Category: Євросоюз

Russia says the proposed “de-escalation” zones in Syria will be closed to aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition. Alexander Lavrentyev, Russia’s envoy to the peace talks in Kazakhstan, said Friday in remarks covered by Russian media that “the operation of aviation in the de-escalation zones, especially of the forces of the international coalition, is absolutely not envisaged, either with notification or without,” he said. “This question is closed.” Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed to a Moscow-proposed deal Thursday to establish the so-called “de-escalation” zones in Syria to try to end the six-year conflict. Representatives of the three Syria cease-fire guarantor nations …

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Albania’s political leaders on Thursday failed for the second time to reach a compromise as the opposition has boycotted the parliament and the June 18 parliamentary election. Following intensive meetings with Western diplomats, Prime Minister Edi Rama, leader of the Socialist Party, and Lulzim Basha of the main opposition Democratic Party met again Thursday night. Rama said the government offered direct monitoring of the voting with a task force of opposition representatives accompanied by monitors from the European Union, the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “That’s our position. There is not much time left,” …

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The European Union said Thursday that it’s preparing new regulations that could force a key financial market — and potentially thousands of jobs — to move away from London once Britain leaves the bloc. The EU Commission said it will present next month new rules on the oversight of this market, the so-called clearing of euro-denominated trades. In financial markets, clearing is the business of acting as an intermediary in a trade to reduce the risks from defaults by ensuring funds are delivered to the seller. Some 75 percent of euro-denominated interest rate derivatives are cleared in the U.K. — …

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Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has postponed tendering his cabinet’s resignation until the second half of May, his office said on Thursday, buying time to push through a plan for a new government before stepping down. Sobotka announced on Tuesday he and the government would step down, less than six months before its term ends, to resolve a long-running dispute with billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis, founder of the popular anti-establishment ANO movement. The prime minister wants to form a new cabinet without Babis due to questions over Babis’ business practices, even if that means stepping aside himself. A new …

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Romania’s constitutional court on Thursday upheld a law preventing people with convictions from serving as ministers, a victory for the country’s anti-corruption fight. The ruling deals a blow to the powerful chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Liviu Dragnea, who cannot be prime minister because of a conviction last year for vote rigging. Dragnea has called the law unfair, and many Social Democrats want him to be prime minister. The court had postponed making a ruling four times. The law, introduced in 2001 as Romania prepared for membership in NATO and the European Union, bars people with convictions from serving …

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Macedonia’s parliament speaker urged the country’s president on Thursday to recognize a new majority of Social Democrats and parties representing ethnic Albanians so they can form a government and end a volatile political stalemate. Almost five months after a December 11 parliamentary election, Macedonian nationalists unhappy about the inclusion of minority Albanians are blocking the formation of a new government, compounding the worst crisis in the small Balkan country since it narrowly averted an ethnic civil war in 2001. The election last week of Talat Xhaferi, a former ethnic Albanian guerrilla, as speaker prompted nationalists to storm into parliament where …

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There is no cause for alarm about the welfare of Queen Elizabeth or her husband Prince Philip after all senior royal staff were summoned to a meeting at Buckingham Palace, a well-placed source told Reuters Thursday. The Daily Mail newspaper had earlier reported that senior aides from across the country had been called to Buckingham Palace for an emergency meeting, leading to wide speculation on social media about the health of the royals. “There’s no cause for alarm,” the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. Buckingham Palace had no comment on the Mail report, but the source …

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French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron met face to face for a crucial pre-election debate Wednesday. The two won the most votes in the first round of the election on April 23, but neither won a majority. Opinion polls ahead of the final vote Sunday show Macron, the centrist candidate, ahead of the ultra-conservative Le Pen. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

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Hundreds of Romanians rallied outside government headquarters in Bucharest late on Wednesday to protest against a proposal to widen a draft bill on prison pardons to include corruption offenses. Romania is seen as one of the European Union’s most corrupt states and Brussels keeps its justice system under special monitoring. While the European Commission has repeatedly praised the judiciary for progress stamping out graft, it has noted parliament has a track record of trying to weaken legislation. On Wednesday, the senate’s legal committee approved amendments to the bill to include influence peddling and bribe-taking on the list of pardonable offenses. …

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French presidential candidates Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron faced off in a scathing two hours of televised debate Wednesday, just days before they face each other in a runoff election. Le Pen portrayed her opponent as a heartless capitalist who is weak on terrorism, while Macron called his opponent a liar and a dangerous extremist. Le Pen in her opening statement called the former economy minister Macron “the candidate of savage globalization.” Macron called Le Pen, who once was forced to kick her extreme-right father out of their National Front political party, the heir to France’s far-right faction. The …

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A Norwegian press advocacy group says it has finally given an award to Edward Snowden in Moscow after several failed attempts to win a legal guarantee in Norway that the former National Security Agency contractor could travel freely without risk of being extradited to the United States. Hege Newth Nouri, head of Norway’s chapter of the free speech and literary organization PEN, said Wednesday she met with Snowden in the Russian capital April 21 to give him the award. In May 2016, the prize was awarded to Snowden, who leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance, for being the “Ossietzky …

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Britain wants to boost trade ties with Africa after it leaves the European Union — a project some have called “Empire 2.0.”  British plans to build on historical links with its former empire could face resistance in many African countries, as exporters face years of uncertainty over future trading relations with the UK. Britain says leaving the EU will allow it to “go global” and throw off the shackles it claims the EU has imposed on its trading ambitions. On a recent visit to Uganda, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the first stop would be Britain’s former colonies. “We are …

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Julian Assange’s lawyer has requested a Swedish court rescind a detention order against the WikiLeaks founder over an alleged rape and allow him to go to Ecuador to be safe from extradition to the United States. Assange, 45, has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012, after taking refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies. He fears Sweden would in turn hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks …

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EU negotiators have hiked possible payment demands for Brexit over recent weeks, officials say, widening the divide between Brussels and London, which questions whether it owes anything at all before talks start next month. Hours before chief negotiator Michel Barnier was due to give more details on the EU’s standpoint, a Financial Times headline saying the EU might seek an upfront payment in 2019 of up to 100 billion euros ($110 billion), drew an immediate rejection from Britain’s Brexit Secretary David Davis that he would pay that sum. The European Commission has previously given a ballpark estimate of the bill …

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Greece reached a deal with its European lenders Tuesday for more reforms in exchange for a badly needed bailout installment so Athens could avoid possible bankruptcy. After months of often tough talks, Greek officials agreed to more pension cuts and tax increases. The European Commission and European Central Bank will bring the deal to their finance ministers at their May 22 meeting. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ leftist government says it is confident parliament will approve the new round of cuts. Greece desperately needs about $8 billion to meet a debt payment in July or stare possible bankruptcy in the …

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Turkey could be seeking to play Moscow off Washington, according to some analysts, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set for separate meetings this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. “Mr Erdogan thinks he is offering Turkey to the highest bidder,” political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners told VOA, “so it’s between Trump and Putin (that) whoever puts up the biggest bid will gain Turkey’s favor.” Putin will host Erdogan Wednesday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. That meeting comes at a critical time with rapprochement efforts stalling. “This is an opportunity …

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Does Russia have a “mystery weapon” capable of threatening the entire U.S. Navy? Russian media have claimed that the Russian military has developed technology capable of neutralizing an adversary’s aircraft, ships and missiles within a 5,000-kilometer radius. The claim, first reported by Vesti News on April 14, said a Russian warplane had successfully tested the electronic jamming device on a U.S. warship, the destroyer Donald Cook in the Black Sea. The report, which used a mock-up simulation to demonstrate the exercise, also quoted anonymous Russian sources claiming the technology could wipe out the entire U.S. Navy. While the USS Donald …

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If Emmanuel Macron wins Sunday’s French presidential runoff, Europe’s pro-EU liberals will finally have their champion. For centrists who have been licking their wounds since Britain voted to quit the EU a year ago, the 39-year-old will be the gallant young hero who slew the most dangerous populist dragon of them all, the National Front’s Marine Le Pen. From a Paris dinner party with the young leaders of Belgium and Luxembourg, to a conspicuous Twitter bromance with Italy’s ex-premier Matteo Renzi, Macron has already built a circle of likeminded peers, unafraid to promote closer EU integration at a time when …

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The European Union clashed on Tuesday with the visiting leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, by publicly supporting an international mission to look into alleged human rights abuses by the country’s security forces against Rohingya Muslims. The EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini, speaking at a news conference with Suu Kyi, said an agreed resolution of the U.N. Human Rights Council would help clear up uncertainty about allegations of killings, torture and rape against Rohingyas. On the basis of that resolution, the top United Nations human rights body will send an international fact-finding mission to Myanmar despite Suu Kyi’s reservations. …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin denied Tuesday that Russia interfered in last year’s U.S. presidential election, saying such allegations are “simply rumors” that are being leveraged for political reasons in the United States. Putin’s denial came at a joint news conference in Sochi, Russia, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the two leaders met amid increasingly strained relations over the war in Syria, and Russia’s annexation of the Crimea region in neighboring Ukraine. Putin’s remarks are at odds with findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that have reported Russia was responsible for the hacking of Democratic Party email accounts, which were intended …

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