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EU Lifts Yanukovych Allies Asset Freezes: Sanctions extended on former Ukrainian president
The European Union has lifted asset freezes it had imposed against four people linked to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Among those who will see their sanctions lifted are Oleksandr...

By: UKRAINE TODAY

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EU Lifts Yanukovych Allies Asset Freezes: Sanctions extended on former Ukrainian president - Video

By KARL RITTER Associated Press

STOCKHOLM (AP) - The European Union on Friday formally submitted its planned contribution to a United Nations climate pact, pledging to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030.

The cuts are relative to 1990 levels. The EU's emissions since then are already down by almost 20 percent.

The EU is the second party to submit a climate target to the U.N., after Switzerland. Only a handful of other countries are expected to meet an end-of-March deadline to submit targets.

Others, including India and China are likely going to need more time. All countries are supposed to present targets for a new global climate agreement that governments plan to adopt in Paris in December.

The deal would be the first time that all countries take joint action to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say are a key driver of global warming.

Some climate activists said the EU's emissions target wasn't ambitious enough and criticized the bloc for not including any financial commitments to help developing countries cope with climate change.

Financing is a crucial issue in the U.N. climate talks. Developed countries have pledged to collectively come up with $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020, but they are reluctant to specify their individual long-term contributions.

Still, many see the EU - one of the few parties that want the emissions targets to be legally binding - as a leader in the climate talks.

"Their commitment reflects a spirit of transparency that is a model for other countries," said Jennifer Morgan of the Washington-based World Resources Institute. "We expect the EU and other countries to look for ways to strengthen their actions in the lead up to a strong, universal climate agreement in Paris."

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European Union submits climate plan for UN pact

As the US hastens its move towards net neutrality the European Union looks to be heading the other way, according to a leaked proposal put forward by Latvia as part of a wider bill.

The proposal, which is reportedly being voted on by the 28 EU member states, would enable telecom firms to "enter into agreements" with companies or individuals to provide faster internet speeds, on the condition that they don't affect other users' connections.

There is by no means widespread support for the plans with major liberal politicians arguing that the "drafts that are circulating clearly demonstrate that Members States are more interested in defending the interests of their national telecom operators than creating real competition," according to a statement from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group.

In terms of when the rules could be implemented, EU digital chief Gnther Oettinger told the Mobile World Congress (MWC) that they could be agreed on as early as this summer, though that would be contingent on the European Commission, European Parliament and member states all agreeing on them.

Net neutrality is, of course, much further along the line in the US. It would seem that a frenetic period of activity would be needed if the EU plan were to become a reality in the timescale that Oettinger mentions.

Via: The Verge

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European Union doesn't want to enforce net neutrality

By RAF CASERT Associated Press

RIGA, Latvia (AP) - It was enough even for the normally unflappable European Union President Donald Tusk to start losing his cool. He stuttered, staggered his sentences, as he assessed what Russian President Vladimir Putin was doing to the EU's brittle sense of unity.

"One of the most important goals for President Putin today is to divide Europe," he said in off the cuff remarks to the European Parliament. He called it a key reason why he is "so obsessed about unity today."

He'd better be. For EU unity has been in short supply here on the shores of the Baltic Sea, where Europe's top diplomats gathered this week to forge a common strategy on the Ukraine crisis. When it comes to Russia, the 28-nation EU is roughly split in two. Several former Soviet bloc nations - including the three Baltic states and Tusk's Poland - urge a tough line in the face of what they see as Russian aggression, while others like Germany and France are more careful to keep channels open.

At the same time, Putin has been wooing some nations like Hungary and Cyprus, making sure they can act as a thorn in the EU's side.

Since foreign policy is set by unanimity between 28 nations, Tusk will find it tough to speak forcefully when he meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday.

"Unity is a very good word. Everyone is for unity," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, with biting sarcasm. "But you know, unity to do nothing is not for me, I don't like it," he said at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Riga, which ended on Saturday.

That's exactly what U.S. House Speaker John Boehner and a group of top Democrats and Republicans sought to highlight in a letter to Obama on Thursday. In it, they complained that U.S. foreign policy on Ukraine and Russia was being "held hostage by the lowest common denominator of European consensus."

On Saturday, even any consensus was hard to come by as the nations remained far apart on whether to upgrade, extend or decrease sanctions, with Greece also coming out strongly for a better relationship with Russia.

And Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias insisted that Greece felt the impact of the Russia sanctions hard as it is mired in a devastating economic crisis.

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In EU foreign policy, strength through unity hard to come by

Qatar, European Union to help fund Gaza reconstruction
The Minister of Public Works of the Palestinian Reconciliation Government has laid the first brick in the reconstruction of the Zafer 4 Tower in Gaza, an imp...

By: teleSUR English

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Qatar, European Union to help fund Gaza reconstruction - Video