Category: Євросоюз

French President Emmanuel Macron celebrates his 40th birthday this weekend on the grounds of a former royal palace, in what some opponents called another tactless show of wealth. Rivals have branded former investment banker Macron “president of the rich” for policies such as the scrapping of a wealth tax and cutting the housing benefit, moves the president framed as reforms to boost investment and social mobility. Macron is staying with his wife, Brigitte, in a guesthouse close to the Chateau de Chambord, a former royal palace on the Loire that dates back to the 16th century. His office denied media …

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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has hit the delete button on domestic rules protecting net neutrality. The FCC voted 3-2 on Thursday to end the 2015 Open Internet Order and enact the Restoring Internet Freedom initiative, which is widely seen as giving internet service providers (ISPs) more power to selectively limit internet access while favoring certain data streams. In large part, this is an internal battle within the United States over consumer choice and how the internet will operate. Nonetheless, it also could have a significant impact beyond America’s borders, especially for those who routinely interact with U.S.-based internet services …

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Austria’s Conservative People’s Party (OVP) reached a coalition deal Saturday with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which takes a hard line on immigration. The deal makes Austria the only western European country with a far-right group in government. Austrian conservatives led by Sebastian Kurz and FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache said in a joint statement this was a “turquoise-blue agreement,” referring to each group’s political colors. “We want to reduce the burden on taxpayers … and above all we want to ensure greater security in our country, including through the fight against illegal immigration,” Kurz said. The 31-year-old will be Austria’s …

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Ukraine’s foreign minister applauded decisions announced this week by Canada and the European Union (EU) as important in demonstrating the international community’s solidarity with Ukraine and sending a clear message to Russia. “Look, Russia does not live in a vacuum, sanctions are effective,” Pavlo Klimkin said Friday in an interview with VOA. EU Council President Donald Tusk announced Thursday that leaders of the organization’s 28 member states were “united on the rollover of economic sanctions on Russia.” The European Union’s sanctions post constraints for Russia’s access to the coveted EU markets. Initially, they were put in place in 2014 “in …

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British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said Saturday it is likely Britain will want to negotiate a bespoke arrangement for a future trade deal with the European Union, rather than copying existing arrangements like the Canada-EU deal. The European Union agreed Friday to move Brexit talks onto trade and a transition pact, but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britain’s exit could be fraught with peril. Summit chairman Donald Tusk said the world’s biggest trading bloc would begin “exploratory contacts” with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussion …

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European leaders finished a summit in Brussels agreeing that Britain has done enough to move on to the second phase of negotiations to leave the EU, but without any signs of agreement on matters of immigration. European Council leader Donald Tusk put immigration high on the agenda for the two-day summit. He said at the end of the day Friday that EU leaders will find it “very hard” to reach a compromise in talks on a new policy for admitting refugees by a June deadline. “Mandatory quotas remain a contentious issue although its temperature has decreased substantially,” Tusk told a …

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France gave the world butter croissants and foie gras, yet it has often been a place where being overweight was seen as almost sinful. Now, after taking a hard look at the contradictions in the mirror, its capital has launched a campaign to counter sizeism, an often disregarded kind of discrimination in the image-conscious city known for luxury fashion brands and tiny waists. Paris anti-discrimination chief Helene Bidard began the initiative after falling victim to weight-related insults and noticing how bias against French people who are overweight went unnoticed, never mind unpunished. “We see fat people as ugly and even …

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Turkish prosecutors have taken another step toward the prosecution and possible jailing of the country’s main opposition leader. On Thursday, Ankara prosecutors announced they had prepared their case against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and called for the lifting of his parliamentary immunity. The CHP responded by criticizing the ruling party and Turkey’s president. “[The] Justice and Development Party, and most importantly, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is different from the parties in the past. It has no tolerance against being criticized heavily and this intolerance is reflected in the indictment written by the prosecutors,” said deputy …

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United Nations human rights officials are condemning what they call the shocking and appalling mass executions of 38 men in Iraq on Thursday. The men, who were executed at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, were convicted for terrorism-related crimes.  A spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, told VOA her office did not learn of the mass executions until after the fact. “That again just underscores the situation, that suddenly we get sort of word, we get news that there has been a mass execution,” Throssell said. “That goes back to the …

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Russia and Egypt signed a deal on Friday to resume flights between Moscow and the Egyptian capital of Cairo starting from February, after more than a two-year break, officials announced. Moscow suspended flights to Egypt after a bomb by the local Islamic State affiliate brought down a Russian airliner over Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board. The attack decimated Egypt’s vital tourism industry. Egyptian authorities have since spent millions of dollars to upgrade security at its airports, hoping to get Moscow to change its mind. Russian Transportation Minister Maxim Sokolov said he and Egyptian Minister of …

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Russia’s former economics minister was handed an eight-year prison sentence Friday after being convicted of accepting a $2 million bribe from President Vladimir Putin’s top associate. The case against Alexei Ulyukayev has been widely seen as part of infighting between Kremlin clans. Ulyukayev was a prominent member of a group of liberal-minded Cabinet members, while his nemesis Igor Sechin is the most prominent representative of the hard-line flank of the Russian elite. Sechin heads Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, and his clout seconds only that of Putin. Ulyukayev was detained a year ago at Rosneft’s headquarters following a sting operation …

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Turkey is launching an initiative at the United Nations to annul a decision by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President TayyipErdogan said on Friday. Erdogan was speaking two days after a Muslim leaders meeting in Istanbul condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision, calling on the world to respond by recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. “We will work for the annulment of this unjust decision firstly at the UN Security Council, and if a veto comes from there, the General Assembly,” Erdogan told crowds gathered in the central Anatolian city of Konya via teleconference. …

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European Union nations bickered openly over migration policy Thursday in an east-west divide centered on several nations that refuse to accept refugee quotas. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia announced that they planned to spend around 35 million euros ($41 million) to beef up EU borders after the four countries — known as the “Visegrad Four” — were criticized for failing to show solidarity with the rest of the bloc. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte still thought it was “shameless” and said shirking responsibility by not taking in their share would wither the EU.  “If we allow this then …

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President Donald Trump thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for remarks he made Thursday “acknowledging America’s strong economic performance,” the White House said.  The two presidents spoke by phone following Putin’s annual press conference in Moscow.  They discussed ways to work together to address North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic weapons program, the White House said.  In an equally brief statement, the Kremlin said in addition to North Korea, Trump and Putin discussed relations between their two countries and agreed to stay in contact. The Kremlin made a point of noting that Trump initiated the call.  During his remarks in Moscow, Putin …

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Two people were killed and three injured Thursday night in two stabbing incidents in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, authorities said. Police said in a tweet that one suspect had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the incidents. They released no details on the suspect or the victims. Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was not a terror attack, echoing comments from the police. “It is terrible what happened there. People were killed and others were injured,” Rutte said at an EU summit in Brussels. The incidents happened in a residential neighborhood in the north of Maastricht, a …

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A regional train hit a school bus on a crossing in southern France on Thursday, killing four children and critically injuring 11 other people on the bus, the French interior ministry said. Photos from the scene tweeted by a local television station showed the train derailed and the bus shorn in half — with first responders gathered around. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who flew to the scene Thursday night, said authorities still didn’t know what led to the accident at the crossing in Millas, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Perpignan, close to the border with Spain. Philippe said …

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Making no secret of her desire to move on with Brexit talks, British Prime Minister Theresa May won applause from EU leaders Thursday for efforts so far in agreeing to an outline of divorce terms. A day after she suffered a defeat in parliament in London over her blueprint for quitting the European Union, May told her peers over dinner in Brussels that she was on course to deliver Brexit. Offering her reassurance that they would formally endorse on Friday the launch of a second phase of negotiations on a free-trade pact and an initial transition period to it, leaders responded to …

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Turkey’s coast guard launched a dramatic rescue operation Thursday to evacuate migrants stranded on rocks in the Aegean Sea.   The coast guard said in a statement that 51 migrants attempted to illegally cross to Greece on a rubber dinghy from the western province of Izmir. Authorities intervened after receiving an emergency call at 01:12 local time (1012 GMT).   Video showed a helicopter lifting a person off the rocks using a rope. The statement said five children and a woman were rescued in this way while the rest were transferred to coast guard boats with the assistance of fishermen …

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The European Union’s leaders are due to say Friday that the Brexit talks with Britain can move on to the next phase to include the key topic of trade, according to a draft statement seen by The Associated Press.   The progress comes after the sides reached a deal on the preliminary divorce issues, such as the status of Britain’s physical border with EU member Ireland. The EU had long said it wanted a deal on Britain’s exit terms before broadening the talks to include the subject of future relations.   British Prime Minister Theresa May will address EU leaders …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday rejected allegations of Russian interference in last year’s U.S. presidential election and said opponents of U.S. President Donald Trump spread the accusations to undermine his legitimacy. Speaking at his annual marathon news conference in Moscow, Putin expressed hope that U.S.-Russia relations will normalize. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Putin ordered a campaign meant to influence the U.S. vote with a preference for Trump to defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Trump has said his campaign did not collude with Russia. Putin said Thursday that Russia is worried about the United States pulling out of …

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