Category: Євросоюз

France’s presidential race took a new turn on Thursday as independent Emmanuel Macron raised the curtain on a partnership with veteran centrist Francois Bayrou to help him beat the far-right’s Marine Le Pen. “Political times have changed. We cannot continue as before. The National Front is at the gates of power. It plays on fear,” Macron said, referring to Le Pen’s once-shunned party. Opinion polls appeared to show the 39-year-old Macron, a political novice who has never held elected office but who has soared to become a favorite to enter the Elysee, was already benefiting from the new-born alliance announced …

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Italy’s top organized crime prosecutor expressed concern about increased cannabis traffic from Albania while meeting with justice officials in the Balkan nation Thursday. Saying marijuana shipments from Albania had increased threefold since this time last year, Franco Roberti called the influx a result of expanding cannabis growth on the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea and said that sales of the illicit drug were linked to financing Islamist extremism. Addressing journalists after a news conference that unveiled Albania’s nationwide operation to prevent the planting of cannabis, Roberti called his findings “more than a mere investigative hypothesis.” “We are convinced, based …

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Georgia lacks judicial independence and concerns persist over selective justice in the ex-Soviet state, rights watchdog Amnesty International said Thursday in its annual country report for 2016. It listed several court cases, including an ownership dispute over Georgia’s biggest independent television station Rustavi 2 and detention of ex-premier Vano Merabishvili, as attempts to silence critical voices in the country. Thousands of Georgians rallied Sunday in the capital Tbilisi in support of Rustavi 2. Government officials have denied involvement in the case. “Concerns over the lack of judicial independence and selective justice were raised, by both local and international observers,” Amnesty …

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Pope Francis told his followers Thursday that it was better to be an atheist than one of “many” Catholics who he said led hypocritical double lives. “So many Catholics are like this,” he said during morning Mass at his residence at the Vatican. “There are those who say, ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this and that association,’ ” the head of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church said, according to a Vatican Radio transcript. But, he suggested, those people should also say, ” ‘My life is not Christian, I don’t pay my employees …

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Nearly 1,300 officials were sent to trial last year in Romania in corruption cases with damages amounting to 260 million euros ($273 million), the country’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor said Thursday   Laura Kovesi Codruta, who heads the country’s anti-graft agency, said three ministers, 17 lawmakers, 16 magistrates and 20 state company officials were among high-level cases targeted by the agency last year.   Kovesi, presenting the agency’s annual report to senior judges, prosecutors and magistrates at the ornate National Military Circle in downtown Bucharest, said prosecutors need predictable laws to do their job.   Last month, the government issued a …

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Widespread media coverage last month helped shine a light on the conditions for refugees inside Belgrade’s crumbling barracks. But with an official camp recently opened specifically to accommodate them, some have chosen to remain in the bleak shelter. John Owens reports on why from Belgrade. …

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The Brit Awards recognized big international stars, including Drake and Beyonce, and a cross section of homegrown talent Wednesday, but the ceremony was overshadowed by the much-missed David Bowie and George Michael.   Bowie, who died in January 2016 at age 69, was crowned British male artist of the year and won British album of the year for “Blackstar,” released days before his death.   Bowie’s son, filmmaker Duncan Jones, accepted the best album award on behalf of his father.  “This award is for all the kooks, and all the people who make the kooks,” Jones said. “Kooks” is the …

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U.N. sponsored talks on reunifying Cyprus have suffered a blow after Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci backed out of Thursday’s meeting. The Turkish Cypriots are angered over a bill passed by the Greek Cypriot parliament ordering schools to celebrate a 1950 referendum calling Cyprus part of Greece. The vote had no legal standing at that time. Akinci says the bill must be rescinded if the talks are to continue. Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades says he regrets Thursday’s session has been canceled and said on Twitter he is ready to resume talks at any time. He says it was a …

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Two U.S. lawmakers say the time has come for the United States to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons to better defend itself against Moscow-backed separatists, saying that a “confrontational” Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of easing the pressure on Kyiv. …

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Dutch police have detained a security official in the group responsible for protecting anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders on suspicion of leaking classified information, a spokesman said Wednesday. The extent of the security breach and whether it has had any effect on the tight security cordon that constantly surrounds the far-right Wilders was not immediately clear, but the leader of the populist Party for Freedom reacted angrily on Twitter.   “If I can’t blindly trust the service (DBB) that has to protect me, I can no longer function. This is unacceptable,” Wilders said in a tweet directed at Dutch Prime Minister …

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A senior European Parliament politician on Wednesday called on the Albanian opposition Democratic Party not to block a judicial reform – the main step toward launching Albania’s membership negotiations with the European Union.   Albania’s Democrats, who have been protesting for a week for free and fair elections in June, plan to boycott parliament next week. That may stop the justice system reform, which aims to create institutions for the vetting of some 800 judges and prosecutors.   The reform seeks to root out bribery and ensure that judges and prosecutors are independent from politics. Brussels says its implementation is …

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There is sunshine outside, but in Belgrade’s crumbling barracks, the darkness is broken only by the dim flicker of fires, around which huddle groups of refugees desperate to leave Serbia. Many have left this smoke-filled, decrepit shell in recent weeks and gone to an official camp specifically opened to accommodate them. However, of the hundreds of refugees who have chosen to remain, some calculate that the poor conditions are worth enduring. “This is a very difficult life, a very dirty life,” explained 16-year-old Afghan Said Abid, who fled his home seven months ago because of threats from the Taliban against his …

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It was called the “Miracle on Ice.” The year was 1980. The event was the winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York. Thirty-seven years ago today, an inexperienced American hockey team staged one of the biggest Olympic upsets in history, defeating the Soviet team, regarded as the finest in the world. The Soviets had won four consecutive Olympic gold medals between 1964 and 1976. With less than five seconds left on the clock, an American television commentator asked a crowd of 10,000 spectators, “Do you believe in miracles?”  He didn’t wait for an answer, yelling out a triumphant “YES!” as …

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The Russian military received a sweeping array of new weapons last year, including 41 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the wide-ranging military modernization will continue this year, the defense minister said Wednesday. Minister Sergei Shoigu told lawmakers the air force will receive 170 new aircraft, the army will receive 905 tanks and other armored vehicles while the navy will receive 17 new ships this year. Amid tensions with the West, the Kremlin has continued to spend big on new weapons despite Russia’s economic downturn. Also this year, three regiments of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces will receive new intercontinental ballistic missiles, Shoigu …

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Bemused Swedes have been defending their record as a low-crime society in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech in Florida last week in which he appeared to refer to a terrorist attack in Sweden that did not happen. Trump later said he was talking about a Fox News program highlighting allegedly surging crime  statistics in Sweden and linking them to rising immigrant numbers, after a record 163,000 asylum-seekers arrived in 2015. On Monday, he tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!” Swedes have jumped …

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A senior Socialist minister said Tuesday that he might back centrist Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential election, which could help Macron as he battles to maintain his campaign’s momentum. The pronouncement by Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll came as opinion polls pictured a multicandidate race in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen was holding on to recent gains, keeping debt and foreign exchange markets on edge. Two polls showed ex-banker Macron neck and neck with conservative rival Francois Fillon as favorite. A third, from Elabe, had Macron in retreat, and made Fillon of the Republicans, a former prime minister, the …

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German officials have proposed that the European Union relax some human rights safeguards so that more asylum seekers can be deported while awaiting the outcome of their cases, according to a working paper seen by Reuters. The paper is among many under discussion in Brussels as the EU, which has taken in more than 1.3 million migrants and refugees since the start of 2015, makes it tougher for them to get in and be allowed to stay. The paper said the proposal would only kick in at times of a “mass influx” of people to the bloc. “This is another …

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A former CIA agent will be handed over to Italy in the coming days to serve a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of involvement in a U.S. program that kidnapped suspects for interrogation, a lawyer said Tuesday. Sabrina de Sousa spent the night in a women’s prison near Lisbon after a Portuguese court ordered police to extradite her, her Portuguese lawyer, Manuel Magalhaes e Silva, told the Associated Press in an interview. He said she was detained Monday after a two-year fight against extradition and will be put on a plane once formalities between Portuguese and Italian police are …

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The French government and UNICEF are urging the international community to step up protection of children living in and fleeing armed conflict that affects tens of millions of youngsters. Tuesday’s conference was a chance to take stock of progress made since a decade ago, when Paris hosted a similar meeting.  But especially, it was a time to urge the world community to do more.  French President Francois Hollande described how the photo of the body of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, who washed up on a Turkish beach, fueled a drive to welcome more refugees in Europe and elsewhere.  But …

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U.S. President Donald Trump contends the “fake news media” is defending Sweden’s immigration policies, claiming that massive immigration into the Scandinavian country has been a failure. “Give the public a break – The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!” Trump said Monday on his Twitter account. Trump’s comment extended for another day the spat he ignited with Washington’s allies in Stockholm when he suggested, erroneously, at a Saturday campaign rally that a terrorist attack had occurred in Sweden on Friday. Trump mentioned past terrorist attacks in Europe …

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