Month: November 2018

Russia is awaiting a European court ruling on whether it violated the rights of opposition leader Alexei Navalny when arresting him on repeated occasions.

A leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny is to appear at the European Court of Human Rights in the French city of Strasbourg to hear the ruling Thursday, after a last-minute legal problem delayed his arrival.

The court ruled last year that seven of his arrests were unlawful and ordered Russia to pay 63,000 euros ($67,000) in compensation. But the court didn’t rule on Navalny’s arguments that the arrests were politically motivated.

The Russian government and Navalny appealed, and the case went to the court’s Grand Chamber, which issues its final, binding ruling later Thursday.

Article 18

Navalny, arguably Russia’s most popular opposition figure, has faced fraud charges widely viewed as political retribution for investigating corruption and leading major anti-government protests.

Navalny mounted a grass-roots presidential campaign before he was officially barred from running in this year’s election, which Putin overwhelmingly won.

Navalny’s lawyer Olga Mikhailova told The Associated Press that the legal team is most concerned with whether the court finds that Russian authorities violated Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights, effectively meaning the arrests were politically motivated.

Navalny says that would set an important precedent for activists across Russia who have faced challenges in staging public rallies.

Russia: Arrests justified

The Kremlin routinely dismisses Navalny as a trouble-maker with no political backing. Russia’s representative to the ECHR, deputy justice minister Mikhail Galperin, argued during a hearing earlier this year that Navalny’s arrests were all justified and that his unauthorized rallies put public security at risk. He suggested Navalny staged his arrests to get media attention.

Russia is obliged to carry out the court’s rulings as a member of the Council of Europe, the continent’s human rights watchdog. However, Russia has delayed implementing past rulings from the court and argued that it is encroaching on Russian judicial sovereignty.

About a third of the court’s cases last year involved Russia, and of 305 judgments concerning Russia in 2017, 293 found at least one rights violation.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May’s already tough task of persuading parliament to approve an agreement on Britain’s exit from the European Union took a hit Thursday as her Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab resigned.

“I cannot in good conscience support the terms proposed for our deal with the EU,” Raab said as he released a statement outlining his opposition to the agreement he helped negotiate.

Raab specifically objected to a key provision setting up a customs union that would eliminate the need for a hard border between Britain’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland while Britain and the EU work on a new trade deal.

He said not having a firm end date for such an arrangement would leave Britain without democratic control over laws governing its own territory, and would “severely prejudice” the future trade talks.

The British pound dropped sharply in value against the U.S. dollar after Raab’s resignation.

Speaking Thursday in parliament, opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn called the draft agreement a “huge and damaging failure.”

He said of Raab’s resignation, “What faith does that give anyone else in this place or in this country?”

​May defends deal

May defended the deal, telling lawmakers it would mean Britain would leave the European Union “in a smooth and orderly way.”

“It takes back control of our borders, law and money, it protects jobs, security and the integrity of the United Kingdom, and it delivers in ways that many said simply could not be done,” she said.

May must convince a majority in parliament to approve the agreement, but even before Raab’s resignation there were many critics, in both the camp that favors Britain leaving the EU and among those who would rather Britain remain a member.

She told parliament Thursday that failing to support the deal would only bring more uncertainty and division.

“Voting against the deal will bring us all back to square one,” she said.

May’s negotiation team has sought to keep Britain as close as possible to the EU when it leaves.  The pro-Brexit side wants a cleaner break that would give Britain more autonomy over its policies, particularly regarding trade.

Pro-EU lawmakers say the agreement puts Britain in a worse situation than existing policies.

Annmarie Elijah, associate director for the Centre for European Studies at the Australian National University, told VOA the chance of parliamentary approval “does not look promising,” and that the difficulties in the Brexit negotiations go all the way back to the 2016 referendum that set the process in motion.

“When the vote actually took place there was very little detail put around what in fact Brexit would look like,” Elijah said.  “And I think we’re now all paying the price for that in the sense that it is very difficult to know exactly how you can unwind more than 40 years of economic integration across so many public policy sectors and do that in an orderly way.”

​EU meeting Nov. 25

On the European Union side, there is much less drama in the proceedings.

European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday that EU leaders would meet November 25 to finalize the Brexit deal.

He made the announcement after talks with EU Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier, and Tusk and praised what he said was a deal that limits the damage of Britain leaving the European Union while securing the interests of the remaining member states.

“Since the very beginning, we have had no doubt that Brexit is a lose-lose situation, and that our negotiations are only about damage control,” Tusk said.

He laid out a basic timeline of how the European Union will progress toward the November 25 meeting, with EU ambassadors gathering in the coming days to assess the agreement and their government’s back home evaluating it next week.

Painless as possible

Tusk said the summit to formalize the deal will go forward “if nothing extraordinary happens.”

“Let me say this to our British friends.  As much as I am sad to see you leave, I will do everything to make this farewell the least painful possible, both for you and for us,” he said.

The uncertainty on the British side leaves several options for how the situation will play out in the coming months.  If Britain’s parliament and EU members agree, then the terms negotiated by the two sides will govern their relations going forward.

If the agreement fails the votes, there could be a so-called “No-deal Brexit,” a potentially chaotic ending that would bring divorce without terms on matters such as trade and immigration.

Other outcomes could oust May as prime minister or bring another referendum like the one in 2016.

“When you strip away the detail, the choice before us is clear,” May said after the Cabinet meeting.  “This deal, which delivers on the vote of the referendum, which brings back control of our money, laws and borders; ends free movement; protects jobs, security and our union; or leave with no deal; or no Brexit at all.”
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The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed on a deal that will give London’s vast financial center only a basic level of access to the bloc’s markets after Brexit. 

The agreement will be based on the EU’s existing system of financial market access known as equivalence — a watered-down relationship that officials in Brussels have said all along is the best arrangement that Britain can expect. 

The EU grants equivalence to many countries and has so far not agreed to Britain’s demands for major concessions such as offering broader access and safeguards on withdrawing access, neither of which is mentioned in the draft deal. 

“It is appalling,” said Graham Bishop, a former banker and consultant who has advised EU institutions on financial services. The draft text “is particularly vague but emphasizes the EU’s ability to take decisions in its own interests. … This is code for the UK being a pure rule taker.” 

Britain’s decision to leave the EU has undermined London’s position as the leading international finance hub. Britain’s financial services sector, the biggest source of its exports and tax revenue, has been struggling to find a way to preserve the existing flow of trading after it leaves the EU. 

Many top bankers fear Brexit will slowly undermine London’s position. Global banks have already reorganized some operations ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union, due on March 29. 

Currently, inside the EU, banks and insurers in Britain enjoy unfettered access to customers across the bloc in all financial activities. 

No commercial bank lending

Equivalence, however, covers a more limited range of business and excludes major activities such as commercial bank lending. Law firm Hogan Lovells has estimated that equivalence rules cover just a quarter of all EU cross-border financial services business. 

Such an arrangement would give Britain a similar level of access to the EU as major U.S. and Japanese firms, while tying it to many EU finance rules for years to come. 

Many bankers and politicians have been hoping London could secure a preferential deal giving it deep access to the bloc’s markets. 

Under current equivalence rules, access is patchy and can be cut off by the EU within 30 days in some cases. Britain had called for a far longer notice period. 

The draft deal is likely to persuade banks, insurers and asset managers to stick with plans to move some activities to the EU to ensure they maintain access to the bloc’s markets. 

Britain is currently home to the world’s largest number of banks, and about 6 trillion euros ($6.79 trillion) or 37 percent of Europe’s financial assets are managed in the U.K. capital, almost twice the amount of its nearest rival, Paris. 

London also dominates Europe’s 5.2 trillion-euro investment banking industry. 

Rachel Kent, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells who has advised companies on future trading relations with the EU, said the draft deal did not rule out improved equivalence in the future. 

“I don’t see that any doors have been closed,” she said. “It is probably as much as we could hope for at this stage.” 
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Britain’s Prince Charles is turning 70 with a family birthday party, and a firm commitment to his environmentalist views.

Charles is due to have tea on Wednesday with a group of people who are also turning 70 this year, before a Buckingham Palace party thrown by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The prince’s Clarence House office released two family portraits to mark the birthday. The photos by Chris Jackson show Charles with his wife Camilla, sons Prince William and Prince Harry, their wives Kate and Meghan and his grandchildren: 6-year-old Prince George, 3-year-old Princess Charlotte and 6-month-old Prince Louis.

The environmentalist prince writes in the latest edition of Country Life magazine, urging people not to take the natural world for granted but to “think ahead to what our grandchildren will want and need.”
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Britain is to allow citizens from all Commonwealth countries to join its armed forces — even if they have never lived in Britain. The new rules are aimed at tackling a recruitment crisis. But campaigners want clarity over the citizenship rights of the new recruits after they leave the services.

Touring Africa earlier this month, Prince Charles paid tribute to soldiers of the former Empire who fought for Britain.

Out of the empire came the Commonwealth — and it is from those countries that Britain is now looking to recruit.

The government says all roles and ranks will be open to citizens from all Commonwealth countries who are aged 18 or over. It’s aimed at plugging a gap in recruitment — with a shortfall in armed forces personnel estimated at over 8,000, says Paul Barnes, visiting fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

“It seems that they are not coming forward in the numbers that they used to. And with the gap opening in manning, we need to find a rapid fill. And that rapid fill is often best found from the Commonwealth,” he said.

Previously most Commonwealth recruits had to have lived in Britain for at least five years. That has now been dropped — and the armed forces hope to recruit an extra 1,350 people every year through the scheme. Barnes says they will bring added value.

“Commonwealth soldiers will come with a high level of education, and they will easily fit into those specialist roles that are more difficult. But also you gain a strength in terms of diversity, a strength in terms of diversity of view, in decision-making, in our perspective of the world, our cultural understanding,” he said.

Commonwealth recruits also qualify to become British residents after four years, or citizens after five years’ service  — a major pull factor for signing up.

Doctor Hugh Milroy is CEO of Veterans Aid — which has supported dozens of former Commonwealth soldiers who struggled to gain citizenship.

“Under the old system, and I really do hope this has been picked up, you had no access to benefits, and you had no right to work. So in fact for many years, we were stopping people starving,”  he said. “My advice to anyone coming here to join the armed forces is, this is almost the first thing you want to deal with as soon as you arrive here and join the armed forces. Don’t wait till the end, because it takes so long to do.”

The British Ministry of Defense told VOA that citizenship requirements had not changed — and new Commonwealth recruits would have to meet the same criteria as before.

 
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Britain is to allow citizens from all Commonwealth countries to join its armed forces – even if they have never lived in Britain. The new rules are aimed at tackling a recruitment crisis. But as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, activists want clarity over the citizenship rights of the new recruits after they leave the services.
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The European Union’s highest court has ruled that the taste of a food cannot be protected by copyright.

The European Court of Justice said Tuesday “the taste of a food product cannot be identified with precision of objectivity,” thus making it ineligible “for copyright protection.”

Dutch cheese maker Levola had argued that a rival company copied its herbed spread called Heksenkaas or witches’ cheese. The company claimed Heksenkaas was a work protected by copyright and asked the Dutch courts to insist that the rival firm cease production and sale of its cheese.

But the judges ruled that unlike books, movies, songs and the like, the taste of food depends on personal preferences and the context in which the food is consumed, “which are subjective and variable.”

“Accordingly, the court concludes that the taste of a food product cannot be classified as a ‘work,’ and consequently is not eligible for copyright protection under the directive,” the judges said.

This is not the first time the European Court of Justice had to settle disputes about food.

In July, it ruled Nestle could not trademark the four-finger shape of its KitKat chocolate bars.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Tuesday for an integrated European Union military, echoing language used by French President Emmanuel Macron last week that infuriated U.S. President Donald Trump.

Merkel told the European Parliament such an army would not undermine the U.S.-led military alliance NATO but would be complementary to it, remarks that were met with loud applause in the legislature though also with boos from nationalist members.

“The times when we could rely on others are over. This means we Europeans have to take our fate fully into our own hands,” Merkel said. “We should work on a vision of one day establishing a real European army.”

Macron’s call, which reflected a broad trend of EU thinking but is not universally accepted, was meant to show European willingness to meet U.S. demands that Europe do more for its own security and rely less on America’s security umbrella.

However, on Twitter on November 9, Trump accused Macron of seeking to develop the EU’s own military to defend itself from the United States, which EU and French officials said was a misunderstanding.

On Tuesday Trump took aim at Macron again, blasting France over its near-defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and Macron’s approval ratings.

In his remarks on November 6, Macron had been referring to computer hackers who could attack Europe from anywhere, including from inside the United States, officials said.

First proposed in the 1950s and taken up four years ago by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as a response to fraying EU unity, an EU armed forces is seen as strengthening the global power of the bloc, which is an economic giant but a geopolitical minnow.

With Britain’s pending departure from the EU, there may be more momentum for remaining member states to find common ground on defense, although there remain divisions.

Supporters of a European defense union say the EU has struggled in military and humanitarian missions in the Balkans, Libya and Africa, and that it was caught off guard by Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

“No place for nationalism”

Merkel’s address comes at a time when the EU is searching for answers to a U.S. president who views the EU with contempt, to the rise of illiberal democracies and nationalist parties within its borders, and to Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

She made appeals for tolerance and solidarity, saying “nationalism and egotism should no longer have a place in Europe” to a sustained applause.

As a deadline looms for Italy’s euroskeptic government to re-submit budget plans to the European Union, Merkel said the euro zone would only work if all member states meet their treaty responsibilities.

“Our common currency can only function if every individual member fulfils their responsibility for sustainable finances,” Merkel said, adding that otherwise the strength and the stability of the euro zone were at risk.

“We want to extend a hand to Italy,” she later said. “But Italy also agreed to all sorts of rules and it can’t just tear them up.”

Merkel dominated European politics for over a decade, but she is now a diminished force, weakened by the fragility of her coalition and the rise of the far-right in Germany. She announced in late October that she would step down as leader of her party, though remain chancellor.

Her foot-dragging over far-reaching reforms to the eurozone has frustrated the energetic Macron. In the summer, they agreed to a budget for the single currency area but failed to deliver any big-bang reforms. Few concrete steps have been taken since.

On Tuesday, she kept her vision for deeper monetary cooperation vague: “We need to develop our monetary policy better. We’re working on a banking union,” she said. “We have to look at responsibility and control, a banking union and then later a European insurance system.”

Merkel also trained her sights on Poland and Hungary, two countries whose leaders other member states worry are undercutting democratic institutions.

The European Parliament in September voted to sanction Hungary for flouting EU rules on democracy, civil rights and corruption, while concerns have grown in the EU over Warsaw’s accelerated judicial overhaul.

“Solidarity is always linked to commitments of the community, and the principles based on rule of law,” Merkel said.
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NATO is developing new high-tech tools, such as the ability to 3-D-print parts for weapons and deliver them by drone, as it scrambles to retain a competitive edge over Russia, China and other would-be battlefield adversaries. 

Gen. Andre Lanata, who took over as head of the NATO transformation command in September, told a conference in Berlin that his command demonstrated over 21 “disruptive” projects during military exercises in Norway this month. 

He urged startups as well as traditional arms manufacturers to work with the Atlantic alliance to boost innovation, as rapid and easy access to emerging technologies was helping adversaries narrow NATO’s long-standing advantage. 

Lanata’s command hosted its third “innovation challenge” in tandem with the conference this week, where 10 startups and smaller firms presented ideas for defeating swarms of drones on the ground and in the air. 

Winner from Belgium

Belgian firm ALX Systems, which builds civilian surveillance drones, won this year’s challenge.

Its CEO, Geoffrey Mormal, said small companies like his often struggled with cumbersome weapons procurement processes. 

“It’s a very hot topic, so perhaps it will help to enable quicker decisions,” he told Reuters. 

Lanata said NATO was focused on areas such as artificial intelligence, connectivity, quantum computing, big data and hypervelocity, but also wants to learn from DHL and others how to improve the logistics of moving weapons and troops. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said increasing military spending by NATO members would help tackle some of the challenges, but efforts were also needed to reduce widespread duplication and fragmentation in the European defense sector. 

Participants also met behind closed doors with chief executives from 12 of the 15 biggest arms makers in Europe. 
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German states have drafted a list of demands aimed at tightening a law that requires social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to remove hate speech from their sites, the Handelblatt newspaper reported Monday.

Justice ministers from the states will submit their proposed revisions to the German law called NetzDG at a meeting with Justice Minister Katarina Barley on Thursday, the newspaper said, saying it had obtained a draft of the document.

The law, which came into full force on Jan. 1, is a highly ambitious effort to control what appears on social media and it has drawn a range of criticism.

While the German states are focused on concerns about how complaints are processed, other officials have called for changes following criticism that too much content was being blocked.

The states’ justice ministers are calling for changes that would make it easier for people who want to complain about banned content such as pro-Nazi ideology to find the required forms on social media platforms.

They also want to fine social media companies up to 500,000 euros ($560,950) for providing “meaningless replies” to queries from law enforcement authorities, the newspaper said.

Till Steffen, the top justice official in Hamburg and a member of the Greens party, told the newspaper that the law had in some cases proven to be “a paper tiger.”

“If we want to effectively limit hate and incitement on the internet, we have to give the law more bite and close the loopholes,” he told the paper. “For instance, it cannot be the case that some platforms hide their complaint forms so that no one can find them.”

Facebook in July said it had deleted hundreds of offensive posts since implementation of the law, which foresees fines of up to 50 million euros ($56.10 million) for failure to comply.
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The Greater Paris region will become a low-emission zone from next summer, which will limit the circulation of old diesel cars, the regional authority decided on Monday.

The Metropole du Grand Paris council said on its Twitter feed it had voted to ban diesel cars registered before Dec. 31, 2000 from the area within the A86 second ring-road, which includes Paris and 79 municipalities around it, a region with 5.61 million inhabitants.

The ban will use France’s new “Crit’Air” vignette system, which identifies cars’ age and pollution level with color-coded stickers. Cars with the Crit’Air 5 sticker (1997 to 2000-registered diesels) as well as cars without a sticker will be banned.

The council plans to gradually tighten regulations in order to allow only electric or hydrogen-fueled cars on Greater Paris roads by 2030. In central Paris, pre-2000 diesels have been banned since July 2017.

Fifteen French metropolitan areas including Lyon, Nice, Aix-Marseille and Toulouse last month agreed to install or reinforce low-emission zones by 2020. The French government hopes this will prevent European Union sanctions over non-respect of European air quality standards.
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Britain and the European Union appeared to be inching toward agreement on Brexit on Monday, but British Prime Minister Theresa May faced intensifying pressure from her divided Conservative government that could yet scuttle a deal.

Britain leaves the EU on March 29 — the first country ever to do so — but a deal must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for the U.K. and European Parliaments to sign off. May faces increasing domestic pressure over her proposals for an agreement following the resignation of another government minister last week.

The British leader had been hoping to present a draft deal to her Cabinet this week. But no Brexit breakthrough was announced Monday after talks between European affairs ministers. The two sides are locked in technical negotiations to try to bridge the final gaps in a move laden with heavy political and economic consequences. 

May said talks were in their “endgame” but that negotiating a divorce agreement after more than four decades of British EU membership was “immensely difficult.”

May told an audience at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London that “we are working extremely hard, through the night, to make progress on the remaining issues in the Withdrawal Agreement, which are significant.

“Both sides want to reach an agreement,” May said, though she added she wouldn’t sign up to “agreement at any cost.”

The main obstacle to a deal is how to keep goods flowing smoothly across the border between EU country Ireland and Northern Ireland in the U.K.

Both sides have committed to avoid a hard border with costly and time-consuming checks that would hamper business. Any new customs posts on the border could also re-ignite lingering sectarian tensions. But Britain and the EU haven’t agreed on how to achieve that goal.

“Clearly this is a very important week for Brexit negotiations,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told reporters after the meeting in Brussels. “The two negotiating teams have really intensified their engagement … There is still clearly work to do.”

And Martin Callanan, a minister in Britain’s Brexit department, said all involved were “straining every sinew to make sure that we get a deal but we have to get a deal that is right for the U.K., right for the EU and one that would be acceptable to the U.K. Parliament.”

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier didn’t speak to reporters Monday and a planned news conference with him was canceled.

Instead, EU headquarters issued a short statement saying that Barnier explained to the ministers that “intense negotiating efforts continue, but an agreement has not been reached yet.”

Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the two sides “are getting closer to each other.”

“But in negotiations there is only a deal if there is full agreement,” Blok said. “There is only a 100-percent deal. There is not a 90-percent deal or a 95-percent deal.”

Earlier, France’s EU affairs minister, Nathalie Loiseau, stepped up pressure on May. “The ball is in the British court. It is a question of a British political decision,” she said.

The EU is awaiting Barnier’s signal as to whether sufficient progress has been made to call an EU summit to seal a deal. 

Rumors have swirled of a possible top-level meeting at the end of November. But Austrian EU affairs minister Gernot Bluemel, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said “so far progress is not sufficient to call in and set up another (summit).”

In recent days there have been signs of progress behind the scenes, but all parties have remained tight-lipped about the developments, given the politically charged atmosphere.

In Britain, pro-Brexit and pro-EU politicians alike warned May that the deal she seeks is likely to be shot down by Parliament.

Boris Johnson, a staunch Brexit supporter, wrote in a column for Monday’s Daily Telegraph that May’s plan to adhere closely to EU regulations in return for a trade deal and an open Irish border amounts to “total surrender” to the bloc. 

The proposed terms are scarcely more popular with advocates of continued EU membership.

Former Education Secretary Justine Greening on Monday called May’s proposals the “worst of all worlds,” and said the public should be allowed to vote on Britain’s departure again.

“We should be planning as to how we can put this final say on Brexit in the hands of the British people,” Greening told the BBC.

Johnson’s younger brother, Jo Johnson, resigned last week backing calls for a second referendum on whether the country should leave the EU. May has consistently rejected the idea of another nationwide vote on Brexit.
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