Archive for the ‘European Union’ Category

European Union-funded housing project commences in Killinochchi, Mullativu and Batticaloa – ReliefWeb

2,455 families to benefit from the house building component of a Euro 14 million grant

COLOMBO, 18 February 2017 More than 215, 000 people will benefit from a Euro 14 million multi-faceted housing project, financed by the European Union (EU), and implemented by Habitat for Humanity and World Vision Lanka.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives for the Delegation of the European Union (EU), HE Tung-La Margue said, "I am hopeful that this project will assist in providing returnee families with not just homes and livelihood alternatives but also the necessary support to rebuild a life and a future for themselves. The goal has always been to turn the cycle of impoverishment and reliance to that of self-sufficiency, and I am encouraged to see that we are moving in the right direction through this initiative".

The project, which bridges the gap between relief, rehabilitation and development, aims to build 2,315 houses and repair 140 homes in 31 divisions across Batticaloa, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu by early 2020. It utilises alternative materials and techniques to reduce constructions costs, while ensuring decent housing, and to encourage the use and production of locally manufactured earth blocks and construction materials.

"The project is aptly entitled Homes not Houses. Indeed we wish to see thriving communities that are self-sufficient, stable and strong, once our building work is done and we are long gone. Thanks to the focus of this funding from the European Union the project aims to boost the local economy by investing in earth-based technologies which are cost-effective and sustainable, said Dr. Dinesh Kanagaratnam, National Director of Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka.

The project activities include:

Access to permanent housing including houses built with innovative materials (compressed stabilized earth blocks and earth concrete blocks).

Appropriate incremental building through microcredit to expand a home or create a place of business.

Flanking measures relating to general livelihood support for families and communities such as vocational training in construction, training in appropriate building materials and methods, and forming and strengthening small and medium enterprises.

Training families in financial literacy including savings plans, microfinance and basics of business. Improved access to appropriate microfinance and management of debt.

A more holistic approach of strengthening community-based organizations, supporting disaster risk reduction, peace building and gender equity.

Commenting, on this endeavor, National Director of World Vision Lanka, Dhanan Senathirajah, said We are proud to be associated with this project. One of the main strengths of World Vision Lanka is its community engagement and livelihood development expertise. I believe our interventions in this sphere will be key to transform houses into happy and stable homes.

Contacts:

Melissa Jayasuriya

Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka

melissa@hfhsl.org

+94 77 296 0352

Michele Soh

Habitat for Humanity, Asia-Pacific

msoh@habitat.org

+65 9233 1544

Notes to Editors

To schedule interviews, or for more information, please contact Melissa Jayasuriya, Corporate Relations & Resource Development Manager, Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka, melissa@hfhsl.org, +94 77 334 0971.

About Habitat for Humanity

Driven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity began in 1976 as a grassroots effort. The housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

Since 1995, Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka has assisted more than 23,000 families by building and improving homes and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions. To learn more about Habitat for Humanity Sri Lankas work in communities across Sri Lanka, to donate or to volunteer, please visit http://www.hfhsl.org or follow http://www.facebook.com/hfhsl

About World Vision Lanka

World Vision is a Christian, relief, development and advocacy organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. The organisation serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender and has been in Sri Lanka since 1977. The organization has 45 programmes spread across 19 Districts in the country.

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European Union-funded housing project commences in Killinochchi, Mullativu and Batticaloa - ReliefWeb

Brexit: European Union citizens in United Kingdom could face legal limbo – Firstpost

London: The European Union (EU) fears millions of its nationals living in the UK will be left stranded in a legal no mans land after the country leaves the bloc because of the weaknesses of the British immigration system, according to a leaked document.

A file photo of a protester opposing Britain's exit from the European Union. AP

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) and senior European diplomats fear that chaos will ensue as the Home Office does not have the information or systems in place to select who can stay, once the UK restricts access to nationals from the other 27 EU member states, The Guardian reported.

It is widely assumed that, at an early stage of article 50, the official process of exiting the EU negotiations, Britain and the bloc will agree a cut-off date after which foreigners who have settled in the country will not have an automatic right to remain.

But the leaked document on Saturday, drawn up by MEPs on the European parliament's employment committee to aid the EU's Brexit negotiations, warned: "The UK has no population register. In practice it would be difficult to determine which EU27 citizens were residing legally in the UK before the Brexit would have taken effect.

"If all 3.3 million EU citizens were to initiate procedures aimed at proving the exercise of treaty rights', the administrative system would be overburdened."

Former British prime minister Tony Blair's government was forced to drop plans for a national identity card and population register in 2007 because of concerns over the security of citizens' data.

The Cabinet Office advises that EU nationals do not need to register for any documentation in order to enjoy free movement rights and responsibilities in the UK, reports the Guardian.

The government does not track EU nationals as they enter and leave the country. The databases of the Department for Work and Pensions, Revenue and Customs and the Home Office do not share information.

EU nationals who have lived in the UK for five years can gain automatic permanent residency status, although there have been numerous cases of employers asking for their foreign employees to acquire permanent residency cards in order to guarantee their jobs.

There has been almost a 50 percent increase in the number of EU citizens applying for permanent residency documentation since the vote on 23 June.

EU nationals say that to obtain permanent residency cards they have to complete an 85-page form requiring huge files of documentation.

The European parliament is also due to debate the rights of EU nationals in both the UK and on the continent on 1 March.

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Brexit: European Union citizens in United Kingdom could face legal limbo - Firstpost

Scott Pruitt, Boeing, European Union: Your Friday Evening Briefing – New York Times


New York Times
Scott Pruitt, Boeing, European Union: Your Friday Evening Briefing
New York Times
1. President Trump held a rally at a Boeing plant in South Carolina to celebrate jobs, before setting off to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. Around the world, observers reacted with anxiety, disbelief and humor to Mr. Trump's 77-minute news conference on ...

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Scott Pruitt, Boeing, European Union: Your Friday Evening Briefing - New York Times

The European Union First by Javier Solana – Project Syndicate – Project Syndicate

MUNICH The world needs the European Union now more than ever. Despite recent crises and the hard blow dealt by the Brexit vote, the EU may well be the worlds best line of defense against todays most serious threats: isolationism, protectionism, nationalism, and extremism in all forms, all of which are once again growing in Europe and beyond. The key to enabling the EU to meet this potential to save itself and the world from catastrophe is for member states urgently to adopt a European Union first mantra.

Unlike the America first credo embraced by US President Donald Trump, such a mantra would not be an exercise in damaging unilateralism. On the contrary, it would compel member states governments to look beyond narrow national interest, defend openness and multilateralism, and confront head-on the exclusionary political forces that have lately been gaining ground. It would drive member states to consolidate the EU, thereby enabling it to overcome the challenges it faces and help preserve the international order.

That order is neither an inessential accessory nor a post-war relic. It has supported global prosperity and stability for 70 years. We need it together with the multilateralism on which it is built to confront many of the economic, environmental, and strategic challenges we now face, challenges that cannot be addressed at the national level.

A cornerstone of the existing international order is the recognition that maintaining peace and human welfare requires an understanding of and respect for the needs and interests of others needs and interests that are no less legitimate than our own. Multilateralism is not a product of unsustainable solidarity, as some like to claim; it is the result of an enlightened interpretation of ones own interests. With a constructive attitude, even a large number of disparate actors can reach agreements in which everyone wins by yielding a little; without it, prospects for sustained peace and widely shared prosperity become far bleaker.

If all countries put their own interests first, paying no heed to others, competition will quickly overwhelm common interests. If nobody is ever willing to yield, we will all lose. If we depend solely on bilateral deals, the shared spaces and synergies that facilitate agreement on difficult but vital topics from climate change to security will narrow until they disappear.

This is why Trumps embrace of an American first mantra is so worrying. As the worlds leading power, the US sets the tone of cooperation and often provides the incentives for other countries to participate. If the US maintains a unilateral and isolationist stance, other countries are almost certain to follow suit, endangering everyone including the US.

Recently, the Trump administration has begun to moderate some of its foreign-policy positions. In particular, Trump has finally agreed to honor the One China policy. He also seems to have rectified his approach to Japan, after having raised doubts about his willingness to follow through on Americas security commitments. These developments imply that the administration is beginning to recognize the need for a more constructive approach.

That recognition may arise partly out of an understanding of history. Experience has shown that the most effective way to prevent conflicts is through inclusion and cooperation. Exclusionary rhetoric plays into the hands of those who reduce identity to nativist definitions. When such figures nationalists and populists have been left to guide policy in the past, the result has been large-scale conflict.

At a time when global power dynamics are in flux, as is true today, the risk of such an outcome is even greater. Today, an effort is being made to incorporate emerging powers particularly China more deeply into the existing structures of global governance. Casting doubt on these structures, which have sustained stability over the last seven decades, would merely fuel more nationalism and competition, opening the way for volatility and conflict.

If the US cannot be counted on to support global stability, the EUs model and experience will become even more important. The EU is the embodiment of inclusion, cooperation, and democratic values. Despite its flaws, the EU has proved time and again how differences can be resolved peacefully and constructively. Its member states are uniquely committed to multilateralism; indeed, we practice it daily.

The results speak for themselves. No one can doubt that the EU has been a guarantor of peace, democracy, modernity, and progress for all of its members. Its community model which requires cooperation, negotiation, and compromise to reach any consequential decision amounts to a check on extremism, because no member country can push radical policies forward without other members pushing back.

This is not to say that EU countries face no risk of falling victim to simplistic populist rhetoric. On the contrary, the point is to highlight why EU member states must dedicate themselves to the continued construction of a stronger and deeper union. For the sake of Europe and the world, it is time to put the EU first.

No one knows better than Europe the consequences of extremism and nationalism or how to overcome them. With an enlightened and supranational spirit, the EU has achieved a sustained peace that would have seemed impossible a century ago. It must not lose sight of that achievement. Instead, it must continue to advance the union, and show the world what multilateralism can do.

The annual Munich Security Conference meets amid mounting concern about the entire global security architecture. How can peace be maintained in the face of Donald Trumps dubious commitment to Americas global role?

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The European Union First by Javier Solana - Project Syndicate - Project Syndicate

EU Foreign Affairs Chief Claims World Sees Struggling Bloc As ‘Reliable, Predictable And Strong’ – Breitbart News

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I know that youre used to associate the words European Union to the word crisis [sic], she told the audience. Let me bring here the voice of a proud European. I believe that in the state the world is today, the European Union is quite in a good place [sic]. I say this because I have the privilege of seeing the European Union through the eyes of our partners around the world.

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The Italian socialist insisted that the EU is much, much stronger than we Europeans realise, and its much more indispensable to Europeans and to the world than we realise. Seen from the outside, the European Union is a reliable, predictable, strong, co-operative partner for many in the world.

Mogherini predicted that, in future, the European Union will for sure be a more indispensable partner than before, and, I would say, a more indispensable power than before. In the confusion were facing, you can be sure that the European Union will remain a stable, reliable, predictable partner for many, and for security.

U.S. president Donald Trump, who leads the worlds most significant global power, has articulated an entirely different view, predicting more EU member-states will follow the United Kingdoms lead in leaving the crisis-wracked bloc.

People, countries want their own identity, he told The Times in January 2017, arguing that the Brexit vote was an affirmation of Britains national identity.

You look at the UK and you look at the European Union and its Germany. Basically a vehicle for Germany. Thats why I thought the UK was so smart in getting out.

Also speaking at the security conference was German vice-chancellor and foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel, who appeared to dispute President Trumps view.

I understand and I accept that the United States expect Europe to assume more responsibility for world security, but it would be a mistake to believe that we can expect a Europe of national states to do that, he said, hinting that a more federal Europe would be desirable because in the long run, that will yield the best results.

Gabriel also appeared to reach out to the UK, telling listeners, I regret the Brexit decision, but we have to respect it. The temptationof being too stern with the United Kingdom, we should not yield to that, because we need the United Kingdom as a partner.

In a seeming attempt to dissuade Britain from deepening the Anglo-American partnership at the expense of the EU, he appeared to claim that demographic shifts would weaken the special relationship in coming years.

Id like to tell our British friends that in [a] few years, most U.S. citizens will no longer be of European origin, he said. They will come from China, from Latin America, and other regions, so that will change their relations with Europe.

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was more forthright. He claimed the world needs a stable order, and the institution which can probably give the most stability and order is probably the European Union.

Not Europe as a continent, he emphasised, but the political project of the European Union. And let me remind you here once again that France and Germany are determined to consolidate what we have achieved, for the well-being of mankind.

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EU Foreign Affairs Chief Claims World Sees Struggling Bloc As 'Reliable, Predictable And Strong' - Breitbart News