European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 435

On March 05 2016 22:44 oneofthem wrote:
young people going to thailand to enjoy the hot...you get the point

Pope Francis said Europe must not neglect its historical roots of cultural exchange in reference to the wave of migration from the Middle East to the EU, in comments published on Friday by the Vatican's official daily Italian-language newspaper "L'Ossevatore Romano."
"If Europe wants to rejuvenate itself, it must rediscover its cultural roots … But forgetting its own history, Europe weakens itself. And that's when it risks becoming an empty place," the pope told Jean-Pierre Denis, editor-in-chief of the French magazine "La Vie."
"Today, we can speak of an Arab invasion. It is a social fact," the pope said in response to a question on why he believes Europe risks becoming an "empty place." He immediately added that anyone looking for a "'great change' - those dearest to the far-right - will remain disappointed."
"How many invasions has Europe experienced in the course of its history? It has always been able to overcome them; moving forward and finding itself better through the exchange between cultures," the pope said, in an apparent reference to Europe's Renaissance, which was partially fostered through the preservation of Greek philosophical works by Muslim scholars in Spain and elsewhere in the Arab world.
EU member states have struggled to form a comprehensive strategy to handle an influx of asylum seekers and migrants - many from war-torn countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa - that saw more than 1 million people arriving in the 28-nation bloc in 2015.
Ex-Soviet satellite states, including Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, have told Brussels that they refuse to take in more asylum seekers under an EU plan to relocate refugees according to a quota system.
"Sometimes I wonder where you'll find a [French Foreign Minister Robert] Schumann or [German Chancellor Konrad] Adenauer, these great founders of the European Union," the pope said.
Countering populism, extremism
The pope responded to the rise of far-right populism in Europe, which has given way to such movements as Germany's "anti-Islamization" PEGIDA as well as anti-immigrant political parties, by stating that ideologies are the "poison of politics."
"When a country closes itself to a healthy notion of politics, it ends up being a prisoner hostage to ideological colonization. Ideologies are the poison of politics. You have the right be right or left. But ideology takes away freedom.
"If you want to avoid everyone turning towards extremes, you must nurture friendship and the pursuit of the common good, beyond political affiliations."
Francis also announced that the Vatican is preparing a meeting with officials from al-Azhar University in Cairo, known as the Muslim world's most prominent institution of Sunni thought.

On March 06 2016 01:45 Nyxisto wrote:

The hot saunas obviously. I'd also like to see a source for the claim that people are being shot in Sweden on a weekly basis

EU announces first projects under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey: €95 million to be provided for immediate educational and humanitarian assistance

Brussels, 4 March 2016

Today the European Commission announced the first projects under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, pledging €55 million to address the immediate needs of Syrian school-children in Turkey for access to formal education, and €40 million in humanitarian aid through the World Food Programme.

Today the European Commission announced the first projects under the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, pledging €55 million to address the immediate needs of Syrian school-children in Turkey for access to formal education, and €40 million in humanitarian aid through the World Food Programme (WFP) working in close cooperation with the Turkish Red Crescent.

Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations announced the funding while visiting refugee camps in south-east Turkey in the provinces of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş, where he also met with political representatives and visited an EU-funded school in Kahramanmaraş.

European finance ministers will once again deliberate over how to treat Greece’s ongoing debt crisis this week despite the country desperately grappling with refugees pouring across its borders.

A meeting on Monday of finance ministers from the eurozone will determine whether creditors are to be given the green light to complete a long-delayed review of Greek economic recovery plans.

The review has been held up by disagreement among lenders over how much more Athens needs to cut from public spending. It is seen as key to reviving Greece’s banking sector and restoring business and consumer confidence.

“I think the situation right now is more dangerous than it was last summer,” the former finance minister Gikas Hardouvelis told the Guardian.

“Then it was a question of the political will of a few people,” he said, referring to the tumultuous negotiations that paved the way to Athens receiving a third bailout in August. “Now it’s a question of implementing reforms and working hard and if a government doesn’t believe in them and implements them begrudgingly, progress becomes very difficult.”

Monday’s meeting comes at an especially sensitive time. Greek unemployment remains the highest in Europe at almost 25% – and just under 50% among the young. Many companies are relocating to Bulgaria, Albania, Romania and Cyprus as a result of over-taxation.

On March 08 2016 00:18 Ghostcom wrote:
Mind linking the article? While Malmö has taken a turn for the worse it is highly hyperbolic to call it (or Sweden in general) dangerous. That said, it is time Sweden wakes up and smell reality instead of acting like there are no problems with their
integration effort.

On March 08 2016 04:37 zatic wrote:
Can we please stop posting entertainment pieces instead of news? If you are addicted to yellow press entertainment by all means read it but don't pollute this forum further.

On March 09 2016 02:43 TMG26 wrote:


It is not pollution, it is a conversation starter, people check the yellow articles and then go find the real numbers and full speeches.

Ofc, real news would be better. Or maybe not, who knows.

On March 10 2016 23:15 iPlaY.NettleS wrote:
So Draghi just lowered interest rates and increased the QE buying of bonds.We are supposed to believe this is a temporary thing? It will only get crazier from here!

Europe is collapsing economically, socially, culturally.Prepare in these dark times.

The EU summit which ended this morning (8 March) failed to reach a deal with Turkey to stem the unprecedented migrant crisis, as many heads of state and government opposed German Chancellor Merkel’s attempt to impose her own deal with Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will return to another EU summit next week on 17-18 March. A vast majority of the leaders present were reported to be frustrated, even outraged, by an attempt to substitute EU decision-making with a controversial deal brokered by Berlin.

A diplomat from the Visegrad Four group spoke of “the big frustration” of most of the EU heads of state present after Merkel and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, which holds the current rotating EU Council presidency, substituted the draft agreement crafted by the 28 ambassadors with a deal they agreed on late on 6 March with Davutoğlu. Council President Donald Tusk was reported to be the most frustrated of all.

Indeed, the EU ambassadors had drafted a declaration that was expected to be adopted at the summit on 7 March. European leaders were expected to declare on Monday that they will “close the Balkans route in the coming days,” ending the “wave-through approach” to refugees that has caused chaos and tension in Europe.

But the trilateral pre-summit meeting produced a completely different text, according to which Turkey would readmit all migrants crossing into the Greek islands from its territory. For every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian will be resettled from Turkey to the EU member states. This formula, called “one for one”, means that if NATO or another force intercepts a boat with, say, 50 people, among whom 10 are Syrian, all of them will be rescued and sent to Turkey. Then the EU will be obligated to take 10 Syrians (not the same people, though) from Turkey and send them by plane to EU countries.

In exchange, the EU would commit to cover the costs of the readmission process, pay an additional €3 billion for refugees in Turkey living outside the camps, speed up lifting the visa requirement for Turkish nationals by June of this year, open five negotiation chapters in Turkey’s EU accession bid and resettle Syrians from Turkey to EU countries under the “one for one” formula.