Mediaboss Marketing

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.

See original here:
The European Union increases its support for Haiti - EU News

France has become the latest European country to propel a far-right politician to within reach of leadership after the weekend victory of anti-European and anti-Immigration Marine Le Pen in the first round of the French presidential election. Le Pen, who will face independent centrist Emmanuel Macron in the run-off vote in May, is unlikely to win, according to polls, but her success underscores the seriousness of Europe's current trend toward right-wing nationalism.

Le Pen has pledged to reinstate border checks and take France out of the European Union, following the path that Hungary's illiberal Prime Minister Victor Orban has taken for some years to champion Hungarian sovereignty by challenging the EU's democratic rules. In the Netherlands, the anti-immigration and anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders came in second in a parliamentary election in March and last December, Austria came within a hair's breadth of electing a far right president.

With Prime Minister Theresa May's unexpected announcement of a general election on June 8, Britain becomes the fourth EU country to go to the polls this year. The ruling Conservative Party is expected to increase substantively its now slim majority amid accusations of authoritarianism and attempting to override the democratic process.

And, unless May or the EU make a policy U-turn, Britain will leave both the union and its single market two years from now, in a move being described as a "hard Brexit." The other 27 members of the world's biggest trading bloc are closely watching how things unfold to determine whether some of them could also leave the EU.

There are many worrying contradictions. The EU is primarily a trading bloc, but the intricate workings of commerce, currency and markets cannot be explained in one-line campaign soundbites. This is what politicians in the U.K. and elsewhere are trying -- but mostly failing -- to do, with the result that too many policies have little resemblance to complex realities.

Why, for example, does anti-EU rhetoric advocate reaching out for special trade deals with China, Japan and India when these nations represent the very globalization blamed for so much of Europe's discontent? And what impact would a more right-wing Europe have on the EU and on the world economy?

In the 1930s, a similar rise of ethnically-based nationalism followed the Wall Street crash of 1929, ultimately leading to war. That is unlikely to be the case now. But the 2007-08 financial crisis exposed gaps in wealth distribution and growing inequality. A growing resentment over such disparities has helped create the nationalist movements that are making their presence felt throughout the continent.

Britain's narrow Brexit decision in 2016 hinged not on living standards, but on issues of sovereignty, dignity and immigration, with veteran millionaire film star Sir Michael Caine summing up the popular view that he would rather be a "poor master than a rich servant."

Immigrant backlash

The growth of nationalist sentiment has come in response to the influx of refugees from the Middle East, which reached more than a million last year, as well as protracted sluggish economic performances in most EU countries. Almost 9% of European adults are unemployed, with that figure reaching more than 20% among the young. Greece, Spain and Italy are among the worst affected. A 2015 Oxfam study found that between 2009 and 2013, the number of Europeans living with "severe material deprivation" rose by 7.5% to 50 million, which it blamed on increasing inequality.

Another study this year by researchers at Italy's Bocconi University found a direct link between levels of Asian trade and support for European nationalism. It studied 76 legislative elections in 15 European countries between the tail end of the Cold War in 1988 and the crash of 2007. It found that areas with the highest exposure to imports from China were more inclined toward radical right-wing politics.

"The unequal sharing of the welfare gains brought about by globalization has resulted in widespread concerns and a general opposition to free trade," said the report's authors, Italo Colantone and Piero Stanig. They described political movements that combined "support for domestic free market policies with strong protectionist stances" as representing "economic nationalism."

Britain is becoming a pioneer in bringing "economic nationalism" into mainstream politics. May has been burnishing her credentials by accusing anti-Brexit supporters of being the "citizens of nowhere" who were "trying to subvert democracy." Her conservative supporters in the media have called on her to "crush the saboteurs," and accused the independent judiciary of being "enemies of the people" by ruling that the Brexit process should be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

Once re-elected, May's government will begin turning rhetoric into legislation by seeking trade agreements that it believes are more in line with the national interest. The irony is that Britain would be cutting deals with the exact same countries blamed for causing Europe's economic woes.

May recently visited the non-democratic monarchies of Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, while the new international trade minister toured Southeast Asia and three cabinet ministers along with the Bank of England governor journeyed to India.

"They were well received," said John Elliott, an India-based commentator. "But the U.K. no longer rates as one of India's leading foreign relationships and they made little impression outside their formal meetings."

A doubtful strategy

May's decision to go for a "hard Brexit" will leave Britain under World Trade Organization rules that allow tariffs on its goods. She will need to show early success by pulling off some new trade deals. But in the latest setback, U.S. President Donald Trump said recently that he might prioritize the EU over the U.K. in reaching a trade agreement.

The European parliament's Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, described British ministers as being engulfed in a "fog of surrealism." He warned that based on London's current negotiating position, "U.K. citizens will have no more of a right to holiday, travel and study in EU countries than tourists from Moscow or students from Mumbai.'

"Getting the E.U. to the level it's at now -- from a directly elected European Parliament to effective free movement and a powerful global trade policy -- took decades," said Louise Rowntree, a EU business consultant and Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in the U.K. "A far-right European swing might want to unravel all this work, but that would necessitate years of painful negotiations."

This encroaching ambiguity has yet to be reflected in London's FTSE stock index which is up 15% since the June 2016 Brexit vote. The market's preference would be for Britain to stay in Europe, but the Liberal Democrats are the only party advocating this and they have no hope of winning the election.

The market's second preference is certainty. A Conservative government in office until 2022 could see through the 2019 EU exit with a big enough majority to ride through the bumps.

In many respects, May is setting herself up as leader of a new style of European government, one that wants to govern under conditions of solidarity usually reserved for wartime.

"At this moment of enormous national significance there should be unity here in Westminster, but instead there is division," she said in her announcement of the snap election. "It will be a choice between strong and stable leadership in the national interest, with me as your prime minister, or weak and unstable coalition government."

Dictatorial tendencies

May's critics point to her language and arguments as indications that she wants to override the democratic process itself, arguing that the job of the House of Commons is not to show unity but to stage heated debate and division.

"We are fighting to maintain a functioning democracy in which all the levers of power do not rest in the hands of those commanding wealth and privilege," said former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett.

European nationalism is driven by two factors. One is anti-immigration sentiment fanned by refugees from the Middle East and fellow Europeans crossing borders to offer cheap labor. The other is a resentment of globalization caused by a flood of imports from Asia and the developing world.

France made a good start at the weekend. Germany's election in September will show the full extent of the nationalist swing. If it gains ground there, then Brexit may only be the first step in a long and unsteady process of unravelling the world's most successful experiment in free trade. Or it may serve as a warning that the unravelling must stop.

Humphrey Hawksley is a former BBC Beijing Bureau Chief. His next book, Asian Waters, about the South China Sea, will be published later this year.

Original post:
Humphrey Hawksley UK election could accelerate unravelling of European Union - Nikkei Asian Review

MUMBAI: India has been on top of its game in mango production but disappointing exports of the fruit has enabled other countries like Pakistan, with much less production to beat India in the trade, according to the Centre for Environment and Agriculture.

While Indias share of global mango production is 36%, its share in the global mango trade is less than 3%.

The centre with its research has sought to divert attention to Indias falling exports of mango. According to data by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in 2014, India produced 18.43 million tonnes of mango while China, coming right after India on the list, lagged behind by a massive gap, producing 4.67 million tonnes only and Pakistan produced just 1.72 million tonnes.

However, considering the above, Indias trade in the fruit has been below satisfactory. In the same year, India exported a mere 42,998 mangoes out of the giant basket of production while Pakistan managed to export around 65,000 units. In 2015-16, while Pakistan exported 1,27,000 units, Indias exports actually fell to around 36,000.

While Middle-East is the main market for Indian mangoes, the European Union is the main market for its Pakistani counterparts.

Efforts are underway to make Pakistan the worlds largest exporter of mango, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Pakistans minister for food security and research had said a year ago.

It is expected that India will produce close to 19.21 million tonnes mangoes this year. Also, while it is expected to touch the 50k mark for export, Pakistan is riding on the wave of taking more than 2 lakh mangoes to different parts of the world this year.

Although new destinations like Australia, Korea and New Zealand are coming up for export, India is still way behind Pakistan in the number game.

According to a report carried by TOI last month, export demand for Indias Alphonso mango dipped by 40% this year due to reasons pertaining to quality issues in some mangoes due to irradiation, other countries causing a glut in the Gulf and European countries as well as delay faced by Indian exporters in getting government approvals for mango treatment facilities, among others.

See the original post here:
Pakistan beating India hard in the mango trade game: Centre for Environment and Agriculture - Economic Times

Guy Verhofstadt has dismissed Theresa Mays claim that the election will help Britain secure a better deal. Photograph: Stephanie Lecocq/EPA

Theresa Mays claim that she will be strengthened in the Brexit talks by a general election victory has been dismissed as nonsense by the European parliaments Brexit coordinator, who has condemned the prime minister as a political opportunist.

In an outspoken attack, Guy Verhofstadt suggests the prime minister was motivated by party political considerations rather than the national interest in calling a poll for 8 June.

Writing in the Observer, the former Belgian prime minister, who will play a key role in the coming Brexit negotiations, describes the election announced by May on Tuesday as an attempted power grab by the Conservative party, who wish to take advantage of a Labour party seemingly in disarray to secure another five years of power, before the reality of Brexit bites.

Verhofstadt further claims that putting more Tory MPs in the House of Commons will do nothing to bolster the British prime minister when it comes to the talks in Brussels. The latest polls have the Tories about 20 percentage points ahead of Jeremy Corbyns Labour party.

The theory espoused by some, that Theresa May is calling a general election on Brexit in order to secure a better deal with the EU, is nonsensical, he says.

We can only conclude that many British politicians and the media still dont fathom how article 50 will work in practice. Will the election of more Tory MPs give Theresa May a greater chance of securing a better Brexit deal? For those sitting around the table in Brussels, this is an irrelevance.

Justifying her surprise decision to call a general election, May told the Commons last Wednesday that every vote for the Conservatives would make me stronger when I negotiate for Britain with the European Union.

She claimed that she needed protection from the Labour party, who had threatened to vote down a future deal; the Liberal Democrats, who wished to grind business to a halt; and the House of Lords, which has an anti-Brexit majority.

However, it has been suggested that rather than seeking to bolster herself against opponents of Brexit by gaining a larger majority, May is actually hoping to diminish the power of the hardline Brexiters in her own party, who would rather the UK crash out of the EU without a deal than see her come to a compromise.

Describing the latest developments in British politics as surreal, Verhofstadt writes: Many in Brussels remain concerned that the chances of a deal are being eroded by the British prime ministers tough negotiating red lines and her lack of political room for manoeuvre domestically, yet there is no guarantee that a sprinkling of additional Conservative MPs on the backbenches of the House of Commons will provide this.

He adds: As with the Brexit referendum, which many European leaders saw as a Tory cat-fight that got out of control, I have little doubt many on the continent see this election as once again motivated by the internal machinations of the Tory party.

With reference to a TV clip of a dismayed British voter being told of another election in the UK, which went viral on the internet last week, he writes: The BBC video of Brenda from Bristol, so openly decrying another political campaign, was viewed far beyond the white cliffs of Dover. Indeed, it appears this election is being driven by the political opportunism of the party in government, rather than by the people they represent.

Verhofstadt strikes a pessimistic note about the Brexit talks, which will now take place after the UKs general election in June. He warns that, as it stands, unless the UK government requests transitional arrangements to the contrary, and these requests are agreed by all EU countries, UK citizens will have no more of a right to holiday, travel and study in EU countries than tourists from Moscow or students from Mumbai.

He also lambasts David Daviss Department for Exiting the European Union for claiming that the two EU agencies currently based in London the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency might stay in the UK after Brexit. The department made the claim after this newspaper revealed that the selection criteria for the coming contest between member states seeking to gain the agencies are to be published at the end of this month.

Verhofstadt writes: As the Observer has reported, leaving the European Union means the EU agencies based in the United Kingdom will be relocated.

I expect this will be approved by EU leaders as soon as June, if not before. Contrary to the obscure claims by UK government officials, the EUs crown jewels of the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency will not remain in a post-Brexit Britain, paid for by EU countries.

This is not, as the Daily Express has already decried, a punishment. This is another logical consequence of Theresa Mays article 50 letter. This decision will not be up for negotiation.

The president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, will be meeting May in Downing Street on Wednesday to discuss the process for the two years of negotiations allowed under article 50 of the Lisbon treaty.

The EU will formalise its broad political goals for the negotiations at a summit next Saturday in Brussels. The more detailed European commission directives for its chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will be adopted at the end of May, after which the EU will be ready to start talks, with citizens rights, the UKs financial liabilities and the border in Ireland the priorities.

Keir Starmer, the shadow brexit minister, said: Guy Verhofstadt asks, what is the purpose of this general election? The answer is simple. The prime minister is attempting to crush all challenge to her hard Tory Brexit approach at home and to negotiate by threat and demand abroad. As Guy Verhofstadt rightly points out, far from helping negotiations with the EU, the prime ministers stance is eroding the chances of achieving the best deal for Britain.

More here:
Election is a Tory power grab, says EU Brexit chief - The Guardian

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.

Read the original here:
French voters are turning against the European Union - Marketplace.org