Surprise deal over the weekend has “saved the WTO” says EU trade commissioner.
A surprise world trade deal struck over the weekend by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Bali, Indonesia has been enthusiastically welcomed by EU leaders.
“Potential gains for the global economy could be as high as $1 trillion,” said José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission. “Trade costs for mature economies will be reduced by 10%, the deal will help developing countries save around 325 billion euros a year and the agreement will bring vital help to the poorest people across the globe in the least developed countries.”
Karel de Gucht, European commissioner for trade, said the deal has “saved the WTO”. After many years of failed rounds of negotiations, a belief had been emerging that the WTO was incapable of bringing about global trade deals. “This is the first comprehensive WTO deal since 1995 which will deliver improvement on trade facilitation, development issues and agriculture, including food security,” said Barroso.
The deal is supposed to simplify customs procedures and reduce import duties, lowering the cost of exports particularly for developing countries. Strong exporting countries such as Germany are set to benefit the most from the deal.
Working for the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Co-operation, Silviu Jora has found a professional niche for his personal interests
Silviu Jora may work for the European Commission’s directorate-general for enterprise and industry, but when he looks around his office the atmosphere is far from the Brussels norm. “It’s pretty much a Japanese environment,” he says. “Here in our Tokyo office, 80% [of staff] are Japanese, the layout is Japanese, and the way they do things is Japanese.” Yet at the same time it feels international. “People communicate in English and they have travelled abroad.”
This is the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Co-operation, a joint venture between the European Commission and the Japanese government, intended to build business partnerships and help companies negotiate cultural differences on both sides. Jora is general manager, a role he shares with Japanese counterpart Hiroshi Tsukamoto.
The centre was established in 1987, in a period when Europe was fascinated with Japanese economic success and Japan was curious about the newly-minted European single market. Initially, it set out to demystify Japan for European companies, with training and information services to help them gain access to the market. Over time its role has become more balanced, with additional activities promoting Japanese business in Europe and technological co-operation between the two sides.
Jora’s introduction to Japan came in 1999, through a visiting fellowship at the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo. At that point, he was a young PhD graduate working as a researcher in a think-tank within Romania’s ministry of foreign affairs. The experience soon had him thinking of career possibilities. “I observed that knowledge about the EU and European studies was not well developed in Japan, compared to the United States for example. So I thought there might be a professional niche there.”
But before he could act on the idea, he was drawn into Romania’s accession to the EU. He worked on the ministry’s negotiating team for several years, leaving when the process entered a more administrative phase. Returning to academia as an associate professor, he gravitated back to Japan, where he taught EU studies at various universities for a period of six years.
At the same time he was exploring other options. “Although I was enjoying tremendously what I was doing in Japan, I thought it was time to practise what I preached a little.” So he sat the competition to become a Commission civil servant.
Jora was successful in the competition and found himself working on innovation policy within the directorate-general for enterprise and industry in Brussels. But he was drawn back to Tokyo in 2011 when his present post fell vacant. “It was a tremendous opportunity for me to have a continuation of my previous activities in Japan. Besides my professional duties, I feel I have a personal commitment to this mission. So I’m lucky in this sense.”
The centre’s joint structure makes management a uniquely collaborative affair. “We have to discuss, negotiate and find common ground for everything, which in itself is fascinating,” says Jora. “And it’s reassuring to see that there are so many commonalities between the EU and Japan in terms of challenges and solutions.” Innovation and the need to internationalise small and medium-sized enterprises rose quickly to the top of the agenda, along with topics such as healthy ageing and clean energy.
The time difference from Europe means that the job requires stamina. After working regular hours in Tokyo, Jora often remains online long into the evening, speaking with contacts and colleagues in Brussels, where the centre also has an office. But the rewards of the job, along with the continuing fascination he feels for Japan, satisfy him. “I feel that I can play a role for Europe here in Japan,” he says.
Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.
Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, has been appointed co-chairman, with Elmar Brok, of the European People’s Party’s foreign ministers’ group.
Sikorski takes over from Paulo Portas, who was appointed Portugal’s deputy prime minister in July.
Ministers from the centre-right EPP family meet EPP MEPs on the sidelines of many Council formations, including the foreign affairs council. Sikorski is seen as a leading candidate – albeit undeclared – to succeed Catherine Ashton as EU foreign policy chief. That change will be made for the start of the next European Commission in November, because the foreign policy chief is also a member of the Commission.
EU’s humanitarian aid mission hampered by limited access to Syria
EU and UN want more routes into Syria
The United Nations failed this week to secure the Syrian government’s agreement to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged city of Homs, a failure that highlighted the major problem facing the European Union as it seeks to help victims of Syria’s war: access.
EU officials say that in addition to access to the places of greatest need within Syria, the UN and the EU want to have more routes into Syria. At present, the EU’s humanitarian aid within Syria – which the EU funnels through UN agencies, the Red Crescent and the 15 non-governmental organisations authorised to operate within the country – arrives through the port city of Latakia. Syria has banned cross-border supply routes through Turkey.
The difficulty of meeting needs in Syria means that the EU’s humanitarian aid is principally directed to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Lebanon, and to a lesser degree in Jordan and Iraq.
More needed
In all, the UN believes that $6.5 billion (€4.8bn) in aid is needed – the largest call for funding that it has ever made. It received the most generous response in UN history, but the value of the pledges – $2.4bn (€1.8bn) – fell far short of the UN’s target.
Overall, the European Commission has provided €615 million in humanit- arian aid since the start of the crisis. To raise that money, the Commission’s emergencies department, DG
ECHO, has had to draw on both its internal operational reserves and on the EU’s emergency reserve, and also to secure money not used by other departments.
That combination of sources enabled the initial sum earmarked for Syria in 2013 – €20m – to rise to €350m. This year, the department has set aside €100m from the outset, but it expects that the Commission will eventually need to mobilise €350m for this year too.
Officials note, though, that improvisation is “part of the job”, and that crises mean that the department “doesn’t have the luxury to budget” fully. They also say that topping-up funding for aid does not divert money from other budgets – Syria accounted for most of the difference between the spending on humanitarian aid budgeted for 2013 (€900m) and the final figure (€1.3 billion) – as the Commission’s emergency response traditionally draws on funds for which earmarked recipients eventually did not qualify. Last year, for example, aid to Syria was partially funded by money foreseen for Egypt.
Crisis is spreading
Nonetheless, the challenge posed by the Syrian crisis is increasingly moving into other budget lines and drawing in other departments. The department for economic and financial affairs has, for example, lobbied for more money to be allocated to Jordan, to help Syria’s neighbour maintain its economic stability.
As a result, there are murmurings within the EU institutions that the EU may need to create a special budget line to finance its responses to the crisis in Syria. In the 1990s, the EU reacted to the Balkan wars by setting up a specific budget.
EU officials have plenty to say about human rights issues outside of the bloc, but barely mention the problems within the EU
Thirteen years ago, the adoption of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights sparked hope that the long process of European integration would finally be propelled by a stronger emphasis on its human rights dimension. This hope was reinforced in 2007, with the establishment of a specialised European Union agency on fundamental rights and the reforming Treaty of Lisbon, which sets out the Union’s obligation to accede to the European Convention on Human Rights.
And yet, despite the new legal and political framework, and the extensive good work done by the fundamental rights agency, human rights in the EU remain more often than not an issue “for export” than for domestic consumption.
This has become particularly clear to me during my meetings with representatives of the EU, who generally wish to discuss the situation of human rights outside the 28 member states. As if all was well within the EU.
Since I took up office as the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights a little more than 20 months ago, nine of my 15 country reports have been on EU member states. Furthermore, I have engaged in a dialogue with the national authorities of five additional EU countries on specific human-rights concerns.
The picture I draw from this work is that EU institutions, in particular the European Commission, have all too often been weak in addressing a number of human-rights issues in member states. It is true that the EU has limited legislative competence for many core human-rights areas which are better dealt with by the Council of Europe, such as freedom of expression, the prohibition of torture, and the right to a fair trial.
However, I think the EU is also failing where it has a stronger competence.
One of the most topical of these issues is migration. The EU’s inaction, and sometimes complicity with widespread criminalisation of irregular migration, lengthy detention of migrants, ‘push-backs’, and inadequate asylum procedures expose this problem well. In addition, the system of Dublin returns, by which asylum-seekers are transferred back to the first country of entry, is unravelling due to legal challenges at both national and European levels. However, scrapping or fundamentally overhauling it remains a taboo subject for debate.
The EU’s scant progress on human rights also affects EU citizens. Take the fiscal-consolidation processes as an example. Without any real public participation, the EU has dictated a cure of austerity to heal public deficits. The result is that in many EU countries children’s health and prospects are worsening, unemployment is skyrocketing, and vulnerable groups, such as older people, are facing destitution because of cuts to the welfare system.
Persons with disabilities are not better off, despite the fact that the EU is party to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. A crucial provision of this treaty is the right of persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community. Still, many EU governments continue to place persons with disabilities in institutions. Worse still, I continue to receive reports that EU structural funds are often used to refurbish existing institutions or even build new ones.
Finally, incomplete anti-discrimination frameworks have led to very uneven levels of protection on different grounds. EU member states often justify shortcomings by pointing to the EU anti-discrimination directives, which provide more protection on grounds of race and ethnicity than they do, for example, on grounds of sexual orientation. Other states find no serious obstacles in Brussels to keeping very weak anti-racist legislation or in implementing Roma integration strategies that do not include measures to combat anti-Gypsism.
These examples show that the EU has still a long way to go before claiming any victory in integrating human rights in the construction of Europe. While the EU’s promise on human rights is good news and needs to be supported, its deeds have to improve if it wants to leave a positive imprint on Europe’s future.
The EU has various options to get there, including requiring stringent enforcement of its legislation and better using existing standards and mechanisms, including outside the EU, to make the current system more effective. But one thing need not be done: reinventing the human-rights wheel. It only needs to turn more smoothly.
Nils Muižnieks is the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights.
The Reds will not be able to call upon their South American custodian for a Premier League clash with Bournemouth and a crucial Champions League tie
Liverpool will be without first-choice goalkeeper Alisson when they face Bournemouth on Saturday and the return leg of a Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid, with Jurgen Klopp revealing that the Brazilian has picked up a hip injury.
The Reds opted to rest their established No.1 for an FA Cup fifth-round clash with Chelsea on Tuesday.
Adrian provided cover at Stamford Bridge and will be asked to step in again for a home date with the Cherries as Klopp has been forced into making a change to his Premier League plans between the sticks.
More teams
It is unclear precisely how long Alisson will be sidelined for, but it could be that he is not seen again until after the next international break.
That news represents a major blow to Liverpool as they prepare for the return leg of a meeting with Atletico that they currently trail 1-0 on aggregate, with another big European night being lined up at Anfield.
Klopp told reporters when offering his latest fitness update: “Unfortunately Ali is out.
“He had a little incident in training before the Chelsea game. We all thought it was nothing and it was clear he would not play anyway, the plan was he was on the bench.
“There, we thought, ‘Come on, we don’t have to take any risks’ so left him out of the squad. [There was a] scan the next day and they found something. So now he is out.”
Klopp added on the nature of the injury: “Muscle, slight, in the hip region. A small muscle. You [the reporters] could all do your work still but a professional goalkeeper is slightly different. That’s the situation.
”He is not available for tomorrow and then the next week. We have to judge the situation.
“I don’t want to say no [for Merseyside derby] but I am not sure. After international break he will be 100% but we will see.”
In addition to missing out on key matches for his club, Alisson has been left out of the Brazil squad for that international break, with Tite naming Weverton, Ederson and Ivan as his three goalkeepers.
While Liverpool have seen their most reliable last line of defence hand them an unwelcome selection headache, Klopp was able to deliver more positive news elsewhere.
Club captain Jordan Henderson is considered to have been a big miss during an enforced spell on the treatment table with a hamstring problem.
The England international has sat out the Reds’ last three games, with rare defeats suffered against Watford and Chelsea in two of those fixtures.
It could be that Henderson comes back into contention for a return date with Atletico, while Naby Keita is also ready for action.
Klopp added: “Naby trained. Jordan has a chance [for Atletico] but not for Bournemouth.”
Whoever is available against Bournemouth and Atletico, Klopp is eager to see his side get back on track.
The Premier League title is still very much within reach, but the Merseyside giants are eager to avoiding limping over the line at home and abroad.
“Winning gives you confidence, losing takes it away, that is normal,” said Klopp.
“One defeat feels like two, not a massive difference, it is just how you get back on track. You can do that by working hard. We have to fight to get back on track. We have to do that as a unit.
“How opponents play against us is not new, it is the same, a defensive block and counters with set pieces.
“Bournemouth are dangerous from them so we have to be 100% spot on. We have to play football, force a way through, switch sides, create space and protect it perfectly.”
Negotiations delayed for a month by US government shutdown now “fully back on track”.
Negotiators from the European Union and the United States today ended the second formal round of talks on a transatlantic trade deal, with both sides striking a confident and positive note.
Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, said that the talks were now “fully back on track” after the partial shutdown of the US government forced the talks to be postponed. The talks had been scheduled to take place on 7-11 October.
The shutdown led to considerable re-scheduling problems and contributed to a reduction in the size of the teams that have been negotiating in Brussels over the past five days. Scheduling meant that talks on some topics were held over video, and that some topics – on tariffs and on sustainable development, including labour and environment – will only be discussed in video conferences over the coming weeks. A follow-up meeting on financial services, to be held on 27 November, was also attributed to scheduling.
To date, the discussions have been exploratory, seeking to identify the areas of difference and convergence and the approaches that could be adopted to narrow the gaps. This has involved discussions about specific sectors, but also about cross-cutting issues.
The negotiators will now move towards the specific points to negotiations. Formal texts will be prepared for the third round, which will take place in Washington, DC, on 16-20 December. After that round, the chief negotiators – Ignacio García Bercero for the European Commission and Dan Mullaney for the US – will give their appraisal of the obstacles and opportunities. Specific offers would then begin to be traded. It is at that point that the most difficult topics might be taken off the agenda.
Both Bercero and Mullaney described the talks as very successful and productive and said nothing to undermine both sides’ assertion that they still believe that the final agreement will be deep and far-reaching. The EU estimates that the economic benefit of a deal could amount to up to €119 billion a year, a figure reached in part by assuming that the deal will tap about a quarter of the potential of full free trade. A deal is also important to both sides as a means of shaping trade-liberalisation talks with other countries and within the World Trade Organization. The vast majority of gains are expected to come from reducing regulatory differences.
Several issues have, however, emerged as highly problematic since the start of talks in July, including the Jones Act that allows only US-built and US-owned merchant ships to carry goods between US ports. After this week’s round, the EU’s Bercero sought to allay concerns that negotiations about investment protection – an issue put forward by the US despite marked reservations on the part of European member states – could give US corporations the ability to undermine EU law and regulators. “For us, it is clear that [an agreement on investment protection] is something that has to be fully in line with the right to regulate,” he said. Nonetheless, the EU’s press statement says that “there was a good degree of agreement on getting an ambitious deal”.
The Commission’s official statement was less upbeat in its description about talks on energy and raw materials, and Bercero was emphatic that for the EU “it will be very important to have very clear guarantees”. Mullaney gave no hint that the US sees room for movement.
The 30-year-old January addition has revealed the extent he used to go to in order to watch the club
Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo says moving to Old Trafford really was a dream come true for him.
The Nigeria international made a shock switch to the Red Devils in January on loan from Shanghai Shenhua and has spoken about just want the chance to play for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side means to him.
“I know many footballers say that, when they sign for a team, this is my dream team. Respect to that but my own case was different,” he told Sky Sports.
“Anyone who knows me back from when I was young knows me and my siblings supported Man Utd, we would pay to go and watch Man Utd play. In Nigeria, you have to have sports channels to watch that but not everyone can afford it. My parents couldn’t afford that so you have to pay a viewing centre to watch that. We would pay to watch that.
“I grew up in Ajegunle, which is like a ghetto and it was very difficult there. When it would get to the weekend, everybody was excited because they wanted to watch Man Utd play.
“You start saving the money they would give you to go to school. You would eat at home and they would give you some pocket money to go to school and maybe eat lunch there. But you would be saving it bit by bit and when you get to the weekend, everybody is ready.
“Back then, they also had an association of Man United fans so there would be a meeting once a week to talk about Man Untd, like a little fan forum. When I remember all that now, I laugh and say: ‘Wow, from Ajegunle to the Theatre of Dreams.’ It’s a great moment for me and I’m enjoying every bit of it.
“It is the happiest moment of my life, playing for my dream team, the team I supported when I was young.”
The 30-year-old is aiming to make his fourth Premier League appearance for United on Sunday, when they host Manchester City in the derby.
While he is still waiting for his first league goal, he has tallied in both the FA Cup and Europa League.
The former Blues defender has praised the Scotland youth international after his man-of-the-match display against the champions-elect
Chelsea legend Ashley Cole says that Chelsea have always rated their breakthrough star Billy Gilmour, who put on a midfield masterclass performance in the 2-0 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old is in line for his first Premier League start at the weekend due to an injury crisis in midfield, with Mateo Kovacic’s injury adding to that of N’Golo Kante and a suspension for Jorginho.
Cole now coaches in the Under-15’s at Cobham Training Centre and he believes that Gilmour shows traits more typical of players from his era than that from the current group who are breaking through.
“He played fantastic,” Cole said at the London Football Awards. “I watched him a lot. I saw him play at the U23’s or U18’s at times. He is someone who I think the club rate very highly.
“Not just the way he plays but that willingness to want to prove himself, want to do well, willing to work hard which I think has gone out of some kids these days. That willingness to understand what it takes to make it.
“He has taken the first couple of steps but now he has got to work even harder to try to stay in the squad. You train all your life for this moment. He has had good experience from the players around him.
“Some younger players as well in terms of [Mason] Mount, [Tammy] Abraham and [Fikayo] Tomori in the squad. I am sure they would help him on his way. Make him feel comfortable and the senior lads as well. You have a good manager who is willing to put these lads in.
“He must see him in training. He is good enough and again he showed why he is good enough and he is playing very well.”
The former England left-back is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever to play in his position for the Three Lions, having racked up an impressive 107 caps in his playing career.
Gareth Southgate is preparing for Euro 2020 with warm up games against Denmark and Italy coming later in the month. And while Leicester City full-back Ben Chilwell has firmed up his spot in the England team in recent months, Cole thinks that Southgate has other quality players to lean on if needed.
“Maybe [people] don’t rate them but there is [other options],” he added. “I think it will be tough for Gareth Southgate to choose the 23-man squad but they have options. I think they have quality options there whether they go with young players or experience like Danny Rose.
“I think all over the pitch there is top quality. They have their Nations League draw. They have the squad and quality to do well again.”
Cole retired last year before joining Chelsea as a coach, with a move to play under Frank Lampard at Derby County having been the final one in his playing career.
Wayne Rooney has similarly made the move from MLS to the Championship to play for the Rams in their push to earn a play-off spot.
Derby lost 3-0 to Manchester United in the FA Cup on Thursday but Cole thinks Rooney has made a positive impact on his side since January.
“He has done a fantastic job at Derby. He is always someone who gives 100 per cent and he still could so it wasn’t a surprise to me that he is doing so well,” Cole concluded.
“I was there – they have a good set of lads there even though some have gone on and moved on now. It is a very very good club. I think he has fit in very well and hopefully they can make the play-offs.”
Despite United’s struggles in the Premier League, Guardiola is wary of the threat the team pose, especially after victories against top teams
Pep Guardiola would rather that his Manchester City team came head-to-head with a full-strength Manchester United team in Sunday’s derby.
Second-placed City head to Old Trafford knowing that the Red Devils will be without star striker Marcus Rashford, who remains sidelined with a back injury.
His absence from the team has been a problem for United, though January transfer window signing Odion Ighalo has impressed since arriving in England from China.
Asked if he was happy that Rashford would not feature against the champions, Guardiola told mancity.com: “I’ve always said from my first day as manager that I like to have a full squad for opponents.”
He pointed to other teams missing star players as proof of his claim.
“I would love to play against Eden Hazard for Madrid, Harry Kane for Tottenham and so on,” he added.
“I prefer to play when the top players, all the players are available. I hope Rashford can recover as quickly as possible. I look at who is available and after that I control no more.”
City are 25 points adrift of Liverpool with 11 games to play, with United seventh in the table but they could move up to fourth with a win against Guardiola’s men and providing Chelsea lose at home to Everton.
United seem to be in perpetual crisis under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with every defeat or limp performance leading to questions surrounding the Norwegian’s future.
But against the better sides in the league, United have impressed this season, notably holding Liverpool to a draw earlier in the season and recording two wins against Chelsea, their rivals for a Champions League spot.
Guardiola, therefore, is aware of the challenge posed by the 20-time champions of England.
“United have [Antony] Martial, [Daniel] James, Bruno Fernandes and the way they play is three or four different times and systems.
“We have to understand the quality they have.”
Although City have all but relinquished their crown as Premier League winners, they won the League Cup last weekend for the third successive time, while they hold a 2-1 advantage in the Champions League last-16 against Real Madrid.
They are also in the quarter finals of the FA Cup, a competition they won last season to secure a domestic treble.
By contrast, United’s last silverware was the Europa League almost three years ago.