EU leaders say their relations with the US have been undermined by reports of NSA spying on European leaders and ordinary citizens. A partnership with America should be built on respect and trust, they said in a joint statement.

The statement was released Friday amid the ongoing summit of top European politicians in Brussels.

It said the reports of American surveillance in Europe have raised “deep concerns” among citizens and may harm cooperation with the US as well as cooperation within the EU, particularly in such a “vital” area as counter-terrorism.

“[The leaders] stressed that intelligence gathering is a vital element in the fight against terrorism,” the statement said. “A lack of trust could prejudice the necessary cooperation in the field of intelligence gathering.”

The document also revealed that France and Germany will “seek bilateral talks with the US with the aim of finding before the end of the year an understanding on mutual relations,” with other EU member states welcomed to join the initiative.

The Guardian reports that the UK, which is known as a staunch US ally and is also accused of widespread spying in Europe, was pressured to sign the document by the 27 other European leaders.

“It was very important, the common statement, because it shows that the EU member states consider that there is an EU dimension on this,” he said.

The EU is sending a delegation to Washington on Monday to seek a response to allegations of widespread spying by the US against EU citizens and governments, Reuters reports.

During their three-day visit the members of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee are scheduled to meet senior US government and intelligence officials and explore “possible legal remedies for EU citizens” in response to the alleged US surveillance.

Senior German officials are also expected to arrive in the US “shortly” to discuss spying allegation with the White House and the NSA.

Germany’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies would participate in the talks, government spokesman Georg Streiter told AP.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose phone had been reportedly bugged by American digital spies, warned that European countries’ relations with the US have been “severely shaken” by the developing scandal and that “trust needs to be rebuilt.”

“The United States of America and Europe face common challenges. We are allies. But such an alliance can only be built on trust,” she said. “That’s why I repeat again: spying among friends, that cannot be.”

Over the week a number of reports on alleged American electronic surveillance have been released by various media outlets. The US National Security Agency was said to be spying on French and Italians, have wiretapped phones of 35 unidentified world leaders under the Bush administration, and particularly eavesdrops on Merkel.

The German leader is said to have a personal distaste for being spied on due to her experience in Communist Eastern Germany, where the nation’s notorious Stasi secret police had her under surveillance along with thousands of other Germans.

Spain leaders were also apparently targeted, according to reports from El Pais, the country’s most highly circulated paper.

The Spanish Government fears that current Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his predecessor Luis Rodriguez Zapatero were among those officials targeted by the NSA.

José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfi, Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, previously said he would speak with US Ambassador James Costos as soon as there was confirmation regarding the issue. On Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would call in ambassador Costos to Madrid to explain reports of American spying on the country, AFP reports.

“We do not have evidence that Spain has been spied on … but we are calling in the ambassador to get information,” Rajoy said after an EU summit which was dominated by the growing scandal that US intelligence targets ostensibly friendly countries.

European concerns over American surveillance are not shared by every member of the EU. Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told the media she doesn’t believe that she or her citizens have been targeted by the NSA, so she would not support a French-German initiative for starting a dialogue with the US to find a new ground in the surveillance issue.

Amid the surveillance scandal, the European Parliament this week called for a suspension of America’s access to the SWIFT database, which contains millions of financial messages detailing exchanges around the world. The move is symbolic rather than binding.

But Europeans and some other countries elsewhere in the world are also seeking to toughen up data protection laws in the wake of the revelation of the scale of NSA surveillance.

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Russia has filed its first complaint before the World Trade Organization (WTO), accusing the European Union of violating global free trade measures, an official statement reads.

The procedure has been sent to the EU representative at the WTO on Monday, the economy ministry said on Tuesday, marking its first complaint since Russia joined the global trade body in August 2012.

The complaint has to do with “a violation by the EU of anti-dumping provisions of the WTO agreement,” spokeswoman Yulia Chkanikova said.

Moscow claims it is losing “hundreds of millions of dollars every year” over what it calls “energy adjustment” tariffs unfairly imposed on Russian products – particularly steel manufacturers and fertilizer makers – heading into the EU since 2002.

The ministry stated it expects further consultations with EU officials over the matter.

This is while the EU has filed a complaint against Russia with the WTO over numerous incidents including a Russian car recycling tax imposed on imported vehicles, Moscow’s position on the pro-European protests in Ukraine, and the arrest of EU members onboard the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise protest ship in Russia.

The European Commission spokesperson for trade matters John Clancy replied that Russia’s petition is consistent with WTO rules, and the first round of consultations could start next month.

Relations between Russia and the EU have worsened since last year, when the bloc’s executive Commission declared it was examining Russian energy giant Gazprom on suspicion that the company has hampered the free flow of gas across Europe and imposed unfair prices in some cases.

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Swiss people have voted in favor of limiting the immigration of European job seekers, prompting the European Commission to announce reassessment of relations with Switzerland.

Sunday’s poll results showed that Swiss voters narrowly backed the nationalists’ call for curbing EU immigration.

Voters endorsed proposals to reintroduce immigration quotas with the EU – a move which has the potential to irk multinational companies as well.

The EU and Switzerland clinched a package of accords 12 years ago which facilitated free movement of people, although it is not an EU member.

“This is a turning point, a change of system with far-reaching consequences for Switzerland,” Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told journalists in Berne.

Swiss already has a globally oriented economy that employs large numbers of foreign professionals.

The European Commission in Brussels swiftly voiced regret over the Swiss decision, saying it goes against the principles of free movement of people between the EU and Switzerland.

“For us, EU-Swiss relations come as a package,” said Hannes Swoboda, a member of the European Parliament. “If Switzerland suspends immigration from the EU, it will not be able to count on all the economic and trade benefits it is currently enjoying. We will not allow … cherry-picking.”

About a million EU citizens currently live in Switzerland and about only 400 Swiss citizens are living in the EU.

According to Swiss TV reports, 50.3 percent of the voters supported the “Stop mass immigration” initiative. It also won the required majority approval in more than half of Swiss cantons or regions.

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Many see German policy in the European Union as a forceful advancement of Germany’s interests at the expense of other countries – EU members. There are even suspicions that the crisis in the EU is a project of Germany designed to secure the economic recovery (the European Commission even started an investigation). Berlin is not going to stop in its plans.

In late 2013 the European Commission has launched an investigation of Germany’s policy because of surplus in the country’s payments balance. This raises suspicions, because Germany’s economy is booming while other European Union countries are dealing with growing unemployment and industrial decline.

On the other hand, on January 8, 2014 the European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding said that there was a need for a “true political union” like a United States of Europe with a committee that would fulfill the functions of government and a bicameral parliament. Reding explained that this was about transformation of the EU into a superpower. In addition, Germany has recently put forward a proposal to establish a banking union and joined armed forces. Here one can see Germany’s intention to strengthen its leadership role in Europe and emerge as a global player.

German politics, its socio-economic model, is regarded by many in the EU as imposition of their views in a fairly polarized society. For example, if Greece defends the strengthening of internal fiscal consolidation and promotion of the fundamental branches of the national economy, the Lithuania sees the development of Europe in the active expansion of the EU to the former Soviet Union. In the middle of this range of opinions are Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary that have a stable economy and national- oriented states.

Bulgaria and Romania that only want to be heard are standing aside. This orientation depends on the position of national elites. We are either talking about the governance of Euro-Atlantic connections (US-European lobby) or strong lobbying of national business activity. The first group includes Germany, France, Austria, and the Netherlands, the second – Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Spain, Italy, and Greece. However, increasingly more countries in the second group are moving to the first group due to the extensive privatization of property purchased by the Atlanticist lobby.

The failure of a project called “Eastern Partnership” is caused by the simple fact that the Poles did not work with the Germans, have relied on their own strength and lost. Soon we can expect a creeping expansion of transnational capital from the U.S. and Germany to Ukraine, which will be completely unprofitable for the national-oriented economy because it promises the diversion of funds from the EU budget intended for payments of various compensations.

Political differences are accumulating in the EU because the adoption and implementation of decisions is dominated by the Euro-Atlantic perspective lobby conducting its policy in Europe and Germany. Germany is consistently implementing the plan mentioned by Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in an interview with The New York Times in November of 2011. He then spoke of the need to move towards a centralized Europe, as the euro zone was not enough. He spoke of the need of a political union with the election of the president directly by the people. He said that by the end of 2012 or mid-2013 there would be everything necessary to strengthen and deepen the political structure. He added that political union could be achieved only in times of a crisis.

The European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding included this line on the agenda on January 8, 2014. She stated that there was a need for a “true political union,” United States of Europe with the committee fulfilling the function of government, and a bicameral parliament. Reding explained that this was about the transformation of the EU into a superpower where the role of national governments and parliaments will be minimized similar to the role of local councils in Britain.

The economic crisis in the EU was organized by Germany (remember Schaeuble’s words) to save the dollar and the U.S. economy and provide for the federalization of Europe. This is how it was done in Greece. In early 2010, German banks Deutsche Bank, Bayeren LB and LBBW refused to provide loans to the Greek government, then major banks engaged in public funding and others refused to buy the country’s securities. Postbank stopped investing in this country.

Greece was forced to privatize its state-owned enterprises with strategic value of 50 billion euros, in particular, the gambling monopoly, OPAP company, as well as a monopoly in oil refining – Hellenic Petroleum. Greece is now paying the money made on privatization to the IMF in the form of interest and American hedge funds (in particular, Third Point) that have bought Greek debt, of course, not without an insider deal. The sale of bonds allowed Third Point to earn $500 million, The Financial Times reported.

Germany also made good money. According to former Greece Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, German banks have made 400 million euros on interest on loans to Greek banks. Furthermore, Germany is forcing Greece to buy its weapons. A similar method of financial enslavement was used by Germany with other countries. As a result, immediately after the new year, the agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the European Union from the highest “AAA” to one level lower, ” AA + .” Germany’s rating remained at “AAA.”

It turned out that there is a weak Europe and a strong Germany that on the initiative of Chancellor Angela Merkel is not very publicly forming Transatlantic Trade and Economic Union (TTEU) with the United States. The goal is to provide European markets for the Euro-Atlantic lobby (which includes markets and countries associated with the EU) for distribution of American products. Creation of TTEU will be marked by the growing Americanization of Europe, that is, the destruction of social national state and reduction of wages. The partners really need Ukraine because of its large market, and this is no accident that all major Ukrainian opposition representatives have the support of the CDU – CSU, including direct financial support.

There is resistance in the EU, but it is negligible and not at the elite level, mostly at the level of social protests. It is these protests on the background of lowered social security, unemployment, growth of public debt, financial speculation on privatization (which Bosnia is now protesting), and corruption that may lead the European Union to a tragic end. National elites understand this and through nationalist parties call for the reform of the EU. They call on making it less aggressive in the social aspect and tougher on migration.

They also call on returning the financial sovereignty to the countries, taking the control of national financial and economic systems away from Brussels (i.e., German and French banks).

National lobby is very strong in Hungary, where in 2013 the National Bank was nationalized and where the priority of the national state is defended. Prime Minister Viktor Orban of the Fidesz party has announced a new foreign policy, whose name can be translated as “Facing East.” He recently took a trip to Turkey where he signed a strategic partnership agreement.

Whether the current sluggish confrontation between Germany and the countries defending their national sovereignty will move to an active phase depends on many factors and, above all, on whether there will be a new wave of the financial crisis. Recently Bank and Budget pacts of the EU have been adopted. Now all European countries except Britain must seek approval of their budgets in the commission of the European Union. This means that the countries will ask Germany (that has a printing press in its hands) how they should budget their revenue and expenses, where and how much to spend.

Those who do not do it will be sanctioned. But even if a critical mass matures and the EU falls apart, Germany has secured itself with accumulated banks reserves (due to a budget surplus) to the point that it will be the only country that will benefit from the collapse, according to estimates by the UK Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

“In fact, Germany would benefit from returning to the deutsche mark,” told Pravda.Ru Alexander Kamkin, deputy director of the Center for German Studies of the Institute of Europe. “But the Euro is not only an economic project but also a political one, and none of the German politicians, including Merkel, who consider themselves European politicians, will go for it. But if there comes the second and third wave of the crisis, the German politicians would have to choose whether to be political corpses inside, that is, try to save the euro at the expense of the German economy, or political corpses in the EU, if they choose to reduce the euro area or abandon it. ”

But a political corpse is a temporary phenomenon if a new alliance with the United States is being established across the ocean.

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The European Commission is set to authorize the growing of genetically modified maize on European soil, despite 19 member states voting against the move, highlighting the “absurd” rules of weighted votes in the EU.

In a debate on Tuesday, 19 EU member states indicated that they would vote against the authorization of genetically modified maize because of health and environmental concerns and opposition in the European Parliament.

But because of the so-called comitology rules of the EU, their votes will be insufficient to overturn the decision of bigger member states that support the introduction of insect resistant Pioneer 1507.

The UK and Spain are both in favor of GM crops, while Germany abstained and France is staunchly against their introduction.

European health Commissioner Tonio Borg said on Tuesday that the commission is now legally bound to approve the crop. Borg insisted that extensive research since 2001 had shown the crop was safe.

Britain has argued that without GM crops, Europe risks becoming “the museum of world farming,” and that there is a clear scientific case for GM, while Spain has said that its farmers need to be able to compete with non-EU nations that can grow GM produce.

DuPont, which jointly developed Pioneer 1507 with Dow Chemical, said in statement that the EU has a “legal obligation to itself, to its farmers and scientists and to its trade partners” to support the approval of new agricultural advances.

France however warned that if the European Commission goes ahead with the introduction of GM maize, then it risks fuelling further Euroscepticism by granting approval in the face of fierce opposition.

“We have a majority against it, so I don’t understand how we can approve this. Even more so ahead of EU elections. This is dangerous to the image of the EU institutions, it will fuel the idea that Europe doesn’t work or works badly,” said Thierry Repentin, the French EU affairs minister.

While Thierry’s Italian colleague called the outcome “indigestible” and his Hungarian counterpart a showcase of the “European absurd”.

The Green group in the European Parliament has said there is now no democratic mandate for giving the green light to GM maize.

The environmental groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have said that Pioneer 1507 harms moths and butterflies, ignoring the harm that it can do to humans and is designed to be resistant to a kind of weed killer that is about to be phased out in any case over safety concerns.

“Approval by the Commission would be irresponsible because of the environmental risk, untenable because of widespread political and public opposition, and legally compromised because the Commission has forced it through without the required consultation,” said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace’s agriculture policy director.

But it is likely that the Commission will seek a compromise of sorts. Borg said that it would revive a separate proposal that would allow individual member states to ban GM crops while other countries could approve them.

He also appeared to back down from approving the bill on Wednesday.

“This file took thirteen years to come to fruition, I am cautious about giving timelines,” he said.

GM crops are generally unpopular in Europe, where the public are largely against them and environmentalists keep raising concerns about their impact on human health and on biodiversity. They are however, widely grown in the US and Asia despite strong opposition from anti-GMO activists and local farmers.

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The European Commission has said it is determined to “redraw the global map of internet governance” as massive US surveillance has damaged public trust in the web, and said it is ready to negotiate with Washington for control of web architecture.

The commission, the EU’s top executive body, on Wednesday proposed a key reform to the way the internet is managed and run, saying that Europe will “pursue a role as honest broker” in future global negotiations on the issue.

“The next two years will be critical in redrawing the global map of Internet governance. Europe must contribute to a credible way forward for global internet governance. Europe must play a strong role in defining what the net of the future looks like,” EC Vice President Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

Kroes directly connected her demands of a “more transparent, accountable and inclusive governance” of the web to the revelations on large-scale internet surveillance conducted by the US government, which was exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The revelations “have called into question the stewardship of the US when it comes to Internet Governance” and pointed at the need to switch to a “more global model,” the EC statement said.

“Our fundamental freedoms and human rights are not negotiable. They must be protected online,” Kroes said.

Currently, some vital functions of internet management are in the hands of US-based companies. For instance, top-level domain names (as .com, .net, .org) and IP address spaces are controlled and managed by the California-based corporation ICANN, which operates under a contract with the US government.

But according to the EC statement, ICANN and other key decision-making internet institutions must be globalized to “safeguard the stability, security and resilience of the Internet.”

It also called for the creation of the Global Internet Policy Observatory – an online platform for “creating transparency on internet policies.”

The “open and unfragmented nature” of the global web must be protected by a special set of principles, the Commission said.

Previously, when a UN agency, the International Telecommunication Union, came up with detailed proposals on more diversified global internet control, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia rejected the plan. The four governments – allies under the so-called Five Eyes intelligence sharing group – claimed that internationalization of internet governance would lead to internet censorship in some countries.

Kroes also appeared to be skeptical of the UN’s proposal, calling it a “top-down approach.” A multi-polar internet should be the world’s aim, she believes.

“We must strengthen the multi-stakeholder model to preserve the Internet as a fast engine for innovation,” the EC official said.

Kroes’ words came as European Parliament lawmakers were preparing a response to US snooping activities. The MEPs are keen to demand that virtual data be stored on computer servers in Europe to improve oversight, Reuters reported.

Before any concrete steps are taken by Europe, both the lawmakers and the EC need to gather support of EU member states, some of which have been reluctant to get tough with the US, despite vigorous rhetoric.

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Tough austerity measures imposed by the Greek government have inflicted major damage to the health of the Greek population, leaving nearly one million of the country’s most vulnerable people without access to healthcare.

As a result of a six percent cap on health spending imposed by the so-called Troika as part of austerity measures forced on the country, the Greek public hospital budget was cut by 25 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to a report by academics and doctors from Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which was published in The Lancet medical journal.

The Troika, which consists of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, forced Greece to make huge cuts to government expenditure in return for two bailout packages totaling 240 billion euros (US$329 billion).

Unemployment in Greece has more than tripled from 7.7 percent in 2008 to 24.3 percent in 2012, while long-term unemployment has reached 14.4 percent. In a country where health insurance is linked to employment, an estimated 800,000 have been left without access to health services.

This has prompted international humanitarian organizations, such as Medecins du Mond, and community clinics run by volunteers to step in to fill the gap. Before the crisis, such services were mostly for immigrant populations.

One such clinic is the Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko in Athens, which was set up in December 2011. It is run by volunteer doctors and is completely funded by donations, including all medicines. It provides free healthcare for people without health insurance.

“The healthcare situation in Greece is, unfortunately, dramatic. We have helped more than 4,400 patients in 26 months. We look after more than 300 children below the age of three,” Co-founder Christos Sideris told The Independent.

The problem of reduced state healthcare is worse in rural areas, where shortages of medicines and medical equipment are more pronounced.

Some areas have been harder hit than others. Prevention and treatment programs for intravenous drug users have taken a hammering, with one-third of street programs closed between 2009-10.

This has led to a dramatic drop in the number of syringes and condoms given to known drug users and therefore has directly led to a spike in HIV infections from 15 in 2009 to 484 in 2012, the report said.

Infectious disease prevention programs have been rolled back, leading to a resurgence of once rare diseases, including Malaria, which has returned to Greece for the first time in 40 years as the government can no longer afford mosquito-spraying programs.

The Greek National School of Public Health reported a 21 percent rise in still births between 2008 and 2011. Infant mortality rose by 43 percent between 2008 and 2010 as a direct consequence of reduced access to prenatal services.

Mental health services have also taken a battering. Public and non-profit metal health service providers have scaled back operations and the development of child psychiatric services has been completely abandoned. State funding for mental health decreased by 20 percent between 2010 and 2011 and by another 55 percent between 2007 and 2011.

The suicide rate subsequently increased by 45 percent between 2007 and 2011, and the prevalence of major depression increased by 2.5 times over the same period. Increased economic hardship is an indirect factor in deteriorating mental health, according to the report’s authors.

There are also a number of hidden healthcare barriers and unmet healthcare needs which lead to an overall decline of the population’s health. For example, fees for prescriptions were introduced and charges for outpatient visits to the hospital were raised from 3 euros to 5 euros.

As a result of the general economic and social deterioration, the proportion of children at risk of poverty has increased from 28.2 percent in 2007 to 30.4 percent in 2011. A growing number of children are receiving inadequate nutrition.
Living in denial

The study’s authors say that Greek government officials, as well as sympathetic commentators, have argued that deep spending cuts and wide-ranging changes have not damaged the health of the Greek population. However, they noted that such parties are guilty of denial.

“However, the scientific literature presents a different picture. In view of this detailed body of evidence of the harmful effects of austerity on health, the failure of public recognition of the issue by successive Greek governments and international agencies is remarkable,” the authors wrote.

They concluded by giving the examples of Finland and Iceland. Both countries were hit hard by the financial crisis and had to implement tough austerity measures. However, they chose to steer away from their health and social budgets, instead concentrating on cuts elsewhere.

Alexander Kentikelenis, a researcher in sociology at the University of Cambridge and the report’s lead author, warned of long-term damage to the health of the Greek population.

“What’s happening to vulnerable groups in Greece is quite shocking. Its quite straightforward to measure what has happened, it’s much harder to quantify the long term health implications for the long term unemployed and uninsured, leaving health problems to get out of hand ends up costing much more in the long run,” he told The Independent.

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Senior officials from Kuwait’s foreign and interior ministries have ended a twoday visit to Brussels after discussions and meetings with EU officials that focused on lifting of Schengen visa for Kuwaiti citizens. Ambassador Walid Alkhobaizi, director of Europe department at Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry, told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) and Kuwait TV that they were tasked by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al- Khaled Al-Hamad Al- Sabah to look into the possibility of starting the talks and the preparation and requirements which are needed to enter this visa waiver. “We found a big support from the European Commission. We met officials from the technical and political departments.

All the meetings were very encouraging but the way is long and we need to start now,” he said after holding talks with the managing director for Middle East and Southern Neighbourhood in the EU foreign service, (EEAS), Hugues Mingarelli, late on Friday. Al Khobaizi explained that there are technical issues involved like changing passports and “these things take time,” and he noted that there are many European countries that support Kuwait on this path. He said that Kuwaitis who visit Europe are businessmen, entrepreneurs, tourists, treatment-seeking patients or students, all of whom spend a lot of money in Europe.

He clarified that Kuwait citizens have no records of “illegal immigration to Europe and there are no Kuwaiti citizens in European jails or involved in criminal acts.” “Therefore Europe has no reason to refuse this privilege to Kuwait. It is the country most deserving,” he stressed. He said that Kuwait- Europe relations are “strong and firm” and that Kuwait plays an active role in investments in Europe. Kuwait has democracy and respect of human rights, factors that strengthen ties with Europeans, he noted. Europe played an active role in the liberation of Kuwait and Europeans are considered as strategic partners, said the Kuwaiti diplomat. The delegation also held talks with officials in the Belgian Foreign Ministry as well as deputies in the Belgian Parliament. From Belgium, the Kuwaiti delegation will travel to Italy Saturday to hold talks with officials from the interior ministry as well as passport and immigration officials on the Schengen visa waiver.

On his part, Mingarelli told KUNA that Friday’s meeting “is an important occasion for us to stress our wish to intensify our relationship with Kuwait.” “Kuwait is an important country in the Middle East and we have a number of common interests and we would like to discuss a number of regional issues on which we should join efforts to find out solutions to existing difficulties,” he said. He said the issue of Schengen visa was raised at the meeting and the EU side told Kuwait how to process to get a visa waiver. “It should not take too long but at the same time it is necessary to go through a number of steps,” said the EU official but added that he “cannot give a deadline or timetable.” The delegation included Brigadier Sheikh Mazen Al-Sabah, the director of the citizenship and travel documents department of the Ministry of Interior, Talal Marafie, the deputy director of the immigration department (Ministry of Interior), Counselor Salah Alhaddad from the Europe Department of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Attache Ali Alwazzan, of the Europe Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kuwait’s Ambassador to the EU and Belgium Dharar Razzooqi also took part in the meetings.

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Greek protesters shout slogans during a demonstration outside the parliament in Athens on March 30, 2014.

Thousands of people in Greece have held a protest rally outside the parliament in the capital Athens against government’s austerity measures.

Over 12,000 people rallied in the capital on Sunday ahead of the parliament vote on a bill for fresh international loans.

Lawmakers are expected to approve the bill required by the country’s troika of international lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — despite public dissatisfaction and eleventh-hour attempts to delay voting by the opposition.

The legislation will unlock for Greece over 11.7 billion dollars. However, the country’s main opposition, Golden Dawn party, slammed the vote. Syriza communists, who are the second largest opposition party in Greece also slammed the vote.

Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras, who described the new bill as “a crime committed against the people and our country,” blamed Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras for being “the main administrator of the death contract against Greek society.”

“You are passing a sweeping 600-pages multi-bill with which you are signing away the banking system and you are abolishing labor rights and the public insurance system,” Tsipras said.

Greek officials are willing to have the bill ratified before meetings with European Union finance ministers in Athens on Tuesday to officially conclude the agreement for the new tranche of the international loans by the second half of April.

Greece has been at the epicenter of debt crisis in the eurozone and has so far experienced seven years of recession.

Since 2010, the national health, education and local government budgets have been cut down by some 40 percent and so have wages and pensions.

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Italy’s enormous public debt continues to grow at an unrelenting pace. The Bank of Italy announced on Monday that the country’s debt hit a record 2.1072 trillion euros in February, over 17 billion euros up compared to January.

Within the 18-nation eurozone, only Greece had accumulated a higher overall debt mountain. Italy’s 2014 budget has been criticized by the European Commission for not doing enough to bring down debt, that stands at over around 130 per cent of the GDP. This year’s budget was passed by ex-premier Enrico Letta.

Meanwhile, the new head of government Matteo Renzi has recently unveiled a major package of tax cuts and investments to revive the struggling Italian economy.

Italy is a reliable country there is no question, they should not be afraid of us. Last week Prime Minister Renzi’s administration has approved an economic blueprint, also known as DEF – Economic and Financial Document – that aims to balance Italy’s budget in structural terms by 2016, and be in line with the EU rules.

However Renzi has failed to provide detail on promised spending cuts. Pundits have also criticized him for using one-off revenues to help finance plans for permanent tax cuts.

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Russia has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the EU’s so-called ‘Third Energy Package,’ according to media reports.

“This procedure is provided for in the rules of the Organization,” a source said, adding that “Russia sent a note to the EU Mission at the WTO and notified the WTO Secretariat thereof,” Itar-Tass news agency reported.

A second news agency, Interfax, stated that a “source close to WTO” spoke of “the start [of a] court examination.” The agency said it obtained confirmation from the director of the Ministry of Economic Development’s department of trade negotiations, Maksim Medvedkov.

Signed in 2007, the Third Energy Package outlines a set of rules regulating the European gas and electricity market. The European Commission insists the Third Energy Package was aimed at increasing competition on the energy market, allowing other players to join the sector and liberalizing energy prices.

One of the core elements prohibits a single company from both owning and operating a gas pipeline and contains rules on third party access to the natural oil transportation grid.

“These and other elements of the Third Energy Package, in the opinion of Russia, contradict the obligations of the EU in WTO on basic principles of non-discrimination and market access…the Third Energy Package creates serious obstacles to ensure a stable supply of Russian gas to the EU, including a threat to the construction of new transport infrastructure, for example, in the framework of the ‘South Stream,’” Medvedkov told Interfax.

Moscow broke ground on the South Stream project after securing agreements with intergovernmental agreements with all countries which the pipeline would pass through: Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia.

The Third Energy regulation mandates 50 percent of the pipeline can be operated by Russia’s Gazprom, but the other 50 percent must be operated by a third party, a condition Russian energy ministers do not accept, as Gazprom is the only company that has the right to export gas via pipeline.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that the “Third Energy Package” and other documents “should not be backdated to the contracts that were signed before the decision on the Third Energy Package came into force.”

Medvedkov has stressed that Russia has unsuccessfully tried to solve “emerging problems” on a bilateral level.

Now, under WTO rules, Russia and the EU have 60 days to hold joint consultations. If no solution is found during this time, Moscow can demand the right to initiate the creation of a group of independent arbitrators to look into the case.

However, Medvedkov has not ruled out the possibility of Russia and the EU reaching an agreement during consultations.

“We do not aim to have legal proceedings with Brussels for the sake of the judicial process, we want to ensure predictable conditions for export to the EU under WTO rules,” he said.

The Third Energy Package is a set of regulations for an internal gas and electricity market in the European Union. Its purpose is to further expand the gas and electricity markets in the European Union. The package was proposed by the European Commission in September 2007 and adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union in July 2009. It entered into force on September 3, 2009.

In late 2013, Russia filed a lawsuit against the EU over energy adjustments.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron

Te British prime minister has threatened that his country will exit the European Union if former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker becomes the president of the European Commission.

According to German news magazine, Der Spiegel, David Cameron made the comments on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Tuesday.

He reportedly told German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who supports Juncker for the post, that the appointment would “destabilize his government to such a point that it would bring forward a referendum on whether to exit the EU.”

Political analysts say a referendum on EU membership in the UK, which is slated to be held in 2017, will probably lead to a no-vote.

Cameron, who believes that a reformer must take the EU’s top post, reportedly said, “A figure from the 80s cannot resolve the problems of the next five years.”

Some other EU leaders, including Swedish Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt and Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban, have also voiced their opposition to Juncker.

Merkel, however, threw her weight behind Juncker on Friday.

The EPP “with its top candidate Jean-Claude Juncker has become the strongest political power which is why I am now conducting all talks exactly in this spirit, that Jean-Claude Juncker should become president of the European Commission,” Merkel said.

The European People’s Party (EPP), to which both Juncker’s and Merkel’s parties belong, won 213 out of 751 seats in the European Parliament elections last week.

The group chose Juncker as its candidate for the presidency succeeding Jose Manuel Barroso.

EU leaders traditionally choose the commission’s head on their own, but under current rules, they have to take into account the results of the European Parliament elections.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected as unacceptable, arguments that the UK should leave the European Union if London refuses to sit back in a dispute over the European Commission’s (EC) next president.

Merkel told the German parliament on Wednesday that she was aware of London’s objection to her favored candidate for EC presidency, Jean-Claude Juncker, but hoped that the UK would remain in the bloc.

This comes as German media reports have accused London of blackmailing the EU for years and that the UK should decide once and for all whether to remain a member of the bloc.

British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened earlier this week that his country would exit the EU if Juncker, the former Luxembourg premier, becomes the next EC president, as the appointment would politicize the Commission.

Besides the UK, other European leaders, namely Swedish Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt and Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban, have also voiced their opposition to Juncker’s candidacy.

The developments come as EU leaders are at loggerheads over choosing a replacement for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, whose term ends in October.

Juncker, a federalist, was chosen as the EC president candidate after the European People’s Party (EPP), to which both Juncker’s and Merkel’s parties belong, won 213 out of 751 seats in the recent European Parliament elections. Juncker’s main rival is Martin Schulz, whose Social Democrats finished second in the elections.

EU leaders traditionally choose the commission’s head on their own, but under current rules they have to take into account the results of the European Parliament elections.

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The European Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom is telling European Union countries to bring in more immigrants. The plan is to pay 6000 Euros for each refugee that is brought into Europe.

“I am speaking on behalf of the European Commission in support of the reception and integration of refugees. EU states will receive 6000 euro support for each refugee taken from the refugee camps and resettled in their respective countries” Malmstrom said in an interview.

“Each year around 80 thousand refugees are resettled, most of them find a new home in the U.S., Canada or Australia…”

“In 2013, EU countries were ready to receive around five thousand refugees for resettlement, and that is a shame”

Malmstrom poured scorn on EU countries for not doing more to bring in more immigrants from places such as Africa and the Middle East.

“I am convinced that the EU member states should do more to help people who flee their home countries due to hunger, violence and misery.”

Now that the ‘stick’ is failing, the ‘carrot’ is being used to ensure what is basically a genocide against native Europeans, is ongoing. If they have to pay people to do what they want, instead of just bossing them around like the EU used to, it just goes to show that their power is eroding. These policies are genocidal because they have been put in place to ensure that native Europeans become a minority in their own countries and even extinct in due time.

British people are pessimistic about Prime Minister David Cameron’s ability to achieve reforms to the European Union that he promised earlier, a new poll shows.

The newly-released results of a YouGov poll, conducted on June 26, showed that 42 percent of Britons do not believe the EU will be prepared to hand back any powers to member states, while another 29 percent think any concessions won by Britain will only be minor.

Cameron has pledged to renegotiate Britain’s terms of membership with the European Union, saying that the reforms are crucial to persuading Britain to stay in the bloc. He also threatened earlier in June that the UK would exit the EU if Luxembourg’s former premier Jean-Claude Juncker became the new president of the European Commission.

The 28-nation bloc voted 26 to 2 on Friday, electing Juncker to replace Jose Manuel Barroso.

The YouGov poll, which was conducted before Friday’s vote, showed that some 36 percent of respondents believed the prime minister’s opposition to Juncker would damage Britain’s ability to negotiate in Europe, while 33 percent said it would make no difference. Seven percent also said his stance would help.

The poll also found that if there was a referendum tomorrow, 39 percent would vote to stay in the bloc while 37 percent would vote to leave.

London-based think tank Open Europe on Saturday described Cameron’s handling of the battle against Juncker as a substantial defeat for the British prime minister, saying that it increases the risk of Britain’s exit from the EU.

Britain and Hungary were the only countries opposing the nomination of Junker as the EU commission’s new head.

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Building of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Moscow’s Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square.

Moscow will take “appropriate measures” in response to possible new sanctions from the European Union, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said.

“On many levels, the Russian leadership has made it clear that we’ll take adequate measures and our response will be absolutely comparable with the actions by the EU,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said at briefing in Moscow.

Lukashevich also said that the Malaysia Airlines MH17 crash in eastern Ukraine in July has been used as a pretext by the West to push through economic sanctions against Russia.

However, the true reasons behind the tragedy may not be revealed at all due to external pressure on the international commission investigating the MH17 crash, he said.

“It seems that the international commission, under pressure by certain Western powers, is deliberately delaying the investigation and not executing its duties, which is obvious to any aviation expert. As a result, the reasons for the tragedy may not be established and not announced at all,” the spokesman said.

The EU has said that it will implement sanctions against Russia on Friday, which will reportedly include economic measures against Russia’s energy sector.

EU leaders first said they would unleash the latest round of sanctions on September 9, but instead waited to gauge the effectiveness of the ceasefire agreed September 5 by the Ukrainian government and rebel forces.

Several heads of state, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the European Commission will have the ability to suspend the new economic restrictions if the ceasefire in Ukraine holds.

In response to the EU’s previous set of sanctions that targeted banks, energy, and weaponry, Moscow introduced a one-year food embargo against the US, EU, Norway, Australia, and Canada that will block an estimated $9 billion worth of agricultural exports to Russia.

On Thursday, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy confirmed that new EU sanctions against Russia will come into force September 12.

However, Rompuy added that the European Commission will be tasked with working out proposals on limiting or even canceling the sanctions against Russia, due to the improvement in the situation in Eastern Ukraine.

President Putin’s aide Andrey Belousov said that the second wave of Russian countermeasures in retaliation to Western sanctions may be to restrict the import of cars especially, used ones, as well as some consumer goods.

The state will surely support Russian companies which will be hit by the Western sanctions, Belousov said, adding that the government is currently developing means to promote such assistance.

Hopes for Ukraine crisis resolution

Moscow is pinning high hopes on the Russia-Ukraine-EU Contact Group’s role in settling the Ukraine crisis, Lukashevich said.

“We hope that in this respect the Contact Group will be of good help and also an instrument to promote this process,” he said.

According to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, “everything is fragile” in the southeast of Ukraine at the moment, as there is growing evidence of Kiev consolidating military groupings in different parts of the country.

“We expect that [President Petro] Poroshenko and his team, as well as the self-defense forces, will be committed to the Minsk agreements,” Lukashevich said.

The future status of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk is the subject of negotiations between Kiev and the Donbass leadership, Lukashevich said.

He noted that in the Minsk protocol of September 5 these parts of Ukraine are described as party to the conflict, which is “an important statement itself.”

“As for their status definitions… [the fact that] it’s the subject of talks between Kiev and Donbass is already recorded, which is reflected in the protocol,” the spokesman said.

“We hope that only Ukrainians themselves will decide the status of the territories,” he added.

However, the joint military exercises by Kiev and NATO may “jeopardize the shoring up of the Ukrainian peace process,” the spokesman warned.

“The announced plans to conduct NATO joint maneuvers with Kiev in Ukraine by the end of the year come as a surprise,” he said.

The ceasefire between Kiev and the self-defense forces was agreed during talks in Minsk, Belarus on September 5.

Ukraine has been engulfed in violent internal conflict since April, when Kiev’s military began its crackdown on the southeastern regions of the country after they refused to recognize the country’s new coup-imposed authorities.

The United Nations said on Monday that the death toll in the Ukrainian conflict has exceeded 3,000, with this number including the 298 passengers and crew on board the MH17 airliner.

The number of internally displaced Ukrainians has reached 260,000, with another 814,000 finding refuge in Russia, the UN said.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron in a press conference in the EU headquarters in Brussels on October 24, 2014.

The British prime minister says his country will refuse to pay a £1.7-billion bill demanded as budget contribution by the European Union (EU), calling the Union’s behavior “appalling.”

“We are not suddenly going to take out our checkbook and write a check for two billion euros (USD 2.5 billion); it is not happening,” said David Cameron in a news conference on the sidelines of an EU summit over the member states’ climate change policies in Brussels on Friday.

“It is an unacceptable way for this organization to work, to suddenly present a bill like this for such a vast sum of money, with so little time to pay it, and it is an unacceptable way to treat one of the biggest contributors to the European Union,” the British premier added.

Cameron also warned that such “appalling” behavior would certainly affect Britain’s decision whether to remain in the European Union the premier added in a desperate attempt to copy Nigel Farage’s ideas and steal some UKIP votes.

On Thursday, the European Commission demanded a number of European countries including Britain, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Malta to provide the organization with extra money by December other than their annual contributions.

The organization said it made the decision after the recalculation of the member states’ national incomes since 1995, adding that Britain’s economy has enjoyed better-than-expected performance in comparison with other European countries.

“The British economy is growing much faster than the others and the logic is the same as with tax: if someone earns more, they pay more tax,” said European Commission spokesman, Patrizio Fiorilli, on Friday.

This is while Germany, the most thriving economy of the region, will get a rebate of £779 million under EU’s revised measurement system of the member states’ economic output which unprecedentedly includes the financial profit of such activities as prostitution and illegal drug trade.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he will fight against the European Union’s demand for an extra contribution to the bloc’s budget.

While addressing the British parliament on Monday, the premier said the UK would not pay “anything like” the 2.1 billion euros the EU has requested.

“It is not just about the scale of the money being demanded. It is also the timetable,” Cameron said, adding, “The (European) commission admits it does not actually need this. So there is no pressing need for the money to be paid.”

The British prime minister went on to say that he would not permit the UK taxpayers’ money to be funneled into the EU.

“The European Union has to change. It has to regain trust and that starts by understanding and respecting the fact that these payments and adjustments are about the hard earned taxes of its citizens. This is just one of the many challenges in our long campaign to reform the European Union, but it is vital we stick to the task,” he added.

On Thursday, Brussels, the EU’s de facto capital, demanded that the UK pay the extra amount by December after a recalculation of the country’s national income found that Britain’s economy has enjoyed better-than-expected performance in comparison with other European countries since 1995.

Cameron has also warned that such behavior would certainly affect Britain’s decision on whether to remain in the EU.

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UK gas prices plunged to a record low on Friday following a newly signed deal between Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission. However, fuel poverty remains rife in Britain, with 2 million households unable to afford adequate heating.

The newly brokered gas agreement, signed on Thursday, will cover gas supply and transit conditions between Russia, Ukraine and the EU until March 2015.

The signing was witnessed by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and the EC’s new vice president in charge of energy, Marosh Shefchovich.

At 07.58 GMT, November’s contract for the delivery of gas to Britain was trading at 52.10 pence per therm (a unit of heat energy equal to 100,000 British thermal units), down 1.7 percent since the former month’s contract.

But it had earlier dropped to 52.00 pence per therm, its lowest level since the contract was floated on the markets.

The December gas contract traded at a higher price of 54.60 pence per therm, also having dropped 1.7 percent. Earlier it had fallen to an all-time low hitting 54.40 pence.

Britain’s electricity supplies, however, pose a more precarious situation for the coalition.

The nation’s aging electricity network is approaching a tipping point, having plunged the UK’s capacity to produce extra power to its lowest level since 2007. The eroding energy safety net has forced the government to adopt emergency policies to combat blackout risks.

Thursday’s meeting in Brussels marked progress in settling a long-running gas dispute between Russian and Ukrainian authorities.

Both governments have been struggling to agree on a final gas price and payment schedule. The agreement has paved the way for the resumption of Russia’s gas supplies to Ukraine, following several tenuous months of delay arising from the conflict.

The EU stepped in as an official guarantor for the Ukrainian government, with sanctions against Moscow remaining in place as the conflict in Ukraine prevails.

Commenting on the deal, Barroso said it signaled “an important step for shared energy security” in Europe. There is “no reason now for people in Europe to stay cold this winter,” he added.

But despite the recent decline in Britain’s gas prices, fuel poverty continues to plague the nation.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Annual Fuel Poverty Report, published in June, reveals an inability to afford energy bills resulted in the deaths of 10,000 Britons in 2013.

It also found over 2million UK households are simply unable to afford adequate heating. This means 10.4 percent of the population.

On Monday, the Energy Bill of Rights was launched in the House of Commons, advocating both fair pricing and sustainable energy sources. The campaign, pioneered by Fuel Poverty Action, aims to make energy “fairer, affordable” and “sustainable.”

Following the event, former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson voiced concerns that committing to more environmentally friendly forms of energy will constitute an unsustainable level of investment.

But anti-fracking and renewable energy advocacy group, No Dash for Gas, countered his perspective, saying the Energy Bill of Rights “unites what politicians have tried so hard to pull apart – the need for affordable energy and the environmental concerns surrounding fossil fuels.”

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Most Europeans have no idea how much they pay the EU in taxes and are unable to correctly place Baroness Catherine Ashton within the bureaucratic system, a poll performed by RT in 10 European capitals has revealed.

RT correspondents interviewed nearly 200 people on the streets of Barcelona, Lisbon, Rome, Prague, Paris, Bratislava, Warsaw, Athens, London, and Berlin.

Those surveyed were asked to answer four questions about the European Union in which they live – including the whereabouts of the European Commission’s home, its top officials, and the contribution made by their country to the bloc’s budget.

The first question – Where is the European Commission headquarters located? – was the easiest and caused few problems to the respondents.

The correct answer was given by 117 people, who stated that the executive body of the European Union is located in Brussels, Belgium.

The second question turned out to be a bit tougher; only half of those interviewed were able to recognize Jose Manuel Barroso – who at the moment of the poll still occupied the position of EC President – after a picture was shown to them.

However, it turned out that it’s even harder for Europeans to name the EU’s foreign policy chief.

Only 30 people were able to name Baroness Catherine Ashton correctly, with many mispronouncing her name as “Ashcroft” or “Asworth.” Many confused the EU foreign policy chief with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and a number of local female politicians.

As for the final question – How much does your country pay to the EU budget? – the survey managed to collect just 11 right answers.

The majority of the respondents tried to guess the sum, with their speculations ranging from “20,000 euros” to “200 billion euros.”

Ironically, the EU’s leading economic and political power, Germany, produced the worst result in the poll. The amount of wrong answers given by Berliners exceeded the number of the right ones for all questions.

The biggest contributor to the EU budget in 2014 is the UK, which was asked to contribute 2.1 billion euros. Italy, Latvia, Greece, Ireland, Cyprus the Netherlands, and Malta will pay one billion.

Germany and France will pay just 500,000 euros each for their membership, while the rest of the union will be freed from taxation this year.

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