘Re-sults or Rhetoric: What you didn’t know aboutEurope’s aid for health,’ in the European Par-liament on 14 November.

The report claims to provide the most accu-rate snapshot of official development assistancebetween 2007 and 2010, and says that mostEuropean nations have failed to provide thetarget of 0.1% of GNI for global health aid,which campaigners say is an achievable target.

Some of the underpaying states are not theworst off. Germany, for example, according tothe research, was still donating only 0.032% ofGNI to global health in 2010.

According to the World Health Organisa-tion, almost 7 million children under 5 died in2011, some 800 an hour, mainly from prevent-able diseases. 800 women a day died due tocomplications of pregnancy and child birth in2010, the same year 1.8 million died fromAIDS related diseases.

According to the WHO Commission onMacroeconomics and Health: “Investments inglobal health will save 8 million lives a year andgenerate at least a US$360 billion annual gainduring the period 2015-2020, several times thecosts of scaling up the health interventions

themselves.”Tim Roosen, co-ordinator of the AfGH net-

work, said: “This report is based on months ofin-depth research into official reporting figuresby the OECD, which looks at how muchmoney really goes to global health investmentsand projects. What is most worrying is that inthe case of many of Europe’s biggest economiesnot only is the amount of ODA declining, butthe percentage that is earmarked for globalhealth investment is also steadily reducing overthe three years we have looked at.”

“Only the UK and the Netherlands are cur-rently donating what they should, and theyshould be applauded for that. What their ex-amples show is that, despite the global reces-sion, the financial commitments to globalhealth are not out of reach and should be met.While the global crisis is affecting nationalbudgets, the commitments are so small thatthey should be easily attainable and should notbe sacrificed at the expense of the poor andmarginalized,” he added.

Roosen concludes, “All developing coun-

tries want to fund their own health services,but it is a fact that they are currently unable todo so in most cases. The poorest countries’domestic taxation provides governments withabout one fifth of what is required to providebasic health services that prevent, for example,child and maternal death. The ‘funding gap’still needs to be covered by external aid so toensure the right to health for all. Without ac-cess to healthcare, people are unable to workand help their economies grow. It makes eco-nomic sense.”

HEALTH

EU accused of failing global health goalsAusterity leads to funding cuts

15NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

EU WORLD

When the so-called Superstorm Sandystruck the Caribbean in late October, theEuropean Commission announced that itreleased €6 million to bring relief to the mostvulnerable people affected by the storm.The latest estimates showthat Cuba andHaiti were the worst hit countries with, re-spectively, 3 and 1.5 million people affected.The Dominican Republic and Jamaica werealso reported to have suffered importantdamages.In addition to the destruction of houses andinfrastructure, crops and harvests were dev-astated, causing fears of food insecurity. Ac-cess to food and safe water are considered tobe immediate priorities.The European Commission’s emergencyfunding of €6 million will target people af-fected by the extreme weather in Haiti andCuba, and is due to provide food and basichousehold items, reparation of houses,restoration of water services, as well as to re-store local agriculture, providing farmerswith seeds and tools.

In relation to the current situation in Haitiafter the hurricane, the European Commis-sioner for International Cooperation, Hu-manitarian Aid and Crisis Response,Kristalina Georgieva, said “The Worst hitcountry is Haiti, a country still struggling torecover from the 2010 earthquake andcholera epidemic. This year only, Haiti washit by a drought, followed by Tropical StormIsaac in August, and now Hurricane Sandyin October. The combined impact of thesedisasters has been overwhelming for an al-ready very vulnerable population”.Haiti is also the European Commission'slargest ongoing operation in the region, fol-lowing the devastating earthquake whichstruck in January201 0. The commission’stotal humanitarian contribution to Haitisince 2009 is €195 million. In addition, thecommission dedicated €522 million formedium- and long-term development andreconstruction of Haiti.On the other hand, Cuba has excellent dis-aster preparedness programmes, but wasnevertheless offered a €2 million emergencyassistance in 2008 in response to hurricanes

Gustav and Ike.The United Nations has announced an as-sistance operation, to be carried out in co-ordination with the government of Cubaduring the following weeks, which is aimedat helping people until production capaci-

ties are restored.Besides the European Union and theUnited Nations, Russia also sent an emer-gency delivery to Cuba on 1 November of30 tonnes of humanitarian aid, mostlybuilding materials.

NATURAL DISASTERS

Sandy aftermath triggers world humanitarian aid deliveries

By Andy Carling

By Stanislava Gaydazhieva

A village malaria worker fixing a mosquito warning sign at a village in Pailin province, some 350 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh. Asia accounts for 88% of all malaria cases

and most of the 46,000 annual deaths occurring outside Africa, a new report released on 2 November showed, as experts demand more urgency in fighting the deadly disease.

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New Cholera patients in Haiti. Authorities say that the illness resurged following Hurricane Sandy

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After the fate of ‘Grizzly Man’, a younginnocent out of his depth in the wilderness,the next film had to be ‘Encounters at theEnd of the World’ where our filmmakerheads to the wildest place on earth, or as heexplains, “The National Science Foundationhad invited me to Antarctica even though Ileft no doubt that I would not come up withanother film about penguins.”

What he found was a mixture of eccentricsand misfit scientists, looking at everythingfrom the most primitive single celled creaturesto the quest for remnants of the Big Bang.

As scientists sit in their offices, they canlook out of the window at Captain Scott’shut, a reminder of the brutal conditions, oncethe modern world’s conveniences arestripped away. As Herzog notes, the earlyexplorers came for glory, to be the discover-

ers or to partake in races to the centre. Nowthe people are those who have fallen off themap and travelled and dreamed.

The main base, McMurdo is an ugly placeand Herzog is keen to leave, “McMurdo hasclimate-controlled housing facilities, its ownradio station, a bowling alley, and abomina-tions such as an aerobic studio and yogaclasses,” he complains, adding. ”It even hasan ATM machine.”

Once in the field, the director feels morerelaxed, and turns his attention to what firstattracted his interest, the underside of the ice.

Trapped under a ceiling of ice and a barrenfloor below, the divers perform their tasks,but Herzog finds one in a reflective mood,on his final dive. It becomes clear that thesewaters are not a glorious place to the diverscientist, but a place of utter horror, a worldso brutal that when the director asks if lifefled in panic from the oceans, horror the

engine behind evolution, the scientist replies,“Undoubtedly”.

Herzog also finds beauty in this world,where the sea is covered with a roof andeverything is always North, but his realinterest is with the people, describing thefeeling in an interview he said, “You findyourself among scientists who deep in theirheart are also poets, and you find the mostwonderful people, with whom you want tostay forever.”

May of them have remarkable stories and awonderful, generous view on life “PhDs washingdishes and, you know, linguists on a continentwith no languages,” as one interviewee says.

Penguins also make an appearance. Afterasking the continent’s resident penguinexpert if he’s seen any insane penguins, helearns of the disorientation some experience,and he captures one on film, for once thesecreatures lost their direction, they will headin any single direction until they die ofexhaustion and nothing, even returningthem to their colony can change that.

The final film, ‘Into the Abyss’ documentsthe effects of one crime, a triple murder bytwo young men, hoping to steal a car.Herzog of course, famously plotted the mur-der of his frequent leading man, KlausKinski at various times. A plot that wasfamously mutual.

Herzog follows this pointless killing, visit-ing the crime scenes and venturing intoprison to interview the two killers, MichaelPerry and Jason Burkett, who now arguetheir innocence, but not convincingly.

Perry faces the death penalty in 8 days andhe looks like a child, eager to be loved.Burkett is tougher, but only has a life sen-tence after his father gave a moving testimo-ny at his sentencing. Dad, it turns out is inthe next wing, on a 40 year sentence.

Burkett senior knows why he’s spent muchof his life in prison, “drugs and alcohol” hereplies. But in looking at his son’s crimes,

into his abject failure as a father, he makes noexcuses, takes responsibility.

Herzog is against capital punishment, butthis is not a film about the death penalty. Ashe goes through the story, speaking with therelatives of the murdered, those who knewthe murderers the viewer can feel a pressurebuilding up as a portrait is put together ofthe abyss, the hole in the universe where alife should be and how that void is so painfulto so many.

This is the abyss Herzog, not shows us,but throws us into.

The film begins and ends with an inter-view. The opening is a brief talk with theDeath House Chaplain, who is on his way tothe next execution, but in the few minuteswith us, a world is opened up by a simplequestion about a squirrel. The Pastor’sanswer opens the indescribable value of allthat is living, the price of a life to be lost inone of the most moving sequences ever cap-tured on film.

At the end, we watch a former supervisorof executions, but after over 120 times thathe suppressed everything under the mask ofprofessionalism, he broke down, his mindunable to keep him from remembering, “Iwas done,” he says, knowing that he couldn’toversee another death.

After losing his job and pension, he isrecovering, he says, by slowing down andwatching nature. Rather like the cavepainters and their forgotten dreams.

For the rest of us, one of the Antarctic res-idents, described as philosopher, fork lifttruck driver, quotes Alan Watts, “throughour eyes the universe is perceiving itself, andthrough our ears the universe is listening toits cosmic harmonies. And we are the wit-ness through which the universe becomesconscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”

And through Werner Herzog we can wit-ness the pain and glory of life, the universeand everything.

17NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012ARTS & CULTURE16NEW EUROPE

11 - 17 November , 2012ARTS & CULTURE

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CINEMA

Life, the universe and Werner HerzogPart two: Looking over the edge

It’s the end of the word as we know it and I feel fine|HERZOG FILMS

Enlightenment on the golf course for the Pastor.|HERZOG FILMS

T he ‘Pre-Raphaelites: Vic to -rian Avant-Garde’ exhibi-tion is held at the Tate

Britain until January 13th, 2013,and concerns an art movement bornin London on March 24th 1849,when Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a20- year-old painter and son of aNeapolitan political refugee,exhibited an elaborate worknamed “The Girlhood of MaryVirgin”, a manifesto which myste-riously bore the letters P.R.B., closeto the signature.

This event was the birth date ofthe Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, agroup of former students from theRoyal Academy Schools, whichfavoured the 14th century EarlyItalian Renaissance ‘Gothic’ artrevival and criticized the fine arttraining of the time– mostly basedon the academic study of masterslike Michelangelo or Raphael.Along with Rossetti, the groupincluded painters William HolmanHunt, John Everett Millais, JamesCollinson, sculptor Thomas

Woolner and art critics FrederickGeorge Stephens and WilliamMichael Rossetti, Dante’s brotherand historian of the movement.

However, there were other per-sonalities connected to the move-ment: painters Ford Madox Brownand Edward Burne-Jones but alsoart historian John Ruskin anddesigner William Morris. A fewwomen also made a name as artistsor muses: Dante and William’s sisterpoet Christina Rossetti, Rossetti’swife artist Elizabeth Siddal andmodels Fanny Cornforth, AnnieMiller and Jane Morris, all of whomwere Dante’s mistresses.

Indeed, the group, which onlylasted from 1848 to 1853 as theartists’ views later evolved, was wellknown for its members’ complicatedand scandalous love affairs.

The Pre-Raphaelite painters’ tastefor medieval subjects came fromEuropean Romanticism, initially aliterary movement, which praisedthe chivalric ideals of honour andpure love that could be found inWalter Scott’s gothic novels.

In fact, ‘medievalism’, which alsoinfluenced architecture and the dec-orative arts, was closely linked toBritish national identity and itsfounding myths, from the HolyGrail to Chaucer andShakespearean drama.

Moreover, as men of faith, thePre-Raphelites were sensitive tomedieval spirituality as opposed tothe rational thinking of classicaltimes, while their aesthetics wereinfluenced by the minute detailingand luminous colouring found inilluminated manuscripts andstained-glass window making art.

Like most Victorians, theBrotherhood members, who didnot share the same beliefs(Christina Rossetti broke herengagement to Collinson when he

converted to Catholicism), weredevout Christians and felt con-cerned by the religious controver-sies of their time: certainties offaith shaken by Darwin’s scientifictheories, the Catholic Church’sconflicting re-establishment andthe doctrinal oppositions ofdifferent Prote stant factions, whichthey expressed through Biblicalthemes and settings or narrativeswith moral intentions.

The Pre-Raphaelites intended tomake an accurate depiction of naturewhile expressing nostalgia for unspoiltlandscapes, quite in contrast to themodern urbanization and industrial-ization of Victorian England.

However, the painters’ ratherobsessive “realistic” geological andbotanical recording reminds us that:“this way of looking belongs to thenineteenth century, to the era ofphotography, of empirical scienceand of botanical classification” (TimBarringer, Reading the Pre-

Raphaelites, Yale University Press,1999). For all their “archeological”references the Pre-Raphaelites alsoreflected modernity in their works.

Modern also were DanteGabriel Rossetti’s 1860s’ portraitsof women that exuded freedomand eroticism with unprecedent-ed confidence while showing anew taste for exoticism, likeJapanese art or oriental printswith exuberant motifs.

Despite a few ‘social’ subjectslike the ‘kept woman’, a themethat addressed prostitution, theirrebellion against environmentaldamages, their defense of crafts-manship and William Morris’moderate Socialism, the Pre-Raphaelites remained politicallyconservative middle-class Victor -ians who made unique use oftheir talent as poets and writers topromote their art.

Louise Kissalkissa@neurope.eu

Edward Burne-JonesLaus Veneris 1873-8

Manchester City Galleries © Tate Britain

William Holman HuntIsabella and the Pot of Basil 1866-8, retouched 1886

Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne © Tate Britain

Dante Gabriel RossettiThe Blue Bower 1865

The Trustees of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham © Tate Britain

Dante Gabriel RossettiLady Lilith 1866-1868

Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial, 1935 © Tate Britain

Ode to a vanishing worldPRE-RAPHAELITES: VICTORIAN AVANT-GARDE EXHIBITION

By Andy Carling

Our writer looks at four films by Werner Herzog,

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Grizzly Man,

Encounters at the End of the World and Into the

Abyss, hoping to find the meaning of life.“

William Holman HuntThe Lady of Shalott c. 1888-1905

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. © Tate Britain

18NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

BRUSSELS AGENDA Welcome to NE’s Brussels Agenda. All you need to know for a complete professional and personal life in Brussels. Would you like to advertise in New Europe’s Brussels Agenda? Ask for more info advertising@neurope.eu or don’t hesitate to call us at +32(0)2 5390039

An initiative of the Foundation for the Arts, Brussels

LAST MINUTE TICKETS FOR SHOWS & CONCERTS AT -50%

Avec le soutien de LA COMMISSION COMMUNAUTAIRE FRANÇAISE

Tickets for half price for performances and concerts on the same day. Arsène 50 offers you every day a wide range of performances, advises you in your choices and takes care of your reservation.

www.arsene50.be

Ticket sale: - At BIP, 2-4 rue Royale (Place Royale) 1000 BruxellesTuesday to Saturday, from 12.30 pm to 5.30 pm- Online on www.arsene50.beTuesday to Saturday, from 2 pm to 5.30 pm

Salle à l’étage ● Banquets - réunions - Terrase en été

Cosmo Cuisine

Av. de Tervueren,1051040 Etterbeek - Bruxelles

Tel: 02/ 732 43 31Fax: 02/ 733 61 17

RESTO BITESBelga QueenRue Fosse aux Loups 32, BrusselsTel 02 217 2187www.belgaqueen.beBelga Queen is the latest concept by Portuguese-born entrepreneurAntoine Pinto and has rapidly become a ‘must visit’ place for Belgiansand visitors to the city. It’s easy to see why.Situated in the splendidHotel de La Poste, here you are surrounded by 19th century stainedglass windows, an oyster bar and a huge cupola which lights the wayto the former safe in the basement. Oh, and the food is rather splen-did as well. The top quality products used in the preparation of thedishes are, wherever possible sourced from Belgium itself. The samegoes for the beers and even wines. Guests have a direct view of thekitchen where terrific dishes such as salmon marinated with ‘Ro-denbach’, lobster soup, eel ‘au vert’ (fish stock, cream and a mix ofgreen herbs), breast of duck with raspberry vinegar and fresh tartarof “Charolais’ beef. For a place like this, most of the items on themenu are perfectly affordable as are the drinks with varieties such asPalm, Brugse Tripel and Gueuze.When asked about the secret ofhis success Pinto says, "There is no recipe. I offer more pleasure, moredreams and more quality."

206 Rue Stévin, 1000 Bruxelles Opening 13 November 18:00 – 21:00,Exhibition12- 30 November Exhibition Fabienne Christyn, RobertCebulski

More than a Contemporary Art Gallerythe Begramoff is part of the GalleryGarden concept which found two stepsaway from the Berlaymont is a variedartistic space in the genre of being ableto lunch within the gallery during theweek and organise events in the gallery(book launches, jewelery, openings etc)during the evening or on weekends.The Begramoff gallery also prides itself

in opening up to younger artists andnewer talents of mixed techniques andbackground and succeeds at often hav-ing inspiring new ouevres on display.On 13 November the exhibition of Fa-bienne Christyn and Robert Cebulskiwill open with an event that includespaintings and sculptures as well as bi-joux.These striking art works are to be seen Fabienne Christyn is a Belgian painterknown for oil works and creative pat-terns whilst Robert Cebulski is anAmerican painter living in Brussels.A combined collection will be some-thing to behold.

Galerie Begramoff

Destroyer 18 November Botanique 19:30Destroyer was formed by Daniel Bejar, a singer-songwriter from Vancouver, in 1995. Oftenlisted as indie pop, Bejar’s music has a distinctjazz element to it. His 1998 album “City ofDaughters” was included in Pitchfork’s top 100albums of the 90s, and the wordsmith has re-leased consistently fresh albums since then. Themost recent Destroyer album, 2011’s “Kaputt,”ended up in many discussions for album of theyear. It was nominated for the Polaris MusicPrize, awarded to the best album made by aCanadian artist, and captivated listeners withsongs that would make really excellent elevatormusic. Bejar’s writing have been noted for theirintriguing and enigmatic poetry. The music,then, is a wonderful juxtaposition of easy tunes

and lyrics that take multiple listens to really ap-preciate. His voice is reminiscent of DavidBowie, and influences include indie pioneerPavement and low-fi standout Guided byVoices. The band builds on its sonic dream-scapes in concert, making this show at Botan -ique a worthy alternative to the Beach House atAncienne Belgique on Sunday 18 November.

Sea bloomBeach House -18 November Ancienne Bel-gique 20:00In 2004, French-born vocalist and organplayer Victoria Legrand and American gui-tarist and keyboard player Alex Scallyformed the indie-rock and pop group BeachHouse. Originally this band was formed as amusic project that had no pretentions ofreaching stardom, but in time Legrand andScally realized their full potential. The musichas a great mellow sound that derives frompsychedelic organ and guitar harmonization.Few bands have the ability to consistentlycreate songs that are both textured andmelodic. Beach House has released four al-bums, and with the addition of every newrecord they have furthered their success andpopularity around the world. Their newestalbum, “Bloom,” was released this past Mayand proved to be a worthy follow-up to 2010

standout “Teen Dream.” It was produced atthe famous Electric Land Studios in NewYork City by Chris Coady, who has beenrecognized for bringing stardom to the YeahYeah Yeah’s, TV on the Radio and GrizzlyBear. Legrand’s vocals sound as beautiful asever, and they will likely soothe listeners atAncienne Belgique.

BY MAN ALIVE!

Shiva sounds

BY RAWKBLOG4

Barack Obama's reelection to the presi-dency of the United States was fraughtnot only with worry about whether hewould be chosen by the people or getenough votes in the electoral college butalso whether fraud would somehow alterthe legitimate results. An electronic voting machine in PerryCounty, Pennsylvania, selected Romneywhen the voter chose Obama, automatedtelephone messages called robo-calls intheir thousands told people that the elec-tion was on Wednesday rather than Tues-day; people queued for most of the daybecause manipulation of voting hoursmeant they were likely to miss out andmany states falsely advertised for the re-quirement of a photo id where none wasneeded.

Many, if not all of the above, were in-tentional acts of voter suppression. Fromstate to state and from legislation to per-sonal acts of intimidation there have beenmyriad ways that political parties havesuppressed votes throughout the US' elec-tion history.

Tova Wang's book on the Politics ofVoter Suppression comes at a time whensuch acts as she describes have been hit-ting the headlines.

With a fast-paced style she uses her ex-perience of working with the CenturyFoundation on the National Commissionon Federal Election Reform to present aclear and concise picture of how reformshave in turn affected voter participation.While the history of what she describesinvolves both the major US parties, in thelast few decades it has mainly been theRepublican party which has supressedvoters in the name of fighting fraud.

The reform measures tend to be aimed

at Americans whose voices are often ig-nored such as the poor, minorities and theyoung.

With close elections that hinge onthousands, even modest attempts to denyvoters access to the ballot can result in achange in direction for the nation.

But even if it doesn't change the result,the denial of someone's ability to vote is aviolation of that person's rights and aharm to democracy.

Laws restricting access to the ballot arevery disturbing particularly as they occuragainst the backdrop of an equally dis-tressing change in campaign finance law.The US Supreme Court's ruling in Citi-zens United v Federal Election Commis-sion which removed any limits on privatecontributions to political action commit-tees (PACs).

The unprecedented $6 billion spent inthis latest campaign and one-sixth of thaton presidential advertising alone signifi-cantly tilts the political playing field infavour of the wealthy, the powerful andthe connected.

Not voting has other disadvantageswhich are felt at a personal level such asmaking people more engaged citizens andletting the parties know who counts.There is less incentive for elected partiesto care for the needs of people who do notcast a ballot.

Allowing the wealthy and elite thepower of effectively choosing a nation'sleaders regresses the system back to thedays when landowners held the power.

Tova Wang's account provides somefascinating insight to electoral processesthat most of us would never know about.

The Politics of Voter Suppression: De-fending and Expanding Americas' Rightto Vote is published by Cornell UniversityPress.

ELECTIONS

The politics ofvoter suppressionA book review by Joanna Papageorgiou

19NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

EU WORLD

In a world where individuals share their per-sonal information through different plat-forms, personal data has become the newcurrency and its value was €315 billion lastyear, according to new research conducted byBoston Consulting Group (BCG) and com-missioned by the cable company LibertyGlobal.

The study, entitled “The value of our dig-ital identity”, is one of the first attempts toanalyse and put a value on consumers’ per-sonal data used and exploited by businessesand governments. Due to the exponentialgrow of social media, the Internet ofThings, online data transactions and digitalservices, this “digital identity”, conformedby the sum of all our online personal data, isbecoming increasingly complete and trace-able.

BCG surveyed about 3,000 people acrossGermany, the Netherlands and Poland, andconcluded that consumer concern has grownwith the increased use of personal data. Ac-cording to the report, 88% of people who areonline consider at least one industry a threatto their privacy. In addition, only 30% of con-sumers know which sectors are collectingtheir data and with what purpose.

Besides, according to the study, applicationsbuilt on the use of digital identity can drivemassive value growth for both public and pri-vate-sector organisations: at a 22% annualgrowth rate, the benefit can reach €330 bil-lion by 2020.

“Levering personal data and digital iden-tity can be a key growth driver in an overallstagnant European economy – potentiallyworth up to 8% of GDP by 2020,” said JohnRose, senior partner at BCG and author ofthe report. He added that “we all should beconcern of what people share on Facebook.

Big data allows to extract this informationand create an structure to manipulate it.”

Data collection by companies has becomea controversial issue in Europe, as regulatorsare concerned about how big tech companieslike Google and Facebook exploit users' per-sonal information as part of their businessmodel. Moreover, companies like Telefonica,which have access to a vast amount of per-sonal data, are selling it to third parties to op-timise their services or with other purposes.

“The value of our digital identity”, alsoconcluded that users would consent the shareof their data in exchange of the right to de-cide when they want their information to bedeleted and whether they have the possibilityof opt-out or opt-in.

But this consent should be hand in handwith a new paradigm for digital identity,which companies and governments should“embrace”, Rose stated, if they don't want tolose two-thirds of the potential value gener-ation. Their policies must be transparent,clear, safe and put consumers at the centre,giving them control over their data.

“We have to see the context where the datawas shared” to generate good policies, ex-plained Constantjin van Oranje-Nassau,Deputy Head of Cabinet of CommissionerNeelie Kroes, and added that “government isa big user, but it's also a regulator and super-visor.”

Manuel Kohnstamm, chief policy officer ofLiberty Global, explained that “the opportu-nities presented by the responsible sharing ofa person’s digital identity are enormous, butcan only be gained if digital identity is han-dled in a safe and transparent way.”

“It is critical that industry takes the lead toestablish a trusted platform for the flow ofpersonal data, otherwise, significant value forconsumers and industry alike will be lost”, headded.

By Nerea Rial

20NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012 TECHNOLOGY

Who knows what about your online life?

Predictions say that by 2060, the percentage ofthe EU population aged more than 65 will in-crease 30% and ICT can make lives of theseelderly people easier. This were the main mes-sages during the first Conference of Partnersof the European Innovation Partnership onActive and Healthy Ageing on 6 November inBrussels. This partnership, created by the Eu-ropean Commission, aims to enhance Euro-pean competitiveness and tackle societalchallenges through research and innovation;making active and healthy ageing a major taskcommon to all Member States.The pilot project, formed by six Action Plans,will be divided in three areas: prevention andhealth promotion, care and cure, and activeand independent living of elderly people. Inthis way, to increase the average healthy lifes-pan by two years by 2020 is the first target ofthis partnership.“You don't need me reminding you of thegreat opportunity ahead: if we can offer thepeople of the EU an extra 2 years of healthylife, better affordable care, more business”,stated Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the Eu-ropean Commission responsible for the Dig-ital Agenda at the beginning of the conferenceduring her speech. “We're early on in our European InnovationPartnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.But we are already seeing fantastic results”, shesaid, adding that “261 consortia have madecommitments. To unite 3000 partners, andimprove the lives of over 4 million people.”The commissioner highlighted the impor-tance of smart innovations, co-operation andre-invention of the current health an socialcare system to improve people's lives. “Wecan't do this simply by throwing money at theproblem, not in the current climate. Nor bysimply cutting budgets. Nor by just takingwhat we already do, and adding in a couple offancy gadgets.”Kathleen Lynch, Irish Minister of State fromthe Department of Health and Departmentof Justice, also reminded the audience thatolder people “are not living in a particular box”,they live in our world and they have the rightto not be treated only as “dependent.”Each Action Plan was explained by its respec-tive Action Group; all of them are made up ofmany stakeholders from all European coun-tries and take care of a specific challenge.Today, only 25% of older people with chronicconditions take their medication correctly atthe right times and this increases morbidity

and mortality. The reasons behind this issueare complex, and can include a variety of fac-tors, such as socio-economic status, profes-sional, patients beliefs and lifestyles, orhealth-literacy.Improving prescription and adherence totreatments is the objective of the A1 Group,which was represented by Sergio Pecorelli, for-mer President of AIFA (Italian RegulatoryAgency of Medicines).Pecorelli explained that prevention plans, data-bases and observatories will improve the qual-ity of life of patients and also help support thelong term sustainability of health care systems.“With them we know and we can know whatis going to happen next”, he said.The second group is working on solutions forfall prevention, due to the big percentage ofolder people that suffer injuries after falling.Nick Guldemond, program director Health atDelft University of Technology, explained thatfalls are a big problem in our society and meas-ures must be established “if we want to safelives and costs.”Besides working together, all stakeholders,such as governments, hospitals and commu-nities, should identify people at risk and thenimplement new prevention strategies. In ad-dition, specifications on data falls are needed,as well as information and education for gen-eral public, he explained.Currently, there are many European projectstrying to prevent these falls. For instance, theWIISEL insole monitors the way of walkingof elderly people and sends through its wire-less system a warning to the doctor if anychange has took place while walking. If thishappens, means that the patient is not follow-ing correctly the rehabilitation or he/she is re-turning to bad habits, and the risk of fallingincreases.Action Group A3, focuses on the preventionof malnutrition and frailty, which are “not in-evitable consequences and have reasons be-hind”, highlighted Olle Ljungqvist, professorat the Örebro University Hospital. The pro-gram will support people in following ahealthy and active regime, like diet and exer-cise. Integrated care for chronic diseases, inde-pendent living and age-friendly environments,are the other three actions supported by theEuropean Commission to improve older peo-ple's lives. All of them need collaboration, pro-motion, ICT technologies and clevermovements to help these concrete group ofour society.

Europe specifies plans for elderlyAction Groups presented ICT projects to improve older citizens' lives

ICT can make lives of these elderly people easier

How much does our digital identity cost?European citizens' data was valued in €315 billion in 2011, new report says

Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay, Starbucks andAmazon make up the list of tech multination-als that are avoiding their taxes in Europe, andthe public debate over them has increased dur-ing the G20 meeting in Mexico on 6 Novem-ber.The discussion started after a joint statementreleased by George Osborne, the UK chancel-lor, and Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German fi-nance minister, calling the world's leadingeconomies to combat tax avoidance and toforce corporations to pay their fair share of taxor face the consequences.Both want to stamp out the practice of profit–shifting and so-called "transfer pricing", whichallows companies legally move income earnedin one country to another jurisdiction to lowertheir total tax bill. These activities are deprivinggovernments of huge tax revenues and givingmultinational businesses an unfair advantageover domestic rivals, they said. “Britain and Germany want competitive cor-porate tax systems that attract global compa-nies to our countries, but also want globalcompanies to pay those taxes”, they wrote.“That is best achieved through internationalaction in the G20 and other relevant interna-tional fora to ensure strong standards.”"International tax standards have had difficultykeeping up with changes in global businesspractices, such as the development of e-com-merce. As a result, some multinational busi-nesses are able to shift the taxation of theirprofits" they stated.

Companies' tax abuses made were also debatedat the G20 summit in June, but now all coun-tries spoke up and urges the Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development(OECD) for a presentation of a document onthe issue at the next meeting in February 2013,in Russia. Therefore, the institution is alreadyanalysing the problem in a project called BEPS(Base Erosion and Profit Shifting).Besides, the OECDwill propose the G20 newmeasures on tax harmonization to avoid thesekind of practices. But, those rules must be ap-plied generally to be effective.Amazon, Facebook and Google are facing anincreased scrutiny. While Starbucks didn't paycorporation tax in the UK for the past threeyears, the three others have together paid lessthan £30m of tax in the country despite sales of£3.1bn over the past four years.

G20 to stop tax avoidance of tech companiesUK and Germany re-opened the debate after releasing a joint statement

21NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012TECHNOLOGY

The General Secretary of the OECD, Jose AngelGurria, at Mexico's meeting | AFP PHOTO/ YURI CORTEZ

First Marie Curie Prize reveals winnersResearchers from Greece, Israel and UK won Commission's contest

The first winners of the European Com-mission's new Marie Curie Prize for out-standing achievement in research wereannounced on 5 November, at the occasionof the Cyprus Presidency Conference inNicosia, Cyprus.The competition differentiates three cate-gories: “Communicating Science”, “Innova-tion and Entrepreneurship” and “PromisingResearch Talent.” Dr Claire Belcher fromthe United Kingdom, won the first of them,with her studies on ancient natural fires andtheir consequences for plant and animal life.“Innovation and Entrepreneurship” prize wasfor Dr Sarit Sivan from Israel. She was se-lected for her innovative work on materialsthat can restore the biomechanical functionof degenerate discs in spinal columns.Greek Dr Gkikas Magiorkinis, was hon-oured in the 'Promising Research Talent' cat-egory, after he traced the spread of theHepatitis C virus (HCV) around the globe,a path that was unknown until now. Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commis-sioner for Education, Culture, Multilingual-ism and Youth, which presented eachscientist with a trophy at the ceremony, ex-plained that the award was created to “high-light the excellence and talent of Europe'sbest young researchers.”“It is vital that we continue to invest stronglyin European research, which contributes tosolving great societal challenges in areas suchas health and the environment, and which isalso important for the European economy”,she stated.Vassiliou also expressed her satisfaction after

two of the three prizes were given to women.“Attracting more women to scientific careersis a priority for the European Commission”,she said.Marie Curie Actions (MCA) have sup-ported more than 65 000 researchers ofnearly 130 different nationalities since theprogramme's launch in 1996. The conferenceat Nicosia is focused on the future of theseactions and also of Horizon 2020, the Com-mission's proposed €80 billion programmefor investment in research and innovation.The 7th Research Framework Programmewill finish at the end of 2013 and, accordingto the commissioner, “it is the perfect time tosee where we can improve the programme tomaximise its contribution to growth andjobs.”In addition, she explained that the Commis-sion has proposed to increase the amount al-located for the MCA to €5.75 billion in theperiod 2014-2020, and that negotiations be-tween the Council and European Parliamentare taking place.Both current and former fellows of MCA,which connects research, education and in-novation, had the opportunity to participatein this year's contest. Applications are evalu-ated by an independent panel of renownedEuropean and international scientists; theybase their evaluations on the scientific qual-ity and its possible impact on Europeancompetitiveness.The jury was composed by prominent aca-demics, scientists and experts, included Pro-fessor Pierre Joliot, Professor ChristopherPissarides, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prizein Economics, and Maria Da Graça Car-valho, Member of the European Parliament.

Internet is growing rapidly, but the digitaldivide is still a problem and United Nationsofficial urged, at the Internet GovernanceForum (IGF), which opened in Baku,Azerbaijan, greater efforts to bridge it andensure that everyone around the world canharness its benefits.According to the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs,Wu Hongbo, there were 2.3 billion Inter-net users worldwide at the end of 2011andmobile broadband reached more than 1 bil-lion subscriptions. However, only a quarterof inhabitants in the developing world wereonline by the end of the past year.“This low number of Internet users in de-veloping countries calls for increased effortsin shaping and implementing appropriatepolicies to assist everyone to harness thebenefits of the Internet, and advance sus-tainable development”, Hongbo told par-ticipants.In addition, he highlighted the importance

of the IGF as a platform to initiate discus-sions and identify ways to solve this divide. “Clearly, the Internet is an important tool

for development,” the Secretary-Generalstated. “It is utilized in multiple sectors, in-cluding health, education, agriculture andindustry, disaster relief, and environmentalprotection, among so many others.” ICTs,like telemedicine, e-learning or mobiletechnologies, are available to people in re-mote areas and are creating entrepreneur-ial opportunities.In less than one month, the United ArabEmirates will hold the World Conferenceon International Telecommunications(WCIT-12), which will review the Inter-national Telecommunication Regulations(ITRs) that date back to 1988.Also at the IGF, the Secretary-General ofthe UN International TelecommunicationUnion (ITU), Hamadoun Touré describedas “ridiculous” misleading stories about theITU or the UN ‘taking over the Internet.’

UN calls for efforts to bridge digital divideOnly a quarter of the developing world was online in 2011

By Nerea Rial

FINLAND | R&D

Beneq sets up subsidiary in RussiaBeneq, the Finnish provider of thin film coating equip-ment for research and industry, has announced plans to es-tablish operations in Russia and the CIS, it was reported on5 November. The opening of a subsidiary follows the in-vestment of € 25 million in Beneq by Russia's state-ownedRusnano in April and ties in with the Finnish company’splanned expansion into existing and emerging markets.Beneq said its operations in Russia, both in the fields ofresearch and industrial sales, are expected to increase rap-idly during the coming years, and these customers will bebest served by a local organisation. In addition to openingoffices, Beneq is launching an application development andservice laboratory, AppLab, which will foster novel andemerging applications from inventions to industrial inte-gration. The main target of AppLab is to promote and im-plement cutting-edge thin film technologies and createglobally competitive products and industrial solutions forRussia and global markets. Establishing a local office inRussia is a definite and very concrete move in providingour customers with the best possible services, said BeneqCEO Sampo Ahonen. The AppLab service, which isunique in its kind, is a natural element in our strategy to notonly focus on selling equipment, but to also work in part-nership with universities, research institutes and industrialenterprises. Beneq Oy, based in Finland, is a leading sup-plier of industrial production and research equipment forthin film coatings used in solar photo voltaics, flexible elec-tronics, strengthened glass and other emerging applica-tions. Beneq has introduced several revolutionaryinnovations within its coating technologies, including trueroll-to-roll atomic layer deposition (ALD) and high-yieldatmospheric aerosol coating. Beneq also offers completecoating services.

GERMANY | BANKING

Commerzbank returns to profit in Q3Commerzbank saw profits held back in the third quarter asinterest income declined and costs rose from businesses itis leaving in order to strengthen its finances, RTE Irelandreported on 8 November. The bank is Germany's second-largest lender. It said on 8 November it made € 78 millionin net profit, compared to a loss of € 687 million the samequarter a year ago, when the bank suffered write-downs onGreek government bonds. Heavily indebted Greece madeits creditors take heavy losses in a negotiated debt reduc-tion. The bank has been on a long road to recovery since itwas bailed out in 2009 by the German government, whichstill owns 25%. These earnings indicated it still had a wayto go. The bank said it foresaw a lower operating profit inthe fourth quarter, and chief executive Martin Blessing saidthat "the market environment will remain volatile in thecoming months." He said the bank had "achieved a solid re-sult" in its core banking business.

SWEDEN|JOBS

SCA to slash 1,500 jobs in cost-cutting bidSwedish hygiene and forestry products company SCA(Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget) is cutting 1,500 jobs in abid to save billions of Swedish crowns, the company re-vealed in Stockholm on 5 November, The Local reported.“A new efficiency programme has been initiated within thehygiene operations to further reduce costs and increase pro-ductivity," SCA President and CEO Jan Johansson said ina statement. "It will provide annual cost savings of some €300 million, with full impact in 2015. About 1,500 em-ployees are affected and costs are expected to amount to €100 million."

22NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

EUROPEAN UNION

On 2 November, Boerse Stuttgart re-ported a generated turnover fall of €200million in October, compared with Sep-tember figures. According to the BoerseStuttgart turnover reached €7 billion inOctober 2012 from €7.2 billion duringthe previous month. What is most im-pressive is that in comparison with Oc-tober 2011 the fall is estimated atapproximately 10%.

Once again, securitised derivatives ac-counted the largest share of turnover es-timated at €3.2 billion. The overall valueof the derivatives transaction fell by 10%

in comparison with September, mainlybecause of the weak market environ-ment. In addition to the securitised de-rivatives fall, the volume of investmentproducts fell to €1.9 billion from €2.1billion.

In October 2011, Boerse Stuttgartoverall turnover accounted to more than€7.7 billion and securitised derivativesreached €3.8 billion. However, accord-ing to the 2011 press release the figuresindicated that 2011 trading volumeswere “higher than in the whole year of2010.” Furthermore, the good news for

the German economy is that the invest-ment products are higher in compari-son with 2011, by approximately 20%.

Turnover in debt instrument tradingindicated vigorous growth in compari-son with September, as it was up by justunder 16%. According to the press re-lease, the demand for corporate bondsand German government bonds wasextremely high. “This is evident fromthe substantial rise in turnover: morethan 25 % in the case of German bundsand more the 18% for corporate bonds,”the release adds.

Boerse turnover falls 10% incomparison with October 2011

GERMANY|ECONOMY

New order for Turku shipyardFINLAND|SHIPPING

German company TUI Cruises has or-dered its second vessel from the STXshipyard in Turku. Work on the new shipwill start next summer, with the liner ex-pected to be ready in spring 2015, YLENews reported on 5 November.

Both vessels ordered by TUI Cruiseswill be nearly 300 metres long and willaccommodate 2,500 passengers each. The

two orders will bring 11,000 man-yearsworth of work to the shipyard.

"This second vessel will guarantee em-ployment until spring 2015. I'd say thatthis is a victory in terms of employmentfor the shipyard's entire personnel and forthose who have been engaged in activework in various tasks during this project,"said Jari Anttila, Director of STX Finland

Turku Shipyard.Construction of the first liner ordered

by TUI Cruises began last Monday, andit is to be completed in spring 2014.

Anttila said that the shipyard can in-crease its capacity in case new orderscome in. The Turku shipyard is currentlyalso building a new passenger ferry forcruise operator Viking Line.

National Bank's official reserve increases 1.4% LITHUANIA|ECONOMY

The central bank of the Republic ofLithuania, Bank of Lithuania reported onNovember 7 that at the end of October2012, official reserve assets amounted to22.2 billion Lithuanian litas (6.4 billioneuro). They grew by 311.5 million litas or1.4% in October.

Growth of official reserves assets in

October was affected by an increase indeposits of other monetary financial in-stitutions with the Bank of Lithuania andexternal liabilities of the Bank of Lithua-nia – by 167.6 million litas and 167.5million litas respectively.

The official reserves assets grew alsoon account of changes in other factors

and more currency in circulation – by 67million litas and 65.4 million litas respec-tively. Weaker growth in the official re-serve assets resulted from a decline ofdeposits of central government with theBank of Lithuania by 152.4 million litasand a drop in the value of Special Draw-ing Rights by 3.5 million litas.

A stockbroker trades shares on the dealing floor of the 'Boerse Stuttgart AG' stock exchange in Stuttgart, Germany. Compared to 2005 where the Borse wrote

history as the year of the second biggest total revenue with 80.6 billion euro. The years between 2011 and 2012 have yielded a 10% fall in Stuttgart.

EPA/NORBERTFOERSTERLINGAFP

23NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012EUROPEAN UNION

UNITED KINGDOM | BUSINESS

Burberry's Q3 ahead of forecastsBurberry beat forecasts with a 6% rise in first-half profit asits most wealthy shoppers continued to spend despite a fal-tering global economy, RTE Ireland reported on 7 No-vember. The British luxury goods group is best known forits camel, red and black check pattern. It said it made aprofit before tax and one off items of £ 173 million in thesix months to 30 September. That compared to analystforecasts of £ 157-172 million and £ 162 million the sametime last year. Last month Burberry said sales had steadiedin the final weeks of its second quarter, reassuring investorsrattled by a shock profit warning in September. Total first-half revenue was £ 883 million, up 8% at constant exchangerates, with first quarter growth of 11% slowing to 5% in thesecond. Burberry said guidance for the second half was un-changed from that issued in October. However, the firmsaid the decision to directly operate fragrance and beautyas a fifth product division from April 1 would be broadlyneutral to underlying profit in 2013/14 and earnings accre-tive thereafter.

AUSTRIA | BUSINESS

Aegis buys IQ Mobile in AustriaAegis Group PLC, a media and digital marketing com-munications company, said on 6 November it has acquiredIQ mobile, a mobile agency in Austria, for undisclosed sum,it was reported. The deal is in line with strategy tostrengthen digital capability and will provide opportunitiesto increase Aegis Media's mobile business in Austria andacross Central and Eastern Europe.

SLOVENIA | ENERGY

Alstom suspends coal plant work French energy giant Alstom has begun suspending workon a € 1.3-billion ($ 1.67-billion) coal-fired electricity plantin Slovenia after failing to receive financing guarantees fromthe government, the plant's director said, it was reported on4 November. "Alstom, the equipment supplier for the coalplant Termoelektrana Sostanj, notified us officially previ-ous Thursday it was suspending work on the project," thehead of the plant Simon Tot told journalists. A total sus-pension of work could still be avoided, however, if the gov-ernment provided by last week a timeline for providing thefinancing guarantees, already approved by parliament inJuly, Tot said. The government is supposed to provide stateguarantees for a € 440-million loan from the EuropeanBank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) tomodernise the 600-megawatt Termoelektrana Sostanj coal-fired plant, which accounts for a third of Slovenia's elec-tricity output.

AUSTRIA | MANUFACTURING

100 jobs go as paper factory near Graz closesA paper production factory in the Stryrian town ofFrohnleiten that was taken over by Austrian industrialistand politician Thomas Prinzhorn two years ago will closein April 2013 incurring 100 job losses, Austrian Inde-pendent reported on 2 November. The closure of the WHamburger GmbH paper factory in Frohnleiten was re-vealed to management previous Tuesday afternoon. Theywere told that the company was closing due to strugglescaused by an excess in European paper production com-panies and tough international competition. Shortly aftermidday, the workers of W Hamburger GmbH were in-formed of this decision.

Among other dignitaries, Prime Min-ister Elio Di Rupo and US Ambassa-dor to Belgium Howard W. Gutmanwere on hand to press the red button –literally – that marked the officialopening of the new facility.

The new distribution center, whichemploys 115 people, centralizes theactivities of 15 existing logistics cen-ters in a single location. Medicines willbe sent from production sites aroundEurope to La Louvière, and fromthere around the world. Once it is upand running at full capacity, the centerwill process 385,000 orders per yearand ship 160 million units.

With this investment, Janssen Phar-maceutica has, in effect, voted for Bel-gium with its wallet for the secondtime in recent years – the companyalso operates a distribution center formedical devices and diagnostics innearby Courcelles. As Jean-ClaudeMarcourt, Vice-Minister President ofWallonia and the French Community,said, “The first time is maybe a chance,

the second not. This kind of strategicdecision is never a coincidence.” Whythen Belgium, and why Wallonia inparticular?

Heyman named many factors, rang-ing from good infrastructure and ac-cess to transport links (majorhighways, airports and ports) to Bel-gium’s central location and close prox-imity to important markets like Franceand Germany. He did not deny thesignificant contribution received fromthe regional government – €11 millionof a total investment of €49 million.

Discussing the pharmaceutical sec-tor more broadly, Prime Minister DiRupo insisted on the human element,“the talent, the industriousness of[Belgium’s] workers and the intelli-gence, the know-how of [Belgium’s]researchers.” Indeed, according toHeyman, Johnson & Johnson, JanssenPharmaceutica’s parent company,views Belgium as a “very good place toinvest” for research and developmentas well as manufacturing.

Janssen Pharmaceutica’s new facilityin La Louvière not only demonstrates

in very concrete terms the importanceof the pharmaceutical sector in Bel-gium, but also the importance of lo-gistics. Marcourt cited a report byCushman & Wakefield which listsWallonia as the top region for logisticsin all of continental Europe.

Janssen Pharmaceutica, founded byDr. Paul Janssen in Turnhout in 1953,was purchased by Johnson & Johnsonin 1961. Today, it gives its name to allof the pharmaceutical undertakings ofits parent company. In Belgium alone,Janssen Pharmaceutica employs morethan 4,000 people and has an annualturnover exceeding €2 billion.

Concluding his remarks, Ambas-sador Gutman stressed the impor-tance of these companies to theUS-Belgian relationship: “Johnson& Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceu-tica are among those at the top of thelist of ambassadors who build andrebuild the bridge between Belgiumand the United States while theybuild a better future for Belgianworkers, for US workers and for con-sumers worldwide.”

Janssen Pharmaceutica Invests in Wallonia BELGIUM|PHARMACEUTICALS

Janssen European Distribution Network Director Luc Peeters, Jane Griffiths, Company Group Chairman, Janssen Europe, Moyen-

Orient et Afrique and Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo visit the official opening of a new European pharmaceuticals distribution

center of Belgian pharmaceutical company Janssen Pharmaceutica, Wednesday 03 October 2012, in La Louviere.

Red Bull battle in India hits energy drink market BELGIUM|FOOF & DRINK

Austrian energy drinks maker Red Bulland its erstwhile Indian partner RahulNarang Group are headed for a long andbitter courtroom battle over territorialrights, Austrian Independent reported on5 November.

Red Bull, which recently severed its tieswith the Indian partner, was stopped pre-vious week by a Mumbai court frompoaching distributors of the RahulNarang Group to sell their energy drink.

The Mumbai-based Rahul Narang

Group had applied to a local court charg-ing the Austrian multinational of poach-ing its proprietary distribution network,weeks after ending one of the oldest al-liances in the country's beverage market.

Red Bull is growing at 30% annually.It is estimated to be Rs 190 crore brand inIndia and controls close to 80% of the Rs250-crore energy drinks market. Its rivalsinclude Coca Cola's Burn, Zinga, localbrands like Cloud 9 and a clutch of re-gional brands.

The Bombay City Civil Court agreedand restrained Red Bull from approach-ing three of RNG's sub-distributors inPune, Bangalore and Gurgaon, and re-jected the € 4.2-billion firm's plea seekingpermission to move the matter to an ar-bitration court in Geneva.

But the court asked Red Bull not toapproach those three specific sub-distrib-utors and said the Austrian giant was freeto negotiate with the remaining 300 dis-tributors and sub-distributors.

By Daniel Pyster

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GREECE|ECONOMY

Parliament approves measures With 153 votes in favour, against 128 against and 18 MP’sdeclaring presence, the Greek Parliament approved the newausterity bill. The new measures include cuts in pensions,raising retirement age to 67 and further cutting the mini-mum wage. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras com-mented that his next goal is to “bring the smile back toGreece, through job supply and the coordinated efforts forinvestments and privatisations”. In addition, he underlinedthat the next important step is the budget approval, by theparliament on 11 November. Samaras concluded, “Today’svote was very important and I am obviously very happyabout the result.” The final voting came hours after intenseprotests outside and inside the parliament. Approximately80,000 to 100,000 demonstrators gathered in SyntagmaSquare protesting about the new cuts.

GREECE|ENERGY

Bids for DEPARussia's Gazprom and Sintez and Azerbaijan's state-ownedSOCAR are the main bidders for Greek gas companyDEPA, news agencies reported on 5 November. Italy's ENI,French EDF's subsidiary Edison, and Spain's Gas Naturaland Enagas stayed away. However, a deal with Gazpromcould face antitrust problems, since the European Com-mission is already investigating the Russian gas monopolyin an competition probe.

CYPRUS|LABOUR

Unemployment increases According to the figures released by the Statistical Service ofCyprus, the unemployed persons, registered at the DistrictLabour Offices on the last day of October 2012, reached34.752 persons. Based on the seasonally adjusted data thatshows the trend of unemployment, the number of registeredunemployed for October 2012 increased to 39.510 persons incomparison to 38.375 in the previous month.

ROMANIA|ENERGY

Petrom reports profitsRomanian oil and gas company Petrom ended the firstthree quarters of the year with a net profit of €652mn, down1% on the same period of 2011. Sales were however up14%, to some €4.3bn, Romania Insider reported on 7 No-vember. “In the third quarter of 2012 our operational resultwas overall in line with the same period of last year, mainlysupported by a stronger dollar against the lei. The highcrude price environment continued to benefit our per-formance in E&P, whilst marketing sales volumes and mar-gins weakened,” Petrom CEO Mariana Gheorghe said.“Moreover, we are pursuing new growth opportunities inthe neighbouring Black Sea region, in a joint venture withExxonMobil. Going forward, we plan to further pursue ourinvestments in the range of €0.8-1.2bn p.a. for the comingyears,” she added.

ROMANIA|PHARMACEUTICALS

Zentiva to invest locallyPharmaceutical producer Zentiva Romania, part of theFrench Sanofi Group, plans to invest €9mn in the localplant, aiming to boost production and exports by 50% inthe next five years, Business Review reported on 6 Novem-ber. Zentiva exports 10% of the local output to 13 Europeanmarkets, including Germany and France. The company hasinvested €12mn in the Romanian plant in the past threeyears. It added this year a new production line and a labo-ratory. The plant turned 50 this year.

24NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

EUROPEAN UNION

The speed of implementation of the Eu-ropean Social Fund (ESF) in Bulgariaand Romania is not impressive. This iswhat the EU Employment, Social Affairsand Inclusion Commissioner LászlóAndor said during the conference ‘Ex-cluded or included - Labour market par-ticipation of people with intellectualimpairment or relational problems’ or-ganised by the European Economic andSocial Committee (EESC).

Even though the Commissioner gaveexamples of good practices in both coun-tries, he characterised the speed of imple-mentation of the European Social Fundin the two newest EU members as “notimpressive”.

In Bulgaria, for example, one of themain ESF priorities is the provision ofbetter access to education, training andcareer guidance for minority ethnic

groups, disabled people and young schoolleavers.

In Romania, the priority includes ef-forts on getting the groups at risk of so-cial exclusion (such as Roma or disabledpeople) back into mainstream employ-ment.

On the other hand, Bulgaria does notfall under the top 10 EU member stateshaving the highest ESF funding for theperiod 2007-2013, while Romania is on10th place with around €4bn Commu-nity funding.

Also, the ESF funding for combatingsocial exclusion and discrimination on thelabour market as percentage of the totalESF funding in Bulgaria is only 3% com-pared to 14% EU average. In Romania,this percentage is almost equal – 12%compared to 14% for EU average.

During his speech, CommissionerAndor emphasised that in line with its vi-sion for a more inclusive society and its

call for active ageing, the European Com-mission was committed to ensuringthat people with disabilities were givenappropriate support in order to maximisetheir contribution to the open labourmarket.

He also pointed out that people withmental health problems and other vul-nerable groups have been more exposedto the consequences of the current eco-nomic crisis as key social services andpolicies supporting people with disabili-ties have been affected by budget cuts andtighter eligibility criteria.

Fully supporting the idea that Europeneeded a social investment approach tothe challenges it currently faced, Andorconcluded that the use of the structuralfunds, such as the European Social Fund,had to be better targeted towards sup-porting social investments, in accordancewith the specific needs of the memberstates.

Bulgaria, Romania criticised over slow ESF implementation

BULGARIA|EU AFFAIRS

Bulgaria in tough negotiations with Gazprom BULGARIA|ENERGY

The new gas supplies contract fromRussia to Bulgaria will be important inmaking Sofia’s final investment decisionon the construction of the pipelineSouth Stream. The information was dis-seminated by the Government Infor-mation Office immediately after thecabinet meeting on 7 November, but it isnot clear what exactly the demands ofthe Bulgarian authorities are.

Both documents - the contract for gassupplies between state Bulgargaz andGazprom for natural gas deliveries from1 January 2012 and the final position ofthe country for the construction oftrans-Black Sea route was expected tobe signed on 9 November. It seems thatthe consensus is not reached, but nego-tiations are still ongoing. The Russiancompany is expected to offer a lowerpurchase price of natural gas. Such a dis-count of 11.1% was settled by 1 April

and is now in force. Experts calculatethat the discount will reduce the burdenon the national budget of about 95 mil-lion levs.

In the public space already leaked someof the key provisions of the new energycontract. It is known that the new con-tract for supplies of Russian gas will havean activity term of six years, i.e. by the endof 2018 and the sole supplier will be thesubsidiary of Russian gas monopolyGazprom Export. According to the newdocument Overgas Inc and Vinterhalservices in the performance of natural gassupply were dropped out, mainly becauseof the participation of Gazprom as ashareholder in both companies.

The six-year contract will be con-cluded in the familiar scheme take-or-pay and Bulgargaz has insisted on theright to resell requested, but excessiveamounts of natural gas to third parties.

Bulgaria calls for securities in case of anew gas crisis and the subsequent sus-pension of deliveries.

With regard to South Stream, Sofiaauthorities have made unprecedentedcompromises. On 30 September, Bul-garia’s Minister of Economy DelianDobrev said his country will not takepart with own money into the trackconstruction on its territory. All costswill be borne by Gazprom, which in re-turn will receive the exclusive rights tohome transit fees from the pipeline for15 years. For this period, the investmentwill be recovered to the Russian side atthe optimum workload of the facility.The total cost of the project on Bulgar-ian territory is expected to be just over€3bn. Bulgarian costs spent until noware quite symbolic and amount to about€12mn. Each party will own 50% of theinfrastructure.

EU Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner László Andor

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25NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012ENLARGEMENT

TURKEY | INVESTMENT

EIB supports SMEs and mid-capsThe European Investment Bank (EIB) continues to sup-port the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) andmid-sized companies (mid-caps) in Turkey. In addition,on 8 November issued a EUR 150 million loan to AkbankT.A.S. The EIB is Turkey’s long-standing financial partner.Almost for 50 years the EIB has contributed to Turkey’seconomy and integration process, by financingvibrant in-frastructure projects such as the Bosporus bridge and tun-nel, the Istanbul Metro and the light rail systems inAntalya, Samsun and Bursa, and key private sector indus-trial projects. Indeed in 2011 the EIB lend to Turkey EUR2 billion to support public and private investments in allkey sectors. Turkey is listed first among recipient countriesoutside the EU in 2011. The EIB decided to renew its sup-port for SMEs and mid-caps in Turkey and to resume itscollaboration with Akbank. Akbank has many branchesacross the country and the most important has a vital po-sition in the SME sector. The loan will fund new invest-ments or existing companies mainly inthe fields ofmanufacturing, services and tourism. Akbank will examineand assess the business plans of the potential beneficiaries.According to the rules “SMEs can receive loans for proj-ects costing less than EUR 25 million, whereas mid-capscan do so for projects costing up to EUR 50 million”. EIBVice-President Pim van Ballekom stated that “support forTurkey’s vibrant small and middle-sized private sector re-mains a priority for the European Investment Bank. Tothis end, we are pleased to renew today the successful co-operation with our banking partner Akbank. The expectedeconomic benefits of our support are significant in terms ofjob maintenance and private sector development in Turkey,as SMEs – numbering 1.9 million companies – are thelargest sector of the Turkish economy and constitute thebiggest provider of employment”.

ALBANIA | EU AFFAIRS

Making progress, EU Parliament agrees The European Parliament agrees with the Commissionthat Albania should be given EU candidate status if thecountry continues to address necessary reforms. A weekafter the Commission released its Progress Report on Al-bania, a Parliament delegation presented its own recom-mendations to the foreign affairs committee. Its conclusion:Albania has made significant progress in relieving politicalpolarisation. With additional efforts made to stop corrup-tion, discrimination and media restriction, its entry into theEU should be seriously considered. “Albania is genuinelytrying to comply with relevant preconditions,” rapporteurNikolaos Chountis (NGL, Greece) said. “We’ve had veryfruitful cooperation, and if it comes out with requisite re-forms, it should get accession status. It’s extremely impor-tant we give Albania clear encouragement to continue theefforts it is undertaking.” Chountis highlighted Albania’srole in maintaining regional stability and fostering good re-lations with other Western Balkan countries. He also em-phasized that Albania’s desire to join the EU does notbelong just to the current government any longer. Manyopposing politicians have shown an interest as well. Thishas demonstrated progress toward fulfilling Copenhagenpolitical criteria. The country recently ended a political im-passe that began in June 2009, when the results of parlia-mentary elections were contested and the opposition partyboycotted parliament. The success of the country’s parlia-mentary elections next spring – whether or not they can beheld under international standards – would likely affirm Al-bania’s candidate status. “Internal political problems havebeen a long-time obstacle,” delegation chair Eduard Kukan(EPP, Slovakia) said. “Albania has made pertinent amend-ments… I would like to be optimistic, and hope the up-coming elections don’t hamper the process.” AW

Stefan Fule sent, yesterday, a letter toLeyla Zana, Member of Turkish Parlia-ment, expressing his concerns on theKurdish hunger strikers in Turkey. In ad-dition, he welcomed Ms Zana’s efforts topromote a peaceful solution to the Kur-dish issue. The EU Commissionerstressed that dialogue and negotiationsare needed more than ever to replace thecontinuing violence and loss of life on thePKK terror.

Leyla Zana the first Kurdish womanelected to the Turkish Parliament, on 3November, sent an open letter to thePresident of the European Parliament

(EP), Martin Schulz, European Enlarge-ment Commissioner Stefan Fule andSecretary General of the Council of Eu-rope Thorbjorn Jagland. Zana urged EUto prevent any loss of life of the 683 Kur-dish hunger strikers detainees in Turkey.

The detainees started the hanger strikeon 12 September 2012. The health situ-ation of 20 people is in danger. LeylaZana calls EU and international organi-zations to persuade Turkey to fulfill itsobligations and respect the political andhuman rights of the Kurdish prisoners.

Stefan Fule called on the prisoners tostop harm their selves. Furthermore, he

outlined that he raised the issue to Min-ister Davuto?lu when they met on 7 No-vember 2012. He said that the problemsat South-East region need peace, democ-racy and stability as well as social, eco-nomic and cultural development to besolved. This can only be achieved via con-sensus and democratic discussions. In thiscontext, he stressed “I welcome the an-nouncement of the government on 5 No-vember that the Code of CriminalProcedure will be amended to allow forthe use of mother tongue in the courtsand I look forward to a swift adoption ofthis amendment and its implementation”.

Füle: Kurdish issue requires democratic dialogue and negotiation

TURKEY|POLITICS

People face Turkish riot police firing water cannon and tear gas during a Kurdish demonstration in support of a widespread hunger strike by Kurdish

prisoners, on November 4, 2012 in Istanbul. Around 400 protesters were gathered outside the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) building,

chanting "Evacuate prisons" and "Freedom to inmates", when police fired the tear gas and water cannon without warning.

EIB, EBRD and WB bring hope for growthALBANIA|GROWTH STIMULUS

The European Investment Bank Group(EIB Group), the World Bank Groupand the European Bank for Reconstruc-tion and Development (EBRD) - havetoday agreed on a new Joint Action Plan,aimed at supporting economic recoveryand growth in Central and South EasternEurope. The Action Plan, a direct re-sponse to the continuing impact of Euro-zone problems on the economies ofemerging Europe, includes more thanEUR 30 billion of joint commitments forthe period 2013-2014.

Developed within the context of the“Vienna Initiative”, the new Joint Inter-national Financial Institution (IFI) Ac-tion Plan aims to rekindle growth in theregion by supporting private and publicsector initiatives, including infrastructure,corporate investment and the financialsector. This initiative is modelled on thesuccessful 2009-2010 Joint IFI ActionPlan that supported Central Europeaneconomies affected by a liquidity crisis in

the financial and corporate sector. Underthe 2009-1010 Action Plan the IFIs ini-tially pledged a contribution over twoyears of EUR 24.5 billion, with results ex-ceeding original targets.

The programme announced today isdifferent in several respects. Notably thefinancing will specifically underpingrowth by supporting economic restruc-turing, consolidation and diversification,as well as enhancing long term competi-tiveness through increased availability oflong term credit, but also using injectionsof equity where necessary and possible,mobilising export trade finance and sup-porting policy reform.

The EIB Group has agreed to commita minimum of EUR 20 billion. This sup-port will mainly consist of long term loansto the private and public sector, addressingpriority areas such as SMEs, renewable en-ergy and energy efficiency, innovation andconvergence. Particular efforts will be madeto support the mobilisation of EU grants

and leveraging both private and publicfunds, as well as providing targeted advice.EIB Group President Werner Hoyer: “Istrongly welcome the coordinated effort ofour institutions. I believe that each one, inits own area of expertise, can contribute toconsolidated growth in Central and SouthEastern Europe. The EIB, as the bank ofthe EU, will support growth and employ-ment in the region and always keeping theneed to improve long term competitive-ness as the guiding factor.”

About EUR 6.5 billion will be providedby the World Bank Group. World BankGroup President Jim Yong Kim: “The on-going economic and financial instability inEurope continues to threaten growth andjobs, particularly in Central and SouthEastern Europe. I fully support the coop-eration between the EIB, EBRD, and theWorld Bank Group in the Joint IFI Ac-tion Plan 2013-2014 to help these coun-tries cope with the impact of the continuedEurozone crisis.”

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Trade talks with ChinaOn 7 November, Chinese Vice Commerce MinisterZhong Shan said that talks with the Serbian governmentwere fruitful with grand consensus. "A healthy and sus-tainable China-Serbia commercial relationship goes in linewith both countries' interests," he told a press conferenceafter talks with Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and Fi-nance and Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic. The mainpurpose of his visit, said Zhong, was to discuss the imple-mentation of consensus reached by Chinese and Serbianleaders. Dinkic said that he was happy with bilateral co-op-eration in major infrastructure construction programmes.

BiH|LOAN

IMF visits CBBHOn November 7, Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina(CBBH) Governor Kemal Kozaric received the Mission ofthe International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Ron vanRooden. During the discussion on the IMF Stand ByArrangement (SBA) first review, the macroeconomic situationof Bosnia Herzegovina, fiscal position, monetary issues and thecondition of the banking sector were discussed. Roodenpointed out the importance of running the monetary policythrough the Currency Board arrangement for the general sta-bility sake, also to keep the CBBH independence, and thateverything signed in the Letter of Intent remains in force.

SERBIA|AIRLINES INDUSTRY

Serbia eyes EAD dealSerbia will step up talks with Airbus SAS (EAD) on anagreement to purchase and lease aircraft as it tries to rebrandits ailing airline JAT Airways, news agencies reported. On 6November, a high ranking delegation from Airbus was ex-pected to begin talks with the Serbian government in an at-tempt to sell twelve of its jets to JAT Airways. The Europeanplane manufacturer is offering twelve jets from the A320family. The potential purchase of the aircraft would end JATAirways’s aircraft shortage and substantially modernise itsfleet. JAT Airways currently has a fleet of ten Boeing 737-300s and four ATR72s. The oldest aircraft in its fleet is Eu-rope’s first passenger 737-300, which arrived in Belgrade on8 August 1985, but has comparatively low flying time.

CROATIA|ECONOMY

Producer prices increase On 8 November, Croatian Bureau of Statistics Producerdata showed that prices in Croatian industrial sector in-creased 0.6% year-on-year in October. On a monthly basis,the producer price index remained unchanged. Data showedthat the PPI, excluding energy, increased 1.1% year-on-yearand 0.6% on a monthly basis. Producer prices on the do-mestic market jumped 8.4% compared to October 2011.

BiH|DIPLOMACY

Bosnia congratulates Obama On 7 November, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Chairman ofPresidency Bakir Izetbegovic congratulated US PresidentBarack Obama on his re-election. Izetbegovic noted thatin the following four years of mandate of Obama, the sup-port of US to Bosnia “will remain strong and unquestion-able”. Vice Chairman of Council of Ministers and Ministerof Foreign Affairs Zlatko Lagumdzija also congratulatedObama over the latter’s re-election. “It is clear we will haveto do many things ourselves, but it is also clear that the USsupport is deeply embedded in Dayton structure whichtoday’s political and constitutional system of Bosnia is basedon,” he was quoted as saying by the press.

26NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

ENLARGEMENT

On 6 November, Montenegro’s new par-liament convened for the first time after acoalition government was formed and theposition of prime minister remains open,according to news reaching here.

Montenegro's Democratic Party ofSocialists (DPS) has sealed a coalitionpact to govern for the next four yearsand steer the smallest former Yugoslavrepublic of 630,000 inhabitants throughEU accession talks. The DPS, in coali-tion with the Social Democratic Party,won a parliamentary election on 14 Oc-

tober but fell short of an outright ma-jority for the first time in 11 years. Theallies signed a deal with Bosniak (Mus-lim), Albanian and Croatian minorityparties, keeping the DPS at the helm asthe country begins EU accession talks,formally launched in late June before asnap election was called. The presidenthas 30 days to nominate a prime minis-ter, who will then propose a cabinet toparliament. The position of prime min-ister remains open. "We will discuss thequestion of who will be prime minister

within our newly-formed coalition,"DPS leader Milo Djukanovic told re-porters after signing the coalition agree-ment. "I expect that decision nextweek."

The opposition has accusedDjukanovic and his family of linkswith organised crime. In addition,Djukanovic was placed under investi-gation by Italian and German prose-cutors in connection withinternational cigarette smugglingschemes during the 1990s.

Parties seal coalition dealMONTENEGRO|GOVERNMENT

Serbia, Kosovo PMs hold second round talksSERBIA|KOSOVO

On 7 November, Serbian Prime Min-ister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo coun-terpart Hashim Thaci held a secondround of talks mediated by EU foreignpolicy and security chief CatherineAshton. "Our open and frank discus-sions this evening evolved around dif-

ferent aspects of normalisation of re-lations between the two sides and bothprime ministers committed to con-tinue the talks," Ashton said.

"This was a good and useful meeting,"Dacic said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

has pushed Serbia and Kosovo to nor-malise their relations, saying Washingtonwould welcome any initiatives to this ef-fect. “The US urges all parties to imple-ment the agreements reached to date andto advance concrete measures to normal-ize relations,” she said.

UN urges speeding up redress for women victimsBiH|HUMAN RIGHTS

On 6 November, UN Special Rapporteuron violence against women, RashidaManjoo, noted that heightened levels ofdomestic violence in Bosnia and Herze-govina are often linked to the country’slegacy of its 1990s war. Manjoo called forthe government to “speed up” justice andreparations measures for women who arethe victims of violence.

“A very relevant fear shared by inter-viewed survivors of war-time rape andtorture is the fact that time continues topass by with no justice being served,” theUN independent expert, said followingher eight-day visit to the Balkan country.

“It is crucial to speed up efforts andachieve political solutions at State level,”she added, according to a pressrelease from the Office of the UN HighCommissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR).

Bosnia and Herzegovina was the scene

of heavy fighting during the ethnic con-flicts that plagued the region in the 1990s.Fighting ended in October 1995, whilethe presence of UN peacekeepers moni-toring a ceasefire opened the way for ne-gotiations that led to the signing of theDayton Peace Agreement by the end ofthe year. However, the country remainslargely decentralized, with the Federationof Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Re-publika Srpska forming its two main po-litical entities. In her remarks, Manjoowelcomed the country’s official initiativesto bring about redress for victims ofwartime violence, but warned that its po-litical fragmentation could slow progress.

“The full realisation of women’s rightsis impaired by the structure of the coun-try’s political institutions and the fact thatno State level authority has the jurisdic-tion to ensure the adequate implementa-tion of the international human rights

obligations adopted by the State,” shesaid. Manjoo insisted it was “crucial forgovernment authorities at all levels to rec-ognize the existence of civilian womenvictims of rape and torture, regardless oftheir ethnic or religious backgrounds, andto ensure that they have equal access toremedies and services, regardless of theirphysical location within the country”.

According to OHCHR, the initiativeswelcomed by Manjoo included bids toadopt a Transitional Justice Strategy thataims to ensure access to justice and repa-ration for all civilian victims of war, in-cluding survivors of sexual violence; aLaw on the Rights of Victims of Tortureand Civilian Victims of War that ishoped will give civilian victims of war ac-cess to equal social benefits; and the de-velopment of the Programme forImprovement of the Status of Survivorsof Conflict related Sexual Violence.

DPS leader Milo Djukanovic has signed the coalition agreement.

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27NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012PARTNERS

SWITZERLAND | INSURANCE

Re's profits hit the two billion markReinsurance giant Swiss Re posted a third-quarter netprofit of $ 2.2 billion (2.08 billion Swiss Franks) on 8 No-vember, up sharply from $ 1.3 billion for the same periodlast year, The Local reported. The results beat analysts' ex-pectations of a net profit of $ 1.3 billion. Swiss Re also saidit was too soon to put a figure on the cost of the damagecaused by Hurricane Sandy. "Estimating claims is particu-larly complex due to the combined impact of prolongedpower outages, disruptions to public transport and damageto other infrastructure" after the hurricane hit the UnitedStates east coast on 29 October, Swiss Re said in a state-ment. No "reliable claims estimate at this time" was possi-ble because of these factors, the company said. Swiss Re hadachieved "very good financial results in a volatile environ-ment," CEO Michel Liès said. Group premiums increasedby 11 percent to $6.6 billion against $5.9 billion in the sameperiod a year earlier, the firm said. In addition, the group'scombined ratio -- which measures whether the companypays out more in claims and expenses than it receives inpremiums — was 72 percent compared with 85.3 percenta year earlier.

NORWAY | UN

Peacekeeping operationsdiscussedSpeaking at the comprehensive review on the question ofpeacekeeping operations in all their aspects" in fourth com-mittee, on 8 NovemberNorway's Ambassador to the UNTine Mørch Smith said that five peacekeepers have beenkilled in Darfur over the last month, reminding us oncemore of the dangers facing our peacekeepers. I would liketo join others in paying tribute to those men, as well as allthe other men and women who gave their lives in the serv-ice of peace during the last year. We honour their memory.I would also like to thank USGs Ladsous and Haq for theirextensive briefings on the state of UN peacekeeping. Sadly,new challenges are developing as we speak. In EasternCongo civilians are once again on the move, fleeing vio-lence and serious human rights violations by armed entities.To strengthen the UN’s peacekeeping capacity, we mustovercome the underlying differences that are threateningthe peacekeeping partnership. Norway fully recognises thatmember states have legitimate concerns with regard totroop costs, but we must not allow much needed reforms tobe held hostage to that issue. Norway welcomes the recentcompromise by the Senior Advisory Group on rates of re-imbursement to troop contributing countries (TCCs).Hopefully that agreement will help break last years’ nega-tive pattern of drawn-out negotiations on the report of theSpecial Committee on Peacekeeping Operations. Lack ofconsensus sends a bad signal.

SWITZERLAND | MANUFACTURING

Lacoste served to Maus FreresLacoste is to pass into Swiss hands after its chairman, the lastmember of the founding family to hold shares in the greencrocodile brand of clothing, agreed on 7 November to sellthem to the Maus Freres textile and retail group, the com-pany said in a statement. Sophie Lacoste Dournel, who wasnamed non-executive chairman in September, was lockedin a feud with her father, Michel Lacoste, who opposed hernomination and had already agreed to sell his 30.3% stakeshares to Maus. Until then Maus, a holding company whichowns the Manor department store chain in Switzerland, hadcontrolled 35%. Lacoste Dournel issued a statement sayingshe and allied shareholders had agreed to cede their 28% ofthe capital to Maus -- though she described the decision as"extremely painful" at a press conference.

A Swiss delegation, led by the directorof the Federal Office for Migration,Mario Gattiker, met on 6 Novemberthe permanent Secretary of the Niger-ian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MartinUhomoibhi in Abuja.

The Swiss Department of Foreign Af-fairs (FDFA) informed that this was thethird meeting in the context of migrationpartnership between Switzerland andNigeria since its establishment in Febru-ary 2011. Its main aim is to promote thedevelopment of innovative projects.

The Memorandum of Understand-ing signed almost two years ago allowedSwitzerland and Nigeria to intensifytheir cooperation in the area of migra-tion. As announced by the foreign min-istry, the meeting provided mainlyexchange of views on current issues, up-coming issues as well as of on-goingprojects and their current and future de-velopment.

The FDFA also informed about thesetting-up of a project enabling Niger-ian expatriates in Switzerland to teachyoung people in Nigeria, for example, inthe field of automotive engineering.

In addition, a progress on a pilot proj-ect in the area of police cooperation

launched in 2011 was recognized. Theproject involved the visit of severalNigerian police officers to Switzerlandto enhance operational co-operationwith selected cantonal authorities in thefight against drug trafficking.

The two parties noted that 90% ofthe Nigerian citizens, who had to returnto their home country in 2012, did soindependently as voluntary return,

while the majority of them took advan-tage of the return assistance offered bySwitzerland.

It has been agreed at the meeting thata working group on irregular migrantsand the issue of clearly unfounded asy-lum applications will be set-up in thenear future. The next meeting betweenSwitzerland and Nigeria will take placein Bern in summer 2013.

Switzerland, Nigeria strengthenmigration partnership

SWITZERLAND|MIGRATION

A partnership was necessary as the country increases in population and migration reform

Record traffic at Keflavik AirportICELAND|TRANSPORT

Last summer was a record breaker in pas-senger numbers at Keflavik Internationalwith one million passengers goingthrough the airport – 9 percent increasefrom previous year during the busiestmonths of June, July and August. Thetrend continues with 19 percent increasein September and a predicted 19.8 per-cent increase till year’s end with a totaltraffic of 2.4 million passengers in 2012.

Airline operators aim at considerableincrease in the winter schedule and nextsummer. Keflavik‘s largest customer Ice-landair has announced a 15 percent in-crease in 2013 over 2012. The company’spredicted rise in passengers is relatively

higher in the winter season, which in-cludes six new destinations, and fits wellwith Keflavik‘s plan for better off seasonutilization. Iceland Express has an-nounced 30 percent higher capacity in2012 with plans to resume flights to theUS, but fewer destinations with more fre-quency in Europe. New operator, WowAir, plans to double the capacity withadded destinations and frequency, but theairline operates on two regular and severalperiodic routes during the winter season.

Norwegian Air and easyJet both planwinter operations in Iceland. EasyJetaims to increase flights in winter seasonand to add more destinations in summer

2013. SAS continues established yearround service to Oslo.

Keflavik International Airport opera-tor, Isavia, has met the traffic hike by var-ious means to increase efficiency at theLeif Ericsson‘s air terminal. This includesupgrade of passenger service and waitingareas, improved land-side terminal accessand automatic check-in for increasedcustomer comfort and smooth flowthrough the terminal. The effort contin-ues to maximize efficiency of airport fa-cilities including new pre-boardinglounges under development and relocat-ing various support functions to increasethe transfer and departure areas.

Oman discovery leads to new fuel NORWAY|OIL

The Norwegian oil and gas companyDNO International has announced thatit has made a new offshore discovery inOman on 8 November.

In a press release it said that the justcompleted West Bukha-4 well, Block 8offshore the Sultanate of Oman, flowedon a 54/64 inch choke 7,000 barrels of39º API oil and 15 million cubic feet ofgas per day through a test separator. WestBukha-4 will be connected to the exportpipeline system within days and, at the

initial test rates, is expected to nearly dou-ble current oil production from the WestBukha field to 15,000 barrels per day.

The longest reach well drilled off-shore Oman at nearly 6,000 meters,West Bukha-4 targets an area not pen-etrated by previous drilling and is thesecond of a three well drilling cam-paign initiated last year in Block 8.DNO International holds a 50% in-terest in and operates the block con-taining the West Bukha and Bukha

fields and their respective platforms.Korea's LG International holds the re-maining 50% interest.

DNO International ASA is an Oslo-listed, Middle East and North Africa fo-cused, oil and gas company holding stakesin 17 licenses in various stages of explo-ration, development and production bothonshore and offshore in the KurdistanRegion of Iraq, Yemen, the Sultanate ofOman, the United Arab Emirates andthe Tunisian Republic.

AZERBAIJAN|ENERGY

SOFAZ finances TANAP The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) started to fi-nance the construction of gas pipeline Trans-Anatolian gaspipeline (TANAP) and SOCAR OGPC (new oil & gasprocessing and petrochemical complex). At a joint meetingof the parliamentary committees SOFAZ Executive Direc-tor Shahmar Movsumov said the oil fund’s budget for 2013is to begin funding the construction of TANAP and OGPC.

AZERBAIJAN|NATIONAL PARK

Samur-Yalama Park Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has ordered on estab-lishment of the Samur-Yalama National Park at the site ofstate forest reserve located in the administrative territory ofKhachmaz region. Under the order, the decision was madeto ensure the fulfilment of the commitments the countryundertook in accord with the agreement on financing be-tween Azerbaijan representing Ministry of Finance andKreditanstalt für Videraufbau, Frankfurt am Main (KfW)for the Project of the Samur-Yalama National Park withinthe framework of the Eco-Regional Nature Protection Pro-gramme for the South Caucasus. The Cabinet Ministerswas commissioned to resolve issues arising from this order.

AZERBAIJAN|CASPIAN SEA

Collaboration in Caspian Azerbaijan attaches great importance to international co-operation in the Caspian and Black Sea regions, Azerbai-jani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said at the16th council meeting of the Black Sea International ShipOwners Association (BINSA). He added that transportingenergy resources from the Caspian region plays an impor-tant role in this cooperation. "Transportation issues mustbe resolved," he said. "This means relations between theports on the Caspian and Black Seas are very important.Creating favourable conditions for the companies and theships is essential for the implementation of these plans.Therefore, Azerbaijan calls on all ports on both seas to cre-ate favourable conditions for collaboration." Cargo volumesare growing, meaning the ports and shipping companiesmust be prepared for these challenges.

GEORGIA|TRANSPORT

Baku-Tbilisi-Kars corridor After its construction, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars transport cor-ridor can be used to transport the equipment, used in theanti-terrorist operations of the International Security As-sistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF), Azerbaijani DeputyTransport Minister Musa Panakhov said. Earlier Panahov,along with Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Az-imov met at NATO headquarters to inform ISAF mem-ber states about transporting servicemen, ammunition andequipment through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Thisis in relation to the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistanin connection with the ISAF operations in 2014.

ARMENIA|ENERGY

Armenia-Iran NPPArmenia and Iran are planning to build the most powerfulhydro power plant in the South Caucasus. The MeghriHydro Electric Power Station is a joint project between theArmenian government and an Iranian company. Accord-ingly with the preliminary agreement, each of the stationsis set to produce 793mn KW of electricity. Meghri HPP ca-pacity is estimated 130 MW. The construction will last forfive years and will cost $323mn, which will be invested bythe Iranian investment company.

28NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

Following meetings between an Azerbai-jani delegation and Croatian governmentofficials in Zagreb on 5 October, both sidesnoted that energy, tourism and transportare main areas in which Croatia and Azer-baijan are interested in establishing or pro-moting co-operation.

The Azerbaijani delegation, headed byEconomic Development Minister ShahinMustafayev, held talks with CroatianPrime Minister Zoran Milanovic, FirstDeputy Prime Minister and EconomyMinister Radimir Cacic, and MaritimeAffairs, Transport and Infrastructure Min-ister, Sinisa Hajdas Doncic.

Following a decision by Gazprom to by-pass Croatia as the Russian gas monopolyplans the construction of the South Streamgas pipeline, Zagreb discussed with Azeriofficials Baku’s participation in natural gastransport corridors and energy projects.

On 5 November, Josipovic verifiedGazprom's choice for South Stream. On31 October, Hungary approved a final in-vestment in the project and gave SouthStream the status of a project of nationalsignificance.

In response to Gazprom's decision,Croatia will focus its efforts exclusively onbuilding its own liquefied natural gas(LNG) import terminal at Omisalj on thenorthern Adriatic island of Krk, as evi-denced by Josipovic's upcoming trip toQatar, the world's largest LNG exporter,but also the visit of the Azeri delegation toZagreb on 5 November where it has beenpresented with an investment opportunity

for the LNG terminal.Cacic said that also the sides discussed

co-operation in the construction of anIonian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) that wouldbe connected to the Trans-AdriaticPipeline (TAP) and would ensure a newsource of Caspian natural gas for Croatia.

TAP is designed to transport gas fromthe Caspian region via Greece and Alba-nia and across the Adriatic Sea to southernItaly and further into Western Europe.Gas to be produced within the secondphase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas con-densate field development is considered asthe main source for TAP. The currentshareholders of TAP project are EGL ofSwitzerland (42.5%), Norway's Statoil(42.5%) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany

(15%). Cacic said that the Azerbaijani del-egation was expected to be presented withdetails of 15 energy projects and possibili-ties of investment in tourism projects.

Mustafayev stressed the need to diversifythe economic co-operation between thetwo countries, noting that Croatia is at-tractive for investments because of itsgeopolitical position and forthcoming ac-cession to the EU.

A Croatian delegation led by Josipovicvisited Baku in March, after which a leg-islative framework has been established tostrengthen the economic co-operation andexpand it to other areas. The Zagreb-basedfirm Geofoto is soon to sign a $96mnagreement for aerial survey and map mak-ing in Azerbaijan.

Croatia turns to Azerbaijan for energy, tourism investments

AZERBAIJAN|DIPLOMACY

The government of Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic presented Azerbaijani an invest-

ment opportunity for a LNG terminal at Omisalj.

Ivanishvili appoints special envoy for ties with RussiaGEORGIA|DIPLOMACY

Georgia’s new Prime Minister BidzinaIvanishvili introduced on 1 Novembera new post of Special Representativefor Relations with Russia and ap-pointed on the post Georgia’s formerambassador to Moscow ZurabAbashidze, local press reported.

Ivanishvili said introduction of thispost was Georgia’s “first step” aimed atdemonstrating that Georgia’s newgovernment had serious intentions tomend ties with Russia. The premieralso expressed hope that Moscowwould reciprocate. “We are startingfrom a new page; we made a new step,”

he told journalists while making anannouncement about the new post.“After this decision by us, we expect arelevant statement from Russia; let’swait. I have a huge hope that situationwill be changed; I think that bothcountries have such stance; I thinkthey also want to change the existingsituation.”

He said that introduction of thispost did not mean the shift in Geor-gia’s foreign policy priorities and eitherthe change in Tbilisi’s stance over for-mal diplomatic relations with Russia.Ivanishvili also said that Georgia

would “definitely” remain committedto Geneva talks, which were launchedafter the August, 2008 war with medi-ation from EU, OSCE and UN andinvolving negotiators from Georgia,Russia, the United States, as well asrepresentatives from Sokhumi andTskhinvali.

Georgia’s new premier also said thatthe most immediate task was toachieve restoration of export of Geor-gian products to the Russian market.Russia banned import of Georgianproducts, including mineral waters,wine and agriculture products in 2006.

Oil production seen falling 6% in 2012AZERBAIJAN|ENERGY

Azerbaijan expects its oil productionto fall 6% to 42.9mn tonnes this yearand start rising only in 2014, despiteefforts by BP efforts to stem fallingoutput, a government forecast showedon 8 November, Reuters reported. Oiloutput is seen at 40.82 million tonnes

(826,500 barrels per day) next yearand 43.22 million tonnes in 2014.Meanwhile, BP’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline shipped lessAzeri crude oil in October, Azeristate oil company SOCAR said. Itdelivered 2.16mn metric tonnes of

oil in October, a decline of 18% froma year earlier. BTC exported 25mntonnes of oil in the first 10 monthsof 2012, down from 27.9mn tonnesin the year-earlier period, the datashowed. No explanation was givenfor the drop.

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29NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

MOLDOVA|TRADE

Trade with Belarus upIn January-September 2012 the trade between Belarus andMoldova totalled $250.9mn, up 10.8% over the same pe-riod in 2011, BelTA quoted the Embassy of Belarus inMoldova as saying on 8 November. In January-SeptemberBelarus’ exports to Moldova made up $192.7mn, up 9.9%over the same months a year ago. Supplies of Moldaviangoods to Belarus increased by 13.9% to $58.2mn. In Janu-ary-September Belarus’ trade surplus with Moldova totalled$134.5mn, up 8.2% as against the same months the previ-ous year. In 2011 the trade between Belarus and Moldovamade up $319.7mn, up 28.3% in comparison with 2010.Last year Belarus’ exports to Moldova grew 46.5% to$242mn, Moldavian supplies to Belarus reduced by 7.4% to$77.7mn. Belarus is a traditional consumer of Moldavianagricultural, winemaking and industrial products.

BELARUS|ENERGY

More oil from RussiaBelarus and Russia are studying the technical ability ofpumping 5.3mn tonnes of oil in the fourth quarter, Am-bassador of Russia to Belarus Alexander Surikov told mediaon 9 November. “The sides have agreed on a bigger amount.But still there are disputes. The Russian side believes that itis technically impossible to supply 5.3mn tonnes of oil inthe fourth quarter; 4.8mn tonnes are a reasonable amount.The Belarusian side would like to be it at 5.3mn tonnes.The two sides are looking into technical capabilities of thepipelines. The disputes concern not the volume but thepumping potential,” Surikov said.

BELARUS |DIPLOMACY

Minsk, Dhaka talk visasBelarus President Alexander Lukashenko approved a draftagreement between Belarus and Bangladesh to abolish visasfor holders of diplomatic, special and service passports as abasis for further talks, the presidential press service said.Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Aleinik hasbeen authorised to hold the talks on the draft agreementand sign the document.

BELARUS|INDUSTRY

Supplies to Cuba to increaseBelarus will increase the supplies of industrial products toCuba. The relevant agreement was reached during a visitof a delegation of Belarusian companies to Cuba, thepress service of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus said. Be-larusian companies were due to take part in the 30th In-ternational Havana Expo FIHAV’2012 in Cuba from4-10 November. The exhibition has gathered over 1500companies from 65 countries. Delegations of Belarusiancompanies: MMZ, MTZ, Amkodor, Belshina have helda number of meetings with local and foreign participantsof the exhibition. The talks were also held with Cubanpartners to expand bilateral co-operation regarding anincrease in supplies to Cuba.

BELARUS|DIPLOMACY

Minsk, Tehran ink MoUBelarus and Iran have signed a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) to expand economic ties between the twocountries. At the signing ceremony, Yahya Ale-Es’haq,Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Minesand Agriculture of Tehran, said Belarus enjoys a secure eco-nomic market which facilitates the establishment of Iran-ian companies in the country and provides the opportunityfor Iranians to expand ties with it.

As Chair of Agricultural Market In-formation System group (AMIS),United States commended Ukrainerestraint on wheat ban. In the wake ofsummer drought, Ukraine had thechance to become the first leadingproducer. However, the Ukrainiangovernment decided to not impose anembargo. Governments have "exer-cised prudence and responsibility inpolicy making, including avoiding ex-port bans that exacerbated volatility in2007-08" said the US mission.

“Governments around the world canhelp to reduce the risk of a food price cri-sis by abstaining from food export bansand other artificial barriers that increaseprice volatility and harm the world’s mostvulnerable citizens” said the US missionto the United Nations agencies for foodand agriculture in Rome.

Last month Ukraine's agriculture min-istry announced that on 15 Novemberthe government would impose a ban onwheat exports. Two weeks ago DeputyAgriculture Minister Ivan Bisyuk assuredthat Ukraine didn’t intend to impose sucha restriction.

Summer droughts have destroyedcrops throughout the world. As a re-sult the price of corn, wheat and soy-beans have risen. This destabilisedsituation has raised fears of a repeat ofthe 2007-2008 world food crisis have.However, the Group of 20 recentlycalled off an emergency meeting to

discuss the wheat supply problems andways to stabilise prices.

The United States is aware of the grainsupply problems and its effect on vulner-able populations. US as chair of AMISgroup is working closely with interna-tional community and observe foodprices.

US commended Ukraine for avoiding export bans

UKRAINE|AGRICULTURE

A farm in Ukraine. Last month the agriculture ministry announced that on 15 November the gov-

ernment would impose a ban on wheat exports.

Misk, Leningrad Oblast plan for $500mn in trade by 2015BELARUS|TRADE

Belarus and Leningrad Oblast will aimfor $500mn in bilateral trade by 2015,BelTA quoted Belarus’ First Vice PrimeMinister Vladimir Semashko as saying.

On 9 November, Semashko met withvisiting Governor of Leningrad OblastAlexander Drozdenko. During the talksthe two parties signed a trade and eco-nomic, scientific-technical and humani-tarian co-operation agreement for2013-2015.

“Trade and economic, scientific andtechnical relations between Belarus andLeningrad Oblast have been vibrant re-cently. In 2011 we added 20% in trade.This year the increase in trade is modest,something around 1.5%. But we haveagreed that we still have the reserves, andwe can repeat the historical maximum of

$480mn, which we had in 2008,” Se-mashko told reporters in Belarus.

Commenting on the last meeting ofthe joint commission on co-operationbetween Belarus and Leningrad Oblast,Semashko said this is an effective instru-ment for the development of relations.“We have agreed that we will intensifyour relations, meet on a regular basis, atleast twice a year. We signed a co-opera-tion development action plan which pro-vides for the effort to increase the bilateraltrade to $500 million by 2015,” Se-mashko said. “We have the conditionsand capabilities to achieve the goal. Weneed to increase the trade by 15-18%every year. Then this figure is absolutelyachievable,” he added.

The sides agreed on concrete projects

in transport, agricultural and constructionindustries. “We have good dynamicswhich are reflected in our intentions, de-cisions and acts,” Drozdenko said. “TheBelarus-Leningrad Oblast joint com-mission for co-operation held its fourthmeeting, outlined concrete steps tostrengthen co-operation and reach$500mn in mutual trade,” he added. Thetwo countries have opportunities to makethe bilateral trade even more intensive, hesaid. According to the Foreign Ministryof Belarus, in January-September 2012the trade between Belarus and LeningradOblast totalled $325.4mn, up 2.7% overthe same period a year ago. Exports madeup $137mn (up 1.2%), imports -$188.4mn (up 3.9%). Belarus postedtrade deficit of $51.4mn.

Chisinau, Zagreb ink European partnership agreementMOLDOVA|DIPLOMACY

On 7 November, Moldovan DeputyPrime Minister, Foreign and Euro-pean Integration Minister IurieLeanca held talks with his Croatiancounterpart Vesna Pusic, CroatianParliament Speaker Josip Leko,Deputy Prime Minister Neven Mim-ica and Foreign and European Inte-gration Minister Vesna Pusic, newsagencies reported.

The sides exchanged opinions on thecurrent stage and the development

prospects of the Moldovan-Croatianties, given the fact that Leanca is thefirst Moldovan foreign minister to visitCroatia during the 20-year bilateral tiesbetween the two countries.

Given this occasion and in the con-text of Moldova's progress on its Euro-pean integration path, the two ministerssigned an intergovernmental agreementbetween Moldova and Croatia on a Eu-ropean Partnership.

The agreement provides for the con-

solidation of the cooperation in the Eu-ropean integration sector, including theestablishment of a joint commission, re-sponsible for selecting cooperation sec-tors and elaborating specificprogrammes to implement the agree-ments' provisions.

The agreement also sees that Croatiawould back Moldova's Europeanprospect.

Leanca invited his counterpart to payan official visit to Moldova in 2013.

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UZBEKISTAN | GENDER ISSUES

Constitution protectswomen's rights Under the Uzbek Constitution Article 46 posits thatwomen and men have equal rights. A workshop on he ex-ecution of the Uzbekistan National Plan of Action to im-plement the recommendations of the UN Committee onthe Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination againstWomen (CEDAW) expanded on this in London recently.At the event, which was attended by representatives of therelevant ministries and agencies, public and non-govern-mental organizations, members of the media, it was notedthat extensive works, carried out under the leadership ofPresident Islam Karimov to improve the status of womenin society, to ensure their rights and interests, to utilize theirintellectual and spiritual potential, to protect family, mater-nity and childhood, yield good results. Presidential decree"On additional measures to support the activities of theWomen's Committee of Uzbekistan" on 25 May 2004 andthe decree "On the “Year of the Family” State program"dated from February 27, 2012 serve as an important guidefor action to improve these activities to a new level. TheConstitution and laws of Uzbekistan contains provisionsfor further improving the status of women in society, en-suring their rights and interests, and to provide them withdecent working conditions. Women's Committee with theinvolvement of non-governmental organizations activelytakes part in the preparation of national reports on the im-plementation of commitments made by our country in thefield of women's rights.

TURKMENISTAN | AGRICULTURE

Turkmen farmers harvest morethan 1 million tons of cottonFarmers of Turkmenistan have fulfilled their contractual ob-ligations on cotton harvesting. They harvested about 1,110million tons of cotton. This year’s cotton sowing areaamounted to 550 thousand hectares. Cotton growing is oneof the most labor-intensive and, at the same time, the mostprofitable sectors of the Turkmen agricultural industry. Cot-ton growers have achieved successes in recent years owing tothe introduction in this sector of market mechanisms, ad-vanced technologies and modern agricultural equipment pur-chased by Turkmenistan for the agricultural needs.Turkmenistan also offers preferential loans to the farmers’ as-sociations to finance the production of agricultural products.Cotton harvesting is under way. Payments to farmers aremade in a timely manner, providing for a 30-percent pre-mium for the above-plan harvest. President of TurkmenistanGurbanguly Berdimuhamedov sent a message to the cottongrowers of the country, congratulating them on the success-ful completion of the cotton harvest. The head of state notedthat Turkmenistan has been carrying out large-scale work tomodernize the entire agricultural complex, which makes itpossible to successfully increase crop yields through improv-ing the soil texture and increasing its fertility.

KYRGYZSTAN | DEFENCE

Russia throws support behind KyrgyzstanRussia is reported to be prepared to spend $1.1 billion onmodernising Kyrgyzstan’s army and $200 million on meet-ing the needs of Tajikistan’s armed forces, Kommersant is re-porting. Moscow will also give Dushanbe $200 million inbenefits on petroleun products. Experts warn that Moscowis “taking a risky step that might have unpredictable conse-quences”. In response to US attempts to gain a foothold inUzbekistan (see Kommersant, 23 August), Russia is strength-ening its military-technical cooperation with Kyrgyzstan andTajikistan. According to Kommersant’s sources close to theRussian-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Commission, Moscowhas promised Bishkek $1.1 billion for modernising its army.

30NEW EUROPE11 - 17 November , 2012

EURASIA

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyr-gyzstan announced that the country hasbeen elected as a member of the UnitedNations Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC)* on 8 November.

Kyrgyzstan received 164 GeneralAssembly votes ‘in favour’ of its candi-dacy for one of the four vacant placesin the Asia group of the Councilwhich are expected to be vacated on 31December by Iraq, Bangladesh, thePhilippines and Mongolia. The coun-try was elected along with Kuwait,Turkmenistan and Nepal, while SaudiArabia received the least votes and wasnot granted membership.

In general, 18 new members toECOSOC were elected, to include alsothe United States, San Marino, Nether-lands and Canada for Western Europeand other states; Croatia and Albaniafor Eastern European group; Bolivia,Colombia, and Haiti for the LatinAmerican group and Benin, Mauritius,Tunisia, South Africa and Sudan forAfrica.

The election of Kyrgyzstan coincideswith the 20th anniversary of the coun-try’s joining the United Nations. For 20years UN membership, however, this isthe first time the country is electedmember of ECOSOC. According tothe press statement of the Kyrgyz for-eign ministry, the election of the coun-

try ‘is an important success of the statein its foreign policy, as well as confirma-tion of the support from the interna-tional community to the social,economic and democratic reforms inthe country’.

On 8 November the President of theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (EBRD) visited Kyrgyzs-tan to highlight the Bank’s continuedsupport for the country, while an EBRDloan for the local currency equivalent ofUS$ 4 million was provided for on-

lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.

*The ECOSOC consists of 54 mem-ber Governments elected by the UNGeneral Assembly for overlappingthree-year term. Seats on the Councilare allotted based on geographical rep-resentation with fourteen allocated toAfrican states, eleven to Asian states, sixto Eastern European states, ten to LatinAmerican and Caribbean states, andthirteen to Western European andother states.

ECOSOC gets a new member KYRGYSTAN|INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Forest protection praisedTAJIKISTAN|ENVIRONMENT

"Protecting the forests is a noble causethat should always be supported," saysBekmurodov Kurbonmahmad, a mem-ber of the Community Forestry Man-agement Committee.

In 2007, UNDP, in partnership withthe Global Environment Facility,reached out to local officials and farm-ers in Tajikistan’s Vakhsh River valley toidentify and address environmentalthreats, and encourage local manage-ment of natural resources.

Communities have been instrumen-tal in protecting the tugai forests, apriceless and highly endangered naturalresource. Reservoirs of biodiversity, theforests also provide wood for fuel andland for grazing animals, and food

through hunting and beekeeping.Over the past 100 years, the forests

suffered massive losses. At first, theywere largely cleared for agriculture.After the Soviet Union dissolved andpublic services declined, widespreadfelling of trees took place as rural peoplehad no other sources of energy for cook-ing and heating their homes. (See:Hydro power: The solution to Tajik-istan’s energy crisis)

A lack of regulation allowed timberdealers to move in from larger towns,stripping the forests of trees at an ever-escalating rate.

In the sub-district of Nuri Vakhsh, anarea of 126 hectares of forest survives. In2008, UNDP began working with com-

munity members to develop a systemfor protecting and regulating it.

Local authorities let villagers leaseland at nominal rates for grazing. Atthe same time, they became responsi-ble for regulating the number of live-stock and the cutting of trees. Deadwood was cleared and distributed forfirewood.

"Restrictions are never welcomed bypeople, but now those involved in theprotection of the forests can see the re-sults," says community member SalimaBekmurodova.

After four years, grazing is carefullymanaged. Tree-cutting declined by 90percent since 2008, allowing the forestto regenerate.

Turkmen FM on Dubai visitTURKMENISTAN|INTERNTIONAL RELATIONS

Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan re-ceived a visit form the Deputy PrimeMinister and Foreign Minister of Turk-menistan, Rashit Meredow.

Welcoming Meredow, Sheikh Khalifaexpressed his desire for further develop-ment and growth in relations betweenthe two countries.

Meredow conveyed to Sheikh Khalifathe greetings of Turkmenistan’s President

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.Sheikh Khalifa reciprocated, wish-

ing Berdimuhamedow good healthand happiness and expressing his hopethat the friendly people of Turk-menistan would enjoy continuedprogress and prosperity.

The UAE President stressed the coun-try’s eagerness to strengthen and developco-operation and bilateral investment be-

tween the two countries.The meeting also reviewed co-op-

eration and the existing friendly rela-tions between the two countries andmeans of strengthening them in addi-tion to discussing the latest interna-tional developments.

Meredow praised the comprehensiverenaissance witnessed by the UAE underthe leadership of Sheikh Khalifa.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon answers journalist's questions during a press confer-

ence after his speech at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) session at the European head-

quarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

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RUSSIA|DEFENCE

Chief of staff replacedOn 9 November, Russian President Vladimir Putin re-placed Russia's army chief of staff with a veteran com-mander from the second Chechnya war. Army chief of staffNikolai Makarov is to be replaced by General ValeryGerasimov, a commander at the North Caucasus militarydistrict in the second Chechnya war, Putin said. "You arean experienced person," Putin told Gerasimov in a meet-ing at the Kremlin that also included the new DefenceMinister Sergei Shoigu. "I believe the minister has pickedthe right candidate and I hope that you will work to thebest of your abilities and efficiently." The chief of staff isone of three people in Russia with exclusive access to nu-clear launch codes. The other two are the president and thedefence minister.

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

Shoigu gets new postOn 6 November, Russian President Vladimir Putin's firedDefence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, following a graftscandal. Serdyukov has been linked to a major embezzle-ment case allegedly involving Defence Ministry officialsand defence subcontractor Oboronservis. Putin appointedformer Governor of the Moscow Region Sergei Shoigu tothe post of defence minsiter. “The future leader of this vi-tally important ministry – one of the most important agen-cies in the country – must be able to continue all the positiveinitiatives that have been carried out in recent years andguarantee the dynamic development of the nation’s ArmedForces, as well as to ensure the fulfilment of the state orderand our ambitious plans to rearm the Army and Navy. Ifirmly believe that you would successfully fulfil this role andwould like to offer you the post of the Defence Minister ofthe Russian Federation,” Putin said.

RUSSIA|ENERGY

Rosneft, Inter RAO ink deal Russian state oil company Rosneft signed an $80bn deal tosupply state power company Inter RAO with natural gas,replacing Novatek as Inter RAO's main supplier, news agen-cies reported. The contract will run for 25 years from 2016.The contract envisages annual supplies of up to 35bn cubicmetres of Rosneft-produced gas to the power plants of InterRAO – Electric Power Plants (or any other Inter RAO UESpower plants) beginning on 1 January 2016 and runningthrough 31 December 2040 on a take-or-pay basis. RosneftPresident and Chairman of the Management Board IgorSechin said: “Rosneft has significant reserves of gas and pro-ducing and selling this gas is a priority in terms of generat-ing additional profit for Rosneft shareholders. Concludingan agreement to supply gas directly to Russia’s largest gen-erating utilities is the most effective way to monetise our re-serves. It will also guarantee fuel supplies for power.

RUSSIA|ECONOMY

No rate increase On 9 November, Russia refrained from increasing borrow-ing costs today after inflation unexpectedly slowed in Octo-ber for the first time in six months, Bloomberg reported.Bank Rossii left the refinancing rate at 8.25% at a meetingin Moscow, half percentage point above the record low, theregulator said in a statement on its website today. The movewas forecast by 21 of 23 economists in a Bloomberg survey.Policy makers held their main short-term lending and de-posit rates at 5.5% and 4.25%. Russia raised its refinancingrate for the first time in 16 months in September as a surgein price growth pushed inflation beyond the 6% upper limitof the regulator’s target range. Chairman Sergey Ignatiev’sthird and final term at the helm of Bank Rossii ends in 2013.

Wary of Republican Mitt Romney'scampaign remark that Russia was theUnited States' top geopolitical foe, Russ-ian President Vladimir Putin welcomedBarack Obama's re-election and con-firmed he had invited the US Presidentto visit Russia in 2013.

The Kremlin leader highlighted theachievements in Russia-US relations inthe previous years and expressed hope forfurther constructive joint work over bilat-eral, regional and international prob-lems. Putin also hailed the co-operationbetween Moscow and Washington thatis of key importance for maintaining sta-ble development in the world.

Jim Collins, a former US ambassadorto Russia and director of the Russia andEurasia Program at the Carnegie Insti-tute in Washington, told New Europe byphone on 7 November “the reset” inRussian-American relations that beganduring Obama’s first term has been ac-complished to a large extent. He saidWashington and Moscow have to devisea new agenda for their relations. “We havegot to move on now,” he said. “Perhaps anew term will be coined about what wedo in the next four years.”

In April 2009, Obama and then Russ-ian president Dmitry Medvedev definedan agenda to "reset" the strained ties be-tween the two superpowers. “If you lookat the items that were on that agenda asconstituting the building of a new foun-dation for relations it has been pretty wellput in place,” Collins said. “It included thestrategic arms agreement, which was ac-complished and ratified by both coun-tries; it included civilian nuclearco-operation, which is now in existence,the agreement was put into force; it hasincluded trying to bring ourselves closerto dealing with the Iran nuclear issue andthere has been good progress on that,” the

ambassador said, citing US sources. “It in-cluded developing Russian engagementas part of the support structure for theAmerican and allied effort inAfghanistan, which is ongoing; and it in-cluded Russia’s accession to the WTO[World Trade Organisation], which isnow a fact,” Collins said.

“Now there were two or three thingsthat didn’t get done. Missile defence wasdiscussed but it was not resolved,” theambassador said, adding that at least afoundation was put down that both sidesare prepared to look at co-operative mis-sile defence. Collins noted that the gen-eral situation of security in Europe stillhas many different elements to it thathave not been really dealt with and theyneed to be addressed.

“I think we can expect that a secondterm for President Obama is going tocontinue to try to build a successful rela-tionship with Moscow,” Collins said,adding that there new challenges. He alsopointed out the fact that President Putinis now president rather than prime min-ister.

Collins called for devising a newagenda for US-Russia relations. “Now, asthe due term for the American Presidentbegins, my own view is that there is a newagenda that has to be defined,” the am-bassador told New Europe.

One element is missile defence. “Ithink that it is imperative that the Amer-icans and Russians find a way to resolvethe issue of developing a co-operativemissile defence for Europe and Eurasia.The fact of the matter is the best systemis going involve everybody. It will be moreeffective if it does and it’s possible to do itand it can be done. It’s a matter of find-ing the political will to get it finished,Collins said.

The second element on the agenda isrethinking the goal in terms of US-Rus-sia relations vis-à-vis Afghanistan and

Central Asia and the region. Collinsnoted that the American and allied roleis going to change at the end of 2014.“What is Russia’s role going to be then?”Collins asked. “We have to figure it outbecause the Afghan question is not goingaway. I think a new set of issues have todeal with the Asia Pacific and security inthat region. We really haven’t engaged onthis issue up to know. And the Russiansand the Americans are dealing with achanging reality in Asia and the Asia Pa-cific region,” the Carnegie expert said.

Another element on the agenda is eco-nomic co-operation. Russia finally joinedthe WTO on 22 August 2012 after 19years of accession talks. It is the last largeeconomy to join the exclusive club. “It’spretty clear to me that having gottenRussia in the WTO, that’s a tangiblething. But the question now can the eco-nomic relationship be strengthened andbuilt much further, Collins said.

The diplomat said Putin and Obamahave to decide what the agenda is goingto be in order to facilitate a workable andproductive relationship going forward.

The former US ambassador toMoscow also noted that American andRussian views differ on a number of is-sues, including Syria. “Neither we nor theRussians to be frank have an answer towhat to do about Mr [Syrian PresidentBashar] Assad and his growing civil war.I think we have to find a way to thinkthrough this issue,” Collins said.

“The Iran issue is going to be there andwhether or not it’s possible to make acommon cause in moving this issue fromwhere it is today to a successful resolutionof the issue of Iran’s nuclear programme,I don’t know. But it’s got to be on theagenda,” he said.

Collins said the next phases for theMiddle East and the Arab world are a setof issues in which the US and Russia willbe engaged.

Obama, Putin go beyond ‘Reset’, tackle Iran, Asia-Pacific

RUSSIA|DIPLOMACY

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have to draw a new agenda for US-Russia relations.

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By Kostis Geropoulos

There was relief throughout Europe asPresident Obama won re-election; espe-cially in places Romney visited earlier inthe year, where his charm offensive wasjust offensive. He turned out to be aswrong about the London Olympics as hisown chances, for example.

But the result also has some lessons forEU.

First of all, Obama is going to realignUS foreign policy by making Asia the toppriority. There is a good reason for this,as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)announced that China’s economy willovertake the US as the world’s largest inthe next presidential term. Four moreyears, as they say.

China is predicted to overtake the Eu-rozone states by Christmas.

In 2025 China and India will have alarger economy than the G7 of France,Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US andCanada.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the firstforeign trip of his second term is to Asia,including a stop off in Myanmar.

The US will be looking to new Asianot old Europe.

The second lesson is that electoral suc-cess depends on diversity. The instinctsof most EU level politicians is to under-stand this and to be aware of the dangers

of those who offer a narrow appeal, whostill believe that skin colour is the yard-stick to measure people by.

We’ve seen that one of the costs of aus-terity is to release the horrors of Euro-pean history, those who offer a road tonowhere.

The Golden Dawn are the shame ofEurope and the silence from many in theEU over their rise is damning.

Obama, like the EU is also going tohave to redefine and reform the issue ofimmigration. He does have an opportu-nity. If the Republicans do what theymust and cut out the deranged rantingsof the extremists in and near their party,and so must the EU.

If not, then exactly how many seig-heiling MEPs will there be in the plenaryafter the 2014 European elections?

The third point is more difficult; whatshould the future Europe look like? Thisis part of a running battle between theinstitutions and member states. The ar-gument is that the states are holding Eu-rope back but how is that going tochange? All the public are hearing is thecry of “More Europe!” They will wantMore Details!

A final thought for now is a depressingone. How can Europe truly act on theworld stage? We claim to be a globalplayer, but this is just dreaming. Europedidn’t figure at all in the US election, asign of how unimportant the union is.The problem is compounded by themember states installing weak leadershipin the EU.

Compare Van Rompuy and Barroso toObama, compare Ashton to Clinton andthe poor quality of our representativesjust gets embarrassing.

Obama was elected by over 60 millionchoosing to vote for him. Van Rompuy by 27.

Obama was elected after a long cam-paign with countless public appearances,speeches and televised debates. VanRompuy, after a sumptuous dinner, be-hind closed doors.

It’s not just the Republican party thatneeds a revolutionary change or it willwither away. This is the important lessonfrom the US election.

KASSANDRAHas there ever been a less suitable candidate

for Commissioner than Tonio Borg? Does the

EPP still think him an excellent choice?

Page 32 | New Europe

11 - 17 November , 2012

Kassandra@NEurope.eu

Once upon a time inBrussels ...

Follow me on twitter @Kassandra_NE

US Election: The lessons for Europe

The outcome of the US elections fre-quently produces a small but vocal minor-ity who announce they’re leaving thecountry. Typically, disillusioned Democrats like tohotfoot it over the Canadian border, butafter the second Obama victory, some ofthe rattled Republicans have been search-ing for a new nation.One young American tweeted “I'm mov-ing to Australia, because their president isa Christian and actually supports what hesays.'' As it was pointed out to her, Aus-tralia has a Prime minister and she’s anatheist.Clearly the teapotters are going to needsome help. Here’s 5 places where theycould find a new home:

1. South Georgia. This might take a littleexplaining, but the isle, part of the Falk-lands has plenty of space, penguins and lotsof munitions lying around. Plenty of op-portunities for forming a militia withoutSpanish speakers.2. Russia. With its, shall we say, no holdsbarred approach to capitalism, there’sscope for the entrepreneurial spirit.3. Washington State. Now it’s legal, theycould calm down with the aid of some me-dicinal marijuana.4. 05M089, WB, 60, rue Wiertz. DanHannan has launched a UK Tea Party, sono doubt he’ll welcome them in his EP of-fice.5. Mars. NASA has announced plans for aMars Colony. Who better to send?

Chinese and US flags fly outside a hotel during a US presidential election results event organised by the

US embassy in Beijing on 7 November. A portent of things to come?

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Tea Party exodusThe strange case of theweb site ‘Bivol.bg’

A curious internet site, named ‘Bivol’has been operating in Bulgaria sinceJuly 2010. In this country, where youngpeople are very ‘tech-savvy,’ it is not un-usual to discover a multitude of inter-net sites, covering all the spectrum ofactivities, from e-commerce to musicand movie downloading, to news… But the case of ‘Bivol’ is different; thissite is one of the most active in so-called ‘investigative journalism.’ It issupposed to offer news that othermedia prefer to hide; or, to presentcases from a different angle, placing theemphasis on the ‘dark spots’ of the fi-nancial system, or the political elite.In fact, reality is different. Despite itsclaim to propose quality journalism, thewebsite is using openly circulating half-truths, rumours, and even manipulationor information at the limit of calumny,which have nothing to do with stan-dards of the quality press and onlinejournalism.Curiously enough, this sort of ‘infor-mation creates for the public the senseof uncovering conspiracies, reinforcing

its prejudices. The fact that this site istreating topics that are missing fromthe other media attracts interest andbrings traffic to ‘Bivol’. A not negligiblepart of the audience consider the site asa trustworthy and reliable source of in-formation, despite of absurdity of itsstories, which is obvious to an experi-enced eye. The owners of ‘Bivol’, Asen NedyalkovYordanov and Alberta Leon Alkalai,and their associate partner AtanasChobanov, know well what they aredoing. By exciting the curiosity of theiraudience, they manage to reinforcetheir own position of power. So, it doesnot come as a surprise that business-men, politicians, financial organisationsand companies are the primary targetsof this medium. The fact that the site’sarticles are not translated into Englishor French, makes it even more suspi-cious that European and Americanpartners of Bulgarian companies aresystematically aware of the contents ofthe site…

(to be continued)

South Georgians prepare to welcome the Tea Party |EPA/L.A. KELLY WHYBROW