The journey out of Kosovo
Thousands of Kosovo residents leave the poor Balkan country for the European Union, crossing the border between Serbia and Hungary. Deborah Lutterbeck reports. Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/reuter...
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The journey out of Kosovo - Video
Italy: Anti-austerity protesters attack EU HQ in Rome
Hundreds of protesters threw missiles at the European Union headquarters in Rome on Saturday during an anti-austerity march in support of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras #39; Syriza party....
By: RuptlyTV
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Italy: Anti-austerity protesters attack EU HQ in Rome - Video
15 February 2015 Senior UN, European Union relief officials urge protection for vulnerable people in Central African Republic
While a major scaling up of humanitarian action over the past year meant that “the worst has been avoided” in Central African Republic, senior United Nations and European Union relief officials in the region today stressed that needs are still extremely high and much remains to be done to ease the “appalling” suffering faced by the country's people.
In a press release issued in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), the joint high-level mission drew attention to the human suffering and called for greater access to and better protection of vulnerable communities amid what has transformed into a deeply complex and increasingly multi-layered crisis.
Participating in the five day mission were Deputy UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-wha Kang, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), Chaloka Beyani, and the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) Director of Operations, Jean-Louis de Brouwer.
The officials saw for themselves the “appalling” living conditions of people directly affected by the current crisis during their visits to Bambari, Yaloke, Mpoko and PK5 in Bangui, and acknowledged that while much has changed since conflict erupted more than a year ago amid a significant scaling up of humanitarian action, the need for assistance remains extremely high.
More than two years of civil war and sectarian violence have displaced thousands of people in the CAR. Some 190,000 have sought asylum across the borders amid continuing violent clashes between the mainly Muslim Slka alliance and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian. Meanwhile, more than 36,000 people remain trapped in enclaves across the landlocked country, hoping to find asylum in neighbouring States.
More than 2.7 million Central Africans require one form or another of external help to survive. Some 500,000 are still displaced. Those that remain trapped by the continued violence are in an ever more precarious and desperate situation. The crisis has grown in complexity and, among other things, armed groups are fragmenting into numerous bands resulting in widespread banditry.
The situation of vulnerable civilians becomes more intractable and subject to rumours and political manipulation that exacerbate violence. “Improved and reliable communication with all communities is key in this situation of deep fear and mistrust,” asserted Ms. Kan, who is also the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.
She went on to express deep concern for the fate of the many pockets of minorities and displaced civilians whose return to a normal and dignified life is impeded by this growing complexity. For the IDPs that remain in the Mpoko site at Bangui's airport, humanitarians are committed to working with authorities to find alternative solutions based on their informed and voluntary decisions.
For Muslim minorities confined in clearly delimited neighborhoods in Bangui and other towns such as Berberati, engagement in the otherwise laudable efforts of popular consultations in the Bangui Forum seems remote and reinsertion in the social and economic fabric of the country is only still a very distant proposition. At the same time, for nomadic Fulani cattle herders trapped by the conflict in such places as Yaloke, their very way of life is threatened as they languish in appalling conditions in enclaves.
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Senior UN, European Union relief officials urge protection for vulnerable people in Central African Republic
Ever since their European Union accession, Romania and Bulgaria share, to a greater extent, the values of good neighborliness. This is clear, at least in the economic domain. It is true that in many cases the initiative belonged to Bulgaria. The best example is the second Danube bridge that is significantly called New Europe. It was completed in 2013 and it links the two banks of the Danube through Calafat (Romania) and Vidin (Bulgaria). It is the most grandiose Romanian-Bulgarian investment. The other days, European Commissioner for Regional Development Corina Cretu (photo) gave us even better news for the near future. As part of the Interreg cross-border program, the EC has approved a volume of investments of EUR 260 M, the EUs contribution totaling EUR 216 M. The program will improve living, study and labor conditions in the 15 border regions in Romania and Bulgaria, thus enhancing their attractiveness both for tourists and investors. Especially since the development level of these areas is one of the lowest in the entire European Union. These regions represent an area of Europe where good collaboration and the attempt to solve joint problems are essential. The area also offers considerable opportunities because of its proximity to the Danube and the Black Sea. Corina Cretu announced that this year marks 25 years of the EUs Interreg cross-border and cross-regional cooperation. The news that Commissioner Corina Cretu offered strengthens our conviction that good neighborliness with Bulgaria is increasingly becoming, from one year to the next, the most fruitful that Romania has. Our country does not have to its east, west or north the chance of such a promising neighborliness like its southern one with Bulgaria. In this context, we welcome the Romanian Prime Ministers promise to have a joint meeting of the Romanian and Bulgarian governments in the near future.
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Issue of the Day: Good economic neighborliness
Photo by Patrick Peoples.
Eighty students from 46 American universities and one European college gathered on campus Friday and Saturday to attend the first annual European Student Conference.
Participants came to campus to discuss the future of the European Union and to create a student-led think tank for EU policies during the two-day event. They arrived from colleges across United States including Harvard, Stanford and the University of Florida and a small cohort hailed the College of Europe in Brussels. The event, according to the conference website, was created in order to give American and European youth a voice in pivotal transatlantic debates. Through a series of five workshops and keynote addresses by European Union political figures, issues such as borders and immigration, democratic participation and European solidarity were discussed and debated.
The impact of the conference lies in the fact that students around the United States of America will start a debate on their campuses about which kind of Europe they would like to live in, and which kind of Europe they would like to contribute to I think that is something that hasnt really happened, said Igor Mitschka 15, ESC team president.
The five workshops, which were led by an amalgam of Yale University professors, scholars and European policy-makers, concentrated on the vital issues and challenges impacting the European Union. Workshops consisted of much more than idle discussion, according to conference organizers. Students presented policy papers on specific issues, which were then critiqued and discussed by presiding policy makers and professors. Each workshop then worked collaboratively to produce a cohesive collection of strategies, individual talking points and a specific policy recommendation, which were all presented at plenary sessions.
We didnt just want this to be a conference, a one-time event that participants went to, attended, had fun at and forgot which is why we integrated this conception of a think tank into the project itself, so the impact of the conference really doesnt end with this specific conference, said Alicia Tee 16, ESC director of logistics.
Tee added that ideally, students would establish branches of the ESC think tank which they called European Horizons at their home universities, and Yale would become the umbrella group for these different organizations. The groups would meet annually for future iterations of the ESC conference.
Speakers included former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair who participated via video message, and members of the British, Austrian and Italian parliaments who flew to campus for the conference.
Lapo Pistelli, Italian vice minister of foreign affairs spoke about the impact of immigration in Europe and the need for common standards of protection new common European policies to address human rights violations in immigration. Pistelli emphasized that immigration is not always a negative phenomenon, and said that in many cases the influx of new citizens leads to increased economic development.
Mobility and the freedom to move is one of the fundamental freedoms, Pistelli said.
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European Student Conference encourages activism on campuses