20th Year of Publication number 1026 14 - 20 aPril, 2013 € 3.50

A longstanding debate over whether Germany still owes war reparations was rekindled

last week, after newspaper reports re-vealed that Greece has formed a special committee at the state general account-ing office to investigate if Germany still owes Athens WWII reparations, and the loan that Greece was forced to offer Germany during the 1941 – 1944 Ger-man occupation.

The report, which took months to prepare in secrecy, as the commit-tee had to go through 190,000 pages of documents, was finished last month and sent to the Greek foreign ministry and the state’s legal counsel. According to press reports, it states that the total owed to Greece might be as high as €162 billion.

News reports ignited an exchange of announcements between Germany and Greece. Speaking to the Neue Os-nabruecker Zeitung, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said, “I consider these comments irresponsi-ble. Much more important than mis-leading people with such stories would be to explain and spell out the reform path. Greece has already accomplished a lot but also still has a longer way ahead. One should not divert attention from that.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman, Stefen Seibert, said on 10 April that “under different agreements, Germany has made reparation and damage payments on a high level. On that backdrop, the government there-

fore assumes that the question has lost its relevance”.

Answering Schäuble’s comments, the Greek foreign ministry announced that “there is no relation, nor can there be, between the reforms carried out in Greece and the issue of German repara-tions. Besides, German reparations are an issue that the Greek state brought up many years ago. Whether or not this case is closed is determined by interna-tional justice.”

When asked, foreign ministry’s spokesman, Gregory Delavekouras avoided ruling out the possibility of putting the matter to the Hague Inter-national Court saying, “I’m not doing any hypothesising right now, because

it would be irresponsible of me to hy-pothesise. We have to wait for the state legal service’s opinion, and then we will be able to talk about this.”

In an article about the reparations issue, German newspaper Tagesspiegel said that during the German occupa-tion of 1941 – 1944 “no other country was destroyed as Greece was where 130,000 civilians, women and children were executed in retaliation to resist-ance group attacks, 70,000 Jews were led to concentration camps, 300,000 had frostbite and went hungry because the Germans confiscated food and fuel. Fifty percent of the country’s infra-structure and 75 percent of it’s industry were destroyed”.

Three pacts for EU growth

Panagiotis Sfoudouris, a survivor of a WWII massacre from the town of Distomo, central Greece, holds a candle and a 1948 newspaper clipping depicting himself and his sister Maria standing before the grave of their parents and brother, all three victims of a massacre.| EPA/ORESTIS PANAGIOTOU

Jacques Delors writes that poor growth prospects in a majority of European coun-tries and the debates on bailing Cyprus out, on the implementation of the Stability Pact or on the adoption of the EU budget make it more necessary for us to highlight the ob-vious: while growth cannot be conjured up by decree, it can certainly be lastingly un-dermined when we disregard certain basic principles that underpin pacts we need to honour: consolidating the Financial Confi-dence Pact, implementing the Stability Pact in a more realistic fashion and devising a Youth Pact via the European budget.

Fule’s errand to FYROMWith his progress report on FYR Macedo-nia’s efforts to meet EU criteria for acces-sion candidacy due out this Tuesday, En-largement Commissioner Stefan Füle is seeing his effectiveness questioned in cer-tain circles in Brussels. His many trips have had little results, leaving the Union open to charges of impotence in the Balkan region.

HUNGARY Page 11

GENDER Page 10

German WWII reparations issue resurfaces after Greek investigation

Page 32Page 05

Lithuania bouncing back

Grillo declares war

Growth prospects in the east

Turkey waffles on Israeli-EU pipeline

ENERGY Page 12

ITALY Page 06

PENSION REPORT Page 04

ECONOMY Page 10

You owe us

02 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

The Shooting Gallery

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The partnership between France, Germany and Russia, born out of opposition to the Iraq war, gathered to plot how to contain the US ambi-tions for the Middle East, for these were still the days of the grand plan to bring democracy to the Arab world. Neither the alliance, nor the plan lived long.The role of OLAF came under scrutiny and a commission report urged the creation of a Eu-ropean Public Prosecutor, which came to pass with the eventual arrival of Lisbon. But OLAf was expected to face a massive challenge with 10 new member states, some with appaling re-cords of institutionalised corruption and organ-ised crime.

ne 10 YeARS

AGO

MMMargaret Thatcher, the UK’s longest-serving prime minister and scourge of Jacques Delors, died on 8 April. Fittingly, tributes poured in, centring on her achievements as a stateswoman, as her country’s first female prime minister, as a leader in tough times. She was a divisive figure, even current prime minister, David Cameron, who cut short a brief European trip aimed at gaining support for his EU reform programme, had to acknowledge this; she remains controversial two decades after leaving office. She is controversial even in death. So much so that news of her death was greeted in Britain with both mournful sadness and outright merriment, with street parties revelling in the news. Tributes from European leaders have been respectful, but not glowing, and the sentiments reflect her somewhat prickly relation-ship with the European Union. She was certainly no friend of Eu-rope, and made a virtue of her battles with commission president, Jacques Delors, yet she pushed strongly for the single market, as well as for the entry of former eastern bloc countries into the EU. Economic liberalism, after all, was always her driving force; a leg-acy of privatisation and wealth built on the service industry that endures to this day in both Britain and Europe. Being divisive should not be taken as a criticism, of course; better to provoke strong opinions than leave an insipid political inherit-ance. However that inheritance comes to be defined – the debate will continue – it certainly remains tricky for the left. Tony Blair, who led the Labour Party to victory in the 1997 general election, and himself a divisive figure, remains perhaps her most obvious dent on party politics in the UK. Even more so than current Con-servative Prime Minister, David Cameron, Blair best represents post-Thatcher politics; the enthusiastic embracing of the market, the renewal of foreign policy aggression, the slick media presen-tation. Under his tutelage, and that of previous party leader, Neil Kinnock, Labour lurched rightward. Current Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has urged caution and re-spectfulness from party members when debating her legacy (par-liament was recalled to do just that). Some have not taken that advice. Her policy of de-industrialisation, of attacking the trade unions, of widening the class divide and effectively creating two nations, north and south, devastated the country, they say. Mili-band was right to call for restraint, but old passions still stir. Sup-pression is sometimes hard. Today’s Conservative Party regards her as an idol. Those very qual-ities put forward by the left as a stick to beat her with are flipped by the right; it was her economic and industrial policies that saved the country and restored national pride. The current combative re-lationship the UK has with Europe is an obvious holdover of her term in office. Cameron, pushing for reform of the Union (and so far getting short shrift from his European partners) has said he will hold an in-out referendum on EU membership if re-elected, some-thing Thatcher (who signed the single European act) never threat-ened; although, admittedly, she didn’t have to contend with the current level of Euroscepticism both inside and outside her party.More darkly, on the domestic front, there is an upswing in attacks on the poor, led by members of the government, who are leading a concerted effort to effectively abolish the welfare state, and malign welfare recipients as, at best, scroungers, at worst, outright villains. The Thatcher government demonised the unemployed, like the trade unions they were part of the ‘enemy within’; today’s crop of politicians seeks to criminalise them.

Divide and conquer

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04 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

Recovering and bouncing back with a different schemeIn the 22 years since gaining inde-

pendence from the Soviet Union, Lithuania has embraced a modern

pension system that incorporates three pillars, in keeping with the current Bal-tic region way. Although the emphasis on voluntary rather than mandatory schemes wavers from their neighbours’ developments.

At the base of the pension system is state social pension insurance, that equates to half of the total pension con-tributions, and is allocated through the social insurance system, that is also di-rected to insurances for health and peri-ods of unemployment.

Every month 34 percent of a per-son’s salary is paid into the state social insurance board, or SoDra, where three percent is paid by the employee and the rest by the employer.

The largest part of the salary contri-butions is paid into pensions where 26.3 percent is allocated to retirement pay-ments, those who fully contribute are eligible for the base and second pillar supplementary pensions, and can also take part in the third pillar voluntary pension if desired.

Currently the statutory pension age is 62 and 10 months for men and 60 years eight months for women, as in line with European trends, retirement age is due to increase for men and women by two months and four months respec-tively. This is until the pension ages of 65 are reached in 2026 for both genders.

The second pillar of Lithuania’s pension apparatus has undergone many changes over the past few years, and has been effected by the fluctuations of the economic crises.

It works on a voluntary bases, where a percentage of the SoDra insurance payments is transferred into a personal pension fund account. The capital is invested in debt securities, equities, the derivates market or bank deposits, with the maturity of less than 12 months in banks registered in an EU member country, or a country with a similar reg-ulatory framework.

In 2004, when the second pillar system was first introduced, the contri-bution rate stood at 2.5 percent, which increased due to rapid economic growth in the boom years, peaking at 5.5 per-cent in 2007/8 financial year.

Lithuania though was a country badly effected by the financial down-turn, precipitously crashing to a con-traction of 13.5 percent in the first quar-ter of 2009. The favourable conditions that created an optimum time to start new pension schemes, as employment and contributions were high, drastically changed. In response the contribution rates were lowered to three percent in 2009, and were reduced further to 1.5 percent last year, but will be increased again to 2.5 percent for this year, and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour project that it will remain at two percent for most of this decade, rising to 3.5 per-cent by 2020.

According to official figures in Feb-

ruary this year, there were 1,072,017 active pension accumulation contracts signed with the second pillar pension funds. Although last year there were only 76.2 percent of the registered fund accounts actually active, as other ac-counts, labelled ‘empty accounts’, usu-ally owned by the unemployed or immi-grant workers, were left dormant.

Saranus Ruzgys, president of the As-sociation of Pension Investment Funds, said: “The voluntary nature of the sec-ond pillar is different to what you would get elsewhere in the Baltics, but it has an 80 percent participation rate and has been successful. There was a lot of ad-vertising and promotion of the new sys-tem when it was first introduced.”

“There are many types of funds, all investors are alerted to the conservative funds that every pension provider has to have, where equities cannot be invested in. Most savers choose funds with a mixture of investments and a balanced pension scheme that invests in shares, bonds and alternatives.”

The amount that pensioners receive over a year has followed the turbulent patterns of recent times, official figures say that for the first pillar state social pension insurance in 2002 was LTL 323,05 , which increased to LTL 420,29 in 2005 , reaching a LTL 811,12 in 2009.

Pensions levels then began to de-crease as the recession started to bite, but for the first quarter of 2012 they reached a height over the last ten years of LTL814.64, the equivalent of just un-der €236.

The third pillar of the Lithuanian pension scheme is a private voluntary savings scheme, and is the most under-developed part of the pension apparatus, there are nine third pillar pension funds in the country that are administered by five asset management companies.

Statistics from the Bank of Lithu-ania reveal that there are 29,487 par-ticipants in such funds up to the end of March this year, a lower participation

rate when compared to the second pil-lar, and the assets are currently worth LTL 112,87 million.

Most Lithuanians continue to stay away from these funds, preferring in-stead to invest in standard deposit ac-counts or insurance products.

New legislation has been brought in by the new centre-left coalition, follow-ing the Labour and Social Democratic parties’ victory last October, as the for-mer government’s path of austerity was rejected, that is expected to have a pro-found effect on the future of pensions in Lithuania. The change in laws stipulates that second pillar contributions are al-lowed to be reduced to a rate of 2% of salary, with an additional one percent of an optional payment from after-tax sal-ary income, then the government would step in with a 1% of salary payment. For new members of a second pillar fund this will be the only option available, in an effort to bring stability to counteract the reductions in payments during the economic crises.

For longer term savers, as from April to September this year, they can decide to stop making contributions in the sec-ond pillar from 2014, where the amount that is in the pension fund will be invest-ed and stay in the fund until retirement. Or a saver can choose to receive a con-tribution of two percent from taxable income only.

Saranus Ruzgys continued: “There have been law changes as contributions fell below 5.5 percent, which is consti-tutional and many thought that a so-cial contract had been breached, there was a lot of political theatre. As for the future the system should be stabilised from 2020 where contributions from SoDra may reach 3.5 percent, invest-ments may also become more diverse with capital injected into joint public and private projects.” Time will only tell if a more choice based voluntary system, will eventually vanquish the mandatory pension trend in this part of Europe.

By Cillian Donnelly

Tom Van Den Noortgaete is Project Manager at Royal Haskoning-DHV an independent, international engineering consultancy service provider specialised in buildings, industry, energy and infrastructure. FREE is a platform to actively promote the use of sustainable energy in rural communities.

Last month a woman lights candles arranged to read the number 60 in front of the Vilnius’ town hall with the light switched off during the annual Earth Hour event in Vilnius, Lithuania. Lithuania has the female pension age at 60 and eight months at the moment but it will be raised incrementally to 65 in the coming years. |AFP PHOTO /

PETRAS MALUKAS

The EU’s moment for promoting energy technologies

By Tom Van Den Noortgaete

Since the Heads of the member states agreed on ambitious EU en-ergy and climate goals for 2050 (80-95 percent emissions reduc-tions compared to 1990 levels), discussions on energy technolo-gies seem to go along the same lines: Technologies are available and demonstrate their potential for CO2 emission reduction; Pol-icymakers understand their benefits and industry is ready to de-liver; Myriads of support schemes and funding programmes are available, at regional, national and European levels. Yet, numerous low-carbon technologies are still to take off, slowing down the EU on its road to a low-carbon energy future. One example is particularly telling: the market roll-out of Micro-CHP, a highly efficient form of boiler able to provide both elec-tricity and heat to individual homes and businesses. Back in 2002, a study conducted with the support of the European Commission forecast that between six million and 11.5 million Micro-CHP units could be installed and operating commercially by 2020 in the EU. About one million units were meant to be on the market in 2013. Today we are still far from this figure, with around 30,000 units on the EU market. One can wonder why more households have not replaced their old boiler by this energy efficient technol-ogy, which is able to save 1.7 tonnes CO2 annually for every typi-cal home? In this context, the European Commission recently organised a public consultation on the subject of energy technologies and innovations, offering stakeholders an important opportunity to voice their opinions to the Commission about the need for EU backing of those instruments.The FREE initiative (Future of Rural Energy in Europe) has long advocated for stronger and more coordinated support for energy technologies. Carrying the voice of rural energy users who tend to have less access to modern energy solutions, FREE supports decentralised energy supply and measures to reduce the depend-ency and vulnerability of rural energy consumers. Ongoing energy problems that rural areas face being addressed by taking prudent steps to lower carbon emissions and improve air quality, is a top priority of the ‘FREE Choices Campaign’ launched late last year.When it comes to rolling out new energy technologies, non-tech-nological barriers often prevail. FREE expects the upcoming Communication on Energy Tech-nologies to address these barriers, by encouraging member states to remain consistent in their support for certain technologies and avoid regulatory U-turns, which have recently hit solar incentive schemes. Medium-term financial backing for low-carbon tech-nologies is essential if the EU and its member states want to be serious about climate change. Education, education, educationIn rural areas, general awareness and education campaigns are needed to explain the benefits of technologies and raise consumer acceptance, by dissipating fears, especially on costs and conveni-ence of use. The Communication will also be an opportunity for the EU executive to reiterate the critical aspects of certain, early stage technologies that are needed in Europe. A smart grid uses digital technology to improve the reliability, se-curity, and efficiency of the electricity system, from large genera-tion through the delivery systems to electricity consumers. Storage, however, of electricity remains the Achilles heel. Nowa-days pumped storage remains by far the most efficient form for electricity storage but the total capacity worldwide is only around 120 GW. As much as supply instruments are needed to meet our energy challenges, we must not neglect the role of demand man-agement. A unit of energy not used is a unit produced and with the EU expected to import even more of its energy in the future, the need for efficient energy use is imperative.A comprehensive plan for addressing Europe’s energy and climate change mitigation problems requires innovative technologies and policies that harness both the supply and demand sides of the en-ergy equation. EU institutions mustn’t neglect this reality.

‘CHOICES‘

A member of New Europe’s Knowledge Network

05ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

Poor growth prospects in a majority of European countries and the debates on bailing Cyprus out, on the implemen-

tation of the stability pact or on the adoption of the EU budget make it more necessary for us to highlight the obvious: while growth can-not be conjured up by decree, it can certainly be lastingly undermined when we disregard certain basic principles that underpin pacts we need to honour.

1. Consolidating the financial confidence pactThe row over bailing Cyprus out tells us

first and foremost that the EU is facing a cri-sis which is also of a banking nature, and that the consolidation/restructuring of European banks’ balance sheets is an indispensable pre-condition for the return of confidence, and thus of growth.

The European authorities were guilty of a mammoth error of judgement when they approved the principle of taxing all accounts held in Cypriot banks rather than just those with a considerable sum of money on them. They have since proved capable of correcting that mistake, but unfortunately it has had such an impact on the pact of confidence that exists between banks and their customers that it has even prompted people to fear that the same procedure may now be extended to countries other than Cyprus.

It is only normal that taxpayers, whether Cypriot or European, should not be the only ones to have to shoulder the cost of salvaging the banks, as they did in Ireland. But it is risky to force bank shareholders (as in Spain) or in-vestors (as in Greece) to contribute, without arousing their mistrust. The fact to require contributions from the richest bank account owners in extreme situations (as in Cyprus) could in no way constitute a precedent, as the ECB has underlined it. Thus it is crucial for such decisions to be thoroughly explained and clearly adopted, and for their exceptional nature to be highlighted on each occasion: the European and national authorities have “made default” in connection with that issue, too, in the Cypriot affair.

This new incident must naturally prompt the EU’s member states to make even more rapid progress towards a genuine European banking union. A single supervisory mecha-nism under the aegis of the ECB is currently being set up, and thus the European Stabil-ity Mechanism will soon be in a position to directly assist those banks that require aid, for instance in Spain. Given the turmoil that the Cypriot crisis has triggered throughout Europe, it has undoubtedly also revealed just how useful the two other pillars of a genuine banking union would be: it is more urgent than ever to create European mechanisms designed to guarantee bank accounts and to resolve bank crises!

2. Implementing the stability pact in a more realistic fashionThe European authorities showed greater

foresight during the European Council meet-ing on 14 and 15 March when they built greater flexibility into the way the “Stability and Growth Pact” is implemented, in order to achieve a better balance between excessive defi-cit cuts and support for economic activity.

This, because the Council’s conclusions un-derscore the need for “differentiated budgetary consolidation” tailored to reflect the different situations in countries in difficulty, but also the need to afford priority to the notion of a struc-tural deficit, in accordance with the measures enshrined in the recent “fiscal compact”. They very usefully pave the way for granting a more realistic deadline to countries such as Portugal or France to bring their economies back below the three percent deficit-to-GDP threshold, also in view of the efforts that they are already making in that direction.

The benefit of these extensions is linked primarily to the current economic situation because they make it possible not to strangle demand, and growth with it. Yet in no way do they excuse the countries involved from hav-ing to implement structural reforms at the na-tional level: in fact we should remember that such structural reforms are the first item in the “Growth Pact’ adopted in June 2012. Much has already been done on this matter, especially in “countries under programme”, but much re-mains to be done to go beyond mere incanta-tions.

In the context of the current recession, it goes without saying that the package of budget measures envisaged in that pact, to the tune of €120 billion, must be implemented without further delay. At this juncture, the lack of vis-ibility surrounding the extension of the EIB’s

lending capacity, the use of unused structural funds, and the launch of “project bonds” also undermines the confidence that citizens have in the material implementation of the EU’s deci-sions, and thus ultimately also in its credibility.

Lastly, acting in a structural manner must prompt the European authorities to commit to the creation of a debts Redemption fund, as envisaged in the compromise thrashed out by the Council and the European Parliament over the adoption of the “two pack”. A coun-try such as Italy, for instance, has made major efforts of budgetary adjustment and reform, and it has been enjoying a primary surplus for several years now. Helping European countries to shake off their “old debt” together would un-questionably contribute to encouraging their growth prospects while at the same time re-building their citizens’ hopes.

3. Devising a youth pact via the European budgetThe current crisis is reaping numerous vic-

tims, especially among young people: in fact they may soon turn into a “lost generation” both for the EU and for its member states; and this, at a time when the room made for them in an ageing Europe is of the utmost importance. Thus while adopting a “European Pact for Youth” may not be a new idea, it is nevertheless more urgent than ever before.

Here again, it is of course at the national level that the primary effort needs to be made in order to improve education, training and la-bour market entry conditions for young people. But it is crucial for those young people also to be able to benefit from a subsidiary yet visible contribution from the EU, in particular via its budget.

On a more detailed level, there are three initiatives that deserve to be encouraged both

via the budget for 2013 and in the context of negotiations on the next multi-annual finan-cial framework: first the “youth employment initiative” which planned budget of six bil-lion euro must be increased and which prior-ity must be apprenticeship; then, within this initiative, the adoption of a “European youth guarantee” allowing the EU to help member states to offer training or a job to all of their young people; and lastly, “Erasmus-style” mobility programmes, which really do help young Europeans to effectively acquire lin-guistic and cross-border skills, and for which funding needs to be increased even further. It is also in the light of the resources granted to these three initiatives that we will be able to gauge whether the EU is adequately mobilis-ing its budget, which is first and foremost a tool for solidarity that can, in this particular instance, become a useful tool for growth if it benefits young people more directly.

Beyond these targeted measures, Europe’s young people will also be able to benefit from the new “package” that the EU is due to adopt in order to deepen its internal market while si-multaneously adjusting its budget. The imple-mentation of a single market for digital services seems to be a particular priority in this connec-tion, as does the increase of funding for R&D and innovation, or for trans-European transport and energy networks, which are at the basis for any sustainable growth.

Financial stability, budgetary stringency, and support for the younger generations: it is by combining efforts for solidarity and support for growth at every opportunity that the Euro-pean Union will be able to more effectively help its member states to rediscover more favour-able economic and social prospects, and thus to strengthen the pact of confidence binding it to its citizens.

Demonstrators take part in a protest against government’s austerity measures and health care spending cuts in Madrid on 17 March. The placard reads: “His loot is my crisis. Without a living, there is no peace.” |AFP PHOTO / DANI POZO

EU and growth: three pacts rather than one

By Jacques Delors

Jacques Delors is on the Board of Direc-tors of Notre Europe –Jacques Delors Institute

06 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

‘This is a war, and we’ll win’Beppe Grillo, the hottest proper-

ty in European politics, on why he’s leading a revolution against

old-style politics, why it will become bigger than the Arab Spring, and why he’s a guarantee against fascism.

Until recently, Beppe Grillo was simply a successful comedian. But these days, the powerful in Italy -- and beyond -- fear Grillo The Pro-test Leader. In Italy’s recent election, young people catapulted his nascent Five Star Movement (M5S) to politi-cal power as it gained over 25% of the vote. And, Grillo tells Metro in an ex-clusive interview, this is just the begin-ning of a worldwide revolution.

You say you want to tear down the political system. Are you sure the people who voted for you wouldn’t instead like to see solu-tions to Italy’s problems?

The destruction of the system has already started thanks to the internet, which is demolishing the world’s cor-ruption and fake democracy. Change is happening now, but the political class hasn’t yet understood that we’re not just another party of destruction seeking to replace the old ones. The Movement is a shift in mentality, cul-ture and society. I am just facilitating and speeding up a dissolution process already in place. We’re forced to imag-ine a different world because the one we live in doesn’t work. This country is on hold, there’s no big industry any-more, small and medium-sized busi-nesses are dying. We have big issues in the healthcare system, in education, in culture. Italy is a country with a €2,000 billion debt, and €100 billion in debt interest.To keep talking about growth, GDP and spending reviews is a crime against humanity. We need to sit down and reconsider it all. M5S is a concept: finding a meaning to the identity that doesn’t exist in Italy anymore, giving a meaning to the state that doesn’t exist anymore. Bureaucracy has replaced democracy, and finance has replaced economy. We need to find a meaning to the word ‘work’. It’s no longer to keep thinking of the economy in terms of GDP growth, doing more things, then destroying them, sell them away and destroy them again.

This system has crashed, not just in Italy but in all over world. M5S is a dream, a tangible utopia, already shared by millions of people. We’re living through a big change. We’re ac-celerating this change, a change that is not just in politics, but also in the industry, the economy, culture and civil society. To shift from petrol to renewable energies in 20 years from now is a cultural shift, not a political one. We need a generational change for both politicians and entrepre-neurs. We need to redefine what a citizen is, what the economy should become. The Movement is all of this: it has intellects from around the world gathering around a forum and debating. It is a bottom-up move-ment. It’s not like it’s a leader who has

founded a party like all the others.

These are problems that don’t just affect Italy….

Absolutely. This format can be ex-ported, and it’s already expanding all over the world. You form independent civic lists, featuring common citizens and a guarantor. I’m a guarantor, so I make sure that whoever enters the list doesn’t have a criminal record or an affiliation with other political parties. My purpose is that of spreading the word in the streets, because in addition to being an online movement it’s also a street movement.

On the web you can be subject to all sort of comments. People try to depict us as a movement led by a boss who makes the decision, a move-ment with no internal democracy. But this is utterly incorrect. And in Italy, our problem – in addition to the po-litical class – is the media. If an Italian newspaper runs this interview, it will be distorted. News is influenced by political, economic and financial pow-ers. Editors belong to this system too. We need to reform the media industry too, or this process of change will take much longer.

So a revolution is happening in Italy, just like it happened in Egypt - or perhaps even bigger?

Absolutely. Maybe in Egypt peo-ple miss Mubarak, while here no one cries for Fini or Casini or will ever cry for Bersani or Berlusconi. We Italians won’t regret anything, because we’ll put honest people to rule the country: normal people, straightforward and transparent ones. Businesses willing to operate won’t have to look outside Ita-ly. We’ll lay the groundwork for future investments in Italy through transpar-ency, honesty and professionalism. We’ll appoint specialists for the posi-tions where they’re needed, positions that in the past have been given to par-ty officials, lovers, wives and friends of friends. The internet will make it pos-sible for the people with the best CVs to get the positions they deserve.

Your MPs are very young, full of energy and ideas. But do they have the competence to make important decisions for the country?

Yes. My 13-year-old daughter

would have more common sense and capability than the current politicians, judging from the results of their ac-tions. Our parliamentarians are the youngest group deputies in the world. 88% of them have a university degree, and we have a larger share of women than any other party in Parliament. They’ll gain experience.

And then?This is a movement, but also a

community. And we need to change the language of politics. The guiding words should be solidarity, communi-ty, nobody left behind, not “spending review, GDP, 3%, vote of confidence”. And here enters the true confidence. Politicians will be forced to follow our political agenda. When M5S was born they used to say, “Grillo repre-sents anti-politics, he’s a demagogue and a populist”. These days they copy our agenda, and I’m extremely happy. This is absolutely a revolution, and those who watch it from within don’t even understand it. They’re 70 or 60 years old, they’re in the political par-ties, newspapers and banks. And they haven’t understood that this is a war between generations. We can no long-er have 70-year-olds who’ve been in power for 35 years, who wrecked the country and explain to us on TV and in newspapers how to fix the damage they’ve done. These people have to go away, apologize to the nation and un-dergo a fiscal check. I never asked for votes in order to form a coalition. We have the right to send them all home. And this is just the beginning. Change is already happening, and the Move-ment will become bigger. Citizens will become the state, and in Parliament we’ll have citizens’ committees, move-ments and representatives elected on-line. Every citizen will have the tools to decide over his own life.

Do you think traditional politi-cians still have a role to play?

I believe change will keep spread-ing like a virus. It’s like an epidemic: there will be fewer leaders and more citizen power. Decisions won’t be taken in meetings between leaders but by the citizenship through refer-endums. In Switzerland people don’t even know the name of the President of the Confederation; they don’t know

the names of the ministers because it doesn’t really matter. The Swiss don’t even bother going to vote, because they know that ultimately they have the last say in referendums.

Let’s begin like this: have parlia-mentarians earning a normal salary, staying for two terms, then go back to the job they had before, and then we make everything available through the internet to facilitate honesty. This way honesty will become a trend in Italy, and people who’ll want to come and invest here will have to be honest and transparent, otherwise he’ll have invest somewhere else. And this process will apply to all of Europe. We want to be European, but not just for issues relat-ed to the economy and the banks. We want Europe to be curious, we want knowledge based on competence, we want an identical fiscal system for all of Europe, we want a shared immigration system, a shared language system.

And then everything will be sim-ple. Today common sense is consid-ered terrorism. If you touch the Euro issue and they look at you and say, “this guy is mad; we need to stop him because he mentioned the Euro and whether Italy should stay or leave”. The problem here is not whether to stay or not, the problem is that this society is based on nothing, on debt growing exponentially. This will lead not only to economic breakdown but also to social unrest. We are a movement that is looking for a solution and wants to defend freedom and legality. We did the French Revolution without guillo-tine, we are a movement that managed to be elected in Parliament trough democratic elections, and hence we fill a void with democracy. In Greece, this void has been filled up by Golden Dawn; in Hungary, by the neo-Nazi party; in France, by Le Pen.

We’re a guarantee for democracy. People should thank us, but instead they attack us. They attack us at every demonstration. They attack our MP because he’s not used to being inter-viewed by five televisions as he’s stroll-ing around; they attack another one of our MPs because he says a wrong word, or if he says something different later on. But they never attack the con-tents of our law proposals about small and medium-sized businesses, or the fact that we didn’t accept €42 million in electoral reimbursements. We said no. Who else said no? No one. They say we have no program, that M5S is just a protest movement that wants to destroy everything. They want to make us look like them, if not worse.

Do you think Italy would be bet-ter off outside the Eurozone?

Being inside or outside the Euro-zone is not something I can decide. I never said such a thing. I said that the sovereign debt is throwing us into a black hole. We’re in a black hole, with no hope. If we don’t grow the tradi-tional economy, if we don’t produce more cars, more concrete, more super-markets, parking lots, infrastructure: if we don’t do this, we’re dead. But we can’t do this anymore; as a result we’re

in a black hole.But we can’t change with the same

people who created these problems. They don’t have change written in their DNAs. They believe economy is in the building sector. In Australia people build wooden block of flats, [while] we keep buildings that waste away 50% of the energy. Italy is a hub for incinerators and regasification ter-minals and wind-energy production. We can’t leave all of this in the hands of the people who’re currently in charge because they’re dilettantes, thieves and parasites, and this has ruined a country that would otherwise have an extraor-dinary potential. Look around you: it’s a war. Everywhere is full of rubble left behind by these people who still want our trust. This country is full of rubble: moral rubble, social rubble, industrial rubble. We’re starting a war, we’re on the frontline and we’ll win. We’re the new, we want to govern, and we’re ca-pable of governing.

When you speak with an un-employed person, do you tell him there’s hope?

I tell the unemployed right away: “We have an immediate emergency plan that is the basic income guaran-teed. Immediately.” The money for this can be found by cutting the cost of politics, by reforming trade unions and the job market. We need to reform the corporate law: the small shareholder should decide the salary of company managers, as was decided in Switzer-land through a referendum. The small shareholder should decide the man-ager’s bonus with an electronic voting system, and should also decide wheth-er the manager deserves to keep his job. It should be the small shareholder making those decisions, not the board of directors.

You essentially won the elec-tion. Are you sure your voters will understand why you don’t want to govern with one of the other par-ties?

Absolutely. My voters were in the streets when I said that we wouldn’t make a deal with anyone. Whoever votes for the Movement becomes the Movement. If you decide to go for that option and vote for the Five Stars Movement, you have to take a risk, even in your job. You decide to dedicate part of your job to the com-munity, pretty much like me. I speak in the streets for free, whereas in the past I charged for my shows. This is the Movement: from the plumber to the engineer to the accounting manager: everyone should dedicate part of his time and his job to others. This is how we change our country and become a community, with a sense of identity. And that’s how we’ll become the best in the world, I’m sure.

By Elisabeth Braw

Elisabeth Braw is a Senior Reporter for Metro International World News who has given New Europe permission to re-publish her interview with Beppe Grillo done for Metro Newspapers globally.

Beppe Grillo, Leader of the Five Star Movement and divider of public opinion in Italy due to his popularity.| AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO

07ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

Thatcher and Merkel: enemies of the Irish On the last day of Margaret

Thatcher’s life, I walked in the footsteps of an Irish rebel.

Saint Enda’s School is tucked away in a tranquil park near the Dublin moun-tains. It was here that Pádraig Pearse taught from 1910 until he was executed by British forces for his leading role in the 1916 Easter rising. Pearse wanted his pupils to marvel at nature, believing it was the only thing in Ireland to be truly free. His final poem The Wayfarer attests to his joy at seeing “little rabbits in a field at evening, lit by a slanting sun”.

The 1916 revolution took place at a time when Britain was at war with Ger-many. Pearse and his comrades stated that they bore allegiance to “neither King nor Kaiser”. As the centenary of the rising approaches, it is troubling that the inde-pendence for which Pearse fought and died remains elusive.

Thatcher only exercised power over six counties in the north of Ireland. Her ideological acolyte Angela Merkel exer-cises power over the other 26 counties on this island. Though the circumstances differ, there are many parallels between these two leaders. (The fact they share the same gender is of little consequence; to paraphrase the comedian Russell Brand, they are icons of individualism, not feminism).

Thatcher displayed a cruel inflexibil-ity towards the north. When Republicans went on hunger strike to demand they be treated as political prisoners (which they clearly were), Thatcher let ten of them die. Her stance helped to foment sectari-an strife and exacerbate the causes of con-flict. Numerous lives - not just those of the hunger strikers - were lost as a result.

Merkel is now displaying a cruel in-flexibility towards the rest of Ireland. In order to protect German banks which lent recklessly to Ireland during a prop-erty boom, she has insisted that ordinary Irish people pay the gambling debts of their country’s bankers. Public services are being eviscerated and industries pri-vatised in Ireland to placate the German political establishment.

Perversely, those who did not ben-efit from the boom are the ones who are being required to make the highest sac-rifices. The austerity measures being un-dertaken have resulted in people with dis-abilities having less home help and fewer special needs assistants being available to children with learning difficulties. Both the spirit and letter of the 1916 Proclama-tion of the Republic - which contained a

pledge to cherish all of Ireland’s children equally - have been violated.

The first news story that I read dur-ing my current stay in Dublin informed me about how the “troika” - the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - has “imposed a new requirement” on the Dublin government. Soon, Ireland will have to issue monthly reports on cut-backs to its health service. This “require-ment”, apparently, follows the troika’s ob-servation that not enough people on low incomes have been deprived of medical cards entitling them to free prescriptions. The troika’s recommendations on Irish health expenditure will soon be discussed in the Bundestag, readers of The Irish Times were told.

Because that journal of record report-ed these things as if they were the normal or sensible, it took a while before the enormity of what is happening sunk in. German law-makers have a greater say in whether or not my compatriots get medi-cal care than those elected to Ireland’s parliament, the Oireachtas.

It is embarrassing, to say the least, that the destruction of Irish sovereignty has encountered little resistance. The massive street protests in Spain and Greece have not been replicated here, even though we Irish are also victims of the EU and IMF’s diktats. This year marks the centenary of the 1913 Dublin Lock-Out, an industrial dispute in which employers tried to starve their workers into submission by lock-ing them out of their jobs. The leading employer in the dispute, William Martin Murphy, was a major investor in The Irish Independent. Today, that newspaper -

particularly its Sunday edition - continues to side with the captains of industry.

The same can be said of the entire establishment. The Irish Labour Party - supposedly the heirs of the trade union-ists who defended workers so valiantly in 1913 - has been reduced to rubber-stamping measures demanded by the EU and IMF.

There is a tacit understanding among Irish people living in Brussels that we should “wear the green jersey” abroad and not talk down our political represent-atives. This is especially so when Ireland holds the EU’s presidency, as it does now.

Yet I abhor the behaviour of the two Irish people who have held the highest-ranking posts for EU officials. Cath-erine Day, the European Commission’s secretary-general, was instrumental in watering down the EU’s new anti-smok-ing law. Letters that she has written to colleagues indicate that she was more concerned with protecting the profits of cigarette makers than in reducing deaths from cancer. Her predecessor in that position, David O’Sullivan has gone on to head the Commission’s trade depart-ment and play a senior role in its “exter-nal action” service. In both those jobs, the Dubliner has served British politi-cians - Peter Mandelson and Catherine Ashton. After trying to bulldoze African and Asian countries into becoming vas-sals of Western corporations, O’Sullivan is now paid handsomely to advance a militarisation agenda, shaped by weap-ons manufacturers. There are many rea-sons to be proud of being Irish. The con-duct of our representatives in Brussels is not among them.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel signs the book of condolences for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the British embassy in Berlin on 11 April, 2013. As the author of this article states they are both “ icons of individualism, not feminism” as he explores what they mean to the Irish people and the current Euro-pean Council Presidency. |AFP PHOTO / KAY NIETFELD

The right time really is now

By Alojz Peterle

How to prevent future crisis? What can we learn from today’s situation? Important questions for Slovenian and also world economy. We were searching for the answers to those questions at the conference Ethics in Business and Leadership, “The Time is Right, Now!”, organized by World Forum for Ethics in Busi-ness in cooperation with Fokus 2031.Now more than ever it is the right time to explore new ways for business leaders to evolve leadership styles that are sustainable, yet profitable for their organizations.Speakers – all of them well known in Slovenian business, media or politics - agreed, that human values and ethics need to be the core of any development.As WFEB’s co-founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said: “Trust is the backbone of business. We have seen the flaws in communism, now we are seeing the failings of unbridled capitalism. It is time for humanism.”Lack of ethics is big problem also in Slovenia. From the most perspective new member of the EU we became one of the can-didates for the next bailout in the eyes of the international press.Our main problem is never properly ended transition. In coun-tries where the rule of law works, where reforms were started ear-ly enough, the impact of the crisis is less devastating. In the same EU, facing the same crisis, some are doing well and others are having serious problems. Among the latest is also Slovenia where managers of public companies obviously forgot about social fair-ness and common good. Instead their work became synonymous for clientelism, wild privatization and other unethical practices. But as economist Jože Damijan said, unethical business practices are not sustainable. “Even the world’s biggest corporations have suffered heavy losses due to loss of reputation and trust that is very difficult to recover. The price of unethical business practice is very high for Slovenia. We do not only have a damaged banking sector but have also lost many years of economic growth,” said Damijan.And the solution?Better laws, more supervision and a clear value system, speakers agreed.Danica Purg, Director of IEDC - Bled School of Manage-ment, speaks about the “eleventh commandment”. “The main problem of the neoliberalism is the idea that everyone has the right to maximise their profits, regardless of the damage it brings to the others. Something like that in combination with the lack of personal ethical standards can be devastating. So maybe we should add a new commandment that says “you shall be honest doing business,” she said. Lack of personal values and ethical standards is the biggest prob-lem on the path to ethical business leadership. The Governor of the Bank of Slovenia Marko Kranjec pointed out that the lack of ethical standards can be partly blamed on the media for glorifying stories of instant success, without checking, what is really lurking in the background.Another problem is that changing people’s behavior is not an easy task. When past crisis erupted, many of the world’s most famous universities started to offer courses in business ethics. But as we can see, that did not prevent a new crisis or bring ethics to business. Values and the distinction between good and bad is developed at a very young age. Above all in the family. But also at school, as Slovenian president Borut Pahor pointed out. “I now believe that school should also educate for ethics and values. We cannot expect people to behave ethically if high ethical standards are not part of their personality,” the president said.He also hopes that the latest crisis will change the society and the concept of market economy. “A modern market economy will have two pillars - profit and social responsibility. This will hope-fully mean, that for the owners and managers in the final report, the way they work, and their attitude towards employees and the environment will be as important as the profit,” he said.

Alojz Peterle is a Member of the European Parliament. He was the president of the first freely elected Slovenian government, and he was among those who led Slovenia to independence from Yugoslavia. He is a founder and current President of the group MEPs Against Cancer (MAC).

By David Cronin

World Forum for Ethics in Business

08 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

KHARKIV, UKRAINE – Prison is al-ways a place of mourning. But perhaps learning of Margaret Thatcher’s death in this place is grimly appropriate, because it made me remember the imprisoned society of my youth that Thatcher did so much to set free.

For many of us who grew up in the Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe, Margaret Thatcher will always be a heroine. Not only did she espouse the cause of freedom – particularly economic freedom – in Britain and the West; by proclaiming Mikhail Gor-bachev a man “we can do business with” (at a time when almost every demo-cratic leader was deeply suspicious of his policies of perestroika and glasnost), she became a vital catalyst in unlocking our gulag societies.

Indeed, for everyone in the former communist world who sought to build a free society out of the wreckage of to-talitarianism, the “Iron Lady” became a secular icon. Her qualities of courage and persistence – of being “not for turn-ing” – provided a living example for us of a type of leadership that does not buckle at moments of political peril. I have certainly taken inspiration from her fidelity to her principles and abso-lute determination to fight, and fight again, when the cause is just.

One of the true joys of my life in politics was the opportunity to have a quiet lunch with Thatcher in London

some years ago, and express my grati-tude to her for recognizing our chance for freedom and seizing the diplomatic initiative to help realize it. Throughout my premiership, I kept a quote of hers in mind: “I am not a consensus politician; I am a conviction politician.” Her rigor-ous sense of the true duty of a politician always gave me comfort during a po-litical struggle, for our duty as leaders is not to hold office, but to use our power to improve people’s lives and increase the scope of their freedom.

When Thatcher first expressed her belief in the potential of Gorbachev’s pro-democracy reforms, I was a 24-year-old recent university graduate begin-ning my career. There was scant hope that my life would be better than that of my mother and, more dispiriting, even less hope that I would be able to build a better life for my young daughter.

Thatcher’s embrace of the cause of our freedom was electrifying for me. The great dissident writer Nadezhda Mandelstam had seen for us a future in which we could only “hope against hope”; yet here was a leader who saw for us a future not of squalor and moral compromise, but of freedom and oppor-tunity. I still shake my head in wonder that she could embrace the abandoned hope of liberation when almost no one else – not even Gorbachev – could even imagine it.

But, of course, Thatcher understood freedom, because it was in her very sin-ews. She was assuredly not for turning, but she also was not for taking orders or settling for the restricted life that her so-ciety seemed to hold in store for her. In a Britain where social class still typically determined one’s destiny, the grocer’s daughter from the north made her way to Oxford and starred as a student of chemistry.

Then she dared to enter the exclu-sive male preserve of politics. When she became the first woman to be Brit-ish Prime Minister, she fired the ambi-tions of countless young women around the world (including mine). We could dream big because of her example.

And, as a woman, Thatcher knew that she brought something unique to the corridors of power. As she said on taking office in 1979, “Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understand-ing the problems of running a country.” That common-sense fusion of family values and fiscal probity set an example for every elected leader who has fol-lowed her.

Of course, I well understand that many in Britain felt left behind by the economic and social revolution that Thatcher unleashed. But the entire point of Thatcherism, as I understood it from afar, was to create conditions in which everyone could work hard and achieve their dreams. That is what I – and all of Ukraine’s democrats – want for our country: a society of opportu-nity, under the rule of law and not under the thumb of cronies and oligarchs, in an open Europe.

The record speaks for itself. Before Thatcher’s premiership, Britain was widely considered the “sick man of Eu-rope” – afflicted by stifling regulation, high unemployment, constant strikes, and chronic budget deficits. When she stepped down 11 years later (the coun-try’s longest-serving prime minister since Lord Liverpool left office in 1827) Britain was among Europe’s – and the world’s – most dynamic economies. As a result, we are all Thatcherites now.

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

By Yuliya Tymoshenko

Yuliya Tymoshenko, twice Prime Minister of Ukraine, has been a political prisoner since 2011.

Costs of Context

By Francisco Jaime Quesado

Europe will have more and more to eliminate the costs of con-text that difficult the competitiveness agenda for the future. In a time of uncertainty and uncontrolled global financial crisis, Europe must focus more and more its attention on launching the basis for a New Strategic Agenda centered in the drivers of high growth rate and civil society capacity of creating and de-veloping added value for the international market. More than ever, we need to develop colectively this Porter effect.The effectiveness of this agenda against the costs of context is based on a stronger coordination among the different partners towards action:- Develop active policies towards the participation of SME inglobal networks; -Reinforcing the role of “Clusters of Innovation” as Centers of Excellence for new areas of knowledge (biotech, renewables energies, new communications); -Reinventing the role of Universities as active players in the de-velopment of a culture of competitiveness among civil society; -Enabling the States to progressively eliminate obstacles to in-vestment and innovation;The execution of the New Europe 2020 Agenda is a good exam-ple of this new strategic vision for a new agenda of excellence. But it´s not enough. It must be effectively complemented with an active participation of policymakers in disseminating the new message for the future. The Porter effect will be an effec-tive and strong enabler to the social and economical develop-ment of the institutions and the citizens. That´s why we need new programs, new answers, new solutions.In this way, the extremely positive experience of integrated projects like the “Poles of Competitiveness” and Clusters of Innovation across the different regions should be replicated in other European countries. It allows – as it can be confirmed by its results – a very strong commitment between the imple-mentation of a global national economic strategy and specific areas of regional development, which is now considered by the European Union as a key enabler for the future.This new economic strategy demands an effective Partnership Contract between all the actors (States, Universities, Compa-nies, Civil Society), in order to build a real Strategy of Con-fidence in the implementation of the different policies. The focus on Innovation and Knowledge as the drivers of creating added value with international dissemination is a unique chal-lenge that may be the answer to a new way of interaction be-tween those who have the responsibility of thinking and those that have the responsibility of producing goods and services.It´ s time to believe in a new cycle for Europe. Reinventing the Lisbon Agenda and giving the European Actors (States, Uni-versities, Enterprises, Civil Society) the opportunity of devel-oping new challenges focused on innovation and creativity is in a large sense giving a central contribution to the reinvention of Europe. The Reinvention of Europe will be possible if based in the elimination of the costs of context. For that, all of us will have to give our individual and collective contribution.

Francisco Jaime Quesado is the General Manager of the Innovation and Knowledge Society in Portugal, a public agency with the mission of coordinating the policies for Information Society and mobilizing it through dissemination, qualification and research activities. It operates within the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education

The Iron Lady as Liberator

Yulia Tymoshenko (L) meets Margaret Thatcher (R) in London, England, 20 September 2007. |EPA/ALEXANDER PROKOPENKO / POOL

09ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

Pigs over Nicosia

A fter the Cyprus bail-out, which has battered the economy of the southern half of the island,

it is natural for the Republic to look for new sources of revenue, the most obvious being natural gas. But this solution is not without problems.

In 2010 the U.S. Geological Survey es-timated that there were 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 122 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable gas in the Levant Basin between Cyprus and Lebanon, Syria and Israel. By comparison, all the EU countries combined hold 70 tcf.

Russia is at present Europe’s main sup-plier of natural gas, providing 36 percent of its imports in 2011, and there is no rea-son to believe that Europe’s dependency on Russia will diminish. On the contrary, Russia has opened the Nord Stream pipe-line under the Baltic Sea to Germany and has begun work on the South Stream pipe-line under the Black Sea to bypass Ukraine, which originally carried 80 percent of Eu-rope’s natural gas imports from Russia.

The EU’s Southern Gas Corridor project was originally intended to connect Europe with an alternative supply of gas through the Nabucco pipeline from the Caspian region and Central Asia. How-ever, this has been replaced by the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP), which will transport gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea and further to Europe ei-ther via the Nabucco West pipeline to Aus-tria or the Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) to Italy. The discovery of a vast deposit of natural gas in the Levant Basin should provide Europe with an additional oppor-tunity to diversify its energy supply but has instead become a source of conflict, pri-marily between Turkey and Cyprus. This has already existed for many years but was exacerbated by the delimitation of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone and the exer-cise of Cyprus’ sovereign right to exploit its own natural resources.

In 2008 Cyprus complained that a Turkish navy vessel had harassed two Nor-wegian seismic research ships and three years later Turkey threatened with military action if Cyprus began natural gas and oil exploration in its EEZ. As Turkey’s EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagdis explained. “This is what we have the navy for”.

Nonetheless, Houston-based Noble Energy, which had received a conces-sion to explore Block 12, the Aphrodite field, began drilling and in December 2011 announced a gross mean find of 7 tcf. Noble Energy had with its Israeli partners already discovered 26 tcf in the adjacent Leviathan and Tamar fields in Israel’s EEZ, which together with other discoveries now amounts to about 37

tcf in new gas resources. Cyprus has in a second round of licens-

ing awarded concessions for three more blocks to the ENI/KOGAS consortium (Italy and South Korea) and for another two to France’s Total. Therefore it came as no surprise that when Israel’s Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a one-day visit to Cyprus in February 2012, the first by an Israeli prime minister, the main rea-son for his visit was energy cooperation.

Turkey has not only resorted to gun-boat diplomacy to dissuade Cyprus from exploiting its natural resources but has also warned major oil and gas companies from being involved. Its latest move has been to suspend ongoing projects with Italy’s ENI because of the company’s collaboration with Cyprus in oil and gas exploration.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Da-vutoglu has also stated that if reunification talks fail and no agreement is reached on the establishment of a joint commission on gas resources, Turkey is ready to negoti-ate a two-state solution.

The chairman of Cyprus Hydrocar-bons State Company (KRETYK), Charles Ellinas, has come with estimates of be-tween 30 and 40 tcf of natural gas in the six licensed blocks in Cyprus’ EEZ and talks of an annual export of 2 tcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2020. The EU’s an-nual import of natural gas is around 15 tcf but is expected to increase. By way of com-parison, Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline has a planned capacity of almost 2 tcf a year.

President Nicos Anastasiades has also stated that Cyprus is basing its hopes for economic recovery on the exploitation of its hydrocarbon resources, “the corner-stone of our policy”. But there are a num-ber of obstacles on the road ahead.

OptionsThe International Crisis Group be-

lieves that the island’s gas resources could be the locomotive for reunification and mentions a pipeline from Cyprus to Tur-

key as the simplest way to export to the EU However, the chairman of KRETYK has dismissed this solution on political, eco-nomic and technical grounds.

Another option is an East Med pipe-line connecting the Israeli and Cypriot gas fields to Italy via Crete and Greece but this would be prohibitively expensive and a technological challenge, as the pipeline would have to be laid at extreme depths.

In February Israel proposed the con-struction of a 600 km pipeline from its Leviathan field to the southern coast of Turkey. Economically viable, this project would involve the cooperation of Tur-key’s Zorlu Group, which would build the pipeline at an estimated cost of $2 billion. And Netanyahu’s apology to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara incident could lead to a thaw in relations, making this project po-litically feasible.

Furthermore, Turkey’s energy min-ister Taner Yildiz has just signalled that Turkey sees it possible to cooperate with Greek Cyprus and Israel in joint energy projects in the Mediterranean “so long as the political atmosphere allows it”.

Cyprus will no doubt opt for the con-struction of an LNG plant in Vassilikos near Limassol, which together with off-shore facilities will cost around $10 billion.

Noble Energy’s CEO Charles David-son agrees that the best option is an LNG plant, which unlike a pipeline offers a flex-ibility of markets. Noble Energy has not yet committed to the project, which will be necessary before long-term sales of LNG can begin. Financial Times energy expert Nick Butler has poured water on the whole scheme, pointing out that the construction of an LNG facility will be heavily depend-ent on selling the gas into a secure market against fierce price competition. He is par-ticularly sceptical of the possibility of Cy-prus exporting gas to Europe via an LNG terminal by 2019. As he concludes, “Yes, and pigs might fly over Nicosia”. Let’s see if they do.

By Robert Ellis

Robert Ellis is a regular commentator on Turkish affairs in the Danish and international press.

Suffer little children

By Andy Carling

Constructive Ambiguity

There is a programme on British television that appears to show all that is rotten and wrong with the nation, the Jeremy Kyle show. The sneering host, a repellent creature full of fake empathy and easy judgment, takes on the underclass, those in dire need of help, but get Kyle instead.It’s been described in a court as a “human form of bear baiting.” Viewers are drawn to vilify and sneer at those desperate or foolish enough to appear on the stage, to feel better about themselves as they giggle over those paraded for their disdain. It’s easy to do. The typical guest has no education, no problem solving skills and is fuelled by an ill directed rage, of resent-ment and immaturity.Two of his guests are beginning long prison sentences for be-ing responsible for the deaths of six of their children in a re-venge plot. Mick Philpott appeared proud of his life, with two women at his beck and call, a house full of kids and a mailbox full of welfare benefits.We now know what a monster he was, how cruel and violent he was towards women, not least the revelation after the guilty verdict that he had previously tried to kill a previous partner, who wanted to leave him, stabbing the 17 year old 13 times, for which he received a seven year jail sentence. Philpott had previously shot Hill in the groin with a crossbow because he felt her dress had been too short, and had cracked her kneecap with a hammer when she paid too much attention to a baby she had been minding. He actually served just over three years in prison.In response, the British Prime minister and his chancellor have taken away one message from Philpott. Welfare benefits must be cut.Not even Thatcher and Norman Tebbit compared the unem-ployed to a child killer. The truth is that if Philpott had his ben-efits taken away would not have found employment and be-come a model citizen. He would have been much more likely to put his partners into prostitution.The other inconvenient truth is that there are no jobs, neither is there much hope. The solution, a secret policy of both the Bullingdon govern-ment, but also of the hapless Labour party, is to let these peo-ple rot. Their future is to be in a low or no benefit housing estate, providing cheap labour that can compete with the Chi-nese peasants.The message that people with more compassion than dogma is that much, much more needs to be done about domestic vio-lence. Social services need to be greatly improved instead of falling apart under the death by a thousand cuts.Mick Philpott was a bully and, under a society – and yes, there is such a thing as society – that valued women and children, he would have been spotted as an abuser, given a meaning-ful sentence and compulsory treatment for his psychological troubles. The children should have been under the watchful eyes of a substantial social service, one that was adequate to protect the vulnerable.That is not going to happen and that is Thatcher’s legacy; vilification of the poor, scorn towards the disadvantaged and scarcely a thought about children who had a life of nothing-ness ahead of them.

10 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

In countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bang-ladesh, Iran and Iraq where women are con-fined to their homes and are suppressed in the name of Islamic laws, a country where rights for women are only limited to books or politicians words, where a woman does not even have a right to cast a vote, a tribal Pakistani woman will stand for election to make history.

Badam Zari, a 40 year old Pakistani house-wife, will be the first woman to run for elec-tions in the country’s Taliban-dominated tribal area. Despite the risks, she wants to be a spokesperson for women living in the tribal region. She wants to bring changes for the bet-terment of women’s lives in the tribal regions where women are suppressed in the name of religion and culture. The life of a woman is not easy in Pakistan with a double discrimination for women coming from tribal areas as they are not permitted to leave the house without their husband and need to be covered from head to toe. Zari aims to change the view of this conservative society to empower the role

of women. Most of the women in the tribal region are not educated and men have always discouraged women from casting votes in the name of tradition and religion.

Zari is from Bajur one of the seven dis-tricts of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). In recent years militant activities have increased in this region. It is a

neglected area where women have no educa-tion, no health facility, no electricity and not even access to clean drinking water. Zari is illiterate but is passionate enough to stand in the forthcoming elections for women’s lib-eration and rights of women in the tribal re-gion. She knows that she will receive threats on her life from the Taliban, but like Malala Yousafzai, she will stand for the betterment of women’s positions in society.

Strong women have featured previously in Pakistan’s National Assembly the most well know being Benazir Bhutto, who was the first woman to head a Muslim state. Whilst Pakistan has a quota system of around 17 percent of the seats going to women these seats are generally allocated by the Party, so it is rare for an inde-pendent like Zari to stand in the polls.

The courage of this uneducated woman shows us all that we should fight for what we believe is right to change systems that discrimi-nate and are unjust. In a society where women are almost excluded from the decision making process at all levels, women like Badam Zari are an inspiration to us all.

Badam Zari (C), a candidate for upcoming general elections in Pakistan,campaigning in Khar, the main town of Bajaur, one of seven districts in the country’s semi-autonomous tribal belt where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks on Pakistan, on 2 April. Zari, in a rare move, decided to try her fate in the country’s 11 May general elections. In Pakistan’s 60 years of history, no female candidate from a tribal region has ever contested or won an election. |AFP PHOTO / STR

By Mariya Gabriel MEP

Europe: future growth in the east In a new report Fitch Ratings have warned

that the CEE-5 countries Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria

all will have to implement structural reforms to foment future growth, to converge with the in-come of the rest of the EU.

The ratings agency forecast that average-weighted GDP growth for all five countries will rise to 1.2 percent this year, an increase of 0.6 percent from last year. Although its an average figure that masks some vast differences between the five nations since the 2008 economic crash.

Recent growth rates of the CEE-5 reflect the general downturn across the EU since the first quarter of 2008. Hungary has been damaged the most, down by 0.6 percent, Romania has suf-fered a reduction of 0.5 percent growth, followed by Bulgaria and the Czech Republic who both have seen their economies contract by around 0.1 percent.

Although Poland stands out as by far the most successful country over the past five years, with a staggering increase of 14 percent of GDP growth.

Domestic demand Fitch concluded was a significant problem for the CEE-5 last year, that left the region in a poorer condition when com-pared to the Eurozone.

Poland usually has healthy domestic de-mand, but the ratings agency say that for last year it only accounted for 0.1 percentage points of growth, down by 3.4 percentage points from 2011. This trend was replicated by the Czech Re-public and Hungary, but Bulgaria and Romania were the exceptions, where domestic demand was far stronger due to wage increases of 6.3 percent and 1.2 percent respectively, resulting in higher household consumption.

Fitch revealed in the report that data for the

first part of this year has suggested that consumer confidence is low across the CEE-5, with unem-ployment also expected to rise, which may even hit 10 percent across the region for the first time since 2006.

The use of the EU’s structural and cohesion funds could propel demand growth by boosting public investment, but so far the take up of the EU funds has been slow, and continuing factors are set to hinder future EU fund absorption.

Paul Rawkins, a Fitch senior director who contributed to the report, explained:

“Some countries like Romania have low absorption rates: excessive bureaucracy hinders utilisation of structural and cohesion funds,

while new administrations often introduce changes that complicate the process further”

“Countries need to identify viable projects that will be an efficient use of EU funds; they also need to undertake improvements to the business climate that will boost investment and lift domestic demand. The pursuit of idiosyn-cratic policies in Hungary, for example, has not been helpful in this respect.”

Fitch believe that the prospects for medium term growth for the CEE-5 region beyond this year are bright, although the agency admits that is based on a number of assumptions, that in-clude a modest recovery in the Eurozone to sup-port exports. Investment in infrastructure is also

set to improve, with further structural reforms also expected to enhance economies over the medium term.

There is optimism despite the recent falls in economic growth for all of the five countries due to the economic crises, as flows of foreign direct investment have been far more cautious since the growth period of 2004-08, where capital from the outside boomed.

Figures from the European Commission reveal that Poland in the region’s leading pros-pect for recovery, as economic growth has the potential to reach 2.6 percent for next year as a growth differential relative to the EU. They are followed by Romania on 1.7 percent, Bulgaria on 0.7 percent, the Czech Republic on 0.4 percent, although Hungary is set to suffer the most with negative growth of 0.8 percent.

The report says that part of the reason why Hungary is set to contract, is the evidence that west European banks are withdrawing money from their local subsidiaries across the CEE-5, but especially in Hungary due to policy deci-sions. Sovereign debts are divergent in the region concludes the report, ranging from 18.6 percent of GDP in Bulgaria to 78 percent in Hungary, but the region is in better health than the 93.1 per-cent average debt of the Eurozone.

“Growth in the Eurozone is not going to be the catalyst for growth in CEE-5 that it was pre-crisis. However, in contrast to the eurozone, fis-cal consolidation in CEE-5 is well-advanced and should prove to be less of a drag on growth, while public debt ratios are generally lower and falling even in Hungary” Paul Rawkins opined.

“To ensure growth in future in all of the CEE-5, countries will need to embrace reforms in a wide array of sectors including pensions, public healthcare, the labour market, where it has to be easier to hire and fire, and state enterprises”

By Peter Taberner

A woman holds a Romanian flag during a protest of employees of chemical company OLTCHIM in the front of Romanian Government headquarters in Bucharest on 9 April, 2013. The plant of the second-biggest producer of chemicals and plastics in eastern Europe, was forced to shut down due to a cash crunch. Romania had promised the IMF and the EU to sell Oltchim.|AFP PHOTO DANIEL MIHAILESCU

A step towards female empowerment

11EU-WORLDNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

Guy Verhofstadt denounces Hun-gary, the Hungarian government and all its works with such vehe-

mence that one begins to wonder, why? Why the vehemence? Why the loaded language (“last straw”, “Orbanisation”, “radically curtailed”)? Why the threat to launch Article 7 proceedings?

We can, of course, take it all at face value and join the parrot chorus of Hun-gary-bashers. There are so many in the chorus, they reinforce one another for sure, that a detached observer might be forgiven for thinking that the majority must be right.

The trouble begins when we start to look beyond face value. The evidence is, in reality, “evidence”, with scaremonger-ing barely worth bothering with. No, the homeless will not be criminalised; no, there is no threat to religious freedom; no, the powers of the Constitutional Court have not been curtailed; no, media freedom is unimpaired.

Anyone seriously interested in Hun-garian affairs would have no difficulty in ascertaining this, unless she was de-termined to give everything done by Orbán’s government the most negative reading possible. Many in the chorus do just that.

That does not mean that they are right. Hungary, it would seem, is just a convenient target, rather too much so.

First, very few people know the lan-guage, very few members of the chorus have even the slightest knowledge of Hungarian, yet they are more than hap-py to rely on second-hand information. They would never do this about an issue they know well.

That means that they rely on sourc-es without scrutinising them. And that amounts to abandoning their critical fac-ulties. But then that’s what membership

of a chorus usually requires.Those in the chorus somehow as-

sume that the assumptions from their home experience can be automatically translated into things Hungarian. Have they never heard of multiculturalism? Of respect for other cultures? Or is it that Hungarian culture somehow doesn’t qualify? A dangerous step, if so.

Besides, let’s not exclude this, Hun-gary-bashing is fun. It allows the chorus to ventilate. As the psychiatrists will tell you, that it’s good for the soul, it pro-duces a feel-good effect if you can slag off something that you think is A Bad Thing.

Orwell’s “Two Minutes Hate” was about this. But is this responsible poli-tics? Does the chorus really need a whip-ping boy, a scapegoat?

Actually, the answer is quite likely to be yes. The liberal left is in dire straits. Market freedom has had catastrophic consequences. Inequality has reached close to pre-modern levels, civic equal-ity is in tatters as a result and liberalism is looking at the brick wall at the far end of a blind alley.

Throughout Europe the losers of glo-balisation, those excluded from the cosy benefits of the liberal consensus – and their name is legion – are voting for po-litical movements that the left is forced to denounce as “populist”.

For what it’s worth, the word “popu-list” basically means “something political that I don’t like”.

Try and establish a consistent defini-tion of populism and the answer is that there is none. It’s a convenient label and nothing else.

But this does mean that the liberal chorus has to do something. And this is where Hungary-bashing comes in and gives the answer to the question “why” raised at the beginning.

Precisely because Hungary is little

known, because the Fidesz government has a two-thirds majority and has used it to launch a radical reform programme, it becomes an ideal target.

After all, this line of reasoning might go, isn’t it gross impertinence, when a centre-right government that uses its constitutional majority to introduce badly needed reforms? A resounding yes from the chorus, of course.

Here we get to the nub of it. The liberal chorus needs, badly so, Orbán, Fidesz, the scapegoat and all, in order to mobilise its eroding voter-base. We do actually have elections in May 2014.

So that’s the true context for the persistent attacks on Hungary, Hungary is no more than a pretext for something else.

It should be evident by now that the chorus has constructed an imaginary Hungary.

This is all the more useful because no one has to do a reality check, no one has to test it against the real Hungary that exists somewhere out there in Central Europe, the one that I was elected to rep-resent in the European Parliament.

In this real Hungary, the Hungary-bashing has had its results. It has intensi-fied a deep dislike of the Hungarian left, of the EU and of the parrot chorus as a whole. Have a look at the public opin-ion surveys. Fidesz’s support is holding up, despite everything, but so is that of Jobbik. The chorus is being completely goal-irrational and its anti-Hungarianism is entirely counterproductive. Unless, of course, they want Jobbik to succeed. If they don’t, then they should recognise that Fidesz is the most effective defence against the far-right.

György Schöpflin is a Hungarian academic and politician. He is a Member of the Euro-pean Parliament for Fidesz and the Europe-an People‘s Party, and sits on the European Parliament‘s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

By György Schöpflin MEP

Hungary-bashing à la carte

Participants carry placards reading ‘Thank you Viktor! You discredited the Hungarian people!’ during a demonstration of several thousand people who followed a call of the ‘One million people for the freedom of press’ organization at Calvin square in Budapest on 17 March. |AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK

Residents and presidents Helmut Kohl has admitted to acting “like a dictator.” It was the only way, according to the former German chancellor, of launching the single currency. In a 2002 interview given as part of a PhD thesis and just published, Kohl said that he was unsure if anyone else in the country had the political clout to push through Germany’s adoption of the euro. Sensing strong opposition within his own party, the CDU, to joining the euro, as well as to Wolfgang Schäuble, his would-be successor, Kohl, his popularity at the time declining, justified his self-confessed dictatorial stance as a political necessity. A referendum, he said, was out of the question; he would have lost.While Kohl may have been alluding to a past European political trend (oddly attempting to render it somewhat benign), there are those who will no doubt sense a contemporary resonance; an overweening fidelity to the European project, fear of the electorate, self-serving disguised as strength.Whatever about the immediate consequences of Kohl’s actions in allowing Germany to become a member of the single cur-rency, the longer term has seen a crisis (the factors are varied) in the Eurozone, with collapsed economies and economies on the brink of collapse, as well as some that have collapsed once and may do so again. It is not a happy time.The economic crisis continues to turn into a political crisis, and, moreover, a crisis of leadership. French President, Francois Hollande, for instance, whose freefalling popularity means it is apparently customary to describe him as ‘beleaguered’ these days, is mired in scandal, while his attempts to carry himself as ordinary, a man of the people, resident rather than president, do not sit well with the pseudo-imperial trappings of the Elysée office, giving him a faint air of foolishness. His centre-right pre-decessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, is having problems of his own, embroiled in a court case over political donations. The far right Front National are rubbing their hands in delight. Right wing and populist movements are also gaining ground in Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Finland the UK and elsewhere. Member state governments, increasingly acquiescing to the European Union, or in hoc to it, are caught in the middle of a new hierarchy. Indeed, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, currently on a reform crusade, meeting with EU leaders in an attempt to seek support for an altered Europe, may have mis-judged the mood recently when he told a selection of European newspapers that “power must be able to flow back to member states, not just away from them. This was promised by Euro-pean Leaders at Laeken a decade ago…the promise has never really been fulfilled.” At this juncture, it seems unlikely that the promise will ever be fulfilled; the balance of power is against it.With key member states, such as France, Germany and Spain, all on Cameron’s consultation list, too distracted with preserv-ing the Eurozone, a coherent reform agenda proposed by the prime minister, an upstart, non-Eurozone member, seems high-ly unlikely. And with preservation of EU economic and institu-tional structures, a priority for member states, citizens continue to be marginalised. A decade or so ago, when Helmut Kohl gave his interview, to say one acted like a dictator could be laughed-off as a kind of self-depreciation; not now. It is certainly hyperbole to suggest that Europe is heading that way again, the EU, despite it mal-contents, has seen to that, but dark, ugly forces are gathering. It is no time for flippancy. Concordia

TRANS-EUROPE EXCESS

12 EnErgy & climatE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 april, 2013

Turkey waffles on Israeli-EU gas pipelineBAKU - Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told New Europe that an energy project between Turkey and Israel could become “ne-gotiable and doable,” following the thaw in re-lations between Ankara and Tel Aviv. “As long as the political feasibility gets there, in terms of energy projects the technical feasibility will be there,” he said on 8 April, asked about the possibility of constructing a pipeline along the coast of Turkey to carry Israeli gas to Europe. He was speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Baku, focusing on Strate-gic Dialogue on the Future of the South Cau-casus and Central Asia.

Relations between Turkey and Israel thawed after US President Barack Obama’s visit to Tel Aviv in March which led to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apolo-gising to his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Er-dogan for the 2010 killing by Israeli marines of nine Turks aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship.

Asked if the rapprochement between Anka-ra and Tel Aviv will affect the whole political situ-ation in the East Mediterranean region, former US ambassador to Azerbaijan Matt Bryza told New Europe in Baku that he understands how, if Israel and Turkey seem to proceed with a pipe-line, that would cause a lot of concern on Cyprus and its president, Nikos Anastasiadis, who has a lot of friends in the United States. “You need that Israeli gas together with the Cyprus gas either to make commercially viable a LNG (liquefied nat-ural gas) facility or a pipeline to Crete and then to the rest of Greece. So it will be difficult,” he said, regarding the effect on Israel-Cyprus-Greece co-operation.

However, Bryza said that it’s entirely pos-sible that there could be a pipeline that joins the gas from Cyprus’ Aphrodite field and Is-

rael’s Leviathan and sends gas through Turkey. “I know that it’s politically incredibly diffi-cult right know, but economically that makes the most sense. And I think there is a way to make it work for the Hellenic community as well because some of that gas could go also to Greece,” Bryza said, adding that “Cyprus would have the power to shut off the flow of gas where it ever concerned Turkey was be-having against Cyprus’ interests. I think theo-

retically there is a grand bargain to be reached. Of course it’s very difficult politically”.

Asked if the EU becoming too energy de-pendent on gas transit through Turkey, espe-cially if the project to carry Israeli gas to Eu-rope through the country materialises, Bryza said the key is to make sure the EU uses its leverage over Turkey’s aspirations to become an EU member to make sure if this happened Turkey would behave as a free market player

and not as a monopolist. “I believe Turkey’s ambition is not to control the flows but to be the hub that functions according to mar-ket principles and therefore allows Turkey to become more significant strategically,” Bryza said. “I think the leaders of Turkey realise if they just become another monopolist, they are not important to Europe. But they could be strategically important if they become a hub – like Greece could as well.”

BAKU - Norway’s Statoil and State Oil Com-pany of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) signed an memorandum of understanding on the joint development of the Zafar-Mashal block in Azerbaijan’s section of the Caspian Sea on 8 April. Norway’s Statoil CEO Helge Lund and State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) President Rovnag Abdullayev signed the at SOCAR’s headquarters in Baku.

A few blocks away, Statoil and SOCAR executives met in the context of the World Economic Forum at the JW Marriott Absher-on in Baku.

According to the document, the talks will last for 12 months from the moment of memo effectiveness and the basic commercial prin-ciples and provisions of future agreement will be defined by their results. “SOCAR and Sta-toil have been co-operating for 20 years and this memo is a new stage in our interaction”, Abdullayev said.

“We are very pleased with co-operation with SOCAR, we are pleased with the invest-ment climate created in Azerbaijan. We are happy with the signing of this memo, which has become the first stage in our future agree-

ment”, Lund said, adding that there are good prospects for working in the Caspian Sea.

SOCAR estimates that Zafar-Mashal, a deepwater block located about 110 kilome-tres southeast of Baku in Azerbaijan’s section of the Caspian Sea, contains 300 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 37 million metric tonnes of condensate.

The first contract for the development of the prospective Zafar-Mashal offshore struc-ture was signed between SOCAR and US ExxonMobil in April 1999 but the contract was closed due to discovery of commercially

unattractive volumes of hydrocarbons.Azerbaijan is the second largest contribu-

tor to Statoil’s international production - about 20% of international production comes from the former Soviet republic.

Statoil Azerbaijan started its work in 1992. The company is a partner on Azerbai-jan’s Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea. The Shah Deniz consortium is expected to choose between the Nabucco West and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to transport Azerbai-jani gas to Europe by the end of June. Statoil holds 42.5% of the shares in TAP.

Statoil, SOCAR agree to develop Caspian field

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and energy giant Royal Dutch Shell agreed to jointly de-velop offshore Arctic oil fields. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Royal Dutch Shell chairman Jorma Ollila signed a letter of intent to jointly explore for and produce offshore hydrocar-

bon resources in the Russian Arctic and Shell’s deepwater projects in third countries. The deal follows negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Amsterdam.The memorandum anticipates the joint prospect-

ing and development of hydrocarbon deposits in the Russian Arctic.

Miller said at the signing ceremony that the deal was a framework agreement that en-visaged co-operation in the Arctic as a whole, and that it did not refer to any specific hydro-

carbon deposits. Shell also signed a memoran-dum with Gazprom Neft, Gazprom’s oil arm, on co-operation in exploring and producing shale oil in Russia. Shale oil hydrocarbons are located in West Siberia in the Bazhenov, Ab-alak and Frolovskaya rock formations.

Gazprom, Shell to develop Russian Arctic fields 

By Kostis Geropoulos

Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz in Baku, Azerbaijan, 8 April 2013.|NEW EUROPE

13EnErgy & climatENEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 april, 2013

Mitschek: Nabucco West, South Stream not at odds

BAKU - There is no real direct competi-tion between Nabucco West and South Stream even after Gazprom decided to abandon the Russian-backed project’s southern branch, from Greece via the Adriatic seabed to Italy, focusing more on the Balkans and Central Europe, Nabucco Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek told New Europe in an interview. He was speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Baku, focusing on Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

“We do not really see South Stream as a competitor to Nabucco West,” Mitschek adding that his consortium has “very good status of negotiations” with Azer-baijan’s state oil company SOCAR, BP, Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total, de-veloping the offshore Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea. He reminded that Nabucco West has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tran-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and discussed the technical interface with TANAP. “We have an inter-governmental agreement for Nabucco West with Bul-garia, Romania, Hungary and Austria. We have far developed engineering and the decision will be taken now in two-three months time and I’m confident Nabuc-co will be realised so I don’t really see a real direct competition between South Stream and Nabucco,” Mitschek said.

Arriving by TANAP at Turkey’s western border, 10 billion cubic metres of Azerbaijani gas could be forwarded either through the Nabucco-West route through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to the gas distribution hub at Baumgar-ten in Austria, or alternatively through

the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via Greece and Albania to Italy.

The  Shah Deniz field partners  have started to evaluate final bids received from TAP and Nabucco and are expected to make a decision by the end of June.

For its part, South Stream will pass through Turkish waters to Bulgaria, and then continue on through Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Austria to tie in with the dis-tribution network of the multinational ENI in northern Italy. Analysts say Gazprom prioritised South Stream in Southeast and Central Europe, so as to defend Gazprom’s near-monopoly there against potential competition from Nabucco.

But former US ambassador to Azer-baijan, Matthew Bryza, told New Europe in Baku that he thinks South Stream is in trouble. “I’ve always thought it [South Stream] was the most uneconomic pro-ject in the region that was designed for one purpose, which was not to bypass Ukraine but to intimidate investors not to do the Southern Corridor and I think that as the Southern Corridor becomes clear-ly a reality, I believe you will see South Stream’s momentum fade,” Bryza said.

Meanwhile, Mitschek said the Bal-kans is a priority for Nabucco West. “We have a direct Nabucco market that is Bul-garia, Romania, Hungary and Austria; we have a neighbouring market that is all the countries in western Balkans and we have an associated market that includes Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Ger-many and France. All these markets can be easily reached by Nabucco and there-fore we can offer to the Azeris here not only the 60-billion-cubic-metre market in southeast Europe but the whole 500-bil-lion-cubic-metre market in Europe,” the Nabucco managing director said.

The European Commission has in-vested a lot of political capital in Nabucco but recently is equally supporting both Nabucco and TAP.

Mitschek said his project has to prove commerciality because shareholders in Nabucco are stock-listed companies and by definition this project has to be com-mercial. “We enjoy the political support from the Commission, from the state parties involved, we are listed for funding from the Commission and all the sup-port we need we have,” he said. “I have no reason to complain and, as I said, it’s not a purely strategic, political project. It has to prove commerciality and I’m sure we can prove commerciality and we can prove that we are the most competitive project in the so-called Southern Corri-dor,” he said.

Asked if there a Plan B for Nabucco and whether the project will be scrapped if is not selected by the Shah Deniz con-sortium, Mitschek responded: “Not nec-essarily”. He stressed that Nabucco West is a multi-sourcing project. “Nabucco started as a multi-sourcing project and remains multi-sourcing. That means gas from Azerbaijan is our first priority and it will be perhaps the first gas. But there is also gas from Iraq, there is gas from the Black Sea offshore and some other sources so I’m confident that not only first gas will be Azerbaijan but there will not only be Azeri gas in the pipeline. We offer transports from Turkey to the north; we offer transports from the cen-tral European gas hub down to the south in the reverse flow transaction; we offer short-term, long-term transactions,” he said. “With our set of services we offer to the market, we are very attractive for a lot of business opportunities.”

The gas distribution centre in Baumgarten, Austria, the endpoint for Nabucco West.| NABUCCO

Lithuania, Gazprom reduce mutual distrust

By Kostis Geropoulos

EnergyInsider

BAKU – Russia may face tough energy negotiations when Lithuania assumes the rotating EU Presidency in July. Vilnius is already planning to lessen its dependence on Russian gas mo-nopoly Gazprom by finding alternative gas suppliers and will try to boost European energy security.On 8 April, Lithuanian Prime Minister  Algirdas Butke-vicius told New Europe in Baku that he had “a good meeting” with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in St Peters-burg on 5 April where he told the Russian premier that the EU will not change the Third Energy Package, despite Russia’s ob-jections.Moscow argues that the EU rules for energy liberalisation dis-courage Gazprom from investing in pipelines and gas storage facilities as they would grant third-party access to its infrastruc-ture. He also says that it discriminates against Gazprom.“I explained to him [Medvedev] that we will not change Third Energy Package in Europe because I presented this plan in Brussels when I met with (Commission President Jose Ma-nuel) Barroso, (EU President Herman) Van Rompuy, and (Par-liament President Martin) Schulz and then I met with (Energy Commissioner Günther)  Oettinger  and our position is very strong -- to strengthen energy security in Lithuania and in all the European Union,” Butkevicius said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Baku.In 2012, the European Commission launched a monopoly probe into Gazprom’s operations in the region, alleging that the Russian gas giant is using its dominant position in central and Eastern Europe to restrict competition and hike prices. Moreover, Gazprom and gas monopolist Lietuvos Dujos, which current operates Lithuania’s pipelines, were involved in a long and bitter fight in which Vilnius used the EU’s Third Energy package to force a decision to unbundle the company past major shareholders Gazprom and Germany’s E.ON last year. Gazprom says it was coerced into the decision by threats from the Lithuanian government, and has not ruled out inter-national arbitration.The Lithuanian premier told New Europe that he and Medve-dev decided that experts from Russia, especially from Gazprom, would come to Lithuania this week. “The will discuss many is-sues about a new maybe contract buying gas from Gazprom. But we don’t want to sign this agreement for a long time be-cause we know that we will have new suppliers at the end of 2014,” Butkevicius said.He explained that Lithuania will present its new independent national energy strategy in the parliament by May and it is go-ing to diversify gas its market by December 2014. He said his country plan to construct a big liquefied natural gas (LNG) platform by December 2014. “Next our aims are to complete interconnections of electricity with Poland and with Sweden and these projects will be completed by 2015 and then at the same time we will go to European Union energy market,” But-kevicius said.But for now, Russia is Lithuania’s only source of natural gas and Gazprom last year supplied more than 3.4 billion cubic metres of natural gas to the Baltic state. The Lithuanian premier said Lithuania pays the highest price for gas in all of Europe. “But I think we will have new suppliers at the end of 2014 and then I think discussions with Russia will be easier,” he said.

KGeropoulos@NEurope.eu follow on twitter @energyinsider

By Kostis Geropoulos

14 EU-WORLD NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

The European Parliament and the Euro-pean Council have signed an anti-cor-ruption agreement on the disclosure

requirements for the extractive and forestry industries. The new agreement aims to put pressure on mining companies to make public the payments they make to governments for exploiting oil and gas fields, mineral depos-its and forests in resource-rich nations. This anti-corruption agreement covers new sim-pler accounting requirements for the prepara-tion of financial information. This will result in a reduction in the administrative burden for small companies (SMEs). Internal Market Commissioner Commissioner Michel Barnier stressed that the mining industry was “far too often shrouded in secrecy”, therefore the new legislation can be a catalyst to the fight against tax evasion and corruption, added the former French foreign minister. “Today’s agreement is an important step in fulfilling our objectives

for more responsible businesses” said the EU Commissioner.

NGO Oxfam Charity and the European Network on Debt and Development (Euro-dad) welcomed the new anti-corruption agree-ment. In concrete terms, they said that the proposal is a huge step in the fight against cor-ruption. However they added that the new Di-rective “failed to include other sectors beyond extractive and forestry such as telecommuni-cations and construction which would widen corporate accountability and help both devel-oping countries and EU member states better combat tax evasion and avoidance”.Further-more, the UK Business Minister Jo Swinson hailed the new EU anti-corruption agreement. “It is great that the EU is leading by example. We have succeeded in making sure that citizens can get access to the detailed information they need to be able to hold their governments to ac-count“ he said.

The agreement must be now approved by the 27 EU Member States.

At least 13 people die in ambush on UN convoy

UN condemns attack in South Sudan

13 people died in South Sudan after an am-bush on a UNMISS (UN Mission in South Sudan) by unidentified attackers, near Gu-muruk in Jonglei state UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and his spokesperson said in a statement. “He (Ban) condemns in the strongest terms the killing of five Indian peacekeepers and two UNMISS national staff and five civilian staff contractors.” The Secretary General “recalls that the killing of peacekeepers is a war crime that falls under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court,” Eduardo del Buey said and added. “He calls on the Government of South Sudan to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.” In a separate statement Ban’s Special Repre-sentative in S.Sudan Hilde Johnson expressed her condolences to the families of all the vic-tims. However Johnson stressed that UNMISS “is determined to continue its work in support-ing authorities ensure peace.”

According to the UN, South Sudan faces considerable security challenges, in particular, in Jonglei state and the tri-state area of Lakes, Warrap and Unity. Last week, UNMISS re-leased its findings into a UN probe of a cat-tle raid on an 8 February attack near Walgak in West Akobo. February’s attack caused the death of at least 85 cattle herders, mostly wom-en and children.Regarding attack no group has claimed the responsibility, but the authorities of S.Sudan are accusing the followers of the re-bel leader David Yau Yau. South Sudan‘s mili-tary spokesman, Colonel Philip Aguer, said the rebels are backed by the government in Sudan.

“Definitely this attack was carried out by David Yau Yau‘s militia,” Aguer said. “They have been launching ambushes even on the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) for about six months now.” SPLA is the official army of S.Sudan.

Sudan has previously denied arming the rebels.

By Eleni Stamatoukou

By Karafillis Giannoulis

Europe against mining corruption

An aerial view taken on 26 November, 2011 shows the intermediate nuclear waste storage facil-ity near the northern German city of Gorleben located in a former salt mine. After decades of debates in Germany leaders from federal and state governments and party leaders have agreed on a process of searching for a permanent solution to the nuclear waste storage. |AFP PHOTO / NIGEL TREBLIN

A woman cries as she puts her hand on the coffin of one of the five United Nations (UN) Indian peace-keepers killed during an ambush on 9 April, in the troubled eastern region of Jonglei, on 10 April, 2013 in Juba during a funeral ceremony. Five peacekeepers and seven civilians were killed in an ambush by unidentified gunmen when a convoy of UNMISS vehicles was attacked near the settlement of Gumu-ruk. Four Kenyans, two South Sudanese working for the UN and a compatriot working alongside the Kenyans for a water drilling company were amongst the victims, the company said. The memorial cer-emony was attended by India’s Ambassador to South Sudan Parmod Bajaj, South Sudan deputy minister for International Cooperation Elias Nyamlel Wako and the Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General, Hilde F. Johnson. |AFP PHOTO / ISAAC ALEBE AVORO

15EU-WORLDNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

The contribution of migrants to Europe

Fighting AIDS, TB and malariaPrivate sector needs to enhance involvement in the Global Fund

The European Network Against Rac-ism (ENAR) today launched a pub-lication supporting the view that

migrants and ethnic minorities contribute a great deal to Europe’s economic, social, polit-ical and cultural life.The publicationentitled ‘Hidden Talents, Wasted Talents?

The real cost of neglecting the positive contribution of migrants and ethnic minori-ties’ shows that migrants and minorities have a significant contribution to Europe, how-ever, their efforts and talents are not often recognized.

As ENAR Chair Chibo Onyeji stated: “Imagine, how many more migrant ‘success stories’ would come to light if we ceased wasting talents because of discriminatory

and exclusionary practices? How much bet-ter off would we all be? Diversity is part of the very foundation of Europe, and we can only build a strong and successful Europe by recognising on the value of our differences and revealing the hidden talents among us.”

According to the report, migrants are in fact contributing more to welfare states over-all than the rest of the population. In spe-cific, a study found that in France migrants contribute €12 billion annually to the state. Migrants also play an important role in care work and in sustaining healthcare systems across the EU.

In the UK, migrant workers account for 19% of care workers and 35% of nurses em-ployed in long-term care.

In Ireland, 17.4% of health professionals are migrants.However, Europe is still suffer-ing from racism, xenophobia and discrimina-tion. In addition, migrants are often blamed for high unemployment rates, despite the fact that the notion migrants are ‘stealing’ jobs from natives is unfounded.

ENAR points out that giving migrants more opportunities could have a positive ef-fect on restoring Europe’s economy. It is a fact that 25% of EU employers have difficulty filling positions due to lack of qualified indi-viduals. As a result, ENAR stresses that EU leaders must take the necessary measures as to promote the protection of human rights and encourage the full participation and in-tegration of migrants in society. NE

The European Commissioner for Develop-ment, Andris Piebalgs today stressed the need to take further action in order to ensure the ef-fective operation of the Global Fund as to suc-cessfully tackle HIV, TB, and malaria.

As Commissioner Piebalgs stated: “We need to be prepared to combat HIV, TB, and malaria over the long term and the Global Fund is an important tool to do so. However, the culture needs to shift from emergency response to sustainability. The medium-term goal is the integration of the response to these three diseases into existing national and international systems, particularly in sustainable, comprehensive and nationally owned strategies.”

Moreover, Commissioner Piebalgs men-tioned the development of a new funding model for the Global Fund that involves en-hanced financial help to those countries most in need. The new model also aligns the fund-ing more closely to national priorities, plans and management cycles.

Furthermore, he highlighted the impor-tance of urging the private sector and emerg-

ing donors to increase their contributions to the fund, since their close involvement has so far proved to be significant in controlling the diseases. In addition, the Global Fund secre-tariat has been reorganized as to become more efficient and better at grant management.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tubercu-losis and Malaria was founded in 2001 in or-der to fight spreading of these diseases. Over the past 12 years, the EU has contributed more than 1.1 billion euro to the Global Fund. The Commission is now planning to contrib-ute 330 million euro for the period running from 2011 to 2013.

According to statistics, the number of people dying of AIDS-related causes fell to 1.7 million in 2011. In addition, the same year 1.4 million people died from TB, with Africa recording the highest per capita death rate. Moreover, an estimated 630 000 people in the world suffer from a multidrug-resistant TB that poses a major threat. In 2010, 3.3 billion people were at risk of malaria infection world-wide. 91% of malaria deaths globally were in Africa and 86% were of children under 5.

A worker at a call centre in Europe

16 ARTS & CULTURE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

If you want to surprise people, try telling them that you’ve been listening to Finn-ish jazz. While the country has provided

the majesty of Sibelius, today, the country is probably better known for death metal than anything else.

But there’s a lot more to the Finland music scene than those screaming Satanists.

Finnish jazz has been declared underrated in the world by music lovers but is now getting support to bring it to a wider audience from Music Finland, set up to promote the Nordic nation’s aural endeavours.

“The jazz culture in Finland is of high qual-

ity: excellent and very unique composers and musicians, exciting new clubs and jazz DJs,” said Henna Salo of Music Finland. “However, you cannot say that jazz in Finland would be mainstream or widely known by larger audi-ences - it is an art form that is more or less on the margins, not in the mainstream of the cul-ture consumed by the people.”

Beginning to listen to Finnish jazz, a feel-ing comes over, that of a door being opened into yet another little known cultural treasure house in Europe. Although the names might be both new and confusing, the music has tak-en an American form and put their own tradi-tions and twists in the sound.

Here’s a brief, non expert introduction to

some contemporary Finnish jazz, from the big band sound to moody club tracks and the ex-perimental edge.

A real favourite is Iiro Rantala, a supremely gifted pianist who has a style that blends in classical, folk, jazz and a taste of Frank Zappa. He had a trio with guitarist Marzi Nyman and Felix Zenger… on beatbox. An unusual com-bination, one that is as inventive as it is enjoy-able. He’s also made an album ‘Lost Heroes’ dedicated to musicians who have passed away, described by Stern magazine as “completely unsentimental, entirely touching.”

Kerkko Koskinen Orchestra are a sophisti-cated bunch, led by longstanding musician and soloist, Kerko Koshinen, whose music is more of the big band scene. Although they freely reference the past, their sound is modern and fresh. He has written for films and, less promis-ingly, the Eurovision Song Contest.

Iro Haarla plays both by herself and leads a quintet. She provides laid back and serenely evocative soundscapes, with her bandmates playing over to create that late night sound, or a dreamy winter’s afternoon feel.

While Haarla’s quintet might transport the listener to a smoky 1920s nightclub, Elifantree creates a quirky, highly recognisable sound that flirts with pop.

Anni Elif Egecioglu’s full voice mixed with Pauli Lyyntinen sax work and Tatu Ronkko on drums creates music that is expressive, inven-tive and experimental. It’s a sound the band finds necessary to take international. “For us it’s the only way to go,” Elifantree said. “Taking the music abroad is something that requires a lot of work, but is worth it in the end. Music is essentially communication, and to take that process across borders is very important to us.”

Elifantree isn’t the only progressive jazz

group sprouting up from Finland either. Sax-ophone player Mikko Innanen is one of the most accomplished Finnish musicians on the international jazz circuit. He’s teamed up with Hepa Halme and sound mixer Teemu Korpi-paa to produce an avant garde album called PIKNIK. It sounds like random, impromptu jam sessions that push the limits of what one can call jazz.

“I think jazz means different things to dif-ferent people, and that is perhaps it’s greatest strength,” said Innanen. On taking Finnish jazz international, Innanen said this: “It is impor-tant to know where you come from, but at the same time I often find it problematic, when na-tionality is used as a defining aspect of music.”

For their music to gain some popularity, many jazz musicians are growing more and more imaginative in their sound production. Mopo for example, has been labeled “punk jazz.” A freewheeling, high energy sound born from the friendship the trio, Linda Fredricks-son on sax, Eero Tikkanen on bass and Eeti Nieminen on drums. Their tightly knit friend-ship is evident on stage, and provides the band with a baseline readiness to be gutsy and pro-gressive.

The image of jazz as music for the elderly is changing, with Finland on the forefront of innovative music making, according to Salo.

“The latest decade has seen the raise of nu-jazz and dance floor jazz, jazz DJs and jazz clubs that are popular amongst the twenty-somethings,” she said.

“The handsome young jazz bands in their classy suits and ties have built new audiences for themselves. There are several waves of jazz that are blooming.”

Move over top 40 pop, jazz got a makeover and is back with a renewed sense of style.

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By Andy Carling and Clare Murphy

Finland, home of the coolest jazz

Iiro Rantala, Finland’s famed jazz pianist. | IIRO RANTALA

17fashion & styleNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 april, 2013

Last December, Vanity Fair UK made a survey about Couture houses in Europe, and elected the Celia

Kritharioti Maison as the most prominent symbol of classic Greek luxury.

Founded in 1906 and installed in famous old Dior Couturier Jean Dessès’ stylish atelier after World War Two, Celia Kritharioti is indeed the oldest fashion house in Athens, and a must for Greek high society wedding gowns and chic ceremonial wear.

Born into a family with close links to the luxury industry since several generations, young Celia Kritharioti quickly made a name for herself in the highly competitive high fashion trade as one of the very few designers to still create elegant hand-made dresses in precious fabrics, all produced in the pure Parisian Haute Couture tradition.

When meeting with Celia at her atelier in Plaka, the historical centre of Athens, by

the Acropolis, she recalled her first fashion experience: “When we were little girls, my sister and I, our dresses were made at the family atelier and I was used to having the patterns altered to my taste. Little by little, I was called into fittings to help out the seamstresses and offer my suggestions. In fact, as a self-taught designer, I believe that fashion is something that gets passed on from generation to generation. In essence, as shapes more or less remain the same over time, the job is all about assimilating old technical knowledge, while being in tune with one’s time.”

Supermodels Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova, Laeticia Casta and Karolina Kurkova, among others, have all catwalked for Celia Kritharioti, while in January 2013, Italian-American television presenter Giulian Rancic wore a unique mink gown to present the Golden Globes and British actress Gemma Arterton was spotted wearing a one-shoulder velvet striped Kritharioti dress at the 2013 BAFTA Awards in London.

Celia Kritharioti also recently designed over 150 very modern costumes for the Romeo & Juliet ballet, which took place at the Athens Concert Hall, last week.

Interestingly, the male dancers playing the Montagues and Capulets were dressed in contrasting white and black modern tailored suits with bowties and vests, while the female dancers wore gorgeous sparkling pastel ballgowns and high chignons, all resembling a glamourous 1950’s Avedon photoshoot. No traditional tutu for Juliet,

but rather nude leotards veiled with ethereal white lace and beaded ankle-length dresses. The buffoons in this original interpretation were female dancers with neon everything, including pink wigs and mismatched tutu-shorts. Shotguns, sunglasses and champagne glasses added humorous cinematic references to the show, while winking at gangster films.

Celia, just like Greek jewellers and furriers, takes pride in keeping a luxury tradition in Greece and looks forward to taking up new challenges.

Louise Kissa lkissa@neurope.eu

A Greek View of Luxury ExclusivE intErviEw: cElia Kritharioti

CELIA KRITHARIOTI 2013 Haute Couture collection

© Celia Kritharioti

CELIA KRITHARIOTI2013 Haute Couture collection

© Celia Kritharioti

ROmEO & JuLIET bALLET fInALEAthens Concert Hall, April 5th, 2013

Costumes by Celia Kritharioti © Haris Akriviadis

CELIA KRITHARIOTI2013 Bridal collection

© Celia Kritharioti

CELIA KRITHARIOTI 2013 Haute Couture collection

© Celia Kritharioti

Louise Kissa with Greek designer Celia Kritharioti

18 BRUSSELS AGENDA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

Upcoming EvEnts

In a flat land Pete Murphy and 35 years of Bauhaus 3 June, 20:00, Ancienne Belgique

Bauhaus were one of the most influential post-punk bands, and can claim to have been the creators of Goth music, but well before the genre became clichéd and almost a parody of itself.Their first single, released in August 1979, ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, was an unusual nine and a half minutes long, recorded in one take and eu-logised the man who created the image of the modern vampire and died a morphine addict.It remains the best Goth record ever made.Although the band produced their own work, they also reinvented the sound of their influ-

ences. T-Rex’s ‘Telegram Sam’ was on their se-cond recording and later they released a more muscular version of ambient guru, Brian Eno’s ‘Third Uncle’ and gained mainstream success with David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’. Their other stand out track is ‘She’s in Parties’.By 1983, they had hit the end and split up, but have reformed twice and recorded again, but it is their live performances where they are better than ever.Frontman, Pete Murphy will return to Brussels to play his picks from their 35 year career. For fans, the appeal is obvious, but for those who may be too young or cheerful in disposition, this is the chance to see the creative mind be-hind a new genre in music, they were imitated, but never equaled.

Underground, overground, wandering free Karl Hyde 20 April, 20:00, Ancienne Belgique

The man who was born slippy, Karl Hyde from techno legends, Underworld will be playing in Brussels, mixing his latest work, ‘Edgeland’ with an introspective and minimal feel with… acoustic instruments. It’s like the end of the era that began when Bob Dylan plugged in a guitar for the first time.He is working with people who have worked with Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and so on, “an ensemble unlike any I’ve taken out before,” says Hyde. The group will play their ‘Edgeland’ album, live. The darker mood continues a musical thread from

his days as singer with Underworld, and in reco-gnition of his earlier work, fans are promised “a minimal reworking of a number of Underworld classics. Things Underworld hasn’t played in ye-ars and some that have never been performed.”He also says, that there’s something special, a song written with Eno.Hyde is a great admirer of Brussels and the venue, telling fans that he first performed as a guitarist for Debbie Harry at the Ancienne Belgique and he’s clearly looking forward to playing here again.It’s been a highly creative time, not just for Hyde, but for the band as Underworld provided the music for the entire UK Royal National Theatre’s performances of ‘Frankenstein’ but they also pro-vided music for the incredible opening ceremo-ny of the London 2012 Olympics.

Les Caves D‘Alex37 rue Caroly, BrusselsTel: 02 540 8937www.lescavesdalex.be

If you like top quality steak, this is definitely the place to be.

The T-bone steak, which is spe-cially dried and matured on the prem-ises for several days, is the speciality. Take one bite and it’s easy to see why.

But there’s a lot more to this cosy 30-seat restaurant just round the corner from the European Parliament than steak.

Owner Alex Cardoso, aged 31, who’s worked in some of the city’s finest restaurants, also offers guests (or anyone else) the chance to store their own wine in its specially-cooled cellar. You simply crack open your bottle of wine (or maybe champagne) when you eat there.

The menu is offering Os a Moelle, which you rarely see at Brussels’ restaurants now, and a lovely St Jacques in a boudin sauce.

The lunch menu, which changes daily, is particularly popular as it offers a choice of two starters, three mains and two desserts for a very affordable price.

But there’s also another three-course menu, at €38 and available only in the evening, which is well worth checking out as well. Alex has totally renovated the interior which lends itself to a very relaxed dining experience.

Highly recommended.

Resto Bites

19Arts & cultureNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

19 April, 2013 to 16 June, 2013 Gaasbeek Castle, Belgium

Worshipper of the great masters, painter of ex-pressionist (self-)por-

traits, tormented bodies and box-ers, the man who fights the angel and the paint on a daily basis, the consistent outsider... exhibits new works in Gaasbeek Castle.

Over the past few years, Sam Dillemans has painted more than three hundred (!) portraits, mainly of authors; however, the series also includes a number of composers, painters and scientists. Once again, he characteristically approaches his subject in a highly equivocal and thus fascinating fashion. Dil-lemans is a keen observer. His subjects are mostly recognisable, resulting in an almost compulsive need to identify them. In some, the model is immediately identifiable; in others, the subject’s identity is (playfully) concealed.

Nevertheless, it is the technique that counts. Dillemans is a master of linear structures and patterns. In this series, his mastery also gradual-ly paves the way to free expression, liberation from the recognisable and defining details.

The longer one observes the portraits, the greater one’s impres-sion that they are an embodiment of both the outer form and inner life. Dillemans has also clearly immersed himself in the subjects’ work in order to penetrate their very soul. Thus the paintings also possess a power-ful emotive force. In the black and white pieces, his obsession with the inner life and technique is expressed in pure linear patterns. A playful bal-ance between recognition and ex-pressive power…

This series is Dillemans’ first solo project in three years. He has elevated an extensive and personal literary canon to an homage in which respect, admiration and em-pathy shine through.

Gaasbeek Castle is located just outside Brussels amidst the gently rolling hills of the Pajottenland. The medieval castle had an eventful past and evolved from a strategic strong-hold into a spacious country house. One if its most famous owners was the Count of Egmond. The current

building was redesigned in Roman-tic style at the end of the 19th cen-tury thanks to the eccentric Mar-quise Arconati Visconti .

She decorated the castle as a museum to house her vast art col-lection and played it like a historical theatre setting. The dream castle which was created at the time is still a bit of a time machine. You can wander through historicising inte-riors and discover tapestries, paint-ings, furniture, sculptures and other valuable objects.

The first fortified stronghold was constructed in the mid-13th century to protect Brabant against invasions from Flanders and Hain-ault, but it was destroyed in 1388. The reconstruction, a few external walls of which can still be seen, took two centuries. During the first quar-ter of the 17th century, Renaat van Renesse ordered the construction of a French garden, a baroque pavil-ion and a chapel in the grounds. In 1695 a wing of the castle was shot to pieces by Louis XIV’s troops. From 1887 to 1897 the castle was thoroughly restored in Romantic revival style and has survived in this form to the present day. Marquise Arconati Visconti employed the ar-chitect Charle Albert for the recon-

struction work. This is how the cur-rent dream castle came into being. Today, it is, with reason, referred to as the ‘Pierrefonds of Flanders’. The building and its historicising interi-ors together form an exceptional ex-ample of how different styles were conceived at the time; the interior was entirely redesigned into a me-ticulously planned Gesamtkunst-werk. The interiors offer a sampling of architectural revivals, from Goth-ic Revival, to Renaissance Revival to Rococo Revival.

In 1921, the last owner of the castle grounds, Marquise Arconati Visconti bequeathed the estate with the castle and its entire contents to the Belgian state. Three years later the castle was opened to the public as a museum, as laid down by will. During the 1980 state reform the castle grounds were transferred to the Flemish Community. The Sep-arate Management Service ‘’Kas-teeldomein van Gaasbeek’ is cur-rently part of the Agency for Arts and Heritage within the Flemish administration.

2004 saw the opening of a new museum wing in which the Mar-quise’s bathroom, bedroom and ‘chambre rouge’ were opened to the public.

A portrait of the author as a Dillemans painting

Charles Bukowski (c) Sam DillemansFranz Kafka (c) Sam Dillemans

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21TECHNOLOGYNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

Technological, social and economic progress will be awarded by the Euro-pean Union with the celebration of the European Inventor Award 2013, in Am-sterdam on 28 May.

Fifteen inventors and scientists will compete to achieve the first places in the annually contest presented by the Euro-pean Patent Office (EPO). Besides, for the first time, the public are also invited to cast their vote to select the winner.

This year’s nominees cover the fields of medical technology, pharmaceuticals, optics, metallurgy, electronics, comput-ers and LCD technology.

The finalists, who were selected by an international jury from 160 inventors and teams, are from nine European and two non-European countries (the US and South Korea). We can find inven-tors from Spain, Austria, Belgium, Por-tugal, France and Germany.

For instance,the team which cre-ated and developed Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology is included among

the fifteen finalists. As well as, the British David Gow, the inventor of the world’s first bionic hand, which is currently be-ing used by 1,400 patients.

In the US, German computer scien-tist Philipp Koehn and his team, have invented phrase-based machine trans-lation using a statistical approach. The

machine is being used by the EPO to translate patents into different languag-es.

Bruno Berge, from France, has de-veloped a type of liquid lens which ena-bles better, cheaper and smaller optical devices. They can be used to create dif-ferent products, including ID readers and industrial cameras.

Other inventions included are the electronic ink (e-ink), used in electronic reader devices; nano-capsules that can eliminate cancer cells without harming tissue; and the world’s first flat-panel liq-uid crystal display.

“These cutting-edge inventions show that Europe continues to be a world leader in innovation in all areas of technology from engineering to medi-cine to computers,” said EPO President Benoît Battistelli.

All nominated inventors “have con-tributed to improving health and stand-ard of living, and created jobs and eco-nomic wealth”, he added.

Finalists named for European Inventor Award

The ICT solutions provider Hua-wei has registered sales revenues of $35,4 billion and a net profit

of $15,38 billion for 2012, according to its latest financial results. In addition, the Chinese company forecasts a com-pound annual growth rate of 10%.

Specifically, Huawei’s Carrier Net-work business group (BG) maintained its leadership position, achieving $25,7 billion in sales revenue last year, which means an increase of 6.7% year-on-year.

The Enterprise BG continued to grow in the Chinese market and actively expanded internationally, achieving a 25,8 percent increase in comparison with 2011. Besides, Consumer BG grew 8,4 percent.

Outside China, Rapid growth in Eu-rope, the Middle East, and Africa con-tributed record regional sales revenue of $12,4 billion, $6 billion in the Asia Pa-cific and $11.8 billion in the Americas.

Guo Ping, Huawei’s Rotating and Acting CEO, explained that while last year the company “met business perfor-mance expectations through improved operational efficiency,” in the future, ICT will continue to grow. New oppor-tunities will come “from cloud comput-ing, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), and big data, and feature phones being replaced by smartphones at a faster rate”, he said.

As part of this evolution, “Huawei

will continue to focus on its pipe strat-egy, integrate and develop businesses around the information pipe, and cre-ate value for customers, while achieving sustainable and effective growth”, Ping added.

Also in 2012, Huawei invested $4,8 billion into research and development (R&D), established 16 R&D centres and 28 joint innovation centres across the world.

Huawei aims to maintain its leader-ship position in network equipment and capitalise on opportunities presented by the increased demand for professional

services, carrier data centre integration and cloud services.

The Chinese firm expects to have a compound annual growth rate of 10% and is committed to transform its Con-sumer BG in a world-leading smart de-vice brand.

“Huawei is committed to helping customers build an increasingly efficient and integrated information logistics sys-tem to connect people to people, people to things, and things to things, thus ena-bling people to communicate and share ideas freely”, company’s Chairwoman Sun Yafang said.

AFP PHOTO / AARON TAM

The world’s first available bionic hand is among the fifteen finalists | EPA/WALTRAUD

Huawei expects 10 percent yearly revenue growthBy Nerea Rial

Tech and stem, stem and tech

By Jennifer Baker

In recent months, women’s role in the IT sector has become big news, thanks largely to Facebook’s second in command, Sheryl Sandberg.Her new book, Lean In, controversially argues that many women unwittingly hold themselves back in their own ca-reers. Successful female tech leaders such as Sandberg herself, HP President Meg Whitman and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, would seem to suggest that IT does not suffer from the same discrepancy as other industries, but in fact the statistics reveal the opposite. Women in senior positions across all industries currently stands at around 20 per cent, but in the IT sector the figure is between 3 and 5 percent. However the good news is that women in IT earn on average 9 per cent more than women in similar posi-tions in other sectors according to the European Commission.Digital Agenda Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, says that with the gender pay gap equivalent to women working 59 days a year for free, more women working in IT is a great way to catch up. On 25 April, Kroes will attend the European Parliament’s Girls in ICT Day and has invited the public to send questions and sugges-tions to her via Twitter using the #girlsdigital hashtag. The aim of this event is to get more women and girls studying IT.Around 7 million people currently work in the IT sector. How-ever, out of the entire workforce across all levels only 30 per cent is made up of women. The sector creates around 120,000 new jobs in Europe every year, but despite rising unemploy-ment the Commission predicts a shortage of up to 700,000 skilled ICT workers by 2015.Fortunately various initiatives have been launched to encour-age women into the sector. Last month Ireland’s leading tech-nology news service siliconrepublic.com, with the support of Intel, Accenture and the Irish Research Council, launched Women Invent Tomorrow, a year-long project to highlight the importance of closing the gender gap in the science and tech-nology-based industries.“Ireland’s major technology companies are battling a severe skills gap which must be addressed now in order to fuel eco-nomic growth and drive recovery,” said Mark Ryan, country manager at Accenture.“If you think about the grand societal challenges, for us to leave 50 per cent of the talent pool behind means we just can’t get there. We have to encourage young girls to take these maths and science courses and participate in solving these problems in the future,” added Brendan Cannon, EMEA co-ordinator of Intel’s Girls and Women initiative.In Finland, Rails Girls (http://railsgirls.com) aims to give tools and a community for women to understand technology and to build their ideas. Women can learn sketching, prototyping, basic programming and get introduced to the world of technology.And last November, the GSMA led by Anne Bouverot, Direc-tor General, hosted the first Connected Women event in Brus-sels. “ICT companies all over the world are trying to hire young graduates and attract people, and they cannot fill all of their po-sitions, which is counter-intuitive when you look at the global statistics of unemployment. And with fewer and fewer women studying in this area the numbers will continue to decline,” said Bouverot in an interview with Vieuws.eu.Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding summed it up: “To put it bluntly: in today’s environment, a group of middle-aged, busi-ness suit-wearing men will not make the cut. That is why in 2007 I started the so-called “Shadowing initiative”. I wanted to show girls that ICT is not only a man’s world, but that ICT is cool, as well as one of the key future industries.”

Brussels Geek

22 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

SWEDEN | SOCIET Y

Bus Driver reserves another bus for ‘foreign-looking people’A Swedish bus driver was reported to have discriminated against “foreign-looking” people and divided passengers according to their skin colour. The incident happened last week Wednesday and Thursday to travellers in an attempt to move from Stockholm to the Eckerölinjen ferry terminal in Grisslehamn. According to local media, the driver stood between the exit and the bus and pointed the passengers to one of the other buses following. Samer Chatila and his brother and a friend, all born in Sweden, at first thought the driver was being friendly, they told local newspapers. However, they soon began to suspect that something else was going on. “It was a very unpleasant experience...It felt like we were on our way to Arlanda Airport to be deported from Sweden”. Chatila and his companions realised that all “Swedish-looking“ passengers were being directed to a dif-ferent bus, while everyone who boarded their bus was for-eign-looking or dark-skinned. “We felt insulted, offended and discriminated against,“ said the youngsters and added: “we never thought this could happen in our Sweden.” When the passengers challenged the driver, they were told that if they did not like the system they could get off the bus, the boys explained. On the other hand, the driver claimed that the bus for “foreign-looking” was a direct route for passen-gers who had booked their trip in advance, while the other bus would make several stops to pick up more passengers.

ESTONIA |LAW

Estonia ratifies crime of aggression amendmentEstonia has decided to ratify the amendment to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which addresses the crime of aggression. Estonia became the fifth country to join the crime of aggression amendment which was adopted in 2010 in Kampala, Uganda. In addition, the county also ratified the amendment pertaining to article 8 on war crimes adopted in the same year. According to Margus Kolga, permanent representative of Estonia to the United Nations, deposing the instrument of ratification was a “clear indication of the staunch support that Estonia has demonstrated towards the International Criminal Court.” A statement by the Estonian foreign ministry says it is essen-tial that the amendments be ratified by as many of the par-ticipating countries as possible. The International Criminal Court will gain the right to investigate crimes of aggression as of 1 January 2017, provided that the Kampala amend-ments (including the one on crime of aggression) have been ratified by 30 countries.

LITHUANIA |SOCIET Y

Lithuania slammed for not investigating domestic violenceLithuanian authorities failed to effectively investigate complaints of domestic violence, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) said on Tuesday. The lower chamber of the court convicted Lithuania for violating the European provision prohibiting torture, inhuman or degrading treatment in a case exclusively dealing with do-mestic violence. The case Valiulienė v. Lithuania looked into the complaint of a Lithuanian woman that the author-ities in her country had failed to investigate her allegations of repeated domestic violence and to bring her Belgian partner to account. In addition, Valiulienė maintained that the length of the criminal proceedings had been excessive.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sin-gh, along with prominent members of the Indian government, is visiting Ger-many in order to promote bilateral talks regarding trade, energy, technology and other fields of common interest. Prime Minister Singh will co-chair the second round of inter-governmental consulta-tions taking place in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The two-day meeting is expected to focus mostly on trade relations. In May 2011, German and India’s leaders an-nounced their plans to increase bilateral trade volume from 15 billion to 20 bil-lion euros by the end of 2012. At the end

of 2011, the volume amounted to well over 18 billion euros, making Germany India’s seventh most important supplier.

As Bernhard Steinrücke, Director General of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce stated: “The German government will underline the fact that the proposed free trade agreement be-tween India and the EU is of the utmost importance for India and Europe and therefore for Germany too.” India be-lieves that the free trade agreement will allow small and medium-sized German companies to become more involved in the Indian market.

Additional issues to be addressed

during the meeting include bilateral cooperation in the field of clean envi-ronmental technologies and alternative energies, which include nuclear, as well as the situation in Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, foreign Ministers of India and Germany declared their com-mon interest in preventing Iran from proceeding with nuclear proliferation. As the Indian Minister, Salman Khur-shid stated: “We have strong ties with Iran and do depend on Iran for fuel. But I say categorically that India and Europe have the same concerns on proliferation. Our tactics may differ but our objectives are the same.”

India and Germany discuss trade relations

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel inspect a military honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at the Chancellery on 11 April, 2013 in Berlin. Singh and key cabinet ministers meet for their second Indo-German intergovernmental consultations in Berlin. |AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE

The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, has used the visit of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Prague as an opportunity to signal a change in Czech attitudes towards Europe.

Zeman hoisted the European Union (EU) flag atop the seat of the country’s presidency, Prague Castle on early last week . The fact in itself would not nor-mally attract that much attention, had it not been the one thing which his prede-cessor, Vaclav Klaus, had refused to do during his 10 years in office.

A further symbolic act, the current and first directly elected Czech president

signed the instrument of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty Amendment (Art. 136 on the European Stability Mechanism), allowing euro zone countries to launch the zone rescue fund. The ceremony thus marked not only the shift from Eu-roscepticism towards a more pro-Euro-pean attitude, but also “demonstrated the Czech support to European integrity”, as Zeman himself stated.

Even though, the Czech Republic joined the EU in 2004, along with nine other countries, it was the last of the member states to sign the Council de-cision amending the European Union’s

treaties. Nevertheless, the fund was set up without Czech backing.

The self-proclaimed euro-federalist Zeman expressed hope that the mecha-nism will receive the needed support and that “when the Czech Republic joins the Eurozone, there will be no more cases like Greece.” The country has no target date for joining the euro area and Zeman said last month the cur-rency switch is possible in five years at the earliest.

A change in path - away from euro criticism and on the way towards more Europe is what Zeman signalled today.

Czech president signals change in attitude towards EuropeCZECH REPUBLIC |EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

GERMANY | INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

23EUROPEAN UNIONNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

FRANCE |DEFENCE

France interested in US dronesAFP reported that the French government is considering buying US drones in order to enhance its military capa-bilities. A source from the French Defence ministry told AFP on Friday, that Paris is considering buying the drones because of the operation in Mali. The unanimous source said, “a letter has been sent to Washington to evaluate the feasibility.” Even though France already has three types of drones - the DRAC, the Sperwer, the Harfang - the French government are looking to buy more robust US drones to enforce their missions in Afghanistan and Mali. Accord-ing to the AFP article, earlier this year, Paris got a taste of that technology when the US military provided support to French troops with their Predator class drones in Mali. The French government is interested in buying the surveillance “Reaper” US drones. However, according to AFP while the US Congress should grant permission for the sale of un-armed Reaper drones to France at the end of the year, Paris will have to wait until 2020 for surveillance and combat equipped drones. Regarding Mali, the President of France Francois Hollande stressed on 4 April, that the French forc-es would take part in a proposed U.N. peacekeeping mis-sion in Mali after they end their task of clearing Northern Mali for the al-Qaeda linked rebels. Hollande said, “France will soon complete its mission (in Mali) in a few weeks and African forces will take over. The Security Council is going to deploy a peacekeeping operation and France will play its part.”

SLOVENIA |ECONOMY

EC warns of macroeconomic imbalancesThe European Commission published the macroeconomic imbalances report for 13 Member States. According to the report, the imbalances in Spain and Slovenia can be consid-ered excessive. According to the EC, the very high domes-tic and external Spanish debt levels continue to pose seri-ous risks for growth and financial stability. Furthermore, in Slovenia, the national financial sector is vulnerable, because of corporate indebtedness and deleveraging. As a result, this fact can have serious consequences in Slovenia’s public fi-nance. Speaking in Brussels on 9 April, Alenka Bratušek the new Prime Minister of Slovenia announced that her coun-try will not request any financial assistance.

AUSTRIA | ENVIRONMENT

Court of Justice rules green vet-ting mandatory for many projectsThe Court of Justice of the European Union today ruled that “Member States are required to make all projects which could have significant effects on the environment subject to such an assessment.” In addition, it stated that the Austrian legislation is contrary to EU law, since in case of the modi-fication of an airport, it requires an environmental assess-ment only for projects likely to increase the number of air traffic movements by at least 20.000 per year. In 2002, the undertaking Salzburger Flughafen, which operates Salzburg airport, applied for a permit to build an additional terminal. Its application was granted and that project was completed without any environmental assessment. In 2004, the under-taking made new applications to further expand the airport area. Consequently, the Environmental Tribunal examined those projects and found that both the construction of a new terminal and the expansion of the airport should have undergone an environmental impact assessment since they were likely to have significant effects on the environment.

Bernard Arnault announced that he will continue to pay his taxes in France, de-spite the proposed 75 percent tax on mil-lionaires.

France’s richest man is the owner of the LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton Group. According to France 24, Arnault's citizenship request in Belgium look doomed and on Wednesday he said to daily Le Monde, that he never intend-ed to move to Belgium.

“I explained several times that I would remain a resident in France and that I would continue to pay my taxes there. In vain - the message did not get through,” Arnault told Le Monde news-paper. “Today, I have decided to clear any ambiguity. I am withdrawing my de-mand for Belgian citizenship.”

Arnault’s request for Belgian nation-ality appeared improbable in January. A spokesperson of the Office of Foreigners the immigration office in Belgium said that the decision of the prosecutor's of-fice has been negative.

According to Belgian law it is man-datory to live in Belgium for over three years, or at least be able to prove real links with Belgium in order to obtain Belgian citizenship. Belgian newspaper

De Morgen reported that the prosecu-tor's office told MPs it was looking into the structure of Arnault’s companies set up in Belgium “and that uncertain-ties over these financial structures had played a part in its decision.”

LVMH’s owner, is the world’s 10th richest person with a fortune estimated at €22 billion. According to Forbes, Ar-nault is the world's most influential tas-temaker but his fortune fell from No. 4 in the world to No.10, due to more in-formation on his ownership stake and a

revised valuation method.Arnault said his frustrated efforts to

acquire nationality in Belgium were mo-tivated not by tax concerns but a desire to secure that his fortune will be trans-ferred to his children, without any legal ownership issues.

Aranult concluded by saying that, “given the situation the country is in, the recovery effort needs to be shared, and with this gesture I hope to show my at-tachment to France and confidence in its future,” he concluded.

Arnault shift: 'recovery effort must be shared' in France

France’s richest man Bernard Arnault | (Photo: AFP)

Slovenia will not request financial assis-tance, the country does not need bailout, “we will solve our problems on our own” said Ms. Alenka Bratušek, the newly elected Prime Minister of Slovenia, after a meeting with José Manuel Durão Bar-roso, President of the European Com-mission.

Speaking in Brussels on 9 April , Slo-venia’s Alenka Bratusek said that country has no intension to require assistance from the Euro Zone. Moreover, Ms. Bra-tusek compared Slovenia with Cyprus by stressing that Slovenia is “not a tax heav-

en” and she added“we are export orient-ed. We are one of the countries with the least leverage in the EU.”

“Slovenia has not requested financial assistance and we have no indication that it will do so,” said Mr. Barroso in a joint press conference with Ms. Bratusek. He also stressed that is “abusive” to compare Slovenia’s banking system with Cypriot banking sector.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned ear-lier Slovenia that it must do its utmost to tackle a severe banking crisis. According

to an OECD’s report the cost of reform-ing the banking system could be higher than an estimated €1 billion. In concrete terms the OECD said that Slovenia should sell its healthy state-owned banks and allow the others to fail.

Furthermore, it must reduce pub-lic and private sector debt. “Against this difficult background and with a possible further deterioration in the international environment, Slovenia faces risks of a prolonged downturn and constrained access to financial markets,” the OECD said.

Slovenia does not need bailout

France has withdrawn the first 100 French troops deployed in Mali. Over-all, the French government has sent 4,000 troops to the African country.

According to RT, fears are mount-ing that Mali will become a drawn-out war, spilling into the African regions and fueling terrorism.

In addition, France 24, reported that Laurent Fabius, the French foreign min-ister, will discuss in Bamaco the possible ways to cover that security vacuum in

Mali, after the withdrawal of the French troops.

On 6 April, the French government announced their intention to leave 1,000 troops on the ground in the African country.

It is said that France will continue to conduct anti-terror operations in the northern mountainous part of Mali near the Algerian border. Fabius told reporters that, “France has proposed, to the United Nations and to the Malian

government, a French support force of 1,000 men which would be permanent, based in Mali, and equipped to fight ter-rorism.”

Last week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the deployment of 11,200 troops and 1,440 police as part of the UN peacekeeping mission af-ter the withdrawal of the French troops. Ban also called for the creation of a sec-ond force to fight militants asking from France to be part of this force.

French troops withdraw from Mali

FRANCE |TAXES

FRANCE |DEFENCE

SLOVENIA |BANKING

24 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

On 9 April, the Greek Parliament rati-fied the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Albania, Italy and Greece on the construction and op-eration of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project. The IGA between the three countries, which was signed in Athens on 13 February 2013, confirms the host countries’ support for TAP and their co-operation for the project’s time-ly implementation, TAP said in a press release.

The ratification of the IGA by the Greek Parliament continues TAP’s pro-gress in the country, with the project now working on successfully complet-ing the Host Government Agreement (HGA) with Greece, it added.

The HGA outlines the parameters of engagement between TAP and the Greek Government, such as permitting process, implementation of technical and safety standards and the land ease-ment procedure.

At €1.5 billion, TAP  would consti-tute one of the largest current Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Greece and is expected to create 2,000 directly related new jobs and a further 10,000 peripheral new jobs in the Greek market.

TAP is competing to deliver gas from Azerbaijan into Europe, with a fi-nal selection of the gas transportation route expected June 2013 by the Shah Deniz consortium in Azerbaijan. TAP is the only pipeline option that will go through Greece.

Kjetil Tungland, TAP’s Managing Director,  said: “We thank the Greek Parliament for this swift ratification pro-cess. We maintain our confidence that the excellent collaboration with Greece will continue and that together we will provide Shah Deniz with the most com-pelling offer.”

Michael Hoffmann, External Affairs Director for TAP,  said: “This marks an important step towards the final deci-sion by Shah Deniz and underlines the progress and advanced status of the TAP

project. The ratification by the Greek Parliament emphasizes the common benefits TAP will bring and highlights our common values”.

Rikard Scoufias, TAP Country Manager for Greece,  said:  “The good relationship TAP has developed over the years with Greece continues with Parlia-ment’s ratification and reiterates the fact that together Greece and TAP can and will produce the best bid for Shah Deniz. We look forward to our continued co-operation and thank the Parliament for its support”.

Last week, TAP also announced that the Environmental Social Impact As-sessment (ESIA) in Albania has been approved by the Ministry of Environ-ment, Forest and Water Administration. The Environmental Permit has been published by the National Licensing Centre.

Submitted on the 21st  of January 2013, the document has undergone a rigorous ten week review process, dur-ing which three public hearings were organised by the Ministry of Environ-ment, Forest and Water Administration with affected stakeholders. The ESIA

maps-out all possible environmental, cultural or socio-economic impacts of the pipeline and includes measures to avoid and mitigate any possible impacts the pipeline may have during and after construction. The granting of the Permit takes the project a step closer to comple-tion by specifying the construction and operational requirements that the man-agement team must meet in order to ful-ly comply with Albania’s environmental legislation.

Prior to the final submission, TAP provided the full ESIA document to residents of 83 communities in the re-gions of Korça, Skrapar, Berat and Fier, as well as to various NGOs and central institutions:  In total, 23 public consulta-tions took place with local stakeholders along the TAP route.  In addition, local government was involved in the con-sultation process, with the project team discussing the report with the councils of 38 communes located along the route and all issued formal decisions in sup-port of TAP project. During this period of public consultation, TAP received feedback from the local communities and responded to a range of queries.

CYPRUS|BANKING

Central Bank denies reports of impending gold reserves saleOn 11 April, the Central Bank of Cyprus denied reports of an imminent sale of gold reserves, Xinhua reported, citing a statement by a Central Bank spokeswoman. An alleged European Commission assessment on  Cyprus’ financing needs purportedly claimed Cyprus had agreed to sell excess gold reserves in order to raise €400 million. The spokeswoman said that nothing of the sort has been discussed. Cyprus holds just 13.9 tonnes of gold, worth around €585 million, compared to 4,800 tonnes held globally. Under the draft European Commission plan, the country would sell €400 million worth of bullion or round 10 tonnes, a small amount by global standards. Struggling euro zone members, Italy and Portugal have much larger gold holdings. Cyprus is in line to receive €10 billion in aid.

BULGARIA|LABOUR

Official unemployment rate drops to 11.8 percent Bulgaria’s unemployment rate in March 2013 was 11.8%, down by 0.2 percentage points compared with February, according to latest data of the State Employment Agency. A total of 388,523 people were officially registered as un-employed in  Bulgaria  in March, the Agency said, 4,225 than the previous month, and 406 more than in March 2012. A total of 20,933 persons registered as unemployed found jobs in March, up by 3,688 compared with the pre-vious month.

ROMANIA|TRANSPORT

Second Bulgaria-Romania bridge to be launched Bulgarian Transport Minister Kristian Krastev said the second Danube  Bridge  connecting  Bulgaria  and  Roma-nia will be launched and operational in May at the earli-est. Krastev told reporters that the bridge is yet to receive the so-called Act 15 and Act 16 certificates, which would confirm that the construction has been finished. In Feb-ruary, officials stated that the so-called Danube Bridge 2 connecting Bulgaria’s Vidin and Romania’s Calafat would be inaugurated on 9 May, the Day of Europe. The road toll collection point on the bridge will be on Romanian territory and the revenues will be divided between the two countries proportional to the investments made. Over 100,000 vehicles are expected to pass through the bridge each year.

BULGARIA|ENERGY

Bulgaria will review its decision for South StreamDuring the governmental session on 10 April, Prime Min-ister Marin Raykov called for a new, deeper analysis of the contract Bulgaria  and  Russia  for the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline. “It is necessary to make one very thorough analysis of the situation around this invest-ment decision. I think that we know the sensible moments concerning this project. It is important to be noticed that we are not talking about a contract but about an invest-ment decision. It is normal to make an analysis of how the relations with our partners are developing,” Raykov said.

View of the Greek Parliament. On 9 April, MPs ratified the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Albania, Italy and Greece on the construction and opera-tion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project.| NEW EUROPE

Spain’s Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the country’s economy is faring a little better after an end-2012 slump and growth could even return by the end of 2013, AFP reported.

The Spanish economy had “clearly” improved from the final three months of 2012, when output plunged by 0.8%, De Guindos told an economic forum. The Spanish economic chief did not,

however, predict an economic expan-sion in the first quarter of 2013. “The first quarter of this year will be clearly less bad than the previous quarter,” De Guindos said.

Later, on the margins of the forum, he said the government expected gross domestic product to show a decline of 0.5 or 0.6% in the first quarter of 2013, a further slight improvement in the sec-

ond quarter and nearly zero growth in the third quarter.

In the final three months of 2013, the government believed there was a “possibility” of positive economic growth for Spain on a quarterly basis, De Guindos said. The minister stressed, however, that his first-quarter estimate was based on incomplete data with all the figures for March yet to come in.

Spain sees signs economy improvingSPAIN|ECONOMY

GREECE|ECONOMY

Parliament ratifies Inter-governmental agreement on TAP

25ENLARGEMENTNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

TURKEY |TECHNOLOGY

The promise of innovation

Accentuating the significance of producing technology and using it, President Abdullah Gül said no country can be accepted as a great one if it only transfers technology rather than produces it. He further shared his pleasure with the competition for perfection between the Turkish universities and said some of them are among the top 500 universities in the world, pointing to the increase in the number of publications by Turkish academics. He also reiterated the importance of having patents for produc-tions and making what is produced into useful amenities for people by integrating these productions with industry. The attendants at the Çankaya Table shared their views on the progress the Turkish scientists and academicians have achieved and discussed what should be done further to achieve more, referring to the measures that can be taken with the cooperation between the public and private sec-tors. Discussing the problems of the academicians of the basic and social sciences, the guests of the president also drew attention to the fact that Turkey has increased the al-location for the R&D area in the budget in a decade, rais-ing from a 0.48 percent outlay 10 years ago to that of 0.86 percent today.

ALBANIA |TECHNOLOGY

Albtelecom brings cloud computing services Albanian operator Albtelecom launched cloud comput-ing services for large businesses. Albtelecom offers a one-stop-shop system for its cloud services, back-up for avoiding problems, and high speeds of data transmission. It described its cloud service as about 30 times faster than the systems of overseas hosting. Albtelecom’s cloud servic-es are aimed at big companies such as banks, institutions, agencies, large, medium, and small businesses that use their portals, websites and applications for the sales man-agement, human resources management, customer rela-tions management, finance online programmes, among others.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Albania expanded 0.10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 over the previous quarter. GDP Growth Rate in Albania is reported by the Institute of Statis-tics – Albania. Historically, from 2005 until 2012, Albania GDP Growth Rate averaged 1 Percent reaching an all time high of 6 Percent in June of 2005 and a

record low of -2.60 Percent in Septem-ber of 2009. Albania’s most important sector is the services sector (60 percent of GDP) with banking, communications and tourism being the most important. Banking has been a heavy recipient of foreign direct investment and is the strongest sector. Remittances also have a big importance for the economy and ac-

count for around 8 percent of GDP. Agriculture dominated by small fam-

ily owned operations employs almost half of the labour force, but accounts for only 20 percent of GDP. The manufac-turing industry is responsible for 20 per-cent of GDP. This page includes a chart with historical data for GDP Growth Rate in Albania.

GDP growth in Albania

Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs, Egemen Bağış, believes that a breakthrough be-tween Greek and Turkish Cypriots can become a reality under the mandate of the newly elected president, Nicos Ana-stasiades.

“For the first time, we have an elected president on the south of the island who campaigned for a “yes” vote during the Annan plan”, pointed out Bağış at an event organised by the European Policy Centre on Turkey’s struggle with terror-ism. He welcomed Anastasiades’ elec-tion and said that it “might give a new window of opportunity to see a solution, a breakthrough, between the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots.”

Bağış further said that the Cyprus dispute was not a prerequisite for mem-bership of Cyprus to the European Un-ion (EU) and should, therefore, “not become a prerequisite for membership of Turkey.”

The Turkish minister of EU affairs also stated that Turkey would support and approve any solution the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots agreed on, as long as the solution was based on “political equality” in the island. He said

that the authorities in Ankara were will-ing to open Turkey’s airports, sea ports and airspace to Greek Cypriots, if the Council decision from 2004, calling for direct trade with Northern Cyprus, was implemented.

Bağış said that if Cyprus had ac-cepted the Annan plan, the United States of Cyprus would probably be one of the largest economically growing countries and the most prosperous EU nation

at the moment. In his view, the lack of progress on finding a solution to the dis-pute and current economic situation in Greece were the main reasons that no in-vestments were made in the south of the island and only some investments in the northern part.

Turkey’s chief negotiator expressed hope that Anastasiades will “reach out to his Turkish Cypriot neighbours and pave the way for a solution.”

Turkey looks to new leadership for Cyprus breakthrough

Albania has declared i twill hold an ex-traordinary refrendum on whether to discontinue scrap waste imports a prof-itable venture which is however frowned upon by ecologically minded groups and individuals.

According to a law passed in 2011 the import of non-radioactive waste for destruction or recycling in factories is allowed. The result has been rubbish piling up alongside rivers and the side of roads, and activists say the government is not routinely tracking the imported garbage.The referendum is a major step for a country still working out its de-mocracy some two decades after the fall of the repressive regime of communist

dictator Enver Hoxha. Bowing to a peti-tion signed by 64,000 people, the presi-dent’s office on Tuesday set Dec. 22 as the date for the vote — the first forced by popular demand since the coun-try gained independence from Otto-man Turkey in 1912. The conservative government insists that the program is drawing foreign investment and has cre-ated some 3,000 badly needed local jobs to one of Europe’s poorest countries. But environmentalists say the small country is in danger of turning into a garbage dump, and that the government must first build new landfills and take care of its own trash before it tries to take on more. “How can we try to help

the recycling business at a time when the country has not resolved its own waste management?,” asked Zamir Dedej, who heads the Institute of Nature Protection in Albania.

Albania currently allows the import of waste based on a so-called “green list” of 25 materials. However, activists worry that the country does not have the nec-essary administrative capabilities to stop the flow of hazardous waste.

The referendum will be the first in Albania’s history called by voters. The only two referenda held since the col-lapse of the regime of former Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, in 1991, were on approving Albania’s constitution.

Referendum called on trash importsALBANIA | ENVIRONMENT

ALBANIA | ECONOMY

TURKEY |EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Egemen Bagis Turkish Minister for European Affairs (L) pictured with Hans Martens Di-rector of the European Policy Centre at a recent debate in Brussels. |Credit: European Policy Centre (EPC)

26 ENLARGEMENT NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

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CROATIA|POLITICS

Croatia to hold local elections on 19 MayCroatia is to hold local elections on 19 May, the govern-ment said 11 April. Recent surveys have showed a further drop in popularity Social Democratic Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s government. The centre-left coalition took over from corruption-plagued conservatives in late 2011 and has struggled to revive the economy, in recession since 2009. Croatia is set to become the European Union’s 28th member on 1 July.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|POLITICS

Leader warns Serbia against radicalisationBosnia’s top Muslim leader has warned Serbia it risks spark-ing new conflicts in the Balkans by denying facts about the region’s past and encouraging secessionist ideas beyond its borders. Bakir Izetbegovic, who represents Bosniak Muslims in the country’s tripartite presidency, said 11 April that Ser-bia should finally embrace the truth about its murderous role in the Balkan wars in 1990s because ìfuture cannot be built on lies.î ìLies provoke violence, violence provokes conflicts,î Izetbegovic said. Izetbegovic said Serbia appeared to be try-ing to destabilise the region, including by fuelling Bosnian Serbs’ secessionist hopes, out of anger for its failure to reach a deal with its former province of Kosovo, which Serbia need-ed in order to begin talks on joining the European Union.

CROATIA|DIPLOMACY

Milanovic visits towns in Bosnia and HerzegovinaOn 8 April, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic ar-rived in the southern Bosnia and Herzegovina town of Sto-lac, at the start of a two-day visit to that country during which he was due to visit several predominantly Croat municipali-ties and where he will attend the opening and speak at the 16th International Economic Fair Mostar, news agencies re-ported. Milanovic and the Croatian delegation were greeted outside the Stolac Town Council building by Bosnian Min-ister for Human Rights and Refugees Damir Ljubic, Prime Minister of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Denis Lasic and Stolac Mayor Stjepan Milanovic. Town officials for the Rav-no municipality attended the meeting too. Milanovic was expected to meet with town officials in Capljina, Ljubuski and Citluk where he was due to speak with the provincial of the Herzegovina Franciscan Province in Medjugorje and later he is expected to meet with Bishop of Mostar-Duvno Ratko Peric.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|BANKING

Central Bank publishes new rates statisticsThe Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) has established the new interest rates statistics, and began pub-lishing those, and thus made significant progress towards reaching EU standards in the field of statistics. The new in-terest rates statistics are harmonised with the methodology prescribed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and ap-plied by the EU and the euro area countries. These statistics include 82 indicators on weighted averages of the commer-cial banks interest rates, with data series starting from Janu-ary 2012.

On 8 April, Montenegro’s election au-thorities announced that incumbent Filip Vujanovic has won the presidential race in the southeastern European coun-try, and secured a third five-year in office, news agencies reported. The chairman of the electoral commission, Ivan Kale-zic, told reporters that Vujanovic won 51.21% of the votes while his main chal-lenger Miodrag Lekic collected 48.79%.

Observers have said that the election for the largely ceremonial post generally met Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) commit-ments.

However, opposition members said they would not recognise Vujanovic’s victory, and claimed that Lekic is the winner of the presidential post.  “Our victory is as clear as a day,” opposition official Goran Danilovic said, adding, “None of us have the right to recognise election fraud.”

Drazen Medojevic, an opposition representative in the election commis-sion, said Lekic’s camp has disputed in full the election results and filed a re-quest for a recount in all Montenegrin municipalities.  “We cannot accept the results until we determine all the irregu-

larities,” Medojevic said.  He noted that the irregularities include invalid ballots and voting by mail. 

Montenegro hopes to join NATO and the European Union some day. Vu-janovic is a strong advocate of Montene-gro’s integration into the EU and NATO. Last year, Montenegro opened talks with the EU. However, relations with NATO remain a sensitive issue and many here still view the military alliance with mis-trust. But for the majority of Montene-gro’s more than 600,000 people the most important issue at the election remains the economy.

Vujanovic declared election winner

A Montenegrin voting committee member advises a citizen at a polling station in Podgorica, 7 April 2013. | AFP PHOTO/SAVO PRELEVIC

On 10 April, Russia granted Serbia a $500 million loan and promised to back Belgrade in its dispute with Kosovo but warned it must broker a deal with its for-mer province on its own.

Dacic won a promise of the quick disbursement of a $300-million loan that would help cover Belgrade’s budget shortfall.

A part of the money has been ear-marked for repairing and expanding the Balkan nation’s rail network with the help of Russian companies.

Medvedev said Moscow would loan

Belgrade an additional $200 million once it agrees to a stabilisation programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Serbia has already borrowed $800 million from Russia - the biggest investor in its economy and its traditional Slavic and Orthodox Christian ally - to over-haul railways. It has also sought other sovereign lenders, including the United Arab Emirates and China.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic in Moscow that Russia would

“always support our Serbian friends” but said the push for a deal with majority Albanian Kosovo must come from Bel-grade itself.

Dacic, for his part, said Belgrade would continue negotiations on the is-sue but never recognise Kosovo’s inde-pendence without a broader agreement that extends more rights to ethnic Serbs living in the region. “We want to con-tinue dialogue (with Kosovo) and find a sustainable solution,” said Dacic. “But of course, we will never agree to Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence.”

Russia to lend Serbia $500 million

On 11 April, European  Commissioner for Enlargement and  European Neigh-bourhood Policy Stefan Füle said Bos-nia’s bid to become a member of the EU could be “frozen” if the Balkan state fails to implement constitutional changes to allow people from the Jewish and Roma communities to hold high political of-fice, AFP reported.

“I notice with regret that the political

parties have failed to make any meaning-ful progress for more than three years to implement the Sejdic-Finci judgement,” told reporters.

Füle referred to the request that Bos-nia amend its constitution in order to remove a provision that discriminates against Roma, Jews and other minorities in political life. The request was in ac-cordance with a 2009 ruling of the Euro-

pean Court of Human Rights.Under the internationally-brokered

1995 Bosnia peace accord, only Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs are consid-ered “constituent peoples” with the right to apply for top state and legisla-tive positions.

The court ruled that this discrimi-nated against other ethnic groups, nota-bly Jews or Roma.

Füle ties EU membership bid to reforms

SERBIA|DIPLOMACY

MONTENEGRO|POLITICS

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|EU AFFAIRS

27PARTNERSNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

SWITZERLAND|BUSINESS

Lindt operating profits up 10%Despite the challenging underlying economic conditions and increasingly subdued consumer sentiment in some countries, Lindt & Sprüngli is still on track for success. In the past financial year, the group of companies succeeded once again in achieving a substantial increase in its sales, operating profit and net profit, outperforming the trend in all its markets. In doing so, the company confirmed the reliability of its announced growth and profit targets. The strong sales performance is accompanied by correspond-ing market share gains in practically all countries and cat-egories and was assisted by all the subsidiary companies. In the 2012 financial year, Lindt & Sprüngli stepped up its consolidated group sales to CHF 2.67 billion. This represents a gain of 7.3 percent on the previous year. The organic growth of the Group in local currencies stands at 6.8 percent and is mainly attributable to the slight devalu-ation of the Swiss franc to the US-dollar. Chocoladefab-riken Lindt & Sprüngli AG therefore managed once again to meet its strategic growth target of expanding much more quickly than the markets and of gaining additional market shares practically across the board. Growth, in turn, was driven mainly by volume increases which were underpinned in all key markets by a large number of inno-vations and new launches in the year-round business and in seasonal operations. Moreover, in the own global retail sector, fast-growing markets in the emerging regions were tapped with the proprietary LINDT retail outlets and ca-fés. Here, the own points of sale not only generate addi-tional turnover but also help to establish and sustainably consolidate the LINDT brand as a premium chocolate. In predominantly flat or slightly declining chocolate markets, all subsidiary companies performed distinctly better than the general market trend, with the exception of Italy and Spain which are particularly hard hit by the present crisis, and won corresponding new market shares. In the shrunk-en Swiss domestic market, LINDT achieved well above average growth of 2.3 percent, while exports and the travel retail business were hampered by the continuing strength of the Swiss franc.

NORWAY | HUMAN RIGHTS

Combating hate speech onlineNorway is mobilising against hate speech in Europe. Through the EEA and Norway Grants the country has entered into a strategic partnership with the Council of Europe’s youth project on combating hate speech online launched last week. During the last few years they have registered continued and renewed violations of funda-mental rights, including physical and verbal attacks on minority groups, migrants, and on organisations defend-ing human rights in Europe. To address these concerns, the EEA and Norway Grants have joined forces with the Council of Europe and support the No Hate Speech Movement. This campaign against hate speech online started at the end of the previous month and will run through to 2014. The objective is to take action against hate speech online in all its form – while respecting free-dom of expression. The No Hate Speech Movement is based on human rights education, youth participation and media literacy. EEA Grants support NGO projects : Through the EEA and Norway Grants we also support NGOs and other actors promoting tolerance and funda-mental rights. NGOs in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Repub-lic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain can apply for project funding to take action against hate speech through our programmes. Support to civil soci-ety is one of the key priorities of the Grants, with NGO programmes worth a total of €147 million.

EU, Iceland integration talks took place in Brussels on 8 April. European Com-missioner for Enlargement and Euro-pean Neighbourhood policy Štefan Füle met with the Icelandic Minister of For-eign Affairs Ossur Skarphéðinsson to discuss the “advance state of play in EU-Iceland relations.”

According to the EU press release, Füle and Skarphéðinsson reviewed the good progress achieved so far in the EU acces-sion negotiations where 27 chapters have been already opened, of which 11 have been provisionally closed. In addition, the two policy-makers welcomed that nego-tiations on food safety, veterinary and phy-tosanitary issues are advanced, and that the chapter is about to be opened. According to Commissioner Füle a lot of work has already been done in the integration talks, with only 6 chapters yet to be opened.

Energy and Arctic AffairsAnother key issue discussed was the

EU, Iceland Arctic affairs. Füle and Skar-phéðinsson agreed that the EU and Ice-land share mutual interests in preventing environmental disasters, such as oil spills. Furthermore, Iceland supports EU’s ap-plication for an observer status at the Arc-tic Council. The two parts have launched high level consultations called the “Arctic dialogue”, and the first one will be held in Brussels on 15 April.

The “Arctic dialogue,” will focus amongst others in discussing modalities for cooperation with the focus on disaster preparedness and also discuss a joint mari-time service centre for economic develop-ment and monitoring in the North Atlan-tic and the Arctic.

During the same day, Skarphéðins-son also met with Energy Commissioner

Günther Oettinger. According to the Commission, they discussed matters of mutual interest including the role Geo-thermal energy plays in the European Union‘s renewable energy strategy and the way for a deeper energy cooperation be-tween EU and Iceland.

Oettinger re-assured Skarphéðinsson that if EU, Iceland integration talks com-plete successfully; the EU Treaties shall not affect the country’s right to determine the conditions for exploiting its energy resources, its choice between different en-ergy sources and the general structure of its energy supply.

The Commissioner stressed that ac-cession ownership of energy resources continues to rest with the EU Member States as is covered by article 194 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union.

EU, Iceland integration talks

Iceland in talks with the EU for their accession process.

2,998 shareholders attended the Nestlé S.A. Annual General Meeting in Laus-anne on 11 April. They represented 49.78 percent of the total capital and 70.64 percent of the shares entitled to vote. The annual report and the ac-counts were approved and the share-holders agreed to the release of the Board of Directors and the Manage-ment. The Nestlé Compensation Re-port was accepted in a separate advisory vote, in line with the Swiss Code of Best Practice for Corporate Governance. The shareholders further approved the proposed dividend of CHF 2.05 per share. All proposals of the Board of Di-rectors were approved with strong ma-jorities.

Shareholders re-elected Mr Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Mr Steven G. Hoch, Ms Titia de Lange and Mr Jean-Pierre Roth to the Board, each for a further term of three years, and elected Ms Eva Cheng as a new member of the Board for a three-year term. Ms. Cheng is the

former Corporate Executive Vice Presi-dent responsible for Greater China and Southeast Asia Region of Amway Cor-poration, a U.S. based global consumer product company. Mr André Kudelski who had reached the end of his third term was not standing for re-election. The Board thanked him for his highly appreciated services provided to Nestlé over the past twelve years.

At the meeting, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe highlighted Nestlé’s commitment to Switzerland by saying that Nestlé’s production in Swit-zerland accounts for « roughly five per-cent of global turnover, of which nearly 80 percent is exported. Of our 339,000 employees worldwide, more than 10,000 are employed in Switzerland. This modest share should not belittle the fact that over the last ten years, we have created 3,500 jobs in Switzerland, at a time when employment in the food industry has been stagnant. We have in-vested significantly here in this country,

more than CHF 3.2 billion over the last 10 years. More than 60 percent of our worldwide R&D expenditure is in Swit-zerland.”

Mr Brabeck-Letmathe’s address also touched on the “Minder Initiative”, adopted in March by the Swiss popu-lation. He said: “It is now crucial to respect the Swiss electorate’s decision and to find practical legislative solu-tions which safeguard the long-term at-tractiveness of Switzerland as a business location. The political and regulatory environment for publicly listed compa-nies is becoming more difficult in this country. We must find a new consensus between the economy, politics and soci-ety. Efforts need to be made on all sides to deepen mutual understanding and to find the right balance. Nestlé wants to stay in Switzerland. Nestlé – the man-agement and the employees – want to continue to feel welcome in this coun-try and contribute to its success story, not only today, but also in the future.”

Nestle adds woman as member of the board

ICELAND |EU

SWITZERLAND | TRADE

28 EASTERN PARTNERSHIP NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

AZERBAIJAN|OSCE

Baku urges real efforts from OSCE mediatorsAzerbaijan does not support meeting for the sake of meetings and urges real activity from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, member of Azerbaijani Parliament Aydin Mirzazade told Azernews. He was commenting on the proposal of OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs - Igor Popov of Russia, Jacques Faure of France and Ian Kelly of the United States - to organise a meeting of the for-eign ministers in the coming weeks. In their statement after the visit to the region the co-chairs said they plan to organise a meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian for-eign ministers, in the coming weeks to advance the peace process. On 11 April, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister El-mar Mammadyarov told journalists Baku has agreed with the OSCE Minsk Group’s proposal to organise a meeting of foreign ministers. The OSCE Minsk Group media-tors will arrive in the region in May. There were no new proposals during the recent visit to the region, except for the proposal of holding a meeting of foreign ministers, Mammadyarov added. “Baku gave a positive response to this proposal,” he said. According to Mirzazade, organi-sation of the next ministerial makes an impression that visits of the co-chairs are of political character and they are involved in organising meetings rather than carrying out serious activity.

AZERBAIJAN|TRANSPORT

Baku, Bern discuss Baku- Tbilisi-Kars projectAzerbaijan and Switzerland discussed co-operation in transport sector during a meeting between Azerbaijan’s Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panakhov and a dele-gation led by Switzerland’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Education and Research Johann Schneider Amman, the Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan said. “In the course of the meeting Panakhov told about the development of Azerbaijan, large-scale reforms, and achievements in the field of international integration. The Deputy Minister also emphasised the need of co-operation between Azer-baijan and Switzerland in all areas of transportation,” the ministry said. Also, during the meeting it was covered Transport Ministry’s policy in road infrastructure and policy of rail transport improvement, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Rail Project.

GEORGIA|TRANSPORT 

Tbilisi Airport increases number of flightsThe Tbilisi International Airport passes to a new sched-ule of flights and increases the number of flights dur-ing the summer season, which began on 31 March and will last until 28 October. Nine airlines will make more flights to Tbilisi during this season compared to the summer season of 2012, the Tbilisi International Airport said on 6 April. Italian largest company Alitalia will make Rome-Tbilisi-Rome flights four times a week, rather than two times from May. Czech Airlines will increase the number of flights to Prague up to three times a week. Several airlines will also increase the number of flights during the summer season. The direct flights to Barce-lona, Stockholm and Varna will be made from the Tbilisi International Airport for the first time during the sum-mer season.

BAKU – Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told New Europe the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline or TANAP is a substitute for the earlier grand Nabucco project and now Ankara has no prefer-ence between the shorter Nabucco West and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will carry gas onwards from Tur-key’s western border to Europe. He also said that Turkey supports Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline project.

TANAP envisages construction of the pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country’s western border to supply gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Tur-key. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic metres a year. About six billion cubic metres will be delivered to Turkey, and the rest - to Europe. Arriving by TANAP at Turkey’s western border, 10 billion cubic metres of Azerbaijani gas could be forwarded either through the Nabucco-West route through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to the gas distribution hub at Baumgarten in Austria, or alternative-ly through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via Greece and Albania to Italy.

“Nabucco was one whole project but when it was one big project we saw it wasn’t really doable. Then, we thought if we can’t make one large project, let’s divide it into two. The largest part of a 2,000 kilometres is in Turkey and 1,200 kilometres would be in Europe. It could go to Europe in two alternatives – to the

south of Europe through TAP or to the north through Nabucco West. Turkey would maintain its positive stance to-wards both alternatives,” Yildiz told New Europe on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Baku. “Certainly Turkey is a partner in Nabucco West but the situation where Turkey is right now is beyond those preferences,” he said.

Nabucco West, which is owned by Bulgarian Energy Holding, Roma-nian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungarian FGSZ, would carry the gas to Austria. TAP would route the gas via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. The shareholders are Swiss AXPO (42.5%), Norwegian Statoil (42.5%) and German E.ON Ruhrgas (15%). 

The Turkish energy minister told New Europe he doesn’t see South Stream as its competitor medium or long term because Europe would have that much demand as both projects would supply. “Turkey is maintaining and continuing its positive stance towards South Stream,” he said.

In related news, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told Yildiz in Baku that Azerbaijan’s state oil company will invest in energy sector of Turkey in the coming five years.

The sides discussed the prospects for further enhancement of co-operation. Abdullayev said the projects of SOCAR realised in Turkey are being continued successfully. “The process of investing has already started,” he said.

In turn, Yildiz said TANAP is important

not only for the region, but also for Europe.Yildiz also reportedly invited SO-

CAR to explore offshore oil and gas re-serves off the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts of Turkey, which the Azeri oil firm is to consider and decide upon by the end of this year.  “Azerbaijan can search for oil and natural gas in our waters,” Yildiz said on 8 April after his meeting with Abdullayev.

The Turkish energy minister said they could carry out a partnership with SOCAR just as they had been do-ing with several international oil firms which explored oil and gas in Turkish seas. According to Turkey’s deals with exploration companies, if the company reaches any resources the output is shared between the firm and the Turkish state but in the event that the searches fail to find anything, all the expenses are undertaken by the private company.“For these searches Turkey hasn’t paid a pen-ny,” Yildiz said. Turkey would appreciate undertaking exploration operations near the southern provinces of Iskenderun, Mersin and Antalya with SOCAR under the same scheme, he added.

He also said Turkey would also like to carry out joint projects with Azerbai-jan in third countries.

Abdullayev said the company was evaluating the Turkish offer and that it would make a decision in approxi-mately six months or by the end of this year at the latest. Considering SOCAR’s 60-year-long experience in oil explora-tion in the Caspian Sea, it is capable of these operations, he said.

SOCAR, Turkey hail TANAP, mull further projects

The headquarters of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR in Baku.|NEW EUROPE

AZERBAIJAN|ENERGY

By Kostis Geropoulos

29EASTERN PARTNERSHIPNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

The law on organic farming may be passed in Belarus in 2014, MP Nikolai Ivanchen-ko, head of the Initiative group, told report-ers. He said organic farming is very impor-tant in the world today, ìand our country cannot stand aside, it must also participate in this processî. Ivanchenko said Belarus

can set up a harmonious system for the production of organic products by bring-ing together MPs and all agencies con-cerned. “This system must provide for the certification of goods, production facili-ties, training. We need to develop the bill on organic or ecological agriculture, and

on organic products,” Ivanchenko said. Russia is now creating appropriate regu-latory framework. It has been developed in the countries of the European Union. There are draft model laws in CIS coun-tries. "We must also participate in this pro-cess,” Ivanchenko said.

UKRAINE|ENERGY

Kiev to bring gas laws in line with European requirementsOn 11 April, Ukraine’s Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Makukha said Ukraine plans by 2014 to liberalise gas laws in line with the requirements of Eu-ropean laws. “We’re conducting reforms, and as a part of the reforms we’re liberalising Ukrainian laws to bring them in line with European laws. In particular, we've passed the law on the gas market and some other acts,” he told a Polish-Ukrainian gas conference in Warsaw. Makukha also said that the building of new gas supply routes bypassing Ukraine has only political sense. He said that without the clearly defined economic compounds of the said projects, they are not justified. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian gas giant Gazprom to return to the development of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline project for supplies to Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. The pipeline will supply Russian gas to Central European countries that now get gas through Ukraine via the Uzhgorod corridor.

BELARUS|ENERGY

Tatneft to open more filling stations Tatneft Oil Company plans to increase the number of its filling stations in Belarus to 37, BelTA quoted Belneft-ekhim Concern that supervises Belarus-Tatarstan co-operation as saying. As of 1 March 2013 there were eight Tatneft forecourts in Belarus. Tatarstan's company plans to invest about 1.4 billion rubles in the further expansion of the network of its filling stations in the country. The project was discussed at the meeting in Belneftekhim dur-ing the visit of the governmental delegation of Tatarstan led by Vice Premier, Minister of Industry and Trade Ravil Zaripov to Belarus on 8-9 April. The parties also discussed further development of co-operation in petro-chemistry where the two countries enjoy a high level of collabora-tion, stable ties between the companies on mutual sup-plies of chemical raw material. Belarus imports from Ta-tarstan oil, oil products, petrochemical raw material and exports to the country four-carbon fraction, cord tissue and polyethyleneterephthlate. In June 2012 Naftan and Nizhnekamskneftekhim signed a contract on the delivery of new products in 2013 for the production of ABS res-ins at OAO Nizhnekamskneftekhim. Pilot supplies have already been made.

MOLDOVA|DEFENCE

Chisinau, Baku discuss military co-operationAzerbaijan and Moldova discussed prospects for devel-oping military cooperation as Ambassador in Chisinau Namig Aliyev met with the Moldova’s Defence Minis-ter Vitaliy Marinutsa. The latter said that the relations between the two countries are at a high level. He noted Chisinau supports Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. Mari-nutsa said Moldova-Azerbaijan relations are based on the mutual understanding principles and are of the strategic importance. He stressed there are good relations between the defence ministries of the two countries. Talking about the importance of the mutual co-operation between the defence ministries, he said the partnership of the two countries have strengthened since the beginning of 2012. Aliyev expressed his confidence on the relations based on the mutual trust for sustaining the democratic progress of the states and restoring their territorial integrity.

On 11 April, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said former prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshen-ko's pardon is impossible as long as her trials are under way. “I have repeatedly answered this question [on the possibil-ity of Tymoshenko's pardon], and this is a legal matter. Until the judicial proceed-ings in which Tymoshenko is involved are concluded, it is impossible to con-sider pardoning her,” Yanukovych told journalists in Mykolaiv.

Yanukovych said that two trials of the ex-premier were still under way. “The sooner they are completed, the sooner there will be an opportunity to consider this pardon issue. So my powers will be in effect after this process is completed,” Interfax quoted him as saying.

On 7 April, Yanukovych signed a decree pardoning several convicts, in-cluding Lutsenko. The ex-minister was released on the same day.

Pechersky District Court in Kyiv found Lutsenko guilty of committing of-ficial crimes and sentenced him to four years in prison. The minister was sup-posed to serve his term until December 2014.

The imprisonment of both Ty-moshenko and Lutsenko has drawn strong criticism from the United States while EU leaders have refused to sign

an important trade agreement with Kiev until they were released.

Tymoshenko, who lost a heated presidential election to Yanukovych in 2010, was jailed for seven years in 2011 on charges of overstepping her authority while prime minister by agreeing a gas deal with Russia.

She is currently on trial on separate charges of fraud and tax evasion and was also accused in January of ordering the 1996 gangland murder of lawmaker Yev-gen Shcherban.

The US said it hopes that after re-leasing Lutsenko, the Ukrainian authori-ties will also release Tymoshenko. US Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft said the State Department said Lutsenko’s release is the first step, and “we expect that there will the continuation, and Tymoshenko will soon be released, like Lutsenko”. He also said that he has high expectations regarding further develop-ments in Ukraine. “I'm an American, I'm an optimist, and I always have high ex-pectations for Ukraine,” he said.

Yanukovych refuses to pardon Tymoshenko

People wave a flag depicting jailed former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshen-ko during an opposition rally, calling for the resignation of President Viktor Yanuko-vych amid growing political tensions, Kiev, 7 April 2013.| AFP PHOTO/ SERGEI SUPINSKY

Belarus would like to bolster mutually beneficial all-round co-operation with Mongolia, Deputy Premier of Belarus Mikhail Rusy said as he met with Minister for Industry and Agriculture of Mongolia Khaltmaa Battulga on 11 April, BelTA re-ported.

Last year the trade between Belarus and Mongolia was estimated at $112 mil-lion. According to Mikhail Rusy, the two countries are well-positioned to expand the bilateral ties. “Our countries have capacities to boost the all-round coop-eration, including in industry and agri-culture,” he said. In particular, Belarus is

ready to increase exports to Mongolia, including supplies of dump trucks and farm machines. “We are ready to consider suggestions on the import of Mongolia products that can be in great demand in Belarus,” the Vice Premier said.

Another promising co-operation av-enue is personnel training. Belarusian universities and vocational training facili-ties can offer majors in land reclamation, land management, veterinary science and other fields.

Rusy suggested considering advance-ment to a higher cooperation level, from mere trade to establishment of joint ven-

tures. “We believe that we should advance from mere trade to closer cooperation, establishment of joint ventures. The gov-ernment of Belarus will uphold any initia-tives related to implementation of mutu-ally beneficial joint projects,” he said. The Vice Premier said of the planned visit of Prime Minister of Belarus Mikhail Myas-nikovich to Mongolia this year. The visit is expected to give a new impetus to the bilateral co-operation. Battulga expressed hope that the bilateral cooperation will gain momentum. Mongolia is particularly interested in Belarusian agricultural ma-chines.

Minsk suggests setting up joint ventures with Mongolia

Minsk mulls organic farming law

BELARUS|DIPLOMACY

BELARUS| AGRICULTURE

UKRAINE|HUMAN RIGHTS

30 EURASIA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

14 - 20 April, 2013

Tashkent, Astana to sign strategic agreementBy Kulpash Konyrova

TASHKENT - Twenty years after they established diplo-matic relations, the two close neighbours and independent republics, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have finally decided to sign a strategic partnership agreement. All these years, the only document governing their bilateral relations has been an Agreement on Eternal Friendship. The new doc-ument is expected to be signed in the framework of the forthcoming official visit of the Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbaev to Tashkent in the early summer this year. Kazakhstan’s business is hoping that this step will allow the two countries to lift all the barriers that currently exist between them and to promote the development of a closer and mutually beneficial cooperation.After a working tour in a number of European states, the Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov headed east at the end of March to pay official visits to the two nearest neigh-bours in the home Central Asian region, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Although it was his first visit to Tashkent and Dushanbe in the capacity of a minister of foreign affairs, Idrisov covered a broad agenda in his discussions with the counterparts. The main topic of his discussion with the Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov was the prep-aration for the 1 June visit of Nazarbaev to Uzbekistan.The diplomats of the two countries are now working hard on a draft strategic partnership agreement that is expected to be signed during the forthcoming summit.The parties are relying on this new agreement to expand the bilateral co-operation. All these years, the only docu-ment governing the bilateral relations has been an Agree-ment on Eternal Friendship. According to the official data, the 2012 goods turnover between Kazakhstan and Uz-bekistan was USD 2.16 billion. Although this represents an 11% growth from 2011, the two next door neighbours could do much better. The Uzbek leader Islam Karimov personally received the Kazakh Foreign Minister in his Aksarai residence and talked about the importance and necessity of signing a strategic partnership agreement.By the way, the president of Uzbekistan was in full health at that meeting, in spite of the flood of the opposition me-dia’s publications a week earlier, on 19 March , that he had suffered a massive heart attack. The president emphasised that “Uzbekistan and Kazakh-stan have been and will remain true partners and allies”. He also talked about the “necessity to further deepen the integration between the two countries in the political, eco-nomic, and humanitarian areas”.Meanwhile, the experts are somewhat sceptical about the future strategic partnership agreement between Kazakh-stan and Uzbekistan. According to Dosym Satpaev, a po-litical analyst specialising in Uzbekistan, the agreement will be a formal document.“You can sign all the documents you want and make a lot of loud statements, but the people of the two countries, and especially the businesses, have long been waiting for concrete steps for real cooperation between these Central Asian counties in many areas. The future strategic part-nership agreement will be more of a formal document,” Satpaev said. He is certain that time’s been lost to some extent. According to him, Uzbekistan is a complex state from the point of view of its interaction with the Central Asian neighbours. It is no secret that Tashkent has strained relationships with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and that it has hardly any close cooperation with either Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan in any area. “So a reasonable question arises: why, over twenty years, the two immediate neigh-bours have not been able to establish relations or sign a strategic partnership agreement where an exemplary part-nership would naturally be expected from such nearest neighbours?” Satpaev asjed. It is exactly why, the political analyst believes, that Kazakhstan has been eyeing the West lately. This includes the Customs Union with Russia and Belarus, and the future Eurasian Economic Union. “This is connected with the fact that all attempts of Kazakhstan to step up cooperation in Central Asia have failed, and, disap-pointed, it turned to the West. Our foreign political docu-ments have increasingly been referring to Kazakhstan as a Eurasian state,” Satpaev concluded.

DUSHANBE - As part of his recent Cen-tral Asian tour, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Min-ister Erlan Idrisov visited the capital of Tajikistan. In Dushanbe, he and his Tajik counterpart Khamrokhon Zafiri signed a Programme for Co-operation between the two ministries for 2013.

After that, Idrisov was received by the Tajik president in his capital city residence. The meeting between the Kazakh for-eign minister and the leader of Tajikistan was quite long – it lasted for over an hour. “During my meeting with the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, we stated that Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were im-portant regional partners. We are united by the common views on the future of the Central Asian region,” Idrisov summed up the results of the meeting at a briefing for reporters.

However, it is generally known that the main item on the Central Asian agenda has always been the water and energy prob-lems. The meeting discussed it as well. In particular, they talked about a very impor-tant but controversial project of Rogun hy-droelectric plant.

“At the meeting, the President of Tajik-istan Emomali Rahmon talked about his vision of and his approaches to this project. He spoke in detail about the joint work with the World Bank on an independent expert review of the Rogun hydroelectric plant project,” Idrisov told the briefing. Ta-jikistan pins its hopes on the Rogun hydro-electric plant to resolve a serious electricity deficit. But it is also this project that has become a reason for a serious conflict of Tajikistan with its downstream neighbours. In particular, Uzbekistan is against the con-struction of the Rogun hydroelectric plant project. Tashkent objects the project on the basis that hydroelectric plant would “suffocate” Uzbekistan’s key agricultural sector that is critical for Uzbekistan’s econo-my. During his last year’s visit to Astana, the Uzbek leader Islam Karimov said sharply for the first time that the arguments around the Rogun hydroelectric plant could be-come a reason for a military conflict. It is a

very serious statement made over the past years by a Central-Asian state leader. Kari-mov explained his worries: the grandiose Rogun water reservoir (the design height of the dam is 335 metres) will take many years to fill, drastically reducing the water supply for irrigating Uzbekistan’s farmlands.

He also mentioned that a hydroelectric plant of such calibre in a seismically unpre-dictable zone of Tajikistan was fraught with a massive unmanageable flood involving human deaths, first of all, of the citizens of his country. Tajikistan’s hopes for the hy-droelectric project are further complicated by the fact that, should a flood happen, it would affect not only Uzbekistan but the southern parts of Kazakhstan. To prevent the Rogun project from becoming an accel-erator of a future military conflict in Cen-tral Asia, Rahmon has proposed to hold a regular meeting of the Energy Forum of the member states of the Asian Dialogue of Cooperation. He spoke about it from the rostrum of the 11th meeting of the foreign ministers of the Asian Dialogue of Coop-eration attended by Idrisov on the second day of his visit to Dushanbe.

Rahmon said he believes that such a forum in Tajikistan is necessary to promote a solution of the energy deficit problems faced by some Asian countries. He noted that many Asian countries had no access to basic social and economic goods such

as food, electricity, clean portable water, medical services, and education. Accord-ing to Rahmon, to correct the situation, it is necessary that the developed and advanced countries of Central Asia use their wealth to support the needing partner states.

As far as Kazakhstan is concerned, it is committed to a collegial resolution of all is-sues through negotiations. 

“The water and energy tangle of prob-lems in the Central Asian region is one of the most important issues today. For long years, the leaders of these countries have been looking for an effective formula to resolve it,” Idrisov said in response to the questions from the Kazakh reporters ac-companying him in the tour.

The minister said that, in resolving disputes over trans-border water resources (for drinking water or for building a hy-droelectric plant), international norms and concepts establishing equal rights for the upstream and downstream countries should be used.

“The countries located upstream of a water body should not infringe on the eco-nomic interests and rights of the countries downstream, and vice versa. There are in-ternational conventions that prescribe that the parties should negotiate a mutually ac-ceptable use of the water resources,” Idrisov concluded by stating Astana's stand on the matter.

Water, energy can cause serious conflict in Central Asia

Tajikistanís President Emomali Rahmon, right, meets with Kazakhstanís Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov in Dushanbe, Kyrgyzstan.

The Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Wilhelm Mol-terer and the Chairman of State Com-mittee on Investments and State Prop-erty Management, Davlatali Saidov, in the presence of the President of Tajik-istan, Emomali Rahmon, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 11

April, representing a significant step in deepening the cooperation between Ta-jikistan and the EIB.

“This Memorandum of Understand-ing will help to promote the cooperation between the EIB and the Republic of Tajikistan focused on project financing, so benefiting both the EU and Tajik-

istan. Priority sectors for EIB financing are renewable energy sources includ-ing hydropower generation, energy ef-ficiency and agricultural infrastructure in the context of the broader objective of climate change mitigation and the ad-aptation and development of social and economic infrastructure,” Molterer said.

EIB, Tajikistan sign MoU to foster mutual cooperation

TAJIKISTAN |WATER

TAJIKISTAN |INVESTMENT

By Kulpash Konyrova

31RUSSIANEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu14 - 20 April, 2013

RUSSIA|ENERGY

PM approves power grid complex strategyPrime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the strategy for the development of Russia’s power grid complex, Itar-tass reported. The press service of the Cabinet of Ministers re-ported that the corresponding executive order and the plan schedule for adopting the normative legal acts for the im-plementation of the strategy were developed by the Russian Energy Ministry pursuant to the RF presidential decree of 22 November 2012. The document states that the moderate in-crease in demand for electricity (up to two percent per year) is one of the main trends for the development of the energy sector, determining the course of development of the electric power sector. Such tempos are determined by the gradual increase in energy efficiency. Over the next 10 - 15 years, Russia will introduce technologies that are already used in the grid complexes of developed countries. In particular, it will introduce technologies of “smart” electricity networks that can increase the capacity and stability of energy supply, reduce losses and costs of the consumer technical and fiscal metering. As for improving the level of customer service, ac-cording to the strategy, new customers will be offered a sim-pler procedure of technological connection in accordance with the government executive order of 30 June 2012.

RUSSIA|ECONOMY

Nabiullina: Central Bank could cut interest ratesOn 9 April, the newly appointed head of Russia’s Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, told the state Duma that reducing Central Bank interest rates is a possible option if economic growth slows down and unemployment rises. “Specific deci-sions on interest rates should be made after all factors includ-ing inflation dynamics, unemployment, economic growth and the government‘s decisions on tariffs are considered,” Na-biullina said. She added that reducing inflation to three to four percent was a pivotal task. She warned parliament members that the government shouldn’t hurry curbing inflation, as it could slow and even stop economic growth. Meanwhile, VTB First Deputy President Yuri Soloviev told journalists on the sidelines of the VTB Capital Investment Forum in New York that Russia‘s Central Bank is likely to cut rates again this year. “I think they will have as many as one or two rate cuts,” he said. Soloviev said he was positively surprised by the choice of Nabiullina to replace the current central bank chair-man, Sergei Ignatyev, when his term ends in June.

RUSSIA|OIL

Rosneft, Exxon to invest in Russian LNG plantOn 11 April, ExxonMobil Development President Neil Duffin told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russian oil major Rosneft and the US energy giant will have to in-vest some $15 billion to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and necessary infrastructure in Russia‘s Far East. “We are talking probably about $15 billion,” Duffin told Putin and Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin via a video link from Russia‘s Pacific island of Sakhalin. Putin was in the East Siberian city of Ulan-Ude. Rosneft and ExxonMobil have agreed to study the possibility of building a plant to liquefy gas from their Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project off Rus-sia‘s Pacific coast. The LNG project will be built either on Sakhalin Island or in the Khabarovsk region on the Pacific coast. Putin told Sechin to coordinate with other companies planning LNG projects in the region.

On 8 April, Russian President Vladimir Putin faced hundreds of protesters ranging from Ukraine’s topless feminist group FEMEN to gay rights activists during his visit to Germany and the Netherlands.

In Hannover, Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Russia’s hu-man rights record at a press conference. “A lively civil society can only develop if individual organisations can work without fear and worry,” Merkel said at a joint news conference with Putin.

Putin brushed the issue aside by saying his government just wants to know who funds NGOs, referring to a Russian law that requires them to register as “foreign agents”. “We aren’t trying to put anyone under control, but we want to know how much money, through what channels and for what purpose, is being sent,” Putin said.

The Kremlin leader said NGOs in Russia had received nearly $1 bil-lion from abroad. “Maybe this money, which is quite a bit — a billion —

could have been sent to help Cyprus and then it wouldn’t have been neces-sary to fleece unfortunate depositors,” Putin commented, referring to the European Union’s bailout that has hurt Russian depositors.

As Putin and Merkel toured the fair, several activists from FEMEN, bared their chests and shouted “Putin dicta-tor!” before being detained by guards.

Putin shrugged off the protest. “As for the action, I liked it,” he said. “You should be grateful to the girls, they are helping you make the fair more popular.” The Russian delegation at the five-day fair included Economic Development Minister Andrei Belou-sov, Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov, Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. The delegation also comprised the heads of Russia’s largest companies.

Russia’s participation in Germany’s annual industrial fair as the main part-

ner country is a key event on the bilat-eral programme of the Year of Russia in Germany and Year of Germany in Russia in 2012-2013. Putin’s visit pro-moted Russian businesses among stra-tegic investors in Germany and Europe in general.

Putin’s visit to the Netherlands later on 8 April was intended to showcase growing economic ties between the two countries. With $83 billion in bi-lateral trade last year, the Netherlands outpaced Germany to become Russia’s No. 1 trading partner in Europe and its second biggest partner in the world af-ter China.

The trip also kicked off a year of cultural exchanges. Putin and the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix opened an exhibition at the Hermitage dedicated to Peter the Great, the Russian czar who founded St. Petersburg and sought to open up closer ties with Europe.

Turning to human rights issues, Pu-tin said Russia does not discriminate against homosexuals. 

Putin talks business, faces protests in Germany, Netherlands

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel give a joint press statement after visiting the Hanover industrial fair, Hanover, Germany, 8 April 2013.| AFP PHOTO / RONNY HARTMANN

On 8 April, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom Chairman  Viktor Zubkov an-nounced a deal in Hannover that will make the Russian company’s subsidiary, Gazprom Germania, the sole supplier of compressed natural gas vehicle fuel for Volkswagen’s Scirocco R-Cup racing se-ries, starting in May.

Vyacheslav Krupenkov, senior managing director of  Gazprom Germa-

nia,  and Ulrich Hackenberg , member of  the Volkswagen Board of  Manage-ment, signed the agreement in the pres-ence of Zubkov.

“We  warmly welcome Gazprom as  a  new partner of  Scirocco R-Cup. Volkswagen has always prioritized envi-ronmentally clean and energy efficient motorsport. As  part of  this partnership, two major players of  the gas market

have united their efforts. Volkswagen succeeded in  making gas-powered cars. I  am  happy about the future coopera-tion,” Hackenberg said.

NGV fuel has a high potential of uti-lization that will allow using motor vehi-cles in  an  environmentally friendly and cost efficient way. Gazprom views this line of  business covering, inter alia, for-eign markets as a priority growth area.

Gazprom, Volkswagen sign natural gas agreementRUSSIA|HUMAN RIGHTS

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

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14 - 20 April, 2013Once upon a time in Brussels ...It’s all well and good to have as many translations as possible but when the only version available is in Polish what does a non Pole speaking Brusselite do at a conference?

New Europe in Azerbaijan EU becoming increasingly impotent in the Balkans

With his progress report on the Former Yu-goslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Macedonia’s efforts to meet EU criteria for accession candidacy due out this Tuesday, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle is seeing his effectiveness questioned in certain circles in Brussels.

Commissioner Füle’s many trips to Skopje over the past year seem to have borne little, if any, fruit, apart from the per-ception, widely held in Brussels, that he is over-engaged with a FYROM leadership that is less than dedicated to the goal of adapting to European standards.

Highlighting what is at best a sluggish reform process, FYROM’s parliament only recently emerged from a deadlock that be-gan 24 December last year, when opposition MPs – along with journalists – were forced by parliament security to leave a plenary ses-sion on the country’s 2013 budget.

The 1 March deal Commissioner Füle brokered between Prime Minister Gruevs-ki’s government and the opposition – osten-sibly ending the opposition’s boycott of par-liament – has yet to be implemented. That effectively undermines the legitimacy of the opposition and of the democratic process in the country. In this light, the results of the recent local elections came as no surprise.

In what some saw as an eleventh-hour effort to bring Mr. Gruevski into line before the progress report comes out, Commis-sioner Füle was in Skopje again last Tues-day. As was the case in Bosnia and Herze-govina the next day, his meetings didn’t go

very well, and no progress was achieved.And then there is the view from Skopje:

The word in VMRO circles is that, during their most recent meeting, Mr. Gruevski talked down to Mr. Füle, ruling out the pos-sibility of any substantial implementation of the 1 March agreement. And the PM’s hard-line supporters boast that Gruevski has Füle well in hand.

The main concern in Brussels right now is that a progress report glossing over FYR Macedonia’s open flouting of the Copenha-gen political criteria will undercut the EU’s influence and standing. This is particularly risky in a region where, unfortunately, Mr. Gruevski isn’t the only old-school Balkan leader who, given the chance, will treat democracy as nothing more than a catch-phrase. Making the EU irrelevant in the Balkans was certainly not part of Mr. Füle’s job description. Andy Carling

Encouraging nationalists is not the best approach if we ever want Europe to unite.

Prof. Ali M. Hasanov (R), head of political and public affairs department at the Presidential Administration in Azerbaijan, met last week with New Europe Media CEO Basil Coronakis in Baku.

They discussed EU-Azerbaijan relations, spearheaded by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, and the growing role of Azerbaijan in the European energy supply, economy and re-gional stability.

Baku is determined to continue its relations with Brussels and sees future relations being ex-panded and strengthened.

Azerbaijan recently signed a declaration with the EU on energy security and Azerbaijan is playing a growing role in ensuring the grow-ing energy needs of the 27-country bloc.

At the same time, Hasanov has said that he hopes influential European institutions such as the EU, NATO and OSCE will be involved in efforts towards finding a solution of Nagorno-Karaback conflict.

Azerbaijan is also actively partnering with the Council of Europe.

Hasanov urged the EU and NATO to take more influential steps towards resolving the frozen conflict and called on Armenia to fulfil the international obligations towards establish-ment of peace in this region.

This will result in securing peace in the re-gion and definitely enable a more secure supply of energy resources to the EU - because peace is necessary not only to South Caucasus but also to the European continent, he said.