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Ukrainian membership in NATO is not realistic & country should
focus on fixing internal issues, says French Ambassador in Kiev
13 Jul, 2021 13:40
Kiev should focus on its internal process of reform and forget about joining NATO in the near future, which is not ‘realistic’ because there is no consensus among the current members of the transatlantic alliance.
That’s according to Etienne de Poncins, the French ambassador to Ukraine. De Poncins has been in his role since 2019. Speaking to Ukrainian news website TCN, the ambassador noted that Kiev must follow the roadmap provided for it by NATO if it wishes to officially be put on a Membership Action Plan (MAP).
“We prefer and insist on the implementation of what was decided last year, in particular within the framework of the expanded partnership between NATO and Ukraine,” he explained.
Last year, Ukraine joined NATO’s enhanced opportunity partner interoperability program.
“At the moment, there is no consensus among the members to grant MAP to Ukraine,” he explained. “It’s not a question of France or other countries. It’s just a matter of consensus.”
As things stand, only one country – Bosnia and Herzegovina – has the status of a Membership Action Plan. Ukraine has long wanted to join the Bosnians, having first applied in 2008.
When asked if France would support Ukraine receiving the MAP if Germany decided to back Kiev, the ambassador refused to be drawn, saying that “it doesn’t work that way in an international alliance or organization.”
“At this point, the consensus, as I said, is to implement what exists,” he continued. “Let’s do our homework and not open up a perspective that is not yet realistic.”
Joining NATO was a stated goal of President Volodymyr Zelensky when he was elected leader in 2019, and he has repeatedly begged to be allowed into the alliance. However, the group does not accept states with unresolved territorial problems – a huge stumbling block for Kiev.
The Ukrainian government also wishes to join the European Union – another one of Zelensky’s goals. In 2016, then-president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that it would take around 20 or 25 years for Ukraine to join the EU and NATO.
Merkel’s potential successor Laschet apologizes after laughing
during German president’s speech about deadly floods
17 Jul, 2021 21:53
FILE PHOTO: Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia
and candidate for Chancellor Armin Laschet. © Reuters / Thilo Schmuelgen
The leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party, Armin Laschet, has found himself in hot water after he was filmed laughing as the German president expressed solidarity with the victims of the devastating flooding.
The incident occurred during President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s visit to Erftstadt – a small town in western Germany some 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of Cologne. The town was ravaged by record flooding this week as heavy rainfall caused the river and streams to burst their banks.
A huge sinkhole opened near the town’s district of Blessem, swallowing up cars, castle ruins and even some half-timbered buildings. Steinmeier arrived in Erftstadt on Saturday to express his sympathies and promise assistance to the disaster victims.
Laschet, who is also state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Erfstadt is located, was apparently not in a somber mood, however. The frontrunner in the race to be Germany’s next chancellor was caught on video laughing and cracking jokes with fellow politicians in the background at the very moment Steinmeir was addressing the nation.
Video of the faux pas quickly spread on social media and sparked a wave of indignation among both politicians and ordinary citizens. “I am really speechless,” said Lars Klingbeil, the general secretary of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Deputy chair of the SPD, Kevin Kuhnert, described the situation as a “question of character.”
Netizens denounced Laschet’s actions as “disrespectful” and “ignorant.” Laschet’s “schoolboy-like behavior is just repulsive and disgusting,” a commenter tweeted. Hashtag #LaschetDarfNichtKanzlerWerden (Laschet must not be Chancellor) also started trending on Twitter.
Laschet, who took the reins in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in January, is its candidate for the chancellorship in the upcoming general elections in September.
The CDU must be horrified and considering drastic measures to deal with this. Laschet should step down before he drags the CDU down with him.
Responding to the mounting backlash over his PR blunder, Laschet issued an apology.
“The regional government takes the fate of those affected to heart,” he wrote in a Twitter post, adding that he regrets the impression that was created during the president’s speech. “This was inappropriate and I am sorry,” he said.
Many critics apparently felt his apology was “half-hearted.”
“Wouldn’t you just tell us the joke that was so funny it made you laugh in the face of all this suffering?” a German columnist and author, Sarah Bosetti, said in response to Laschet’s tweet.
Germany is still reeling from this week’s “catastrophic” flooding. At least 143 people have already died in the calamity, including 98 people in the tiny rural district of Ahrweiler south of Cologne, one of the hardest-hit areas in the country. Earlier, local authorities reported that over 1,000 people were missing there.
Germany was not the only nation hit by the disaster. A further 27 people were killed in neighboring Belgium, where Prime Minister Alexander De Croo declared that July 20 would be a national day of mourning. Local media also reported that the Belgian National Day celebrations next Wednesday will also be downsized as a result.
Merkel’s potential successor apologizes after book on immigration
was flagged for plagiarism
30 Jul, 2021 15:31
© Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP
As parliamentary elections in Germany loom, chancellor candidate and leader of the ruling Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) Armin Laschet has issued an apology over a lacking source in a book he wrote.
The potential plagiarism incident had been brought to light by a consultant and publicist, Karsten Weitzenegger, who shared a side-by-side comparison of his own work that Laschet had failed to reference. Weitzenegger also stated that the case was brought to his attention by ‘plagiarism hunter’ Martin Heidingsfelder.
Laschet’s book in question, which included the part, dates back to 2009 and is titled: “The Ascending Republic. Immigration as an opportunity”.
On Friday, the CDU Chairman claimed responsibility for the error, explaining that “at least one author of the material used in the book is not mentioned either in the text or in the list of sources”.
Alongside his apology, Laschet promised to have the book further analyzed immediately “in order to clarify whether there are other errors”.
Laschet, who stands a chance of succeeding Merkel as chancellor of Germany, is not the first politician to come under fire recently for academic malpractice. A rival Green party candidate, Annalena Baerbock, was scrutinized earlier for failing to correctly reference five sources in her new book. A party spokesperson called the plagiarism accusations attempted “character assassination”.
The recent findings of academic misconduct do not bode well in Laschet’s favor ahead of the September 26 parliamentary elections. While the CDU are in the lead of the electoral race, the Union’s chairman has been losing popularity. Laschet was staunchly criticized for laughing during a visit to regions in Western Germany that were rocked by fatal floods earlier in July.
Over the last decade a number of German politicians have had their academic integrity attacked. For political figures, plagiarism is a serious offence to be accused of, one that can be potentially career-destroying. Germany’s former defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, was found guilty of borrowing passages of other authors’ work without correctly citing them, leading to his resignation in 2011.
As migrant crossings surge, Estonia to gift Lithuania
100km of sharp Razor Wire for border fences
24 Jul, 2021 17:18
Tallinn says it will help Vilnius build military-grade obstacles on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border by sending drones and razor wire to its neighbor. It comes amid a surge of Middle Eastern migrants trying to cross into the EU.
Some hundred kilometers (60 miles) of concertina wire will immediately be sent to Lithuania for free, Estonia’s defense ministry announced on Saturday. It has also promised drones for better border surveillance. The move comes as Vilnius is desperate to lock its borders to illegal migrants from the Middle East and Central Asia attempting to cross through Belarus.
Lithuania has previously said it’s facing a full-blown crisis as the number of illegal migrants has multiplied by 30 compared to last year, with almost 2,500 people detained. Having declared a state of emergency earlier this month, it started building a fence, but soon ran out of the military-grade wire.
Having blamed Minsk for the migrant crisis, the Baltic country appealed to its western neighbours for help. Poland has responded by sending tents and heating facilities. The EU said it won’t be helping with the border wall, but promised to help deal with the influx of migrants financially.
“The European Commission does not fund fences. Our funding is aimed at inclusive solutions to control borders which guarantee that illegal crossings will not remain unnoticed,” its spokesperson has told RIA Novosti news agency. The money should also be used to help shelter migrants, the EU official added.
According to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, his country has been a “barrier” for illegal migration and drugs trafficking from the east. However, after Minsk’s relations with the West deteriorated dramatically and Lukashenko’s government came under a barrage of sanctions, he said Belarus would no longer stem the migrant tides, as it had “neither money nor strength” due to the sanction-inflicted losses. Vilnius has, meanwhile, accused Minsk of using migration flows as a “political tool” and called on the EU to impose even more sanctions on its neighbor.
‘Out of her depth’: Calls for Sturgeon to resign as new data show
Scotland boasts most drugs deaths in Europe, by a country mile
30 Jul, 2021 13:29
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (FILE PHOTO) © Andy Buchanan/Pool via REUTERS
Criticism over Nicola Sturgeon’s government is mounting in Scotland as new figures show another increase in drugs deaths, with narcotic-related fatalities there overtaking those of European nations.
On Friday, state archive National Records of Scotland published its latest figures on Scotland’s drug epidemic. The data showed that, in 2020, 1,339 lost their lives in Scotland to drug-related deaths, that’s 75 more than in 2019 and the highest number since records began in 1996.
The national rate of 21.2 deaths per 100,000 people is more than three-and-a-half times higher than England’s and Wales’, and vastly greater than any EU nation, and the European average. The country’s largest city, Glasgow, was most afflicted, registering 30.8 drug related deaths per 100,000; meaning that around one in 3,000 people of all ages had died from narcotics in 2020. Over the last decade, drug-related deaths have more than doubled.
Scotland’s drug-use epidemic, as well as its rampant alcoholism, has long been an issue for the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP). On Friday, reacting to the figures, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said, “the number of lives lost to drugs is unacceptable,” adding that she is determined to make changes that may positively impact the country’s “shameful” record.
However, Sturgeon’s promise of action has come too late for some who demanded her resignation on Friday. “Scotland’s shame,” wrote Alliance for Unity on Twitter, adding the trending hashtag #ResignSturgeon. Another person, responding to Sturgeon’s tweet directly, called on the leader to “stop insulting our intelligence and resign.”
Many people questioned her record as Scottish leader, noting that she had failed on independence approval, economics and investment, but she’d managed to take Scotland to the top of the table for drug deaths.
“Drug policy is a disaster,” another asserted, claiming that everything else the embattled leader touches is, too. “How about the truth for once in life or are we not intelligent enough for that?” they added.
One Twitter user agreed, claiming that the nationalist leader was “out of her depth,” and that if she can’t “tax it, ban it or make it free” she doesn’t have a plan.
Some people even said that they were cancelling their SNP membership today, saying that Sturgeon has had too many chances to take the nation forward and had failed.
Others asked how Sturgeon and her spin doctors planned to deflect the criticism, wondering if Scotland’s drug problem would eventually be Westminster’s fault.
Despite the widespread criticism, several Scots stood up for their leader, asking why is it her fault if some people are “stupid enough” to take drugs. “Blame the idiots for taking the drugs not her!”
Sturgeon has previously admitted that the country’s record on drugs was "indefensible" and "a national disgrace." Her government has pledged a further £250 million ($349mn) to reduce drug deaths.
While her party and the cause of Scotland’s independence remain popular, the leader has come under fire for her drugs policy, for an embarrassing scandal involving former first minister Alex Salmond and for her government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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