EU - Saudi Relations: EP budget chair seeks clarity on Saudi lobbying and College of Europe - Nikolaj Nielsen

The EU-funded College of Europe must clarify its financial ties to Saudi Arabia, the chair of a powerful European Parliament (EP) budgetary committee has said.

The demand follows revelations last week by this website that the Saudis had paid the College of Europe to meet MEPs in a closed-door briefing at the EP as part of what the post-graduate institute describes as an "information or training exercise".

"This is clearly a type of action, which characterises a lobbyist organisation," said German centre-right MEP Ingeborg Graessle, who presides over the EP's budgetary control committee, in a letter sent on Wednesday (20 February) to College of Europe rector Jorg Monar and seen by EUobserver.

The Saudi-EP meeting on 19 February came less than a week after the EU parliament had passed a resolution condemning the abuse of human rights in Saudi Arabia.

It also followed recent moves by the European Union to put the Kingdom on a terror finance blacklist, as well as an arms embargo by Germany and several other EU states over the Saudi regime's murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.

"Bearing in mind that the College of Europe receives funds from the EU budget, we as the discharge authority of the EU, need to have a clear picture of your undertakings in order to safeguard the interests of EU taxpayers," Graessle said in her letter.

Read more at: EP budget chair seeks clarity on Saudi lobbying and College of Europe

BRITAIN: Theresa May to face ministerial revolt over a no-deal Brexit

Theresa May faces ministerial revolt over no-deal Brexit

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/21/theresa-may-faces-ministerial-revolt-over-no-deal-brexit?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

EU: Microsoft discovers Russian hacking campaign ahead of EU parliamentary elections

 

Read more at:

https://news.sky.com/story/microsoft-spots-russian-hacking-campaign-ahead-of-eu-elections-11642702

The Netherlands: Dutch economy braces for Brexit shockwave

'A bit messy on the other side': Dutch economy braces for Brexit shockwave

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/brexit-united-kingdom-netherlands-economic-impact-1.5021575

The Netherlands: British citizens in the Netherlands and Brexit: A quick update as to your status if Brexit happens

If you are a British expat or British national living in the Netherlands, the end of the uncertainty regarding your legal residence in the Netherlands post-Brexit is not yet in sight. The UK parliament voted down the Brexit Agreement and a No-Deal Brexit is closer than ever.

Brexit: If there is a deal

 

The right of residence for UK nationals living in the Netherlands or Dutch nationals living in the UK is no longer a topic of debate. If an agreement is reached in time, it is likely that the section on rights of residence will be taken from the voted down Agreement. You can find an overview of your rights in the case of an agreement here.

Brexit: if there is No-Deal 

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has made known what the rights of British citizens and their family members in the Netherlands are in case of a No-Deal.
During the transition period from March 29, 2019, until July 1, 2020, British citizens and their family members legally residing, working and / or studying in the Netherlands before March 29, 2019, will keep these rights of residence.

During the transitional period, you will need to apply for a Dutch residence permit. You will receive an invitation from the IND to apply for this permit. To obtain a Dutch residence permit, you need to comply with the requirements for residence laid down in EU Law:

• Employees or self-employed persons must continue to be employed or self-employed.
• Economically inactive residents must have sufficient resources not to become a burden on the social assistance system of the Netherlands and have comprehensive health insurance coverage.
• Students must be enrolled at a recognised private or public educational institution accredited or financed by the Dutch government, and have sufficient resources to not become a burden on the social assistance system of the Netherlands as well as have comprehensive health insurance coverage.

Once you have obtained a Dutch residence permit, you are not required to comply with any integration measures and you are entitled to work in the Netherlands without a work permit.

British students will retain their rights to statutory tuition fees and student finance if they meet the conditions applying to EU citizens.

After 5 years of legal residency in the Netherlands, you can apply for a Dutch permanent residence permit. If you already have a Dutch residence permit (temporary or permanent), nothing will change for you.

If you have an EU permanent residence permit, the IND will automatically change your permit to a Dutch permanent residence permit. IND will inform you as soon as your national permanent residence permit is ready for collection.

Do you hold another EU-nationality besides your UK nationality? You will keep your right of residence as an EU-citizen after Brexit if you continue to meet the requirements laid down in EU law.

You can find a complete No-Deal overview here.

Coming to the Netherlands post-Brexit

According to IND, you will need to fulfill the same conditions to obtain residency as any other non-EU citizen.

However, you will be exempt from the requirement to obtain a provisional residence permit (machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf or mvv) in order to travel to and enter the Netherlands for a potential long-term stay.

This means that you can first travel to the Netherlands and submit an application for residency after arrival.

Dual Citizenship

When it comes to Brexit, political initiatives have been tabled to allow British nationals living in the Netherlands to keep their UK nationality when obtaining Dutch nationality and vice versa. However, the outcome of these initiatives is most uncertain.

Luckily, the current Dutch Nationality Act already creates the possibility to obtain dual citizenship.

In case you have any further questions relating to Brexit or dual citizenship, you can contact  the Dutch Government IND office or a legal office specializing in Dutch immigration laws.

EU-Digest

Poland: PM withdraws from Israel visit after remarks by Benjamin Nethanyahu

Polish prime minister withdraws from Israel visit

Read more at:

https://aje.io/bys7y

Agri-Finance:The Major Players in Agri-Finance - by Shawn Williamson

A few years ago an accountant I know told me about some of her clients. They were a couple of guys on a mission to assemble hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. farmland for a Canadian pension fund. That’s when I started to realize there’s a lot more going on in the world of agri-finance than you hear about. Here are some of the big players in the agri-finance universe.

The types of players include banks that specialize in agricultural loans, non-bank finance companies that do land and equipment loans, farmer-owned lending co-ops, REITs that own and manage farm real estate, private equity funds that buy cropland, sovereign wealth funds, and, of course, pension funds.

One of the big agri-finance players, the Dutch Rabo AgriFinance in Chesterfield, Missouri, is headquartered only half an hour from my office. I recently sat down with their executive vice president, Curt Hudnutt, to talk about their market share in ag lending and the overall condition of agricultural loans. Rabo makes land, operating, and equipment loans. The company also sells crop insurance and offers commodity price hedging.

One of my goals was to show you the five largest agricultural lenders in the United States. Sounds easy, right? It isn’t. You have to pull together data from the Federal Reserve and beyond, and you have to specify the criteria. Are you talking about banks that do more than half of their lending to farms, dollars in farm real estate loans, number of farm loans, or some other metric? I think the fairest way to rank them is by how many dollars in ag loans a retail lending entity held as of the end of the most recent quarter. I thought this list would just be five large banks, but I was wrong. Here are the top five ag lenders as of September 30, 2018:

1. Farm Credit Services of America (ACA)
2. Farm Credit Mid America (ACA)
3. MetLife Insurance
4. Rabo Agrifinance / Rabo Bank NA
5. Compeer Financial (ACA)

Read more at The Major Players in Agri-Finance | Successful Farming