Новости за 07.03.2017

Nine Commissioners unite their voice, supporting equality ahead of Women’s day, vowing to continue to take action both at home and abroad. European Commissioners acknowledge both the progress and the further work that has to be done, sixty years after equality between women and men was embedded in the Rome Treaty as one of the

New Europe talked to the Greek mayors during their visit at the Berlaymont's 13th floor, asking them about the implementation of the EU-Turkey statement, since next week, 18 March, will mark the agreement's first anniversary. Mayors of the Eastern Aegean islands joined European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, in Brussels.  Mayors of

Russia increased oil output by 400,000 barrels over the past two years, TASS quoted Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying on March 6, adding that Russia’s oil and gas sector has weathered the US sanctions successfully. “Despite the sanctions that were imposed on a number of our companies, our oil and gas sector has managed

The European Commission extends “visa at gate” pilot programme for Turkish citizens to Greek islands in an attempt to give local tourism a boost. The scheme was discontinued at 30 October 2016, after the programme’s trial period expired. The pilot visa program started in 2012 and was of crucial importance to for the Eastern Aegean

Gazprom and France’s Credit Agricole CIB inked a loan facility agreement in Moscow on March 7, the Russian gas giant said in a press release. Gazprom Management Committee Deputy Chairman Andrey Kruglov and Credit Agricole CIB Deputy CEO Regis Monfront and Credit Agricole CIB AO (Russia) President Erik Koebe signed the agreement at Gazprom’s headquarters.

After months of bickering, member states agreed today a revised long-term budget for the EU, including backing nearly 4 billion extra to deal with migrant flows and border controls. Under the deal, the EU 1-trillion-euros budget for the 2014-2020 period will channel 3.94 billion euros more to migration and border controls. Another additional 2.08 billion

The European Commission said on March 7 that it has approved a Czech support scheme for electricity generation from high-efficiency combined heat and power plants under EU state aid rules, noting that the measures help the Czech republic meet its climate change goals. The scheme supports electricity produced from high-efficiency combined heat and power plants

Asylum seekers arriving in the European Union should be assigned a destination country rather than let to have free choice, said today the Swedish ALDE MEP Cecilia Wikström, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE ). Cecilia Wikström was presenting her report on the reform of the Dublin regulation, which clarifies which EU country is responsible for processing asylum seekers, to

The European Investment Fund (EIF) and DSK Bank have signed an agreement to provide €15 million in financing to innovative Bulgarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small mid-caps under the European Commission’s InnovFin initiative, backed by the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon 2020, the European Commission has said. The EIF is providing a

The US rig count for February 2017 was 834, up 61 (8%) from January 2017, and up 245 (42%) from February 2016, data from Platts RigData, a forecasting and analytics unit of S&P Global Platts showed on March 6. This rig count includes US onshore, US inland waters, and US offshore Gulf of Mexico drilling

Europe’s second-highest court has ruled against the European Commission’s decision to block UPS’s €5.2 billion purchase of Dutch delivery company TNT in 2013. While it is unclear whether the shipping conglomerate will sue regulators for damages, UPS said it was pleased with the court’s decision. “While the decision in UPS’s favor makes a number of points, the

DELPHI, Greece – A pipeline planned to transport natural gas from the recently discovered fields in Eastern Mediterranean to Europe is feasible and viable, the CEO of Greece’s Public Gas Corporation has said. “There has been a lot of speculation over the past years, people talking of ‘Pharaonic’ projects. I was personally a bit hesitant.

Hungary’s Gabor Vona, who leads Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, has long been criticised for his insults against Roma, gays and Israeli “occupiers”. But now the 38-year-old is reportedly trying to move his party into the mainstream. As reported by The Financial Times, with Hungary’s parliamentary elections next year and speculation growing that Jobbik could form

Yet another controversy was born from the Twitter account of President Trump last Saturday, when he blasted former President Obama about supposedly wiretapping Trump Tower. How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Responding to the Hungarian Parliament’s adoption of a set of amendments allowing for the automatic detention of all asylum seekers while their applications are processed, Gauri Van Gulik, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Europe, said today: “Plans to automatically detain some of the world’s most vulnerable people in shipping containers behind razor wire fences, sometimes for

Denmark announced it will contribute more than a million euros for a new team set up by the United Nations to collect evidence of war crimes in Syria. “Denmark’s position is clear: Those that are guilty of serious human rights abuses in Syria must be face responsibility for their actions. With this new UN initiative,

Police in India arrested three people in the south state of Karnataka in connection with the murder of a 10-year-old girl, who was reportedly sacrificed to “cure” a paralysed man. BBC Hindi reported that the child was killed on the instructions of a “sorcerer”. The paralysed man’s brother and sister have been arrested on charges

Russia says that the United Nations’ highest judicial body does not have jurisdiction to rule on Ukrainian allegations that Moscow sponsors terrorism by funneling arms and money to separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and is also responsible for discriminating against ethnic groups in Crimea. Roman Kolodkin, the legal director of Russia’s foreign ministry, told the International

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) conceded on Monday the need to create lower paid jobs for immigrants and refugees, creating in effect a second tier labour market, Sverige Radio reports. At a press conference on Monday, the president of the LO, Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson, said it is possible to envision a labour market niche for the

The leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) in the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt (Open Vld), expressed his support for the centrist Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election in France. “Emmanuel Macron’s European project, as it emerges from his Berlin speech, can only seduce me: it would seem to have come

“The Council should meet in public when it takes decisions,” Elmar Brok, MEP of the European People’s Party (EPP), told Press on Tuesday morning. The proposal for an extensive reform to the functioning of Council of Ministers will be proposed by the EPP by the end of the month at the Party congress in Malta. The

EU member states are not obliged to issue entry visas to people at risk of torture or inhuman treatment, the Court of Justice ruled today, cutting off a possible channel for refugees into the EU. Ending a months long suspense, the  EU’s top court ruled Belgium was within its rights to refuse a visa to a family of potential Syrian asylum seekers,

Germany’s Labour Minister Andrea Nahles proposed on March 6 to double the length of time that many people are eligible to claim unemployment benefits. She told a meeting of the Social Democrats (SPD) at the Berlin party headquarters that more support for jobless people will benefit the party at polls in September. “We want there

After the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) revoked his  party vice-president title, after he accepted the nomination by Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), for president of the European Council against his fellow party member Donald Tusk, prominent MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski sent yesterday his resignation letter to the EPP. It ran like this: Dear Chairman,

The British government has reportedly changed its mind on political Islamists. No longer viewed as a “rite of passage” for violent militants, they are now considered a “firewall” against violent extremism. This is the conclusion reached by the government’s Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) following its inquiry into the government’s policy towards political Islam. As noted