The diplomatic Middle East Quartet, which met in Moscow Friday 19 March, has issued a strongly worded reaction to Israel’s recent announcement it intends to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. The group of four (the UN, US, Russia and the EU) are calling for Israel to remove settlement homes within 24 months. and for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate an agreement in the same time period that provides for an independent Palestinian state living next to Israel in peace. “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem, “UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said unequivocally.
The New York Times had earlier reported that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared anxious to lower the temperature after Israel came in for heavy criticism over the housing. “We all condemned the announcement, and we all are expecting both parties to move toward the proximity talks and to help create an atmosphere in which those talks can be constructive,” Clinton said before the Quartet’s statement.
Links to other sites: Guardian, UK, Jerusalem Post, Moscow Times, New York Times
Catherine Ashton, who heads the European Union’s foreign policy programme, is stopping in Gaza to see for herself how the EU’s aid to Palestinians is being used, before she continues on to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet: the EU, US, UN and Russia. The EU is the biggest contributor of aid to the Palestinians, according to the BBC. Ashton’s visit is unusual: officials at this level rarely visit Gaza itself because of diplomatic complications, and it follows Ashton’s condemnation of new Israeli settlements which have dampened hopes for a Middle East settlement.
Brussels, Belgium (GenevaLunch) - The European Commission reacted to Libya’s ban on visas for Schengen residents by saying it will meet later in the week to discuss the abrupt decision by Muammar Qadaffi’s government. Cecilia Malmstroem of Sweden, the commissioner for home affairs, provided a more immediate response: “The European Commission deplores the unilateral and disproportionate decision by Libyan authorities to suspend the delivery of visas to EU Schengen countries’ citizens. The commission also regrets that travelers who legally obtained visas before the suspension measure were refused entry when arriving in Libya.”
It is unclear if the move includes diplomats, but there are reports that people arriving in Tripoli with visas are being refused entry at the airport.
The visa ban appears to be in retaliation for an unconfirmed ban on travel to Switzerland, a member of the Schengen area, by close to 200 Libyans. Switzerland has not issued any information along these lines and the Swiss government has refused to confirm the information, which was reported by a Libyan newspaper generally considered close to one of Qadaffi’s sons.
The Swiss government released in January, in English, new versions of two useful brochures for people working here who are considering relocating or retiring elsewhere. Both are in pdf format and can be downloaded:
Social Security in Switzerland, January 2010 update
Leaving Switzerland and Moving to an EU or EFTA country
Additional information is available from the Swiss-EU Liaison Office.
Coal plant, northern Germany (©2010 Andrew Kerr and WWF-Canon)
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - WWF Switzerland has filed a complaint with the European Union over the continuing support by some Swiss electricity companies of coal-based electricity production in northern Germany. Romande Energie is among several Swiss electricity suppliers who participate in the coal-based activities at Brunsbuettel in northern Germany.
Corrections 14:05 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) has denounced Cambodia’s forced return to China of 20 ethnic Uighur asylum-seekers before their claims were heard. The Geneva-based organization said it was “deeply distressed” at the news and concerned that “a disturbing pattern of such cases is increasingly evident around the world.”
Human rights groups condemn deportation
The 20 were deported Saturday 19 December as illegal immirants, reports Reuters AlertNet, an information service for humanitarian organizations. The move coincides with a trade visit to Cambodia by Chinese Vice-president Xi Jinping 21 December. Reuters AlertNet quotes a faxed statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, received by Reuters: “Recently, Cambodia deported 20 Chinese citizens in accordance with immigration laws for illegal entry into Cambodia. China received these people in accordance with usual practices,” but the statement also links the immigration crime to smuggling.
Several human rights groups have condemned the deportations, and US State Department’s spokesman Gordon Duguid says the US is “deeply disturbed” by the decision and the lack of appropriate participation by the UNHCR which, he warns, will affect its relations with Cambodia.”Now that the group has been returned to China,” says Duguid, “we urge the government of China to uphold international norms and to ensure transparency, due process and proper treatment of persons in its territory.”
Update 16 December Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Bananas have come close to being the fruit that broke the Doha Round’s back, but they could in the end save the talks, says the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). The European Union (EU) and Latin American exporters initialed an agreement Tuesday 15 December at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. It will settle their dispute over the banana trade and tariffs, which has been running for more than 10 years.
”An agreement on bananas is widely viewed as a critical condition for a conclusion to the stalled WTO Doha Round of trade negotiations,” says the Geneva-based ICTSD. The organization provides the international trade system with input on sustainable development aspects of trade.
A study published Tuesday by the ICTSD shows that “a new deal on European Union banana import tariffs will be a boon to Latin American exporters but would trigger a drop in exports of the fruit from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. But the blow to ACP banana exporters may be cushioned by the aid money that the EU has promised in conjunction with the deal.”
Roger Burgdorfer, Domaine du Paradis, Satigny/Geneva: one of Geneva's wine producers with vines over the border
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva AOC wines can now move back, in 2010, to what many of them traditionally were: wines that resulted from the marriage of grapes from Geneva, Switzerland and the part of France that sits just over the border.
The “mixed committee” charged, under the European Union and Switzerland agricultural agreement of 1999, with settling niggling agricultural details such as this, ruled 19 November that Geneva AOC wines could be made in part with grapes from clearly defined border areas. The judicial authority of the EU 9 December approved the decision.
Geneva’s winemakers have, for centuries, made wines from grapes that grow in an area which shares a common micro-climate or, in winemaking terms, grapes from a single region. Politics intervened, national boundaries were drawn, but winemakers continued to ignore the lines in order to make wine that made geographical sense: same soil, slopes, weather.
(Reuters video) The European Union has two new leaders, in posts created by the Lisbon Treaty, which goes into effect 1 December 2009 following final approval by Ireland and the Czech Republic. Herman van Rompuy, Belgian prime minister, was named President of the European Council, a two-and-a-half year job. He was elected by a majority vote by the 27 members states. A key part of his job is to chair meetings of the European Commission. Catherine Ashton was made EU high representative for foreign affairs. She has been the EU’s trade commissioner for the past year.
The election of the pair, both of whom have relatively low profiles in international affairs, has been praised by the US, France and Germany but those who were hoping to see the first European president play a strong role are expressing disappointment. Turkey’s leaders are unhappy with Rompuy, who resisted Turkish membership and the UK media reaction has been more puzzled than enthusiastic.
Links to other sites: BBC, Die Welt (Ger), Guardian, UK, Le Monde (Fre), Le Temps (Fre), Times, UK
A group of llamas and goats from an Australian circus that were stolen from the pound where police put them has been the big news story in Ireland Friday and Saturday 2-3 October, although more than 50 percent of eligible voters did turn their attention to the referendum on the European Union long enough to vote. The votes are being counted at Dublin Castle Saturday morning with 516 accredited media organizations from around the world in attendance. Ireland is the only country to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
Meanwhile, unaware perhaps of the key vote, a group of three goats and five llamas “ran wild” on the M50 motorway near Dublin Thursday noon after their gate at the Australian Circus Sydney, staying at Tallaght, was left open. Police took in the errant animals and put them in a pound, demanding €5,500 for their return. During the night hard-working thieves took the animals, reports the Irish Times: “The thieves traversed eight fields, opened up ditches and travelled two kilometres on foot to the shed where the animals were being kept.” The owner, who says he did not know where the animals were being kept by police, suspects animal rights activists. He says the tamed animals are worth at least €2,000 each, but are useless except to circuses.
Links to other sites: Irish votes live on Irish Times
The Irish goes to the polls today to vote on the Lisbon Treaty, the second referendum in 15 months called to approve the treaty. The first was voted down. The vote will have “far-reaching implications for the future of the European Union” notes the Irish Times. RTE reports that voting is delayed on Tory and Inishbofin islands because of bad weather; the islands vote ahead of the rest of the country to ensure their ballots can be returned, even if bad weather arrives. Some three million people have the right to cast a ballot in the referendum. RTE also provides a “consolidated text” of the treaty to make it accessible to voters. The Vatican jumped into the fray with a statement by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, urging the Irish to vote against the treaty, suggesting it does not allow European countries to maintain their own identities and cultures.
Links to other sites: Telegraph, UK, Turkish Weekly
European Union leaders, meeting in Brussels Thursday 17 September a week ahead of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, in the US, agreed in principle that the G20 should establish curbs on banks’ bonuses paid to employees. The group has left the details to be worked out at the G20 meeting, agreeing only that there should be “binding rules backed by national sanctions”, reports Bloomberg, that the bulk of bonus payments should be deferred so they could be pulled back in case of later poor performance, and that in any event they should not be contractually agreed.
Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit told journalists in answer to a question that $100 million, which is 2,000 times median household income in the US, is too much for a bank to pay out in bonuses to one employee. The question arose because of the case of one Citigroup trader who is potentially contractually due the money, but Citigroup, which is at the top of the list of banks receiving government payouts, is under review by Kenneth Feinberg, known as President Barack Obama’s pay czar. Financial Times, Reuters
The European Union reacted sharply Saturday 8 August to the trial in Iran of a French embassy and two British embassy employees, as well as a French student and teacher of French, saying that the Iranian government was acting against the EU itself, and it would respond accordingly. Twenty-four-year-old Clothilde Reiss apologized to the court and said she had been mistaken when she protested with others against the results of the recent Iranian election. She risks up to five years in prison. Hossein Rassam, a 44-year-old political analyst at the British Embassy, also reportedly apologized, in his case for inciting unrest, with the quotes coming from Iranian media, since international media were barred from the trial. Le Monde (Fre) and Times, UK
Torsten Åkesson, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, et José Manuel Silva Rodriguez
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The European Research Area is significantly closer to becoming a working reality, with Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) and the European Commission (EC) signing a memorandum of understanding Friday 17 July. The two have agreed to work more closely together in several areas, a key one being to facilitate implementation of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, which has been defined by Cern.
The EC and Cern say the memorandum will provide a framework to cooperate and share knowledge in several areas: research programming, training and mobility of researchers, science education, open publishing, technology transfer, innovation, building next generation infrastructures (including e-infrastructures) and global scientific cooperation.
Brussels, Belgium (GenevaLunch) – The European Union’s transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, called for a worldwide blacklist of unsafe airlines, at a press conference in Brussels Tuesday morning 30 June, following the crash of a Yemeni airlines Airbus near the Comoros Islands.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss exports will be given the same treatment as EU member countries’ goods when they enter the European Union, the government announced 24 June. The agreement goes into effect 1 July 2009.
China has reacted to complaints filed by the US and the European Union with Geneva-based WTO (World Trade Organization) Tuesday 23 June, which accuse China of limiting exports of raw materials like zinc and bauxite. China is a major producer of both materials. Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that “China’s export policy is in line with the World Trade Organization rules, said an official with the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday. Export restriction on some industrial material aims to protect the environment and the natural resources, he said.”
”Now more than ever, trade is essential to keep America’s economy afloat,” said Ron Kirk, US trade representative in Washington, commenting on the filings. China thus favours domestic manufacturers, according to the US.
China has complained to the WTO that the US illegally restricts poultry imports from China, originally on health grounds due to avian flu. With the deepest economic downturn in 70 years, many countries are trying to promote domestic industries to the detriment of foreign ones. NYT, FT
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in Prague for a China-European Union summit, told EU ministers that China is ready to send another buying mission to Europe, to boost European exports to his country. The EU is China’s largest trading partner. Bilateral trade in 2008 was to $425.6 billion, according to Xinhua, which notes that “In the past five years, EU exports to China have increased at an annual rate of over 20 percent, making China one of the most important export markets for the EU, said Wen.”
Zurich train station
Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Switzerland’s weekend vote in favour of biometric passports is a positive sign in terms of the country’s closer relationship with the European Union (EU), but there are disquieting signs, too, says Jacques Barrot, EU vice-president. Barrot is interviewed at length in Le Temps about Switzerland the Schengen accord. Two areas for concern are the possibility that Swiss border guards’ patrols of Swiss trains could become routine and that the Swiss Federal Council could decide this week to exercise its option to reduce the number of foreigners allowed to work in the country.
Intel has been fined $1.45 billion by the European Union Competition Commissioner for deliberately trying to keep competitors out of the market after an eight-year investigation that showed the company giving rebates to customers who routinely bought all their chips from Intel. The fine is the largest in EU history and twice that faced by Microsoft in 2004, reports Bloomberg. Intel is the world’s largest computer-chip maker.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch), The Federal Council yesterday rejected calls to extend the carbon tax to gasoline and diesel fuel, but said it would commit to a 20 percent reduction of greenhouse gases over 1990 levels by the year 2020, in line with the European Union. The decision is part of the council’s recommendations to Parliament to revise Swiss energy laws.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland has begun negotiating new bilateral tax treaties with two key partners, the United States and Japan, Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz told a press conference Wednesday 25 March. Talks with Japan are 75 percent completed, but discussions with the US will take longer, he noted.
Updated 22:20 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland went to the polls Sunday and voted an overwhelming yes to a federal initiative to extend indefinitely the country’s agreement with the European Union (EU) on the free movement of labour. In a vote that some media are calling a surprise (Le Temps, Fre), Zurich voters have abolished flat fee taxes for wealthy foreigners. According to swissinfo, 137 foreigners currently have agreements with the canton to pay a set fee instead of being taxed at normal rates.
With gas supplies to the European Union from Russia and Ukraine stopped, the EU is calling a “crisis meeting.” The heads of Gazprom, the Russian supplier that is the world’s largest gas company, and the Ukraine gas company Naftogaz, are meeting face to face for the first time, but the Financial Times reports them as saying they have not yet reached an agreement in their dispute over natural gas prices. Bloomberg
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – The Swiss parliament Monday approved what it calls parallel imports in the interest of ending Switzerland’s position as an expensive island in the middle of Europe. Pharmaceutical products, whose prices are set by the government, will be an exception while a political solution to their pricing is found.
