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Tag: European Union

  • Macron hits New Orleans’ French Quarter, meets with Musk

    Macron hits New Orleans’ French Quarter, meets with Musk

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron arrived Friday in Louisiana, the American state most closely aligned historically with his country, to celebrate their longstanding cultural ties and discuss energy policy and climate change.

    Macron met with political leaders and strolled through New Orleans’ historic French Quarter, the heart of the city, stopping to talk and shake hands with bystanders. He paused next to a street brass band and nodded and clapped as they played “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

    Macron also said he met with billionaire Elon Musk for what he called a “clear and honest discussion” about Twitter, days after a top European Union official warned the social media platform’s new owner that the company must do more to protect users from harmful content.

    The visit is the first by a French president since Valery Giscard d’Estaing traveled to Lafayette and New Orleans in 1976. The only other French president to visit Louisiana was Charles de Gaulle in 1960.

    Macron’s itinerary started at Jackson Square. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell walked him to the Historic New Orleans Collection where Macron discussed climate change impacts with Gov. John Bel Edwards. The French president also met with energy company representatives.

    “This state visit enables us to put France, and with France Europe, at the heart of the American agenda. That’s a good thing,” Macron told journalists in French, according to a translation from pool reporters.

    Macron told Edwards he was overcome by the reception in the city.

    “What I think this signifies is a special relationship we have with France. It is historical and cultural,” Edwards said.

    Edwards, a Democrat, has been outspoken about the perils of climate change in a state where tens of thousands of jobs are tied to the oil and gas industry. This makes the stop to New Orleans “very emblematic” of climate-related efforts, French officials said.

    During a brief meeting in the presence of Macron, the governor and the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, signed a memorandum of understanding “to further expand and enhance the strong cultural connections between France and Louisiana in the areas of the economy, clean energy and the environment,” Edwards’ office said.

    “Like me, President Macron believes that climate change is real,” Edwards said.

    The governor’s office said the agreement formally creates a Louisiana-based position for a French technical expert on the transition to clean energy.

    During Macron’s visit to Washington on Thursday, he and President Joe Biden released a joint statement expressing “their deep concern regarding the growing impact of climate change and nature loss” and said they “intend to continue to galvanize domestic and global action to address it.”

    On Friday evening Macron posted a photo on Twitter of his encounter with Musk, the two men sitting across from each other at a table in an empty room. He said he and the Tesla CEO discussed “future green industrial projects,” and also the social media platform.

    “Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” the president said in one of a series of tweets.

    Earlier this week Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for digital policy, told Musk that Twitter will have to significantly increase efforts to comply with new rules known as the Digital Services Act that take effect next year, or potentially face hefty fines or even a ban in the continental bloc.

    Louisiana is named for Louis XIV, the famous Sun King who ruled France for 72 years starting in 1643. New Orleans is where the Louisiana Purchase was finalized. The deal transferred the Louisiana Territory, which encompassed much of what is today the central United States, from France to the U.S. in 1803.

    Macron’s New Orleans visit included a stop with first lady Brigitte Macron at the Cabildo, where ceremonies marking the land transfer were held.

    Macron was also scheduled to visit the New Orleans Museum of Art and dine downtown before departing.

    Holding the U.S. and French flags, Christiane Geisler, who was born in France and moved to Louisiana six years ago, was one of the spectators who stood in the streets hoping to see the president Friday. She was thrilled that she got to shake Macron’s hand and have a brief conversation with him in French.

    “For me, when I moved here, it had a good feeling of French,” Geisler said.

    The French Quarter, 13 blocks long and roughly six wide, was first settled in the 1700s and was later ravaged twice by fire. It best known as a tourist spot and commercial district where a reimagined French Market, fine restaurants, antique shops and art galleries coexist alongside T-shirt shops, strip joints and bars blasting live music by cover bands.

    ___

    Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

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  • G-7 and European Union impose $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil

    G-7 and European Union impose $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil

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    The Group of Seven nations and Australia agreed Friday to adopt a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, acting shortly after the European Union reached unanimous agreement on the same price earlier in the day.

    After a last-minute flurry of negotiations, the EU presidency, held by the Czech Republic, tweeted that “ambassadors have just reached an agreement on price cap for Russian seaborne #oil.” 

    Europe needed to set the discounted price that other nations will pay by Monday, when an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea and a ban on insurance for those supplies take effect.

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that the agreement will help nations participating in the plan achieve the goal of restricting Putin’s “primary source of revenue for his illegal war in Ukraine while simultaneously preserving the stability of global energy supplies.”

    “Today’s announcement is the culmination of months of effort by our coalition, and I commend the hard work of our partners in achieving this outcome,” she said.

    The price cap, which was led by the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, aims to prevent a sudden loss of Russian oil to the world that could lead to a new surge in energy prices and further fuel inflation.

    Poland long held up an agreement, seeking to set the cap as low as possible. Following more than 24 hours of deliberations, when other EU nations had signaled they would back the deal, Warsaw finally relented late Friday.

    “Crippling Russia’s energy revenues is at the core of stopping Russia’s war machine,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said, adding that she was happy the cap was pushed down a few extra dollars from earlier proposals. She said every dollar the cap was reduced amounted to $2 billion less for Russia’s war chest.

    “It is no secret that we wanted the price to be lower,” Kallas added, highlighting the differences within the EU. “A price between 30-40 dollars is what would substantially hurt Russia. However, this is the best compromise we could get.”


    MoneyWatch: U.S. gives Chevron temporary approval to pump oil in Venezuela

    03:20

    Cap similar to market price

    The $60 figure sets the cap near the current price of Russia’s crude, which recently fell below $60 a barrel. Some criticize that as not low enough to cut into one of Russia’s main sources of income. It is still a big discount to international benchmark Brent, which slid to $85.48 a barrel Friday, but could be high enough for Moscow to keep selling even while rejecting the idea of a cap.

    There is a big risk to the global oil market of losing large amounts of crude from the world’s No. 2 producer. It could drive up gasoline prices for drivers worldwide, which has stirred political turmoil for U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders in other nations. Europe is already mired in an energy crisis, with governments facing protests over the soaring cost of living, while developing nations are even more vulnerable to shifts in energy costs.

    But the West has faced increasing pressure to target one of Russia’s main moneymakers — oil — to slash the funds flowing into Putin’s war chest and hurt Russia’s economy as the war in Ukraine drags into a ninth month. The costs of oil and natural gas spiked after demand rebounded from the pandemic and then the invasion of Ukraine unsettled energy markets, feeding Russia’s coffers.

    U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday that “the cap itself will have the desired effect on limiting Mr. Putin’s ability to profit off of oil sales and limit his ability to continue to use that money to fund his war machine.”

    He touted the EU’s consensus, saying the $60-per-barrel cap “is appropriate.”


    Oil cartel OPEC+ plans to cut production quotas by 2 million barrels per day

    01:54

    Putin promised retaliation

    More uncertainty is ahead, however. COVID-19 restrictions in China and a slowing global economy could mean less thirst for oil. That is what OPEC and allied oil-producing countries, including Russia, pointed to in cutting back supplies to the world in October. The OPEC+ alliance is scheduled to meet again Sunday.

    OPEC’s move competes with the EU embargo that could take more oil supplies off the market, raising fears of a supply squeeze and higher prices. Russia exports roughly 5 million barrels of oil a day.

    Putin has said he would not sell oil under a price cap and would retaliate against nations that implement the measure. However, Russia has already rerouted much of its supply to India, China and other Asian countries at discounted prices because Western customers have avoided it even before the EU embargo.

    Most insurers are located in the EU or the United Kingdom and could be required to participate in the price cap.

    Russia also could sell oil off the books by using “dark fleet” tankers with obscure ownership. Oil could be transferred from one ship to another and mixed with oil of similar quality to disguise its origin.

    Even under those circumstances, the cap would make it “more costly, time-consuming and cumbersome” for Russia to sell oil around the restrictions, said Maria Shagina, a sanctions expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin.

    Robin Brooks, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance in Washington, said the price cap should have been implemented when oil was hovering around $120 per barrel this summer.

    “Since then, obviously oil prices have fallen and global recession is a real thing,” he said. “The reality is that it is unlikely to be binding given where oil prices are now.”

    European leaders touted their work on the price cap, a brainchild of U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

    “The EU agreement on an oil price cap, coordinated with G7 and others, will reduce Russia’s revenues significantly,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. “It will help us stabilize global energy prices, benefiting emerging economies around the world.”

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  • Official says over 10,000 Ukrainian troops killed in war

    Official says over 10,000 Ukrainian troops killed in war

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    KYIV, Ukraine — A top adviser to Ukraine’s president has cited military chiefs as saying 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the country’s nine-month struggle against Russia’s invasion, a rare comment on such figures and far below estimates of Ukrainian casualties from Western leaders.

    Russian forces kept up rocket attacks on infrastructure and airstrikes against Ukrainian troop positions along the contact line, the Ukrainian general staff said Friday, adding that Moscow’s military push has focused on a dozen towns including Bakhmut and Avdiivka — key targets for Russia in the embattled east.

    At least three civilians were killed and 16 wounded in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian president’s office reported on Friday. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the office’s deputy head, said on Telegram that Russian forces had attacked nine regions in the southeast of Ukraine using heavy artillery, rockets and aircraft.

    Late Thursday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, relayed new figures about Ukrainian soldiers killed in battle, while noting that the number of injured troops was higher and civilian casualty counts were “significant.”

    “We have official figures from the general staff, we have official figures from the top command, and they amount to between 10,000 and 12,500-13,000 killed,” Podolyak told Channel 24.

    The Ukrainian military has not confirmed such figures and it was a rare instance of a Ukrainian official providing such a count. The last dates back to late August, when the head of the armed forces said that nearly 9,000 military personnel had been killed. In June, Podolyak said that up to 200 soldiers were dying each day, in some of the most intense fighting and bloodshed this year.

    On Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive Commission, said 100,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed before her office corrected her comments — calling them inaccurate and saying that the figure referred to both killed and injured.

    Last month, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that as many as 40,000 Ukrainian civilians and “well over” 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the war so far. He added that it was the “same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.”

    The U.N. human rights office, in its latest weekly update published Monday, said it had recorded 6,655 civilians killed and 10,368 injured, but has acknowledged that its tally includes only casualties that it has confirmed and likely far understates the actual toll.

    Ukrainians have been bracing for freezing winter temperatures as Russia’s campaign has recently hit infrastructure including power plants and electrical transformers, leaving many without heat, water and electricity.

    Ukraine has faced a blistering onslaught of Russian artillery fire and drone attacks since early October. The shelling has been especially intense in southern Kherson since Russian forces withdrew and Ukraine’s army reclaimed the southern city almost three weeks ago.

    Kherson’s regional governor said Friday that three people were killed and seven injured in shelling on Thursday. The Russian army hit residential areas of the city of Kherson, part of which remained without electricity after power was knocked out by Russian strikes Thursday.

    In the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian shelling has intensified significantly. The Russian army is seeking to encircle the key town of Bakhmut by capturing several surrounding villages and cutting off an important road.

    Russian strikes targeting towns located across the Dnieper river from the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also were reported. And in northeastern Kharkiv province, officials said that Russian shelling injured two women.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Security meeting overshadowed by Russia’s war, ban on Lavrov

    Security meeting overshadowed by Russia’s war, ban on Lavrov

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    LODZ, Poland — Europe’s largest security organization, one founded to maintain peace and stability on the continent, opened a meeting Thursday with strong denunciations of Russia’s war against Ukraine, a conflict that is among the greatest challenges the body has faced in its nearly half-century of existence.

    The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been a rare international forum — along with the United Nations — where Russia and Western powers have been able meet to discuss security matters, and the meeting in Lodz, Poland, is the first high-level meeting of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

    But since the war began, the OSCE has been another forum for the bitter clash to play out between Russia and the West, even as the OSCE’s own powers to help resolve conflict have waned.

    Notably absent was Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who wanted to join the meeting but was banned by Poland, the current chair of the OSCE, from entering the country. Poland is a member of the 27-member European Union, which has put Lavrov on a sanctions list.

    Lavrov himself denounced the ban on Thursday.

    “I can say responsibly that Poland’s anti-chairmanship of the OSCE will take the most miserable place ever in this organization’s history,” Lavrov said. “Nobody has ever caused such damage to the OSCE while being at its helm.”

    “Our Polish neighbors have been digging a grave for the organization by destroying the last remains of the consensus culture,” he said in a video call with reporters.

    The Polish chairman in office, Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, said he had a responsibility to defend the OSCE’s “fundamental principles,” and argued that it was not Poland but Russia which has hollowed out the organization by blocking much of its work. He accused Russia of spreading disinformation against Poland.

    “I would say it’s outrageous to hear Russia accusing the chairmanship of pushing the OSCE into the abyss, destroying its foundations and breaking its procedural rules,” Rau said.

    The OSCE’s effectiveness has been harmed by the war in Ukraine. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the OSCE acted as a mediator in Ukraine, negotiating the peace deals for eastern Ukraine following a Russian-backed separatist war that began there in 2014.

    The Vienna-headquartered OSCE, founded in 1975, also is engaged in conflict prevention efforts in other places, including Moldova, the Western Balkans, the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

    Also missing from the meeting in Lodz was Belarus Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, who died suddenly last weekend at the age of 64 and was buried earlier this week. Belarusian authorities didn’t give the cause of Makei’s death, and he wasn’t known to suffer from any chronic illness, triggering speculation about possible foul play.

    Officials at the conference lamented the loss of the security order in Europe which had prevailed since the end of World War II.

    “For the first time since the end of World War II, we are dealing with such a glaring, armed act against the principles that we all voluntarily agreed to in order to prevent the outbreak of another war in Europe,” Polish President Andrzej Duda told the gathered representatives.

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  • Huge trade partner and ‘systemic rival.’ Europe has a China problem | CNN Business

    Huge trade partner and ‘systemic rival.’ Europe has a China problem | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN Business
     — 

    Europe is becoming increasingly reliant on China for trade, and many of its top companies are eager to invest in the world’s second biggest economy despite the disruption caused by Covid lockdowns.

    But a souring relationship with an increasingly unpredictable Beijing, regret about the price Europe has paid for getting too close to Russia, and rising geopolitical tension has some EU officials considering whether the bloc should start to reduce its exposure.

    It’s a calculation EU Council President Charles Michel is weighing up Thursday as he visits Chinese leader Xi Jinping for talks aimed at shoring up diplomatic ties.

    A lot has happened since the last time an EU president — appointed by the leaders of the 27 EU member states — met with Xi in person four years ago.

    The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and tit-for-tat sanctions between China and EU lawmakers have strained relations since. The United States, which imposed controls on exports of semiconductors to China in October, is reportedly exerting pressure on Europe to adopt a similarly hard line.

    Michel’s spokesperson, Barend Leyts, said in a statement last week that Michel’s visit provides a “timely opportunity” for Europe and China to engage on matters of “common interest.” He did not specify which subjects would be discussed.

    But some within Europe are growing wary of close relations with China. The bloc has been badly burned this year by its historic reliance on Russia as its main energy supplier, and diversification has shot up the political agenda.

    Those concerns bubbled up last month when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flew to Beijing with a delegation of top business leaders to meet Xi, a move intended to shore up Germany’s second biggest export market after the US.

    The bloc is in a similar bind.

    “Any problems you have from a political and strategic level [between the EU and China], they tend to spill over to the economic level,” Ricardo Borges de Castro, associate director at the European Policy Centre, told CNN Business.

    Both sides have a lot invested in their partnership. The total value of the goods trade between China and Europe hit €696 billion ($732 billion) last year, up by nearly a quarter from 2019.

    China was the third largest destination for EU goods exports, accounting for 10% of the total, according to Eurostat data. China is Europe’s biggest source of imports, accounting for 22% in 2021.

    “The European market’s importance as a destination for Chinese exports is around double that of the Chinese market for Europeans,” Jörg Wuttke, president of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China (ECCC) wrote in a September report.

    Overall, the relationship is simply “too big to fail,” according to Borges de Castro. Europe is not seeking to decouple from the lucrative Chinese market, he added.

    “I don’t see [the EU’s strategy] as a decoupling strategy. I think the EU strategy, for the moment, is a diversification strategy… the lesson [from Russia] is that you cannot have a single provider,” he said.

    Machinery, vehicles, chemicals, and other manufactured goods account for the vast bulk of goods traded between the two powers, according to Eurostat.

    “European companies have done extremely well here and the overall long term outlook is very positive,” ECCC Secretary General Adam Dunnett told CNN Business, adding that he expects European company revenues to keep growing in China over the next decade.

    There are areas where Europe is dependent on Beijing, namely for the supply of rare earth metals required to make hybrid and electric vehicles, and wind turbines. Europe’s solar panels are also mostly manufactured in China.

    But those dependencies shouldn’t be exaggerated, Dunnett said.

    “When you look at some of the broader things that China exports to the EU such as furniture and consumer goods, a lot of those things you can get elsewhere,” he said.

    Even so, the United States may exert more pressure on Europe to pull away from China, Borges de Castro noted. In early October, Washington banned Chinese firms from buying its advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license.

    Benjamin Loh, the head of Dutch chipmaker ASM International, told the Financial Times on Wednesday that the US was “putting a lot of pressure” on the Dutch government to take a similarly tough stance.

    The pressure may already be beginning to show. Germany last month blocked the sale of one of its chip factories to a Chinese-owned tech company because of security concerns.

    Economic ties between Brussels and Beijing, though mutually beneficial, have frayed in other ways in recent years.

    Last year, Chinese direct investment into the European Union dropped to its second lowest level since 2013, only behind 2020, according to analysis by the Rhodium Group, a research firm. It has fallen almost 78% since 2016.

    “The level of Chinese investment in Europe is now at a decade low,” Agatha Kratz, director at Rhodium Group, told CNN Business, citing Beijing’s strict capital controls and greater scrutiny by EU regulators.

    EU investment into China has also become more concentrated. Between 2018 and 2021, the top 10 European investors in China, including those from the United Kingdom, made up almost 80% of the continent’s total investment in the country, Rhodium Group data shows.

    And just four German companies — automakers Volkswagen

    (VLKAF)    , BMW, and Daimler

    (DDAIF)    , and chemicals giant BASF

    (BASFY)     — made up more than one third of all European investment in those four years.

    An investment deal between Beijing and Brussels was shelved last year after EU lawmakers slapped sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses, prompting China to retaliate with its own penalties.

    The deal, agreed in principle in 2020 after years of talks, was designed to level the playing field for European companies operating in China, who have long complained that Beijing’s subsidies have put them at a disadvantage.

    EU diplomats said in April that a “growing number of irritants” were hurting relations, including China’s tacit acceptance of Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have described China as “a partner for cooperation and negotiation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival.”

    The most pressing issue for European businesses in China, according to Dunnett, is its stringent zero-Covid policy.

    “For the last year, it’s been the Covid carousel, [the] Covid rollercoaster,” he said. “Every time you think [it was] about to open up, something pulls us back,” he added.

    Over the weekend, thousands of protestors took to streets across China in a rare series of demonstrations against the country’s strict Covid controls. Some restrictions have since been lifted in Shanghai and other major cities.

    Beijing’s uncompromising approach is helping to further dampen foreign investment in the country, especially among smaller companies, Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a security research group, told CNN Business.

    “The general business environment in China is perceived as becoming harder to navigate, and while companies still feel they have to engage given its size and potential, increasingly small to medium sized companies are giving up,” he said.

    — Laura He contributed reporting.

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  • Russian energy giant says no further gas cuts to Moldova

    Russian energy giant says no further gas cuts to Moldova

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    BUCHAREST, Romania — Russian energy giant Gazprom announced Monday that it will not further reduce natural gas to Moldova as it had threatened to do after claiming that bills went unpaid and that flows crossing through Ukraine were not making it to Moldova.

    Gazprom tweeted that Moldovagaz has “eliminated the violation of payment” for November supplies and that “funds for the gas deposited on the territory of Ukraine, intended for consumers in Moldova, have been received.”

    Last week, Moldova and Ukraine hit back at Gazprom’s claim that Russian gas moving through the last pipeline to Western Europe was being stored in Ukraine, saying all supplies that Russia sends through the war-torn country get “fully transferred” to Moldova.

    “The volumes of gas that Gazprom refers to as remaining in Ukraine are our savings and reserves stored in warehouses in Ukraine,” Moldovan Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said last week. “These volumes were and will be fully paid for by our country.”

    The Russia state-owned company alleged “regular violation by the Moldovan side of contractual obligations in terms of payment for Russian gas supplies,” adding that it “reserves the right to reduce or completely stop gas supplies in case of violation of their payment.”

    It comes as Europe’s poorest country — which had relied entirely on Russia for natural gas — is facing an acute energy crisis after Moscow dramatically reduced supplies in October and halved them in November as cold weather took hold. Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure also have triggered massive blackouts in several cities in Moldova.

    Russia has cut off most natural gas to Europe amid the war in Ukraine, which European leaders have called energy blackmail. Gazprom’s threats to further reduce flows raised concerns about rising prices heading into winter, when natural gas is needed to heat homes as well as generate electricity and power factories, with higher bills already squeezing households and businesses.

    With inflation high all around, there were fears consumers in Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.6 million, would struggle to pay their heating and electricity costs.

    The European Union pledged 250 million euros (nearly $262 million) in aid to Moldova this month to help it weather the crisis. Last week, an international aid conference in Paris raised more than 100 million euros to support the country through the energy crisis.

    ———

    Cristian Jardan contributed from Chisinau, Moldova.

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  • German government seeks to ease rules for naturalization

    German government seeks to ease rules for naturalization

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    BERLIN — Germany’s socially liberal government is moving ahead with plans to ease the rules for obtaining citizenship in the European Union’s most populous country, a drive that is being assailed by the conservative opposition.

    Chancellor OIaf Scholz said in a video message Saturday that Germany has long since become “the country of hope” for many, and it’s a good thing when people who have put down roots in the country decide to take citizenship.

    “Germany needs better rules for the naturalization of all these great women and men,” Scholz said.

    The overhaul of citizenship rules is one of a series of modernizing reforms that the three-party coalition of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats agreed to tackle when it took office last December. The Interior Ministry said on Friday that draft legislation is “as good as ready.”

    Last year’s coalition agreement calls for people to be eligible for German citizenship after five years, or three in case of “special integration accomplishments,” rather than eight or six years at present. German-born children would automatically become citizens if one parent has been a legal resident for five years.

    The government also wants to drop restrictions on holding dual citizenship. In principle, most people from countries other than European Union members and Switzerland currently have to give up their previous nationality when they gain German citizenship, though there are some exemptions.

    Interior Minister Nancy Faeser argued that reducing the waiting time to be eligible for citizenship is “an incentive for integration.”

    The aim is to reflect reality, she said Friday. “We are a diverse, modern country of immigration, and I think legislation must reflect that.”

    Official statistics show that about 131,600 people took German citizenship last year, a quarter of them citizens of other EU countries. The number was 20% higher than the previous year, in part because an increasing number of Syrians were naturalized. Germany’s total population is around 84 million.

    The main center-right opposition Union bloc rejects the plans to liberalize naturalization laws.

    “Selling off German citizenship cheap doesn’t encourage integration — it aims for exactly the opposite and will trigger additional ‘pull effects’ for illegal migration,” senior conservative lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt told Saturday’s edition of the Bild daily.

    “Five years is a very, very short time” for people to be eligible for citizenship, Union chief whip Thorsten Frei told ZDF television.

    Among other liberalizing plans, the government has removed from Germany’s criminal code a ban on doctors “advertising” abortion services. It has reduced the minimum age for voting in European Parliament elections from 18 to 16 and wants to do the same for national elections.

    It also wants to scrap 40-year-old legislation that requires transsexual people to get a psychological assessment and a court decision before officially changing gender, and replace that with a new “self-determination law.” And it aims to decriminalize the possession of limited quantities of cannabis and allow its sale to adults for recreational purposes in a controlled market.

    Some of the plans may run into difficulty in parliament’s upper house, which represents Germany’s 16 state governments and where Scholz’s coalition doesn’t control a majority. It had to water down elements of an overhaul of unemployment benefits to get that passed this week.

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  • Which EU politicians refused to label Russia a sponsor of terror?

    Which EU politicians refused to label Russia a sponsor of terror?

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    Many on the far right and some on the left rejected the symbolic move to declare Moscow as a terrorist regime.

    The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted a resolution declaring Russia a state “sponsor of terrorism” over its war in Ukraine.

    “The deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of international and humanitarian law amount to acts of terror and constitute war crimes,” the European Parliament said.

    In total, 494 members of the European Parliament (MEPS) voted in favour of the resolution, 58 were against and 44 abstained.

    The largely symbolic move is unlikely to make an impact, because the European Union – unlike the United States – does not have the legal framework to designate countries. Across the Atlantic, on the US list are North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Iran.

    The EU established its terror list in 2001, following the September 11 attacks in New York.

    It includes people, groups and entities and is reviewed at least every six months.

    ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda armed groups are among those currently on the list.

    Which members voted against the resolution?

    Russia is the first country to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism by the European Parliament.

    However, members were not unanimous in their voting, with a larger proportion of the right-wing bloc of the Parliament against the association of Russia with terrorism.

    Twenty-six members of the far-right political group Identity and Democracy voted against designating Russia as a sponsor of terrorism.

    INTERACTIVE- European Parliament vote on labelling Russia terrorist state

    Here is a breakdown of votes by country, home country party, and member:

    These French politicians who voted against the resolution are all members of the National Rally or Rassemblement National, which is led by Marine Le Pen.

    • Mathilde Androuët
    • Jordan Bardella
    • Aurélia Beigneux
    • Dominique Bilde
    • Annika Bruna
    • Patricia Chagnon
    • Marie Dauchy
    • Jean-Paul Garraud
    • Catherine Griset
    • Jean-François Jalkh
    • France Jamet
    • Virginie Joron
    • Jean-Lin Lacapelle
    • Gilles Lebreton
    • Thierry Mariani
    • Philippe Olivier
    • André Rougé

    The following German politicians who voted against the resolution are all members of the far-right Alternative for Germany or Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD).

    • Christine Anderson
    • Gunnar Beck
    • Nicolaus Fest
    • Maximilian Krah
    • Joachim Kuhs
    • Guido Reil
    • Bernhard Zimniok

    Czech MEPs, who are members of the populist Freedom and Direct Democracy party, or Svoboda a přímá demokracie:

    One member of the centre-right European Conservatives and Reformist Group voted against the resolution:

    • Emmanouil  Fragkos, whose party in Greece is Greek Solution, or Elliniki Lusi-Greek Solution

    Twelve members from the centre-left Progressive Alliance of the Socialists and Democrats voted against the resolution.

    From Bulgaria – all with the centre-left Bulgarian Socialist Party:

    • Ivo Hristov
    • Tsvetelina Penkova
    • Sergei Stanishev
    • Petar Vitanov
    • Elena Yoncheva

    From Germany – all with the Social Democratic Party of Germany or Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD), which is the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz:

    • Joachim Schuster
    • Dietmar Köster

    From Italy – these three politicians belong to Partito Democratico or the Democratic Party:

    • Pietro Bartolo
    • Andrea Cozzolino
    • Massimiliano Smeriglio

    From Slovakia:

    • Monika Beňová (SMER-Sociálna demokracia, or Direction – Slovak Social Democracy)
    • Robert Hajšel (Independent)

    Ten members of the Left group in the European Parliament voted against the resolution:

    From Belgium:

    • Marc Botenga (Parti du Travail de Belgique or Workers’ Party of Belgium –  which is a Marxist party)

    From Cyprus:

    • Niyazi Kizilyürek (Progressive Party of Working People – Left – New Forces)

    From Czech Republic:

    • Kateřina Konečná (Komunistická strana Čech a Moravy, or Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia)

    From Germany (​​DIE LINKE. party, or The Left party):

    • Özlem Demirel
    • Martin Schirdewan

    From Portugal (Partido Comunista Português, or Portuguese Communist Party – a Marxist-Leninist group)

    • Sandra Pereira
    • João Pimenta Lopes

    From Ireland (Independents 4 Change):

    From Spain:

    • Miguel Urbán Crespo (Anticapitalistas)

    Nine MEPs who are not affiliated with any political grouping also voted against the resolution:

    • Nicolas Bay (France – Reconquête!, or Reconquest – a nationalist party)
    • Francesca Donato (Italy – now an independent but formerly with the far-right Lega Nord, or Northern league headed by Matteo Salvini)
    • Marcel De Graaff (Netherlands – Forum voor Democratie, or Forum for Democracy, a right-wing populist party)
    • Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos (Greece – Communist Party of Greece)
    • Kostas Papadakis (Greece – Communist Party of Greece)
    • Miroslav Radačovský (Slovakia – Slovak PATRIOT, which is a right-wing party)
    • Milan Uhrík (Slovakia – Hnutie Republika or Republic – a far-right party)
    • Martin Sonneborn (Germany – Die Partei or The Party, which is a satirical party)
    • Tatjana Ždanoka (Latvia – Latvijas Krievu savienība or the Latvian Russian Union, which is backed by ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking minorities)

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  • EU condemns Qatar over alleged human rights abuses ahead of World Cup

    EU condemns Qatar over alleged human rights abuses ahead of World Cup

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    European Parliament has formally condemned Qatar for suspected human rights abuses that are believed to have caused the deaths of migrant workers contracted to build preparations for this year’s World Cup. 

    In a resolution passed on Thursday, the EU governing body called on FIFA to help Qatar compensate all migrant workers and their families through an expansion of the country’s Worker’s Support and Insurance Fund — which, according to a news release, has already distributed about $320 million to workers who are victims of wage abuse — to include coverage for workers’ deaths and “other human rights abuses.” 

    The resolution puts pressure on Qatari officials to conduct thorough investigations into all reported incidences where a migrant worker has died on the job, and provide restitution to the families of those whose deaths are determined to have been caused by unsafe working conditions. It comes amid growing accusations that suggest Qatar exploited migrant workers to build the stadiums and structures where the World Cup is currently taking place. 

    Qatar
    A Dec. 20, 2019 file photo shows construction underway on the Lusail Stadium, one of the 2022 World Cup stadiums, in Lusail, Qatar.

    Hassan Ammar/AP


    Mustafa Qadri, the founder of the Equidem organization, which investigates labor abuse, told CBS News last week that migrant workers were subjected to forced labor and unsafe physical working conditions, and were expected to work for months at a time without pay. Qadri traveled to Qatar to conduct research into the alleged human rights abuses that he estimated has killed at least hundreds of workers, and told CBS News that he was arrested during his time there. 

    European Parliament estimates that thousands of migrant workers have died in Qatar as a result of dangerous working conditions leading up to the World Cup, according to Thursday’s news release.

    “With the 2022 FIFA World Cup having kicked off in Qatar, Parliament deplores the deaths of thousands of migrant workers ahead of the tournament,” the release said. It acknowledged the controversial, and potentially corrupt, means through which Qatar won the bid to host this year’s matches, and denounced FIFA for its role in the selection process. Members of parliament described corruption within FIFA as “rampant, systemic, and deep-rooted,” according to the release.

    Referencing a series of labor reforms passed but not fully applied in Qatar, members of European Parliament also pushed in their resolution for “the full implementation of the adopted reforms.” They also condemned the country’s laws criminalizing same-sex relations and public anti-gay rhetoric, and called for an increase in female representation in the professional sector.

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  • Twitter and other social media sites slipped on removing hate speech in 2022, EU review says

    Twitter and other social media sites slipped on removing hate speech in 2022, EU review says

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    Twitter took longer to review hateful content and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to European Union data released Thursday. The EU figures were published as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms’ compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s code of conduct on disinformation.

    Twitter wasn’t alone — most other tech companies signed up to the voluntary code also scored worse. But the figures could foreshadow trouble for Twitter in complying with the EU’s tough new online rules after owner Elon Musk fired many of the platform’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial tasks.

    The EU report, carried out over six weeks in the spring, found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82% in 2021.

    In comparison, the amount of flagged material Facebook reviewed within 24 hours fell to 64%, Instagram slipped to 56.9% and YouTube dipped to 83.3%. TikTok came in at 92%, the only company to improve.

    The amount of hate speech Twitter removed after it was flagged up slipped to 45.4% from 49.8% the year before. TikTok’s removal rate fell by a quarter to 60%, while Facebook and Instagram only saw minor declines. Only YouTube’s takedown rate increased, surging to 90%.

    “It’s worrying to see a downward trend in reviewing notifications related to illegal hate speech by social media platforms,” European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova tweeted. “Online hate speech is a scourge of a digital age and platforms need to live up to their commitments.”

    Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment. Emails to several staff on the company’s European communications team bounced back as undeliverable.

    Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month fanned widespread concern that purveyors of lies and misinformation would be allowed to flourish on the site. The billionaire Tesla CEO, who has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too restrictive, has been reinstating suspended accounts, including former President Donald Trump’s.

    Twitter faces more scrutiny in Europe by the middle of next year, when new EU rules aimed at protecting internet users’ online safety will start applying to the biggest online platforms. Violations could result in huge fines of up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue.

    France’s online regulator Arcom said it received a reply from Twitter after writing to the company earlier this week to say it was concerned about the effect that staff departures would have on Twitter’s “ability maintain a safe environment for its users.”

    Arcom also asked the company to confirm it can meet its “legal obligations” in fighting online hate speech and that it is committed to implementing the new EU online rules. Arcom said it received a response from Twitter and that it will “study their response,” without giving more details.

    Tech companies that signed up to the EU’s disinformation code agree to commit to measures aimed at reducing disinformation and file regular reports on whether they’re living up to their promises, though there’s little in the way of punishment.

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  • Twitter, others slip on removing hate speech, EU review says

    Twitter, others slip on removing hate speech, EU review says

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    LONDON — Twitter took longer to review hateful content and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year, according to European Union data released Thursday.

    The EU figures were published as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms’ compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s code of conduct on disinformation.

    Twitter wasn’t alone — most other tech companies signed up to the voluntary code also scored worse. But the figures could foreshadow trouble for Twitter in complying with the EU’s tough new online rules after owner Elon Musk fired many of the platform’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial tasks.

    The EU report found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82% in 2021. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube also took longer, while TikTok was the only one to improve.

    The amount of hate speech Twitter removed after it was flagged up slipped to 45.4% from 49.8% the year before. The removal rate at other platforms also slipped, except at YouTube, which surged.

    Twitter didn’t respond to a request for comment. Emails to several staff on the company’s European communications team bounced back as undeliverable.

    Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month fanned widespread concern that purveyors of lies and misinformation would be allowed to flourish on the site. The billionaire Tesla CEO, who has frequently expressed his belief that Twitter had become too restrictive, has been reinstating suspended accounts, including former President Donald Trump’s.

    Twitter faces more scrutiny in Europe by the middle of next year, when new EU rules aimed at protecting internet users’ online safety will start applying to the biggest online platforms. Violations could result in huge fines of up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue.

    France’s online regulator Arcom said it received a reply from Twitter after writing to the company earlier this week to say it was concerned about the effect that staff departures would have on Twitter’s “ability maintain a safe environment for its users.”

    Arcom also asked the company to confirm it can meet its “legal obligations” in fighting online hate speech and that it is committed to implementing the new EU online rules. Arcom said it received a response from Twitter and that it will “study their response,” without giving more details.

    Tech companies that signed up to the EU’s disinformation code agree to commit to measures aimed at reducing disinformation and file regular reports on whether they’re living up to their promises, though there’s little in the way of punishment.

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  • Poland upsets some by rebuffing German air defense system

    Poland upsets some by rebuffing German air defense system

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    WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s government says an anti-missile system which Germany offered to send to Poland should instead go to Ukraine, a proposal that is a likely non-starter for Berlin because it would significantly ratchet up NATO involvement in Ukraine.

    Poland’s surprising response to Berlin’s offer was welcomed by Ukraine, which is desperate to protect its airspace as barrage upon barrage of Russian missiles have knocked out power across the country.

    But Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht stressed that use of NATO defense systems outside its territory needs to be agreed by all member states.

    “It is important to us that Poland can rely on allies to stand by each other, even in difficult times, and especially Poland in its exposed position,” Lambrecht told reporters in Berlin.

    “That’s why we have offered to support air policing and Patriots, but these Patriots are part of an integrated air defense of NATO, that is, they are intended for NATO territory,” the minister said. “If they are used outside the NATO area, then it has to be agreed with NATO and with the allies beforehand.”

    In Poland, critics of the populist ruling party accused it of sacrificing the country’s security with a war next door in Ukraine for the sake of a domestic political struggle which exploits anti-German sentiment for short-term gain.

    The Rzeczpospolita daily called the new proposal by Poland’s leaders “shocking,” arguing that it would require sending German soldiers operating the system to Ukraine, and “that, in turn, would involve NATO in a direct clash with Russia, something the alliance has been trying to avoid from the beginning.”

    “This proposal affects Poland’s credibility and, worst of all, its security. The Germans get a clear signal that we do not want their help, so the defense potential of the Polish sky will be lower,” deputy editor Michal Szuldrzynski wrote. “In the worst war in Europe since 1945, this is an unforgivable mistake.”

    Poland’s populist ruling party, facing elections next fall with its popularity dented by 18% inflation, has been ratcheting up its anti-German messaging, long a staple of the party’s campaign rhetoric. Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has also been trying to link his domestic opponents, particularly Donald Tusk, a former European Union leader, to Germany, saying Sunday that if Tusk’s party wins next year, Poland would find itself “under the German boot.”

    When Germany recently offered Warsaw Eurofighter planes and Patriot air defense missile batteries, Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak initially said it was an offer he would accept with “satisfaction.” The offer came after two men were killed when an apparently stray Ukrainian defense projectile fell in Poland near the border with Ukraine on Nov. 15.

    But Poland’s tune changed after Kaczynski gave an interview to the state news agency PAP on Wednesday, saying that the offer is “interesting,” but that “it would be best for Poland’s security if Germany handed the equipment to the Ukrainians.”

    Since then, both Blaszczak and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki have repeated the position of Kaczynski, the country’s most powerful leader.

    After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, NATO beefed up its defenses along its eastern flank, including Poland, while Warsaw has worked to strengthen the nation’s own military with massive armaments purchases.

    NATO deployed U.S. Patriot batteries to Poland, and German Patriot batteries to Slovakia, as well as a French equivalent system to Romania.

    NATO’s policy is to not get directly involved in the war and to deploy the batteries only to protect member countries.

    Tapping into anti-German feelings has long been a political strategy to win votes in Poland. Older Poles still carry the trauma of the atrocities inflicted on Poland by Germany during World War II. With the election campaigning underway, Poland has been demanding $1.3 trillion in wartime reparations from Germany — a bill Berlin says it won’t pay.

    Kaczynski also blames Germany for supporting EU efforts to defend the rule of law in Poland and reverse changes to the judiciary, by withholding funding.

    Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created new strains. Poland was long a critic of Germany’s gas deals with Russia and has also been critical of Berlin’s initial hesitancy to arm Ukraine.

    In Poland, some critics pointed out that the government was not only refusing higher military protection but also turning its back on critical EU funding, billions of euros that have been held up by the government’s refusal to follow EU guidelines on safeguarding the independence of judges.

    Marcin Kierwinski of the opposition Civic Platform party said Kaczynski “has gone mad” for “rejecting” the Patriot missiles and EU funding “during war and crisis.”

    ————

    Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

    —————

    Follow all AP stories about the impact of the war in Ukraine at

    https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

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  • EU nations work on rift over gas price cap as cold sets in

    EU nations work on rift over gas price cap as cold sets in

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    BRUSSELS — On winter’s doorstep, European Union nations have not been able to surmount bitter disagreements as they struggle to effectively shield 450 million citizens from massive increases in their natural gas bills as cold weather sets in.

    An emergency meeting of energy ministers Thursday only shows how the energy crisis tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine has divided the 27-nation bloc in almost irreconcilable blocs.

    A massive August spike in natural gas prices stunned all but the wealthiest in the EU, forcing the bloc to look for a cap to contain volatile prices that are fueling inflation. Following several delays, energy ministers are back trying to break a deadlock between nations that are demanding cheaper gas to ease household bills — including Greece, Spain, Belgium, France and Poland — and those like Germany and the Netherlands that are insisting a price cap could cut supplies.

    A solution was nowhere near the horizon — to the frustration of many.

    “It’s already minus 10 (Celsius) in Poland,” said the nation’s energy minister, Anna Moskwa. “It’s winter now.”

    Natural gas and electricity prices have soared as Moscow has slashed gas supplies to Europe used for heating, electricity and industrial processes. European officials have accused Russia of energy warfare to punish EU countries for supporting Ukraine.

    So finding a deal is not only about providing warmth to citizens but also about showing a united front to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Talks have dragged on for months and even if a summit of EU leaders proclaimed some sort of breakthrough last month, nothing has been visible on the ground. Nations had been waiting for a proposal from the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to set a threshold for a price cap, and when it came Tuesday, there was dismay and accusations it could never work.

    The commission set a threshold for a “safety price ceiling” to kick in if prices exceed 275 euros per megawatt hour for two weeks and if they are 58 euros higher than the price for liquefied natural gas on world markets.

    In political language, it means that such a system might not even have averted hikes as high as in August.

    “Setting a ceiling at 275 euros is not actually a ceiling,” said Greek Energy Minister Konstantinos Skrekas, who called for a cap that could go as low as 150 euros.

    “We are losing valuable time without results,” he added.

    In comparison, the price stood at 125 euros per megawatt-hour on Europe’s TTF benchmark Thursday. Since the price has fallen since the summertime peaks, diplomats have said the urgency has abated somewhat, even though it could pick up quickly again if the weather is colder than normal and supplies get tight.

    Some 15 nations are united around these views, but Germany and the Netherlands lead another group wanting to ensure that gas supply ships would not bypass Europe because they could get better prices elsewhere.

    “Security of supply is paramount. Europe still has to be an attractive gas market,” Estonian Economy Minister Riina Sikkut said.

    No decisive breakthrough was expected at Thursday’s meeting.

    Czech Industry Minister Jozef Síkela, who chaired the emergency meeting, said he was well aware of the “emotional reactions” the commission proposal had sparked and predicted that talks would be “rather spicy.”

    As a result of trade disruptions tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, EU nations have reduced the overall share of Russian natural gas imports to the EU from 40% before the invasion to around 7%. And gas storage has already far exceeded targets and stand nearly at capacity.

    The EU has relied on increased imports of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, including from the United States, to help address the fall in Russian supplies.

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  • Opinion: ‘Africa’s COP’ made some big promises. Here’s how to deliver | CNN

    Opinion: ‘Africa’s COP’ made some big promises. Here’s how to deliver | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Adjoa Adjei-Twum. She is the Founder & CEO of the Africa-focused and UK-based advisory firm Emerging Business Intelligence and Innovation (EBII) Group for global investors interested in Africa and emerging markets.
    The opinions expressed in this article are solely hers.



    CNN
     — 

    The recently-concluded COP27 was dubbed the “African COP” – with the continent center stage in the global effort to fight the causes and effects of climate change.

    As negotiations in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh spilled over into the weekend, there was a significant breakthrough on one of the most fractious elements – creating a fund to help the most vulnerable developing nations hit by climate disasters.

    The backdrop for COP27 was a series of catastrophic global weather events including record-breaking floods in Pakistan and Nigeria, the worst droughts in four decades in the Horn of Africa, and severe European heatwaves and hurricanes in the US.

    The loss and damage fund – to pay for the sudden impacts of climate change which are not avoided by mitigation and adaptation – has been a major obstacle in COP talks.

    The richest, most polluting nations have been reluctant to agree to a deal, worried that it could put them on the hook for costly legal claims for climate disasters.

    I welcome progress here, as African nations are bearing the brunt of climate change. The continent contributes around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UN Environment Programme and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

    Climate change is estimated to cost the continent between $7bn and $15bn a year in lost economic output or GDP, rising to $50bn a year by 2030, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

    But my joy is muted – the devil is in the detail, as ever. As an African diaspora entrepreneur whose work focuses significantly on the impact of climate change on the risk profile of African financial institutions and nations, I am concerned about the lack of detail about how the fund would work, when it will be implemented, and the timescale. I fear these could take years.

    During a recent visit to the US, I discussed reparation money with US Democrat Congresswoman Rep. Ilhan Omar. She said it was important for the US and other countries to make heavy investments, which could come in the form of reparations.

    She spoke about the importance of consulting impacted communities in Africa to avoid exploitation and the need for countries such as the US and China to end fossil fuel expansion and phase out existing oil, gas, and coal in a way that is “fair and equitable.”

    Adaptation is Africa’s big challenge – the AFDB estimates that the continent needs between $1.3 to $1.6 trillion by 2030 to adapt to climate change.

    The bank’s Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, in partnership with the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA), aims to mobilize $25bn in finance for Africa, for projects such as weather forecasting apps for farmers and drought-resistant crops.

    It is now time for African nations to levy a climate export tax on commodities, such as cocoa and rubber, to help pay for climate adaptation. But it still falls short of the money Africa needs.

    Adaptation is all about building resilience and capacity, and I believe our governments, banks, and businesses must also adapt.

    I am calling on our governments, institutions, and companies to boost efforts to attract green finance and make Africa more resilient by improving governance, tax systems, anti-corruption efforts, and legal compliance.

    Sustainability is not a business tax, it is essential for business survival. Only companies focused on the changing world around us – from regulation to consumer and investor attitudes – will survive the climate crisis.

    Businesses that ignore this can expect fines, boycotts, and limited access to funding. Banks will suffer too. So the financial sector must be better prepared and more agile.

    This message will be reinforced when I meet CEOs, banking executives, and Nigeria’s central bank at the 13th Annual Bankers’ Committee Retreat, organized by the Nigerian Bankers Committee, in Lagos next month. The aim is to support the country’s biggest banks as they navigate new international sustainability rules.

    Increasingly, investment funds must conform to green taxonomies – a system that highlights which investments are sustainable and which are not. In other words, banks will only support investments by institutions in G20 countries if they conform to national or supranational rules, such as the European Union’s Green Taxonomy.

    This will not only help tackle greenwashing but also help companies and investors make more informed green choices. Additionally, G20 countries are asking their banks to forecast how risky their loans are due to climate change.

    African nations must implement robust systems to mobilize private capital and foreign direct investment in key sectors. Governments must ensure they have an enabling environment for increased green investments.

    Regulators must strengthen their capacity to develop and effectively enforce climate-related rules. Companies, especially banks, should strengthen climate risk management teams, regulatory compliance expertise, and preparation of bankable projects for international climate finance. This is the foundation for a successful transition to a low–carbon economy.

    Looking ahead, there are other actions we can take. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – the world’s largest free trade area and single market of almost 1.3bn people – could protect Africa from the adverse impacts of climate change, such as food insecurity, conflict, and economic vulnerability.

    It could lead to the development of regional and continental value chains, inter-Africa trade deals, job creation, security, and peace. A single market could drive less energy-intensive economic growth while keeping emissions low, for example by developing regional energy markets and manufacturing hubs.

    But we need much better pan-Africa coordination, like the European Union, to accelerate the AfCFTA. I urge our governments to work together and take swift and concrete actions to ensure the full and effective implementation of the AfCFTA. There is no time to waste.

    This will not be popular with some African regimes because they will be forced to be more transparent and accountable with their public finances.

    This year’s COP may have been marred by chaos, rows between rich and poorer nations, and broken multi-billion-dollar pledges by developed countries who created the climate crisis.

    Many observers point out the final deal did not include commitments to phase down or reduce the use of fossil fuels.

    But, the deal to create a pooled fund for countries most affected by climate change is significant, and as UN secretary general António Guterres warned, it was no time for finger-pointing.

    It is also no time for the blame game. It is a wake-up call for African governments, banks, institutions, and companies to unite, step up, and adapt to a new climate reality.

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  • EU official: Kosovo, Serbia reach a deal on vehicle plates

    EU official: Kosovo, Serbia reach a deal on vehicle plates

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    PRISTINA, Kosovo — The European Union’s top diplomat on Wednesday said Kosovo and Serbia have reached a deal on a dispute over vehicle number plates, defusing rising tensions between the two Western Balkan neighbors.

    EU high representative Josep Borrell posted in his social media page that Kosovo’s and Serbia’s negotiators “have agreed to avoid further escalation and to fully concentrate on the proposal on normalization of their relations.” Serbia will stop issuing license plates with Kosovo cities’ denominations and Kosovo would cease further actions on the re-registration of vehicles.

    Talks will continue on the subsequent steps.

    Earlier this week Borrell had failed to convince Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti to reach a deal, further raising concerns about the escalating tensions between the former war foes.

    Kurti blamed Borrell for focusing solely on the license plates instead of the full normalization of ties between the neighbors.

    Vucic said Kurti was responsible for the failure of the meeting.

    The EU-backed Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, which is aimed at normalizing relations between the neighbors and former foes in the Western Balkans, has been at a virtual standstill for years. The EU warned Serbia and Kosovo last week that they are on the edge of a precipice and must resolve their dispute or face the prospect of a return to their violent past.

    Long-simmering tensions between Serbia and its former province mounted again in recent weeks over the Kosovo government’s decision to ban Serbian-issued license plates, matching Serbia’s earlier ban on Kosovo license plates.

    Under the ban, about 6,300 ethnic Serbs owning cars with number plates deemed to be illegal in Kosovo were to be warned until Monday, which was postponed with 48 hours after U.S. embassy’s intervention. Then Kosovo authorities would fine them for the following two months. Until April 21 they would only be permitted to drive with temporary local plates and not allowed to drive after that date.

    On Nov. 5, Serb lawmakers, prosecutors and police officers in Kosovo’s northern Mitrovica region resigned over the move.

    The issue of Kosovo’s independence sparked a 1998-99 war in which about 13,000 people died. Serbia launched a brutal crackdown to curb a separatist rebellion by the territory’s ethnic Albanians. NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to end the war.

    Kosovo unilaterally broke away from Serbia in 2008. The Serbian government, with support from China and Russia, has refused to acknowledge Kosovo’s statehood. The United States and most of its European allies recognize Kosovo as an independent country.

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the NATO-led mission in Kosovo, known as KFOR, “remains vigilant.”

    ———

    Llazar Semini reported in Tirana, Albania.

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  • Scotland blocked from holding independence vote by UK’s Supreme Court | CNN

    Scotland blocked from holding independence vote by UK’s Supreme Court | CNN

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Britain’s Supreme Court has ruled that Scotland’s government cannot unilaterally hold a second referendum on whether to secede from the United Kingdom, in a blow to independence campaigners that will be welcomed by Westminster’s pro-union establishment.

    The court unanimously rejected an attempt by the Scottish National Party (SNP) to force a vote next October, as it did not have the approval of Britain’s parliament.

    But the decision is unlikely to stem the heated debate over independence that has loomed over British politics for a decade.

    Scotland last held a vote on the issue, with Westminster’s approval, in 2014, when voters rejected the prospect of independence by 55% to 45%.

    The pro-independence SNP has nonetheless dominated politics north of the border in the intervening years, at the expense of the traditional, pro-union groups. Successive SNP leaders have pledged to give Scottish voters another chance to vote, particularly since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016.

    The latest push by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon involved holding an advisory referendum late next year, similar to the 2016 poll that resulted in Brexit. But the country’s top court agreed that even a non-legally binding vote would require oversight from Westminster, given its practical implications.

    “A lawfully held referendum would have important political consequences relation to the Union and the United Kingdom Parliament,” Lord Reed said as he read the court’s judgment.

    “It would either strengthen or weaken the democratic legitimacy of the Union and of the United Kingdom Parliament’s sovereignty over Scotland, depending on which view prevailed, and would either support or undermine the democratic credentials of the independence movement,” he said.

    Sturgeon said she accepted the ruling on Wednesday, but tried to frame the decision as another pillar in the argument for secession. “A law that doesn’t allow Scotland to choose our own future without Westminster consent exposes as myth any notion of the UK as a voluntary partnership & makes (a) case” for independence,” she wrote on Twitter.

    She accused the British government of “outright democracy denial” in a speech to reporters later on Wednesday.

    Sturgeon said her next step in her effort to achieve a vote will be to brand the next British general election – scheduled for January 2025 at the latest – as a proxy referendum in Scotland on which course to take.

    But UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak heralded the court’s “clear and definitive ruling” as an opportunity to move on from the independence debate. “The people of Scotland want us to be working on fixing the major challenges that we collectively face, whether that’s the economy, supporting the NHS or indeed supporting Ukraine,” he said in Parliament.

    Opinion polls suggest that Scots remain narrowly divided on whether to break from the UK, and that a clear consensus in either direction has yet to emerge.

    England and Scotland have been joined in a political union since 1707, but many Scots have long bristled at what they consider a one-sided relationship dominated by England. Scottish voters have historically rejected the ruling Conservative Party at the ballot box and voted heavily – but in vain – against Brexit, intensifying arguments over the issue in the past decade.

    Since 1999, Scotland has had a devolved government, meaning many, but not all, decisions are made at the SNP-led Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh.

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  • Negotiators at COP27 reach tentative deal on loss and damage, signaling potential for major breakthrough at climate summit | CNN

    Negotiators at COP27 reach tentative deal on loss and damage, signaling potential for major breakthrough at climate summit | CNN

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    Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
    CNN
     — 

    Negotiators at the UN’s COP27 climate summit have reached a tentative agreement to establish a loss and damage fund for nations vulnerable to climate disasters, according to negotiators with the European Union and Africa, as well as non-governmental organizations who are observing the talks.

    The United States is also working to sign on to a deal on a loss and damage fund, Whitney Smith, a spokesperson for US Climate Envoy John Kerry, confirmed to CNN.

    The fund will focus on what can be done to support loss and damage resources, but it does not include liability or compensation provisions, a senior Biden administration official told CNN. The US and other developed nations have long sought to avoid such provisions that could open them up to legal liability and lawsuits from other countries.

    If finalized, this could represent a major breakthrough in negotiations on a contentious subject – and it’s seen as a reversal, as the US has in the past opposed efforts to create such a fund. It could pave the way for an agreement at a final Sharm el-Sheikh COP27 plenary expected come on Saturday night Egypt time.

    But it’s not yet settled – an EU source directly involved with the negotiations cautioned earlier Saturday that the deal is part of the larger COP27 agreement that has to be approved by nearly 200 countries. Negotiators have been working throughout the day and into the night.

    But progress has been made, the source said. In a discussion Saturday afternoon Egypt time, the EU managed to get the G77 bloc of countries to agree to target the fund to vulnerable nations, which could pave the way to a deal on loss and damage.

    If finalized, the deal would represent a major breakthrough on the international stage and far exceed the expectations of this year’s climate summit, and the mood among some of the delegates was jubilant.

    Countries who are the most vulnerable to climate disasters – yet who have contributed little to the climate crisis – have struggled for years to secure a loss and damage fund.

    Developed nations that have historically produced the most planet-warming emissions have been hesitant to sign off on a fund they felt could open them up to legal liability for climate disasters.

    Details on how the fund would operate remain murky. The tentative text says a fund will be established this year, but it leaves a lot of questions on when it will be finalized and become operational, climate experts told reporters Saturday. The text talks about a transitional committee that will help nail down those details, but doesn’t set future deadlines.

    “There are no guarantees to the timeline,” Nisha Krishnan resilience director for World Resources Institute Africa told reporters.

    Advocates for a loss and damage fund were happy with the progress, but noted that the draft is not ideal.

    “We are happy with this outcome because it’s what developed countries wanted – though not everything they came here for,” Erin Roberts, founder of the Loss and Damage Collaboration, told CNN in a statement. “Like many, I’ve also been conditioned to expect very little from this process. While establishing the fund is certainly a win for developing countries and those on the frontlines of climate change, it’s an empty shell without finance. It’s far too little, far too late for those on the frontlines of climate change. But we will work on it.”

    At COP27 the demand for a loss and damage fund – from developing countries, the G77 bloc and activists – had reached a fever pitch, driven by a number of major climate disasters this year including Pakistan’s devastating floods.

    The conference went way into overtime on Saturday, with negotiators still working out the details as the workers were dismantling the venue around them. At points, there was a real sense of fatigue and frustration.

    Earlier in the day, EU officials threatened to walk out of the meeting if the final agreement fails to endorse the goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

    Global scientists have for decades warned that warming must be limited to 1.5 degrees – a threshold that is fast-approaching as the planet’s average temperature has already climbed to around 1.1 degrees. Beyond 1.5 degrees, the risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods and food shortages will increase dramatically, scientists said in the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

    In a carefully choreographed news conference Saturday morning, the EU’s Green Deal tsar Frans Timmermans, flanked by a full line-up of ministers and other top officials from EU member states, said that “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

    “We do not want 1.5 Celsius to die here and today. That to us is completely unacceptable,” he said.

    The EU made it clear that it was willing to agree to a loss and damage fund – a major shift in its position compared to just a week ago – but only in exchange for a strong commitment on the 1.5 degree goal.

    The US, meanwhile, remained largely invisible on Saturday, with its main player, US climate envoy John Kerry, self-isolating with Covid-19.

    As the sun went down on Sharm el-Sheikh, the mood shifted to cautious jubilation, with groups of negotiators starting to hint that a deal was in sight.

    But, as is always the case with top-level diplomacy, officials were quick to stress that nothing is truly agreed until the final gavel drops.

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  • Finland to start building fence on Russian border next year

    Finland to start building fence on Russian border next year

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    HELSINKI — Construction of a planned barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia will start early next year, Finnish border guard officials said Friday, amid concerns in the Nordic country over the changing security environment in Europe.

    The initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence will be erected at a crossing point in the eastern town of Imatra by the summer of 2023. It will eventually extend to a a maximum of 200 kilometers (124 miles).

    Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.

    In October, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said there was consensus among lawmakers to build a fence to cover parts of border with Russia in a project that is estimated to cost a total of 380 million euros ($393 million) and scheduled to be completed by 2026.

    According to Marin, the fence’s main purpose would be to help border guards monitor and prevent possible large-scale illegal migration seen as a hybrid threat” from Moscow.

    Her government hasn’t publicly cited Russia’s war in Ukraine or Finland’s decision to join NATO as a reason to build a fence. But Helsinki is concerned over developments both in Russia and Ukraine, as well Moscow’s threats of retaliation should Finland join the military alliance.

    Politicians and experts have said it is not sensible – or even possible – to erect a fence along the entire length of Finland’s long eastern frontier that runs mainly through thick forests. In some places the Finnish-Russian border is marked only by wooden posts with low fences meant to stop stray cattle.

    The fence, initially proposed by the Finnish Border Guard, is set to be built in stages ranging from five kilometers (3 miles) of up to 52 kilometers (32 miles).

    It would be erected mainly in southeastern Finland, where most border traffic to and from Russia takes place, but short sections would also be built in the northern Karelia region and the Lapland region in the Arctic.

    Col. Vesa Blomqvist, border guard commander in southeastern Finland, said that once completed, the fence will significantly bolster border control.

    “The fence gives border guard patrols more reaction time by revealing movement of people and preventing, slowing down and directing movement,” Blomqvist said in a statement.

    The fence will be three meters (10 feet) high with a barbed-wire extension on top. Apart from extensive patrolling, the Finnish border guard currently uses electronic and other devices to monitor border activity.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Oil Could Rise After Latest EU Sanctions on Russia. Why a Rally May Not Last.

    Oil Could Rise After Latest EU Sanctions on Russia. Why a Rally May Not Last.

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    The European Union’s ban on seaborne imports of Russian oil, along with the Group of Seven’s plan to cap prices of oil from Russia early next month won’t guarantee that prices for the commodity will see a lasting rally, or that supplies will tighten further in the days ahead.

    “In isolation, the sanctions on Russia should be bullish for prices,” says Matt Smith, lead oil analyst, Americas, at Kpler. However, they may have a limited effect, as Russian barrels get “rerouted and not taken off the market,” while a price cap still has so much uncertainty surrounding it that its impact may be “muted due to workarounds or may simply be ineffective.”

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  • Britain is bringing back austerity. Here’s why | CNN Business

    Britain is bringing back austerity. Here’s why | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN Business
     — 

    The last time a British finance minister revealed tax and spending plans, markets went haywire and the country’s prime minister ultimately lost her job. The new government is not looking for a repeat performance.

    On Thursday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is due to unveil a budget that will aim to restore confidence in the United Kingdom’s ability to manage its public finances. But that may be easier said than done.

    The country is staring down the barrel of a grueling recession, and investors remain on edge as interest rates rise. That requires Hunt, who has acknowledged that Britain faces “extremely difficult” decisions, to pull off a delicate balancing act.

    Media reports indicate that the government is looking to come up with between £50 billion ($59 billion) and £60 billion ($70 billion) through a mix of tax increases and spending cuts, many of which may not take effect until after the next election in 2024.

    “If you do too much, too soon, you risk worsening the recession,” said Ben Zaranko, a senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. “If you delay everything until after the next election, you risk not being seen as credible.”

    A new wave of austerity could help restore the government’s reputation with financial markets after the budget from former Prime Minister Liz Truss — which featured an unorthodox combination of major tax cuts and ramped-up borrowing — unleashed panic.

    But it will do little to ease fears about the country’s grim economic prospects. The United Kingdom is one of two G7 economies to have contracted in the third quarter. It’s now smaller than it was before the coronavirus pandemic. The Bank of England is forecasting a lengthy recession, which could stretch into 2024.

    New cuts could make matters worse. When the government adopted an austerity program in 2010 on the heels of the Great Recession, it shaved 1% off the country’s GDP, according to the UK budget watchdog. Just four years ago, former Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to bring nearly a decade of austerity to a close.

    Now, tax rises could further depress consumer confidence — already near a record low — and spending cuts risk placing further strain on public services that are already buckling under enormous pressure.

    Still, Hunt intends to show he has a plan to reduce government debt as a proportion of GDP in the medium-term. It currently stands at 98%. The Office for Budget Responsibility said in July that it could reach nearly 320% in 50 years.

    “We do have to do some tax rises, do some spending cuts, if we’re going to show we’re a country that pays our way,” Hunt told Sky News on Sunday.

    How did the United Kingdom get here? There’s no shortage of finger pointing.

    Part of the problem is global in nature. Interest rates have risen rapidly around the world as central banks attempt to rein in inflation. That’s pushed up borrowing costs for the government, dealing a shock after years in which money was cheap.

    At the same time, skyrocketing energy costs, exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, have compelled governments to step in to cushion the blow of crippling energy bills — shortly after they spent significant sums helping households and businesses through the pandemic.

    Hunt has scrapped plans to cap energy bills for typical households at £2,500 ($2,981) for the next two years. Instead, support will only be guaranteed until next spring. But the measures will still prove costly.

    The government can’t blame all its problems on the rest of the world, however.

    “You can just look at how the UK is performing relative to every other country in Europe, and it’s obvious there’s a UK-specific element to this,” Zaranko said.

    The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union has weighed on trade and contributed to shortages of workers in key industries.

    “The UK economy as a whole has been permanently damaged by Brexit,” former Bank of England official Michael Saunders told Bloomberg TV this week. “If we hadn’t had Brexit, we probably wouldn’t be talking about an austerity budget this week. The need for tax rises, spending cuts wouldn’t be there.”

    And while inflation in the United States cooled more than expected in October, falling to 7.7%, it’s still rising sharply in the United Kingdom, reaching a 41-year high of 11.1% last month.

    That’s bolstering expectations that the Bank of England will need to keep raising interest rates and could hold them higher for longer, though recession may complicate those forecasts.

    The country’s labor market also remains extremely tight, with an employment rate lower than before the coronavirus hit and a record number of people who aren’t working due to long-term illness.

    “The UK does stand out in that labor supply has been very constrained, perhaps more so than in other countries,” said Ruth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics.

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