EU & Europe

Photo: Prime Minister Modi with the Queen, the head of the Commonwealth. Credit: CHOGM.

The Buzz About India Planning To Capture The Commonwealth

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Indians who think that we have outdone Britain in all things British – such as the English language, cricket and the Westminster model and that only the Commonwealth remains to be captured – should think again.

Since the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held from April 16-20 in London, interested sections are trying to create a buzz on how the mantle to ‘revive’ the Commonwealth may fall on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) declined to lend credence to these reports.

: Shastri Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 03 May 2018

Photo: Seventeen-year-old Mathias Bragi Ölvisson lives in the agricultural village of Fludir, South Iceland, where his family have a large farm. He has known about the SDGs since these were agreed in 2015. Credit: Elin Hannibalsdottir.

Young People Head SDG Publicity in Iceland

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Iceland has decided to spearhead publicity for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by setting up a 12-person council of young people aged between 13 and 18, under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Over 140 young people applied for the 12 places and, according to Nilsina Larsen Einarsdottir, coordinator of the project, “all of them had many brilliant ideas, so the choice was extremely difficult.”

Einarsdottir, who works with UNICEF in Iceland as a specialist in child and youth participation, has teamed up with the PMO for the project.

: Lowana Veal; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 03 May 2018

UN Industrial Development Arm Grabs Opportunity in Germany

By UNIDO

HANOVER (IDN) – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) had a strong presence at the annual Hannover Messe, the world’s leading industrial trade fair which attracts over 6,500 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors. UNIDO has participated in the Hannover Messe every year since 2015 to provide a platform where institutions and industrial enterprises from its Member States can promote themselves at this important international trade setting.

Fulfilling one of its core functions of convening stakeholders and brokering partnerships for knowledge transfer, networking and industrial cooperation, this year UNIDO organized a variety of events.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 27 April 2018

State of Emergency for Press Freedom in Europe

By ECPMF

BERLIN (IDN) – The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) in Leipzig, Germany, is warning against the dismantlement of freedom rights and the increasing threat against journalists in the EU.

"Demagogues and autocrats are fighting the free press because they cannot stand democratic control. Under a corrupt administration the work of an investigative journalist is life-threatening," says Lutz Kinkel, ECPMF's managing director. "We have to defend ourselves with all our might to protect journalists. Otherwise the EU will lose its democratic substance."

The ECPMF was founded in 2015 to publicise violations of the European Charter on Freedom of the Press.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 25 April 2018

From Nairobi to Brussels with New Impulses for ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Members of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly from the East Africa Region of the ACP Group and their European Parliament counterparts have called for aiming at "stronger South-South and triangular cooperation and maintenance of the ACP Group’s unity and solidarity" in a successor treaty to the Cotonou Agreement that expires in 2020.

The communiqué emerging from the 15th Regional Meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) from April 11-13, 2018 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi stressed agreement among JPA members from the East Africa region that "a future agreement should build upon the acquis of Cotonou and integrate new global realities and in particular regional specificities, including for small island developing states."

: Devendra Kamarajan; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 25 April 2018

Commitment to Renewed ACP-EU Partnership Welcomed

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS | NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – The co-presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) have welcomed the commitment of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the 28-nation European Union (EU) to negotiate a successor Agreement to the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement. The 15th Regional Meeting of the JPA took place in Kenya's capital Nairobi from April 11-13, 2018.

The Agreement, signed in Cotonou on June 23, 2000, was concluded for a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020. It is the most comprehensive partnership agreement between developing countries and the EU. In 2010, ACP-EU cooperation was adapted to new challenges such as climate change, food security, regional integration, State fragility and aid effectiveness.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 24 April 2018

Photo: The panel during the South Centre debate (from left to right): Andrew Cornford, Observatoire de la Finance, Geneva; YV Reddy, South Centre Board Member; Martin Khor, South Centre; Yilmaz Akyuz, South Centre; Hervé Hannoun and Peter Dittus, co-authors of Revolution Required. Credit: South Centre.

G7 Fiscal, Monetary Policies Are Ticking Time Bombs

By D. Ravi Kanth

This article was published in No. 211, 18 April 2018 in SOUTHNEWS, a service of the South Centre to provide information and news on topical issues from a South perspective. It was originally carried by the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) #8663 on 17 April 2018. – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – Major developed countries led by the United States are "sleep walking towards war" by implementing unsustainable fiscal and monetary policies since the 2008 financial crisis, with the destructive consequences to be borne by the developing countries, two former senior officials of the Bank for International Settlements have warned.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 18 April 2018

No Easy Answer To The Knife That Killed Arnaud Beltrame

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Personally I'm a coward. I'm unlikely ever to be a hero. (I have rescued on different occasions three young children from drowning, but I didn't risk my life.) I certainly would never have done what Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the French policeman, did.

He asked the terrorist who had taken over a supermarket if he could substitute himself for the female hostage he held. The terrorist agreed and then murdered him. Beltrame was given a state funeral on March 28. The Moroccan terrorist who appears to be a supporter of ISIS is in jail, awaiting trial.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 April 2018

Photo: Flags of CARIFORUM Member States. Credit: SKNIS

Caribbean States Share Common Values & Interests with Other ACP Countries

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – As the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) girds up its loins for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the Caribbean Forum of the ACP States (CARIFORUM) has resolved that a new pact must take into account "the inherent and exogenous vulnerabilities" of the Caribbean region as critical elements in the negotiations.

The ACP Group of 79 States, constitutes 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean region and 15 from the Pacific. Together they make up nearly 41 percent of 193 member countries of the United Nations. Besides, Africa with a population of 1.28 billion is home to 16.64 percent of the world population and accounts for more than 87 percent of 55 members of the African Union. Nearly 44 million people who live in the Caribbean countries make up 0.58 percent of the world population.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 01 April 2018

Photo: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of the Turkish Republic, visiting Istanbul University after its reorganization in 1933 as a mixed-gender institution of higher education with multiple faculties. Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain

Reflections on Turkey: From Mustafa Kemal To Recep Erdoğan

Viewpoint by Pier Francesco Zarcone*

ROME (IDN) – Has Turkey changed under Erdoğan? The question may seem absurd due to the habit of considering Turkey a secular and Westernised country before Recep Erdoğan came to power.

However, this consolidated image turns out to be false. There has been a change, but not in substance: what has changed is its exteriority. In fact, albeit with periodic recourse to elections, the country has always been governed in an authoritarian way, and today this feature is only more evident and its quality is more pronounced.