Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts
Clashes in Kosovo as MPs ratify ‘normalizing ties’ deal with Serbia (PHOTOS)
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| Kosovo Police splashed with paint clash with demonstrators in Pristina on June 27, 2013.(AFP Photo / Armend Nimani) |
Hundreds of ethnic Albanians have been pepper sprayed and around 70 arrested amid clashes with riot police in Kosovo’s Pristina. The violence came as Parliament approved an EU-brokered agreement aimed at normalizing ties with neighboring Serbia.
Demonstrators aimed at preventing lawmakers from entering the Parliament building prior to voting threw cans of pink paint at police. Some 17 officers were wounded in a scuffle in front of the government and parliament buildings in the capital, according to local police.
The protest has been called by Vetevendosje (Self-Determination), an opposition nationalist party which fiercely opposes the implementation of the 15-point pact which was signed in Brussels in mid-April. The party insists the pact will create an autonomous Serb region within Kosovo and would therefore undermine the young country's sovereignty. The movement also fears the deal will cement ethnic partition, which currently exists in Kosovo between the Albanian majority and about 50,000 Serbs who live in the northern town of Mitrovica.
Serbia approved normalizing ties with the breakaway region on April 22. More than two months later, the deal has been passed by Kosovo’s 122-seat assembly with 84 votes in favor.
Kosovo’s prime minister, Hashim Thaci, has admitted that achieving normal relations with Serbia will be difficult and complicated, but insisted he would pursue talks with Belgrade.
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| Kosovo Police splashed with paint clash with demonstrators in Pristina on June 27, 2013.(AFP Photo / Armend Nimani) |
"The independence road is irreversible and the process of normalizing relations between the two independent countries is unavoidable," he told legislators.
On June 17, Serbia and Kosovo exchanged liaison officers – a step which should assist in the implementation of the EU-brokered deal.
The agreement, which was reached during the EU-mediated negotiations between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci, calls for the merger of the four Serb municipalities in the north - North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic. The urban district would have power over economic development, education, healthcare and town planning. Under the deal, Serbs in northern Kosovo will have their own police and appeals court.
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| Kosovo Police splashed with paint clash with demonstrators in Pristina on June 27, 2013.(AFP Photo / Armend Nimani) |
The agreement is widely regarded as a step toward Serbia’s entry into the European Union. Both Belgrade and Pristina have agreed not to block each other's efforts to seek EU membership. So far, Kosovo has been Serbia’s main obstacle to joining the bloc
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 and is now officially recognized by 100 nations - including the United States and 22 of the EU's 27 members.
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| Kosovo Police detain a demonstrator following clashes in Pristina on June 27, 2013.(AFP Photo / Armend Nimani) |
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| Kosovo Police splashed with paint clash with demonstrators in Pristina on June 27, 2013.(AFP Photo / Armend Nimani) |
Nabucco loses key Azerbaijan gas supplier
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| Greece's Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, (C) Trans Adriatic Pipeline's Managing Director Kjetil Tungland (L) and Greece's Deputy Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Asimakis Papageorgiou , surrounded by officials sign an host government agreement in Athens, on June 26, 2013.(AFP Photo / Louisa Gouliamaki) |
Azerbaijan – a country that was supposed to be a key backer of Nabucco West project – said it had selected the alternative route for its gas - running through Greece and Albania. Experts say this could mean end for the EU-backed gas pipeline project.
Azerbaijan said it would deliver its gas to Europe through the
Greece-Albania-Italy Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP. That’s instead of the initially-planned Nabucco West venture - a truncated version of the Nabucco pipeline system, which would run across Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Western Europe.
Among the TAP consortium members are Norway's Statoil, Axpo of Switzerland and the German firm E.ON.
“The Nabucco West project was not selected by the consortium. While OMV accepts the decision of the consortium, OMV is of the opinion that the offer ... met all the selection criteria and was highly competitive,” Austrian power utility OMV, which is backing Nabucco, said in a company statement.
Azerbaijan’s withdrawal could in fact mean the end of Nabucco, as BFM.ru quotes Vyacheslav Mishchenko, development director at Argus Media. It’ll be almost impossible to find another gas supplier within the next couple of years.
“The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline is more attractive. Its length is just a bit above 500 km and Azerbaijan already has work experience in the South European market. After SOCAR [State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic] won the bid to buy Greek Depa, it may be seeing synergy between the two projects,” he said.
The Nabucco project has been facing problems almost from its very start in 2002. Under the initial plan, construction was set to get started in 2011 and be completed in 2014. However, the deadline has been extended several times, as the project has been struggling to secure gas suppliers.
In May, German RWE energy concern – one of Nabucco’s main ideologists and investors – withdrew from the project after Hungary’s largest oil and gas company, MOL, said it was stepping away from Nabucco.
The key aim behind the Nabucco project was to move away from dependence on Russia’s Gazprom for deliveries of Caspian gas to Europe. Under the initial game plan the pipeline was to cross Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania and end in Austria. However, after it became clear that the pipeline wouldn’t secure enough gas, it was cut almost by half to a Nabucco West version, running from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Baumgarten, Austria.
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| Nabucco - West(Image from wikipedia.org) |
Investors to pay for bank failures – EU
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| Eurogroup President and Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem talks to journalists during a joint news conference with Portuguese Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar in Lisbon May 27, 2013.(Reuters / Jose Manuel Ribeiro) |
European Union finance chiefs agreed Thursday investors and wealthy depositors will foot the bill for bank bailouts, in a break with the past convention of burdening taxpayers. If pursued, bailout strategy, shareholders, bondholders and depositors with more than 100,000 euro will share the financial strain of saving a bank. Deposits under 100,000 will be protected. Under the new protocol, which would come into effect in 2018, countries would be obliged to absorb 8 percent of a bank’s liabilities, with some leeway thereafter. The next time a big bank fails, governments will make sure “that shareholders and creditors are liable first and foremost,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters. Rescuing banks will not be less painful for political leaders and institutions, who can now just take bank deposits instead of hiking taxes.
French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said France got “what we wanted” from the blueprint, and Danish Economy Minister Margrethe Vestager called the deal a “balanced compromise.” The Irish, whose taxpayers paid nearly $40 billion to bail out Anglo Irish Bank, are happy that the new status quo will be bail-ins, not bail-outs. Banks will have to bail themselves out. Other ministers were happy to have a universal strategy to address dealing with troubled banks.
"If a bank gets in trouble we will now, throughout Europe, have one set of rules on who pays the bill," Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said.
Germany has previously indicated it disagrees with a universal plan to deal with bailouts across the continent, and has warned having such a strong central banking authority goes against standing treaties.
“It took a long time and it was arduous and it was intense,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said, without publicly voicing Germany’s previous qualms over the structure. It is highly unlikely Chancellor Merkel will agree to such a banking union before the election in September.
The European Central Bank will officially take over supervision of eurozone banks next year. Last year it provided 1 trillion euros of cheap three-year loans to struggling banks.Under the new umbrella, banks will be able to receive direct loans from the European Stability Mechanism, a eurozone bailout fund. The European Banking Authority was set up in 2011 to integrate rules across the EU and has secured a new supervisory function. All 17 currency member states support the motion, but some fear an all-too-powerful central bank. By next week, the 27 member states need to choose a governing body, or executor, to carry out the task.
The legislature’s text grants nations a clear right to nationalize failing banks, if the step is seen as essential to preserve financial stability. Switzerland, Norway, and other non-EU countries within Europe will still have jurisprudence over how to deal with bank failures.
Just like Cyprus
The precedent was set after Cyprus requested an EU bailout and aid was dependent on the country’s agreement to levee account holders with more than 100,000 euro, which will likely result in a loss of 30 percent in savings. The Cyprus scenario marked the first time depositors were forced to contribute to the bank’s bailout and now it is set to become the norm. Many analysts had pointed to Cyprus as an isolated case, as their debt was heavily a result of bad Greek bonds, and a hyper-inflated banking sector, almost eight times as large as the country’s GDP. Tax-payer funded bailouts have been the source of public discontent, and the accord is seen as a move to ameliorate political relations in the EU.
