Turkey: Rights watchdog to visit Turkey over rule of law= - by Eric Maurice

The head of the human rights watchdog Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, is going to Turkey next week amid a proposed roadmap from Ankara to fastrack EU-required reforms, in order to lift visa restrictions on Turks.

But his visit, the third to Turkey since the failed military coup in July 2016, also comes amid renewed tensions between Ankara and the EU.

Jagland is hoping detained journalists will be released from jail and is meeting Turkey's ministers of justice and foreign affairs to discuss options when it comes to the state of emergency and the freedom of expression.

"Our principle is that journalists should not be locked merely for reporting about terrorism. Writing about terrorists doesn't automatically make you a terrorist yourself," Jagland's spokesperson Daniel Holtgen, said in an email.

Turkey's troubled justice system will also be on the agenda. Last month, the nation's top constitutional court demanded the release of two reporters, Mehmet Altan and Sahin Alpay but later reportedly changed its position. Both are facing life sentences.

Holtgen said the constitutional court is seen as "key to implementing the European Convention of Human Rights in Turkey."

The Altan and Alpay case appears to have resonated with Turkey's ambassador to the European Union, Faruk Kaymakci, who told reporters last week the country is going through a difficult time.

"It is a very interesting case but the problem again here is because we are going through a very complex time, a very complicated time," he said.

Read more: Rights watchdog to visit Turkey over rule of law

Turkey referendum: Ankara blasts EU call to investigate vote despite evidence to the contrary

Turkey: Now also a fake referendum.result for Recep Tayip Erdogan

Turkey's government has hit back at the European Union after Brussels called for an investigation into alleged irregularities in the country's referendum.

As many as 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated in Sunday's poll which saw a narrow "yes" vote to grant expanded presidential powers, according to observers.

But the EU's call for a probe was blasted as "unacceptable" by Turkish government minister Omer Celik, who urged the bloc to "respect democratic processes". Note EU-Digest: "Omer Celik please stand corrected -  this Referendum and the Erdogan government did not respect "democratic processes" as was clearly demonstrated".

The Council of Europe, which monitored the referendum, claimed it was an uneven contest as the "yes" side had dominated campaign coverage, with the arrest of journalists and the closure of media outlets silencing other views.

Mr Korun said: "There is a suspicion that up to 2.5 million votes could have been manipulated.

He also said a last-minute decision by the Turkish election authority (YSK) to allow ballot envelopes without the official stamp was illegal.

Read more: Turkey referendum: Ankara blasts EU call to investigate vote

Poland: Protests as Poland's Radical Right Wing Government Rejects Top Court Ruling

Poland's Government overrules top 
court and Council of Europe

Poland's Right Wing Law and Justice (PiS) government on Saturday, March 12, said it would ignore a Constitutional Tribunal ruling invalidating its legal reforms, a day after a European rights body argued the controversial changes to the top court threatened democracy and the rule of law.

Since winning October elections, the PiS has pushed through a number of reforms in the media, constitutional court and other institutions that have garnered criticism and concern from the EU, United States and other rights institutions.

The latest battle lines have been drawn over the constitutional court, after PiS passed amendents in December increasing the number of judges to make a ruling, requiring the court to review cases in the order they were received, and changing the threshold for a decision from a simple majority to a two-thirds majority.

Critics argue the changes are designed to slow down the court and render it dysfunctional in order to prevent judges from blocking controversial PiS legislation.

On Friday,March 11 the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe, made a non-binding judgment that the changes had "crippled" the Constitutional Tribunal and "endangered not only the rule of law but also the functioning of the democratic system."

The Council of Europe also said the government must follow the constitutional court's decision.

That judgment is likely to put Poland on a fresh collision course with the EU, which has referred Poland to a review at the European Commission over concerns of a retrenchment of democracy and rule of law.

A negative decision from the EU's executive body could lead to Poland losing its voting rights at the EU level.

On Saturday, Poland's government said it would ask parliament to review the Venice Commission's judgment but would still not recognize the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling.

The government has refused to officially publish the top court's findings, effectively blocking them from going into force.

Read more: Protests as Poland rejects top court ruling | News | DW.COM | 12.03.2016

Spying - NSA: "Britain is an "arrogant bad boy on the world stage". - by Nicholas Watt

Britain is holding up an agreement on internet freedom among the 47 members of Europe's human rights watchdog after objecting to a probe into the gathering of "vast amounts of electronic data" by intelligence agencies.

In a sign of Britain's determination to protect the work of GCHQ and other intelligence agencies, the government is declining to endorse a political declaration by the Council of Europe that could limit the ability of "security agencies" to gather electronic data.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said that the tactics risked turning Britain into an "arrogant bad boy on the world stage".

 Read more: UK blocks attempt by Council of Europe to examine online spying | Law | The Guardian

Russia eyes Council of Europe to secure return of pilot jailed in US

A US court’s refusal to review the 20-year sentence for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko has opened the door to appeal to the Council of Europe (COE) to have him returned home, a top Russian diplomat said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's special representative for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, made his comments soon after The New York Court of Appeals rejected the motion for a full court review of Yaroshenko’s case.

Konstantin Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US court in 2011 for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs to the United States. He was initially arrested in Liberia following a sting operation and handed over to the US despite protests from Russia and violations of diplomatic code.

The pilot himself has maintained his innocence to this day, saying that his poor command of English prevented him from understanding the nature of suggestions he was getting from undercover DEA agents.

The pilot’s relatives had earlier told the press that the case was possibly an attempt by US authorities to extract some evidence against Viktor Bout - another Russian citizen illegally extradited to the US and sentenced as a result of yet another sting operation.

Dolgov noted that Russia was disappointed by the latest US court ruling, but added that it was “a continuation of the absolutely unjust and biased line that US law enforcement agencies and the country’s court system are carrying out against our citizen, starting from his abduction on Liberian territory and illegal extradition to the USA in violation of international law.”

Read more: Russia eyes Council of Europe to secure return of pilot jailed in US — RT Russian politics

Europe human rights body urges Ukraine to conduct free parliamentary vote - by Maria Danilova

Europe's top human rights watchdog urged Ukrainian authorities Monday to conduct a free and fair parliamentary election next month, but warned that the imprisonment of Ukraine's top opposition leader bodes ill for the country.

The Oct. 28 election has already been tainted by the jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on abuse-of-office charges that the West condemns as politically motivated. Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven on charges of overstepping her authority when negotiating a 2009 gas deal with Russia, has accused President Viktor Yanukovych of throwing her
in jail to bar her from the vote.

Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland condemned her imprisonment, but said the election must still take place and be honest.

Read more: Europe human rights body urges Ukraine to conduct free parliamentary vote

Council of Europe demands truth on CIA 'black sites'

The human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe urged countries that have hosted secret CIA prisons to come clean Monday, as the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches.

Thomas Hammarberg said Poland, Romania and Lithuania were among at least seven countries that hosted "black sites" for "enhanced interrogation" during the "war on terror."

"Darkness still enshrouds those who authorized and ran the black sites on European territories," he said. "The full truth must now be established and guarantees given that such forms of co-operation will never be repeated."

For more: Council of Europe demands truth on CIA 'black sites' - CNN.com

EUobserver: ECB rejects eastern fast-track to eurozone - by Valentina Pop

for the complete report from the EUobserver click on this link

ECB rejects eastern fast-track to eurozone - by Valentina Pop

The European Central Bank (ECB) on Monday dismissed proposals made by the International Monetary Fund for eastern European member states to adopt the euro even without full membership of the eurozone. "This [IMF proposal] is not realistic. The membership for European monetary union has very clear rules and these rules have to be followed. From an economic point of view, it would not be a good signal [for] the confidence . . . towards the euro," Ewald Nowotny, ECB governing council member, told Reuters. The bank was responding to the publication in the Financial Times of a confidential report drafted by the IMF last month as part of a regional anti-crisis strategy for the eastern EU countries. It suggested that the EU should relax euro entry rules for countries like Hungary and Poland so that these countries can join as quasi-members without needing to hold a board seat in the ECB.

Note EU-Digest: A very good decision by ECB to not allow fast track for Eastern European Nations. It would totally tarnish the good reputation of the euro.

AP: Europe: Some hits, some misses for Obama - by Jennefir Loven

For the complete report from the AP click on this link

Europe: Some hits, some misses for Obama - by Jennifir Loven

Stop after stop, crowds are thronging, leaders gushing, headlines blaring. Even a roomful of foreign reporters applauded after President Barack Obama's London news conference. They love him over here. But are they giving him anything else to take home? It's a mixed bag: some success, several failures and much still to be determined.

News Blaze: Greece - Debt Financing Outlook for 2009 and Beyond - by Georgios Zoumpoulidis

For the complete report from News Blaze click on this link

Greece - Debt Financing Outlook for 2009 and Beyond - by Georgios Zoumpoulidis

If macroeconomics is about understanding, microeconomics is mostly perception; and where financial markets are concerned, at times, even deception. Take Greece for example - a typical example of a peripheral, debt laden Euro economy. Its first crash test for 2009 will probably be on Jan 13, when its first bond auction for 2009 will take place. It is almost certain that the spread between Greek and German bonds will be more than 200 points. But what exactly does this spread tell us? Strictly technically speaking, in times of recession, debt laden economies behave more or less like highly leveraged stocks - the banks squeeze liquidity (shutting down lines of credit, for example) and then ask for added insurance and/or even partial/full repayment of debt. This course of action marks a turning point for the underlying company - management is forced to either wake up and turn around the company or prepare to file for bankruptcy (for a state, that would be something like asking the IMF for help!). But there is a crucial difference, if you are a member of EU: you can't really go into "turnaround" mode; you can't print your own money.

Note EU-Digest: Just imagine if we did not have the euro today in the EU. With the financial crises the world is facing it would have meant utter chaos on the European financial markets. Lets face it: together we are able to survive in Europe, divided we fall

Reuters: Stronger EU control needed: Mexican drug gang tentacles reach Europe, Africa - by Mica Rosenberg

For the complete report from Reuters click on this link

Stronger EU control needed: Mexican drug gang tentacles reach Europe, Africa - by Mica Rosenberg

Violent Mexican cartels that have killed thousands in a drug war at home this year are increasingly smuggling drugs to Europe by way of Africa.Under pressure from a government and army crackdown at home, the drug gangs are seeking new lucrative markets.

Cocaine can be sold for more than four times as much in Europe as in the United States and in 2005 some 80 percent of the drug not destined for the U.S. market went to Europe, according to the United Nations.

NOTE EU-Digest:

Controls must be strengthened to stop this flow of drugs reaching the EU and the rest of Europe through Africa.

RNW: G20: Europe ( as a result of British generalities) unable to unite in credit crisis - by John Huizinga

For the complete report from Radio Netherlands Worldwide click on this link

Europe ( as a result of British Generalities) unable to unite in credit crisis - by John Huizing

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the European presidency, has called on his European colleagues to reconvene in Brussels to tackle the credit crisis. During a lunch arranged at the last minute, the European leaders formulated a common position on Friday for the G20 summit, due next week in Washington. But Europe is not expected to play a strong leading role. "They are hardly long-term solutions," says Karel Lannoo from the Brussels think tank CEPS. He also questions the idea to give the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a larger role. If the IMF really wants to act as a financial policeman, then national governments would more or less have to be obliged to adopt its recommendations. And for this to happen the structure of the IMF itself would have to change radically. The US already has trouble accepting interference by international organizations in its national politics, warns Mr Lannoo. And there's another difficulty.the IMF is largely controlled by Europe. But the United States and the newer industrialized countries might prefer to see the voting positions and the capital chairs within the IMF rearranged. Something European countries may not like. Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos said: "We should watch out that we don't just formulate a general ambition, a general agenda for things that need to happen across the globe. In the worst case, it would result in endless discussions about what needs to be done in the world, while we forget there's a couple of things we need to do right now in Europe." It was a deliberate sneer at the British. They would like to arrange everything globally in the hope that London's financial center, the City, stays free of strict European regulation.

IC Publications: EU sanctions on Zimbabwe will stay until govt formed

for the complete report from the IC Publications click on this link

EU sanctions on Zimbabwe will stay until govt formed

European Union sanctions on Zimbabwe will remain until rival parties there break an impasse and form a government, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Monday. In a written answer to parliament, Miliband said that positive momentum built up when President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to a power-sharing deal was "fast evaporating." The deal was signed in Harare on September 15, but Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change have been deadlocked since then, and a failure to reach an accord on the cabinet has delayed the formation of a unity government.

"Until a new Zimbabwean government are appointed and that government show by their action their commitment to reform, EU targeted measures will remain in place," Miliband said. The British minister added that though humanitarian assistance would continue, "it is not the long-term solution in Zimbabwe." He said that he would discuss the situation in Zimbabwe with his EU counterparts on October 13.

M&C: US, France clash over G8 expansion

For the complete report from the M&C click on this link

US, France clash over G8 expansion

The United States and France clashed Monday over plans to accommodate India, China and other large developing countries into the Group of Eight (G8) of industrialized countries, according to Japanese media reports quoting officials from both sides.In an interview given to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper prior to his departure for Japan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said G8 annual summits should also include China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

EU-Digest: Flower Industry - How safe are the flowers you are buying

A special EU-Digest report about environmentally unsafe practices by the flower industry

How safe are the flowers you are buying

The flower industry keeps those flowers perfect for our enjoyment with a heavy douse of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, growth hormones, fungicides, and highly toxic pesticides. Imports can have unregistered chemicals or those otherwise banned because of the high costs at stake. If bugs are found in the cargo, the entire lot can be rejected. Studies have found more than 50% more pesticides on flowers than the allowable limit on produce; roses had 1000 times more cancer-causing pesticides than food! The pesticides used are very strong toxic chemicals. They travel to neighboring farms and into their water supply. Many of these chemicals are listed as "category 1" and include the most hazardous of chemicals (Methyl Bromide). Some of these chemicals are known to deplete our ozone layer and cause birth defects. When you touch a chemically treated conventional flower, you get poisons on your skin which can be ingested when you put your hand to your face or your child's face or can even penetrate your body through your skin. When you smell the fragrance, you are also inhaling poisons. Worse yet, the workers (many sorely underpaid) on flower farms and in green houses usually work in toxic environments. Studies show that they are exposed to 60 times the "safe" standard. As you can imagine, the toxic fumes are intensified in green houses! And as the farm hands return from work toxic chemicals also enter their homes and into the lives and bodies of their children and loved ones. But it does not end there. When the flowers are shipped and arrive at their destinations around the world, health hazards can now also enter the home of the consumer. This time with the addition of usually environmentally unfriendly packaging.

Have you ever checked if the packaging or sleeves around the flowers you are buying are made from recyclable and sustainable materials. Like corn-based flower sleeve made from polylactic acid (PLA), a natural, rapidly biodegradable alternative to traditional petroleum based cellophane sleeves used by most flower companies! Are they safe to the environment, can they be recycled? Do the flowers you buy carry a sticker which says that the flowers are eco-friendly and have not been treated with poisonous chemicals?

The next time you buy flowers for someone or for some special occasion, make sure they are not only appealing to the eye, but also carry a label guaranteeing they are eco-friendly. These are all serious questions that need to be addressed by the multi-billion flower industry, which at the moment seems to be burying their head in the sand.

BBC NEWS: Boycott China Olympics: Brown denies avoiding China row

For the complete from BBC NEWS click on this link

Boycott China Olympics: Brown denies avoiding China row

Gordon Brown has rejected suggestions he avoided a human rights row with China because Britain could not afford to jeopardize economic relations. "It's nothing to do with that - in a human rights dialogue with China we make our views perfectly clear," the prime minister told the BBC. Note EU-Digest: Tell us another one Mr. Brown...

AP: Creationists Seek Foothold in Europe - by Gregry Katz

For the complete report from The Associated Press click on this link

Creationists Seek Foothold in Europe - by Gregry Katz

Europeans have long viewed the conflict between evolutionists and creationists as primarily an American phenomenon, but it has recently jumped the Atlantic Ocean with skirmishes in Italy, Germany, Poland and, notably, Britain, where Darwin was born and where he published his 1859 classic. Darwin's defenders are fighting back. In October, the 47-nation Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, condemned all attempts to bring creationism into Europe's schools. Bible-based theories and "religious dogma" threaten to undercut sound educational practices, it charged. Schools are increasingly a focal point in this battle for hearts and minds. A British branch of Answers in Genesis, which shares a Web site with its American counterpart, has managed to introduce its creationist point of view into science classes at a number of state-supported schools in Britain, said Monty White, the group's chief executive. Creationism is still a marginal issue here compared with its impact on cultural and political debate in the United States. But the budding fervor is part of a growing embrace of evangelical worship throughout much of Europe. Evangelicals say their ranks are swelling as attendance at traditional churches declines because of revulsion with the hedonism and materialism of modern society.

Monty White chief executive of Answers in Genesis said in an interview at his office in Leicester, 90 miles north of London, "People are looking for spirituality, I think they are fed up with not finding true happiness. They find having a bigger car doesn't make them happy. They get drunk and the next morning they have a hangover. They take drugs but the drugs wear off. But what they find with Christianity is lasting." The true history of the Earth is told in the Bible, not Darwin's "The Origin of Species".

EU-Digest: The Netherlands: Majority of parties in Dutch Parliament say NO to the wearing of head scarfs by police officers

EU-Digest report on the Police head scarf controversy in the Netherlands

The Netherlands: Majority of parties in Dutch Parliament say NO to the wearing of head scarfs by some police officers

A motion presented by the PVV party in the Dutch Parliament last week against the wearing of headscarfs by members of the police was accepted by a large majority of parliamentarians, including the government coalition party CDA, and opposition parties SP, VVD, D66, SGP, the Party of the animals and the Verdonk fraction. The SP noted during the discussions that this guideline should be applied to all forms of religious expression by civil servants and government officials in the Netherlands.
The Christian Union which voted against the motion said they voted against the motion because of its narrow wording. The Christian Party stated to be against the wearing of all religious symbols by the police because the police are required to convey an independent and neutral image when dealing with the Public.

When asked what the Government's next step would be following this Parliamentary motion, Mrs. Guusje Ter Horst, Minister of Internal Affairs (PVDA- Labour Party),said she could not comment on the issue, because her department is still working on establishing a dress code for the police. She said "the advice that was given to her by the Equal Treatment Commission was that the wearing of symbols of religious faith should only be banned if there is a strong case for it, because it could lead to people being banned from working for the police because of their religious beliefs."

Editorial note: Editorial note: The Parliament is correct to ban the wearing of headscarf's by public officials and consequently any statement by the Dutch Equal Treatment Commission to water down this ruling by the parliament is totally inappropriate in a secular society like the Netherlands. There can be no compromise on this issue which has all to do with religion and nothing with culture. Any form of religious expression by a Dutch government official, wherever he or she might be working, should not be tolerated. Let us not forget that the salary of those ( including Parliamentarians) in Dutch Government service is paid by the Dutch taxpayers. These taxpayers represent a variety of beliefs and cultures. The only identification a Dutch Government official should have is that he or she is a citizen of the Netherlands (EU). We hope Mrs. Guusje Ter Horst will make sure to follow the advice of the Parliament.

Caribbean Net News: Suriname - The Bouterse Trial Starts Today - Suriname police arrest alleged assassins - by Ivan Cairo

Desi Delano Bouterse on trial for massacres

For the complete report from the Caribbean Net News click on this link

The Bouterse Trial-Suriname police arrest alleged assassins - by Ivan Cairo

In his address to thousands supporters Monday night, Bouterse insisted that the government and parliament are not functioning properly while he cast doubt on the bi-partisanship and objectivity of the court and the judiciary. Suriname Justice Minister Santokhi disclosed that the authorities received intelligence that several individuals in the remote interior were armed by Bouterse and his supporters, while a top official from his party, NDP, traveled to a “neighbouring country” to recruit individuals to commit violent attacks in Suriname, including arson and murders. The Justice Minister claims that the destabilization and assassination plots have more to do then just derailing the upcoming trial. Interests of organized crime are also at stake here, according to the government official.Recently top crime leaders held a meeting to discuss actions aimed at bringing a halt to the assaults on their criminal enterprises by the authorities. During the past three years police have dismantled 9 of the 10 major criminal organizations in Suriname, including major drug trafficking rings with links to the Columbian rebel organization FARC.

Note EU-Digest Suriname, independent since 1975 from the Netherlands has had a turbulent political history so far. Desi Delano Bouterse, the present leader of the NDP political party in that country is assumed to be closely bound, not only with ongoing political unrest and crime in Suriname, but also with a military regime that controlled Suriname from 1980 until the beginning of the 1990s.

On February 25, 1980, the government of newly-independent Suriname underwent a military coup and Bouterse became Chairman of the National Military Council. Though the Suriname Presidency was retained, Bouterse became the nation’s de-facto ruler until his resignation in 1988. He even served briefly as President himself for a period in 1982. Bouterse is also considered the leading figure in Suriname’s post-independence civil war, and the main culprit behind the so-called “December murders” of 1982, and massacres in the Maroon (Bosneger) village of Moiwana in 1986. Since then he has also been accused on various occasions of involvement in illegal drug trafficking. In July 1999 he was convicted in absentia by the Netherlands for cocaine-trafficking. The Netherlands still has an international warrant for his arrest, which makes it almost impossible for him to leave Suriname. Unfortunately Suriname has not been able to extradite him to the Netherlands, because he is a former head of state. Today Suriname is finally slowly waking up from their fear and ready to prosecute the former dictator and some of his accomplices, whom have held the country in their grip for 25 years. This morning, November 30, 25 suspects, including Bouterse will be asked to appear before a Suriname court martial and tried for the executions, which went down in history as the "December killings". At that time 15 opponents of the military regime were summarily executed at the historical Dutch historical fort Zeelandia. One can only hope that justice will prevail and that Suriname can finally get rid of a "cancer" which has caused enormous harm to the credibility of that country as a viable Democratic state.

CTV.ca: Kurdish PKK terrorists rebels ambush, kill 12 Turkish troops and civilians - UN Security Council Should Get Involved.

For the complete report from CTV.ca click on this link

Kurdish PKK terrorists rebels ambush, kill 12 Turkish troops and civilians

Kurdish rebels have killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers near the border with Iraq and reportedly taken some others hostage, causing Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call a crisis meeting. "Our anger, our hatred is great," he said Sunday on national television. However, Erdogan said the government would take "an approach that is calm, far from agitation and based on common sense."The late Saturday attack, one of the worst in a decade, comes four days after Turkey's parliament approved a motion allowing troops to enter Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq to fight the rebels.Erdogan said he will meet later today with President Abdullah Gul and army chief General Yasar Buyukanit to decide on Turkey's response to today's military casualties. Gul will meet with the leaders of the political parties represented in Turkey's parliament tomorrow, he said.

Note EU-Digest: "The Turkish Government is to be complimented for their restraint they are showing so far. Also the Iraqi government today declared on CNN that the Kurdish PKK operating from their soil is considered a terrorist organization, but they unfortunately do not have the political clout or military capability to get rid of these terrorists. The key to solving this problem is in the hands of the US which has done very little so far in fear of angering their Kurdish Allies in Iraq. The US intend to open three US military bases in the Kurdish region of Iraq. The three bases will probably be located in Qaradagh (south of Al-Sulaymaniyah), Zakho area (north of Duhok), while the third one will be based near Arbil. There is also a possibility that the Incirlik base in Turkey, opened in 1992, will be transferred to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Since the PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union it might be useful for Turkey to ask for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and request for a UN presence on the Iraq - Turkey border area? "