Category: Євросоюз

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Saturday that the longer it takes to find a compromise with the opposition Labour Party to secure a parliamentary majority for a Brexit deal, the less likely it is that Britain will leave the European Union.  May has so far failed to secure backing for her negotiated agreement with Brussels, as some Conservative lawmakers and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her minority government, have voted it down.  She has since turned to the opposition Labour Party in a bid to secure a majority for an orderly Brexit, although its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said Saturday that he was waiting for May …

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Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Saturday in several Swiss cities against climate change, the Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS reported.    Around 50,000 marched in all, the news agency estimated, including 15,000 in Zurich and up to 9,000 in the capital, Bern, and in Lausanne.    “It’s about knowing if finally we want to listen to the voice of science,” high school student Jan Burckhardt told ATS.    “Save the climate, please: It’s the last time we ask politely,” read one of the placards at the Lausanne demonstration, an AFP photographer saw.    The marches were organized by an alliance of activist groups in Switzerland, …

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Right-wing populist parties are gearing up to campaign for European Parliament elections next month, but policy differences and the Brexit drama threaten their dream to “unite the right.”    Many fear the May 26 vote will be a wake-up call for Brussels on the reality that Europe’s anti-immigration and blood-and-soil patriotic forces have moved from the fringes to the mainstream.    Once considered outsiders, they could now end up with one-fifth or more of the seats, allowing them to shift the tone of political discourse and make a claim for legitimacy.    Key players are Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (NR) in …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP will accept the results of local election recounts in Ankara and Istanbul no matter which party is declared the winner, a party spokesman said Saturday.    The AKP won most votes nationwide in last Sunday’s election, but results showed the ruling party lost Ankara and was also narrowly defeated in Istanbul in what would be one of its worst setbacks in a decade and a half in power.    Electoral authorities are conducting a recount in scores of districts in Ankara and in Istanbul where tallies showed the opposition CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu with a …

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At the final press conference marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a question was raised as to whether NATO was partly responsible for current tensions with Moscow, “because it has expanded right up to the borders of Russia” and whether it was a good idea to “publicly advertise open invitations to Georgia and Ukraine” to join the alliance. Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General since October 2014, responded by saying: “Just the idea that it is a provocation against Russia that Georgia aspires for membership, or that Ukraine does the same, is really, really …

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A new survey shows that less than half of Americans support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance originally designed to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, but now focused on Russia and non-state actors such as the Taliban and the Islamic State group. The YouGov survey, released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of NATO, found that only 44 percent of Americans support the United States’ place in the agreement. That was down 3 percentage points from when the survey was conducted in 2017. The poll also surveyed other NATO countries and found that support for the alliance had …

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“I am not worried about voting results,” said Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition mayoral candidate in Istanbul. “I am worried about a system being poorly managed.” He spoke to VOA on Friday as elections officials conducted a recount of last Sunday’s vote. Friday was the fifth day of uncertainty about which candidate would take over the leadership of the city of 15 million. The vote was close, with Imamoglu, of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), narrowly leading the ruling AK Party candidate, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.  On Tuesday the AK Party, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the head, …

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Cindy Saine at the State Department and Margaret Besheer at the United Nations contributed to this report. The United States has revoked the visa of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, over a possible investigation of U.S. soldiers’ actions in Afghanistan. Bensouda’s office said Friday that U.S. authorities revoked the prosecutor’s visa for entry into the United States, and a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed the action. The spokesperson said Friday, “The United States will take the necessary steps to protect its sovereignty and to protect our people from unjust investigation and prosecution by the International Criminal Court …

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Britain’s opposition Labour Party said on Friday that talks with the government on a last-ditch Brexit deal had made no progress, as EU leaders said Prime Minister Theresa May had not convinced them that they should let Britain delay its departure next week. May wrote to Brussels asking European Union leaders to postpone Britain’s exit from next Friday until June 30. But they have insisted that she must first show a viable plan to secure agreement on her divorce deal in the deadlocked parliament. Labour, which she turned to reluctantly after failing three times to get her deal passed, said …

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French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered a government study into the country’s role in Rwanda before and during its 1994 genocide. Macron met Friday with victims of the genocide, and a Rwandan group working to teach future generations about it.  Rwanda is this weekend marking the 25th anniversary of the start of the ethnic slaughter of some 800,000 people, mainly ethnic Tutsis. Macron ordered a commission of researchers and historians to scour archives ”to analyze the role and involvement of France” in Rwanda from 1990-1994. It is to produce conclusions within two years. Critics say France was too supportive of …

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European Council President Donald Tusk wants Britain to have until next April to come up with a viable plan for its exit from from the European Union.  EU leaders would have to approve the extension which gives Britain the option of leaving the group earlier if parliament approves an exit deal.  British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to write Tusk a letter Friday formally requesting another extension, until June 30.  Britain was originally due to leave the bloc by March 29, but May got approval from the EU for a short extension to give her government more time to …

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Russia has made reaffirming its presence in the Arctic a top goal, revamping the military Arctic outpost of Severny Klever along the Arctic shipping route Missile launchers ply icy roads and air defense systems point menacingly into the sky at this Arctic military outpost, a key vantage point for Russia to project its power over the resource-rich polar region. The base, dubbed Severny Klever (Northern Clover) for its trefoil shape, is painted in the white, blue and red colors of the Russian national flag. It has been designed so soldiers can reach all of its sprawling facilities without venturing outdoors …

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Some European countries could soon find themselves cut off from U.S. intelligence and other critical information if they continue to cultivate relationships with Chinese technology firms. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued the warning Thursday, following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Washington. “We’ve done our risk analysis,” Pompeo said. “We have now shared that with our NATO partners, with countries all around the world. We’ve made clear that if the risk exceeds the threshold for the United States, we simply won’t be able to share that information any longer.” U.S. defense and intelligence officials have warned repeatedly …

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The United States is considering expanding sales of Lockheed Martin Corp made F-35 fighter jets to five new nations including Romania, Greece and Poland as European allies bulk up their defenses in the face of a strengthening Russia, a Pentagon official told Congress on Thursday. In written testimony submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives and seen by Reuters, Vice Admiral Mathias Winter — the head of the Pentagon’s F-35 office — said that “future potential Foreign Military Sales customers include Singapore, Greece, Romania, Spain and Poland.” News of the new customers coincides with U.S. tension with F-35 development partner …

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Two key American officials — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — are skipping meetings in France this week as the Group of Seven countries gather to try to find solutions to world security challenges. The move raises questions about the G-7’s effectiveness at solving some of the international issues it has deemed crucial, including fighting terrorism and human trafficking. A lunch focusing on migration issues and human trafficking kicked off the G-7 interior ministers’ meetings Thursday in Paris. France, which took over the G-7’s presidency in January, is hosting the two-day meeting, which …

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Kyiv on Thursday renamed one of its streets after John McCain, in a gesture of honor to the late U.S. senator who supported Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership in the standoff with Russia. McCain, who died last year at age 81, backed Kyiv’s popular uprising which in 2014 ousted Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin president as well as supported sanctions over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko praised McCain, who was a frequent visitor to the country, as “a great friend and advocate of Ukraine.” He noted McCain’s “historic importance” in building a “new independent Ukraine” during the meeting with his widow Cindy …

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Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko agreed on Thursday to go head-to-head with comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a debate at the country’s biggest stadium, as flamboyant media spectacle and social media drive the race for the presidency.                            Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old actor best known in the country for playing the president in a television show, is favorite to become Ukraine’s next leader after he dominated a first-round vote on March 31, despite many initially dismissing his candidacy as a joke. Observers say Ukraine’s two-round election is one of the country’s most unpredictable votes since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in …

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The family of an American killed when a Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine in 2014 filed a lawsuit on Thursday against U.S.-based money transfer companies and two Russian banks they accuse of providing services to the group they blame for striking Flight MH17. MH17 was brought down over territory held by pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine as it flew from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 people on board, roughly two-thirds of them Dutch. American Quinn Lucas Schansman, 18, was aboard MH17 on his way to meet his parents for a family …

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Forty-four percent of Russians aged 15-29 want to emigrate as their economy stagnates, according to a survey by the pollster Gallup. The poll, based on 2,000 face-to-face interviews conducted in 2018, indicated that 20 percent of all Russians wanted to move abroad, the highest share since 2007, when it stood at 17 percent. Young people of working age were most keen to leave, something that Gallup said threatened Russia’s future economic position and political influence. “While not all of these Russians will move, the higher desire in recent years should concern Moscow,” it said. Russia’s population declined last year for …

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As carmakers push ahead with self-driving vehicles, an Austrian aerospace company and its Chinese partner showed off their pilot-less “flying taxi” for the first time in Europe on Thursday. The drone’s 16 propellers hummed loudly as it rose above the pitch at Vienna’s Generali Arena, home to soccer club Austria Wien. The slim plane, which weighs 340 kg (750 pounds), circled in the air briefly and came down within a few minutes. The EHang 216, which can seat two passengers, has been tested comprehensively and is essentially ready for mass production, said Derrick Xiong, co-founder of Chinese drone maker EHang. …

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