R. Daniel Kelemen on Fixing Europe
Despite all the grim predictions, the European Union is not on the verge of collapse. Quite the contrary: if European leaders act with resolve and persistence, the union could experience a...
By: Foreign Affairs
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R. Daniel Kelemen on Fixing Europe - Video
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been campaigning for sanctions relief from traditionally friendly Southern European countries in what appears to be a strategy of dividing the European Union and undermining its alliance with the United States.
Moscow responded to last year's U.S. and European Union sanctions over the Ukraine crisis with a ban of its own on food imports from the 28-nation economic bloc.
Since mid-February, though, Putin has met with leaders of four leftist-governed European Union countries and urged them to act independently in their relations with Russia so that their mutually beneficial food trade can resume.
The blockade has deprived Russians of some of the meats, dairy products, fruits and other produce they had become accustomed to seeing on their supermarket shelves since the days of Soviet-era shortages became a distant memory. But the import ban has inflicted as much, if not more, pain on major food exporters to Russia such as Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary.
The Russian Customs Service reported Friday that imports have dropped by 37% this year as the country struggles with a currency that has lost half its value mostly because of the sanctions and falling oil prices.
European foreign ministers met Friday in Riga, the Latvian capital, to review the sanctions regime and consider whether to revise or extend it, a decision to be made before a summit on March 19 and 20.
U.S. and European Union countries have imposed visa restrictions on top Russian politicians and businesspeople and frozen the foreign assets of those they consider complicit in Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region a year ago. They also accuse Moscow of backing separatists in eastern Ukraine, where about 6,000 people, many civilians, have been killed since April.
Putin first made the call for European leaders to think for themselves during a Feb. 17 meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, his first official reception in an EU capital in more than eight months.
About 2,000 Hungarians protested the visit and their government's warming ties with the Kremlin, although the public opposition abated after Orban announced that he had cut deals to ensure Russian natural gas supplies and for a major upgrade of Hungary's antiquated nuclear energy complex.
Over the last week, Kremlin officials disclosed that they were looking for ways to exempt Greece, where a leftist party took power after January elections, from the food import ban announced in August.
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Putin appeals to Southern European countries for EU sanctions relief
STRASBOURG: The European parliament has adopted a law allowing for longer heavier trucks as long as manufacturers build more aerodynamic, less polluting and less dangerous vehicles.
The legislation adopted yesterday will see lorries with more rounded cabs plying European Union roads from 2017, offering their drivers a better field of vision to spot bicycles and motorcycles in particular, lawmakers said.
The cabs will also have a deflective shape to reduce the impact of collisions.
"We have made sure that the lorries are safer, both for drivers and other users of the road," according to Jorg Leichtfried, a socialist member of parliament from Austria who guided the law through the chamber.
The trucks can be up to a tonne heavier than before as long as they have greener fueling systems.
Until now, manufacturers were dissuaded from developing hybrid or electric motors because they would make the truck heavier and require operators to carry lighter loads to meet EU norms.
"It will encourage greener transport," said Violeta Bulc, the European commissioner for transport.
"With the use of low-carbon technologies it will make trucks more aerodynamic and therefore more fuel-efficient," she said.
And she added: "It will promote innovation ..., and this will boost the competitiveness of the EU industry at a global level."
The socialists and the Greens welcomed a compromise that allowed for greater safety and a cleaner environment but did not open the way to mega trucks of more than 60 tonnes.
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European Union parliament adopts law for safer, greener trucks
Latin Project - Latin American Open Text Books Initiative
The Latin Project, consisting of nine Latin American universities and three European, began in early 2012 funded by the European Union under the ALFA III Programme. Its main objectives are...
By: Proyecto LATIn - Projeto LATIn
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Latin Project - Latin American Open Text Books Initiative - Video
How is EUROPEAN UNION helping students in higher education
Credila Education Loans: Click here to apply now. : http://credila.com/apply_for_loan_youtube.html Credila Financial Services is a Subsidiary of Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited...
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How is EUROPEAN UNION helping students in higher education - Video