21st Year of Publication number 1067 2 -8 februarY, 2014 € 3.50

www.neweurope.eu

The Russian president is not the tallest of men, but he towered over the combined

leadership of the EU.Barroso, Van Rompuy and

Ashton were sitting across the table from Putin and Foreign minister Lavrov, with Ashton preparing to dash off to Ukraine, whose Premier resigned while the talks were taking place.

After the meeting there was joy in Council and Commission, with both presidents relieved to have escaped a public mauling from the Judo loving Russian. This reveals much about the failure of the Lis-bon dream, where the EU, under a united leadership, would confident-ly march across the world stage.

Instead, the two day summit had been reduced to a few hours by the Russians, who also wanted no dis-cussion of Ukraine.

They produced a statement of terrorism and agreed to consult over the Eastern Partnership Associa-tion Agreement, whose rejection by Ukraine, under Russian pressure be-gan the protests in Kiev. It is unclear how seriously Putin wishes to con-sult over the agreement.

However, Van Rompuy tried to explain the virtues of agreements with the EU in a press conference after the summit by pointing out the economic benefits Poland had

gained from closer EU co-operation. Putin appeared unmoved by this line of reasoning.

He did, briefly bare his fangs, during a question on Ukraine, where he noted, “How would our EU part-ners react if, let’s say, in a full crisis in Greece or Cyprus, our foreign minister would go to encourage the anti-EU demonstrations?”

It would be churlish to point out that anti-EU demonstrators inside the union haven’t required even the slightest assistance from the Kremlin.

However, Putin gave a straight answer to an awkward question

from the press, over the €15 billion loan to Ukraine, regarded as an in-ducement not to sign the associa-tion agreement. If the government fell, would the load stand?

“Of course it would stand. It is a commercial loan. We do business with Ukraine regardless of who is in power. We even did business with Ukraine when Tymoshenko was in power” he said, mentioning what looks like a now former cause cel-ebre of the EU. Putin said the for-mer’s president’s name with irony, the Europeans stayed silent.

Putin shrugged.

EU Council president Herman Van Rompuy (L) welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 28, 2014 prior an EU-Russia summit. AFP PHOTO / GEORGES GOBET

Technology Pages 19, 20

Defence Page 21 KASSAnDRA Page 32

“Point of balance” for banks

Reactions from member states like Germany, France and the UK as well as the banking sec-tor lead to a watered- down regulation of the EU’s powerful banks in a compromise which risks having no effect on the banking sector apart from adding additional bureaucracy.

eURoPeAn BAnKS Page 05

green light for shale gas

by Bogusław Sonik, MeP Page 07

Summing up the lithuanian Presidency

by J. Vitkauskaite, MeP Page 06

Putin shrugged

Mostra goes statesideMostra, who receive over €23 million a year from the EU has been sold to an American company, based in Virginia. However, the new owners are also used to banking monies from Brussels as they also receive funds for running projects as well as studying effective-ness and evaluation EU policy and projects. The EU has a dismal record in communicat-ing, despite having an enormous amount of funds dedicated to public information and this sale will add to the alarm in parts of the commission over the consequences of such failures of communication. But, for Berlay-mont, nobody seems to be concerned about such a conflict of interest.

oil and gas flows to Asian region

Bih in the european energy market

by kostis GeroPoulos Page 26

by kuPlash konyroVa Page 12

Political giant visits Lilliput

02 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

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

HUF430, Japan Y900, Italy EURO 3.62, Nordic countries

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

EU considersWTO usefulness

The European Union over the last monthshas been contemplating what it reallywanted from the World Trade Organisa-tion (WTO). The real question was if theUnion and international trade really need-ed the WTO and its rules.

Editorial p. 2

Labour reform pace in doubt

The pace of German labour reforms - keyto reviving a sluggish economy - wasthrown in doubt as the search began for asuccessor to the government’s jobs czar,who was sacked recently. p. 16

Ryanair may give back funding

Ireland’s no-frills airline Ryanairannounced it will likely have to give backmillions of Euro it received from the Bel-gian Walloon government, the Belgianmedia reported.

p. 23

Scandinavians invest in Hungary

Hungary was pleasantly surprised by therecent announcement of two major invest-ment plans worth over 100 million Euro.AB Electrolux of Sweden laid the founda-tion stone of a new plant in Nyvregyhaza.

p. 26

Ukraine, EU tocontinue talks

At the end of February or beginning ofMarch 2004, Ukraine and the EU will con-tinue talks on the development of the EU-Ukraine action plan within the context ofthe EU’s policy entitled “A Wider Europe- New Neighbours”. p. 41

Georgians wel-come Saakashvili

Nine weeks after the fall of Georgianstrongman President Eduard Shevard-nadze, former opposition leader MikhailSaakashvili was sworn in on January 25 asnew president of the Caucasus state.

p. 44

A decade of Berlusconi in Italian politics

NOTEBOOK

GMOs issue made easy The genetically modified organisms (GMOs)issue is probably the most important trade dif-ference between the European Union and theUnited States. In its many turns the GMOstheme has created frictions between the twolargest world commercial partners. On thisside of the Atlantic, and despite the fact thatthe wider public opinion sees the issue as amajor environment and food safety threat, theEuropean Commission has made stepstowards the US position. Conversely, the Unit-ed States simply and blatantly insists on total-ly free use and cultivation of genetically modi-fied seeds, especially corn, cotton and soya.

But now that the five-year moratorium onGMOs use, declared by the EU, has expired,the Union is taking more steps to liberalise itsuse and cultivation on European soil. Lastweek the Commission held an orientationdebate on GMOs and related issues to takestock of the progress made in building a com-prehensive EU regulatory framework. It also

endorsed the approach ensuring the correctapplication of the new EU legislation through-out the EU. The Commission is takingpainstaking measures to contain reactionsfrom the member states on the use of GMOs.

To this effect the EU has put in place a clear,transparent and stringent system to regulategenetically modified food, feed and plants.Legislation ensures that GMOs authorised inthe EU are safe for human consumption andfor the release into the environment. Clearlabelling rules allow farmers to choose what toplant and consumers what to buy. It is onlylogical that this safe system continues to beapplied in practice,” Commission PresidentRomano Prodi said. The Commissionapproved the proposal to authorise a GMsweet corn BT11 for food use which will nowbe forwarded to the Council for a decision.The problem though is that the other side ofthe Atlantic is doing nothing to facilitatethings.

AAfresh and lively lookingSilvio Berlusconi reap-peared with extraordi-nary vitality and energy in

public to celebrate, together with hissupporters, the tenth anniversary ofhis entry into politics. He created anatmosphere rich of enthusiasm, sus-pense and great expectations againsta backdrop of music, singing, faithand hymns, writes Prof. GiuseppeNistico, Member of European Par-liament.

At least 5 000 people inside theHall of the Palazzo dei Congressi inthe EUR area of Rome and another5 000 outside followed the celebra-tions on giant screens and weresinging, waving tricolour Forza Italiaflags and clapping during almostevery minute of the 102 minutes ofBerlusconi’s speech. They seemed toadmire him at least as much as 10years ago. One of the most impor-tant responsible statements Berlus-coni made in the recent times iswhen he simply stated that prices inItaly had almost doubled after theintroduction of the Euro.

Although being a pro-Euro po-litician, he hit the nail on the head

while most of the heads of Europeanstates are afraid to say that for beingbranded anti-Euro. He, howeverasked people to understand andfight the causes underlying suchprice increases.

Undoubtedly, Berlusconi hasdemonstrated that he remains notonly the charismatic leader of hisparty but also one of the most inno-vative politicians of Europe.

Indeed Berlusconi proved anintelligent, though sometimes con-troversial, doer who despite thetough criticism of his adversarieswho are not identified any more asright, left or centre but as anti-Berlusconi. Yet the Vox populi agreethat the government of Berlusconihas significantly improved everydaylife of ordinary people in Italy.

p. 3

www.new-europe.info12th Year, Number 558

THE EUROPEAN WEEKLY

February 1 - 7, 2004

New EuropeRussia mayexplore MarsThe Russian Institute forMedical and Biological Prob-lems will launch an experi-ment at the end of 2005 tothe beginning of 2006 on sim-ulating a manned mission toMars. Its participants willspend over 18 months in aconfined space, Viktor Bara-nov, the institute’s deputydirector, told a news confer-ence last Monday. “The teamof volunteers for the experi-ment has not been formedyet. Besides, it will take oneand a half to two years toupgrade a scientific base andequipment for the experi-ment,” he said.Russia possesses the technol-ogy and skills to launch amanned mission to Mars but“the time is not right” forsuch a venture, a senior gov-ernment official said, dousingspeculation that Russia mightseek to match US plans toexplore space.Meanwhile, Russian andEuropean experiments car-ried out on the InternationalSpace Station on the effectsof radiation on the humanbody should help scientistsprepare for manned missionsto Mars. With the help of twoMatroshka human dummiesexperts will study the impactof radiation on the humanbody during long spaceflights. p. 37

cyanmageyelloblack

Silvio Berlusconi

The Italian leader touches hearts, sets pace for pragmatism

Foreign Minister outlines pragmatic path for Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan Foreign Minister SodyqSafaev spoke to New Europe, outlining

the path the country has traversed sincegaining independence, the strengthening ofties with Europe, opening of the gates forthe freedom of expression, pragmatic stepstaken to take the country’s economy to-wards a free market-oriented economy, thefuture pointers towards a peaceful, pros-

perous and free Eurasia and last but not the least the ever-vigilant fight against forces of division and terror with jointefforts with international community. Safaev pointed out,“Central Asia is untapped source of energy resources, rawmaterials, precious metals; it is a very promising market forEuropean business which all sides might need. For instance,the energy resources: connection of energy resources of Cen-tral Asia to Europe. It might bring inexpensive and highquality oil and gas to Europe, which it will benefit from.” Onthe issue of security, Safaev commented as follows, “It’s indi-visible and you cannot say that we have a ‘fortress Europe’and we do not care now about the problems in Central Asia.It is common knowledge that 90 pct of all illegal drugs con-sumed in the European countries comes from Afghanistanthrough Central Asia and eliminating them means having abetter environment for Europe and Central Asia.” p. 5

Sodyq Safaev

The Shooting Gallery

Commissioner voted out of top show ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of Luxembourg’ BELGA PHOTO JULIEN WARNAND

Italy was celebrating a decade of Berlusconi, a word that isn’t often used today to describe him, but Gui-seppe Nistico waxed lyrical about the now disgraced premier. 20 years ago, Italy had the same GDP as the UK, now after two decades of Berlusconi, it is 17% lower. Russia was claiming that they could go to Mars, in a manned mission, but “the time is not right.” It was for Saakashvili as he was sworn in as Georgia’s president. Uzbekistan was being pragmat-ic, noting abundant supplies of minerals and their foreign minister claimed that they were opening the gates to free expression and moving to a market economy. Europe was pondering the World Trade Organisation, Germany was concerned over the pace of labour reforms and Ryanair was looking at returning millions of Euros to Wallonia.

ne 10 YeARS

AGO

MMSparked by the president’s decision to halt the country’s European integra-tion, the ongoing uprising in the Ukraine has become a first class emergency issue for the European Union. The crisis affects the EU on a number of fronts and it puts into question the very state of the Ukrainian and its future. Has the time come for Kiev’s political elite to rethink the country’s future?The Ukraine’s civil conflict directly affects the EU because, according to Russia’s declarations, the issue regarding the country’s relation with Brussels hinges on the development of the situation in Kiev. In Russia’s view, the only acceptable solution would be the total submission of the Ukrainian society to the pre-Maidan uprising situation.It affects the EU as well because the Ukraine had applied for tighter ties with the bloc. The U-turn taken by the Ukraine as regards its policy towards the EU, however, brought the discussions at the Vilnius “Eastern Partnership” Summit to a standstill. The Ukraine gained its independence after the col-lapse of the Soviet Union. But, as was the case with the other former Soviet republics that gained independence, the Ukraine was not an ethnically ho-mogeneous state. Even if its citizens declared themselves proud of their new national identity, there was still a deep divide. Some were inspired by the prospect of a European future, while others continued to cling to the Russian motherland. In other words, society was divided along pro-western and pro-Russian lines and along Catholic (in its eastern form) and Orthodox lines.This is the situation even today. It is a situation that keeps the country di-vided. The worst is that each side does not understand the other.The belief that Joseph Stalin was the most Russian tsar after Peter the Great is supported by many scholars. Regardless of whether or not this true, it is a common belief that the Soviet dictator implemented a so-called “Great Rus-sia” policy. He moved populations and delineated new borders during his administrative reform in the late 1920s. He also created ethnic enclaves and deeply altered the demographics of the entire country. In brief, Stalin’s policy of “Russification” lingers in nearly every problem regarding the ethnic charac-ter of the former Soviet republics.The situation was further complicated by a policy of Russian assimilation that was pursued after Stalin’s death. More than any other Soviet republic, the Ukraine was affected by the assimi-lation and the Russification policies of the Kremlin. Diversity in religion, lan-guage and culture, even though these were all part of a bigger Slavic civiliza-tion, were considered mortal enemies by Moscow’s rulers and any discussion about the Ukrainian language and culture was banned.When the Ukraine gained its independence, it faced a rather unique and diffi-cult reality. The majority of the country’s population did not speak Ukrainian, the official language of the new state. The population in the eastern part of the country spoke only Russian and still considered Moscow as the capital. From the very moment of independence, the two sides of the Ukraine were present and ready to clash with each other.Moscow, during the first years of a weak administration under Boris Yeltsin, did everything in its power to fuel the crisis. It acted as a medieval Lord who claims control over lands he owns by right.Over the past 15 years, Kiev has struggled to find equilibrium between two conflicting politics and two opposing aspirations. Moscow openly supported one side - the one of the pro-Russians - and bitterly attacked the other.But when, finally, the Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych took power and declared once more the country’s desire to join the EU, his new stance was considered serious and reliable. In the EU, it was thought that Kiev at last had found equilibrium.But it was too good to be true. It seems as though it was all a game of illusion played by the pro-Russian side. It was a risky game that has now led us today’s uprising. Is there a solution? There cannot be a winner from either side of the growing divide and the Ukraine will remain saddled with its deep domestic problems. The fact is that the only way to avoid further complications and conflicts is for the Ukraine to free itself from foreign influence. Moscow’s re-sponse will be pivotal.

Ukraine: a never ending story

Brussels headquarters

Av. de Tervuren/Tervurenlaan 96, 1040 Brussels, BelgiumTel. +32 2 5390039 Fax +32 2 5390339info@neweurope.eu

PuBlishers Brussels News ageNcy sPrl

Avenue de Tervueren 96 1040 Etterbeek BelgiumTel. +32 2 5390039info@neweurope.eu

exterNal coNtriButioNs

Signed Contributions express solely the views of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the newspaper. NE is printed on recycled paper.

© 2014 New Europe all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or otherwise, without ex-press permission. The Publishers accept no liability for third party views published, nor damage caused by reading, viewing or using our content. All information is correct at the time of going to print, we accept no liabilities for consequent changes.N

EW E

URO

PE

ISSN

Nu

mb

er: 1

106-

8299

director A lexandros Koronakisa@neweurope.eu

executive layout ProducerS uman Haque

sh@neweurope.eu

suBscriPtioNs & distriButioN subscriptions@neweurope.euSubscriptions are available worldwide

iNdePeNdeNceNew Europe is a privately owned independent publication, and is not subsidised or financed in any way by any EU institution or other entity.

editor Basil A. Coronakis coronakis@neweurope.eu

MaNagiNg editors Ko nstantin Tsapogas von Taube kt@neweurope.euTh eodoros Benakis (Print ed.)

tb@neweurope.eu

seNior editorial teaM K ostis Geropoulos

(Energy & Russian Affairs) kg@neweurope.eu

A ndy Carling (EU Affairs) ac@neweurope.eu

Dan Alexe (EU Affairs) da@neweurope.euChristina Vasilaki (EU Affairs) cv@neweurope.euA riti Alamanou (Legal Affairs)

aa@neweurope.eu L ouise Kissa (Fashion)

lk@neweurope.eu

03inside eUNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

By Dan Alexe

Russian president Vladimir Putin has or-dered his government to wait until a new Ukrainian government is formed before

fulfilling Moscow’s agreement to provide a $15 billion (11 billion Euros) economic rescue pack-age to Kiev. Putin is thus openly reneging on the promise made last week in Brussels, at the short Russia-EU summit, that he will maintain the loan regardless of who is is power in Kiev.

He also shows how little he cares for what he tells the Europeans. There were no grandiose speeches at the end of last week’s summit, the meeting was short, barely two hours, the talks reduced to their simplest essence. Putin went home on Tuesday 28 January having also won a major concession from the Europeans: Russia will be consulted in the future about the evolu-tion of the Eastern Partnership.

For the 32nd Russia-EU summit, five heavy-weights were reunited around the table: the EU was represented by José Manuel Barroso, Presi-dent of the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, and Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, on her way to Ukraine immediately after the meeting. Putin was accom-panied by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Initially, Putin didn’t even want Ukraine on the menu. On the eve of his visit, the Russian ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, was categoric that Ukraine would not be a topic. “Ukraine is a sovereign country, said Chizhov. We won’t discuss it beyond its back.” In the end, the subject could not be avoided, and it even be-came a major one.

At the press conference following the talks, Barroso and Van Rompuy continued to express their wish that Ukraine would eventually come closer to Europe. Van Rompuy compared Po-land with Ukraine. “In 1990”, said Van Rompuy, “both countries presented a similar — and very low — level of development. Now, after ten years of EU membership, Poland is three times more prosperous than Ukraine.”

Putin, in his turn, did not refrain from ex-pressing his irritation at EU’s insistent involve-ment in Ukraine: “How would our EU partners react if, let’s say, in a full crisis in Greece or Cy-prus, our foreign minister would go to encourage

the anti-EU demonstrations?”Putin promised that the huge 15 billion $ (11

billion Euros) loan promised to Kiev in order not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU would stand even if the opposition came to power in Kiev: “Of course it would stand”, Putin said. It is a commercial loan. We do business with Ukraine regardless of who is in power. We even did busi-ness with Ukraine when Tymoshenko was in power”, referring to the jailed former premier and opposition figure Yulia Tymoshenko, a personal rival of Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych.

Except for a common “statement on combat-ing terrorism”, the only concrete achievement of this summit was a surprising one, announced by Van Rompuy: “we both agreed to pursue bilateral consultations at experts level on the Eastern Part-nership Association Agreement”.

The outcome of the summit was thus a seri-ous setback for the Commission, and the EU at large, in its relations with Russia. Putin’s discon-tent with EU had started during the autumn of 2013, when the EU asked Russia to end using trade agreements to block East European nations from seeking closer relations, or signing spe-

cial trade and association agreements with the bloc. In October, the EU foreign ministers even discussed possible trade measures to be consid-ered against Russia in response to political and economic pressure exerted by Moscow on East European nations.

European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle had even said then that “Russia’s pressure on Ukraine in the issue of signing the Association Agreement with the European Union is unacceptable”, an unusu-ally harsh statement by Commission’s standards.

In the end, the EU announced meekly last Tuesday, in front of a beaming Putin, that it is ready to offer Russia “bilateral consultations at experts level on the Eastern Partnership Associa-tion Agreement”. From the extreme of cavorting with the opposition on the Maidan, Kiev’s main square, where the protests have been going for two months, the EU high officials went now to the opposite extreme of offering Russian experts to discuss with the EU the Association agree-ments offered to neighbouring countries.

The Europeans have also dropped demands for the liberation of Yulia Tymoshenko, and the

fact that the only one who pronounced her name —in an ironic way— was Putin was another point he scored.

Also, there was no real discussion about hu-man rights in Russia, or about the controversy surrounding the Sochi games. There couldn’t have been any… Putin has chosen Sochi as the venue for the next EU-Russia summit, in June.

In the case of Ukraine, the Europeans have now to act alone, the US having been totally absent in the last weeks. Washington seems to have delegated the crisis in Ukraine for Europe to solve. Except for two phone calls passed by vice-president Joe Biden to the Ukrainian president Yanukovych, the US have been absent, and calls for sanctions against the Kiev regime formulated by high opposition officials like the Republican senator —and former presidential candidate— John McCain went unheeded by the Obama ad-ministration.

Gone are the times like in 2004, when the Orange Revolution, and Viktor Yushchenko’s presidential campaign of that year against to-day’s president Viktor Yanukovych were openly backed by the US.

Strategic no more… EU loses ground in front of PutinThe outcome of the summit was a serious setback for the Commission, and the EU at large, in its relations with Russia.

By Karafillis Giannoulis

Eurozone unemployment rate remained sta-ble at 12.0% in December 2013, according to the latest figures by Eurostat.

On 31 January, Eurostat said that com-pared with December 2012, Eurozone un-employment rate rose by 0.1%. The EU28 unemployment rate was at 10.7% in Decem-ber 2013, down from 10.8% in November. According to the Statistics Office of the EU, 26.200 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 19.010 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in December 2013. Com-

pared with November 2013, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 162 000 in the EU28 and by 129 000 in the euro area.

However Bloomberg reported that labour and social crisis in Europe is much worse as the labour underutilization rate in increasing dramatically, stressing the existence of low quality vacancies in the internal market. Fur-thermore, a Commission study, published on 21 January, indicated that the risk of in-work poverty in the EU is rising and Commission-er for Employment László Andor had com-mented, “we need to pay attention not only to job creation, but also to the quality of jobs,

in order to achieve a sustainable recovery that will not only reduce unemployment but also poverty.”

Among the Member States, the lowest un-employment rates were recorded in Austria 4.9%, followed by Germany and Luxembourg. On the other hand, Greece had once again the highest unemployment rate standing at 27.8% in October 2013. Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in fourteen Member States, fell in thirteen and remained stable in Sweden. The highest increases were registered in Cyprus, Greece, the Netherlands and Italy. On the other hand, the largest de-

creases were observed in Ireland, Latvia, Por-tugal, Hungary and Lithuania.

Youth UnemploymentBesides the high Eurozone unemploy-

ment rate, youth unemployment in Decem-ber 2013 was recorded at 23.2% in the EU28 and 23.8% in the euro area, compared with 23.6% and 23.9% respectively in December 2012. The lowest rates were observed in Ger-many (7.4%) and Austria (8.9%), and the highest in Greece (59.2% in October 2013), Spain (54.3%) and Croatia (49.2% in the fourth quarter of 2013).

Eurozone unemployment stable at 12%

Euro-stat’s Days: Part II.

Walk on part for the EU. AFP PHOTO / GEORGES GOBET

04 inside eU NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

An EU boycott is leading to prolonged and pos-sibly excruciating deaths for condemned pris-oners in the US an investigation by the Guard-ian newspaper has found. .

The paper surveyed death sentences carried out over the past three years by Texas – the most prolific of all execution states in the US. It found that the procedure now takes on average twice as long as under previous protocols. The de-velopment, according to the Guardian, follows a switch in July 2012 from the conventional three-drug cocktail to a single drug, pentobar-bital.

US states that enforce the death penalty have been finding hard to obtain the sedatives used to kill prisoners and according to the re-port are resorting to using a wide variety of oth-er drugs and asking pharmacies to create similar compounds. This is the result of a worldwide ethical boycott of US departments of correc-tions by pharmaceutical companies and coun-tries the Guardian says.

The survey found that executions prior to the change took on average 10 minutes to com-

plete, while those after the change and average of 20 minutes. .

As with most other death penalty states, Texas has dwindling supplies of fatal drugs caused by a European Commission-led, world-wide ethical boycott of US departments of corrections by pharmaceutical companies and countries. It was revealed last October that, after running low on its pentobarbital stock because of the boycott, Texas turned to a phar-macy near Houston to make a compounded version of the drug.

The paper raises the case of 56-year-old Her-bert Smulls who was executed on January 29 by the state of Missouri - the used a batch of 10mg of pentobarbital it obtained from a compounding pharmacy 400 miles away in Oklahoma.

The authorities tried to keep the identity of the pharmacy secret and as a result Smulls’s lawyers said that they were being prevented from protecting him against possible cruel and unusu-al punishment. The convicted murderer’s legal team was aware of the identity of the pharmacy but was ordered by a US federal court to abstain

from carrying out any legal investigation into the quality of the drug or the standards maintained by the drug outlet, the Guardian says.

According to the paper, that the next person to be executed by the US is child-killer Chris-topher Sepulvado – whose execution has been scheduled for February 5. “With only six days to go, the department of corrections has still not succeeded in obtaining a supply of lethal chemi-cals for use in the procedure,” the paper reveals.

In December 2011 the European Com-mission imposed tough rules on the export of anaesthetics used to execute people in the US and added eight barbiturates to its list of re-stricted products that are tightly controlled on the grounds that they may be used for “capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

At the time Commission Vice-President Catherine Ashton had said that move, which follow a unilateral boycott imposed by Britain a year earlier, “contributes to the wider EU efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide.”

NEOnline

Think tank assesses EU foreign policy

EU-led boycott prolongs US executionsUS executing states face shortage of sedatives

2013 was a good year for EU foreign pol-icy according to the European Foreign Policy Scorecard divised by the Euro-

pean Council for Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank.

The Scorecared provides a systematic an-nual assessment of Europe’s performance in dealing with the rest of the world and assesses the performance of all 28 member states and EU institutions.

The ECFR says that 2013 was a good year compared to the previous three as there was improvement in performance on relations with China (from C+ to B-), Wider Europe (from C+ to B-) and the Middle East and North Af-rica (from C+ to B-). But it also points out that on the other hand, Europe performed worse on relations with Russia, and on multilateral issues and crisis management.

France, embroiled among other in military missions on Mali and the Central African Re-public, was the most activist EU member state according to the scorecard but “often failed to gain support from other member states.”

The UK focused on trade and bilateral re-lationships, “a more ambitious policy agenda could not be detected.”

Germany, which has recently made head-lines for wanting a more active role, according to the Scoreboard “pursued a more interest driven foreign policy” while Italy made “a remarkable comeback” in 2013 by re-engaging with foreign

policy issues ranging from the neighbourhood to development cooperation. Sweden and Po-land cemented their role as leaders of European foreign policy, the ECFR says.

Europe’s next big foreign policy story could be the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investement Partnership (TTIP) the mammoth free trade deal currently being negotiated between the EU and the US.

“TTIP could allow Europeans to set new standards in global trade. However, TTIP is a long term project and much like Iran and Ko-sovo could take a decade to yield results,” the ECFR says and adds that” at the same time the

NSA revelations could prove more damaging to the transatlantic relationship than the Iraq war was a decade ago.”

On particular relations with other countries, the EU-China one scores a B-. “European per-formance in relations with China improved after a successful EU-China summit and promising co-operation on Syria, Mali and the Iranian nu-clear problem. But the solar panel case showed member states were willing to undermine the European Commission on economic issues.”

Unsurprisingly, performance in relations with Russia fares much worse, being granted only a C+ grade as Europeans “struggled to re-

spond to increasing pressure on Eastern Neigh-bourhood states. European resolve on energy issues did not lead to successful diversification of energy.”

Even though 20013 was a year of break-throughs in the transatlantic relationship, with the launch of TTIP negotiations and co-oper-ation on an Iran nuclear deal, and despite the closer relation between Europe and the US, “a failure to work together on the Syria crisis and the fallout of the Snowden revelations cancelled out the positive developments in overall performance,” and as a result the rela-tionship is graded with just a B-, the same as with China.

European performance on Wider Europe improved this year as Croatia joined the EU and High Representative Catherine Ashton facili-tated a historic agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, but even though relations with Turkey were also “mildly encouraging”, setbacks in ne-gotiations with Ukraine and Armenia “showed that Europe needs to find a way to respond to Russian pressure.”

European performance in the southern Mediterranean was disappointing again as its policies appear to be irrelevant to major develop-ments in the region, such as events in Syria and Egypt.

“Fast-moving crises and complex multi-lateral negotiations tested Europeans in 2013,” according to the scorecard. France intervened in Mali and CAR but “only got limited support from other member states. “ Not much has come of European diplomatic efforts on Syria and cli-mate issues. NEOnline

Foreign Policy Scorecard: 2013 a good year

By Andy Carling

This week, New Europe is helping kick-start an experiment to show the many faces of Europe and open up a new way of connecting, discussing and debating.On Twitter.For some time, Sweden has run a twit-ter account @Sweden, which residents apply to can look after for a week. They have the slogan ‘A new Swede every week’. We discovered that the cold country was warm, strange, funny and fun. It’s still go-ing and now Europe is doing the same.@i_am_europe is a new account set up to let Europeans connect and communicate.For its second week, I am in charge. We at New Europe are all in favour of a greater voice for citizens and we will be trying to use the account to raise its profile, start some dialogue and have some fun.I’ll be tweeting from home and work and in the EU institutions, hoping to show how we report on the EU and give you a highly unofficial look behind the scenes.Each day we will be running a photo theme, ask a question and run a poll.Join in the fun and follow @i_am_europe on Twitter.

I am, briefly, Europe

A good year - compared to the last three. BELGA PHOTO BERNAL REVERT

05ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

By Christina Vasilaki

The European Commission pro-posed Wednesday new rules for the regulation of the EU’s power-

ful banks, suggesting a ban on the risky ac-tivity of proprietary trading and the separa-tion of other trading activities. In that way, it would be ensured that banks’ speculative activities would stop, whereas the risks associated with banks’ trading activities would be separated from its deposit-taking function. Hence, it would be never again needed to use public money in order to back banks, known as “too-big-to-fail, too-big-to-save and too-complex-to-resolve”. The EU’s executive body reports that the banks having global systemic importance are no more than 30 and have more than €30 billion in total assets, and trading ac-tivities either exceeding €70 billion or 10% of the bank’s total assets.

However, it seems that the EC has re-ceived many reactions to the proposed regulation (from member states like Ger-many, France and the UK as well as the banking sector) leading to watering down the initial, ambitious reform pack. What Commissioner Barnier called Wednesday “point of balance,” is more of a compro-mise, which actually risks having no effect on the banking sector apart from adding additional bureaucracy.

A study commissioned by the Green Party in the European Parliament esti-mates that between 2008 and 2012, banks received implicit subsidies benefited from a financial advantage of approximately €1,330 billion. This amount is equivalent to 10.3% of European GDP of the year 2012.

The study defines the implicit subsi-dies as the gains the banks implicitly obtain

due to the expectation that governments will act guarantor of last resort during a financial crisis. Among the significant dis-tortions that these create to markets is of course, that they weigh on public spending via a negative effect on the country rating which increases the total cost of public debt. According to the study, the total cash equivalent transfer from taxpayers to the financial sector amounts to € 1,839.5 bil-lion or 14.2% of 2012 GDP over a five year period (2008-2012).

As the Greens suggest, an important tool to tackle the problem of implicit sub-sidies is the structural reform of banks, which is the key point of the Liikanen re-port, elaborated by a group of experts and chaired by the Govenor of the Bank of Fin-land Erkki Liikanen. These experts were tasked to lay the ground for the legislative proposal by the European Commission.

“The current proposal looks like a purely symbolic political act that allows Commissioner Barnier to claim that he followed the Liikanen Group’s suggestions without, in fact harming the large French or German banks,” says Sven Giegold (DE, Greens), adding that banks would not want the implementation of the Liikanen report, for fear of loosing the implicit sub-sidies from state guaranteed funding for their risky trading activities.

In his analysis, he stresses that the defi-nition of proprietary trading is very nar-row and most likely no trading activities whatsoever will be prohibited. The EC’s Communication on the proposed ban on proprietary trading, defines it as: “trading using own money as opposed to on behalf of customers.” In other words, other trad-ing and investment banking activities -in-cluding market making, investment and sponsorship of complex securitised prod-

ucts and over-the-counter derivatives trad-ing- are excluded from the ban. The second proposed rule, which aims in separating certain high-risk trading activities for banks whose trading activities exceeded certain thresholds, would apply for these. Mr Giegold comments: “It is difficult to imagine a trading transaction for which a bank cannot pretend to have any, not even an anticipated, client relationship. This is the reason why, for example, Deutsche Bank with a trading book of 1,200 billion Euro (approximately 60% of its balance sheet) have been claiming hat they do no longer have any proprietary trading.

Banning proprietary trading and ex-empting market making and other trading activities with client relation is highly dif-ficult and cumbersome”.

Moreover, the EC’s proposal sets the possibility of exemption from the separa-tion, without, however, outlining explicit criteria. The Communication writes that “the supervisor will not have to require the bank in question to separate these activi-ties from the deposit-taking entity, if the bank demonstrates to the satisfaction of the supervisors that these activities do not compromise the objectives set out by the proposed regulation” (namely posing sys-temic risk).

Giegold also insists on the non-solid legal basis of the supervisory’s decisions, calling them “arbitrary decisions, which are not legally waterproof.”

“Trading activities with a purpose of hedging the risk of the bank or of clients are also exempt of the separation. This includes derivatives for hedging interest rates, currencies, credit risk and commodi-ties, which may indeed be client related but they are even more risky than any oth-er trading activities,” he adds.

The EU governments, as guarantors of the biggest European banks

EU takes it to the bank

By Kostis Geropoulos

BRUSSELS – For the European Parliament, it’s ex-tremely important to find an agreement to create a Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) for the Bank-ing Union before the European parliamentary elec-tion in May “but the Council has to move substan-tially” before this “ambitious agreement” is achieved, Dutch MEP Corien Wortmann-Kool, a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, told New Europe in Brussels on 29 January.Wortmann-Kool, who is also the vice Chair of the Group of the European People’s Party (EPP), noted that the EU needs a banking resolution mechanism with a truly single character to “restore the faith in the banking sector”.A two-day conference in Brussels on “The European elections and the future of the euro” on 28-29 Janu-ary also addressed the stability of the eurozone.“It’s simply something you need in Europe to fix the problems that have been created by agreements on the euro,” Raymond Frenken, an economics expert and moderator, told New Europe on 28 January. “The euro does only have an economic, a financial co-operation, but there is no fiscal, there’s no politi-cal union behind it and that’s why we have all these problems now,” he added.Wortmann-Kool said that there is a “50-50 chance” that an agreement on the Banking Union will be reached before the elections. But she noted that the rotating Greek EU Presidency “is putting a lot of ef-forts in this file to find an agreement”.Asked about whether an agreement would affect the voters’ faith in EU institutions, the Dutch MEP said, “if we create a Single Resolution Mechanism and it fails in the first cases that will bring more damage than to take some more months to get it done”.On the same note, Frenken said that the Banking Union is a technical dossier and “by no means a po-litical issue, like freedom of speech or freedom of movement”.The European Parliament has given its full backing to a wide range of recent EU legislation to improve the functioning of the economic union. Frenken said if there is going to be an agreement before the parliament is over in April “it will likely be a weak agreement or no agreement at all”. But it’s another step forward in terms of solving the crisis, he added. “If you look at the informa-tion we received here at the conference here today, the overview of all the legislation that has been put into place the last five years, you have about a dozen packages that have gone through Parliament to pick up on issues to solve the crisis and to reduce the impact of the crisis and if you ask me I don’t think Banking Union is going to be the last one. There will be a lot more of these to be done afterwards,” Frenken said.The expert said he is “very optimistic about the fu-ture of the euro” not because of the Parliament or the Council but because of the European Central Bank and its president, Mario Draghi. “If you see what he can do to keep things functioning properly, we owe a lot of prosperity to the clarity and the clear course of action of the European Central Bank and I think that should be an example for the institutions here in Brussels,” Frenken said.

French EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier. BELGA PHOTO BERNAL REVERT

06 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

A member of New Europe’s Knowledge Network

Starting from the first of July 2013 Lithuania was holding the rotating presidency of the EU Council for the

first time in Lithuanian history. Lithuania’s complicated and challenging mission was completed with big success on the first of January 2014. Looking back on the impact of the Lithuanian Presidency in the EU it is important to refer to the key questions of the Lithuanian Presidency such as: What were its main achievements? How did the Lithuanian Presidency influence the image of the country in the EU and what results did it bring to the EU?

The analysis of the six months of the Lithuanian Presidency reveals that the achievements and the results of the Presi-dency were numerous. The fact that Lith-uania had effectively coped with many challenges that the Lithuanian Presidency brought with it contributed to the fulfill-ment of the important obligation that Lithuania had taken on on the EU level. Lithuania showed all Member States that it can work successfully through and with the European institutions, searching for the best solutions and coordinating all needed activities on time.

Furthermore the presidency was also valuable for the Lithuanian image in the EU as Lithuania not only demonstrated a proac-tive approach in many questions difficult for the EU but also showed that it was prepared to tackle the challenges of the EU’s internal and external policies. In the context of the economic crisis, growing euroscepticism, a serious need for reforms in the EU Lithuania coped with all these challenging issues and appropriately used this difficult time for the EU and itself. Lithuania also adopted many

legal acts in difficult “institutional times”. This stormy period also coincided with the end of the current composition of the Euro-pean Parliament and the European Commis-sion and the end of the old budgetary cycle of the EU. Lithuania was able to show that it is ready to make a decisive contribution to the resolution of the EU’s key questions. Taking all this into account, Lithuania made a good job of restoring the credibility and image of the EU itself.

The program of the Lithuanian Presi-dency of the European Council and the impressive management of the right priori-ties of the Presidency also contributed to the success. The main message that Lithu-ania conveyed to the EU was to make the EU credible, growing and open. These goals were in agreement with the key pri-orities of the EU and they were determined by the EU’s needs as well, in particular in achieving economic growth, fostering em-ployment and making the EU more open to the rest of the world. Lithuania was able to move forward with many legisla-tive proposals that focused on deepening and integrating the Single Market and on strengthening the Economic and Mon-etary Union of the EU. A tremendous success was achieved with the approval of the EU budget for 2014 and of the multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020. Lithuania was also able to achieve crucial results in the fields of digital economy and energy policy. In general, Lithuania helped to complete negotiations in many impor-tant fields covering different EU policies that demanded the coordination of actions between the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council.

With regard to the general presidency priorities in the external dimension of the EU, the particular attention of Lithuania was drawn towards the Eastern Partner-ship, which also reflected the priority and interest of Lithuanian foreign policy. Being a vocal supporter of the integration pro-

cesses in this part of the neighborhood it was very important for Lithuania to suc-cessfully host the third Eastern Partnership Summit. During and after this Summit Lithuania managed to show consistency in its policy determination and assumed the mediator role between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries.

The third Eastern Partnership Summit yielded many results for the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries. It increased the visibility of the Eastern Partnership re-gion and attracted the EU’s attention to the gaps and deficiencies of the European neigh-borhood policy. Furthermore, this Summit directed the EU’s attention towards the im-portance of an effective management of the policy in this part of the world. It also raised awareness in the EU with regard to a model of the Eastern neighborhood relations in which the triangle EU-Russia-Eastern Part-nership countries can coexist properly and peacefully and in which the national inter-ests of the Eastern Partnership countries are respected.

Taking all these achievements and re-sults into consideration, the Lithuanian Presidency to the EU was a successful mis-sion for Lithuania for many reasons. Lithu-ania achieved the goals the program had set for the presidency; it guaranteed positive outcomes for the issues on the agenda and it ensured a smooth legislative process in many important questions for the EU. An effective management of the presidency agenda combined with positive negotiation outcomes made this Presidency outstanding with regard to its results. With such a per-formance record Lithuania became an even more recognized member of the EU family and gained more political weight in the EU. Now this complicated mission has been suc-cessfully accomplished. Starting from Janu-ary this role has been taken over by another Member State, Greece, that will need to con-tinue on the successful path and the ambi-tious workload set by Lithuania.

Mission accomplished: successes and achievements of the Lithuanian Presidency

Misconceptions harm copyright debate

By Christian Engström, MEP

Pirate Cove

Copyright monopoly helps intermediaries not artists

In the debate about the copyright monopoly, many seem to have missed how it is the principal thing stand-ing between artists and an income.One of the most frustrating questions you get when advocating civil liberties and reform of the copyright monopoly is “how will the artists get paid?” The fre-quency of this question shows that most people don’t understand how harmful the copyright monopoly is to our culture, and more importantly, to our artists.The copyright monopoly construct works excellently for parasitic intermediaries, who have been extremely successful in preventing artists and creators from get-ting anything near their fair share of the money. Most artists never get signed at all, and of those who do, most never “recoup”, and never see a cent in royalties.This is why the question “how will the creators get paid, if you scale back copyright?” makes no sense at all. The copyright monopoly prevents the money from going to the artists and creators. By scaling back the copyright monopoly rights, we make it easier for artists to make money off of the diversity of European culture, rather than allowing the intermediaries to remain in control.Furthermore, we’ve now had 15 years of large-scale sharing of culture and knowledge online. About half of Europe’s population is happily taking part using their own computer equipment to manufacte their own cop-ies of knowledge and culture, instead of buying ready-made copies from the intermediaries. Therefore, we know what the effects of this sharing and home man-ufacturing are to the artists and creators. And it is all good news.It is a disaster to the intermediaries, but they have no value at all to culture except rewarding artists and crea-tors to make sure new culture is produced. This is a very simple task where the intermediaries have performed abysmally poorly for several decades. Therefore, the intermediaries are of no concern to us, nor should they be. Therefore, plummeting sales of the per-copy mar-ket model is just positive news, as these funds generally don’t make it to artists and creators anyway.In contrast, we also know the effect of large-scale shar-ing online of culture and knowledge to the income of artists and creators, and it’s very positive news. A num-ber of academic studies are showing the same thing in all markets examined: Consumers are spending more money than ever on culture, and a larger portion of the money is going to artists and creators.In summary, the copyright monopoly construct is keeping artists from getting paid for artistry, and it is hampering the diversity of European culture. Copy-right was not created to answer “how will the artist getpaid?” It was always an answer to “how will the inter-mediaries keep control?”Voters of the net generation have their own answer to the question of a handful of large intermediaries having control over culture and the internet. Their answer is “no”. The upcoming copyright reform in the EU must reflect this reality.

Christian Engström Member of the European Parliament Piratpartiet - The Pirate Party

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite speaking at the European Parliament on on January 14, 2014. AFP PHOTO/FREDERICK FLORIN

Member of the European Parliament

Political analyst, European Parliament

By Justina Vitkauskaite Bernard & Vira Ratsiborynska

07ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

Proponents of shale gas can breathe a sigh of relief – the long-announced documents of

the European Commission on this is-sue have been adopted in the form of a recommendation only and not a regula-tion or directive. What does it mean? That on the one hand, the Commission recognises the strategic importance of this source of energy in the context of energy policy, but on the other that it advocates cautious and responsible mining of shale gas, with no harm to the environment. This approach is also pre-sented by Poland.

The offensive on both sides, i.e. the proponents and opponents of shale gas, had been going on for several years but it intensified last year. This was when both camps clashed in the European Parlia-ment. Opponents of shale gas empha-sised above all the detrimental effect on the environment, however they are guilty of manipulation by citing data which is outdated and inadequate. At the height of the dispute some MEPs demanded that the European Parliament should follow up on France and introduce a moratorium on shale gas mining. To a certain extent the allies of the anti-shale gas lobby included some EU Commis-sioners. However, two events weighed in favour of freedom in shale gas extraction: public consultation and a letter from the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Public consultation was a success; despite some shortcomings of the poll a lot of people responded and most of them were in fa-vour of this energy source. The letter of Prime Minister Cameron and European businesses presented at the November EU summit was perceived as an impor-tant voice even though it did not have legal or binding effects for the EC. It was a signal, and a very clear one at that, indi-cating that serious business environment regards shale gas as an important alterna-tive source of energy which increases the energy independence of Europe and that they do not want to create bureaucratic obstacles. As a result of all these actions, rather than having two pieces of legisla-tion originally announced for the end of last year, only recommendations have been given.

What are these recommendations? Although they are not binding for the EU member states, they can not be un-derestimated. Their aim is to establish common rules for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons - so that the

Member States interpret the existing Eu-ropean law in the same way. This mostly concerns compliance with the environ-mental standards and safety in the event of drilling. Even before drilling starts it is recommended that the Member States have carried out public consultation and evaluated the impact on the envi-ronment. In the subsequent phases, the following measures are recommended: reasonable management of water re-sources, reduction of the risk of release of gases into the atmosphere (especially methane), of combustion of gases and monitoring of chemicals used in hydrau-lic fracturing as well as disclosure of the information to the public. The Member States are asked to inform the Commis-sion annually about the measures taken in relation to these recommendations, first no later than December 2014. The Commission will review the effective-ness of these recommendations within 18 months. This review may indicate a need to update the requirements or to develop legally binding requirements.

In conclusion therefore, it provides a whole scenario of conduct for countries interested in the subject. At first glance it looks a bit scary but in fact they are not procedures which prevent or hin-der the process. Most of these recom-mendations are in fact already in use as they are the basic principles of environ-mental protection. Let me give you the example of Poland. Currently in Poland, at the stage of exploration, SDS of the project are most commonly carried out where all these issues are taken into ac-count. In addition, the last amendment of the legislation in Poland (amendment of a decree about measures likely to af-fect the environment which entered into force on 1 August 2013) introduced the

obligation to analyse the environmen-tal impact of drilling in protected areas such as Natura 2000 or in the protection zones of water intakes, at a depth of more than 1 thousand meters, and in other ar-eas where drilling takes place at a depth of more than 5 thousand meters. There are also important details - such as the need to comply with the EIA Directive on the assessment of the environmental impact (it refers to individual projects). It was recalled that the directive requires a mandatory assessment for the extrac-tion of natural gas in commercial quan-tities in excess of 500,000 cubic meters per day. This was the threshold amount I mentioned in my amendment to the Directive on the assessment of the en-vironmental impact in September last year. This provision proposed by the EC indicated that for the Commission there is no difference whether it comes to the extraction of natural gas or shale gas. It is natural that in an additional comment, the EC mentioned the potential harm-ful environmental effects of shale wells. More importantly, at the same time and in the same way, it listed the benefits from this type of operation for the EU and for the individual countries.

We’re going in the right direction. Obviously, for anyone who thinks ra-tionally about the future the environ-mental aspects of shale gas extraction are important. We in Poland want to have an opportunity of mining shale gas seen as a chance to diversify our energy sources, but at the same time we want mining op-erations to respect the environment and provide the residents with the comfort of having a sense of security. This recom-mendation of the European Commis-sion is also a manifestation of such a way of thinking.

Green light for shale gas A member of New Europe’s Knowledge Network

Europe is slowly moving towards accepting shale gas exploration. AFP PHOTO/POOL/Lindsey PARNABY

Ahead of Obama’s visit, will the EU finally address its complicity in CIA-led renditions and secret detention programmes?

By Nicolas Beger

Five years ago, on 22 January 2009, President Obama signed an order promising to close Guantanamo Bay. The European Union (EU) was vocal in its support, making a landmark joint statement with the United States (US) and agreeing to receive certain detain-ees in Europe. Yet, five years later, the detention facility is still open. The US’ inaction is unacceptable and sends a dangerous message to the rest of the world: that the human rights of certain individuals are not worth defending. It is equally deplorable that the EU has put its special relationship with the US before its duty as protector of human rights on and beyond its own soil, leaving the untreated wounds of Guantanamo to fester on. Despite allegations of several current Guantanamo detainees and others that they were tortured in secret detention centres on EU soil, not one person has been brought to justice and member states’ governments have dragged their heels over investigations or re-fused to hold them at all. Even now, new evidence is emerging of EU complicity with CIA-led renditions and secret detention programmes - evidence that member states’ governments are doing their best to ignore. In the last year alone two new victims have come forward claiming to have been held in secret detention centres in Poland and Lithuania. And just last week, new details emerged about a $15 million deal between the US and Polish intelligence services. Investigations that have taken place have been neither transparent nor straightforward. Detainees and lawyers alike are in an “Alice in Wonderland” world, where new evidence is not considered new enough, defendants can’t access classified information concern-ing their movements, and the CIA is referred to in hearings as “the agency that shall remain nameless”. If such flawed logic continues, there will be no justice for those tortured, secretly detained and dis-appeared on EU soil. Who will speak for the victims whose rights have been violated twice over – first by the enforced disappearances and torture they experienced during the “war on terror”, and second by our collec-tive failure to ensure these wrongs are effectively addressed? These people have been left without remedy or conclusion, and for those still indefinitely detained at Guantanamo, their lives are literally on hold. The fundamental question is: will the EU finally honour its prom-ise to protect human rights and uphold the rule of law – or will it continue to pander to the US and remain an accountability-free zone? Is the EU so deep in the US’ pocket that it will deny people remedy for the violations they suffered on EU territory?If it is to prove otherwise, the EU must listen to its Parliament and ensure member states hold independent and impartial inves-tigations into violations committed on their soil. Victims deserve truth, justice and recognition that what they experienced was not, and will never be, acceptable. Last week President Obama repeated his call on Congress to close Guantanamo by the end of 2014. Member states should consider again how they can concretely assist the US in this effort. President Obama’s visit to Brussels on 26 March will be a real op-portunity for the EU to break its wall of silence and proactively en-gage to ensure that violations committed at Guantanamo and on EU soil are addressed. The EU and US’ prolonged failure to ensure accountability so far is a stain on their human rights records. Let-ting yet another opportunity pass will only darken this stain.

Member of the European Parliament for Poland

By Bogusław Sonik MEP

08 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

Reinventing Science

By Francisco Jaime Quesado

The New Horizon 2020 Program is a challenge to a New Science – Science Parks are one of the central keys to this New Agenda. These are new collaborative platforms between the differ-ent actors, with the strategic challenge of reinforcing the central competences of society and qualifying them as the unique ways of creation of value and modernity. Europe is facing also a unique opportunity. There is more and more a sense of the importance of projects like these New In-novation Science Parks in the different time that all of us want for Europe in the future.These New Science Parks demand an effective Partner-ship Contract between all the actors (States, Universities, Companies, Civil Society), in order to build a real Strategy of Confidence in the implementation of the different poli-cies. The focus on Innovation and Knowledge as the driv-ers of creating added value with international dissemina-tion is a unique challenge that may be the answer to a new way of interaction between those who have the responsi-bility of thinking and those that have the responsibility of producing goods and services.The difference of these New Science parks must be cen-tered in an active entrepreneurial culture and attitude - “social active classes” in Europe have most of the times an effective negative attitude towards the financial risk, the focus on innovation and the share of a culture of positive dynamic. We need Europe to have a new challenge. Europe must be able to be the real Platform of a more Entrepreneurial So-ciety, centered in new areas of knowledge and new sectors of value. In a Modern and Active Society, 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 in Europe.In the future, a Europe of the Ideas must be the most com-plete example of positive attitude towards the future. The Talents must be the new competitive advantage of this new Europe of the Ideas pushed by the “enablers” of Moder-nity, Added Value and Excellence. A very clear idea that suits the big challenge that our society really faces and that requires new answers for different questions. The act of global participation in such a demanding society is an exercise of commitment between the individual creativity and the collective cooperation. This is also a challenge for the New Science Parks.It´ s time to believe in a new cycle for Europe. These are in fact the “drivers of change” for Europe and civil society must be able to understand this new challenge and address effective answers to the different stakeholders of the sys-tem. The challenge of the New Science Parks is in a large sense giving a new opportunity to the reinvention of Eu-rope. The Reinvention of Europe is the reinvention of its people and institutions. The New Science Parks have the challenge of being one of the key actors for this 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

A member of New Europe’s Knowledge Network

By Federico Grandesso

“A true leader of a political party manages and does not rule.” So said Gianni Cuperlo after

stepping down as president of Italy’s Democratic Party (PD).

Cuperlo is the latest ‘’victim” of the new political force called Matteo Renzi, the new secretary of the PD.

Renzi, who is also the mayor of Flor-ence, is clearly not your typical “grey bu-reaucrat” waiting for something that may or may not happen. He won the internal PD election and he now wants fast re-sults, as demanded by the people.

According to Massimo Giannini, the deputy director of the Italian daily La Repubblica, Renzi is moving in the PD like “an elephant in a crystal shop”. Renzi seems eager to end the “old liturgy” of a party in which decisions were often-times not made or made too late.

But one member of the minor-ity group, Stefano Fassina, who stepped down from his post of deputy minister for economic affairs, is in contrasts with Renzi.

In the actual Letta government, there are no members from Renzi’s group and this gives him the possibility to attack the government if necessary. Despite this, Renzi has repeatedly declared that he doesn’t want to take Letta’s job.

Meanwhile, both Fassina and Cu-perlo have been quick to deny a possible split in the PD. However, it is clear that the old guard, which lost the internal election, will try to regain its position via

its last powerful “bastion”, Enrico Letta. Renzi’s programme is very ambi-

tious. First of all, his proposal as regards the job act is aimed at making the labour market - still closed, especially to young people - more flexible. On this front, Su-sanna Camusso, the General Secretary of the trade union CGIL, has already ex-pressed her negative opinion about this new legislation. This means that the PD and the CGIL are destined to lock horns - something new in the Italian panorama.

Another crucial point is the electoral law. Renzi knows that no one will be able rule the country without a “grand coalition”. To reach this goal, Renzi was obliged to negotiate again with Silvio Berlusconi, despite the internal opposi-tion of some members of the “old guard”. This controversial meeting between Renzi and Berlusconi, which took place at the PD headquarters, was reminiscent of the former Italian prime minister who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in politics.

Renzi, thanks to Berlusconi, suc-ceeded with this new law to exclude from the Italian political scene the small-er parties which were always accused of blocking any reform. Another important point in Renzi’s programme is the limi-tation of the regional competences - this measure will be put in place after the numerous scandals inside the regional administration.

To modernise and install a faster de-cision-making process in the parliament, Renzi imagines a limitation of powers of the actual senate creating a sort of “Sen-

ate of the Autonomies” which is not go-ing to participate in the confidence vote of the government.

For the first time, the PD has a de-cision-maker for a secretary. And even if they were not ready for this, the chal-lenges that Italy is facing require some-one who is more proactive.

Renzi was born in Florence in 1975. He joined the Italian People’s Party in 1996, and was appointed Provincial Sec-retary in 1999. In 2004, he was elected (winning 58% of the votes) president of the province of Florence. In June 2009, Renzi won the mayoral election in Flor-ence with 47.6% of the votes.

Today, his political team in the PD is made up of young new faces, the ma-jority of which are women. He also has a fresh new image, thanks to his sport-ing a leather jacket and white shirt. This makes him a media bomb in a political panorama where contenders include Berlusconi and Grillo.

Outside Italy, “the mayor”, as Renzi is called, has received good publicity. He has even been described by the interna-tional media as the new Tony Blair.

New Europe asked Hannes Swobo-da, the president of the Progressive Alli-ance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D Group) in the European Parliament, about Renzi. Swoboda said he is not worried about a possible division of the PD and that Renzi understands that he has two jobs: to keep the party together and to proceed with reforms.

“I think he will be able to do it,” said Swoboda.

Mayor of Florence, Italy Matteo Renzi . EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

Renzi, a leader who can make decisions

09ANALYSISNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

The World economy’s impossible demand

WARSAW – The global economy’s glory days are surely over. Yet policy-makers continue to focus on short-term demand management in the hope of resurrecting the heady growth rates en-joyed before the 2008-09 financial crisis. This is a mistake. When one analyzes the neo-classical growth factors – labor, capital, and total factor productivity – it is doubtful whether stimulating demand can be sustainable over the longer term, or even serve as an effective short-term policy.

Consider each of those growth fac-tors. Over the next 15 years, demograph-ic changes will reverse, or at least slow, labor-supply growth everywhere except Africa, the Middle East, and South Central Asia. Europe, Japan, the United States, and eventually China and East Asia will face labor shortages.

Although large-scale migration from labor-surplus regions to deficit regions would benefit recipient economies, it would almost certainly trigger popular resistance, especially in Europe and East Asia, making it difficult to support. In-creasing the labor-force participation rate, especially among women and the elderly, might ease tight labor markets, but this alone would be insufficient to counter the decline in working-age populations.

The world economy cannot count on higher investment levels either. The global investment/GDP ratio, especially in advanced economies, has been gradu-ally declining over the past 30 years, and there is no obvious reason why it would pick up again in the medium to long-term. Until recently, falling invest-ment in the developed world had been offset by rapid increases in investment in emerging markets, mostly in Asia. But high rates of investment there are also unsustainable. As in Japan, China’s in-vestment rate (running at almost 50% of GDP since 2009) will decline as its per capita income rises.

The third engine of growth, total fac-tor productivity, will also be unable to maintain the relentless gains witnessed from the late 1990’s to the mid-2000’s. During this time, the global economy benefited from the confluence of sev-

eral unique developments: an informa-tion and communications revolution; a “peace dividend” resulting from the end of the Cold War; and the implementa-tion of market reforms in many for-mer communist and other developing economies. Moreover, global growth re-ceived a further boost from the comple-tion of the Uruguay Round of free-trade negotiations in 1994 and the overall lib-eralization of capital flows.

It is difficult to point to any growth impetus of similar magnitude – whether innovation or public policy – in today’s economy. No new technological revolu-tion appears to be on the horizon. The World Trade Organization produced only a limited agreement in Bali in De-cember, despite 12 years of negotiations, while numerous bilateral and regional free-trade agreements might even re-duce world trade overall.

Worse, in the wake of the 2008 fi-nancial crisis, sluggish growth and high unemployment in developed countries have fueled demands for more protec-tionism. Thus, the financial liberaliza-tion of the 1990’s and early 2000’s is also under threat.

The far-reaching macroeconomic and political reforms of the post-Cold War era also seem to have run their course. The easy gains have already been banked; any further structural change will take longer to agree and be tougher to implement.

Thus, with supply-side factors no longer driving global growth, we must reassess our expectations of what mon-

etary and fiscal policies can achieve. If actual growth is already close to poten-tial growth, then continuing the cur-rent fiscal and monetary stimulus will only create more bubbles, exacerbate sovereign-debt problems, and, by reduc-ing the pool of global savings available to finance private investment, undercut long-term growth prospects.

Instead, policymakers should focus on removing their economies’ struc-tural and institutional bottlenecks. In advanced markets, these stem largely from a declining and aging population, labor-market rigidities, an unaffordable welfare state, high and distorting taxes, and government indebtedness.

The list of growth obstacles in emerging markets is even longer: corrup-tion and weak rule of law, state capture, organized crime, poor infrastructure, an unskilled workforce, limited access to fi-nance, and too much state ownership. In addition, markets of all sizes and levels of development continue to suffer from protectionism, restrictions on foreign capital flows, rising economic populism, and profligate or poorly targeted welfare programs.

If these problems can be addressed, both globally and at the national level, we can end the dangerous fiscal and monetary expansionism on which the world economy has come to rely and al-low growth to be sustained over the long term – though at lower rates than in re-cent years.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2014. www.project-syndicate.org

Be offended

By Andy Carling

Constructive Ambiguity

All around are signs that we are in the last days; that we have run our course and a great reckoning is at hand.While some might try complex calculations of the verses in the bible, or interpreting history’s worst acid trip – the Apocalypse of St John – the real signs are to be found in public information notices.One of the first that spent heads spinning so much was that safety message on cigarette lighters advising to use carefully and keep away from people’s faces. Presumably smokers are using other orifices nowadays.Surfing the TV channels, one former aspirant highbrow channel had reduced itself to an evening Hitlerfest and the first programme on the rise and fall of the Nazis, basically showing the same old films after an achingly bad and in-complete colourising, was introduced with a warning:“This programme features views that may cause offence to some viewers.”It is quite possible that anyone who actually needs this warning needs more help than can be delivered over the airwaves, even in HD. Why do we need to be told that his-tory’s most disgusting individual was not the messiah but a very naughty boy?There is something disheartening to learn that people to-day need to be cautioned that advocating genocide and en-slavement of humanity ‘may’ offend ‘some’.This also puts the viewer in a quandary. Most have, by now, been properly trained by the media to react in the right way to Pavlov’s Box, but how does one react properly to such a warning?Turn to another channel and avoid any potential frightful unpleasantness? Stay, but steel yourself ? Or, be utterly sur-prised that we have descended to the state that such a warn-ing was, considered by committees, passed up and down a management chain, send round for comments and then bunged at Compliance before a decision was made.The obvious conclusion is that faced with overpopulation and pollution, there is indeed a solution to these ills; a sim-ple one that can be done easily and cheaply.Remove all safety labels and warnings from absolutely eve-rything.See. That’s going to be briefly chaotic but, not only will it solve the greatest, most pressing problems we have today, it is the best preparation for whatever our next evolutionary step is. The problem seems to be that we’re on the return journey back to plankton.This isn’t an assault on ‘political correctness’ which has been a very good thing, unless you’re a racist, sexist trog-lodyte. We don’t have to go too far in the past to see how language was used to belittle, insult and exclude.What political correctness did was make it unacceptable to refer to people in terms that are cringingly embarrassing now. I know of disabled people who were routinely referred to as ‘the cripple’ and words for those of African descent, or homosexual, that can only make you wonder at how cruel people could be.Of course it got taken to ridiculous lengths, but that’s one of the drawbacks of allowing the guilt-ridden middle class-es, the Pharisees of compassion into politics.But it was right to make language less hateful. But we shouldn’t be worried about people getting offended by the rantings and ravings of Hitler.We should be offended and we should also remember that we have not kept our promise. It did happen again. And when it did, we stood by and did nothing.Now that is offensive.

A professor of economics, was First Deputy Minister of Finance under Poland’s first post-Communist government and is a former president of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) in Warsaw.

By Marek Dabrowski

As the Euro recovers there remain many serious challenges facing world trade. BELGA PHOTO JULIEN WARNAND

10 ANALYSIS NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

By Theodoros Benakis

Turkey’s PM is being challenged by a semi-secret movement with consid-erable wealth which is considered

by some as a moderate form of Islam and by others as a fundamentalist organisation

Fethullah Gulen is once again making newspaper headlines in Turkey. No stranger to controversy, several years ago he was impli-cated in the infamous Ergenekon case of an al-leged criminal network of army officers, busi-ness leaders, secularists and arch-nationalists who were plotting to overthrow the govern-ment. Today, he is caught up in the country’s latest corruption scandal.

A preacher and former ally of Tayyip Er-dogan and his AKP party, Gulen was quick to turn against him after Erdogan cut off his source of power. Today, Gulen heads a move-ment (rather a semi-secret organisation) that rose from out of the shadow of Turkish Islam during the 1980s and 1990s and spread like a giant spider web into state structures. Its membership remains unknown, largely due to the absence of any organisational hierarchy, but it is estimated between one million and eight million.

In fact, Gulen’s movement is so secretive that it does not even have a name. It is simply known as Hizmet, which means “The Service” in Turkish. What is known, however, is that it wields power and influence over private com-panies, the media and schools in Turkey and around the world. Its secretive nature, finan-cial power and political influence can only be compared to Opus Dei, the powerful and se-cret society within the Catholic Church.

Is Gulen a ‘super star’?Despite the controversy that surrounds

Gulen, he was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine this year. In 2008, an article titled “Gulen Inspires Muslims Worldwide” appeared in Forbes magazine. The article described the Gulen movement as one that does not seek to sub-vert modern secular states and compared it to Christian movements that appeal to business and the professions.

Many other newspapers and magazines have covered Gulen and have presented him in a favourable light.

Born in a village of eastern Turkey in 1941, Gulen was attracted to the teachings of the Nursi movement, which is known for embracing modernity. At the age of 19, Gulen was a preacher in Izmir.

It was in Izmir that he proved to be a char-ismatic figure with many followers. He had a special interest in wealthy businessmen and he succeeded to bring some of them to him gain their loyalty.

In fact, Gulen understood perfectly the power of knowledge and of the free market economy and the media. This is why he fo-cussed his efforts on these three sectors of society.

Gulen used donations to open a centre in

1979 to help prepare students for university en-trance exams. He also created student dormito-ries. In 1982, he opened his first school which ultimately served as a base for its enormous ex-pansion both inside and outside Turkey.

Today, Gulen has about 300 schools in Turkey and as many as 1,000 in other coun-tries.

And even though Gulen faced resistance in several countries like Denmark and Ka-zakhstan, he was well received in other coun-tries like Pakistan and the Philippines.

In 1986, Gulen entered the media by es-tablishing Zaman, one of the most successful daily newspapers in Turkey. As regards busi-ness in the media, he bought TV and radio sta-tions as well as scientific publications.

And in 1996, Gulen’s followers entered the financial sector, establishing Asya Finans which later became the successful Bank Asya.

At the height of his power and influence in 1999, Turkish authorities accused him of at-tempting to overthrow the secular state. Gulen fled to the United States where he established himself in Pennsylvania. But his movement, his followers, his schools, companies and me-dia are still intact and remain active in Turkey.

His ideasGulen’s ideas are disputed. Many say he

preaches a moderate form of Islam and are impressed by his admiration for science and technology. And the level of education at his schools is widely considered high.

From a theological point of view, Gulen teaches that Islam “has a duty of service” to the community without discrimination be-tween Muslims and non-Muslims. He has actively encouraged the interfaith dialogue

between Islam and the “People of the Bible” (meaning Jews and Christians). In his effort to promote this dialogue, Gulen has met with Pope John-Paul II, the Patriarch of Constan-tinople Bartholomeos as well as the head of Sefardic Jews Rv. E. Bakshi-Doron.

The fact that he continues to lead his movement while in “exile” in the United States could be more proof that his views remain within a pro-western frame.

His rivals from all sides (left and right) of the political spectrum, however, accuse him of promoting a conservative form of Islam. Some go as far as saying that he is an active supporter of an Islamic state.

It is true, Gulen’s views are controversial. For instance, he believes women are somehow inferior to men. Yet, his schools do not require female students to wear the Islamic headscarf.

In any case, the influence and power of his movement is like an Islamic equivalent of the powerful Catholic Opus Dei.

An empire?Gulen had set very specific goals. From

the very beginning, he has tried to attract teachers, students, businessmen and journal-ists. Through his schools, student residences and private universities, Gulen has succeeded in reaching out to the young generation. The companies founded by members of his move-ment offer career paths for the graduates of his universities.

As regards the media business controlled by Gulen’s movement, it is an Empire. Since the 1990s, Gulen has been teaching a new considerable expansion. Members of his se-cret movement found their way to the state machinery and even in politics.

However, despite Gulen’s personal politi-cal views (in favour of a moderate Islam), he never came close with the different Muslim politicians active during the 1980s and 1990s.

His first ‘direct’ political involvement could be considered his alliance with Er-dogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Indeed, Gulen’s support secured a comfortable lead for the party and his media swayed public opinion. In fact, the preacher and his followers were instrumental in the AKP’s electoral victory in 2002.

But the alliance between an emerging po-litical star, as Erdogan is considered by many, and an influential religious personality of an international level, as Gulen is, came with an expiration date.

After the elections of 2011, Erdogan be-gan to distance himself from Gulen.

It is said that Gulen’s movement had be-come too influential - more so than the gov-ernment, the judiciary as well as the state fi-nances. In fact, Gulen’s movement ultimately evolved into a “state inside the state”.

A tough rival for ErdoganErdogan decided to cut the power strings

of the Gulen movement. He questioned who controls Gulen’s education network. This was received as a direct threat to the future of the schools and of the movement itself. Gulen accepted the challenge and his men turned against his former ally.

And then, the media controlled by Gulen began to unravel several scandals implicating Erdogan’s rule.

Some believe, although Gulen has person-ally denied it, that the latest corruption scan-dal to rock Erdogan because it involves the sons of his cabinet members was actually or-chestrated by the preacher from Pennsylvania.

Now, Erdogan is confronted with a very dangerous rival that poses a serious threat to his ambitions.

The power that Gulen enjoys through his network of companies and media could be the final nail in Erdogan’s coffin.

Since the 1990s, Turkish society has clearly seen its interest to turn to Islam. But despite the fact that many extreme-right po-litical parties tried to win votes, the voters have been more loyal to democratic values. The emergence of Erdogan’s moderate Islam-ic party was considered as a modern and ac-cepted alternative to the emergence of radical Islam. Turkish Islam includes a more modern expression of Islam, the Allevis, traditionally connected with secularist and leftist politics. On the other side, Gulen’s role in convincing Sunni Islam of the good intentions of Erdogan was crucial.

After the Turkish PM turned against his former ally, Gulen’s movement started to lose money – a lot of money. And this is now a very real threat to its existence.

It is more than logical to expect a tougher confrontation between the two men, but at the moment Turkey needs inner calm in order to overcome the actual crisis.

Erdogan could face his toughest rival yet

Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen at his residence on September 24, 2013 in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. AFP PHOTO/ZAMAN DAILY/SELAHATTIN SEVI

ADVERTISEMENT

12 EnErgy & climatE NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

IEA: Main oil and gas flows to move to Asian regionBy Kuplash Konyrova

ASTANA - During a working visit to Astana, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven presented the World Energy Outlook 2013, saying that in the nearest future the main trade flows of oil and gas will move to the Asian regions, which will change the geopolitics of oil.

“Northern America’s need for import of crude oil will practically disappear by 2035, and that region will become a key exporter of petrole-um products. At the same time, Asia will become a center of the world’s crude oil market: large volumes of crude will be delivered to this region through a few strategically important transport routes” van der Hoeven said.

According to her, crude oil will be supplied to Asia not only from the Middle East, but also from Russia, the Caspian region, Kazakhstan, Africa, Latin America, and Canada.

“As oil consumption in Asia grows, Kazakh-stan’s central location in the Asian region will provide it with an opportunity to increase oil pro-duction in a period from 2020 to 2035,” the head of IEA said.

She also said she believes that the states of the Caspian region and Russia and Kazakhstan will need to take a firm stand and hold tough nego-tiations on price formation and price formation mechanism for their oil and gas.

“You’ll need to be tough in negotiations, as there will be many suppliers competing for the oil and gas market in the Asian-Pacific region,” she said.

According to the IEA Outlook 2013, Middle East, the single largest producer of inexpensive oil, will remain the centre of the world’s oil pro-duction in the long term.

Van der Hoeven also said that the role of the

OPEC countries in meeting the world’s demand in oil would temporarily diminish in the nearest ten years because of an increased production of oil in United States, oil sand production in Cana-da, deep water production in Brazil, and gas con-densate production in various regions.

“By mid-2020, however, the total OPEC pro-duction will begin to decline, and the bulk of the world’s increment crude supplies will be provid-ed by the Middle East countries,” she said.

Another interesting thing that the IEA head talked about was the threat of closure of refiner-ies. “The IEA estimates that, in the period till 2035, about 10% of the processing facilities will face a threat of closure, primarily the refineries of the OECD states and, especially, of Europe,” van

der Hoeven said. According to her, the petroleum refining

industry is faced with serious changes in the oil supply and demand structure, and not all players in that sector will be able to successfully adjust to the new conditions

“The growing production of broad fractions of light hydrocarbons and the production of bio-fuels and synthetic liquid fuel from coal and gas means that a substantial portion of fuels reaches the end users without any involvement from the refineries,” she said.

Having said that, the processing industry needs investment to meet the sharply growing demand for diesel fuel (over 5 mb/d), which will be almost three times greater than the growth of

gasoline consumption.“The shift of oil consumption towards Asia

and Middle East will result in continuous growth of processing capacities in those regions, while the declining demand in the OECD countries and the competition in the export markets will cause refinery shut-downs,” the head of IEA said.

In conclusion of her overview, van der Hoeven mentioned that, in spite of the devel-opment of renewables, the demand for oil gas and coal in the global consumption structure would remain high. Their share in the energy basket will total 75%.

At an extended meeting of the Association KazEnergyin Astana, van der Hoeven met with the top-managers of the major producers operat-ing in Kazakhstan, including influential KazEner-gy head Timur Kulibaev. The participants of the meeting included the heads of the regional offices of Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, ENI, LUKoil, and KazMunayGaz, as well as government officials and members of parliament.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Oil and Gas Uzak-bai Karabalin said that in his view it is very impor-tant that the role of oil, gas and coal in the global energy structure remains the most significant in the outlook till 2035. “Some futurologists have on many occasions ‘buried’ oil and coal, of which Kazakhstan has considerable reserves. Over the past half-century, the plummeting of oil and coal’s importance has been predicted with a ‘hundred percent certainty’ every decade. In fairness, the growing PR of such opinions does not affect the objectiveness of this respectful Agency,” Karaba-lin claimed.

Indeed, Kazakhstan’s reserves of hydrocar-bons are significant: over 5 billion tonnes of oil and about 4 billion cubic metres of gas. Its coal deposits are huge. The republic also is the world’s leading supplier of uranium.

Scottish oil services company Weir Group said it signed a $98 million contract to provide maintenance for the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq, news agencies reported. Weir said it agreed to provide general maintenance and pipeline services for Russian oil company LUKoil, Russia’s number two oil producer, at the field for two years.

Weir said it has already set up an $8 mil-lion service center at the Iraqi port city of Basra, one of the first maintenance facilities of its kind in the country.

“This substantial contract demonstrates the importance of Weir’s long experience of working in Iraq and our reputation for de-livering high-quality engineering services in support of the country’s developing oil field infrastructure,” Weir Chief Executive Officer Keith Cochrane said in a statement.

Weir said its operations in Iraq will help LUKoil produce an estimated 150,000 barrels

of oil per day from West Qurna-2 by the end of the year.

West Qurna-2 is estimated to hold up to 14 billion barrels of recoverable reserves, mak-ing it among the largest undeveloped fields in the world.

LUKoil said it will keep spending at $20 billion this year even without last year’s ac-quisitions as it starts output in Iraq, allowing the second-largest Russian oil producer to begin recovering its investment from April or May.

“This is our peak year” for investment, Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov said in Moscow. LUKoil is also upgrading refiner-ies, investing in Uzbek gas and preparing to drill the Caspian Sea Filanovsky deposit, Ale-kperov said.

LUKoil will study borrowing options for the second half depending on economic is-sues such as the ruble and oil, he said.

Weir Group gets LUKoil maintenance contract at Iraqi oil field

The headquarters of Russian oil major LUKoil in Moscow. LUKoil said it will keep spending at $20 billion this year even without last year’s acquisitions as it starts output in Iraq. EPA/SERGEI ILNITSKY

International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said that in the nearest future the main trade flows of oil and gas will move to the Asian regions. EPA/EVERETT KENNEDY BROWN

13EnErgy & climatENEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

On 27 January, Bulgaria’s Environment Ministry said it approved the environ-mental impact assessment (EIA) report on the Balkan country’s offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline. The high expert environmental council with the environment ministry has unani-mously adopted a decision to approve

the implementation of the investment proposal for the construction of the Bulgarian offshore section of the South Stream gas pipeline, the ministry said in a press release.

The Bulgarian section of the project will be approximately 236 kilometres in length. It runs from the border between

the Turkish and the Bulgarian exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, to the landfall in Bulgaria.

From there, natural gas will be trans-ported through the country by South Stream Bulgaria AD and further by other joint ventures into Southeast and Cen-tral Europe.

Putin says Ukraine’s gas bill overdueBy Kostis Geropoulos

BRUSSELS - The Russian economy and gas monopoly Gazprom will take a hit if Ukraine, which is facing growing unrest, fails to pay its already reduced gas bill, Russian President Vladimir Pu-tin said on 28 January.

The Russian leader, who was speak-ing during a news conference in Brussels after a European Union-Russia summit, reminded that Gazprom reduced the price of gas to help alleviate Ukraine’s debt which has reached $2.7 billion.

“We’re trying to reduce this debt by reducing gas prices and by deferring payments and the Ukrainian govern-ment has in fact asked for deferred pay-ments and this is probably not the worse part of what’s happening. It was just this morning that I was advised that Ukraine is asking for a deferral on the amounts due this year on already reduced prices,” Putin said. “This would be a major chal-lenge for our economy and for Gazprom because this particular revenue stream is already booked for potential invest-ment,” Putin said, addressing reporters with European Council President Her-man Van Rompuy and European Com-mission head Jose Manuel Barroso.

Alexei Kokin, a senior oil and gas analyst at UralSib Financial Corp, told New Europe from Moscow that gas is only part of the political prob-lem involving Ukraine because of the discount that Gazprom has to pay for essentially to subsidize supplies to the former Soviet republic. “Gazprom’s expectations of a much higher volume to Ukraine than 2013 that’s probably to some degree influenced by political consideration, he said.

At the press conference, Putin stressed that no matter who becomes the new Ukrainian prime minister, the Russian government plans to address those issues with them. He also said that Russia will not revise this arrangement on the loan and on energy if the opposi-tion comes to power.

“It’s not important to us because we had a very constructive dialogue with the Ukrainian government when this government was chaired by (former prime minister and jailed opposition

leader) Mrs (Yulia) Timoshenko. We talked to her about everything and this is not a taboo subject for us – so we will talk to any government in Ukraine. But what is of principal importance for us is that the Ukrainian economy is credit worthy, that the Ukrainian economy is able to generate positive effects from its development, for the government to hold constructive changes, reforms so that we’re confident we will get this money back,” Putin said.

The Russian President also said that the EU and Russia have once again argued about the Third Energy Pack-age. “We had problems with the Nord Stream’s extension, the OPAL pipeline in Germany, and we have agreed that 100% will be used, not 50% as before – we have movement even in the most difficult issues,” he said.

Both Putin and Barroso struck a conciliatory tone. Barroso highlighted the importance of the Third Energy Package for the EU. “On energy mat-ters, I have explained once again to my Russian colleague how important the Third Energy Package is for us, that it’s not discriminatory, that we apply these rules for all companies in the world as we do to our European companies, to American companies so we try to avoid

politicizing the issue,” Barroso said, adding that the EU has addressed Rus-sia’s concerns and is committed through “pragmatic dialogue” to solve some of their concerns. He also referred to the OPAL pipeline as an example.

“But, at the same time, we have a different conception in what comes regarding the trade on energy and in-vestment. But our conception is not discriminatory. In fact the Russian companies like Gazprom are acting in 20 of our Member States and they can also use the European instruments if they want against any kind of practice they believe is monopolistic or abusing the market,” the European Commis-sion President said, indirectly referring to an EU antitrust probe regarding the Russian company’s pricing for gas sales in central and eastern Europe, that has soured relations.

Kokin noted that the big issue is the anti-monopoly investigation and its potential impact on Gazprom’s prices in Eastern Europe, mostly in Lithuania and Poland”. But he noted that this can probably be more or less negotiated between Gazprom and the European Commission. “I don’t really think Putin can contribute very much to this,” he said.

Gazprom compromises to avoid losing business

By Kostis Geropoulos

Energy Insider

The Lithuanian Energy Ministry said on 30 January that share-holders of the Baltic state’s gas utility Lietuvos Dujos voted to initiate arbitration against Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in order to lower too high gas prices.“Gazprom supplied gas price for AB Lietuvos Dujos is signifi-cantly higher than in Latvia’s, Estonia’s or Germany’s markets. This is harmful for our customers, for our economy and also for the company AB Lietuvos Dujos, which is actually losing customers and gas consumption is being significantly reduced because of such prices,” the energy ministry said.The decision to initiate arbitration was proposed by Lithuanian government, which holds 17.7% of Lietuvos Dujos. Germany’s E.ON owns 38.9% and Gazprom, the only gas supplier to Lith-uania, has 37.1%.The Lithuanian company announced earlier in January through the Vilnius Stock Exchange Information Network that its share-holders would consider on 30 January the Lithuanian Energy Ministry’s proposal to initiate arbitration proceedings against Gazprom. “The arbitration proceedings will be ceased if the company reaches an amicable contract with Gazprom, which will be approved by the board of directors,” the statement read.Greece is also seeking lower gas prices from Gazprom but so far has avoided arbitration given that it is a lengthy procedure. The Rus-sian company and Greece’s Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) are currently holding discussions on the cost of natural gas.“So far, Gazprom appears to have compromised on prices only with those buyers that have real alternatives to Russian gas,” Ju-lian Lee, senior energy analyst at London’s Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), told New Europe on 31 January. “Both Greece and Lithuania have the prospect of future alternatives, either in the form of piped gas from Azerbaijan, or as LNG (liq-uefied natural gas), but the competition may not yet be strong enough for Gazprom to make concessions easily,” he added.Lee noted that the fact that expected LNG exports to the United States have not materialised because of the surge in its domestic production of shale gas have already put pressure on Gazprom. The start of US LNG exports in the next couple of years can only increase that pressure, he added.In Brussels, Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras brought up the issue of the high cost of natural gas in a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Greek government is thought to have ordered DEPA officials to reject any price of more than $400 per 1,000 cubic metres.Samaras argued that Greece could not afford to keep paying natural gas prices that are about 30% above the European aver-age. “My country is currently coming out of a six-year recession and low energy prices from Russia are crucial to our recovery,” he said.Gazprom last year pulled out of a bid at the last minute for DEPA. One of the reasons, officials said at the time, was the European Commission’s “objections” to the sale that would give Gazprom a strong hold in the Mediterranean state’s energy market.The Commission launched an antitrust probe against Gazprom in September 2012. The Russian gas giant said two weeks ago it would defend itself against accusations it had abused its domi-nant market position. KGeropoulos@NEurope.eu follow on twitter @energyinsider

Bulgaria approves South Stream offshore section

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he takes part in a joint press conference following an EU-Russia summit at the EU Headquarters in Brussels, 28 January 2014. AFP PHOTO/JOHN THYS

14 EU-WORLD NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

China’s banks must evolve or perishBEIJING - As China’s traditional banks raise interest rates to claw back lost deposits, they must find new profit sources as Internet fi-nance is booming. Earlier this week, the China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China and the Bank of Communications raised the deposit rate by 10% to the upper limit in some branch-es, for some clients, or for a fixed period. Experts see this as an attempt to restore some of the deposits that have been diverted into In-ternet products such as Yu’E Bao, a personal online finance product by Internet giant Ali-baba which allows users to place any amount of savings into a money market fund. At the end of 2013, Yu’E Bao had 43 million users with aggregate deposits of 185 billion yuan (about $31bn), the single biggest public fund in China. “Although the rate increase might not bring back deposits that had gone to the Internet, it is still attractive to clients who make daily cap-ital demands on banks,” said Guo Tianyong, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics. In the short term, banks might face liquid-ity problems due to the competition from Internet finance, Guo warned. “This would also serve as a wake-up call that there are no more easy profits for banks in China, solely on deposits, loans and remittances,” said Guo. “They must promote intermediary business and wealth management and provide all-round service to clients.” In previous years, banks often saw their profits grow 30 to 40% annually, according to Zong Liang, deputy head of the international fi-nance institute of the Bank of China, but as the financial sector is liberalized it becomes difficult, forcing banks to be more innovative, said Zong. Even before the emergence of Internet finance, profit growth was slowing down. In 2012, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the China Construction Bank saw their profits grow by 14.5% and 14.3% respectively, sharply down from the 36% and 34% in 2008. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the cen-tral bank, has already initiated liberalization of the financial sector. In June 2012, the PBOC announced that the upper limit of the floating band of deposit rates would be adjusted to 1.1 times the benchmark or up 10% at most. Guo saw the rate increase as a “rehearsal” for banks ahead of total liberalization of interest rates, to prepare themselves for the future. Interest rate freedom means the future is not all rosy for the new Internet financiers either, such as Yu’E Bao, who invested more than 80% of its fund into an “agreement deposit,” using the interest rate spread to make a profit. Interest rate liberalization would make it im-possible for Yu’E Bao to make profits this way. They too must explore new ways of making profits or find their current high rate of return unsustainable, said Guo. (Xinhua)

By Bouazza Ben Bouazza & Paul Schemm, Associated Press

TUNIS — After decades of dictatorship and two years of arguments and compromises, Tuni-sians on Sunday finally have a new constitution laying the foundations for a new democracy.

The document is groundbreaking as one of the most progressive constitutions in the Arab world — and for the fact that it got written at all. It passed late Sunday by 200 votes out of 216 in the Muslim Mediterranean country that inspired uprisings across the region after overthrowing a dictator in 2011.

“This constitution, without being perfect, is one of consensus,” assembly speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar said after the vote. “We had today a new rendezvous with history to build a democ-racy founded on rights and equality.”

The constitution enshrining freedom of religion and women’s rights took two years to finish. During that period, the country was bat-tered by high unemployment, protests, terrorist attacks, political assassinations and politicians who seemed more interested in posturing than finishing the charter.

At the same time, Egypt wrote two consti-tutions — and went through a military coup against an elected government. Egypt’s charters were quickly drafted by appointed committees and involved little public debate or input. In Tu-nisia, an elected assembly of Tunisian Islamists, leftists and liberals worked on a detailed road-map for their political future.

Tunisians hope its care in drafting the con-stitution makes a difference in returning stability to the country and reassuring investors and allies such as the U.S.

“We needed time to get this constitution as it is today,” said Amira Yahyaoui, who has closely followed the assembly’s activities with her moni-toring group Bawsala. “Clearly, writing this con-stitution to do a real transformation of the minds of people needed time and I absolutely don’t re-gret these two years and I am happy we had time to discuss and think about all the arguments.”

The new constitution sets out to make the North African country of 11 million people a democracy, with a civil state whose laws are not based on Islamic law, unlike many other Arab constitutions. An entire chapter of the docu-ment, some 28 articles, is dedicated to protect-ing citizens’ rights, including protection from torture, the right to due process, and freedom of worship. It guarantees equality between men and women before the law and the state com-mits itself to protecting women’s rights.

“This is the real revolution, many demo-cratic constitution don’t even have that,” said Yahyaoui. “It will have a real impact on the rest of the Arab region, because finally we can say that women’s rights are not a Western concept only, but also exist in Tunisia.”

Tunisia has always had the most progressive legislation on women’s rights in the Arab world

and Yahyaoui believes the long period of writing has made people comfortable with its contents.

One of the most hotly debated articles guarantees “freedom of belief and conscience,” which would permit atheism and the practice of non-Abrahamic religions frowned upon in other Islamic countries. It also bans incitement to violence and declaring a Muslim an apostate — a fallen Muslim — which leaves them open to death threats. In response, conservative law makers insisted that “attacks on the sacred” be forbidden, which many see as a threat to free-dom of expression.

“This formulation is vague and gives too much leeway to the legislators to trample other rights such as the right to free expression, artistic creation and academic freedoms,” warned Amna Guelleli, the Human Rights Watch representa-tive in Tunisia. “However, the risk is reduced given the strong safeguards (in other articles) against overly broad interpretations.”

Since the revolution, there has been a rise in convictions for so-called attacks on religion, es-pecially by artists. A Tunisian cartoonist is in the second year of a seven-year sentence for posting cartoons insulting to the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.

Constitutional scholar Slim Loghmani said despite some drawbacks, the constitution is an “historic compromise between identity and modernity” that can serve as a model for other countries in the region seeking a balance be-tween an Arab-Islamic heritage and contempo-rary ideas of human rights and good governance.

“It’s a step forward in the nagging question of cultural identity in Arab countries,” he said, lauding in particular not just freedom of reli-gion but what he calls the freedom “not to have a religion.” While the constitution itself will not solve the country’s persistent unemployment, rising prices, crushing debt and constant dem-

onstrations, Loghmani said it will move politics forward and reassure foreign investors that the country is back on track after a rocky transition.

“It will be a relief for the average Tunisian who is impatient to see the end of the transition period,” he said. “It will reassure Tunisia’s inter-national partners that country is headed in the right direction.”

The completion of the constitution is also a tribute to the assembly’s disparate parties to come to compromise and negotiate to reach a consensus.

The moderate Islamist party Ennahda, which holds more than 40% of the seats in the assembly, backed down on putting a number of religious-inspired measures into the constitu-tion in the face of wide opposition.

At times the constitution looked like it would never get written, with numerous walk-outs by different parties and at one point a com-plete suspension of its activities in the wake of the assassination of a left-wing deputy in July.

In the end, Ennahda made concessions to the opposition and stepped down in favour of caretaker government to manage the rest of the transition, allowing the constitution to be com-pleted.

The willingness of Ennahda to negotiate stood in sharp contrast to the more overbearing approach of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which had a more dominant position in the elected parliament and held the presidency. It ran roughshod over the demands of the opposi-tion, citing its electoral successes.

The overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt by the military in July and subsequent violent repression was a stern warn-ing to Tunisia, said Yahyaoui of Bawsala, and it helped the various parties find a compromise.

___Paul Schemm reported from Rabat, Morocco.

Tunisia finally passes progressive constitution

Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki shows a copy of the new constitution after its adoption on January 27, 2014. AFP PHOTO / FETHI BELAID

15ARTS & CULTURENEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican library and four Japanese historical institutes have agreed to inventory, catalogue and digitize 10,000 documents from a lost Japanese archive detail-ing the persecution of Christians in Japan in the 17th-19th centuries. Monsignor Cesare Pasini, head of the Vatican’s Apostolic Library, said the so-called Marega Papers represent the larg-est known civic archive of its kind. An Italian missionary priest took the 22 bundles of docu-ments out of Japan in the 1940s and brought them to Rome. They sat in the Vatican library’s storage depository for decades until a Vatican

researcher who could read the characters real-ized their importance in 2010. Contacts with Japanese experts ensued, and a team of Japanese researchers came to the Vatican in September to have a first look at the trove. On Tuesday, a six-year agreement to inventory the documents and prepare them for study was signed between the Vatican Library and the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Museum of Japanese History, the historiographical institute of the University of Tokyo and the archive of the prefecture of Oita. Pasini explained: Jesuit mis-sionaries first began spreading the faith in Japan in 1549, famously led by St. Francis Xavier, one of the founders of Pope Francis’ Jesuit order.

Divers in the Baltic Sea have discovered rare Stone Age artefacts that reported-ly belonged to Swedish nomads some

11,000 years ago. It is a discovery that the local Swedish media is calling “Sweden’s Atlantis”.

Despite the media’s flare for blowing the find out of proportion, archaeologists say the discovery is quite possibly the oldest settlement from the first more-permanent sites in Scania and in Sweden. This is how Björn Nilsson, the project leader and archaeology professor at Södertörn University, described it in an inter-view with The Local.

His team has been diving in Hanö, a sandy bay off the Coast of Skåne County, as part of a project financed by the Swedish National Her-itage Board. Nilsson is heading the three-year excavation of an area 16m underwater.

To date, they have discovered various rem-

nants of what Nilsson believes were thrown into the water by nomadic Swedes in the Stone Age. The biggest find is, according to Nilsson, a har-poon carving from animal bone.

“There’s wood and antlers and other imple-ments that were thrown in there,” Nilsson told The Local. “Around 11,000 years ago there was a build up in the area, a lagoon or sorts… and all the tree and bone pieces are preserved in it. If the settlement was on dry land we would only have the stone-based things, nothing organic.”

His team has also discovered wood pieces, flint tools, animal horns, and bones of the au-rochs, the ancestor of domestic cattle, the last of which died off in the early 1600s.

“What we found here is totally new for us - the whole diving team is really thrilled. They’re having the time of their lives down there,” said Nilsson.

The Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow has ambitious plans for an abandoned paper mill in southeast Siberia on the shores of Lake Baikal. It wants to convert it into a theme park.

If all goes to plan, the Baikalsk Paper and Pulp Mill, which is slated to shut operation in three months, will be converted into an ecological ca-tastrophes museum. The site around the mill is to be turned into a nature reserve.

Having secured the backing of Russia’s envi-ronment ministry, the Strelka Institute is work-ing closely with the Green Future environmental conservation fund. But the plan, which includes a massive environmental cleanup effort (the big-gest in Russia’s history) still needs final approval by the government.

The mill, which has been in operation for more than a half-century, has left a ruinous eco-logical footprint. Environmentalists have warned that more than 6m tonnes of toxic waste from the mill has been dumped into the area’s 13 reservoirs.

The first and biggest job is to cleanup and regenerate the area. Plans for this will be tabled by VEB Engineering, a construction company owned by the paper mill.

Last summer, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced plans for the government to invest 40bn rubles ($1.1bn) to clean up the area, but only 2.8bn rubles has so far been allo-cated. According to Dmitry Sheibe, VEB’s general director, this will not be enough. But finding ad-ditional funds is only part of the government’s job. Another is to deal with the 740 employees of the

paper mill who will soon be out of a job. Officials have promised to find employment for them. Some will be hired to assist with the regeneration of the area.

The government, meanwhile, is confident that the creation of the theme park and nature

reserve will increase tourism to Lake Baikal and ultimately create jobs. Not everyone, how-ever, is convinced. Alexander Grek, the chief editor of National Geographic, said he does not think Lake Baikal will ever become a pop-ular tourist destination.

A linen shred once removed from the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II’s mummy at the Ethno-graphic Museum in Olomouc, in the Czech re-public, was discovered by chance last year, Breti-slav Holasek, the museum director, told reporters last week.

He said no other museum in the country possesses a similar fabric from the world’s most

famous mummy. The fabric was reportedly removed from the

mummy in 1886. Its original owner was Viennese artist and photographer Richard Buchta. Holasek said he still does not know how it got to the muse-um. The fabric will be put on display for the first time ever in March during the museum’s exhibi-tion on Ancient Egypt.

Swedish divers discover Stone Age artefacts

Russian architects draw plans for paper mill in Siberia

Rare fabric from Egyptian mummy found in Czech museum

Vatican Library, Japan to catalogue lost archive

Diving into the past. EPA/JohAn nilsson

16 BRUSSELS AGENDA NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, Exhibit open until 09/03/14

The exhibition “Sculpture After 1945” features sculptures specifically chosen by the curators of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The exhibition displays a variety of modern sculpture, dating from 1945 to the present. The sculptures, created by a wide variety of artists from multiple countries, were chosen to dem-onstrate the changes and developments of art, particularly sculpture, in postwar Europe.

The exhibition shows how in sculpture, like in painting, depicting the human figure has become less common. The exhibition also dis-plays the evolution of materials used by sculp-tors in postwar era; the materials range beyond the stone carvings and bronze castings com-monly used before 1945.

Many of the pieces created after 1960 use a technique known as assemblage in which the artist uses salvaged materials, or pieces of these

materials, to make sculptures. The exhibit will be on display until 9 March

and is open everyday except Monday, from 10:00 until 17:00. Admission to the exhibit is free with the purchase of a ticket for the perma-nent collection.

05/02/14, Ancienne Belgique, 20:00 London based rock band To Kill A King, will headline this concert Wednesday, 5 Feb. The London-based group consists of five members, Ralph Pelleymounter, Ian Dudfield, Josh Plat-man, Jonathan Willoughby and Ben Jackson. Their folk-rock sound has been compared to groups like The National and Mumford & Sons.

They released their first full-length album, Can-nibals with Cutlery, in October of 2013.

To Kill a King will follow opening act Spring Offensive, an Oxford based rock group. Their debut album, Young Animal Heats, is due to be released in mid-February.

Tickets are still on sale for the show, €12 preorder or €15 at the box office. The show is at Ancienne Belqiue at 20:00.

To kill a king with spring offensive

Sculpture After 1945

The Caucasus: From Sea to Sea

Osteria Romana, Av Legrand 11,BrusselsTel 02 648 1395www.osteriaromana.be You just have to hand it to the Italians, they know how to cook and Italian cooking doesn´t come any better than here.It is best to book a table because word is clearly spreading about the fast-growing popularity of this great Italian restaurant.The staff are very friendly and the own-er/chef Filippo La Vecchia is particularly hospitable, taking the time and trouble to venture out of the kitchen to chat with his diners.The quality and freshness of the delicious food is equally very high. The dishes are all typi-cal ones from a Roman kitchen but prepared in a more innovative way, with attention to the detail.The carbonara really is mouth watering but also try to look at the irregular shape of the other pasta, at the way in which pancetta (bacon) is cut. These details can make the difference be-tween the average and excellent.Situated just off Av Louise, the atmosphere is very cosy and laid back but still chic.I only visited Rome once but Osteria Romana definitely feels like finding a bit of the Eternal City in Brussels. I recommend this place for everyone who looking for a proper Italian restau-rant - you won’t find anything better in Brussels.

Resto Bites6 Feb. – 29 March – BozarAs the world’s attention turns to Sochi for the upcoming Olympic games, Bozar, De Pianofab-riek and others have joined together to intro-duce Brussels to the culture of the Caucasus, the region between the North Sea and the Cas-pian Sea that includes Russia, Georgia, Azerbai-jan and Armenia.

Straddling the Eurasian divide, the region also encompasses the Caucasus Mountains and, of course, Sochi, the site of the 2014 Win-ter Olympics.

The project will first focus on Georgia and Armenia through a variety of mediums, includ-ing music, film, theater, photography, literature, dance, culinary exhibitions, round-table dis-cussions, and an international colloquium. The wide range of exhibits will allow people to get a better taste of what life is like in the Caucasus, from its wine to its political issues.

Here’s what’s coming up during the exhibi-tion’s first week:

Impressions from the Caucasus Exhibition 6-28 Feb. -- De Pianofabriek, 18:00 Vernissage

The Christian Assyrians from Turkey and the Caucasus with photography by Nahro

Beth-KinneExhibition7 Feb. – 6 March – Ten Noey, 20:00

Music, dance, wine and food specialties from Georgia Music 8 Feb. – De Pianofabriek, 17:00

Retrospective: Impressions from the CaucasusFilm8, 9, 12 and 13 Feb. – De Pianofabriek

Sergey & Lusine Khachatryan play Brahms Music 14 Feb. – Bozar, 20:00

Upcoming EvEnts

17fashion & styleNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 february, 2014

One report is hardly enough to feature and do justice to the numerous hous-es that put all their heart and soul

into creating Haute Couture collections each season. Here are a few more examples for the Couture curious.

There wasn’t even a slightest hint of ten-sion between classic traditional codes and minimal futuristic tendencies in Karl Lager-feld’s latest Chanel collection. From the open-ing white dress worn by Cara Delevigne (yes,

the star model and muse) to the wedding dress also modeled by Cara, there wasn’t a single outfit we wouldn’t love to wear. In addition to the Maison’s signature spring palette of white, beige and baby pink; sparkling – iridescent – holographic peacock tones complemented the sharply cut, neat short dresses and longer, ethereal evening ones. There was a definite sporty mood in the air as all outfits were paired with luxuriously embellished sneakers, while some of the chic ‘tennis-inspired’ dresses were

worn with knee and elbow protectors, as well as trendy banana bags.

This season the spotlight was on Marco Zanini and his much-awaited first collection for the recently relaunched Maison Schiapa-relli. Some models paid tribute to interwar elegance, while others had lively prints and were paired with impressive Stephen Jones hats that winked at Schiaparelli’s surrealistic humour. Although there were recognizable touches of Schiap everywhere, like oversized trousers, Art Deco prints, pointed hats, and draped dresses with voluminous skirts, ab-sent was her very dear shocking pink. It is in-deed with great pleasure that we witness the rare reopening of an Haute Couture Maison, especially one with a spirit and heritage as rich as that of Elsa Schiaparelli.

Georges Chakra’s large collection re-sembled an entire Haute Couture wardrobe: short cocktail dresses with tennis-like shapes and pretty flat sandals, well-cut white daytime outfits, embroidered pastel-toned mermaid gowns, spectacular metallic ball gowns in soft hues and sari-inspired, tonic coloured evening ones. In a few words, Chakra’s collection was typically Parisian: refined and discreetly chic.

Alexis Mabille presented an almost en-tirely white collection of evening gowns that owned the 1900 Paris air we’d spotted in previ-ous seasons. Why does this collection remind us of Belle Epoque actress Sarah Bernhardt’s divine style? Could it be Mabille’s long fluid gowns, Greco-Roman drapes, hem embroi-dery, precious lace appliqué, Art Nouveau belts and light trains? Once again, Mabille leads us into his fantasy world with subtle references to the past and faultless taste.

As for Julien Fournié, he combined fu-

turistic cuts, mainly accented shoulders and sleeves in shiny, foil-like fabrics, with romantic flared skirts in soft, petal-coloured tones. The collection seemed to evolve around the wild flower theme, with pretty shiny ‘baby’ dresses at the start and longer more minimal jersey gowns as it progressed.

Last but not least, Indonesian designer Didit Hediprasetyo experimented with the Songket, a traditional Indonesian brocade tex-tile with a houndstooth pattern, that is usually found on men’s suits. Hediprasetyo also used lambskin to make corsets, short dresses and beautiful geometrical jackets. A series of white lace dresses added a soft touch to this other-wise seductively strict collection.

Louise Kissa lkissa@neurope.eu

HAUTE COUTURE: SPRING/SUMMER 2014

Spring Couture Continued

GEORGES CHAKRA© Georges Chakra

CHANEL© Chanel

CHANEL© Chanel

ALEXIS MABILLE© Miguel Medina/ AFP

JULIEN FOURNIE© Francois Guillot/AFP

DIDIT HEDIPRASETYO © Didit Hediprasetyo

SCHIAPARELLI© Francois Guillot/AFP

18 Society NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

For more than 20 years, two dozen ethnic Russian families from Tajikistan have been living at a forgotten makeshift refugee camp on the outskirts of Borisoglebsk, a small town about 600km south of Moscow. They had all fled the 1992-1997 Tajik Civil War. As many as 300 ethnic Russian refugees had made their way to the camp during the war. Most of them were granted apartments by the Russian government. The remaining 27 families were not. Relo-cated and now they are no longer eligible to receive any form of state funding from Russia. They still live in metal “barrels” at the camp where there is no gas and only a limited sup-ply of water (available at a nearby pump for just two hours a day). “We left that country behind for our chil-dren’s sake. We travelled in boxcars. The whole train was full of us refugees. And we spent a month awaiting departure because

the railway was damaged and there were no trains,” Sergey Kapunin told EurasiaNet.org.Kapunin says he is stuck at the camp be-cause he failed to renew his refugee status on time. Before leaving Tajikistan, he was part of a construction cooperative, KhOKO. According to Boris Krasnov, cofounder of KhOKO, the cooperative’s ethnic Russian employees made there way to Borisoglebsk, where the organisation purchased the metal “barrels” and soon after started helping the refugees. In the early years, Russia’s migration ser-vice assisted them. But things changed when the responsibility shifted to the inte-rior ministry. “We felt the helping hand from the state,” Krasnov told EurasiaNet.org. “The migra-tion service helped us refugees settle down and registered us. Then this function was moved to the interior ministry and all help stopped.”

By Sylvia Hui, Associated Press

LONDON — It’s reality TV for austerity times. A shoplifter, a recovering drug addict and a young couple barely able to feed their kids are among the stars of “Benefits Street” — a smash hit reality show featuring welfare recipients that has stirred up a storm of controversy in Britain.

The program zooms in on a rough Birming-ham street where 9 out of 10 people are said to live off state payouts, chronicling over five epi-sodes the lives of jobless neighbors as they strug-gle with their daily problems.

The show has struck a strong chord in a na-tion fresh out of recession and still reeling from its most brutal austerity measures in a generation, with basic public services trimmed drastically. Britain’s welfare state has long been a subject of pride among many Britons, but these days atti-tudes toward benefits have hardened — and polls suggest that support for pouring taxpayer money into welfare, especially for the young, is at a record low.

British tabloids are replete with hysteria sto-ries about unemployed people buying flat-screen TVs and designer goods using welfare funds. And “Benefits Street” is the hottest in a growing genre of reality shows about the poor that has been dubbed “poverty porn” because of its sensation-alist nature. Even the sober BBC has jumped on the bandwagon with a documentary called “Brit-ain on the Fiddle,” which set out to catch benefits fraudsters in the act on camera.

Critics say “Benefits Street” and its ilk are designed to fan hatred by showing people on the dole in the worst possible light, turning the poor — stereotyped as lazy and dishonest — into fod-der for crass entertainment and easy targets for blame. Scores of viewers took to Twitter to vent abuse as soon as the first episode aired earlier this month, and some even made death threats. “Set fire to Benefits Street,” read one tweet. “How can we eradicate this scum?” asked another.

“On television the lowest common denomi-nator is to get viewers, so you get the extreme end of the spectrum,” said Abigail Scott Paul of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a poverty research think-tank. “These shows present poor people as characters in a soap opera.”

Broadcaster Channel 4 denies that the show is exploitative, insisting that the program reflected the reality in an area that has one of the country’s

highest unemployment rates.“This series gives a voice to the disenfran-

chised and some of those who have been hit hard-est by austerity,” said Nick Mirsky, head of docu-mentaries at Channel 4. “It was not undertaken lightly.”

And supporters of the program praise it for presenting a neglected side of Britain and upping the stakes in a national debate about welfare cuts.

“Poverty is one of the least fashionable topics in Britain,” said Fraser Nelson, editor of the right-leaning magazine Spectator. “People don’t want to believe that the welfare state is now sponsor-ing the poverty it’s designed to eradicate. People think it’s a horrible caricature, but it’s not.”

The cast on “Benefits Street” — real name James Turner Street — includes “Fungi,” an al-coholic and former drug addict who says he has never worked, and “Danny,” a petty criminal who demonstrates his shoplifting prowess for the cam-era. There’s a woman who faces eviction from her home, and a young family who said their welfare has been stopped because they fiddled the books.

Adding to the controversy, some residents have claimed that they were tricked into appear-ing on the show. And a working couple who said they were filmed complained they were edited out of the final cut because they don’t fit the pro-gram’s narrative of unemployed people milking the system.

Ofcom, the media watchdog, said the show attracted almost 1,000 complaints from viewers who thought it misrepresented people on ben-efits, and tens of thousands have signed a petition calling for the program to be axed.

The “poverty porn” trend comes as Prime Minister David Cameron’s government tries to overhaul the benefits system as part of a drive to further slash public spending. This month of-ficials announced plans to shave £12bn off the welfare budget.

John Bird, who co-founded The Big Issue, a magazine that homeless people sell on the street, said that despite its flaws, “Benefits Street” under-lines real problems with the security net.

“Documentaries are always slithers of reality and never give a full picture,” he said. “But they do indicate at times something going wrong. At times they can tell us uncomfortable truths.”

___Follow Sylvia Hui at http://Twitter.com/

sylviahui

The first-ever photographs of two snow leopards in Uzbekistan is evidence that this endangered cat is present in the region. A team of rangers and biologists, in collabo-ration with Panthera (a worldwide wild cat conservation organisation) and WWF, con-ducted a snow leopard camera trap study in the Kisilsu area of the Gissar Nature Reserve on the border of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in November and December. They snow leopards are “expert at navigating the steep and rocky alpine regions of Central Asia...recognisable by [their] long tail and almost-white coat, spotted with large black rosettes. There are up to 6,000 snow leopards in the wild across 12 countries, but its numbers are gradually declining, with hunting and habi-tat loss just some of the reasons that it is en-

dangered,” reads an announcement posted on WWF’s website. The snow leopard is a relative species to more widely seen Leopard (Panthera pardus). It is in the same size range as the leopard. Uzbekistan is one of about a dozen Asian countries that have snow leopards, but very little is known about them. What is known is that they are a prized tar-get for poachers, who can sell their pelts for more than $1,000.According to Alexandr Grigoryants, the executive director of the State Biocontrol Agency of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the population numbers of the snow leopard will increase with the help of Uzbekistan state protection officers and international conservation organisations like WWF and Panthera.

Poverty TV: Hit UK show stirs welfare debate

Tajik refugees forgotten by Russia

Poland’s second largest city, Krakow, is seeking the government’s approval to invest European Union funds for the construction of its first metro line. Local officials are hoping to secure some €1.18bn from the EU’s cohesion funds allo-cated to Poland for the years 2014-2020.

“We expect to hear an answer this year as to whether we can count on their support,” Deputy Mayor Tadeusz Trzmiel told the Dzi-ennik Polski newspaper.

Krakow’s plan is to construct a 17km east-west line that would run from the industrial

Nowa Huta district, through the city’s main railway station and on to the Bronowice dis-trict, with half of the route running under-ground. The construction of the entire line is slated to cost about €2.6bn.

According to city officials, the metro is necessary in order to rid the city of air pollu-tion because it will provide commuters with a cleaner alternative to driving.

If all goes to plan, the new metro will be in operation by 2022 - just in time for the Winter Olympics which Krakow is bidding to host.

Krakow digging for EU funds to build city’s first metro line

Snow leopards in Uzbekistan caught on film

Residents have been angered by the TV programme. Channel 4

19TECHNOLOGYNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

By Sean Dunn

2014 may be the year to usher in a revolu-tion, or rather evolution, in the way we compute.

With data moving to the cloud, the fu-ture is becoming evident. Comprehensive media environments in which all devices and programs are synched will likely be the major computing development of the coming years.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, and even Face-book recognize it and are working to make it a reality.

Everyday tablets and smart phones, once only science fiction devices from the minds of Stanley Kubrick and Gene Roddenberry, are rapidly edging out computers. According to sales figures, tablets, may soon be the primary device of choice by the majority of people.

Apple, have created a fervently loyal cus-tomer base, willing to queue day or night in rain or shine for the release of each product.

Google, whose Android operating sys-tem has become increasingly dominant in the mobile OS market, has been struggling with the open nature of its system, which al-lows manufacturers to overlay their own user interface and apps. This has created increasing fragmentation, with it becoming impossible to roll out upgrades with any co-ordination.

Microsoft has taken a long term approach, incrementally building their reputation and improving their products. A more palatable transition for PC users that haven’t made the transition to mobile devices.

But now there’s another competitor worth considering, and it could change the way we communicate.

It’s an operating system that has long been dismissed by mainstream users. Ubuntu, the open source Linux based operating system long considered only of interest to tech-geeks will soon be widely available for mobile de-vices, and it’s a respectable alternative.

A new approach to devices is part of the eagerly anticipated Ubunttu Touch. The operating system is on your phone, where it boots into Android, but when docked and connected to an ordinary monitor and key-board, your phone becomes a full desktop style computer running Ubuntu, complete

with office-style software, photo editing and more.

This can be achieved because Android and Ubuntu are both versions of Linux, so they can ‘play nice’ with each other and share data.

Ubuntu Touch’s user interface is simple, straightforward, and easy to use. Multitask-ing is a breeze as the OS easily runs tablet apps and phone apps simultaneously. Tapping through menus is also a thing of the past for the Ubuntu Touch user. A simple finger swipe from the edge of the screen takes the user from one app to another. Although reviews have generally been positive, it’s release has been long awaited and may be longer still.

In the summer of 2013, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, undertook an am-bitious crowdfunding campaign to launch the Ubuntu Edge smartphone. Unfortunately, the project was unsuccessful in raising its goal of $32 million, but the $12,809,906 that were raised made the campaign the world’s largest ever crowdfunded project.

Despite not having raised their goal, Canonical’s founder Mark Shuttleworth an-nounced at the Le Web conference in Paris in

December that a deal had been reached with an unnamed smartphone producer. Many took this as a sign the Ubuntu mobile device would be available in April, in concert with the release of Ubuntu 14.04. These expectations may be premature however. Recently, Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon stated that the release of an Ubuntu handset from any of the major original equipment manufacturers before 2015 is unlikely.

Despite its slow takeoff, open source envi-ronments may be the way forward, providing more opportunity for customization, afford-ability, and privacy.

As Microsoft tries to unify devices from phones to desktops, consumers have been unimpressed so far, but their long haul strategy may pay off. Apple are expanding their devices very slowly so there may be room for Ubuntu to consolidate, not oper-ating systems but devices.

The phone in your pocket replaces many devices people used to use, cameras, diaries, notebooks, even watches are increasingly rare.

For many, the traditional PC in the corner of the room is gathering dust. Is the computer of the future already in your pocket?

Is that a desktop in your pocket?

HANOI - After one week on trial, a private mini-submarine made by a Vietnamese me-chanic can now work perfectly with its full functions. Nguyen Quoc Hoa, the one who performed the mini-submarine production, said on Lo-cal Lao Dong (Labour) online newspaper Thursday that machinery parts inside the mini-submarine operates well as originally designed.

“Successful tests have been carried out with internal engines of the mini-vessel, includ-ing generator system, oxygen supply system, air filter and radar system,” said Hoa. Specifically, the submarine managed to ap-ply the advanced Air Independent Propul-sion technology while diving, Hoa added. Hoa, a director of an engineering company in Vietnam’s northern Thai Binh province, some 110 km southeast from capital Ha-

noi, started to produce a mini-submarine in early 2013. According to Hoa’s design, the submarine has a 12-ton displacement, and is able to operate at a maximum depth of 50 meters and at a range of 800 km for 15 hours. The testing mini-submarine is de-signed to work at estuaries or shallow water level for civilian purposes of marine natural resources research, and environmental pro-tection, said Hoa. (Xinhua)

Touching the next generation of computers

Tumblr founder David Karp and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer | MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

With help from private sector, EU space programs could

provide jobs, growthBy Meghan Boggess

Policymakers and business tycoons agree: the future of space in Europe lies in the private sector.The 6th Conference on EU Space Policy, which took place on 28-29 Jan. in Brussels, covered a broad range of rather vague topics: cooperation and competition in the space industry, the current state of the industry, and satellite telecommunications, among others. But a common thread wound through the conference: in or-der to grow, the space industry has to leverage private industry.When discussing the space industry, often the conversa-tion turns to exploration beyond our own atmospheric border. While this was certainly discussed, especially in reference to the European Space Agency’s Galileo and Co-pernicus programs, panelists were eager to point out how space programs could provide immediate benefits for or-dinary people, right here on Earth.Many panelists argued that demand for the space industry is rising, but with scaled-back budgets, the public sector will have trouble keeping up.“Don’t take financing for space as granted. There is a case for space but this case needs to be made regularly,” said Paul Weissenberg, deputy Director-General for Enterprise and Industry.Bringing in the private sector has a number of advantages, the first being that companies would begin paying into the value chain. Perhaps more important, with greater busi-ness involvement comes more jobs. “New jobs will depend on development of application markets,” Crespo said.Zbigniew Zaleski, MEP and member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, agreed, saying the space sector could produce both high- and low-skilled jobs. To get these new jobs, however, the space indus-try will need some help from EU institutions, through regulatory framework and a more focused, practical ap-proach to space.According to Daniel Calleja Crespo, Director-General for Enterprise and Industry, future industrial strategy should contain five key components: a stronger European indus-trial base; a better business environment; an emphasis on research, development, innovation and application; an emphasis on both civilian and military applications; and an emphasis on the international market. EU citizens will also have to be convinced that future space programs, whether privately or publicly funed, are necessary.“It’s fascinating to launch satellites,” Weissenberg said. “[But it’s] not an aim in itself. It’s a tool to deliver a ser-vice to the citizen. Space is a driver for growth, innova-tion and employment. In other words, the taxpayer gets his money back.”Already, the EU’s Copernicus and Galileo programs have found clear applications. Once functional, Galileo will have the unique capability of being able to communi-cate with a missing person who uses the system to start a search-and-rescue.Future space programs will need similarly practical func-tions so they can truly serve the citizens who built and paid for them.Like the satellite signal that travels through space for a few moments before returning to Earth, innovators and poli-cymakers in the space industry need to make sure their ideas, once launched, send back clear benefits for people on the ground.

Vietnamese homemade mini-submarine operates well on trial

This phone is also a desktop. HOA YInG

20 TECHNOLOGY NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

One day soon, internet users in the United States and around the world will see something they want to buy

or a restaurant they want to visit and Google - the most-used search engine on the internet – will offer to take them there for free.

This is all part of a soon-to-be-launched transport-linked ad service aimed at encourag-ing consumers to take advantage of a special deal advertised by a shop, restaurant or enter-tainment venue. It could revolutionise the way retailers use online advertising.

In an interview with the BBC, Gregory Roekens, the chief technology officer at the advertising company AMV BBDO, said: “This is trying to turn advertising into a utility and remove barriers for consumers. It’s a really in-teresting idea”.

How will it work? Businesses will be able to tailor their ads and special offers to consumers based in a certain location. This will be possi-ble through the use of GPS tracking. Then, the offer of free or cheap travel will be the catch, according to Google to lure the customer.

Google has already invested a whopping $258m in Uber, a ride-sharing service in San

Francisco. It is all part of Google’s US patent for the so-called “transportation-aware physi-cal advertising conversions” system.

“For example, the system may consider various factors including a consumer’s current location, the consumer’s most likely route and form of transportation (such as train, personal car, taxi, rental car, or shared vehicle), the con-sumer’s daily agenda, the price competing ad-vertisers are willing to pay for the customer to be delivered to alternate locations, and other costs,” the patent says.

“In this regard, the customer’s obstacles to entering a business location are reduced while routing and cost calculations are automatically handled based on the demand for the adver-tiser’s goods and potential profit margins.”

Google also says that “getting a potential customer to a business location in order to conduct a sale may be one of the most dif-ficult tasks for a business advertiser”. This is what Google is banking on and why the search engine is expecting advertisers to en-gage in a mad bidding war for the transport offer - just like they compete for the rights to Google keywords.

Stratasys launches new printer in 3DTriple-jetting technology. Droplets of three base materials. 3D. These are the three main features of the first-ever multi-material full-colour printer that was just launched by Stratasys. In a press release, the company, which is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States, and Rehovot, Israel, describes its ground-breaking Objet500 Connex3 Colour Multi-material 3D Printer, as the first and only 3D printer to combine colours with multi-material 3D printing.“Stratasys’ goal is to help our customers revolutionise their design and manufactur-ing processes,” says Stratasys CEO David Reis. “I believe our new Objet500 Con-nex3 Colour Multi-material 3D Printer will transform the way our customers design, engineer and manufacture new products. In general and with the Connex technology in particular, we will continue to push the en-velope of what’s possible in a 3D world.”The Objet500 Connex3 Colour Multi-ma-terial 3D Printer also features six palettes for new rubber-like Tango colours, ranging from opaque to transparent colours in vari-ous shore values to address markets such as automotive, consumer and sporting goods and fashion.“As the first true multi-purpose 3D printer, we believe the Objet500 Connex3 Colour Multi-material 3D Printer is in a league of its own, enabling you to dream up a product in the morning, and hold it in your hands by the afternoon, with the exact intended col-our, material properties and surface finish,” says Reis.This new state-of-the-art printer will cost about $330,000.MakerBot, a subsidiary of Stratasys since

2013, manufactures the company’s prosumer desktop 3D printers in Brooklyn, New York. It maintains the Thingiverse design-sharing community and facilitates a wide network of user groups.Stratasys holds nearly 500 granted or pend-ing additive manufacturing patents world-wide. It is a public company that trades on NASDAQ under the symbol SSYS.

FBI warns retailers about cyber-thievesIn the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is sounding an alarm against cyber-thieves and calling on retailers to increase security. The agency sent a confidential report to the country’s large retailers. The report, which was leaked to Reuters, re-portedly says shops need to look for the type of malware used to steal millions of credit card details from shoppers at the country’s giant retailer Target. The report said the FBI investigated some 20 cases last year that involved the same malware. The attack on Target is believed to be the big-gest retail cyber-attack in history. “We believe point-of-sale [POS] malware crime will continue to grow over the near term, despite law enforcement and security firms’ actions to mitigate it,” reads the FBI report. According to reports in the media, the cyber-thieves who hit Target were snatching credit card data for more than two weeks during the Christmas shopping period. Officials fear the thieves may have gotten away with details for 40m credit cards and stolen personal information on as many as 70m consumers.

DAVOS - Small as it is, the Swiss town of Da-vos cannot have everyone joining the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, but technology allows attendees to connect and share with a global audience, said a senior ex-ecutive of the forum. Jeremy Jurgens, chief information and interac-tion officer (CIO) of the forum, told Xinhua in an interview on Saturday the world’s top-level nongovernmental economic forum has used multiple digital tools to engage the public. “Davos is such a small mountain village that not everyone is able to join us here,” said Jur-gens, “We actually used the Internet to allow the conversation to continue outside the walls and mountains of Switzerland.” The 2014 Davos sessions are broadcast live through webcast in many languages and are updated on Twitter, Facebook, and (China’s Twitter-like) weibo, said Jurgens. “It’s very much a global meeting that allows decision-makers to not only meet here in per-son, but also connect and share their ideas with a broad, global audience.” The CIO, who oversees the organization’s in-formation technology sector, said technology brings transparency, which creates awareness and dialogue for people to converse and share. In other cases, he said, technology allows for new ways to approach people, such as video conferencing, “and all these changes reshape industry and the government.” Under the theme “The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for Society, Politics and Business,” the four-day annual meeting running from Jan. 22 to Jan. 25 has brought more than 2,500 participants from almost 100 countries, including over 40 heads of state or

government. This year, according to Jurgens, the forum has used many digital platforms to display user comments from blog posts and social media posts. “So the participants are as aware of what’s tak-ing place in the outside world as the outside world is aware what’s taking place inside,” he said. Davos fans are not only able to share their com-ments through different social media channels, but also submit questions ahead of the meeting to participants, said Jurgens. However, given the huge number of followers -- over 2 million on English social media sites and 1 million on Chinese sites -- it is difficult to select and decide what to surface, said Jurgens. “So we try a broad selection and share that.” Commenting on Xinhua’s newly launched multimedia website on the 2014 Davos meet-ing, Jurgens said that by engaging Chinese audiences and Davos participants, the “Eyes on Davos” project has helped open up the con-versation. “On ‘Eyes on Davos’ from Xinhua, you can actually follow the different sessions, see who all the speakers are, and follow the debates and have a discussion around the debates,” said Jur-gens, “It’s a very interesting way to experiment and innovate with social and new media.” China’s Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday launched a large-scale, multimedia and bi-lingual reporting project on the 2014 Davos Forum. Titled “Eyes on Davos,” the coverage focuses on current global issues, the profound impact of the wave of changes worldwide, and demonstrates China’s interaction with the whole world. (Xinhua)

A patent to Google away free rides for consumers

Tumblr founder David Karp and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer | MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

Google, a walk in the park too. JuSTIn SullIvAn/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

IntervIew:

technology allows 2014 Davos forum to connect with global audience

21EUROPEAN UNIONNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

STOCKHOLM - Swedish government has donated new funds to the preservation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, according to a state-ment issued on Monday by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. With the additional 1 million swedish kronor (about $156,000), the ministry said, “Sweden has doubled its

support to the international fund for the preservation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.”

Monday is the international Remem-brance Day for victims of the Holocaust and the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concen-tration and death camps, where about a mil-

lion Jews were murdered by the Nazi Ger-man government. Parts of the camp have been preserved and are now an authentic museum, which enables visitors to learn about the Holocaust and the crimes against humanity that were committed during the World War II. (Xinhua)

New Swedish donations to Auschwitz-Birkenau preservation

Sweden|Criminal reCordS

Crime records go online in Sweden amid protests MALIN RISING, Associated PressSTOCKHOLM — A website that lets Swedes check each oth-er’s criminal records has sparked a debate about the privacy of ex-convicts and their right to move on with their lives. Such da-tabases are available in the United States, but aren’t common in Europe, where privacy protection laws are typically stricter. By searching the Lexbase database, launched Monday by a Swed-ish company, users can instantly find out whether a person has been convicted of a crime in the past five years. A fee is required to get more information. Lexbase has a map with dots show-ing where convicted criminals live and plans to offer a mobile app alerting users when they enter a neighborhood with a high proportion of residents with criminal records. Though such re-cords are public in Sweden, critics said making them so easily accessible could prompt vigilantism against people who have already served their sentences and make it harder for them to re-enter society. Thomas Andersson, a spokesman for ECPAT, an organization that fights the sexual exploitation of children, said the service could lead to “increased social alienation” for offenders, increasing the risk of recidivism. Lexbase spokesman Pontus Ljunggren said he believes the database will help create a more secure and transparent society.

denmark|agriCulture

a big eu loss for small farmers in denmarkNew regulations will deprive as many as 8,000 Danish farmers from European Union subsidies next year. By increasing the size of the land that farmers will be required to claim in order to qualify for the EU subsidies, small farmers are worried they will lose out. Up to now, they needed to claim only two acres. Next year, they will only be eligible for an EU subsidy if they have at least four acres of land. Lone Andersen from the ag-ricultural organisation Landbrug og Fødevarer was quick to sound the alarm. “It is totally wrongheaded at a time when it is already hard to generate growth in rural areas,” Andersen told DR Nyheder, a local radio news station. “Although many are small hobby-type farms, they are nevertheless of great im-portance to food production and rural life.” The 8,000 small farmers who will lose their subsidies reportedly account for an estimated 74m kroner of the 7bn kroner subsidy that the EU paid to Danish agriculture last year.

Finland|touriSm

lapland tourism is in the air and costing millionsBetter flight connections to Finnish Lapland, home of the Midnight sun, the Northern Lights and Santa Clause, could bring millions of euros in additional tourism money each year, according to local officials. Lapland’s Regional Council con-ducted a survey of tour operators in Finland and discovered that the majority of them (as many as four in five) are losing potential sales due to poor flight connections. According to Hanne Junnilainen, an engineer at the Lapland Regional Council, 84% of the tour operators surveyed said their sales had dropped by as much as half in the past two winters. They all blamed poor flight connections for keeping tourists away.Now, plans to shut down several regional airports in Finland have got many tour operators more worried. Lapland Re-gional Director Mika Riipi has warned that this will further undermine the situation. While flying to Lapland is the easi-est and fastest way, airline services are at best sparse and very expensive.

Some members of the Dansk Folkeparti, Denmark’s most controversial political party (often accused of racism), are call-ing on the government to “limit the size” of the country’s Muslim minority. They are also urging border guards to stop more Muslims from entering the country.

The party’s anti-Muslim stance was outlined in a recent blog post by Marie Krarup, the Dansk Folkeparti’s defence spokesperson. “We should limit the size of the Muslim minority in Denmark,” she wrote.

Anders Vistisen, one of the party’s

two candidates in the upcoming European Parliament elections, was quick to support Krarup. Christian Langballe, the party’s citizenship spokesperson, however, said a total ban against Muslims is unrealistic and cannot be implemented.

Langballe was not the only member of the Dansk Folkeparti to disagree with Krarup’s heavy-handed measure. Deputy party head Søren Espersen also disagreed. Holger Gorm Petersen, a local Danks Folkeparti’s politician in Vejle, said it was “silly and stupid” to target Muslims at the border. The party’s head Kristian Thules-

en Dahl refused to comment. As for the more mainstream politi-

cians, Karina Lorentzen, the integration spokesperson for the government coali-tion party Socialistisk Folkeparti, said Krarup’s opinion reflects the Nazi sen-timents held by many members of the Danks Folkeparti.

“It is a sick mindset to identify all Mus-lims as a problem simply because they are Muslims,” Lorentzen said in a statement. “It is reminiscent of Hitler, who identified Jews as a problem simply because of their religion.”

Far-right Danish party member calls for Muslim ban

Sweden |auSChwitz

denmark |Far-right

germanY | deFenCe

Not one to mince words, Germany’s new defence minister, Ursula Von der Leyen, has come out in favour of a European army and in defence of the country’s increased role in war-torn countries around the world, especially in Africa.

In an exclusive interview with Der Spiegel, Germany’s top-selling news maga-zine, Von der Leyen explained Germany’s decision to become more engaged in Mali and in the Central African Republic. “It isn’t about German interests,” she said. “It’s about European interests. Africa is our di-rect neighbour. At the Strait of Gibraltar, the two continents are only 14km from one another. Should a large part of Africa become destabilised, it could have grave consequences for us.”

Asked about Central African Repub-lic, the minister, who is a leading con-tender to succeed Germany’s Chancel-lor Angela Merkel, said there is a bloody war developing between Christians and Muslims. “From a purely humanitarian perspective, we can’t look away when murder and rape are taking place daily,” she said. “We can’t allow the conflict to engulf the entire region. From a popula-tion perspective, Central Africa is small, but it is surrounded by countries with more than 150 million inhabitants. One billion live in Africa. In the next 30 years, that number will double. If this growth takes place within democratic structures,

the continent represents an opportunity for Europe.”

Von der Leyen, who is the mother of seven school-aged children, is also look-ing to the future. “A booming Africa is an opportunity, particularly for a country like Germany with such strong exports.”

But for now, Germany’s main focus will be on Mali where France last year helped to secure the country against Ma-li’s Islamic rebels. To help prevent Mali from relapsing into crisis, Germany’s Bundeswehr (national army) has started

training African soldiers. “We are training soldiers who are then deployed together with African Union troops in the country’s north,” said Von der Leyen.

Asked about a joint European army, Von der Leyen said: “There are many in-terim steps to be taken before getting to that point. What is clear, however, is that if that happens, European parliaments can-not be rendered powerless. But I believe that joint armed forces would be a logical consequence of an increasingly close mili-tary cooperation in Europe.”

Why Germany’s defence minister ‘can’t look the other way’

Joint armed forces ‘logical’ says new new defence minister. AFP PHOTO / ODD ANDERSEN

22 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

UK|Bilateral relations

China-Britain economic ties see great breakthrough in 2013LONDON - China and Britain made great breakthrough in bilateral trade and investment relations in 2013, with trade vol-ume hitting a record, a Chinese diplomat said here Monday. The year of 2013 was marked by an enhanced China-Britain economic cooperation, with bilateral trade volume reaching $70bn, up 11% year on year, said Zhou Xiaoming, minister counsellor of the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Britain. China’s export to Britain rose by 10%, reaching $51bn, he said. China became Britain’s larg-est supplier of electro-mechanical products, while British au-tomobile sales in China reached a new high of over 110,000 units. Bilateral financial ties were also strengthened in 2013, as London bolstered its position as Europe’s central offshore trading hub for China’s currency renminbi (RMB). The trade volume of RMB roared by 50% in London, making it the sec-ond largest offshore market only next to Hong Kong. Among China’s investment in Britain, real estate has been an obvious hotspot in recent years, said Zhou. The Lloyd’s building was bought by the Chinese insurance company Ping An. Another Chinese company, Dalian Wanda Group, made a deal to build a five-star hotel by the River Thames. (Xinhua)

Poland|nUClear energy

Poland adopts nuclear power programWARSAW - The Polish government adopted a national nu-clear power program on Tuesday, the Economy Ministry said in a statement. The program involves the construction of two 3,000-megawatt nuclear power plants in Poland together with building of a regulatory and organizational framework. The construction of the first power plant is planned to be completed in 2019 and operational in 2024. The plant’s cost could reach be-tween 40 and 60 billion Polish zloty (between 13 and $20bn). The second power plant is planned for 2035. The ministry said the nuclear power program was designed for building nuclear power plants, add nuclear energy to Poland’s energy mix and stimulate economic, social and regional development. At pre-sent, most of Poland’s power plants run on coal. (Xinhua)

Poland|Cia Prisons

Poland investigates new allegation of Cia prisonsLast week’s report in The Washington Post alleging that the CIA paid Poland $15m in 2002 in exchange for a site to set up a secret prison for terror suspects has sparked an official in-vestigation in Poland. Polish prosecutors are now launching an investigation into the report. But the news of a CIA prison in Poland is nothing new. Local and international human rights groups have long argued that such a prison had been set up by the CIA in Poland. According to The Washington Post, the CIA was allowed to use a remote villa in the Polish lake district to interrogate al-Qaeda suspects. The $15m in cash (stuffed in boxes) was reportedly received by the Polish intelligence service. In an interview with Reuters, Piotr Kosmaty, a spokes-man for the prosecutor’s office in the southern Polish city of Krakow, said The Washington Post article will be included in the investigation and will be analysed. Polish officials, how-ever, have vehemently denied that Poland ever agreed to allow the CIA to set up a secret prison. According to The Washing-ton Post, however, the US-based Human Rights Watch had identified locations in Poland and Romania several years ago and news accounts have since confirmed the presence of se-cret CIA prisons.

By danica Kirka, associated Press

LONDON, Dozens of buildings of 20 stories or more are under construction or planned along the south bank of the River Thames just upstream from Big Ben and the majestic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The development surge, fueled by wealthy foreigners looking for a safe place to invest, has spawned concern that the city is sacrificing its heritage for the sake of luxury homes.

“London is in danger of becoming a sort of Abu Dhabi, a sort of Hong Kong,” warned Nigel Barker of English Herit-age, a body devoted to protecting the na-tion’s inheritance.

London grows upIt’s not that London lacks distinc-

tive tall buildings: the 87-story Shard stabs the sky south of London Bridge, the 41-story Gherkin rises above the fi-nancial district, and soon there will be the 38-story Walkie Talkie, all of which earned their nicknames because of their unique shapes.

But critics are concerned about the sheer number of new projects — some 200 in various stages of consideration or construction, according to New Lon-don Architecture, an independent group studying development. Many of them are residential properties clustered along the south side of the Thames with views of the water and the architectural treas-ures across the river.

Unease about tall buildings in this city, which prides itself in having risen from the ashes of the Great Fire in 1666, isn’t new. Architectural purists like Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, have long warned against skyscrapers.

But economic forces following the 2008 economic crisis have rekindled the conflict between development and con-servation. While the government seeks to rein in the financial services indus-try, London continues to attract foreign money and wealthy expatriates, straining the city’s Victorian-era infrastructure and widening the wealth gap.

The independent Smith Institute estimated in 2012 that investment in luxury homes was £5bn a year. In the two years through June 2013, foreign nationals bought 69% of the newly built homes that sold for more than £1m in central London, according to an Octo-ber report by Knight Frank, a London property adviser.

“It is a honeypot for global capital,” said Peter Murray, chairman of New London Architecture. “So we’re seeing pressures we’ve never experienced be-fore. The movement of global capital is having a dramatic effect on how we plan the city.”

Rooms with a ViewAs governments poured money into

banks to save them during the financial crisis, rich people around the world sought safe places to park their money. Investors flocked to London because of the stability of Britain’s government, the city’s vibrancy and its tolerance for new-comers.

“We didn’t know that the U.K. in general, and London in particular, would be seen as a safe haven for people all over the world,” said Tony Travers, an expert on issues facing the capital at the Lon-don School of Economics. “Property in London was treated as an asset class that was safer than say, banks in Cyprus.”

From 2007, just before the crisis, to October 2013, house prices in Lon-don’s most desirable neighborhoods rose sharply. In Kensington & Chelsea, home to Kensington Palace and Notting Hill, average prices rose 42% to £1.2m, according to the Smith Institute. In the City of Westminster, which hosts the Houses of Parliament, prices jumped 43% to £863,000.

Prices for newly built homes on the south bank of the river are even higher. A four-bedroom, 6,600 square-foot apart-ment in the 50-story Tower at St. George Wharf is being offered for £19.5m.

The Place to beThe boom is also a reflection of

London’s attractiveness as one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities. With a population of 8.2 million, London boasts not just people from all corners of the former Empire, but everywhere else, too. There are more French citi-

zens living in London, for example, than in Bordeaux. Then there are some 250,000 Americans.

Demand for housing has spurred development, with a dozen construc-tion cranes jutting into the sky along the south bank of the river west of Westmin-ster Bridge. The work is part of a £15bn collection of projects known as Nine Elms, which promoters say will create 16,000 new homes, 25,000 jobs and an “internationally significant business dis-trict” in the boroughs of Lambeth and Wandsworth.

Deputy mayor for planning Edward Lister says there’s a strategic approach to protecting the city’s skyline, with detailed policies making sure the right buildings are in the right place.

Others aren’t so sure about it all, among them UNESCO’s World Herit-age Committee, the moral overseer of sites of significance. It has expressed concern about development near the Houses of Parliament, fearing it will ruin the view from Westminster, and has urged authorities “to ensure that these proposals are not approved in their cur-rent form.”

Should the committee ultimately put the site on its endangered list, it would be an embarrassment for Britain, which takes pride in safeguarding its national treasures.

Critics say the power of local coun-cils to approve construction is leading to disconnected planning — even though city authorities have the final say. The city, critics complain, is being re-de-signed via mission creep, one skyscraper at a time.

The face of London is about to changeUnited KingdoM |real estate

A river runs through it. EPA

23EUROPEAN UNIONNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

France|Bilateral relations

chinese, French presidents vow to deepen tiesBEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping and his French coun-terpart Francois Hollande pledged Monday to work together to deepen bilateral relations. The two leaders exchanged con-gratulatory messages to mark the 50th anniversary of the es-tablishment of bilateral diplomatic ties. On Jan. 27, 1964, late Chairman Mao Zedong and General Charles de Gaulle took the historic decision to establish diplomatic relations, which heralded a new era in China-Europe relations, Xi noted in his congratulatory message. As permanent members of the UN Security Council, both China and France are countries with independent spirit as well as major forces in promoting world multi-polarization, economic globalization and the democra-tization of international relations, said the Chinese president. He said the sound, stable and long-term development of Chi-na-France relations is in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples and also conducive to world peace and devel-opment. China highly values its relations with France, and is willing to take the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic ties as a good opportunity to lift their relations to a higher level, Xi said. Hollande, for his part, said that France was the first major western country to establish diplomatic relations at the am-bassadorial level with China, and General de Gaulle made the great decision because the two countries shared an unbending spirit of independence. (Xinhua)

Belgium|Bilateral relations

china to deepen cooperation with BelgiumBRUSSELS - China is willing to deepen cooperation with Belgium in various fields, Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi said here Monday during his one-day visit to the country. Bel-gium is an important partner of China, and the two countries maintain friendly relations, Yang said when meeting with King Philippe of Belgium. China is willing to deepen the bilateral pragmatic cooperation with Belgium in such fields as invest-ment, trade, agriculture, environment and ecotechnology, so as to bring more tangible benefits to the peoples in both countries, Yang said. He stressed that the two countries would maintain high-level visits, and pushes forward the development of bilateral relations. He also called for more people-to-people exchanges in such fields as youth, tourism, culture and educa-tion. King Philippe said that Belgium attached great impor-tance to developing its relations with China, and was willing to work with China in strengthening pragmatic cooperation for the benefit of both peoples. Belgium appreciated China's determination and courage in deepening reforms, he stressed. He expressed gratitude for China's support for the European in-tegration process and its dealing with the debt crisis.. (Xinhua)

croatia|DeFicit

eu asks croatia to fix excessive deficitBRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) on Tuesday asked Croatia to take actions to address its excessive deficit, which is expected to meet EU criteria by 2016. Economic and mon-etary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn told the press after an EU finance ministers meeting that "a clear path is set out for restoring sustainability to Croatia's public finances." By April, Croatia will have to "undertake quantified measures to ensure progress towards the correction of its excessive deficit and debt" after which the Commission will assess the action. Un-der EU law, member states' deficit ratio must not exceed 3% while Croatia's current deficit ratio stands at 6.4%. (Xinhua)

PARIS - Losing his bet on jobs, French President Francois Hollande was still banking on a turnaround in French labour market this year with a new promise to make labour costs cheaper to encourage recruitments.

In an effort to defend his economic credentials, the head of state pledged to ease companies' tax burden by €30bn by 2017, eyeing creating 1.8 million posts next five years.

But will the "liberal shift" in the So-cialists' policy help France's $2.6 trillion economy to show some muscles and ease the strain on jobless claims?

Hoping to stimulate the local job mar-ket with thousands of state-sponsored job contracts and training, Hollande's pledge to reverse the jobless trend was broken as the number of jobseekers hit 3.303 mil-lion at the end of December 2013, up by 5.7% on yearly basis.

"We stabilized unemployment in 2013, it has not yet fallen and that's why I presented the pact of responsibility to the French. We will start decreasing the un-employment if we will all be mobilized," Hollande said during a visit to Turkey.

Expecting a 11.2% rise in joblessness in Europe's main powerhouse this year, Paris based-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) hailed "the willingness to reduce employ-ers' social contributions, which are the highest in the OECD area as a percent-age of GDP (gross domestic product), through an essential reduction in govern-ment spending."

"This would make it possible to boost employment, restore business margins, fi-nance investment and ultimately improve competitiveness..." OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said.

"The planned reduction in social con-tributions must go beyond the abolition of contributions to family-related benefits alone," he said.

Eric Heyer, economist at the eco-nomic think-tank OFCE, said Hollande's proposal to alleviate companies' charges would stimulate investment and bolster jobs creation.

"When we lower expenses we de-crease labour costs and therefore we lower the cost of production. So companies can produce cheaper than before to gain mar-

ket share outside and create jobs," he said. However, he said he didn't expect a

quick turnaround in the labour market. "We'll wait till 2016 to see the first results of Hollande's pact."

France should accelerate its GDP by at least 1% to incite the morose private sector to hire more, above a government forecast of 0.9% this year, according to analysts.

However, an EU-imposed belt-tight-ening to shrink the budget deficit and an expected modest economic recovery were likely to cloud the Socialists' economic roadmap.

Furthermore, the fresh cut in tax will force the government already under fire to squeeze further public spending in a con-text of public discontent.

"Theoretically, a cut in charges leads to more recruitments but uncertainty overshadows the ways to realize this pact," Nicolas Bouzou, director of economic consultancy Asteres, told Xinhua.

"And without a real recovery in the economy we could not experience a real and sustainable improvement in the labor market," he said. (Xinhua)

Will Hollande's "responsibility pact" settle France's jobless?

The Netherlands is preparing for a high-level security operation in The Hague when 58 world leaders and 5,000 delegates arrive to attend the global nuclear summit in March. Officials say security will be the tightest ever in the Netherlands.

Motorists are already being told to stay at home on the summit days because large stretches of motorway will be com-

pletely closed off between March 23 and 26. To compensate for the road closures, the Dutch railway company NS has an-nounced plans to put extra trains.

At the conference, some 13,000 po-lice officers, 3,000 soldiers and several thousand military police officers will be put on high alert in and around the confer-ence venue. According to Dutch counter-

terrorism chief, Dick Schoof, contingency plans to address dozens of emergency situ-ations have been devised.

Officials have already started to plan for increased security at the country’s bor-der with Belgium and Germany and at the Schiphol airport. In fact, part of the airport will be closed to the public to secure the ar-rival of world leaders.

Dutch to beef up security for upcoming nuclear summit

France |unemployment

tHe netHerlanDs |nuclear summit

Francois Hollande is on a new path. AFP PHOTO / PATRICK HERTZOG

24 EUROPEAN UNION NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

On 28 January, Spain’s government upgrad-ed the economic growth outlook for 2014, news agencies reported. Spain’s Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters in Brussels he expected the country’s reces-sion-hit economy to expand by nearly 1% in 2014, up from an official growth forecast of 0.7%.

Both the government and the Bank of Spain estimate that growth picked up to a better-than-expected 0.3% pace in the final quarter, leading to the upward revision for 2014.

Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government credits tough economic reforms and austerity policies for pulling Spain back from the precipice of a full-blown bailout, widely feared in mid-2012. “Two years ago, we were on the brink of collapse but thanks to the difficult meas-ures we took internally, the situation is now totally different,” De Guindos said. “We are beginning to see the results,” added.

Meanwhile, Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Minister Luis de Guin-dos painted a bright picture of the coun-try’s economic progress in the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, on 28 January, saying that reforms under way allowed a “mod-erately optimistic” outlook, a press release read. Labour and housing market weak-nesses had been corrected, external debt was falling and foreign direct investment was up, he said, adding that banking sector reforms made him “extremely confident” that Spain’s banks would pass the European Central Bank’s upcoming tests.

Some MEPs wanted to know what the Spanish case could teach policy makers and what De Guindos planned to do next, espe-cially to help small firms to get credit. Oth-ers challenged his rosy picture, saying that bankruptcies were rife and that Spain’s eco-nomic position had never been so bad since the dictatorship. MEPs asked why those

who had caused the crisis had not borne more of the burden of recovery measures and whether the Spanish banks would need further recapitalisations.

De Guindos replied that the first lesson to be learnt was that excessive credit growth would have ruinous consequences. He also said that his positive outlook was backed up by the most recent data. To help small firms, laws would be passed to reduce costs for liberal professions, mechanisms would be developed to improve access to risk capi-tal, and alternatives to bank loans would be encouraged.

Replying to questions on banking un-ion and the single resolution mechanism for ailing banks, De Guindos described the EU member states’ common position as a “very good starting point” for negotiations with the European Parliament, arguing that the intergovernmental approach to setting up the single fund was “not ideal” but pos-sibly the “lesser evil”.

Government upgrades economic growth outlook for 2014

Portugal is increasingly likely to follow Ireland’s lead and exit its bailout as the country’s 10-year government bond yields fell below 5pc for the first time in more than three years two weeks ago.

Portugal is preparing to leave its deal in May and its banks have been building up reserves to meet EU solvency criteria.

The country received a €78 billion bailout when its economy hit trouble shortly after the Irish economy implod-ed. Many investors were convinced until recently that Portugal would need a sec-ond bailout when its current adjustment programme ends in June.

Earlier in January, Portugal’s Secretary

of State for European Affairs, Bruno Ma-caes said the country did what was neces-sary in taking the bailout, but economic recovery is still needed. Portugal is confi-dent it will exit its bailout programme on 17 May but the economic recovery still has a way to go, CNBC quoted him as say-ing. “We’re very confident we can exit the programme,” he said.

But he noted that it has been a very difficult process. “I’m not sure we want to talk about ‘success’ - unemployment is still very high and people have suf-fered a lot from the process but we did what was necessary and so the country came together to do what was neces-

sary,” he said.Macaes insisted that Portugal had

reacted well to economic restructur-ing although he conceded that unem-ployment --15.5% in November 2013 -- remained a key priority for the gov-ernment going forward. “I would argue that we have seen green shoots because we have seen fundamental restructur-ing of the Portuguese economy. It’s now essentially based on exports -- account-ing for 42% of gross domestic product (GDP) as opposed to 28% five years ago, -- so [there’s been] a fundamental change and the economy seems to have reacted well.”

ROMANIA|ENERGY

Garanti Bank finances solar park in RomaniaRomania’s Garanti Bank granted financing to local compa-ny Natural Energy Prod, a subsidiary of renewable energy investment company Smart Energy Group, for the con-struction of a 5.0 megawatt (MW) solar park in the coun-try, Smart Energy Group said on 28 January, SeeNews reported. The solar park has already produced more than 200 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity since its com-missioning in December 2013, Smart Energy Group said in a statement. Smart Energy Group’s TUV SUD certified engineering procurement construction (EPC) company, Smart Solar, provided the turn-key EPC services for the photovoltaic park, located at some 37 kilometres south of Romania’s capital Bucharest. The group expects that the solar park will generate around 7.0 gigawatt hour (GWh) of electricity per year, including about 6.57 GWh of elec-tricity to the county of Giurgiu.

ROMANIA|ENERGY

Romania, Turkey to develop power interconnections Romania and Turkey signed a memorandum of under-standing on developing interconnections to facilitate electricity exchange between the two countries, Roma-nia’s Economy Ministry said. One of the projects envis-ages a subsea electricity cable linking the power grids of Romania and Turkey, a project of Pan-European interest, with an important contribution to the development of the regional power market, the economy ministry said in a statement. The memorandum was signed by the energy department of Romania’s economy ministry and Turkey’s energy and natural resources ministry. Romania also re-affirmed its commitment in developing interconnection networks with Moldova, Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria in order to consolidate energy security and increase export opportunities in the region, the statement added.

BULGARIA|ENERGY

Sofia, Ankara mull JV for electricity exportsBulgarian state-owned electricity company NEK and a Turkish partner may enter into a joint venture to boost the capacity for the export of electricity to Turkey, the Bulgarian Energy Ministry said. The new company will be registered in Turkey, the ministry said in a press release issued after Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz met with Bulgarian counterpart Dragomir Stoynev in Sofia. “This opportunity for the export of electricity from Bulgaria to Turkey is one of the ways to improve NEK’s financial performance,” Stoynev said in the press release. NEK is a subsidiary of the state-run Bulgarian Energy Holding.

ROMANIA|ENERGY

Romgaz plans to borrow up to $14 million Romanian natural gas producer Romgaz said it plans to bor-row up to €10.3 million from a bank. Blue chip Romgaz’s shareholders approved on 30 January a new bank facility agreement for opening a documentary letter of credit and for issuing letters of bank guarantee upon the company’s request, of up to $14 million, Romgaz said in a statement.

SPAIN|ECONOMY

PORTUGAL|ECONOMY

Portugal sees clean bailout exit in May

A fish seller cleans her stall at the Saldanha traditional market in downtown Lisbon. Portugal is increasingly likely to follow Ireland’s lead and exit its bailout. AFP PHOTO/ PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA

25ENLARGEMENTNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

Turkey|Civil liberTies

Civil liberties report alarms expertsTurkey is compromising civil rights to protect national se-curity, according a new report released by the Turkish Eco-nomic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). The Is-tanbul-based think-tank called on the government to check the authority of the country’s police in order to safeguard the security of the citizens. “It is important to note that this mentality has prevailed up until now, and that democrati-sation efforts in Turkey will only be meaningful when they are based on the prioritisation and protection of individual rights and freedoms,” says the report. Some members of the government, however, were quick to refute the report. Selcuk Ozdag, an MP aligned with the ruling Justice and De-velopment Party, for instance, said the Turkish police have fewer powers than they should in a democratic country. “It is not right to castrate the police force in Turkey if you want order,” he told reporters. “You need to balance security and freedoms. We need to educate our police, regulate their eco-nomic and social benefits and invite them to obey the law. Some leftist groups in Turkey are disturbed by the police. They should be disturbed by the wrongdoings of the police, tear gas and water cannons, but these groups are bothered by everybody that does not agree with them.” Ozdag, how-ever, is just one voice in a controversial debate about the role of the police. It is a debate that started last summer during the infamous Gezi Park protests against the government’s redevelopment of Istanbul’s Taksim Square. When the riot police used tear gas and physical force to crackdown on demonstrators, one died and scores of other protesters were injured. Police had also fired plastic bullets at the protesters. Much to the dismay of human rights and civil liberty advo-cates, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since congratulated the police for passing “a very important democracy test with success”. The European Commission, however, was quick to condemn the excessive use of police force against the Gezi protestors.

Turkey|Human rigHTs

new report suggests freedom and rights in Turkey decliningTurkish citizens have as many rights as people living in Libya or Pakistan. So said this year’s Freedom in the World report, which ranks Turkey among the “partly free” nations due to a significant deterioration in individual freedoms and civil lib-erties. “Freedoms of association and assembly are protected in the Constitution, and Turkey has an active civil society. However, the police have forcibly broken up public gather-ings, with the government justifying its actions by citing the need to maintain order and alleging the presence of violent hooligans and radical groups among the protesters,” said the report, emphasising that not only the Gezi demonstrations but almost every mass protest met with brutal police meth-ods throughout 2013. The report also noted concerns about the ill-treatment that emerged last year. “During the Gezi protests, the media and human rights groups documented harsh beatings, threats of and actual sexual assault by police, and widespread use of unofficial detention,” it said. Mean-while, the U.S. thinktank gave a positive assessment of the Kurdish peace process launched by the Turkish government last year. The cease-fire declared by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in March has improved the security situation in the country, the report said, also adding that a “democra-tization package” announced late September had given fur-ther rights to Kurds. “Many past restrictions on the Kurdish language have been lifted, and as a result of the September 2013 democratization package, Kurdish-language education in private schools is now allowed.

In hopes of gaining European Union can-didate status, Albania is eager to show the bloc that it is respecting national minori-ties. Earlier this month, Albania celebrated the opening of the country’s first Serbian-language primary school in the village of Hamil, about 150km southwest of Tirana. The school is catering to the needs of doz-ens of local Serbian minority children.

“The opening of this school makes it possible for our children to learn their na-tive Serbian language and pass it to other generations,” Eqerem Dulevic, head of

the Serbian association Jedinstvo, told SETimes.

The Serbian embassy in Tirana has wel-comed the government’s decision to open the school as a move to help the Serbian minority preserve its language and herit-age. “The school not only keeps alive the native language of the Serbian community, but embodies the significance and value of the relations between the two countries,” said Miroljub Zaric, Serbia’s ambassador to Albania.

In a goodwill gesture, Serbia allowed

the Albanian government to donate books to Albanian children living in Presevo in the south of Serbia. The Serbian school in Albania and the Albanian books in Serbia suggest a new chapter is opening as regards the relations between the two neighbours, which soured during the 1990 Kosovo war.

Eager to build on this newfound friend-ship, Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama is scheduled to visit Belgrade in the coming months in order to sign agreements in the fields of economy, energy and tourism to lay the framework for further cooperation.

Albania pursues friendly relations with Serbia

ANKARA - French President Francois Hollande’s visit to Turkey, the first by a French head of state in 22 years, is not ex-pected to make a breakthrough in bilateral relations overnight, Turkish analysts say.

“I believe both sides are testing each other to determine how much a wiggle room they have to move beyond already good economic ties,” Mesut Cevikalp, an Ankara-based foreign policy analyst, told Xinhua on Monday.

“Both sides show a desire to promote their stalled ties, yet they have to act careful-ly in order to not disturb domestic sensitivi-ties,” he added. In fact, during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, Hollande underlined bilater-al differences regarding Turkey’s European Union (EU) membership talks as well as the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman rule. “Negotiations do not entail membership; the issue of membership will be decided upon at a referendum,” Hol-lande said.

“But this should not stop us from pro-ceeding with talks chapter by chapter,” he quickly added.

In response, the Turkish president said Ankara does not want to see any more ob-stacles being raised in Europe on its path toward accession. The problem, however, is that Turkey finds its accession push im-peded because most of the 35 negotiating chapters it needs to conclude before being considered for full membership are blocked by France and Cyprus. Hollande’s prede-cessor, Nicholas Sarkozy, blocked five ne-gotiation chapters of Turkey’s EU member-ship talks, straining relations between the two countries.

There are still four other chapters that France maintains its veto, respectively on agriculture and rural development, eco-nomic and monetary policy, financial and budgetary provisions, and institutions.

The timing of Hollande’s visit was not

good either, according to Turkish analysts. “He could not come at a worse time as

Turkey’s democratic credentials are now being openly questioned by the European Union in the wake of massive corruption scandals,” said Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, head of Ankara’s International Strategic and Se-curity Research Center.

“He had to be very careful in his re-marks lest he could have given an impres-sion that France did not care much about the rule of law in Turkey,” he added.

It was unfortunate that Hollande’s long-awaited visit came amid a corruption scan-dal that shook the Turkish government and led to questions of whether the rule of law, separation of powers and democracy are settled firmly in the EU candidate country.

The Turkish government has reacted very harshly. Since corruption investigation started on Dec. 17, it has reassigned thou-sands of police officers and over hundreds of judges and prosecutors in what opposi-tion claimed as an effort to cover up corrup-tion allegations. A number of EU officials have criticized Turkey on what they see as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Er-dogan’s attempt to control the judiciary.

Erdogan visited Brussels last week to hear concerns of EU leaders first hand and had to shelve temporarily a much-criticized draft bill on the judiciary.

“It is obvious that Hollande is adopting a positive attitude toward Turkey’s EU ac-cession when compared with that of his pre-decessor. However, time will show whether this attitude will be maintained in the long term when the negative French public opin-ion of Turkey’s EU membership is taken into consideration,” said Orhan Dede of the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies, a Turkish think tank.

Another source of contention between Turkey and France is the mass killings of Ar-menians during the Ottoman rule. Turkey insists that there was no systemic genocide by the Ottoman Empire, both sides suffered casualties in the war, and there were no de-liberate policies targeting Armenians.

France, however, officially recognized the mass killings as genocide.

The issue that both sides fully agreed upon was promoting trade and business, with both Gul and Hollande promising to boost the trade volume to the annual goal of €20bn. (Xinhua)

French-Turkish cozying-up likely to take time

albania |naTional minoriTies

Turkey | FranCe

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan marks 50 years anniversary of Turkey immigration in Belgium, 21 January 2014. BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK

26 ENLARGEMENT NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

MONTENEGRO|ALUMINIUM

Government launches tender for KAP aluminium plantOn 25 January, Montenegro launched a tender to sell the par-tially state-owned Aluminium Company Podgorica (KAP), which has been declared bankrupt, the plant’s bankruptcy administrator Veselin Perisic said in a statement, news agen-cies reported. Despite the fact that many employees were fired, KAP is the biggest industrial employer in the country of some 660,000 people. The small country on the Adriatic coast hopes to get at least €28 million for KAP and its property, Perisic said. The tender was to remain open until 17 February, he added. A Montenegrin commercial court declared KAP bankrupt last October estimating that the deadline for submitting plans for its restructuring had expired. The application for bankruptcy was made in July by the Montenegrin government, which owns 29.36% of the smelter. The co-owner is Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska whose Central European Aluminium Com-pany also holds a 29.36% stake and has warned it will demand international arbitration seeking €1 billion in compensation from Montenegro. The remaining 41% of the plant is in the hands of small shareholders.

MONTENEGRO|PRIVATISATION

Plans sent to government for approvalIn an attempt to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of companies and boost investment, Montenegro’s Privatisation and Capital Projects was endorsed by draft decision on the planned privatisation in 2014 and sent it to the government for consideration and approval, news agencies reported. Privatiza-tion Plan, which was prepared on the basis of suggestions from relevant departments and the tender committee of the Coun-cil, set out the aims and methods of privatisation, with a list of companies and capital for privatization, and the terms and conditions for their realisation , a site that will travel valorized and the social aspects of privatisation.

SERBIA| INVESTMENT

EBRD invests €424 million in 2013The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested €424 million in Serbia in 2013, EBRD of-fice in Serbia chief Matteo Patrone said on 28 January. He added that the decision on the 2014 level of investments had not been made yet. The investments in 2013 were 50% higher than in 2012 and were linked to 24 projects, three of which were in the public sector, Patrone said. The EBRD has invest-ed €3.1 billion through 175 projects since its arrival in Serbia in 2001, he added.

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|LOAN

EFSE grants loan to Komercijalna BankaThe European Fund for South Eastern Europe (EFSE) grant-ed a €3 million senior loan to Komercijalna Banka a.d. Banja Luka to support the expansion of loan products to micro and small Enterprises (MSE)news agencies reported. “After years of building a valuable partnership with Komercijalna Banka in Serbia, we are pleased at this opportunity to expand this re-lationship into Bosnia and Herzegovina,” EFSE Chairperson Monika Beck said. “We are pleased to support Komercijalna Banka Banja Luka in their strategy to focus on MSE clients.”

By Kostis Geropoulos

On 28 January, representatives of the Eu-ropean Commission and Bosnia and Her-zegovina underlined the high importance of the integration of Bosnia and Herzego-vina in the European energy market.

Deputy Director General for Energy of the European Commission, Fabrizio Barbaso, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Her-zegovina, Boris Tucic, and the two Prime Ministers, of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Niksic, and of Republika Srpska, Zeljka Cvijanovic, dis-cussed energy related matters of relevance for the EU integration of Bosnia and Her-zegovina, a press release read.

They agreed to further strengthen their efforts to reach this objective, not the least in view of the large potential of Bosnia and Herzegovina in this field, in particular with regard to the generation of electricity.

The representatives of the European Commission reminded that Bosnia and Herzegovina, by signing the Energy Com-munity Treaty, committed itself to ensure the security of energy supply, in line with Directive 2005/89. The representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina including the two Entities confirmed that a well func-tioning countrywide operating electric-ity transmission company is one of the cornerstones to guarantee the security of supply with electricity of the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The representatives of the European Commission welcomed substantial pro-gress reached in making the company functioning, in particular the ongoing set-ting up of the management and the finali-sation of audited financial plans, and that there is now a comprehensive agreement of the Shareholders to make TRANSCO fully functioning.

The Prime Ministers of both Entities and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations commit themselves - within the framework of their competences - to contribute to the operational safety, functionality and viability of TRANSCO.

The long-term ability of the transmission network of TRANSCO to meet reason-able demand shall be ensured. The Prime Ministers of both Entities agreed on the fol-lowing: The outstanding tasks of the setup of the (full) new management and the ap-proval of the 2012 financial report will be completed by 28 February 2014. No more than BAM 100 million accumulated rev-enues are distributed to the two sharehold-ers under the current financial exercise. The distribution of any further accumulated revenues will not take place before the 10 year transmission network development plan has been adopted by the Sharehold-ers’ General Assembly and approved by the Regulatory Authority (SERC).

The Prime Ministers of both Enti-ties agreed that experts of the Energy Community Secretariat technically sup-port TRANSCO in the finalisation of the mid-term investment plan and the 10 year transmission network development plan to ensure Bosnia and Herzegovina’s compliance with the Energy Commu-nity Treaty. These investment plans will be submitted to the Secretariat before 10 February 2014. The Secretariat will issue the experts’ assessment by the end of Feb-ruary 2014.

The representatives of the European Commission informed that the EU funded technical assistance project for the align-

ment of the legislation on electricity with EU requirements has been completed at the end of December. The EU Delegation will make sure that the final report is sent to the respective stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the adoption of the required legislation before 2015, Bos-nia and Herzegovina would meet its cur-rent obligations in the field of electricity under the Energy Community Treaty.

With regard to gas, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations will call for a meeting with all relevant au-thorities within the next two weeks with a view to coordinating the next steps in order for Bosnia and Herzegovina to com-ply with Ministerial Council Decision D/2013/04/MC-EnC.

The European Commission took note of the ongoing negotiations on an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Russian Federation on the South Stream pipeline. In line with the letter of the Secretariat of the Energy Community dated 16 January, the Commission highlighted the need for the final IGA to be in compliance with the legal framework of the Energy Commu-nity Treaty, in particular with regard to the principle of third party access and unbun-dling between transmission system opera-tion on the one hand, and gas production and supply, on the other.

EU highlights integration of BiH in European energy market

Serbia’s President Tomislav Nikolic has formally dissolved Parliament and sched-uled an early parliamentary election for 16 March. Nikolic says the vote will secure wider popular support for economic and social reforms in the troubled Balkan coun-try, AP reported. The vote is expected to ce-ment the right-wing populist Serbian Pro-

gressive Party’s grip on power. The party is the most popular in the country and its leader, Aleksandar Vucic, is deputy prime minister in the country’s coalition govern-ment. Vucic, who is likely to replace Social-ist leader Ivica Dacic as the premier after the vote, has said he wants to speed up painful reforms so Serbia can advance its bid to join

the 28-nation European Union.Asking Nikolic to dissolve parliament,

the government said in a statement that vot-ers should “have a say in the future direction of state policies”. It cited economic reforms, the fight against organized crime and talks that started on 21 January on Serbia joining the European Union.

Serbia holding early parliamentary vote SERBIA|POLITICS

BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA|ENERGY

Deputy Director General for Energy of the European Commission, Fabrizio Barbaso. EPA/BARBARA GINDL

27PARTNERSNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

REYKJAVIK - The Icelandic parliament on Wednesday ratified a Free Trade Agree-ment (FTA) with China.

The Althing, the parliament of Iceland, passed the resolution with a voting of 56 in favour and two against, while three ab-stained.

Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveins-son said that “the agreement would create great business opportunities and a chance to strengthen Iceland’s partnership with China in other areas.”

Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, was cited by the local newspaper Morgun-bladid, as saying that the agreement, which covers goods and services, trade facilita-tion, intellectual property rights, competi-tion and investment, will enable Iceland to open up a booming market in the coming decades. He advised Icelandic businesses to take advantage of it.

The head of the economic and com-mercial counsellor’s office of the Chinese Embassy in Iceland, Xie Guoxiang, said the result showed the two countries’ willing-ness to boost their economic and trade ties, praising the FTA as a milestone for both nations.

The FTA negotiation between China and Iceland commenced in December, 2006 but was suspended in 2009 follow-ing Iceland’s attempts to join the European Union.

The negotiation resumed in 2012 and was finally settled after six rounds of nego-tiations, with the signing of the agreement during the then Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir’s official visit to China in April, 2013.

According to the FTA, Iceland will implement zero tariff on all industrial prod-ucts and fishery products imported from China which accounted for 99.77% of the total China’s exports to Iceland, after the

agreement coming into effect. Meanwhile, China will implement zero

tariff on goods under 7,380 tariff numbers imported from Iceland, which accounted for 81.56% of China’s total imports from Iceland, including its aquatic products.

After the final establishment of the FTA between China and Iceland, zero tariff shall apply to 96% of goods in terms of tar-iff number, or 100 percent in terms of trade volume. (Xinhua)

Icelandic parliament passes China-Iceland free trade agreement

Good news for Ethiopia’s exporters. Nor-way has decided to scrap the import tax on Ethiopian products.

The decision to award Ethiopian products with the coveted Generalised System of Preference (GSP) status was an-nounced by the Norwegian government last week. According to Cecilie G.Alnaes, the assistant director of Norwegian Cus-

toms and Excise, Ethiopian imports will be able to enter the Norwegian market with-out any discrimination until Ethiopia joins the level of the developed nations. She also said that the scheme has no expiry date and will continue until Ethiopia joins the level of other developed nations.

Officials at the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce have also welcomed the news,

saying that the GSP scheme will help Ethiopia fight poverty and promote the country’s foreign trade. Cut flowers, cof-fee, honey and sugar are the top exports to Norway. According to the latest available data, the total trade turnover of the two countries was only $58m in 2012, and im-ports from Norway declined from $4.2m in 2004 to $2.7m in 2012.

Norway grants tax exemption to ethiopian products

By John Heilprin, Associated Press

GENEVA — Strong demand for its cancer medicines and diagnostic tests used by clin-ical laboratories boosted Swiss drug maker Roche’s full-year profits, the company re-ported Thursday.

Roche, the world’s biggest manufacturer of cancer drugs, said it had net income of 11.2 billion Swiss francs in 2013, an 18% rise against 9.5 billion francs the year before.

“2013 was a very good year for Roche,”

CEO Severin Schwan said. “We exceeded our financial targets with strong demand for our existing products and positive uptake of recently launched medicines and diagnos-tics.”

The company, based in Basel, Switzer-land, said earnings are expected to continue to rise in 2014, with strong sales of a breast cancer medicine, Perjeta, and new products such as leukemia drug Gazyva and another breast cancer medicine, Kadcyla. The com-pany has been investing in a lot of new drugs to replace its aging blockbusters, the drugs

whose annual sales top $1 billion.Schwan said the launch of Perjeta and

Kadcyla added a new generation of treat-ments for women with a particularly ag-gressive type of breast cancer, and another highlight was Gazyva for chronic lympho-cytic leukemia.

The company said it expects low to mid-single digit growth in sales and a further in-crease in its dividend this year.

Shares of Roche Holding AG were trad-ing less than a half-percent lower at 238.10 francs Thursday on the Zurich exchange.

Roche enjoys strong profit, expects growth in 2014

NorwAy|ENErgy

Norway’s Statoil could cost-cut its way out of west greenlandForced to cut costs, Statoil, Norway’s biggest energy company, may stop exploring in west Greenland. The company is re-portedly thinking about handing over its exploration licences. According to the company’s director of exploration, Tim Dod-son, Statoil will become a lot more selective as regards future exploration sites. However, if the company decides to exit the region today, it will have a negative impact on Greenland, which has called on Statoil to start pumping its first crude oil. Nevertheless, Statoil is looking to reduce its spending budget, which reached a whopping record of $19bn last year. Mean-while, more bad news for Greenland came from Royal Dutch Shell. Last week, the company, which operates two of Statoil’s exploration licences in west Greenland, issued its first ever profit warning in more than a decade.

NorwAy|HydroPowEr ProJEct

Norwegian Statkraft invests in AlbaniaTIRANA - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama inspected Tues-day works on implementation of Devoll Hydropower project, with an installed capacity of 242 MW and annual production of 729 GWh, according to ATA. The project is a €535m invest-ment by “Devoll Hydropower” company, owned by Norwe-gian Statkraft. The heads of project said that the construction of two new 220 and 110 kilovolt transmission lines that will connect Moglice and Banja HPP to Elbasan and Cerrik substa-tions and new access roads to the construction sites, including the Gramsh-Kodovjat-Moglice segments Rama guaranteed full support for every project, creating new jobs and respecting European standards. “We will do everything to support all in-vestors and investments like this that meet standards as every-where in Europe, standards that Albania deserves. We support all investments creating new jobs,” said Rama. (Xinhua)

IcElANd|VolcANo PowEr

Iceland driving on volcano powerFor a country with more than 200 volcanoes, it is no wonder Iceland is using the geothermal energy it is sitting on to heat the entire country. Iceland might soon start running its cars on volcano power. This revolutionary idea to power cars using geothermal energy was recently announced by FastCoExist. A power company in Iceland is already using geothermal energy to make electricity, but the process emits a large amount of con-centrated carbon dioxide. However, a recycling firm Carbon Recycling International has figured out a way to turn the car-bon dioxide into methanol, which could be used to power cars. Unlike petrol, methanol lacks the carcinogenic byproducts.

SwItzErlANd|SloVAk ENVIroNmENt

Switzerland assists Slovakia in maintenance of healthy forestsBRATISLAVA - The ambassador of Switzerland to Slovak Republic J.E. Christian Fotsch signed an amendment to the project --”Monitoring and research of forest ecosystems” on Wednesday, government press department told Xinhua. The project is held by the National Forestry Centre and is support-ed by the program of Swiss-Slovakian cooperation, by the sum of nearly €2m, of which the Confederation of Switzerland has supplied roughly $2,3m. (Xinhua)

NorwAy |EtHIoPIAN ProductS

IcElANd |FrEE trAdE AgrEEmENt

SwItzErlANd | drug INduStry

The site of Iceland’s parliament’s home, founded in 930 AD. RIchARD GoulD

28 EASTERN PARTNERSHIP NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

GEORGIA|GOVERNMENT

Government welcomes Freedom House assessment of reformsOn 29 January, the Georgian government welcomed the an-nual Freedom House report on Freedom in the World that said Georgia “was one of the few bright spots in Eurasia in 2013”. Georgia ranked three out of seven in both political rights and civil liberties, its status defined as “partly free.” Georgia’s political rights improved from four to three in 2012 due to a peaceful transition of power after Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections that year. Freedom House said Georgia was continuing to move up the ranks “thanks to an open and less polarised campaign environment and a free and fair presidential election in October” this year. “This report offers further evidence that Georgia is raising its democratic governance to European standards,” said government spokes-person Tamar Chugoshvili. “We will continue on that reform path in our quest for EU membership,” the Georgian govern-ment said in a press release. Georgia is set to sign a key aid and trade deal with the EU this year. Freedom House condemned “Russia’s use of bullying tactics –especially punitive trade re-strictions – to discourage smaller states in the region from go-ing through with Association Agreements with the European Union.” Russia was ranked 6 for political rights, and 5 for civil liberties, with an overall status of “not free”. Freedom House concluded that “most signs suggest a strengthening of demo-cratic institutions by the Georgian Dream government over the past year.” The civil society organisation remains however concerned that investigations into corruption and abuse of power of former Georgian officials might represent “selec-tive justice”. “We have worked hard over the last 14 months to reform the judiciary and ensure the structures are in place to meet the highest international standards of transparency, fairness and due process,” said Chugoshvili.

GEORGIA|DEFENCE

Tbilisi, Yerevan ink military deal for 2014A Georgian delegation led by Deputy Minister of Defense Mikheil Darchiashvili was on a visit to Armenia on January 28-29 where Darchiashvili held a meeting with his Armenian counterpart David Tonoyan in order to discuss opportuni-ties for expanding bilateral military co-operation. The sides signed a military co-operation programme for 2014.

GEORGIA|DIPLOMACY

Ambassador urges Iranian businessmen to investIran and Armenia tend to increase the trade volumes till one milliard dollars, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia Mohammad Raiesi said, ISNA reported. “Armenia is a rather rich country from the point of view of its natural minerals. It is one of the biggest molybdenum producers in the world. It is rich also with its reserves of gold, copper, iron, mercury as well as dif-ferent kinds of natural stones,” he said. Raiesi has criticised the Iranian investors for not being involved in Armenian eco-nomic affairs, and has noted, “Turkey is in not good relations with Armenia, however most of the staff found in Armenian market is of Turkish origin.” He noted that the construction of Meghri hydroelectric power plant and the third power transmission line is considered to be a positive step. “Last year the trade turnover between Armenia and Iran has reached around $320 million. Iran is on the fourth place among the trade partners of Armenia. However the result of the trade turnover is unsatisfactory in presence of the given opportuni-ties,” Iran’s ambassador said.

On 28 January, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met his Israeli coun-terpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusa-lem, saying that Tbilisi strives to build a favorable ground for full expansion of bilateral trade relations worldwide and therefore we attach special importance to the discussions toward a free trade agreement between the State of Israel and Georgia.

Garibashvili told reporters that Isra-el is very important country for Georgia. “We pay special attention to co-opera-tion with Israel in whole range of areas – economy, culture, security,” he said.

“I had a very important and fruitful meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister and the Israeli President [Shimon Peres]. We exchanged interesting ideas about how to further deeper our relations and first of all it concern economy as there is a huge potential,” the Georgian premier said, adding that he also had a meeting with a group of Israeli business people, who, he said, would visit Georgia in March to look into investment oppor-tunities. “Prime Minister Netanyahu assured me of his full readiness and sup-port to personally recommend [Israeli] investors to visit and invest in Georgia,” he said.

The Israeli president expressed satisfaction with the start of the Geor-gian-Israeli intergovernmental com-mission’s work which will contribute to the strengthening of relations between Georgia and Israel.

Garibashvili also said that the newly

launched joint economic commission should pave the way for signing of free trade agreement between two countries.

Netanyahu told reporters before the meeting that there is “a natural sympathy with Georgia that seeks to establish a prosperous and secure future for its peo-ple. We think we can do that together”.

“We have every area to co-operate in, technology and water, agriculture, education, everything. And we are open to further this co-operation in all fields. We’ve been doing that; we’ll continue to do that. I’m sure your visit enhances that. That is part of our quest to achieve security, prosperity and peace,” the Is-raeli premier said.

Meanwhile in Tbilisi, Defense Min-

ister Irakli Alasania told journalists on 28 January that “great opportunities have opened up” for military co-operation between Georgia and Israel.

“I visited Israel last month and an agreement was reached to set up a group that will start developing our military co-operation in all directions,” Alasania said.

A memorandum of understanding on launching Georgian-Israeli joint eco-nomic commission was signed by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his Georgian counterpart Maia Pan-jikidze on 28 January.

In November, 2013 Georgia and Is-rael signed visa-free agreement, which has yet to go into force.

Tbilisi, Tev Aviv vow to strengthen co-operation

US power company ContourGlobal and the Armenian government announced they have signed an agreement for the New York-based company to purchase and mod-ernise the Vorotan Hydro Cascade, a series of three hydroelectric power plants totaling 405 MW on the Vorotan River in south-ern Armenia, for a purchase price of $180 million, news agencies reported. The cas-cade is one of the largest and most flexible power generating facilities in Armenia and the Caucuses.This acquisition represents the largest single US private investment in Armenia’s history and the first US invest-ment in Armenia’s energy sector. The Vo-rotan Hydro Cascade accounts for roughly 15% of the installed capacity of Armenia’s electricity system and provides sufficient energy to power 250,000 homes.

Under the terms of the agreement, ContourGlobal Hydro Cascade, a direct and wholly owned subsidiary of Contour-Global, will own and operate the three hy-

droelectric facilities located on the Vorotan river and will supply power to the Armeni-an grid under a long-term power purchase agreement. ContourGlobal will also invest $70 million over the next six years in a re-furbishment programme to modernise the plants and improve their operational per-formance, safety, reliability, and efficiency. ContourGlobal expects the modernisation to create 150 near-term jobs in addition to the 150 long-term technicians employed at the plants. “Our signing of this agree-ment is the culmination of approximately two years of fruitful collaboration with the Government of Armenia and its agencies,” ContourGlobal’s President and CEO Jo-seph C. Brandt said. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to play an integral role in the Armenian power system and to make a significant and lasting contribution to a key part of the country’s infrastructure. I look forward to working together with the Government of Armenia towards a success-

ful conclusion of this transaction.”Armenia’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan welcomed the agree-ment with ContourGlobal “We are confi-dent that ContourGlobal will successfully own, maintain, and operate this important power complex and are gratified by Con-tourGlobal’s planned investment, which will improve the stability, security, and per-formance of the Armenian power system for many years to come,” he said.

ContourGlobal Eastern Europe Ex-ecutive Vice President and Regional CEO Garry Levesley also hailed the deal. “I look forward to working closely with the Gov-ernment of Armenia and its State Agencies on this critical project in the coming years. ContourGlobal has extensive knowledge and experience in operating in the region and looks forward to adding these signifi-cant power plants into our portfolio and making further improvements and invest-ments in them,” he said.

ContourGlobal buys Armenian hydro power plants

GEORGIA|DIPLOMACY

ARMENIA|ENERGY

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, left, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, 28 January 2014. AFP PHOTO/ABIR SULTAN/POOL

29EASTERN PARTNERSHIPNEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

BELARUS|TRANSPORT

Belarus, Russia to produce composite materialsA Belarusian-Russian joint company will make composite materials in Saint Petersburg. The project was viewed as one of the most promising programmes discussed at the meeting between Ambassador of Belarus to Russia Igor Petrishenko and Saint Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko in Saint Petersburg on 29 January, BelTA quoted the press service of the Embassy of Belarus in Russia as saying. “The parties discussed the problems related to the supplies of passenger transport from Belarus, prospects for expanding the presence of MAZ products on the Saint Petersburg market, the export of hoist equipment to Saint Petersburg, and involvement of Belarusian companies in the Saint Petersburg housing and utilities system. Among the most promising projects is a joint company to produce up-to-date composite materials in Saint Petersburg, the production of Belarusian newest trolleybus-es and buses fitted with hybrid systems that can be further purchased by the Russian Northern capital,” the press ser-vice noted. The parties exchanged opinions on the progress made in the implementation of the trade, economic, sci-tech and humanitarian cooperation program signed between the governments of Belarus and Saint Petersburg for 2012-2016. According to Poltavchenko, the Government of Saint Peters-burg has compiled proposals to amend the joint action plan taking into account the most promising cooperation areas. In his words, the Belarusian side has worked out similar pro-posals to promote the development of cooperation ties. The parties agreed to hold a meeting of the working group of the Belarus-Saint Petersburg Business Cooperation Council in March 2014. The Belarusian part of the Council is headed by Belarus Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, the Russian part – by Poltavchenko.

BELARUS|DEFENCE

Minsk, Moscow increase defence spending on programmesRussia and Belarus are to boost spending on joint military projects by more than 50% within their Union State’s security framework, including production of dual-use goods, the Un-ion’s secretary Grigory Rapota said on 29 January, news agen-cies reported. Spending this year on military programmes, including space projects, funding for regional military forces, and construction of new bases will rise to rubles 3.2 billion ($91 million), Rapota told local media at a meeting of the Un-ion State in Minsk.

MOLDOVA|ECONOMY

Moldova’s Central Bank holds rateMoldova’s Central Bank maintained its basic policy rate at 3.5%, along with its other main rates, saying monetary policy continues to be affected by the complex balance of the risk of inflation and the risk of deflation. The National Bank of Mol-dova, which last cut its rate by 100 basis points in April 2013, said the disinflationary pressure is arising from low aggregate demand and a depreciation of the currencies of its trading partners while the recovery of European economies and a sharp rise in food prices could offset this pressure. Moldova’s inflation rate rose to 5.2% in December, up from 4.9%, the cen-tral bank said, adding that inflation has remained within the bank’s range for the last 23 months. Moldova’s Gross Domes-tic Product grew by an annual 12.9% in the third quarter, up from a growth rate of 6.1% in the second quarter, mainly due to a significant increase in the value of agricultural products after a year of drought, which resulted in higher exports and a modest rise in imports.

On 30 January, Ukraine President Vik-tor Yanukovych’s announcement that he was taking indefinite sick leave prompted a guessing game among Ukrainians about what was happening to their country. De-bate raged on whether he was just sick or whether he was leaving the limelight in preparation for something, possibly either cracking down or stepping down, AP re-ported.

Yanukovych has faced two months of major protests that sometimes paralyse central Kiev and have spread to other cities. The protests started after he backed out of a long-awaited agreement to deepen ties with the European Union in favor of Russia, but quickly came to encompass a wide array of discontent over corruption, heavy-handed police and dubious courts.

The official line is that the 63-year-old Yanukovych has an acute respiratory illness and a high fever.

But the opposition isn’t buying it. Some say he is looking for an excuse to avoid further discussions with opposition leaders, which have done nothing to resolve the tensions.

Vitali Klitschko, a leading opposition figure, has a more ominous theory — the president could be pretending to take him-self out of action in preparation for impos-ing a state of emergency. That has been a persistent worry of the opposition since violent clashes two weeks ago killed three protesters.

“I remember from the Soviet Union it’s a bad sign — a bad sign because always if some Soviet Union leaders have to make an unpopular decision, they go to the hospi-tal,” Klitschko said.

Yanukovych’s press office says the president is still in charge of the country, but there was no indication of how long he might be on leave or how much work he would be able to do. He isn’t known to have serious health problems, although his office says he has taken sick leave twice before — once for a knee problem and the other time also for a respiratory illness.

In a series of moves aimed at resolving the crisis, parliament voted on 28 January to repeal harsh anti-protest laws. Yanuko-vych must formally sign that repeal and it was unclear whether he could do so while on sick leave.

He also has accepted the resignation of his prime minister. But protesters say the moves are insufficient — they want him out and new elections held.

On 29 January, the parliament passed a measure offering amnesty to some of those arrested in the protests. That new law, how-ever, was only valid if demonstrators vacate most of the government buildings they oc-cupy in Kiev and in some western cities. The offer was quickly greeted with con-

tempt by the opposition, which regards the arrests during the protests as fundamentally illegitimate.

The protests had been mostly peaceful until mid-January, when demonstrators an-gered by the new anti-protest laws launched violent clashes with police near parliament. Three protesters died in the clashes, two of them from gunshot wounds. Police insist it wasn’t from their guns.

On 30 January, Yanukovych defended his government’s handling of the political crisis in Ukraine, saying that it had “ful-filled all its obligations” and that opposi-tion leaders were stoking people's anger for their own gain. The opposition “continues to escalate the situation” and to encourage people to maintain their protests in the icy streets, he said in an address posted on his website. “I think that is wrong. We must un-derstand that there is no future for the state and people if political interests of certain groups are set higher than the existence of Ukraine itself.”

Yanukovych insisted the govern-ment had lived up to “concrete agree-ments” reached with the opposition to try to end the crisis. “The government has fulfilled all its obligations under these agreements, including the adop-tion of the Law on Amnesty that guar-antees freedom and liberation of persons arrested during the conflict,” he said.

He also appealed to Ukrainians to “do everything for peace and normal life” and said he regrets “the young people (who have) died in this confrontation.”

Chris Weafer, a senior partner at Mos-cow's Macro Advisory, wrote in a note to investors on 29 January that

the events in Ukraine on 28 January appear to have bought little or no more time for President Yanakovich to try and come up with a mechanism to end the pro-tests and to hang onto power. Uncertainty will continue to hang over the economy

and the markets.“It is clear that neither the reversal of

the anti-protest law nor the resignation of the prime minister are enough to clear the streets. The proposed amnesty for people convicted of protest actions is unlikely to resolve the issue either. The protestors’ key demand has always been, and remains, the resignation of the president leading to fresh elections. President Yanakovich has shown no evidence that he is contemplating that move,” Weafer wrote.

“So while the level of violence is very likely to ease over the short-medium term, the core issues remain unresolved. That means the uncertainty will continue to hang over the bond market, the currency and equities. All three asset classes remain speculative,” he said, adding that Standard & Poor’s lowered Ukraine’s long-term rat-ing in foreign currency to CCC+ with a negative surprise. “No surprise there, albeit late in coming,” Weafer wrote.

S&P did also point out another obvi-ous fact which is that Russia’s debt support is conditional on a pro-Russia government and if Yanakovich is ousted the debt sup-port may cease, he wrote.

Many observers are moving to the po-sition that the only way to end this cycle of protest and continuing uncertainty is to hold a national referendum asking the question whether Ukraine should formally be divided into two sovereign states or to stay united and try to resolve the political and social divisions.

Weafer noted that the escalation of violence in Ukraine could not have come at a worse time for Russia. “With less than two weeks to the Sochi Olympics opening ceremony the last thing the Kremlin wants is to be dragged into a fresh conflict with the EU/US over Ukraine. Hence President Putin’s comment at yesterday’s EU-Russia Summit that all foreign influence should stay out of Ukraine,” he wrote.

Yanukovych’s sick leave prompts speculation

UKRAINE|POLITICS

A woman walks in front of a road block in Kiev, 30 January 2014. AFP PHOTO/ ARIS MESSINIS

30 EURASIA NEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu

2 -8 February, 2014

Russian-style spellings of surnames are once again in fashion in Tajikistan, several years after the country’s president changed his Russified name Emomali Sharifovich Rahmonov to Emomali Rahmon.

One Tajik official last week stirred a nationwide debate over the newfound popularity of Russian-style name end-ings like “-ov”, “-ev” and “-ovich”. In a recent op-ed published in the govern-ment’s Chumkhuriyat (The Republic) newspaper, the country’s Prosecutor-General Sherkhon Salimzoda says the name changes are evidence that Tajik national pride is dwindling.

The findings of a recent survey con-ducted at the country’s three largest universities show that 513 students last year requested their name is spelled with Russian-style endings. Only two students requested their name spelled in Tajik form.

One of the main reasons the students said they opted for a Russian-style name is to avoid any possible administrative problems or discrimination in Russia in the event that they go there in search of employment in the future. More than one in seven Tajiks go to Russia each year in search of employment.

Setting an example (possibly spurred

by the prosecutor’s recent op-ed) the agri-culture minister announced his decision to change his name from the Russian-sound-ing Qosim Qosimov to Qosim "Rohbar" (this means “leader" in Tajik).

Dropping the Russian-style suffixes from surnames was popular in Tajikistan in the 1990s when people took pride in their newfound independence from the Soviet Union. Parents even started naming their children after historical Tajik-Persian he-roes and Tajik literature. Now, parents are drawing inspiration from Islamic names - a sign of the growing influence of Islam in modern-day Tajik society.

Tajik names go Russian, againUzbekistan|Development

Uzbekistan lights up for Japanese loanUzbekistan is courting Japan’s International Development Agency for a loan to construct the country’s Turakurgan ther-mal power plant in the Namangan region. The two sides have reportedly reached an agreement for the amount of $650m. The entire project is slated to cost about $1bn. Additional funding is expected to come from the Uzbek Reconstruction and Development Fund and equity of Uzbekenergo State JSC. Uzbekistan officials are reportedly in talks with Japan’s agency and are finalising the details of the loan agreement, which will probably be signed before the end of this year. The project includes the construction of two power units of the thermal power plant with capacity of 450 megawatt each by 2018. Uzbekistan is hoping to commission the first power plant in two years and the second in 2017. If all goes to plan, the new plant will ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity to consumers in the country's Andijan, Namangan and Fergana provinces located in the Fergana Valley. Electricity is currently being supplied from the central part of Uzbekistan via a power transmission line of 500 kV. Before 2008, the area was being supplied by neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

kyrgyzstan|Development

eU, Wb aid pours into kyrgyz-stan's wastewater modernisationFive million euros will be poured into the modernisation of water and wastewater services in the city of Talas in Kyr-gyzstan. The project will be financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (€2m), the European Union’s Investment Facility for Central Asia (€1.85m) and the World Bank (€1.15m). The EU, Finland and the Czech Re-public will also provide technical assistance to the local mu-nicipal water company. The project is a top priority for Talas, where water losses are insurmountable and supply of clean wa-ter intermittent. The city’s wastewater system has also broken down. Wastewater pools in basements of building and water borne disease has reached endemic proportions. The director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Bishkek office, Larisa Manastirli, said the project will “greatly improve people's lives". According to the mayor of Talas, Anar-bek Kushubekov, it will have a positive effect on social and economic development of the city.

taJikistan|Censorship

Censorship rife in tajikistanIn a country where the mayor’s office monitors the music in taxis and on public buses to make sure passengers are not exposed to music that is “alien to national and universal hu-man values”, news that officials are banning books deemed “offensive” should not come as a surprise. The news coming out of Tajikistan this week is that authorities confiscated the only manuscript of a novelist’s latest book. It was seized at a Dushanbe printing house. The author, 69-year-old Pulod Abuev, was arrested and taken in for questioning. Police asked him who ordered him to write the book. Abuev’s book of short stories was deemed by officials to be critical of Tajikistan and offensive. On January 17, Abdulvokhid Shamolov of the Academy of Science, held a press conference to report that the Abuev’s book supports the theories of an unnamed “Uzbek scientist” who has denied the existence of the Tajik nation. “The Academy of Science and the National Security Commit-tee [GKNB] have performed their duties – to ensure security in the country,” Shamolov was quoted as saying by the Asia Plus news agency. But Abuev argues that he is being targeted for expressing views about the present state of Tajik society.

Over the next six years, Kazakhstan will have commissioned more than 30 renew-able energy facilities, according to the coun-try’s Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

Addressing a staff meeting at the en-vironment ministry last week, Sagintayev said the government is planning to put into operation more than 30 facilities with a total capacity of 1,850 MW. He also said several

hydro, wind, solar and biogas power plants with total capacity of 16.5 MW have been commissioned in Akmola, Almaty, Zhamb-yl, Karaganda, Kostanai and North Kazakh-stan regions since 2011.

Sagintayev was also quick to stress that Kazakhstan is working to launch part of these projects in time for the international EXPO exhibition, which ill be held in the country in 2017.

Kazakhstan is also under pressure to adopt alternative energy sources because it could run out of traditional energy sources by the year 2030. Experts believe that up to a third of domestically consumed energy can be saved by using alternative energy.

About 85% of Kazakhstan's electric-ity currently comes from coal-fired power plants, and close to 9% from hydroelectric power plants.

Kazakhstan turning to renewable energy sources

Teachers in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent this winter are being required to stay over-night - at least twice a month - to make sure their school’s heating system does not break down. This is an official order issued by the city’s school director.

To make sure the teachers obey the or-ders, they are being required to ring school officials at least twice during their night shift. Officials say this desperate measure is necessary in order to prevent pipes from bursting and causing damage and injury.

A similar situation exists at public hospitals in Tashkent, where doctors and nurses are required to keep a close eye on the heating pipes.

But heating schools is the govern-ment’s top priority this winter. In the vil-lages, keeping schools warm is now the responsibility of the parents. Students are reportedly being required to bring firewood with them to help heat their classroom.

In the western province of Khorazm,

for instance, it is being reported that of-ficials have given parents the option of raising money to help the school purchase firewood rather than sending their chil-dren to class with twigs and tree branches packed in their schoolbags.

Last winter, school officials were forced to shut down schools across the country because of the freezing cold weather. The schools had no heating and the temperatures had fallen to -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

Uzbek teachers get a lesson in heating

taJikistan |soCiet y

kazakhstan |energy

Uzbekistan|eDUCation

The names may change but traditions remain. EPA/JAGADEESH NV

31RUSSIANEWEUROPEwww.neweurope.eu2 -8 February, 2014

Britain could buy weapons from Rus-sia for the first time under a landmark defence treaty, the Telegraph reported. Defence chiefs are preparing to sign a deal that would see British defence companies working jointly on projects with the Russian arms industry. The treaty allows arms companies to buy kit from Russia – and Russian diplomatic sources said they hope one day to see British soldiers carrying the Red Army’s famous Kalashnikov rifle as a result.

“Work is ongoing on a Military Technical Cooperation Agreement (MTCA) between the UK Ministry of Defence and Russian Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, which will provide a framework for Russian and UK defense companies to cooperate at an unclassified level,” Brit-ish MOD spokesman said, as cited by the Telegraph.

Co-operation would not go too far as both countries possess technology,

such as missile engineering or surveil-lance electronic equipment, they would not share with a former Cold War ad-versary. Still, bilateral relations would eventually gain from the deal.

Russian-British relations are now gradually warming after the ‘polonium scandal’ in 2006, when former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, who allegedly was consulting British intelligence, was murdered in London with a radioactive substance.

Russia and the UK to sign defence agreement

RUSSIA|HEALTH

Study: Vodka to blame for high early death riskVodka is the alcoholic drink of choice for many Russians, and new research suggests the drink might be responsible for Russia’s “extraordinarily high” early death risk. “High mortality absolutely is caused by hazardous alcohol con-sumption,” said David Zaridze of the Russian Cancer Research Center of Moscow. When the Soviet Union put prohibition in place in the mid-1980s under Mikhail Gorbachev, alcohol use dropped 25%. Death rates among men under 55 dropped. Drinking started creeping back up, and so did deaths. Both spiked after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “The first event of the free market was cheap vodka and cheap cigarettes,” Zaridze said. “Of course the Russians who hadn’t seen cheap vodka started to drink again.” Causes of death include liver disease and alcohol poisoning. Many also die in accidents or after get-ting into fights. The study is thought to be the largest of its kind in the country. Researchers from the Russian Can-cer Centre in Moscow, Oxford University in the UK and the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer, in France, tracked the drinking pat-terns of 151,000 adults in three Russian cities over up to 10 years. During that time, 8,000 of them died.

RUSSIA|ECONOMY

Ruble hits 5-year low as growth expectations drop

The ruble has taken a sharp dive this year, so far this year losing about 10%. However, the Central Bank and govern-ment think the volatility isn’t a concern, adding that the currency is poised to fall further, RIA Novosti reported. On 27 January, the euro reached a historical high of 47.64, with the dollar close to 35, according to the data from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). High volatility has sent the ruble against the euro-dollar basket to lows that were last seen in February 2009. The trend of the falling ruble is likely to continue, instead of strengthening, according to Russia’s Economic Development Minister Aleksey Ulyukaev talking to the Davos Economic Forum in Swit-zerland. “There are three main reasons. Foremost – expec-tations of economic growth; they’ve gone down, which means a lower assessment of all national assets, including a national currency. This is the basic thing,” Interfax quoted Ulyukaev as saying. Investor sentiment is the last but not the least factor, according to Ulyukaev. “Investors are fear-ful and … are more likely to take steps back,” he said.

With the 22nd Winter Olympic Games just days away, two hundred twenty three Rus-sian athletes will compete at the Games this year at the Black sea resort of Sochi. Mean-while, more than half of the 25,000 volun-teers recruited for the upcoming Games have already arrived in Sochi and are pre-paring to meet participants and guests, The Voice of Russia reported.

Yves Dimier, former Alpine director for the French Ski Association, member of Sochi 2014 organising committee and competition manager of alpine center Rosa khutor, said the volunteer team is comprised of 23,000 Russians and 2,000 foreigners from around 60 countries. The average age is 25, while the oldest volunteer who comes from Siberia and who attended the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, is 75 years old.

The Olympic Games in Sochi will take place between 7 February and 23 February. About 6,000 athletes from 85 countries are expected to take part in them. They’ll be guarded by about 37,000 security officers. The estimated TV audience is three billion people.

In an interview with Russian media outlets senior International Olympic Com-mittee member Gian-Franco Kasper said he was more than satisfied with prepara-tions for the Sochi Olympics.

Meanwhile, security fears have been exacerbated by two suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd last month- Russia’s deadliest in three years- that killed 34 people.

On that note, the US military has re-newed an offer to help Russia with secu-rity at the Games in Sochi, the Pentagon said. But Moscow has given no indication it wants to take up Washington on its offer, spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

At a phone conversation between Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, the spokesman said the two did agree to ar-

range a communications channel to en-sure senior officers from both countries could confer if needed during the Sochi games. “They both agreed that some sort of regular exchange and dialogue between the two militaries throughout the period of the Olympics would be a good idea, so they’re working the details of that,” Kirby said.

For his part, Shoigu indicated that Rus-sia was “ready” for the security challenge presented by the games. Russia has put in place sweeping measures to build what it calls a “ring of steel” around Sochi involving tens of thousands of police, army and secu-rity officers.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper pointed to a rise in reported threats related to the games. “We have seen an in-crease in threat reporting just prior to the Olympics, which is not unusual for a major international event, and have offered as-sistance to the Russian Government,” he wrote in testimony to lawmakers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi his personal project from the very beginning. The Games could improve Russia’s interna-tional standing and instilling a sense of na-

tional pride to turning around the country’s demographic decline, analysts said.

In a recent interview with Russian and foreign TV stations, Putin said the Sochi Olympics should be seen as proof of Russia’s economic resurgence during his 14 years in power. He also hoped the games would lead people “to take an un-biased and fresh look” at what he called the new Russia.

“I am sure that this will happen, that it will ... help to build Russia’s relations with its partners around the world,” he said in the 19 January broadcast.

However, a terrorist attack would be a major embarrassment for Russian security services and would diminish Putin’s inter-national prestige.

The high cost is also an issue. An in-teractive website launched on 27 January by anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny paints a vivid picture of suspected cost overruns and conflicts of interest at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Russia has spent about $51 billion to deliver the Olympics in Sochi making them the most expensive Olympics ever even though winter games have many fewer ath-letes competing than summer games do.

Russia gears up for Sochi Winter Olympics

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

RUSSIA|OLYMPICS

Russian President Vladimir Putin gives an interview to Russian and foreign journalists in Sochi, 19 January 2014. AFP PHOTO/RIA-NOVOSTI/POOL/ALEKSEY NIKOLSKY

The ruble began trending lower in late December and has lost more than 2% of its value against both the dollar and euro in the last three trading sessions alone. AFP PHOTO/ALEXANDER NEMENOV - ANDREI SMIRNOV

KASSANDRA32

Kassandra@NEurope.eu

NEWEUROPE

Follow me on twitter @Kassandra_NE

Mostra, a communication company whose close relationship with the European Commission led to over

€23.5 million of contracts in 2012 alone, has been sold to ICF GHK, a subsidiary of Fairfax, Virginia based ICF International for an undis-closed sum.

Mostra had contracts with the EU total-ling €22,579,307 in 2011, €29,840,667 in 2010, €36,237,891 in 2009, according to the commis-sion’s Financial Transparency System.

According to ICFI , Mostra “is a key provider of strategic communications to European Union institutions, in particular the European Commis-sion, providing communications strategy and creation; content and editorial services; print, audiovisual, and web production; stakeholder management; social media campaigns; media relations; media buying and planning; and event organization.”

They add, “Mostra’s clients include most of the 33 European Commission’s Directorate Gen-erals, the European Parliament, the Council of the EU, and private enterprise.”

ICFI Chairman Sudhakar Kesavan said, “With its leading market share position, and port-folio of long-term client engagements with the European Union, Mostra will be a stable platform to help drive and support growth of our interna-tional business.”

The sale has been described as being “com-plementary to ICF's existing policy and advisory work with the European Commission”.

Conflicted?On 29 January, ICFI won a €5 million con-

tract itself from the European Union to advise

China on designing a national emissions trad-ing scheme.

Of course, their subsidiary, ICF GHK will then be able to be paid, via the European taxpay-er, to tell the world what a great job their parent company has done.

The Virginia company describe their work in Europe on their website, saying, “ICF is a lead-ing provider of professional services to European Commission, European Parliament, and other European Union (EU) institutions, evaluating EU policies and legislation and providing techni-cal support for programme delivery. “

Nobody in the commission appears to have noticed such a glaring, and expensive, conflict of interest.

There have been concerns over Mostra and

its relationship with senior officials at the Euro-pean Commission.

In April last year, they won a €59 million ten-der to run the europa.eu website, the online pres-ence of the EU. It was noted that the bid beat one almost 40% lower, some €42 million. Interest-ingly, Mostra then recruited extra staff to run the tender from companies who supplied the lower, but losing bids.

ICF GHK also has a profitable line in audit-ing and evaluating EU projects and policy. This includes a “Study to analyse the impacts of a pos-sible European Union initiative to protect work-ers from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in the workplace.”

This alone should set off alarm bells, but there are many, many more projects that they are

evaluating for the EU, including “Evaluation of the Community Plant Variety Right Acquis” for DG SANCO in 2011.

Is it right that one company can run projects, evaluate projects and then promote projects?

Why can nobody in the commission see what is obvious to all, is it incompetence, igno-rance or something more sinister?

While New Europe hears tales from inside the Commission HQ of some officials ‘preparing for an early retirement’ perhaps it would be good for investigators also look to see who is preparing their departure with ‘innovative financing.’

Miscommunicating EuropeThe concern is not just about money, but

the influence of the communications compa-nies, who are spending stratospheric amounts of EU cash, but despite this, the poor state of communications has put at risk the future of the political union.

It can be said that the heart of the tensions between the citizens and the institutions is not a ‘democratic deficit’ but a complete failure to con-nect, which is what communications are all about.

The sale increases concerns as EU commu-nications have, in a major part, been outsourced to the US and New Europe is asking the judicial arm of the EU to investigate the sale and links be-tween officials and communication companies they award such huge sums to, without being concerned about effectiveness.

Make no mistake, this failure is not only huge and expensive, but is one of the fundamental reasons behind concerns that the European elec-tions in May will return record numbers of Euro-sceptics and political extremists.

2 -8 February, 2014Once Upon A Time In Brussels...'Renegotiating EU membership could cost thousands of jobs, say experts' Was this an email to Cameron advising staying in the EU or one from the ECR warning Scotland over independence?

EU communications outsourced to US

Look at this! ICF International, a NAS-DAQ US hi-tech company from Fairfax, Vir-ginia, signed an agreement to buy the Brus-sels based Mostra S.A., which practically monopolises all kinds of digital services to the EU Institutions. Because of the nature of the contracts awarded to Mostra, it handles large amounts of sensitive and highly sensi-tive information of the Commission. All this information will now be given to a giant of technology in Fairfax.

GFK is the auditing company owned by ICF, which was contracted by the Europe-an Commission for reviewing all contracts awarded by its services to various companies, including digital services, events organiza-tion, etc. Thus, Mostra potentially will soon have access to all sensitive information of their competitors!

Kassandra published on November 17, 2013, the story on Europa.eu. At the time we wrote that the tender was awarded to Mostra S.A. for €59 million, or €17 mil-lion more, or 40% more expensive, than the lower bidder.

You may say that it was possible the Com-mission judged that Mostra had better quali-fications than the lowest bidder. Maybe, but let’s analyze this.

Indeed, I learned that Mostra performed better than its competitor in the tender, ESN consortium. In the evaluation of the offers by the Commission, Mostra received 251 points and ESN 250. Thus the Commission award-ed the tender to Mostra for less than half per-cent better grade, despite the 40% price dif-ferential (€17 million). Very generous with the money of others!

And the cherry on the top of the pie is I hear, that after Mostra signed the contract with the Commission, it bought two small IT companies specializing in Web and hired 30 employees from the ESN consortium that were doing the job.

In this matter, there are two things that I cannot understand. How Mostra was award-ed the tender if it hired the specialized per-sonnel after it got the award and why some of the key administrators of DG COM are look-ing to get early retirement?

Making the most of Mostra

An illustration of how the EU communication budget is spent. JONNY HUNTER

Tobaccoland based ICF International buy Mostra

| 1067

Weeding out the grantsWhen one thinks of environmental degra-dation and poverty, the Cayman Isles may not be the first location that leaps to mind. Cynical Europeans may think of it as, if we were rappers, Bankster’s Paradise, where illicit funds are slurped away from the tax-men and authorities and into the pockets of the plutocrats.Could there be anything troubling in this Caribbean isle? Why yes and thankfully, the EU is on the case.Brussels has given the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the Cayman €266,432 in 2012, for a ‘preparatory ac-tion’ on the ‘eradication of invasive species.’ Sadly, this turns out not the mass immigra-tion of Gordon Geckos, whose eradication might be wished for both inside and outside the island.EU generosity is global. Waterclock Ltd of Hong Kong got €52,000 for ‘producing video content’.Iran’s Centre for Environment and Sus-tainable Development Studies received €495,000 in 2012 for ‘Empowering Iran’s in-digenous nomadic tribes.’ A year previously,

Iran’s Family Planning Association received an identical amount.In 2009, €300,000 was spent on ‘Empower-ment of Selected Tehran Vulnerable Wom-en (Sex Workers).Qatar’s environment ministry received €120,810 for an ‘EU Pavilion’ during the Climate Change convention. This is on top of the €600,000 that went to the conference organising committee.The Solomon Isles may be remote, but not too remote for a handout. The Develop-ment Services Exchange Trust in the Pacific isle got €178,707 for ‘Strengthening NGO Effectiveness.’A more miserly €2,100 was sent to help with the celebration of the 312 AD battle of Mil-vian Bridge outside Rome.Zimbabwe’s Star FM got €60,000 for and ‘EU Communication and Visibility Pro-gramme’ and the Harare Arts Festival got €100,000 in 2012.Elsewhere, we can only wonder what hap-pened to the 2010 grant of €58,500 for ‘Sus-tainable Actions for the World Academy’ in Syria.