⊂ EUROPE ⊃
US and EU to expel more than 100 Russian diplomats: The United States said on Monday it would expel 60 Russian diplomats, joining governments across Europe in punishing the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain that they have blamed on Moscow. The EU members Germany, France and Poland are each to expel four Russian diplomats with intelligence agency backgrounds. British Prime Minister Theresa May, welcoming the show of solidarity, said 18 countries had announced plans to expel Russian officials. Those included 14 European Union countries. In total, 100 Russian diplomats were being removed, the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War. The Kremlin has maintained that it had nothing to do with the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
reuters.com, theguardian.com, nytimes.com
EU summit with Turkey provides no answers to concerns: EU leaders said talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday offered no answers to a long list of concerns including over Turkey’s intervention in Syria and the jailing of journalists at home. Despite criticism from European governments of what many view as Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism, EU leaders left the door open to Turkey’s stalled bid for membership to the bloc, but said only he could act to remove the obstacles to accession. Erdogan voiced hope that a difficult period in relations between Turkey and the EU is now in the past. He said that EU membership was a strategic goal for Turkey.
uk.reuters.com, washingtonpost.com
France meets EU deficit rules: France posted a 2.6 percent public debt to GDP ratio in 2017, the first time since 2007 it has been within the three-percent limit set by the European Union, the French national statistics office (INSEE) said on Monday. In August 2017 Macron unveiled a labour reform plan aimed at making it easier to hire and fire workers, capping dismissal awards and allowing workplace referendums. The government is also working on a plan to reform pensions, unemployment benefits and public finances. But despite Macron seeking to make respect for EU budget rules a key policy goal since being elected, France remains one of only two eurozone countries still under the European Commission’s excessive-deficit procedure, Spain being the other.
dw.com
EU starts study into possible steel import limits: The EU began a study on Monday on whether the import tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump warranted action to prevent predominantly Asian producers flooding Europe with steel. Trump’s tariffs, of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, came into force last Friday, although the EU and six other countries secured temporary exemptions. The EU is concerned about whether steel manufacturers subject to the US tariffs will divert their product to Europe, leading to a surge of imports. Its study, which may last up to nine months, could lead the EU to impose its own quotas or tariffs on steel, including stainless steel and pipes, to prevent harm to its own industry.
reuters.com
European elections face the challenge of fake news: To tackle fake news ahead of the 2019 European elections, the European Parliament will launch an information campaign, according to the institution’s spokesman and media director, Jaume Duch. The issue of false information is fundamental, but it isn’t new, Duch said. Fake news on European issues has been around for a long time. What is new is first and foremost that many of these fake news items are created not inside but most probably outside the EU. Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government tabled a bill in parliament on Monday outlawing fake news, with hefty fines and up to 10 years in jail.
euractiv.com, reuters.com
EU budget chief Oettinger: Cuts to regional funding will be modest euractiv.com
International trade: A third of EU trade is with the United States and China ec.europa.eu
Bundesbank: Weidmann says US tariff exemption not a free trade victory bloomberg.com
⊂ QUOTES ⊃
„It’s very embarrassing to depend on the US authorities to do the job. This has to change.“
The ECB’s top banking supervisor Daniele Nouy fielded questions from European lawmakers about the European Central Bank’s failure to act in cases of alleged money laundering at Latvia’s ABLV Bank and Malta’s Pilatus Bank. She stressed the ECB had no competence over money laundering but described the incidents as embarrassing and called for new EU legislation on the matter and even the possible creation of a dedicated watchdog.
euronews.com
⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃
German court extends Puigdemont detention: Former Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont will continue to be held in detention in Germany pending a decision on whether to extradite him to Spain. A court in Neumünster, northern Germany, decided Monday to continue to hold Puigdemont after he appeared before a judge. German authorities must now decide whether to grant Spain’s extradition request. The state prosecutor’s office has said the decision will likely not happen until after Easter. On Friday, Madrid reactivated a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont for the crime of rebelion, which denotes rebellion against the state. The former regional president of Catalonia faces up to 25 years in prison on sedition charges in Spain in connection with Catalonia’s independence movement.
politico.eu, dw.com
French politician arrested for tweet celebrating policeman’s death: A former French left-wing parliamentary candidate was arrested Sunday over a tweet concerning a policeman who was killed during a siege in Trebes, France on Friday. Stephane Poussier’s tweet appeared to celebrate the death of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who volunteered to trade places with a hostage after a jihadist gunman stormed a supermarket, killing two people and trapping several others inside. Poussier was arrested for „apology for terrorist acts“, under a law prohibiting apologising for terrorism, which states that speaking favourably about or approving a terrorist act is a crime. The offence is punishable by a fine of more than $120,000 USD and seven years in prison. Meanwhile, French prosecutors are treating the murder of an 85-year-old Jewish woman, whose body was found in her burned-out Paris flat, as an anti-Semitic attack.
euronews.com, npr.org, bbc.com (Antisemitism)
Slovak journalist likely victim of contract killing: A Slovak prosecutor says circumstances in the deaths of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee suggest it was a contract killing. The prosecutor in a rare statement to reporters on Monday also said the two were killed on Feb. 21. Their bodies were found in their house four days later. Police previously said the killings were likely linked to Kuciak’s work. Kuciak had been reporting on alleged Italian mafia ties to associates of Prime Minister Robert Fico and corruption scandals linked to Fico’s leftist Smer-Social Democracy party. A reshuffled Slovak government led by Peter Pellegrini won a parliamentary confidence vote on Monday.
nytimes.com, reuters.com
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German justice minister vows stricter regulations for Facebook: German Justice Minister Katarina Barley met with Facebook’s European leadership on Monday, including public policy chief Richard Allan. The talks were the latest development in the fallout of revelations that data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica was able to cull information on millions of Facebook users without their knowledge. Barley said that in the future, Facebook’s guiding principle in Europe must be „privacy by design,“ and that promises of tighter controls were not sufficient. To that end, Barley said that algorithms would be made more transparent, and that the social media giant would have to inform every user whose data was misused either by Cambridge Analytica, or in a similar fashion. The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has confirmed that it has opened an investigation into Facebook Inc.’s privacy practices. The social media giant’s stock quickly dropped more than 5 percent but recovered by day’s end.
dw.com, latimes.com
Kosovo detains Serbian politician: Marko Duric, head of Belgrade’s office for Kosovo and Metohija, was seized in the town of North Mitrovica on Monday by members of Pristina’s ROSU police, who fired what appeared to be stun grenades to clear a crowd of angry Serb civilians. Kosovo authorities said Djuric was arrested for entering the country illegally. Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, said that Djuric, government’s chief negotiator in EU-mediated talks on Kosovo, was beaten when arrested and will be examined in a Serbian hospital. Foreign minister Behgjet Pacolli had earlier warned that Duric would be arrested if he crossed into Kosovo as planned. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade regards Kosovo as an inalienable part of its territory. The north of Kosovo remains dominated by ethnic Serbs who largely reject independence, and Belgrade retains considerable influence.
theguardian.com, washingtonpost.com
Greece: Ex-minister Yanis Varoufakis launches political party theguardian.com
Italy: Berlusconi indicted over judicial corruption charges politico.eu
Germany: Fake terror blog report sparks backlash dw.com
⊂ JOB-BOARD ⊃
politjobs.eu: Bitkom sucht Referent europäische Digitalpolitik (w/m) *** Int. Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory seeks Innovation Project Manager *** Int. Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory seeks Project Assistant for EU Funded Projects *** PwC seeks Public Affairs Senior Manager Belgium *** Johnson & Johnson seeks Policy Assistant, Government Affairs & Policy EMEA *** Public Policy Manager, Connectivity *** Ryanair offers Public Affairs internship
politjobs.eu, politjobs.eu/submit (Inserat schalten)
⊂ MALFUNCTION ⊃
Turkey daily portrays Merkel as Hitler: A Turkish newspaper strongly supportive of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel on its front cover as Adolf Hitler, accusing her of having a „Nazi mentality“. The „Yeni Akit“ daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped picture of Merkel with a Hitler moustache, swastika arm band and belt diagonally across her chest in the style of Nazi militia. Ankara has been infuriated by a statement from EU leaders condemning Turkey’s illegal actions towards Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.
yahoo.com