Category: Євросоюз

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual marathon call-in show, Direct Line, is usually a carefully crafted production designed to show how the Kremlin’s top guy cares about ordinary people’s concerns and quickly responds to resolve issues that local officials ignore. The nationwide show has state television reporters in far-flung parts of the country set up with citizens to ask Putin obviously scripted questions. Other questions are chosen from callers, sent in recorded messages or come from the selected audience.   Most questions this year, like every year, were fairly bland, pandering, or focused on specific and recurring issues such as fixing …

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Greece’s European lenders agreed Thursday to release another $9.5 billion of a desperately needed bailout installment, while holding out the hope of debt relief. All sides reached a deal in Luxembourg Thursday after months of often bitter negotiations. The European Union’s top economy official, France’s Pierre Moscovici, said Greece has respected its commitments for economic reforms and that it is now time for its creditors to “take their’s.” Bankruptcy looming The Greek people need to see the “light at the end of the tunnel of austerity,” Moscovici said. Greece has implemented more tough spending cuts and tax hikes in exchange …

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French President Emmanuel Macron laid out his vision for a digital future on Thursday, saying he wants France to undergo a revolution so that it becomes a country that “thinks and moves like a startup.” Speaking at the Viva Technology conference in Paris, Macron repeated he wanted to reform labor laws to give more decision-making powers to companies and lower corporate tax. The state should act as an enabler — not a constraint — for innovators and entrepreneurs, he said. The French president said he would limit the wealth tax to cover just property in order to help businesses, and …

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Russia’s hosting of FIFA’s (International Federation of Association Football) Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2 and the World Cup championship in 2018 is reigniting hopes in the country for football (soccer). The last time Russia made the world’s top four was in 1966 when it was part of the Soviet Union. Watch: Russia’s Hosting of FIFA Tournaments Reignites World Cup Hopes   Russian football gained global recognition during the 1966 World Cup when the Soviet Union defeated Italy, Chile, and Hungary to take fourth place. Half-a-century later, the few living players from that championship have yet to see …

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As the political instability in Britain continues, pollsters say last week’s election appears to have marked a watershed moment. Young people voted in big numbers – with some estimates suggesting turnout soared from 44 percent in 2015 to as much as 72 percent this year – and most voted for the left-wing Labour party. As Henry Ridgwell reports from the southern city of Brighton, activists say they have taken inspiration from other political movements across the globe. …

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Hungary’s tough asylum system has helped cause a bottleneck for up to 7,000 migrants who are now stuck in limbo in Serbia, the Council of Europe Special Representative on migration and refugees said Wednesday. After visiting two camps built from shipping containers and surrounded by a barbed-wire fence on Hungary’s border with Serbia, Ambassador Tomas Bocek also told Reuters that the migrants were effectively being deprived of their liberty. The migrants, most of whom hope to reach wealthy western Europe, can only leave the tightly guarded camps by returning south into Serbia, and cannot move freely between the different sections …

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Macedonia asked Greece on Wednesday to help its bid to join NATO and the European Union, efforts frozen by a decades-long dispute over the ex-Yugoslav republic’s name. Greece, a member of both groups, says Macedonia’s use of the name could imply territorial claims on Greece’s most northerly province of the same name. It is withholding support for Macedonia’s further integration until it agrees to change it and has managed to get many international bodies, including the United Nations, to formally refer to it as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM. “I’m here to ask for your support,” Foreign …

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Austria’s ruling Social Democrats have dropped a 30-year ban on allying with the far right, saying on Wednesday they would be prepared to enter a coalition with anyone on certain terms. After a party leadership meeting, Chancellor Christian Kern presented a “values compass” of principles that his Social Democrats (SPO) would require of any future coalition partner. That effectively swept aside a self-imposed rule against tie-ups with the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) before a parliamentary election in October, although differences between the two parties remain stark in several areas. Opening the door to an alliance with the far right is …

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Efforts to bring international students to U.S. campuses and send American students overseas has accelerated in the past five years, according to an American Council on Education (ACE) survey of U.S. colleges. International engagement was “high” or “very high,” ACE said of the more than 70 percent of 1,100 American colleges and universities it polled in 2016. Schools have stepped up efforts to “internationalize” campuses in the face of globalization, the report said, but “efforts are still focused first and foremost on the external,” meaning more international students come in than domestic students go out. The U.S. hosted more than …

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Firefighters on Wednesday battled one of London’s biggest fire disasters in recent memory as a rapid-moving blaze raced through a 24-story apartment building in West London. Hours after the fire was first reported, crews worked to rescue people trapped inside and count the number of dead.  “I can confirm six fatalities at this time,” Metropolitan Police commander Stuart Cundy said. “But this figure is likely to rise during what is a complex recovery operation over a number of days.” Neighbors said they heard screams for help as the fire stormed through the floors, trapping residents who could be seen from …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are joining forces in order to crack down on tech companies, ensuring they step up their efforts to combat terrorism online. Britain and France face similar challenges in fighting homegrown Islamist extremism and share similar scars from deadly attacks that rocked London, Manchester, Paris and Nice. May traveled to Paris on Tuesday to hold talks on counterterrorism measures and Britain’s departure from the European Union. She said major internet companies had failed to live up to prior commitments to do more to prevent extremists from finding a “safe space” online. …

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Hungary defied the EU and human rights groups on Tuesday by approving strict new rules for non-governmental organizations with foreign funding that further escalates Budapest’s conflict with billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The law drafted by right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government requires NGOs that get money from abroad to register with the authorities. The government says it wants to ensure greater transparency and protect Hungary from foreign influence, but NGOs say the bill stigmatizes them and is intended to stifle independent voices in the central European country. Orban, 54, has especially focused on NGOs funded by Soros, an American-Hungarian, …

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Summertime in Europe often means that large-scale outdoor events are planned for weeks in a row, with lots of people in public spaces. But vehicles have been used several times to kill and wound pedestrians and citizens since last year’s attack in Nice, France. Vans and cars have also been used to carry out attacks in Germany, Sweden and Britain. European cities are known for their open public spaces, but more measures have been implemented to keep citizens safer. Adjusting to this reality means cities are adopting several approaches to protect their citizens without turning their open cities into heavily-secured …

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An Indian tycoon facing extradition to India has appeared at a preliminary hearing in a British court. Co-owner of the Force India Formula 1 team Vijay Mallya confirmed his name and personal details in Westminster Magistrates Court Tuesday.   He is wanted in India to face charges of money laundering and bank demands that he pay back more than a billion dollars in loans to his now-defunct airline.   His lawyer told the court Mallya may face additional charges in India.   The 61-year-old Mallya was arrested in Britain in April and has been free on conditional bail. He moved …

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Kensington Palace says the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will make five-day visit to Poland and Germany in a trip seen as a goodwill mission amid the rancor surrounding Britain’s pending departure from the European Union. Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, have not toured Poland before on behalf of the government, though the second in line to the throne traveled to Germany last summer for a series of events honoring members of the British armed services. The trip begins July 17 in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, and will include a stop in Gdansk. In Germany, the royals …

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The European Union warned the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland on Tuesday that they have 24 hours to start taking in refugees under an EU sharing plan or face legal action.   The European Commission said in a statement that it has repeatedly urged the three countries to relocate refugees or at least pledge to do so under the legally-binding refugee plan agreed two years ago.   But it said they haven’t taken action “in breach of their legal obligations,” and that it “has decided to launch infringement procedures.”   The plan to share 160,000 refugees in overwhelmed Italy and …

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“I can’t negotiate with myself,” Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, told reporters in Brussels this week. He’s not alone among Europeans in being impatient. “We are waiting for the UK to come to the table and to lay out exactly what they are after,” said Mairhead McGuinness, vice president of the European Parliament. “The clock is ticking towards Brexit. It is a mess, but it is not an EU mess.”. Britain was supposed to begin formal negotiations on its break from the EU next week, but according to officials, no firm date has been set as Prime …

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Kosovo could be heading towards lengthy talks on forming a coalition government, delaying economic reforms, official preliminary results showed on Monday. Early elections were held on Sunday after the PDK-led government of Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, accused by the opposition of failing to meet pledges to improve the lives of young people, lost a no-confidence vote. “The outcome is definitely one which is not creating immediately a clear majority for a government and I hope that it does not take again up to nine months as it was the case last time [2014],” said Johannes Hahn, the European Union’s chief …

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Croatian Foreign Minister Davor Ivo Stier resigned on Monday, saying he wanted to devote himself to activities within his conservative HDZ party, following the formation of a new coalition including the conservatives and the liberals. Last week, the HDZ, led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, struck a deal with the Croatian People’s Party (HNS), representatives of national minorities and a few smaller parties to stay in power and avert a second snap poll in less than a year. Local media reported that Stier, who has worked closely with Plenkovic ever since they were both deputies in the European Parliament, was …

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Poland warned on Monday against rising protectionism in Europe after a decisive victory for French President Emmanuel Macron’s party in the first round of parliamentary elections. Macron has called for a “protection agenda” for the European Union that includes a “Buy European Act” and regulations to prevent strategic companies from falling into non-European hands. Konrad Szymanski, Poland’s deputy foreign minister in charge of European affairs, told reporters in Berlin that other EU governments might adopt a more protectionist stance to support Macron. “The future development of the EU’s single market is causing the biggest concerns for us,” Szymanski said in …

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