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The EU is considering setting up "disembarkation platforms" outside the bloc to process migrants, according to draft summit conclusions seen Tuesday (19 June) by AFP, as Brussels tries to solve a political crisis over immigration.

EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and EU Digital Commissioner Mariya Gabriel are keeping their eyes wide shut to the Russian disinformation threat, writes Jakub Janda.

Negotiators from the European Commission, Parliament, and Council struck a deal on the energy union governance regulation after an all-night session where they agreed to “consider” a net-zero carbon emission goal by 2050, with a carbon budget.

At a meeting of climate ministers in Berlin on Tuesday (19 June), the German chancellor stressed the importance of re-training to help people take part in a greener economy.

France24 - Dans la nuit de lundi à mardi, des pluies torrentielles se sont abattues sur Abidjan, tuant au moins 17 personnes. Dans la capitale...

Bosnia’s state-level Constitutional Court faces everyday pressure from political forces that don’t want to accept rulings that go against their ethnic base, its newly-appointed president Zlatko Knezevic told BIRN.

Under its controversial premier Viktor Orban, Hungary is bolstering its influence in several Balkan countries, either through direct investment or by ‘soft power’.

Security experts suspect that the violent protests in Skopje against the ‘name’ deal with Greece - key for unblocking Macedonia’s progress towards the EU and NATO - may be part of an attempt to destabilise the country.

While America’s hardline policy towards refugee and migrant families grabs world attention, the number of child refugees unaccompanied by or separated from parents in Balkan countries is quietly growing.

Dozens of farmers from across Slovakia drove their tractors into the capital Bratislava on Tuesday (19 June) to protest against alleged irregularities in EU farm subsidy payments first made public by murdered journalist Jan Kuciak.

Refugees on the move. Credit: UNHCR/Ivor Pricket

By Jan Egeland
OSLO, Norway, Jun 20 2018 (IPS)

Turkey, Bangladesh and Uganda alone received over half of all new refugees last year. Never before has the world registered a larger number of people displaced by war and persecution.

International responsibility-sharing for displaced people has utterly collapsed. Rich countries are building walls against families fleeing war, at the same time as less money is available for aid to people in conflict areas.

The number of people forced to flee reached 68.5 million at the start of 2018, according to figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and NRC’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. This is as many people as there are living in the United Kingdom.

International cooperation and peace diplomacy are in deep crisis. The number of people displaced worldwide is increasing for the sixth year in a row, and fewer people are safely returning home.

Forty million people are displaced within their own countries, and another 28.5 million have crossed a border and become refugees.

Turkey was the country that received most new refugees last year – 700,000 people. It now houses over 3.8 million refugees, most of them from Syria. In comparison, the rest of Europe as a whole received about half a million refugees last year, and the US received about 60.000.

When so few asylum seekers are arriving in Europe and the US, we have the responsibility to increase our support to less rich countries that are currently hosting a large number of refugees, like Bangladesh, Lebanon and Uganda, and increase the number of people we receive for resettlement.

The safety net we put in place after Second World War and which has provided millions of refugees with protection, is now being upheld by an increasingly small number of countries.

If these countries do not receive sufficient support, the whole protection system will unravel. If so, this will have dramatic consequences not only for the people affected, but also for the stability and security in many parts of the world.

By May this year, Uganda had only received 7.0 percent of the money needed for UN and other organisations to be able to provide necessary support to the large number of refugees from South Sudan and DR Congo. In Bangladesh the equivalent figure was 20 percent.

In addition to economic support to countries receiving a large number of refugees, 1.2 million refugees need to be resettled in a new country, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). These are people that are not safe where they currently are. Last year the UN member countries only received about 103.000 resettlement refugees.

The consequences of the lack of responsibility sharing were evident this month when the rescue vessel Aquarius with 629 refugees and migrants was denied entry to Italian ports.

When people in need at sea become pieces in a political game, it is a grotesque symbol of the current lack of a proper system for international responsibility sharing.

NRC is concerned to see new border barriers raise in front of people fleeing war and persecution, and the refugees’ rights being under threat.

In many of the countries NRC work, people in power are referring to how European countries are closing their borders, when they want to defend their decision to close their own borders.

We have to end this race to the bottom, and rather let us inspire by generous recipient countries like Uganda, where vulnerable refugees are being protected.

Facts:

• 68.5 million people were displaced at the entry of 2018.
• 40 million people are displaced within their own country, according to NRC’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
• 28.5 million people have fled their country and are refugees or asylum seekers, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
• In 2017, 3.6 million sought protection in another country, either by themselves or through resettlement programs. Turkey received close to 20 percent of all new refugees in 2017, Bangladesh 18 percent, Uganda 15 percent and Sudan 14 percent.
• 667,000 refugees returned to their home country last year. Most returned to Nigeria (283,000)

Sources: UNHCR, NRC’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

The post Three Countries Protect Half the World’s New Refugees appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Jan Egeland is Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council and former United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator

The post Three Countries Protect Half the World’s New Refugees appeared first on Inter Press Service.

 Klaus Johannis tegnap azt is elmondta, hogy ez ügyben nem tárgyalt Laura Codruţa Kövesi korrupcióellenes főügyésszel. Az elnök ismét hangsúlyozta, nem tart attól, hogy a Szociáldemokrata Párt  és a Liberálisok és Demokraták Szövetsége kezdeményezni fogja a tisztségből való felfüggesztését, ehhez szerinte nincs jogalapjuk.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Tuesday (19 June) defended his plans to count the Roma community living in the country and deport those without legal status, despite outrage at home and abroad.

Faut-il instaurer un périmètre de tolérance au trafic? L’idée fait son chemin à Berne. Les sept Sages devront répondre

 Közölte tegnap az elnöki hivatal, miután Klaus Johannis államfő a romániai nagykövetekkel találkozott. Véleményük szerint, ha életbe lépnek a módosítások, akkor befolyásolni fogják Románia és a többi ország közti rendőrségi és igazságszolgáltatási együttműködéseket. A képviselőház hétfőn szavazta meg a a büntetőeljárási törvénykönyvet módosító tervezetet.

A legfelsőbb bíróság normakontrollt kér az alkotmánybíróságtól a büntetőeljárási törvénykönyv módosításai miatt, amelyeket hétfőn fogadott el a képviselőház. Korábban az ellenzéki pártok és a legfőbb ügyészség is közölte, hogy megtámadják az alkotmánybíróságon a törvényköyvet.

Az államfő májusban emelt alkotmányossági kifogást a referendumtörvényt módosító jogszabály ellen. A referendumtörvényt módosító jogszabály értelmében az alkotmánymódosítást célzó referendumot, a parlament erre vonatkozó indítványának elfogadásától számított 30 napon belül meg kell szervezni. A tervezet gyakorlatilag megfosztja az államfőt attól a jogától, hogy döntsön a népszavazás kiírásáról.

Americas

• The Navy is ordering protective systems in support of its V-22 aircraft. The $20 million fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract sees for the production of up to 200 Ballistic Protection System panel sets and single floor spares for the V-22 by MACRO Industries. The V-22 has specific Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) driven aircraft vulnerability programmatic requirements and was a lead aircraft subject to Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) oversight with the Live Fire Test Law passed in 1987. Many vulnerability reduction techniques have been applied to the V-22 airframe. These technologies range from inherent structural design requirements such as ballistic protection panels to active fire suppression systems to prevent sustained fire in the aircraft. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama, and is expected to be completed in June 2023.

• The Navy is contracting Advanced Acoustic Concepts LLC in support of the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) platform. The cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-reimbursement modification is valued at $12.2 million and provides for software engineering services to support the LCS Mission Modules program. The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship has been designed to counter a number of “asymmetric” threats like coastal mines, quiet diesel submarines, global piracy, and terrorists on small fast attack boats. Instead of designing a single platform that is able to take over those tasks the Navy opted for developing a ship that can be adapted to specific mission requirements by integrating swappable mission modules. Therefore, the LCS program includes packages for Mine Warfare, Anti-submarine Warfare and Surface Warfare. The LCS Mission Modules Program Office packages a variety of technologies to these ends, many of which are produced by other program offices and delivered as elements of a particular mission module. Work will be performed in Hauppauge, New York; Columbia, Maryland and Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania, and is expected to be completed by June 2019.

• Oshkosh Defense LLC is being awarded a contract modification by the US Army. The modification is valued at $18 million and supports the production of vehicles belonging to the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles. Oshkosh has provided the core of the US Army’s Heavy Tactical Vehicle capability for over 20 years. The awarded contract provides for work on recapitalized guided missile transport trucks, recapitalized load handling system trucks, new palletized load system trucks and new palletized load system trailers. Work will be performed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with an estimated completion date of January 2020.

Middle East & Africa

• The government of Armenia is reportedly in the final stages of negotiating the procurement of fighter jets from Russia. It is expected that the Armenian government will sign a contract for the delivery of a yet unspecified number of Su-30SM aircraft in 1 to 2 years. The Su-30SM is a multirole fighter aircraft developed by JSC Sukhoi Design Bureau for the Russian Air Force. It is an advanced derivative of the Su-30MK combat aircraft family. The Su-30SM can be deployed in counter-air strikes, counter-land and counter-sea missions. It can conduct electronic counter-countermeasures and early warning tasks. The aircraft also acts as a command-and-control platform within a fleet of combat aircraft performing joint missions. The Armenian Air Force currently has a fleet of old Su-25 and MiG-29 fighter jets.

Europe

• The Slovakian Armed Forces are currently fielding their upgraded Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs). The upgrade of the BMP-1 Svatava is being performed by Slovak company Konštrukta Defence. The Svatava is a modernized version of the BMP-1 dating from the 1980s. The BMP-1 Svatava, or BPsVI is an armored reconnaissance vehicle. Its turret is equipped with the Turra 30 remote controlled weapon station (RCWS) armed with a 30mm 2A42 automatic cannon, a PKT 7.62mm coaxial medium machinegun and a twin launcher of Konkurs (AT-5 Spandrel) ATGMs. Additionally, the turret is fitted with a fire control system, laser warning system, smoke grenades, commander observation and aiming sight day TV camera, thermal camera and laser range finder. The performed upgrades will extend the lifetime of the IFVs by at least 20 years and costs less than procuring new vehicles. A total of 35 upgraded IFVs will be delivered to the Slovak ISTAR Battalion.

• Jane’s reports that the UK military has lost another Thales WK 450 Watchkeeper to an accident. Britain’s Watchkeeper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program was devised to give the Royal Artillery an advanced mid-range UAV for surveillance and is complementary to other ISTAR systems in the Royal inventory. The Watchkeeper platform is based on Elbit Systems’ Hermes 450 UAV platform. The UAV is designed to provide continuous 24/7 surveillance when needed, using unmanned air vehicles able to stay airborne for more than 16 hours each through night and poor weather. So far, the UK military has lost five Watchkeepers, three of which crashed in the last 12 months. The Watchkeeper UAV and 47 Regiment Royal Artillery that operates it were due to achieve full operating capability (FOC) earlier in 2018, but this milestone was postponed after the platform failed to obtain a key flight safety certificate in November 2017.

Asia-Pacific

• The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) is planning to equip its fleet of Northrop F-5 fighters with IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missiles. The Thai government recently signed a repeat order with German manufacturer Diehl Defense. The IRIS-T missile emerged after Germany pulled out of the joint US-UK-German ASRAAM program. The IRIS-T family of missiles includes three variants: the IRIS-T air-to-air guided missile, the IRIS-T SL (Surface Launched) medium range guided missile and the IRIS-T SLS (Surface-Launched, Short-Range) guided missile. The missile incorporates a tail-controlled, winged airframe design using completely newly developed components. Its main segments include a guidance section, warhead, rocket motor and control section with fins and jet vane. The IRIS-T entered service in December 2005 with the air forces of participating program nations including Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Spain. The export customers of the IRIS-T are Austria, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

• Malaysia’s defense contractor Kembara Suci is currently awaiting a firm order for its newly developed special operations vehicle (SOV). The SOV will replace the current fleet of Mercedes-G jeeps. Kembara Suci’s SOV is powered by a Caterpillar 5-cylinder line diesel developing 197hp at 2,400 rpm and is fitted with 70R17 pneumatics. At prototype stage, it features front independent suspensions of the double whish-bone type with coil springs, while at the rear we find leaf springs on a rigid axle. It carries four passengers in the seats plus a fifth operator in the back, manning the 40 mm AGL. On top of the troop compartment we find a 12.7 MG, while the vehicle commander on the left has a 7.62 mm machine gun at his disposal. The company is quoting a gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 7,000 lb. This includes a 3,306 lb. payload comprising 21 gallons of fuel, the crew, weapons, ammunition, water stowed in containers either side of the rear stowage area, and other essential equipment.

Today’s Video

• Rheinmetall shows its KF41 Lynx next-gen combat vehicle

On World Refugee Day (20 June), it is important to touch upon the sensitive issue of uniting families at a time when separation is happening on the US border. However, separation is also a consequence of the Dublin regulation, which must be reformed, writes Iverna Mc Gowan.

A Brussels-based NGO has monitored the 2018 Italian election and came to the conclusion that "fake news" have been relatively rare. EURACTIV.com looks into the story as part of the “Fact or Fake” series, in partnership with France 24.