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19th Year of Publication number 1014 20 - 26 JanuarY, 2013 € 3.50

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on 16 January, world oil mar-kets were monitoring talks between the internatio-

nal atomic energy agency (iaea)and iran for any signs as to whether tehran, facing intensifying sanctions pressure, and the iaea may be pre-pared to reach an agreement to resol-ve outstanding issues pertaining to iran’s nuclear energy programme.

iran denies Western accusations that it is seeking to develop a wea-pons capability, saying its nuclear programme is aimed only at power generation.

Six world powers - the united States, france, Germany, china, rus-sia and britain - and iran may resume their separate negotiations later in January to try to reach a broader di-plomatic settlement.

however, on 13 January iran flexed its military muscle, holding exercises near the port city of bandar abbas, which holds a strategic posi-tion on the Strait of hormuz, which has heavy oil tanker traffic. the drills also allowed iranian military forces to operate new weapons. iranian sour-ces note that the exercises are “nor-mal” and iranian armed forces must be well supplied by new conventional weapons and prepared for any threat despite budget problems.

iran‘s main navy and the islamic revolutionary Guard corps’ naval forces have been expanding their ope-rations beyond the Persian Gulf. on 16 January, navy commander rear

admiral habibollah Sayyari said the iranian navy will also deploy its 24th fleet of warships to patrol the northern part of the indian ocean, the Gulf of aden, the bab-el-mandeb Strait, the red Sea, the Suez canal and the me-diterranean Sea for three months.

the oil market is watching iran’s war games. manouchehr takin, Seni-or Petroleum upstream analyst with the centre for Global energy Studies

(cGeS) in london, told new eu-rope the world oil market is used to the sanctions against iran and seems to be complacent that nothing will happen. “When this thing started last year they were worried about the sanctions and the price did go up,” he said, adding that traders believed that the sanctions would not just red-uce iranian exports but the situation would deteriorate further.

Open government

All eyes on Iran

Iranian navy soldiers take part in a military exercise in the straight of Hor-muz in the Oman Sea, 28 December 2011. Iran’s main navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval forces plan to expand their operations beyond the Persian Gulf. |EPA/ALI MOHAMMADI/HANDOUT

the european commission stands ac-cused of ‘maladministration‘ for its re-fusal to disclose documents on the uK opt-out from the charter of fundamen-tal rights.

openness in the form of access to documents strengthens democracy. of particular importance in this context is access to documents relating to the adop-tion of legislation. Such openness allows citizens to follow in detail the decision making process and to scrutinise all the relevant information, which forms the basis of a specific legislative act.

Avoiding EU Taxesas we published last week, the un report of 5 november 2010 on climate change financing provides that the international shipping indus-try will contribute between uS $22.5 – $25 billion yearly for climate change mitigation, of which more than one third will end up in the climate change community emissions trading Scheme budget.

PreSiDencY PaGe 06

mali PaGe 07

PaGe 12

markets concerned over hormuz war games

KASSanDRA PaGe 32PaGe 03

Sudan needs eu assistance

britain’s european home

committee on lobbying planned

Show them the money

SuDan PaGe 05

Parliament PaGe 10

euroPean union PaGe 08

economY PaGe 14

02 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

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www.new-europe.info11th Year, Number 503

THE EUROPEAN WEEKLY

January 12 - 18, 2003

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The Shooting Gallery

“The good news is, we‘ve found Shergar...” | AFP PHOTO GEORGES GOBET

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Ten years ago, the EU was preparing to get tough on fiscal discipline, with Commissioner Solbes lec-turing Germany on its excessive budget deficit and also pointing a fiscal finger at France and Italy.Romano Prodi felt felt compelled to call the existing stability pact‘stupid.’New Europe did call for an increase in state spending to help the economy, but the measures that were ta-ken a decade ago were... well lets not rub too much salt into the wound.Then Ukranian PM, Viktor Yanukovych was promising reform and looking towards joining the EU, but today, he is President, with his opponent in jail on charges many feel are politically motivated charges. EU mem-bership is further away now than 10 years ago.

ne 10 YeARS

AGO

MMDavid Cameron’s Euro adventure continues. His much-anticipated speech on Europe; that is, his outlining of the future relationship he wants between the EU and the United Kingdom, has been postponed once again. The first time, scheduled for 22 January, was for diplomatic purposes, clashing, as it did, with the anniversary of the Elysée Treaty that founded the European Coal and Steel Community (two power-ful founding members of European integration, France and Germany, would not be happy with a critical speech on their particular day of ce-lebration), while the second time, rescheduling the postponed date of 18 January, had to be put off as the prime minister needed to deal with the escalating hostage crisis in Algeria; in the context, the right decision.Deferrals, however, do not deflect from the fact that Cameron still has a speech to deliver. So far, he has received much criticism from oppon-ents, both on the right and left of the political spectrum, both pro- and anti-Europe. Cameron’s speech, long-promised and long-awaited by his European counterparts, will outline the UK government’s attitude to the EU; namely giving its support, yet asking for a certain repatri-ation of powers from Brussels to London, mostly around social and employment legislation.The contents of the speech, not entirely a secret, but not explicitly known, have already earned Cameron broadsides from various EU and global leaders, notably the US President, Barack Obama, who, echoing the sentiments from a senior state department official. insisted that a strong Britain is needed within a strong European Union; both are desirable from the point of view of the current American administra-tion, which is due to open negotiations in the first half of this year on a free trade agreement. Potential economic disruption is the last thing they need.Europe, too, is none too happy with Cameron. Those who demand a referendum on UK membership, that is a straight in-out vote, (which the prime minister is doing all he can to avoid committing to), deplore his weakness; those who feel he threatens the existence of the Union deplore his treachery.Cameron, as borne out by leaked extracts from his speech, remains somewhere in between; a pro-European, who wants some form of re-form, a reclamation of powers he can take back to the British public as evidence of his tough stance towards the European Union. During the plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs were lining up to condemn Cameron’s supposed perfidy, with Liberal MEP, Graham Watson, even been pulled-up by his part, the pro-EU, junior coalition partners, Libe-ral Democrats, for a tweet he sent on the subject. Elsewhere, friendly governments like Ireland and the Netherlands (where the prime mini-ster was due to deliver his speech) both took the EU line: no regenera-tion of current EU treaties is acceptable.It is true Cameron is playing a dangerous tactical game; offering a re-ferendum not on EU membership, but on the new kind of relation-ship he hopes to achieve following discussions with other EU govern-ments. That is, assuming he is re-elected in 2015 (he has promised the referendum in 2018, during the second half of his term of office). If the country reject the offer, there is no certainty of what that might mean – a second referendum on membership, or a return to the cur-rent arrangement?Cameron is facing severe pressure from various factions, such as Ukip and the newly-formed We Demand A Referendum Party, aiming to force an in-out vote, not to mention the growing Eurosceptics in his own Conservative Party, while simultaneously trying to reassure other EU governments that he is essentially on their side.European Parliament President Martin Schulz, for one, has warned against the prime minister using Europe as a front in an internecine party battle. He may very well have a point; trying to be all things to all people in the long run often leaves you with no real friends at all.

‘A friend to all is a friend to none’

03ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

Refusal to disclose documents means ‘maladministration’

The European Commission stands ac-cused of ‘maladministration‘ for its refusal to disclose documents on the

UK opt-out from the Charter of Fundamen-tal Rights, writes the European Ombudsman

Openness in the form of access to docu-ments strengthens democracy. Of particular importance in this context is access to docu-ments relating to the adoption of legislation. Such openness allows citizens to follow in detail the decision-making process and to scrutinise all the relevant information, which forms the basis of a specific legislative act.

If the documents are accessible while the legislative process is ongoing, citizens are therefore empowered to take a fuller and more effective part in the debate regarding the need for, and the content of, prospective European Union legislation. If, on the other hand, the laws have already been adopted, ac-cess to documents relating to the legislative process allows the public at the very least to understand better the need for, and the con-tent of, such legislation.

When the laws at issue relates to funda-mental rights, access becomes even more important. There is a significant risk that ci-tizens will lose trust in the EU if the institu-tions do not give full effect to the fundamen-tal right of access to documents, especially to

those records relating to the adoption of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights itself.

In a recent decision, I criticised the Euro-pean Commission‘s refusal to give access to documents containing its view of the United Kingdom opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. This refusal followed a complaint from the European Citizen Action Service, a Brussels-based non-governmental organisation that wanted to find out “why UK citizens do not enjoy the same funda-mental rights as other EU citizens”. The com-mission rejected my recommendation that it disclose the documents, without giving ade-quate reasons.

The ECAS lodged a complaint with me

about the commission’s refusal to give access to five documents, drafted by its services and concerning the British opt-out from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The opt-out was a major issue in the intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty and the documents were pre-pared by the commission in that context. The commission explained its refusal by referring to the exceptions to public access allowed for in regulation 1049/2001, and particularly the need to protect both the legal advice it re-ceives as well as its internal decision-making process.

After having inspected the documents in question, I concluded that the commission‘s arguments for non-disclosure were not con-vincing. I pointed out that, in order to deny public access to documents containing legal advice, it is not sufficient for the commissi-on to submit in a general and abstract way; and without substantiated arguments, that its interest will be harmed by public disclo-sure of the documents. I also found that the commission failed to provide any properly reasoned arguments to the effect - for exa-mple - that that the documents contain self-critical, speculative or controversial views that would seriously undermine its decision-making process.

The commission’s methodology for con-

sidering the possibility of granting partial ac-cess to the documents was also questionable, given that it appeared to have released only the parts of the records that it found to be ob-viously innocuous instead of seeking to esta-blish what parts of these documents would actually cause harm if released to the public.

Finally, the commission allowed itself unilaterally to determine which parts of some of the documents were “relevant” for the ECAS request for access. I pointed out, however, that the fact that parts of a docu-ment may be considered “irrelevant” in the eyes of the institution does not constitute a valid reason under Regulation 1049/2001 for refusing access to these parts.

Given that public access to documents concerning how EU law is adopted is key to winning the trust of European citizens, I regret the commission’s refusal to give the public appropriate access to the documents in question.

Despite my recommendation that it make the documents in question public, the commission only gave partial access. As ac-cess to documents is itself one of the funda-mental rights guaranteed by the charter and as the commission failed substantively to engage with certain of my arguments, I con-cluded that such refusal constituted a serious instance of maladministration.

Open up the archives says Ombudsman.|EPA/VASSIL DONEV

Citizens will lose trust in the EU if the institutionsdo not give access to documents

By Nikiforos Diamantouros

Nikiforos Dia-mandouros is the European Ombuds-man this article first appeared in Public-ServiceEurope and is reprinted with permission.


20 - 26 January, 2013

Rating agencies still cautiousFitch Ratings have said that the crises in

the Eurozone and the problems in the United States concerning the debt cei-

ling and fiscal cliff negotiations will dictate the global credit outlook for the rest of this year.

In their six monthly credit outlook report the agency have pointed to progress being made in the Eurozone with the “Outright Mo-netary Transactions” (OMT) programme that was announced in early September last year.

Measures were announced that the ECB would continue its bond buying policy in the secondary markets to keep borrowing costs down, in a system attached to the European Fi-nancial Stability Facility (EFSF), with even bu-ying in primary markets considered if the cir-cumstance for a member state is severe enough.

“The ECB‘s commitment to do whatever it takes to save the euro backed up by OMT’s, along with the Greek deal and the creation of the European Stability Mechanism, has provi-ded breathing space for the imbalances across the Eurozone to correct and necessary reform at the European level.”

“Whether 2013 marks the beginning of the end of the Eurozone crisis depends on go-vernments delivering on deficit reduction and structural reform, especially in the periphery, and on greater fiscal and financial risk sharing. With elections in Italy and Germany and the region in recession, the challenge of maintai-ning the positive momentum gained in the latter part of 2012 should not be under-esti-mated,” said David Riley, Fitch‘s Global Head of Sovereign Ratings.

In the United States, only weeks after ne-gotiating a deal on the ‘fiscal cliff ’ with a ran-ge of measures on tax rises and spending cuts, President Obama is now ready for ‘round two’ in his disputes with his Republican opponents, this time over the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling.

Obama has clearly stated that he favours a rise on the current limit on the nation’s debt, whilst Republican House Speaker John Bo-ehner has insisted that more spending cuts must come if debt is to grow further, the poli-tical uncertainly in Europe and in the United States is having a serious affect on the finan-

cial world. Fitch say that seven out of the ten largest economies in the world remain on a negative rating look that includes the United States, the UK and France, which is a reflec-tion of their weak economic growth and high deficits that they are struggling to push down-wards.

Due to governments being financially constrained, Fitch also believe that central banks are being increasingly expected by in-fluential policy makers and investors to use untested policy actions to create growth and facilitate economic recovery.

Support for the banking sector remains a key issue, but despite the creation of a banking supervisory system, Fitch say there may be complacency that sets in with regards to po-licy, and challenges remain between sovereign states over financial risk sharing.

Although Fitch expect some regulatory progress for banking that will heavily influ-

ence banking behaviour over the next 12 months, with positive moves being made towards more robust capital levels as higher equity reserves are built.

James Longsdon, co-head of EMEA Fi-nancial Institutions at Fitch, said: “On profita-bility, low interest rates and flat and slow eco-nomic growth are likely to keep the focus on costs, while conduct fines hit the bottom lines of affected banks. Looking at funding, bank debt issuance is likely to remain subdued un-til economies start to grow and loan demand picks up. We may also see somewhat more ag-gressive liquidity management.”

The high-yield Bond market is expected to grow this year due to the continued climate of low interest rates and banks deleveraging, but is not forecast to grow as significantly as last year, as secondary market yields are ex-pected to be pegged at lower levels this year.

A brighter forecast has been made for

high-yield defaults rising in the short term, this has been attributed by Fitch to outstan-ding issuance of bonds accompanied by fi-nancial flexibility and high quality leveraged buyouts.

As for the covered bond market the ratings agency again expect growth in fresh areas of market growth in Belgium and in Asia, alt-hough there could be a winding down of pu-blic sector covered bonds activity, due to the spiralling down of profitability of public sec-tor lending compared to the actual cost of fun-ding. There is a sharp contrast on the outlook of ratings of covered bonds in the peripheral and the less stable areas of Europe, when com-pared to the rest of Europe and other global regions such as North America. Fitch analysts say that what they term as ‘peripheral Europe’ about 90% of covered bond ratings would be affected by a one notch downgrade of a def-ault rating from their issuer‘s issuer.

If the European Union does not maintain its so-cial model, then its future is in doubt, according to the Austrian Chancellor.

Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 15 January, Werner Faymann said that the EU is founded on “a model based on freedom and democracy, but also a social model”. “This model should not stop at national borders. It has to be good for us all together, or bad for us all together”.

He was speaking at the outset of a debate on the future of Europe, which comes against a backdrop of continued youth unemployment, and continuing anxiety about the situation in

Greece and Spain, which has the highest youth unemployment rate in the EU, and the ongoing debate about austerity versus growth policies.

“I’m convinced”, said Faymann, “that sti-cking together, social cohesion, is something that brings people together. We can’t have a Eu-rope where young people are losing hope and expectations, where they don’t have the oppor-tunity to prove themselves”. He said that “only social togetherness” will lead to “peaceful de-velopment”. He said that austerity measures are not the way to bring the EU out of the current crisis, saying that “if you were to cut everything, it will undermine countries’ ability to grow”.

“I don’t want to see a Europe where if so-meone creates a risk, and then someone else suffers”, he said. Commodities like energy, in-frastructure and drinking water “should stay in the hands of the state”, and not “an erroneous private enterprise”.

He said that solidarity among member states could get the EU out of its economic and social crises. “Looking for a common solution with a common approach, this is where we will find the best solution”.

And then young people will say that we [this generation] have obviously contributed to that” CD

Faymann: EU doomed without social model

By Peter Taberner

Fitch Ratings in New York has come under criticism. |EPA/JUSTIN LANE

Austrian Chancellor Wermer Faymann dur-ing a debate on the future of European Union at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 15 January. |AFP PHOTO GEORGES GOBET


Just before Christmas I had the pleasure to visit Sudan, one of the biggest Coun-tries of Africa, a land of great culture and

diversity. Due to the above mentioned diversities

- ethnic, cultural and religious - Sudan expe-rienced a long internal conflict - for about fifty years - that recently in 2011 led to the inde-pendence of the South Sudan.

Following South Sudan’s self-determina-tion referendum in January 2011, the country became independent in July 2011. However, fighting soon erupted soon in the border region of Sudan (Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile) between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Su-dan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA-North).

At the end of April 2012, the two Coun-tries adopted a Roadmap to ease current tensi-ons, facilitating resumption of negotiation and normalisation of their relations and after a long negotiations, on 27 September in Addis Abe-ba, they signed a package of agreements.

This agreement is not fully respected by the two sides, especially on the significant mat-ter of the South Sudan’s oil exports, cross-bor-der trade and the establishment of a Safe De-militarised Border Zone. Repeated conflicts along the disputed Sudan-South Sudan border - as well as South Sudan’s ongoing shutdown of its oil production despite the very harmful im-pact on its economy - continue to undermine trust and cooperation between the two coun-tries. As a result, more than 650,000 people are displaced or severely affected by the fighting. More than 200,000 people have sought refuge across the border in South Sudan and Ethiopia.

Considering this problematic political fra-mework, it is a priority to maintain international pressure on a high level and that the internati-onal community remains focused on Sudanese events, because much remains to be done, both on the political and humanitarian levels.

The meetings with the vice-President of Sudan, Ali Osman Taha, the President of the Sudanese Parliament, Omar al-Bashir, the one with the Foreign Minister, Ali Karti, have been very useful because they allowed me to deeply understand the political and social situation of Sudan.

During these meetings we discussed the role of the European Union in Sudan and our concerns regarding the relations between Su-dan and South Sudan.

I underlined the deteriorating economy is a direct and indirect consequence of the non implementing of peace agreements. There are different steps that Sudan has to take and in this regard it will be fundamental to guarantee a significant role of the EU to preserve a stable peace in the area.

First of all, it is essential that Sudan and South Sudan implement the nine agreements signed in Addis Ababa on 27 September. The EU welcomes these agreements concluded by the strong and united leading role of the Afri-

can Union for Peace and Security Council in dealing with the Sudan-South Sudan conflict. However, we are concerned about the slow pace of implementation.

The normalisation of relations between the two countries can only be achieved if the critical issues of Abyei and the disputed border areas are resolved.

Last but not least, the humanitarian crisis that occurs in Sudan is a very big concern for the European Union, in particular in Darfur, in Southern Kordofan and in the area of Blue Nile.

In Southern Kordofan and in Blue Nile the EU calls on the Government of Sudan to allow immediate humanitarian access to all civilians in conflict-affected areas.

It is highly important that the EU conti-nues to pay attention to this area and supports the achievement of these purposes so as to protect the fundamental rights of every Sudan citizen.

Finally I have to thank the great work that “Emergency”- a non-profit organization foun-ded by Gino Strada - is doing there. I had the pleasure to meet him in Khartoum and see with my own eyes how much they have done and are doing for Sudanese people.

I visited two different Emergency hospitals – one of them was a paediatric hospital located in Mayo, a big refugee camp near Khartoum which hosts more then 300.000 people.

What I have seen is devastating and it af-fects the conscience of all human beings. It also asks all the political forces to bear more re-sponsibility and to do more and better in order to help all those people who are currently star-ving- non only in Africa but all over the world. The EU certainly has the merit of having co-funded Mayo Paediatric Centre and of being the main donor in the world but this cannot be considered enough.

Sudan needs EU assistanceConcern over humanitarian crisis

By Gianni Pittella

Gianni Pittella, MEP (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) is first vice-president of the European Parliament.

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In association with the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union


20 - 26 January, 2013

Austerity a ‘universal failure’ says Cypriot presidentThe European Union should not conti-

nue to give the impression that it “only helps big business and banks”, the Pre-

sident of Cyprus has said.Speaking in the European Parliament in

Strasbourg on 15 January, and marking the end of the six-month Cyprus presidency of the Eu-ropean Union, Demetris Christofias, said that current EU economic and social policies conti-nue to alienate citizens.

“There is a gap between the political level and technocratic level of the European Union”, he told MEPs, “that leads to the same old failed policies”, which “disappoints and disheartens our citizens”. The European Union shouldn’t give the impression that it only helps big busi-ness and banks”, he said, adding that “It is my firm conviction that the unilateral policies of austerity have been a universal failure”.

This puts him at odds with the European Commission and certain key member states that continue to push for more spending cuts across the EU.

Also speaking in the parliament, European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barosso, made this clear, when he said that “deep-rooted, structural problems” need to be tackled if Euro-pe is to get itself out of its economic problems.

He did agree with Christofias, however, when he said that there was “ a social crisis ahead for Europe”.

Speaking after his speech before the plen-

ary chamber, Christofias, who will not be see-king re-election in the upcoming presidential elections in Cyprus, said that he was of the belief that “there are no big and small presi-dencies; there are good presidencies and bad presidencies”. He said the reaction his country got from other EU leaders proved that Cyprus “was a good, a successful presidency”, that hel-ped “overcome obstacles that could have a left a dead-end for the Union”.

He said that work was still needed in over-coming the crisis, namely better institutional working relationships and solidarity, but de-nied the “rumour” that his country was adding to the fiscal crisis by “the tax havens and mo-ney-laundering” operations in Cyprus. He said these allegations were “really unfair”.

Adding to these accusations was Rebecca Harms, co-President of the Greens, who said that Cyprus, along with Ireland, which took over the presidency, and whose prime minister will present his country’s presidential priorities before parliament on 16 January, “are allowing unfair tax competition and money laundering” in the EU. Cyprus, she said, “should acknow-ledge this goes on”. Admittance, she said “makes it far easier to bring about legislation” on things like tax avoidance and evasion by big technolo-gy companies. Ireland, she added, “is far from exemplary” in this matter, also.

Responding to suggestions that there is still a communist threat in Europe, Christofias de-nied this, saying that instead “the threat comes form the more hard-line right wing, and the ex-treme right-wing powers in Europe”.

The European Union needs to “steady itself ” in its attempts to exit the financial crisis, the Irish Taoiseach has told the European Parlia-ment.

According to Enda Kenny, while confi-dence is starting to creep back into European economies and markets, caution is still nee-ded if a turnaround is to happen before then end of the year.

Outlining the priorities of the Irish presi-dency of the European Union in Strasbourg on 16 January, Kenny said that the EU needed to focus on “stability, growth and jobs”; the last of which, he said represents a huge chal-lenge as unemployment, particularly amongst the young, has risen to record highs in many member states.

“All across this Union, people need jobs, and they look to us”, he said. “This is the grea-test political challenge of our generation”.

He said that the main priorities for the Irish presidency, which takes place over the first half of the year, and which are heavily biased towards economic issues, were the completi-on of the single market, improving competi-

tiveness and removing barriers to business. He said that his government were also working to secure agreement on the multi-annual finan-cial framework (MFF), the EU’s long-term budget that has been caused some rancour in certain member states, notably the UK, over its proposed above-inflation increase.

Kenny also said he had “great hopes” for kick-starting an EU-US free trade agreement, as well as concluding negotiations on trade agreements with Japan, India, Canada and the ASEAN region.

He said that the Irish presidency aims “to put Europe in recovery mode”.

Speaking to journalists later, he said that, despite its debts, Ireland had fulfilled each of its conditions imposed by its international creditors. He said that this makes an exit from the EU-IMF deal (earlier, he told MEPs Ire-land would be out of the programme “before the end of the year”) “so much more easy to achieve”.

“There is a lesson for Ireland: don’t let this happen again, and that’s a lesson for other countries”, he said. CD

Caution urged as EU attempts to steer itself out of danger

By Cillan Donnelly

Demetris Christofias speaking at the European Parliament last week |AFP PHOTO GEORGES GOBET

Irish taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny gives a speech on 16 Januaryat the European Parliament in Strasbourg to present the Irish Presidency program and priorities for the country’s six-month EU presidency which runs to June. |AFP PHOTO GEORGES GOBET


France’s power games in AfricaSupporters of France’s military intervention in Mali want us to applaud it as a great act of cha-rity. François Hollande, their argument goes, is protecting the government in Bamako from armed extremists. The“free world” should be grateful that he has taken this selfless stance.

The problem with this “analysis” is that it is wrong.

Hollande may try to give the impression that he has launched some kind of “humanita-rian” mission. This idea falls apart when you realise that the Malian authorities - which Hol-lande is so determined to help - stand accused of many human rights violations. Amnesty In-ternational has documented how the Malian security forces have carried out extrajudicial executions of Touareg civilians, killings of farm animals on which nomads depend for their livelihood and an indiscriminate attack on a Touareg camp.

In reality, Hollande is pursuing a policy that can be traced back to Charles de Gaulle, who believed that -- despite granting its colonies in-dependence - France must retain a strong influ-ence in sub-Saharan Africa.

Indeed, the French elite seems to have had trouble accepting that it no longer “owns” a big chunk of Africa. When the Cold War ended, France had 10,000 troops and a number of mi-litary bases in Africa. This presence has been largely retained, even if the pretexts that “justi-fied” it have disappeared. Recent history is also littered with cases of France meddling in the continent: it undertook 45 military operations in its former colonies between 1960 and 2005.

A glance at a map is sufficient to understand how Mali fits into France‘s ambit. It borders other ex-colonies like Algeria, which Hollande visited in December, accompanied by 40 senior businessmen, and Niger, a major source of ura-

nium used by the French nuclear firm Areva. Total, the French energy giant, has indica-

ted that there may be an abundance of oil and gas to explore in northern Mali and neighbou-ring Mauritania. Jean François Arrighi de Casa-nova, a Total representative, has even spoken of a “new El Dorado” in that area.

Northern Mali is - according to the EU‘s fo-reign policy chief Catherine Ashton - a hotbed “for all kinds of trafficking, drugs, arms smugg-ling” by those “terrorists” (her word) that France is fighting. One does not need to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect that the French elite is more interested in preventing insur-gents from interfering with Total’s work than in championing Mali’s population.

It is interesting that Ashton is perturbed only about arms smuggling and not the wider weapons trade. The latest official EU report on weapons sales shows that France is the Union‘s top exporter, issuing €9.9 billion worth of licen-

ses in 2011. The Mali operation has provided France with an opportunity to showcase its Mi-rage and Rafale planes and Sagaie tanks.

I have no doubt that the insurgents in nort-hern Mali have done appalling things - inclu-ding, it seems, recruiting child soldiers. But is France solely motivated by revulsion at their human rights abuses?

Of course, it isn’t. France was willing to to-lerate the activities of insurgents in other parts of Africa, whenever it was deemed politically expedient to do so. France had little difficulty with how insurgents controlled the northern part of Côte d‘Ivoire between 2002 and 2011. In that case, the insurgents were described as “rebels”, not “terrorists” in Europe. That was because they backed Alassane Outtara, the one-time International Monetary Fund staffer who is now his country’s president. France had been eager to have Outarra in power. The offi-cial narrative says that France was acting against

the brutality of his predecessor Laurent Gbag-bo. Yet there are good reasons to surmise that France‘s real aim was to have someone in office who could be relied on to look after its com-mercial interests, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire’s electricity and water networks.

Some MEPs have lamented lately how the European Union has not collectively rushed to assist France in Mali. France‘s neo-imperial ma-chinations have nonetheless left their mark on EU foreign policy.

In 2008, the Union undertook an operation in Chad that was presented as a response to the refugee crisis caused by violence in Darfur, we-stern Sudan. It appeared, though, that the pri-mary purpose of the operation was to shore up the Chadian dictator Idriss Déby. More than half of the troops deployed were from France - Chad‘s former colonial overlord. To give the mission a fig-leaf of impartiality, an Irish soldier was appointed its commander.

If France was truly committed to helping sub-Saharan Africa, it would have honoured its decades-old pledge to devote at least 0.7% of its gross domestic product to alleviating global poverty. As things stand, France allocates less than 0.5% of its GDP for that purpose. And the proportion of its development aid going to vi-tal health and education projects is below 20%. The life expectancy of a Malian is just 51 years, compared to 81 for a French person.

By contrast, France spends more than 2% of its GDP on the military. Despite how it was vili-fied in the US a decade ago for Jacques Chirac‘s opposition to the Iraq war, France rivals Britain for the title of Western Europe’s most trigger-happy nation. Two years ago, it was the first to attack Libya. Now it has bombed Mali on equally spurious grounds.

Let us be clear: France’s policies towards Africa are not about altruism. They are about power.

French soldiers prepare ammunitions on 16 January at a military airbase in Bamako.| AFP PHOTO /

ISSOUF SANOGO

Mali intervention exposes Europe’s security shortcomings

PARIS — Since the intervention in Libya in 2011, which highlighted strong dissensions bet-ween France and Germany in the conduct of mi-litary engagement, Europeans have been waiting for a new opportunity to prove they could unite around a common objective, away from Brussels and the near-constant series of crisis meetings.

The March 2012 coup in Mali and the subse-quent Islamist takeover of half of the country — which forced the government to call for France’s help — seem to provide this opportunity. Mali is a textbook example of how the spillover effects of a limited intervention can lead to the deteriorati-on of an already fragile region. France understands that the lack of a unified European response and the limited support the United States is ready to provide may further embroil it in a conflict that has wider consequences. Limited engagement

does not necessarily mean that the consequences will remain limited as well. History, both old and recent, shows that initially limited operations can easily morph into either military escalation or an extension of initial aims, a phenomenon known as “mission creep.” The French intervention is alrea-dy escalating, in large part due to the EU’s increa-sing strategic retrenchment and U.S. prudence at a time when most Western powers are thinking about reducing their external commitments and focusing on nation-building at home. Moreover, France does not share the United States’ or even NATO’s power of attraction, and few countries have come to its support despite the undeniable regional and international legitimacy of its ope-ration. The operations have been praised by U.S. conservative intellectuals as a new expression of French unilateralism, and by others, including in the Obama administration, who see French operations as a way of avoiding direct U.S. milita-ry involvement. But, at the same time, EU High

Representative Catherine Ashton’s slow response time in accelerating the process of the European Training Mission to Mali only illustrates the lack of readiness in Brussels, and that UN Resolution 2085 authorizing the deployment of UN forces to Mali has been relegated to a mere afterthought. But the French military is nevertheless facing the hard reality of acting on its own, with very little support from other European allies, and even less from African countries. The latest intervention shows that the only military allies that France can capably rely upon are the United Kingdom and the United States. This raises an important que-stion about the strategic future of Europe and the transatlantic community. Does the future of crisis management in key strategic areas for Europe lie in the EU or in the transatlantic triangle of France, the U.K., and the United States, a situation in which Germany remains conspicuously absent and where other European states — such as the Nordic countries and Poland — can increase their

strategic relevance? It is, in that sense, interesting that the two countries that have contributed the quickest to the mission — the U.K. and Denmark — are hostile to or absent in the ongoing Com-mon Security and Defense Policy negotiations.

The predominant absence of European con-tributions to the Mali mission also reflects the general absence of interest in Africa for many Eu-ropean countries. This is a misguided calculation, as Europe’s emerging security threats lie more in Africa than in the Pacific. In fact, at a time when the United States and Europe are preoccupied with the effects of emerging economies — in par-ticular China — more attention should be paid to the dangers posed by failed and failing states in Africa, and especially in the Sahel. U.S. President Barack Obama has already invested considerable resources in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia, including military support and training for local security forces so they can then contain threats on their own.

By David Cronin

By Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer and Martin Michelot from the German Marshall Fund


20 - 26 January, 2013

By Martin Schulz

Martin Schulz is President of the European Parliament.

A New Contract of Nations

By Francisco Jaime Quesado

It is the time of a New Contract of Nations , a strategic mou-vement that intends to put in direct dialogue different civiliza-tions, religons and ideas. The focus on Creativity and Know-ledge as the drivers of creating added value with international dissemination is a unique challenge that may be the answer to a new way of interaction between those who have the respon-sibility of thinking and those that have the responsibility of making things happen. This New Contract of Nations will face new challenges for the future and the World will have to decide about the most suitable strategies for a new Development Agenda. In a time of uncertainty and uncontrolled global finantial crisis, the World must focus more and more its attention on launching the ba-sis for an Agenda of New Ideas centered in the drivers of high growth rate and civil society capacity of creating and develo-ping added value for the international market. This is the really basis for the action of this New Contract of Nations.The New Contract of Nations must be an Idea of Change. In this New Contract of Nations there is a strategic challenge focused in the capacity of attracting New Investments, New Talents and a New Ambition for an Agenda for the future. The design of this New Contract of Nations with a new agenda cannot be made by law but must be built through a “broad and consistent partnership” that is the platform for a collaborative network of the different operational actors of the continent. In the Alliance of Civilizations, the key word must be Ambition. The State, the Municipalities, the Companies, the Universi-ties, in a word, Civil Society must give the example. They must promote a new adventure in a complex world and there is a real sense of urgency in our capacity of being able to do it. It´ s time to believe in a new cycle for a changing world. Rein-venting the European Dream and giving the European Actors (States, Universities, Enterprises, Civil Society) the opportu-nity of developing new challenges focused on innovation and creativity is in a large sense giving a central contribution to the reinvention of the world. The Reinvention of the World is the reinvention of its people and institutions. More than everything, it is a public demonstration of a positive answer to the future.This is the idea of this New Contract of Nations. This is a chal-lenge for the future that is the basis for our present. We must be able to win a new ambition for our land. For our people. For our citizenship. We must be able to effective construct an Innovation Society mostly based in our individual attitude in a complex global world. It ´s a challenge we must be able to answer with success.

Francisco Jaime Quesado is the General Manager of the Inno-vation and Knowledge Society in Portugal, a public agency wi-th the mission of coordinating the policies for Information So-ciety and mobilizing it through dissemination, qualification and research activities. It operates within the Ministry of Science, Te-chnology and Higher Education

Britain’s European home

BRUSSELS – British Prime Minister David Cameron’s long-awaited speech on Europe, to be delivered in the Ne-therlands, may well mark a turning point with respect to Britain’s position within the European Union. Any attempt by the United Kingdom to repatriate po-wers to Westminster is likely to be a drawn-out and cumbersome negotiati-on. As previous experience has shown, internal discussions on constitutional competences – essentially political na-vel-gazing – can distract attention from the far more pressing issues of economic growth and jobs.

Attempting to revisit major parts of the acquis communautaire (the body of EU law), and picking and choosing the bits of which the UK approves, could set a dangerous precedent. Indeed, it could lead to piecemeal legislation, disintegra-tion, and potentially the breakup of the Union. However attractive repatriation may seem on the surface, it would invol-ve long and complex procedures – with no guarantee of a favorable outcome.

Ultimately, of course, whether to repatriate competences or exit from the EU are decisions for the British govern-ment and the British people to make. But it is my strong belief that full UK membership is in the interest of the Bri-tish and Europe alike. The single mar-ket benefits the British economy enor-mously, and the EU remains by far the UK’s biggest trade partner, accounting for almost 50% of British exports.

In a globalized world, it is not in the UK’s interest to downgrade to some kind of second-class EU membership, as this would merely weaken its own influ-ence in Europe and beyond. Certainly, Britain’s friends recognize this. In recent days, the United States has rightly war-ned that a possible referendum in the UK could mean that the country turns inward, while Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has said that a British exit from the EU would be a “disaster.”

Leading British business figures, too, have cautioned Cameron that he risks destabilizing the UK economy inadvertently if he seeks a wholesale re-negotiation of EU membership. Their voices, however late in the day they have come, should be heeded.

The eurozone is integrating more deeply and rapidly not on a whim, but out of sheer necessity. The UK has

chosen to remain outside the moneta-ry union with a clear opt-out from the common currency. So, while the Came-ron government’s support for deeper eurozone integration is welcome, the eurozone cannot and will not be shaped from outside and according to British interests.

The UK is not in a position to block the other EU member states from dee-per integration, given most other mem-ber states’ political will to move for-ward. Indeed, last year’s negotiations on the “fiscal compact” should already have demonstrated to Cameron the difficulty of exercising the so-called national veto.

Still, the UK has played a leading role in designing key EU policies, in-cluding measures concerning the single market, overseas development aid, tra-de, and climate change. UK leadership in these areas has been highly apprecia-ted – and would be sorely missed should the British decide to leave. In the field of Justice and Home Affairs, for example, the UK has so far played a major role in shaping EU policies that all member states must adopt in less than two years.

But the Cameron government ap-pears to be preparing to opt out of these policies completely. Surely it cannot be expected that the EU institutions and the other 26 member states will stand idly by while the UK opts out of more than 130 of those measures – in essence re-erecting national borders in the fight against cross-border crime – and then

seeks to rejoin a select few that it consi-ders to be in its “national interest.”

Attempting to repatriate compe-tences from the EU may play well in Britain’s notoriously Euro-skeptic me-dia and parts of the Conservative Party, but I would question whether it is truly in the UK’s long-term interest.

The EU is much more than a set of rules governing the internal market and the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. It is a unique and historic project that has unified the Eu-ropean continent. Nation-states have pooled sovereignty voluntarily, becau-se they believe that, together, they are stronger. I believe in the UK’s role in helping to lead this project – in Europe’s interest and its own.

I suspect that Cameron is playing a dangerous game for purely tactical, domestic reasons. I believe him when he says that he wants the UK to remain a member of the EU. But he increasin-gly resembles the sorcerer’s apprentice, who cannot tame the forces that he has conjured – forces that want to leave the EU for ideological reasons, to the detri-ment of the British people.

January 1, 2013, marked 40 years of British membership of the EU. The Uni-on is likely to become even more signi-ficant in the next 40 years, which is why the UK should remain fully committed to shaping its future.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013.www.project-syndicate.org

David Cameron: “risks distabilising the UK economy inadvertently if he seeks a wholesale renegotiation of EU membership” |AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT


A president and a KingA tale of two speeches has lessons for Europe’s future

One of the drawbacks to a hectic life in the Brussels bubble, going through reports, directives and

the like is that sometimes the important stuff just slips past. It wasn’t until I got home after a long day at work last Tues-day, that I realized it was Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. He would have been 84. Eighty four years of age. If he had lived, he would still be alive and alert. In-stead, he was murdered at the age of 39.

As I get older, I’m beginning to see death not as an end, but as a gaping hole, a space where a life should be, and in that spirit it is unbearable to think of the contributions King could have made, the good he could have done; all taken away, by one man, one rifle, one bullet.

We’re also in an age where Dr King has been reduced to soundbites, his great oratorical flights reduced to a few sentences, where he is reduced to a civil rights leader, when he was so much more, a man who broadened his thinking and struggle into one for all humanity, foun-ded on non-violence and respect.

He faced tremendous opposition and his stance against Vietnam only increased the number of powerful enemies that the only surprise about his early death is that it didn’t happen a decade earlier.

The civil rights leader does have so-mething to say to us today and a connec-tion with the EU and both King and our European leaders have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The EU celebrated with a week of events that enthused nobody at all and large screens set up in Brussels and Strasbourg to show the ceremony were

ignored, unwatched. The ceremony was shaped by Presidents Van Rompuy and Barroso pushing aside Martin Schulz, the president of an elected parliament, who was instructed to keep silent.

President Barroso, who harbours dreams of a third term, gave a speech that nobody will ever recall, full of pride in others achievements, looking like he might explode from self-satisfaction. Ne-ver in Nobel history has an awardee loo-ked so comfortable among the great and the good.

After the speeches, they went to a gala concert with Sarah Jessica Parker, star of the TV series ‘Sex in the City.’

Compared the Barroso’s Pharisee, King was more like the widow with the mite.

Looking tired and exhausted, the 35 year old preacher, the youngest Peace Prize laureate, seemed out of place, unac-customed to the gilded atmosphere, but his speech went down in history. It still resonates and to the world’s shame, it is still relevant.

After his speech, he gave a profound lecture on peace and justice before re-turning to the funerals and burned out churches of the American south.

Let’s not embarrass the Commission president by comparing their speeches, looking to see who inspires and who does not, seeing who can express their values clearly and who can not.

The point is a simple one. The EU does not have the inspirational leaders it needs; neither does it have the leaders who can speak to the people, rather than their fellow presidents.

This is not going to be easy to change. It is the member states, especially the lar-

ge ones, who want weak leaders, it is they who can’t unite, even when faced with a crisis that is destroying the continent.

The large member states want to be part of something larger than themselves, but are demanding it is smaller than themselves. Sadly, the public are blaming the union and not those who are really in charge, the member states.

Alongside them are the pan-Europe-an parties, who are paid out of the public purse but are not themselves directly ac-countable to the public. We have made a system of governance that keeps the citi-zens on the outside.

Let’s have a referendum, not on silly political posturing, but on the real que-stions, which top jobs should be directly elected, should the European taxpayer subsidise the pan-European parties.

But there’s one more issue: Lisbon. It took a decade to railroad a deeply fla-wed treaty past the public, one that was rejected then re-written to deliberately make it impenetrable. This was an act of such duplicity, it is not surprising there is a wide gap between the people and the institutions.

There’s only one way out, to try again with a constitution, only this time, one that brings people in to the debate, allow-ing the citizens to shape their union. An open and democratic process will build a Europe fit to face the challenges ahead, it will make Europe mean something to people.

And it can open the door to giving us what we need, a president who can lead without imposing, who can inspire wit-hout controlling.

Then we can have a union that deser-ves to live.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr arrives in Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Comrade Rohypnol

By Andy Carling

Constructive Ambiguity

The cult like far left in Britain have been split asunder by recent events in the Socialist Workers Party, a fringe Trotskyist group who survive by taking over grass roots protest groups for their own dreary agenda.One prominent member of their Central Committee, Comrade Delta, has been accused of rape and sexual harassment of a comradette. The main accusation is two years old, but the party has only just got round to dealing with them at a conference, by asking for a report by the ‘Disputes Committee’.Introducing the report, according to a leaked transcript that is accepted as accurate, a representative described their role, “We are here to protect the interests of the party, and to make sure that any inappropriate behaviour of any kind by comrades is dealt with, and we do that according to the politics of a revolutionary party.”Normal people would think that such a serious crime should be referred to the police and courts, not a ‘disputes committee’ of a tiny political party, but that’s because we’re not suitably outraged by the ‘bourgeois justice system.’So the group, who knew Delta very well, and didn’t know W – the complainant at all, sat and pondered as only true revolutionaries can do, before reaching their verdict, “We didn’t think that Comrade Delta raped W. And it was not proved to the disputes committee that Comrade Delta had sexually assaulted, harassed or abused W.” Therefore, “The disputes committee didn’t recommend any disciplinary action against Comrade Delta, and that final report was backed by six out of seven of the panel members.”This wasn’t even trial by peers, it was trial by pals of the defendant.The debate was shut down as much as possible and W was not allowed to attend.As someone who spends at least part of each day in the real world, a couple of thoughts arise. Firstly, what lunatic thinks some dubious bunch of trots is an appropriate place to evaluate serious crimes? Rape isn’t just a ‘dispute’ between people. The General Secretary later said it was “an internal matter.”Secondly, the committee announced their grave punishments at their disposal, “If we had believed that he was guilty of any misconduct, then we would have either recommended his expulsion or his removal from the central committee, which would have been the two options available to us.”Who could possibly think that is anywhere near an appropriate punishment for rape?Thirdly, what crimes does the SWP feel shouldn’t be handled ‘in-house’? A second woman came forward with allegations against Delta, she was stripped of her party job, to save discomfort and three others who supported W were expelled from the party.We have a party that clearly believes the law doesn’t apply to them, neither do they recognize that their actions have given a carte blanche to their members to assault women, safe in the knowledge that there will be no real punishment, even if the party has found wrongdoing.We’ve been here before. In 1985 the Workers Revolutionary Party imploded after their leader, Gerry Healy was found to have been assaulting and raping women. Last year, George Galloway was pilloried for making light of rape.The testosterone Trotskyites would be fine if they contained themselves to their cult thinking, but like all cults, they end up as a cover for abuse, where the powerful ravage the powerless.

By Andy Carling


20 - 26 January, 2013

Political groups move closer to creating special committee on lobbyingPolitical groups in the European Parlia-

ment have indicated that they are moving closer towards the creation of a special

parliamentary committee to investigate open-ness and transparency in lobbying.

MEPs have called on the creation of such a committee in the wake of the John Dalli affair.

Green MEP Bart Staes, a member of the economic and budgetary affairs committee announced last week that his group would be proposing the idea of a special committee, which will examine the extent of lobbying on commissioners, commission staff and other civil servants.

He said that the John Dalli affair should pro-vide a template for the kind of practices that the committee should investigate.

Staes said that the idea will be discussed at one of the two group meetings in Strasbourg on 15 January. He told New Europe that “there will be a general discussion on the committee’s possi-ble mandate”. When they have an agreement on terms of reference, he said, those idea will be cir-culated to the other groups for their input.

“We are very open-minded to hear their ideas”, he said.

Earlier in the day, the centre-right EPP group said it “did not exclude” the possibility of the creation of a special committee, depending on its working methods.

Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Socialists, was more explicit, saying that “I think the Eu-ropean parliament should set-up a special com-mittee”. However, he seemed to indicate that the

committee should target the activities of the to-bacco industry specifically, rather than lobbying activities generally.

While Staes said that the committee “could learn lessons form the tobacco directive”, he told New Europe it should have a wider mandate, and look at “the rules and procedures regarding lob-bying to commissioners and civil servants”.

“What we have learned from the Dalli case is that those rules and procedures aren’t there”, he

said. He said that an investigation into lobbying carried out by the tobacco industry would be “an excellent starting point”, but can only go so far. “We can learn from the tobacco directive, the financial losses and gains are huge, but can also learn from legislation on the financial crisis, for instance. The lobbying is similar to that of the tobacco directive”.

“Trying to limit this is an excellent start, but if it was wider the whole atmosphere of the com-mittee would be different. I don’t see why we should only limit it to the tobacco industry. We shouldn’t try to find out what Mr Dalli did or did not do wrong, that is in the hands of the Maltese justice system, but what, for instance, about the OLAF supervisory board report, can we learn from their methods? We can consult and learn. We need insight into the OLAF report, as well as the supervisor board’s report”.

The intention now, he says, is to consult the other groups to see “if they can live with our ini-tial proposals”.

According to Staes, this should be happe-ning “in the upcoming weeks”, most likely with further movement at the next plenary session in February.

Deputies are concerned over the activities of lobbyists after Dalligate. | BELGA PHOTO BERNAL REVERT

By Cillian Donnelly

ADVERTISEMENT

RUSSIA’S PRESIDENCY OF THE G20 Russia assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1, 2012. The core objective of the Russian Presidency is to concentrate efforts of the G20 - forum of the world‘s largest economies - on developing a set of measures aimed at boosting sustainable, inclusive and balanced growth and job creation around the

world. The G20 Leaders‘ Summit, to be held in St. Petersburg on September 5-6, 2013, will be the main G20 event of 2013.

Official website of the Russian Presidency – G20russia.ru

Main themes of the Russian Presidency:

11EU-WORLDNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

2012 – a landmark year for reproductive health and a turning point for women and girlsA s the new year begins and we take

stock of all that happened over the past twelve months, it is clear that

in 2012 the world awoke to the importance of protecting the reproductive health and human rights of women and girls. In Europe, Africa, Asia and America events that illustrate this point attracted the world’s attention; from people on the street to presidents and pri-me ministers. 2012 saw global outrage in the fields of girls’ rights, gender-based violence and abortion rights. For the tragic and sho-cking fates of three innocent women robbed of their rights generated global anger at the suffering of individual people on a scale that has seldom been seen before.

In Pakistan Malala Yousafzai, a young girl campaigning for the rights of girls to receive an education, was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gun-men. (Thankfully she has survived). In India a young lady now known as ‘Damini’ died as a result of the horrific consequences of being sexually assaulted and raped by a group of men on a bus. And in Ireland Savita Halap-panavar, a miscarrying young woman, died after being denied a potentially life-saving ab-ortion. All three dreadful incidents drew the world’s attention to three issues of universal importance that the global community must urgently address. And they spurred govern-ments and the international community to take action to stop similar events from occur-ring in the future.

2012 was also a year of huge promise, in both the fields outlined above, and in the areas of family planning and universal health coverage. In the Philippines, after more than a decade of struggle with the Catholic church, the Responsible Parenthood and Reproduc-tive Health Act has at last been passed and will guarantee poor women contraceptives and the right to decide upon the number and ti-ming of their children.

In July the world’s leaders met in London at the Family Planning Summit and pledged to

provide modern Family Planning to 100 mil-lion more women by 2020, raising 4.6 billion dollars to do so. And in December the world marked the first International Day of the Girl, which was eagerly greeted by the international community.

Meanwhile across Europe governments are in the process of signing and ratifying the “Istanbul Convention” on preventing and combating violence against women and do-mestic violence, with Portugal and Turkey being the first to have ratified it and Poland making progress in doing so. And finally, in December the UN General Assembly ad-

opted four important resolutions on global health and foreign policy, eliminating violence against women, ending obstetric fistula and eliminating Female Genital Mutilation. These are all reasons to celebrate.

For SRHR advocates 2013 is therefore a year in which we must seize the opportunities that 2012 has given us. As discussion builds on the future of international development with the Millennium Development Goals post-2015 and the International Conference on Population and Development post-2014, our issues have seldom been as prominent as they are now.

In the coming year we must work together to ensure that the suffering of Malala, Damini and Savita will not be repeated and that the progress we have made in the Philippines, Portugal and elsewhere can be built upon.

By George Tsereteli, MP & Neil Datta

• George Tsereteli, MP, is President of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development, and a member of the Geor-gian Parliament•Neil Datta is Secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development

12 EnErgy & climatE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

Oil markets watch Iran’s war gamesOn 16 January, world oil markets monitored talks between the International Atomic Ener-gy Agency (IAEA) and Iran for any signs as to whether Tehran, facing intensifying sanctions pressure, and the IAEA may be prepared to re-ach an agreement to resolve outstanding issues pertaining to Iran’s nuclear energy programme. Iran denies Western accusations that it is see-king to develop a weapons capability, saying its nuclear programme is aimed only at power generation.

Six world powers - the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain - and Iran may resume their separate negotia-tions later in January to try to reach a broader diplomatic settlement.

However, on 13 January Iran flexed its mili-tary muscle, holding exercises near the port city of Bandar Abbas, which holds a strategic posi-tion on the Strait of Hormuz, which has heavy oil tanker traffic. The drills also allowed Iranian military forces to operate new weapons. Irani-an sources note that the exercises are “normal” and Iranian armed forces must be well supplied by new conventional weapons and prepared for any threat despite budget problems.

Iran‘s main navy and the Islamic Revolu-tionary Guard Corps‘ naval forces have been expanding their operations beyond the Persian Gulf. On 16 January, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the Iranian navy will also deploy its 24th fleet of warships to patrol the northern part of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the Mediterrane-an Sea for three months.

Brent crude futures, trading at about $110 a barrel in London on 16 January, advanced 3.5% in 2012 as threats to supply in the Middle East were balanced by risks to demand from Europe’s debt crisis and the US budget talks.

The oil market is watching Iran’s war games. Manouchehr Takin, Senior Petroleum Upstream Analyst with the Centre for Global

Energy Studies (CGES) in London, told New Europe the world oil market is used to the sanctions against Iran and seems to be com-placent that nothing will happen. “When this thing started last year they were worried about the sanctions and the price did go up,” he said, adding that traders believed that the sanctions would not just reduce Iranian exports but the situation would deteriorate further.

But now the market thinks that there is not going to be military conflict, Takin said. “They think they can manage. Besides Iranian export has not seized completely,” he said, adding that global demand has also weakened due to the economic crisis and there is also new oil co-ming into the market from the United States, Africa and other sources. He noted that becau-se this reduction has been in the pipeline, the

traders or the refiners have been able to secure themselves.

“It’s really physiology and perception and the market perception is that they can ma-nage without Iran,” the CGES analyst said. However, if Israel attacked Tehran, then Iran would definitely react and the prices would go up, he said. If there is an attack then it will not just be limited to the stoppage of Iranian ex-ports. Iran would react and that military con-flict would have serious impact,” he said. “But apparently the market doesn’t look at it this way. People make rhetoric statements when there are negotiations going on. But behind the scenes they are negotiating and they will reach an agreement. Maybe that is the under-standing that the market has and the price is not high,” Takin said.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama‘s nominee for defence secretary, Chuck Ha-gel, is opposed to issuing threats of force against Iran over its nuclear weapons pro-gramme. “The market looks at all these si-gnals and they see that all these signals are for compromise and negotiation, not for military attack,” Takin said.

Meanwhile, Iran is looking to reduce its reliance on oil revenues. On 16 January, Pre-sident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran must move away from dependence on oil revenue to overcome Western sanctions that have slo-wed the economy and disrupted foreign trade. “We need to cut reliance on petrodollars in the government’s spending budget,” Ahmadinejad told lawmakers. We have to finish this once and for all.”

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inspecting the Natanz nuclear plant in central Iran. | EPA/IRAN’S PRESIDENCY OFFICE/HANDO

The share of Chinese companies in Kazakhstan oil production will be reduced with launch of Kashagan field, therefore, information on Chi-nese expansion in the Kazakh oil industry is not true, the head of the Association of cross-border co-operation in Kazakhstan, Marat Shibutov, told New Europe. Kashagan is a giant offshore oil field in the Kazakhstan‘s zone of the Caspi-an Sea.

“The share of Chinese companies in the oil and gas sector of Kazakhstan will be reduced year by year. This is due to the fact that, firstly, this year Kashagan will give the first oil, therefore, the total amount of oil produced in the country will increase. Secondly, the Chinese own the old ons-hore fields with reserves gradually depleting,”

Shibutov said, commenting on a publication in one of the news agencies that the proportion of Chinese companies in Kazakhstan’s oil industry will exceed 40% in 2013. According to Shibu-tov, information about Chinese expansion in Kazakhstan‘s oil industry has no relation to the actual state of affairs. “This is all nonsense,” he said.

Recall, the other day Kazakhstan KazTAG agency published information that the propor-tion of Chinese companies in Kazakhstan‘s oil industry in 2013 will exceed 40%. “According to preliminary estimates, Chinese companies will control more than 40% of Kazakh oil by autumn 2013, and will be half of the annual production on the republic territory in the future,” said Kaz-TAG citing an unnamed analyst.

“After KazMunaiGas Exploration Produc-

tion acquires interest in Kazakhoil Aktobe, Kaz-akhturkmunai and Mangistau Investments BV from KazMunaiGas, China’s share will substan-tially increase, since China Investment Corpora-tion and a number of other companies control almost 30% of KMG EP,” the unnamed analyst said, citing estimates that China has shares in Kazakh oil even more than Kazakhstan and more than anyone in the country – it handled over 30 million tonnes and continues to grow.

Meanwhile, a Kazakhstan political analyst Eduard Poletayev said the information about Chinese expansion has repeatedly appeared in Kazakh media and especially keenly discussed by the opposition. “To some extent, this infor-mation is starting to escalate public discontent that we will soon find ourselves ‘under the Chi-nese’.

This is a typical Sinophobia, which is cha-racteristic for small states, neighbouring large countries, whose economies to some extent put pressure on the economies of small countries,” Poletaev said.

The political scientist said that these “bursts” take place in the Baltic countries, where “a degree of Russophobia is too increased, to some extent, because of the fear of influence of Moscow”. “La-tin America is also afraid of influence of the US, and there are many such examples. Therefore, we need to regard the information presented by an anonymous analyst on Chinese expansion in Kazakh oil industry, as either focused on impact on the minds of citizens, or accidental. But now I do not see a complete picture that would show that we are, indeed, ”under the Chinese. We need an accurate evidence base,” Poletaev said.

Kashagan launch to decrease Chinese oil influence in Kazakhstan

By Kostis Geropoulos

By Kulpash Konyrova

13EnErgy & climatENEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

Gazprom’s giant field key for European gas supply

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom’s su-pergiant Zapolyarnoye natural gas field has reached its full design output of 130 billion cubic metres per year, making it the most productive field in the country and one of the most important fields for Russia’s exports to Europe.

On 16 January, Russian government officials from the Yamal-Nenets auto-nomous area hosted Gazprom delegates for a celebration marking the full produc-tion capacity of the Zapolyarnoye field.

Zapolyarnoye was launched in post-Soviet era. It was the biggest field which was opened after the collapse of the So-viet Union and now Zapolyarnoye has reached the peak level of production.

“During a long period of time, offi-cially our main resource base of our ex-ports to Europe were four Soviet giant fields in the Yamal-Nenets region ... Now we have another big giant – Zapolyarno-ye,” Konstantin Simonov, the General Director of the National Energy Security Fund in Moscow, told New Europe on 16 January. However, in seven-eight years Russia’s Bovanenkovo field will be the

biggest gas field in Russia, he said.Simonov stressed that without Za-

polyarnoye field it would be impossible to have sustainable exports of Russian gas to Europe. “When you are speaking about such serious level of production - 130 billion cubic metres - you can say that this field is extremely important for Gazprom,” Simonov said. “Without this gas field it will be impossible to organise our export to the European Union and that is why now Zapolyarnoye is one of the most important fields for Gazprom,” Simonov said.

However, he explained that not all this gas goes to the EU, noting that there is no correlation between European con-sumers and Russian gas fields. All the gas from Gazprom’s fields goes to Russia’s gas transmission network for domestic consumption and to fulfil Gazprom Ex-port contracts to consumers at certain exit/entry points.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Gazprom has been and remains the No. 1 company in the global gas production. “But possessing gigantic gas reserves is

not enough for it. It is necessary to put steady efforts into the development of gas production facilities,” Miller said in a statement. “And we successfully meet this challenge.”

Production capacity was achieved by the commissioning of additional gas treatment facilities. The company stated that the field is one of the largest in the world. “In 2012 we conquered Yamal by starting production from the Bovanen-kovo field. Large fields in Eastern Russia and the continental shelf are next in turn. We continue developing resources in the Nadym-Pur-Taz region, which is prima-ry for us, where the Zapolyarnoye field takes up a special place,” Miller said. “Last December the first trillion cubic metres of gas was produced from this field. To-day, Zapolyarnoye has become the most productive field in the country. From now on, every fifth cubic metre of Russian gas will be produced here, from the Zapoly-arnoye field. It is comparable to the gas volumes that we supplied during the last four years to Germany – our major buyer in Europe,” Miller concluded.

Gas production from Valanginian deposits in Gazprom’s Zapolyarnoye giant field.|GAZPROM

Gazelle, Nord Stream deal final blow to Ukraine

By Kostis Geropoulos

Energyinsider

Opening the Gazelle natural gas pipeline in the Czech Repu-blic, which connects to Russia‘s Nord Stream, provides a vital energy source for the transportation of natural gas to Western Europe, Germany’s RWE said. Gazelle started working on 14 January. Its capacity is expected to be up to 30 billion cubic me-tres of gas per a year. “Construction of the Gazelle pipeline is of major strategic importance for both the Czech Republic and for Europe as a whole,” RWE said in a statement.The 166-kilometre Gazelle connects to the Opal pipeline sys-tem in Germany and the Nord Stream dual pipeline system running through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The second string of Nord Stream went into service in October.Gazelle is part of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom‘s plans to diversify its export options. Konstantin Simonov, the General Director of the National Energy Security Fund in Moscow, told New Europe that the pipeline is very important for decreasing transit risks for Gazprom, especially Ukraine.For its part, the EU wants to diversify away from Russian gas supplies.“It’s easier to avoid Ukraine, when you are speaking our supply to Czech Republic, because Gazprom now has an alternative route,” Simonov said. But it will be difficult to increase the sup-plies of Russian gas to Czech Republic “because it is a very deli-cate political question for the Czechs,” he said. But it’s possible to have the same amount of our gas export to Czech Republic, he added.Gazprom is also waiting to see what will be the situation re-garding European regulators. Gazprom does not want to give third party access to the OPAL and NEL pipelines. “It’s still a problem for Gazprom because Gazprom does not want to see any independent gas producers in its pipeline,” Simonov said.OPAL starts from the maritime Nord Stream‘s landfall point, at Lubmin, runs southward to the German-Czech border, enters into Czech territory, and turns westward into Germany again.NEL runs also from Lubmin, westward to Hamburg and to-ward the border with the Netherlands.Meanwhile, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said construction of the third and fourth Nord Stream pipes is economically feasi-ble. But he noted that the project may be undertaken by ano-ther company, and not by Nord Stream AG that built the first two pipelines through the Baltic Sea.Also, BP is keen to extend the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Bri-tain, Miller said.Simonov told New Europe that Gazprom is suggesting building the third and four pipes across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Britain “to show the European Union it is possible to enlarge gas infrastructure. But, of course, there is no need to build four pipes of Nord Stream, as there is no need to build four pipes of South Stream.”“We have now Nord Stream – two pipes – and then the OPAL pipeline, which really is the prolongation of Nord Stream to Eastern Europe, and NEL, which is a prolongation of Nord Stream to West Germany and Holland,” he said. Simonov sug-gested building a pipeline from Austrian gas hub Baumgarten to Great Britain as a prolongation of the first two Nord Stream pipelines through the Baltic Sea. [email protected] follow on twitter @energyinsider

AER, R20 pursue global green growth crusade in Brazil

Albania, TAP agree Host Government Agreement contents

The Regions of Climate Action (R20) will present its mission in Brazil. R20 will support its members in the implementa-tion of concrete projects in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors, re-sulting in both the creation of green jobs and the reduction of CO2 emissions.

Assembly of European Regions (AER) President Michèle Sabban was on a mission to Brazil on 12-19 January, as

part of her role within the R20, for which she has been appointed Board President by the former Governor of California Ar-nold Schwarzenegger. She was expected to meet with the governors of the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Sabban is indeed accompanying Schwarzenegger’s green crusade, in which territories are role models for the rest of the international community, the AER

said in a press release. “In less than a year since it started operating, in early 2012, the R20 was able to generate for several of its members - regions and federal states - a first portfolio of up to $1 billion in funda-ble projects with its technology partners. To date, the R20 is finalising the funding of several hundred million dollars coming from private investors for such projects,” the AER said.

On 18 January, the Albanian Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) initialled a Host Government Agree-ment (HGA), thereby formally securing the contents of the HGA, prior to ratifi-

cation in the coming months, TAP said in a press release.

The Host Government Agreement sets out the parameters of engagement between TAP and the Albanian Govern-ment as the project progresses.

“This is another great step forward in the realisation and development of TAP, which will contribute to advan-cement of Albania’s gas market,” TAP’s Managing Director Kjetil Tungland said.


20 - 26 January, 2013

What future for the UK in Europe?This year the UK marks its fortieth anniversa-ry of membership of the EU. The Common Market of 40 years ago was a very different beast to the EU of 2013. As a former imperial power the UK has a hi-story of reaching out to and trading with the rest of the world. Consequent on this, the UK maintains strong links with many coun-tries throughout the world, primarily with the United States. In this context, it is hardly surprising that the UK political establishment has never fully embraced our membership of the EU.None of this is helped by the fact that main-stream media in the UK covers very little of what actually happens in Brussels. How can we have an informed debate about the UK’s

future relationship with the EU when few people understand the impact the EU has on their daily lives?In the past this may not have mattered, but now it does. As the Eurozone moves towards fiscal union it is increasingly unlikely that the status quo terms of EU membership that the UK has can continue. This is now no longer an academic matter. The UK’s position will hopefully become clearer later this month when David Came-ron makes his much publicised speech on the subject. The expectation is that he will state that the UK needs to remain inside the single market, but that he will commit to a renegot-iation of the UK’s terms of membership, with negotiations beginning after the next election. With Cameron refusing to countenance a UK

withdrawal, it is hard to see what can be rene-gotiated, especially when many of his fellow European leaders are warning him that they see no chance for him to demand the return of significant powers from the EU in the fore-seeable future.Cameron’s proposed referendum would be on renegotiated terms, not our current member-ship. This will have a significant impact on people’s attitudes, even if those renegotiated terms are insignificant. We live in uncertain times with many individuals and businesses feeling insecure. It is likely that the three main political leaders, the mainstream media, the trade unions and the business lobby would campaign to stay in the EU. As David Cameron puts the finishing touches to his speech on Europe, he would do well to

reflect on the words of two of his predeces-sors, both called Harold. Harold Wilson once said that “a week was a long time in politics” while Harold Macmillan said “events, dear boy, events”. When we look at the EU and in particular the Eurozone we see rapid change as politicians fight to tackle problems that at times seem beyond their control. A week is certainly a long time in EU politics at present!Whilst the future shape of the EU remains uncertain, one thing we can be sure of, whether orchestrated by the UK or not, the terms of UK membership of the EU will chan-ge. If David Cameron is not to be buffeted by events, he needs to set out a clear and deli-verable vision for the UK and its relationship with the EU. Crucially, he must then lead and deliver on that vision.

By Richard Hyslop

On 20 November an American company called Cloud Imperium Games successfully completed two funding requests. The com-pany needed support for a PC game it wanted to develop called Star Citizen. The money raised from these two requests amounted to $6,238,563.

A software firm raising several million dollars to create a new game is not unusual. What is unusual is that the company recei-ved the funding from over 55,000 backers. To come up with the cash, they turned to crowd funding. The concept is not new. The first known case of a crowd funding project was for a music tour in 1997. Since then, the idea has become markedly more popular.

In a world of bank liquidity problems and government spending cuts, small businesses have had to bear a heavy burden. This might not be quite so serious if European economies were not in such severe need of growth. There is much debate about whether austerity is the solution to the euro area‘s woes. However, the-re seems to be little doubt among economists about the need for many more high-growth companies able to generate profits, jobs and tax revenue.

For entrepreneurs with an idea, it is not obvious where funds can be raised. Banks are afraid to lend money in the current climate and often require more security against the loan than that available to the typical bright young person. Business angels are important, but Europe needs more of them and it is not always easy for an entrepreneur to get access to them. Venture capital is typically reserved for companies with some traction, that might need 1-3 million euros, and that have an IPO

in their sights. In contrast, crowd funding ena-bles requests to be made to the public – or at least the internet-using public. It is for this rea-son that Cloud Imperium Games were able to tap tens of thousands of investors. Clearly, the average transaction size was not large, but the total raised was. They raised over $2 million from a platform called Kickstarter.

Just as the internet has flattened structures in other business sectors, such as stock bro-king and publishing, crowd funding is a po-tential threat to the venture capital industry. The only difference is that VC‘s invest with the intention of a spectacular return, whereas the crowd invests because they would like to see a project become real. Think of it as a de-mocratisation of small-scale start-up capital.

There are many crowd funding websites,

with Kickstarter almost certainly the leader amongst them. Other important players in the sector include Indiegogo, Rock the Post and Gambitious. Each of these sites has something of a niche – Gambitious, for example, was launched in the Netherlands and focuses on funding for computer games, while Rock the Post focuses on legitimate revenue-generating businesses and rejects the majority of the re-quests it receives.

These sites work on an all-or-nothing ba-sis. If a project is not fully funded, it receives none of the money. If, however, the project is fully funded, the platform takes a small percentage as a fee from the total transaction amount.

What is certain is that tech-savvy entre-preneurs can reach a wide audience via social

media and their own large networks and raise the few thousand they might need to get their project or business idea off the ground.

Needless to say, there are potential pro-blems with crowd financing a project. The first and most obvious is that the entrepreneur is exposing his or her idea to the world at a very early stage, enabling others to copy it. Le-gal protection is not offered by the platforms, and without patents and copyrights there may be no legal protection at all. For artistic ven-tures this is less of a potential problem since the money will typically enable the creative project to begin.

As I investigate this area of online busi-ness, something that stands out is the lack of a European platform. Kickstarter, for example, currently only allows projects from either the United States or the United Kingdom. While that makes sense for a company based in New York, it is not particularly helpful for entrepre-neurs based in Spain, Ireland or Malta.

Considering the European Single Market and the fledgling Digital Single Market, this is an idea that could be very helpful across the entire EU. There are options as to how such sites could operate, either nationally or across the Union. This is the kind of project that would require sensible rules but not be overly burdened by additional layers of bureaucracy.

If ever there were an idea that it would be useful for governments to fund and then allow entrepreneurs to make the best use of it they can, this would seem to be it. It is an idea we Europeans need to embrace if we want to ena-ble the bright, ambitious and hard-working people with good ideas amongst us to flourish now and in the future.

Entrepreneurs need us to show them the money

By Anna Maria Darmanin

Anna Maria Darmanin is the Vice President for Com-munication at the Eu-ropean Economic and Social Committee

The founders of Kickstarter have raised $461 million for over 35,000 projects | KicKsTarTer

15EU-WORLDNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

Towards the EU-Celac summit - More of the same?European Union leaders and their coun-

terparts in Latin America and the Ca-ribbean are getting ready to meet again,

this time in Chile, at the end of January 2013.It will, for the first time, be called the EU-

CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) Summit, following the re-cent creation of this organisation owing to the dissatisfaction among various governments of the Americas with the performance of the OAS (Organisation of American States).

In 2010, the Madrid Declaration of the same EU-LAC Summit spoke of addressing “the global consequences of the economic and financial crisis,” applying “macroecono-mic and financial policies designed to prevent future financial crises” and emphasising “the need to reinforce support for vulnerable and poor people”.

Other commitments included the promo-tion of “integrated strategies as well as public policies—including social protection and fiscal policies—aimed at eradicating poverty and reducing inequality and social exclusion”.

Over the last three years, however, most governments did precisely the opposite.

The cuts in Spain, for example, took open unemployment up to 25 per cent, youth un-employment to over 50 per cent and, only days ago, the European Union called on the country to apply even greater austerity.

Not to mention Greece, Portugal or Italy. The cuts have led Europe into a recession.

On this side of the Atlantic, there is growth with social exclusion and it would seem that this policy is set to continue.

There have been three slaughters in recent years, that of Changuinola, San Félix and Co-lón, in which demonstrators were killed, inju-red and maimed.

The real exercise of the right to education in Panama is debatable, to say the least.

Likewise in Peru, rapid growth, driven by mining operations, has done nothing to free it from being one of the countries with the lowe-st level of investment in education.

Moreover, as a result of its free trade agree-ments, quinoa, a staple known for its high nu-tritional value, is being exported on a massive scale, pushing up its price on the national mar-ket and subsequently reducing its consumpti-on among the peoples of this Andean country.

In Chile, social inequality is being de-nounced by the country’s secondary school and university students, who are calling for free and quality education, while many parlia-mentarians view making a profit out of educa-tion as a normal business.

Paraguay is no exception, especially with the new de facto government, which will not be invited to the Summit. The Chilean hosts would clearly rather have Brazil, Argentina and various other Union of South American Nation members attend than to see Paraguay’s disgraceful Franco.

Despite the spectacular growth in GDP over recent years, Paraguay still has nothing that even resembles a system of wealth redis-tribution and not even the International Mo-netary Fund (IMF), which recently discove-red that inequality is bad for growth, is able to convince it otherwise.

Its parliament, with its law on micro, small and medium enterprises, has shot the national economy in the foot, cutting the wages of the-se companies’ employees and robbing them of

the human right to social security.The fiscal reform has been a farce. The

banks, which used to pay 30 per cent tax on income, now pay just 10 per cent.

The region’s exceptions to the rule are Ar-gentina, which invests 6.5 per cent of its GDP in education, Brazil, where the government has taken 35 million people out of poverty, and Uruguay, where the Broad Front (Frente Amplio) has taken poverty down from 39 per cent to 13 per cent.

FREE tRaDE

So the question is: what has happened to the commitments on social issues undertaken by the EU and Latin America and the Carib-bean?

The answer is easy.The association agreements promoted

by Europe have been created in response to North American logic and the fight for market share.

The United States signed a free trade ag-reement with Mexico and Chile years ago.

At the end of the day, however, it is all about securing trade and investment markets.

Europe is also promoting “association ag-reements” with Central America, Mercosur and the Andean Community.

Among the agreements signed, there are, of course, those on trade and investment and those on social cohesion. The difference between the two is that the former are well-crafted, debated and signed, whilst the latter are filed away in official draws until the next summit.

At the Chile Summit, the idea is to discuss “investments of social and environmental qua-lity to promote employment and sustainable development”.

In a European market that has collapsed, where there is currently no room for invest-ments, Europeans must want to expand them in a region that is growing.

In return, by way of compensation, they will talk about the possibility of Mexican, Brazilian and Chilean businesses investing in the old continent. And, faithful to the traditi-on outlined above, the topic that will really be discussed is investment.

Meanwhile, Europe’s citizens are hoping to return to the welfare state from which they are being evicted by right-wing governments.

They are looking on with curiosity, sur-prise and even hope at what is happening in some countries in the Southern Cone. Not to mention the Latin Americans, who have never lived in a welfare state.

Originally appeared in equaltimes.org

By Víctor Báez Mosqueira

In Chile, students made headlines around the world with their protests against social inequality. The graffiti on this wall reads in Spanish “We are educated to continue serving the rich” |(AP PhoTo/VICTor ruIz CAbAllero)

In Chile, social inequality is being denounced by the country’s secondary school and university students, who are calling for free and quality education, while many parliamentarians view making a profit out of education as a normal business.

16 ARTS & CULTURE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

If you want to learn something about the bonds between European peoples and how immigra-tion has been of mutual benefit, without liste-

ning to the purple prose of our politicians, turn your eyes towards the gentle rolling hills of the Scottish borders.

It’s easy to drive past the small village of Edd-leston, 30 km south of Edinburgh, but it is home to a remarkable history and a monument to a friendship between nations, forged in war, pre-served in peace that is inspiring those who hear about it.

A fifty metre wide, three dimensional map of Scotland was built in the grounds of the Barony Hotel by young Poles in the mid 1970s as a thank you to the people of Scotland, who hosted Polish forces in the area in 1940. The map was set in a sunken pit, originally flooded with water and it even had fifty gravity powered water springs, mar-king the land’s lochs and rivers.

The Great Polish Map of Scotland has fallen into disrepair, but a small band of local enthusiasts are gaining support to help them restore what is the largest map of its kind in the UK and, many believe, the world.

But the story of the map begins in 1940, after

Poland had been overrun and the British retreated from the Dunkirk beaches. Many Polish troops made their way to Scotland, and Barony Castle became a Polish officers’ training college for those charged with defending Scotland from invasion.

These soldiers were under General Maczek, whose unit was the only one never to have lost a battle in the Blitzkrieg of 1939.

To learn the land they were defending, it is believed that a large topographic model of Scot-land was built, but no trace of this survived the war. Maczek’s troops played a vital role in the li-beration of Europe, freeing the towns of Ypres, Ghent and Passchendale in Belgium and then Breda in the Netherlands.

HonoURing SCoTLAnd

The Communist government in post-war Po-land stripped Maczek of his citizenship and he re-mained in Edinburgh, working as a barman in the 1960s, when he was spotted by one of his former soldiers, Jan Tomasik who had bought the Barony Hotel. In the early 1970s, Tomasik decided to build another giant map, possibly prompted by his wartime memories and possibly by a topogra-phic model he had seen at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958. In the 1970s, there was another type

of conflict, the Cold War. However, Tomasik had links with Poland, and using these, Kazimierz Trafas and four other Polish geographers from Ja-giellonian University in Krakow came to the Scot-tish borders to design and build the map in the summers of 1974 and 75 with the local assistance.

Since then, the hotel has changed hands and the map became overgrown and largely forgotten. In 1996 Keith Burns was at the Hotel for busi-ness meeting, “I was walking around the grounds when I almost fell into an overgrown pit and no-ticed something that looked like South West Scot-land. It was completely overgrown and nobody at the hotel knew anything about it at the time.”

Since then, Burns and a group of fellow en-thusiasts have devoted themselves to restoring the map and have founded a small group of 12 to 15 people who have been working to clear away the vegetation and protect the map from further de-terioration.

HonoURing PoLAnd

The group, Mapa Scotland, plan to restore the map to its original condition, “It will cost around £80,000 (€96,600),” He told New Europe, “we’re doing all the work ourselves, we’ve got the skills to do the job.” He estimates that it will take 4 years.

The first hurdles have been passed, now that the group is a registered charity, with the support of Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund, who have promised £20,000. They also have the support of all parties in the Scottish Par-liament, whose Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop said in a debate on the map, “This remarkable map of Scotland recalls the sacrifices of our Polish Allies, and I am delighted it will now be protected and secured for future generations through the awarding of listed status.”

She continued, “I am hopeful that listed status will raise the profile of the map, and attract the in-creased numbers of visitors which this remarkable structure rightly deserves.“

They also have the support of the Polish Con-sul, based in Edinburgh, and that shouldn’t be a surprise because he is Tomasz Trafas, the brot-her of the geographer who supervised the map’s construction.

Recognition for the project is growing. To the restorers, the map is “a fundamentally important symbol of historical and cultural links between Scotland and Poland going back as far as the 15th century,” says Keith Burns and others agree.

“I was delighted to hear that this unique mo-nument has been listed by Historic Scotland, in recognition of the long-standing ties which exist between Poland and the United Kingdom. It is a reminder of darker days in Europe‘s history but also of the spirit of friendship and solidarity forged in times of adversity, which the European Union epitomises today,” Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth said.

HonoURing EACH oTHER

Today, the map is being restored by enthusias-tic Scots to thank the Poles for their contribution to Scotland, not just in war but also in peace.

While extreme figures in politics point to im-migrants as the source of all that is wrong, the map is a forceful reminder that migrant communities have been around far longer than these people claim and have made a far greater contribution, then and now, to our shared Europe.

ADVERTISEMENT

The great Polish map of ScotlandAn unusual and inspiring example of friendship between nationsBy Andy Carling

Having studied in Poland myself i was struck then by the affinity of the Poles towards the Scots,” said SnP Alyn Smith, MEP, “indeed, Scottish-Polish links have always been very strong and this link has never been stronger than it was during the Second World War. This map com-memorates this bond, and the sacrifices made at that time, and i am delighted that it is being supported and preserved. This remarkable structure should serve as a reminder of these times, and the friendships that have sustained over many centuries.“ -Alyn Smith MEP

Be a map maker!Mapa Scotland welcome queries and offers of assistance. For queries about membership and project plans, contact the Secretary, Keith Burns, at [email protected]. For more about the history and background of the Great Map, contact Roger Kelly at [email protected]. They can be found on the internet: www.facebook.com/mapascotland and www.mapascotland.makers.org.ukMembership is £10 a year.

CREDIT: MAPA SCOTLAND

Mapa Scotland clearing the map .| Mapa Scotland

17fashion & styleNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

‘Hollywood Costume’ is an exhibition held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, (until

January 27th, 2013), which is mainly sponsored by iconic jeweler, Harry Winston, and includes over 100 of the most famous film-characters’ costumes of all times, from the early silent years to contemporary digitally enhanced productions.

This ambitious exhibition faced two challenges. The first difficulty was to assemble a collection of disparate items that are hard to find. In her book ‘Dressed, A Century of Hollywood Costume Design’ (2007), Deborah Nadoolman Landis, who is also one of the curators of the exhibition,

explains: “Studios routinely discard ancillary design materials from the costume and art departments, including costume design illustrations now cherished by collectors…Not long after a movie has wrapped, its entire costume department disappears.” According to Landis, only recently has there been an interest in conserving film archives, from costume budgets to photographs and fabric samples.

Another important challenge was to put the costumes into context: video screens with the actors’ heads were placed above each costume, thus bringing the characters to life. Visitors will smile at the sight of the entire Addams family with Morticia’s eyes twitching above her web-like dress, Gomez’ chilling smile and the children’s natural gloominess.

The costumes were also enhanced by extracts of films, which were projected all around the exhibition, and helped recreate many of the cinema’s most iconic moments.

Indeed, the peculiarity of film costumes is that they have to be adapted to the two-dimensional world of the flat screen, as the camera lens flattens and distorts all images. In this ‘art of illusion’, all costumes are reworked, colours and textures are exaggerated and magnified, and silhouettes are modified to appear realistic through the photographic lens.

Moreover, costumes are essential to the image’s coherence, as colour and shape bring symmetry and balance to the frame, while expressing emotions.

Costumes serve to communicate implicit information about the characters: their “identity, ethnicity, economic and social status and personality…” for instance. They also inform us about the period in which the film takes place, its genre, its themes and dramatic context. The best of costumes “disappear into the narrative” as

the designers work with the actors’ own personality and physical traits to fulfill the director’s requirements.

For instance, there have been numerous Hollywood versions of Cleopatra, but the character played by Claudette Colbert in the 1934 film, is very different from Elizabeth Taylor’s character in the 1963 version or Monica Bellucci’s one in ‘Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra’ (2002). Depending on the audience’s taste and mood at particular time, there have been Art Deco, ‘Orientalist’, or Cartoon-esque Cleopatras.

The exhibition was given a script-like aesthetic and is thus divided into three ‘Acts’. In the first part, or ‘Act 1: Deconstruction’, visitors are given a peak into the creative research process that goes into making costumes. Several imposing ‘historical’ costumes steal the show, like pieces from Alexandra Byrne’s ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’ (2007), which are contrasted by Adrian’s 1938 costumes for ‘Marie Antoinette’ and Milena Canonero’s ones for Sophia Coppola’s 2006 version.

‘Act 2: Dialogue’ makes use of clever technology to allow visitors to watch filmed interviews of the directors and costume makers, who are projected onto different screens and facing each other, while sketches and photographs are also projected onto a table, thus giving an impression of costume design ‘in the making’.

A section is also dedicated to famous actors including Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in the very different characters they have impersonated throughout their long career, which highlights the idea of ‘transformation’.

In the last section, ‘Act 3: Finale’, visitors will be thrilled to recognize some of the most famous faces of their ‘movie watching’ memory. Among them, Hubert de Givenchy’s iconic dress for Audrey Hepburn as ‘Holly

Golightly’ in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (1961), Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie’s designs for Nicole Kidman as ‘Satine’ in ‘Moulin Rouge’ (2001), Ellen Mirojnick’s white dress for Sharon Stone in the interrogation scene of ‘Basic Instict’ (1992), Kym Barrett’s costumes for ‘Matrix’ (1999), and Judianna Makovsky’s outfit for ‘Harry Potter’ (2001), among numerous others.

Traditionally, Hollywood gives an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, each February during the Oscars. The most successful Costumer Designer ever, with 35 nominations and 8 awards, has been American designer Edith Head, who died in 1981, aged 84. Last year, the prize went to Mark Bridges for Michel Hazanavicius’ film, ‘The Artist’ (2011).

All images Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Louise [email protected]

Costume Première‘Hollywood Costume’ Exhibition: Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, 2007 WAlt DisnEy PiCturEs/thE KobAl CollECtion

titanic, 199720th CEntury Fox/PArAmount/thE KobAl CollECtion

Elizabeth: the Golden Age, 2007univErsAl/WorKinG titlE/thE KobAl CollECtion/

GrEG WilliAms

taxi Driver, 1976ColumbiA/thE KobAl CollECtion

the Wizard of oz, 1939mGm/thE KobAl CollECtion

18 BRUSSELS AGENDA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

UnplUgged, in tUne AB SeSSionS 24 JAn, Ancienne BelgiqUe

Brussels’ finest music venue has been hosting ‘un-plugged’ sessions and special performances by a wi-de range of artists, over 250 in four seasons, including Rodrigo Y Gabriella, Calexico, Jamie Woon and Mer-cury Prize winner Alt-J.The venue has now made their Acoustic Backstage Sessions into an annual series.The 2013 season kicks off with some of Belgium’s fi-nest performers, all doing something a little different.Stef Kamil Carlens from the Zita Swoon Group was in the very first session in 2008 and returns with a ra-re solo performance. Love Like Birds had their first session released on vinyl (how gloriously retro!) and fragile and dreamy voice of Elke De Mey recalls the voice of Karen Dal-ton, Emiliana Torrini and CocoRosie. Perfect for the

dark days at the beginning of a new year.Oscar And The Wolf also made it to disc and are said to be infused with the spirit of Bon Iver for their de-but, ‘Summer Skin.’Imaginary Family came from nowhere last year, with a debut single, ‘The Bird Watcher’ taking off.There will also be a surprise guest, just to make the evening even more special.

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

FPA076-NewEurope 84x255.indd 1 8/09/11 12:35

Unplugged, in tune Fancy seeing some top-class ice skating and famous Disney characters at the same time?

Pop in!thomAS BAyrle: All in one 9 FeB to 12 mAy, WielS

The artist, Thomas Baryle has been a key part of the Pop Art movement since the 1960s and Wiels is presenting a retrospective exhibition of his work . Bayrle has worked as an artist and a graphic desig-ner since the mid 1960s, inventing a unique visual language through the production of collages, pain-tings, sculptures, films and books. In the process, he built an important body of work that is surpri-singly consistent, obsessive even, combining al-legiances to Pop, Conceptual and Op art alike wi-th wry humor. Despite this, and indeed despite his far-reaching influence on a whole new generation of artists through his tenure as professor at the renowned Städelschule in Frankfurt between 1975 and 2002,

he remains relatively little known to the general public. f you want the best introduction, there is a special evening event. On 13 March at 7pm, Bayr-le will be giving a guided tour of the exhibition, tickets are €8.

If so, then the upcoming and mu-ch-awaited Disney on Ice show in Brussels will be right up your street.Promoted by leading Belgian show organizer Gracia Live, Dis-ney on Ice is all about Mickey and Minnie’s journey around the world during which they visit Pe-ter Pan in London, Lilo and Stitch in Hawaii, the Little Mermaid in her underwater world and Timon and Pumba in the Savannah. Not to be outdone, Daisy, Goofy and Donald Duck are also be involved in a show which will delight both those who enjoy ice skating and favourite Disney characters from yesteryear and the present.The skating in this particular production is of the hi-ghest quality and audiences are „transported” to Dis-neyland for two wonderful and captivating hours. People of all ages and backgrounds will love seeing the show and those who „know figure skating” will appreciate the triple jumps, the difficult spins, the pair skating lifts and throws, the ice dance lifts and

many other athletic figure skating moves.Whenever the show has appeared in Brussels in the past it has proved a big hit with tickets selling out fast. So you’ve been warned!The show , which makes for a great school half term break for the kids, is in French at Forest National at 2pm on 13 to 15 February and at 11am, 2.30pm and 6pm on 16 February and 11am and 2.30pm on 17 February. It is also being staged in Dutch at An-twerp.Further information,including ticket details, are available via www.disneyonice.be

Blue Elephant, ch.de Waterloo (tel 02 374 4962); www.blueelephant.comImagine walking into a (cove-red) garden full of orchids. Even when it‘s pouring outside, there is always plenty of light. What a treat from the grey Belgian sky on a bleak January day. That’s the welcome awai-ting you at the Blue Elephant Group’s flagship Thai restaurant in Uccle.The Sunday brunch is outstanding and well worth the expense, in a beautiful set-ting with fresh flowers and an atmosphere you rarely experience in restaurants.For visitors to London, it’s also well worth remembering that the Group’s latest flagship re-staurant, in Chelsea Harbour, is celebrating its first anniversary.Having relocated from its former home of 25 years in nearby Fulham, the wonderful Imperial Wharf restaurant has proved as big as hit as any in the Group and is overseen by Thai chef Nooror Somany Steppe, the award-winning head chef and Blue Elephant Group founder.In its first year, the terrifically-evocative establishment (tel: 0044 20 7751 3111), managed by Lyon-born Tiphaine Darre, has proved to be arguably the city’s most iconic Thai restaurants and further enhances the reputation of a Group which also boasts a cooking school, deli and its very own grocery line.As with all restaurants in the group, the food is absolutely exquisite, the service spot on and, in this case, the location among the best in town. Not to be missed!

resto Bites

Tickets are €14 from the venue or www.abconcerts.be

More information from [email protected]

Thomas Bayrle, Christel von der Post Office, 1970silkscreen print on cardboard, 48.5 x 49.7 cmcourtesy of Barbara Weiss Gallery, Berlin

Stef Kamil Carlens

19ARTS & CULTURENEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

Berlaymonster, the witty Euro-ferret, started promoting the hashtag #EUApps on the social site Twitter. He encour-aged the Twitter community to suggest applications that the European institu-tions should develop to facilitate, for instance, journalist’s work.

The idea was defined by one of Twitter us-ers as “hilarious merge between technol-ogy & the EU-sphere”. Below are some tweets that New Europe considers the EU has to take into account:

Sleep Cycle alarm clock - Intelligent alarm clock that analyses your sleep dur-ing EU briefings and wakes you up during journos Q&A”

Trip Advisor - Recommends drug com-binations to get you through the midday

briefing

SmartApp - automatically adds the word “Smart” to any policy initiative

Flipflopboard - generates plausible justi-fications for policy reversals and publishes them directly on EU-subsidised media

History Eraser Pro - Design your House Of European History! Virtual, just like the real thing, but cheaper!

Facelessbook - social media for Eurocrats

Farmville - cultivate your subsidies!

LinkedIn - helping Commission high fly-ers get jobs in lobby firms

jobr - automatically adds a paragraph on

growth and jobs in any speech or press release

Dalligo - photo-editing software for removing unwanted commissioners

AutoPost - Automatically posts euro-bashing ‘EU to blame for..’ news articles. Can be set to broadsheet (daily) or tab-loid (hourly)

Tumblr - Latest updates on eurozone GDP figures.

EUTube - videos of cats performing “Ode to Joy”

Unhipstamatic - Adds a podium and blue flag background to any photo

Super Mario - Can the humble plumber

get through the maze and fight the evil Berlusconi and restore the Euro?

Stumblr - shows you the route back to your hotel after a late night in Les Avia-teurs.

Twitcaster - all the news from Eu-roparlTV

Yelp - sets off an alert everytime @BrunoBrussels enters Berlaymont

Roadmap - GPS-based navigational tool gets you halfway to where you want to go...in 10 years

Swype - hide your tracks from OLAF with this useful app!

SpokeSiri - provides enigmatic answers to journalists’ questions in soothing tones

Twitter suggests satirical apps the EU should produce

Democracy in Europe Are you a Shakespeare enthusiast?

filmingshakespeare.com

The world’s fi rst digital Shakespearean short fi lm competition

Do you make Independent Films?

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With Mario Monti, Sylvie Goulard, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Béatrice Delvaux & Guy Verhofstadt

Wedn esday 30.01.2013 – 20:00 Centre for fine arts

The Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, and Sylvie Goulard, a member of the European Parliament, recently brought out a book on democracy in Europe (published by Flamma-rion). Monti and Goulard will be at the Centre for Fine Arts on 30 January for an exclusive discus-sion of the issues in question, in which Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Béatrice Delvaux will also take part. The discussion will be introduced by Guy Verhofstadt. Europeans would like to be as strong as they would be if Europe were united - and to pre-serve as much national sovereignty as if it were not. This contradiction has become untenable.

For the crisis, over and above the financial and debt turmoil, has demonstrated the extent of our interdependence and shown the flaws of democracy in Europe. Which is why this is a good time to reread Toc-queville. According to him, the march towards equality has been irresistible for centuries: it requires us to create, through voluntary coo-peration, a democracy of the people, in which Europeans would jointly choose those who would govern them, and for the people, at the service of the well-being of all. This book asks us to replace blind instinct with knowledge of our interests, to discover the deep affinities that link Europeans, and to re-gain our confidence.To bring Europe out of the crisis, we need to see further ahead.

20 TECHNOLOGY NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

World-wide PC‘s shipments drop-ped 6% during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to figures pu-

blished by the research groups IDC and Gart-ner.

Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa called the drop a „structural shift“, because people prefer to buy tablets instead of new computers.

“Tablets have dramatically changed the de-vice landscape for PCs, not so much by ‚canni-balising‘ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than repla-cing older PCs,“ said Kitagawa.

Despite Microsoft launched its Windows 8 OS in October 2012, consumers no longer see PCs as a good purchase. Other products, such as tablets and smartphones, are attracting their attention.

This decline is the first one during the holiday season in more than five years. Some-thing that could mean a problem for Microsoft, which derives half its profit from sales of Win-dows licences.

According to Tami Reller, head of the Windows 8 division, the company sold more than 60 million licenses of its latest operating system in its first ten weeks. However, not all of them were sold to PC manufacturers, also companies which do not buy PCs needed the OS. Hewlett-Packard (HP) established its po-sition as the biggest PC company in the world during the quarter. IDC affirmed that the com-pany shipped 15 million PCs, down 0.6% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Lenovo was the second one on the list, shipping 14.1 million personal compu-ters, an 8.2% increase from a year earlier. The third position is for Dell, which shipped 9.5 million PCs, down 20.8% from 2011.

Apple has not yet reveal how many com-puters it sold during the last quarter of 2012. The company will release this data along with its financial results on 23 January.

For the full year, PC shipments fell 3.2% to 352.4 million, according to IDC.

NR

PC sales drop 6%, users choose tablets

Malware targeted institutions like the European CommissionThe Russian computer security firm Kas-

persky Lab has discovered a new cyber-attack that may have been targeting go-

vernment institutions and stealing confidential documents since at least 2007.

Because the malicious software behind the attack was discovered in October 2012, the firm has named it “Red October”, in honour of the famous Tom Clancy novel.

According to an announcement on Kaspersky’s site, the malware was designed to defeat a common encryption scheme that‘s used by NATO and institutions such as the Europe-an Union, European Parliament and European Commission. They were also focusing on re-search institutions, energy and nuclear groups, and trade and aerospace targets.

Besides, Red October is capable of stealing information from mobile phones, routers and reinstall itself even if removed, due to its “resur-rection“ module, as well as recover deleted files from removable disk drives.

“The primary focus of this campaign targets countries in Eastern Europe, former USSR Re-publics, and countries in Central Asia, although victims can be found everywhere, including Western Europe and North America”, wrote the Russian firm.

Among the different documents stolen by Red October, Kaspersky Lab has identified ge-opolitical intelligence, credentials to access clas-sified computer systems, and data from personal mobile devices and network equipment.

In addition, to control the network of in-fected machines, the attackers created more

than 60 domain names and several server ho-sting locations in different countries; the majo-rity of them in Germany and Russia. But, how did they infected those machines? “The atta-ckers sent a targeted spear-phishing email to a victim that included a customized Trojan drop-per”, explained the company.

Researchers added that “in order to install the malware and infect the system the malicious email included exploits that were rigged for se-curity vulnerabilities inside Microsoft Office and Microsoft Excel.”

Despite the firm didn‘t identify the atta-ckers, according to the registered data “there is strong technical evidence to indicate the atta-ckers have Russian-speaking origins.”

Kaspersky‘s research indicated there were 55,000 connection targets within 250 different IP addresses. A 100-page report will be publis-hed later this week, the company said.

NR

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21TECHNOLOGYNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

EU cloud computing strategy criticisedThe European Commission’s recent Com-munication on “Unleashing the potential of cloud computing in Europe” has been criti-cised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in an opinion adopted at yesterday’s plenary session.The EU’s goals for Cloud Computing should go beyond simply promoting its uptake. “They should help businesses and public admini-strations to become ‘cloud active’ by offering cloud-based services and make Europe ‘cloud productive’ by providing cloud infrastructure”, said Eric Pigal (Workers Group, France), rap-porteur for the opinion.To promote the use of cloud, the EESC has backed the Commission’s suggestion to do away with the plethora of technical standards and create EU-wide certification schemes for cloud service providers. It has also come out in favour of drafting model conditions for CC contracts in service level agreements and deve-loping cloud-based public sectors.The EESC argues that special incentives are needed to bring this about. “Under current market conditions, expanding the use of the cloud in Europe will inevitably strengthen non-European operators”, said Mr Pigal, who is also concerned over the “dominance of non-European operators” in cloud computing.The EESC suggests an online dispute resolu-tion scheme modelled on one that has been well tested in the equally globalised and inter-national context of e-commerce. “Since it has to be independent and impartial, this mediati-on could be entrusted to an existing or a new European agency. Its expertise and knowledge of recurring problems could further be used to adjust practices and regulations”, said Mr Pigal.

Major US banks, such as Bank of America, PNC Bank and HSBC, have asked the Natio-nal Security Agency (NSA) for help to protect their computer systems, due to the big number of cyberattacks that disrupted their Web sites lately.

According to industry officials, those at-tacks started a year ago and intensified in Sep-

tember 2012. Besides, attackers are increasin-gly using more sophisticated tactics and new measures are needed to stop them and protect clients.

Illegal actions against the banks are known as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), an at-tack where multiple infected systems are used to target a single system.

US banks, NSA to tackle cyberattacks

Pirate Bay server becomes museum piece

Pirate Bay’s original server at the omputer Museum in Linkoping, Sweden

Despite countries‘ and industry‘s opposi-tion, the Pirate Bay has changed the way people consume entertainment and,

due to its social and technological history, its ser-ver is now a museum show piece at the Computer Museum in Linkoping, Sweden.

During the past year, Google has removed over 600,000 links from the Pirate Bay and the site has been blocked by a big number of govern-ments around the world since 2008. Was in this year when the site was blocked in its home, Den-mark. In 2011 the file-sharing site was blocked in Belgium, where two alternative domain names were registered and also banned last year. On 4 May 2012, the Pirate bay was blocked in India, but two months later the Madras High Court ruled that only specific web addresses will be un-available.

The famous site has been also banned in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Norway, China, Sweden and the United King-dom. In September, Google decided to restrict Pi-rate Bay‘s presence on the search engine, in an at-tempt to stop people using copyright content and enforce its position as a big pirate links‘ censor.

Two months later, the Pirate Bay was shut down after legal threats from the music industry in the UK and on 7 January, the site began wor-king again after a 18 hour shut down.

Even after all this censorship, suspicious shut downs and restrictions, Pirate Bay‘s server is the top peace of a museum‘s exhibition dedicated to 50 years of file-sharing.

According to the museum the site has be-come a contemporary historical phenomenon and the server signifies “a revolution that begun in a dark grey metal box under a bed.”

This year, the Pirate Bay celebrates its tenth anniversary and to be in a museum is a good gift that all computer geeks will enjoy.

The server exhibited is the original one and the only changes being made to it is the placement of a glass panel that shows off its antiquated inter-nals. Besides, it is inscribed with a short history of the Pirate Bay and its founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg. “The discussions that have sprung from this simple computer server concerns serious sub-jects as freedom of speech, global democracy and of course the sole existence of copyright”, say the Swedish museum.

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22 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

GERMANY | AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

VW’s record sales in 2012Volkswagen posted record-breaking global sales in 2012, up 11% at 9.07 million vehicles, but the ambitious German au-tomaker continues to trail Japanese rival Toyota, The Local reported on 14 January. VW, which aspires to be the world’s biggest automaker by 2018, has a fair way to go to surpass the current champion, as Toyota has forecast that 2012 sales will jump 22% to 9.7 million vehicles. GM, which briefly regained the crown after Toyota’s supplies were shattered by the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, has not yet forecast or rele-ased its global sales figures for last year. VW chief Martin Win-terkorn expressed confidence for the future. “This industry re-mains a growth industry worldwide and in this country,” Win-terkorn said on the eve of the Detroit auto show. However sa-les chief Christian Klingler cautioned progress could be slower this year if the situation in Europe continues to deteriorate. “Present uncertainties will intensify in 2013,” he said, adding “markets remain challenging, competition is getting tougher.” The 12-brand giant’s sales jumped 34% in the United States, eight per cent in South America and 25% in China, VW’s lar-gest market with 2.81 million vehicles sold last year. The group hopes to sell „well in excess” of 600,000 Volkswagens and Au-dis in the United States this year, up marginally from 596,100 in 2012. Sales were stable overall in Europe despite the econo-mic crisis, but were down 6.5% in Western Europe excluding Germany at 1.85 million.

DENMARK | JOBS

Sonera may cut over 200 jobsTelecommunications company Sonera may be cutting 235 jobs under a new organisational set-up merging customer ser-vices units and making adjustments to the company’s mobi-le communications technology division, YLE News reported on 14 January. The reorganisation of customer services may lead to the loss of 135 jobs. Sonera said it will be concentra-ting its mobile communications technology in fewer localiti-es which may trim 100 employees from the payroll. Sonera is currently engaged in talks with employee representatives on restructuring in its consumer business operations that may le-ad to 40 job cuts. At the end of the year, the company announ-ced the elimination of 80 jobs, after the completion of staff re-duction consultations.

GERMANY | TECHNOLOGY

SAP software sales soar but profits slumpGerman technology firm SAP saw its sales jump to a record high last year, bolstering its position as Europe’s biggest busi-ness software manufacturer. But a drop in operating profit has disappointed investors, Deutshe Welle reported on 15 Janu-ary. Revenue from SAP software and software-related services grew 14% in 2012 to reach a total of €16.2 billion ($21.6 billi-on), the German business software manufacturer announced last week. In terms of revenue, 2012 was the best-ever year in company history, SAP said, noting that its strategy to expand into so-called cloud-based business solutions and database technology was proving successful. However, operating pro-fit dropped 17% to € 4.1 billion, the Waldorf-based company disclosed, as investments in sales and distribution, as well as in the takeover of business commerce network Ariba, weighed heavily on profits. Meanwhile, SAP founder Hasso Plattner no longer sees Europe’s biggest software manufacturer as an easy target for hostile takeover bids. Plattner said he was con-vinced SAP would soon break the € 100-billion mark in terms of stock market value, after doubling its value in the past three years to a current € 97 billion.

BASF confirmed its offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Pro-nova BioPharma ASA, Lysaker, Norway, and is increasing its cash offer price to 13.50 Norwegian crowns per share (pre-viously 12.50 crowns), The Company re-ported on 15 January.

The offer period expires on 18 Janua-ry, 2013 and will not be extended.

The increased offer corresponds to a premium of 34% above the volu-me-weighted average share price for Pronova’s shares in the six months prior to announcement of the public take-over offer. Based on all outstanding shares and including all net financial liabilities, the enterprise value would be 4,996 million crowns (approximately € 684 million).

All regulatory approvals required for completion of the voluntary offer have been obtained. The offer is subject to fulfilment of all further relevant offer con-ditions, set out in the offer document pu-blished on 5 December, 2012.

As of 14 January, 2013, BASF has re-ceived acceptances under the voluntary

offer for a number of shares representing approximately 70% of the issued shares and votes in Pronova.

Except for Herkules Private Equi-ty ( Jersey-I) LP and Herkules Private Equity ( Jersey-II) LP, all shareholders including those who have tendered their shares to date will be entitled to receive

the increased offer price.BASF is the world’s leading chemical

company. Its portfolio ranges from che-micals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. BASF posted sales of about € 73.5 bil-lion in 2011 and had more than 111,000 employees as of the end of the year.

BASF increases cash offer for Pronova BioPharma

EPA/RALF HIRSCHBERGER

A record number of passengers passed through Copenhagen Airport in 2012, despite a reduction in the number of flights. Over 23 million passengers passed through the airport in 2012, up 2.7% from the year before, Copenhagen Post re-ported on 11 January.

A 7.3% increase in international trans-fers and a 10.2% rise in the number of in-tercontinental passengers contributed to the increase, according to Thomas Wold-bye, the managing director of Copenhagen Airport.

December, however, which traditi-onally is a busy travel month, saw a 0.4% decline compared with the same period in 2011, a development the airport attri-buted to people taking long winter breaks away from Denmark and not returning un-til early 2013. The news of the passenger records came as a surprise considering that the European air-travel business suffered several bankruptcies in 2012, including Danish regional carrier Cimber Sterling. But the passenger rise suggested that air-lines were flying with larger and more effi-

ciently filled airplanes. London remained the top passenger destination for Copen-hagen Airport travellers in 2012, with over 133,000 passengers, followed by Oslo (95,597) and Stockholm (90,955).

July was the busiest month, with over 2.3 million passengers, followed by June (2.2 million) and August (2.14 million) while January was the quietest, with only 1.58 million passengers. Just a month ago, the airport completed at 225 million Danish crowns construction project aimed at ac-commodating the rise in foreign passengers.

Record year for Copenhagen Airport

Sweden’s SKF, the world‘s biggest maker of industrial bearings, announced on 14 January it was cutting 2,500 jobs, a move widely regarded as a tell-tale sign of toug-her times ahead for the manufacturing industry, The Local reported.

SKF launched a cost reduction pro-gramme in 2010 and now aims to red-uce annual costs by 3.0 billion Swedish crowns ($ 464 million) by the end of 2015, including 1.5 billion for the years 2012 to 2015, it said.

“This will impact some 2,500 people primarily through early retirement and other voluntary and agreed reductions,” SKF said in a statement.

The company’s profits were down by a fifth last year.

SKF, which also makes sealants, is an important supplier to many parts of the industrial processing chain and is the-refore regarded as a leading indicator of activity in manufacturing and machine tooling.

It has reported a drop in net profits for four quarters in a row. In the third quarter of 2012, it registered a net profit of 1.23 billion kronor, down 23 percent from a year earlier.

“We had a bad December, especially in the automobile market in Europe but also in North America and Asia,” compa-

ny spokeswoman Ingalill Ostman said.“We expect it to continue at this lo-

wer level at the beginning of this year,” chief executive Tom Johnstone said, ad-ding that inventories were lowered by more than 600 million crowns.

Johnstone said SKF would report re-structuring costs of 200 million crowns in the fourth quarter, as the first step of the programme and 100 million crowns for impairments and write-down of as-sets.

The annual savings from the first step would be 150 million kronor, and affect some 550 people primarily in Italy, Sweden, Ukraine and the United States.

Ball-bearing giant slashes 2,500 jobsSWEDEN | CONSTRUCTION

DENMARK | AVIATION

GERMANY | CHEMICALS

23EUROPEAN UNIONNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

UNITED KINGDOM | MUSIC INDUSTRY

HMV calls in administratorsUp to 300 jobs are under threat at HMV stores in Ireland following the announcement that the company is poised to go into administration in the UK where 4,000 jobs are at risk, Rte Ireland reported on 15 January. The music, film and games retailer has 16 stores in the Republic and ten in Northern Ire-land. HMV in the Republic and the UK is one trading com-pany. HMV said it was calling in the administrators after a last-ditch attempt to secure funding failed. The move brings the curtain down on one of Britain’s best-known high street retail stores. Its shares were suspended on the London stock exchan-ge. The accounting firm Deloitte has been named as the ad-ministrator and intends to keep the business running while it seeks a potential buyer, HMV said in a statement late last ni-ght. The company has struggled amid declining music, DVD and games markets. In December, it warned that a breach of its banking agreements was likely and it had been in talks wi-th its banks to remedy the breach, it said yesterday. „Howe-ver, the board regrets to announce that it has been unable to reach a position where it feels able to continue to trade out-side of insolvency protection, and in the circumstances the-refore intends to file notice to appoint administrators to the company,” HMV said. The company’s chief executive is Tre-vor Moore, who joined HMV last year from camera specialist Jessops, which last week also went into administration. The economic downturn and tough government austerity mea-sures have hit consumer spending and confidence in Britain, and a string of once well-known retail names has disappeared in recent years. Opened on London’s Oxford Street by English composer Edward Elgar in 1921, HMV, famous for its ‚Nip-per the dog’ trademark, grew to become a musical powerho-use, selling records and albums to generations. The firm had a hand in the Beatles’ big break 40 years later, recommending the group’s demo record to publishers. It underlined its status as an industry figure by opening the world’s biggest music en-tertainment store in London in 1984.

AUSTRIA | ECONOMY

GriffnerHaus goes into administrationThe house building firm GriffnerHaus AG went into adminis-tration recently, Austrian Independent reported on 15 January. The excessive debt of €24 million would affect 240 employees and 100 house owners. The total debt adds up to €32.9 million, according to the Kreditschutzverband, a credit reference agen-cy. But Viennese contractor Gunter Kerbler wants to put the company back on its feet. The insolvency filing was made by the Klagenfurt regional court. The board of executive directors res-ponsible for the operative management was already summari-ly dismissed in October. The attempts to get the company back on its feet have been fruitless, potential investors having pulled out. The company was founded in 1982 and offers ready-to-use houses, office and housing areas. The headquarters of the com-pany which has departments in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France is in the south of Austria, in Griffen (Carinthia). Ban-kruptcy showed its first signs in the last months already. Many creditors filed complain because they weren’t being paid. Arno Ruckhofer of the Alpenlandischen Kreditorenverband said the-re had already been heavy sanctions. There are still many questi-ons left. Ruckhofer said: “The insolvency filing is very interesting for me. For example, it doesn’t at all go into what will happen to the company in the future. In companies of this size, it is impor-tant to know what the company is going to do, where things are heading.” Following the bankruptcy, only the Viennese millio-naire Gunter Kerbler, who already has 30% of the shares, would be able to buy the company and take it over. Ruckhofer confir-med the rumours: “From what I know, there have already been concrete discussions.”

Male twins aged 45 from Antwerp in Belgium have been euthanised by Doc-tor David Dufour on 14 December it was revealed by RTL and Het Laaste Nieuws.

Speaking with Doctor Dufour the strain of press attention was obvious as he said that the statements he made to the Flemish daily HLN were really all he could make.

The brothers are from Antwerp and were born deaf, they did not have any terminal illness or constant pain.

They shared an appartment and wor-ked as cobblers and had explained that not being able to see or hear each other once their future blind ness set in would case them insufferable pain.

The Ligue Braille in Brussels com-mented that this was a particular case in which the brothers were deaf at bir-th and one was suffering from further illness, but they were surprised to hear about the case today stating it was not their place to “judge the situation”.

They are the first case of siblings being euthanised together.

Belgium was the second country to legalise euthanasia in 2002 and reforms for further availability of these laws are under review in 2013.

A 33 year old Canadian partially

blind activist with Usher Syndrome who spoke out about the incident expressed her concern to New Europe over this instance in Belgium saying that she uses Tactile with Sign Language to communi-cate, and there are so many varied tech-nologies for the Deafblind to communi-cate and get in touch with the world.

“There are many Deafblind associ-ations in Europe, especially in Belgium, that advocate for growth and empower-ment of Deafblind people into indepen-dent living,” Roschaert said.

In her opinion “There are so many questions raised about how the doctors

simply allowed this, without urging con-sultancy with the Deafblind associations in Belgium, or encouraged the twins to research more into what’s available for them to grow and transition easier into a new life as a Deafblind person once their sight goes. They could have been welcomed into a kind, warm Deafblind community, whom I had the pleasure of meeting on 1 December in Ghent,” she said.

The result seemed to her to be tragic all around, despite the twins being happy in the end. “I just hope this doesn‘t be-come a trend,” Roschaert said.

Twins 45, chose euthanasia over going blind

The Belgian twins were said to be happy and ready when the time came on 14 December

UK luxury brand Burberry beat forecasts with a 9% rise in third quarter underlying revenue after a particularly strong week in the run up to Christmas, RTE Ireland re-ported on 15 January.

The 157-year-old seller of raincoats and leather goods, known for its camel, red and black check pattern, said it made £613 million of revenues in the three months to 31 December.

That compared with analysts‘ ave-rage forecast of £602 million, according to a company poll, and £574 million the same time last year. However the group trimmed its wholesale revenue guidance

for the second half after growth in the US, Asia travel retail and emerging markets was more than offset by weaker European markets. Last September Burberry sent shock waves through the luxury industry by warning of a broad-based slowdown in spending - particularly in China, which had been the driving force of a boom in demand for luxury goods. But it has calmed investors with subsequent state-ments. Third quarter retail revenue was up an underlying 13% to £464 million, with scarves, men’s tailoring and accesso-ries outperforming and the firm selling a higher proportion of goods from its top-

end Prorsum and London lines. Comparable store sales growth was

6% versus analysts‘ consensus forecast of a rise of 2% and a second quarter increase of 1%. Wholesale revenue at £120m was down an underlying 5% and Burberry is now forecasting underlying wholesale re-venue to fall by “a low to mid single-digit percentage” year-on-year in the second half, reflecting lower sales to small spe-cialty accounts in Europe. Its previous guidance was for a broadly unchanged performance.

Third quarter licensing revenue was £29 million, up 4%.

Burberry’s Q3 revenue rises by 9%

Norwegian engineering company Aker Solutions has secured an important five year frame agreement for the execution of contracts across Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Ltd’s brownfield projects on the UK Continental Shelf, Norway Post reported on 15 January.

Although the contract contains no firm spending commitment, an Aker opress release says the anticipated multi-million pound agreement cements the long standing relationship between the two organisations.

Mike Forbes, UK managing director

of Aker Solutions maintenance, modifi-cations and operations (MMO) business said:

“Talisman Sinopec Energy UK Ltd is embarking on an exciting phase in its de-velopment and we are delighted to have been selected for this agreement.”

Aker Solutions secures new UK contract

BELGIUM | MEDICINE

UNITED KINGDOM | RETAIL

UNITED KINGDOM |MANUFACTURE

By Alia Papageorgiou

24 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

SPAIN|LOANS

IMF to visit Spain An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will visit Spa-in on 28 January to complete a second report on banking sec-tor reform in the country, IMF spokeswoman Angela Gavi-ria said. She added that the mission would publish its prelimi-nary findings at the end of the visit, scheduled for 1 February. A final report will be submitted to the authorities and the Eu-ropean Commission in early March, she added.

GREECE|LOANS

Greece secures IMF cashThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Greece was mo-ving in the right direction as it unfroze the next tranche of aid to the debt-ridden Mediterranean country. The €3.24 billion instalment had been frozen as the IMF considered Athens’ economic reforms. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagar-de said Greece had made progress but urged it to do more to boost productivity. “Greece’s fiscal effort has been impressi-ve by any measure,” Lagarde said in a statement. The deep de-ficit slashing the country has been forced to undertake from the beginning of the programme will help get Athens back to the spending levels prior to the crisis and has been designed to protect the most vulnerable,” she said.

ROMANIA|ENERGY

Lukerg plans wind park Lukerg Renew will invest around €135 million to build a wind farm in Eastern Romania, Tulcea region, after acquiring the wind project in late 2012, Business Review reported on 14 January. Lukerg, which is a partnership between Russian oil & gas firm Lukoil and the Italian energy group ERG, will be-gin building works this quarter. The farm is expected to start commercial operations next year. The company will use a long term non-recourse loan to finance the project. The joint ven-ture will initially focus its operations on Bulgaria and Roma-nia, followed by Ukraine and Russia, according to previous announcements. The recent deal is the second transaction for the JV, after buying a 40MW operational wind farm in Bulga-ria from Raiffeisen Energy & Environment.

ROMANIA|WATER

Aquacaras looks for bids Romanian water company Aquacaras is looking for bids to carry work on water treatment facilities in Western Roma-nia, Romania Insider reported on 11 January. The contract is worth over €6.2 million and involves construction and upgra-de work at three sewage plants in the area south east of Timi-soara. The deadline for bids is 28 February and the contract is for a 32 month period. The three water treatment plants – Otelu Rosu, Moldova Noua and Baile Herculane – are in the Cara?-Severin county, which lies next to Timisoara county and also has a border with Serbia. The main city in the area is industrial centre Resita.

ROMANIA|RETAIL

Sprider Stores profitableThe Romanian subsidiary of clothing retailer Sprider Stores, which was taken over by Cyprus – based Naqua Investments last year, plans to become profitable in 2013, with a targeted profit of €658,000, Romania insider reported on 17 January. The retailer also announced its plans to stay in Romania, af-ter its former mother company filed for insolvency and is cur-rently restructuring in its home country.

The Bulgarian government decided du-ring its meeting on 16 January to ter-minate the participation of part of its troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and proceed to withdraw them from Afghanistan.

The withdrawal of Bulgarian medi-cal teams and specialists working in the town of Herat already commenced on 31 December 2012, while the company in the defence zone at the Kabul Airport will start on 1 March.

In addition, on 31 March, the team of instructors will begin its final departure. The decision follows the announcement in June 2012 that the authorities in Sofia decided to terminate the participation of Bulgarian soldiers, who were part of the four operational groups for training and communication, in ISAF, as well as in the EU military operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR - ALTHEA).

Nevertheless, Bulgaria will continue to adhere to the NATO‘s strategy by the end of 2014. Moreover, the country will participate in financing the Afghan secu-rity forces with $500 000 per year after 2014- a decision which the Bulgarian President announced during the NATO summit in Chicago in May last year.

Bulgaria starts withdrawing troops from Afghanistan

Bulgarian soldiers from Bulgarian ISAF unit receive their flag during an official cer-emony in the city of Karlovo, some 145 km east from Sofia, Bulgaria, 17 April 2008. Bulgaria started withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan. |EPA/VASSIL DONEV

Bulgaria and Italy are the countries which will give Europe its two Capitals of Cul-ture in 2019. On 16 January, the Bulgarian government decided at its meeting that the Ministry of Culture will be the “nati-onal coordination body” to select a city which will compete to be awarded the prestigious title.

The ministry will have to initiate the creation of a multiannual programme (2015-2019) in order to support the se-

lected Bulgarian town. The deadline for the establishment of the programme is the end of 2014.

Media in the country report that so far three major Bulgarian cities have announced their intention to compete for becoming European Capital of Cul-ture 2019 - the capital Sofia, the Black Sea city of Varna and the north-eastern city of Shumen.

All indications point that the peri-

od 2014-2020 will keep the authorities in Sofia busy- the country will also hold the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2018. Since 2011, two cities from two different EU countries are chosen as Eu-ropean Capitals of Culture each year. The Council of the EU is the only institution that can award the title which this year belongs to the French Marseille and the Slovakian Kosice.

Bulgaria progresses in European Capital of Culture preparations

The Romanian Government plans to red-uce the VAT on bread and pastry products sometime in 2013, with hopes the move will tackle tax evasion in this area. The new VAT for bread could be 9% – down from 24%, the general VAT level in Romania, according to Agriculture Minister Daniel Constantin, Romania Insider reported on 16 January.

Tax evasion in this field is of some 70% and reducing the VAT would increase the

taxable base, which would compensate for the amounts that never make it to the state budget.

If the pilot project works – meaning if the tax evasion drops from 70 to 20% – the same measure could be applied to other products as well. The minister explained that this is not a social measure meant to reduce the price of bread, but rather help fight tax evasion.

The new measure will not be included

among the talks with the International Mo-netary Fund (IMF) team in the current re-view mission, but rather in March – April, when a new loan agreement will most like-ly be discussed.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta previous-ly said that he intends to apply the pilot project of reducing the VAT for basic food in 2013, with a first project being bread, but excluding some pastry products, such as the cake called cozonac.

Romania plans VAT drop on bread in pilot projectROMANIA|FOOD

BULGARIA|CULTURE

BULGARIA|DEFENCE

By Stanislava Gaydazhieva

25ENLARGEMENTNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

ALBANIA | PROCUREMENT

Kurum wins Albanian privatisation tender A Turkish company, Kurum International AS was recently declared as winner of a tender for the privatisation of the fo-ur hydroelectric power plants in Albania with a bid of €109 million. The privatisation was reached after the final report presented by the privatization commission got a green signal from Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, AENews repor-ted. Privatisations of the four power plants would soon come into effect. The Turkish firm acquired every share of the four hydroelectric power stations, including Bistra 1 and Bistra 2, which are worth €52 million and Ulez Skopet and Tiran Laa-bregas, which are worth €57 million, the Albanian cabinet said in a statement. The Turkish firm is also owner of Elbasan Ste-el Manufacturing Facilities, a lime manufacturing plant and a 120,000-square-meter shipyard in Durres Port in Albania.

TURKEY | DEFENCE

Patriots from Germany to contribute to Syria effortPatriot defense systems from Germany will be deployed in Tur-key as part of a NATO decision to support Turkey’s air defen-se, German Embassy said in Ankara. German troops have been loading 300 vehicles and over 130 containers on a ship named “Suecia Seaways,” which will arrive at Turkey’s Iskenderun Port on January 21, the statement said, Zaman reported. The German Federal Parliament on December 14, 2012 had approved sen-ding the Patriot systems to Turkey. The deployment of six Patri-ot batteries, including two each from Germany and the Nether-lands, came after a request from Ankara because of the threat of the deadly 21-month civil war in Syria spilling over. The Turkish request came after repeated cross-border shelling from Syria, in-cluding an October attack that killed five civilians. All six batte-ries will be under NATO’s command and scheduled to be ope-rational by the end of January. It was reported that the 21-month protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has turned vi-olent, with heavy fighting often erupting along Syria’s border wi-th Turkey. Defensive missiles will help Turkey defend itself from Syrian attack but Germans expressed concern over the security of their 400 troops on the ground. Dutch Chief of Defense, Ge-neral Tom Middendorp said, “We want to prevent what could amount to large numbers of casualties among innocent civilians.”

ALBANIA | DEVELOPMENT

EBRD fund adds to rockfall safety in dam European Bank for Reconstruction and Development recently announced a grant of €12.7 million to boost Albania’s dam safety. The fund will upgrade Komani hydropower plant dam in the north of the country and is part of the dam safety pro-gramme, worth about €70 million, reads a press release. It was reported that the programme will be implemented by the Al-banian government in collaboration with other international financial institutions. The EBRD financing will support invest-ments such as rockfall protection measures that will improve the safety of the Komani hydropower dam. Fabio Serri, Head of the EBRD Resident Office in Albania said that this project will bring the dam safety of one of the main hydropower plants in Albania up to modern standards. The investment will be co-ordinated with other international financial institutions to me-et dam safety needs throughout Albania. It was also reported that the project will also support the establishment of a mo-dern water alarm system both at the main alarm centre in Ti-rana, and at the hydropower plant.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently paid a visit to Gabon, Niger and Senegal as part of a West Af-rican tour. He was accompanied by a de-legation of more than 250 businessmen and Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Be-kir Bozdag and Turkish Economy Mini-ster Zafer Caglayan.

The aim of the visit is to widen the Turkish government economic and political influence in Africa, a conti-nent which was ignored prior regime of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Par-ty (AK Party) party came to power a de-cade ago, Zaman reported. Speaking in Gabon‘s capital Libreville, Erdogan said that Turkey aims to increase its trade vo-lume with Africa to $50 billion by 2015 and ratchet up its fast-growing diploma-tic presence on the continent.

Addressing Turkish and Gabonese business leaders at a forum held in Cite de la Democratie, a neighborhood in Libreville, Gabon, Erdogan said, “Our trade volume target for Turkey with Africa in 2015 is $50-billion and we are determined to reach this target.” He no-ted that Turkish firms from transport and construction to energy and tourism were keen to do more business across the continent. In the first 11 months of 2012, Turkish trade with Africa stood at $17.7 billion.Turkey’s exports to the continent were $12.2 billion in the afo-resaid period, more than five times the level of a decade ago.

Following China, India and Brazil, Turkey also boosted its business and di-plomatic presence in Africa. It was noted that in past 19 years, Turkey has opened 19 embassies across Africa.

National flag carrier Turkish Air-lines, 49% percent state-owned and a “soft power” tool of diplomacy, has ra-pidly expanded its African network in recent years, flying to 33 destinations and opening routes to Burkina Faso, Ca-meroon and Niger in December 2012 alone.

Erdogan said that Gabon is his first

overseas visit this year, marking advan-cement in relations between the two countries.

He underlined that Turkey aimed to forge a legal infrastructure for entrepre-neurs and encourage investments and. Erdogan said that Turkish government intends to see Turkey and Gabon ink economic pacts and put them into prac-tice.

He blamed the global and economic recession (2007-2010) as main reason for the decline in trade ties between Tur-key and Gabon.

Erdogan said trade betweenTurkey and Gabon in 2011 began to recover, ad-ding in the first 11 months of 2012, the trade volume was $41 million.

Noting the greater potential of both countries, Erdogan expressed hope that both countries will improve cooperation in every sector.

During his say in Gabon, establish-ment of a business council between Tur-key and Gabon was also discussed.

Turkey has already set up 16 busi-ness councils in Africa. Last year in

December, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan had stated that the to-tal amount of Turkish exports to Africa increased 31.4% in 2012 compared to figures for 2011, reaching $12.1 billion. In Gabon, Erdogan met with Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba and his Gabonese counterpart, Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima.

After the meeting, the sides signed cooperation agreements. After Gabon, Erdogan visited Niger which is an im-portant source of uranium.

The last stop of Erodgan was Snee-gal, which plays a vital role in maintai-ning the balance of political power in West Africa.

The Turkish Premier’s visit to Se-negal boosted Turkey‘s bonds with the country, an influential actor in its region.

Overall, Turkey has improved its economic, political and cultural ties with African countries over the last decade. The growing number of Turkish schools highly active in West Africa had deepe-ned the cultural bonds between Turkey and the African continent.

African visit strengthens trade

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) walks with Niger’s President Ma-hamadou Issoufou in Niamey, on January 8, 2013, as part of his three-nation Africa tour. AFP PHOTO/Boureima HAMA

As part of a two year national programme of the instrument for pre-accession assi-stance (IPA), the European Commission has announced a grant of €56 million to FYROM. It shoyld be noted that IPA funding help aspiring countries to implement the necessary reforms and get ready for implementing European standards and policies.

The fund will support reforms in the country that are one of the main pre-requisites in EU accession process inclu-ding in the justice system, the economy,

the agricultural sector and the environ-ment, MRTOnline reported. According to EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Poli-cy Stefan Fule, the fund are tailored to achieve real change through modernista-ion of the country and uplift of the stan-dards of citizens.

He expressed hope that many will utilise the new opportunities partici-pation of FYROM in the Erasmus pro-gramme. The decision came after the General Affairs Council adopted Con-clusions on enlargement giving clear

framework for FYROMto advance to another phase of the accession process. Moreover the funds allotted to the coun-try will also support reforms of the pu-blic administration and modernise two border crossings with Serbia and with Albania.

As a result, such a move will entail efficient processing of commercial and non-commercial traffic between the countries. The citizens will also gain from participation of FYROM in several EU actions in research, energy, educa-tion and business development areas.

EU offers €56 mln to support reforms FYROM | ASSISTANCE

TURKEY | COMMERCE

26 ENLARGEMENT NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

SERBIA|DIPLOMACY

UAE, Serbia boost tiesSheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, recently paid a visit to Belgrade. Serbian President To-mislav Nikolic welcomed the Crown Prince and members of the accompanying delegation at the Presidency. Prime Minis-ter Ivica Dacic, and Deputy Prime Ministers Jovan Krkobabic and Rasim Ljajic were also present at the meeting. In course of talks, both sides discussed ways to promote bilateral co-opera-tion relations as well as on the latest regional and international developments and matters of mutual concern.

SERBIA|TAXATION

Belgrade, Abu Dhabi ink dealSerbia and UAE recently inked an agreement to avoid double taxation on income between both countries at the Ministry of Finance in Abu Dhabi, Beta news agency reported. This deal is part of efforts to boost economic, trade and tourism ties betwe-en the UAE and Serbia. Signatories to the agreement compri-sed of UAE Minister of State for Financial Affairs Obaid Humaid Al Tayer and Serbian Minister of Finance and Economy Mla-dan Dinkic. The agreement envisages several incentives and tax transaction mechanisms to grant multi-state exemptions on the UAE’s investments in both public and private sectors.

MONTENEGRO|INVESTMENT

Montenegro bets on UAEMontenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic recently met in Abu Dhabi with Mohammed Thani Murshid Al Rumaithi, Chairman of both the Federation of UAE Chambers of Trade and Industry, and the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At the meeting, Djukanovic said it is high time for UAE investors and firms to explore opportunities and facilities pro-vided by the government of Montenegro. The Premier invited UAE businesspersons, investors and companies to invest in his country, especially in infrastructure, ports, energy sectors, tou-rism, agriculture and industry sectors.

MONTENEGRO|AIRLINES INDUSTRY

Talks with Ryanair resumeThe government of Montenegro recently launched talks with Irish low-cost airline Ryanair to discuss potential flights from Manchester to Tivat this coming summer season, Montenegro times reported. Deputy Minister for Sustainable Development and Tourism, Zeljka Radak Kukavcic said that the ministry has started talks with Ryanair and expects a positive outcome. The offer came after a year when the no frills airline refused to launch services from London, Milan and Brussels to Podgorica, which was proposed by the Montenegrin government.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|PEACE

OHR speaks on status of BiHThe Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), recently stated that the BiH is not a state union or union of states but a sovereign state, Fars news agency reported. OHR is an ad hoc international institution responsi-ble for overseeing implementation of civilian aspects of the Pea-ce Agreement ending the war in BiH. OHR said on its website that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a single, sovereign state who-se current internal structure was defined by the Dayton Peace Agreement. The OHR urged the parties avoid making any fal-se statements about the constitutional order established by the Dayton Peace Agreement.

Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic recently attended the 3rd General Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 13-14 January, Mon-tenegro Times reported.

Delivering an inaugural speech at the event, he said that Montenegro pays emphasis to the energy sector reform, as one of its greatest development po-tentials, in which renewable resources,

primarily hydro and solar energy are the main focus.

It was noted that responsible energy policy envisage compatibility between adequate economic valorisation of re-sources and environmental protection.

As a result, crucial economic, eco-logical and social significance requires joint efforts of the government, busi-nesses and civil society towards to achieve the broadest possible consen-sus. Montenegro can become a regional

market as evident in the construction of the submarine cable between Montene-gro and Italy which is underway.

To enhance co-operation between Montenegro and the IRENA, several projects such as construction of small hydro and wind power plants, the ad-vancement of domestic expert skills and the organisation of regional conferences on political, economic and financial aspects of renewable energy are some conditions, added Dukanovic.

Renewable energy focus of energy sector reform

Montenegro pays emphasis to the energy sector reform, as one of its greatest development potentials.| EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

Last year Bosnia and Herzegovina‘s Mo-star Airport recorded 78.055 passengers, making 2012 as one of its busiest years on record. This year the airport aims to break all time Yugoslav era record of 86.000 passengers and estimates it will welcome 110.000 passengers, Fars news agency reported. In 2011 Mostar wit-nessed a rise by 112% in its numbers. Several charter flights operating to Bosnia-Herzegovina carrying Christian pilgrims visiting the Medjugorje site led to a growth in number passengers. Last

year, the airport set an all time 24 hour passenger record, handling 2.404 travel-lers on 29 June.

In late 2012 there were discussions with Wizz Air over the potential launch of flights to Mostar from Malmo and Dortmund in the coming summer. The Federation Minister for Transport and Communication, Enver Bijedic, recently stated that the future of Mostar Airport lies in religious tourism which will earn lots of passengers.

In the past, pilgrims visiting the

Medjugorje sight used to arrive via Du-brovnik and Split. In 2012 the Bosnian government cut the mandatory ten euro airport tax at Mostar and Tuzla, which was considered as a barrier for low cost airlines. Compared to Mostar, other in-ternational airports in Bosnia and Her-zegovina did not taste much success last year. Sarajevo Airport welcomed 580.058 passengers, down 3.3% on 2011 while Tuzla Airport was the least busiest with 4.191 passengers welcomed, a de-cline by 7.4% on 2011.

Mostar Airport records 2012 as one of its busiest years

This year the water utility serving the Ser-bian city of Novi Sad recently announced plans to invest $29.4 million in water and sewer system upgrades in 2013, Beta news agency reported.

As part of the upgrade programme, the company plans to outfit a water plant on the Danube river with an ozonation

and activated carbon filtration system. Be-sides, the water utility also plans to add in the aforesaid region a 10,000 cubic meters water reservoir to stabilise the water supply system. Extensive works are also anticipated on the construction of a sewage collector which will upgrade the drainage of waste and storm water by enhancing the collector

network, especially in locations where hea-vy rainfall entails serious conditions. The utility company said in a statement that the aforesaid projects will receive a fund of 350 million dinars from city of Novi Sad, 610 million dinars of own funds and European Investment Bank will grant $19.8 million which will begin to be dram this year.

Utility to invest $29.4mn to improve water and sewer systemSERBIA|WATER

MONTENEGRO|ENERGY

BOSNIA|AVIATION

27PARTNERSNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

NORWAY | ENERGY

Statkraft expands with Laotian Power CompanyThe Laotian utility company Theun Hinboun Power Com-pany (THPC), where Norway’s Statkraft owns 20%, has ope-ned two new power stations in Laos, Norway Post reported on 14 January. The two new power stations will, like the existing power plant, be operated and maintained by Statkraft. “The expansion project in Laos is a very good example of how we can exploit large, renewable hydropower resources in combi-nation with sustainable solutions. With this new power plant, Norwegian hydropower expertise contributes to profitable, environmentally friendly and sustainable investments in-ternationally,” said President and CEO Christian Rynning-Tønnesen of Statkraft, who was present during the opening ceremony in Laos. This ceremony marked the opening of two new power plants, a new dam and a new power line with a total cost of about $ 650 million. In a press release, Statkraft said the expansions will double the production of renewable energy to 3 TWh annually. It said the new dam makes it possible to store large volumes of water from the rain period for power genera-tion in dry periods. At the same time, the construction has ca-used some 13 000 people to be relocated or resettled in new villages established by the project. Both the construction and moving processes have been carried out in accordance with applicable international standards for sustainable energy in-vestments and makes a positive contribution to social deve-lopment, welfare and economy. Statkraft owns 20% of THPC, while the Laotian energy company EDL Generation owns 60% and Thai-based GMS Power owns 20%. The majority of the power is exported under long-term contracts through own power lines to Thailand, while a smaller share is distri-buted through the local Laotian grid. Statkraft is Europe’s le-ader in renewable energy. The Group develops and generates hydropower, wind power, gas power and district heating, and is a major player on the European energy exchanges. Statkraft has more than 3,200 employees in more than 20 countries.

SWITZERLAND | WATCHES

Asian demand fuels record Swatch salesSwatch Group sales rose 14% to a record 8.1 billion Swiss Fran-ks ($ 8.8 billion) in 2012 as the watchmaker benefitted from demand in Asia and from tourists, who bought timepieces from Swatch brands like Omega, Longines and Tissot in Eu-rope, Swiss Info reported on 11 January. The Biel-based ma-ker of timepieces, jewellery and watch parts said nearly all of its 19 brands had experienced double-digit growth. It also said it had increased its market share in the world watch sector, whi-ch is set to reach $ 47 billion in 2017 according to market re-searcher Global Industry Analysts. Sales were fuelled by the demand for luxury watches, including Swatch’s Blancpain and Breguet. Chinese tourists avoid considerable taxes imposed in their home country when they buy timepieces abroad. Watch and jewellery sales, Swatch’s largest business, increased 16% to 7.3 billion Franks in 2012, while revenue from its producti-on division, which sells movements and components to other watchmakers, rose ten per cent to 2.2 billion Franks. Sales at its electronics business, which supplies components used in auto-motive, consumer and industrial electronics, dropped 7.4% to 311 million. Swatch is the owner of luxury watchmaker Ome-ga SA, the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games in Lon-don last year. Omega was one of the few corporate Olympic sponsors allowed to display its logo inside Olympic venues; the theory was that keeping time was integral to many events. Swatch said it expects “good” operating profit and net inco-me for 2012, despite “significant” marketing expenses for the games and unsatisfactory currency developments.

Swatch Group, the world‘s leading watchmaker, said on 14 January it would acquire US jeweller and watchmaker Har-ry Winston for up to $ 1 billion, The Local reported.

The Swiss group said it will pay $ 750 million to acquire the Toronto-based com-pany and add a maximum of $ 250 million to take over its net debt. The acquisition includes the Harry Winston production company in Geneva and more than 500 employees globally.

The transaction, which still needs the go-ahead from regulatory authorities, does not include the mining activities of the Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, the company said.

Swatch said it would take over the Harry Winston brand and all the activi-ties related to its jewellery and watches

business, employing a total of 535 people worldwide.

In a statement, Swatch chairwoman Nayla Hayek said the deal made sense since “Harry Winston does brilliantly complement the prestige segment of the (Swatch) Group.”

“Diamonds are still a girl‘s best friend,” she said.

Harry Winston‘s chief executive Ro-bert Gannicott also hailed the deal. “The Harry Winston brand now has a new home that can provide the skills and support that it deserves to realize its true potential,” he said in a statement.

Headquartered in New York, Har-ry Winston is named after its founder, an American jeweller who donated the famous Hope Diamond to the Smithso-nian Institution in 1958 after owning it

for a decade.The company, which makes watches

in Switzerland, was sold to Canadian ow-ners some time after Winston‘s death in 1978.

Analysts too were enthusiastic about the purchase, although they said the price was steep.

While they seemed to agree Swatch was paying a pretty penny for the jeweller, several analysts stressed that the compa-ny based in Biel — the heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry — could afford the operation since it has more than two billi-on francs in cash reserves.

Swatch’s new deal with Harry Wins-ton — one of the world‘s most prestigious diamond dealers — comes after it ended a partnership with luxury jeweller Tiffany & Co in September 2011.

Harry Winston bought by Swatch

The Swatch Group has announced its acquisition of the US based Harry Winston jewel and watchmaking group |EPA/GAETAN BALLY

The fourth round of negotiations for a new agreement for the management of shared fish stocks in the North Sea bet-ween the European Union and Norway was signed in the very early morning on 18 January in Clonakilty, Ireland, finali-sing long talks.

In this framework, the total allowable catches and quotas for the shared stocks in the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat

are being discussed, as well as the agree-ment on the exchange of reciprocal fi-shing possibilities.

The agreement was welcomed by Mi-nister Simon Coveney who said it would be “positive for our fishermen”.

Norway has a well-established system of rules and regulations concerning fishe-ries cooperation with the EU. This is in addition to the Skagerrak Agreement with

Sweden and Denmark on fishing opera-tions in the Skagerrak and Kattegat wa-ters. Similarly, Norway has an agreement with Sweden on fishing operations in the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone south of 62°N.

It was the implementation of exclusi-ve economic zones in 1977 that led to the establishment of closer fisheries coopera-tion between Norway and the EU.

EU- Norway sign fisheries agreement

A new agreement for the management of shared fish stocks in the North Sea has been concluded between the European Union and Norway. The total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for the shared stocks in the North Sea were set and an agreement on the exchange of reciprocal fishing possibilities in each other‘s waters was also reached.

Following the positive developments

of the stock situation, the agreement in-volves increases in TACs for many of the important stocks compared to 2012, such as 15% for North Sea Haddock, 15% for North Sea Saithe, 11% for North Sea Whi-ting, 15% for North Sea Plaice, and 18% for North Sea Herring. Furthermore, it was possible to keep the TAC for North Sea cod at the same level as in 2012.

In the absence of agreement with Ice-

land and the Faroe Islands, a catch limit for mackerel, which follows the scientific recommendations, was set. The EU quota for mackerel in 2013 amounts to 336.285 tonnes. On this issue, European Commis-sioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki said: “We are closely ex-amining the situation and will decide on next steps with the aim of ensuring the su-stainability of the mackerel fishery”.

Fishing possibilities agreed between EU, NorwayNORWAY | FISHERIES

NORWAY | FISHERIES

SWITZERLAND | WATCHMAKERS

28 EASTERN PARTNERSHIP NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

AZERBAIJAN|MEDIA

New partnership unveiledTehran‘s Envoy to Baku Mohsen Pakayeen recently dis-cussed ways to boost mutual media co-operation with Azerjaijan. Pakayeen said that Tehran is open for enhance-ment of ties with Azerbaijan and called for strengthening media relations between Tehran and Baku. The Iranian di-plomat described media interactions between the official news agencies of both countries as very affective, which played a vital role in deepening all-out ties between Baku and Tehran. He noted that development of relations bet-ween Iran and Azerbaijan, expressing interest of leaders of both countries to promote ties. Cooperation was also discussed during the 12th Summit of the Economic Co-operation Organisation, held at the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku.

GEORGIA|DIPLOMACY

Holland, Georgia co-operationChairman of the Defence Committee of the Dutch Parlia-ment Ten Brook recently paid an official visit to Georgia to meet the Minister of Defense Irakli Alasania. At the meeting, both parties discussed Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and the reforms planned at the Defence Mi-nistry of Georgia, The Messenger reported. They also discussed issues related to the Afghan National Security Forces in the post-ISAF period after 2014. Brook said the meeting with Alasania was positive and he urged the latter to proceed with the scheduled reforms. Brook hailed the results made by Georgia at Defence Ministry adding that it’s important for the international community to know what Georgia is doing in this regard. He suggested that Georgia should keep the military as an independent, non-politicised entity. After the meeting, Alasania said that Georgia has been involved in the planning process of the future of ISAF along with NATO members. He said that Georgia’s strategy is to assist the Afghan National Security Forces with training.

GEORGIA|DEFENCE

Military service reducedThe government under Bidzina Ivanishvili recently an-nounced reduction in the length of compulsory military service from 15 to 12 months. In February last year, the National Movement government increased the length of service from 12 to 15 months. Defence Minister Irakli Ala-sania said reducing the length of military service to one year, is the first stage of reform. Other details will be dis-closed by end of this month, Civil Georgia reported. The defence ministry also plans to change the military into a purely professional force by 2016. “We desire and we plan to fully transform Georgia’s armed forces to a military ser-vice based on contract,” he said.

GEORGIA|CONSTITUTION

Saakashvili slams amendmentsGeorgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition recently initiated Constitutional amend-ments. According to Saakashvili, the Constitutional amendments will yield serious impacts, The Messenger reported. At present, there are two drafts of constitutional amendments initiated in the legislative body. One is rela-ted to location of Parliament and another is about presi-dential powers under which Saakashvili retains all of his current powers, barring one which allows him to appoint new government even if the Parliament refuses to confirm President-nominated cabinet.

The government of Azerbaijan official-ly requested the World Bank that the project plan and the projects it covers are subject to justification by executive agencies. Both the World Bank and the government jointly agreed that executi-ve agencies become the main players in the elaboration of the project plan on joint operations in the country for fiscal years 2013-2014, the Bank’s Baku-based resident office said.

Executive agencies are the World Bank financing beneficiary organisa-tions. The office said that executive agencies should justify for the govern-ment the necessity of these projects. This means none of the parties has reli-able estimates of the cost of the projects under consideration, and they are sub-ject to specification.

Extension of Judicial Modernization Project ( JMP) and National Water Sup-ply & Sanitation Project, and extension/new Integrated Solid Waste Manage-ment Project (ISWMP), are the list of projects of priority for co-financing for the current 2013 fiscal year. The projects will be submitted to the World Bank.

An increase in the number of pro-

jects for 2014 fiscal year was announced. Overall, Azerbaijan plans to request a loan of at least $150 million from the Bank. Initially it was expected that the new project plan for fiscal years 2013-14 allows Azerbaijan to borrow up to $200 million a year from the Bank.

The World Bank has financed more than $3.1 billion over the 20 years of co-operation with Azerbaijan. In Octo-ber 2012, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had said that his country wants the World Bank to continue work in the country.

World Bank finances projects in Azerbaijan

The World Bank has financed more than $3.1 billion over 20 years in Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev has said he wants the Bank to continue work in the country. |EPA/TOLGA BOZOGLU/POOL

Within the twinning support project in-itiated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Bank has identified potential partners of Azerbaijan’s water operator Azersu, the Baku-based ADB resident office said. Issue of Azersu’s potential partners on the proposed twinning-programme has been clarified. The ADB office said in a statement that the Baku is entitled to coordinate these „twins“ with Azersu itself, which prefers to be

guided by the highest standards of cor-porate governance and the quality of ser-vices provided. “This narrows the range of its partners for twinning-programme - a potential partner itself should an or-ganisation should be of the highest le-vel,” the ADB office said. In December 2012, ADB country representative Olli Noroyono announced the beginning of twinning-programme for Azersu OJSC within the implementation of Multi-

Financing Facility of Water & Sanitation Sector in Azerbaijan.

The programme envisaged that the national water operator of Azerbaijan will receive support on operational, technical and financial management. ADB envoy said that the Bank will select a consulting company for the programme to be laun-ched this year. The formation of the struc-ture of the programme is underway and remains the focus of talks with Azersu.

ADB defines programme partner of water operator Azersu

The Georgian government has suspen-ded a memorandum with a Turkish ope-rator of the Tbilisi International Airport on reconstruction of the current inactive runway, which means that the Turkish company will no longer get extension for more than ten years of its right to run the airport till late 2037, The Messenger reported.

In August 2012 the former govern-ment of Georgia signed a memoran-dum with TAV Airports Holding, which owns a 76% stake in Tbilisi Internatio-nal Airport‘s operator Urban Georgia‘s

shares, according to which the Turkish company had to invest $65 million to reconstruct one of the two runway strips which are currently out of use. In return for the planned investments of TAV Ur-ban Georgia, an extension of the right to operate the airport for 10 years and nine months, from February 2027 to Novem-ber 8, 2037 was granted.

Deputy Economy Minister Natia Mikeladze said that extension of operati-onal rights for almost eleven more years is not appropriate. The minister said that currently construction is suspended, but

its construction will be resumed in the near future as this second runway is real-ly needed. “The second runway has to be reconstructed and the government took this upon itself,” said Natia.

She indicated that the government might look into possibility of attracting soft loans from international financial in-stitutions to fund the runway reconstruc-tion. Mikeladze, said the Turkish opera-tor would be eligible to compensation from the state for the expenses it had already incurred for the second runway‘s reconstruction.

Government suspends contract with Turkey’s TAVGEORGIA|AIRLINES INDUSTRY

AZERBAIJAN|WATER

AZERBAIJAN|LOANS

29EASTERN PARTNERSHIPNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

MOLDOVA|DAIRY

Belarus’ exports up In January-November 2012 Belarus’ export of dairy products to Moldova was estimated at $4.1 million, up by 43% over the same period in 2011, BelTA quoted the Belarusian Embassy in Moldova as saying. Over this period, the supplies of milk and non-condensed cream to Moldova amounted to $305,200, up by 63.5% over the same period a year before. The export of but-termilk, yoghurt, kefir rose by 55.2% up to $540,500. The deli-veries of butter soared 3.7 times up to $1.6 million, the export of cheese and cottage cheese rose by 8.1% to make $1.2 million.

MOLDOVA|TELECOMS

Anrceti verifies providersMoldova’s telecom regulator Anrceti conducted 142 verifica-tions of the activity performed by electronic communicati-ons providers in 2012, 103 of which were planned and 39 we-re unplanned, news agencies reported. Compared to 2011, the total number of verifications dropped by 17%. The most frequent contraventions revealed by the regulator during the verifications deal with unauthorised connection or admissi-on of unauthorised connection to electronic communications networks, unauthorised provision of electronic communica-tions services, use of radio frequencies/channels without a li-cence or a technical permit, non-compliance with the prescri-bed timeframe for preliminary information of end-users regar-ding modifications of service provision conditions and provi-ders’ failure to meet contractual obligations.

UKRAINE|GAS PIPELINES

Kiev to cut emissionsUkrainian gas transportation system operator Ukrtransgaz said it was working to reduce methane leakage from its equipment. “According to preliminary estimates, due to the implementa-tion of such a programme, it is planned to reduce the emissi-ons of greenhouse gas by approximately 15% or 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent,” the company stated. Most of the gas transits from Ukraine are carried by Soviet-era pipelines.

UKRAINE|DIPLOMACY

Yanukovych to meet Putin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych plans to meet wi-th Russian President Vladimir Putin in February, Izvestia re-ported on 16 January, citing a source from Yanukovych’s en-tourage. „He [Yanukovych] plans to come to the Russian ca-pital for a meeting with Putin before the signature of a free trade agreement at a European Union summit scheduled for 25 February,” the source said. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Izvestia that the Kremlin had not received any in-formation on Yanukovych’s planned visit to Moscow. „We are unaware whether President Yanukovych is planning to travel to Russia. His meeting with Vladimir Putin is not planned in February,” he said.

BELARUS|TOURISM

Tourism services up There are plans to raise the export of Belarus’ tourism services by 32% in 2013 in comparison with 2012 to at least $250 milli-on. The information was released by Belarusian Sports and To-urism Minister Alexander Shamko on 15 January as he deli-vered a report about performance in 2012 and plans for 2013, the press service of the Belarusian government said. Belarus Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich heard out reports from heads of several ministries.

On 16 January, Batkivschyna parliamenta-ry faction MP Oleksandra Kuzhel said that there are no video surveillance cameras in the cells of the Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv, where former Ukrainian prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Ty-moshenko has to serve her sentence, Kyiv Post reported.

„There are no video surveillance ca-meras in either of the cells, even in those where people sentenced to life in prison are kept. [There are no cameras] in the bathrooms, the cells where they sleep, and the changing rooms. They only monitor the halls,“ the politician told journalists on 16 January following a visit to the Kacha-nivska prison.

The MP said that the norm of the le-gislation that allows the surveillance of convicts using video cameras is applied to Tymoshenko only.

Kuzhel also said that convicts could use coin phones on the colony.

In turn, MP Tetiana Sliuz said that the colony chief told them that the installati-on of the video surveillance equipment at Tymoshenko‘s ward at Kharkiv-based Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 cost Hr 5,000.

Earlier, Head of the Kachanivska Pe-nal Colony Ihor Kolpaschykov said that there are three cameras in Tymoshenko‘s

ward. On 8 January, Tymoshenko de-clared a campaign of civil disobedience and announced this in an open letter that was read aloud by her defence lawyer, Ser-hiy Vlasenko.

The former prime minister said that she refused to recognise the prosecutors and investigators involved in her case and was not going to talk to them anymore. Tymoshenko also said she would not come to court voluntarily, and should

they try to bring her to court by force, she would offer every resistance she could. The ex-premier also refused to go back to her hospital ward unless video surveil-lance and the guard are removed.

On 14 January, several MPs from the Batkivschyna parliamentary faction met with the management of the Kachanivska Penal Colony and demanded to see the premises where the former prime minister is being held.

Female MPs: Only Tymoshenkowatched by security cameras

A file picture dated 11 October 2011 shows former Ukrainian prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko speaking during the verdict hearing at the City districts court in Kiev, Ukraine. On 8 January 2013, Tymoshenko declared a campaign of civil disobedience. |EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

Belarus will conduct a legal analysis of the decision passed at the Doha climate change conference, Yuri Yaroshevich of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on 17 January, BelTA reported.

Belarus planned to take part in the se-cond Kyoto Protocol period; however the 18th session of the Conference of the Par-ties to the UNFCCC took an unexpected turn. “Our analysis has revealed that the decision adopted in Doha will not allow Belarus to trade in quotas within the fra-

mework of the “Kyoto-2” deal, because we and a number of partner states will not have these quotas. Obviously you cannot sell things you do not have,” Yuri Yaroshe-vich said. In line with the new rules, signa-tories to the Kyoto Protocol will not be able to increase greenhouse gas emissions, which is unacceptable for Belarus.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and the partner states that supported Belarus in Doha are examining the decisions adopted at the conference to find out

whether these decisions comply with the format and whether they were adopted by consensus, he said.

“It is early to say what conclusion we will arrive at, because we are just at the very beginning of our way, but I can say that Belarus is thoroughly studying the decision adopted at the conference from various perspectives, including financial, economic, legal, environmental and even political ones, focusing on the impact of the “Kyoto-2” deal on our economic growth plans,” Yaroshevich said.

Belarus to analyse Doha climate change decision

The new country strategy for Belarus will be considered by the Board of Directors of the World Bank in spring 2013, In-ternational Finance Corporation (IFC) Country Manager for Ukraine and Bela-rus Rufat Alimardanov told reporters, BelTA reported. “We are now at the stage of consultations with the government of Belarus on the strategy of partnership with the World Bank, including the IFC

and the Multilateral Investment Guaran-tee Agency,” he said.

The previous country strategy for Belarus ended in July 2011. A year later at a meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, the World Bank Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Mol-dova Qimiao Fan said that prospects for approval of the new World Bank country strategy for Belarus, which suggests allo-

cation of credit resources to Minsk, de-pends on the major shareholders of the Bank. The premier asked the Regional Director to intensify the process of pre-paring the strategy.

Belarus joined the World Bank in 1992. Since then the Bank’s lending com-mitments in Belarus have reached $900 million for 13 projects in power enginee-ring, forestry, road infrastructure.

World Bank to consider new country strategy in spring

BELARUS|ENVIRONMENT

BELARUS|LOANS

UKRAINE|HUMAN RIGHTS

30 EURASIA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

20 - 26 January, 2013

TURKMENISTAN | ENERGY

RWE Dea plays social role in TurkmenistanRWE Dea, one of the biggest German oil and gas producers with sites at various locations throughout the country recently offered auxiliary supplies for physically challenged persons to the ‚Cen-tre of Support of Disabled Persons of Turkmenistan’ in Ashga-bat, Turkmenistan.ru reported. These additional supplies are distributed throughout Ashgabat for the benefit of needy chil-dren and adults with physical disabilities. The Turkmen aid or-ganisation ‚Centre of Support of Disabled Persons of Turkmenis-tan’ in Ashgabat received 265 wheelchairs and 200 hearing aids from RWE Dea. As part of the official presentation of the whe-elchairs and hearing aids, an event was held with various com-petitions for handicapped sportspeople. The new sport whe-elchairs that were part of the auxiliary supplies handed over by RWE Dea were also put to good use at this event. Peter Immerz, General Manager of RWE Dea Turkmenistan said that the com-pany has a social responsibility in countries it operates. He ad-ded that by supporting carefully selected projects, the company would like to make a sustainable contribution to the social and economic development of these countries. The company as-sists and endorses non-profit organisations such as the ‚Centre of Support’ and the ‚Central Sport Club for disabled people of Turkmenistan’. These two institutions operate with excellence and cater to rehabilitation and social integration of disabled chil-dren and adults. Early this year the company also plans to equip the ‚Central Sport Club for disabled people of Turkmenistan’ wi-th six mini-buses besides offering wheelchairs and hearing aids.

KYGYZSTAN | DEFENCE

Conflict sparks on Uzbek-Kyrgyz borderA spokesman of the Kyrgyz border services, Gulmira Boruba-yeva has stated that frontier posts on the Uzbek-Kyrgyz bor-der in Batken region are temporarily closed due to the incident that took place last week as of the current year, Uzbekreport.com reported. The incident took place as residents of the Sokh enclave attacked Kyrgyz frontier guards who were installing supports for electricity transmission lines in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken region. The villagers tried to seize firearms from the frontier guards, started throwing stones at the outpost’s offi-cers and took forty local residents as hostages leaving a few ve-hicles badly damaged. However, urgent measures were taken by officials of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to avoid escalation of the conflict at the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border. The President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambekov has taken the emergency situation at the border under his personal control.

TURKMENISTAN | INTL AFFAIRS

US advances ties in energy sectorDuring a recent visit to Ashgabat, US State Department of-ficial, Daniel Stein recently had meeting with Turkmen offi-cials. At the meeting, the sides discussed issues related to in-creasing the dialogue between the two countries in the energy sector, Turkmenistan.ru learnt from official sources. It was le-arnt from the talks that the two countries stressed on the im-portance of bilateral rues. Stein said that US highly rates the energy strategy and initiatives of Turkmenistan to ensure glo-bal energy security and development of broad international cooperation. The parties also noted the soaring interest if en-trepreneurs from across the glove including leading US com-panies in the burgeoning Turkmen market and major oil and gas projects implemented in the country.

A Human Rights Resource Centre was of-ficially inaugurated in the city of Balkana-bad of Balkan province of Turkmenistan on December 7, 2012. The Resource Centre is based in the Balkan branch of the Turkmen State Oil and Gas Institute. Altogether, there are now five Human Rights Resource Centres running in all provinces of Turkmenistan, including centres in Mary, Lebap and Dashoguz provinces, opened in the last months of 2012, as well as one centre in the capital city of Ashgabat for the central level and Ahal province, opened in 2011.

“This is the fifth Human Rights Re-source Centre that has been opened. It is so nice to see so many people from the university and the public wanting to par-ticipate in these very special occasions. I see human rights in a very simple way. For example, I see the provision of educa-tion in this Institute as making sure that the people of this velayat have the right to third level education. I see many health facilities, as the Government efforts to ensuring that the rights of its people, to quality health services are met. Your ac-tive involvement today is your right to participate.. This centre will assist you to understand more what is human rights and to learn what Turkmenistan has done to promote and protect human rights, which is considerable. We encourage you to tell your families and friends about this great resource in this Institute ,” as stated in her opening remarks, by Jacinta Bar-rins, the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Turk-menistan.

The establishment of the Human

Rights Resource Centres in all five pro-vinces of Turkmenistan has been the result of close partnership of the Uni-ted Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the Government of Turk-menistan within the framework of the joint project of UNDP, the European Union and the Office of High Commis-sioner on Human Rights “Strengthening the National Capacity to Promote and Protect Human Rights.” The project is financed by the European Union.

“The project has finally come to the realization of one of its major objectives since its implementation the opening of the regional human rights resource cen-tres in Balkanabad and other velayats. This is a great achievement for all of us today,” said Theo Hensels, the Europa House Coordinator in Ashgabat.

Opening of the Human Rights Re-source Centres in the regions of Turkme-nistan and in Ashgabat is one of the key

components of the Project, aiming at in-creasing the access to human rights infor-mation for the people of Turkmenistan. The resource centres will be used to pro-vide access to specialized literature and electronic resources of human-rights rela-ted topics to general population, students and teachers of the hosting institutions and other universities, law practitioners and all those interested in human rights.

Through these centres citizens can learn about their rights and increase their awareness and knowledge in this area.

The centres will also host various in-formation exchange sessions for students and teachers and build their debating skills.

“I am sure that the opening of the Human Rights Resource Centre in Bal-kan velayat will contribute to further improvement of the national legislation of Turkmenistan,” noted Satlyk Satlykov, Governor of Balkan Province.

Human rights centres serve as Balkanabad hub

The Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Healthcare of Kazakhstan Serikbol Mussinov recently spoke on achieve-ments made in 2012 and also priorities and plans defined for this year, Gazeta.kz reported. The Ministry of Health-care completed the second year of im-plementation of the Programme on Development of Healthcare“Salamatty Kazakhstan” for 2011-2015. On being asked about the progress being made in implementation of “Salamatty Kazak-hstan“ Programme, Mussinov said the ministry focused on prevention of the main causes of mortality and disability of people. He also said that work on attrac-tion of non-governmental organisations to implementation of the public social order will continue. Within this order 18

projects were implemented in 2011 and 25 in 2012. He went on to say that the ministry in collaboration with the aki-mats of the regions completed construc-tion of 13 healthcare facilities including four facilities built within“Construction of 100 schools and 100 hospitals” project and „Construction of 350 healthcare fa-cilities“ project. The fund will stem from the national and local budgets in 2012.

Last year the National Screening Pro-gramme was introduced in the country in 2012. The National Scientific Cardiac Sur-gery Centre which opened on the initiative of the President, successfully functions in Astana.

During the work of the Center, more than 2000 operations have been performed there. Road rescue points were additionally

opened at dangerous sections of the roads and the air ambulance service was establis-hed.

The ministry also launched last year implementation of the programme on de-velopment of oncologic service in Kazak-hstan for 2012-2016, which was approved by the Resolution of the Government of Kazakhstan in March 2012. Besides, flexi-ble medical services were provided for ru-ral areas via 49 mobile medical complexes. The ministry continues to introduce tele-medicine, and presently 186 telemedicine centers are functioning in the country. Re-garding financing for specific directions of the healthcare system, Mussinov said that KZT 2.4 billion was meant for improve-ment of ambulatory pharmaceutical pro-vision.

2013: Healthcare in focus KAZAKHSTAN | HEALTH

TURKMENISTAN | EU AFFAIRS

31RUSSIANEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu20 - 26 January, 2013

RUSSIA|HUNTING

Wolf crisis in YakutiaFollowing wolf attacks, authorities in Russia’s Siberian Repu-blic of Yakutia will launch a three-month long wolf-hunt to optimise the number of the predators in the region. The deci-sion to launch the campaign against the wolves from 15 Janu-ary was taken on 11 January at a local government meeting, Itar Tass reported. Yakutia has declared a state of emergen-cy due to attacks on livestock by wolves. Yakutia leader Yegor Borisov’s press service said wolf attacks on reindeer and hor-ses are increasing. Currently, there are more than 3,500 wol-ves in Yakutia. The press service said hunting wolves will be permitted until the number drops to some 500. A decrease in the number of rabbits and squirrels in the region, the wolves’ usual food, has increasingly led the wolves to attack livestock.

RUSSIA|BRICS

Medvedev: BRICS promisingOn 16 January, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said BRICS will be one of the most promising international unions of the post-crisis period, but Russia is ready to co-operate in other formats as well. “Pros of the BRICS alliance are obvious to me but we are also open to every other process,” he said at the Gaidar Forum. “The notion of a common economic and humanitarian space from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean is more preferable to me,” Medvedev said. It is a task of Russia “to receive dividends for national development” from current economic processes, he stressed.

RUSSIA|REFORMS

PM urges modernisationRussia will go ahead with its political, economic and social mo-dernisation, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the Gaidar Economic Forum, Voice of Russia reported. He pointed out that Russia also needs technological modernisa-tion that would create millions of highly skilled jobs. “We’ve been making active efforts to that end in recent years, and this policy will remain intact,” Medvedev said.

RUSSIA|FINES

Russia faces US finesOn 16 January, a federal judge in Washington declared the Rus-sian government in contempt of court for ignoring his 2010 order that it must return a disputed massive archive of histo-ric religious books and manuscripts known as the Schneerson Collection to the New York-based Chabad. The judge imposed fines of $50,000 a day. Russia’s State Library and the Russian military archive have refused to give up the books, some hun-dreds of years old, even after a US court ruled that the Brook-lyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch group is the rightful owner. The country says the books are part of its national heritage.

RUSSIA|GOVERNMENT

Plans to improve imageThe Russian government is set to approve plans for a „soft power” campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin last July to improve Russia’s image abroad. The official plan for the project covers 2013-2015 and involves a range of cultural initi-atives and events for humanitarian cooperation, Kommersant reported, citing a copy of the plan. Rossotrudnichestvo, the fe-deral agency that oversees relations with former Soviet states, was responsible for developing the plans and will be in charge of implementing the project.

On 15 January, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow granted Dhaka a $1 bil-lion loan for weapons purchases and $500 million to help Bangladesh build its first nuclear power plant (NPP). The Kremlin leader oversaw the signing of the agree-ments in the Kremlin after holding talks with Bangladesh‘s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“Our countries intend to broaden mi-litary-technical co-operation,” Putin said in a joint appearance with Sheikh Hasina after talks, referring to weapons sales and servicing.

“Co-operation in defence was another area for collaboration between Dhaka and Moscow,” Hasina said.

Russia also signed a framework deal on co-operation in peaceful nuclear power generation in 2010 and an agreement to help build Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant at Ruppur. “We will not only provide the most up-to-date technology ... but we will also provide financial support for the construction of the nuclear power plant at the initial stage,” Putin said after the $500 million loan deal was signed.

Russian state nuclear corporation Ro-satom head Sergei Kiriyenko said technical and environmental assessments would be carried out in 2013 for the plant, which is to have two 1,000-megawatt reactors and will be completed in the early 2020s. En-

ergy-starved Bangladesh signed an initial deal with Rosatom in November 2011 to build a nuclear plant with two 1,000 me-gawatt reactors at a cost of up to $2 billion each against the backdrop of its dwindling reserve of natural gas.

Bangladesh, Russia ink weapons, NPP loan deals

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (3rd R) and Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (3rd L) attend a signing ceremony as they meet in Moscow, 15 January 2013.|AFP PHOTO/POOL/MIKHAIL METZEL

On 16 January, a Russian court turned down imprisoned feminist punk band Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina’s attempt to defer serving her sentence until her preschool son becomes a teenager. Alekhina was convicted last year along with two other band mem-bers of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for an anti-President Vladimir Putin stunt in Russia’s main cathedral. Alekhina as-ked the court in Berezniki, a Urals Mountain city near her prison, to let her serve the rest of her two-year sentence after her five-year-old son turns 14. She argued that separation from her young child now would do irrepa-rable psychological damage to him.

Judge Galina Yefremova rejected Alekhina’s petition, saying the court that sentenced her had already taken the child’s existence into account.

On 16 January, Alekhina told the court

that while she wanted her sentence deferred, she still refused to plead guilty. “No one will force me to say I’m guilty — I have nothing to repent for,” she said.

Her son, Filipp, is going through his formative years and cannot be without her, she said. “I’m in a situation where I have to prove here that my son needs me, which is obvious,” she said.

But the prosecutor argued against the deferral, saying Alekhina had violated pri-son rules by doing things like not getting up when a prison guard called to awaken her.

On 16 January, several dozen supporters and journalists gathered outside the Berez-niki court building, which was guarded by riot police.

Yekaterina Samutsevich, another band member, had her sentence suspended in Oc-tober after she argued that she was thrown

out by guards before she could take part in the church stunt. In related news, a Russi-an priest who apologised for the actions of Orthodox activists against Pussy Riot has been expelled from the Russian Orthodox Church, RIA Novosti reported.

However, the news agency quoted church spokesperson Father Nikolai Balas-hikhinsky as saying that Sverdlov‘s suspen-sion was in “no way connected” to his state-ments on Pussy Riot.

Sverdlov sparked controversy when he apologised for the actions of Orthodox ac-tivists opposed to Pussy Riot in a 18 March 2012, article in the Orthodox Christianity and the World online publication. “I would ask for forgiveness from the detained for the rabid hatred shown by a section of the Or-thodox community over the events in Christ the Savior Cathedral,” Sverdlov wrote.

Court turns down Pussy Riot appeal

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Med-vedev will open this week’s World Eco-nomic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Medvedev’s speech will lead into a pro-gramme that begins with a debate on how to generate stable growth, with panelists including International Mone-tary Fund Managing Director Christine

Lagarde and UBS AG Chairman Axel Weber, the Forum said.

The Forum will also discuss leading through adversity and strengthening societal resilience. As many as 50 heads of government, including Germany’s Angela Merkel and Britain’s David Ca-meron, will attend the five-day meeting

that starts in the Swiss ski resort on 23 January 23. The euro crisis and the fu-ture of banking are likely to take centre stage at this year’s conference, with pa-nels also organised on topics such as the Arab Spring, the future of digital infra-structure and the role of women in the economy.

Medvedev to open Davos World Economic

RUSSIA|HUMAN RIGHTS

RUSSIA|DAVOS

RUSSIA|DIPLOMACY

KASSANDRA32

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20 - 26 January, 2013Once upon a time in London...As the book of Common Prayer advises, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Kallas speaks, Hedegaard hears no evil, EU Budget losesA s we published last week, the UN

Report of 5 November 2010 on Climate Change Financing (page

23) provides that the international shipping industry will contribute between US $22.5 – $25 billion yearly for climate change mitiga-tion actions, of which more than one third will end up in the climate change community ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) budget.Directive 2009/29 amending Directive 2003/87 so as to improve and extend the greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading scheme of the Community, stipulates that if the International Maritime Organization (IMO), an organization controlled by ship-owners, does not adopt internationally bind-ing rules on CO2 emissions reduction for the shipping industry by 31 December 2011, the European Commission should submit a leg-islative proposal to the European Parliament and the Council so that the new act will enter into force by 2013.This means that the Commission should have tabled a proposal in the first six months of 2012, taking into account that under the co-decision procedure of the European Par-liament and the Council it will take, in the best case, 18 months before the legislation is adopted.Due to the fact that IMO did not adopt the necessary rules within the timing set, the Commission services in early 2012 launched a

consultation on possible market mechanisms in an EU act to reduce CO2 emissions in shipping. A report already conducted for the Commission had concluded that inclusion in the ETS would be the best option because it would use existing structures. Taking also into account of the need to carry out an impact as-sessment analysis, a proposal should have nor-mally been prepared by the services and sent to the College by April or May 2012 so that the College would have submitted it to the Eu-ropean Parliament and the Council on time.Responsible for sending the proposal to the College, were (and are) the ‘chef de file’ DG CLIMA headed by Director General Jos Del-becke under the responsibility of Commis-sioner Connie Hedegaard and the Secretariat General led by Catharine Day under the re-sponsibility of President Jose Manuel Bar-roso. DG CLIMA, as a last step, should have launched the so called inter-service consulta-tion for obtaining the agreement of the associ-ated Directorates General, which in this case seem to be DG ENV, DG MARE, DG MOVE, DG ENTR, the Legal Service etc. Yet, such a proposal never reached the College.We remind our readers that on Commis-sion press release of June 28, 2011 ‘Reduc-ing greenhouse gases from ships: time is ticking away’ (IP/11/797) the Commission officially stated that, “The 2008 legislation provides that if no international agreement was approved which

included international maritime emissions by the end of 2011, the Commission should make a pro-posal to include these in the EU reductions com-mitment. If the IMO or UNFCCC do not reach a satisfactory agreement by the end of this year (note: 2011) the Commission will prepare the necessary proposal.”On the contrary, during the course of 2012 the Commission not only did not submit any proposal as ought to do but last October, the Commissioner responsible for Transport (who is not charged with the climate change portfolio but is associated indirectly as the Members of the Commission responsible for Environment, Maritime Affairs, Entreprises etc) announced to the press in London that the Commission has abandoned its plans to make a proposal for the inclusion of the ship-ping industry in the community CO2 emis-sions reduction system. Thus substantially de-priving the EU budget of a significant revenue of several billions of Euros every year.Last but not least, it seems that the Commis-sion services in matters of maritime policy are particularly compassionate to ship-owners.On 18 January, 2011, Lloyd’s List wrote an article on European Commission’s restruc-turing of directorate-general for mobility and transport in Brussels and that the shipping community of London wanted to keep for a third five-year term the Director of Maritime Affairs. The newspaper was saying that ‘of key

interest to industry will be the fate of maritime director …following the next round of musical chairs’ and added“with sensitive policy reviews now under way in particular the tonnage tax and the possible inclu-sion of shipping within the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme, ship-owners are keen for him to remain.‘We need him, intellectually speaking, to work on our files,’ said one industry source”. Also “Five years ago a new, expanded job within the Brus-sels transport ministry was specifically created so that Mr. Karamitsos would avoid the rotation. It is unclear if this will happen again”. Needless to say that this did happen again!It is not NE’s role to guess what stands behind the reasoning of the European Commission (IMO discussed CO2 emissions more than 10 years with no sign of agreement) neither to speculate at what level and by which actors the closed doors decision to stop the presentation of the proposal was taken.But monetizing the outcome of this internal decision, for which Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and Director General Jos Del-becke are institutionally in charge while Com-missioner Siim Kallas is indirectly respon-sible, we estimate that the incidental losses to the community ETS budget due to the delay caused by the non-action could reach the or-der of a double digit billion Euros, to the ben-efit of ship-owners. KASSANDRA (VK)

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RUSSIA’S PRESIDENCY OF THE G20 Russia assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1, 2012. The core objective of the Russian Presidency is to concentrate efforts of the G20 - forum of the world‘s largest economies - on developing a set of measures aimed at boosting sustainable, inclusive and balanced growth and job creation around the

world. The G20 Leaders‘ Summit, to be held in St. Petersburg on September 5-6, 2013, will be the main G20 event of 2013.

Official website of the Russian Presidency – G20russia.ru

Main themes of the Russian Presidency:

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