ECB gives Athens emergency credit: The European Central Bank is giving Athens emergency credits worth billions and promising Greece more leeway. Reports suggest a ceiling of 60 billion euros. Previously the ECB announced that it will no longer accept bonds from Greek banks as security. The credit institutions in the country could thus soon become dependent on emergency financing. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and his Greek colleague Yanis Varoufakis failed to reach an agreement at their first meeting.
telegraph.co.uk, nytimes.com, reuters.com
Germany and France start diplomacy mission: Because of the escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine, Germany and France plan to present a peace plan to the Ukrainian and Russian President. Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande traveled together to Kiev, where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was also present. Merkel and Hollande plan to seal the arrangement with President Vladimir Putin, should the talks go well. The Minsk Agreement of last September is at the heart of the ceasefire plan. In the strategically important town of Debalzewo, 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been surrounded by the separatists. US-Vice President Joe Biden rejected arms deliveries for Ukraine and made serious accusations against Moscow.
npr.org, theguardian.com, nytimes.com
Commission expects deflation, growth, and decline of unemployment: For this year, the European Commission is expecting mild deflation in the eurozone. For the first time since 2007, the economies of all EU member states are expected to grow again this year. Economic activity is expected to pick up moderately in the EU and in the euro area, before accelerating further in 2016. Growth this year is forecast to rise to 1.7 percent for the EU as a whole and to 1.3 percent for the euro area. The reduction in general government deficits continues, in the EU they are expected to fall to 2.6 percent this year. Oil prices have declined faster than before, the euro has depreciated noticeably.
europa.eu
NATO bolsters rapid response force: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed that NATO would bolster its presence in eastern Europe to counter a perceived Russian threat against its Baltic members. The NATO response force with a current size of about 13,000 is set to expand to around 30,000 soldiers. As part of the enhanced NATO response force, a spearhead force with around 5,000 soldiers will be established. NATO officials say this rapid reaction force, that can be deployed at two days’ notice, is a purely defensive move. Russia is also spending money on military build-ups. Despite the crisis, the army’s budget grew by 33 percent to around 43 billion euros.
euronews.com, theguardian.com, bbc.com
No committee of inquiry for „Luxleaks“: The European Parliament agreed to set up a committee to look into tax avoidance across the EU, but refused to launch a formal inquiry that many members had insisted on after leaked documents exposed tax dodging in Luxembourg. Greens had collected signatures from the 25 percent of lawmakers needed to demand a committee of inquiry with broad powers that could have put pressure on EU’s chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker. The parliament’s legal experts had advised against such an inquiry, partly as it might conflict with legal investigations into tax avoidance launched by the European Commission in Luxembourg, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
euractiv.com, reuters.com
IS murders and tortures children: The United Nations says the Islamic State group is systematically killing, torturing and raping children and families of minority groups in Iraq. The UN Committee on the Rights of Children said it has received reports of several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive. The agency urged Iraq to take all necessary actions to ensure the safety and protection of children and their families. IS has sold children as slaves, dispatched them as suicide bombers, and deployed them as human shields. The UN is calling on government forces to do more to protect children from the extremists.
washingtontimes.com, wallstreetjournal.com
Change in leadership EU mission in Somalia gets new commander europa.eu
Compromise EU institutions agree on provisional fish landing obligation europa.eu
EU Court of Human Rights Deportation from Netherlands to Italy allowed taz.de
„We must help the Africans much more to act against terrorism. If we don’t do it, countries will be destabilised once again.“
French President Francois Hollande calls on the international community to fulfil its duty to take action against Islamist extremists in Africa.
theguardian.com„We agreed to disagree.“
According to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, a compromise with his counterpart Yanis Varoufakis could not be reached.
ibtimes.com
Hollande emphasizes importance of education to fight terror: France’s President Francois Hollande wants to move the republican school to the center of his anti-terrorism efforts. In his half-year press conference, Hollande announced the prospect of financial aid to fight against failures and drop-outs at schools. The teaching of the French language will be intensified. Teacher will receive better training for their mission to achieve social and national cohesion.
reuters.com, derstandard.at
New Greek parliament sworn in: Eleven days after the elections in Greece, the new parliament in Athens has been sworn in. The new left-right-government promises to fight against corruption and tax avoidance and make the Greek oligarchs’ lives difficult. Previous governments had already promised such steps without ever taking action. If the new Greek government is an improvement for the country remains to be seen. The new Greek Minister for Economics, Giorgos Stathakis, who stems from a family of shipowners, already promised all Greek shipowners, who enjoy special tax privileges, that they won’t have to fear any changes.
theguardian.com
Renzi loses Berlusconi as his ally: Former Italien Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi feels that current Prime Minister Matteo Renzi betrayed him during the presidential election last weekend. Berlusconi announced that he had ended his pact with Renzi on institutional and constitutional reforms. In the face of opposition by parts of the PD Renzi has relied on the pact with Berlusconi to try to get these reforms through parliament. Renzi had broken the pact by failing to consult with them over the choice of constitutional court judge Sergio Mattarella as the new head of state. Berlusconi’s center-right Forza Italia has issued a statement saying it no longer considered itself bound by the pact.
reuters.com
Golden Dawn to go on trial: The leader of Greece’s Golden Dawn party, Nikos Michaloliakos, and more than 70 party members will be tried on charges including murder and belonging to a criminal group. The crackdown follows an investigation into the 2013 murder of an anti-racist rapper by a Golden Dawn supporter. All 18 of the far-right party’s MPs in the previous Greek parliament are among the defendants. Golden Dawn says it has no involvement in any violent activities and rejects the charges. Several of the lawmakers are in pre-trial detention.
bbc.com, huffingtonpost.com
Ukraine faces financial collapse: Ukraine is in dire need of financial assistance. The country’s central bank announced a massive increase in its main interest rate to 19.5 percent to try to avert financial collapse, brought ever closer by fighting in the country’s east and a lack of foreign funding. The bank raised its key refinancing rate to 19.5 percent from 14 percent as it seeks to curb annual inflation which hit almost 25 percent in December. The bank also scrapped its daily foreign currency auctions, although bank governor Valeriia Gontareva denied this meant freely floating the local currency.
theguardian.com, reuters.com, yahoonews.com
Antisemitism in Great Britain increases: The number of antisemitic incidents in the UK rose to a record level in 2014, more than double the previous year. There had been 1,168 anti-Semitic incidents last year, a 25 percent increase on the previous record high recorded in 2009. London has the third-biggest Jewish community in the world, after Jerusalem and New York. A total 270,000 Jews live in Great Britain. Police have stepped up patrols at synagogues and other Jewish venues across Britain following the Paris attack.
bbc.com, reuters.com, ibtimes.com
Spain Far-left party Podemos leads in polls financialtimes.com
Poland Bishops against so-called gender mainstreaming taz.de
Great Britain Green Party registers gains newsweek.com
61 police officers for every 10,000 citizens in Cyprus. That is the highest figure in Europe, followed by Turkey (55) and Spain (53). Last on the list is Finland with only 15 police officers.
welt.de
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Some plants like it hot: No snow on the roof – this could be the sign of a cannabis grow operation inside the house. After all, cannabis plants like it warm, resulting in an increase in heating for the growers. The Dutch police in Haarlem, near Amsterdam, plans to use this logic to detect cannabis producers. The authorities have called on citizens over Twitter to notify them of any suspicious neighbours. The new method was not appreciated by all and criticism on Twitter is accumulating.
spiegel.de