Новости за 19.01.2016

A nationalist fighter group and the Ukrainian government have debunked a YouTube clip threatening terrorist attacks if Dutch people vote No in a referendum on the EU-Ukraine treaty.

Dutch minister to visit a plant on Wednesday, while Germany also wants to have a meeting with the Belgian minister responsible.

EU states that help big comanies to avoid taxes should not receive any of the returned money if the deal is deemed illegal by the EU commission, say the EU Parliament.

The EU Council president has warned that the March summit "will be the last moment to see if our strategy works". He also said he would soon "table a concrete proposal" for a deal with the UK.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has appointed Swedish former social democrat minister Allan Larsson as special advisor for a new 'social rights pillar' aimed at taking "account of the changing realities of the world of work". Larsson has worked as commission director-general for employment and advisor to the ILO.

The new Polish government has asked Marek Prawda, Poland's EU ambassador, to return to Warsaw at the end of February, TVN24 reports. Prawda, a career diplomat and former anti-Communism activist, started the job in 2012 and was due to stay until autumn. Move comes amid government purge in civil service.

Twelve of the EU's 28 commissioners, led by commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, a commission spokesman said Tuesday. He said Davos was "a very good place" to meet "many decision takers". Nine commissioners went to last year's WEF.

French carmaker Renault is recalling 15,000 cars to fix their pollution-control system, after tests showed excessive gas emissions, French environment minister Segolene Royal announced Tuesday. Renault said afterwards that it had begun to recall cars last November. The case comes after Volkswagen was accused of cheating in emission tests.

Some 31,244 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece by sea since the start of the year, 21 times more than the same period last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The organisation says projections indicate arrivals in Greece for 2016 "may significantly exceed" last year's 853,650 record.

German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt has said Germany should be ready to close its borders to migrants, in a direct challenge to chancellor Merkel.

As many as 26 Europeans are listed on Forbes' list of the world's 100 richest people. Clothing company Zara's founder Amancio Ortega is the second richest person in the world, while L'Oreal's Liliane Bettencourt ranks 10 on the list. There are 42 Americans on the list.

A looming deadline to finalise the Safe Harbour agreement could be missed because of US demands for national security access to the personal data of EU nationals.

Macedonia's former PM Gruevski said Monday, after parliament accepted his resignation, early elections will be held on 24 April. The date comes from an EU-brokered accord with opposition parties. But the main opposition party, the SDSM, says it will boycott the vote because Gruevski failed to implement pro-democracy reforms.

Trade arbitrators have said the EU wrongfully imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese screws, in a verdict which could help China’s bid for market economy status.

A solution to the Cyprus problem must include the full withdrawal of all Turkish troops from Cyprus, Cypriot defence minister Christoforos Fokaides said in Athens on Monday. Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu raised the subject of a five-party meeting of Cyprus guarantors when meeting British PM David Cameron also on Monday.

Ireland has been asked to take just 20 asylum seekers under the European Union scheme aimed at relocating 160,000 refugees. Many asylum seekers have been reluctant to register for the scheme, resulting in just 322 people being relocated to date across the 28-country EU, reports the Irish Times.

French president Francois Hollande on Monday declared “a state of economic and social emergency" and unveiled a €2bn plan to overhaul the economy, reform the 3,689-page labour code and introduce a new unemployment insurance scheme. French unemployment stood at 10.1% in November 2015, among the EU's highest.

The prevention of recruitment of EU citizens by terrorist organisations must lead to a discussion about the societal root causes of such a phenomenon, to be addressed through a long term strategy.

Leading EU states, including Germany and the UK, have said quicker reform and more EU “visibility” in Ukraine are the best way to resist “Russian aggression.”