Новости за 18.01.2016

Forceful Israeli diplomacy led to minor changes in an EU statement on “unequivocally and explicitly” differentitaing between Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Slovenia's PM on Monday said "millions" of people are set to enter the EU to seek international protection as northern EU states impose more and more border controls.

With the migrant crisis ongoing, Central European countries are increasingly inching towards populism and nationalism. Russian president Vladimir Putin may well be become a model for some.

Experts from creditor institutions, who were expected in Athens Monday to start their mission for the first review of the Greek bailout programme, will go "once enough information has been gathered", a European Commission spokeswoman said Monday. Last week, creditors asked Greece to provide details about pension reform.

EU Council president Donald Tusk and Polish president Andrzej Duda tried to calm tensions ahead of an EP debate on recent reforms in Poland that critics say threaten the rule of law.

EU neighbourhood commissioner Hahn said in Brussels Monday he "expects" the European Commission to file a formal proposal on Ukraine and Georgia visa-free travel "in the course of the first quarter" of 2016. He said Ukraine has "outstanding issues" on anti-corruption reforms, especially in the customs and tax collection sectors.

Polish FM Waszczykowski said Monday in Brussels: "I hope president Tusk will defend Polish interests and make sure it’s not attacked by international institutions." Tusk, the president of the EU Council and a former Polish PM, is meeting the Polish president Monday amid a dispute on judicial and media reforms.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that Congress has instructed US intelligence services to conduct a probe into Russian funding of political parties in the EU. It cited a dossier of “Russian influence activity” which points to "influence operations" in Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, and the Netherlands.

Big internet firms like Google could face further EU probes should their collection of data violate competition rules, EU competition commissioner Vestager said.

The lifting of sanctions against Iran after it complied with an international nuclear deal could open oil, gas, and industrial markets for EU companies.

Germany's finance minister, Wolgang Schaeuble, has proposed an EU-wide petrol tax to cover the costs of the refugee crisis, while saying Europe is moving to slowly on tackling the issue.

Poland’s most powerful politician, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has said he won’t bow to EU “pressure” on judicial reform, ahead of a European Parliament debate.

A new Survation opinion poll published by the Mail on Sunday shows support among British voters for leaving the EU rising to 53%, while 47% want to stay. Survation's last poll, published in September, showed 51% for leaving and 49% for staying. Undecided voters were excluded from the count.

Eight-hour EU-mediated talks in Macedonia on Friday failed to resolve political crisis. Meanwhile, Serbia calls snap elections to push through EU reforms.

The richest 1% of the world's population own more than the rest of us combined, aid group Oxfam has found. "The gap between the richest and the rest has widened dramatically," it said, adding that 62 individuals own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world's population.

The two world cities that are called home by most people who were born outside that country are Dubai (83%) and Brussels (62%), according to 2015's World Migration Report from the International Organisation for Migration. Toronto is number three (46%).

Female migrants face violence and sexual harassment at every stage of their journey to Europe, interviews with 40 women and girls in northern Europe by Amnesty International show. They experienced physical abuse, financial exploitation, were groped or pressured to have sex by smugglers, security staff or other refugees.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has signed a deal with the finance minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Norbert Walter-Borjans, to improve tax collection in Greece, reports Kathimerini. Germany will train 50 Greek tax officials and German administrators will oversee the implementation of 'agreed actions' in Greece.

As the 5G era is drawing near, it is important to facilitate dialogue between the security and privacy communities, and all other parties who contribute to 5G technologies, in order to provide enough protection for the ‘everything-connected’ world.