Category: Євросоюз

Spain’s King Felipe directed his Christmas message Sunday to the separatist-minded region of Catalonia and what he says is the need to avoid confrontation. The king urged regional leaders to help “Catalonia’s society, diverse and plural as it is, to recover its serenity, stability, and mutual respect in such a way as to ensure that ideas don’t divide or separate families and friends.” Looking back on a “difficult” year for Spain, he reminded Catalan leaders and the newly-elected parliament to “face the problems that affect all Catalans, respecting their diversity and thinking responsibly in the common good.” In an October …

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Outside the doors to the Moscow courthouse, the crowd of supporters, and reporters, swelled into the hundreds. Inside, one of Russia’s most famous theater directors was on trial for embezzlement. Just meters away, on a street corner, a young woman stood with a small sign: “Return our artist to us.” Such are the times in Russia, where art – theater, literature, painting, music, film – has again become a political battleground, where left and right fight over values and culture with increasing intensity. In President Vladimir Putin’s current term alone, the country’s cultural space has already been buffeted by an …

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Turkey dismissed more than 2,700 employees from its public service sector Sunday – the latest firings in a widescale crackdown since a failed military coup in July 2016. A total of 2,756 people, including academics, soldiers, and military personnel were dismissed on Sunday, accused of links to what Ankara has labeled as terror groups, according to the Official Gazette. In a separate emergency decree Sunday, Turkey the country’s defense procurement agency was ordered to report to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instead of the defense ministry. Seventeen Turkish institutions, including two newspapers, were also ordered shut. Under emergency rule introduced last …

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The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe continued to fall last month, and the European Union says its policies to ease the crisis are working.  On the so-called central Mediterranean route from North Africa, arrivals were down by a third. And Europe claimed success in slowing the arrival of migrants.  But Amnesty International claims the bloc’s collaboration with Libyan groups involved in the detention of migrants makes it complicit in gross human rights abuses. Maria Serrano of Amnesty International says this has come at a terrible human cost. “Europe has decided to cooperate with Libyan authorities, knowing the …

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Spain is trying to turn back a growing wave of African migrants who seek to enter the country through its southern coast or its small enclaves in North Africa. About 800 migrants rushed the border fence in the enclave of Ceuta on Friday. At least 30 managed to climb over the seven-meter-high fence according to Spanish police, who turned back hundreds more with help from Moroccan riot police. Ceuta and another city along the Moroccan coast, Melilla, have been Spanish possessions since the 1500s. Earlier in the week, the Spanish coast guard rescued about 60 migrants trying to cross the …

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The United States and other Western countries swiftly condemned a move in Kosovo to scrap a war crimes court, warning that if successful, it would hamper efforts for Euro-Atlantic integration. “It will be considered by the United States as a stab in the back. Kosovo will be choosing isolation instead of cooperation, and I have to say we would hate to turn the clock back for Kosovo on progress when it has come so far,” U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Greg Delawie said Friday. The United States has been a key ally and financial backer of Kosovo since it broke away …

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Italy’s ruling Democratic Party (PD), hit by internal divisions and a banking scandal, is continuing to slide in opinion polls, with a new survey on Saturday putting it more than six percentage points behind the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The survey by the Ixe agency, commissioned by Huffington Post Italia, came days before parliament is expected to be dissolved to make way for elections in March. It gave the center-left PD just 22.8 percent of voter support, down almost five points in the last two months, compared with 29.0 percent for 5-Star, which has gained almost two points in the same …

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Macedonia’s main opposition party, the rightist VMRO-DPMNE, formally replaced its leader, Nikola Gruevski, on Saturday and appointed Hristijan Mickoski, a technocrat, as his successor. Gruevski, 47, resigned this month following an election defeat last year and unrest that rocked the small Balkan country in April. In his speech to the party’s convention on Saturday, Gruevski said that a key reason for VMRO-DPMNE’s fall from power was his refusal to yield to what he described as international and domestic pressure to accept a compromise in a dispute with Greece. Macedonia, which won independence in 1991 from then-federal Yugoslavia, has made little …

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An aardvark was killed and staff members were injured in a fire Saturday at the London Zoo. Four meerkats were missing and presumed dead, zoo officials said. More than 70 firefighters in 10 trucks took nearly three hours to put out the blaze, the cause of which wasn’t immediately known. Eight staff members at the zoo were treated for smoke inhalation.  “We are all naturally devastated by this, but are immensely grateful to the fire brigade, who reacted quickly to the situation to bring the fire under control,” read a statement issued by the zoo, adding that it expected to …

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Spectators at the home stadium of Real Madrid saw its team’s hopes to keep La Liga title fade away Saturday as Barcelona rolled to a 3-0 El Clasico victory, opening a 14-point lead over the current champions.  Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Aleix Vidal each scored, while Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema missed first-half chances.  “They did really well in the second half. The first half was terrible, in my opinion. They [Barcelona] had very little possession [of the ball],” Joe Villanueva, a Barcelona fan, told VOA.  Barcelona’s win, however, went beyond the European soccer classic. The soccer …

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The U.S. is providing Ukraine with lethal weapons, in an effort to help the country with its fight against Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country.    The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that the decision to provide Ukraine with “enhanced defensive capabilities” is in keeping with the “effort to help Ukraine build its long-term defense capacity, to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The statement added that the “U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature.” An ABC-TV news report issued before the announcement said the “The total defense package of $47 million includes the …

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More than 70 firefighters tackled a blaze at London Zoo on Saturday after a fire broke out at a cafe and shop at the attraction. No animals were reported injured. The blaze broke out shortly after 0600 GMT, London Fire Brigade said. The fire was near an area where visitors can handle and feed animals but none were thought to have been involved. “The fire at @zsllondonzoo is now under control but crews will remain on the scene throughout the morning damping down the fire which has affected a cafe and a shop,” the fire brigade said on Twitter. Ten …

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Spain’s prime minister has rejected demands for talks from Catalonia’s independence leaders, following regional elections in the semi-autonomous region Thursday which gave pro-secessionist parties a slim majority of two seats in the Catalan parliament. The election was called after Madrid sacked the Catalan government, after it tried to declare independence following a disputed referendum in October. ​The former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is in exile in Belgium, called for talks Friday with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in a location outside Spain. “Catalonia wants to be an independent state. This is the wish of the Catalan people,” Puigdemont told …

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Independence leaders in Catalonia have renewed their calls for the region to break away from Spain, following Thursday’s regional election result, which gave pro-secessionist parties a slim majority. The election was called after Madrid sacked the Catalan government following a disputed referendum in October. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Thursday’s vote offers little indication of how the political standoff will end. …

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The United States will provide Ukraine with “enhanced defensive capabilities,” the State Department said Friday, as Kyiv battles Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. “U.S. assistance is entirely defensive in nature, and as we have always said, Ukraine is a sovereign country and has a right to defend itself,” the department said in a statement. Earlier Friday, ABC News reported that President Donald Trump was expected to approve the sale of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, citing State Department sources. Any sale would need congressional approval. On Monday, the Russian foreign ministry said it was recalling officers serving …

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Italy organized a first airlift of refugees from Libyan detention centers to Rome after coming under international criticism for helping the Libyan coast guard block migrants from leaving by boat. The Interior Ministry said the refugees were due to arrive later Friday at Rome’s Pratica di Mare military base. Interior Minister Marco Minniti and the head of the Italian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, were to welcome them. The U.N. refugee agency’s Libya representative, Roberto Mignone, tweeted that he was traveling with 162 “vulnerable” refugees. Italy said the women, children and elderly people were all entitled to international protection. It …

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Britain announced Friday it would return to “iconic” blue and gold passports after it formally leaves the European Union in 2019. Since 1988, British passports have been issued with a burgundy sleeve along with other European Union countries. Supporters of Brexit hailed the decision as a reclaiming of Britain’s independence from the EU, while opponents have mocked their attachment to something superficial and have voiced concern that Brexit will diminish the country’s standing in the world. “The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty — symbolizing our citizenship of a proud, great nation,” Prime Minister Theresa May …

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Kosovo’s president has urged political parties to intensify efforts to ratify a border demarcation deal with Montenegro which is set as a precondition by the European Union for a visa-free regime for the country’s citizens. In his end-of-year speech to parliament Friday, Hashim Thaci urged all local actors to speed up efforts to find a solution “within the next weeks.” “Without losing time we should ratify the border demarcation deal with Montenegro. Ratification of such a deal would give an end to the unfair isolation of the Republic of Kosovo’s citizens,” said Thaci. The 2015 deal has been contested by …

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The Vatican is confirming Pope Francis has ordered an investigation into alleged financial and other irregularities in the diocese of one of his top advisers, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. Italian newsweekly L’Espresso says the investigation was initiated in May following allegations of failed investments, questionable expenses by one of Maradiaga’s deputies, and the ultimate destination of 35,000 euro a month paid to the cardinal by the Catholic University of Honduras.  Rodriguez Maradiaga’s supporters have told Catholic media the university funds are used to pay salaries and other diocesan expenses, and that such arrangements are used by other Honduran bishops. …

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The International Olympic Committee said on Friday it had banned 11 Russian athletes for life after they committed doping offences at the 2014 Sochi winter games. Among them are speed skaters Ivan Skobrev, a two-time medalist at the Vancouver 2010 Games, and Artem Kuznetcov. Along with lugers Tatyana Ivanova and Albert Demchenko, who both won silver medals in Sochi, cross-country skiers Nikita Kryukov, Alexander Bessmertnykh — both silver medallists — and Natalia Matveeva, bobsledders Liudmila Udobkina and Maxim Belugin, and ice hockey players Tatiana Burina and Anna Shchukina, they were disqualified from the events they took part in. They were …

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