- CHANNEL 24 YOUTUBE
http://WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/CHANNEL24BD, CHANNEL 24 BD, VIDEO PORTAL OF BANGLADESH, NEWS CHANNEL OF BANGLADESH,European Union #39;s new block over russia.
By: CHANNEL 24
Read more:
- CHANNEL 24 YOUTUBE - Video
EU Raises Pressure On Moscow With Tougher Sanctions
The European Union tightened sanctions on Russia on Friday over its role in the Ukrainian conflict--restricting access to financing for top Russian banks, defense, and energy firms, and freezing...
By: Newsloop Top News
Read the original post:
EU Raises Pressure On Moscow With Tougher Sanctions - Video
In a marked escalation of their sanctions campaign against Russia, the United States and the European Union hit the Kremlin on Friday with new penalties for its actions in Ukraine, targeting favored financial, energy and defense businesses.
The Western governments took steps to cut the flow of capital to these enterprises and to deprive the Russian energy sector, the foundation of the country's economy, of Western know-how and technology it needs to develop new energy fields. The measures will also sting for U.S. energy companies that have been dealing with Russian firms.
The West sharpened sanctions because of Russia's "direct military intervention and blatant efforts to destabilize Ukraine," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a statement.
But officials said the U.S. and Europe could roll back those penalties if Russia observed all the points of a proposed peace plan and respects the week-old cease-fire in Ukraine's embattled eastern region.
The Obama administration hit Russia's largest bank, Sherbank, for the first time and also sanctioned 10 government defense and energy firms. The European Union sanctions, in addition to its penalties on defense, energy and financial firms, extended asset freezes and travel bans on 24 individuals believed to be connected to Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
To dry up Western financing, both the U.S. and the EU have made it illegal for their companies to buy debt with maturity of more than 30 days from key Russian banks.
The U.S. sanctions bar American companies from providing goods or services for the deepwater, Arctic and offshore and shale energy projects of five Russian companies: Rosneft, Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil and Surgutneftegas.
The goal is to "effectively shut down this type of oil exploration and production activity," said an official who declined to be identified under ground rules set by the administration.
Among the U.S. firms that could suffer from the move is ExxonMobil, which has been working on a joint venture with Rosneft in the Arctic.
Analysts said this round of sanctions is likely to be especially painful to the Kremlin because it hits energy projects that are key to replacing fast-depleting Russian energy fields and also goes after state-run defense firms the government has been aiming to expand.
View post:
U.S., European Union target Russian energy sector with new sanctions
By Jenny Anderson
LONDON: Tremors over a possible breakup of the United Kingdom have been felt here in recent days, as markets gyrate and banks make contingency plans.
Yet as Scotland nears its vote on whether to be an independent nation, bankers here worry that a split might unintentionally set in motion a push for what could be a much uglier divorce: an exit of Britain from the European Union.
"There's a sense of, 'If it could happen in Scotland, it could it happen in the UK,'" said Chris Cummings, chief executive of TheCityUK, a lobbying group for the financial sector.
If an independent Scotland would be complicated, a Britain alone in Europe would be a complete mess, financial executives say.
"Certainly the more important of the two is the potential of Britain leaving the EU," said Brian Hilliard, the chief British economist at Societe Generale in London.
Britain, for many businesses, particularly financial services, is a gateway into the rest of the 28-nation European Union, a market of 500 million people, more than the United States and Japan combined. For businesses like Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, having a London office means having a passport for nearly all of Europe. Without that unfettered access, the free flow of capital, talent, and goods and services would have to be renegotiated.
"It is hard to be the gateway to the EU if you are not in the EU," Cummings said.
A diminished gateway status would hurt the financial industry, which accounts for 7 percent of Britain's gross domestic product and nearly 4 percent of jobs. Finance attracts more foreign direct investment than any other sector, and Britain attracts more foreign direct investment than any other member of the EU, according to TheCityUK.
Bankers worry that without the promise of all of Europe behind it, London - rivaled only by New York as the world's leading financial center - would not attract the same interest, and neither would Britain.
See original here:
If Scoltand goes, will Britain exit European Union too?
BRUSSELS: The European Union, Russia and Ukraine agreed on Friday to delay the implementation of an EU-Ukraine free trade pact until the end of next year, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said.
Ukraine will continue to enjoy privileged access to the EU market until that date, he said, but it will not have to cut duties on imports from the EU in return.
The move appears to be at least partly a concession to Russia, which fears the EU-Ukraine agreement will harm its industry.
It has been urging the EU to refrain from implementing the free-trade pact with Ukraine until its concerns over the agreement are addressed.
The EU-Ukraine free trade pact is the centrepiece of a wide-ranging political and trade agreement which has been at the heart of Ukraine's political crisis over the last year.
Moscow had threatened to introduce import tariffs on Ukrainian goods if Kiev went ahead with the planned trade agreement from Nov. 1.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had also asked the EU to consider allowing Kiev to delay reducing customs duty on EU exports coming into the Ukraine under the new pact, Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.
Allowing EU products more cheaply into the Ukraine market could initially create problems for the weak economy there.
"We will delay the provisional application of the (free trade agreement) until Dec. 31 of next year," De Gucht told a news conference after talks with Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
The EU will extend temporary tariff cuts it granted to Ukrainian products earlier this year until the end of next year, De Gucht said.
Follow this link:
European Union delays Ukraine free trade deal implementation to end-2015