EU Sells It's Soul for Gas Pipelines

Human rights are almost completely non-existent in the countries towards which the EU is crawling. Journalists are arrested, tortured and worse, but that doesn't stink enough to slow profits. PEOPLE: WE NEED TO THINK BEYOND THE MERCANTILE MODE!

Human rights take back seat at EU-Central Asia talks

PHILIPPA RUNNER

19.09.2008 @ 16:56 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU and Central Asian foreign ministers pledged to work together on new gas pipelines and counter-terrorism at a meeting in Paris on Thursday (18 September), with the problem of grave human rights abuses in the region pushed down the agenda.

"We re-affirm the importance of active co-operation in the development of different hydrocarbon transport corridors that aim to ensure a guaranteed and reliable supply for European markets," the ministers' joint statement said.

The EU and the five Central Asian countries - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan - will in future hold "regular exchanges" on security risks. [my bold] The EU will help combat terrorist financing and offer expertise on how to stop the illegal traffic of people, arms and drugs.

The EU also offered to develop hydro-electric and water management projects to head off confrontation between upstream and downstream countries, such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

"The expression 'common threats and challenges' may seem audacious, as it covers two vast regions separated by ... six thousand kilometres,"" [my bold] EU foreign relations head Javier Solana said. But energy security, terrorism and drug smuggling "impact our two societies equally and in a direct way." [my bold]

The Paris meeting was in itself a diplomatic coup for the EU's Central Asia policy, launched in June 2007 with the aim of pulling the young, post-Soviet states closer to the West.

The modest package, which sees EU spending of just €100 million a year on all five countries, has had little impact so far. EU plans to open large embassies in the five capitals have stalled, with the blue flag visible only in Astana[capital of], Kazakhstan. Plans to build a major gas pipeline - Nabucco - linking Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to Europe via Turkey, are also wobbling.

EU states such as Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary and Greece have backed a competing Russian pipeline. The Georgia conflict has made the Nabucco transit route more risky, and the European Commission is sending mixed messages on whether it backs the Nabucco pipe or small-scale, compressed gas alternatives instead.

"We intend to redouble our efforts to develop energy links between the EU and Central Asia through diversified energy transportation routes and new energy infrastructure, including Nabucco," external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in Paris.

Human rights nuisance

EU diplomacy has not been entirely ineffective. Earlier this year, Turkmenistan pledged to supply 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year for EU energy projects and none of the Central Asian countries have joined Russia in recognising Georgia's rebel enclaves as independent states.

But efforts to build relations with the repressive regimes are complicated by obligations to make at least some noise on democracy and human rights, with the values enshrined in the EU's foreign policy charter and monitored by NGOs such as Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"It's unrealistic to expect these countries to become like Europe. None of our [energy] competitors in the region - Russia, China, America - make co-operation conditional on human rights," an EU official said.

The EU has taken an increasingly soft line on values since the launch of the Central Asia package. EU states suspended a visa ban on Uzbek officials for six months and will in October debate scrapping the ban entirely. The EU's special envoy to Central Asia, Pierre Morel, is keen to push through a trade agreement with Turkmenistan desite objections from MEPs.

Salijon Abdurakhmanov

Neither Ms Ferrero-Waldner nor Mr Solana mentioned human rights in their Paris speeches, while the joint text made Central Asia sound like a co-guardian of EU values.

"Driven by a shared commitment to developing and organising our long-term partnership on the basis of ... respect for human rights and the development of the rule of law and democracy," the statement began.

Boiling water

The Paris meeting saw activists from French NGO Reporters Without Borders mount a brief protest inside the Turkmen embassy to demand the release of two journalists.

Annakurban Amanklychev and Sapardurdy Khadjiev have been in jail since 2006. They were arrested with a third reporter, Ogulsapar Muradova, who died in prison, AP reports.

HRW is calling for Uzbekistan to free human rights activist Akzam Turgunov, arrested for bribery, and journalist Salijon Abdurakhmanov, charged with drug smuggling, with 18 other dissidents also stuck in prison.

Mr Turgunov had boiling water poured on his neck during police questioning. "In evaluating Uzbekistan, the EU should demand evidence of real reform, because Turgunov's prosecution shows that nothing has changed," HRW researcher Igor Vorontsov said.

0http://euobserver.com/9/26778/?rk=1

Nukes in Slovakia

EU commission under fire over Slovak nuclear project
RENATA GOLDIROVA
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Green lawmakers in the European Parliament have criticised EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs for allowing the extended use of a Russian-designed nuclear power plant in Slovakia.
"It is scandalous that commissioner Piebalgs has given the green light to resurrect an outdated nuclear project," reads a joint statement issued by leading green MEPs, Monica Frassoni and Rebecca Harms.
[...] The critical statement came shortly after the European Commission on Tuesday (15 July) gave its opinion on the project of Slovenske Elektrarne - owned by Italian energy firm Enel and the Slovak state - to build two reactors for the Mochovce nuclear power plant in western Slovakia.
[...] It took one year for EU officials to assess "the safety and security aspects" of Slovakia's application to build new reactors, with the country's prime minister, Robert Fico, often expressing frustration over the lengthy process.
The discussions centred around whether Mochovce should have full containment - additional walls of concrete and steel protecting the reactor. This is not something that is required under international standards, but is considered by some as the best method of protection.
The two sides - Bratislava and Brussels - finally agreed that Mochovce's design did not allow for incorporation of a massive structure there. Instead, the commission recommended that the investor ensure "an equivalent level of protection as a full containment".
[...] The Brussels-made suggestions are non-binding and it is up to the investor whether and to what extent they are fulfilled, the commission spokesperson stressed. But the chief of the country's Nuclear Regulatory Authority, Marta Ziakova, said that the project will meet all safety and security parameters required by existing legislation.
The fact that the EU's executive body has settled for a substitution to the full containment structure - even an equivalent one - came under fire from Green MEPs, however.
"This [missing full containment] should have been reason enough for the commission to send a clear No to the Slovak government and Enel," said the Frassoni-Harms' statement.
It concluded by saying: "The European Commission is giving a green light on the basis of the 50-year-old Euratom treaty and a 20-year-old Slovak construction permit that does not respect the modern obligations for a public consultation and environmental impact assessment."
http://euobserver.com/9/26492/?rk=1

EU Debates Olympic Boycott Over Tibet

Sarkozy does not exclude boycotting Olympics opening
26.03.2008 - 09:24 CET By Elitsa Vucheva

French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday (25 March) did not rule out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 8 August in Beijing following China's crackdown on Tibet.
[...] Asked by journalists whether he was considering a boycott of the Olympic Games' opening ceremony in retaliation for the Chinese crackdown, Mr Sarkozy said he was not "closing the door to any possibility."

"Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet, and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible," he said in Tarbes, southwest France.

[...] Ruprecht Polenz, chairman of the German Parliament's foreign affairs committee, on Tuesday echoed Mr Sarkozy's position.

He told Germany's South West radio that if China remained as "militant" as at present, he could not imagine German politicians "attending the opening or closing ceremonies." Meanwhile, during the official Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece on Monday (24 March) protests were held in several cities worldwide, while the ceremony itself was disrupted by pro-Tibet demonstrators showing the Olympic rings transformed into handcuffs.

[...] On Tuesday, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso also rejected the idea of a boycott and said that he did not see the Games as a political event, reported AP.

By contrast, the president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering said that a boycott should be considered as an option."We should not exclude the possibility of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. We want a successful Games, but not at the price of the cultural genocide of the Tibetans," he told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag on 23 March.

During a plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels today (26 March), MEPs together with EU foreign affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Slovenia's State Secretary for European Affairs Janez Lenarcic, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will hold a debate on the situation in Tibet.

http://euobserver.com/9/25868/?rk=1

The Iraqi Refugee Crisis

From today's EU Observer comes a substantial report on the refugee crisis:
Iraq and the EU: five years on
20.03.2008 - 09:21 CET By Renata Goldirova
It has been five years since the United States began its military operation dubbed 'Iraqi Freedom'. The war resulted in a deep rift in transatlantic relations, caused a split within the European Union and made Iraqis the single largest group seeking refuge in Europe.
[...] Some estimates suggest that up to one million Iraqis have been killed since 2003, while the financial burden amounts to some $9 billion for London and $845 billion for Washington. Former head of the IMF Joseph Stiglitz has recently estimated the cost to be as high as $3 trillion.

[...] According to fresh numbers released by the UN high commissioner for refugees earlier this week (18 March), asylum requests from Iraqis climbed to 38,286 in 2007, a sharp increase from the 19,375 claims in 2006.
A number of non-governmental organisations have therefore blamed the EU for not doing enough over a major refugee crisis, pointing to the fact that the treatment of Iraqis varies significantly from one member state to another.

For example, Sweden's reception facilities have been under huge pressure, as the Scandinavian country is the only one within the 27-nation bloc granting refugee status or other protection to almost all Iraqi asylum seekers. A total of 9,065 Iraqis applied for refugee status there in 2006, compared to 2,330 the previous year.

The EU "cannot continue to ignore one of the world's major displacement crises," says a statement of a group of eight NGOs, including Amnesty International and the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.

In general, it is estimated that six million people inside Iraq need urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict. Some 2.5 million are internally displaced, while an additional two million are hosted by neighbouring countries such as Syria and Jordan.
http://euobserver.com/9/25856/?rk=1

Rendition is Terrorism

EU capitals ignore Brussels' questions about rendition flights
19.03.2008 - 17:09 CET By Renata Goldirova

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is set to criticise EU governments for failing to reply to a questionnaire, which, among other issues, aimed at shedding more light on CIA activities in Europe. So far, only Finland, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain responded to Brussels' call for clarity.
[...] The EU's executive body sent the questionnaire to all EU capitals on 15 December, with a 15 March deadline. The move followed a report from the European Parliament alleging that the US routinely flies terror suspects via Europe to overseas prison camps where some of them face torture.

[...] But EU states are traditionally reluctant to share security information, with the commission currently having "no legal power" to force them to do so. "The best we can do is to apply political pressure," the spokesperson said, adding that the situation will change once the EU's new treaty comes to force next year and a significant proportion of the justice and home affairs dossier will no longer be under the exclusive power of national governments.
http://euobserver.com/9/25851/?rk=1

Liberty Lives in the EU!

Here are excerpts from two reports in today's EU Observer, with links for the full stories:
Internet providers don't have to name downloaders, says EU court
Telcos do not have to disclose the personal data of internet subscribers in civil cases (Photo: Johannes Jansson//norden.org)
29.01.2008 - 17:42 CET By Leigh Phillips
EU member states are not required to force internet service providers to hand over the names of file-sharers who distribute copyright material, Europe's top court ruled today (29 January).[…] "Community law does not require the member states, in order to ensure the effective protection of copyright, to lay down an obligation to disclose personal data in the context of civil proceedings," read the ruling.
http://euobserver.com/9/25559/?rk=1
EU to look into consumers' happiness
30.01.2008 - 08:52 CET By Elitsa Vucheva
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The European Commission is to present proposals on Thursday (31 January) aimed at evaluating how satisfied consumers are with the bloc's single market.
EU consumer protection commissioner Meglena Kuneva will unveil plans for a "Consumer Market Watch", consisting of two steps – monitoring of the market and analysis of the collected data.
The goal is to evaluate how effective the market is for the consumers, detect possible market failures and take corrective action if necessary, according to Ms Kuneva.
[…] On Thursday, Ms Kuneva will also present the first "scoreboard" gathering consumer data from the different member states and using five indicators to measure consumers' happiness: prices, complaints, switching rates (between different service providers), satisfaction and safety.
The commission scoreboard - seen by EUobserver - shows that the prices of some goods and services vary strongly in across member states.
Danish, Finnish, Swedish and Irish citizens pay the highest prices for food, while Bulgarians, Slovaks, Latvians and Romanians pay the lowest.
In addition, Bulgarians pay around €7/100 Kwh for electricity, while Italians pay around €17/100 Kwh. The price index does not take into account the differences of wages and living standards, however. [...]
http://euobserver.com/9/25561/?rk=1

Will EU Send US Care Packages?

I grew up in the 1950s. In school they taught us about the infinitely brave, virtuous and victorious US Armed Forces bringing down Hitler & Hirohito. But at home, my Sicilian family spoke about living with the terror of bombs from both the Allies and the Axis. Instead of throwing away used clothes, we sent them to our cousins, along with cans of food and the few goodies we could do without. Now that the mighty giant is tripping over both right feet, it will be interesting to see how Europe responds.
EU worried at prospect of US recession
22.01.2008 - 09:24 CET By Lucia Kubosova
EU finance ministers will today (22 January) debate the latest trends on the world markets, with eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker referring to the possibility of economic recession in the US and its negative impact on Europe's economy.
The meeting takes place amid the biggest plunge of global stock markets since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. On Monday, London's FTSE 100 index tumbled 5.5 percent, while indexes in Paris and Frankfurt dropped by about 7 percent.
[…] Last year, the European Commission revised its economic forecasts for the eurozone and the EU's economy downwards due to the global consequences of the US credit crisis in the second half of 2007.
Leaders of the UK, Germany, France and Italy are due to discuss their response to the global market turmoil next week (29 January) in London, ahead of the G7 gathering in Japan of the world's most industrialised countries.
http://euobserver.com/9/25503/?rk=1