Netherlands: 61% of Dutch voters say no to ratifying EU-Ukraine deal "pushed down the throat of the EU by the US"

Ukraine Referendum: EU needs an independent foreign policy

The majority of Dutch people who went to the polls in the Netherlands on Wednesday April 6  to express their opinion on the proposed association agreement between the EU and Kiev have rejected it, preliminary results and exit polls have shown.

Sixty-one percent voted against the Netherlands ratifying the treaty, which would strengthen economic and political ties between the 28-nation bloc and Kiev, an exit poll conducted by the Ipsos center shows. Some 38 percent of the voters supported the move, the exit poll has shown.

If the turnout surpasses the 30 percent threshold, making the “no” vote valid, the government will reconsider ratifying the treaty, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has said.

"It's clear that 'No' have won by an overwhelming margin, the question is only if turnout is sufficient," Rutte stated. "If the turnout is above 30 percent with such a large margin of victory for the 'No' camp then my sense is that ratification can't simply go ahead."

Ukraine’s foreign ministry announced that it is examining the results of the referendum, but pointed out that it was a non-binding expression of public opinion and that it will wait for the Netherlands’ final decision on ratification of the EU-Ukraine deal.

“We are counting on the decision to be in the interests of Ukraine, the Netherlands and Europe,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa stated.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian opposition said that the results of the referendum represent disappointment with the Ukrainian government.

“This is like a cold shower for the Ukrainian politicians who believe that loud shouting and wild hopping is more important than efficient work,” Aleksander Vilkul, a leader of the Opposition Bloc Party, said. “This is an assessment to those who think that no one will notice excessive corruption.”

Although Rutte promised that a valid “no” vote would not go ignored, he said that the government would take its time in deciding exactly how to respond to the public’s opinion.

A political analyst in the Netherlands noted that this referendum result was not an Euroskeptic endorsement, as proclaimed by the right-wing Dutch anti-Islamist Geert Wilders, or a pro-Russian declaration, but rather an indication that the majority of Europeans are  tired of being dragged into US political and diplomatic "escapades", be it in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, or elsewhere, and rather prefer to follow an independent foreign policy.

EU-Digest

EU Tourism: Despite Terrorism Scares, Summer Tourists Still Plan European Trips - by Scott McCartney

When it comes to summer travel, a strong dollar and cheaper airline tickets are overpowering terrorism fears.

Travel agencies say they expect a very strong summer travel season, with bookings already filling up at top spots in popular destinations. Many of the best luxury rooms are already booked on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, according to Virtuoso, a network of travel agencies.

 As of Wednesday, the only options left at the high-end Santa Caterina hotel for July 9 to 16 on Expedia, for example, were suites starting at a steep $2,165 per night. Five other luxury hotels there are completely sold out for those dates, according to Expedia.

Paris tourism, hit hard by the November attacks, has rebounded significantly, agents say, though bookings for trips into France this year have been down about 7%, according to Travelport, which runs reservation systems for hotels and airlines. The Brussels bombings have also had limited impact, mostly because Brussels is a destination for business, not leisure.

“We’re kind of learning to live with this now. The traveler is much more resilient these days” in the face of attacks and diseases such as the Zika virus, says David Scowsill, chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, a London-based group of travel company leaders.

Read more: Despite Terrorism Scares, Summer Tourists Still Plan European Trips - WSJ

The Netherlands-Ukraine: The Dutch vote that could spell more trouble for the EU - by Natalie Huet

While we hear a lot about the upcoming referendum on Britain’s EU membership, a separate public consultation due on Wednesday (April 6) in the Netherlands has not made big headlines. Yet the vote is also set to be a tough test for the bloc.

On paper, the referendum is about saying yes or no to a European treaty deepening ties with Ukraine. The broad political, trade and defence deal is already provisionally in place, but it needs to be ratified by all 28 EU member states to come fully into force. The ball is now in the Netherlands’ court.

The referendum is not binding, but most Dutch parties have said they would respect a rejection by voters, which could plunge the EU into a crisis at a time when tensions with Russia are at their highest since the Cold War.

Read more: The Dutch vote that could spell more trouble for the EU | euronews, world news

The Netherlands: Dutch companies implicated in Panama Papers tax evasion scandal - by Janene Pieters

The Netherlands: home of the so-called shell companies

Two Dutch postbox firms are implicated in the so-called “Panama Papers” – the name given to a large-scale international investigation into documents leaked from a Panama based legal consultancy. The documents revealed letterbox companies used by politicians, businessmen and sports personalities worldwide to evade taxes.

The leaked documents revealed that Panamanian legal consultancy Mossack Fonseca helped a large number of billionaires from around the world channel their money into tax havens, which means that they hardly paid any taxes. At this stage it is unclear how many people are involved.

It now seems that at least two Dutch letterbox companies – companies that establish themselves in tax friendly countries with only a postal address, while conducting business in other countries – are mentioned in the Panama Papers, according to the Financieele Dagblad. The FD and Dutch newspaper Trouw are involved in investigating the Papers.

According to FD, the two Dutch letterbox companies are “sports marketing companies named in an indictment of the American judiciary against the high bosses of FIFA”. It is believed that they played a major role in payments to sports marketing companies in Latin America. “So it is suspected that the Netherlands was the linchpin in illegal payments, bribes, to senior FIFA people.”

The Netherlands is also mentioned in the Panama Papers in other ways. Rich Dutch also make use of the structures mentioned to evade taxes. And Dutch notaries, banks and trust companies are willing to set up such structures.

More information on exactly who is involved is expected later this week.

Note Almere-Digest:  The leak of millions of documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca has again focused attention on the Netherlands as a tax haven, Dutch media say on Monday. 

According to the Volkskrant, the papers, which reveal the tax evasion strategies used by politicians, sports stars and businessmen, show that Dutch shell companies are being used to make payments on the basis of fake contracts. 

Oxfam Novib tax expert Francis Weyzig told the paper the Netherlands has played a ‘questionable role in shifting money’. 

GroenLinks MP Rik Grashoff has called for a parliamentary debate on the revelations. ‘These show how important it is that the ownership of shell companies is public and that we should eventually start tackling the perverse practice of tax evasion,’ he said. 

The secret documents were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)

he leak of millions of documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca has again focused attention on the Netherlands as a tax haven, Dutch media say on Monday. According to the Volkskrant, the papers, which reveal the tax evasion strategies used by politicians, sports stars and businessmen, show that Dutch shell companies are being used to make payments on the basis of fake contracts. Oxfam Novib tax expert Francis Weyzig told the paper the Netherlands has played a ‘questionable role in shifting money’. GroenLinks MP Rik Grashoff has called for a parliamentary debate on the revelations. ‘These show how important it is that the ownership of shell companies is public and that we should eventually start tackling the perverse practice of tax evasion,’ he said. The documents were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Panama Papers leak focuses attention on Dutch shell firms http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/04/88080-2/

Read more: Dutch companies implicated in Panama Papers tax evasion scandal - NL Times

The Netherlands: Dutch Embassy in the US honors Kristof and McCain for human rights work

Nicholas Kristof, Cindy McCain and Dutch Ambassador
to the US,  Henne Schuwer with Anne Frank Poster

The Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC, USA and its friends in the US Congress recently honored Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof and human rights advocate Cindy McCain for their work fighting human trafficking and violations of human rights.

The ceremony took place at the US Library of Congress— and was part of the embassy’s Holland on the Hill initiative — Kristof received the Anne Frank Award, and McCain the Anne Frank Special Recognition Award.

“I’m thrilled by the award, and delighted that it shines a powerful light on issues like sex trafficking,” said Kristof, who’s written for the New York Times since 1984. “Human trafficking is one of those problems that thrives when it’s ignored, and the first step to addressing it is simply to rally attention — which the Anne Frank award does.”

Kristof has written extensively on human rights issues, using the power of the written word to raise awareness by linking human trafficking to modern slavery. Kristof’s reporting exposes trafficking and urges punishment for those responsible. His PBS documentary, “A Path Appears,” makes the viewer confront the devastating effects of human trafficking; it also explores the role poverty and gender equality play in making such trafficking possible.

More than 4.5 million people are trapped in forced sexual exploitation worldwide, says the International Labor Organization. In the United States alone, 20 percent of the 11,800 runaways reported last year were likely sex trafficking victims, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Dutch Ambassador Henne Schuwer praised the “lifetime dedication” of Kristof and McCain in the defense of human rights, telling his audience that the two “embody the resilient spirit that characterizes the life of Anne Frank.”

McCain, co-chair of the McCain Institute’s Human Trafficking Advisory Council, was honored for her commitment to educate the public on human trafficking. Working with two Senate Democrats — North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp and Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar — she has lobbied Congress to give the states incentives to adopt laws that emphasize prosecuting leaders of sex-trafficking rings, rather than the victims.

“I am deeply honored to be receiving this award and to share the stage with Nick Kristof,” said McCain, the wife of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). “It is so important that we continue to raise awareness for the fight against human trafficking. Even one child that is having a human trafficking experience is too many.”

Almere-Digest 

Terrorism: Study shows one-third of EU volunteer terrorists in Syria have returned home

Terrorism: report all suspicious activity to police

Almost 30 percent of EU citizens who joined the fight in Syria have returned home, according to a new study.

The study, prepared by the Hague-based International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, said that more than 4,000 Europeans had gone to fight in Syria, of whom 14 percent were confirmed dead.

French, Germans and Britons make up the highest number of foreign fighters from European countries in the ranks of armed groups in Syria, the study reported, but Belgium is the largest contributor in proportion to its population.

Europeans fighting alongside groups in Syria and Iraq have been high on the agenda of European security concerns for several years.

Returned volunteers have been involved in attacks in Paris and Brussels over the past 18 months, including last month's bomb blasts in the Belgian capital.

The study, however, maintained that "not all FF (foreign fighters) are terrorists, and not all terrorists are FF.
"Thus, not all returnees systematically present a danger to the societies to which they return," it added.

The researchers said that it was hard to understand the motivations of the returnees, but a previous study published by Dutch Security and Intelligence Service in 2014 offered various reasons for returning.

These included: "being disillusioned, being traumatised, (feelings of) betrayal, realisation of the atrocities, and regret, as well as having plans to recruit others or commit attacks in their countries of departure".

About 17 percent of them were female and 23 percent were converts to Islam, according to the latest study, published on Friday
.
Most came from urban areas or peripheral suburbs of the continent's cities.

Belgium - home to the attackers linked to last year's Paris shootings as well as last month's Brussels bombings - sent 41 fighters per million population.

Not only did Belgium contribute the most fighters compared to its population, but only 18 percent of them had returned, compared with 50 percent of those who had left from Denmark, the researchers said. Austria and Sweden followed in per capita terms.

In absolute terms, France was the largest source country for fighters who had left to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The study counted more than 900 of them.

Germany and Britain also contributed large numbers.

Note EU-Digest: the unanswered question which remains  is "how have the Governments of EU member states dealt with identifying these returning terrorists?"  It is imperative that at passport and immigration control sites immigration officers become far more serious, when screening single incoming young males and females from Middle Eastern decent, than they have been so far.  

In the meantime report all suspicious activities in your neighborhood or apartment building immediately to the police, The life you save could be your own.

Read more: One-third of EU fighters in Syria returned home: Study - AJE News

International Tourism: Portland, Maine Bach Festival will help put city on map as classical music destination - by Bob Keyes

City of Portland Maine

Lewis Kaplan, co-founder and longtime artistic director of the Bowdoin International Music Festival, plans to launch an early summer classical music festival in Portland that will celebrate the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and add to Portland’s growing reputation as a destination for classical music.

The inaugural Portland Bach Festival will run June 19-24 at churches in Portland and Falmouth. One concert, “Bach and Beer,” will be scheduled outdoors on the waterfront and feature Portland craft beers.

“I just started thinking, ‘I want to do more,’ ” said Kaplan, 82, who left Bowdoin after 50 years, during which he made the festival a leader in the education and refinement of young musicians from around the globe. “I am not retired, and I thought … Portland would be a very good place to do it, that the time was right.”

Portland will now be able to boast a summer full of classical music: the Bach festival in June, PORTopera in July and the Portland Chamber Music Festival in August. In addition, the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s reputation as a regional orchestra continues to grow, and the chamber festival is expanding to year-round programming.

Kaplan, senior professor of violin and chamber music at The Juilliard School, has had a long-term love affair with Bach. The festival will include four performances in baroque and modern styles, along with lectures and master classes.

There will be collaborations among musicians from Maine, New York and Europe, as well as performances by two Maine-based chamber vocal ensembles, the Oratorio Chorale and the St. Mary Schola.
Concerts are scheduled for The Episcopal Church of St. Mary on Foreside Road in Falmouth and the intimate Emmanuel Chapel at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Portland.

Appropriate performance spaces are key to the festival’s success, said Kaplan, who lives in New York and Brunswick.

“We live in a crazy world, and that is not an outrageous statement,” he said by phone from New York. “The idea of performing in a sanctified area and people finding peace and solace with some of the greatest music ever written, is reason enough to make this festival.”

Emily Isaacson, artistic director of the Oratorio Chorale, will serve as associate artistic director of the festival. She is a Brunswick native who now lives in Portland.

The festival will enrich the cultural offerings of the city, she said.

“Portland has become a world-class city, and a world-class city deserves world-class art,” Isaacson said. “People are coming to our state to see the incredible landscape, to enjoy the charm of our cobblestone streets and to dine in our fabulous restaurants. We want them to come for world-class music as well.”

Kaplan agreed. “The New York Times just wrote about Portland as a food destination,” he said. “Many of my friends in New York are looking for a reason to come to Portland.”

The festival benefits from Kaplan’s contacts in the music world. As he did when he ran the Bowdoin festival, he has recruited a dozen “major performers” from the United States and Europe, including Ariadne Daskalakis, a baroque and modern violinist from Germany; John Ferrillo, principal oboist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra; and Beiliang Zhu, who won the first prize and the Audience Award at the International Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2012.

Maine performers are Bruce Fithian, a tenor and director of the St. Mary Schola; organist Ray Cornils; and Amanda Hardy, first oboist of the Portland Symphony. The Oratorio Chorale will serve as choir in residence.

“We want to be measured against any of the top performers in the world,” Kaplan said. “These concerts had better be damned good from the start. That’s our standard.”

Kaplan said the festival will become an annual event.

Read more: Portland Bach Festival will help put city on map as classical music destination - The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram