New Europe Print Edition Issue 1000

NEWEUROPE1 9 th Y ear of Pub lication | Numb er 1 0 0 0 | 3 0 S eptemb er - 6 Octob er, 2 0 1 2 | ¤ 3 .5 0 www.neurope.eu

The call for a Banking Union and MarioDraghi of the European Central Bank,seemed to be a breath of fresh air lastmonth, but little has been said since.

Following the 2008 crisis, financialmarkets have seen an avalanche of regu-lation, translating governments’ will toprevent future market meltdowns, butalso to make good for their lack of inter-vention in the markets, these last tenyears.

Sometimes, these regulations are socomplicated that it becomes practicallyimpossible to implement. A typicalexample is the so-called ‘Volcker Rule’ inthe US, named after the former chair-man of the Fed and currently personaladviser to President Obama; (incidental-ly, Paul Volcker himself, considers itimpossible to apply his ‘Rule’ without theclose cooperation of the banks which the

Rule is supposed to regulate). All thiscomes in addition to the numerous textsimposed by the Financial Action TaskForce (FATF) regarding money launder-ing and anti-corruption safeguards, BaselII and III provisions about bank capitaladequacy, the numerous EuropeanBanking Directives and Regulations, andfinally the infinite amount of texts ema-nating from the local central banks.

All the above points lead us to oneconclusion: we live in an increasinglyoverregulated world, where on the onehand political leaders tend to imposetheir grip over the markets in order toreassure their voters, and on the otherhand eager bureaucrats amplify politicalwill and transform it into complex andobscure legislation, as this is a method toenhance their power within the system.

On 28 September, Total told New Europethat the French energy group gives priorityto gas when it comes to exploration andproduction in the Arctic.

On 26 September, in a statement that wasmusic to the ears of environmentalists, TotalChief Executive Christophe de Margeriewarned against drilling in the Arctic, sayingin an interview to the Financial Times thatit may be too risky to the environment. “Oilon Greenland would be a disaster,” deMargerie said. “A leak would do too muchdamage to the image of the company”.

Total spokeswoman Anastasia Zhivulinasaid that de Margerie spoke to the FT aboutthe Arctic as part of his exclusive interview tothis newspaper. But she explained to NewEurope that Total is involved in several off-shore gas projects in the Arctic but not in oildrilling operations. “Total has always beensaying that when it comes to E&P in theArctic, the Group gives priority to gas. All theprojects that Total leads in the area are out-side ice-covered waters and concern mostlynatural gas. The only oil project in theRussian Arctic - Kharyaga PSA - isonshore,” she said.

The comments from the Total CEOcame after a French court found Total guiltyof causing a disastrous oil spill off the coastof France in 1999. De Margerie acknowl-edged arguments made by envir -onmentalists that the extreme conditionsof the Arctic shelf and the sensitivity of thelocal eco-system mean that drilling thereshould be banned.

Earlier this year US major ExxonMobil,Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s ENI andNorway’s Statoil signed deals with Russianoil major Rosneft to drill for oil in Russia’sArctic. Other companies have securedagreements to explore reserves offGreenland.

Last month Greenpeace activists occu-pied Russian gas monopoly Gazprom's

Prirazlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Seain an attempt to highlight concerns aboutthe project. Gazprom announcedthe beginning of oil productionat Prirazlomnaya would be put back a year,to the end of 2013.

On 17 September, Shell had to postponedrilling in the Chukchi Sea off Alaskabecause of safety concerns.

Total highlights offshore drilling risks

What Banking Union?

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My ArcticOL A FBulgarian Prime MinisterBoyko Borisov met last weekwith Giovanni Kessler, Direc-tor General of the EuropeanAnti-Fraud. Agency OLAF inSofia… ·Page 6

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NE 1 0 0 0 th I S S U EThis week we celebrate thecompletion of 1000 issuesfor a publication that hasshifted and changedthroughout the years…

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ENERGYA memorandum for buildingTAP, which will carryAzerbaijani gas across Greece,Albania to Italy, was signed inNew York on 27September… ·Page 13

TECHNOLOGYA three day affair organised bythe Italian Embassy inBrussels is scheduled from 2October with an inaugural ses-sion in the EuropeanParliament... ·Page 10

The crew of the Greenpeace ship My Arctic Sunrise constructs a heart with the flags of the 193country members of the United Nations on an ice floe north of the Arctic Circle, 14 September2012. | AFP PHOTO/GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL/DANILE BELTRA

The Greek hope has not passed away,but has been resurrected as theEuropeans eventually understood thatthey cannot let Greece withdraw fromthe Eurozone. As long as Greece’s part-ners were looking to the Greek crisis aspragmatic accountants, the chances ofGreece remaining in the Euro currencywere minimal, but an exit would be adisaster for German exports.

Hope resurrected

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Milan revisited

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FA S HI ON & S T Y L E

1000

NE 10 YEARS AGOSee, my life line's longer than yours.| AFP PHOTO / POOL/ YURI KOCHETKOV

The Shooting Gallery

A decade ago, Germany was trying to heal the split between the EU and US over the Bush administration's war with Iraq.These were also the days of the 'Freedom Fries' as a few Congressmen changed the name of french fries to the more patri-otic freedom fries. They also renamed French Toast, Freedom Toast. Perhaps they should have also renamed French Letters!However the split only really began to heal with the election of President Obama. Bush has been consigned to a remoteTexan farm and the history books, his spiritual best buddy, Tony Blair lost his job and his reputation by the association withthe neo-conservatives. Iraqi oil also got a mention, with cynics believing that securing oil, and trading in dollars was the realreason for the impending assault on Iraq. Some US officials were saying that the forthcoming war would be paid for outof Iraqi oil, some even boasting, like Catch 22's Milo Minderbinder, that the war could even make a profit. Like every otherprediction, it was wrong.

Our friends and neighboursThere is a much-heralded political quote, almost certainlyapocryphal, that goes something like this: “he may be anSOB, but he’s our SOB”. It has, variously, been ascribed toFranklin Delano Roosevelt’s assessment of NicaraguanPresident Anastasio Somoza, US Secretary of State DeanAcheson’s (or his successor John Foster Dulles’) opinion onJosip Tito in Yugoslavia, or Nikita Khrushchev’s not-so cor-dial summation of Fidel Castro. Regardless of the speaker,however, the message is clear; we often do deals with peoplewe don’t like, and, furthermore,we assume they are ours toexploit, psychologically, politically and strategically.Of course, this kind of complacent self-serving cynicism canhave an obvious downside; by assuming superiority on ourpart, and weakness on theirs, it is often hard to detect whenthe tide has turned; when exploitation is reversed, and thebright, clear vision is itself blindsided.Following the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the subse-quent absorption of former communist satellites into theEuropean Union, there have been some who have claimedthat ideology is dead, and that we are living at the end of his-tory. The intervening years have not been so conclusive, andpolitical and democratic issues still, sadly, blight large swathesof the planet, not least in the remnants of the old empire;Russia and central Asia, for example. We deal with thesecountries, or condemn them, or sometimes do both.On 1 October there are elections in Georgia.The former Soviet republic has western designs. It harboursambitions of NATO membership and even sees itself asbeing part of the European Union one day, which wouldmake it a odd little European exclave wedged betweenTurkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as its bete noire, Russia.These ambitions have served the country well these past cou-ple of decades, and certainly its cosmetic western affectationsand homages (a Reagan statue, a street named after GeorgeW Bush) have drawn cooing noises from Europe and the US,where Hollywood even saw fit to produce a fawning biopic ofPresident Mikheil Saakashvili.Saakashvili is well-liked in certain international constituen-cies, but not necessarily in his home country, where thereremains consistent criticisms, both from domestic opposition,such as the Georgia Dream Coalition, and internationalobservers, such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is partly overseeingelection monitoring. A recent video depicting the rape andmurder of prisoner Sergo Tetradze, and accompanying televi-sion interview with the former prison guard who shot thefilm, has implicated two senior government figures in thedeath, and which has led to a wave of protests across thecountry. Saakshvili has said he will deal with the concerns ofthe protesters. There have been mutterings from Europe, butnothing that will make the president, or his United NationalMovement party, feel threatened.The European Union has a vital role to play in all this. So far,its weakness in leadership and condemnation has under-mined its avowed mission to promote democracy, stabilityand human rights in outside territories.While it is true that a third party such as the EU cannot beseen to be taking sides in a particular election or outsidepolitical dispute, the increasingly desperate actions of thegovernment have rendered this as a special case. The EU hasbeen quick to condemn violence in Syria and heap praise onthe emerging democracies in North Africa and the MiddleEast. But ignoring the situation in a country closer to home(not just geographically, but politically and economically) cannot be considered a valid response in this case. Georgia hasits geographical advantages for Europe, and both partiesknow it. And whatever the outcome of the lection, let’s hopethe EU has the right words to say.

MANAGING EDITOR

Alia Papageorgiou [email protected]

SENIOR EDITORIAL TEAM

Kostis Geropoulos (Energy & Russian Affairs)

[email protected]

Cillian Donnelly (EU Affairs)[email protected]

Andy Carling (EU Affairs)

[email protected]

Ariti Alamanou (Legal Affairs)

[email protected]

Louise Kissa (Fashion)

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Alexandra Coronakis (Columnist)

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DIRECTOR

Alexandros [email protected]

EXECUTIVE LAYOUT PRODUCER

Suman Haque

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© 2012 New Europe all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored ina retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or otherwise, withoutexpress permission. The Publishers accept no liability for third party views published, nor damagecaused by reading, viewing or using our content. All information is correct at the time of going toprint, we accept no liabilities for consequent changes.

ISSN number: 1106-8299

02NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012 ANALYSIS

Each year at this time, leaders gather atUnited Nations Headquarters in NewYork to assess the state of the world. Thisyear, I used the occasion to sound thealarm about our direction as a humanfamily. We are living through a period ofprofound turmoil, transition and trans-formation. Insecurity, inequality and in-tolerance are spreading. Governmentsare wasting vast and precious funds ondeadly weapons while reducing invest-ments in people. Too many people inpower seem willfully blind to the threatof climate change. Citizens yearn forjobs and the prospect of a decent life, butall too often they get divisiveness anddelay instead.

There have some important steps for-ward. Extreme poverty has been cut inhalf since the year 2000. Democratictransitions are under way in the Arabworld, Myanmar and elsewhere. Africa’seconomic growth has become the fastestin the world. Asia and Latin Americaare making important advances.

Still, we must raise our levels of ambi-tion. Poverty and inequality remain ram-pant. Ecosystems are reaching thebreaking point. The world’s best scienceis irrefutable: we must change course.That is why I have urged world leaders topress ahead with initiatives on sustain-able energy, education, nutrition andwomen’s and children’s health. The eco-nomic crisis should not be an excuse todefault on commitments to the basicsthat all people need.

Regional tensions are also deeply trou-bling. The crisis in the Sahel is not get-

ting sufficient attention and support.Poverty, fragility, drought, extremism andsectarian tensions are causing immensesuffering; arms are easy to obtain, butjobs are hard to find. The internationalcommunity needs a major concerted ef-fort to address this alarming situation.The crisis also highlights the need tostrengthen food security, nutritional re-silience and social safety nets to counterthe frequent price shocks that have be-come the new norm. Just as sensors andseismographs help us prepare for naturaldisasters, so must we do more to detectthe tremors of distress facing the poorestand most vulnerable.

The situation in Syria grows worse bythe day, and has become a regionalcalamity with global ramifications. Wemust stop the violence and flows of armsto both sides, and set in motion a Syrian-led transition as soon as possible. Brutalhuman rights abuses continue to becommittted, mainly by the Government,but also by opposition groups. It is ourduty to put an end to impunity for inter-national crimes, in Syria and elsewhere,and to give tangible meaning to the re-sponsibility to protect.

As the winds of change in the Arabworld and elsewhere continue, we needto break the dangerous impasse betweenPalestinians and Israelis. The two-statesolution is the only sustainable option, yetthe door may be closing. I also rejectboth the language of delegitimizationand threats of potential military action byone state against another. Any such at-tacks would be devastating. The shrillwar talk of recent weeks has been trou-bling -- and should remind us of the

need for peaceful solutions and full re-spect for the UN Charter and interna-tional law. Leaders have a responsibilityto use their voices to lower tensions in-stead of raising the temperature andvolatility of the moment.

This is all the more important at atime of heightened tensions over intol-erance. In recent weeks a disgraceful actof great insensitivity has led to justifiableoffense and unjustifiable violence. Free-dom of speech and assembly are funda-mental, but neither of these freedoms is alicense to incite or commit violence. Re-sponsible political and community lead-ers must step up at this time. Themoderate majority should not be a silentmajority.

With so much at stake, the UnitedNations must keep pace across the spec-trum of its activities – peace, develop-ment, human rights, the rule of law, theempowerment of the world’s women andyouth. People do not look to the UnitedNations to be simply a mirror reflectingback a divided world. We are meant toprovide leadership, hope and solutions tothe problems that matter to people byday – and that keep them up at night.No single leader, country or institutioncan do everything. But each of us, in ourown way, can do something. We mustput people first, raise our game and takeinternational cooperation to the nextlevel. Time is not on our side, but to-gether, as partners, we can meet today’stests and seize the opportunities of an eraof dramatic change.

Ban Ki-moon is Secretary-general of theUnited Nations

UNITED NATIONS

A call to amb ition

By Ban Ki-Moon

03NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012

ANALYSIS

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, addresses the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2012 in New York City.

The 67th annual event gathers more than 100 heads of state and government for high level meetings on nuclear safety, regional conflicts,

health and nutrition and environment issues.

AA

C hange, as a constant

Benjamin Disraeli, the First Earl of Beaconsfield wasknown for this prolonged service to UK Politics, hisserving twice as Prime Minister in the 1800s, as well asstaying in government for 40 years, his literary adven-tures into fiction and is often quoted as having utteredthe words which echo within the walls of New Europe,“Change is inevitable, Change is a constant.” The new,or adaptation are not panicked reactions of fear to whatmay seem unstable, they are an evolution in a contin-uum; perhaps in time, perhaps in history.Like all newspapers New Europe keeps changing andevolving, through its embrace of the digital side ofnews, the social media adoption and adaptation almostinstantly in 2007, to the new projects and growingteam, that is able to bring you news from the aroundthe globe, and unparalleled European Union policymaking insight and analysis, we keep changing. This week we celebrate the completion of 1000 issuesfor a publication that has shifted and advancedthroughout the years. We'd like to thank you for read-ing us, reach out to you and make you more aware ofthe breadth of the ink-marked pages you are readingand re-introduce our scope and positioning in Brusselsfor your information.In the last 1000 issues we have carried more than350,000 articles that have both recounted and helpedshape, in small and large ways, modern history, we vowto continue to stay true to our mission of Investigating,Involving, and Inspiring you, and follow our values:To foster a plurality of opinionTo act as a watchdog for an accountable societyTo maintain a commitment to integration while re-specting cultural identitiesAs we cross this milestone, many reading this mustwonder – will New Europe be available in print 1000issues from now? While technology is developing at amore rapid rate than ever, interactivity and engagementgrowing in value, we cannot predict for sure in whatformats we’ll be available in 1000 issues. What is cer-tain is that in the year to come, you’ll be able to accessNew Europe’s content and publications through moredevices, in more formats, and in different languages.We're looking forward to these new steps; as AncientGreek philosopher Heraclitus is often quoted as posit-ing, “There is nothing permanent, except change,” hop-ing to have you read along.

Here’s to one thousand more!

NEW EUROPE ISSUE 1000

A lia Papageorgiou, Managing Editor

A lexandros Koronakis,Director

After almost fifty years spent seperated bythe 'Iron Curtain' Austria and Slovakiahave been reunited by a €5 million bridgefor cyclists by the border.

The kilometre long 'Freedom Bridge'has been built between Schlosshof in east-ern Austria and Devinska Nova Ves, thebridge, for cyclists and pedestrians, pro-vides a missing link on the 10,000 kmlong Iron Curtain Cycling Trail, which re-traces the route of the Iron Curtain. Thetrail is expected to be completed in 2020,needing a further €351 million invest-ment. Campaigners say that, once com-plete, the trail will generate around €355million a year in economic benefits.

The bridge was opened by Commis-sioner for Regional Policy, JohannesHahn, "I am delighted to see another ex-ample of the EU in action," he continued,"This is one of 30,000 cross border proj-ects that have received funding from theEU. It's what the EU is all about - bring-

ing once divided communities together aspart of a broader strategy to promote sus-tainable tourism and recreation and ulti-mately jobs and growth to all of Europe'sregions.”

The opening comes after a report to theEuropean Parliament suggested that cycletourism is worth €44 billion a year to theEU.

Adam Bodor, responsible for Europeanfunding at the European Cyclists’ Feder-ation, says that investment can increasethe number of cyclists and boost theeconomy. "The funding for this bridgedidn’t happen by chance. It was becausecountries and committed individualsasked for it," he said.

"I’m really happy to hear that Commis-sioner Hahn has increased resources by30% for trans-national and cross borderprojects during the next funding period.It’s a big step in the right direction,”Bodor added.

TRANSPORT

Former I ron C urtain now a cycle path

In a Eurobarometer survey 71% of EU citizenshave declared that they support more compe-tition for routes on their national and regionalrailways.

Support for competition was over 60% in allbut two EU countries, with only Luxembourgand the Netherlands, who had 24% of respon-dents saying they opposed increased competi-tion, expressing their doubts about the necessityto have more journeys put up for tender.

For most Europeans 72% said the benefitsof competition would result in reduced ticketprices, with 71% believing that quality of serv-ices to passengers on the trains would increasewith rival bids to run services.

Improvements on comfort and cleanli-ness of trains was next down on the list with70%, followed by frequency of trains on68%, punctuality of trains 66%, the way rail-way companies are managed 63%, and thenumber of stations or routes which will beserved on 62%.

There was a general satisfaction with pas-senger services with only 43% wishing tosee premium on board services such asmeals, newspapers, and even films beingshown.

In the digital age rail services received thethumbs down, as almost two thirds of respon-dents wanted opportunities to purchase ticketseither through smart phones or online, withsome even expressing a greater preference forpaying while travelling.

Interestingly 70% of those who were sur-veyed wanted to see the creation of ‘no frills’services, imitating airlines who undercut theircompetition with low fares. There is some evi-

dence that there is movement on low priceroutes as SNCF, for example, has recently an-nounced that it would start low-priced no-frillsTGV services from the suburban station ofMarne-la-vallée, near Eurodisney, rather thanfrom downtown Paris.

Leisure services were the main reason whypeople travelled on trains with 70% saying theyused rail for casual purposes. This was moreprevalent in Greece where 92% of users saidthey travelled by rail in their spare time, thehighest of the EU27 countries.

It was the polar opposite for the amount ofpeople who travelled by train to arrive at work,where only 5% of Greeks said they did com-pared to 19% in the Netherland. Overall in thesurvey 10% of respondents said they use thetrain for work reasons or for attending a busi-ness meeting.

In central and south east europe there wasthe lowest amount of satisfaction amongst theEU member states the Czech Republic, Hun-gary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bul-garia and Greece.

An EU official said: “Most of the countriesin South East Europe and Central Europeunder finance their railway undertakings. As aresult, the latter have less and less means to per-form their services properly or even to purchaserolling stock, which can be more than 30 yearsold in some cases. This situation is furtherworsened by the strong economic growth ofsome of these countries, which has meant morecar ownership.”

The European Commission is looking atways to promote competition as Siim KallasVice-President and Commissioner for Trans-port Europe's railways outlined in a speech this

week in Brussels: “For rail to thrive, there mustbe a genuine single market. This means itshould be possible to build a train to certain EUstandards, and then certify it to run everywherein the EU. At the moment, we have thousandsof different rules and standards in effect, hin-dering the development of a truly European railarea.

“We now need to complete and apply theEU-wide standards, using them to move to asingle European approval system. This will savemoney and give a more efficient service oncewe improve the availability of rolling stock thatcan cross EU borders.”

The Commission is also working on the ‘4thPackage’, aimed at introducing competitivetendering for subsidized railway routes, in thehope that it will help EU member states be ableto get more rail services for the same amount ofsubsidies.

The package the EU intends to open up do-mestic services in the internal market whererival train companies will compete to run serv-ices, like in Italy where between Rome andMilan the high-speed trains of Trenitalia andNTV are competing against each other.

Also, the EU hopes to mimic the UK sys-tem, where there is competition for the marketwhere the destinations and services are alreadydetailed.

In what could result in a growing trend anEU official said: “There is certainly a chancefor competition outside the borders of eachcountries. If you look at the UK, bidders arecoming from Germany from DB-Arriva,France from Keolis and even Hong Kong(MTR). There are several companies that arealready performing rail services in severalcountries of EU and even beyond Europe.”

ECONOMY

T rans Europe ExpressKallas plans to revitalise railway network

By Peter Taberner


ANALYSIS

An SNCB-NMBS train waits at a station in Brussels, Begium.New plans by the European Commission aim to

create an internal market for railways. According to transport commissioner Siim Kallas, "We now need to

complete and apply the EU-wide standards, using them to move to a single European approval system"

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Freedom to cycle! Freedom bridge, Austria is opened

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Following the 2008 crisis, financial mar-kets have seen an avalanche of regula-tion, translating governments’ will toprevent future market meltdowns, butalso to make good for their lack of in-tervention in the markets, these last tenyears. Sometimes, these regulations areso complicated that it becomes practi-cally impossible to implement. A typicalexample is the so-called ‘Volcker Rule’in the US, named after the formerchairman of the Fed and currently per-sonal adviser to President Obama; (in-cidentally, Paul Volcker himself,considers it impossible to apply his‘Rule’ without the close cooperation ofthe banks which the Rule is supposed toregulate). All this comes in addition tothe numerous texts imposed by the Fi-nancial Action Task Force (FATF) re-garding money laundering andanti-corruption safeguards, Basel II andIII provisions about bank capital ade-quacy, the numerous European BankingDirectives and Regulations, and finallythe infinite amount of texts emanatingfrom the local central banks.

All the above points lead us to one con-clusion: we live in an increasingly over-regulated world, where on the one handpolitical leaders tend to impose their gripover the markets in order to reassure theirvoters, and on the other hand eager bu-reaucrats amplify political will and trans-form it into complex and obscurelegislation, as this is a method to enhancetheir power within the system. The ques-tion here is whether this overproductionof text is worth its money, that is, if we aremore protected now than we were threeor four years ago. The recent bankingscandals, such as the ‘Libor affair’ or theJP Morgan Chase’s losses would tend to

support the opposite.In this international context, the Euro-

zone’s problems, first with sovereign debt,and then with the banking liquidity andsolvency issues, came naturally to exacer-bate the trend for more regulation. Reg-ulation was promoted from a purelytechnical level to become a central polit-ical issue of the European Union. Thus,after the fiasco of the ‘Fiscal Union’ proj-ect, i.e. the harmonization of taxation andpublic spending throughout the EU, toodifficult to materialize at present time(Chancellor Merkel said “not during mylife”), the Brussels bureaucrats’ new baby isthe ‘Banking Union.’ The concept is toput all (?) banks operating within the EUunder a unified supervision of a supra-na-tional body, probably the European Cen-tral Bank (?), in order to prevent futuredebacles like the one taking place inSpain, that constitute a threat to the EUas a whole. The idea looks reasonable, butseveral questions must be addressed andclarified before it can become operational.

All the banks? We’re just at the verybeginning of the project and there are al-ready two conflicting views. The Frenchwant supervision over all 6,000 banks op-erating within the EU, while the Ger-mans wish to only concentrate on the 30to 50 ‘too-large-to-fail’ institutions, thosethat present ‘systemic risk.’ Of course,there are politics behind each approach,but the key point is to decide what will bethe exact object of supervision.

Who will supervise? The most ‘natural’candidate seems to be the EuropeanCentral Bank (ECB), while immediatelyraising the question of the availability ofits resources. The ECB is currently prettybusy stabilizing the sovereign debt mar-kets and providing emergency liquidity totroubled banks and countries. The ‘super-vision’ function has been assigned to cen-

tral banks of each member-state, whichhave knowledge of local markets, juris-dictions, and the people. Whether thelocal banks do their work properly is adifferent question (especially when onelooks at Spain), but this does not in anyway guarantee that the ECB will do abetter job. It goes beyond saying thatshould the French approach prevail, theECB dramatically lacks the resources tolook after thousands of banking institu-tions throughout the whole of Europe.

What about the ‘resolution’ authorityand the bank deposits guarantee? Super-vision is a void matter without the au-thority to decide when to put a bank intoliquidation, to separate the resulting ‘badbank’ from the healthy assets to put forsale, and to take tough decisions about thecompensation of depositors and bond-holders. We are here in the proposal’smost uncharted territory, as tricky trade-offs regarding national sovereignty are tobe negotiated and decided.

Finally, are we talking about the Euro-zone or the European Union in its en-tirety? Neither is this point clear atpresent. Common sense would suggestthat the ECB would take care of the Eu-rozone banks only; but what would hap-pen if a large bank outside the areacollapsed? Doesn’t this represent systemicrisk to the euro area banks through creditlines and correspondent banking activity?Which leads us to the horny issue of howsupervision can work in currencies otherthan the euro; will, for instance, ECBprovide the necessary billions of poundsto save a British bank in distress?

These are only a few of the crucial is-sues raised by the Banking Union’s pro-posal, but failing to address them properlymight once again confirm Mrs. Merkel’sview - not during our lives.

www.christoskissas.com

ECONOMY

W hat Banking Union?

0530 September - 6 October, 2012ANALYSIS

Wearing a hard hat and protection boots, a man looks out over the city skyline in Frankfurt/M., western Germany, on September 20, 2012

from the 38th floor of ECB's new building under construction.

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By Christos Kissas

Last December Tawakkul Karman stepped up to the podium inOslo to become the first ever Arab woman and only the secondMoslem woman to receive the Nobel peace prize. Dubbed the“Mother of the Revolution” by her fellow Yemenis, the 33 year oldis the international public face of the uprising in her country, partof the phenomena known as the Arab Spring. She, and otherwomen who joined the protests on the streets of Sana’a, Tunis andin Tahir Square demonstrated that the fight for political rights isnot restricted to one gender. But a year afterwards, with theEgyptian parliament now containing 5 rather than 64 women,it is beginning to look as if Spring has not sprung for women. Tawakkul Karman is the latest in an honourable line of womenfighting for a voice in democracy. She joins the ranks of theParisian citoyennes who patrolled the streets of revolutionaryFrance; the Russian women who fought alongside the men in thefirst world war and after; the British suffragettes who lost theirhealth through prison force-feeding, and the many other women,from countless cultures and backgrounds, who have fought forthe right to be heard in their communities. With women running international conglomerates and stand-ing for electoral office, it is easy to imagine that feminism hasdone its work. But the figures show otherwise: women represent3.5 billion citizens, yet globally less than one in five members ofparliament. Worldwide only 29 countries have more than 30%female representation, even in healthy and functioning democ-racies. Of the 193 countries that are members of the United Na-tions, only nine have female Presidents and another nine femalePrime Ministers. Nor are matters much better in the world ofbusiness and economics; Britain recently acted to block EU reg-ulations for 40% female representation on boards, despite the factthat international surveys show that men overwhelm women tento one. Of course, gender is not a guarantee of good leadership and thereare many examples of women leaders who left legacies so cor-rupted that they affected the chances of women to take politicalroles in their region: Elena Ceaucescu, or Mirjana Markovic, thewife of Slobodan Milosevic, spring to mind. But if democracymeans anything, it is that all members of society are respectedand represented, and in terms of gender equality this is far frombeing the case. This gap – and the many other anomalies of class, race and mi-nority representation in politics – will be a key theme at the WorldForum for Democracy being held at the Council of Europe inStrasbourg next week, with an audience of international activists– among them Ms Karman herself. One of the issues under de-bate is the fall-out from the Arab Spring, and, inevitably, the ques-tion of how women can maintain the gains they have made. Oneclue may come from the revolutions of the past. South Africanmen and women battled together against apartheid; yet womenwould have been forgotten had they not had the courage to goto Nelson Mandela, triumphant after the elections and ready towrite a new constitution, demanding that women’s representationbe included. The result is that the upper house of the SouthAfrican parliament now boasts 42% women and the lower house32.1%. Rwanda, where a quota was introduced, is now the onlyparliament in the world to have more women than men. Quotas are, and will remain, controversial, but the moral of thestory is clear. Those with influence and power can learn to use itwisely, like Nelson Mandela, and change the rules that haveworked against women for so long: giving them a part in the po-litical process and the means to fight the legacy of centuries ofprejudice and discrimination.

The World Forum for Democracy will be webcast via the Council ofEurope’s website: www.coe.int from Monday Oct 8th to ThursdayOct 11th. Follow the conversation on Twitter at #CoE_WFD.

By Gutenberg

Democracy that excludeshalf the population? T ime for a rethink

NEW EUROPE


ANALYSIS

Bulgarian Prime Minister BoykoBorisov met last week with GiovanniKessler, Director General of the Eu-ropean Anti-Fraud. Agency OLAFin Sofia.

“Based on the experience ofOLAF, I can say that we found anincreasing capacity of the BulgarianInvestigative system to react to thephenomena of international transna-tional financial crime as well as cor-ruption affecting the EU financialinterests," said Kessler following hismeeting with the Bulgarian PrimeMinister.

"The most important element tounderline is that there is a strong po-litical will to cooperate with the otherMember States and with the other

agencies of the European Union inorder to fight against this type ofcrime" Kessler said on a two-dayworking visit instigated by the invi-tation of Deputy Prime Minister andInterior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov.The Director General of OLAFcongratulated the Bulgarian govern-ment for the legislative changes im-plemented not forgetting that theMinistry of Interior DirectorateAFCOS has powers to conduct in-dependent investigations.

"Bulgaria is a key country for theEuropean Union, the EuropeanCommission and OLAF," addedKessler. He underlined that Bulgariahas the knowledge, the skills and theexcellence to the fight against smug-

gling of cigarettes and tobacco intothe European Union. "This is a phe-nomenon that affects the budget ofour countries with a total amount ofmore than € 10 billion every year,"added the Director General ofOLAF.

During talks with Prime MinisterBoyko Borisov, the necessity of anintegrated European approach to thistype of crime was discussed. "I'mtalking about economic and financialcrimes that are affecting not only onecountry but the interests of the entireEuropean Union," Kessler said.There is a better understanding andcooperation between OLAF andBulgaria on the initiative to create aEuropean Public Prosecutor he alsounderlined.

"Facts require the creation of suchan institution," said Bulgarian PrimeMinister Boyko Borisov. He ex-pressed confidence that the issuewould be placed on the agenda of theEuropean institutions at the end ofthis year or early next year. “We havealways said that Europe should havea European Prosecutor acting on theterritory of all the Member States.We support this idea; the EuropeanPublic Prosecutor and the EuropeanPolice Office will have to work to-gether with regional or state struc-tures of the 28 countries, " Borisovadded. The Prime Minister alsobriefed the Director General ofOLAF on the development of the"SAPARD" case and about the "Be-lene" project.

ANTI-FRAUD

OLAF: Internationaltransnational financialcrime in focus

OLAF DG Giovanni Kessler (L) and Bulgarian PM Boyoko borisov (second l) had a wide ranging discussion.

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T he myth ofthe rationalcolumnist

At the risk of stating the obvious, I really should declarethat I am an idiot. I say this in the full confidence of a longtrack record of personal idiocy in a bewildering variety ofsituations and I’ve kept this pattern of behavior up for al-most fifty years of self-generated stupidity.But I do take comfort in two thoughts.Firstly, I am only a Level 2 idiot. Secondly, I am far fromalone. These considerations also have horrible implicationsfor democracy. I’ll explain.A Level 2 idiot is someone who is aware of their tendency,occasional or otherwise, to do stupid things, to be wrong,awkward or just pig headed. Because of this, Level 2’s canwork their lives around their idiocy, their poor choices anddecisions and make the most of it all.A Level 1 idiot, on the other hand, typically thinks ofthemselves as a genius, infallible.This is why I’m comfortable with my Level 2 status. Apartfrom anything else, it makes for an easier life. We can apol-ogise, say sorry, try to make amends. Because we knowwe’re fallible we can see that, accept it and, very occasion-ally, live and learn. Level 1’s simply can’t do this because,well, they’re idiots.Most of the world’s serious problems are caused by Level1 idiots and the truth is that many of these are elected byLevel 2 idiots. That’s the problem with democracy; we’reidiots. Idiots with votes.This fact has not escaped politicians, indeed some havepounced on it as only a Level 1 idiot can, gleeful in theknowledge that this snippet of information provides themwith both the technique to get elected and the knowledgethat they are right and it’s the voters who are wrong.Europeans are looking towards America, who are holdingtheir first fact free election, with a mixture of arroganceand horror. Obama offered change and lots of it. It didn’thappen, but his big problem is what also didn’t happen;depression. We hear that many of his supporters haveabandoned him, displeased at the rate of the promisedland, sorry, change.This is an example of voter idiocy. They’re not happy, de-spite not being in a 1929 style depression, and are takinga course that could give the presidency to Mitt Romney,who they dislike even more than Obama.The modern tendency (and I’m glad to reach an age whereyou can write that with contempt) is for politicians to offera ‘narrative’ instead of policy, a ‘story’ instead of plans andan appeal to the emotions rather than to the intellect.I, of course, will react to this irrationally. I find it hilar-ious that it appears that God wants the evangelicals tovote for a Mormon. I love the fact that every positionRomney adopts has already been opposed and debunkedby Romney.We Europeans should not be smug or condescending, be-cause we have a test of our idiocy coming up; Lisbon II:The new treaty for the European Union. The last one took ten years to make and within one yearit was dead.Will its successor be written in private by an elite? Peoplereact to secrecy and hidden processes by voting down theresults. Will it then be deliberately re-written in an in-comprehensible manner, like last time?They say one definition of insanity is doing the same thingbut expecting different results.Lisbon II will not only be a test of our idiocy but oursanity.

[email protected]

By Andy Carling

CONSTRUCTIVE AMBIGUITY


ANALYSIS

W hy is a company involved in racial pro-filing part of a European U nion team ded-icated to monitoring “ terrorist content” onthe internet?

Amsterdam-based Euvision Technolo-gies says that it specialises in “concept de-tection software”. This sounds innocuous:until you examine how the firm is usingthis equipment.

According to its website, Euvision hasthe “exclusive right” to sublicense the Im-pala video search engine, which was pio-neered by researchers in the Netherlands.The company gives an “impressive list” ofconcepts that Impala can “detect” in digi-tal media. I clicked on the heading “faces”and was intrigued to learn that the tech-nology can help distinguish people basedon their skin pigmentation. Impala can beused for “ranking Caucasians”, it says,showing a variety of photographs andscreen grabs, including one of SilvioBerlusconi. Although it’s not stated plainly,the underlying message is unmistakable:Impala can just as readily “detect” or “rank”Arabs and Africans.

A similarly implicit message features inthe example of “people with beards”.Among the head shots displayed are sev-eral brown-hued men, one clearly a Mus-lim. What’s going on here?Computer-savvy Islamophobia?

Euvision is participating in Clean IT[information technology], an EU-fundedproject which began last year. Essentially a“partnership” between industry and gov-ernment, the declared objective of thisproject is to develop a set of guidelines for“countering illegal use of the internet” froma “counter-terrorism perspective”.

The involvement of Euvision raises se-rious ethical questions. The firm stands togain by talking up the potential that itsproducts offer to law enforcement author-ities. New (or repackaged) thinking about“illegal use of the internet” presents it withcommercial opportunities. So surely there

is a conflict of interests if it is advising pol-icy-makers about how to snoop on thosewho frequent internet chat rooms.

Nor can its apparently trail-blazing workon racial profiling be brushed aside. Ha-rassment based on colour or ethnicity is adaily occurrence in the real world. TheEquality and Human Rights Commissionin Britain recently published data indicat-ing that black people are 28 times morelikely to be stopped and searched by thatcountry’s police than white people. Target-ing a community in this bigoted way is notacceptable on the streets. Why should it beany more acceptable online?

The organisation European DigitalRights has got hold of a confidential doc-ument setting out the key recommenda-tions being assessed by the Clean IT team.Many of these proposals for discussion arean affront to freedom of expression andother basic civil rights. “Knowingly provid-ing hyperlinks on websites to terrorist con-tent must be defined by law as illegal,” thepaper says. If implemented, academics andjournalists could conceivably be prosecutedfor referring to things they have learnedabout “terrorism” on the internet.

I have deliberately put the word “terror-ism” in quotation marks. The startingpoint of any study on “terrorism” shouldsurely be to outline the problem. As theClean IT project doesn’t seem to have aclear idea of the problem it is fighting, Ilooked up the European Commission’s lat-est thinking. The Commission’s home af-fairs department has a helpful glossary ofthe topics in its purview. To my surprise,this glossary also puts “terrorism” in quota-tion marks.

“In the absence of a generally accepteddefinition under international law, ‘terror-ism’ can be defined as the intentional andsystematic use of actions designed to pro-voke terror in the public as a means tocertain ends,” it says. “Terrorism can bethe act of an individual or a group of in-dividuals acting in their individual capac-ity or with the support of a state. It may

also be the act of a state, whether againstthe population (human rights violationssuch as forced labour, deportation, geno-cide, etc), or in the context of an interna-tional armed conflict against the civilpopulation of the enemy state.”

By favouring this definition, the Com-mission seems to be signalling an abhor-rence of state violence. The reference togenocide is significant. A UN conventionon genocide describes it as “a crime de-signed to destroy a national, ethnic, reli-gious or racial group in whole or in part by,among other things, causing serious phys-ical or psychological harm to members ofthat group or imposing intolerable condi-tions of life on them”.

The US-led invasions of Afghanistan,Iraq and Libya appear to have caused “se-rious physical or psychological harm” towhole communities. White phosphorousshells dropped on Fallujah in 2004 arecontinuing to bring misery, according toevidence amassed by Iraqi doctors. Fif-teen percent of all new-born babies inFallujah have congenital defects, by someestimates.

If the US has resorted to genocide morethan once in the past decade, then its gov-ernment can legitimately be described asone of the deadliest terrorist outfits in themodern world. Assuming that the CleanIT folk take the Commission’s glossary se-riously, they are obliged to treat anythingthat the Washington authorities place onthe internet as “terrorist content”. Linkingto that content would be illegal, if the pro-ject’s recommendations are stretched totheir logical conclusion.

Sadly, I rate the likelihood of this hap-pening at zero. The financial value of the“global security industry” grew almost ten-fold over the past 10 years. As it’s nowworth 100 billion euros per annum, fight-ing the symptoms of “terrorism” – while al-lowing their causes to fester - has becomea massive business. It is a business that em-braces odious practices like racial profilingwithout a second’s thought.

Soldiers secure a perimeter on 26 September on a forward observing post near the National Police Training Center (NPTC) in Wardak province, Afghanistan. Ac-

cording to the UN, the US-led invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya appear to have caused “serious physical or psychological harm” to whole communities

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R acial profiling firm gets sliceof EU “ terrorism” scheme

By David Cronin

W hy Europeshould speak outab out Ethiopia’ shuman rights

On 25 July, the European Union adopted its strategicframework on human rights and democracy and ap-pointed Stavros Lambrinidis its first special represen-tative for human rights, seeking to “enhance theeffectiveness and visibility of EU human rights policy”.It’s now time to translate policy into action. Ethiopiais a prime example, with its deteriorating human rightsrecord. The recent death of former Prime MinisterMeles Zenawi, whose leadership was characterised bycracking down on dissidents and dismantling the inde-pendent media, provides the EU with an excellent op-portunity to change its policy on Ethiopia.What should the EU do? First, it is inconsistent for itto prioritise the UN’s millennium development goals,which target poverty, while ignoring Ethiopia’s wide-spread violations of civil and political rights. At a jointhearing of the European Parliament’s Committee onForeign Affairs and Subcommittee on Human Rights,Baroness Ashton’s External Action Service didn’t riseto the human rights challenge. Under Ethiopia’s latePrime Minister, this EU policy has completely failed toimprove the country’s human rights record, which hastaken a turn for the worse over the past seven years.Restrictions on freedom of expression and associationhave severely limited Ethiopians’ ability to scrutinisetheir country’s human rights performance. A climate ofsilence and impunity are the norm. Torture, arbitrarydetention and forced eviction are widespread and seri-ously under-reported. Those who commit the violationsare rarely held to account and victims of violations sel-dom receive support. In 2009 Ethiopia passed a charities and societiesproclamation, which dramatically curbs human rightswork. Its measures include preventing NGOs whichwork on these issues from receiving more than ten per-cent of their funding from abroad. It also establishes agovernment agency with broad powers over NGOs, in-cluding surveillance and direct involvement in theirrunning.The law has devastated human rights work, through prac-tical obstacles and by exacerbating a climate of fear. Manyfled the country when the law was passed. Those whocontinue to work on the issue have been forced to reducetheir operations. There are now almost no domestichuman rights organisations to monitor violations. Freedom of expression in Ethiopia also suffered a sus-tained attack in Ethiopia last year. While members ofthe independent media have long been targeted, in2011 and 2012 the pretext of ‘counter-terrorism’ hasbeen used to silence dissenting media voices. Over thistime, more than 100 journalists and members of the po-litical opposition have been arrested and prosecuted forterrorism and other offences, including treason, and ex-ercising their rights to freedom of expression and asso-ciation. Their ‘offences’ included writing articlescriticising the government and reporting on peacefulprotests.It’s time for the EU to act on its commitment to “placehuman rights at the centre of its relations with all thirdcountries“. Ethiopia is a potential litmus test. It shouldprotest more vocally against Ethiopia’s continuinghuman rights violations. It should urge the governmentto allow human rights organisations and independentjournalists to defend human rights and remove restric-tions on press freedom, freedom of expression, associa-tion and peaceful assembly. Ethiopians deserve strongadvocates. And the EU must be one of them.

Nicolas Beger, Director, Amnesty International European Institutions Office

New Europe content partner

By Nicolas Beger

There is a serious danger of the Euro-pean Union “enlarging the legal defini-tion of secrecy”, one MEP has said, as heprepares to go to court over a potentialbreach of transparency legislation..

Green MEP Carl Schlyter is present-ing a legal challenge to the EuropeanCommission due to a lack of transparen-cy and a failure to release public docu-ments. The challenge relates to a case inFrance, which is establishing a register ofnanomaterials, to which the commissioninitially objected. Schlyter requesteddocumentation relating to the objection,but was refused on the grounds thatreleasing documents relating to ongoingdiscussions on the draft law between thecommission and France would poten-tially damage good relations between thetwo parties.

The MEP has challenged the com-mission on the grounds that this is inconflict with existing European trans-parency legislation, which states thatdocuments can be released in cases ofoverriding public interest.

The commission has said that thedocuments are worthy of secrecy. France,however, has not insisted that they bekept from view.

The commission has since dropped itsobjections to the French nanomaterialregister, after some legal tweaking. This,however, should not deter someone fromrequesting any documents relating to theissue, says Schlyter. “In July, ten memberstates, plus Croatia, issued a letter wherethey called for action on nanomaterials,including a nano registry. So, ten mem-ber states want to make similar laws tothat of France. But, if we don’t knowwhat’s might be wrong with the French

law. They might make the same mis-takes, for instance”.

While Schlyter rejects the commis-sion’s interpretation of the case, he does-n’t see a wider conspiracy at work, andputs reluctance to release documents as“tradition, mostly”, which builds up to aculture of secrecy. “I don’t think there is ahidden agenda here”, he says. “However,they still haven’t properly justified why”they are withholding documents.

Schlyter, who is the European Parlia-ment’s rapporteur on the regulatoryaspects of nanomaterials, has had muchback-and-forth with the commissionon the issue. In 2009 the parliamentadopted this resolution, itself aresponse to the commission’s 2008communication on the subject. On 6July of this year, Schlyter wrote toEnvironment Commissioner JanezPotočnik, expressing concerns that thecommission’s review of the relevantlegislation was unsatisfactory, andbehind schedule. He asked the com-missioner to help reignite the aims ofthe commission’s 2004 strategy on nan-otechnology, which said that nanotech-nology must be developed in a safe andresponsible manner.

Potočnik wrote back on 26 July, sayingthat the commission “remains fully com-mitted to its earlier positions”, and thatthe second regulatory review of nanoma-terials is currently being finalised.

Also in July, the Dutch environmentministry wrote to Potočnik, on behalf ofAustria, Belgium, Czech Republic,Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Spain,Sweden and Croatia, urging the com-mission to take action on nanomateriallegislation, including the creation of aEuropean nanomaterials register, an ini-tiative supported by Schlyter, and the

subject of the draft French law that drewthe attention of the commission andwhich has prompted the transparencycase; Schlyter had already written to thecommission in April asking for docu-mentation on the French law, whichwere refused.

Schlyter is keen to emphasise that heis not against the technology, but, as withthe concerned member states, wants tosee it developed in an ethical, environ-mentally-sound way. “There are enor-mous potentialities for this”, he says. “Butit is very new, and these substances havenew properties, so we need increasedfunding, for instance, to examine possiblerisks”.

While, he says, there needs to be prop-er legislation in the nanotechnologyfield, it is important to know, says CarlShlyter, that this is only one part of aconnected issue. “There are two separatebattles”, he says, and one is access to doc-uments, which should be part of stan-dard pre-legislative procedures”. Europe,he says, needs to know the exact reasonsthe French law was vetoed, and thencleared, as these procedures have directimplications for other member statesthat want to follow the French example.

On 3 October, the commission is dueto release a paper on the issue, but theMEP is not confident it will sufficientlyoutline what many seem to want inEurope, being a “snapshot” rather than a“living inventory” of the state of nano-materials in the consumer chain. Untilthen, he says, he will pursue his claimagainst the commission.

It is not about a single law any more.The issue, now, he says, is about “notsharing resources,and enlarging the legaldefinition of secrecy, and we have to testthis principle”.

By Cillian Donnelly

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Nanotech law sparks secrecy case


ANALYSIS

Carl Schlyter MEP: Court date with the European Commission

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A New A genda for B ritain

Britain is facing a new strategic challenge after theevident success of the London Olympic Games.Reinventing Britain and giving the British Actors(States, Universities, Enterprises, Civil Society) theopportunity of developing new challenges focused oninnovation and creativity is in a large sense giving acentral contribution to a New Europe. The Reinven-tion of Britain is the reinvention of its people andinstitutions. An active commitment, in which thefocus in the participation and development of newcompetences, on a collaborative basis, must be thekey of the difference.The New Agenda for Britain must be supported bysome strategic proposals that demand for a new op-erational agenda from all the British political, eco-nomical and social actors. First of all, Britain mustknow how to integrate in a positive way its citizens.Social cohesion is done with the constructive partic-ipation of the citizens and it is more and more nec-essary an effective attitude of mobilization for thiseffort. Education must be the right tool for thisstrategic ambition for a New Britain.Secondly, Innovation and Creativity must be the “en-ablers” for competitiveness in Britain. Universities andCompanies must perform a new strategic partnershipcentered in the objectives of the added value, creativityand knowledge. This is the basis for a future effectiveimplementation in Britain of the New Strategy Europe2020. Britain has still a strong opportunity to imple-ment an agenda of innovation – the opportunity ismore and more know and it can´t be lost.Thirdly, the excellence of Britain is more and morethe excellence of its regions. The development ofstrategic projects like the Poles of Competitiveness,Clusters of Innovations and Knowledge Cities andRegions is the effective confirmation that the basisfor a new agenda in Britain depends on the capacityof its regions. A New Agenda in Britain is more andmore the confidence of the development of the ca-pacity of the local actors performing an effectiveAgenda of Change.Fourthly, Britain has a unique identity based on itsstrong culture. The British Culture is a unique asset.Britain must be able to involve other global partnersin the construction of integrated projects focused onthe development of culture as a driver for develop-ment. The reinvention of the british culture is itselfa very innovative way to involve more and more theEuropean actors in this project for the future.Finally, we want in Europe a Britain of the citizens.Where people know who they are and have a strongcommitment with the values of freedom, social jus-tice and development. This is the reason to believethat the New Britain, more than a possibility, is anindividual and collective necessity for all of us, effec-tive European citizens.

Francisco Jaime Quesado is the General Manager ofthe Innovation and Knowledge Society in Portugal,a public agency with the mission of coordinating thepolicies for Information Society and mobilizing itthrough dissemination, qualification and research ac-tivities. It operates within the Ministry of Science,Technology and Higher Education

New Europe content partner

By Francisco Jaime Quesado

Inpired and innovative, to reinforce the per-

ception of Italy as an industrial country on

the European and world economy and em-

phasise the potential in the field of tech-

nology is the aim of TechItaly, a three day

affair organised by the Italian Embassy in

Brussels, scheduled from 2 October in the

Belgian capital, with an inaugural session in

the European Parliament.

Among the relevant speakers of the inau-

gural session: the Italian Ambassador in

Belgium, Roberto Bettarini,, Vice President

and EU Commissioner for Industry,

Tourism and Entrepreneurship Antonio Ta-

jani, the President of the Executive Com-

munity, the Hon. Amalia Sartori, President

of the ITRE Committee of the EU Parlia-

ment, and the Vice-Chairmen of the EU

Parliament, Roberta Angelilli and Gianni

Pittella. ''This Italian initiative is in line

with EU Commission strategy on industry

growth,” said EU Commissioner Tajani.

“We hope that this initiative”, said the Ital-

ian Ambassador Roberto Bettarini,''will be-

come a fixed event for the EU institutions.”

The Italian Government will be repre-

sented by the Minister for European Affairs,

Moavero Milanesi, while the industry will

be represented by the President of Confind-

ustria Giorgio Squinzi and by Alain De

Smedt, President of the FEB, the Federation

of Enterprises in Belgium. The Presidents

of CNR, ENEA, ASI, INFN and Maria

Chiara Carrozza, Rector of St. Anna Uni-

versity of Pisa will also be attending.

But the real stars of TechItaly will be the

entrepreneurs. Finmeccanica will be repre-

sented by the Managing Director, Giuseppe

Orsi, the chemical giant Solvay, which cele-

brates 100 years of activity in Italy and Fer-

rovie dello Stato, which will present for the

new train "Frecciarossa 1000". Highly qual-

ified companies in the space sector will at-

tend the event:AVIO, whose excellent

technology has played a major role in the

success of the European launcher Vega; then

other important names like Telespazio,

Thales Alenia Space and Vitrociset, repre-

sented by their CEOs, Gualdaroni, Pasquali

and Zappa. The Brussels correspondent of

the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa,

Marco Zatterin will moderate the debate.

The opening in the European Parliament

will launch the four thematic sessions, car-

ried out in collaboration with ICE, the new

Agency for the Promotion Abroad, whose

president, Riccardo Monti, will open the

session dedicated to Space and Observation

of earth. The session dedicated to the green

economy will be presented by the Ministry

of Environment in coordination with

ENEA,. The topical issue of active aging

and healthy will be the dominant topic of

the third session dedicated to excellence and

Italian technology in the field of health.

TechItaly will close on October 4 with the

session dedicated to technologies for the

preservation and use of cultural heritage.

The sponsors of the event are : Avio, Enel,

Engineering, Eni, Ferrovie dello Stato, Fiat,

Finmeccanica, Mapei, Pirelli, Solvay and

GII-Italian Initiative Group in Brussels.

TECHNOLOGY

I talian T ech hits B russels 10NEW EUROPE

30 September - 6 October, 2012ANALYSIS

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani meets with Italian Ambassador in Belgium, Roberto Bettarini at a previous event. During 2-4 October they

will be present at TechItalia a conference exploring the Italian industry.

Q . T he European industrial community thatall the main I talian actors in the innovationfield can work together to present I taly as asolid key player when we talk ab out industrialinnovation, as can b e seen b y this event. C anyou say few words ab out this?Between the dates of 2-4 October, Brussels willhost the TechItaly Conference 2012 – boost-ing European growth through industrial inno-vation. It’s an event I care a lot about as theEmbassy has taken more than six months toprepare it. Then we were helped in organisingthis important event by the Office of the EUCommissioner for Industry Antonio Tajani,our Permanent Representation to the Euro-pean Union, the ICE, the Ministry of the En-vironment, CNR and ENEA. The aim of theinitiative, whose inaugural session will be held at

the European Parliament on October 2 andwhich will continue in the days of October 3and 4 at the Fédération des Entreprises de Bel-gique, is to present the excellence of Italianhigh-tech at European and international level,through the technological and industrial inno-vation as an engine for development andgrowth in Europe. The Conference, after the opening cere-mony, will be divided into four thematicsessions. The first, entitled Europe inSpace: the Italian contribution and futureprospects. The second focuses on tech-nologies "green" for a sustainable Europe.The third on Industrial Innovation at serv-ice of Health and the final one focused onLeadership of the Italian technology forthe protection of cultural heritage. During

the different sessions, this important ini-tiative will bring together the most quali-fied Italian research centers such as theUniversity Sant'Anna of Pisa, ENEA, theItalian National Research Council, theItalian Space Agency, the National Insti-tute of Nuclear Physics, the Civil Protec-tion, the Ministry of Health and the ItalianAgency for Medicines. About the indus-trial sector we will present the most im-portant Italian industries such as:ENEL,Ferrovie dello Stato, Fiat, Finmeccanicaand Pirelli. This will be a major technological event forBrussels and I can say with a strong sentimentof pride that the Belgian capital will be trans-formed in a prestigious stage for the Italian ex-cellence in the industrial and research sectors.

T echI talia Q & A with A mb assador B ettarini

Italian Ambassador in Belgium, Roberto Bettarini

NEW Y OR K – In many of history’smost successful economic reforms,clever countries have learned fromthe policy successes of others, adapt-ing them to local conditions. In thelong history of economic develop-ment, eighteenth-century Britainlearned from Holland; early nine-teenth-century Prussia learned fromBritain and France; mid-nineteenth-century Meiji Japan learned fromGermany; post-World War II Eu-rope learned from the United States;and Deng Xiaoping’s China learnedfrom Japan.

Through a process of institutionalborrowing and creative adaptation,successful economic institutions andcutting-edge technologies spreadaround the world, and thereby boostglobal growth. Today, too, there aresome great opportunities for this kindof “policy arbitrage,” if more countrieswould only take the time to learn fromother countries’ successes.

For example, while many countriesare facing a jobs crisis, one part of thecapitalist world is doing just fine:northern Europe, including Ger-many, the Netherlands, and Scandi-navia. Germany’s unemploymentrate this past summer was around5.5%, and its youth unemploymentrate was around 8% – remarkably lowcompared with many other high-in-come economies.

How do northern Europeans doit? All of them use active labor mar-ket policies, including flex time,school-to-work apprenticeships (es-pecially Germany), and extensive jobtraining and matching.

Likewise, in an age of chronicbudget crises, Germany, Sweden, andSwitzerland run near-balancedbudgets. All three rely on budgetrules that call for cyclically adjusted

budget balance. And all three take abasic precaution to keep their entitle-ment spending under control: a re-tirement age of at least 65. This keepscosts much lower than in France, andGreece, for example, where the re-tirement age is 60 or below, andwhere pension outlays are soaring asa result. In an age of rising health-care costs, most high-income coun-tries – Canada, the European Union’sWestern economies, and Japan –manage to keep their total health-care costs below 12% of GDP, withexcellent health outcomes, while theUS spends nearly 18% of GDP, yetwith decidedly mediocre health out-comes. And, America’s is the onlyfor-profit health system of the entirebunch. A new report by the US In-stitute of Medicine has found thatAmerica’s for-profit system squan-ders around $750 billion, or 5% ofGDP, on waste, fraud, duplication,and bureaucracy.

In an age of soaring oil costs, a fewcountries have made a real differencein energy efficiency. The OECDcountries, on average, use 160 kilo-grams of oil-equivalent energy forevery $1,000 of GDP (measured atpurchasing power parity). But, in en-ergy-efficient Switzerland, energyuse is just 100 kg per $1,000 of GDP,and in Demark it is just 110 kg, com-pared with 190 kg in the US.

In an age of climate change, sev-eral countries are demonstrating howto move to a low-carbon economy.On average, the rich countries emit2.3 kg of CO2 for every kg of oil-equivalent unit of energy. But Franceemits just 1.4 kg, owing to its enor-mous success in deploying safe, low-cost nuclear energy.

Sweden, with its hydropower, iseven lower, at 0.9 kg. And, whileGermany is abandoning domesticproduction of nuclear energy for po-litical reasons, we can bet that it will

nonetheless continue to import elec-tricity from France’s nuclear plants.In an age of intense technologicalcompetition, countries that combinepublic and private research and de-velopment (R&D) financing are out-pacing the rest. The US continues toexcel, with huge recent break-throughs in Mars exploration andgenomics, though it is now imperil-ing that excellence through budgetcuts. Meanwhile, Sweden and SouthKorea are now excelling economi-cally on the basis of R&D spendingof around 3.5% of GDP, while Israel’sR&D outlays stand at a remarkable4.7% of GDP.

In an age of rising inequality, atleast some countries have narrowedtheir wealth and income gaps. Brazilis the recent pacesetter, markedly ex-panding public education and sys-tematically attacking remainingpockets of poverty through targetedtransfer programs. As a result, in-

come inequality in Brazil is declin-ing. And, in an age of pervasive anx-iety, Bhutan is asking deep questionsabout the meaning and nature ofhappiness itself. In search of a morebalanced society that combines eco-nomic prosperity, social cohesion, andenvironmental sustainability, Bhutanfamously pursues Gross NationalHappiness rather than Gross Na-tional Product. Many other countries– including the United Kingdom –are now following Bhutan’s lead insurveying their citizenry about lifesatisfaction. The countries highest onthe ladder of life satisfaction areDenmark, Finland, and Norway. Yetthere is hope for those at lower lati-tudes as well. Tropical Costa Ricaalso ranks near the top of the happi-ness league. What we can say is thatall of the happiest countries empha-size equality, solidarity, democraticaccountability, environmental sus-tainability, and strong public institu-tions. So here is one model economy:German labor-market policies,Swedish pensions, French low-car-bon energy, Canadian health care,Swiss energy efficiency, Americanscientific curiosity, Brazilian anti-poverty programs, and Costa Ricantropical happiness.

Of course, back in the real world,most countries will not achieve suchbliss anytime soon. But, by openingour eyes to policy successes abroad,we would surely speed the path tonational improvement in countriesaround the world.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is Professor of Eco-nomics and Director of the Earth In-stitute at Columbia University. He isalso Special Adviser to the UnitedNations Secretary-General on theMillennium Development Goals.Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2012.www.project-syndicate.org

POLITICS

Finding the keys to National prosperity


ANALYSIS

Stockholm at night: thanks to energy efficiency policies, Sweden, like others in Europe, is reducing carbon emissions, and

boosting its economy at the same time.

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As it happens, there's a connectionbetween the SOPA/PIPA fight andsexuality and politics in 1920s Aus-tria. That's the argument BethNoveck made at New York LawSchool early last week, during anevening book event PersonalDemocracy Media hosted to discussSteven Johnson's new book, "FuturePerfect: The Case for Progress in theNetworked Age." Noveck spokealongside Tina Rosenberg, co-writer

of the Fixes online column for theNew York Times, Internet thinkerClay Shirky, and our editorial direc-tor, Micah Sifry.Johnson's book outlines "collective,incremental, networked ap-proaches," Noveck explains.And this reminds her of Hugo Bet-tauer, the early 20th-century Aus-trian novelist and journalist whoseprolific output made him tremen-dously popular — except among po-

litical hard-liners of both stripes. Hisprogressive take on sexuality andwomen's rights, Noveck said, madehim both controversial and widelyread. "He was mobilising move-ments of people, peers if you will,against both the the left-wing or-derly worker family, the SocialDemocratic-Marxist order that theleft was preaching, and against theclerico-fascist Catholic order thatthe right was preaching," Noveck

said. "So he was, in a way, a kind ofpeer progressive, if you will, and wecan fast forward the debate from oneabout socialism versus catholicism,to one about the market versus thestate, about raising taxes versus cut-ting services, and we sort of find thatthere is this third way through a de-bate that in every era we have seenthis left-versus-right debate whichthis kind of engaged liberal philoso-phy, and I use liberal in the sense ofindividual rights, really pits itselfagainst." Across the not-quite-two-hour discussion, Johnson, Rosen-

berg, Noveck, Shirky and Sifry tookturns hacking away at this idea of a"third way," one that is not a moder-ate compromise between a market-driven politics and a state-driven oneso much as it suggests a more de-centralized model for concentratingand distributing wealth and re-sources. That's the theory behind theSOPA/PIPA connection. The kindof network that coalesced to exertsome political pressure on Congressis, in theory, the kind of networkJohnson suggests we might be see-ing more of.

1 9 th C entury A ustria vs S OPA

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

On 28 September, Total told New Europethat the French energy group gives prio-rity to gas when it comes to explorationand production in the Arctic.

On 26 September, in a statement thatwas music to the ears of environmenta-lists, Total Chief Executive Christophe deMargerie warned against drilling in theArctic, saying in an interview to the Fi-nancial Times that it may be too risky tothe environment. “Oil on Greenlandwould be a disaster,” de Margerie said. “Aleak would do too much damage to theimage of the company”.

Total spokeswoman Anastasia Zhivu-lina said that de Margerie spoke to theFT about the Arctic as part of his exclu-sive interview to this newspaper. But sheexplained to New Europe that Total is in-volved in several offshore gas projectsin the Arctic but not in oil drilling opera-tions. “Total has always been saying thatwhen it comes to E&P in the Arctic, theGroup gives priority to gas. All the pro-jects that Total leads in the area are out-side ice-covered waters and concernmostly natural gas. The only oil project inthe Russian Arctic - Kharyaga PSA - isonshore,” she said.

The comments from the Total CEOcame after a French court found Totalguilty of causing a disastrous oil spill offthe coast of France in 1999. De Margerieacknowledged arguments made by envi-ronmentalists that the extreme conditionsof the Arctic shelf and the sensitivityof the local eco-system mean that drillingthere should be banned.

Earlier this year US major ExxonMobil,Royal Dutch Shell, Italy’s ENI and Norwa-

y’s Statoil signed deals with Russian oilmajor Rosneft to drill for oil in Russia’s Ar-ctic. Other companies have secured agree-ments to explore reserves off Greenland.

Last month Greenpeace activists occu-pied Russian gas monopoly Gazprom's Pri-razlomnaya oil rig in the Pechora Sea in anattempt to highlight concerns aboutthe project. Gazprom announced the be-ginning of oil production at Prirazlomnayawould be put back a year, to the endof 2013.

On 17 September, Shell had to po-stpone drilling in the Chukchi Sea off

Alaska because of safety concerns.On 20 September, British lawmakers

said that international governmentsshould seek a moratorium on offshoredrilling in the Arctic amid concern an oilspill in the region could cause devastatingenvironmental damage. The Environmen-tal Audit Committee of Britain's Houseof Commons called for action to halt oiland gas drilling in the Arctic until new sa-feguards — including vastly increased fi-nancial guarantees and universal standardson disaster response — are put in place.

Meanwhile, Shell said it plans to ex-

plore for offshore oil and gas in Alaska ina very safe and careful way. At an e-mai-led statement to New Europe on 27 Sep-tember, Shell said it believes “the Arctichas significant untapped potential andwill play an increasingly important role inmeeting the energy challenge. It holdsgreat opportunity and that comes withgreat responsibility. Our experience wor-king in rigorous and challenging condi-tions in the Arctic means that we arequalified to do the job right -- to explorefor offshore oil and gas in Alaska in a verysafe and careful way”.

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom will re-structure its European assets in the tradingand logistics sectors, Gazprom DeputyChairman Alexander Medvedev said on 25September. The European Commission isinvestigating Gazprom's actions in Polandas well as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Es-tonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slo-vakia. But Medvedev said the decision grewout of production necessities and was not areaction to the European Commission an-titrust probe. The planned change impliesthe split of Gazprom into two entities, oneselling natural gas to European customers,and another one transporting the gas. Ana-lysts say Gazprom hopes this will help theRussian company avoid EU claims that ithas hindered the free flow of gas to itsmember states.

ENERGY|BUSINESS

Gazprom plans Europeanassets restructuring

According to a Russian publication,Gunvor, a privately-owned company co-founded by entrepreneur Gennady Tim-chenko, plans to be a major stakeholderin the Bulgarian electricity market.According to the source, the BulgarianState Energy and Water RegulatoryCommission (SEWRC) has prelimina-rily approved the request by Gunvor In-ternational BV on 25 September to grantlicenses for the sale of electricity in thecountry. The Regulatory Commission'sspokesperson said that the procedure forissuing the license agreement has alreadycommenced, while a closed-door mee-

ting was planned for 2 October duringwhich it is expected the procedure willbe finalised.Gunvor representative, TimchenkoAnton Kurevin, confirmed that the com-pany has applied for a 20-year license tooperate on the Bulgarian energy market.According to him, the company descri-bed its experience in energy trade, theprovision of financial reports confirmingits stable position, as well as its plans forthe expected volume of trade in the nextfour years. In addition, he said that Gun-vor Trading diversified its portfolio anddeveloped areas related to trade in othercommodities, in addition to oil and oilproducts.

Kurevin did not mention in the articlewhere and from whom the companyplanned to buy energy, nor did he namepotential customers. According to theanalyst Denis Borisov, the decision ofGunvor was logic as the company waslosing interest in the Russian oil tradingbecause of the unfavourable situation ofthe oil trading business at the moment.Vedomosti recapped that since 2009,Gunvor has been trading gas, coal, bio-fuels, gasoline and quotas for greenhousegas emissions. It also used to sell electri-city, but in March last year it announcedsuspension of the direction of powertrade on the European market due to the“difficult current market conditions”.

ENERGY|ELECTRICITY

Gunvor applies for 20-year license to operate on Bulgarian energy market

ENERGY|EXPLORATION

Total gives priority to gas in the Arctic but highlights dangers of offshore drilling

By Kostis Geropoulos

By Stanislava Gaydazhieva


ENERGY & CLIMATE

The Ilulissat Icefjord, western Greenland, a UNESCO World Heritage site, 29 May 2008. With the race for Arctic mineral wealth steaming ahead, the region's indigenous Inuits

are raising their voices and demanding that Arctic nations stop stealing their land and respect their way of life, their tradition view being that land is a natural resource to be shared.

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An accord for building the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will carryAzerbaijani gas across Greece, Albaniato Italy, which was signed in New Yorkon 27 September, will give fresh impe-tus to the project, officials said.

The governments of Italy, Greece andAlbania confirmed their political supportfor TAP with the signing of a Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU) in theevening of 27 September.

Concluded on the margins of theUnited Nations General Assemblymeeting in New York, and in thepresence of representatives from theUS government, the MoU providesTAP with the necessary politicalsupport to continue its commercialactivities in Italy. Next steps will beto complete regulatory approvals,TAP said in a press release.

In Brussels, EU Energy Commis-sioner Günther Oettinger welcomed thesignature of a political agreement allow-ing the go-ahead of the TAP project.

TAP’s Managing Director KjetilTungland also hailed the MoU. “Wewould like to thank the Italian,Greek and Albanian governments forthis very clear demonstration of po-litical support for TAP. This is an-other great step forward for theproject and is testament to TAP’scommercial and technical strengthsand the significant benefits that itwill bring to these countries,” he said.

“Today’s signing follows a numberof major milestones that TAP hasachieved this year, including beingthe first pipeline to be selected by theShah Deniz Consortium in February,a Cooperation Agreement with the

Consortium in June and the FundingAgreement with BP, SOCAR andTotal that was signed in August. Weare working to further progress theproject in the coming months,”Tungland added.

On the sidelines of the Balkans Oil& Gas 2012 Summit in Athens on26 September, Greece’s Deputy Min-ister of Environment, Energy andClimate Change Makis Papageor-giou told New Europe that TAP is a“priority” for his government.

Albania’s Deputy Minister ofEconomy, Trade & Energy NeritanAlibali hailed the agreement, saying“it is good news for all our govern-ments”. He noted that TAP is astrategic project for Tirana.

Alibali said Albania is focal pointof TAP in the Balkans, noting thatTAP will be linked with the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) which willsupply with gas the western Balkans,including Kosovo, Montenegro andBosnia-Herzegovina. “Both pipelinesare very important for Albania andthe region,” he told New Europe.

Asked if the agreement would im-prove TAP’s chances against theNabucco West pipeline, which is alsocompeting for 10bn cubic metres ofgas from Azerbaijan's giant ShahDeniz II field, led by BP and Statoil,Alibali said: “We hope TAP will win.”But experts note that the “marathon”race is still long. TAP's shareholdersare EGL of Switzerland (42.5%), Nor-way's Statoil (42.5%) and E.ONRuhrgas of Germany (15%). Italianutility Enel has shown an interest inthe project.

Dorian Ducka, Director of Euro-pean Integration and SPO, Trade

and Energy, Head of Infrastructureat Albania’s Energy Ministry, saidTAP is interesting for Tirana becauseit connects with the IAP and makesAlbania a possible hub. He addedthat Albania has several suitable sitesfor gas storage, including, a salt domein Dumrea that could store up to 2bncubic metres of natural gas for the se-curity of energy in Europe. TAP hassigned memorandums with under-standing with developers of the IAPproject, including Plinacro fromCroatia, BH-Gas from Bosnia andHerzegovina, Slovenian transmissionsystem operator Geoplin plinovodiand governments of Montenegro andAlbania.

Croatia’s Assistant Minister ofEconomy Alen Leveric, who was alsoat the Balkans conference in Athens,said Zagreb is also interested in IAPand TAP.

Vladan Dubljevic, Montenegro’sDeputy Minister for Mining andGeological Researches, Ministry ofEconomy, told New Europe inAthens that his government stronglysupports and has signed a ministrydeclaration between Albania, Croa-tia Bosnia-Herzegovina to supportthe IAP project as part of TAP. Hesaid Podgorica is starting to thinkabout diversification of energy re-sources, including gas supplies. “Forthat reason we will support all re-gional gas pipelines projects whichput into calculation Montenegro as astate,” Dubljevic said, adding that hissmall country also plans to start todevelop its upstream industry andevaluate its own gas reserves. “IAPwill also give us the possibility to sellour own gas,” he said.



ENERGY & CLIMATE

Eco-innovationstarts in A b ruz z o

PES C A R A , I taly – The Abruzzo region, Italy’semerging tourist destination, is no stranger to crisis.An earthquake rocked L'Aquila in central Italy in2009 and now the region starts to feel the effects ofthe European economic crisis. But riding the trainacross the mountainous countryside one notices windfarms and the prospects of economic development.Eco-innovation could be part of the recovery fromthe crisis, Électricité de France (EDF) Senior Vice-President for Sustainable Development ClaudeNahon told New Europe in Pescara on 21 Septem-ber at the start of an Assembly of the European Re-gions (AER) Crisis Summit. She said EDF believesthat to find a solution it has to find a way to work lo-cally. “We believe we can play a role in eco-innovationbecause we have huge R&D centres and with theseR&D centres we need to connect to a lot of local is-sues to develop a sort of eco-system in which you canfind innovation,” she said. “You need to connect tothe people outside the company who are bringingnew ideas, new business models and it can only bedone locally,” Nahon said.EDF is investing a lot in renewables. But Nahonstressed that the French company “has to build a mixin energy and this mix is very local. You have to beaware what kind of energy you can use in a place andyou need to really have a global view what are the re-sources you can use and how to use them,” she said.The EDF executive also called for inventing in newcost-effective models for energy efficiency. “It doesn’tmean that energy efficiency has to be very expensive.People cannot afford expensive energy. It is a mainlypolitical issue. We believe there has to be new fund-ing models for energy efficiency,” Nahon said. “Youneed really to have a global view on how you greenthe economy and have an economy which is muchmore able to deal with the limit of the planet andwith solidarity,” she said.Italian MEP Erminia Mazzoni told New Europe inPescara that Europe risks being divided. Abruzzo is asymbolic starting point, she said. “This two-daymeeting could be a first important step to rethinkprocesses inside the European Union in this particu-lar moment of crisis. The global financial crisis struckall of Europe and produced a bad effect on practise ofthe principle of solidarity,” the MEP said, adding thatthe crisis is the right moment to go beyond and tothink of a political European Union made up by itscitizens. “A Europe made up made up by citizens is anentity in which regions must play central role. So Ithink we can start from here - from Abruzzo - to re-launch the identity and the role of regions,” Mazzonisaid.The Italian MEP said innovation cannot be excluded.“The environmental protection is one of the funda-mental goals we have to put on our agenda becausedestroying the environment means destroying earth,destroying life capability and destroying social rela-tionships. And all these elements correspond tocosts,” she said. “That it is one of the most importantcalls on the agenda for Europe 20-20-20.”

[email protected] on twitter @energyinsider


ENERGY INSIDER

The governments of Italy, Greece and Albania confirmed their political support for TAP with the signing of a Memorandum of Under-

standing (MoU) in the evening of 27 September. TAP will be linked with the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) which will supply with

gas the western Balkans.

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ENERGY|GAS PIPELINE

I taly, Greece, A lb ania sign M oU for T rans-A driatic Pipeline


FASHION & STYLE 15NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012

FASHION & STYLE

While leaving behind thepast season’s baroquesplendour and its aris-

tocratic hauteur, for next spring,Dolce & Gab b ana humorouslyreinterpreted the Sicilian ‘minutopopolo’s’ traditions. Domenico andStefano praised Sicily’s rich nature,which has favoured the birth of nu-merous Italian textile crafts: wicker,

raffia, hemp, jute, silk, and flax forlinen, all of which are ‘environmen-tally friendly’ plants. These coarse,durable and affordable fabrics speakfor the Italian countryside’s simple,hardworking way of life. A jutedress, shaped like a wheat sack,boasted Taormina products, all‘fatto a mano’, handmade. In otherwords, what would dressmaking be,

if not a handicraft?However, preciousness as we

know it took the form of silkprinted dresses which proudly fea-tured the thousand-year-old tradi-tion of Caltagirone themed andcoloured ceramics. Mediterraneanblue, sage green, yellow and terra-cotta, typical Sicilian colours, wit-nessed the island’s overwhelmingbeauty. Meanwhile, prints depictedSicilian Puppet Theatre and paint-ing scenes, usually Norman Knightsfighting off Saracens. Impressiveearrings, among other accessories,reproduced the ceramic heads ofPresepi, these traditional nativityscenes. A fabulous feast for the eyes,this multifaceted collection cer-tainly elevates fashion to the chal-lenging and meaningful art that welook up to.

Donatella V ersace’ s sumptuouscollection was equally a feat of skill,as she proved to be the spearhead ofluxury ‘à l’italienne’. Amazing long‘armoured action girl’ lambskinjackets were paired with delicatelingerie cut-out edges in an inter-play of see-through v.s. opaque ortough v.s. soft. Tie and dye silkdresses, buttoned shirts and low-waist belts added a slight 70’s air,while the amazon-style ankle wrap-arounds added to the overall war-rior charm.

A q uilano R imondi’s joyful andyoung-spirited collection seemed topay tribute to the Commedia del-l’arte and its characters: Arlecchino,

Pedrolino and Columbina. Colourswere bright, deck of card tones,while a juxtaposition of contrastingjoker checked and striped motifswere printed on circus-inspired ac-robats’ and dancers’ short dresses.

In a very different style, B ottegaV eneta’s T omas M aier showed avery beautiful 40’s retro-influencedcollection: elegant knee length lightfitted dresses with vintage flowerprints and tight waists. Particularlyflattering on romantic physiques.

V eronica Etro remained faithfulto the ‘World Fashion’ influencesthat her brand is best known for.This season, it was mostly Japanand China’s stylized flowery motifs,but in new tones, apricot, deep or-ange, while some outfits were evi-dently more ‘Technicolor’ style.Etro revived the house’s typicalflower print with a much morelively, pixelated palette for a mod-ern updated version of the house’slegendary codes.

A ntonio M arras’s collection wasAsia-influenced, as usual, but in amuch more ‘minute’ style: tiny pas-tel stylized flowers, quilts or Chi-nese wallpaper cuts emphasized byblack bordering. ‘Manga’ graphicprints brought a new touch of fan-tasy and grace to Marras’s work.

Feel like summer is a time forlovely romantic flower-printed ruf-fled dresses? A nna M olinarithought so too. For B lugirl, she de-signed the eternally young ‘princess’wardrobe: picnic hats, white lace,

ribbons, pink roses, violet orchidsand a general taste for pastel hues.In one word: freshness!

M oschino’s R ossella J ardini de-signed a cartoonesque collection forapprentice power girls. Little whiteand black falsely strict coats andsuits, subverted by huge stripes,squares and dots created a miniMiss Peel look with bowling hatsand gloves. Half way through,multi-coloured vibrant flowers, vividstripes, and monochrome outfits inprimary colours, gave this youngcharacter a newly felt confidence.

Louise [email protected]

A NT ONI O M A R R A Sphoto: Giuseppe Cacace © AFP

ET R Ophoto: Olivier Morin © AFP

A Q U I L A NO R I M ONDI© Aquilano Rimondi

BO T T EGA V ENET Aphoto: Filippo Monteforte © AFP

M OS C HI NOphoto: Olivier Morin

© AFP


© AFP

DOL CE & GA BB A NAphoto: Giuseppe Cacace

© AFP

V ERS A CEphoto: Filippo Monteforte © AFP

B L U GI R Lphoto: Giuseppe Cacace © AFP

DOL CE & GA BB A NAphoto: Giuseppe Cacace © AFP

M ilan revisitedMILAN FASHION WEEK: SPRING/SUMMER 2013

V ERS A CEphoto: Filippo Monteforte © AFP


© AFP


B L U M A R I NEphoto: Olivier Morin © AFP




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LAST MINUTE TICKETS FOR SHOWS & CONCERTS AT -50%

Avec le soutien de LA COMMISSION COMMUNAUTAIRE FRANÇAISE

Tickets for half price for performances and concerts on the same day. Arsène 50 offers you every day a wide range of performances, advises you in your choices and takes care of your reservation.

www.arsene50.be

Ticket sale: - At BIP, 2-4 rue Royale (Place Royale) 1000 BruxellesTuesday to Saturday, from 12.30 pm to 5.30 pm- Online on www.arsene50.beTuesday to Saturday, from 2 pm to 5.30 pm

M useum of Fine A rts B elgium

The Museum of Ancient Art and theMuseum of Modern Art, located next toeach other along Place Royale, are jointlyknown as the Museum of Fine Arts. TheMuseum of Ancient Art has accumulateda diversification of paintings, drawingsand sculptures that span from the 15th to18th centuries. The art housed here originate fromFrance, Belgium and the Netherlands andfrom artists such as Petrus Christus,Pieter-Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens and

Anthony van Dyck make up the majorityof the collection. The Brussels Museum ofModern Art houses pieces of art from the19th and 20th centuries from movementslike impressionism, surrealism, fauvism,and contemporary forms of art. Jacques-Louis David, Eugene Delacroix,Antoine Wiertz and Gustave Courbet aresome of the artists that can be found with-in the halls and rooms of this beautifulmuseum. Together these museums provide anarray of beautiful pieces of art. A comboticket to see both is 13 euros for adults,5 euros for seniors and 2 euros for stu-dents under 26.

Brussels Agenda 1 - 11 October

PL A Ysuggest your event for our agenda:[email protected]

Frightened R ab b it 3 October 19:30 doors Botanique Frightened Rabbit is a indie rockband from Glasglow that seeks tocombine the gritty Scottish folksound with a big, somewhat experi-mental chamber sound similar to thatof the Arcade Fire. Scott Hutchison’s painfully earnestlyrics about heartbreak make thisband even more alluring. FrightenedRabbit released a three-song EP lastyear and released a more substantialEP, “State Hospital” on 25 September.A fourth studio-length album is duein early 2013. Hutchison did a soloacoustic tour in support of wonderfulsongwriter Josh Ritter last year, andlook for him to play a few songs aloneat Botanique. They are a great com-plement to the rollicking rock tunes.

I sab elle Faust, A lexander M elnikov,J ean-Guihen Q ueyras 3 Oct 19:30 Royal Brussels Conservatory Violinist Isabelle Faust, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianistAlexander Melnikov join forces topresent three gems of the repertoirefor piano trio — and three works ofvery different moods. They are Haydn’s Piano trio,Hob.XV:24; Beethoven’s Trio forpiano, violin and cello no. 6, op. 70/2;and Dvorak’s Piano trio, op. 65.Tickets are 25 euros or 36 euros.

M ain B ar C oncertini, 5 October 12:00 La Monnaie Every Friday from early October tomid-June, the Main Bar at LaMonnaie hosts lunchtime concertini,forty-five minutes of chamber musicclosely or loosely related to the mainthemes of the opera, concert andrecital programme. The Blaasoktetvan de Munt will begin the season byplaying Mendelssohn’s BartholdyNocturne, op.24 and two pieces fromBeethoven: his Oktett in Es-Dur fürBläser, op.103 and his Rondino in Es-Dur, WoO.25.

Filmscreening of M arley, 7 October 17:00 Ancienne Belgique Marley offers a comprehensive per-spective on the Reggae legendthrough interviews with his formerbandmates in the Wailers as well asfamily and childhood friends.Directed by Kevin MacDonald andshot in Jamaica, the film concentrateson Marley’s early songwriting beforecovering his many tristes, his conver-sion to Rastafarianism, and the back-drop of the tumultuous state ofJamaican politics. Says the TorontoStar, “It wants to show us the manbehind the famous dreads, beatificsmile and durable songs of love, hopeand longing. In this task it succeedsadmirably.”

S tartups b y recent university graduatesand their faculty: I mplications for univer-sity entrepreneurship policy3 October 12:45 - 14:30 Bruegel, Rue dela Charité 33.

A B anking U nion for all of Europe? 4 October 16.30 - 18.30 Scotland House,6 Rond-Point SchumanThe European Commission has consid-ered establishing a banking union in theEU. This would advance European inte-gration, a controversial subject these days.Some feel a banking union could polarizethe Eurozone from the rest of the EU anddoubt it would go far enough to preventfuture crises and avoid a public financeissue. Speakers, including Comissionfinance representative Martin Merlin,MEP Phillipe Lamberts and Sir WinBischoff of Lloyds Banking Group, willdiscuss the political and practical implica-tions of the Commission’s proposal andwhether a banking union will help the EUemerge from the economic crisis. Registerat epc.eu.

T he economic situation in Greece: Aview from the C ommission 8 Oct 13:15 - 14:30 1, Place du CongrèsThis CEPS event will feature HorstReichenbach, head of the EuropeanCommission task force for Greece.Reichenbach has had the unenviable task ofimplementing structural reforms in the strug-gling country. Extremists even attacked hishome in Potsdam in May. Recently, though,Reichenbach has praised Greece for its “sub-stantial progress” in carrying out structuralchanges. Expect Reichenbach to specify theways in which Greek Ministry ofDevelopment is spurring this progress. Non-members may attend for 50 euros, paid incash at registration.

T owards a C ommon European frame-work for S ustainab le B uildingA ssessment ( C ES B A ) 10 Oct 14:00 - 17:00 Euroregion AlpesMediterranee Rue Du Trone 62The European Federation of RegionalEnergy and Environmental Agencies(FEDARENE)The European Union has set ambitiousclimate protection targets for 2020. The

building sector represents a cornerstone.New quality standards for buildings aredeveloping. Challenges for all stakehold-ers arise. Building assessment is the crucialtool to face these challenges.Several European projects have developed,compared, harmonized, and explored variousbuilding assessment tools. 5 European pro-jects have held four joint working sessionsover the last 2 years to find a collective agree-ment for a common framework for assessingsustainable building. Speakers include PaulHODSON, Head of the EuropeanCommission's energy efficiency unit, DGEnergy, European Commission; AndreaMORO, Enerbuild/IRH.

T he S tate of Europe: Escaping the Doldrums 11 Oct 9:00 - 16:30 Palais d’Egmont 8bis, Place du Petit Sablon The ninth annual “State of Europe” round-table held by Friends of Europe will featureJosé Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy,Mario Monti, several EU Commissioners,over 50 MEPs and MPs and more than adozen ministers and deputy ministers. Theroundtable will bring together some 80-100senior European personalities for a brain-storm on Europe’s future. The first sessionwill discuss whether, as the gap betweenEurope’s rich and poor becomes moremarked by the politics of austerity, EU poli-tics need to be redefined by demands for fair-ness. Ways to keep up with new powers suchas China and India will be the focal point ofthe second session. The third and final sessionaddresses how the economic crisis has con-tributed to the lack of trust in European inte-gration. Speakers will discuss whether, amongother things, further powers need to be trans-ferred to the European level in order to makethe single currency sustainable and if anothertreaty change is inevitable. Nonmembers mayattend by contributing a one-off admissionfee of 350 euros excluding VAT (423.50 eurosincluding VAT), which includes the network-ing lunch and summit documentation.Register at friendsofeurope.org.

17NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012BRUSSELS AGENDA 16NEW EUROPE

30 September - 6 October, 2012 BRUSSELS AGENDA

Eye C andy for A ll to Enj oy

W OR Ksuggest your event for our agenda: [email protected]

Images have a huge role in our societytoday; we see them in papers, we see themonline, we appreciate the art of photogra-phy. With the considerable visual attentionspan of the world, photography is anessential art that all appreciate from onetime to another. Brussels is hosting anevent known as Fotofever where over 60art galleries from all over Europe havebeen invited to present the best forms ofphotography and videography. A diversenumber of exhibits will be on display fromartists that have origins from France,Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain, andthe United Kingdom. A small collection ofAmerican, Austrian, Israeli, Hungarian,Slovenian and Moroccan photographers

will also be on show. The most anticipated exhibition, “ForGalia’s Eyes Only,” focuses specifically onthe eyes and how they can divulge soinformation without verbal assistance. Thename of this exhibit originates from arespected art collector known as Galiawho has so donated many acquired piecesof art for this exposition. The collection ofphotographs and films mostly black andwhite and originate from the beginning ofthe 20th century. Photographers featuredinclude Ossip and Leon Hecht, and scenesfrom the film Un Chien Andalou byBunuel and Dali will be shown. In a soci-ety that regards the aesthetics of humanlife as great importance, this portrayal of

Brussels ContemporaryDrawing Fair 4 October - 7October Drawing has reemerged inpopular culture in recentyears. Traditionally relegat-ed to the shadows a lesserform of expression, draw-ing has now found its placeat major artistic festivalsaround the world. Hostingorganization Art on Paper,created by Brussels galleristPierre Hallet and MichelCulot, aims to give collec-tors and enthusiasts newinsight into the world ofcontemporary drawing atthe Brussels ContemporaryDrawing Fair. Inspired byits Parisian counterpart'Drawing Now,' Art onPaper ran the first twoevents with Art Brussels. Itbecame autonomous tofocus solely on drawingrather than both drawingand photography.Approximately 40 Belgianand international galleristswill invest in the rooms ofthe White Hotel to bringus an sophisticatedexhibits. This year, one col-

lection will be open to thepublic, and work fromBelgian drawing studentswill get some exposure in arelated competition. On the opening night,illustrator Achraf Amiriwill work, right in front ofVIP guests, that will bepresented throughout theevent. Also, Isabelle de

Borchgrave will showcaseone of her superb creations:a dress that is entirely madeof paper. Admission for therest of the weekend is 8euros for adults and 5 eurosfor seniors and childrenunder 12. Seehttp://www.artonpaper.befor more details.

TAKE A LOOK

CREDIT : ROSA KLEIN

CREDIT: LAURAMAINERTIL

RESTO BITES

Curiosa,Vlamingstraat, BrugesFancy a short autumn outing toarguably Belgium's best-preservedtown? If so,you should try to also checkout this wonderfully-evocative base-ment restaurant near the main square.

It specializes inseafood, especiallylobster, but all thedishes are lovinglyprepared by owner, who was trained at the renowned TerDuinen hotel school at Koksijde. His expertise is evidentin his cooking.Formerly a drinking tavern, the 60-seat restaurant hasbeen carefully restored and still boasts its rustic, originalbrickwork from the days when it was a wine cellar.The emphasis is on producing fresh and healthy food andthe resto is popular with Brussels-based expats who returntime and again. As well as the very affordable lobsters, look out for themussels and Flemish stew. There is also a modestly-pricedlunch menu, including croquet monsieur, chicken, saladand chips and steak and pepper sauce. For those soinclined, Erwin, the owner, also serves Walibi and notmany places in Belgium do that. It's well worth a visit butbeware that it is very busy so booking is usually essen-tial.Highly recommended.

www.curiosa-brugge.com, tel 050 342334

Salle à l’étage ● Banquets - réunions - Terrase en été

Cosmo Cuisine

Av. de Tervueren,1051040 Etterbeek - Bruxelles

Tel: 02/ 732 43 31Fax: 02/ 733 61 17

“ Drawing theA ttention I tDeserves”

drawing by Alexandra Duprez. KLINT F

18NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012 EU WORLD

C A M B R I DGE – In 2000, 189 countriescollectively adopted the United NationsMillennium Declaration, which evolved intoa set of concrete targets called the Millen-nium Development Goals (MDGs). Theseambitious targets – ranging from halving ex-treme poverty and reducing maternal mor-tality by three-quarters to achievinguniversal primary schooling and halting (andbeginning to reverse) the spread ofHIV/AIDS – are supposed to be met by theend of 2015. As the deadline approaches,development experts are debating a newquestion: What comes next?

It is virtually certain that many of theMDGs will not have been met by the endof 2015, but there have been striking suc-cesses in some areas. For example, the goal ofhalving extreme poverty (measured by thenumber of people living on less than $1.25 aday) will likely be achieved ahead of time,largely thanks to China’s phenomenalgrowth.

At the same time, there is little evidence tosuggest that those successes were the resultof the MDGs themselves. China imple-mented the policies that engineered history’sgreatest poverty eradication program priorto, and independently from, the MillenniumDeclaration and the MDGs.

Clearly, however, the MDGs were a pub-lic-relations triumph, which is not to belit-tle their contribution. Like all worthwhilePR efforts, the MDGs served to raise aware-ness, galvanize attention, and mobilize ac-tion – all for a good cause. They amplifiedthe global conversation about developmentand defined its terms. And there is evidence

that they got advanced countries to paymore attention to poor nations.

Indeed, the MDGs possibly had theirclearest impact on aid flows from rich topoor countries. A study by Charles Kennyand Andy Sumner for the Center for GlobalDevelopment in Washington, DC, suggeststhat the MDGs not only boosted aid flows,but also redirected them toward smaller,poorer countries, and toward targeted areaslike education and public health. However,aid was not directly linked to performanceand results, and it is much more difficult toknow whether it had the desired impactoverall.

The MDGs encompass eight goals, 21targets, and 60 indicators. Much criticismhas focused on the use of these numericaltargets and indicators, which, skeptics argue,are misspecified, mismeasured, and divert at-tention from equally important areas. Butthese complaints miss the point. Any effortthat is concrete and implementable needs tomonitor the results, and setting clear nu-merical targets is the best way to do so.

Still, a central paradox plagues the MDGs.The Millennium Declaration was meant tobe a compact between the world’s rich andpoor countries. Poor countries promised torefocus their development efforts while richcountries pledged to support them with fi-nance, technology, and access to their mar-kets. But, oddly, of the eight goals, only thelast one deals with “global partnership,” orwhat rich countries can and should do.

Even here, the MDGs contain no numer-ical target for financial aid or any other as-pect of rich countries’ assistance, in contrastto the highly specific poverty-related targetsset for developing countries. It is perhaps

telling that the “progress charts” prepared bythe United Nations Development Program,the agency charged with reporting onprogress toward achieving the MDGs, trackonly Internet usage under that goal.

Why we need a global effort to convincedeveloping countries to do what is good forthem is not clear. Poverty reduction andhuman development should be the firstorder of business for governments in thesecountries, with or without the MDGs.

It is true, of course, that these govern-ments often pursue different goals, for po-litical, military, and other reasons. But itis wishful thinking to believe that they canbe persuaded to act otherwise by interna-tional declarations that lack enforcementmechanisms. If we have learned one thingin the development business, it is that realreform cannot be bought with donors’money, let alone with vague promises ofmoney.

Equally problematic, the MDGs implic-itly assume that we know how to achieve de-velopment targets, and that only resourcesand political will are missing. But it is doubt-ful that even well-intentioned policymakershave a good handle on, say, how to raise sec-ondary-school completion rates sustainablyor reduce maternal mortality.

Many development economists wouldargue that significant improvements in gov-ernance and political institutions are re-quired before such goals can be achieved.The most that rich countries can do is toprovide an enabling environment for thebenefit of developing countries that are will-ing and able to take advantage of it.

These considerations suggest an obviousdirection for the next iteration of the

MDGs. First, a new global compact shouldfocus more directly on rich countries’ re-sponsibilities. Second, it should emphasizepolicies beyond aid and trade that have anequal, if not greater, impact on poor coun-tries’ development prospects.

A short list of such policies would include:carbon taxes and other measures to amelio-rate climate change; more work visas toallow larger temporary migration flows frompoor countries; strict controls on arms salesto developing nations; reduced support forrepressive regimes; and improved sharing offinancial information to reduce money laun-dering and tax avoidance.

Notice that most of these measures are ac-tually aimed at reducing damage – for ex-ample, climate change, military conflict, andfinancial crime – that otherwise results fromrich countries’ conduct. “Do no harm” is asgood a principle here as it is in medicine.

This kind of reorientation will not be easy.Advanced countries are certain to resist anynew commitments. But most of these meas-ures do not cost money, and, as the MDGshave shown, setting targets can be used tomobilize action from rich-country govern-ments. If the international community isgoing to invest in a bold new public-rela-tions initiative, it might as well focus onareas where the potential payoffs are thegreatest.

Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Po-litical Economy at Harvard University, is theauthor of The Globalization Paradox:Democracy and the Future of the WorldEconomy.Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2012.www.project-syndicate.org

A fter the M illennium Development Goals

Village children skip rope in the Mokhotlong district, Lesotho. Approximately 25 per cent of Lesotho's adult population is living with HIV, and the country suffers from high rates of maternal mortality, infant mortality,and malnutrition. To combat these problems, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and the Lesotho Ministry of Health (MOH) established the Horse-riding for Health Program three years ago.Horseback is the most common mode of transport in Lesotho.

EPA/

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By Dani Rodrik


ANALYSIS

I don’t fully share Michael’s concerns –I think that contestable policy is a dudrather than a threat – at least in part be-cause I don’t share the presumption thatcontestable policy making works differ-ently from the current system in practice.

The fundamental is that Ministers stilldecide the final policy, but now ratherthan receiving policy advice from civilservants they will receive it from a thinktank commissioned to undertake thework. The live example of this is a piece ofresearch work on how senior civil servants’reporting arrangements work, which wasthe first piece of contested policy. It feelslike a piece of externally commissionedresearch, and with a budget of £50k, it’sunlikely to shake the dominance of thecivil service machine.

I don’t want to be complacent. Manyfear that a pressure group like the BritishBankers’ Association or the NationalTrust will get to write policy recommen-

dations that Ministers will then be ableto push through over civil service objec-tions.

But, and I am perhaps being undulycynical, don’t they do that already? Cer-tainly the BBA and the National Trusthave policy teams staffed with urbane ex-perts who lunch with policy officials andget into the detail of every bit of legisla-tion that affects their interests. They oftenpropose legislative changes that favourtheir cause – in Budget representationsfor instance.

Describe it like that and it sounds hor-ribly corrupt, but I think it’s a positivecontribution to public debate as long asit’s done in the open and elected Minis-ters are taking the final decisions.

Open Policy Making can help, in fact,by bringing more voices into the discus-sion and creating an equality of arms. Ihave a lot more faith in an open process –even a contestable process – than I do inthe old word-in-the-ear ways of doingbusiness, and that why it’s important to

increase the opportunity for smallergroups and individuals to push their mes-sages more effectively.

So, back to contestable policy making,if a think tank is being paid to do a bit ofresearch, or even paid to write a policyproposal, I think that the strongest argu-ment against it is that it’s a deadweightcost – we’re paying them to do what theywould do anyway. It’s a different matter ifwhole policy teams are being closed downand there’s no competing voices beingheard, but that risk again is mitigated byopenness and accountability for decisionmaking.

(declaration: Michael and GuerillaPolicy are working with us on our OpenPolicy Making project)

Anthony Zacharzewski is the chief ex-ecutive of The Democratic Society aLondon based non-partisan member-ship organisation for democracy, par-ticipation and new ways of doinggovernment.

POLITICS

Outsourced policy?Don’ t we do that already?

Downing Street is closed to cyclists but not policy advisors.IR

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By Anthony Zacharzewski

M ichael Harris at Guerilla Policy has a good piece on the outsourcing of policy advice, promised in the C ivil S ervice R eformW hite Paper. He writes ( in “ W hy outsourcing policy is only open to insiders“ ) :

We like open policy. We think that policy development has been too closed, to a too narrow set of participants, for too long. We agree with theGovernment that Whitehall hasn’t got a monopoly on policy expertise, and we support its recent announcement of a “presumption in favour ofopen policy making, with policy developed on the basis of the widest possible engagement with external experts and those who will have the taskof delivering the policy.” In earlier posts we’ve suggested ways in which Government can make open policy a reality.

However, we’re less sure about that part of the plan to “Pilot contestable policy making by establishing a centrally-held match fund which canbe used by Ministers to commission external policy development (for example, by academics and think tanks).” If this marks a significant changein how policy is developed (which we have to presume it does), then like outsourcing in public services it raises important issues of transparency,accountability and trust. Just as outsourcing has in some instances undermined the publicness of public services (for example, their accountabil-ity to the public), so it could threaten the publicness of public policy by undermining the extent to which it is made in the public interest.

Growing the B aseIn 2008, more than 130 million Americans cast their votes, themost ever to vote in a US Presidential election. The Obamacampaign focused much of its efforts on not only attractingthe demographic dubbed “most likely to vote” but on attract-ing entirely new voters, particularly young voters and minori-ties who have historically tended to not show up to the pollsin large numbers. This tactic faired well for the Obama campaign, as more vot-ers within their targeted demographics voted than ever be-fore. In 2008, 66% of voters below age 30 as well as of theHispanic voting population voted for Mr. Obama. A stag-gering 95% of African American voters also voted democrat.By capitalizing on the untapped resource of his previouslynon-voting base, President Obama emerged victorious. Thistime around, it looks as though Mitt Romney’s campaign,with the help of a few key players, looks to be following a sim-ilar plan, though with an entirely different base.Ralph Reed, a longtime Republican strategist and Evangeli-cal Christian activist, is helping to lead much of this effort.Reed founded the Freedom and Faith Coalition in 2009 andsince then the organization has been assembling an extensivedatabase of reliably conservative religious voters. He beganthe effort after the 2008 election, when in terms of voter-tar-geting he claims the Obama campaign “ran circles around us”.In order to identify people most likely to vote Republican, thegroup has created lists using 171 data points that are gener-ally considered to characterize a Republican voter. For exam-ple, they acquired lists of “megachurch” memberships, searchedpublic records for hunting licenses, and determined who haddownloaded conservative-themed books onto e-readers.Names that overlap at least a dozen data points are overlaidwith voter records. The result is what Reed and his coalitionestimate to be a database of more than 17 million “faith-cen-tric” registered voters. What is more, the database focuses exclusively on voters in15 swing states like Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina,and Ohio. White Evangelicals made up 26% of the elec-torate in 2008. They also are consistently polled as beingamong the least-tolerant groups in terms of race and sexualorientations. This poses a major challenge to the Obamacampaign, as they also work to attract new voters and increasetheir electorate.President Obama’s campaign has essentially picked upwhere they left off in 2008. They benefit from a drastic leadamong first-time voters, and waste no time in getting themregistered as soon as they are eligible. In some swing states,campaign field offices have actually remained active sincethe 2008 elections, and have been registering new voters allalong. Campaign staffers boast that they have nearly doublethe number of field staff as Romney, and believe that theywill be able to use this resource to directly reach twice asmany potential voters.As of early September, the Obama campaign had alreadymade 43 million phone calls and registered more than 1 mil-lion voters. Comparatively, the Republican Party claims to have directlyreached just 26 million voters. However, this number doesnot include those reached by the aforementioned Freedomand Faith Coalition.The amount of effort being put into registering new votersthis time around is reflective of the reality at play in Ameri-can politics right now. There is a remarkably small percent-age of voters who are now undecided. While persuading therelatively small amount of undecided voters is an attractiveoption, both campaigns now prefer to look towards the vastlyuntapped resource that is the estimated 40% of Americanswho are eligible to vote, yet choose not to.

By Sam Stewart

WHO WILL BE POTUS?

US ELECTIONS UPDATE

“Cloud computing could offer a huge lift to theEuropean economy”, said Vice-PresidentNeelie Kroes at the presentation of the Euro-pean Commission's new strategy for "Un-leashing the potential of cloud computing inEurope" on 27 September.The project contains a package of measuresthat aims to speed up and increase the use ofcloud computing across the economic system,and will offer a €160 billion boost. According toKroes, Europe is already cloud-friendly, but thisstrategy will make it also “cloud active.”

Today, citizens use cloud services such asFacebook or Spotify, but what Europe reallyneed is to give small businesses a platform togrow and obtain economic benefits. The cloudis safer, faster and cheaper than on-site IT so-lutions, and most businesses using it find theysave 10-20% of costs, explained the commis-sioner.

Besides, governments can benefit too andEurope could make a total profit of billions ofEuros by 2020, plus 2,5 million of jobs. How-ever, to achieve these figures some current bar-riers like different policies among the MemberStates or the untrustworthy that many poten-tial users have when they want to use cloudservices, must be eliminated.

“We need to think European”, stated Kroes,adding that “If we stick to a national approachwith national rules, we will constrain the cloudto national borders. We shouldn't limit our am-bition like that.”

To delete barriers, the new strategy will iden-tify by 2013 general standards and certifica-tions, giving users, for instance, the possibility ofcompare different cloud services. It will also de-velop model contract terms to know how datais used on the cloud, and the creation of an Eu-ropean Cloud Partnership. This “is an oppor-tunity our economy can not miss” and the “27of the family” should determine a commonagreement, said the Vice-President.

Several users and companies are worriedabout the safety and the copyright on the cloud.Therefore, the Commission has proposed asingle set of data protection rules for Europe,and ,in the coming months it will present a Eu-ropean strategy for cybersecurity.

Tech firms also consider that the new EUCloud Computing Strategy “will help Eu-rope capitalise on the great potential of thistechnology by removing the remaining ob-stacles”, said Stephen Collins, Vice President,Corporate Affairs, of Microsoft EMEA.Collins explained that the project will createa framework “for further harmonisation, clar-ity and assurances businesses need to move tothe cloud and bring growth and technologi-cal innovation.”

Ian Winham, Executive VP and CFO ofRicoh Europe, supports Commission's effortson cloud computing and the creation of com-mon European standards as a way to encourageSMEs businesses to adopt cloud. “Until now,businesses like ours have invested significanttime and resource to build a cloud infrastruc-ture that has overcome the challenges of theregulatory maze. This maze is an outcome ofthe many divergent laws in Member States”, hesaid.

Cloud computing is already generating ben-efits in several countries. The Government ofCatalonia, in Spain, decided to migrate to Mi-crosoft's cloud email service Exchange, and themove will generate savings varying from 20% inthe migration from previous Exchange versionsup to 83% in those from previous operatoremail services.

Also, London will be cleaner thanks to LoveClean Streets, a cloud-based application thathelps local authorities manage street care withthe help of crowd sourcing. The company bbits,Microsoft's partner, uses Bing to create an in-teractive map with pictures and reports fromthe citizens. According to the latest figures,graffiti complaints fell by 30%, and clean-uptime has improved by 87%.

By Nerea Rial

C loud computing tob oost EU economyNeelie Kroes “We shouldn't limit our ambition”

20NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012 TECHNOLOGY

EU commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes during the press conference about cloud computing | AF

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After the Russian govern-ment limited public protestsand started to control the in-ternational funding for non-profit groups, a report from aformer Kremlin official re-veals that foreign influencecould be infiltrated alsothrough internet.According to the study TheRussian Internet Today,published by the think-tankFoundation for the Devel-opment of Civil Society,presence of foreign internetcompanies such asWikipedia, YouTube andFacebook could “manipulate”elections' results.“The Internet will becomethe basic source of informa-tion for Russia in a fewyears,” the report warned. “Itcan be argued that the elec-tion of deputies to the StateDuma in 2016 and, evenmore so, the presidentialelection in 2018, will be heldin a new information realitywith the main role beingplayed by the World WideWeb.”The document shows thatthe top 20 sites visited byRussians are foreign and thatthe local search engine Yan-dex and the social network-ing Vkontakte are registered“outside the Russian juris-diction.” Besides, the reportaffirms that with the help ofsocial media “extremist and

even terrorist material isopenly disseminated.”At the same time in US, theFreedom House publishedThe Freedom on the Net2012: A Global Assessmentof Internet and DigitalMedia, a report that identi-fies countries where the situ-ation of internet is gettingworse, and said Russia wasamong the “Countries atRisk” group.The study says that threats tointernet freedom “are be-coming more diverse” andgovernments are using so-phisticated methods to havemore control over onlinecommunications. “Tacticspreviously evident in onlythe most repressive environ-ments are appearing in awider set of countries”, SanjaKelly, project director atFreedom House, said.

About Russia, the report ex-plains that after the countrysuffered massive distributeddenial-of-service (DDoS)attacks last year, the Kremlin“signalled its intention tofurther tighten control overinternet communications.”Despite the government saysit wants to control internet to“protect” the results of theupcoming elections, themove has been interpreted asan effort to restrict onlinefreedom.Russia shares the first posi-tions of the ranking of thesmallest degree of internetfreedom with Iran, Cuba,and China, followed by Be-larus, Saudi Arabia, Uzbek-istan, and Thailand. Estoniaand US are the two countriesthat had the biggest grade ofinternet freedom among thecountries examined. NR

R ussia warns on foreign web infl uence

Space activity has a crucial role for Europeaneconomy and society, and citizens are increas-ingly aware of the EU's activities in this area,including the space programmes Galileo andGMES. Antonio Tajani, European Commis-sion Vice President, presented the results of theFlash Eurobarometer survey on space activitiesthat was carried out this summer. The aware-ness for Galileo, the GPS system, is 57% in av-erage (40% in 2007) and for Global monitoringEnvironment and Security (GMES) projectthe awareness is 38% (22% in 2009).In general, European citizens are positive aboutspace activities and 81% consider these actionsimportant for the development of terrestrial ap-plications. The figure increased more than 10

percent in three years. Besides, 76% say thatspace services are important for industrial com-petitiveness, growth and creation of jobs in theEU. “This survey acknowledges the importancethat space has for European citizens and it sup-ports the EU's involvement in this domain”,said Tajani, adding that “despite the currenteconomic and financial turmoil our citizens areconfident in our space initiatives.” Within the data obtained after the surveywe can find that 36% of citizens would likespace activity to focus on health improve-ment and 33% in climate change. In addi-tion, they want the EU to prevent satellites'collision and also to explore the space withhumans or robots. NR

Europeans are positive ab out space activity

Vkontakte, is a Russian social site registered in US | Vkontakte

81% of citizens consider space actions important to develope terrestrial applications | EPA/ESA

New Zealand Prime Minister John Keyhas requested an investigation to the In-spector-General of Intelligence and Secu-rity in order to know whether theGovernment Communications SecurityBureau (GCSB) made illegal espionagebefore the detention of Megaupload'sowner Kim Dotcom.

According to the prime minister somecommunications were obtained "withoutstatutory authority". However, this is notthe first accusation of illegality in Dot-com's case, because in June a NewZealand court ruled that search warrantused during the raid last January was alsoillegal.

Besides, he asked for an investigationinto "circumstances of unlawful intercep-tion of communications of certain indi-viduals" working for the GCSB, thecountry's main intelligence agency.

"I expect our intelligence agencies tooperate always within the law. Their op-erations depend on public trust”, he said."I look forward to the inspector-general's

inquiry getting to the heart of what tookplace and what can be done about it.”

At a press conference, Key said he was"quite shocked", but had confidence in thebureau. In addition, he told reporters hehad been advised not to make a statementuntil filing papers with the court.

Also, he considers the incident an iso-lated error and did not think it was be-cause New Zealand authorities wanted to"curry favour" with the US.

After the announcement, Green Partyco-leader Russel Norman said "govern-ment agencies should not break NewZealand's laws to assist another country.”He also asked to make public the investi-gation findings.

Dotcom, wrote on his Twitter: "I wel-come the inquiry by @JohnKeyPM intounlawful acts by the GCSB.”

Megaupload's founder is waiting for theextradition to the U.S., where he is ac-cused of leading a group that netted $175million since 2005 by copying and dis-tributing music, films and other copy-righted content online withoutauthorization.

NZ Government may have spied on Dotcom

The Chinese solutions provider Huawei hasrevealed the Open Edge Cloud in collabora-tion with Yale University, at the Association forComputing Machinery (ACM)’s Special In-terest Group on Data Communication (SIG-COMM) conference.

Cloud computing services are dominat-ing the ICT industry and this populariza-tion has generated new challenges to face.Huawei and the American body aim to ad-dress problems like heavy network trafficand non-satisfactory end-to-end experi-ence, and also to create value for both tele-com carriers and cloud applicationdevelopers with the Open Edge Cloud.

It includes different services, such as storage,computing, video processing and network

awareness, which are deployed over the edge oftelecom carrier networks. All of them providestandard APIs and virtual in-network resourcesto applications, enabling a flexible and efficientcloud platform.

Besides, because the project meets currentwith future needs on cloud services, telecomcompanies will have a key opportunity toevolve into information services and cloudcomputing providers.

Huawei wants to increase its presence inthe field of technical research, and this latestcollaboration means its clear position as in-dustry innovators. The Chinese firm willcontinuously seek cooperation with top uni-versities and actively contribute to authorita-tive research communities.

By Nerea Rial

Huawei, Y ale U niversity to collab orate on cloud computing

21NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012TECHNOLOGY

Huawei-Yale partnership will address problems like heavy network traffic | Huawei

Kim Dotcom faces charges on copyright theft and money laundering

A startup in Cameroon has won the firstprice after the presentation of its Djoss.tv, asocial TV platform that allows users com-ment their favourite shows in real-time.Djoss.tv wants to revolutionise the televi-sion experience in the Africa country andworldwide. At the Cameroon StartupChallenge they revealed a service thatmakes TV programmes more real, by shar-ing experiences at the same time the showis retransmitted.For instance, viewers can express their hap-piness when their football team wins an im-portant match or when they now theanswer of question in a quiz show. Besides,the service provides them with additional

context and information on the pro-gramme, introducing an important tool foreditorial staff.Djoss.tv is an innovative platform for citi-zens, but also for cable companies andchannels. Both will receive critical feedbackfrom the audience in few minutes and it willbe a new tool for advertisers and sponsors. The project was developed by two softwareengineers, a web developer and software en-gineer passionate about social media. Theteam won $5.000 in the first competitionthat recognises the progress of technologyentrepreneurs in Cameroon, thanks to theirpassion, innovation and effort to push heventure across Cameroon and abroad.

S ocial T V wins in C ameroon

Djoss.tv permits viewrs to share their opinion in real-time | Djoss.tv

FINLAND | ENERGY

India calls for Fortum with move to New DelhiIts main focus will be to assess investment opportunities inthe area of combined heat and power (CHP) in order to pro-vide power and steam for industrial clusters, it was reportedon 24 September. Fortum has also announced that it is ex-ploring the possibilities in the field of solar power produc-tion in India. “Our aim is to look into investmentopportunities contributing to the development of India’s en-ergy infrastructure. Considering our long track record in sus-tainable power and heat production and our energy marketcompetence, I believe that Fortum has a lot to offer to therapidly developing Indian energy market, said Fortum's Pres-ident and CEO Tapio Kuula. He said if Fortum could findthe right opportunities, the company could initially be look-ing to invest about € 200-250 million in industrial CHP inIndia. Fortum said its CHP competence allows for very highprimary fuel efficiency and also the use of a wide range offuels. The level of efficiency reached in a CHP plant can beclose to 90% while the efficiency with separate power andsteam production is around 35% and 70% respectively. For-tum has long experience in using multiple fuels in CHP pro-duction. The company's intention is to use local fuels, varioustypes of biomass or waste, for instance, whenever possible.

SWEDEN | FINANCE

Cash firm bankruptcy leaves sting The effects of cash transport firm Panaxia’s bankruptcy havespread to convenient store chains Pressbyran and SevenEleven, The Local reported on 21 September. The ownerof the two franchise chains, Norwegian group Reitan, saidthat their retailers may have lost millions in the scandal,which has rocked Sweden since early September. The grouptold DI that they don’t know at present just how muchmoney has been lost, but that they estimate some 85 millionSwedish crowns ($ 13 million) of Reitan’s money has gonemissing. The company is now planning to offer their affectedfranchise owners financial support to get through. “Themissing funds are the retailer’s money and their own risk asthey run their own businesses. But it is important for Rei-tan to be a good partner and to show that we have a strongfranchise system. We have therefore told our retailers thatwe will provide them with financial support,” said MagnusReitan, head of Reitan Convenience A/S. According toMagnus Reitan the company plans to seek the missingmoney from Panaxia bankruptcy administrators. Since thecash transport company filed for bankruptcy on 5 Septem-ber, reports of missing money have come in steadily.

GERMANY | ECONOMY

Neckermann online declares bankruptcyAround 2,400 people working at bankrupt mail order busi-ness Neckermann were preparing to lose their jobs on 26September, after insolvency administrators said they weregoing to liquidate the company, The Local reported. Talkswere still continuing with a potential investor, but for legalreasons, Neckermann.de announced its liquidation wouldtake place on 1 October, a statement issued last Wednesdayin Frankfurt said. There is only enough insolvency money topay the around 2,400 employees for September, so if the in-vestment talks fail to bear fruit, they will be out of a job fromthe start of October. Although Neckermann logistics, with820 employees, has long been earmarked for closure, somehope had remained for other parts of the group. The with-drawal of US investor Sun Capital from the company left itunable to pay wages, leaving employees to the care of the statelabour office. It is now working to try to find alternative em-ployment for them. The only part of Neckermann to surviveis the “Happy Size” brand, which sells plus-size clothes.


EUROPEAN UNION

Finnair plans to let go about 100 cabinattendants. The national carrier said it willbegin using subcontracted crew on itsflights to Spain, YLE News reported on24 September.

The airline plans to use locally-basedcrew on regular routes to Barcelona,Madrid and leisure flights to the CanaryIslands. Some crew for its New Yorkroute and Asian charter flights will alsobe hired locally.

According to the airline, reductionswould be implemented through tempo-

rary layoffs during 2013."Possible redundancies would be im-

plemented earliest in 2014," after the pro-tection from redundancies in the currentcollective labour agreement with cabin at-tendants ends, it said in a statement.

"Using local cabin crew on our Spanishroutes would be a natural way to decreasecosts," Anssi Komulainen, CustomerService Senior Vice President said.

"On these long routes, the crew has tostay overnight at the destination, whichadds to hotel and daily allowance costs,

among others. By having the cabin crewbased in Spain on these routes, we couldgenerate savings."

The airline said that the decision to layoff the cabin attendants is part of a biggercorporate plan to slash costs at the com-pany. Finnair announced in August lastyear that it targets decreases in its annualcosts of € 140 million by 2014.

The flag carrier employs approximately1700 cabin attendants in Finland, andapproximately 300 in China, Japan, Thai-land, India, South Korea and Singapore.

Finnair to cut 1 0 0 fl ight crew j ob sFINLAND|AVIATION

B read wars may mean fewer b akeries GERMANY|JECONOMY

The trip to the local bakery to pick upfresh German bread in the morning islikely become longer, as an industry asso-ciation expects more than a third of allsmall bakeries will close by 2020, TheLocal reported on 24 September.

Helmut Klemme, president of the As-sociation for German Wholesale Bak-eries said the number of bakeries willprobably drop from 14,000 to about

8,000 over the next eight years.The group said the small bakeries were

losing business to the growing number ofbakery departments in supermarkets andlarge discount stores.

Those departments are expected to in-crease from about 15,000 now to 25,000in 2020, when about 60% of bread will bebought in grocery stores, Klemme said on24 September in Düsseldorf.

“The consumers are voting with theirfeet,” he said in a statement. “This devel-opment is clearly at the expense of thesmall bakeries.”

German consumers have been payingmore for bread in traditional bakeries,where a kilo of bread costs about € 3.88,Klemme said. In bakery departments oflarger stores, that same weight costs ap-proximately € 2.42.

S kype b lock reversed b y T eliaSWEDEN|TECHNOLOGY

Swedish telecom operator Telia has back-tracked on a proposal from March to im-plement technologies that would haveblocked mobile phone users in Swedenfrom making free calls using services likeSkype and Viber, but has announced ahike in data prices, The Local reported on24 September.

The company announced in a state-ment last Monday that it would notcharge extra for mobile voice over IP(VoIP) telephony services and that cus-

tomers would be able to continue usingservices like Skype and Viber as they dotoday. However, Telia revealed that therewould be an increase in data prices to“meet customers’ growing demand fordata communication”.

The maximum daily fee attached tonew subscriptions will be increased from9 Swedish crowns ($ 1.40) per day to 19crowns per day, while the amount of dataincluded will be raised from 0.5 to 2megabytes.

The news came after the companycaused a stir in March announcingthat such services would be blocked, amove that some believed was not inline with the European Commissionguidelines on “net neutrality” wherebyall internet traffic is treated equally.

"I believe, quite simply, that we need tobe able to get paid for our various serv-ices no matter what, as different serviceplans include different things," Teliaspokesperson Charlotte Züger said.

Finnair announces cuts in staff numbers.

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AUSTRIA|MANUFACTURING

Water from nothing could meanmoney for nothing for glass firmSico Technology the Austrian glass and ceramic firmcould soon be swimming in success after developinga device using their glass that is able to collect waterout of the air. The company, bqsed in Bad Bleibergin Carinthia is preparing to move into serial produc-tion of the device once a few modifications to theirsuccesful prototype. Water is filtered out of the airhumidity by placing glass panels in special order overwhich the air passes, allowing water to be collectedfrom moisture in the air both efficiently and fast.Whilst testing the smaller version of the device some30 litres of water were collected a day, say the expertsat the firm. By installing an even bigger commercialversion of the device, it will be possible to collectabout 6,000 litres a day - claims the company. This invention will be able to produce drinkablewater even in areas such as desserts. Sico Technol-ogy said it now has the necessary worldwide patentto make their invention secure and have snapped up12 more patents to allow further developments.

SLOVENIA| BANKING

Abanka slashes share price to raise €90 million Slovenia's third-largest bank, Abanka, plans to em-bark on another round of recapitalisation followingits attempt to raise €50 million with a share issuefailed earlier this month. The share price will be re-duced to €4.2 from €7. This follows from a decisionadopted by the supervisory board early last week thatwill be put to shareholders at a forthcoming AGM.The goal is to raise €90m but the offer will be con-sidered successful if the bank raises €50m.Additionally, the supervisors confirmed the man-

agement board's plan to issue subordinated debt of€25m, which will be purchased by insurer Zavaroval-nica Triglav, Abanka's single largest owner.The move appears designed as a stop-gap measureto provide much needed capital, as Abanka is in des-perate need of cash after having to set aside massiveprovisions for bad loans. Along with NLB andNKBM, Abanka is one of the three banks in thecountry that will likely benefit from governmentplans to set up a bad bank to shore up bank balancesheets.

FRANCE|INDUSTRY

Lafarge sells near half billion assets in USLafarge, a France-based world leader in building ma-terials, with top-ranking positions in its Cement,Aggregates & Concrete businesses, announced thesale of cement, concrete and aggregates assets inMissouri and Oklahoma to Eagle Materials Inc. for$446 million. The assets sold include cement plantsin Kansas City (Missouri), and Tulsa (Oklahoma)having a total cement capacity of 1.6 million tons,along with associated cement terminals. Lafarge isalso selling its ready-mix concrete and aggregates op-erations in Kansas City. Lafarge is one of the leadingsuppliers of the US market where it intends to pur-sue and accelerate the development of its innovativeproducts and services.After completion of this transaction, subject to reg-ulatory approval, the US operations will consist of 9cement or grinding plants and associated cementterminals, with a combined capacity of 11 milliontons, as well as leading positions in aggregates andconcrete.

The cable car specialist "Doppelmayr"are currently developing the world’s firstcable car functioning on solar power toa greater degree than ever before.

The construction on the revolution-ary new cable car at the "Hüttenkopf-bahn" have been ongoing in the ski

region Golm in Vorarlberg since July.A cable car the size of the "Hüt-

tenkopfbahn" consumes about 180,000kilowatt-hours. The solar energy plantwill provide for a third of the necessarypower - around 60,000 kilowatt-hoursin the future.

Overall €6.5 Million will be investedin the new energy source. The solarpower plant will be activated first inNovember ready to bring skiers andsnowboards up the mountain at the be-ginning of December when the ski sea-son officially begins.

S ki lifts to run on S olar power AUSTRIA|TOURISM

Ski lifts next season could be powered by solar power

¤ 1 0 million aid announced for Palestinian A uthorityFRANCE|DEVELOPMENT

France announced on 23 September theforthcoming transfer of €10 million inbudgetary aid to the Palestinian Authority(PA). This is the second installment ofFrench budgetary aid to the PA for 2012,following the €10 million announced by theminister during President Abbas’s visit toParis in June.

This announcement was made withinthe framework of the meeting in New York

of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee, inwhich the main donors to the PalestinianAuthority are participating. France sharesthe observations made during this meetingby the International Monetary Fund, theWorld Bank and the United Nations thatthe Palestinian Authority remains ready toestablish a functional State despite the cur-rent financial difficulties.

France, which remains committed

alongside the Palestinians to building theinstitutions of the future State, also joins itsvoice to the Committee’s calls for the ur-gent remobilization of donors, notably theUnited States and certain Gulf countries,which is more necessary than ever, as well asdecisive action by the Israeli authorities toremove the restrictions on the viable eco-nomic development of the Palestinian Ter-ritories, notably in Area C and Gaza.

A sylum seekers defended from EU returnsHUNGARY|HUMAN RIGHTS

Hungarian authorities routinely refuse toexamine on the merits those claims ofasylum seekers who have transited Ser-bia. This Hungarian practice is based onthe wrong presumption that Serbia isable and willing to provide protection tothese people. Since 2008 Serbia has notgranted refugee status to anyone and onlygranted subsidiary protection in five cases.Earlier this month, UNHCR declaredthat Serbia should not be considered asafe third country of asylum and thatcountries therefore should refrain fromsending asylum seekers back to Serbia onthis basis.

“People in need of protection may bereturned from any EU Member State toHungary, from Hungary to Serbia, fromSerbia to FYROM, from FYROM toGreece, and from there to the countrywhere they face a further risk of persecu-tion or serious harm, without any au-

thority substantively examining their asy-lum claim. European countries have totake responsibility and stop this dominoeffect that puts asylum seekers at risk ofending up in the hands of their persecu-tors”, Allan Leas, ECRE’s Acting Secre-tary General said.

ECRE, an alliance of 70 NGOs acrossEurope, calls on European countries toimmediately suspend returns to Hungaryunder the Dublin system of asylum seek-ers who have transited Serbia on enter-ing the EU. European countries shouldexamine themselves these applications forinternational protection.

Once in Serbia, the authorities reject,without substantive examination, theasylum applications of anyone who hastransited any country which Serbiadeems safe. As a result, asylum seekersrisk being deported to countries such asGreece – where the European Court of

Human Rights has found that the rightsof asylum seekers are systematically vio-lated – and the Former Yugoslav Re-public of Macedonia (FYROM). Inturn, from these countries asylum seek-ers are at further risk of being returnedto countries where they might face vio-lence or persecution.

Together, the Dublin system and othersafe third country agreements jeopardisethe right to asylum. In 2011 Hungary de-nied access to substantive asylum pro-ceedings to approximately 450 peopleincluding those returned to Serbia. Suchpractice fundamentally undermines theright to asylum guaranteed under theCharter of Fundamental Rights. ECREurges the Hungarian authorities to takeall necessary steps to ensure that peopleseeking international protection have ef-fective access to a fair asylum procedure inHungary.

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ROMANIA|BUDGET

Epson sees €9mn turnoverEpson, producer of printers and imaging products, forecastsa turnover of €9mn by the end of the year in Romania, Busi-ness Review reported on 27 September. “We maintain ourtarget of €9mn turnover by yearend, as we will be bringing onthe market 40 new products that address all segments of cus-tomers,” said Simona Decuseara, national sales & marketingmanager in Epson Romania. The company posted a turnoverof €4mn in the first half of the year in Romania, due to a 20%hike in sales of video projectors, which were boosted by sportsevents such as The London Olympic Games and the Euro-pean Soccer Championship, as well as sales of continuous inksupply system printers (CISS).

SPAIN|R&D

Grant for innovative projectsSpain’s Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism has pro-vided financial support (grants and loans) worth €233.6mnto projects presented under the 2012 R&D Competitive-ness Programme, part of the Strategic Action on Telecom-munications and the Information Society of the NationalPlan on Scientific Research, Development and Technolog-ical Innovation and in line with similar initiatives under wayin Europe as part of the priority action lines of the Euro-pean Digital Agenda. The projects will receive grantsamounting to €48mn and loans amounting to €185.6mn.

GREECE|BUDGET

2013 budget deepens cutsOn 1 October, Greece will unveil a draft budget for 2013which will cut deeper into public spending to impress in-ternational lenders but also prolong the economic pain ofthe Greek people. Next year's budget will include more cutsin public sector pay, pensions and welfare benefits as part ofan €11.5bn austerity package of savings that will be spreadout over the next two years. After weeks of haggling overbudget cuts, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' allies in thecoalition government have struck a deal on the compositionof the package of savings and are ironing out the final de-tails. Greece's budget deficit has reached about €20bn, pre-liminary estimates by the International Monetary Fund,European Central Bank and European Commission show,Spiegel reported on 24 September.

CYPRUS|EU AFFAIRS

Support for banking unionCyprus supports the proposals of European Council to es-tablish a single supervisory mechanism (SSM) for euro areabanks which may prove to be one of the main drivers to-wards much deeper European economic integration, saidPanicos Demetriades, Governor of the Central Bankof Cyprus in his address at the Cyprus International Busi-ness Association in Limassol on 25 September. “Coordi-nation of national banking supervision is no longer anoption for the euro area. A move to an integrated supervi-sory system is necessary,” he remarked.

CYPRUS|NEGOTIATIONS

Nicosia invites TurkeyCyprus remains committed to Resolution 2026 of 2011which provides that an accord on the internal aspects ofthe Cyprus problem must be achieved before convening aninternational conference with the consent of the Turkish andCypriot communities for the international aspects of theproblem, Cypriot President Demetris Christofias told theGeneral Debate of the 67th session of the General Assem-bly of the United Nations in New York on 25 September.


EUROPEAN UNION

The Council of the European Union,during its general affairs meeting on 24September, adopted conclusions in rela-tion to the Co-operation and VerificationMechanism (CVM) reports for Bulgariaand Romania by the European Commis-sion (EC) released in July.

The Council commended the Com-mission on its work and expectedly statedthat it “fully shares the objective and bal-anced analysis and recommendationscontained in those reports”.

The Council of ministers reiterated theimportance of existence of an impartial,independent and effective administrativeand judicial system.

According to the conclusions of themeeting, the Council welcomed the ef-forts made by Bulgaria and Romaniaunder the Co-operation and VerificationMechanism over the past five years andconsidered that “the necessary legalframework is largely in place in bothmember states’.

However, Council of the EU said thatBulgaria and Romania should put em-phasis on sustained implementation ofexisting legislation and further reforms. Italso encouraged both newest memberstates to “take further determined, appro-

priate and urgent measures to meet all theobjectives under the mechanism”.

In the case of Bulgaria, the body ac-knowledged the country’s strong politicalto attain the CVM objectives, as well asnoted the importance of the progressmade by Sofia in developing the basiclegislative framework over the past fiveyears, including major steps to improvethe legal framework for asset forfeiture.

Nevertheless, the Council supportedthe Commission’s July assessment by stat-ing that Bulgaria had to make further de-termined efforts, focusing on dedicatedand effective implementation. Accordingto the Council, the country should alsointensify its efforts and “secure convinc-ing and sustainable results in the fightagainst organised crime and high levelcorruption”.

Most importantly, the conclusionsof the general affairs meeting called onBulgaria to accelerate its efforts withregard to thorough reform of the judi-cial system, as well as to demonstrateeffective and sustained commitmentby the authorities on all levels and inall relevant fields.

In the case of Romania, the Councilalso acknowledged the country’s efforts inattaining the objectives of the mechanismand gave as an example the adoption of

new Civil and Criminal Codes, the newNational Anti-Corruption Strategy, aswell as the positive record of the NationalAnti-Corruption Directorate (DNA)and the National Integrity Agency(ANI).

However, the Council said in its con-clusions that “determined, effective im-plementation and sustained politicalcommitment to reforms by all state actorsremain essential, and needs to be ad-dressed without delay”.

In addition, according to the body, Ro-mania could attain the CVM objectives,provided it “takes swift action to guaran-tee the rule of law, maintains the direc-tion and steps up the implementation ofreforms”.

In light of the recent events, the Coun-cil recalled the fundamental values onwhich the EU is founded and welcomedthe commitment of the Romanian gov-ernment to “act swiftly to ensure respectfor the rule of law and the independenceof the judiciary in line with the recom-mendations of the Commission”.

Last but not least, urging Bulgaria andRomania to further accelerate their effortsin order to address all the recommenda-tions set out in the CVM reports, theCouncil concluded that the mechanismwill stay in place.

C ouncil confirms EC recommendations in C V M reports

BULGARIA|EU AFFAIRS

U S Emb assy in B ulgaria passes b aton to R iesBULGARIA|DIPLOMACY

A Johns Hopkins University graduatewith 31 years of experience in Europe, theCaribbean and the Middle East MarcieRies, the expert in national security andpolitical-military affairs will shortly takeup the position is US Ambassador toBulgaria.

Ries will replace former AmbassadorJames Warlick, who left his “secondhome” on 14 September, having spentthree years in office. Ries' previous rolewas as senior assistant secretary of stateon nuclear issues. She has also led the

mission in Kosovo and has served as USambassador to Albania, has spent oneyear in the office of the Chairman of theCommittee on International Relations ofthe House of Representatives. Beforetaking her post at the Bureau of ArmsControl, she was a Principal Deputy As-sistant Secretary of State for Europeanand Eurasian Affairs (EUR). In that ca-pacity, she was responsible for relationswith NATO, the European Union andWestern Europe.

The potential US Ambassador to Bul-

garia carries with her experiences at theUS Embassy in London for four years,the role of Deputy Political Advisor tothe Mission in Brussels, as well as tours inTurkey and the Dominican Republic."As an ambassador, I will use all my ex-perience to introduce more Americans tothe benefits to doing business in Bulgaria,to expand our cooperation in the securitysector and to support Bulgaria's efforts toimprove its judicial system," said Ries.She is expected to arrive in Bulgaria in afew weeks.

It seems that the general affairs Council took a serious note of the EC recommendations.

By Stanislava Gaydazhieva

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TURKEY|BUSINESS

KOBIDER: Banks must cut ratesThe head of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises As-sociation (KOBIDER), Nurettin Ozgenc, recently urgedthe Turkish banks to lower the rates on loans they extendto businesses in the country, noting that it would be a fairdecision as those banks have recently started to secure Cen-tral Bank of Turkey loans at a cheaper cost because thecountry's only monetary policy authority got a cut in itslending rate. The reduction of the lending rates by the cen-tral bank signals that it is now willing to deliver cheaper liq-uidity to the markets, which in turn will boost economicactivity across the country.

FYROM|ECONOMY

Efforts to combat recessionFYROM Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski recently an-nounced that GDP has decreased mainly due to the negativerepercussion of the European economic crisis on the econ-omy of the country, MRTOnline reported. It was reportedthat GDP has declined by 1.4% in the first quarter of thisyear and 0.9% in the second. As a result, the premier said thatthe government will take efforts to stimulate economicgrowth after it became the last Balkan country to enter a re-cession. He informed that exports off firms in the country totheir traditional partners have decreased because most of thecountries are either in recession or facing recession.

FYROM|EU AFFAIRS

Decentralisation crucialFYROM’s Minister of Local Self-Government NevzatBejta recently met with the European Parliament rappor-teur for FYROM Richard Howitt in Skopje. The maintopic was FYROM's progress in conducting the decentral-isation process, considered as one of the key political crite-ria for EU membership, news agencies reported. Theystressed that decentralisation should not be seen as a trans-fer of authorisations from central to local elites but shouldserve to improve services at local level.

ALBANIA|EU AFFAIRS

Albania to combat corruptionIn order to convince Brussels that Tirana is seriously tack-ling corruption, major parties in Albania agreed to suppressthe immunity from prosecution of lawmakers and judges.The decision was taken noting the impending EU reporton Albania's eligibility for EU candidate status due in mid-dle of next month, AENews reported. EU's Albania dele-gation head, Ettore Sequi said that adoption of this law willmake a significant impact in strengthening Albania's legalframework for fighting corruption. The EU's Commis-sioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule said the Balkan nationcould make progress on its European path provided it "de-livers a critical mass of concrete results in addressing the 12key priorities from the Commission's opinion".

ALBANIA|ENERGY

Ashta power plant beginsAustrian energy companies Verbund and EVN and theirAlbanian unit Energy Ashta recently launched regular en-ergy generation at the first section of the Ashta hydropowercascade in Albania, AENews reported. In October 2008 thegovernment of Albania offered a 35-year concession to Ver-bund to construct and operate the Ashta hydropower facil-ity. Overall €200mn would be invested in the constructionof the plant. The plant will have a combined capacity of 53MW and will generate some 240GWh of electricity a year,supplying power to more than 100,000 households.

On 24 September, Istanbul Mayor KadirTopbas said Turkish Prime MinisterRecep Tayyip Erdogan will run for pres-ident in the upcoming elections, Trendreported, citing Haber7.

Meanwhile, a survey published by theTurkish group MetroPoll says that in apresidential vote, Erdogan would bebested by incumbent Abdullah Gul, likehim a co-founder of the ruling Justiceand Development party, by almost 30percentage points in a head to headfight. The presidential election is sched-uled for 2014. The same poll shows 56%disapproval of government policy onSyria; the outlawed Kurdistan Workersparty is carrying out its bloodiest cam-paign of attacks in more than a decade;and the economy is puttering along at3% growth compared to the levels ofabove 8% for the last two years. “Theexistence of a more pessimistic mood inthe public is striking,” MetroPOLL saidin its report. “The possibility that thispessimism and the perception of nega-tivity will impact the public’s choices inpolitical and other matters cannot beruled out.”

Gul should run for a second term ashead of state when in 2014 Turkey goesto the polls for its first public presidentialelections, according to 60% of the 1,275participants in 27 cities surveyed on 14-

18 September by the Metropoll researchfirm. When asked to choose between Guland Erdogan, 51% of the pollsters pickedthe current president and 23% opted forthe prime minister.

Gul still hasn’t indicated whether hewill challenge Erdogan. Furthermore, aConstitutional Court decision in June

paved the way for the president to standfor a second term of five years, overrulinga parliamentary measure backed by Er-dogan which sought to limit Gul’s timein office to one term. Erdogan, who isserving his third and last term as premier,will run on 30 September to be re-electedchairman of the governing party.

Erdogan to run for presidentTURKEY|POLITICS

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his address to the ruling AKP

in parliament in Ankara, 29 May 2012.

U nemployment to decline furtherTURKEY|LABOUR

Turkish Economy Minister ZaferCaglayan recently predicted that the rateof unemployment in the country will de-cline in near future, Zaman reported. Ac-cording to figures released by Turkey’sStatistical Institute (TUIK), as of Juneunemployment rate fell 1.2 points year-over-year to 8%, the lowest unemploy-ment rate registered since June 2011. Asa result, the jobless rate declined by311,000 people.

The minister claimed that with contri-bution of exports to the growth of theTurkish economy and fresh surge of in-vestments spurred by the new incentivescheme, the unemployment rate will re-

duce further. He added, “Employment-focused growth has lowered unemploy-ment. Growth is the solution tounemployment and the locomotive ofgrowth is exports.” TUIK data showedthat in June urban unemployment stoodat 10%, a 1.6 point drop from June 2011.

Rural unemployment also fell 0.6points to 4.3%. In the mentioned pe-riod, the jobless people declined from2.5mn to 2.2mn year-over-year and insame period the total employmentreached 25.5mn from 24.9mn. In June,there was an inclusion of 676,000 jobsin the Turkish economy. The agricul-ture sector witnessed a slump of those

working to 45,000 but there was a risein the non-agriculture sector whichstood at 721,000.

On a sector-by-sector basis, 25.6%of the population is employed in theagricultural sector, 18.6% is em-ployed in the industrial sector, 7.5%in the construction sector and 48.2%in the services sector. From June2011, there was no change in theemployment for the industrial sectorwhereas the services sector saw a onepoint increase in employment, andemployment in the agriculture andindustrial sector witnessed a declineby 0.9 point and 0.3 point.

A nkara, C airo discuss prob lem in S yriaTURKEY |DIPLOMACY

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davu-toglu recently paid a visit to Cairo to meetEgyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Incourse of talks, both sides discussed Syriaand Turkish-Egyptian relations andshared similar stance at a solution to theproblem in Syria, Zaman reported. TheTurkish minister said that his countrystrongly supports the views regardingSyria that were mentioned by PresidentMorsi in Mecca and Tehran. He in-formed that currently 120,000 Syrians are

residing in Turkey and added that theUN and the international communityshould take action regarding the matter.

"Syrian people are suffering a lot andwe are feeling this pain very deeply asbeing neighbour country to Syria. Wehave been supporting all diplomatic ap-proaches on the crisis and are continuingto find a diplomatic solution to the issue,"said the Turkish minister.

Next month Egyptian President Morsiplans to visit Turkey and Turkish Prime

Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will alsovisit Egypt. In separate talks with Egypt-ian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil,Davutoglu said that Turkey in collabora-tion with Egypt and other states, plans tobuild a new Middle East. He outlinedmilitary, politics, economy and culturesectors as areas of further bilateral co-op-eration between Turkey and Egypt. TheTurkish minister said that his country willoffer $2bn aid to Egypt which will bolsterconfidence in the Egyptian economy.

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SERBIA | ECONOMY

Struggling Serbia turns to Chinese for €850 mlnSerbia's Finance and Economy Minister Mladan Dinkicrecently met with representatives of China Exim Bankheaded by Vice President Liu Liang, Beta news agency re-ported. During the talks, Dinkic asked the Bank for a long-term loan worth €850 million for the construction ofhighways in Serbia. The loan would used in the construc-tion of highway through western Serbia, from Obrenovacto Ljig, and the highway from Pojate to Preljina, whichwould accelerate the completion of a strategic highway tri-angle in central Serbia. The Serbian minister said thatagreements would be inked between the bank and con-tractor within end of this year, if a deal is reached. Moreoverworks would also be in progress early next year. Dinkic saidthat the government was pleased to see the progress in theconstruction of on the bridge across the Danube in Bel-grade. In turn, the Chinese Exim bank envoys aid that theyconsider Serbia as China’s sole strategic partner in Centraland Eastern Europe, as they were pleased with the cooper-ation between the two countries. It was recalled that in Au-gust 2009 the governments of China and Serbia had signedan agreement on economic and technical cooperation ininfrastructure sector and this year in August the Serbiangovernment selected Dinkic to lead its team in a mixed in-tergovernmental commission for trade and economic co-operation with China.

CROATIA|EUROPEAN UNION

Coordination on accession process soughtBrussels officials recently announced that they requirejust one interlocutor from BiH in the European acces-sion process as the country has not yet fulfilled condi-tions for the Stabilization and Association Agreement tocome into force (SAA), Fars news agency reported. If thecountry fails to have just one interlocutor then the situa-tion in EU integration process will deteriorate and fur-ther complicate negotiations and the achievement of thedesired progress. BiH authorities learnt from circles closeto the EU Delegation in BiH that lack of a unified sin-gle voice from BiH could be especially difficult for thecountry in the upcoming rounds of negotiations.

KOSOVO|IRISH PRESIDENCY

Looking at Kosovo’s future stabilityIrish support for stability in Kosovo was highlighted inthe last week with a visit from Minister for European Af-fairs, Lucinda Creighton. In meetings with local govern-ment officials in Pristina she made comments on thesituation in the context of Ireland's Presidency of the Eu-ropean Council and as Chair in Office of the OSCE.“Ireland remains committed to participating in the in-ternational community’s efforts to help build a stable andbrighter future for all the communities in Kosovo.” andshe added: “An agreement on the modalities for a re-sumption of the EU-facilitated dialogue between Bel-grade and Pristina, as well as reconciliation amongcommunities are essential for improving relations and co-operation in the region. Full implementation of theagreements already reached is essential.” The Ministerpraised the progress that Kosovo has made in terms ofinstitutions establishment, legislative framework and re-gional cooperation in the recent years but pointed outthat there is also room for improvement as far as publicadministration reform, rule of law and protection of mi-norities and human rights are concerned. She also com-mended OSCE’s effective mission to create transparentinstitutions based on democracy and to promote funda-mental rights.


ENLARGEMENT

According to latest data unveiled by theWorld Travel and Tourism Council,Montenegro is the country with fastestgrowing tourism industry across theglobe, Montenegro Times reported. TheCouncil claimed that Montenegro, an in-dependent state, just south of Croatia isnow emerging as a development hotspotwith large projects, such as Porto Mon-tenegro - a luxury yacht marina and wa-terfront development, enticing affluentbuyers.

The industry body said in a statementthat over a 10 year period, tourism will ac-celerate more in Montenegro in compar-

ison to any other state in the world. Thetourism will grow with a 10% year-on-year growth in the country.

The number of flights route will alsoincrease which local agents believe willfurther bolster tourism into the country,yielding fruitful results for the Montene-grin property market. Previously flightsinto Dubrovnik meant that visitors endedup a 45 minute drive away from thecoastal resorts. However, MontenegroAirlines announced new flight routes toPodgorica and Tivat which will take hol-iday makers to the heart of the action andreduce journey times to just two and a

half hours from London. This is a lucrative opportunity for those

who are making a buy-to-let investment.Local agent John Kennedy, in charge of'Sea Breeze', a villa development over-looking Kotor Bay said, “It's often diffi-cult to get a hotel room in Montenegroso those wanting to buy-to-let will dowell.” He noted that the real estate mar-ket in Montenegro is in its infancy stageand represents good value for moneycompared to its neighbours Italy andCroatia and at same time has a strongsecondary market from a Russian clientbase which has increasing prices.

Fastest growing tourism destinationMONTENEGRO|TOURISM

EI B I nvests ¤ 1 0 0 mln in small b usinessesCROATIA|DEVELOPMENT

The European Investment Bank (EIB)recently announced a loan of €100 mil-lion to the Croatian Bank for Recon-struction and Development (HBOR).The fund will act as financial aid for proj-ects of small and medium-sized enter-prises (SMEs), mid-cap companies andmunicipalities in Croatia, Javno reported.According to EIB President WernerHoyer, the EIB loan will finance the proj-ects of SMEs and medium-sized compa-

nies in sectors of industry and services, in-cluding tourism, and also support smalland medium-scale infrastructure schemespromoted by local authorities, projects inthe knowledge and technology-intensivesectors and additional priorities such asenergy, environmental protection, healthand education.

A minimum of 70% of the loanamount will be allocated to SME andmid-cap projects. The President under-

lined that the Bank supports projects inCroatia which aims to help the countryto meet the EU accession criteria and in-tegrate rapidly into the Union.

Anton Kovacev, president ofCroatianBank for Reconstruction and Develop-ment said that more than 1,200 projects,financed from the funds raised have cre-ated several job opportunities and evenexisting jobs were maintained due to EIBloans.

B uraq A ir plans to b uy 4 9 % stake in B & HBiH|AVIATION

Buraq Air, the Libyan Airline recentlyannounced plans to buy a 49% stake inB&H Airlines.

The Libyan airline seems to be themost prospective candidate to take overthe mentioned stake in the Bosnian car-rier as it has already presented its plans tothe Federation government, Fars newsagency reported. Buraq Air will investhuge amount in the B&H carrier. On theother hand, the government of B&H isready for the sale of hare package but notat any cost.

The strength of a potential partnershipwith Buraq would likely be that it wouldnot use B&H as a feeder airline but use asits window to Europe.

After failure of partnership talks withTurkish Airlines, the government de-cided to draft a contract which willspecify the role of each owner. It was re-called that since 2008 the governmenthas drawn several issues while negoti-ating with Turkish Airlines until itswithdrawal from the arrangement ear-lier this year.

The government blames the Turksfor turning B&H into a feeder airlineand also blamed Turkish Airlines ofregistering B&H aircraft (the AirbusA319 and Boeing 737-400) in Turkeyitself, meaning taxes were paid to theTurkish government, instead of stayingin the country. The federation govern-ment said Turkish Airlines is responsi-ble for failing to develop a domesticnetwork in Bosnia and Herzegovinaand submerging B&H with arrearsthan it had prior to the partnership.

Montenegran beaches continue to draw the crowds.

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NORWAY | ENERGY

Major drilling contract for Bredford DolphinDolphin Drilling AS, a subsidiary of Fred Olsen Energyhas entered into a Letter of Award for the provision of thesemi submersible drilling rig Bredford Dolphin with agroup of four oil companies for operation on the Norwe-gian Continental Shelf, Norway Post reported on 26 Sep-tember. The contract is for an eight well drilling campaignwith an estimated duration of 570 days, with commence-ment in direct continuation with current contract. The op-erators have the right to extend the contract period withfour additional wells within 30 June, 2013. The estimatedcontract value for the firm period is approximately 1.4 bil-lion Norwegian crowns (€ 252 million).

SWITZERLAND | HUMAN RIGHTS

United Nations focuses on rights of the childOn September 28 the United Nations Committee on theRights of the Child held a day of general discussion, the topicof discussion focussing on the rights of all children in the con-text of international migration. The Convention on the Rightsof the Child is the most widely ratified international humanrights instrument, with 193 States Parties. The Committee onthe Rights of the Child, the body of independent experts re-sponsible for reviewing progress made by States parties in im-plementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child, duringits 59th session (16 January – 3 February 2012) decided to de-vote its 2012 Day of General Discussion to the rights of allchildren in the context of international migration. The discus-sion will take place on Friday 28 September 2012 during the61st session of the Committee in Geneva (Palais des Nations).The purpose of the Days of General Discussion is to foster adeeper understanding of the contents and implications of theConvention as they relate to specific articles or topics. Repre-sentatives of Governments, United Nations human rightsmechanisms, United Nations bodies and specialized agencies,non-governmental organizations, national human rights in-stitutions as well as individual experts and children are wel-come to take part.

NORWAY| DEVELOPMENT

Hollande praises Norwegianpartner org. UNITAIDThe organisation set up in 2006 with Norway being one ofthe partner countries continues to impose small levies on air-line tickets the proceeds of which provide sustainable fund-ing for the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, FrenchPresident François Hollande praised UNITAID and calledon the international community to follow France’s examplein innovative financing and set up a tax on financial transac-tions. “I would like to welcome the success of UNITAID, fi-nanced by a levy on airline tickets”, President Hollande toldworld leaders at the 67th General Assembly yesterday. “Todaywe need to take a second step and introduce a tax on finan-cial transactions – that has already been agreed to by severalEuropean states – so that the capital movements that profitfrom globalization can contribute to international develop-ment and the fight against pandemics.” President Hollandementioned that France’s financial transaction tax took effecton August 1st, 2012. Share purchases are subjected to a 0.2percent transaction tax and according to the French parlia-ment should raise around US$ 1.6 billion a year. “France willcommit at least 10 percent of the revenues of this tax to de-velopment and for the fight against health scourges and pan-demics”, President Hollande announced to applause fromthe General Assembly. “Let’s introduce this tax across theworld and ensure that revenues go towards development.This would be a beautiful example of what I call the global-ization of solidarity”, President Hollande concluded.

Iceland is putting itself forward as amodel for the future of data storage andhome of cloud computing.

Presenting a study ‘Islands of Re-silience’, the authors say that althoughcloud computing and data storage areglobal facilities, companies are discover-ing that when it comes to finding a phys-ical home for the banks of servers, itcomes down to location, location, loca-tion. Samri McCarthy from the Interna-tional Modern Media Institute, whoco-authored the report said there werethree factors involved in choosing a loca-tion; energy, connectivity and jurisdiction.

Energy is the strong point for Iceland,with its geo-thermal energy producing agrid that is green and cheap, with energycosts of around €0.07 per kilowatt hour,half the price of some EU states. The is-land nation has also gained expertise inenergy efficiency and provides some ofthe highest ratings in the field for its ex-isting data centres.

The issue of connectivity is vital, butunder discussed as it involves the hugeprojects of laying down subsea cables,which internet traffic use. Iceland sees it-self as well placed for cables going over oraround the arctic. One planned cable, forexample, is going to route all Europeancalls and traffic to Asia via a Russian cableto Murmansk. “Is Europe happy for allthat data to pass to Murmansk?” mused

McCarthy.The final factor is the most difficult.

Icelandic data activists are trying to builda legal framework that provides the high-est levels of privacy that people and busi-ness requires, but it is not easy asinternational companies are faced with avariety of legal jurisdictions and ‘one weaklink’ in their data chain could compromisetheir data, not only from governments butrival business.

Co-author of the report, Eleanor Saittasaid, “Sustainability is not enough, you

also need resilience,” noting that dataservices need to have a lot of redundancyand the ability to quickly recover fromproblems.

One example is RIMM, whose Black-berry service is losing customers after alarge blackout that left many of their cus-tomers unable to use their services for anumber of days.

In the meantime, the authors and ac-tivists will be studying CommissionerKroes plans for cloud computing veryclosely.

T he case for secure, resilienthomes for cloud computing

ICELAND|TECHNOLOGY

A woman works on an iPad under a projected clouded sky at the CeBIT Fair in Hanover, Germany,

28 February 2011. Computing and communication in the 'Cloud' is a major theme of this year's

CeBIT. More than 4,200 companies from 70 countries will show theit latest products, developments

and innovations on the Hanover Fair Ground from 01 to 05 March.

Electric heaters could b e b anned from the market SWITZERLAND|ENVIRONMENT

MPs in Bern have backed a plan to phaseout the use of more than a quarter millionelectric heaters in Switzerland by 2025,The Local reported on 25 September.

Members of the lower house of parlia-ment voted last Monday in favour of theplan, earlier recommended by an envi-ronment committee.

The proposal, which is subject to ap-proval by the senate, would require the re-placement of electrical heating systems,regarded as energy guzzlers, with moreefficient alternatives.

The federal cabinet is being asked, in

conjunction with the cantons, to presenta legal framework to abolish existing elec-tric heaters. The government has alreadylent its support to such a policy.

The federal energy department is ex-amining, in the context of its 2050 energystrategy, the legislation needed to replaceheaters and water heaters that rely onelectricity.

Switzerland currently counts morethan 250,000 electric heaters in opera-tion, according to a report from the ATSnews agency. These consume the equiv-alent of the electricity produced by the

Muhleberg power station, one ofSwitzerland’s four nuclear plants.

Last year, the government abandonedplans to replace such plants as they reachthe end of their lifespan.

The last of the nuclear reactors, whichcurrently provide almost 40% of thecountry’s energy, is scheduled to go of-fline in 2034.

As a result, the government is encour-aging renewable energy and conservationto replace this supply. Power-thrifty heatpumps are among the options seen for re-placing electric heaters.

W ind farm expansion continues to S weden NORWAY|ENERGY

Norway's Statkraft has decided to buildthe Björkhöjden and Ögonfägnadenwind farms in Sweden. The work willstart immediately, Norway Post re-ported on 27 September.

This means that Statkraft will havefour major wind farms under develop-ment in cooperation with SCA inmid/northern Sweden. Statkraft's in-vestment budget for the two most re-cent projects is about 5.2 billion

Norwegian crowns.According to a Statkraft press release,

the Björkhöjden and Ögonfägnadenwind farms are expected to produce intotal, on average 1090 GWh annually.

The two new wind farms will be builtin Jamtland and Vasternorrland coun-ties, northeast of Ostersund inmid/northern Sweden. Bjorkhojdenwind farm will have an installed capac-ity of 270 MW and will start operations

in two stages, in 2014 and 2015. Ogon-fägnaden wind farm with its 99 MWwill be completed as early as 2014. Atotal of 123 wind turbines will beerected, each with an output of 3 MW.The construction work will start imme-diately.

The wind farms are being built by ajoint venture company owned 60-40 byStatkraft and Svenska Cellulosa Ak-tiebolaget SCA.

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GEORGIA | ELECTIONS

Elections spur visit from EU OfficialsThe International community has expressed serious concernover the rising political tensions in Georgia prior to the Oc-tober 1 parliamentary election. Five foreign ministers ofLithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgariapaid a visit to Georgia to supervise the swelling tensions priorthe elections, The Messenger reported. The EU, US andleading democracy watchdogs urged the country to ensurefree and fair conduct of the election. In the upcoming elec-tions, Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili will face chal-lenge from Billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili. Ivanishvilihas blamed Saakashvili’s allies of using dirty tricks to under-mine his newly formed Georgian Dream party. He also com-plained that Saakashvili’s loyalists has harassed, beaten andalso arrested his party activists. However the allegations weredismissed by government supporters, who instead blamedIvanishvili of breaking electoral law, using his wealth to “buy”power and acting in interests of neighbouring Russia.Lithuanian foreign minister Audronius Azubalis said healong with other counterparts were in Georgia to overseeGeorgia’s progress on its path towards Nato and the Euro-pean Union and has no intentions to support any politicalforce. “It is important that all political forces have fair andequal opportunities and if the results are recognised as fair byobservers, all parties must accept them,” added Latvia’s EdgarsRinkevics. Although Ivanishvili is willing to accept electionresults that are approved by international observers but alsomade it clear that millions protesters will be on streets if bal-lot is found to be rigged. During a recent visit to Tbilisi, USdeputy assistant secretary of state Thomas Melia said thatthe upcoming elections are critical to helping Georgia ad-vance its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. A delegation from theparliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe urged allparties to avoid negative campaigning and should not ques-tion the legitimacy of the election and its outcome prior to thevote. Transparency International Georgia said there is enoughproof which showed that opposition activists had beenthreatened, beaten and arrested, and that all parties had givenbribes in exchange of votes. Georgian Dream appealed to theinternational community to pressure the government to haltits efforts to neutralise and crush the opposition.

GEORGIA | DEFENCE

New provocation in South Ossetia?South Ossetia’s President Leonid Tibilov recently had ameeting with co-chairman of the Geneva discussionsPhillippe Lefort, who is also EU Special Representative forthe South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia. During themeeting, Tibilov said that Georgia is building fortificationsand arms depots near its border with the breakaway repub-lic which might target residents of South Ossetia. He pre-dicted new provocations ahead of the 22nd anniversary ofthe formation of South Ossetia, Civil Georgia reported.Tibilov was informed about Georgia’s military activityalong the entire perimeter of its border with South Osse-tia. He stressed that Tbilisi will be accountable for a possi-ble conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia. InMoscow, Caucasus expert Alexander Krylov attributesTbilisi’s new saber-rattling to the upcoming parliamentaryelections in Georgia. On the contrary, Moscow-based po-litical analyst Andrei Arishev, believes that the latest mili-tary activity by Tbilisi should be monitored as a territorialconflict between Georgia and South Ossetia is yet to be re-solved. He stressed that Tbilov’s latest statement needs at-tention as any complications are possible amid an unstablesituation in the North Caucasus. It was recalled that amid2008 aggression, Russia recognized the independence ofSouth Ossetia and clinched a military cooperation agree-ment with Tskhinval, a document according to which Rus-sia is obliged to render all necessary support to SouthOssetia, as per international norms.


EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

Georgian opposition activistsdemonstrated, on 28 September,against the Georgian governmentpre-election crackdown, outside theEuropean Commission in Brussels.

The demonstrators are protestingagainst the Georgian governmentcampaign of oppression against theopposition and the brutal abuse ofprisoners. George Popkhadge, one ofthe demonstrators said, “it is time tosweep out the old regime and cleanup the government. The countryneeds real economic reform, an inde-pendent judiciary, an effective battleagainst corruption and a more stableregional role as a more dependablepartner with the EU and NATO.”

A week ago, Georgian PresidentMikhail Saakashvili, sought to de-fuse tension regarding the prisonersabuse by completely reshufflingprison personnel and changing theminister in charge. Saakashvili said,“there must be zero tolerance to anyviolations of human rights, becausewe are building a civilised and hu-mane country, rather than disciplinebased on violence.”

However, OSCE’s President Ric-cardo Migliori issued a statementabout 1st October elections saying,"with less than one week to the im-portant parliamentary elections inGeorgia, I am very concerned with

recent reports by media and civil so-ciety groups of numerous arrests ofactivists associated with the opposi-tion…I urge the authorities to exer-cise due restraint particularly duringthis sensitive time; any actions thatmay give an impression of imbalancewould be of grave concern."

The opposition is being led by bil-lionaire philanthropist Bidzina Ivan-ishvili and an alliance of smallerparties, called Georgian Dream

coalition. Ivanishvili, made his for-tune in banking and steel in Russiaand he was an ally of the GeorgianPresident until 2008 elections, whenhe accused him for fixing the results.The opposition leader stated in apress release, “Saakashvili cheatedthe world, saying that he was build-ing democracy in Georgia…Hewould become a dictator tomorrow ifhe had the resources."

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Opposition accuses governmentof manipulating campaign

GEORGIA|ELECTIONS

A boy sticks a campaign leaflet of Georgian Dream, opposition coalition, on a wall plastered with

election posters of President Mikheil Saakashvili's governing party in central Tbilisi, on September

28, 2012. Georgia entered the final week of a parliamentary election campaign, the toughest elec-

toral battle of Saakashvili's party since coming to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution, against a

revitalised opposition.

I ndonesian A mb assadorship set to changeARMENIA|DIPLOMACY

Indonesian Ambassador NiningRochadiat who recently concluded herdiplomatic mission in Armenia, was re-ceived by Armenian Premier TigranSargsyan, Armenia Liberty.org re-ported. The Prime Minister thankedthe Ambassador for her work andwished success for her future. Sargsyannoted that relations between Armenia

and Indonesia have developed and dur-ing the tenure of the ambassador posi-tive changes were also reported. Heexpressed the readiness of Armenia toenhance ties with Indonesia and opento exert additional efforts. In her turn,Ambassador Rochadiat thanked thePremier for the offer extended by theArmenian Government and invited

Sargsyan to Indonesia. Noting thedeepening bilateral ties and imple-menting economic programmes, bothparties underlined the opening of Ar-menia’s Embassy in Indonesia and theestablishment of the Intergovernmen-tal Economic Commission. They alsodiscussed ways to develop ties betweenArmenia and Indonesia.

W B extends R eal Estate R egistration Proj ectAZERBAIJAN|PLANNING

The Real Estate Registration Projectimplemented by the Government ofAzerbaijan in collaboration with theWorld Bank (WB) has extended for an-other two years. The announcement wasmade by the head of WB monitoringmission on Real Estate Registration Proj-ect Gavin Adlington, news agencies re-ported. Term of the project of real estateregistration, inventory and control system,was funded by the World Bank and theState Committee for Property Affairs ofAzerbaijan. The contract for the projectwas signed in 2008 and had to be com-pleted within this year. Adlington has said

that work on the project is going success-fully but needs to grow at a faster pace. Heinformed that this July the project termwas extended until December 2014.

“In my country formation of a moreperfect system of property registrationtook about 60 years, while in Azerbaijanproject was implemented over five years.Work in this direction has been success-fully continued. Steps are underway tocreate modern IT-systems, develop digitalcadastral maps,” said Adlington. Hestressed that the sole problem is the auto-mated document management systems ofthe State Committee for Land and Car-

tography of Azerbaijan. However a waveof optimism and confidence exists andconfident that this problem will be re-solved at the earliest, said Adlington.Commenting on registration of illegalbuildings in Azerbaijan, Bank’s represen-tative said within the project it was im-plied development of a strategy foradjusting the processes of illegal construc-tion, and this strategy has been developed.He admitted this startegey is a difficultprocess and regulation of illegal construc-tions by the Government of Azerbaijan,and the solution of this issue is not themain objective of the project.

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UKRAINE|ENERGY

Coal gasification plants On 26 September, Ukrainian Minister of Energy andCoal Industry Yuri Boiko said his country will buildthree coal gasification plants, news agencies reported.During his recent visit to the city of Pervomaysk, in thecountry’s Lugansk Region, he said that Ukraine willuse the Royal Dutch Shell technology that was testedin China. 15 coal gasification plants are currently op-erational in China. According to Boiko, China Devel-opment Bank will allocate the required funds.

BELARUS|INVESTMENT

Forum planed in NovemberThe next Belarus Investment Forum will take placein Minsk on 15-16 November, BelTA quoted repre-sentatives of the National Agency of Investment andPrivatisation as saying. There are plans to invite rep-resentatives of foreign businesses, financial institu-tions, and international organizations to Belarus.During the Belarus Investment Forum they will bemade familiar with complete and reliable informa-tion about the country’s investment potential, in-cluding the opportunities opening up by theformation of the 170mn consumer market of the Sin-gle Economic Space. Major investment projects willbe offered for consideration. A presentation of in-vestment opportunities of the Belarusian capital citywill be arranged as part of the Minsk Investment Dayon 15 November.

BELARUS|ENERGY

Mis-labelling costs Russia Belarus has dodged about $1bn in customs duty pay-ments to Russia this year by exporting gasoline andother oil products under the guise of solvents and thin-ners, official data shows, infuriating Moscow, reutersreported. Authorities in Misnk say that, after a sharprebuke from Moscow, they have now ended the prac-tice. Russia, which collects hefty export duties fromsales of crude oil, does not levy duty on oil supplies toBelarus and Kazakhstan because they are foreign tradeallies in a Moscow-led Customs Union. In return, how-ever, these countries are expected to repay to Russiamost of this duty if they refine the imported oil and ex-port it as fuel and other oil products. The duty re-payable on gasoline exported to world markets is 90%of that for crude. But Belarus this year began exportingoil products which figured in cross-border customsdocumentation as "complex organic solvents", theRussian government says.

BELARUS|FABRICS

Russia lifts restrictionsThe Eurasian Economic Commission has lifted re-strictions on deliveries of Belarusian fabrics for gov-ernment orders in Russia, Lyudmila Tyaglova, DeputyChairwoman of the Belarusian state light industry con-cern Bellegprom, told a press conference on 27 Sep-tember. Tyaglova explained that in March 2012 theRussian government restricted the ability of Belarusiantextile manufacturers to participate in government or-ders of power-wielding agencies and municipal au-thorities. As a result, the Belarusian companiesMogotex, Kamvol, and Lenta failed to sign contractsto deliver special fabrics that they used to sell to Rus-sia. The products were made to order but could not besold. Bellegprom took part in resolving the problem.As a result, the Eurasian Economic Commission liftedthe restrictions on 18 September.

On 26 September, in German Bundestagthere was a discussion held on Belarusianelections and further policy toward Be-larus initiated by the Christian Demo-cratic Union. According to the deputies,Belarusian elections were “cynical staging”accompanied with violence and threaten-ing. The elected Parliament was calleddecorative.

Deputy of the Free Democratic PartyPatrick Kurt stated that the voting in Be-larus contradicted all principals of demo-cratic elections, and that Belarusianauthorities demonstrated that violationsand threatening are their hallmarks.“Everything that could be was fabricated,”

BelaPAN quoted him as saying.Western observers slammed the week-

end election in Belarus as neither com-petitive nor free, after results showedevery seat in parliament was won by fac-tions loyal to authoritarian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko.

The European Union and the Or-ganisation for Security and Cooperationin Europe (OSCE) have dismissed par-liamentary elections in Belarus as asham. "A free election depends on peo-ple being free to speak, organise and runfor office, and we didn't see that in thiscampaign," OSCE coordinator MatteoMecacci said.

The rubber-stamp parliament will bol-ster the power of Lukashenko, who hasrun the ex-Soviet state since 1994.

"The blatant violations in these elec-tions make it clear to everyone that Be-larus is the last dictatorship in the heartof Europe," Germany’s Foreign Minis-ter Guido Westerwelle said. "Togetherwith our European partners we will in-crease our efforts to push for the release ofpolitical prisoners, to strengthen Belaruscivil society and to isolate PresidentLukashenko and his regime even more."

Lukashenko and his inner circle areunder travel and other sanctions fromthe US and the EU.

W est slams elections as ‘ cynical staging’BELARUS|POLITICS

OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission head Antonio Milososki, right, speaks, while OSCE PA delegation head Matteo Mecacci

looks on during their press conference in Minsk, 24 September 2012.

T ymoshenko faces new chargesUKRAINE|HUMAN RIGHTS

On 25 September, Ukrainian FirstDeputy Prosecutor General RenatKuzmin said the Prosecutor’s General Of-fice has enough evidence to charge jailedformer prime minister and oppositionleader Yulia Tymoshenko in the 1996murder of prominent politician YevhenShcherban, news agencies reported. “Wehave sufficient proof to charge her with or-ganising and funding the killing,” he said.

She will be charged when she is welland can be subjected to investigation, theofficial said.

Investigators will soon be able to ques-tion her, he added. A former Ukrainian se-curity officer claimed two weeks ago topossess a covertly recorded tape implicat-

ing Tymoshenko.The tapes, allegedly recorded in the of-

fices of former Ukrainian PresidentLeonid Kuchma, suggest that Ty-moshenko paid for the murder, MykolaMelnychenko told a news conference inWashington two weeks ago.

Melnychenko said he is willing to handthe tapes over to prosecutors.

Tymoshenko has dismissed any linkwith the murder.

Meanwhile, Tymoshenko has urged theparliaments and leaders of democraticcountries and Ukrainian citizens to resistPresident Viktor Yanukovych's "dictator-ship." "I am addressing you from behindprison bars where I and other opposition

political leaders have been locked up byPresident Yanukovych. He locked me upin jail on false charges in the best traditionsof totalitarianism in order to leave the op-position without a leader, to bury democ-racy and to perpetuate his authority,"Tymoshenko said in an appeal posted onher website. Ukraine is moving back to-wards a "tragedy" and towards "the darkworld of dictatorship," she writes.

She cited Freedom House's recent re-port in confirmation of her arguments.

"Ukraine is already moving away fromfreedom and from the democratic world.This is not a dim possibility, but a reality.The loss of freedom is becoming increas-ingly apparent," she said.

Filat meets R ussian A mb assador to M oldovaMOLDOVA|DIPLOMACY

On 27 September, Moldova’s Prime Min-ister Vlad Filat held a meeting with Russ-ian Ambassador to Moldova FaridMuhamedsin, according to the govern-ment's communication and press relationsdepartment. Filat thanked Muhamedsinfor the contribution to organising the visitto Russia held on 10-12 September, andnoted that it was fruitful and led to

strengthening the Moldovan-Russian re-lations, Moldpres reported.

At the same time, Filat said there aregood prospects for the bilateral relationsdevelopment between the two states.

For his part, Muhamedsin said Filat'svisit to Russia gave a new impetus to thebilateral relations with a new stage of de-velopment. Muhamedsin said Russia is in-

terested in deepening the cooperation withMoldova, and is willing to invest in jointdevelopment projects. The officials alsoapproached Filat's visit to Yalta due on 27-28 September. Filat noted that his partic-ipation in the meeting of the CIS heads ofgovernments is a good opportunity to de-veloping the relations at the bilateral andmultilateral level.

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UZBEKISTAN|BUDGET

More money for environment An extended meeting of deputy group of the environmen-tal movement was recently held at the Legislative Houseof Uzbekistan. The meeting considered report of the Cab-inet of Ministers on execution of the state budget for thefirst half of this year. Revenues of the budget amounted to9786.2bn som and expenses stood at 9696bn som. Statebudget expenditures on environmental protection in the fisthalf of this year amounted to 47.3bn som. About 166bnsom was allotted to cover expenditures on redevelopment ofhuman settlements, road keeping of local use and to supportother infrastructure of cities, towns and districts.

TAJIKISTAN|DIPLOMACY

Dushanbe, Moscow boost tiesOn recent visit to Dushanbe, Russia’s First Deputy PrimeMinister Igor Shuvalov was welcomed by Tajik Prime Minis-ter Oqil Oqilov. In course of talks, the sides discussed economicco-operation between their countries, including bilateral co-operation in energy and transportation sectors. Shuvalov alsohad talks with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

KYRGYZSTAN|CUSTOMS UNION

EEC approves union entryAt a recent meeting, the Eurasian Economic Commission(EEC) gave a green signal to the action plan on Kyrgyzs-tan’s entry to the Customs Union, news agencies re-ported. The participants at the meeting also approved ataskforce to tackle the country’s participation in the Cus-toms Union. Another taskforce was held to codify interna-tional agreements making part of the legal framework ofthe Customs Union and the Single Economic Space. Thetaskforce will be under the control of ECC Integration andMacroeconomics Minister Tatiana Valovaya. Several issuesconcerning technical regulations were discussed at themeeting. In particular, there was approved a new wording ofthe list of standards to be in conformity with the require-ments of the Customs Union technical regulation, RoadSafety and a list of standards containing research and meas-urement methods including sample selection procedure.

KYRGYZSTAN|PENSIONS

Minimum pensions to riseAddressing media in Narin, Kyrgyz Deputy Minister ofFinance Arzibek Kojoshev said minimum pensions will in-crease by 10% reaching 4,200 somoni in Kyrgyzstan. Thepresident and the government aim to seek facilities to raisepensions by 10% for those who receive the minimum pen-sion deductions. The government also plans to increase theminimal subsistence wages to 4,200 somoni. The rise inpensions which would be effective this autumn, will be de-fined by optimisation of expenses and cuts of non-priorityissues. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Jantoro Satibaldiev statedduring his meeting with the audience at the At-Bashi Cen-tre in the Narin region had stated that the increase in pen-sions for citizens who receive the minimal pensiondeductions is planned from 1 November.

TURKMENISTAN|DIPLOMACY

Berdimuhamedov to visit UAETurkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was re-cently invited by President of the UAE Sheikh Khalifa binZayed Al Nahyan to pay a working visit to the United ArabEmirates. The invitation was handed over by AmbassadorExtraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the UAE to Turk-menistan Hassan Abdullah Al Adab Al Zarouni, the pressservice of the president of Turkmenistan reported.


EURASIA

On September 20, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin paid a visit o Bishkek tomeet his Kyrgyz counterpart AlmazbekAtambayev. The Presidents discussed co-operation issues including the future of aRussian military base in Kyrgyzstan, newsagencies reported. Several cooperationagreements were also signed at the meet-ing.

Kyrgyz Minister of Finance OlgaLavrova and Russian Deputy Minister ofFinance Sergey Storchak inked a docu-

ment confirming Russia will graduallywrite off Kyrgyzstan's entire $489mndebt by March 2016.

Kyrgyz Minister of Energy and Indus-try Avtandil Kalmabetov and RussianMinister of Energy Alekansdr Novaksigned agreements to finish constructionof the Naryn Cascade project and Kam-bar-Ata-1 hydroelectric power plant(HHP).

Putin said Kazakhstan and Uzbek-istan have expressed concerns about

the effects of Kyrgyz hydropowerplants on their agricultural lands. Heinvited both countries to join in theprojects and assured that t would notyield any adverse effects for farming inthose neighbouring countries. TheRussian Head also said that the Russ-ian base in Kyrgyzstan and Russianbases in neighbouring Tajikistan are“acting as a factor of stability” in thosetwo countries and in Central Asiagenerally.

Bishkek, Moscow in agreementsKYRGYSTAN|DIPLOMACY

Kazakhstan’s PM Massimov resigns as re-shuffle beginsKAZAKHSTAN|POLITICS

On 24 September, Kazakh PresidentNursultan Nazarbayev replaced his chiefof staff Aslan Musin with his long-serv-ing prime minister Karim Massimov.Nazarbayev accepted Massimov’s resig-nation on 24 September and nominatedSerikh Akhmetov, first deputy primeminister, to fill the post of prime minister.Deputies from all three parties in theKazakh Majilis, or parliament, unani-mously approved the president’s choice.Masimov received his higher education

in Russia, China and Kazakhstan. Musinwill oversee the budgetary committee.

Massimov’s departure from governmentwill trigger a cabinet reshuffle, but thechanges will probably leave unanswered thequestion of who will succeed Nazarbayev.The 72-year old leader who has maintaineda centralised rule wants a smooth transitionof power. Politics in west Kazakhstan, wherea prolonged oil strike led to a deadly show-down with police in 2011, is particularlysensitive. Many in the region are tired of

seeing oil revenues drained by central gov-ernment and are pushing for greater inde-pendence from Astana.

Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's Rat-ings Services said on 25 September thatits ratings and outlook on the Republicof Kazakhstan (BBB+/Stable/A-2) areunchanged following the resignation ofMassimov. Kazakhstan’s, which has theworld’s largest uranium reserves andlarge oil and gas deposits has lured for-eign investors.

Pakistan to export Turkmen electricity from 2016TURKMENISTAN|ENERGY

Pakistan recently announced plans to ex-port 1,000MW of electricity from Turk-menistan through the territory ofAfghanistan from 2016, Pakistan’s min-istry of Water and Power recently said ina statement, Turkmenistan.ru reported.As envisaged in the project, Turkmenelectricity supplies to Pakistan may hit1,000MW.

Overall, the project is estimated at €1billion and other preparations are madefor the remaining investment in the proj-ect. It was reported that a final decisionon all the financial matter would be takenby 2013.

By 2030 the level of electricity pro-duction is predicted to reach 35.5 bil-lion KW in Turkmenistan in

accordance with the industry develop-ment strategy. Three combined cyclegas turbine power plants, with a totalcapacity of 1,122MW, will be con-structed for the development project.

In the future, the country's energy sys-tem will be completely covered withhigh-voltage overhead power transmis-sion lines of 500 KV.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, left, and his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev attend a signing ceremony at Atambayev's residence Ala-Archa

in the outskirts of Bishkek, 20 September 2012.

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31NEW EUROPE30 September - 6 October, 2012RUSSIA

RUSSIA|ENERGY

Gazprom, Summa ink MoUOn September 20, Russian gas giant Gazprom and SummaGroup, a Russian diversified private holding with investmentsin port logistics, engineering, construction, signed a Memo-randum of Understanding under which they intent toarrange co-operation for liquefied natural gas (LNG) utilisa-tion as a bunker fuel for marine vessels, including thoseowned and operated by Summa Group. The document wassigned by Gazprom Management Committee DeputyChairman Alexander Medvedev and Summa Group Presi-dent Alexander Vinokurov. In the first instance, GazpromGroup and Summa Group will consider the possibility ofco-operation in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea regions.“LNG is the only fuel that meets the requirements for limi-tation of emissions by ship engines without the need to in-stall expensive filters and it is favourably priced compared tolow-sulfur petrochemicals,” Medvedev said.

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

Interceptors at Arctic base Russia's Defence Ministry will base MiG-31 long-range in-terceptors at the Rogachevo Arctic base on the island of No-vaya Zemlya, unnamed military sources said, local mediareported on 25 September. "The MiG-31 squadron will bethe main element of Russia's developing anti-missile defencesystem - the MiG-31 is capable of intercepting not only strikeaircraft, but also cruise missiles with nuclear warheads from theBarents Sea to the shores of the Laptev Sea," the source said.Military analyst Anatoly Tsyganok says the MiG-31BM hasa range of 1,450 kilometres on internal fuel, which can be ex-tended to 5,400 kilometres with air-to-air refuelling.

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

Compromise on missile shield A compromise with Moscow on US missile defence systemin Europe is possible despite the current deadlock, NATODeputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said. Sev-eral prominent Russian researchers and military experts haverecently supported NATO’s claims that the alliance’s plansare not targeting Russia, Vershbow said. Proposals put forthby these experts and researchers would help Moscow andBrussels find common ground on the matter, Vershbow saidat a Russia-NATO conference in Moscow.

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

Air base opened to NATOOn 24 September, Russia opened an airbase in Ulyanovsk,about 900 kilometres east of Moscow, for use by NATO totransport supplies from Afghanistan, Interfax reported. Dueto difficulties in relations between Washington and Karachiover the past several years, the US has sought to develop al-ternative supply routes.

RUSSIA|DEFENCE

Japan, Russia hold exerciseOn 26 September, the Japanese and Russian navies were ex-pected to hold a joint exercise involving five ships, RIANovosti reported, citing a spokesman for the Russian navy.Two Japanese warships arrived at Russia's far eastern port ofVladivostok on 23 September for the joint navy drill. Theanti-pirate navy drill was expected to stage dozens of com-bat missions and exercises, including humanitarian, searchand rescue operations. This visit of the two vessels, the de-stroyer Oyodo and frigate Ariake, is a reciprocal one to Russ-ian Pacific Fleet's visit to Japan's naval base Maizuru inAugust, after the fleet's debut in the international RIMPACnaval exercise in the US Pearl Harbour.

On 25 September, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin put his faith in Eu-rope’s shared currency, saying hiscountry will keep almost a half of itsforeign exchange reserve in euro.Addressing a joint press conferenceat the Kremlin with Eurogroup Pres-ident Jean-Claude Juncker, who isalso the prime minister of Luxem-bourg, Putin said that despite thecurrent financial difficulties in theeurozone, he expects the euro to sur-vive.

“It is our belief that the funda-mentals of the European economy,which is the main thing at the end ofthe day, will enable the single Euro-pean currency to survive,” Putin said.

Russia's hard currency and gold re-serves are estimated at about $550bnin addition to oil and gas contractsworth billions of euro. Therefore, itis in Russia’s interest that euro isgoing to survive because Moscowneeds a viable area to be able to sellits goods into and in a weakeningglobal economy at the moment itsenergy resources are going to be inless demand, Justin Urquhart Stew-art, Director of Seven InvestmentManagement in London, told NewEurope on 27 September.

Putin said he trusts the leaders ofthe eurozone group. "We see the de-termination of the (European) Com-mission and key players in theeurozone to change for the better,"Putin said. "We trust such policy."

The basics of the eurozone econ-omy show that the future of the eurois promising, Putin said.

Relations between the EU andRussia have been tense recently fol-lowing a European Commission in-vestigation into Russian gasmonopoly Gazprom for allegedabuse of its dominant position incentral and eastern Europe.

“At various levels I think he is try-ing to humour the eurozone and theEU because he wants to make surethat Russia is seen as a reliable sup-plier,” Urquhart Stewart said, adding

that Russia is not seen as a reliablesupplier after the gas crisis betweenMoscow and Kiev in 2009 that dis-rupted supplies to many EU countries.“They actually have to build up confi-dence and given the investigations intoGazprom, I think he’s doing his bestto actually smooth the relationship be-tween Russia and the eurozone. Heneeds the eurozone to be functioningprobably because at the moment thedemand for oil and gas is going to beweaker,” the director of Seven Invest-ment Management said.

Putin is in one of his charm of-fences to try to show that Russia is agood place to invest at the moment,but the market is still very scepticalwhen it comes to Russia being openfor reliable business, Urquhart Stew-art said.

Meanwhile, Juncker told Putin on25 September that the eurozone isbetter prepared to overcome difficul-ties than it was a few years ago. "Allthose who believe that in some timethe euro zone will collapse or willcease to exist in the short term areterribly mistaken," Juncker said.

Putin and Juncker also agreed thatEurope should be more ambitious indeveloping ties with Russia despitedisagreements on human rights is-sues. "I believe that the EuropeanUnion should intensify its relation-ship with Russia and set more ambi-tious tasks even despite the existingdifferences over the human rights is-sues," Juncker told Putin at the startof their meeting in the Kremlin.

Turning to the visa issue, Putinsaid he expects that the EuropeanCommission will speed up the elim-ination of the visa regime with Rus-sia. "We underscored the interest inthe swiftest possible switch to visa-free travels. I am very pleased thatMr. Prime Minister [ Juncker] sharesthe same approach. I hope that otherour colleagues, including in the Eu-ropean Commission, will more ac-tively work on the achievement ofcommon goals," Putin said. "Thejoint commission plays a particularrole here. We agreed with Mr.Juncker that the new chairmen willconduct a meeting of the commis-sion in the near future," Putin said.

Putin: In the euro we trustRUSSIA|DIPLOMACY

Russia's President Vladimir Putin assured Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker that

Russia supports the euro, Moscow, 25 September 2012.

Grain prices reach post-Soviet highRUSSIA|AGRICULTURE

Due to bad weather, Russian grainprices rose by more than 1,000 rubles(roughly $32) per tonne in one weekand have reached a post-Soviet high,Vedomosti reported on 25 September.

However, Russia's Deputy PrimeMinister Arkady Dvorkovich, re-sponsible for the agriculture sector,ruled out export restrictions of anykind and called for an end to specu-lation on the matter, saying Russia'sgovernment had changed since a ban

was imposed in 2010. "You can trustor not trust, you can ask any ques-tions, but we will not impose any ex-port restrictions," Dvorkovich toldan investment conference. "We areagainst this and there is no groundto do that," he added. "All it does isgive room for speculation in Chicagoand on other exchanges, and that isit."

"I want to remind you what hap-pened when Russia closed exports

and the events occurred in NorthAfrica," Deputy Agriculture Minis-ter Ilya Shestakov told an economicconference in Sochi last weekend."Russia has a serious influence onthe whole food market because of itsimport and export volumes."

Speculation on a possible repeat ofthe ban this year has been one factorbehind a rally in wheat prices, largelydriven by drought in the UnitedStates.

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Hope is also a female name in manycountries (Speranza in Italian, Elpida inGreek, Nadezhda in Bulgarian, etc.,) andit is common knowledge that “Hope” isthe last to die. That is why nobody wantshis mother-in-law to be named “Hope”(Speranza, Elpida, etc).

So it seems that the Greek “elpida”(hope) did not die as yet, on the contraryit began to grow again, as the Europeanseventually understood that they cannotlet Greece withdraw from the Eurozone.At the same time, despite the new toughausterity measures package about to bepassed in the Parliament, the Greekcoalition government, instead of weak-ening, is solidifying its position.

As long as Greece’s partners werelooking to the Greek crisis as pragmaticaccountants, the chances of Greece re-maining in the Euro currency were min-imal, if any. Greece counts for less than3% of the Eurozone and in the past twoyears Germany and France have intelli-gently managed to help their banks topass the Greek toxic papers in their port-

folios to the Central European Bank. So,after Berlin and Paris secured theirbanks, the European accountantsthought that they could easily sendGreece to hell.

Yet this is the first reading, which isquite simple. If Greece is kicked out orvoluntarily withdraws from the Euro-zone, the common European currency,liberated from the need to permanentlyfinance the Greek black hole, is likely torevaluate by 15-20%, in ten days time.

As to the second reading, with sucha revaluation of the Euro, Europeanexports, especially German, will suffera significant drop. That is why Ger-many is reconsidering its stance to-wards Greece and seemingly prefers tofinance the Greek deficits to safeguardits exports while with such a “sacrifice”Berlin is securing the “lion’s share”when the looting of the Greek stateenterprises will begin, in the form ofspeedy privatizations.

Furthermore, a Greek withdrawalfrom the Eurozone accompanied (or

not) by a collapse of the Greek economy(or of whatever is left of it) may drive thecountry in two different directions.

One is total social chaos, which willlead to a completely new political scenario(probably government elected in the bar-ricades) with potential spill-over effectsfor the European south. From there on,events may precipitate as the EuropeanUnion has no mechanisms or experienceto handle socio-political crises.

Even worse, the Greeks being peopleof surprises, it might be that by returningto local currency, the people will makeextraordinary efforts and with the in-volvement of the Greeks living abroad(over five million many of whom over-wealthy), bring back Greece into a rapiddevelopment phase in a couple of yearstime. Such a development will signifythe end of the Eurozone as many othersmay follow.

How and when, Greece will get out ofthe marsh is a different yet interdepen-dent element which we will analyse nextweek. Kassandra

KASSANDRAThe Prague Post ran a correction: Lastweek's column misidentified a source. TheEuropean Commission president is RomanoProdi, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Page 32 | New Europe30 September - 6 October, 2012

[email protected]

Once upon a time in Prague ...

Follow me on twitter @Kassandra_NE

Hope resurrected in Greece as Germany keepspaying for the deficit to save its exports

German EPP MEP, Hans-PeterMayer has found an important issuethat could halt the budget delibera-tions. A humble employee of theparliament.In a letter to the parliamentary au-thorities, the lawmaker is asking forinformation on a mailman.MEP Mayer has been wonderingabout the occupation of your em-ployee (mail deliuvery to the floor

15 E ASP) at the reception of ASP15th floor.To our knowledge he spends almost80% of his working time in front ofhis computer(since weeks already).Referring to the debate of finances ofthe EP we would like to know aboutthis employee´s duties.F.e. he came this morning, delivereda few letters anfd since then sits infronnt of the PC. Normally he sits

there the whole day, only leaving oncea while.It would be very helpful if you couldgive us some explanation.Now one thing that leaps to mind is...If the Member is spending all his timewatching a mailman sit at a computer,who is performing his duties?Perhaps Herr Mayer might care toimprove his attendence and votingrecord?

Post Facto

Democracy in Europe explainedThere have been many efforts to demonstrate, in a clearway, how the institutions fit into democratic practice.Kassandra’s old friend, Berlaymonster(berlaymonster.blogspot.com) has just had a go, and itseems to be concise yet thorough.“The ultimate model is the people choose.Sometimes the people chosen by the people choose.Sometimes the people chosen by the people choose whothe people get to choose between.Most of the time - and this is key - the people the peo-ple chosen by the people choose have to have been cho-sen by the people in the first place.But when the person that is chosen by the people whowere chosen by the people who were chosen by the peo-ple wasn't even chosen by the people nor even by or fromamong the people who were chosen by the people, thatkind of takes the biscuit.Hope that's clear.”

Bill Clinton forCouncil President?

Believe it or not, it couldhappen. It could all comedown to the Irish sense ofhumour.Controversial former editorof the UK’s Daily Mirror,Piers Morgan interviewedthe former president lastweek, and one part of the in-terview stood out. Morgan asked about two-term limits, which Clintonsaid he agreed with, but, per-haps inspired by Putin, headded, “maybe someday the

rules will be changed so if you can serve two years and lay outand—serve two terms and lay out a term or two, you could runagain because for a simple reason, we're all living so muchlonger and we're maintaining the capacity to work and thinkclearly for a longer period."An interesting question for policy wonks to mull over, but thefun starts with the next question. Does Bill think he couldever by the British Prime minister?Clinton replied, "There are only two countries I'm eligible torun for the leadership position in: If I move to Ireland andbuy a house, I can—I can run for president of Ireland, becauseof my Irish heritage. “And because I was born in Arkansas, which is part of theLouisiana Purchase, any person anywhere in the world thatwas born in a place that ever was part of the French empire,if you move to—if you live in France for six months and speakFrench, you can run for president.”Sadly, Bill won’t be taking over the Elysee. “I once polled verywell in a French presidential race. And I said, you know, thisis great, but that's the best I'd ever do because once they heardmy broken French with a Southern accent, I would drop intosingle digits within a week and I'd be toast."This leaves Ireland. So, if Bill buys a house in Ireland, and let’sbe honest the price of an apartment in Dublin has fallen 63%since 2007, so the time could be right.Once he’s re-housed, then instead of going for the Irish pres-idency, Ireland could propose him as the replacement for Her-man Van Rompuy.Wouldn’t that be fun?Even more fun if Hillary replaces Cathy...

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. - Martin Luther King Jr

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