Investors await Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program launch
Gas talks between Russia, Ukraine, and European Union evaporated Tuesday, without a deal in place.
By: CCTV America
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Investors await Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program launch - Video
Italy: Platini questions FIFA #39;s #39;strength and courage #39; to ban third-party ownership
M/S Michel Platini arriving W/S European Union Sports Ministers meeting SOT, Michel Platini, president of UEFA (French): "I invite you today to condemn fiercely with me the third party...
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Italy: Platini questions FIFA's 'strength and courage' to ban third-party ownership - Video
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MANILA, PhilippinesThe European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization continue with their rehabilitation efforts to victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in Leyte after it struck last year.
It is rewarding to see how the fisherfolks have become more empowered one year after Typhoon Haiyan. I hope that the local communities sustain the hardwork and collaboration to ensure that Abuyog will become more self-reliant. Recovery is, indeed, possible when combined efforts are focused on a common objective, Ambassador Guy Ledoux said in a statement.
Ledoux, Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Ola, Jr., FAO Representative to the Philippines Jos Luis Fernandez and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Regional Director Juan Albaladejo visited the town of Abuyog recently.
Throughout FAOs intervention, emphasis is put on ensuring that fisheries-based livelihoods are restored in a way that is meaningful, sustainable and builds resilience to natural disasters, said Fernandez, after thanking the support FAO received from the European Commissions Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) of the EU.
The rehabilitation process of the fisheries sector presents the opportunity to introduce improved practices to contribute to more resilient livelihoods, Fernandez further said.
The EU has provided 1.5 million (USD 1.9 million) for fisherfolks affected by typhoon Yolanda.
Under this EU ECHO-funded project, the provision of boat engines to some 1,700 fishers is just one of the steps leading to the rehabilitation of fishing communities livelihoods.
In ensuring peoples livelihoods in affected regions, the projects activities and appropriate inputs were identified in close collaboration with fisheries communities, through village consultations and individual household visits.
In addition to the boat engines, they will provide 3,000 fishers with material to mend or replace their lost fishing gear, 1,000 women with training in fish-processing, storage, and conservation to diversify their livelihood, and assist 1,000 seaweed farmers with materials and technical capacity-building to restore seaweed farms.
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European Union, FAO continue rehab efforts to Yolanda victims
European Union leaders face heated negotiations today on a deal to toughen emission-reduction policies in the next decade and boost the security of energy supplies amid a natural-gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
The main challenge for the 28 heads of government will be to iron out differences on a strategy that ensures cheaper and safer energy while stepping up climate-protection measures. The agenda of the two-day Brussels summit, the final one to be chaired by EU President Herman Van Rompuy, also features a debate on the European economy and on measures to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.
Countries including Poland, Portugal, Spain, France and the U.K. have signaled that the outstanding issues that leaders will need to resolve at the gathering include sharing the burden of carbon cuts, the nature of energy targets and plans for power and gas interconnectors.
It will not be easy to reach an accord, many countries have energy problems, and some have re-opened coal mines, French energy minister Segolene Royale told lawmakers in Paris yesterday. But I think we will have the wisdom, the strength, and the sense of responsibility to reach an accord.
EU leaders plan to back a binding target to cut greenhouse gases by 40 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels, accelerating the pace of reduction from 20 percent set for 2020, according to draft conclusions for the meeting obtained by Bloomberg News. An agreement would ensure the bloc remains the leader in the fight against global warming before a United Nations climate summit in Lima in December and a worldwide deal expected to be clinched in 2015 in Paris, according to the European Commission, the EUs executive arm.
While differences among member states on the carbon target are narrowing down, leaders still need to resolve issues including emissions burden-sharing, which pits richer countries in western Europe against mostly ex-communist east and central European nations led by Poland.
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz has threatened to veto the planned EU deal unless it addresses her countrys concerns, including the risk of a surge in electricity prices. The biggest economy in central Europe wants assurances that its utilities will get some free carbon permits under the EU emissions trading system, or ETS, after 2020 and that the country will have access to funds for modernizing coal-based plants.
To pave the way for a compromise, the EU plans to renew a special carbon-permit reserve -- which yielded 2.2 billion euros ($2.8 billion) for renewable energy and carbon-capture projects over the past four years -- and extend its size and scope after 2020. It also aims to create a new fund, which would include between 1 percent and 2 percent of ETS allowances, to help finance investment in low-income member states, according to the draft conclusions.
The ETS, Europes key emission-reduction tool, imposes carbon dioxide limits on about 12,000 installations owned by manufacturers and utilities. Under the draft deal, emissions under the cap-and-trade program would fall by 43 percent by 2030 and discharges by sectors that it doesnt cover, such as agriculture, would decrease by 30 percent from 2005 levels.
A stormy debate is also expected today on two other elements of the draft 2030 energy and climate package: an EU-wide goal to boost the share of renewable energy by 27 percent and an indicative target to increase energy efficiency by 30 percent. While a group of countries led by Germany favors binding measures to reduce consumption of energy, the U.K. opposes it and may agree to an indicative goal only, according to two EU diplomats with knowledge of the matter.
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EU Braces for Battle to Set Energy Goals for Next Decade
Jean-Claude Junckers team of European Union commissioners is poised to win parliamentary approval today, allowing the handover of EU executive power to take place as scheduled on Nov. 1 amid simmering economic and foreign-policy troubles.
Junckers line-up was completed yesterday when the designated commissioners for energy-policy coordination and transport -- Slovakias Maros Sefcovic and Slovenias Violeta Bulc -- were given passing marks for their performances in European Parliament confirmation hearings. The full assembly is due to give its verdict on the whole new 28-member European Commission around midday in Strasbourg, France.
President-elect Juncker was forced to shuffle his team last week after Alenka Bratusek, Slovenias original nominee to the commission, withdrew following her rejection for the energy-union job because of a lackluster showing in her hearing. He gave Bulc, Slovenias subsequent nominee, the transport portfolio originally assigned to Sefcovic and moved Sefcovic to the energy vice-presidency post.
The Parliament made its point by demanding a minor change rather than shaking up the team, so its no surprise the new commission is on track to get approved, Sonia Piedrafita, an analyst at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said by telephone. The commission under Juncker, who was Luxembourgs prime minister for almost two decades until late 2013, is slated to serve a five-year term.
Junckers team will face new tests and unfinished business after the 10-year reign of Portugals Jose Barroso atop the commission, the EU executive arm that proposes and enforces European laws, monitors national economies, negotiates trade deals, runs a diplomatic service and administers the blocs 140 billion-euro ($178 billion) budget.
Barroso spent his first term absorbing countries in former communist eastern Europe into the EU and positioning the bloc as a leader in the fight against global warming. He spent his second term battling the sovereign-debt crisis that threatened to break apart the euro.
These have been exceptional and challenging times, Barroso told the EU Parliament yesterday in what was due to be his last address to the assembly. This crisis was probably the biggest since the beginning of the European integration process in the 50s.
Along with a pace of EU enlargement that has boosted membership to 28 nations from 15 over the past decade, the financial crisis has led to a surge in anti-European parties across Europe. This protest trend in nations including the U.K., France, Italy and Greece has challenged a longstanding pro-EU consensus, adding political uncertainty to European economic management and business regulation.
Junckers incoming commission faces an imminent test over applying EU budget-discipline rules to France, which is struggling to bring its deficit within the blocs limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product as a result of economic sluggishness. The euro area beefed up its fiscal-prudence rulebook at Germanys insistence during the debt crisis, providing a basis for more squabbles between the stick-to-austerity and go-for-growth camps.
The spotlight on Frances public spending will be even greater because the designated EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs is Pierre Moscovici, a former French finance minister. His appointment as EU economy czar ruffled some German feathers.
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Junckers EU Team Set for Parliamentary Green Light