20th Year of Publication number 1029 5 -11 maY, 2013 € 3.50

European Commission esti-mates predict further econom-ic problems for the European

Union in the coming year.According to the latest Spring

forecast, released on 3 May, the econ-omy will continue to shrink in the next twelve months. According to es-timates, GDP output is set to decline by around 0.1% in the next year, with a 0.4% fall in the euro area forecast.

Unemployment figures are simi-larly poor. According to the commis-sion, growth is currently too slow to redress the situation of joblessness across the EU. Forecasts for 2013 in-dicate that unemployment in the EU will be at around 11%, with just over 12% in the euro area, which should stabilise in 2014, according to the commission.

In addition, the recession is due to continue this year in key member states, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

The new forecasts come in the same week that new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, undertook a swift tour of key European capitals in an attempt to re-start the auster-ity versus growth debate. The trip, to Berlin, Paris and Brussels, was well-received with leaders in other EU member states weighing-in, such as the Irish president, and the Slovakian prime minister.

With elections to the European parliament a year away, and with the rise of populist parties across the EU a worry for the established political classes, there is now a keenness to insist that economic recovery is just around the corner, which is why the current forecasts are a major blow to

the commission, which still predicts an upturn in 2014, and which has now seemingly reversed a long-standing opinion that austerity measures are the most effective way to bring Europe out of economic disaster.

Speaking at the publication of the Spring forecasts in Brussels, EU Eco-nomic and Monetary Affairs Com-missioner, Olli Rehn said that the EU “Fiscal consolidation [austerity] is continuing, but its pace is slow-ing down.” He also said that the EU “must do whatever it takes” to over-come the unemployment problem.

Responding to the figures, Hannes Swoboda, leader of the so-cialists in the European Parliament,

said that “austerity has failed and the latest forecasts are proving it once more. What is being done so far is plainly not working. We need a com-plete rethink of European economic policy to generate growth in Europe and create jobs. We welcome the commitments of a growing number of European leaders, including Fran-çois Hollande, Enrico Letta, Robert Fico, Michael Higgins and even José Manuel Barroso, to counteract the gloomy forecasts with real, Euro-pean growth policies. What Europe needs above all is jobs, to give peo-ple back their hope and dignity, and to get Europe's economy back on track.”

Athens, Baku discuss energy, tourism

EU commissioner Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn gives a press conference on the Spring European Economic Forecast on 3 May in Brus-sels. Rehn said it would be "reasonable" to give France two extra years to meet the EU deficit target of 3%, offering extra time after the forecasts painted a pessimistic picture of the French economy over the next two years, with its deficit notably rising sharply from 3.9% of GDP this year to 4.2% in 2014 |AFP PHOTO / GEORGES GOBET

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramo-poulos paid a two-day official visit to Azer-baijan on 29-30 April where he discussed bilateral relations with the Caspian country’s leadership. Avramopoulos’ talks with Azer-baijan’s President Ilham Aliyev focused on politics, economy, energy, trade and tourism. They also exchanged views on the Azerbai-jan-Greece co-operation within the Euro-pean Union and NATO. In a meeting with Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, Avramopoulos stressed Azerbaijan’s role in ensuring Europe’s energy security, highlight-ing the large potential for partnership in the energy sector between the two countries.

Austerity: Europe’s failureJose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission has just realised – strategically, of course, since the European elections are coming soon – that austerity is not a good solution if it doesn’t stimulate economic growth. The problem is that until now, everybody has talked about economic growth, but nobody has seen it.

FRANCE Page 06

ITALY Page 05

No end to recession before 2014 elections

Page 06Page 24

Slovakia: election brings pension reform

Times of change are times for leadership

Migration to cities endangering MDGs

Bosniak-Croat president detained

CORRUPTION Page 26

LEADERSHIP Page 11

PENSION REPORT Page 04

DEVELOPMENT Page 15

Europe's not working

02 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

Australia $3.4, Austria EURO 1.81, Balkans EURO 4, Belgium

EURO 3.50, Holland EURO 2.69, Central Asia USD7.5, Central

Europe USD5, Canada $5, Denmark: DKK 19,95, Eastern Europe

USD7.5, France EURO 3.04, Germany EURO 3.57, Greece EURO

4, Hungary HUF400, Japan Y900, Italy EURO 3.62, Nordic coun-

tries USD7, Pacific Rim USD8.5, Russia USD 4, Switzerland

SFr4, UK GBP 4.5, USA $2.95, all other countries EURO 6

Pharmaceuticalconcerns?

The European Union has prepared aplan to give access to cheap medicines toalmost all developing countries. TheCouncil of the EU has adopted a regula-tion enabling exporters to supply all thosecountries with the essential medicines atvery reduced prices. editorial p. 2

Athens: the City beneath the City

Since the very first day that the archaeo-logical pickaxe brought to light ancientfindings at the Olympic sites, AncientGreeks' every day lives and customs havebecome an inextricable part of the fullyupgraded Olympic installations. p. 11

Centre-leftwins Rome

Despite losing an important provincialpresidency, Rome, in the local elections,Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconiand his centre-right House of Freedomscoalition succeeded in keeping theirheads above water. p. 13

Languagereform

Around 10,000 members of Latvia'slarge Russian minority demonstrated inthe capital Riga against a governmentplan to make Latvian the main lan-guage of instruction in schools. Theproposed policy would come into effectin 2004. p. 39

Time for "Unityin Diversity"

NOTEBOOK

Yes! One unified marketAn EU Commission report published last weekcontains a positive assessment for the compul-sory procedure under which member states giveprior notification of draft national legislationaimed at regulating the markets for goods andonline services. This is a system introducedsome years ago and recently included the mar-ket for online services.

The report notes the central role that this notifi-cation procedure played in avoiding the cre-ation of barriers or other impediments tosmooth functioning of the markets and the freemovement of goods and services betweenmember states.

The idea behind this procedure is that memberstates will think twice before introducing legis-lation that impedes the smooth and free func-tioning of the markets. This procedure gives theEU Institutions the ability to scrutinise newdrafts laws and demand the removal of provi-sions that stand in the way of the markets.

Draft laws notified in this way cannot be adopt-ed at national level for three months, extend-

able to six months if the Commission or amember state expresses an unfavourable posi-tion, known as a "detailed opinion."

The report says that over this period, the Com-mission received more than 1,800 notificationsin various fields. In the goods sector, the mostimportant fields were agricultural foodstuffs,telecommunications, transport and construc-tion, while, in the services sector, they were elec-tronic signatures, e-commerce, data protection,digital television and domain names.

There is no doubt that this notification proce-dure worked perfectly and helped the goodsand services markets to work competitively andsmoothly to the benefit of the consumers. It isneedless to say that this EU procedure must beextended to other fields of member states' legis-lation covering for example state provisions.

The "notifications" Directive proved to be avery productive instrument protecting the freefunction of the markets. It must therefore beextended.

EElmar Brok, member of theEuropean Parliament andchairman of the EPPGroup in the Convention,

fired the first salvo criticising therevised draft constitution submitted bythe Presidium of the EU Convention as"extraordinarily disappointing." TheMEP said, "Now, the draft constitutiondoes not reflect the majority opinion inthe Convention. It is very obvious thatsome of the larger countries are con-centrating on their own national inter-ests rather than on those of the Union

as a whole. Worse still, the Presidiumgave up substantial European achieve-ments and thus promotes the EuropeanUnion as a free-trade zone."

Lashing out at the planned restric-tion of Parliament's competences in themedium-term financial planning, Broksaid: "Parliament would revert back toits status of the 1980s. The EuropeanParliament would then be reduced to amere 'legislative machinery' for theinternal market instead of exercising itsinherent budgetary rights." And theEuropean Commission to "a machine

for making the single market run," headded.

In the same vein the EuropeanCommission reiterated criticism of thelatest draft as the Commission Presi-dent, Romano Prodi, expressed reser-vations insisting it lacked "vision andambition." Speaking to journalists onthe sidelines of EU-Canada Summit inAthens last week Prodi called the draftas a "step backward" especially concern-ing majority voting. Prodi concluded, "Itis a wake up call for member countriesto not become hostages." p. 3

www.new-europe.info11th Year, Number 523

THE EUROPEAN WEEKLY

June 1 - 7, 2003

New EuropeNew Europe Interviews

Vitaly Hayduk,Ukrainian deputy prime minister

p.26

Alexander Todiychuk,JSC Ukrtransnafta chairman

p.24,25

Energywindow to EuropeUkraine and Poland received ahighly-anticipated commitmentfrom the European Union that itwill support an extension of theOdessa-Brody pipeline intoPoland.“There is a real commitment onour part on this project and hopethat real soon it will be a realityand not just a project,” EU Com-missioner for Energy and Trans-port Loyola de Palacio said in herclosing remarks at the pipelinepresentation in Brussels. "Aschairman, I hope that out of thisconference to develop this keyproject it will be to the interest tothe enlarged EU and our neigh-bouring countries," she said.Ukrainian Deputy PM VitalyHayduk said Ukraine stands togain considerable economic andpolitical advantages from thepipeline, but he added that theeconomic effects of this projectextend beyond the borders of theformer Soviet republic. He told New Europe this pipelinewould ease traffic through theBosporus, reduce environmentalrisks and boost European energysecurity. De Palacio, Hayduk andPolish Deputy Prime MinisterMarek Pol signed a joint declara-tion on the support of the project.

p. 23-26

cyanmageyelloblack

Elmar Brok

MEP Brokblasts constitu-tion draft as"extraordinarilydisappointing"

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SUPPLEMENT ON ENERGY

AND ENVIRONMENTPages 23-26

The Shooting Gallery

“If I were a magician, I’d hand out broken compasses. It’s all about misdirection.” - Jarod Kintz |BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE

MANAGING EdItor

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Unity in diversity, a better time from to-day’s urging for simple ‘unity.’ Perhaps this is when the limits were exposed, when vet-eran MEP Elmer Brok expressed his dis-pleasure with the new draft constitution, claiming that some of the larger member states were pushing for their own national interests ahead of what was best, or needed for all. He even managed to sound genuine-ly shocked. Prodi was equally dismissive. In other news, Athens discovered a new archeological site every time a pickaxe was swung. Good for our history and culture, but it slowed down the Olympic building schedule.

ne 10 YeARS

AGO

MMThe political centre is unstable; an amalgam of compromises and contradictions. The European Union, both at federal and national level thrives on the centre-ground, where compromise is seen as a triumph of the political art. Coalitions, both regular and grand, are seemingly the hallmark of modern European democracies. Italy has just formed its own grand coalition, comprising parties of the right, left and centre. European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, has welcomed the new arrangement. He said it brought stability back to the country, ending, as it did, a two-month political stalemate. Leaders in Brussels, Berlin and Paris were also of the same opinion; the third largest Eurozone economy is now in good hands. Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, made it his initial task to visit some powerful new colleagues, Angela Merkel and Francoise Hollande. Austerity – or the loosening thereof – was on his mind. Merkel, an election ahead of her in the autumn, was still insistent that fiscal discipline is not anathema to growth. Hol-lande, elected last year on an anti-austerity platform, continues to push for more growth-oriented policies. A year into the job and Hollande has become a lesson for Letta, an example in how not to do things. He is already facing a backlash in his native France, particularly from the far right, that bodes ill ahead of next year’s European parliament elections. As those elections draw closer European leaders have swung around to the notion that austerity-driven polices are fuelling antagonism towards the EU. Even long-time hold-outs, Barroso and Economics Commissioner, Olli Rehn, are coming around to the possibility that more growth-oriented policies could very well be the thing that both the European economy and its citi-zens need. They fear punishment at the polls. In addition to re-firing the austerity versus growth debate, Letta had another message: that the European project is facing a cri-sis of legitimacy at the very time its citizens need it the most. Protests by the likes of the National Front in France, and the rise of extremist or populist parties in places such as Finland, Greece, Hungary and the UK, are proving his point. The Irish president has also waded into the discussion, questioning the moral failings of today’s crop of leaders. Other EU leaders, such as Robert Fico in Slovakia, have also questioned the direction of the Union.Whether or not Enrico Letta will bring stability to Italy remains to be seen. Presiding over a government comprising of the centre-left Democratic Party, Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom and Mario Monti’s centrist Civic Platform, will not be easy. There are already whispers that Berlusconi is plotting, and may pull the plug when things begin to swing his party’s way again.The Italian media is pessimistic that the country may gain some sort of leeway from Europe (a loosening of deficit targets, for ex-ample), but Italy is a country that gets listened to; its size alone dictates that. Letta may have to exercise some caution when dealing with his EU partners, where a level-headed approach is needed, but they, as well as he, know that time is not infinite; with twelve months to go until European elections, and with plotters in government and protesters on the streets, something needs to move.

Plotting and protesting

03ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

BERLIN – Just weeks ago, the worst of the financial crisis in Europe seemed to be over. Stability seemed to be returning. But appearances proved to be deceptive. A minor problem (at least in scale) like Cyprus, when combined with an almost unbelievable degree of incompetence among the “troika” (the European Com-mission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund), was enough to turn a molehill into a mountainous crisis.

While markets remained calm, the Cyprus crisis revealed the full extent of the political disaster that the eurozone crisis has wrought: the European Union is disintegrating at its core. Europeans’ current crisis of confidence concern-ing Europe is far more dangerous than renewed market anxiety, because it can-not be overcome with another liquidity injection by the ECB.

Europe’s old political order was based on competition, mistrust, power rivalries, and, ultimately, war among sovereign states. It collapsed on 8 May, 1945, and was replaced by a system based on mutual trust, solidarity, the rule of law, and compromise. But, with the crisis eroding these foundations, trust is giving way to mistrust, solidar-ity is succumbing to ancient prejudices (and even new hatred between the poor south and the rich north), and compro-mise is being overwhelmed by diktat. And Germany is once again at the center of the process of disintegration.

That is because Germany, by far the EU’s strongest economy, has enforced a strategy for overcoming the eurozone crisis that worked for Germany at the beginning of the millennium, but un-der completely different internal and external economic conditions. For the distressed southern European states, the German-backed mixture of austerity and structural reforms is proving fatal, because the decisive third and fourth components – debt relief and growth – are missing.

It is only a matter of time before one of the large European crisis coun-tries elects a political leadership that no longer accepts the austerity diktats. Even now, come election time, national governments more or less openly prom-ise to protect their citizens from Europe, because Germany has seen to it that aus-

terity and structural reforms take pride of place in managing the crisis.

The argument that ‘tough love’ was necessary in southern Europe, because nothing there would ever have changed otherwise, has been settled. The love has been very tough indeed, generating rapid economic contraction, massive unemployment (upwards of 50% among young people), and continued fiscal de-terioration, owing to rising debt-service costs. Indeed, all eurozone members are now experiencing weak economic growth, if not recession.

What does Germany want? A Ger-man Europe would never work, and the country’s political class lacks both the courage and the determination to pur-sue a European Germany. So, does Ger-many want to hold together the mon-etary union and thus preserve the EU, or will it allow dithering and a lack of vision to hasten the erosion of Europe’s foundations?

In this crisis, intention takes a back seat to action (or lack thereof). The International Herald Tribune recently quoted Winston Churchill: “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.” That is precisely the order of the day in Europe and the eurozone.

What needs to be done has long been clear. The price of the monetary union’s survival, and thus that of the European project, is more community: a banking union, fiscal union, and po-litical union. Those who oppose this be-cause they fear common accountability, transfers from rich to poor, and a loss of national sovereignty will have to accept Europe’s re-nationalization – and thus its exit from the world stage. No alterna-tive – and certainly not the status quo – will work.

It has become common knowledge in Europe that the ongoing crisis will either destroy the EU or bring about a

political union, and that, without a sol-idarity-based solution to existing debt and a partial mutualisation of new debt, the euro cannot be saved. Such steps will make far-reaching transfers of sovereign-ty unavoidable. Is Germany – or France – willing to do that?

The real crisis of the EU and the monetary union is not financial but po-litical – or, more precisely, it is a leader-ship crisis. A lack of vision, courage, and strength of purpose is on display in all European capitals, but especially so in Berlin (and on the part of government and opposition alike).

Europe’s national politicians rou-tinely criticise the EU for its lack of democratic legitimacy, yet they bear part of the responsibility for it. Or have pro-Europeans become so faint-hearted and dejected that they prefer simply to hand over the reins to anti-European populists and nationalists? That would be a disaster, because the crisis now runs too deep to be resolved by technocratic means.

Germany is preparing for a national election in which – much like in last year’s French presidential election – the European crisis is to play no part, or at least only a minor one. Both gov-ernment and opposition believe that it would be better to tell the people the truth concerning the most vital question of the day only after the election (and in measured doses).

Such an outcome would make a mockery of democracy. But things may turn out very differently if the dynamics of Europe’s crisis throw German politi-cians’ plans into disarray. An unpleas-ant surprise cannot be ruled out; at this point, it might be Europe’s greatest source of hope.

Copyright: Project Syndicate/Insti-tute for Human Sciences, 2013.

www.project-syndicate.org

A burned EU flag hangs on the barriers protecting the Greek parliament in Athens on 1 May, 2013. Greece’s two main unions called a general strike against prolonged auster-ity on May 1, with protests by unions, students and workers. |AFP PHOTO/ LOUISA GOULIAMAKI

The erosion of Europe By Joschka Fischer

Joschka Fischer, Germany’s for-eign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005, was a leader in the German Green Party for

almost 20 years.

Follow the leaderBy Alia Papageorgiou

It’s almost impossible to get involved in politics in any way and not touch on, or as happens in my ill fated case, become fixated on, the role of the leader.What is the leader wearing? Who is the leader smiling at, who is she frowning at? Is she wearing a tiger’s eye necklace to grapple inner strength from thousands of years of sedentary affects on rocks that make one particular brown one look like, in fact, the eye of a tiger?Why is it that whenever world leaders gather for an occasion they know they will be photographed and if they are male why are they wearing the same colored tie? Do they call each other up in the morning before the event and say ‘hey Barack I’m wearing the green today wanna match’ as one recent meeting with the Irish PM showed?Brussels is a city whose aim above all is to be an actor (and I use this word specifically for its meaning also related to theat-rics) on the world stage of power and decision making.Not willing to blow our own trumpet here but for the last five years there’s been a banner in the conference room of New Eu-rope that boasts of our position on ‘leadership’, ‘transparency’ and ‘independence’. This keeps flashing in my mind over the last week as another example of what some try to cover and what some try to do. I don’t begin to assume a leadership posi-tion but take up the role of reflecting on the situation and the way that some instances require leadership.Since 2008 Europe has been crying out for leadership.Perhaps not by all, granted, as its obvious vacancy allowed creativity on the topic of an auspicious leaderless-ness to flourish but in times of trial most seem to have a tendency to want to turn to a person or action that merits following and appears to know how to resolve a particular mess.I took to my social media networks and asked why am I facing a stumbling block on who to describe when I use the word ‘leader’? How do I get past this?Some said this is exactly the point, perhaps even the idea of leadership is outdated, it could be changing if a girl who is at home dying of cancer becomes an authority due to social net-works what stops her from being an authority.My initial desire was to include the Icelandic Pirate party on its leaderless model, others echoed this and Leaderless Revo-lution by Carne Ross got a mention and will be used online in the coming week. Anthony Zacharzewski founder of the Democratic Society, Dr Andy Williamson fellow at the Hansard Society and Ali Stod-dart a politics graduate and myself created a spark of a conversa-tion online and they managed to put together a small piece on the qualities desired of a new leader which will be shared online.The topic is not small.From the flare-up of the indignados back in 2008 to the rising mistrust of politicians and banks who keep feeding an auster-ity-driven system leadership or the lack thereof is pertinent. Follow the leader or a children’s game where a leader or ‘head of the line’ is chosen, followed and revered, if one steps out of line with his actions he falls out. The last person standing other than the leader is now the new leader. Why does this sound like party politics today?

More related content on pages 7, 8, 9, 14 and in our columns throughout the paper. AP

Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. -Harry S. Truman

04 PENSION REPORT NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

Election brings pension reformIn the Autumn of last year, the Slovak Par-

liament approved fresh reforms in their pension system, where contributions to

the individual accounts of the second pillar were reduced, and a window was opened for employees to return to the traditional pay-as-you-go first pillar.

The move, orchestrated by the left wing Smer Party, who won a landslide victory at the general election in March last year, has been heavily motivated by the government’s wish to untie the austerity based economic reforms of the previous administration, and to meet fiscal targets. One of those fiscal targets is the promise to run current public deficit at the 3% ceiling, that was agreed as part of the EU’s Sta-bility and Growth Pact.

From 1 September last year, the new leg-islation declared that second pillar contribu-tions were to be reduced down to 4% from 9% of gross salaries. In contrast, payments into the first pillar was to be increased from 9% to 14% of an employee’s earnings.

Although beginning in 2017, the contri-bution rates to the second pillar are due to increase again, a rise of 0.25% is scheduled, in the hope to eventually reach 6% in subsidies to individual accounts by 2024.

The plan was to invite all workers to join a second pillar programme up to the end of 2013, with those already enrolled given the opportunity to switch entirely to the defined benefit first pillar.

The government is confident that the legislation changes will make a positive differ-

ence to their treasury figures, as they estimate that 60,000 will leave the second pillar, with just 10,000 joining up to the individual pen-sion accounts.

There are fears though that the govern-ment is simply storing increased liabilities for the future in the pursuit of a short term gain, when waves of current employees retire.

Tomas Puchly, an analyst with the Bra-tislava based F. A. Hayek Foundation, said: “The main reason why the government has done this is due to the difficulty that the So-cial Insurance Agency is facing, as they have to make many other social payments, and in balancing the current deficits. The question remains on how these new measures will ef-fect pension funding in the future.”

What the Smer Party administration has put forward is a clear turn around from the major pension reforms of 2005, which boosted the traditional one pillar pension system by introducing mandatory second pil-lar accounts, this was in response to the lame response to voluntary pension accounts that were created in 1997.

The defined contribution second pillar savings accounts are performed by pension funds management companies, that are cho-sen for employees, and where contributions are paid into. “Each pension company has the responsibility for managing three funds, where two of them are more conservative schemes that invest in bonds and are insured.” Tomas Puchly continued. “While the other is a growth scheme that is not insured and is far more riskier, although since the financial cri-ses the individual accounts have not brought the rates of return that were expected.”

A supplementary pension third pillar was also part of the reform, and is an optional part of the system, and initially was supported by the state through tax relief measures.

One of the main motivations to create the pillar system was for demographic reasons, it was found in a government study in 2006, that the ratio was 1 to 5.71 of those at a working age compared to those who were now retired.

The first pillar system would now need the help of individual pension accounts to cope with the future burden of old age.

Pensions ages have also been under the microscope by this relatively new administra-tion, and the current retirement age of 62 for both men and women, will be increased in the future, and will be linked to the increase in the life expectancy rate

Its projected that the average life expec-tancy will rise from 69.5 for men to 71.6 in 2050, and for women the average will increase from 77.6 to 80.3 in 37 years time.

According to official figures the age dis-tribution of participation rates in the sec-ond pillar peak at 21% for those who are aged between 25 and 35, there 16% of those younger than 25, one point behind the 36-40 age group who are enrolled in a second pillar pension.

The level of savers tends to be reduced as people get older, as 15% of those between 41-45 have a second pillar pension, that spirals downwards to 8% between 45-50 ,and then down to 2% for the over 50s.

Mandatory enrolments since 2005 have been helped by the fast dynamic economy that has developed in Slovakia, where exports of electronic good and cars have been key drivers of growth.

OECD figures highlighted how real eco-nomic growth had escalated up to 10.5% in 2007, before the effects of the financial crash, creating high employment and good econom-ic conditions to support a three pillar system.

Tomas Puchly concluded: “In the long term a lot will depend on the changes which are made at a government level like the ones we have just seen. I think that lowering the contributions for the second pillar could be a major issue, considering the recent changes made, the emphasis on the solidarity first pil-lar means many could end up with a smaller pension. I would say a return to the 2005 system would be better, but now the changes to the first pillar may create structural chal-lenges that could harm long term stability.”

By Peter Taberner

A castle in the Centre of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia which has reformed its pension system in the last year. |BELGA / Eric LALMAND

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05ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

By Federico Grandesso

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Italy is perhaps one of two countries in Europe which has European level repre-sentation in its political system and go-

ing even further international level of Italians representing the Senate for Italians living overseas.

New Europe spoke with Senator Claudio Micheloni (PD), a Member of the Italian Sen-ate for Italians voting in Switzerland on how this system works, how he sees it and could this be a representational system for Europe?

How would you describe the previous two legislatures?

This is for me the beginning of the third legislature, during the first one I was able to reach some results also because the majority of Prime Minister Prodi was very tight and the role of the four senators elected out of Italy was crucial. In the last legislature unfor-tunately we didn’t get so much attention from the majority lead by Silvio Berlusconi.

My plan was to reform the representa-tive’s body of the Italians living abroad and I was able to have my project of reform passed in the Senate but then it was blocked at the Chamber because this reform would have touched the traditional bodies like the trade unions for example. My proposal was to re-form these bodies and to create a different representative structure for the Italians non living in Italy that could interact with the dif-ferent institutions like the regions and the central state.

My second project, that I hope to restart during this legislature, was to act on the costs of the ministry for foreign affairs, In Italy we have a diplomatic network which is well dis-tributed but at a very high costs. I tried then to do a strong battle on the state budgets to reduce the costs of the diplomatic corps and use this money to maintain the consular ser-vices for the Italian citizens abroad and have budget for the promotion of the Italian lan-guage.

These proposals, which were inside some amendments, were blocked even if there was

a political convergence, because of the inter-ventions of the diplomatic corporations and of the trade unions of the ministry for foreign affairs.

Do you intend to continue your agenda on these projects?

Yes, I think that after the speech of Pre-mier Letta, my proposals could go in the right direction and I will fight for that. Another im-portant point is that we will have to fight to maintain the foreign constituency.

Premier Letta announced that he wants to work 18 months on the constitutional re-forms and work on the draft proposals that the personalities groups had prepared for President Napolitano. In that proposal it was clearly underlined the suppression of the for-eign constituencies then in the parliament there is a diffused idea to cut our 18 seats.

Unfortunately the reason of this negative

attitude against us is also due to the fact that during seven years we were not able to pre-sent in the right way the importance for our country to have some members of parliament

elected out of Italy. We pushed more on interests of certain

sectors and this was not good for us, in the coming months we will have to work a lot to change this negative perception.

What would you say are the best means of promoting a country?

I think that our country should present itself as a co-ordinated system, to have a com-mon objective.

Today the Italian communities are not part of a common project for the promotion of our country abroad. The chambers of com-merce, the Institute for the foreign trade, the ministry of foreign affairs are all acting auton-omously without an organic promotion sys-tem. This situation is negative for our tourism and our economy and if our products are all over the world, it’s not because of a coordi-nated policy, but thanks to our entrepreneurs and local communities.

Then we as members of parliament, we could have done more on this side, I have to admit after that it is not helping our cause the negative cases about the conduct of some of my colleagues. It’s then interesting to notice that in France they just copied our law and they elected eleven members of parliament of the French immigrants, while in Italy we are planning to destroy it.

Senator Claudio Micheloni (PD),

Italian Deputies and Senators applaud in the Italian Parliament in Rome on 20 April, 2013 after Italian President Giorgio Napolitano was re-elected. | AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO

Italy: European level representation at home

06 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

French household confidence stableIn their monthly survey France’s official

statistics institute the INSEE has revealed that households’ confidence over the eco-

nomic situation was stable in April compared to March this year, but there still remains a pessimistic outlook on the country’s future.

When looking at their personal financial situation, the respondents in the survey were slightly more appreciative of their circum-stance over the past year, scoring two points higher than in March.

Although householders were a little more negative about their future prospects over the next year, with a -1 score compared to a month ago, both responses on personal finance were by far more gloomier than the average scores from the same survey taken between 1987 and 2012, in the case of the future outlook people were more despondent by 21 points.

Fewer people thought that their saving capacity is as high as last month with a lower score by three points, while the expected sav-ings capacity over the next year was almost stable, just one point down from the survey in March.

April was also seen as a suitable time to start saving again, an increase of four points from a month ago, but the survey score of 32 was still far higher than the average score of 18. France has received a lot of bad news regarding its economic situation, as growth descended into negative figures for the fourth quarter of last year at 0.3%, after only just stav-ing off a double dip recession with growth at

0.1% in the second and third quarters of 2012. Unemployment has continued to rise,

reaching 10.8% in February according to Eu-rostat figures, now only just below the EU av-erage.

Recently France’s finance minister Pierre Moscovici has revised growth figures down-wards for this year to 0.1%, significantly down from the previous forecast of 0.8%.

This pessimism is reflected in the attitude of those households questioned in the survey, when asked about general state of the econo-my over the next year, the score in the survey dipped to -62, a massive 39 points worse than the average score up to last year.

Even though there was two point upsurge

in optimism in April over unemployment for the next year, the score was a considerably 42 points worse than the average for whether em-ployment opportunities would be available.

Although the -23 total for how consumer prices will be over the next 12 months is less positive in comparison to March, it is still above the average score of -34, perhaps sur-prising considering the current bleak eco-nomic outlook.

Emmanuel Martin, executive director of the Paris based think tank, the Institute of Economic Studies, said: “There has been a destruction of jobs that could reach 100,000 jobs going by the end of the year, and that is not making people optimistic.”

“We have a problem with the business cli-mate that is part of the reason why people are feeling negative about the future. The govern-ment is trying to change and simplify capital gains tax to reassure the business community and small entrepreneurs, who have been angry with the administration, a tax credit was also launched for competitiveness last year, but again it was very complicated.”

He explained: “Labour is expensive, if an employer pays out €2,000 in wages, the costs will be doubled due to social contributions. There needs to be a massive reform of the state, and the welfare state, public expenditure is currently 57% of GDP, and this needs to be scaled down. There are six layers of govern-ment in France, and this also need to be re-duced with more government accountability.”

The struggle to move the economy for-ward is proving costly for President Hollande, as he approaches the first anniversary in office, a recent TNS Sofres poll revealed that his ap-proval rating is the worst of any French Presi-dent after 11 months in the job for 30 years, with just 27% of those surveyed expressing any confidence in him.

“On both the left and the right they are upset with Hollande.” Explained Emmanuel Martin. “The Socialists want a fiscal stimulus package to spend €43 billion over two years to invest in infrastructure, help consumer spend-ing and to implement tax reform to support growth, but this has not been adopted. On the right they have been angry about the tax in-creases that have been made, so many people are disorientated.”

By Peter Taberner

Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the Eu-ropean Commission has just realised – stra-tegically, of course, since the European elec-tions are coming soon – that austerity is not a good solution if it doesn’t stimulate economic growth.

The problem is that until now, everybody has talked about economic growth, but no-body has seen it, because there is no country in EU where the austerity has stimulated eco-nomic growth.

Things are actually simpler than Brussels or other financial centres or universities, bas-tions of neo-liberal thinking, would like us to believe. This crisis is the effect of excesses of financial capitalism which has ignored the re-alities of the economy.

In the first instance, the banks, being in great danger, have convinced the political power to save them, based on the argument

that they are too big to become bankrupt. The public power has recapitalised the banks with public money, because they believed that this is how the economic growth will be re-launched, by the resumed lending of the economy.

But this did not happen. Member states, heavily indebted, have realised that those saved banks have started to create significant difficulties, by excessively increasing the bor-rowing costs needed to cover budget deficits, which have also been increased by the bailout plans and by the sharp slowdown in the eco-nomic activity.

Austerity seemed a saving solution. But it is not, because all the austerity measures have led to rising deficits, increasing unemploy-ment and decreasing the income taxes by low-ering wages and pensions.

Maybe it looked good on paper, but it doesn’t in real life. The European economy is losing jobs in areas booming in other places, it is losing production capacities and is more and more affected by the brain drain, which is very concerning.

And what is the answer of the member states? Words without content, generated by the intention of certain states, that seek to dominate on a continental scale.

We have witnessed all sorts of experi-

ments, the first one in Romania, where public sector wages were slashed by 25%. Then in Greece, Italy, and even Cyprus. Each of these experiments had an ideological determina-tion: austerity, which became an instrument of anti-crisis, but argued by a full political ideology. This was and still is the ideology of a heterogeneous group of parties, all of them having in common at least one central iden-tity: The European People’s Party.

They have legitimised and identified themselves with austerity. They have brought in this way serious damages to the European construction, as these parties have promoted national egoism instead of solidarity mecha-nisms and therefore they have undermined democratic principles and created a proper environment for ancient demons of the continent, such as: extremism, racism, anti-Semitism, discrimination, and denial of the differences.

The EPP has led the EU for almost a dec-ade. I would say that for the EU it is a lost dec-ade, form all points of view. Not that enlarge-ment of the European Union was the problem, this was a wise and visionary decision, based on a fully satisfying experience. The problem was the EPP with their perspective about how things should be structured and should work in an enlarged EU.

This is a non-democratic vision, a vision of a Europe led by a directorate in which mem-bers are not equal and some nations are not al-lowed to choose, but forced to accept harmful decisions for which nobody is responsible.

The ideology of the austerity is under siege and denied by all European nations. The EPP member parties know that this could no longer be defended in front of their voters. Therefore, Barroso has signalled the need of a change in their direction, for electoral purpos-es. Because if he would have really believed in what he said, the EU budget for 2014-2020 would have looked different, and he wouldn’t impose upon Portugal new devastating aus-terity measures.

The EU needs a substantive change in its politics and to return to a democratic leader-ship, in which the citizen, with his needs and his expectation is in the centre of the political debate and the focus of EU’s concerns, and not some financial greedy and irresponsible entities. We need a new Europe, a Europe of solidarity and of economic growth. We need pertinent and credible economic and social policies, not an ideology that replaces con-crete political actions. This is the stake of the 2014 elections, when I hope that EU will be led by a leftist executive that could correct the mistakes of the EPP.

Austerity - an ideology of the European project’s failure

A supermarket in the western Paris suburb of La Defense. |EPA/ AFP FILES-PHILIPPE DESMAZES

By Corina Cretu MEP

Corina Cretu, is a member of the Euro-pean Parliament and vice-president of the group of the Social-ists and Democrats (S&D).

07ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

NPT needs to be reformed as the nuclear dangers proliferate

W ho has the right to build and own nuclear weap-ons? This question has

dominated the international agenda this spring as North Korea is threatening the world with nuclear strikes and Iran’s nu-clear programme is approaching weap-ons capability.

The short reply to this question would be: Russia, China, the US, France and Great Britain; the countries that signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1967 after they realised that nuclear weapons proliferated exces-sively in the world. These states are also permanent members of the United Na-tions Security Council, and they decide on sanctions against countries poten-tially aspiring to gain access to nuclear weapons, such as Iran and North Korea.

However, there are more and more of those who think that this almost 50-year-old treaty is no longer up to date. Indeed, there is a broad consensus that the NPT treaty is unjust, arbitrary and ambiguous. The problems with this treaty are rooted in the fact that, initially, the Big Five pledged to disarm in line with the goals of the treaty but in reality they maintain their right to pos-sess nuclear weapons. At the same time, they aim to limit other states’ access to

military nuclear technology. This was also an item of debate at the Preparatory Committee meeting for the NPT review that closed in Geneva at the beginning of May.

Recent history shows several exam-ples of the Big Five’s inconsistent ap-proach to disarmament. In 2012, the UN General Assembly decided to establish a working group “to find proposals to take forward multilateral nuclear disarma-ment negotiations for the achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons”. Four countries voted against this course of action: the US, the United Kingdom, France and Russia. The first three countries also declared - in advance - that they would not accept any actions that the group may propose.

A second example is the case of India and Pakistan. So far, four countries have developed nuclear weapons outside the treaty: India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, which withdrew from the treaty in 2003. Out of these countries, India - as a growing world power - is already a de facto accepted nuclear state while the others, such as India’s archenemy Paki-stan, are asked to join the NPT as non-nuclear states. This can be interpreted as a double standard rather than fair inter-national practice.

The case of Iran shows the ambigu-ity of the NPT treaty. The country is to-day enriching uranium to 20%, officially for the purposes of cancer treatment and reactor fuel research. The step towards weapons-grade uranium is thus not very big. As an NPT member country, Iran has the right to have the fuel cycle for peaceful purposes. One of the most important reasons for the dead-lock in the negotiations between the Big Five

plus Germany and Iran is that the treaty is not clear on how far peaceful enrich-ment can go within the frame of the NPT. Up to 5%, which corresponds to nuclear energy? Or up to 20% for medi-cal purposes?

Until now, Iran has not decided to follow the road taken by Israel and North Korea and withdraw from the NPT, although this option was debated in the Iranian parliament about a year ago. If Iran decided to leave the treaty, it would be the final blow for the NPT.

It is obvious that the world has changed from the times the treaty was signed in the early seventies; it is in-creasingly easy to gain access to nuclear technology and mastering the technol-ogy implies international prestige. While different rules are applied to different countries, some of the current conflicts are related to new countries aspiring to become nuclear weapon states. If the international community decides to continue to rely on the NPT, one should think of ways to make the NPT more credible and to establish the same rules for all.

In my view, a way to approach this question would be to empower the states without nuclear weapons to take the lead in the international non-prolif-eration process.

The non-nuclear states should have the possibility to voice their views and opinions in the Security Council, es-pecially with regard to nuclear prolif-eration. They should also be involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran and North Korea. We have already seen that the power of the Big Five does not guar-antee a fair discussion on disarmament – or any discussion at all.

By Tarja Cronberg, MEP

Tarja Cronberg, MEP is the chair of the European parliament Iran delegation, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee

and Subcommittee of Security and Defence.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un waving to soldiers as he inspects the Mu Islet Hero Defence Detachment near South Korea’s Taeyonphyong Island in South Hwanghae province, North Korea’s southwestern sector of the front. Conflicting accounts from US intelligence about the status of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program underscore just how difficult it is for US spy agencies to penetrate the regime in Pyongyang, officials and experts say. |AFP PHOTO / FILES / KCNA via KNS

From hell to hell: Eritreans at home and abroad

By Nicolas Beger

This month sees the 20th anniversary of Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia. But is there really much to celebrate? Because Eritrea is a severely repressive place. Opposition parties, civil society organisations and independent trade unions are all for-bidden. For the last dozen years there have been no independ-ent media. In 2002, all religious groups apart from the Ortho-dox, Catholic and Lutheran churches, and Islam were banned. Eritrea’s overcrowded jails harbour thousands of prisoners of conscience and political inmates who languish indefinitely without charge or trial. Some have been there for over 20 years. We believe many of them die from the appalling conditions, which include incarceration in underground cells or shipping containers out in the desert, and frequent torture. Why were they imprisoned? Perhaps they expressed an opinion or prac-tised their religion, or they might have opposed the govern-ment or tried to evade indefinite conscription. Despite running the gauntlet of Eritrea’s “shoot to kill” policy if they are caught crossing into Ethiopia or detention if they try to enter Sudan, and knowing their families will almost certainly suffer reprisals, thousands of Eritreans slip away each month. But having made it across the frontier, their plight may be far from over. The past two years have witnessed refugees and asylum-seekers being kidnapped from the Shagarab refugee camps in eastern Sudan. The vast majority are Eritrean. They are then forcibly transported to Egypt’s Sinai desert, where they are traded between human traffickers, held captive by Bedouin criminal gangs, and attempts made to extort ransoms from their families. While they wait, hoping their families will pay ransom demands as high as US$40,000, the captives suffer brutal violence. They may be raped, sexually abused, beaten, or burned. Some who cannot pay the ransom are killed. One survivor describes a fel-low prisoner’s treatment: “after more beatings, they poured pet-rol on him and set him on fire. After he died, they left his body in the room with us until it became rotten and worms started crawling. They forced all of us in turns to hold him.” Eritrea and the plight of Eritreans within and beyond its bor-ders are too often ignored. They desperately need a robust advocate. The European Union has assured us all that it will “throw its full weight behind advocates of liberty, democracy and human rights throughout the world”. What does this mean for Eritrea? The EU must use this month’s anniversary of Eri-trean independence to protest powerfully about the dire hu-man rights situation there and demand that prisoners of con-science and political prisoners are released. It should also urge countries along the trafficking route between Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt to collaborate urgently to halt the kidnapping, traf-ficking and horrific abuse. And it doesn’t stop there. Those who survive the ordeal often struggle to receive rehabilitation sup-port, and many also have to confront opaque and arbitrary asy-lum systems. The EU must appeal to these countries to make identifying victims more transparent and give them access to fair asylum proceedings.

Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office

A member of New Europe’s Knowledge Network

08 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

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The single solutions

By Francisco Jaime Quesado

The message is very clear – we must focus on the single solu-tions. In a time of uncertainty about the future evolution of the global economy, more than ever it is central to develop effec-tive strategies of innovation, competitiveness and knowledge capacitation. Productivity and value creation are the key words for this new time of reinvention. Combine the tradition with innovation, reinforce the commitment between the local and the global, to believe in a new network sociery where the process of crea-tion and distribution of value is more effective – this is the new challenge in a time of change. The best solution to this global complex crisis seems to be a new kind of public policies centered in new effective part-nership contracts between all the actors (states, universities, companies, civil society), in order to build a real strategy of confidence in the implementation of the different policies. In-novation, creativity and knowledge as the drivers of creating added value with international dissemination and with this strategy the commitment is done between those who have the responsibility of thinking and those that have the responsibil-ity of producing goods and services.Focusing on the single solutions in a large sense defending an active entrepreneurial culture and attitude - we need people to have a new challenge. People must be able to be the real plat-form of a more entrepreneurial society, centered in new areas of knowledge and new sectors of value. In this new strategy, the key word is co-creation. To promote a dynamic and active creation process involving each citizen is the big challenge for the next years and people must understand the real value of its own individual contribu-tion to the global community.But the contribution of a new and effective state is essential at the same time. It will no be possible to construct the basis for a more competitive and integrative society with the capacity of giving the social and economic ecossystem the right tools for cooperation and participation. This is the reinvention of the message of the classicial eco-nomic theory, centered in a new concept of state bulding, more focused on the role of the strategic conditions that allow society to have the necessary conditions to implement its pro-cess of value construction.We need tofocus on the single solutions in order to promot of a new culture of society integration and competitive advantage construction. This is not done by law, but by a strong and pro-gressive process of social and economic construction, where the individual has the possibility and the right to participate and give its contribution. Getting back to the basics is to believe in the future following the best solutions of the past and the collective engagement of the present. This is the right way to construct a future that is the answer to our global challenge of citizens of a world of change.

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

Breaking Europe’s silence over Bradley Manning

Nobody else has put so much classified evidence about the reality of America’s wars in the

public domain. The “Collateral Murder” video which he released to WikiLeaks should be shown at the beginning of every academic course on international relations. It captures the nonchalance with which the world’s most powerful army kills and maims civilians.

Once the soldiers recorded in it no-tice that they have injured a child, they re-act as if they have done nothing more sin-ister than step on someone’s toes. “Well, it’s their own fault for bringing their kids into a battle,” one voice says. The line encapsulates the amoral nature of US ag-gression. Victims of state-sponsored vio-lence are treated as if they had it coming.

Only the naive could expect the US authorities to treat Manning leni-ently. But what about here in Europe? Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is a fearless defender of hu-man rights - when it suits her. Happy to champion political prisoners in Iran and Ukraine, she is prepared to overlook per-secution when it is carried out with the approval of her bosom buddies in Wash-ington. A search on Ashton’s website indicates that she has not issued a single statement on Manning’s incarceration. I asked her spokesman to explain this silence; he did not respond. MEPs who have tried to solicit her views on this matter haven’t fared much better. Last year, Ashton answered a parliamentary question about an investigation by Juan Méndez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, which concluded that the treat-ment of Manning was “cruel and inhu-man”. Ashton noted that the Méndez re-port highlighted “potential violations of rights” before making a vague commit-ment that the EU would “seek clarifica-tion” from the US authorities on “what measures they intend to take”.

Her stance was both misleading and cowardly. Méndez stated clearly that “imposing seriously punitive con-ditions of detention on someone who has not been found guilty of any crime is a violation of his right to physical and psychological integrity, as well as of his presumption of innocence”. The solitary confinement forced on Manning, there-fore, involved a definite abuse of his rights - not a “potential” abuse as Ashton hinted.

Manning has been in detention for three years now, without having been convicted of any crime. It is almost im-possible to foresee his trial - scheduled

to begin next month - being in any way fair. Barack Obama has already declared him guilty by saying on video that “he broke the law” and implying that he de-serves to be punished.

In a personal statement delivered at a pre-trial hearing in Fort Meade, Mary-land, earlier this year, Manning said that he gave a trove of documents to WikiLe-aks because he wished to “spark a do-mestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general”. Man-ning confessed to being alarmed by the “bloodlust” of the aerial weapons team on the “Collateral Murder” video and expressed his hope that the public would be just as disgusted.

There is little doubt that Manning has been imprisoned because of his sin-cerely-held political beliefs. So it is baf-fling that Amnesty International has so far declined to consider him a prisoner of conscience and to undertake a major campaign for his release.

Amnesty has told the Canadian blogger Joe Emersberger that it can-not deem Manning to be a prisoner of conscience until it has verified if he re-leased the information in a “responsible manner”. I contacted Amnesty to check if Emersberger had accurately reflected its position but received no reply. As-suming that Emersberger is correct - and I’ve no reason to suspect he is not - Am-nesty should specify what it means by “responsible”. By the standards of the US authorities, Manning did not behave responsibly. But Amnesty is supposed to be an independent watchdog, not a mouthpiece for the US military. The very first session of the UN’s General

Assembly in 1949 formally recognised that “freedom of information is a funda-mental human right and the touchstone of all the freedoms to which the United Nations is consecrated”. Manning took a great risk to uphold that freedom. Am-nesty should be supporting him by eve-ry means possible, not quibbling over whether he has respected the terms of his employment contract.

I have been involved with Amnesty since I was 15-years-old. Until recently, I’ve been convinced that it fights oppres-sion regardless of where it occurs or who is involved. Sadly, an event held to coin-cide with NATO’s 2012 summit in Chi-cago made me have second thoughts.

Promotional material for an Amnes-ty conference on the situation of women in Afghanistan bore the slogan “NATO: Keep the Progress Going”. The inference that the alliance was waging a feminist war must have delighted NATO’s spin-doctors.

For most of last year, Amnesty’s US office was headed by Suzanne Nossel, who had just finished serving as a deputy assistant secretary of state under Hillary Clinton. It is unthinkable that Amnesty would chose a senior aide to Robert Mugabe as director of its Zimbabwe team - unless that aide had renounced Mugabe first. Nossel, to the best of my knowledge, didn’t speak out against how Clinton had cosied up to dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Why on earth did Amnesty hire her?

Bradley Manning has been let down by those who claim to defend human rights. The silence over his treatment must be broken.

US Army Private Bradley Manning (C) is escorted out of the courthouse following the closing arguments in his pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, USA, 22 December 2011. Manning is charged with providing thousands of classified docu-ments to whistleblower website WikiLeaks. |EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

By David Cronin

09ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

Europe no longer leading in the fight against climate change

The great Liberal Walter Bagehot once said ‘the greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say

you cannot do’. Great leaders have often taken on the impossible and succeeded, against the odds. In many ways, the EU has long been a leader in the global cli-mate change debate, trying to lead by example and being critical in brokering a deal at the global climate talks in Durban in 2011.

The European Union set itself ambi-tious targets to help the EU to become a competitive green economy, pledging a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emis-sions, an increase the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 20%, and a 20% improvement in energy efficiency, all by 2020. EU governments all committed themselves to these targets. But now the EU’s climate and energy policy is at risk. But it could, and should be done.

Against the backdrop of an unprec-edented economic and financial crisis in Europe, the challenges of achieving a secure and sustainable energy supply and tackling climate change are as urgent as ever. We are overly dependent on fossil fuel imports to meet our energy needs and volatile and ever rising energy prices hit European consumers hard, particu-larly in tough economic times.

Energy transition is therefore of cru-cial importance to Europe. This is why last year at our annual party congress, Eu-

rope’s Liberal member parties concluded a year-long debate and discussion by adopting a resolution laying out a com-prehensive approach to the issue - and call for action. The resolution adopted by European Liberal Democrats calls for, amongst other things, an increase in energy efficiency measures, even higher targets for energy efficiency after 2020 and renewable energy sources to be sup-ported so that the sector can grow and become a competitive and viable source of energy.

Setting international standards in green infrastructure and development could give European companies a sig-nificant global advantage, and Europe could lead by example in what could be called a ‘third industrial revolution’. We acknowledge that the transition to a new low-carbon energy mix poses additional challenges. Achieving this goal will re-quire massive efforts beyond the already agreed 2020 targets. But we are currently missing one opportunity after another to keep moving towards a green economy.

Take the past twelve months. Eu-rope has already missed the historic opportunity to make the Common Ag-ricultural Policy fit for the 21st century as other political families preferred a re-turn to the days of the butter mountains and wine lakes. The European Emission Trading System, a market-based instru-ment and a liberal approach par excel-lence, requires urgent reform and the Commission’s proposal to postpone auctions of emissions quotas to raise the carbon price - an imperfect and yet necessary intervention - was recently re-jected by MEPs and not revived by the national environment and energy min-isters meeting in Dublin last week. The Commission’s dithering on the 2030

climate and energy targets has created great uncertainty as to what will come next. Europe cannot afford to let further such opportunities slip. If we had real leadership at EU level, someone would be grabbing those windows of opportu-nity. But no one is.

Europe’s Liberal Democrats have not just jumped on the bandwagon of environmentalism. For decades we have advocated comprehensive policies on environmental sustainability, energy production and energy security. It’s time other political families followed the Lib-eral example.

The economic crisis should not be used as an excuse to put off acting on cli-mate change. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change conclud-ed: “if we don’t act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year, now and forever. If a wider range of risks and impacts is taken into account, the estimates of damage could rise to 20% of GDP or more. In contrast, the costs of action can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each year.” This not about the environment, not about poli-tics. This is pure economics.

Leadership takes courage. Leader-ship often means risk. But I believe that - with the right leaders, dare I say with Liberal leaders - the EU could lead in on climate change both in the global arena and within the EU, sharing the effort across the Member States. Smart invest-ment will not only have positive effects on the environment and will help tackle climate change, but will also provide in-vestment and jobs in new sectors that can bring a competitive economic advantage for Europe’s economy – goodness knows Europe needs this right now.

For whom the bell trolls

By Andy Carling

Constructive Ambiguity

An old friend of mine has successfully trolled Liverpool, the city of his birth. Trolling is the art of what we call a good wind up. Gary was starting off as a singer-songwriter, getting himself known when he had an interview with a famous music writer, who had been appreciative of his work, and Gary of his.All went well until my pal was asked what he thought about the Beatles. Gary, being an honest soul told him. He explained ex-actly how much he detested the group. The scribbler freaked out and that is how the first part of a promising music career ended.Even a Beatles obsessive would agree that the band are almost a stifling presence in the city, a ‘brand’ that musicians ever since have struggled to escape.So he wrote a book, ‘Living Life Without Loving The Beatles: A Survivors Guide’ and it became a cult classic, even the Guard-ian admired the imagery used to describe some of the secular world’s sacred songs.I wish I could tell you what he thinks about ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’.Europe has a fantastic opportunity to troll Britain and Nigel Farage, but they lack the imagination to even recognise what chance has dropped in their lap.The UK has just announced a series of banknotes, to enter cir-culation in 2016. These are brought in every ten years or so, marking those who have, in turn, made their mark in national life. They have tended towards scientists, engineers and writ-ers, but have included people like quaker and prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, who will be leaving the spotlight soon, to be re-placed in the new batch.It’s an interesting bunch, and pleasing to see that those like Charles Darwin are considered suitable for such special duty. The next include former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. News crews scoured the streets for controversy and found none.It should be obvious that the British wartime leader, and Euro-pean visionary, should, post haste, be honoured with a similar role on the Euro.Or would it be more timely to push for the blessed Margaret to grace the single European currency?It’s one way of opening the debate.The one institution that might go for it is the commission. They’ve got their very own satirist, the Berlaymonster, whose blog and twitter feed are must reads. Anyone who announces the French gay marriage vote as ‘Hurrah! Now EVERY French man has the right to be an adulterous husband!’ is worthwhile.The commission’s Troll King is their president ‘no way’ Jose.I set a couple of interns to go through the files noting every in-stance that Barroso had announced that the financial crisis was over. I thought it might be fun to do a page of these quotes, but there are so many that we’d need to special edition.We could do that, but printing it on paper with sufficient quan-tities to absorb our readers angry tears is still prohibitively ex-pensive.As he gets ever more edgy, we may be nearing the moment when he triumphantly admits that he’s been pulling our leg all along and austerity was just a little joke.Or maybe, he’s planning his best and darkest jokes for his next satirical gem, “Political Guidelines for the next Commission 2: Say Yes to Five More Years of Success’.

Sir Nicholas Stern presents his report on climate change at The Royal Society in London, Monday 30 October 2006. |EPA/PETER MACDIARMID

By Graham Watson MEP

Graham Watson is President of the Alliance of Liberals for Europe Party

10 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

BERKELEY – A government that does not tax sufficiently to cover its spending will even-tually run into all manner of debt-generated trouble. Its nominal interest rates will rise as bondholders fear inflation. Its business leaders will hunker down and try to move their wealth out of the companies they run for fear of high future corporate taxes.

Moreover, real interest rates will rise, ow-ing to policy uncertainty, rendering many in-vestments that are truly socially productive unprofitable. And, when inflation takes hold, the division of labour will shrink. What once was a large web held together by thin mon-etary ties will fragment into very small net-works solidified by thick bonds of personal trust and social obligation. And a small divi-sion of labor means low productivity.

All of this is bound to happen – eventually – if a government does not tax sufficiently to cover its spending. But can it happen as long as interest rates remain low, stock prices remain buoyant, and inflation remains subdued? I and other economists – including Larry Summers, Laura Tyson, Paul Krugman, and many more – believe that it cannot.

As long as stock prices are buoyant, busi-ness leaders are not scared of future taxes or of policy uncertainty. As long as interest rates remain low, there is no downward pressure on public investment. And as long as inflation re-mains low, the extra debt that a government issues is highly prized as a store of value, helps savers sleep more easily at night, and provides a boost to the economy, because it assists de-leveraging and raises the velocity of spending.

Economists, in short, do not watch only quantities – the amount of debt that a gov-ernment has issued – but prices as well. And, because people trade bonds for commodities, cash, and stocks, the prices of government debt are the rate of inflation, the nominal in-

terest rate, and the level of the stock market. And all three of these prices are flashing green, signaling that markets would prefer govern-ment debt to grow at a faster pace than current forecasts indicate.

When Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff wrote their influential study “Growth in a Time of Debt,” they asked the following ques-tion: “Outsized deficits and epic bank bailouts may be useful in fighting a downturn, but what is the long-run macroeconomic impact of higher levels of government debt, especially against the backdrop of graying populations and rising social insurance costs?” Reinhart and Rogoff saw a public-debt “threshold of 90% of [annual] GDP,” beyond which “growth rates fall…. in [both] advanced and emerging economies.”

The principal mistake that Reinhart and Rogoff made in their analysis – indeed, the only significant mistake – was their use of the word “threshold.” That semantic choice, to-gether with the graph that they included, has led many astray. The Washington Post edito-rial board, for example, recently condemned what it called the “Don’t worry, be happy” ap-proach to the US budget deficit and govern-

ment debt, on the grounds that there is a “90% mark that economists regard as a threat to sus-tainable economic growth.”

To be sure, The Washington Post editorial board has shown since the start of the millen-nium that it requires little empirical support for its claims. But the phrasing in “Growth in a Time of Debt” also misled European Com-missioner Olli Rehn and many others to ar-gue that “when [government] debt reaches 80-90% of GDP, it starts to crowd out activ-ity.” Reinhart and Rogoff, it is widely believed, showed that if the debt/GDP ratio is below 90%, an economy is safe, and that only if the debt burden is above 90% is growth placed in jeopardy.

Yet the threshold is not there. It is an arti-fact of Reinhart and Rogoff ’s non-parametric method: throw the data into four bins, with 90% serving as the bottom of the top bin. In fact, there is a gradual and smooth decline in growth rates as debt/GDP ratios increase – 80% looks only trivially better than 100%.

And, as Reinhart and Rogoff say, a cor-relation between high debt and low growth is a sign that one should investigate whether debt is a risk. Sometimes it is: a good deal of

the relationship comes from countries where interest rates are higher and the stock market is lower, and where a higher debt/GDP ratio does indeed mean slower growth.

Still more of the relationship comes from countries where inflation rates are higher when government debt is higher. But some of it comes from countries where growth was already slow, and thus where high debt/GDP ratios, as Larry Summers constantly says, re-sult from the denominator, not the numerator.

So, how much room is left in the relation-ship between debt and economic performance for a country with low interest rates, low infla-tion, buoyant stock prices, and healthy prior growth?

Not much, if any. In the United States, at least, we have learned that there is little risk to accumulating more government debt until interest and inflation rates begin to rise above normal levels, or the stock market tanks. And there are large potential benefits to be gained from solving America’s real problems – low employment and slack capacity – right now.

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

The European Central Bank (ECB) has low-ered interest rates to a record 0.5% as eco-nomic growth continues to struggle in the Eu-rozone. Announcing the interest rate cut on 2 May at the ECB’s governing council meeting in Bratislava, ECB President, Mario Draghi, said that “our monetary policy will remain ac-commodative for as long as needed,” indicat-ing a policy by the bank to accommodate an easier flow of liquidity to banks. He said that the ECB will continue to facilitate bank lend-

ing needs until the middle of next year at the least. Before the announcement, economists had expressed doubts at how a rate cut alone will increase competitive prices for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in periph-eral Eurozone countries.

It is the first rate cut since July 2012.Draghi said that the cut, to a record low,

should help the Eurozone recover “later in the year.” He said that monetary policy “will remain accommodative for as long as needed.”

The announcement comes as statistics re-leased on 30 April indicate reveal that unem-ployment remains at a record high in the Eu-rozone, and that inflation remains at a 3-year low. In addition, the European Commission announced today (2 May) the results of its report on the activities facilitating access to SME finance in 2012.

In addition, the European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, met with the social partners (employers and trade union

representatives) in Brussels.Draghi said that governments must not

simply abandon their current economic pro-grammes, and that structural reforms are still needed to ensure stability in the Eurozone economy.

His remarks come after the austerity ver-sus growth debate received a high profile boost from new Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta, who met with various EU leaders over the past couple of days.

By J. Bradford DeLong

J. Bradford DeLong, a former deputy assistant secretary of the US Treasury, is Professor of Economics at the University of Califor-nia at Berkeley and a

research associate at the National Bureau for Economic Research.

When is government debt risky?

Lawmakers testify before the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee 10 April, 2013 | Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP

Interest rate cut should support recovery ‘next year’

11EU-WORLDNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

The Iron Lady faded away and with her the traumatic memories of the mass social movement that led

the UK to a standstill back in the seven-ties. Her death calls for a bit of introspec-tion, about the UK Economy of course but more importantly about leadership, and more specifically leadership in Europe.

Thatcher remains the symbol of a woman that broke from the perception that a leader needed to be loved. She put to the forefront of leadership the need for vision, courage, the ability to face conse-quences and get the job done. She had in mind the need for a complete makeover of the British Economy and managed it for better or worse, forty years later and in the current economic climate, this still remains to be seen.

Purpose or vision, resilience, impact, courage or inspiration and results these attributes are springing to my mind when I think about leadership. Sadly no name spurs to my mind to fit that bill when I am thinking about Europe Leadership.

Why? I cannot help but wonder - why there is no such thing as European leader-ship? Is it a question of size? An ever big-ger Europe can have a significant impact on decision-making. It requires more time spent to influence a bigger group for any major decision to be made. Consequently, it encourages a more consensual approach to everything and makes tough decision either truly impossible or excruciating slow- For proof, the Greek and Spain debt

situation comes to my mind. It can also be perceived as a lack of fast and full integra-tion of new member states.

Is it a question of vision? The Europe-an Union as an entity still gives a lot of lee-way to member states. They can choose what they can and cannot do- The single currency being an example. Such free-dom paired with no real enforcing power make difficult for member states to build a shared vision and even more to drive a common agenda.

Is it a question of model? The Euro-pean model might be already a dead one … because after 60 years of trying not to push any strong agenda on integration, in a world ever more complex, uncertain and fast, it has become impossible to not only reconcile individual members states vision and ambitions to the bigger group, but also be agile in any execution.

The world is in a complete state of transformation – and so is Europe.

There is a strong need for a new pur-pose, for reconciling capitalism and social justice. It is imperative to find new ways to tackle not problems but dilemmas: and ever aging worldwide population, increas-ing energy needs, climate change, technol-ogy, faster and more connected world...you name it.

Times of change are times for leader-ship, and of new leadership. As a European citizen I am worried about the future of Europe, and I am looking for a new type of leader for Europe. I am thinking of a man or a woman of their times. Inherently an individual fully aware of the needs of the future- the youngest ever workforce, digital natives, purpose driven crowd questioning the very model of capitalism and dream-ing of a different world - a leader at ease with technology and new ways of both decision-making and communication. A person that always demonstrated curios-ity and openness in not only what they

do, but how the manage problem solving. A person that has a wide term of reference in terms of experience ( private sector and public sector,) and cultures.

I am calling for him or her to be hum-ble but with a strong vision. They would be ready to recognise that they do not have all the answers.

They would look for as diverse and controversial ideas by using differences sources of data (economical, politically) from different groups (experienced and young professional, legacy member states, new entrants) and making a point of listen-ing to all. They would truly embrace cog-nitive diversity. Their vision will be solely one of excellence and progress. They will commit to fight complacency and, more importantly old systems. They will dare to be different for something new to emerge.

I am dreaming of a man or a woman of courage, and inspiration. They will know how to cut through complexity, denounce the secular systems of alliances, codes and politics to build a stronger Europe. They will hone their capacity to delivery, via in-fluencing, but also buy relentlessly pushing for progress to be made. They will have to fight the red tape and the long deci-sion making process. Resilient and brave, they will acknowledge the need for radical change and be ready to embrace it. They will pledge to take difficult decision- sub-tracting or removing road blocker for the vision to thrive and come to light.

I cannot help but thinking that it might be time for a stronger push towards a com-plete integration: Education, fiscal systems and even political decision making. It might be time to finally cave in to the US-based model and push for member states to relinquish their sacrosanct national independence for the good of the greater part. It is time to take Europe to the next level… and give it a chance to become the ‘nation’ of the future.

Times of change are times for leadership

By Marianne Abib-Pech

Marianne Abib-Pech is the Author of The Financial Times Guide to Leadership: How to Effectively Lead

People and Get Results, and founder of Leaders: Inspiring the Future

European ministers gather in Luxembourg, 22 April 2013. Do they have the right kind of vision? |AFP PHOTO GEORGES GOBET

Dreaming of a better day

The European Union has apparently given up on austerity; the policy has, according to Jose Manuel Barroso, reached its economic and political limit. The European Commission pres-ident hasn’t exactly dismissed austerity; he remains behind it still, but feels that its time may be up. Similarly, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Ollie Rehn, the EU’s auster-ity cheerleader and general enforcer, has suggested, however, gently, that a loosening of tight fiscal discipline may be needed to boost the sagging economy.This is not to suggest, of course, that a swift reversal is in the offing; massive public sector lay-offs in Greece are testament to the continuing problems there, as well as highlighting the ongo-ing situation more generally. Nothing on this scale gets solved overnight. Italy, the Eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, and one of its most vulnerable, has just managed to cobble together a broad coalition, after a couple of months of trying, which will have the unenviable task of steering the country through rising unemployment and general market distain. In addition, Ger-many and France have had a falling-out. Francoise Hollande, elected president on an anti-austerity ticket in 2012, but now bogged-down in domestic strife, and looking increasingly be-leaguered at home and abroad, has said that Germany’s insist-ence on fiscal discipline for Europe is “egotistical.” Any sort of rift in the central axis of the Eurozone is never good. Meanwhile, the Irish and Spanish prime ministers have again urged European leaders to stick to their promise on breaking the link between banks and sovereign debt, something not par-ticularly well-liked by Finland, Germany and the Netherlands, who do see it as the place of the European Stability Mechanism to rescue failing banks. It is scarcely the first time EU leaders have been at odds, and policy gridlock the order of the day.For its part, Germany won’t be making a decision any time soon, it seems. Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a third term in office in federal elections, which take place in the autumn. The Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, has said he wants things worked out before the end of June (the end of the Irish EU presidency). He said agreement on the issue amounted to a credibility test for European leaders. It is im-portant, he said, that decisions fundamental to the successful workings of the EU, decisions taken by the council, are “seen to be followed through so that the citizens of the EU can see that their leaders are serious about following through on deci-sions in the union’s interests.” A recent poll taken in the EU’s largest countries shows that citizens are becoming increas-ingly mistrustful of Europe; as well as an economic crisis, there is a crisis of confidence in EU institutions, and a crisis of leadership. A recent editorial in the Financial Times echoed this last senti-ment somewhat harshly, arguing that in relation to a change in direction on austerity, the European Commission, in particular Barroso, is not robust enough to steer member states in a uni-form formation. “The Commission President lacks the cred-ibility to lead Europe from the front,” was the assessment. Right now, it is hard to disagree with that. The crisis in Europe has not brought out the best of its leaders; the best they can seem-ingly do is hope that calm comes soon. The analgesic effect may make everyone forget. Concordia

TRANS-EUROPE EXCESS

12 EnErgy & climatE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 may, 2013

Putin, Abe seek end to WWIIR ussian President Vladimir Putin and

visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have instructed their

diplomats to boost efforts to work out a peace treaty between the two countries, ending World War II hostilities. They also pursued trade and energy ties.

A dispute over four wind-swept islands in the Pacific - known as the Northern Territo-ries in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Rus-sia - that were captured by Soviet forces at the end of World War II has prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing the peace treaty.

“President Putin and I confirmed our un-derstanding that it’s an abnormal situation when 67 years have gone by after the end of the war between Japan and Russia and no peace agreement has been concluded,” Abe told a news conference following the talks on 29 April.

For his part, Putin played down expecta-tions, acknowledging that increased efforts “doesn’t mean that everything will be resolved tomorrow”.

Jeffrey Mankoff, Fellow and Deputy Di-rector of the Russia & Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, told New Europe on 30 April that resolving the Southern Kuri-les/Northern Territories issue is going to take a lot of political will by both sides, and right now both Putin and Abe will be cautious be-cause of the political uncertainty in their re-spective countries. “I’m not sure I would hold my breath waiting for a peace treaty between Russia and Japan,” Mankoff said. “While the news that Moscow and Tokyo have agreed to intensify efforts to reach an agreement is a positive sign, actually reaching an agreement will take a long time and could be de-railed by any number of political considerations in the interim,” he added.

Provoking Tokyo, Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev pointedly visited twice the island of Kunashir, called Kunashiri in Japan, in 2010 and 2012, becoming the first Russian leader to visit the disputed islands.

Nevertheless, Russian and Japanese com-

panies signed an array of documents on the sidelines of Abe’s visit. Japan is the largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and needs more gas after a 2011 disaster at its Fukushima nuclear plant.

Putin said Gazprom intends to participate in building an LNG terminal in Japan but no agreement between the Russian natural gas monopoly and Japanese companies was an-nounced.

However, Russian oil major Rosneft man-aged to secure a memorandum of understand-ing with Japan’s Mitsui on joint development of a Rosneft petrochemical project in Russia due for commissioning in 2017.

Russia’s Far East wants to attract more

Japanese investment in its energy sector and in the infrastructure construction it needs for closer trade ties with the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.

“As far as Russia shifting or pivoting to Asia, you definitely hear more Russians today talking about the need for Russia to become a major Asian player,” Mankoff told New Europe.

However, Moscow warily watches China’s regional influence grow, even though Putin hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a sum-mit only a month ago. “Moscow’s two prob-lems though are that its economic presence is Asia is limited and that many other states in the region believe it is too close to China. Boosting its economic and political relation-

ship with Japan would therefore make a lot of sense for Russia, even apart from the possibil-ity of actually resolving the islands dispute,” the Washington DC-based expert said.

Abe said closer ties and more trade would “also make a contribution to the stability and prosperity of our region and the world as a whole”. Russia and Japan are both members of the Group of Eight rich nations.

On 29 April, Russia and Japan condemned North Korea for its refusal to give up its nucle-ar weapons programme. In a joint statement, Moscow and Tokyo said North Korea has stubbornly refused to give up plans to create nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles “con-trary to the international community’s calls”.

On 26 April, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said spatial planning and environmental im-pact assessment (EIA) for the South Stream gas pipeline conducted under the national laws are nearing completion in Slovenia.

A Gazprom delegation led by Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller paid a visit to Slovenia on 26 April where he met with Slovenian Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek, Finance Minister Uros Cufer, Minister of Economic Develop-ment and Technology Stanko Stepisnik, and Minister of Infrastructure and Spatial Plan-ning Samo Omerzel.

The parties discussed the crucial issues of the Russian-Slovenian cooperation in the gas sector. The parties addressed the Action Plan

on implementing the project in Slovenia be-tween 2013 and 2014 and highlighted that the project was progressing in strict compliance with the schedule.

Consideration was also given to the issue of assigning the national significance status to the gas pipeline. Following her meeting with Miller, Bratusek said that “the implementation of the South Stream gas pipeline remains a top priority for Slovenia, which seeks economic development and foreign investments”.

It is expected that the length of the Slove-nian leg of the pipeline will be 266 kilometres with the investments in the construction will be approximately €1 billion.

Bratusek and Miller also discussed various

issues related to Gazprom’s desire to have a stake in Slovenia’s Petrol oil major.

Russian natural gas has been supplied to Slovenia since 1978.

In 2012 Gazprom supplied Slovenia with 0.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas. The current contract is effective through to 2017.

Plinovodi is the sole natural gas importer in Slovenia. The company is focused on natu-ral gas transmission, distribution and storage in Slovenia.

On 27 May 2010, Gazprom and Plinovodi signed the Feasibility Study Agreement for the South Stream section in Slovenia. On 22 March 2011, Gazprom and Plinovodi signed the Shareholders Agreement on South Stream

Slovenia LLC being set up on a parity basis to implement South Stream in Slovenia. South Stream Slovenia LLC deals with project docu-ments preparation, fundraising, construction and operation of the gas pipeline in Slovenia.

On 27 February 2012, a Supplementary Agreement to the South Stream Slovenia LLC Shareholders Agreement was signed. The document defines the layout and parameters of the gas pipeline’s Slovenian section that were defined on the basis of the Consolidated Feasibility Study of the project.

On 13 November 2012 the Final Invest-ment Decision on building the Slovenian section of the South Stream gas pipeline was adopted.

Cash-strapped Slovenia continues South Stream implementation

By Kostis Geropoulos

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left and Russian President attend a joint news conference in Moscow, 29 April 2013. | AFP PHOTO/POOL/IVAN SEKRE-

TAREV

13EnErgy & climatENEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 may, 2013

Oettinger sees ‘win-win-win’ plan for Ukrainian pipeline

On 3 May, EU Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger said it’s fundamental to renovate and

modernise the Ukrainian gas transit sys-tem (GTS). Oettinger and Ukraine’s Min-ister for Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavytsky discussed “concrete develop-ments and steps” in energy co-operation and modernising Ukraine’s GTS.

Oettinger told a press conference, held during a two-day international high level roundtable on the Ukrainian gas market, several decisions are expected in 2013. Firstly, European public banks would con-sider financial support for investments to renovate Ukraine’s existing gas transit sys-tem. Secondly, Ukraine and the EU would examine technical and legal solutions for reverse-flow pipeline measures. Thirdly, the EU is expecting concrete financial offers from European gas companies and financial institutions.

However, Oettinger noted that at the end of this process, the ball is in Ukraine’s court. The country’s parliament and gov-ernment would have to decide what hap-pens to the Ukrainian gas transit system because they are the owner.

Oettinger highlighted the long-term energy relationship between Ukraine and the EU. “Russia is our most relative partner, exporting oil, coal and gas to our European Union markers. And Ukraine is most relative transit partner,” he said. Some 140 billion cubic metres of gas are imported from Russia to the EU with 85 billion cubic metres transiting through Ukraine.

The European Commission hopes that the modernisation of Ukraine’s GTS would be undertaken by a trilateral con-sortium, involving Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. “And let me say that at the end of this processes, it must be a win-win-win

effect because Russia was, is, and will be the most relevant gas exporter to the Eu-ropean market,” Oettinger said.

However, Ukraine’s membership to the Energy Community brings obliga-tions and rights. Ukraine should fulfil structural and legal obligations, namely market-based obligations to transform the Ukrainian gas market as a part of the European gas market with the EU Energy Package, Oettinger said.

Olga Shumylo-Tapiola, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, reminded earlier that Ukraine is part of the European Energy Community since 2011 and it has lot of obligations - be that implementing the Third Energy Package, be that reform according to EU norms. “Two-years on, Ukraine is not close to implementing these commitments. Here comes the question whether Ukrainians will finally start implementing it. In tech-nical way, Association Agreement is not linked with the energy sector and I think if Ukraine starts implementing its com-mitments as an Energy community, it can easily get away from Russia,” she told New Europe.

Ukraine gas storage facilities are the biggest in Europe. “In order to have a func-tioning internal market, to have a high-level security of supply, storage is key,” Oettinger said. Ukraine is willing to have more flexibility for its own consumption. Gas pipelines have to be pipelines with re-verse flow potential, he said.

For his part, Minister Stavytsky said Ukraine is targeting the European integra-tion and “as a result we understand all the standards we need to adhere to as far as this process goes”.

Stavytsky said that all the stakeholders of the European market should have equal access to Ukraine’s GTS. “I asked support from European Commissioner to open a new reserve corridor via the territory of

Slovakia. On 15 May the test mode will be launched and test data exchange on the new reverse route from Ukraine to Ukraine and from Ukraine to EU will be conducted,” he said.

Ukraine is waiting for the realisation of the first phase of modernization of the Ukrainian GTS, he added. “The sum is $550 million, including $240 million of national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy’s funds and $310 million of funds of international financial institutions,” Stavytsky said.

The minister also said that Ukraine is waiting for new projects – signing of new agreements. “The first one we signed in January with Shell and now no more than in two months another two contracts with Chevron and a pool of companies headed by ExxonMobil will be signed. The actions are aimed at provision of the domestic market with gas,” the Ukrainian minister said.

The EU is also looking to diver-sify its sources of supply and pipeline routes. Asked how upgrading Ukraine’s GTS would affect Nabucco West, Oet-tinger told the press conference that it is a completely independent case. “It’s in our interest to have prefect pipelines be-tween Russia and our European Union and so to renovate Ukrainian system is in our interest,” he said. “Additionally, it’s our strategy to diversify sources and routes and so the Southern Corridor, gas coming from the Caspian Sea will be decided maybe in July this year,” the EU Energy Commissioner said. “But the Southern Corridor - Nabucco West or TAP [Trans-Adriatic Pipeline] - means at the first stage 10 billion cubic metres a year and Ukraine means 80-90 billion cubic metres,” he said, adding that the Southern Corridor is not a substitute for the gas transiting Ukraine but an ad-ditional source.

EU commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger, right, and Ukrainian Energy Minister Eduard Stavitskyi give a press confer-ence during a two-day roundtable on the gas market developments in Ukraine, Brussels, 3 May 2013. |AFP PHOTO/GEORGES GOBET

Gazprom snubs EU-Ukraine gas talks

By Kostis Geropoulos

EnergyInsider

On 3 May, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger and Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky led a two-day international high-level roundtable to modernise Ukraine’s gas transport system (GTS). But Russian gas monop-oly Gazprom was notably absent.The roundtable included ministers from several EU member states, European gas companies, and European financial institu-tions. The US Ambassador also attended the roundtable as well as energy major Chevron.From the Russian side, a counsellor and the first secretary of the mission to the EU participated, Oettinger’s spokeswoman Marlene Holzner told New Europe on 3 May. “The Commis-sion continues to offer engaging in talks on a trilateral consor-tium, if all three parties - EU companies, Ukraine and Russia - are interested,” Holzner added.“At the end of this process, it must be a win-win-win effect be-cause Russia was, is, and will be the most relevant gas exporter to the European market,” Oettinger told a press conference with Stavytsky, stating the European Commission’s hope that the modernisation of Ukraine’s GTS would be undertaken by a trilateral consortium that would include Gazprom.On the question whether the consortium will be bilateral or trilateral, Stavytsky said that in the near future an ad hoc scien-tific group will release a feasibility study analysing the financial aspects. “Then we will address this issue with all our counter-parts and stakeholders and then all the stakeholders from the European Union and from the Russian Federation will have a possibility to look into this issue,” he said.Stavytsky said that the Ukrainian government hopes for a trans-parent discussion and an approach “on equal footing”. Ukraine is trying to consider its geopolitical situation and to establish a real gas hub, he said. “Right now it would be prema-ture to say if it would be bilateral, trilateral or any other form of consortium,” he said.However, Russia’s interest in upgrading Ukraine’s GTS has been lukewarm at best. Russia has proposed the construction of huge volumes of new pipeline capacity from Russia to Europe bypassing Ukraine, London’s Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES) analyst Julian Lee told New Europe on 3 May. “The big risk for both the EU and Ukraine is that they invest billions of Euros in modernising Ukraine’s gas transport system, which then remains grossly under-utilised,” he said. Lee noted that Gazprom’s unwillingness to participate in the meeting in Brussels suggests that it has little interest in play-ing a role in developing Ukraine’s gas infrastructure in partner-ship with the EU. “It appears that Gazprom still wants to have control over the Ukrainian infrastructure and this will hamper any long-term solution to the problem of gas transit across Ukraine,” he said.That could be the reason Gazprom gave EU and Ukraine the cold shoulder on 3 May. But Stavytsky put up a brave face, say-ing that EU-Ukraine energy co-operation will not be under-mined by Moscow. “I would like to believe and I’m actually sure that our Russian counterparts will be respectful regarding the decisions we have been making. As far as giving us the cold shoulder, well, we have a real hard and hot heart so we will try to melt their ice,” he said. KGeropoulos@NEurope.eu follow on twitter @energyinsider

By Kostis Geropoulos

14 EU-WORLD NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

Many commentators have de-plored the absence of leader-ship and leaders over the past

couple of years in the Eurozone crisis. True, there have been many summit meetings, over two dozen by now, but they seem to be called summit meetings only because they are being held on the top floor of the European Council build-ing. They are not summit meetings be-cause they bring together the pinnacle of European ingenuity, creativity and eco-nomic knowledge.

The 27 heads of state and govern-ment then make their separate ways back home, after having interpreted the already vaguely written conclusions of these meetings in 27 different ways. Or rather, at least 28 interpretations exist, as presidents Barroso and Van Rompuy also interpret the conclusions in their own way in a joint conference.

Whereas most bystanders have wit-nessed inertia, these two presidents have invariably seen ‘historic decisions’ being taken, that will once and for all show clearly the road to recovery; a road that apart from being long and winding also seems to be getting longer and loner as recovery is always around the corner (i.e. in about ten to twelve months as they said in 2010, 2011 2012, and now already twice in 2013). These months never seem to pass by; they are always ahead of us.

Not too long ago the Financial Times made it finally clear why our lead-ers are not bringing us any closer to solv-ing the crisis. It wrote of European Com-

mission President Barroso that he “lacks the credibility to lead Europe from the front.” And then it became to clear to me all of a sudden, why we seem to be confronted with a lack of leadership. The leadership is there, but it is only not coming from the front. Our leaders, lead from the back, lead from the wings or lead from any other place that is invis-ible to us mere mortals. All we see is the front; and the frontline is a difficult place to be.

Now, you may wonder how the or-dinary troops can follow their leaders when these leaders lead from the back. And the simple answer to this is that they cannot, as they do not have eyes in the back of their heads. And that is why Eu-ropeans walk like lemmings towards the cliff, and tople over to meet their doom: massive unemployment, a total lack of confidence, and a vastly shrinking appe-tite for anything that has to with the EU.

Of course, the clever leaders we ap-parently do have are at the back of this queue making damn sure that they do not all fall off the cliff. This is probably one of the reasons why they lead from the back, so the foot soldiers can take all the blows ahead of them. But wouldn’t it be fun if we were to change the pattern and collectively make a 180° turn. This would put our leaders again at the front.

I am sure that will scare the hell out of them. In that case they will be threatened with unemployment, hard-ship and a total absence of any positive outlook for the near future, or even the mid-term. That would teach them a les-

son. The only problem is that it still does not solve our economic problems. There must be a way of getting clever, innova-tive and socially conscious leaders that could lead us from the front. It is clear that these people are not available yet, as the FT pointed out so eloquently. But there is a way of putting such people in charge.

It so happens that in 10 to 12 months - remember recovery is always around the corner in that timeframe - there will be elections for the European Parlia-ment. What if Europeans decide to vote for people and parties that we actually trust and that present feasible plans to get us out of this mess. It would be won-derful, wouldn’t it? And all we have to do is just not vote for the people that have gotten us into this mess. Most of our leaders are members of the EPP. Let’s oust them. Some of them are Lib-erals: let’s oust them too. Some of them are even Social Democrats, and let’s, and I’m sure you’re getting the point by now, oust them as well. So let’s just vote for men and women that will not prom-ise us the earth and the moon, but just a decent socially acceptable way out of here, a way that will start securing jobs for our young again and that will encour-age entrepreneurs to invest again. Who are these people? I’ll tell you when the list of candidates for next years’ election is made public. But for the time being, at least refrain from voting for any of the present ‘leaders’ that you can spot when you look over your shoulder.

KassandraNils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, for Gutenberg

Leaders lead, but where from?

‘It’s goodnight from me..and it’s goodnight from him’. |BELGA PHOTO BERNAL REVERT

Strains on human rights in Europe

By Gutenberg

We Europeans tend to look at the system of human rights protec-tion on our continent as one of the most advanced and judicially developed in the world. We are probably right. Over the last seven decades, European countries have established impressive political and legal safeguards to protect individual rights and freedoms. Our democracies have grown stronger and the rule of law has steadily gained ground also in countries emerging from authoritarianism.However, recent trends make me worry that we are sliding danger-ously backwards. The human rights situation that I have observed during country visits, meetings with authorities and discussions with non-govern-mental organisations is worrying. Some shortcomings are country-specific, but others affect a large number of European countries: discrimination; racist violence and anti-Gypsyism; the rejection of migrants; children’s increased vulnerability; the exclusion of per-sons with disabilities; constraints to freedom of expression. On top of these long-standing problems, austerity measures have added new strains and thrown into sharp relief the interdepend-ence of different human rights. Vulnerable groups – children, per-sons with disabilities, older persons with small pensions, and others – have often suffered disproportionately from austerity measures, which have threatened the overall post-war acquis of social and economic rights. Civil and political rights have also been affected, including access to justice, conditions in detention and relations be-tween the police and the public. In many countries key institutions for human rights protection, such as the courts and national human rights structures, have been weakened by excessive budget cuts. Furthermore, the uncertainty created by the economic crisis and the consequences of austerity measures have also represented a fer-tile ground for xenophobic and racist movements, as well as for anti-democratic tendencies. Populist politicians and extremist groups have exploited people’s frustrations and fears for electoral purposes. Hate crime and discrimination are harming the lives of millions of people belonging to minority groups. Roma children are denied quality education, decent housing and dreams of a better future. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and persons face backward attitudes and legislation which often ostracise them. Migrants, asy-lum-seekers and refugees are struggling against policies of lengthy detention and the lack of integration support which prolong the hardship they have endured.Thousands of Europeans are still isolated in their disability, being kept in old, secluded institutions, segregated at school and discrimi-nated in the job market. Journalists and human rights activists still risk their life or a prison term for doing their job and exercising the fundamental right to hold those in power to account. Surveillance and intrusions in our private life are increasing, while we have little opportunity to control the use government and private companies make of our personal information. Moreover, dysfunctional national justice systems in many Euro-pean countries make it impossible for millions of people to obtain justice and redress for violations committed by State authorities. These trends are not isolated phenomena but widespread evidence that human rights and democratic principles are facing tough times. We are still far from having realised the dream of a Europe based on human rights for all. European governments have to address these challenges more vigorously. A fundamental step is to systemati-cally put human rights, including social and economic rights, at the centre of the action of governments, in particular when they design policies, allocate budgetary resources and implement legislation.This is a necessary, but insufficient step. We have to live up to the hopes which have inspired European construction since World War II and demand the implementation of human rights every day, not only for ourselves, but especially for the most vulnerable – children, persons with disabilities, older persons, minorities and migrants.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

15CLIMATE CHANGENEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

Migration to cities endangering Millennium goals

The increasing urbanisation of the developing world is helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals

(MDG) says a new report from the World Bank, but without proper planning the move to cities will only increase slums and crime.

According to the report, ‘Rural-Urban Dynamics and the MDGs’ the more heavily populated areas have lower child mortality (a difference of up to 21% in East Asia), and trice the access to clean water and sanitation.

Kaushik Basu, the World Bank’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics said, “The rural-urban divide is quite evident. Megacities and large cities are the richest and have far better access to basic public services; smaller towns, secondary cities, and areas on the perimeter of urban centers are less rich; and rural areas are the poorest.”

He added, “But this does not mean un-fettered urbanisation is a cure-all – the urban poor in many places urgently need better ser-vices as well as infrastructure that will keep them connected to schools, jobs and decent health care.”

With almost a billion of the world’s popu-lation living in slums, the prospect of another 1.4 billion people living in the developing world’s urban areas by 2030 is alarming.

Speaking to New Europe, the report’s author and World Bank Lead Economist, Jos Verbeek said, “What we’re trying to say is that urbanisation can be a force for good as well as bad. What we don’t want to see is more slums. This is why, in once sense we wrote this report.”

The economist adds that there are ad-vantages to urban living, but for those in the slums, life is as bad as anywhere in the world. However, he points out that it is not a ques-tion of rural life and big city life, stating that there are many sizes of towns between the two polar opposites.

“The poor end up in the city slums or small towns, mostly,” Verbeek says. “The is-sue is dealing with the whole spectrum, of large and small towns and cities as well as rural areas. If you want to help the poor, we need to handle the urbanization of small towns, we need to build capacity.”

The slums of the developing world are a concern, as is trying to halt their spread or in-crease. “The issue of slums is very important, we need to deal with the legacy of slums and there are a couple of straightforward policies that can be implemented,” says the econo-mist, “There are two areas, in general. First of all, you have to give people residency. If you don’t have that you often don’t have access to health, education. We have to stop this dis-crimination.

“The second is we need to realize that these slums may be permanent, we need to

give tenancy to these people. It’s not just about owning a little piece of land, but ten-ancy will let people get services and utilities. Who’s going to provide power or sewage to a house that might not be there a year from now? The companies need this assurance because they will need to invest in infra-structure.”

He adds, “This is about giving people legal rights. The MDGs are about very basic services, everybody should have them.”

Verbeek has seen some progress, cit-ing China as “a good example” with policy changes over the last decade beginning to pay off. He also says India, which has struggled with slums and chaotic urban situations for a very long time, is beginning to do well.

He also notes the origins of such places, “Brazil has had slums, which emerged out of the ending of slavery and serfdom. All of a sudden people had to live on their own and the slums were the only places. Brazil had real trouble dealing with that and over the last decade or two, they have changed their poli-cies to one of equality, saying these people are part of Brazil and they deserve services, but they had a whole legacy of the slums.”

There is only one solution, says Verbeek, “We are trying to say is that you want to pre-vent that from happening and you need to plan for that. If you’ve got 1.4 billion coming to cities, you need to be ready.”

Planning new towns and cities is much easier than dealing with urban areas that have historically had chaotic development or ex-pansion, but as more people move to urban areas, more finance and planning needs to be devoted to what is already happening.

A resident looks at an elbow injury near the rubble of her burnt out hut at the Garib Nagar slums in Mumbai, India, 5 March 2011 | EPA/DIVYAKANT SOLANKI

World Bank concern over rural-urban policy mixBy Andy Carling

16 ARTS & CULTURE NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

Let me take you back to the year 1990. In high school wearing a bad school uniform. Bob Hawke was Prime Minister with the widest Aus-sie drawl you ever heard and a ripper political satire show on a hit radio station in the morning called ‘How Green Was My Cactus’.

Life was simple, being a teenager life re-volved on my parents’ schedules and like all good Australian households the 37 inch TV, in a large wide brown wooden piece of furniture built to house it and our best friend, the VCR.

The times were sunny, the Melbourne warmth provided laughter and carefree days and then, in 1990 a darkness, albeit imaginary, came along to bring fascination and fire into the mix. That darkness was Twin Peaks, born of the machinations behind David Lynch’s imagina-tion and Hill Street Blues creator Mark Frost, added to that the haunting music by Angelo Badallamenti, opening visuals of a town up near the Canadian border consumed by pine trees, woodchip and wood cutting factories as well as the peachiest of peach pies and dark black cof-fee our world was transformed.

Lynch let his darkest thoughts spill forth into a weekly show beginning with the shocking

image of a blue girl (also a teenager) wrapped in plastic and floating down a river.

In case you want to revisit or haven’t watched Twin Peaks, I’ll let you discover its dark crevasses on your own with no spoilers.

This created a want for more David Lynch, soundtracks were bought, books based on the diaries of Twin Peaks characters and a leap and jump into the world of Lynch movies.

Blue Velvet, a Dennis Hopper led cult clas-sic, Wild At Heart with a crooning Nick Cage and one of the later favourites The Straight Sto-ry which still stirs emotions.

David Lynch has never really stopped over the years; having started as a painter and then moved onto short film and film he continues creativity in various forms.

In just the last year he’s released a new CD Crazy Clown Time, started a charity organisa-tion which allows for homeless or drug addict-ed youths to benefit from meditation classes in the US – giveforyouth.org and continues with his art.

This month with great surprise I was happy to relive all of the above from my youth to my latest exposure to Mr Lynch as I realised that he had an exhibition in Belgium. Art made of large, dark, wonderful hues of his mind encased in

glass and printed on Japanese paper – his etch-ings had travelled to Belgium.

I found myself catching a train more than one hour away from Gare Centrale with one change of trains in Mons to re-capture just a slight feel of my youth and to see what David Lynch had been up to now traipsing out to the centre of Wallonie, a little former mining town filled with old Italio-Belgo migrants (majority, not solely).

Marie van Bosterhaut the commissioner of art works for the Belgian Centre De La Gravure Et De L’Image Imprimee welcomed me.

As you walk into the centre, a huge image of David Lynch in an apron over a metal plate cov-ered with ink is the first impression you receive and underneath it you read that David Lynch have been working out of a studio in Paris called idem on and off for the last couple of years, the same atelier where Picasso, Giacometti and Ma-tisse also created lithographs.

As we began on our tour Marie shows me the first ever works as etchings that David Lynch did – they are of cream background, have striking red objects on them and dark black lines in fluid form they almost seem to be inspired by Picasso, Marie tells me these need three separate blocks to produce and that Lynch has never mentioned this but who knows. His preferences she notes are Francis Bacon and Munch, inspirations visible and tangible. The idem studio in Montparnasse has been a great inspiration to Lynch, in vid-eos which are placed outside the second floor entrance to the exhibition we see the entire process of making and shaping an image.

The exhibition covers two of the three

floors of the gallery refurbished in 2007 and which is quite unique in its extensive coverage of Belgian etchings since the 1970s, its library and educative uses.

For the Lynch exhibit the team of five, took two weeks to set up the almost maze like me-ander through the white and grey walls which include two black small theatres where with a wall between them and back to back two televi-sion screens keep playing short films made by David Lynch’s art, etchings and music. They left me wondering whether all his new songs would be receiving this treatment.

Although David Lynch hasn’t been to see the exhibition, and Marie seems to negate the possibility of him coming to La Louviere before it closes on 19 May, Patrice Forest the head of idem in Paris has seen it.

“It is an original piece of curation” she tells me as she explains how the centre specifically chose the 160 pieces in their exhibit and curated the means to display them down to the lighting and frames for each print.

They are quite large prints, anyone with the disposable income interested has the chance to buy a limited 14 pieces which range in price from €1400 – €2400 , being an asbl the centre also has a bookshop and has created a couple of versions of the David Lynch catalogue for sale.

There is a certain feeling that follows you when you watch, see or hear any of David Lynch’s work, on my way home the jumble of textures, images and words etched into the metal plates he used or pieces of wood travelled with me as did a curious piece entitled ‘Eye in the Mountain’ on display on the second floor.

To see it, get yourself to La Louviere.

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Belgium Centre De Gravure curates David Lynch’s ‘Circle of Dreams’

By Alia Papageorgiou

‘Fire Walk with Me’

US filmmaker David Lynch posing in his instalation ‘Without Title at the Max Ernst Museum in Bruehl. Al-though similar in feel Lynch’s Exhibition ‘Circle of Dreams’ in La Louviere mirror’s his unique character and etchings. |EPA/OLIVER BERG|

Fire in the City (c) David Lynch

17fashion & styleNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

To millions of film lovers around the world, the upcoming Cannes film fes-tival (15-26 May) is like a pleasant

breeze, which has come to add to the merriness of spring. As excitement rises and fans await to get a glimpse of red carpet glamour, we take the chance to sit back and think about cinema…European cinema and…the MEDIA pro-gramme (2007-2013) – the European Com-mission’s support programme, designed to in-crease the circulation of European works, while preserving European cultural diversity.

Its actions include co-financing training initiatives for professionals, sponsoring film festivals and facilitating access to finance for the pre-production, development, distribution and promotion of film projects. World famous, award-winning films such as ‘Amélie’ (2001), ‘La vita è bella’ (1997), ‘Dogville’ (2003), ‘Volver’ (2006), and more recently, ‘Amour’ (2012), were all supported by MEDIA.

Eager to learn more about European cinema and MEDIA, we interviewed Mr. Dennis Abbott, Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Spokesman for EU Commissioner Androula Vassiliou and Ms. Aviva Silver, Head of the MEDIA Unit.

When asked in what ways European cin-ema is different from Hollywood cinema, Ms. Aviva Silver, explained that: “The average budget for an EU film is €5 million, whereas for a Hollywood film it’s about €45 million, a budget which, of course, includes marketing/advertising. So in essence, they’re incompara-ble. There are also classical differences: Ameri-can cinema focuses on the producer and, theo-retically, every film should make money, even if that is not always the case. Adding to that, around 20% of US films are sequels.

European cinema focuses on the director and European directors do, to some extent, have more freedom to experiment with sub-ject matter.

Moreover, EU films are funded by a patch-work of complicated financial arrangements, thus intervention is a necessity.

Mr. Abbott added that: “As US films have much bigger budgets, they can’t afford to take risks. European cinema, traditionally known as art house cinema, however, isn’t about making franchises, sequels or trilogies, it’s about telling a great story set in any of the member states, in a variety of languages. EU cinema is often highly original and deals with difficult topics through character-driven stories. A perfect example is ‘Bullhead’ (2011) by Flemish director Michael R. Roskam. It tells the tragedy of a guy who works on a cattle farm and makes a fishy legal hormone deal with a veterinarian and a beef trader. Bullhead is a typical European art house film: it’s beautifully filmed, relatively low budget, there are no special effects, and it solely relies on the artistry of the director and the power of the story. So, in fewer words it’s a human story, exceptionally well told.

However, although European films place the emphasis on the artistry rather than the box-office, every year numerous art house, MEDIA-supported films not only win Oscars and international recognition that goes way beyond EU borders, but they are also box-office successes. That was the case of recent films like ‘The Artist’ (2011), ‘The King’s Speech’ (2010) and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008) among many many others.”

L.K.: But how are films selected for MEDIA support?

A.S: First of all, there are no preferences in terms of subject matter, but films shouldn’t be commercial messengers nor should they depict extreme violence or racism. There are 15-20 different mechanisms/pathways for funding distributors, sales agents and independent TV producers, for instance.

We have a weighting system to correct market imbalances and help smaller countries with a weaker film industry receive funding. Additional points are given to smaller countries, depending on the size of the market, and to projects that are rare or have a niche audience, like children’s films for instance. It then depends on the number of distributors, the number of countries forming a co-production, and of course on the ‘European-ness’ of the project.

L.K.: In the programme’s evaluation

reports, it is mentioned that the complexity of administrative procedures deters newcomers. Can you give us a few examples of steps taken to simplify the applicants’ administrative burden?

D.A.: A new Creative Europe programme has been proposed and we are making every effort towards speeding up the application process. For instance, we’re increasingly moving towards e-forms that can be completed online thus reducing paper work. We’ve also decided to remove the Media Management Committee, which up until now decided about grants and slowed down the process. In addition, we’ve introduced the lump sum payments for project development, which should result in quicker decision-making, once it’s been made clear that a project is a genuine co-production.

L.K.: In which territory and/or market segment has the MEDIA programme had the largest impact?

D.A.: In many territories – I would say that the largest impact could be seen through the Europa Cinemas network around the world, which helps increase the circulation of European works, while promoting cultural diversity

through a system of reciprocity. Europa cinemas within the EU commit to screening Third cinema films, and vice versa. MEDIA especially has long-term impact through its professional training networks.

L.K.: What changes will the new MEDIA programme, starting in 2014, bring?

D.A.: We plan to increase the funding for high-budget TV series, co-productions, from the current €500 000 cap to €1 million, but that is still being negotiated, as it will depend on our overall budget.

L.K.: Which MEDIA supported films are nominated at the Cannes film festival at the end of the month?

A.S: MEDIA has supported several films in both the Official Selection and Un Certain Regard categories this year, including: ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ by Arnault de Pallières, ‘Le Passé’by Asghar Farhadi, who won the MEDIA price last year, ‘Jeune et Jolie’ by Francois Ozon, ‘La Grande Belleza’ by Paolo Sorrentino, ‘Borgman’ by Alex van Warmerdam, ‘Only God Forgives’ by Nicolas Winding Refn and ‘L’image Manquante’ by Rithy Panh, among others.

Louise Kissa lkissa@neurope.eu

Ciné EuropeIntErvIEw: DEnnIs Abbott & AvIvA sILvEr, EuropEAn CommIssIon

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar won numerous awards for his film ‘La piel que habito’/’The Skin I Live In’ (2011), including the Best International Film Award at the BAFTAs © EPA/CANNES FILM FESTIVAL/HO

British director Danny Boyle receives Best Director Oscar for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’(2008) at the 81st

Academy Awards, California, February 2009© EPA/PAUL BUCK

Austrian director Michael Haneke won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for ‘Amour’(2012)© EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Dennis Abbott, Education, Culture, Multilingualism and YouthSpokesman with EU Commissioner Androula Vassiliou

18 BRUSSELS AGENDA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

Upcoming EvEnts

Craig David 20:00, 15 May, Ancienne Belgique

The venue is down to their last few tickets for the hip hop singer songwriter, Craig David. Two time Grammy winner and twelve nomi-nations to the Brit awards, the Southampton singer has come a long way since featuring on the Artful Dodger’s single Re-Rewind in 1999.

His debut album, Born To Do It, was re-leased the next year and features very talented artists and Sting.

David started in music by following his father, who was a bassist in a reggae band,

and was allowed to sing the occasional song. Since then he’s released so many tracks that he pushed out his first Greatest Hits album as long ago as 2008.

While getting ready for his new tour, Da-vid has become known for his DJ sets he mix-es at Sunday parties held at his Miami pent-house. These were uploaded to Soundcloud and as they rapidly became ‘must listen’ sets, he quickly struck a deal to have them broad-cast live with the UK cool station, Kiss FM.

He’s on a world tour, with only a couple of stops in Europe, so if you want to hear his lat-est album, not released yet, your best bet is to head to the Ancienne Belgique.

In Darkness - with Director Agnieszka Holland 19:30, 7 May, Bozar

A true story, one of few in cinema that show the courage of a sewage worker in the darkest of times.In 1943, a handful of Jews had escaped the destruction of the Lwow Ghetto and found a Poliash Catholic, Leopold Socha, who was a sewage worker, with a sideline in burglary. He and his friend, Szczepek Wróblewski used their knowledge of the sewer network to move the group of twenty around the system.At first the two men charged for their services

and food, but as the Jews ran out of cash, they continued helping for free.This is not easy viewing, critics praised the film, noting its mixture of the harrowing with nail biting excitement. It was nominated as Best foreign Film at the 2012 Oscars.Holland is an overtly political director and has worked with the best Polish film directors, including her friend, Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda. Her best-known films include To Kill a Priest, Total Eclipse (with a young Leonardo DiCaprio), and Copying Beethoven (with Ed Harris and Diane Kruger). She’s also directed episodes of the critically adored TV series, The Wire.

Brasserie Royal,Info@brasserieleroyal.bewww.brasserieleroyal.betel 081 2201 33 The weather’s picked up so what better reason to escape the city for the day and discover the beauty of Wallonia?A short trip down the motorway or on the train takes you to Namur, the region’s capital and the city centre Bras-serie Royale is a great stopover for either lunch or dinner.It was renovated not too long ago and serves typical - and particularly good - brasserie food. Situated adjacent to Namur’s main theatre, this fine restaurant, which opened in October 2009 and also boasts a huge 150-seat terrace, is sure to satisfy even the most demanding of tastes.What makes it notable from so many restaurants though is the fact that the socially-responsible owner has tried to make it affordable for even the tightest of budgets.Risking his own profit margins and with one eye on the ongoing economic crisis, he deliber-ately keeps the prices - and that includes the wines - as low as possible.That is not the only reason why it’s well worth a visit if you’re in this ancient city: both the food and service – from a multi-lingual staff - are excellent. A new menu, featuring scrummy salads, has just been introduced.Open daily except Sunday.

Resto Bites

19Arts & cultureNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

W ith the 100th anniversary of the start of World War World fast approaching, the rush is on to

repair thousands of headstones in Belgian war cemeteries.

A century of wind and weather has worn the surfaces of the 12,000 headstones in Tyne Cot cemetery in Zonnebeke in Flanders, ren-dering the names hard to read.

Some gravestones are said to be chipped or cracked and the stones are no longer per-fectly aligned. Workers are now using dia-mond drill bits to painstakingly re-engrave stones and make the names more legible and the regimental shields more distinct.

It is all part of an attempt to get the cem-eteries of the British Commonwealth – Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world – in perfect condition for the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to attend the World War One centenary com-memorations between 2014 and 2018.

The works are being carried out to pro-vide the most fitting memorial possible to those who perished in the ‘war to end all wars.’

About 2,000 headstones will be replaced with new ones, identical to the originals with another 7,000 being re-engraved. The rows of stones will be realigned into geometric perfec-tion and landscaping trimmed and renewed.

Gravestones generally last about 90 years before the names are gradually erased by time.

“What we don’t want are visitors coming in and then finding that they visit the head-stone and the flowers aren’t as they should be or there is damage on the stone,” said a source at the Commonwealth War Graves Commis-sion. The 100th anniversary of the war comes just as living memory of what was then called the Great War has faded: this will be the first major anniversary for which no known sol-diers survive.

The Tyne Cot cemetery lies near Ypres, in northwest Belgium, that held a strategic posi-tion during World War One, standing in the way of Germany’s planned sweep into France

from the north. In 2011, more than 300,000 people visited the cemetery, said Stephen Lodewyck of Westtoer, the West Flanders tourism office. During the centenary years, he said, that was expected to increase by 10 or 15%. World War I broke out on July 28, 1914 and the guns finally fell silent more than four years later, on November 11, 1918. Ten million people are estimated to have died. Eu-

rope can expect a series of commemorations of various events and battles between 2014 and 2018.

At least 600,000 people were killed in Belgium of which at least 550,000 fell in West Flanders. More than 300,000 of these victims are buries in the military cemeteries dotted around the Flemish countryside but at least 200,000 are still missing.

It is one of the best-loved and most visited of Brussels’ attractions.

But a major question mark currently hangs over the long-term future of Mini-Europe, the miniature park located in Bruparck at the foot of the Atomium.

The park, which opened in 1989, is being evicted from its home on the Heizel plateau to make way for a massive new shopping and con-ference centre on the site.

The park – along with the nearby water park Oceade - is to permanently close on August 31 following plans for the new NEO project.

The decision has left many people be-mused, not least Thierry Meeus, who is the long-time owner of Mini Europe.

When asked for the reasons for the closure, he says, “The question could be asked at the city of Brussels, or to Henri Dineur of EXCS, which is in charge of the project.”

He believes the park, given its popularity, should not have been evicted, adding, “Why should the NEO project stop Oceade and MiniEurope?

How important is tourism in the project?”Mini-Europe has reproductions of the

most attractive monuments in Europe on display. Roughly 80 cities and 350 buildings are represented. The park is renowned for the quality of its models, some of which cost as much as €350,000 to make, including the model of the  Grand-Place.

The park contains numerous live action models,including a train, mills, eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Airbus and cost about €10 million when it was opened by Prince Philippe.

The key question now is where, and when, it might find a new home.

Several possible new venues have been mooted, including Middlekerke on the Belgian coast, Braine L’Alleud in Brabant Wallonia, Ko-rtrijk, which already boasts a reproduction of an old-style Belgian village, and even, bizarrely, Monenegro.

Whatever happens, the coming weeks rep-resent the last chance to visit what has become something of a Brussels institution at its cur-rent home.

Remembering the lionsPlans for the centenary of World War IBy Martin Banks

Mini Europe to move

A coffin containing the remains of a British soldier is carried on April 23, 2013 in the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) Cemetery at Ecoust-Saint- Mein as four British soldiers were laid to rest with full military honours in northern France on Tuesday, nearly a century after they were killed in action in World War I. Their bodies were discovered in 2009 when a local farmer was clearing one of his fields. |AFP PHOTO/ DENIS CHARLET

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20 TECHNOLOGY NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

A team of investors and developers in India have designed the first smartphone for blind people, equipped with Braille language which will allow them make calls and even take pic-tures.

Applications like Siri and SayText make it easier for blind people to use such devices, but the interaction design graduate, Sumit Dagar, aims to help them benefit from all the features smartphones are offering.

Emails and texts are sent as regular mes-sages, but instead of a smooth glass panel, the phone transforms letters, words and images into a grid of pins.

The ‘touch-screen’ elevates and depresses content into touchable patterns which can

then be identified by the blind. Through Shape Memory Alloy technology, pins expand and contract back to its original shape.

Nevertheless, all the other smartphone’s features are like any regular phone, and wheth-er this system will be also applied to applica-tions is still unclear, as well as how the phone will work without connectivity.

According to Dagar, this is the “world’s first Braille smartphone and a companion more than a phone” and a prototype is now being tested at the LV Prasad Eye Institute. “We plan to do more advanced versions of the phone in the future,” he added.

The team hopes to release the phone by the end of 2013, for around $185. NR

India develops world’s first smartphone for blind

UK law allows anyone to use Instagram imagesProfessional and amateur photographers will have to face changes to UK’s copyright law, which has been modified in order to allow oth-ers to use pictures posted on sites like Insta-gram, Flickr or Facebook.

New changes are included in the Enter-prise and Regulatory Reform Act, a package of measures which was passed by Britain’s Parlia-ment on 26 April and, say many users, moves power from citizens to US companies.

Pictures published on these websites are copyrighted, because they have an author. However, when creators cannot be contacted, images can be considered as ‘orphan works’ and can be used without permission, the Act affirms.

Despite campaigners against the law saying it makes easier exploitation of images posted on the internet, the UK government said the act made “copyright licensing more efficient.”

This is the first time these ‘orphan works’ can be used for commercial or non-commer-cial purposes. However, the firm interested in a picture will have to prove to an independent

body that it tried to find the copyright holder without success.

The body will allow the company to pay a licence fee and use the material once it consid-ers the firm tried to locate possible copyright owners. According to the Berne Convention, ownership of someone’s creation is automatic, legally considered individual’s property and a basic human right.

But the UK law reform, already labelled as ‘Instagram Act’, goes against this human rights and permits image exploitation through “ex-tended collective licensing” schemes.

Currently, there are millions of pictures published on the Internet which could be used with commercial purposes.

So, what can authors do in this situation? The Act establishes that creators can register as owners of their work after receiving permis-sion from the Secretary of State. But this is expensive; therefore the ‘plan B’ would be the removal of all their content online.

In addition, the ‘Instagram Act’ can also permit sub-licensing activities. Once a com-pany has an individual’s work, it can sell it to

another firm.The group Stop43, representing photogra-

phers and agencies, called the act “premature, ill thought-out and constitutionally improper.”

One of the main consequences of the re-newed copyright law is a possible barrage of

litigations from UK creators, who already have expressed their opinions on the Act.

Intellectual property specialist Iain Con-nor said, “This should not be tagged into a piece of legislation that has nothing to do with copyright. It’s a nonsense.”

By Nerea Rial

11_Say_No-UNiTE_Poster_Eng_Hi.pdf 1 11/15/11 3:38 PM

Phone converts text to Braille

21TECHNOLOGYNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced on 29 April that Herschel space observatory spent its supply of liq-uid helium coolant, meaning the end of more than three years of Universe‘s “pio-neering observations.”

“The event was not unexpected: the mission began with over 2300 litres of liquid helium, which has been slowly evaporating since the final top-up the day before Herschel’s launch on 14 May 2009”, ESA explained.

Without liquid helium to keep in-struments under 456 degrees Fahren-heit, the telescope began to run a fever. If the spacecraft is too warm, the heat from the machine interferes with its ability to pick up light coming from distant spots in the universe, making its instruments useless. Therefore, scientists decided to stop its activities in the cold Universe. ESA received the confirmation at the beginning of the spacecraft’s daily com-munication session, with “a clear rise in temperatures measured in all of Her-schel’s instruments”, they explained.

Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, high-lighted that Herschel provided scientists “with an incredible treasure trove of data that that will keep astronomers busy for

many years to come.”According to ESA’s European Space

Astronomy Centre based in Spain, the dataset received more than 25,000 hours of activities, which include 35,000 scien-tific observations that will become the legacy of the mission.

Among its discoveries, Herschel used its instruments to provide an il-lustrated history of star birth and galaxy formation. Besides, it tracked trails of

oxygen through space and demonstrat-ed that comets could have brought water to Earth.

“Herschel’s ground-breaking sci-entific haul is in no little part down to the excellent work done by European industry, institutions and academia in developing, building and operating the observatory and its instruments,” said Thomas Passvogel, ESA’s Herschel Pro-gramme Manager. NR

Herschel telescope closes its eyes

Sixteen startups were invited to The Next Web Startup Rally, along with four more chosen from the

exhibitors at the conference on 25 and 26 April in Amsterdam.

Only three of them left the city with an award in their hands, including Best Startup Overall, Best Web App and Best Mobile App. Beside, the public also se-lected their winner.

The panel of expert judges awarded Infogr.am with the Best Startup Over-all prize. The company calls itself the “world’s most popular infographic creator” and launched version 1.0 of its product at TNW Conference.

Infogr.am saw the light in 2012 in Latvia and its new features allow users download infographics, share them over email, add them to presentations and printing. Besides, the startup has added privacy controls and more themes.

According to its developers, users have made more than 700,000 info-graphics and claim that there “are now more infographics produced in Infogr.am every month than during the entire history of mankind.”

The Best Web App prize was for the

Finnish Meetin.gs, which helps users schedule and manage meetings online and offline. It was relaunched and pre-sented with a new appearance and more focused on mobile at TNW.

Powered Now, received the Best Mobile App award. It was launched at the Microsoft Bizspark Startup Rally and it‘s an end-to-end tablet solution for saving tradesmen time by generating

quotes, invoices and certificates.Finally, the public vote went to

Tyba, an startup founded in Spain in 2011 which connects junior profession-als with companies searching for new talents.

Tyba makes easier and clearer for companies to find employees who can fit their requirements and culture.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Infogr.am developers receive award at TNW Startup Rally 2013 | JULIA DE BOER

ESA’s Herschel space observatory | AFP PHOTO / ESA

The Next Web 2013 winners announcedInfogr.am receives Best Startup Overall awardBy Nerea Rial

Telecoms under pressure on voice apps

By Jennifer Baker

Last week, a message posted on Twitter by Digital Agenda Com-missioner Neelie Kroes turned into her most popular tweet in nearly 3 years on Twitter.It was re-tweeted more than 400 times and received dozens of comments, questions and responses. So what was this dramatic news that seized the imagination of the Commissioner’s 68,000 followers?“It’s official: chat apps have overtaken SMS globally. The cash cow is dying. Time for telcos to wake up & smell the data coffee.”The tweet was based on a story in the Financial Times explained the Commissioner’s spokesman Ryan Heath.“We didn’t do the research ourselves,” he said. “But it’s interesting because it shows how much the mobile world is changing and how companies need to change to if they want thrive in this new environment.”And it’s not just voice apps that are taking over. Messaging ser-vices are also outstripping traditional SMS (short message ser-vice) texts. According to a study by Informa, Internet messaging traffic over-took SMS traffic last year thanks to free apps such as Apple’s iMessage and Tencent’s WeChat. These so-called ‘over the top’ services were responsible for an average of 19.1 billion messages per day in 2012, compared with an average of 17.6 billion SMS messages per day.Daniel Pataki, director of the European Telecommunications Network Operators (ETNO) agrees that there is a change in the landscape: “In the past few years, voice communications apps like Skype have now become serious competitors for fixed and mobile voice, there is also competition from cable and fib-er. So we believe there are no longer bottlenecks for the retail voice market because there is so much competition. We there-fore want the telecoms retail market removed from the relevant markets list.” On 25 April, ETNO held a Regulatory Summit in Brussels. Speaking at the event, Brian Williamson, Director of Plum Consulting, urged the telecoms industry to view the situ-ation as an opportunity rather than a problem.“Some have argued that over the top applications are under-mining the capacity of network operators to invest and are free riding. We find that growth of internet-based over the top applications is a key driver of investment in ubiquitous higher speed higher capacity access networks, and far from free riding creates the demand conditions that will support investment in next generation networks and contribute to the achievement of European Digital Agenda goals for high speed broadband,” he said.According to a study by Plum Consulting, the European telecoms sector has had a relatively high level of dependence on voice and text service revenues, as opposed to broadband access and data revenues, making it particularly vulnerable to innovation by apps providers offering network independent applications.The survey says that the rapid adoption of smartphones, has been one of the key drivers of this change to voice and text apps rather than traditional telecoms services. Plum Consulting pre-dicts there will be more than 80% smartphone penetration in the big five EU countries by 2016.The other factor is improved broadband access. But this is where Williamson sees opportunities for telecoms operators. The ubiq-uitous need for higher speed and higher capacity broadband ac-cess is something that operators can still monetize, he said. “A telecommunications industry adjustment is required –away from reliance on voice and text revenues and towards broadband ac-cess and data revenues.”And consumers? Well expect to pay more for your mobile broad-band. But savvy users will be able to send free messages and make free calls through more and more apps. Now it’s just a matter of choosing which of the myriad options you want to download.

Brussels Geek

22 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

LITHUANIA | EUROPEAN COUNCIL

Looking ahead to JulyThe Lithuanian presidency will mobilise all the forces towards creation of a credible, growing and open Europe, said Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius who presented the guidelines of the Lithuanian presidency to the European Commission in Brussels earlier on 24 April. Lithuania assumes EU Presidency on 1 July. “Europe must remain the symbol of credibility and growth. The well-being of the EU citizens depends on sound financial and economic policies and initiatives that promote growth and increase competitiveness. Lithuania will seek progress in legislation pursuing growth and jobs, and it will also pro-mote the development of open and secure Europe and its neighbourhood”, said the prime minister. The Lithuanian PM stressed that the success of the Lithuanian presidency would depend on the effective and close cooperation with the European Commission and other EU institutions, as well as the EU member states. In meetings with the Euro-pean commissioners, the Lithuanian ministers noted the need for further deepening of the economic and monetary union, implementation of economic governance reforms and the agenda for growth. The government believes that the economic growth can be given a new impetus by the completion of the internal energy market by 2014, and the focus on innovation and closer euro-integration. The Lith-uanian government delegation welcomed the progress achieved by the current EU presidency as regards the EU multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020, and ex-pressed hope for the final agreement to be reached in June. The Lithuanian presidency will have to ensure that all the legislation relating to the multiannual financial framework be agreed and passed.

ESTONIA | BANKING

€54 million in online sales According to the Bank of Estonia Eesti Pank’s statistics, 1.2 million internet purchases have been made through Estonian banks, with a total turnover of €54 million in the previous 11 months. Four out of five of these purchases were payments within Estonia made through a bank link service, accounting for €40 million in value. The report said that the average size of these purchases was €42. Credit cards were used more over the internet for mak-ing payments for goods and services ordered from other countries. Credit card payments were made on average 235 thousand times a month for a total value of €15 mil-lion. Only one tenth of these payments were within Es-tonia. The average credit card payment was €64. Three methods are used for paying for internet purchases: card payments, internet bank payments through a bank link service, and wallet solutions like PayPal. It is possible to use a bank link service so that the purchase can be made within the internet bank of the purchaser’s own bank, or else a credit card can be used. When MasterCard or VISA cards are used for internet payments, an additional password is required to ensure security. The payment options for cross-border payments are more limited and the most popular is card payments, though various wallet-solutions are also used. These are provided by various payment institutions and e-money organisations and allow consumers to pay for internet purchases more flexibly. Research by the European Commission shows that only rarely do internet purchasers have problems with criminal misuse of personal data, bank card data or internet bank passwords. The main worries of internet purchasers are more the difficulty of returning goods and getting reimbursed, problems with the delivery of goods, and inaccurate descriptions of goods on websites. The research also showed that awareness among consumers of the rights of internet purchasers is low.

Meeting European Union targets is still a long way off for many countries, finds a report released recently by the European Environmental Agency. The report looks at the management of municipal solid waste, mainly consisting of household waste, in the 27 EU member states as well as Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey.

The EEA said that Austria, Germany and Belgium recycled the largest pro-portion of municipal waste in Europe in 2010. Although some countries have rapidly increased recycling rates, Europe is still wasting vast quantities of valuable resources by sending them to landfill, and many countries risk falling short of legally binding recycling targets.

The report states that overall 35% of municipal waste was recycled in Europe in 2010, a significant improvement on 23% in 2001.

As part of targets, set in search of a certain sustainability level by 2020, many countries will still find it extremely diffi-cult to meet EU-mandated targets to re-cycle 50% of household and similar waste by 2020. Although five countries have already achieved the target, most others will need to make extraordinary efforts to achieve this before the deadline. For example; at present, Bulgaria and Ro-mania seem to recycle small proportions of municipal waste, so in order to meet the target by 2020 they must increase recycling by more than four percent-age points per year during this decade – something which no country managed to do between 2001 and 2010 says the EEA.

The United Kingdom increased the share of municipal waste recycling from 12% to 39% between 2001 and 2010, while Ireland raised recycling rates from

11% to 36% over the same period. Slove-nia, Poland and Hungary have also dra-matically improved recycling rates since joining the EU.

Recycling rates are highest in Austria,

with 63%, followed by Germany (62%), Belgium (58%), the Netherlands (51%) and Switzerland (51%). Alongside the main report, the EEA has also published individual country reports.

Germany among top three recyclers in Europe

A 12 meter high yellow garbage can, was used to promote European Recycling Week, in a parking area in Hamburg, Germany. The event aims to heighten aware-ness and increase the recycling of product packaging all over Europe. |EPA/MAuRizio

The Estonian government has released a statement outlining its approved state budget strategy for the years 2014–2017 as well as the stability programme.

During the next four years, the gov-ernment will continue with a conservative budget policy, aiming to achieve a govern-ment sector budget surplus and to start re-storing the reserves that decreased during the economic crisis. According to predic-tions, the revenues in the state budget will increase in all four years compared to the last state budget strategy. The growth will result from increased tax revenues due to an improved economic situation and the predicted receipt of external funds.

The predicted total expenditure for

the four-year period is €33 billion. This is €2.4 billion, or 7.9%, more than the total size of the state budget strategy for the previous period. Compared to the previ-ous state budget strategy, expenditure will increase by about five per cent annually in the 2014–2016 period.

The Government’s priority is to achieve a positive population growth rate the statement said. Other goals include the increase in productivity, achieving a pre-crisis level of employment, reducing the proportion of young people with basic level education or lower who are not en-rolled in education and increasing healthy life expectancy.

The largest proportion of expenses

are in fact related to the labour market and social security, public health and the promotion of education. A significant amount of the expenses will also be allo-cated to family and population policy, in-ternal security, transport, national defence and security policy, rural and regional de-velopment as well as the promotion of cul-ture. Also important is the development of state government and civil society.

As for the tax burden, the Govern-ment’s goal is to return it to the level before the economic recess by lower-ing workforce-related taxes. Among the changes in tax policy, the lowering of the income tax rate to 20% starting from 2015 will reduce the tax burden.

Budget sticks to alternative lines for 2014-2017ESTONIA |ECONOMY

GERMANY |ENVIRONMENT

23EUROPEAN UNIONNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

BELGIUM | BUSINESS

Business confidence deterioratesThe National Bank of Belgium said business confidence had deteriorated in business-related services, the building industry, and even more so in trade, for the third month run-ning, according to the figures for April 2013. Conversely however the manufacturing industry picked up. Neverthe-less, in this branch of activity, the cyclical pattern has been rather hesitant since the end of 2012, alternating between losses and revivals of optimism, but still following a slightly downward trend. The improvement observed in the manu-facturing industry is exclusively attributable to an upward revision of forecasts for both demand and employment. Conversely, in the trade sector, the loss of confidence can be mainly explained by a third successive decline in demand prospects. Entrepreneurs in the building industry report-ed a more negative development of orders and, above all, a poorer assessment of their order book levels. The slight dip in morale seen in the business-related services sector in April is solely due to less favourable prospects for economic activity. In line with the cyclical slowdown registered in the manufacturing industry for the last few months, there has been less intensive use of production capacities for five quarters in a row now.

FRANCE | ECONOMY

Unemployment figures on the rise

Unemployment in France has risen to unprecedented levels last month, according to official data. In particular, 3.2 mil-lion people are currently looking for a job. This is the high-est number of jobseekers since records began in January 1996. The French labour ministry said the unemployment rate was 10.2% at the end of 2012. However, during last month an additional 237,400 people has raised the number of jobless people to 3.2 million. French President Francois Hollande told reporters that fighting unemployment is a priority for the French government. He also added that pos-itive results on this matter should be expected by the end of this year. He said, "Everything the government does, in every ministry, must be to continue to strengthen the battle for jobs. I want all the French people to unite behind this one national priority." To this end, Hollande promotes la-bour reforms and €20 billion tax reductions for companies. However, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that more jobs will be cre-ated in France only if the economy starts growing by more than 1%. This news comes after the announcement that Spain has also soared to the highest record in unemploy-ment since the 1970s. Six million people were jobless in the first quarter of this year, raising the unemployment rate to 27.2% from 26.02% in the previous quarter.

Belgian Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Didier Reynders was received with much enthusiasm and welcomed within the centre of the professional as-sociation Bucephalos that was hosting an event on the theme of Brussels, the European Capital of Enterprise.

The event took place in the newly reinstated Conference hall at the top of Brussels on the 27th floor of The Hotel with a panoramic view over Brussels.

The politician was in the company of His Excellency Sotiropoulos, Greek Ambassador to the European Union and Ambassador Hatjimihalis of Greece to Belgium, Baron Van de Voorde the Head of Foreign Minister Reynders cabinet as well as the President and co-host for the evening Vasilis Akritidis of the Bel-go-Hellenique Chamber of Commerce, the President of Bucephalos Dimitris Pechlivanidis, Vice President Philippe Kotsaridis and New Europe CEO Basil A. Koronakis.

The vice prime minister expanded on a city that remains incomparable given its positioning as the Capital of Eu-rope host to the institutions in the city including NATO, World Trade Centre and Customs organisation to name a few.

Reynders said Brussels is “the sec-ond most important city in the world at decision making level following Wash-ington D.C.” and a city that also has nu-merous advantages, fiscal attractiveness which has not been exploited as much as it could and therefore leaves room for further development.

Reynders didn't hesitate to under-line the frequently evoked image when referring to Brussels, of a place where the decisions are made but that we think of only when these restrict or cut budg-etary funds in some way for members of the European Union.

The Belgian minister did conversely focus on the strategic crossroads offered by Belgium's and Brussels' geographic placing and such close distance to other major European capitals. Staying on the theme he described the picturesque character and charm of a city that boasts gourmet restaurants and delicacies.

The euro was at the heart of the dis-cussion as the Vice Prime Minister led a peripatetic discourse by the parallel his-tory of the birth of the painful birth of the French Franc and the Swiss Franc that required many dozens of years to be accomplished and become a unique cur-rency.

Following the conference Reynders was happy to expand and respond to questions and expand further on his per-sonal experience as minister of finance by taking the conversation further on fiscal reform in the last few months that has inspired much media debate espe-

cially on the anti – abuse law and fiscal measures tied to different methods of calculating benefits like more taxes and as well as administrative sanctions often times considered disproportionate.

Bucephalos, the professional asso-ciation that reflects on enterprise and dynamic professionals, born of a Greek background or phil-Hellene, hosted a successful event for its members, profes-sionals from Brussels and the surround-ing areas as well as friends from the sci-ences and arts sectors.

This association focuses on the de-velopment of professional development between its members and the pursuit of a project that overlooks the person and creates as a goal the benefit of a com-mon ideal, as well as the exchange of so-cio economic information and personal experiences through a series of lectures, seminars and conferences throughout the year.

Didier Reynders: Brussels the European Capital

Didier Reynders speaks at The Hotel, Bucephalos reception Brussels, Belgium. |©

NEWSVILLE/D. NAVRIDIS

French president Francois Hollande gives a press conference at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on 1 May, 2013. AFP

PHOTO / BERTRAND LANGLOIS

According to the findings a report, “Do-nating in the Netherlands”, the economic crisis has affected the natural generos-ity of Dutch citizens towards charitable causes.

After years of increase, the total amount donated in 2011 decreased from €4.7 billion to almost €4.3 billion.

The investigation was ordered by the Ministry of Security and Justice and was carried out by Free University Amster-dam. The report was presented to Parlia-ment on Philanthropy Day by Mr Teeven (Security and Justice) and Mr Weekers

(Finance). The main conclusion from the investigation is that people donate less to charitable causes because of the economic crisis.

As per the report, after years of in-crease, the total amount donated in 2011 decreased to almost €4.3 billion, the lowest amount since 2001. Households by far donate the most to church and religious causes, followed by health and international relief.

Companies on the other hand do-nate most to sports and recreation. The investigation further shows that 20% of

the Dutch households are responsible for 80% of the total amount of donations.

Mr Teeven and Mr Weekers see the decrease the report shows as a logical consequence of the current economical climate. They also see that the decrease is an extra stimulus to increase the faith in the charitable causes sector.

Faith plays a big role in donating to a charitable cause. The more faith in the philanthropy sector, the sooner the indi-vidual or the company will be prepared to contribute, either by donating, spon-soring or by doing volunteer work.

Charitable donations fell in 2011

BELGIUM | BRUSSELS

THE NETHERLANDS |PHILANTHROP Y

24 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos paid a two-day official vis-it to Azerbaijan on 29-30 April where he discussed bilateral relations with the Cas-pian country’s leadership. Avramopoulos’ talks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev focused on politics, economy, energy, trade and tourism. They also ex-changed views on the Azerbaijan-Greece co-operation within the European Union and NATO.

In a meeting with Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, Avramopou-los stressed Azerbaijan’s role in ensuring Europe’s energy security, highlighting the large potential for partnership in energy sector between the two countries.

Azerbaijan is already exporting gas to Greece through Turkey. Avramopoulos has said Greece wants to expand energy co-operation with Azerbaijan, specifi-cally through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a project for a dedicated pipeline that would carry Azerbaijan’s natural gas to European markets via Greece, Albania and Italy – also supplying Southeast Europe and the Balkans through interconnectors.

The consortium developing the Shah Deniz 2 field in Azerbaijan aims to choose between TAP and rival Nabucco West by June.

Touching on the sale of Greek Public Gas Corporation DEPA, Avramopoulos said Athens welcomes SOCAR’s desire to take part in the privatisation. He told a briefing on 30 April that Greece is open for investments and invites Azerbaijani investors to the country. SOCAR is one of the participants in the DEPA privatisa-tion tender, which is expected to be held in May, but has been repeatedly post-poned.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said energy co-operation between Baku and Athens has great po-tential for expansion. There are no politi-cal problems for developing co-operation between the two countries, Mammad-yarov said.

He also said Azerbaijan and Greece intend to increase their trade turnover to

$1 billion. “The talks were constructive,” Mammadyarov said. “We discussed the possibility of increasing the trade turno-ver volume up to $1 billion.”

He also said the sides had discussed future co-operation in light of the Greek presidency of the EU on 1 January 2014.

Avramopoulos said the history of co-operation between the two countries after Azerbaijan gained independence is over 20 years old and this visit is special. He said Greece was determined to build bilateral relations in political, economic and cultural fields with Azerbaijan. “We held effective negotiations. We discussed international relations and the priorities of Greece during the next presidency of the EU,” Avramopoulos said.

According to the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan, in 2012, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to over $849 million.

Noting the Azerbaijani government’s plans to boost tourism in the former So-viet republic, Avramopoulos said Athens had great experience in this field. He added this opens new prospects for the bilateral co-operation between the coun-tries. A Baku-Athens direct flight will be opened soon. This will bring the two

countries even closer, the Greek Foreign Minister said.

Meanwhile, Azeri premier Rasizade stressed the importance of the mutual visits in developing the relations, and briefed the Greek foreign minister on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Rasizade said the dispute had to be settled on the basis of Azerbaijan`s ter-ritorial integrity.

Avramopoulos said Greece supports OSCE Minsk Group’s efforts to find a solution to the frozen conflict. “I offered my counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov to hold a meeting between the govern-ment members of the two countries in Baku and Athens in the near future,” Avramopoulos said. “The peaceful solu-tion of conflicts basing on the interna-tional law and principles of international sovereignty is the fundamental principle of Greece’s foreign policy. Greece is the member of OSCE and of course, we sup-port Minsk Group’s efforts to find a solu-tion of Nagorno Karabakh conflict satis-fying both parties. The most important is the will, the political will of the parties to the conflict. If there is a political will, dialogue and negotiations will produce results,” he said.

SPAIN|ECONOMY

Economy shrinks 0.5% in first three monthsSpain fell deeper into recession in the first three months of the year, the seventh straight quarter it has seen its economy shrink, data showed on 30 April. Rising exports and weaker imports, reported separately, provided some relief by cut-ting the trade deficit. Spain’s jobless rate is 27.2%. The Na-tional Statistics Institute said Spain’s gross domestic prod-uct contracted - on a preliminary reading - 0.5% in the first quarter from the last three months of 2012, mainly because of sliding domestic demand. On an annual basis, Spain’s economy shrank 2% in the quarter - the worst fall since the end of 2011.

BULGARIA|ENVIRONMENT

Energy sector generates 79.9% of GHG emissionsBulgaria’s energy sector generated 79.9% of the total of greenhouse gas emissions in 2011, according to a nation-wide report on environmental conservation prepared by the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Executive Environment Agency presented on 29 April, news agencies reported. The most important sources of adverse environ-mental impact in 2011 were the consumption of energy and natural resources by the economic sectors, the emissions and effluents into air, water or soil and waste disposal, the report said. Road transport was also associated with an in-creased consumption of fuel and harmful emissions in the atmosphere, emissions of ozone precursors, and fine dust-particles. The sector accounted for 91.5% of the total of en-ergy consumption.

BULGARIA|ECONOMY

Bulgaria should reach economic growth of over 2%: Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said his country should reach economic growth of over 2%. Speaking at a discussion in Washington, he said EU member states should not wait for solutions only from Brussels, but each of them should carry out growth-oriented reforms, Focus reported. He said that since the beginning of the crisis the unemploy-ment rate in Bulgaria had climbed twice and businesses got optimized and it was hard to create jobs, given the current growth rate. Incomes should be generated by manufactur-ing, not by loans, he noted, adding anti-crisis steps should be in line with a long-term strategy.

ROMANIA|BANKING

UniCredit buys RBS retail operations UniCredit’s local unit has agreed to buy the retail operations of RBS in Romania, which has about €315 million in assets, for an undisclosed amount, it said on 30 April. The transac-tion is subject to approval from the National Bank of Roma-nia and the Competition Council and is expected to be com-pleted in the second half of this year. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The RBS Romania staff within the Retail and Royal Preferred Banking business will move to UniCredit Tiriac Bank, “subject to consultation with the social partners,” according to UniCredit. This is the second such deal, after the Raiffeisen Bank takeover of Citi’s retail portfolio in Romania earlier in March.

Greece’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos sought to boost politics, economy, energy, trade and tourism ties with Azerbaijan.| AFP PHOTO/THIERRY CHARLIER

On 30 April, Cyprus’ parliament has approved a €10 billion bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to the agreement, Cyprus must raise €13 billion, largely through banking reform. The deal, which passed in parliament with 29 votes for and 27 against, will re-quire depositors to take large losses on

savings of more than €100,000. During the vote protesters massed

outside the parliement carrying signs with a single word: “OXI” (“No” in Greek). Before the vote, President Nic-os Anastasiades had appealed to law-makers to act with the national interest in mind. “What we’re called upon today to do is to adopt a loan agreement that

will allow our country to breathe and to give us the chance to overcome which-ever problems we’re facing amid this crisis,” he told reporters.

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides told state radio: “We have had enough of delusions. We don’t have another choice. Whoever has one should tell us what it is”.

Cyprus Parliament approves bailoutCYPRUS|ECONOMY

GREECE|DIPLOMACY

Avramopoulos seeks to boost energy, tourism ties in Baku

25ENLARGEMENTNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

TURKEY | EMPLOYMENT

Trade unionists released from jailMembers of a trade union in Turkey were released late last week following the outcome of a trial hearing on the de-tained trade union members of KESK. There will be no re-strictions on their travel. Individual trade unionists, EPSU affiliates, EPSU, PSI and the global union movement have been pressing for their release. The prosecutor decided there was no reason for the continued detention. Ac-cording to the European Public Sector Union, the public sector trade union confederation, KESK are amongst the most prosecuted and harassed trade unionists in Europe. This case was being evaluated for the last eight months. A delegation from KESK had spoken with the EPSU Dep-uty General Secretary for an update on the situation and preparation before the first hearing on 10 April in Ankara. An international delegation participated and observed the trial to ensure no unfair treatment takes place. Workers were set to hold a demonstration outside the Court. Over 167 members were arrested on 19 February, 2013. 63 were in jail, of which 60 are KESK members and 1 is a member of DISK, another trade union confederation. They were being held under anti-terrorist laws.

ALBANIA | POLITICS

European left welcomes PSS and LSI agreement Following the Party of European Socialists (PES) Balkan Conference in Shkodra, Albania a new agreement of co-operation was signed between Edi Rama, the leader of the Albanian Socialist Party and Ilir Meta, leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration – LSI. The agree-ment allows the parties to campaign together for the upcoming parliamentary elections on 23 June, the PES has announced. “I welcome the new agreement signed today at the PES Balkan conference by these progressive parties. This is an important step towards reuniting the left and gives new momentum for the next parliamentary elections in Albania. This renewed cooperation is part of a wider spirit of unity that will lead the country to a fairer society and a more prosperous future,” announced Sergei Stanishev, PES President. Kristian Vigenin, the Chair of the PES Task Force on Western Balkan Enlargement and PES Presidency Member, stated that the agreement was important so that “all progressive forces work together to ensure social justice and European integration for the country.”

TURKEY | MEDIA

Antalya to host first media symposium Antalya will host its first International Symposium on Me-dia Studies 21-23 November, 2013 in the coastal town in the southern part of Turkey. The organisers including Prof. Dr. M. Bilal Arik, the Dean of Akdeniz University Faculty of Communication, are placing a call for papers under the theme “Culture and Communication on the Edge of the 21st Century: Problems, Inquiries and Recommendations”.Culture and communication will be questioned in detail by academics and practitioners bringing their experiences and assets from all over the world. Communication, as an interdisciplinary field, will be discussed in a culture oriented view. The aim of the symposium is to contribute to the field theoretically by questioning problems and questions the University has said in its call.

The Arian Resources Corporation has entered into an option and investment agreement with its wholly-owned subsid-iary, JAB Resources SHPK and Sinomine International Exploration Holding Co. Limited, Zahir Dhanani President and CEO of Arian announced last week fol-lowing the singing of the agreement.

Sinomine now has the right to earn up to a 60% equity interest in JAB, which has applied for a gold exploration permit in respect of the Kacinar gold project lo-cated in Albania.

Details of the option agreement pro-vide, among other things, that Sinomine may earn up to a 60% equity interest in JAB by incurring an aggregate of Cdn.$6 million in exploration and development expenditures in relation to the project.

On closing, three of Arian’s six direc-

tors will resign from the board of direc-tors and two nominees of Sinomine will be appointed, for a total of five directors. In addition, it is expected that one of Sinomine’s board nominees will be ap-pointed President of Arian.

Zahir Dhanani will resign as Presi-dent, but will remain as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board.

“Arian is delighted to be forming a strategic partnership with Sinomine International Exploration, a leading mineral exploration company that has made a major financial commitment to advance Arian’s flagship Kacinar Project. Sinomine is renowned for strong techni-cal staff and its expertise in exploration and development of mineral properties. We are confident that this strategic part-nership will provide supreme value to

Arian’s shareholders and will be the start of a long-term partnership that will con-tinue to expand in Albania and the Bal-kan region,” said CEO Zahir Dhanani.

Based on the geological, geochemi-cal and geophysical results obtained to date, the Company has unearthed what appears to be a new gold bearing green-stone belt in Albania. Where suitable tectonic and intrusive activity has oc-curred greenstone belts can contain sub-stantial gold deposits.

Greenstone hosted gold deposits currently provide over 13% of global gold production, with examples such as the Kirkland Lake, Malartic and De-tour Lake mines within the Abitibi belt in Canada, the Tasiast Mine in Mauri-tania and Fimiston mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia.

Arian set for Kacinar gold venture

Lithuania’s Transport Minister Riman-tas Sinkevicius and Turkey’s Transport, Maritime and Communications Minister Binal Yildrim signed a Memorandum of co-operation regarding the Viking pro-ject, it was recently announced.

“This is a very relevant step in ne-gotiations with the Turkish country de-scribing Lithuania and Turkey’s co-op-

eration prospects while developing the container train Viking project. Turkey’s accession to the project will open up new business opportunities and provide particular economical benefits to Lithua-nia’’, said Lithuania’s Transport Minister, Rimantas Sinkevicius

Viking is not only the railways, ports and logistics companies’ project, but

also the example of a constructive politi-cal collaboration between participating states. During the 10 years of train shut-tling, the relations between initiators and founders of the Viking project have been established and are constantly de-veloping with more countries and more transport-related companies joining the project.

Viking container train project signed with Lithuania

ALBANIA | BUSINESS

TURKEY |TRANSPORT

A train container project with Lithuania has been signed and is in the works. | BELGA PHOTO KRISTOF VAN ACCOM

26 ENLARGEMENT NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

SERBIA|LABOUR

Employment will be prioritySerbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said employment and bringing new investors will be the government’s next priorities, adding that a project of build-ing a factory for silicon chips with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which would be highly significant for Serbia, is being worked on. “If we managed to realize this, we would resolve 20%-30% of the problems Serbia is faced with,” Vucic told Belgrade-based Pink TV. There are 792,344 jobless people in Serbia this year, but this figure covers only the individu-als listed in the records of the National Employment Service (NSZ), while the real number of the unemployed adds up to almost 1 million, Serbian State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy Dragi Vidojevic has said.

SERBIA|TRANSPORT

Passenger trains crash Two passenger’s trains collided in the Tosin Bunar tunnel in Belgrade. Twenty-two people were injured after the head-on collision on 2 May. The accident occurred at 1.30 pm local time, local media reported. A train travelling on the Belgrade-Novi Sad line hit a train travelling from Belgrade to Sid. All of the injured passengers were travelling in the same carriage. Six emergency teams gave the injured first aid and the people who needed further medical care were taken to a number of hospitals in Belgrade. The crash is believed to have been caused by a malfunction in one of the trains.

CROATIA|TRANSPORT

Government backs HAC loanOn May, Croatia’s government decided to ensure collateral for a HRK 75 million loan which the Croatian motorway operator (HAC) will take from the Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB) for the purpose of severance packages for the lay-offs. Transport Minister Sinisa Hajdas Doncic told the cabinet meeting that the ministry had received seven letters of intent from Croatia and EU member states regarding po-tential investors interested in privatising the Croatian Rail-ways (HZ) Cargo company.

CROATIA|ENERGY

EVN Croatia Plin awards deals A Croatian consortium has been awarded contracts totalling 82.6 million kuna (€10.8 million) by EVN Croatia Plin for the deployment of gas networks and related infrastructure in the Sibenik-Knin and Zadar counties, SeeNews reported. The consortium, comprising Zagreb Montaza, ZM Montag and Temex, has won a 43.4 million kuna contract, Value Added Tax (VAT) included, for works in the Sibenik-Knin county and a 39.2 million kuna contract, VAT included, for works in the Zadar county, the public notice indicated. Both tenders attracted three bids each.

MONTENEGRO|AIRLINES INDUSTRY

Ryanair to fly to Montenegro until at least 2016Ryanair, which two weeks ago announced the launch of its first route to Montenegro, will operate flights to the Balkan country until at least 2016 according to an agreement signed between the low cost airline and the government. Over the next three years the airline has offered to operate up to four-teen destinations from Tivat with Milan, Barcelona, London, Oslo and Stockholm selected by the government so far.

A Bosnian court has ordered the presi-dent of the autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation to be detained for a month on corruption charges. Zivko Budimir, the president of the region’s commission of pardons, Hidajet Halilovic, and at least 17 other officials were arrested.

On 25 April, prosecutors said Bu-dimir and four other officials had taken bribes to arrange pardons for convicts. They demanded his detention in case he tried to flee the country. Lawyers for the accused said they would appeal against the ruling. Police had earlier searched Budimir’s presidential office and several other government buildings.

The court’s Spokeswoman Asja Papo has confirmed that Budimir has been re-manded in custody. The court accepted the Prosecution’s request to remand him in custody and determined that Budimir and his associates were a flight risk, that they could influence witnesses and de-stroy evidence. “The court concluded that the criminal acts were committed by top Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina of-ficials and that the country and judiciary system’s reputation has been violated,” Papo said.

The investigation focused on Budimir and his alleged role in “cash-for-pardon” cases, state broadcaster BHRT1 reported.

The Prosecutor’s Office said it au-thorised the State Investigation and Protection Agency, or SIPA, said it was

focusing on “tens of persons” involved in corruption, abuse of office, drug traffick-ing and organised crime and that “search-es are ongoing at many locations”.

“The aim of these investigative ac-tivities is to discover corruption offenses whose perpetrators are the highest offi-cials,” the prosecutor’s office said.

On 27 April, the Party of Justice and Trust (SPP), headed by Budimir, Presi-dent of the Federation of Bosnia and Her-zegovina, issued a statement condemning its leader’s arrest on 26 April as politically motivated.

The SPP said that Budimir was ar-

rested because he did not want to sign against the law a decision on reshuffling the Federation’s government. The party said his arrest was an attack on the insti-tutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at causing disorder, and called for his immediate release from police custody.

Budimir was named president of the Muslim-Croat federation in March 2011 after general elections in Bosnia. His party was removed from the ruling coali-tion in June 2012 and replaced with other Bosnian Croat political groupings but Bu-dimir has refused to step down.

Court detains president of Bosniak-Croat Federation

Members of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s special police escort the president of the autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation, Zivko Budimir, out of the building of the Bosnian Presidency after completing a search for evidence in the offices used by president Budimir, Sarajevo, 26 April 2013. |AFP PHOTO/STR

Croatian state-owned power utility group Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP Group) plans to unbundle in the next two-three years its power distribution system op-erator, HEP Operator Distribucijskog Sustava, in line with EU’s Third Energy Package, Zlatko Koracevic, the president of the company’s managing board said,

SeeNews reported.HEP is already present as an electric-

ity exporter on the Slovenian market and will soon set foot in Italy, he added.

HEP Group is the national company engaged in electricity production and dis-tribution as well as in heat supply and gas distribution. It netted a consolidated prof-

it of HRK 71.2 million in 2012, as against 7.8 million kuna in 2011, according to its financial statement issued via the Zagreb Stock Exchange. The HEP Group’s oper-ating revenues totalled HRK 14.02 billion in 2012, which was an increase of 6.4% year on year, according to the audited fi-nancial statement.

HEP to unbundle power DSO in up to 3 years

On 26 April, Serbian lawmakers over-whelmingly supported an agreement normalising relations with breakaway Kosovo. Parliament backed the deal in a 173-24 vote. The agreement drew support from the parties of the ruling, nationalist-led government and the center-left opposition. A pro-Russian, nationalist party was the only group that voted against it. “This is not just a simple vote about the agreement,” Prime Min-ister Ivica Dacic told lawmakers. “This

vote shows what we stand for and which way we want to go.”

“The agreement with Pristina has sent a strong message across the whole of Europe about Serbia’s European at-titude,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said earlier on 26 April dur-ing a visit to Belgrade. “Serbia moved beyond past conflicts and closer to the future within Europe.”

The deal will give Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership authority over rebel

Kosovo Serbs, ending Serbia’s control in northern Kosovo. The Serbs, in return, will be granted wide-ranging autonomy.

On 22 April, the European Commis-sion officially recommended that Serbia begin membership negotiations with Belgrade. The EU’s foreign policy called the normalisation move “brave.” “We could have rejected the deal and thus become the North Korea in Europe, but what would happen with Serbia then,” Dacic said.

Serbian lawmakers vote to support Kosovo dealSERBIA|POLITICS

CROATIA|ENERGY

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|CORRUPTION

27PARTNERSNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

Lower production in the first quarter has garnered these results as Statoil mulls its initial three months of the calendar year and looks ahead for the remainder of 2013.“We deliver financial results im-pacted by lower production and reduced prices. We continue to deliver good in-dustrial progress according to plan. As previously announced, production in 2013 will be lower than in 2012. We are on track to deliver 2% to 3% average an-nual production growth from 2012 to 2016 and production above 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2020,” says Helge Lund, Statoil’s president and CEO.

Production was also impacted by operational disruptions at Snøhvit, Troll and Peregrino. Statoil’s net operating in-

come was also impacted by a provision related to the Cove Point terminal in the US. Adjusted earnings were down 28% compared to the first quarter 2012. The underlying cost development in the pe-riod is stable.

Statoil’s cash flows provided by operating activities decreased by 19% compared to the first quarter of 2012, explained by the lower production and reduced prices.

“Statoil delivered record interna-tional production, with an increase of 6% mainly due to start-up and ramp-up of fields. We started production from new NCS fields, including four fast-track projects, and continued our exploration success by making a new high impact dis-covery in Tanzania,” says Lund.

Statoil completed 12 exploration wells in the first quarter, six on the NCS and six internationally, with seven dis-coveries: four on the NCS, two in Tan-zania and one in the Gulf of Mexico. This gives a 58% success rate in the period.

On 19 April, Statoil also announced considerable additional resources in the Gullfaks licence in the North Sea, pro-viding new volumes that can give high value production in the short term as well as new and promising perspectives for the field and the installations.

“We continue to efficiently execute on our highly competitive project port-folio, while maintaining a firm financial framework, a predictable dividend to our shareholders and a solid balance sheet,” says Lund.

Statoil release Q1 earnings at NOK38 bln

NORWAY | EXTREMISM

Can social media help eradicate hate speech?A panel will debate and explore whether social media can be of use in combating hate speech at a high level conference in Oslo, Norway on 14-15 May, 2013. At the conference, themed right-wing extremism and hate crime: minorities under pressure in Europe and beyond a panel expected to be chaired chaired by a Facebook representative, Gabri-ella Cseh head of policy for the CEE will discuss, ‘How to mobilize through social media’ which will be discussed By Rachel Briggs from Ran Internet and social media, Gavan Titley from the centre for media studies. Over the two days in May the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and the Council of Europe will bring together thought leaders and experts on the topics including a further panel on the legal and policy framework surrounding this thematic led by Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, Associate Professor, De-partment of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen including a rapporteur from the University of Oxford Na-zila Ghanea, Lecturer in International Human Rights Law. Further participants will be specially invited representatives from a number of European states and bodies, UN special rapporteurs and independent experts, representatives of human rights mechanisms, academics, members of national human rights institutions and civil society organisations, as well as representatives of minority groups. The objective of the conference is to identify common and distinctive themes and trends, gather information on emerging policy responses and good practices, and discuss possible options for the way forward to discuss challenges and possible so-lutions related to the rise of right-wing extremism and hate crime directed towards minorities in Europe and beyond.

SWITZERLAND | TELECOMS

Swisscom profits up, network expandsSwisscom released its first quarter report on 2 May out-lining customer growth, profits and losses in turn. “We achieved record customer growth in the first quarter,” says CEO Carsten Schloter in a statement. “Swisscom attracted many new customers in the first quarter, primarily for its television service ( an additional 69,000), in mobile com-munications ( an additional 53,000) and at Fastweb ( an additional 94,000). Swisscom IT Services also posted its highest level of incoming orders to date, which is very en-couraging. We are currently investing heavily in our net-work infrastructure and in new offerings, which are having a positive impact on customer growth and will stand us in good stead over the long term.” Swisscom posted a fall in net revenue in the first quarter of 2013 of CHF 68 million or 2.4% to CHF 2,734 million and a drop in operating income before depreciation and amortisation of CHF 67 million or 6.1% to CHF 1,031 million. The fall in revenue of CHF 68 million is summarised as follows: CHF 75 million due to price erosion (of which CHF 32 million due to reduced roaming charges); CHF 44 million due to seasonal effects; CHF 19 million due to other effects (of which CHF 16 mil-lion in Fastweb‘s hubbing business). Following the massive lowering of roaming charges in recent years, Swisscom’s standard rates for mobile phoning in the EU are now less than half compared to those of its competitors. The drop in revenue was nearly offset by an increase of CHF 62 million generated by customer growth and CHF 8 million through currency translation. Net income fell by 12.4% to CHF 390 million. Headcount dropped by 667 full-time equivalents to 19,247 FTEs, due primarily to the outsourcing of customer care and network maintenance jobs at Fastweb.

Icelandic voters have provided a remark-able political comeback for Bjarni Ben-ediktsson, leader of the centre-right In-dependence party, who received 26.7% of the vote, which increases their seats from 19 to 26.

The politician and keen trout fisher-man, was considering retiring from poli-tics just two weeks ago, under pressure from party rivals and low polls.

“The Independence Party is called to duty again,” announced Benedikts-son, 43. He is expected to enter a coali-tion with the centre-left Progressive par-ty, who garnered 24.4% of the vote and 19 seats in the Althing, the world’s old-

est extant parliament and has a total of 63 members. The vote is seen as a blow against the previous Social Democrat Al-liance / Left-Green Movement, elected in 2009 after widespread public anger at the collapse of the nation’s banking system and introduced harsh austerity. The leader of the social Democrats was dismissive, telling the BBC that the two largest parties “democratic mandate to change society is absolutely zero.”

Iceland’s application for EU mem-bership is likely to be a casualty of the new government, both parties feel that joining the union is not in their interest, believing that they benefit from Schen-

gen and free trade agreements.The victory of two anti-austerity and

EU rejectionist govenments will be not-ed with concern in Brussels, where anxi-ety is growing over how the EU will vote in the 2014 European elections.

The Icelandic Pirate party didn’t do quite as well as they thought, with sup-port dropping in the final stages of the campaign, but they received 5.1%, giving them an expected three seats, not bad for a very new party.

The Bright Future party, associated with the European parliament’s Liberal ALDE group also did well, gaining six seats.

Election won by centre-rightVoters reject austerity, EU membership

Pingvellir, the site of the world’s first parliament created 930 AD by the early Viking settlers in the now Thingvellir national park. The North Atlantic island, known for its rugged beauty, has seen a rapidly growing influx of tourists in recent years. 2012, they numbered 672,000, or 19% more than the previous year, and twice as many as in 2003. AFP PHOTO MARCEL MOCHET

NORWAY |BUSINESS

ICELAND |ELECTIONS

28 EASTERN PARTNERSHIP NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

GEORGIA|TRANSPORT

Tbilisi, Baku, Ankara want railway used by NATOOn 30 April, Georgia Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze said Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia are lobbying for NATO to use the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars regional railway for transport from Afghanistan, Hurriyet reported. “The Georgian side offers the International Security Assistance Force ISAF and NATO two things: Georgia’s participa-tion in operations in Afghanistan after 2014, although the mission has not been determined. Apart from this, we have the willingness to make a financial contribution to the development of Afghan security forces. Second, we offer the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is the shortest and cheapest way out of Afghanistan after 2014,” Panjik-idze said, Azernews reported. “Turkey and Azerbaijan are very interested in this road, and they are also lobbying for it,” Panjikidze said. “First we suggested it a long time ago. We just try to push this question at every meeting. We do this during bilateral meetings, and it is possible that some countries will take out their cargo on their own. We al-ready know the similar interests of some countries.”

AZERBAIJAN|SPORTS

Baku announces dates and sports for 2015 European GamesAzerbaijan’s Sports Minister Azad Ragimov has announced the dates and participating sports for the first European Games, which will be held in 2015 in Baku, news agencies reported. Europe’s national Olympic committees estab-lished the games last year as an analogue to the Asian and Pan-American Games. Baku was the only candidate to host them. Ragimov said the competition will be held 12-28 June and include some 6,300 athletes. He said the disciplines will include archery, swimming, water polo, diving, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling — includ-ing BMX, mountain bikes and road bikes — gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, judo, karate, shooting, trapshooting, table tennis, taekwando, triathlon, beach and court volley-ball, beach soccer, wrestling and fencing.

AZERBAIJAN|DIPLOMACY

Azerbaijan, Jordan to boost relationsAzerbaijan and Jordan have explored ways of developing the bilateral relations as Ambassador Sabir Aghabayov met Jordanian Senate Chairman Tahir al-Masri. They dis-cussed prospects for the inter-parliamentary co-operation. Al-Masri will visit Baku to attend the South Caucasus Fo-rum to be held 6-9 May. The chairman of the Jordanian Senate said he first visited Azerbaijan in 2008, and hailed the country`s rapid development since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

AZERBAIJAN|DIPLOMACY

Baku plans to open embassy in IsraelOn 26 April, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that negotiations are under way on the opening of the Azer-baijani embassy in Israel. “Azerbaijan will continue to devel-op relations with Israel and Palestine,” Mammadyarov told a press conference, commenting on the results of his recent official visit to the Middle East.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, intends to expand the practice of granting loans to banks in Azerbaijan to finance renewable energy and energy ef-ficiency (RE/EE-credit) projects.

On 30 April, IFC Representative in Azerbaijan Aliya Azimova said the Cor-poration is ready to accept proposals from banks to start financing projects in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

IFC previously announced that it plans provide a loan to Bank Respublika to begin financing projects in this sector as well as expand lending to small and medium enterprises (SME).

The IFC Board of Directors plans to approve a loan to Bank Respublika on 20 May. With a total project cost of $15 million, IFC will provide $14 million of its own money, and $1 million from Canada Climate Change Program.

The European Bank for Reconstruc-tion and Development (EBRD) was the first institution that granted such a loan to Azerbaijan. The $4.2 million loan was allocated in 2013 to AccessBank, in which the EBRD has equity participa-tion. EBRD is also working on a credit line for AccessBank to finance energy ef-ficiency of its customers.

Being the EBRD’s first energy effi-ciency project in Azerbaijan, it is expect-

ed to use advanced energy technologies (e.g. efficient HVAC systems, high grade thermal insulation, an energy manage-ment system, etc.), setting high stand-ards for sustainable development in the residential and commercial property sectors.

Azimova went on to say that IFC also intends to resume work on raising public and business awareness in the

field of energy efficiency. “A few years ago we conducted a survey to reveal the potential of the energy efficiency market in Azerbaijan. We want to resume work in this direction with a view to raise awareness of people and businesses on this niche. There will be no special pro-ject. We will work within a regional initi-ative,” Azimova said. Azerbaijan became a member of IFC in 1995.

IFC plans to fund renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan

A oil rig in Baku, Azerbaijan. The oil and gas rich country is also looking into renewables.|NEW EUROPE

Azerbaijan’s National Aviation Academy and Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) have been presented certificates of the Interna-tional Air Transport Association (IATA).

AZAL Vice President Arif Mammadov said the memorandum of understanding signed between IATA and the State Civil Aviation Administration will promote the development of bilateral relations.

The MoU on strategic partnership envisages improvement of flight safety,

training of aviation specialists and the ap-plication of state-of-the-art transportation equipment.

“We are proud that the National Avia-tion Academy of Azerbaijan has been included in the list of these institutions since 1998,” Mammadov said. “Last year, the National Aviation Academy was as-signed the status of a regional education center of IATA on the ‘transportation of dangerous cargo via air transport’. This

status gives the National Aviation Acad-emy the right to conduct courses on the transportation of dangerous goods and to issue IATA certificates. Today we will see the presentation of new certificates.”

Further, IATA’s CEO Tyler delivered a report on the role of the civil aviation of Azerbaijan in the economic develop-ment of the country, which was pre-pared on the basis of the organisation’s researches.

Azerbaijan’s aviation academy, AZAL get IATA certificates

The Ecology and Greenery Depart-ment of Tbilisi City Hall plans to make the Georgian capital greener and will spend a total amount of 16 million lari on renovating parks and squares, plant-ing trees and greening Tbilisi.

This year’s budget is slightly in-creased compared to last year’s when 12 million lari was spent on projects implemented for the purpose of green-ing Tbilisi .

The renovation and creation of more than 150 square metres of green space, forest cultivation in the area surround-ing the capital city and online mapping of Tbilisi are the activities the budget’s money was spent on in 2012, accord-ing to the Ecology and Greenery De-partment of Tbilisi City Hall.

The Ecology and Greenery Depart-ment will very soon start the renova-tion of Bukia Gardens. This garden is

in deplorable conditions nowadays and really needs our attention. Georgian architects designed a very nice project for Bukia Gardens and it will be reno-vated according to this project. The amount that is to be spent on the Bukia Gardens renovations is 1 million lari.

Finally, the third most important project is completing the rehabilitation of Rike Park, which will be finished by the end of 2013.

Georgia plans to make Tbilisi greenerGEORGIA|ENVIRONMENT

AZERBAIJAN|AIRLINES INDUSTRY

AZERBAIJAN|ENERGY

29EASTERN PARTNERSHIPNEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

On 26 April, Ukrainians on Friday lit can-dles and laid flowers to remember the vic-tims of the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl 27 years ago, as engineers pressed on with efforts to construct a new shelter to permanently secure the stricken reactor.

Tragedy struck 27 years ago, on 26 April 1986, when a reactor exploded at the Chernobyl nuclear station, releasing a massive cloud of radiation spread right

across Europe. At the same time in Kiev, officials and relatives of the victims also held a pre-dawn remembrance ceremony in front of a memorial. “The memory of the tragedy calls for unity and consoli-dation of the efforts of the government and society to solve the problems in im-plementing projects to create an envi-ronmentally safe system at Chernobyl,” Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych said in a statement.

In 2012, Ukraine launched the con-struction of a permanent shelter to re-place the temporary concrete-and-steel structure that was quickly erected after the disaster and which has since devel-oped cracks. The 20,000-tonne arched structure that spans 257 metres, known as the new safe confinement, is designed to last for a century, and will contain hi-tech equipment to carry out safe decontamina-tion work inside the ruined reactor.

BELARUS|DIPLOMACY

UAE, Belarus discuss relationsOn 29 April, The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Belarus have held talks over bilateral relations and ways to boost them in all fields while stressing on the need to enhance the existing bonds between them. The talks were held earlier this week between Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich received and UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs An-war bin Mohammed Gargash. Agreements were reached to facilitate further development of bilateral military and techni-cal co-operation, said Sergei Gurulev, chairman of Belarus's state military and industrial committee. “Belarusian compa-nies have supplied more than 100 special automobile vehicles as well as fire-control systems for BMP-3s [armoured person-nel carriers],” he said. Discussions were held on co-operation to develop advanced combat technology and weaponry. “Our country's highest-rank officials pay much attention to the co-operation with UAE, and the defence industry is an essential part of it,” Gurulev said. Belarus and the UAE signed a co-operation agreement in the military-industrial field in 2007. “A range of military technical projects are being worked out with Gulf countries,” Gurulev added.

BELARUS|LINEN

Belarus to complete linen industry overhaul soonThe major overhaul in the domestic linen industry will be completed in the coming years, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said as he met with students and professors of the Belarusian State Agrarian Technical University (BSATU) on 30 April, BelTA reported. The approach to the overhaul in Belarus is comprehensive from fields to linen mills, Lu-kashenko said. “In a couple of years we will complete the overhaul of Orsha Linen Mill. The facilities that have already undergone modernization manufacture the fabrics that are much in demand in the market,” the President said.

BELARUS|ENERGY

Misnk reduces oil export duties in MayBelarus reduced export duties on oil and oil products on 1 May 2013. The relevant decision is laid down by Council of Ministers resolution No. 318 of 27 April 2013, the press ser-vice of the Belarus government told BelTA. The export duty on crude oil was reduced from $401.5 per tonne to $378.4. The unified export duty on light and heavy petroleum prod-ucts (apart from gasoline) was set at 66% of the oil duty on 1 October 2011. Today it is $249.7 per tonne, down from $265.0 per tonne in April 2013. The same duty has been set for benzene, toluene, and xylene. The export duty on commercial gasoline and straight-run gasoline has been set at $340.6 (0.9 coefficient), down from $361.4 per tonne in April 2013. The export duty on liquefied gases has been in-creased from $70.5 to $71.5.

MOLDOVA| AGRICULtURAL

Agricultural produce down 1% in first quarterAgricultural produce exchange in Moldova has fallen by 1% in the first quarter of 2013 in comparison with the same pe-riod of 2011, the Moldovan edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported, citing data of the country’s National Statistical Office. The production of beef and chicken is down by 0.6%, with the decline in private farms exceeding 10%.

The Belarusian Finance Ministry said the fifth $440 million tranche of the loan from the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund has been transferred to the National Bank of Bela-rus, BelTA reported. The tranche will be used to replenish the international reserve assets of Belarus.

On 4 June 2011 the EurAsEC Anticri-sis Fund Council authorised the allocation of a $3 billion financial loan to Belarus. The loan will be allocated in six tranches in 2011-2013 in step with the fulfilment of the Belarus government stabilisation pro-gramme, which is aimed at stabilising the balance of payments and enhancing the competitive ability of the economy. Finan-cial terms of the loan match the standard terms offered by the Fund to participating states with an average level of income. The loan’s period is ten years, including a three-year grace period. The loan has a floating interest rate, which reflects Russia’s fund-ing price on international markets.

A total of $2.56 billion has been re-ceived in five tranches so far for the sake of maintaining the balance of payments and replenishing the international reserves.

Belarus plans to get the sixth tranche to the tune of $440 million in 2013, too.

As large as $8.513 billion, the EurAsEC Anticrisis Fund has been instituted by the

governments of Armenia, Belarus, Ka-zakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajik-istan. The states are also participants of the Eurasian Development Bank.

Minsk receives $440 million tranche from EurAsEC

People walk in front of the Belarussian National Bank building in Minsk, Belarus.|EPA/

TATYANA ZENKOVICH

On 29 April, Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast vowed to implement a co-opera-tion plan to boost business contracts and promote development signed in 2012, Ambassador of Belarus to Russia Igor Petrishenko said. He added that he and vice chairman of the government of Ka-liningrad Oblast, Alexei Silanov, looked into the most important issues of co-op-eration, outlined concrete steps to boost co-operation.

Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast intend to step up trade turnover, Petrishenko said at the meeting with Si-lanov.

The Ambassador remarked that Be-larus-Kaliningrad Oblast trade is rather

balanced. The existing level of coop-eration has been reached thanks to con-certed efforts of the governments of both sides for the sake of advancing mutually beneficial co-operation. “It is important to reach the pre-crisis level of trade turn-over when it was close to $500 million,” Petrishenko said.

In turn, Silanov said: “The economic potential of Kaliningrad Oblast and the Republic of Belarus as well as advantages of the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space allow balancing the bilateral trade turnover and raising it faster”.

Silanov also mentioned several other promising avenues of co-operation, in

particular, the project to enable inter-modal communication between the Khrabrovo Airport and the Severny rail-way station.

Preparations for the 2018 world foot-ball championship are important, too, added the Russian official. He said the Belarusian side has expressed readiness to deliver more cement into the region and to build sport, social, and cultural facilities on a competitive basis.

Meanwhile, vice president of the Ka-liningrad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Marina Fitsak, said the Kalinin-grad Chamber has seven agreements on co-operation with the Belarusian cham-bers of commerce.

Belarus to partake in Kaliningrad Oblast projects

Ukraine remembers Chernobyl amid efforts to secure reactor

BELARUS|LOAN

BELARUS|BUSINESS

UKRAINE| NUCLEAR

30 EURASIA NEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu

5 -11 May, 2013

TAJIKISTAN | BANKING

Tojiksodirotbank to offer Visa Platinum Tojiksodirotbank has become the first bank in Tajikistan to issue Visa Platinum cards it announced. Already a member of the VISA International network, Tojiksodirotbank issues Visa Electron, Visa Classic and Visa Gold cards. “This is a more prestigious product as compared to Visa Gold. It of-fers a wide range of additional services which are not avail-able for Visa Gold holders; it has the Purchase Protection program; Prolonged Guarantee program; program of exclu-sive offers and special discounts in many countries of the world; more higher expenditure limit as compared to Visa Gold,” the bank said, adding that Visa Platinum allows its holders to use all types of services and benefits offered for Visa Gold. Furthermore, the bank offers a wide range of ad-ditional services to Visa Platinum holders.

UZBEKISTAN | ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Women key to business growthAccording to Nodira Saidkarimova working with UNDP in Uzbekistan, women are a resource that could help the regional economy in extraordinary ways. According to the Uzbek State Committee on Statistics, 49% of the popula-tion lives in rural areas, with limited job opportunities – so employment of women in rural areas is of special impor-tance. Promoting entrepreneurship for women just might be the answer – in farming, traditional crafts or home based work. The UNDP project to promote private sector for development is working with women entrepreneurs in rural areas – helping them with their businesses and mak-ing sure their small startups are inclusive. The employees in the Uzbek office spoke with Farogat Sadullaeva, a wom-an entrepreneur in Khorezm province, who opened up her workshop on tailoring women’s clothes to young women with disabilities. There is also some research on women and entrepreneurship in the country, with an upcoming roundtable discussion, and will create policy recommen-dations for improving legislation to support women in business. Considering that the share of women in small business and private entrepreneurship is 23%, involving women in business is both an opportunity and a challenge for Uzbekistan. “It is great honour for me to be recognised in such a prestigious competition. I am not going to stop now and want to achieve more. I plan to start exporting my products to other countries,” said Dilnoza Turopova, when chosen as Uzbek woman entrepreneur of the year, 2013. She makes pottery, and despite being only 22 years old, already has 30 trainees, and her products are in great demand among tourists and everyday shoppers.

TAJIKISTAN | AID

Post Rasht earthquake plan in placeIn April, the Tajikistan consolidated winter assistance plan for the earthquake-affected populations in 2012 was 37% funded, according to the Rapid Emergency Assessment and Coordination Team. The Plan aims to help people recover from the earthquake that shook the Rasht Valley in May 2012. The humanitarian community in Tajikistan estimated that $625,832 was necessary to cover needs in shelter the (fuel for heating and cooking, provision of new door and window sets), water, sanitation and hygiene (water filters, construction of latrines) and education (re-construction of damaged schools). To date, humanitarian partners have provided fuel for heating and cooking, and managed to reconstruct one of the damaged schools.

ASTANA - One of the issues which were the focus of attention from the experts at a recent forum was whether the goal, which was pursued by NATO in the framework of the operation in Afghani-stan, is achieved.

“If you look narrowly, one can say that the troops had a tactical task of eliminating unfriendly structures; it is an understatement to say that the task is, generally, completed. But I would like to have a broader view on this: the ques-tion is about ensuring stability in Afghan society ... This activity was not success-ful, millions of Afghans were killed, and there is a domino effect that no one can predict,” said Roy Gutman, the Ameri-can journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, at the forum.

According to Gutman, it would be ideal if when entering Afghanistan American troops understood what they will face, and what they had inherited from the previous conquerors of this country. According to him, over the past 12 years, the US goal was tactical.

According to the president of the American-Iranian Council (AIC), Hooshang Amirahmadi, Al-Qaeda today is not as strong as before, so the Ameri-cans were able to reduce the threat. He also expressed the view that Afghanistan is ready to defend itself today.

“The reason for strengthening the Taliban movement is in fact, that the oc-cupation has been drowned out, and re-ligious groups, in particular the Taliban, have become national-religious force, who say that they were defending their country against invaders ... If the troops leave, this issue will disappear by itself,” Amirahmadi said.

At the same time, according to Ste-ven Cole, a British television presenter of the Al Jazeera International chan-nel, the question about the Afghanistan future after the troop pullout remains open. “After many years of bloody con-flict in Afghanistan, the U.S. must en-sure a smooth exit from the conflict,” Cole said. According to Russian political analyst, Yuri Solozobov, the presence of NATO troops in Afghanistan has had

many negative effects.“Drug production has increased

by 44 times, it is a ‘phenomenal’ result. Three drug dispatch channels have been established to Europe, one of them pass-es through Russia. Sadly, a third of drugs remain in Russia, and our schoolchil-dren consume them,” Solozobov said.

In addition, he said, as a result of the operation in Afghanistan, today in the region there is pressing refugee problem and the issue will be even more serious after 2014.

“And the third problem is who will get all that ‘welfare’, I mean, all that weaponry of the coalition forces, which were delivered to Afghanistan. In par-ticular, we are talking about Uzbekistan. There are still many problems and issues which are still remain undetermined,” the Russian political analyst said.

In this regard, Kazakhstan’s Presi-dent Nursultan Nazarbayev said his country is ready to offer their services to organise a new international platform for the solution of the Afghan problem after 2014.

Addressing the Afghan problemPart II – continued from last week’s debate on Afghanistan at the XI Eurasian forum.

Afghan border policemen take their positions on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in Goshta district of Nangarhar province on 2 May, 2013. An Afghan police guard was killed by cross-border Pakistani shelling overnight, officials in Kabul said, in the latest clash to underline strained ties between the fractious neighbours.Pakistan and Afghanistan blamed each other for starting the firing on the porous border, which is a crucial battleground in the fight against Taliban militants who operate in both countries. |AFP PHOTO/ Noorullah Shirzada

According to the Turkmenistan govern-ment a powerful inflow of commercial oil has been obtained at exploratory well number 204 in the Northern Goturdepe field. The well was drilled by specialists of the State Corporation Turkmennebit, Turkmenoil. The well was drilled in shal-low water of the Caspian Sea to the depth of 4865 meters. The oil-bearing bed was

hit in the interval of 4815-4834 meters.According to Turkmennebit, the well

was initially drilled vertically and then angularly, at 53 degrees relative to the horizon. In the near future, two more ex-ploration wells will be drilled in the same manner in the coastal zone of the Caspian Sea. In addition, several new production wells will be drilled for development of

discovered oil and gas bearing structure. Exploratory work is currently under

way at well number 204 in order to de-termine its production capacity. It should be recalled that in the process of testing in 2011 well number 147 in the sea area of Northern Goturdepe field produced 800 tons of oil per day, while well number 37 produced 730 tons.

Caspian exploration strikes oil

KAZAKHSTAN |NATO

TURKMENISTAN |ENERGY

By Kulpash Konyrova

31RUSSIANEWEUROPEwww.neurope.eu5 -11 May, 2013

RUSSIA|ENERGY

Gazprom’s profits fall 10% in 2012On 30 April, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom reported $38 billion in net profits for 2012, the third-biggest profits of any global company, but the figure was down around 10% from the year earlier due to falling sales and rising costs. Profits for 2012 amounted to 1.183 trillion rubles ($38.17 billion) compared to 1.307 trillion rubles ($42.2 billion) in 2011, Gazprom said in a statement. The fall in profits for the company, which controls around one quar-ter of the world’s gas reserves, was the first in a decade. Gazprom revised its retroactive payments to European customers for 2012 and reported on 30 April it paid 102.7 billion rubles in rebates. Earlier said it gave 133.2 billion rubles in retroactive payments in the first nine months of last year. Exports to Russia’s main LNG buyers in Europe dropped by 3.6% last year; sales also fell in the domestic market and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Recently Gazprom has been facing in-creasing pressure from domestic rival Rosneft, which has significantly boosted its gas assets, especially following the purchase of TNK-BP, and a controlling stake in Itera. Ros-neft has already declared its intention to boost gas produc-tion to 100 million cubic metres per year. Gazprom pro-duced 478 cubic metres in 2012.

RUSSIA|POLITICS

Putin presents Soviet-style ‘Hero Of Labour’ medals

On 1 May, Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented “Hero of Labour” medals to three workers, a famous thea-tre director and a brain surgeon, the first time anyone has won the award since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The “Hero of Labour” medal was introduced by Josef Stalin in the late 1920s. A decade later, it was renamed the “Hero of Socialist Labour” award, and was awarded to more than 20,000 Soviets before it was discontinued in 1991. In De-cember, it was announced Putin would revive the award, once one of the most coveted titles of the USSR. The honorary award was presented to five Russians during a televised ceremony in St Petersburg on 1 May to mark the Russian national holiday celebrating “Spring and Labour Day,” the successor to the Soviet “International Workers’ Day”. Mariinsky Theater director Valery Gergiev received the medal along with a veteran farm machinery operator, a neurosurgeon, a coal miner, and a lathe worker. “The Hero of Labour title is ... a step towards resuming the continu-ity of traditions, tighter ties between eras and generations,” Putin told the ceremony. “We need to cherish our histori-cal memory, keep in our hearts our pride for the people that built a great country.”

On 30 April, NASA said it will pay an ad-ditional $424 million to extend its con-tract with Russia’s federal space agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transporta-tion services to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017. “The price of space access has re-mained stubbornly high, regardless of who provides it,” American University professor Howard McCurdy, who is an expert on space policy and NASA, told New Europe from Washington DC on 1 May. “Part of that can be traced to a lack of competition; part of it is due to underinvestment in technology. A larger NASA budget for technology would help, but allocating more money for space operations tends to perpetuate the inefficiencies,” he added.

The US has relied on Roscosmos to transport its astronauts to and from the ISS aboard Soyuz spacecraft ever since the US space shuttle programme ended in 2011. Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft is the only way for US astronauts to and from the space station, and its ticket prices have soared with each new contract.

The extended agreement signed be-tween NASA and Roscosmos “will en-sure continued US presence aboard the space station as NASA prepares for com-mercial crew providers to begin those transportation operations,” NASA said in a statement, posted on its website.

This firm-fixed price modification covers comprehensive Soyuz support, including all necessary training and

preparation for launch, flight operations, landing and rescue of six space station crew members on long-duration mis-sions, the statement read. It also includes additional launch site support, which was provided previously under a sepa-rate contract.

The modification will allow for a lead time of about three years Roscos-mos needs to build additional Soyuz ve-hicles, it added.

NASA Administrator Charles Bold-en said in his blog that NASA is com-mitted to launching US astronauts on American spacecraft from US soil as

soon as possible. He noted that while Russia’s Roscosmos “have been good partners, it is unacceptable that we don’t currently have an American ca-pability to launch our own astronauts. That’s why the Obama Administration has placed such a high priority on cor-recting this situation”. He said if NASA had received the president’s requested funding for the Commercial Crew Pro-gram (CCP) to launch US spacecraft from US soil, “we would not have been forced to recently sign a new contract with Roscosmos for Soyuz transporta-tion flights”.

NASA pays big for Roscosmos link

A Russian Soyuz rocket booster lifts off from Baikonur cosmodrome, heading to the ISS, 21 December 2011.| EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, hands over a “Hero of Labour” award to Mariinsky theatre director, famous conduc-tor Valery Gergiev, during an awarding ceremony in St Peters-burg, 1 May 2013. |AFP PHOTO/RIA-NOVOSTI/POOL/ALEXEI NIKOLSKY

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said that nearly two dozen applications have been sent to Russian regulators to ex-plore for reserves in the Arctic.

Gazprom said it sent applications to subsurface resources agency Rosnedra for 20 licenses for blocks in the Barents, Kara, East Siberian and Chukchi seas.

Gazprom said parts of the Russian continental shelf haven’t been explored well. It estimated the continental shelf could hold as much as 100 billion tonnes of fuel equivalent, of which some 80% is natural gas.

Gazprom also plans to drill two ex-ploratory wells this year offshore Sakha-lin Island, eastern Russia.

During 2011-2012, Gazprom fo-cused its offshore exploration efforts on its blocks in the Taz Bay, the Kara Sea

near Yamal, and the Western Kamchatka and Sakhalin shelves in the Sea of Ok-hotsk.

Over this period Gazprom drilled four exploratory and prospecting wells and commissioned 3D seismic surveys covering more than 3,000 square kilo-metres.

In 2013, production will start in the Kirinskoye gas and condensate field, part of the Sakhalin III project, with gas ex-tracted via subsea production systems, a first for Russia.

The related onshore processing facility under construction can be ex-panded at a later date for connection to Gazprom’s Yuzhno-Kirinskoye and Myn-ginskoye discoveries. Bid documents have been prepared for pre-investment studies for a new integrated support base

for the Sakhalin offshore field develop-ments. Later this year, Gazprom expects to produce first oil via an offshore ice-resistant stationary platform from the Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea off northern Russia.

Elsewhere in Arctic regions, Gazprom continues to work on scenarios to develop the Shtokmanovskoye field in the Barents Sea, and the Severo-Kamenn-omysskoye and Kamennomysskoye-Sea fields in the Ob and Taz bays.

Melting Arctic sea ice is exposing ar-eas believed to hold deposits of oil and natural gas. Greenpeace campaigners last year occupied the Prirazlomnoye oil rig, saying it was trying to stop the destruc-tion of the planet. Gazprom said it was paying special attention to safety issues as it looks to tap into Arctic reserves.

Gazprom focuses on gas reserves in the ArcticRUSSIA|ECONOMY

RUSSIA|SPACE

By Kostis Geropoulos

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