Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Sunday, 27 March 2016

The European Union Times


Posted: 27 Mar 2016 10:03 AM PDT

Moscow wants Kiev to pay interest daily on its $3 billion defaulted bond, Bloomberg reports after viewing court documents. Ukraine failed to pay the debt on December 20 and the penalty fee has grown to about $66.3 million as of Friday.
The Kremlin refused to take part in the $15 billion debt restructuring Ukraine reached with its foreign creditors in 2015. Russia wanted Ukraine to recognize the debt as sovereign with restructuring terms better than those proposed by Kiev to its private creditors.
In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Finance Ministry to file a lawsuit against Kiev, if it failed to repay the $3 billion within a 10-day grace period following the December 20 deadline. The lawsuit will be heard by the High Court in London.
Russia is demanding more than the 7.75 percent interest Ukraine offered in its debt restructuring, which also included a 20 percent debt haircut. According to the court documents, quoted by Bloomberg, Russia’s lawyers suggest returning to the original five percent rate, equivalent to $427,083 a day, if the court in London decides eight percent interest is too high.
Moscow is also asking Kiev to repay an additional $75 million in skipped interest payments before the debt deadline.
“Ukraine has already indicated and re-affirms its intention vigorously to defend the entirety of the claim relating to the Russian Eurobonds. It will be filing its defense in due course,” Kiev’s lawyer told the media.
Legal battles between Russia and Ukraine are valued at $100 billion, which includes cross-lawsuits between the two countries’ gas monopolies, Gazprom and Naftogaz.
Kiev is demanding $37 billion from Moscow for what it calls the annexation of Crimea. Naftogaz is seeking $26 billion in damages from Gazprom, which, in its turn, demands $32 billion from Naftogaz.
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Posted: 27 Mar 2016 09:57 AM PDT
Pope Francis delivers his Easter message following a mass at the Vatican, March 27, 2016.
Pope Francis has criticized the “rejection” of refugees by the countries that could offer help, as European countries have been acting to stop an unprecedented inflow of refugees.
“The Easter message of the risen Christ… invites us not to forget those men and women seeking a better future, an ever more numerous throng of migrants and refugees… fleeing from war, hunger, poverty and social injustice,” the Pope said in his Easter message on Sunday.
“All too often, these brothers and sisters of ours meet along the way with death or, in any event, rejection by those who could offer them welcome and assistance,” the leader of the Roman Catholic Church added.
Pope Francis has frequently urged the international community to fight xenophobia and open doors to refugees.
His latest remarks come as Europe has been witnessing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. Last year, more than a million refugees entered Europe. Many blame the interventionist and hegemonic policies of Western powers and their regional allies for the spread of violence in the region.
The European Union (EU) and Turkey have recently agreed on a plan to curb the flow of refugees who cross from Turkey to Greek islands by boats. Human rights organizations and UN agencies have criticized the agreement, saying it would lead to the illegal return of refugees who face conflict or prosecution in their homelands.
In his Sunday remarks, Pope Francis also referred to Syria’s five-year-long conflict with “its sad wake of destruction, death, contempt for humanitarian law.” He further raised hope that the warring sides in Syria would soon settle their differences and end the conflict.
“Good will and the cooperation of all will bear fruit in peace and initiate the building of a fraternal society,” he added.
A ceasefire agreement devised by Russia and the United States, which came into force across Syria on February 27, has been holding despite minor reports of violations.
Delegates from the Syrian government and opposition groups are anticipated to resume talks in April.
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Posted: 27 Mar 2016 09:29 AM PDT

Police are stretched too thin due to the ongoing investigation into the bombings.
Organizers have decided to postpone a rally in solidarity for the victims of Tuesday’s terror attacks in Brussels at the request of Belgium’s interior minister, who said police are stretched too thin due to the ongoing investigation into the bombings.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon made his appeal on Belgian television, urging but not demanding organizers of the “March against Fear” demonstration planned for Sunday to cancel it over security concerns.
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Posted: 27 Mar 2016 08:55 AM PDT

New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, didn’t like the current flag of New Zealand, so he made people vote on whether to keep it or pick a new one.
The votes have been cast, and 56.6% of voters voted to keep the current flag. Only 43.2% wanted the newly-suggested design without the British Union flag on it.
“The way we see ourselves in the world and the way others see us, has changed dramatically in the past century. Our flag does not reflect those changes.” Key said back in 2014.
“We are in a tremendous position to enjoy the benefits and challenges that our inter-connected and globalised world offers.”
Some same-flag voters thought that the new flag was ugly and poorly designed; others thought that the $26 million cost to change the flag was extortionate, while others honored that the nation is descended from Europeans, particularly British and Irish, and should reflect that on the flag.
“Most people barely considered our national flag as an issue” said Professor Paul Moon, a historian at the Auckland University of Technology “until it was thrust in front of them in the form of an impending referendum.”
“We were told a new flag was needed because we were ‘more multicultural, ‘more independent’, and ‘more vibrant’ as a nation.”
In 2006, New Zealand was around 78% to 68% White, down from 92% White in 1961.
Like other Western, European countries, certain members of the political elite want to eliminate the white majority into total extinction.
        
Posted: 27 Mar 2016 08:45 AM PDT

Serious shortcomings have been revealed in the work of European law-enforcement authorities following Brussels terrorist attacks, German newspaper Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (DWN) wrote.
One of the suicide bombers responsible for the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels Airport, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was reportedly expelled by Turkey to the Netherlands on July 14, 2015.
“The Turkish authorities had put him into a plane en route from Istanbul to Amsterdam together with an unnamed German,” the newspaper wrote, citing the words of Dutch Minister of Justice Ard van der Steur.
The Dutch authorities said they had not been aware of Bakraoui’s expulsion, although the Turkish authorities claimed they informed the Dutch Embassy in Ankara via email. The email was allegedly classified as “very urgent” and is unlikely to have contained any relevant data on the issue, the article said.
According to the newspaper, El Bakraoui had not been registered in any databases of the Dutch or international investigators and thus law-enforcement authorities had no reason to arrest him.
What is however known is that El Bakraoui was sentenced in Belgium in 2010 to a long prison term and was freed on parole. Should he have served his sentence in a full amount, he would still be in prison and the Brussels attacks might not have happened.
According to Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens, the country’s authorities were informed about Bakraoui’s expulsion too late.
“We were first given a warning after the plane [with El Bakraoui] had landed in Schiphol,” Geens said.
The justification, however, looks quite unconvincing. The warning was made months before the attacks in Brussels and could have possibly prevented them if taken seriously, the article said.
Two blasts took place in the departure hall of the Brussels Zaventem international airport on Tuesday. Another explosion took place at the Maelbeek metro station near the European Union institutions.
Thirty-one people were killed and more than 300 were injured in the attacks. Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by the Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United States.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 20:00