Brussels – praag.org

Le Pen and Wilders announce new EU parliamentary group

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Front, announced the creation of Europe of Nations and Freedoms, a new far-right European Parliament group that will qualify for up to €17.5 million of EU money over the next four years.

Le Pen failed to form a group after the European elections last year, despite a surge in support for far-right parties. Her party topped the French vote, returning 24 MEPs.

At least 25 MEPs from seven different countries are needed to form a political group.The new group will include Geert Wilders’ Dutch Party for Freedom, the Freedom Party of Austria, Italy’s Lega Nord, and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang.

Le Pen did not reveal which MEPs from which countries have joined that core but that news is expected later today. At least two MEPs from two different countries not already linked to the alliance are needed to form the faction.

Parliament sources told EurActiv that at least one of the MEPs are thought to be from Poland’s Congress of the New Right. EurActiv understands that Hungary’s Jobbik party will not be joining because they are too extreme. Some press reports claimed a UK Independence Party member could be joining.

Le Pen announced last night that she would hold a press conference to unveil the faction. Wilders also hinted at an important announcement, according to Dutch media reports.

J’annoncerai demain à Bruxelles la constitution de notre groupe “Europe des Nations et des Libertés”. MLP

— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) June 15, 2015

She said on Twitter, “Tomorrow in Brussels, I will announce the creation of our group, Europe of Nations and Freedom.”

According to research by think tank Open Europe, based on 38 MEPs, the new group could apply for:

an annual grant of €2,974,718.39 to set up and run the new group;
a grant for a linked pan-European political party;
a grant for a linked political foundation or think tank;
amounting to €4,442,759.83 every year;
or about €17.5 million over the remaining four years of Parliament’s term.

Source: euractive.com

Moscow and Athens forge new alliance

The Greek prime minister’s visit to Moscow aimed at improving relations with Russia angers many in Europe – this is what reports in Greek media, covering the visit, boil down to.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is on a two-day visit to Moscow, making headlines in Greek media.”Alexis Tsipras’ upcoming visit to Moscow and meeting with Putin has generated much talk, analysis and warnings,” iefimerida.gr wrote in a piece titled Tsipras-Putin: Smiles in Moscow, Annoyance in Brussels. “Both sides underline that Moscow and Athens will discuss many issues and there is no shortage of speculations on what Tsipras will ask and what Putin will offer.

“The visit could help return Greek produce to the Russian market, according to the media outlet. “Exports are worth 125 million Euros and are of primary importance to the agriculture in northern Greece,” iefimerida.gr said.

EU sanctions and the Russian food ban, investments, privatization, energy cooperation and the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, tourism, the Ukrainian crisis and Greece-Turkey relations are the main topics on the agenda.

“Putin is preparing a ‘gift’ for Tsipras,” newsit.gr said, adding that it is the first visit of a Greek prime minister to Moscow in five years. According to the media outlet, Tsipras’ visit “caused outrage in Brussels” that “thinks the Russian president is trying to undermine the European stance on sanctions against Moscow.”

The visit sent partners and creditors, especially in Berlin, into turmoil. Some “on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean also worry that Greece would throw itself into Russia’s arms to come up with ‘alternative plans’ to solve the Greek problem,” the Crete media outlet pointed out.

“Tsipras and Putin are forging a new alliance,” according to protothema.gr. “All eyes in Europe are on Tsipras and Putin. ‘The spring’ in Greek-Russian relations gets on Europe’s nerves. The visit has created an atmosphere of enthusiasm in Moscow. … It is seen as a breakthrough in the bilateral relations that would revive and strengthen cooperation in a number of areas,” the media outlet said.”

The visit also sends important political signals: both countries are discontent with the West. In this context Tsipras wants to develop a diverse foreign policy and alliances, while Putin wants to show that he has power and influence to attract the attention of European leaders and countries,” protothema.gr said.

Source: Sputniknews

‘Don’t kick Russia out of SWIFT’

European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny has warned against kicking Russian banks out of the SWIFT payments transfer system as part of tighter sanctions on Moscow, the Austria Press Agency quoted him as saying on Thursday.

Such a move “we would see as very problematic because it could perhaps undermine confidence in this system,” the governor of Austria’s central bank told reporters in Brussels after meeting European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

Russia has drafted a law to regulate a local equivalent to SWIFT in response to concerns that the Belgian-based system, the world’s biggest for electronic payments, could be a focus of Western sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

In 2012, SWIFT cut off Iranian banks that were the subject of EU sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program — a step that shut down a major avenue through which Iran did business with the rest of the world.

APA quoted Nowotny as saying Austria would not be immediately affected should Russian banks be excluded from SWIFT, but that Russia could retaliate, “and this could of course affect all companies that do business in Russia.”

He reiterated that Austrian banks had no plans to leave Russia because they had proven themselves to be an element of stability in the latest economic crisis. Raiffeisen Bank International and Bank Austria are active there.

Source: Reuters

Russia’s two largest banks plan SWIFT alternative

The two biggest banks in Russia, Sberbank and VTB, are in talks to create an alternative to the SWIFT global system for interbank financial communications, VTB head Andrey Kostin said.

According to Kostin, Russia has two options: either use the system run by the Russian Central Bank or create a new homegrown transaction platform.

“There is an alternative, we can use the Central Bank system that is already in operation, and we may make our own, we are already in discussions with Sberbank,” Kostin told reporters in Washington DC, where he is for the annual fall meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

However, the catch with the Central Bank’s international transaction system is the price.

“It’s expensive, in fact several times more expensive than the SWIFT payment system,” the VTB head said.

“If we create our own interbank system, which isn’t difficult at all and we are in the process of doing, it will be cheaper. And then hold talks with the Central Bank,” Kostin said.

Switching Russia off SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, would instantly isolate it from global finance, as happened with Iran in 2012. According to reports, EU leaders, especially in Britain, were discussing the option as a sort of super sanctions to punish Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis. Many US senators have also been pushing to block Russia from SWIFT payments.

SWIFT, the Brussels-based global payments system, said last week that they wouldn’t succumb to political pressure and cut Russian payments and would continue services. The group said that disconnecting Russia violates the company’s mission and that it doesn’t make such unilateral decisions.
However because it’s based in Brussels, it would have to comply with any greater EU ruling.

Last month the SWIFT system transmitted more than 21 million financial messages a day between more than 10,500 financial institutions and corporations in 215 countries.

The Russian National SWIFT Association, or ROSSWIFT for short, is the second biggest worldwide, after the US.

Source: RT

Putin’s plan for de-escalation in Ukraine should be heeded

Very big doubts arise as to sincerity of Brussels and Washington with regard to the #Ukraine crisis, the minister has noted

The calls presented in the plan of peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin should be heeded in Kiev, Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov has stated this at a meeting with OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Chairman Ilkka Kanerva on Thursday.

“We do not give up. President Vladimir Putin personally makes great efforts in direct contacts with President Poroshenko to find such ways of cooperation that will allow immediately put an end to bloodshed, remove the threat for the civilian population, ensure solution to humanitarian problems, problems of reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure, and, of course, ensure the beginning of the negotiating political process,” the Russian minister said.

After such contacts, the Russian president formulated the seven-point initiative that is aimed at helping Kiev’s authorities and the militia of the southeast agree on and take steps in coordination to deescalate the situation, Lavrov said.

“We hope the calls will be heeded first and foremost in Kiev, Luhansk and Donetsk,” the minister said. “We will be ready together with OSCE within the framework of the contact group to help the conflicting parties to move along the path of stabilization of the situation in practice.”

“Decisions of the Council of Europe, UN Security Council, and OSCEsce on Ukraine must be implemented undeviatingly; this applies to investigation of events at Maidan, in Odessa, and Boeing airliner crash,” the Russian foreign minister emphasized.

Very big doubts arise as to sincerity of Brussels and Washington with regard to the Ukraine crisis, the minister has noted.

Lavrov drew attention to the following fact: “There was no lack in peace initiatives. We were actively pushing forward approaches which are sealed in the Geneva Statement dated April 17. We fixed the Berlin Declaration and documents which presuppose an immediate cessation of fire and the start of a respectful inclusive dialogue on a constitutional reform with the participation of all regions. None of those that signed the documents together with us, I mean Ukraine, the United States, and the European Union, are interested, as it seemed to us, in implementing what we reached agreement about. This is very sad.”

“Since both OSCE and the United Nations under the pressure of Western countries refused even to acclaim the Geneva statement, when our Western partners in OSCE blocked the initiative of Didier Burkhalter, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, of course, all that actions, the West’s behavior raises very big doubts as to the sincerity of what is being done by Brussels and Washington,” Lavrov said.

In his turn, Kanerva noted that the crisis in Ukraine’s southeast was impossible to settle by military means, and a political decision should be found. “We have arrived today here not to urge you to do something and not to persuade you to act in a certain way. We do not intend to assume any arrogant or aggressive attitude,” Kanerva said.

“We all are very concerned by the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine and on the border between Ukraine and Russia,” he added. “We urge all parties of the conflict not to attempt any further provocations and show a constructive attitude towards what is now happening in Ukraine,” Kanerva stressed. “That is why we believe necessary to prevent the flow of weapons and servicemen, which are now crossing the border. We need to find a secure solution for this crisis, which today became a very acute problem.”

Sergei Lavrov believes OSCE should provide a basis for cooperation in Europe that makes impossible “provocations” like the one staged in Ukraine. “We are always open, all the more so the OSCE indeed plays an important role not only when the fire has already broken out,” the minister said.

“The events in Ukraine are now the main problem, since there is a civil war, and civilians are eliminated,” the minister went on saying. “The southeast is the most hot spot of the Ukrainian crisis, but we shall not forget about the other parts of the country.”

In this regard, Lavrov pointed to the problems experienced by the Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, and which are discussed in Europe “but not aloud”. “That is why we considered the national unity in Ukraine the most important matter of principle,” the Russian minister stressed. He recalled the agreement of February 21, signed by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and other then-opposition leaders, who are currently members of the ruling coalition.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that the bet made by the United States and some Western powers on the so-called NATO’s victory in the ongoing Ukrainian conflict would ‘lead to nothing good.’

“I am sure that Russia just like many other European countries want the Ukrainian people to win in terms of its multiethnic diversity,” Lavrov said during his meeting with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn.

“Some of our Western partners, unfortunately including most influential player the United States, want NATO to win and want the situation, when the United States dictates its own will for everyone else, to win as well.”

“Nothing good will come out of such concept of exclusiveness, which President (Barack) Obama repeatedly voiced and nothing good comes out of it currently,” the top Russian diplomat said.

The decision of the Council of Europe (CE), the UN Security Council and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) must be fully complied with, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

He said at a meeting with CE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland, “We are convinced that the Council of Europe can and should play an active and constructive role in this uneasy period.” “Ukraine is on everybody’s mind, and we are convinced that the decisions, taken by the Council of Europe, the UN Security Council and OSCE should be fully complied with, the same as the agreements made in Geneva, Berlin and other formats.”

“This is so, regarding the investigation of all the crimes, all incidents, be it the Maidan, Odessa events, or the Malaysian Boeing crash, this is also true about the need for an urgent agreement on the unconditional ceasefire and beginning of the inclusive political dialogue,” Lavrov said.

Ukranian parliament collapses

Ukrainian parliament-appointed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his resignation on Thursday.

He said his announcement would have “very complicated, if not dramatic, consequences for the country”.

The premier’s resignation automatically means the resignation of the entire government. But the cabinet members will continue fulfilling their duties until a new coalition is formed in the Rada.

Earlier Thursday, the parliament did not support the government’s bill on 2014 budget sequestration, as well as a draft law on reforming the country’s gas transportation system.

Violent anti-government protests, which started in November 2013 when Ukraine suspended the signing of an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia, resulted in a coup in February 2014.

Then-President Viktor Yanukovych had to leave Ukraine citing security concerns the same month. New people were then brought to power amid riots in Ukraine.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk, or Yats, the leader of the parliamentary faction of the Batkivshchina party was also the choice of Victoria Nuland, the US assistant-secretary of State.

Crimea seceded from Ukraine and reunified with Russia in mid-March 2014. The move was not recognized by the international community despite being legal.

Crimea’s example apparently inspired residents of Ukraine’s southeastern regions who did not recognize the coup-imposed authorities, formed militias and started fighting for their rights. Kiev has been conducting a punitive operation against the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk regions to regain control over them.

Western-leaning billionaire businessman and politician Petro Poroshenko won the May 25 early presidential election in Ukraine set by the provisional Kiev authorities propelled to power during the February coup. He was sworn in and took office June 7.

Poroshenko signed the economic part of the association deal with the EU on June 27, on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. The political part of the deal had been signed in Brussels on March 21.

Poroshenko, dubbed “the chocolate king” was rewarded with the appointment after he had funded anti-government protests that led to February’s coup.

‘Brussels shooting spree tied to intelligence’

Belgian police investigating the shooting spree at a Jewish heritage center in Brussels do not rule out the possibility that the attack may have been part of an intelligence operation.

The incident occurred on Saturday at the Musee Juif de Belgique, located in the heart of the Belgian capital.

A man wearing a dark-colored jacket, baseball cap and sunglasses walked in the museum in broad daylight, pulled a Kalashnikov rifle out of a bag, and opened fire, killing three people.

A fourth person remains in critical condition.

Observers initially classified the shooting as an anti-Semitic attack. There is speculation, however, that the bloody assault may have been a targeted assassination that was part of a wider intelligence war between Israel, Iran, and Hezbollah.

Several counterterrorism experts, including Claude Moniquet, Co-Director of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, have expressed the view that the shooter appeared to be a trained professional.

Referring to publicly available surveillance footage of the shooting, Moniquet said that the perpetrator of the attack, who remains at large, behaved as “an unemotional murderer, someone who had already witnessed death and perhaps killed before”.

Moniquet’s comments came shortly after an article by Amir Oren, military affairs correspondent for Israeli daily Ha’aretz, in which he suggested that the attack may have been an act of retaliation by Iranian or Hezbollah operatives, who have been engaged in a lengthy tit-for-tat war with Israeli intelligence since at least 2009.

Oren noted that two of the victims of the attack, Emmanuel and Mira Riva , were civil service accountants who had spent years in government service.

The couple, who were in their 50s, had previously served at Israel’s embassy in Berlin, Germany, while Mira was a member of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel, which, as British newspaper The Guardian notes, “is often a euphemism for the Mossad and Shin Bet secret services”.

Oren’s article, which is the main source of the speculation about the attack, reads somewhat abstract and hypothetical. But some have suggested that the veteran military affairs analyst appears to be trying to hint at an important clue while being mindful of strict Israeli military censorship rules, which apply to nearly all intelligence-related news stories in the country.

Source: Intelnews.org

Budget airline tickets fuel illegal immigration into Europe, warns EU border chief

Illegal immigration into Europe is being fuelled by airlines that sell budget tickets from North Africa for as little as £120, a senior European border control official has warned.

Migrants buy low-cost, one-way tickets from Morocco and Algeria to Turkey and then slip into Europe via Turkey’s porous land borders with Greece and Bulgaria, according to Gil Arias, the deputy executive director of Frontex.

They are able to take advantage of a recent policy of so-called “visa diplomacy” on the part of Turkey, which has sought to expand its influence in the Middle East by relaxing visa restrictions for citizens from other Muslim nations.

The route is quicker and safer than taking a people-smuggling boat across the Mediterranean. Two such vessels sank earlier this month in the waters between Libya and Lampedusa in Italy, with the loss of more than 500 lives.

“Due to this visa policy by Turkey to the North African nations, people are flying to Istanbul on cheap flights and then on to Greece and more recently, Bulgaria,” said Mr Arias, who previously served as a police inspector and border control official in Spain. “When they get there they discard their travel documents, and will sometimes pretend to be either Palestinians or Syrians in order to try to claim refugee status.”

There is no suggestion that airlines are complicit in illegal immigration, but Mr Arias said Frontex was powerless to stop them carrying such passengers – mainly Moroccan and Algerian passport holders. He said there was no evidence in advance that the passengers were planning to cross into the European Union.

His comments come at a time of growing tensions between European Union nations over how to tackle illegal immigration and who should share the burden. In Greece, public anxiety over the influx has helped in the rise of the Far-Right Golden Dawn party.

Last week, Bulgaria announced that it was planning to spend £2.2?million on a fence to limit the number of Syrian migrants fleeing the country’s civil war.

The 20-mile long fence will go around the mountainous region of Elhovo, one of the most difficult areas to police, after the arrival of 6,800 migrants – 70 per cent of them Syrian – since the start of the year. Bulgaria, which the EU’s poorest member, has demanded extra Brussels aid to deal with the problem. – telegraph.co.uk

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Switzerland votes a narrow ‘yes’ to cap EU immigration

Switzerland has voted 50.3 percent in favor of limiting annual migration from the EU, thus ending the policy of free movement within the bloc that was established in 2002.

Swiss voters narrowly decided that immigration quotas would be reintroduced, thereby overturning the free movement policy introduced in the European Union 12 years ago. Early results showed the country to be very divided in opinion over the ‘Stop mass immigration’ initiative.

‘Stop mass immigration’ was introduced by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Its goal is to introduce annual quotas on the number of foreign workers entering the country. The result will likely vex multinational companies based there; Roche, Novartis, UBS, and other industry giants frequently utilize foreign labor.

Before Sunday’s results were fully confirmed, it appeared that Swiss voters were completely divided over the issue, with early projections gauged from partial results and estimates showing a 50-50 split (with a three percent margin of error). Ten out of 26 cantons – state districts – and half-cantons had voted in favor of the initiative.

Public opinion institute Gfs.bern stated at first that the outcome seemed too close to call. However, it emerged by Sunday evening that more than half of Swiss cantons supported the move, according to Reuters.

Many in Switzerland – which is surrounded by the EU but is not a member – believe that rising immigration levels are putting pressure on infrastructure, rent prices, the social security system, and unemployment rates.

The SVP party has been campaigning for the amendment, saying that immigrants are destroying the nation’s Alpine identity and taking away skilled jobs.

“Many people feel this is challenging their identity, even if there isn’t any concrete economic impact on a personal level,” Georg Lutz, professor of political science at the University of Lausanne Georg, told Reuters.

“I don’t want to live like a sardine in a tin can,” independent politician Thomas Minder, who supports the initiative, told tabloid newspaper Blick.

According to the latest data, 23 percent of the country’s eight million inhabitants are foreigners – the second largest proportion in Europe after Luxembourg.

Many fear the initiative would have a negative impact on the economy, which relies on foreign workers for progress and a competitive edge.

Italians and Germans reportedly comprise the largest contingent of immigrants to Switzerland, most of whom seek work in IT, healthcare, and financial sectors.

Severin Schwan, Austrian CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, said about half of the employees at the research and development site in Basel, Switzerland are foreigners.

Hans Hess, head of Swissmem – a leader in electrical and mechanical engineering – believes that Switzerland’s economy is successful because of innovation, which requires a steady stream of qualified immigrants.

“Innovation is the driver of the Swiss economy. That’s why we need highly qualified workers inside Switzerland and from abroad,” Hess said.

Indeed, four in every ten new companies were founded by foreigners, according to Orell Fuessli Wirtschaftsinformationen AG. Those new companies also created 30,000 jobs in 2013.

Other than a skilled workforce, immigrants benefit the economy through consumer spending. Credit Suisse reported that about 25 percent of private consumption growth since 2008 was thanks to foreigners.

The constitutional amendment could potentially erode Switzerland’s relationship with the EU, which views the freedom of movement policy as a fundamental right. – RT.COM

‘Free Ukraine, not me,’ Tymoshenko urges EU leaders

Jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko called on EU leaders to drop all demands and sign a historic pact with Ukraine without any preconditions at a summit that opens Thursday.

The EU demanded that Ukraine boost the rule of law and free the jailed former prime minister before the two could sign a landmark political and free trade deal.

But last week President Viktor Yanukovych’s government stunned the West by halting all negotiations on the deal that would have set it on a path to EU membership, saying it wanted better terms.

Yanukovych said he would still travel to the two-day summit in Vilnius to continue negotiations but his government’s shock decision sparked the biggest rallies since the pro-democracy Orange Revolution in 2004.

“If Yanukovych takes a positive decision, I passionately ask you to sign the agreement on Friday without any hesitation and conditions including those that are related to my release,” Tymoshenko, 53, said in a message read out by her daughter Yevgenia late Wednesday.

“I thank you for steadfastly defending democracy in Ukraine. But today it’s necessary to release not just separate political prisoners,” said Tymoshenko who on Monday launched a hunger strike in solidarity with pro-European protesters.

“It’s necessary to free Ukraine. That means it’s necessary to sign the agreement if Yanukovych agrees to it.”

“By signing the agreement with him, you would help an entire nation to overcome a civilisational abyss created by erroneous ideologies and agressive empires, you would make another important step towards re-uniting the entire Europe.”

The Ukrainian government’s decision to scrap the EU pact has brought tens of thousands onto the streets since Sunday.

Setting up camp in central Kiev and led by opposition leaders including world boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, protesters has staged mass rallies since Sunday.

Yanukovych has called for calm after the protests turned violent, with riot police firing tear gas and protesters hurling traffic cones and rocks at the security forces.

Yanukovych stressed he would wait for better EU terms including financial aid before considering signing the deal. He said the bloc offered insufficient compensation for the damages Ukraine would suffer by rupturing ties with historic master Russia.

The EU said it was still ready to talk about the deal but the ball was in Ukraine’s court.

“Our offer stays on the table,” said the EU’s Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele.

The debate over Ukraine’s future has turned into a heated diplomatic tussle between the EU and the Kremlin.

Russia wants its smaller neighbour to join a Moscow-led Customs Union which already includes the ex-Soviet states of Belarus and Kazakhstan. Moscow has repeatedly threatened Ukraine, which heavily depends on Russian natural gas, with economic retaliation if it signed the EU pact.

Top EU officials have said they “strongly disapprove” of Russian pressure on Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded by advising “our friends in Brussels, my personal good friends in the European Commission, to hold back on the sharp words”.

Kiev’s move to scrap the deal with the EU came after parliament failed to adopt legislation that would have freed Tymoshenko.

Shortly after she lost to Yanukovych in a 2010 presidential election, she was sentenced to seven years on abuse of power charges that the West sees as politically motivated.

Ukrainian opposition leaders Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleg Tyagnybok are also expected at the Vilnius summit. – AFP

EU wants to stop S. African citrus imports

The European Union (EU) is preparing a ban on South African citrus imports that could take orange juice off Europe’s breakfast tables next summer and sour efforts in Brussels to broaden trade with Africa’s biggest economy.

The move follows the interception of 35 citrus shipments this year from Europe’s chief summer supplier that were contaminated with the fungal black spot disease, which growers in southern Europe fear could take hold in their citrus groves.

In response, the European Commission, the EU executive, was drawing up plans for a ban that could be adopted by European governments by the end of November, said a person with knowledge of the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another person close to the matter said EU trade chief Karel de Gucht told South African officials during a visit to Johannesburg this week that the contaminated shipments were “serious and problematic”, and that a response was needed.

South Africa exports about 600,000 tonnes of citrus fruit — mainly oranges, lemons, limes and tangerines — to the EU each year worth about €1bn. It is the main source of orange juice drunk by consumers in Britain, Germany and France during the European summer months.

The dispute comes at a sensitive time because the EU is seeking South Africa’s support to unlock stalled trade deals with sub-Saharan Africa.

During negotiations in South Africa this week, EU officials offered to improve the terms of a bilateral free-trade deal dating from 1999 by granting South African sugar farmers duty-free access to Europe for the first time.

For now the planned citrus ban would be largely symbolic, as it would only apply to this year’s South African citrus harvest, which ended in October, meaning EU imports have already stopped.

But the bloc’s food safety watchdog is analysing the situation and if its studies show the disease has a risk of taking hold in Europe’s estimated 500,000ha of citrus groves, the EU could extend the ban.

Citrus Growers Association CEO Justin Chadwick warned the commission against a ban.

“Global experts have confirmed that citrus black spot is not a risk, so a ban would seem unnecessary,” he said.

Spanish pressure

Citrus black spot is harmless to humans, but causes unsightly lesions on the fruit and leaves of affected plants, reducing both harvest quality and quantity. There is no known cure but fungicides can be used to control the spread of the disease.

It is found in many citrus-growing regions in the southern hemisphere as well as China and the US, but has never established itself in Europe.

Since 2011, the number of citrus shipments from South Africa found to contain black spot has averaged about 35 each year.

Following calls by citrus growers in top EU producer Spain to take a tougher stance on the issue, the commission said it would be forced to take action if more than five contaminated shipments were intercepted from the country this year.

“Every day, South Africa displays its inability to control the pests in its crop,” Spanish farming association AVA-ASAJA said. “Political interests prevail over the risk that such imports pose to the future of Europe’s citrus farms.”

In its draft scientific opinion published in July, the European Food Safety Authority said the chance of citrus black spot taking hold in Europe was “moderately likely”. But it said there was a high level of uncertainty due to a lack of knowledge over how the disease would respond to the EU climate.

The European Food Safety Authority is due to finalise its assessment by the end of the year and its findings will largely determine what further moves, if any, the commission will take to restrict South African imports.

But a group of citrus black spot experts from countries affected by the disease said it had identified “factual errors and omissions” in the European Food Safety Authority’s draft assessment and there was no recorded case of the disease ever having spread via fruit exports. – Reuters

As anti-EU alliance takes shape, Soviet-style collapse looms

As European Union bosses openly claim that a “federation” ruled from Brussels is inevitable, a growing coalition of political parties across the EU is coming together in an effort to preserve national sovereignty and self-government while putting the brakes on uncontrolled immigration. Led in large part by prominent political leaders from Holland and France, the budding anti-EU alliance is already being viciously demonized in the establishment press with smears like “radical” and “far-right.” More than a few analysts have compared the developments to the rise of the U.S. Tea Party.

The almost comical hysteria being expressed among top bloc officials about the effort to defeat the “integration” agenda suggests that paranoia is starting to take hold at the top — especially after recent polls revealed that the peoples of Europe largely reject the EU even as the super-state continues to usurp more power. Indeed, amid the economic crisis, the controversial bid to smash national sovereignty in favor of unaccountable “regional” governance is coming under increasing pressure from across the political spectrum.

Critics are saying the integration scheme is doomed anyway, but they want to help bring it down before more damage is inflicted. The EU is on track to “collapse like the Soviet Union,” said European Parliament Member (MEP) and French “National Front” party leader Marine Le Pen, echoing sentiments expressed by more than a few respected analysts and political leaders. Le Pen, whose socially conservative party — the third largest in France — has been surging in the polls, is working with other European political leaders to create a powerful alliance within the so-called European Parliament in defense of national sovereignty.

Blasting the EU as a “global anomaly,” Le Pen vowed to work with others toward reining in the growing super-state in favor of a system involving “cooperation of sovereign states.” The peoples of Europe, she complained, now have “no control” over their economies, currency, or the movement of people within their nations. “I believe that the EU is like the Soviet Union now: It is not improvable,” Le Pen was quoted as saying, adding that the increasingly unpopular behemoth would crumble under its own weight like the USSR did decades ago.

Joining forces with Le Pen in the effort to rein in the EU after regional parliamentary elections next summer is firebrand Dutch Member of Parliament Geert Wilders and his powerful party. According to Le Pen, one of the reasons for her party to campaign with Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) is to show voters across Europe that “similar patriotic movements are active in every EU country.” It is important for voters to see that “we do not stand alone,” she noted. “The current system has a lot to lose if our movements work together.”

A poll released this month showed the National Front currently on track to be the biggest winner in the upcoming EU elections with 24 percent support — sending shockwaves through the French political establishment. The Dutch Party for Freedom, meanwhile, is also soaring in the polls, with recent surveys suggesting that it is the most popular party in the Netherlands at the moment. If elections were held today, it would dominate, polls suggest.

As chief of the Party for Freedom (PVV), MP Wilders has developed an international reputation as a strong critic of Islam — especially the ongoing mass immigration of Muslims into Europe, which he sees as a threat to the continent’s future. While Le Pen has distanced herself from some of the most heated rhetoric, National Front is also critical of radical Islam’s increasing prominence in France. The PVV calls for a withdrawal from the euro and the restoration of free markets, while National Front has strayed somewhat from its solid pro-market positions in recent years.

Even with those differences, the two party leaders are reportedly planning a meeting in the Netherlands next month. Among other topics on the agenda is forming a pro-sovereignty parliamentary grouping to unite so-called “euro-skeptic” and pro-sovereignty parties in the quasi-legislative European Parliament. Some of the political parties being considered as possible allies include Italy’s Northern League, the Austrian Freedom Party, the Sweden Democrats, Belgium’s Vlaams Belang, and others. While there are significant policy differences among potential members, all of them share concerns over the increasingly out-of-control EU.

Based on his public comments, despite the inter-party differences, MP Wilders believes that unity among anti-EU forces will help the cause. “The National Front and the PVV could make the Europhile elite sing a different tune,” he was quoted as saying on Dutch TV, referring to extremist “integration”-at-all-costs advocates who currently dominate EU institutions. “We want to do whatever we can to turn the forthcoming European elections into a Europe-wide electoral landslide against Brussels.”

According to analysts and news reports, a brutal electoral outcome for pro-EU extremists may well be on the way as people across the region grow increasingly furious with the EU for a wide array of reasons. The government-funded BBC, for example, reported without citing a source that the upcoming elections could see 170 out of 751 members of the European Parliament representing either euro-skeptic or outright anti-EU parties. The U.K. Telegraph, meanwhile, said that “even ardent European federalists” concede that as much as 30 percent of the quasi-legislative body could be composed of euro-skeptics.

Despite the fact that the European Parliament is virtually impotent compared with other bloc institutions, the developments reportedly have EU bosses and the anti-sovereignty establishment on edge. “If we allow these forces to gain a foothold once again on our continent we will have wasted a century of building closer ties and condemned history to repeat itself,” claimed former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, invoking World War II for fear-mongering purposes while absurdly calling on “mainstream” parties to circle the wagons to fight “extremism.”

Socialist French President François Hollande, who recently declared that Europeans had “no choice” but to “march toward a unified Europe,” claimed the rising alliance of anti-EU parties could spark “regression and paralysis” in the region. The radical leader also argued, implausibly, that the developments could “threaten” Europe’s ability to recover from the eurozone crisis, which according to experts and economists was actually caused largely by EU scheming as well as the European Central Bank and its controversial single currency.

If the budding alliance does take shape in the wake of next year’s elections, which would require at least 25 members from seven countries to become official, it will not be alone in slamming the EU inside the European Parliament. Other major parties in Europe also oppose the euro and even membership in the EU. The liberty-minded United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), for example, part of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping in the regional parliament, has been surging in the polls thanks in large part to its calls for Britain to withdraw from the controversial super-state.

Led by Nigel Farage, a former trader who is probably the best known member of the European Parliament due to his hard-hitting anti-EU speeches going viral across the Internet, the UKIP is also opposed to massive immigration, Huge Government, and never-ending EU power grabs. According to news reports, however, the popular British party will not be joining with the potential alliance led by Wilders and Le Pen.

“I am sure that a new Eurosceptic group of parties comprising Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders will happen. But UKIP will not be part of it,” MEP Farage was quoted as saying, adding that his libertarian party would continue taking a principled stand against EU political union. “The European elections shall be a chance for people to give their views if they wish to remain in the EU or leave the EU and face towards global opportunities like UKIP.”

Even with recent polls showing a collapse in remaining support for the EU, the anti-sovereignty establishment working fiendishly to advance a federal regime is now doing so out in the open. It has also become clear that powerful forces intend to do anything and everything to keep the EU and the euro marching onwards — no matter what the people think. However, with the backlash against the schemes continuing to grow across the bloc, the longtime establishment dream of a centralized Europe ruled from Brussels is hardly assured. – thenewamerican.com

‘Tintin in the Congo’ not racist, Belgian court rules

A Brussels court has rejected a legal bid to ban “Tintin in the Congo”, the second adventure of Belgian writer Hergé’s globe-trotting boy reporter. Black associations in the country claimed the book contained racist stereotypes.

“Tintin in the Congo” – a classic 1920s comic strip about Belgium’s celebrated fictional boy reporter – is not racist, a Brussels court ruled on Wednesday.

The Brussels Appeals Court upheld a 2011 ruling against Congolese immigrant Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo and the Belgian Council of Black Associations, who wanted the book banned.

In 2010 Mbutu, who lives in Belgium, Congo’s former colonial ruler, said Tintin employed a little black helper who was seen as “stupid and without qualities”.

“It makes people think that blacks have not evolved,” he said.

In one scene, a black woman prostrates herself before Tintin, saying: “White man very great. White mister is big juju man.”

‘Gentle and candid humour’

Alain Amici, lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the court in 2011: “The negative stereotypes portrayed in this book are still read by a significant number of children. They have an impact on their behaviour.”

Not so, said Brussels judges, for whom “Tintin in the Congo” is full of “gentle and candid humour”.

The cartoon strip, written in the late 1920s, was Belgian writer Hergé’s second Tintin adventure. It was followed by stories in which the author tried to add greater realism and historical accuracy.

Hergé himself recognised that “Tintin in the Congo” was a “youthful sin” that reflected the prejudices of the time.

In 2007 a British court ruled that “Tintin in the Congo” should be sold with a warning that it includes racist content.

Mbutu has also tried to have the cartoon banned in France, unsuccessfully. – France24