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European Court President Receives Honorary Doctorate from Istanbul University

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European Court President Receives Honorary Doctorate from Istanbul University

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Robert Spano, President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), visited Turkey last week at the invitation of the Turkish Justice Minister. Spano also met with Pres. Erdogan and give a lecture at the Turkish Justice Academy.

While the President of ECHR has the right to visit any country he wishes, it is highly inappropriate that he accepts an Honorary Doctorate in law from Istanbul University. Several prominent Turkish human rights activists wrote lengthy columns criticizing Spano for his visit and his acceptance of the Honorary Doctorate.

Former Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen stated that Spano “is not fit to preside [over] the ECHR.” Cenkiz Aktar, a political scientist and academic, called Spano’s visit “scandalous” and urged him to resign. Exiled Turkish journalist Can Dundar wrote that Spano “destroyed the 30-year reputation of the ECHR in three days.” Ahval News quoted several other critical comments from prominent Turks regarding the unfortunate Spano’s visit to Turkey.

Mehmet Altan, one of those critics, is among the 192 professors of Istanbul University who was fired at the instigation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Altan, jailed for his non-existent membership in the banned Gulen religious group, filed a lawsuit against Istanbul University to reverse his firing. Erdogan also dismissed over 150,000 civil servants from state jobs and investigated close to 600,000 Turkish citizens, arresting 100,000 of them under the false pretext of belonging to the Islamist Gulen movement which was accused of orchestrating the coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016.

The Turkish Ahval News website posted on August 31, 2020, an article titled, “ECHR chief may receive controversial honorary doctorate from Istanbul University.”

ECHR chair Robert Spano with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

 

ECHR chair Robert Spano with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey

Ahval reported that Altan, in an open letter addressed to Spano and published on the website of Turkish journalism platform P24, urged him not to accept the Turkish invitation. “I do not know how much pride there is to be an honorary member of a university that condemns hundreds of lecturers to unemployment and poverty by unjustly expelling them from school,” Altan wrote.

Altan told Spano: “The University from which you will receive a doctorate is included as the ‘defendant institution’ in the lawsuit of academics, like me, who were dismissed by decree…. These cases are still ongoing and it is likely that they will come before the ECHR, which you preside over.”

Altan continued: “On March 2018, the second section of ECHR, presided over by you, set a precedent in universal law and ruled that my right to personal liberty and security and my freedom of expression had been violated. Turkey was convicted…. Ergin Ergul, who was appointed on behalf of Turkey to that case and was the only judge dissenting, put forward such arguments that you wrote ‘a dissenting vote’ against a dissenting vote, for the first time in the history of ECHR, if I am not mistaken. And the other members followed you.”
Ahval reported that there were over 60,000 individual complaints at the ECHR for violations of rights and freedoms in Turkey.

Yavuz Aydin, who was also dismissed from his profession along with 4,500 judges and prosecutors, wrote an article titled, “ECHR president faces a test of honor in Turkey,” which was published in Ahval on Sept. 2, 2020. Aydin wrote: “President Spano is certainly aware of the deterioration of rule of law in Turkey. As a man of honor who has been adjudicating on Turkey-related files at the ECHR for years, the purpose of his visit cannot be thought of as anything other than openly and courageously shouting out facts in the faces of government authorities.”

Aydin continued: “The ECHR president knows very well that the government in Turkey translated to one-man rule by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the constitutional amendment of 2017. As openly criticized by the Venice Commission, Spano knows that the separation of powers and judicial independence no longer exist in Turkey. Besides this, he cannot be unaware of Resolution 2156(2017) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which downgraded Turkey to the league of countries under monitoring status for the first time in European history. This decision implies that Turkey no longer meets the famous Copenhagen Criteria, and thus cannot be regarded as eligible for accession negotiations with the EU [European Union].”

Aydin then made a series of suggestions that he hoped Spano would follow during his visit to Turkey:

  • Call on Erdogan to return to democracy and restore the rule of law in the country.
  • Remind the Turkish leaders of the decision to remove from the Turkish Council of Judges and Prosecutors their observer status in the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary. He should also remind the candidate judges at the Turkish Judiciary Academy [TJA] why the European Judicial Training Network expelled the TJA from observer membership status in 2016.
  • Tell them that the existing judges as well as the 10,000 new judges appointed after the coup attempt are often politically biased in applying the law, and call on them to ignore political pressure from the Palace, Constitutional Court and other high courts.
  • Remind them that for the first time in history Turkey was found in breach of Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
  • Tell the leaders in Turkey that they should immediately release the hundreds of judges still in solitary confinement and reinstate all 4,000 of their purged colleagues.

Aydin urged Spano “to decline the honorary doctorate even before stepping onto Turkish soil, conveying a very strong message to all parties before meeting with them in person. Otherwise, the good will exerted through Spano’s visit would not only be wasted, but serve as a trump card for the government and Erdogan, who will use the gesture as a sign of appraisal and legitimization of the illegalities taking place in the country under his rule.”

Regrettably, Spano ignored all the good advice provided by Turkish human rights activists and thus undermined his own reputation as well as that of the European Court of Human Rights!

EU ban on neonicotinoids must be ‘stricly respected’, says Green MEP

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EU ban on neonicotinoids must be ‘stricly respected’, says Green MEP

After announcing €30 billion in support of an ecological transition last Thursday (3 September) the French government also presented a controversial bill authorising an exemption from the ban on neonicotinoid insecticides, a class of pesticides suspected to be harmful to bees.

In an interview with EURACTIV France, German MEP Martin Häusling explained why he is challenging the decision.

Martin Häusling is the Greens’ spokesman for agricultural policy in the European Parliament and a member of the environment committee (ENVI).

In response to the difficulties faced by the sugar beet industry, the French government announced at the beginning of August that it wanted to introduce a derogation to re-authorise the use of neonicotinoids, which have been banned since 2018. As an organic farmer and MEP, are you concerned about this?

Of course I’m concerned. Derogations should remain exceptional. These days, however, European countries are taking more and more of them; in Austria, Poland and soon in France.

The more there are derogations, the more pressure there will be on other European countries that don’t adopt them. For example, in Germany, no derogations have been granted so far. If France reuses neonicotinoids, German farmers will be able to legitimately ask themselves: “And why not us?” The risk is that the European ban will eventually become null and void.

With this decision, France is also sending a strong signal to the outside world, to importers, etc. The risk is that the European ban will eventually become obsolete. If we reauthorise the pesticides that we previously banned, other countries, such as Brazil, will think that European pesticide policy is not as restrictive as it claims. A bad signal is thus also being sent outside the EU.

If other countries have been granted derogations, isn’t France just adapting to market competition?

The reasons behind the reauthorisation of neonicotinoids are purely economic.  But this is neither a valid argument nor a solution. When the derogation expires [according to Article 53 of the EU regulation, a EU member state may authorise the use of neonicotinoids under derogations of up to 120 days], farmers will face the same problem.

It is essential that these derogations remain de facto exceptions and remind member states that economic arguments are not sufficient for them to be granted.

When sugar beet growers run into difficulties, the ban on pesticide use cannot be lifted so abruptly, at the risk that the next industry will demand it too. [After the French government’s announcement in early August, the maize industry also called for the reintroduction of neonicotinoids].

Three types of neonicotinoids have been banned at by the EU, yet France’s biodiversity law of 2016 goes further than that, banning five. Can it really be said that France is a bad pupil?

No, precisely not. The fact that it was France that took this decision surprised me greatly. It was held up as a model in banning all neonicotinoids, and its policy was one of the strictest in Europe.

This decision is all the more surprising since it came from a former Green MP who now heads the French environment ministry.

Would it have been less surprising coming from other EU member states?

I don’t want to point the finger at anyone and we must avoid hasty shortcuts. But it is true that the use of pesticides in some Eastern European countries is not as problematic.

In France, Germany, Austria, there has always been a relatively high level of environmental awareness. There is a tendency to assume that they will always act consistently on this point. Until now at least.

However, isn’t it true that the French government is only complying with the article 53 of the European regulation, which states that EU member states can benefit from a derogation on the use of these insecticides if “a danger which cannot be controlled by other reasonable means” arises?

This is true. In order for a country to obtain a derogation, it is obliged to inform the European Commission first. But if this derogation becomes permanent, if it is readopted in later years, then it is up to the Commission to give its approval. And it can refuse it.

European Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius and Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides have indicated that these derogations will not be accepted so easily in the future.

You have sent a letter to Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, urging him “to be clear and not to let France get away with this derogation” and you say that you fear for the “credibility” of the European Commission. Could you elaborate on that?

Indeed, we have written a letter to both Commissioners and a letter to Mr Timmermans, in which we made it clear that this is no longer acceptable.  A ban has been decided at the European level and it is time that it was strictly respected. If not, our environmental policy will lose credibility.

We look forward to the Commission’s response. It is now up to the Commission to act. It is simply not possible that a ban is imposed in this way and that countries circumvent it immediately afterwards. The Commission has to be more demanding.

As part of its “From Farm to Fork” (F2F) strategy, the EU has announced that it wants to reduce pesticide use in the EU by 50%. If our commitments on the most toxic pesticides are not met, how can the Commission be taken seriously in its own F2F strategy?

On the one hand, we boast about wanting to reduce the use of plant protection products, on the other hand we accept the derogations of member states. The Commission must be more demanding when drawing up a plan, so that it is implemented in the member states.

At present, it seems that the Commission simply does not have the political will to implement it and impose it on the member states.

[Edited by Natasha Foote/Zoran Radosavljevic]

Aid or autonomy? A showdown in Italy’s agricultural heartland

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Aid or autonomy? A showdown in Italy’s agricultural heartland

A confrontation is brewing in rural Italy over who should get to determine the needs of the most marginalised among the approximately 550,000 foreigners – including 150,000 undocumented migrants – working in the country’s key agricultural sector.

Growing tensions between aid workers and union organisers in the Apulia region highlight the divide over whether poor living conditions in dozens of informal settlements across the country should be viewed as part of Italy’s so-called “migration emergency” or as the product of rampant labour exploitation in a highly profitable industry. 

On one side, aid workers and local officials say the informal settlements housing the migrant workers should be brought under institutional control. Dismal conditions in the settlements – where running water is often scarce and improvised electrical lines sometimes spark fires – have led to over 1,500 deaths since 2014, according to one estimate. 

“It is necessary to have a third sector entity to best organise and direct the daily life in these communities,” Roberto Venneri, head of the Apulia government department tasked with dealing with migrant settlements, told The New Humanitarian.

Union organisers, on the other hand, say the migrant workers don’t need aid; they need a long-term solution, and the approach advocated for by local officials and aid groups is not it. They argue that Italy needs to address racism and the exploitation of migrants in its agricultural sector, and provide an effective pathway for the undocumented to regularise their status.

An amnesty law passed in May to address economic and public health concerns stemming from the coronavirus pandemic paved the way for more than 207,000 people to apply for six-month residency permits, but only 15 percent of applications came from agricultural workers. 

The situation in Apulia boiled over mid-June when a group of aid workers set out on a routine visit to Torretta Antonacci, one of the largest informal settlements in Italy, also known as the Gran Ghetto.

The settlement is home to somewhere between 800 and 1,000 people depending on the season. Aid workers had been providing services there since the beginning of Italy’s coronavirus lockdown in March, but on this day found the road into the shanty town blocked by a picket line organised by a grassroots Italian labour union, the Unione Sindacale di Base, or USB.

Forced to retreat, the aid workers called on the police to take action against the union organisers, who they said instigated the protest.

A growing problem

Informal agricultural settlements have proliferated around Italy’s farmlands since at least the 1990s. But they have grown in number and size since migration to Italy across the Mediterranean spiked between 2014 and 2017.

Many who arrived during those years moved on to northern Europe. But others, particularly people from sub-Saharan Africa, stayed. Some ended up in legal limbo waiting for their asylum claims to be processed, or were stripped of humanitarian protections by security decrees passed in 2018. With little option but to work in the informal economy, many ended up in the settlements. 

There are eight settlements in Apulia alone, hosting between 400 and 2,000 people each, according to regional government estimates. Stereotyped as hotbeds of criminal activity, the biggest actually take the form of robust, small communities: There are restaurants, shops, even nightclubs in some, and migrants living in nearby cities visit on the weekends to spend time in places that feel removed from the stigmas often attached to African migrants in Italy, according to migrants interviewed by TNH.

To find work, many residents have to rely on the caporalato system, a 17-billion-euro-a-year industry of illegal employment. Working conditions and pay vary, but migrant labourers who spoke to TNH say they are often required to work for up to 12 hours and can earn as little as 30 euros per day. Italy has laws prohibiting the practices the caporalato system relies on, but they are routinely unenforced. 

In Apulia, the agricultural sector is estimated to be worth 3.6 billion euros, and it was assigned an additional 1.6 billion euros in farm subsidies and other agricultural funding from the EU between 2014 and 2020. 

Union organisers want some of that money to go towards improving the treatment or living conditions of the people working in the multi-billion-euro industry. 

“This place is a gold mine, but its profits don’t benefit us.”

Instead, help to improve the living conditions of agricultural workers comes from EU and Italian migration funds, and the Italian government leans on aid groups to oversee the projects it implements, according to Venneri, the Apulia government official.

“This place is a gold mine, but its profits don’t benefit us,” Aboubakar Soumahoro, a high-profile union organiser originally from Ivory Coast who has become a national symbol of the resistance to these policies, told TNH in 2017. “Subsidies [to farmers] should at least be tied to the respect of employment contracts… They want to force us into the dependency industry, where money goes to enrich aid cooperatives and not to benefit us.”

‘Troublemakers’ in the ghetto

Last December, a fire ripped through Torretta Antonacci, burning many makeshift shelters to the ground. In its wake, regional authorities installed 106 shipping containers as emergency housing, and issued a call for aid groups to use a new large tent they had pitched in the settlement for humanitarian projects.

“To this call, we responded: ‘we are in’,” Domenico La Marca, director of Baobab Experience, an Italian NGO, told TNH. 

Baobab Experience has been providing legal advice and help accessing healthcare to migrants in the nearby town of Foggia for more than 10 years. La Marca saw the opening of a humanitarian centre in Torretta Antonacci as an opportunity to expand the group’s activities in a location where they were sorely needed.

Baobab Experience was joined by the local chapter of the Catholic charity Caritas and a labour union called FLAI-CGIL, which advocates for the removal of informal settlements and the provision of alternative housing. 

The three groups started making weekly trips to Torretta Antonacci to teach Italian classes, provide legal and health assistance, and run leisure activities like football matches or games of draughts (checkers).

“Since our first visit – when 30 people signed up for our Italian classes – I was approached by some people tied to USB,” La Marca said. “They told me very clearly that they are not children, that they didn’t need us, and they invited us to collect our toys… and go away.”

La Marca said tensions escalated week by week until the picket line in June, and claimed the USB organisers were pressuring people to participate. “[They] were inciting these poor boys, who didn’t believe, themselves, in what they were doing, screaming ‘libertà’ [‘freedom’]. Some couldn’t even pronounce it properly,” he said.

‘We are all equals here’

In July, when TNH visited Torretta Antonacci, a police car was parked at the far end of the dirt road leading to the settlement, “a form of long-distance policing, to ensure the safety of aid workers,” the officers said.

Workers were returning from the fields, and the shops, grocery stores, and informal night clubs in the makeshift part of the encampment that survived the fire were busy with clients. One of the containers in the new section was draped in USB flags.

“Why do they have to keep coming when we no longer need help? We are all grown-ups here; people who work hard to take care of their families.”

Inside, Sambaré, a USB organiser who is originally from Mali, was blunt. “We organised a roadblock, and we stand by what we did,” he said. “When Caritas brought us food during the coronavirus [lockdown], we were grateful for that. But why do they have to keep coming when we no longer need help? We are all grown-ups here; people who work hard to take care of their families.”

When local authorities installed the containers, union organisers initially celebrated it as a victory, or at least as an acceptance of their right to stay – in the past, the regional government had taken an antagonistic stance towards the settlement, even bulldozing it in 2017.

But now Sambaré fears the installation of the containers, and the aid projects that came along with them, might be the first step towards turning the informal settlement into a government-administered camp. 

When this has happened elsewhere, local authorities have hired private security companies to control access to the sites by checking residency documents, which forces people without legal status out. Government control also means aid groups provide food and other supplies, which can choke off the informal economy, an important source of income for inhabitants. 

“This space needs to remain self-managed,” Sambaré said. “We won’t accept any distinction based on who has documents and who doesn’t. We are all equals here.”

But local officials and aid groups reject the idea. “We are not looking for police control… [but] it is unthinkable to go down a path of self-management,” Venneri said, adding that it’s essential for aid groups to manage the settlements, and that EU funding isn’t used to host undocumented people, who he referred to as illegals.

After the bulldozing of Torretta Antonacci in 2017, most residents refused to move into government-sponsored housing because they didn’t want to give up their personal autonomy. “I also would like to live comfortably, to take a hot shower, but at least here nobody rules over you,” Galoume Madourie, a long-term resident of Torretta Antonacci, told TNH at the time.

‘The will to speak for themselves’

For now, the aid groups have resumed their weekly visits to Torretta Antonacci. And as long as the response to the living conditions in the informal settlements is being viewed by officials – and funded – as part of the migration crisis, their approach will likely win out. 

But Soumahoro isn’t backing down. After resigning from the USB in July, he launched a new union, the “Lega dei Braccianti”, specifically focused on organising agricultural labourers. 

The group is headquartered in another shanty town in Apulia, and organisers like Sambaré have followed Soumahoro into it. They are aiming to build a coalition to push for an immigration amnesty that will benefit agricultural workers and address the marginalisation of migrants, not through aid but through structural change. 

When Soumahoro announced his new initiative, he stressed the importance of self-representation. The struggle for the rights of the invisible, he wrote, “must be accompanied by the will to take the floor and speak for themselves”.

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Meat Snacks Market Size is Expected to Reach $11.3 Billion by 2026

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Meat Snacks Market Size is Expected to Reach .3 Billion by 2026

Meat Snacks Market Size is Expected to Reach $11.3 Billion by 2026 – Organic Food News Today – EIN News

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Pound sinks to 2-week lows as UK stance seen jeopardising EU trade talks

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Pound sinks to 2-week lows as UK stance seen jeopardising EU trade talks
ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== Pound sinks to 2-week lows as UK stance seen jeopardising EU trade talks
FILE PHOTO: Wads of British Pound Sterling banknotes are stacked in piles at the Money Service Austria company’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

LONDON, Sep 8 (Reuters) – Sterling sank to two-week lows against the dollar on Tuesday, extending losses as fears grew that Britain is preparing to undercut its Brexit divorce treaty and potentially torpedo its trade talks with the European Union.

The latest round of negotiations starts on Tuesday but the EU has warned there there will be no trade deal if Britain tries override parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement it signed in January, jeopardising the whole treaty and creating frictions in British-ruled Northern Ireland.

Tensions have flared anew even as clock ticks down to an October deadline for a new deal and then the end of the status-quo transition arrangement in late December.

“I sense participants are turning bearish on elevated chances of a no-deal Brexit but do not have a short position or hedge on board to reflect the view,” Neil Jones, head of hedge fund sales at Mizuho, said.

“We should be in store for a further pound selloff.”

The pound slipped more than 0.3% at $1.3125 by 0745 GMT while against the euro it touched 0.90 pence, also a two-week low.

Implied sterling-dollar volatility also rose, with one-month volatility, the contract encompassing the early-October deadline for a deal, reaching 10% for the first time since mid-June.

Reporting by Maiya Keidan; editing by Sujata Rao

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

UK PM sets Oct 15 as deadline for trade deal with EU

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UK PM sets Oct 15 as deadline for trade deal with EU

London, Sep 8 (IANS) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he wants a post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union (EU) by an October 15 deadline, warning that a failure could mean the country would end its membership with the bloc without a deal.

“There needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European council on October 15 if it’s going to be in force by the end of the year…

“If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us,” the Prime Minister said on Monday in a Downing Street statement.

The UK would then have a trading arrangement with the EU like Australia’s, Xinhua news aency quoted Johnson as saying.

EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is scheduled to start talks here on Tuesday with his British counterpart David Frost.

With Brussels also saying a future deal must be drawn up by October to enable it to be ratified by the 27 EU member states, time is running out for both sides.

Britain’s national newspapers on Monday turned the “Brexit battle of words” into front page news.

Both the Times and the Daily Express headlined Johnson’s message that a no-deal could be a good outcome for Britain.

Overshadowing the eighth round of talks between both sides was the confirmation that Johnson’s government will publish Wednesday details of an amended bill that will have implications on trade and border arrangements between Northern Ireland and the neighbouring Ireland.

Downing Street described the proposed amended bill as a stand-by arrangement if trade talks with the EU break down.

At a briefing for political journalists Monday, Downing Street said the move was to clarify the Brexit withdrawal agreement signed by Johnson in January.

The government claims, according to the Guardian newspaper, were that it would not amount to overriding the agreement, but new proposals would go beyond what was set out the Northern Ireland protocol.

Meanwhile, there was widespread criticism of the planned move from Dublin, the Scottish government and the main opposition Labour Party, local media reported.

The UK ended its membership of the EU on January 31, but is sticking with the EU’s rules under a transitional arrangement that is scheduled to end on December 31.

If no deal is in place, the UK and the EU will return to trade under World Trade Organization rules.

–IANS

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Frankfurt Cancels Physical Fair, Goes All Virtual

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Juan Sanchez Gil
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Frankfurt Cancels Physical Fair, Goes All Virtual

The Frankfurt Book Fair has canceled its physical, in-person fair and will proceed as an entirely virtual, online-only event. It will take place, as scheduled, October 12-18. The fair cited travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the cancellation. In an online interview following the announcement, Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos said 800 exhibitors and 40 national stands were affected by the cancellation.

Exhibitors who registered for this year’s fair will have their registration converted to one for the digital fair. In addition, exhibitor payments made for space rental will be either refunded or rolled-over into 2021 depending on a company’s choice. Registrations for this year and all programs affiliated with the fair will be free through June 2021.

While Boos did not share more details of what will take place he did say “I think we have created the largest portal in book publishing.” Boos added, “We have invested a few million euros into this digital platform. We will always have a physical event in Frankfurt and can support the business through these virtual offerings. We are aiming to send a signal of hope. Books are alive. People don’t care about the medium, they are interested in storytelling.”

The fair plans to release more information about how exhibitors can participate, as well as a program of events, this week. As outlined in previous updates, exhibitors have been told Buchemesse.de, the fair’s website, will serve as an online hub for the fair and will offer content streams for tracks at the fair—such as Frankfurt Kids and Gourmet Gallery—with magazine-style content.

A virtual Exhibitor Catalog is expected to serve as a focal point for the exhibitor or attendees presence. Each exhibitor will have the ability to create a profile that will include a logo, link to their company’s website, social media buttons, and further information. A one page document, such as a rights guide or company presentation, can be made available here as well. The catalog is expected to go live online by mid-September.

As for content, a series of virtual conferences will be thematically arranged by day, and will run from 9 to 11 a.m. ET each day, as follows:

  • October 12: Academic and scholarly publishing
  • October 13: Rights and licensing
  • October 14: Publishing insights
  • October 15: Audio

Exhibitors and participants will also be able to list and promote their own physical, digital or hybrid events, either public or private, in a dedicated calendar of events. The calendar, which is also expected to go live by mid-September, will be searchable.

A new Frankfurt Rights platform will serve a digital online catalog of rights available at the fair. Each digital exhibitor, including agents and rights holders,will be allowed a free company profile, where they can upload their rights guides, title information, rights availability, and previews of titles available to international participants after request.

The fair will go ahead hosting some live author events on the fairgrounds and in the city of Frankfurt throughout the week of the fair. Dubbed, Bookfest, the series of events will feature some 80 authors. Those appearing at live events in the city are primarily from Germany or live in Germany. They include Margit Auer, Max von Thun, Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, Bov Bjerg, Kristof Magnusson, Helmut Zierl, Max Giermann, Anastasia Zampounidis, Christian Stöcker, Andreas Steinhöfel, Eric Mayer, Linda Zervakis and Ahmad Mansour.

Scottish authors Irvine Welsh and John Niven will appear live in conversation, and the Canadian musician Chilly Gonzales, who lives in Germany, will be in conversation with fellow musician Malakoff Kowalski. The virtual Bookfest, taking place on Saturday, October 17 will include several North Americans, such as Elizabeth Gilbert, Don Winslow, Karin Slaughter, and Eliot Weinberger.

EU to blacklist 31 Belarus officials over election but Cyprus, Greece have to consent

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Juan Sanchez Gil
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EU to blacklist 31 Belarus officials over election but Cyprus, Greece have to consent

The European Union aims to impose economic sanctions on 31 senior Belarus officials including the country’s interior minister by mid-September, three EU diplomats said, in response to an August 9 election that the West says was rigged.

However, Greece and Cyprus – which are pushing for separate sanctions on Turkey in a dispute in the Eastern Mediterranean – still need to give their support to the Belarus blacklist, diplomats told Reuters.

All 27 EU countries must agree on such measures and Athens and Nicosia could use their support for the Belarus blacklist to obtain tough measures on Turkey, the diplomats also said.

Almost a month into mass demonstrations against the outcome of the contest, in which President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory to prolong his 26-year-old rule, the EU aims to punish the government crackdown and support calls for fresh elections.

“We initially agreed on 14 names but many states felt that was not sufficient. We have now reached consensus on another 17,” one EU diplomat said. “These are senior officials responsible for the election, for violence and for the crackdown.”

EU foreign ministers gave their broad political approval for the sanctions – EU travel bans and asset freezes – at a meeting in Berlin late last month but did not decide who to target.

As repression continued against the opposition on Monday, the European Commission said EU sanctions would be imposed very soon, but did not give details.

“There is the political will and determination to have (sanctions) concluded as soon as possible,” a spokesman for the EU executive told a news briefing. “It’s not a question of whether, only when.”

Names could still be added or taken off the list, but the diplomats said formal agreement is likely to come on September 21, when EU foreign ministers hold their next scheduled meeting. The sanctions coming into effect on September 22.

EU envoy lauds Pak efforts to counter corona

By
Juan Sanchez Gil
-
0
EU envoy lauds Pak efforts to counter corona

ISLAMABAD: EU Ambassador to Pakistan Androulla Kaminara Sunday said the European Union fully backed Pakistan’s efforts to overcome the socio-economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and build back better for a more sustainable future.“The COVID-19 has shaken the world unexpectedly and we will continue to feel the socio-economic consequences of the virus for quite a long-time. Showing solidarity with each other during the trying times is the responsibility of all of us,” she said.

She said it was an unprecedented challenge, but Pakistan had so far managed the crisis very well. “The data from the WHO (World Health Organisation), which I have followed closely over the past few months, suggests that COVID-19 cases and deaths are on a steep decline in Pakistan.

At the peak of the daily infections in mid-June there were over 6,000 new infections per day and for most of August this has been reduced to about 500 new infections or lower per day. “It was heartening that the Pakistan government’s measures such as smart lockdowns as well as testing and tracing had helped slow down the spread of virus considerably, Androulla Kaminara remarked.


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EU envoy says Pakistan managed virus crisis well

By
Juan Sanchez Gil
-
0
EU envoy lauds Pak efforts to counter corona

ISLAMABAD: EU Ambassador to Pakistan Androulla Kaminara Sunday said the European Union fully backed Pakistan’s efforts to overcome the socio-economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and build back better for a more sustainable future.

“The COVID-19 has shaken the world unexpectedly and we will continue to feel the socio-economic consequences of the virus for quite a long-time. Showing solidarity with each other during the trying times is the responsibility of all of us,” she said.

She said it was an unprecedented challenge, but Pakistan had so far managed the crisis very well. “The data from the WHO (World Health Organisation), which I have followed closely over the past few months, suggests that COVID-19 cases and deaths are on a steep decline in Pakistan.

At the peak of the daily infections in mid-June there were over 6,000 new infections per day and for most of August this has been reduced to about 500 new infections or lower per day. “It was heartening that the Pakistan government’s measures such as smart lockdowns as well as testing and tracing had helped slow down the spread of virus considerably, Androulla Kaminara remarked.

The government, she said, had taken a number of positive initiatives to stimulate the economy during the difficult time and also to help those segments of the population, which had been particularly affected by the pandemic.

One example was the expansion of the Ehsaas Programme to cover approximately 23 million households, she added. As regards the Pak-EU relations, Ambassador Kaminara said the European Union had been an honest and longstanding partner and friend to Pakistan.


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