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PM Hamdallah calls for full partnership with European Union

RAMALLAH, January 30, 2017 (WAFA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah Monday expressed hope that Palestine will reach full partnership with the European Union (EU) in the near future, which will make it the fourth Arab country to do so.

Speaking at a meeting for the joint Palestinian-European committee and sub-committees, Hamdallah said the hard work of the committee members will make it possible to reach full partnership with the EU in the coming years.

Our meeting is for the purpose of preparing the joint partnership agreement with the EU, which in principal has agreed to start working on it after many years of hard work and negotiations, said Hamdallah.

He said Palestine relies on Europes support for the peace process with a goal to end the Israeli occupation and its role in boycotting Israeli settlement goods. He said the EU is the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinians at a time international funding has dropped by about 70 per cent since 2012.

The EU is a strategic partner, not only in efforts to revive the peace process, but also in building our state and in capacity building of its institutions, he said.

He explained that despite the financial crisis, the government is still able to cover 85 per cent of its operating expenses from its own resources, while donor countries cover 15 per cent.

We hope to reach self-sufficiency and financial sustainability by 2019, said the prime minister.

K.T./M.K.

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PM Hamdallah calls for full partnership with European Union - WAFA - Palestine News Agency

Economic interests were hoping to take some of the City of Londons position away from the UK, said Giro. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty

A senior Italian official has warned that the UK and the European Union are heading into an economic cold war over Brexit that could wreak havoc on the west and weaken the continent.

Mario Giro, Italys deputy foreign minister, said that while many countries in the EU had said the UKs vote to leave the EU represented a loss to the union, there were more hardliners in the EU against the UK than it appeared.

When we are among the 27 [countries within the EU, not including the UK], the hardliners are more numerous than it appears. I cannot quote a country in particular at the moment. We will see it at the beginning of the negotiation, Giro said in an interview with the Guardian.

He added: We are hearing more and more that there are people economic interests who are thinking they can inherit some economic position, thinking that they can take away from the UK some of the position of the City of London. Not Italy, of course, because we are not in that position. And this will be an economic war. Lets say an economic cold war, and we are not in favour of it.

The statement followed remarks this month by the British prime minister, Theresa May, in which she said the UK was prepared for a hard Brexit if she could not negotiate a reasonable agreement with the EU over Britains departure. She said attempts by other EU countries to wreak vengeance on the UK would be an act of calamitous self-harm because the UK in turn would be prepared to radically cut taxes to attract businesses.

Italian officials have always said their top priority in Brexit negotiations would be to guarantee the rights of hundreds of thousands of Italians who lived in the UK.

Giro suggested that a coming battle of interests which he described as a competition between economic interests, not necessarily individual states could have terrible consequences.

This will be a disgrace. To enter into a new era of hard competition on big money questions involving companies, this is very bad for the western world. We dont need these kinds of tensions at this time of a geopolitical Jurassic Park, he said, meaning that it was a world where every interest was out for itself.

Giro declined to name specific concerns or the economic interests he was referring to but said the financial world is repositioning itself.

We have to negotiate with patience, calm, we have to be honest to each other, and also we have to use fair play, he said. Because if we dont do it like this, if we act from the belly, with revenge, with sentiments, we will all be in trouble.

While Italy was disappointed to see the UK exit the EU in this manner our idea was a soft Brexit, a negotiated one Giro also said he hoped Mays remarks this week represented just one speech.

The process has not started. We have two years, he said.

For Giro, Brexit is just one of a multitude of issues that shows a world coming apart at the seams. The old tools principles and multilateralism do not function any more, he said. Everything is broken and everyone is trying to save himself.

His first concerns included Libya and Turkey, where he said any increase in instability threatened to drag us into it, into the confusion of the Middle East.

We need Turkey to defend itself from this contagion [spreading from Syria]. We have to help Ankara, showing strong solidarity, he said.

Even though Italys former prime minister Matteo Renzi, whose centre-left Democratic party still controls the Italian government, clearly favoured Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the US election, Giro said Italys view of America was essentially unchanged.

Italy has always had good relations with America and will no matter what president the US has, he said. We will work with the new administration as we did with previous ones. He knows that Italy is very much in favour of strengthening the European Union, and not to dissolve it. That is something that everyone knows.

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UK and EU heading for economic cold war, says Italian minister - The Guardian

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Donald Trump is a threat to the European Union says EU's Brexit negotiator - ForexLive

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's exports to the European Union (EU) soared 37 percent during the last three years on the back of generalised scheme of preferences (GSP) plus status, the Commerce Minister has revealed.

"The GSP status offers huge potential for enhancing mutual trade between Pakistan and EU," Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir said in a statement received from Brussels here on Saturday and carried in the Gulf Today (Internews) on Monday.

Dastgir, in a meeting with member of the committee on international trade in the European parliament Jan Zahradil, said export of machinery, chemicals and dyes from Europe to Pakistan also rose 14 percent. "These products were required to meet the growing demand of Pakistani products, particularly textiles and garments in the European markets".

In December 2013, the EU awarded GSP Plus status to Pakistan, which would give zero tariffs to 20 percent and preferential rates to 70 percent of the country's exports to the region. The status is valid till 2017. Annual bilateral trade between Pakistan and the EU is more than $7 billion. Balance of trade is nearly equal.

Pakistan's main exports to EU consist of textile and leather products and medical equipment. The GSP Plus status was expected to boost Pakistan's exports to two billion dollars in addition to create job opportunities.

The biggest beneficiary of the tax concessions is textile and clothing industry, constituting over 60 percent of the Pakistan's exports. The country's rivals Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also enjoying duty-free access to the 28-member EU bloc.

Under the GSP Plus, Pakistan has to comply with all the 27 United Nations conventions on human rights and labour and environmental laws. Dastgir apprised Zahradil about various steps being taken by Pakistan to improve working conditions in the manufacturing sector and law and order and human rights.

"The focus of Pakistan has shifted towards strengthening its economy through trade rather than aid," he said.

He accentuated correlation of economic progress with peace and stability of any country. "Economic and social indicators are on the rise in Pakistan," he added. Dastgir also held meetings with Pakistani-origin members of the European parliament, member European parliament and former head of committee on foreign relations. Secretary commerce Azmat Ranjha accompanied the minister in the meetings.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has agreed to share its experience and provide technical assistance for Kyrgyzstan that is keen to make inroads into the European Union market under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus, a mechanism under which duties are eliminated or drastically reduced. Pakistan's response came after Kyrgyzstan sought help in that regard in a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) of the two countries held on January 11 and 12, an official said.

The JMC huddle came after a long gap of 10 years. "Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian nation, expressed interest in learning from Pakistan's experience in making exports to the 28-nation EU market," the official said.

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Pak exports to European Union up 37pc - Business Recorder (press release) (registration) (blog)

Lisbon (AFP) - French President Francois Hollande urged Europe to form a united front and provide a "firm" response to US President Donald Trump, at a gathering Saturday of southern European Union leaders.

"We must conduct firm dialogue with the new American administration which has shown it has its own approach to the problems we all face," he said at the end of the gathering as he was flanked by the other leaders who took part.

Trump has rattled America's traditional European allies with a range of radical policy plans.

He has called NATO "obsolete", announced he would rip up a planned transatlantic trade plan and supported Britain's move to leave the EU, praising the decision as "a wonderful thing" during a meeting Friday with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

On Friday he also signed a sweeping executive order to suspend the arrival of refugees and impose tough controls on travellers from seven Muslim countries.

During his first phone conversation with Trump late Saturday, Hollande stressed the "economic and political consequences of a protectionist approach", adding that the principle of "acceptance of refugees" should be respected.

"Faced with an unstable and uncertain world, withdrawal into oneself is a dead-end response," Hollande was quoted as saying in an Elysee Palace statement.

Hollande had earlier told the gathering that "when he adopts protectionist measures, which could destabilise economies not just in Europe but the economies of the main countries of the world, we have to respond".

"And when he refuses the arrival of refugees, while Europe has done its duty, we have to respond."

- Ready to cooperate with Trump -

While officially the new administration in Washington was not on the agenda, the six other European leaders who took part in the summit also alluded to Trump.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Europe was "ready, interested and willing to cooperate" with the Trump administration.

"But we are Europe, and we cherish our values," he added.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy defended the EU project, saying it had helped transform Europe into the world region with the "highest level of progress, civil rights and well being".

Also meeting in Lisbon were the leaders of Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Portugal.

The summit was a follow up to a first gathering in Athens in September 2016 as part of a push by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to create a strong southern "axis" to counter the influence of nations in northern Europe.

The group is often referred to -- sometimes dismissively -- as "Club Med", even though one of its members, Portugal, is not on the Mediterranean.

It includes some of the nations hardest hit by the financial crisis.

Portugal and Greece both needed international bailouts worth tens of billions of euros which came with demands for tough austerity measures and economic reforms.

- Boost investment -

As in the first meeting in Greece, the mostly centre-left leaders gathered in Portugal urged Brussels to do more to boost flagging growth in the bloc.

A joint declaration signed by the participating countries said the EU should boost funding for strategic investment.

"We share the urgency of promoting investment, growth, employment, with a special focus on youth employment," it read.

The Lisbon summit comes ahead of a February 3 meeting of EU leaders in Malta to look at the future of the bloc without Britain, its second-largest economy and its richest financial centre.

Rajoy said Madrid would host a third summit of southern EU nations in April.

"These countries meet informally and they have no other goal other than to work for the people of the entire European Union," he said.

The goal is not to create an "organisation" inside Europe but to act "in the service of the entire European Union," added Hollande.

The so-called Visegrad group -- made up of Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland -- have also held their own meetings to present a united front.

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Hollande urges 'firm' European response to Trump - Yahoo News