EU: Lebanon crisis overshadows EU aid for Syrian refugees - by Nikolaj Nielsen

Perched on the side of a mountain some 50km from the Syrian border, St John's monastery in Lebanon is home to around a dozen hermits and priests.

A printing press that published books in Arabic, the world's first, can still be found within its halls.

Today, the monastery has become an educational refuge for Syrian children hoping for a future that was removed from them when the regime under Bashar al-Assad indiscriminately dropped barrel bombs on his own people.

In one class of around a dozen children, a 10-year old girl calls out the letters of the alphabet in French. Some have never attended school before.

Learning French is among many obstacles they face in an effort to insert them into a wider Lebanese public school system where they'll be segregated and most likely bullied.

"One of the main reasons why [Syrian refugee] children are out of school in Lebanon is language," said Poppy Alice Hardee, an area manager for the NGO, Terre des Hommes Italia.

Public schools in Lebanon are taught in English and in French, depending on the area, which puts Syrians at an immediate disadvantage.

Israel-EU: Netanyahu arrives in Brussels accusing the EU of “hypocrisy” over Jerusalem

Reaving for Europe on Saturday, the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out against European “hypocrisy” over Jerusalem.

The Israeli Prime Minister was visiting Paris on Sunday, a capital of a traditional ally which on Friday he described as “the lion’s den.” In a joint press conference with President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, he argued that Jerusalem is just as much the capital of Israel as Paris is of France.
Netanyahu is expected in Brussels on Monday December 11.

His European mission follows President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US Embassy. The US President has not specified any borders within the city, but has deviated from a decades old diplomatic consensus that held that Jerusalem’s final status would be the result of a negotiation with the state of Palestine.

Both the French President Emmanuel Macron and the EU foreign security chief Frederica Mogherini have condemned the recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel. On Saturday, the United States was isolated in the UN Security Council as eight of the 15 members – including Russia, France, Sweden and the UK – condemned Washington’s position, reiterating their position on Jerusalem’s final status.

Read more: Netanyahu arrives in Brussels accusing the EU of “hypocrisy” over Jerusalem

The Netherlands - Health and Technology: Philips Expands its Population Health Management Business with the Acquisition of VitalHealth

Royal Philips a global leader in health technology, today announced that it has acquired VitalHealth, a leading provider of cloud-based population health management solutions for the delivery of personalized care outside of the hospital, for example, in regional care networks. Headquartered in the Netherlands, VitalHealth's products and services are being used by more than 100 healthcare networks in various countries including the US, India, China, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The company was founded in 2006 by Mayo Clinic (US) and Noaber Foundation (the Netherlands) and employs approximately 200 employees. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

 "This strategic acquisition complements our current offering in population health management, and supports our commitment to deliver integrated solutions for care providers and patients to improve people's health," said Carla Kriwet, Chief Business Leader of the Connected Care & Health Informatics Businesses at Royal Philips. "As a pioneer in comprehensive population health management solutions, we are committed to help drive business transformation for providers, health systems, employers, and payers transitioning to value-based care. VitalHealth will help us deliver on that commitment by strengthening our offering for care coordination, outcome management and patient engagement."

"We are delighted and proud to become part of Philips," said Laurens van der Tang, CEO of VitalHealth. "It will accelerate our mission to enable better health for millions of people around the world. Our digital health solutions are highly complementary to the ones that Philips provides. Together, we have the potential to become the undisputed global leader in population health management. This is a very positive development for VitalHealth's customers and employees."

As care moves from the hospital to lower cost settings, including the home, there is a need for a more holistic approach to healthcare. Population health management is a proactive approach to improving health and reducing costs for entire patient populations. It involves the aggregation of patient data across multiple health IT sources, smart analytics to understand the health needs of the population, navigation and coordination of care within that population, and engagement with each individual patient to improve both clinical and financial outcomes.

In line with its strategy to deliver integrated solutions across the health continuum, from healthy living and prevention to diagnosis, treatment and home care, Philips has been expanding its population health management business.

Building on the acquisition of Wellcentive in 2016, Philips already successfully offers health informatics to import, aggregate and analyze clinical, claims and financial data across hospital and health systems.

Its offering also includes patient engagement programs involving telehealth, personal emergency response and medication management. VitalHealth has a successful portfolio of telehealth applications to give patients the tools they need to play a more active role in their own care. Additionally, VitalHealth has a care coordination platform for care providers to integrate patient information across care settings, and it has the capability to aggregate data from different information systems to provide quick insights into the total population.

VitalHealth's offering will complement Philips Wellcentive's solution to help improve patient outcomes, as the combined portfolios will enable healthcare providers to better identify and manage high-risk, high-cost patient populations. Moreover, VitalHealth's platform will strengthen Philips’ HealthSuite digital platform, the company's digital enabler for the next generation of connected health solutions.

Read more: Philips Expands its Population Health Management Business with the Acquisition of VitalHealth

France to launch bottom-up consultation for European reform – by Cécile Barbière

Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious plan, announced during his presidential campaign, could take shape from May 2018, said a parliamentary report presented on Thursday (7 December) by Valérie Gomez-Bassac (La Republique En Marche) and Michel Herbillon (Les Republicains).

“We are aware of the difficulty of the process, but we were elected with a clear European mandate,” said Sabine Thillaye, chair of the European Affairs Committee in the French Parliament.

According to the report, the mobilisation of citizens could be a two-step process. First a vast online consultation, which would ask citizens some generic questions about the future of Europe. This would be followed by local debates in the interested member states.

Among the questions that would be submitted to the citizens, the deputies listed very general topics:

    What are the values of Europe?
    What do you expect from Europe in your daily life?
    What change do you expect from Europe?

“We propose online consultations ahead of physical debates because we have to change the scale to reach more citizens,” said Michel Herbillon.

These general questions could be supplemented by some more specific issues, depending on the country. In each state, a national steering committee would then trace the result of the debates to “a committee of European elders”, led by the European institutions, “which has the technical expertise and would guarantee a certain neutrality” explained Michel Herbillon.

This centralised committee would be responsible for distilling the main priorities defined by the citizen process.

To develop this methodology, MPs conducted hearings in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Ireland, and Estonia: “We were welcomed, although in some countries, such as Poland and Hungary, there may be some reluctance. But democratic conventions cannot afford to shut off Europe’s critics. We must not marginalise critical states in this process,” said Michel Herbillon.

To formalize the idea, the French representatives imagined that heads of state and government could adopt a declaration on the sidelines of a European summit, with a charter defining the main principles of these democratic conventions.

“Emmanuel Macron has already discussed with Angela Merkel,” said Herbillon, who hopes to see the subject on the table at the European Council in March 20

Read more: France to launch bottom-up consultation for European reform – EURACTIV.com

Suriname: Commemoration of Martyrs Killed by Bouterse Regime in December 1982

A sad day, December 8, in the history of Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the North Eastern Coast of South America, when 15 prominent young Surinamers were killed during a three day period 7, 8, 9, December of 1982 by Desi Bouterse, the then Military Dictator of Suriname and his henchmen.

Commemorations of this sad episode in the Suriname history were held in Paramaribo, Suriname, and Amsterdam, in the Netherlands today.

 Desi Bouterse who today is the "President" of Suriname, was condemned in June 2017 by a Suriname court to 20 years imprisonment for this hideous crime, however, he laid the judgement aside on June 30th 2017, saying "God put me here and no Judge can remove me". 

Giving these unmistakable facts, it has been recommend that whoever wants to honor these brave martyrs and protest against this unacceptable crime, should direct an e- mail with the following Text; "I respectfully request to know why Mr. Desi Bouterse is still the President of Suriname, after he was condemned in June 2017 to 20 years in prison for having been directly involved in the December 1982 murders of 15 prominent Suriname citizens Thank you, and sign your name.
 
The e-mail should be addressed to: suriname@un.int 
with cc's to InfoDesk@ohchr.org and to information@icj-cij.org
 
May these 15 martyrs Rest in Peace and always be remembered.

Almere-Digest

Europe – A World-Class Place To Live And Work? -by Juan Menéndez-Valdés

A world-class place to live and work.’ That is how President Juncker described Europe at the summit to formally proclaim the EU Pillar of Social Rights in Gothenburg last month.

And he added: ‘Europe is more than just a single market, more than money … It is about our values and the way we want to live’.

So how do we live? Do the 510 million Europeans across the current 28 Member States really feel that their living conditions are ‘world-class’?

Certainly, many do. But many others still face inequalities and feel excluded or insecure, worry about access to decent housing and jobs and wonder about the future for themselves and their children. This is reflected in growing populist sentiment that seems to reject the Establishment, making the general narrative on Europe appear largely negative.

But, as always, the reality is significantly more complex.

In fact, the last few years have been generally good and the ‘wind is (indeed) back in Europe’s sails’.

The results from the most recent European Quality of Life Survey show overall progress in the areas of quality of life, quality of society and quality of public services. We have seen improvements for many, although from low points following the economic crisis. Indeed, in some cases, the indicators finally display a return to pre-crisis levels – reflecting, in part, the general economic upturn and return to growth across the Member States.

Levels of optimism have risen, and life satisfaction and happiness ratings have remained generally high in most EU countries. Satisfaction with living standards has increased in a majority of Member States and more people can now make ends meet than was the case in 2011.

Trust in national institutions has actually increased across the board and young people in particular show greater trust in other people. The welcome growth in engagement and participation in social and community organisations across Member States and the decline in feelings of social exclusion, which were more prevalent in the downturn, are also signs of a more positive post-crisis environment.

Indeed, perceived tensions in society between poor and rich people, management and workers, old and young persons and men and women, have all declined during the last five years.

Older people indeed fare less well than their younger counterparts, particularly in some central and eastern European countries, and age clearly contributes to decreasing life satisfaction in Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia. In two-thirds of the EU Member States, more than half of respondents also have concerns about their levels of income in old age.

In fact, despite growth that has seen fewer people reporting material hardship compared to five years ago, over half of the population in 11 Member States still say they have difficulties making ends meet.

This is marginally down on the 13 Member States where the majority of people expressed difficulties making ends meet in 2011 , but still more than 2007 levels. As always, the poor suffer most, and the results show that quality of life has improved less for those in lower income groups.

Read the complete report: Europe – A World-Class Place To Live And Work?

EU releases tax haven blacklist; Netherlands not on it - Aruba and Curacao on Grey listcao - by Janene Pieters

The European Union published its black list of tax havens. It consists of 17 countries the EU believes help multinationals and rich people avoid the tax authorities. The Netherlands does not appear on the list - no EU countries do. But Aruba and Curacao, which form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, were placed on a "gray list" - they have two years to implement promised improvements, or they'll be blacklisted, the Volkskrant reports.

This blacklist was compiled following journalistic revelations about large scale tax evasion by multinationals, entrepreneurs, politicians and others from documents like the Panama papers, the Paradise papers, Lux leaks and the like. After over a year of negotiations, the EU member states agreed to put 17 countries on the blacklist, including Panama, the United Arab Emirates, the Marshall Islands and Grenada. The countries on this EU blacklist can be penalized with trade barriers, stricter controls, loss of EU subsidies and additional tax levies, according to the newspaper.

In addition to the blacklist, the Member States also agreed to put 47 countries on a gray list. These countries promised enough improvements not to be blacklisted immediately. They have a maximum of 2 years to implement these improvements, or they will be moved to the blacklist. In addition to Aruba and Curacao, these countries also include Hon Kong, Taiwan, Turkey, the Cayman Islands, the Seychelles, Guernsey and Andorra.

European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici of Economic and Financial Affairs emphasized that these lists were compiled by the Member States and not by the European Commission. It is up to the Member States themselves how they handle their taxes, and the Member States can decide whether to impose sanctions against the countries on the black list. The Commission tried to impose an obligation to do so, but it failed.

The Socialists and Greens in the European Parliament called the list weak, according to the newspaper. The Greens believe that Member States like the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Great Britain and Cyprus should also be on the blacklist. "It is sad that the member states have shown so little courage and responsibility", PvdA European Parliamentarian Paul Tang said to the Volkskrant. He added that the cry of indignation about tax evasion was smothered in the back rooms of Brussels.

Last week development company Oxfam Novib also said that if the criteria for non-EU countries were also applied to EU member states, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta would all be blacklisted. The company referred specifically to the Netherlands' sweetheart tax deal with American coffee giant Starbucks.

Last year the Netherlands was reprimanded by the European Commission for allowing Starbucks to avoid almost 26 million euros in taxes through the Netherlands. Despite the Dutch government's objections, the Netherlands had to reclaim that money from the American coffee giant. 

Read more: EU releases tax haven blacklist; Netherlands not on it | NL Times