Turkey’s diplomatic relations with Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania have seen a boost this week as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid official visits to the three countries. Turkey’s accession to the EU, bilateral trade and the fight against ISIL / ISIS were among the issues discussed between Mr. Erdoğan and the respective country leaders. Mr. Erdoğan’s visit had to be cut short because of terrorist incidents in Istanbul.
In the European Parliament the head of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) for the Eurozone banks has committed herself to restraining financial institutions and closely monitoring the models they use to calculate risks. Danièle Nouy has given assurances that “we will be a demanding supervisor, however at all times we shall strive to make our action fair and impartial.” The SMM just published its first report that has overseen more than 6,000 banks in the region since last November.
Preventing death, injury and disability caused by road accidents has been a serious preoccupation of the EC. The goal is to halve the number of deaths by 2020, as compared to 2010. The EC review released on 24 March 2015, however, reports a decrease of just 1% in road fatalities in 2014 compared to the previous year, when the decline had been 8%. The number of deaths varies greatly from one country to another.
At a public lecture that he gave at the London School of Economics (LSE) on 25 March, which happens to be the national day of Greece, the Governor of the Bank of Greece and former Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras clearly stated that “Grexit” is not an option at this stage. He went on to explain that Greece leaving the euro would not deliver significant benefits, at a time when the Greek economy has stabilized and is showing strong signs of improvement after years of reforms.
Elections on Sunday for the Parliament of the Autonomous Region of Andalusia, in the South of Spain, provided a first reality check of the strength of the new political party Podemos. In the Andalusian Parliament, Podemos will start its journey as the third force, with 15 deputies out of 109. The question remains what will happen in Spain´s general election due at the end of 2015.
The project for a single market for electricity and gas in Europe was given green light by European leaders at the EU Summit on 19-20 March. The European Council members also committed to support an active European climate diplomacy in line with the Union’s ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction objective, and to expand infrastructure projects that aim to connect electricity and gas supply between countries.
The EU has decided to implement the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) negotiated in 2005 and signed in 2009 with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The decision was taken at the meeting of the EU foreign ministers on 16 March 2015, following an earlier joint initiative by the foreign ministers of Germany and the UK. The SAA is intended to unblock BiH’s path towards EU membership, sidelining the earlier condition of implementation by BiH of the European Court of Human Right’s “Sejdic-Finci” ruling.
On 16 March 2015 the Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, was in Brussels for talks with High Representative Mogherini and the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the UK. This was part of the six-power talks (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) with Iran on the latter’s uranium enrichment programme. 16 March was also the day of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (EU Foreign Ministers) in Brussels, chaired by Ms. Mogherini.
This week Saudi Arabia decided to recall its Ambassador to Sweden after Margot Wallström, the Swedish Foreign Minister, critized Saudi “human rights and democracy” standards. Wallström had been particularly vocal about the case of Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger and activist sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for setting up a website called “Saudis Free Liberal Forum”. The Swedish Foreign Minister had described Badawi´s punishment as “medieval methods”.
The first official visit of the European Union High Representative to New York on 8 and 9 March included a statement made at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) regarding cooperation between the EU and the UN. The speech reflected the current European foreign policy priorities: putting Libya “back on track”, fighting terrorism in all its forms and across regions, and saving the lives of migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe.
