⊂ EUROPE ⊃
Munich Security Conference in times of crisis: As the world is facing numerous unresolved wars and conflicts, the Munich Security Conference is experiencing an unprecedented onslaught this year, said the head of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, on Wednesday. According to Ischinger, 550 participants will be in Munich between February 12th and February 14th – including more than 30 heads of state and some 60 foreign and defense ministers from around the world. While Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be at the conference.
dw.com
EU threatens Greece over border controls: Greece has neglected its obligations to control the external frontier of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, the EU Commission says in a draft report. The assessment found failures to register, check and fingerprint migrants arriving in November. Athens is now likely to be given three months to rectify the situation. Idomeni, a key crossing point between Greece and Macedonia, was reported shut again on Wednesday night after a conflicting claim that it been reopened for refugee movements early evening.
bbc.com, dw.com
Less corruption in the world: According to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International, the EU has a lot to be proud of, particularly the public sectors of the Scandinavian member states, which rank as the most transparent and incorruptible in the world. The CPI examined 168 countries. Spain lost two points in comparison to 2014, dropping to 36th in the index. Hungary and Poland also scored particularly poorly in the index. In terms of EU countries, Bulgaria brings up the rear, ranking 69th. Since 2014, local government and the parliament have both tried to clean up the judiciary – to no avail.
euractiv.com
Cameron and Juncker to debate Brexit: British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold talks with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Friday on his renegotiation of Britain’s ties with the bloc, Cameron’s spokeswoman said. Cameron had been due to travel to Sweden and Denmark on Friday to hold talks with their leaders on his renegotiation, but has now cancelled that trip to meet Juncker.
uk.reuters.com
EU refugee response falls short: European governments have responded to fears of terrorism and an influx of Muslim refugees by cracking down on basic freedoms, Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday. The EU struggled to develop an effective and principled response to the one million asylum seekers and migrants who reached Europe by sea during 2015, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2016. Suspected radicals have been confined to house arrest without trial, and police have been given stronger powers to search addresses without a judicial warrant.
hrw.org, yahoonews.com
Agricultural gases: EU emissions limits face uncertain future euractiv.com
Survey: Germans and Austrians do not want to welcome refugees euractiv.de
Commission: Tighter rules for safer and cleaner cars europa.eu
Cooperation and Verification Mechanism: Reports on Progress in Bulgaria and Romania europa.eu
⊂ QUOTES ⊃
„Our entire society has a duty to prevent Anti-Semitism and we must fight it on every corner – whether on the extreme right or the extreme left or when it is instigated by extreme Islamists.“
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s message to the Jewish community on the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2016.
europa.eu
„Respect for other cultures cannot and must not mean negating our own. This isn’t respect, it’s cancelling out differences and it’s a kind of surrender.“
Luca Squeri, an Italian lawmaker in former Prime Minister Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party, criticises Italian Prime Minister Renzi after nude statues were covered up to avoid any possible offense to visiting Iranian President Rouhani.
euractiv.com
⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃
French justice minister resigns over terror proposals: Christiane Taubira resigned Wednesday after a clash with French President Francois Hollande over his proposal to adopt a constitutional amendment stripping some homegrown terrorists of their nationality. Her departure highlights the fault lines within Hollande’s Socialist Party over his strategy for tackling terrorism. Taubira tweeted: “Sometimes you resist by staying, sometimes you resist by leaving”.
wsj.com
Muslim women criticise Cameron: Prime Minister David Cameron has attracted criticim after suggesting one of the reasons young Muslim men are vulnerable to radicalisation is the „traditional submissiveness of Muslim women”. Many Muslim women have taken to Twitter to tell him that they are not quite the timid creatures he is reported to have portrayed them as. Using the hashtag #TraditionallySubmissive some have posted pictures of themselves and their achievements to politely put the British prime minister straight. Other people have posted pictures highlighting Muslim women’s independence, education and contributions to British society.
bbc.com, independent.co.uk
EU and Italy reach bad-debt deal: Italy and the Commission agreed on a plan to help banks offload bad debts, ending months of negotiations on how to ease the burden on the nation’s lenders while staying on the right side of European rules. The mechanism to remove soured assets will help lenders clean up their balance sheets and spur lending, the Commission said on Tuesday. Banks will be able to securitize bad loans, with senior debt tranches benefiting from a government guarantee priced at market rates.
bloomberg.com
EU forces reforms in Albania: Most Albanians know that active and passive corruption in the country’s courts is all too common. The judicial reform is now considered the decisive criterion for obtaining EU candidate status. The EU wants Macedonia to draft new laws by summer. But it is questionable whether it is possible to work out reforms in such a short period of time.
derstandard.at
Government crisis in Bosnia: The arrest of Fahrudin Radoncic, a member of the Bosnian parliament and leader of the Union for Better Future (SBB) party, for obstructing justice is developing into a power struggle between the government and the law enforcement agencies. SBB officials described the arrest as being carried out by individuals of the „judicial mafia,“ while the newspaper’s editors said the raid was „a brutal pressure on media freedom and an attempt of intimidation.“
dw.com
Turkey: Several dead after fights in the South East derstandard.at
Spain: Another earth quake in Melilla nytimes.com
Greece: More refugees drown near island of Kos yahoonews.com
⊂ DATA ⊃
69 percent of people in Switzerland would continue working after the introduction of a basic income.
spiegel.de
⊂ JOB-BOARD ⊃
politjobs.eu: 350.org seeks campaigner *** Steltemeier & Rawe seeks Senior Associate (m/f) *** 1&1 sucht EU Public Affairs Manager VKU sucht Referentin/en *** Afore Consulting seeks Junior Consultants in European Public Affairs
politjobs.eu, politjobs.eu/submit (Inserat schalten)
⊂ MALFUNCTION ⊃
Ai Weiwei protests Danish asylum seeker law: Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei announced Wednesday he is closing an exhibition in Copenhagen following the Danish government’s passage of a law empowering it to seize valuables from asylum seekers. The artist made the statement regarding his exhibition at Copenhagen’s Faurschou Foundation, „Ruptures,“ on his Instagram account. The statement said that Faurschou Foundation owner Jens Farschou backs the artist’s decision.
cnn.com