EU, 23 million € for migrants

«We are not going to lose a generation», said Christos Stylianides

English version of my interview for QN

The refugee crisis cannot be handled by a single country, as well as cannot be addressed only in Europe. It has to be addressed also in its external dimension, as shown by the action fo the European Commission, where many different commissioners are involved in separate and different actions. One of these commissioners is Christos Stylianides, responsible for Humanitarian aids and crisis management. He explains QN why Italy cannot address the migration crisis alone why education in refugee camps is key.
Do you thing Italy is acting properly in managing the migration crisis both in Italy and abroad?
«As Europeans we have to face the refugee crisis together. And in Italy you know the facts as well as anyone. What is happening in Syria is the main source for the unprecedented refugee crisis. The conflict has triggered the world's largest humanitarian crisis worldwide since World War II, with Syrian refugees now accounting for the largest single refugee population in our generation. Considering the scale of this crisis, it's clear not a single country can handle this alone. We need a common European response, because the refugee crisis cannot be the responsibility of single member states but something we face together».
It has been said and repeated that education has to be one of the main tools to deal with the migration crisis. How to act in practice?
«I've been to Jordan and Lebanon one month ago and met Syrian refugee families. Today many families are leaving their country not only to get food or shelter, but also to give their children a future. To get access to education.I think we can all agree that education is a positive investment. In practice this means increasing our EU humanitarian support for education in emergencies to avoid a lost generation of young people. Education is an investment against radicalization. Teachers to give them important life skills and restore their hope for a better life».

Belgians and the king

He is the monarch of his nationals instead of being the ruler of the country, according to the title given by the crown. Welcome to a brief Belgian royal story

Coat of Arms of the King of the Belgians

by Emanuele Bonini

Belgians and the king. Not a movie title, but a real question to be addressed. In Belgium kings have always been ruler of a people rather than of the country. Every Belgian king is « the King of the Belgians». Does it mean Belgium is not a country at all? To answer this question we have to have a look on the history of the kingdom, a result of an external political decision taken during the post-restoration period. When the Belgium was created in 1830, the new independent State come from a secession and a independence war with the kingdom of the Netherlands, and immediately after the revolution Belgium was in the hands of a provisional government formed as a revolutionary committee. Political powers of that time were afraid the Belgians could establish a republic, then they decided to work on a compromise: neither restoration nor intervention, but the independence of Belgium was given only with a monarchist form of the State. Thus a king from the house of Saxe-Coburg family was established in the new country. The rivalry between the linguistic communities rose immediately, and the linguistic question is strictly linked to the royal family. Belgians and the king, as we said.
At the time of the Belgium revolution the majority of the population in the new State was Flemish and they were sure that the new king, coming from a Germanic house, could boost the Dutch as official language of the kingdom. On the contrary, the first language of the country became French, in a country with still today Dutch is the main spoken language. The ruling class of the country was a Catholic French-speaking aristocracy and the life style was more similar to the French one rather than the Dutch or the German one. Soon a strong nationalist spirit started rising in the Flemish community, as result of a political process where the majority of the population was culturally and economically marginalised.

Figures confirm EU relocation scheme doesn't work

click to enlarge

How is the relocation scheme working? It is not working, actually. Latest figures confirm the EU Member States don't deliver. Commitments remain just promises, migrants remains in Italy and in Greece, and the EU is marking and epic failure. As agreed in the previous months, governments were given time until the 31st of December in order to relocate all 120.000 migrants. At the beginning of December only 160 people have been relocated. The relocation mechanism doesn't work.

«Le Pen won because of austerity, not for terrorism»

President of S&D group at the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, talks about the elections hold in France, asking a new model of Europe

Gianni Pittella

English version of my interview for Eunews. (Click here to read the original Italian version)

Regional elections in France have seen a great victory of the far right party of Front Nation, the political party against some of the key pillars of the EU project such as Schengen and the single currency. Gianni Pittella, the president of S&D group at the European Parliament explained Eunews that in France terrorism and migrant have not been the reason behind Marine Le Pen's political victory, on the contrary these two elements were just the last drop in the glass. Europe, stated Pittella, is facing the consequences of years of austerity which have caused frustration among the European citizens. At the same time the EU produced inefficient policies as shown by the migrant crisis, where according to Pittella «those who don't participate to the scheme must be sanctioned in the same way countries are sanctioned in case of not compliance with the Stability and growth pact».
What does the French elections mean and which scenario can we expect for Europe?
«The real shock is we are shocked by the outcome. Front National won because of a very difficult social and economic situation which is lasting years producing a lot of victims within the SMEs, medium size enterprises and savers. It is not terrorism, it is years of austerity imposed to Europe by conservative governments to have granted the victory to Marine Le Pen. We have been repeating it since long time».
Is Le Pen's political party victory just an isolated French case, or can we imagine a domino effect in Europe?
«Discontent is very widespread in Europe, and such a discontent flows in movements that more than others can use this feeling through formulas which are simple and simplistic but easy to transmit to the citizens. At this point any tie amongst these movements are over. Marine Le pen and the Front National have nothing in common with Matteo Salvini, who just imitates his French colleague. The same applies to the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, who has nothing to share with the UKIP leader Nigel Farage. The real threat is that Europe can remain victim of national egoisms and fall into disintegration».

Senselessland (chapter 11)

Impressions and images from Belpaese

«Italy is a great country», loves repeating the minister of the Interior, Angelino Alfano. If you are open to non-sense, yes it is. Italy is that country where everything is possible, even the unthinkable. There has been en era of ministers labelling Italians as «big dummy boys»¹ instead of creating job opportunities, and there is a new contemporary era of ministers saying young people in Italy have not a stable position because of themselves. That what the minister for Labour and social policies was able to state few days ago², rather than remember the world that in democracy it is up to governments - and so ministers - to stimulate employment, creation of jobs, and the inclusion in the labour market. On the contrary, Giuliano Poletti explained in Italy young people suffer of «discontinuous careers and unstable work situations». And who is the responsible for all that? According to the Italian minister for Employment «it's the young people who must pay contributions if they want social security coverage». Maybe Poletti forgets that in normal conditions, with no undeclared work, contribution are paid by employers. So, why are only the employees obliged to pay contributions and not employers? And who should make compulsory for employers paying contributions, the ministers or the workers? Welcome to the paradox of having a minister of Labour not responsible for taking measures in the labour market.

Quotes

«They say "we are going to make a clean sweep". This is not the right-wing politics, this is the cosh. Italians cannot turn to the right-wing politics without falling into cosh».
Indro Montanelli, journalist, in "La domenica di Montanelli" (17th of March, 2001) 

«A bright future for Italians, not for Italy»

Indro Montanelli was journalist and historian. It is considered one of the greatest Italian journalists of the 20th century. In this short video he was asked about the future of Italy, and the answer well summarise the situation offering a picture of a country where nothing has changed. Here the full English transcript.

Question (journalist): What future will Italy have?
Answer (Indro Montanelli): Should I really tell?
Q: Let's try
A: No future for Italy. A country that ignores its past and doesn't care about its past cannot have a future. I remember a definition of Italy I received by one of my greatest job teachers, Ugo Ojetti, a former great journalist. He told me once «Haven't you understood yet? Italy is a country for contemporary men, with neither ancestors nor posterity because with any memory». I was 25 years old, and I considered these words as a sally, a paradox, then I realised Ojetti was absolutely right. Italy has an extraordinary history, but it remains unknown and unstudied. Italy is a country with no self-awareness. If you ask me «what future for Italians?», I would reply I expect a very bright future. For Italians, not for Italy! Italians are the most skillful ones to get in a international pot, because they lack of national barriers. First of all Italians are leader in certain professions. I have no doubt we will be the best shoemakers, the best tailors, the best hotel managers, the best cooks in Europe. I say with no negative sense: in slavish jobs we are totally unbeatable. But we are unbeatable not only there. The Italian individuality can impose itself in science, too. I'm sure Italian scientists, Italian doctors, Italian specialists, Italian physicists, Italian chemists will emerge once they will be in a European environment. Italians will impose their skills. But just the Italians, not Italy. Italy won't be there, because Italy is not there. Italians who go to Germany will become Germans.
Q: Are Italian so flexible?
A: Very flexible. Italians are not the Jews, who have been preserving their identity since 2.000 years. Jews remain Jews, Italians don't.
Q: Is this a fault?
A: A fault. And a virtue, too. I mean I don't see a future for Italy, while I see a bright future for Italians.

«We can't escape the challenges of global world»

Martin Schulz: in 2015 Europe discovered a world in trouble

Martin Schulz

by Emanuele Bonini

Finally Europe realised to be not a fortress, finally Europe understood to be nothing but a region in trouble in a world in trouble. Migrants and bombing attacks had woken the EU up from the dream of a magic land where everything appeared as possible and problems just somebody's else business. This is what the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has clear in his mind after the year 2015, as explained in this short interview.
President Schulz, is the EU in war?
«This year, the year 2015, marked a turning point in the EU policy. We have started the year with a terrorist attack (that one against Charlie Hebdo, in France, edit.) and we closed the year with the commemoration of the victims of other attack».
What is this turning point marked in 2015?
«In my eyes in the European citizens there has been a more and more awareness of the challenges we have in front of us, more and more awareness of the fact that we are in a global world with global challenges we can't escape. There are terror and migrants, but not only this. We live in a world with problems. Of course world can be made better, but many things we wanted to achieve haven't been achieved, and many things we wanted to improve have worsened».
The EU-Turkey agreement on migration can solve European problems?
«Turkey is a partner country of the European Union, and the agreement reached on Sunday is about Syrian refugees. We have to find a solution for the situation in Turkey, where refugees are safe».

Our future it's our choices

Maldives and China suggest us we can't complain for our risky action

Air pollution in Peking, China

by Emanuele Bonini

Is our destiny in our hands? Of course part of our future is up to us. This is something to keep in mind when, in the future, we could deal with tragedies, even (but hopefully not eventually) one the biggest tragedies of human history. Maldives and China can be just two examples of the self-determination of its own destiny. The archipelago of Maldives is extremely endangered by climate change. In case of ice melting, the ocean level will rise making of the country just a memory. In the recent past the former president Mohamed Nasheed called the global community to take concrete action in order to stop global warming and climate change, organising an underwater meeting of the college of ministers with the purpose of showing what can happen in case of ice melting. The highest altitude of Maldives is 2,4 meters on the level of the sea, and nearly 75% of the whole archipelago surface is at less than half a meter on the level of the sea. What about now? When Mohamed Nasheed performed his aquatic governmental meeting was 2009, now he is out of politics (he was imprisoned after a coup) and new rules apparently want to exploit the oil reserves of the country. As leaders of a sovereign country of course they can do it, but they have to take all the responsibilities for the future.
The same principles applies for China, where farms have been closed because of the incredibly high concentration level of polluting substances in the air. Nobody can force China to stop its industrialization, but of course nobody should be surprised if in the coming years breath diseases or cancer will raise. Our future depends (in part) on our choices, so when these are controversial be ready to accept the consequences. It is not just a question of cynicism, it is a matter of pragmatism. In other words, let's think before to not regret after. Unfortunately most of the contries of this world prefer give attention to the present rather than the future. That's a pity! Acting now is always possible, be in action in another moment not always is affordable.

Quotes

«Many things we wanted to achieve haven't been achieved, and many things we wanted to improve have worsened».
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, in his speech at the high level conference "The persecution of Christians in the world" (Brussels, 1st of December, 2015)