MAIN FOCUS: Europe stands by Greece | 26/03/2010 from euro|topics The Eurogroup countries on Thursday evening agreed a rescue package for Greece that entails a mixture of bilateral loans and International Monetary Fund help. According to the press the plan demonstrates Europe’s will to overcome the crisis as a group, but also calls the monetary … Read more
The European Parliament resoundingly voted against the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), in a resounding 663 to 13 tally. The parliamentarians defied the EU executive and threatened to take the issue to the European Court of Justice if the EU doesn’t reject ACTA’s provisions on disconnection for infringement and other enforcement provisions.
Introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, the European External Action Service is intended to give the Union a greater role in foreign policy. Yet its scope and competences are the subject of fierce debate among EU countries.
If implemented, the strategy should bring “at least 2% growth” to Europe, Barroso said, presenting his proposals in Brussels on Wednesday (3 March).
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed
There?s a dyin? voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Again this year DG Enlargement are running the European Young Journalist Award 2010. (post on last years competition is here). Its simple, if your aged between 17-35 you can enter the competition. All you need to do is send them a copy of your published work and your in the competition. The work must be published between the 1 October 2007 to 28 February 2010. This means you can still get stuff done for it. The 28 February is also the dealine for submissions. The competition is open to citizens of the 27 EU Member States, Candidate Countries (Croatia, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), or Potential Candidate Countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia andKosovo under UNSCR 1244/99) and Iceland and the must be written / presented in an official language of one of the EU Member States, Candidate Countries or Potential Candidates or in Icelandic.
See more of the rules here
By Sheila Lalwani in Berlin
It’s no secret that many immigrants have a hard time in Germany. A new study has found that women wearing headscarves have a particularly hard time on the job market and a quarter of those with Turkish backgrounds face discrimination when looking for work.
It is early afternoon at Internet Treffpunkt, a convenience store in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood in Berlin that is home to many Turks and other minorities. Hedi Dashti, the store’s proprietor, is busy. One customer hands over her parcel to send through his DHL counter. Another customer buys cigarettes. The door swings open, ushering in the blustery winter wind, and a third customer waves hello.
in other news:
In the last round, relations got worse but I believe this is just another (negative) step in many steps to come… A roundup on Turkish foreign policy… Historic efforts to establish ties between Armenia and Turkey may break down, the Armenian foreign minister warned on Friday, blaming Ankara for obstructing the process. (AFP/Graphic/Paz Pizarro) A … Read more
Zeynep Gürcanlı of Hürriyet has a good piece on Turkish Foreign Ministry‘s use of web. All consulates are connected with advanced networking tools… Not only policy change but hi-tech accompanies the Ministry… It is in Turkish but Google translate can help… A roundup follows:
Egemen Bağış, the chief negotiator, talks at Bahçeşehir U today after a protest by a group of leftist anti-EU students…
A positive signal from Germany, a supportive article from the Guardian (Keeping Turkey out of Europe), but a negative sign in Van Rompuy ‘s debut and a group anti-EU college students makes a fuss in Istanbul. A funny intervention by a Bulgarian minister against Turkey who is criticised in the end by his own government… A roundup.
People walk next to a miniature representing the Berlin Wall placed on the bricks at the site of the former wall near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin November 8, 2009. As the highlight of a 5-million euro ($7.4 million) celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, a 1.5-km (one mile) long segment of the Wall will stand for two days along its original route in front of the Brandenburg Gate to the Potsdamer Platz. The row of 1,000 20 kg dominos standing 1.5 metres apart — painted in bright colours by school children and rising 2.5 metres high — will be toppled at the end of a gala ceremony as a symbolic tribute to the collapse of the Wall 20 years earlier.
REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski
Tomorrow night, at the climax of the biggest official party seen in Europe, with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, hosting Gordon Brown, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president ? to name but a few ? the slabs will crash into one another like dominos, representing the chain of events that 20 years ago brought the cold war to an end. The first ?domino? will be pushed over, fittingly enough, by Lech Walesa and Miklos Nemeth, the veteran Polish and Hungarian anti-communist campaigners. They will be joined by two other main actors in the drama of 1989: the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the then West German foreign minister.
The proposed President of the European Council is very far from being ?President of Europe? ? either in terms of profile or power.
Whoever lands the job (and it?s highly unlikely to be Tony Blair) will have practically zero influence on anything, acting instead as little more than a moderator between the governments of the member states as they continue to run the EU show. And will be in office for just two and a half years ? which is no time at all in EU terms (hell, it?s just taken more than a decade to get agreement on a treaty which doesn?t solve half the problems it was meant to?)
People gather under The Eiffel Tower, lighted in the colours of Turkey as part of events marking the “Season of Turkey in France”, in Paris October 6, 2009. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
Turkey is counting on joining the European Union by 2015 to bolster both its and the EU?s global role, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Friday. ?Even 2015 is too late, not only for us, it will be too late for the EU as well,? Davutoğlu said at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.
The Eiffel Tower is seen lighted in the colours of Turkey as part of events marking the ‘Season of Turkey in France’, in Paris October 6, 2009. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes