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ByStephen Beard

April 20, 2017 | 2:00 PM

On est chez nous! The phrase, which means this is our home, thunders around a sports stadium in northeastern Paris. Some 6,000 supporters of the far-right National Front party are in full cry at a campaign rally as they await the arrival of their heroine, the leader of their party and a front-runner in Frances presidential election, Marine Le Pen.

On est chez nous is a battle cry for the National Front and conveys two connected messages: We have too many immigrants coming to France and We dont like the European Union running our country.

Jean Cautirot, who was at the Paris rally, said he and his fellow party members resent Europes passport-free zone because it facilitates the influx of more migrants, which France does not want and cannot afford. Cautirot detests any EU involvement in French domestic affairs.

Im in favor of Europe so long as we just work together, but Im against a European dictatorship. We dont need to be ordered about by Brussels. The majority of French people dont want that. We are perfectly able to govern ourselves, he said.

Marine Le Pen has pledged that if she wins, she will immediately pull out of the passport-free zone and renegotiate a much looser relationship with the EU. Then shell hold a referendum on whether France should leave the single currency and perhaps the bloc as well. Jean-Paul Martin, a retired art gallery manager and Front supporter, knows already how he would vote.

I would vote for Frexit, absolutely, absolutely, he told Marketplace. "I think we do not take any benefit from the European Union.

That will surprise many Brits, who for many years harbored the suspicion that the EU was set up mainly for the benefit of the French in order to contain the economic powerhouse next door, Germany. The euro was a French idea. But theres little doubt that today many French people are disillusioned with the EU and with the euro.

With the euro, our purchasing power has gone down," said Danielle Oger, a Front voter. "I feel it, and other French people feel it for sure,

Shes right. When the single currency was launched more than 15 years ago, French and German consumers had roughly equal purchasing power; today, the Germans are 17 percent better off. Analysts point out the discrepancy is mainly due to Frances failure to reform, but many French people blame the euro, and it shows in the opinion polls. Last year, a major survey by the Pew Research Center revealed that the French are less positive about the EU than even the Brits. And the Brits have voted to leave.

Karim Amellal,a Franco-Algerian writer and entrepreneur, said the French have clearly fallen out of love with Europe.

In France, people dont believe the European Union can solve their problems anymore, he said. Problems like an unemployment rate of 10 percent, which is twice the rate of other major economies, like Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. But Amellal, whos pro-EU and anti-National Front, does not believe the French would ever vote to leave the Union.

Its obvious that the cost and the economic disruption would be huge. And I think when people think about that, they will realize that leaving the single currency and the EU is not the answer, he said.

Amellal is reassured that an EU referendum is unlikely in France because, as the polls indicate, Le Pen may get through the first round of the election on Sunday, but she will probably not win the second round, and therefore will not be the next president of France. But no one can be sure of the outcome of this highly unpredictable election or its longer-term repercussions. It has already stoked up some powerful nationalist sentiment in a key member state of the European Union. At Le Pens rally in Paris this week, the crowd sang the National Anthem three times in the middleof her speech.

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French voters are turning against the European Union - Marketplace.org

Commissioner Neven Mimica announces further EU support to Haiti on an official visit to the country

During an official visit to Haiti after the appointment of a new Government, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica announced a new EU aid package.

The first of which is a special allocation of 18.5 million (14.5 million in exceptional budget support and 4 million for an agricultural project) in response to Hurricane Matthew which hit the island in October 2016 and caused widespread damage to housing, agriculture, and infrastructure. The EU had also provided initial emergency relief last year when the hurricane struck the country.

Commissioner Mimica said: "Through our new support we clearly show the solidarity of the European Union towards Haiti. We remain committed to supporting the Haitian population and the reconstruction and stabilisation of the country."

The second part of support through the signature with the Prime Minister S.E.M Jack Guy Lafontant is a 45 million agreement for the construction of the National Road #3, connecting Port-au-Prince to the northern town of Cap Haitian, the second biggest town and port of Haiti.

Commissioner Mimica added: I am aware that the people of Haiti have suffered for many years from poor road conditions. The EU is committed to the completion of the National Road #3 all the way from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian. I am delighted to be signing this project which will help the development of the island. This road will facilitate community access to health centres, schools and other services.

Background:

Haiti remains the poorest country in the Latin America/Caribbean region. It is, in addition one of the most unequal with an alarming Gini coefficient of 0.592 (one of the highest in the world), and chronic political, socio-economic and environmental fragility. Haiti receives around 42% of the financial assistance allocated to the Caribbean region under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) (2014-2020).

More information on the European Development Fund:

In line with the country context and as reflected in the national development strategies of Haiti, the EU strategic objectives pursued in the 11th EDF include:

More information on the EU's crisis response to Hurricane Matthew:

Matthew, a category 4 hurricane, made landfall in Haiti on 4 October 2016, causing widespread flooding and damage to housing, agriculture, and infrastructure. At least 2.1 million people were affected, including 894,000 children. Of them, 1.4 million were in need of assistance, including 500,000 children, with at least 125,000 requiring protection from exploitation, violation, and abuse (United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs figures of November 2016).

In this context, the European Commission provided humanitarian aid worth 19.7 million to cover immediate needs in relation to food and nutrition security, water and sanitation, education, shelter and protection.

Furthermore, the Commission mobilised 18.5 million under the State Building Contract and the Southern Food Security project to support the Government in its post-Matthew reconstruction and agricultural rehabilitation efforts.

IP/17/1022

Press contacts:

Carlos MARTIN RUIZ DE GORDEJUELA (+32 2 296 53 22)

Nabila MASSRALI (+ 32 2 296 92 18)

Daniel PUGLISI (+32 2 296 91 40)

General public inquiries: Europe Direct by phone 00 800 67 89 10 11 or by email

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The European Union increases its support for Haiti - Reliefweb

World powers such as France, Germany, Britain and China have an obligation to stop North Korea from triggering a worldwide crisis over its nuclear weapons program, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, warned Thursday. As tensions between the U.S. and North Korea have risen in recent days, with both nations exchanging increasingly tough warnings about potential military strikes, Mogherini saidEurope and China must work together "in times of growing tensions and geopolitical unpredictability" to avoid an outbreak of war in the Korean Peninsula.

"Everyone understands that the crisis withNorth Koreawill have a global fallout," she said during aspeech at Tsinghua University in China as part of a three-day trip to discuss trade and geopolitics. Mogherini said shebrought up her concerns aboutNorth Korea during talks this week with Chinese officials in Beijing.

She said the EU and China havea "common responsibility and an interest to avoid a military escalation in the Korean Peninsula, to push for North Korea to abide by its international obligations and re-engage with the international community, and work together for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula."

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Her remarks came asEuropean Union officials are debatinghow to respond to North Korea's nuclear threats. The EU, a major trade partner with South Korea and Japan,increased sanctions against Pyongyang in March, including banning its members frominvesting in North Korea's mining, refining and chemical industries. A statement at the time calledthe isolated nation's nuclear and missile tests "a grave threat to international peace and security in the region and beyond." But officials in Germany and Sweden have called for maintaining diplomatic ties withPyongyang and continuing to sendhumanitarian aid to North Koreans.

Mogherini said the threat from North Korea should be obvious to all. She shared during her speech how her 12-year-old daughter hadrecently raisedquestions about the potential fornuclear war in the region if the situation further deteriorated, the Associated Press reported."If a 12-year-old in Europe understands the risks of an escalation, (in) such a faraway place from home, it is quite self-evident that we have common responsibilities," Mogherinisaid.

North Korea has warned in recent months that it could use its growingnuclear weapons program to attack the U.S. or South Korea.PresidentDonald Trumphas urged China, a close Pyongyang ally, to use its influence to persuadeNorth Korea to give upits nuclear and missile programs and stop threatening other nations.

Pyongyang has so far remained undeterred.The North Korean government warned Thursday in the state-run Rodong Sinmun, the officialnewspaper of North Koreas Workers Party,of a super-mighty preemptive strike against the U.S. military that "will completely and immediately wipe out not only U.S. imperialists' invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas but the U.S. mainland and reduce them to ashes."

Vice PresidentMike Pencesaid Wednesday while visiting Tokyo thatthe U.S. would respond with an "overwhelming and effective" military strike if North Korea attempts to execute any of its threats against Washington.

Excerpt from:
North Korea War Would Have 'Global Fallout,' European Union Policy Chief Warns - Newsweek

The European Union is expecting Britain to pay the full cost of relocating two major EU agencies from London back to the EU after Brexit, in the latest signal that Brussels intends to play hardball over the costs of UK withdrawal from Europe.

The plan, revealed in a leaked draft of the European Commissions Brexit negotiating mandate, looks certain to raise the temperature of the debate over Britains so-called Brexit bill.

Europe is expecting to reclaim two of its most prestigious UK-based agencies,covering banking and medicine regulations, which employ hundreds of highly skilled staff in offices based in Londons Docklands.

Last week David Davis, the Brexit secretary, indicated that Britain did not accept that the agencies would necessarily have to be relocated inside the EU after Brexit - a position that was swiftly rejected by senior figures across Europe.

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Brussels demands the UK foots the bill to relocate London-based EU agencies after Brexit - Telegraph.co.uk

The grassroots group Pulse of Europe aims to show politicians and right-wing Europeans that the silent majority favors the E.U.CreditPHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREAS ARNOLD / PICTURE-ALLIANCE / DPA / AP

On the Sunday before Easter, the sun was shining on Berlins charming Gendarmenmarkt. At 1:30 P.M., the first blue-and-yellow flagssymbols of the European Unionappeared on the square, held aloft or worn like capes. The P.A. system was up and running. A pop-y German New Wave classic came on: Visit Europe, while its still standing. From the broad, shady steps of the concert house, Alexander Knigges aviator sunglasses reflected the light. This songs about nuclear war, he said. But, actually, it fits todays situation pretty well.

Knigge is a German real-estate lawyer and one of the organizers of the Berlin chapter of Pulse of Europe, a grassroots movement dreamed up by a Frankfurt-based lawyer in response to the feelings of intense dismay brought on by watching Donald Trumps victory on television. Pulse of Europe events feature an hour-long program that includes live music and an open mike, and have been taking place on city squares across Europe almost every Sunday afternoon since the beginning of the year. Their mission is simple: to show support for the European Union.

Today, the theme was Francea country where four of the five major Presidential candidates in the upcoming elections have taken Euroskeptic positions. Knigge, who had never been involved in a protest movement before getting involved with Pulse of Europe, fielded organizational questions from other volunteers and reflected on his reasons for helping out. Its a matter of freedom, and peace, he said, as the playlist bounced to Frankreich, Frankreich, another eighties hit, in which the singer wakes up to a shock: overnight, he has lost his baguette, his cigarette, Jeanette and Claudette. If France decides to leave the E.U., the E.U. is gone, said Knigge. My grandparents fought in World War II, and we all know that the European Union is the best guarantee against war. I dont really trust GermanyIm happy its completely bound up in a bigger union.

Knigge paused, to smile at the lyrics (Oo-la-la!). Also, I really like living in Europe. Im forty-fiveIm not going to move to Spain. But I like the idea that I could. Knigge is not alone. The Pulse of Europe gatherings started with four hundred people on Goetheplatz, in Frankfurt, one gloomy mid-January afternoon. Since then, they seem to have struck a nerve: the weekend before the Gendarmenmarkt rally, some forty-five thousand people attended events in ninety-two cities spread across twelve countries, according to the organizers. Politicians are taking note: Last week, in one of his first speeches, Germanys recently elected President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, explicitly praised the organization for countering what many say is the E.U.s overwhelmingly negative public image. These young people, they are tired of people only talking badly about Europe, he said. (National politicians tend to make the E.U. a scapegoat for things that go wrong in their countries, while taking credit themselves for things that go right.) For many of our children and grandchildren, Europe is already a homeland, Steinmeier added.

Tanja Brzel, a professor of political science at the Freie Universitt Berlin, said that Pulse of Europe was filling a need. Pulse of Europe reminds us that Europe is more than just a bunch of men in gray suits, meeting to discuss problems, she said. Its such a powerful image of ordinary citizens mobilizing. Calling the group an emerging social movement, she added that, while Europes right wing has been able to mobilize twenty per cent of the population, Pulse of Europe signals to politicians and right-wingers that the silent majority is pro-Europe. Brzel disagrees with critics who say that Pulse of Europes lack of a specific political agenda limits its effectiveness. They lay out clearly what they support: Democracy, rule of law, human rights. This is not self-evidentlook at Hungary and Poland. These values are no longer to be taken for granted.

I think that is enough, she said. To initiate momentum. Then its up to the politicians to make specific reforms.

Polls show that the majority of European citizens do, in fact, support the E.U. But, after the Brexit referendum, Daniel Roeder, the founder of Pulse of Europe, grew concerned that headline-grabbing populists could win more Brexit-type victories. Then came the U.S. election. The day after Trump was elected, my wife and I were sitting in the living room watching TV in disbelief, Roeder said. We thought, Lets do something. There must be other people who are feeling like us, sitting here in complete shock. Maybe they will join us. The next morning, the couple began e-mailing friends and colleagues. They designed a Web site and drafted a nonpartisan, pro-European Union mission statement. Let us become louder and more visible! it reads. Basically, we wanted to create a pro-European critical mass, Roeder said.

So far, most Pulse of Europe demonstrations are located in Germany, though gatherings have taken place in towns from Montpellier to Stockholm, and organizers say queries have come in from Warsaw and Budapest. Europe is our everyday life, said Aurlien Condomines, a Paris-based lawyer who runs the French chapter of Pulse of Europe. I was in London after the Brexit vote. I went to professional lunches, and people were crying. They said, My God, what have we done? Could we have prevented this? Its part of your identity. Your self is torn apart when someone comes and says, Youre not a European anymore. Its crazy.

Things like markets and marriages bind European countries more closely than many people realize, Condomines added. So far, Euroskeptics have made the most noise. But that could change: Recently, thousands of people at a Munich Pulse of Europe gathering shouted a greeting to Bordeaux. Libert, egalit, fraternit, with German accents, Condomines said. It was really funny. Still, Martin Fischer, a German attorney who lives with his family in Amsterdam, told me that cultural differences cannot be ignored. I see one of my obligations in my life, growing up in Germany and dealing with the Holocaust, being to speak up as soon as I see signs of nationalism, Fischer said. However, he was frustrated when Dutch friends said that they would attend the Pulse of Europe events he was organizing in Amsterdam but did not. Finally, my Dutch friends said, We dont show our political opinions in public.

By the time the clock struck two on Gendarmenmarkt, several thousand people had arrived. Toni and Marie, rosy-cheeked ten-year-old twins, said they feared one thing if the E.U. failed: War. The eighty-three-year-old pastor Klaus-Heinrich Kamstein agreed. Its crucial, in my opinion, to speak loudly in favor of Europe now, he said. Weve already seen the results of hundreds of years of governance focused on nation-states. Among them are World War I and World War II. An advertising filmmaker in dark glasses and a pink fuzzy sweater worried that, with the Brexit, working across borders would be more difficult; a twenty-four-year-old political-science student said that she directly benefitted from the E.U.s open internal borders, as, to attend a Dutch university, she crossed the border every day. Juliane Latzke, a thirty-four-year-old mother of two, said that she was there for her small children: I was born in the G.D.R., and I know what it means not to be free.

Despite these fears, the atmosphere was celebratory. Were not protesting against something but for something, said Knigge. Its fun. As usual, the hourwhich included a minute of silence for the recent terror attacks in St. Petersburg and Stockholmwound down with the Italo-pop ballad Insieme (Together). As the 1990 Eurovision winner Toto Cutugno crooned, Unite, unite Europe, everyone on the square joined hands.I think the important thing is to bring emotion to the European project, said Julia Hahn, another organizer of the Berlin gathering. Thats something the European Union has missed out on. One weekend, we asked, Who has fallen in love in another country? You should have seen how many people raised their hands.

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Unite, Unite Europe! A Protest in Favor of the European Union - The New Yorker