Terrorism: France to stop citizens joining Syria war - EU member state Governments and EU parliament must also act

Aljazeera reported that France has unveiled steps to stop its citizens from joining the Syrian civil war and prevent young French Muslims from posing a threat to their home country.

France, which has been a staunch opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, estimates the number of its nationals directly involved in the Syrian conflict is about 500, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a radio interview.

President Francois Hollande has prioritized the crackdown on groups and individuals planning domestic attacks since a Toulouse-based al Qaeda-inspired gunman, Mohamed Merah, shot dead seven people in March 2012.

But with the Syrian conflict entering its fourth year, the government has increasingly come under fire for failing to stop its nationals - some of whom are as young as 15 - from heading to Syria.

"France will take all measures to dissuade, prevent and punish those who are tempted to fight where they have no reason to be," Hollande told reporters on Tuesday.

The Dutch Government also reported recently that two Dutch Muslim nationals, who are part of a group of at least 150 other Dutch citizens, who have joined radical Muslim groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda and others  in Syria,  blew themselves up in suicide attacks in Syria and Iraq.

As ISIS’s name suggests, the interests of the group and its current leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi go beyond Syria. Its members believe that the world's Muslims should live under one Islamic state ruled by sharia law. 

War and instability in Syria and Iraq have given it an opportunity to attempt to build a proto-state in the adjacent Sunni-majority areas of these two countries, before spreading further. 

Its 7,000 or so fighters in Syria have expended as much energy on consolidating the group’s rule in towns and cities behind rebel lines as fighting the regime. ISIS is willing to use ruthless tactics to assert its authority. 

Once in control of an area it has told women to cover up and kidnapped journalists, aid workers and Syrian activists. Beheadings and suicide bombings are now a regular feature of ISIS There are also many other EU Muslim citizen, including Germany and Britain, who have voluntarily joined radical Muslim groups like ISIS in  the Syrian conflict.

Many people fear that "rebel fighters" returning home to Europe will have become so radicalized that they could become a danger to their local societies.

There seems to be an urgent need for EU member state Governments and the EU Parliament to legislate laws which forbid and punish anyEuropean citizen for joining external conflicts or radical fighting Units.

EU-Digest

Energy-Fracking: British Poll finds: Wind farms more popular than fracking sites - Fracking dangerous to your health

Fracking good for the corporate world - but not for your health

More people would prefer a wind farm in their local council area than a fracking site, according to research published recently by YouGov for the renewables company, Ecotricity.

When asked “Which of the following energy projects or plans would you prefer to have operating in your council area”, 62% said a wind farm, 19% said a fracking site and 19% said they didn’t know.

The research found that a wind farm was more popular than a fracking site, regardless of political opinion.

The preference for wind farms was lowest UKIP and Conservative supporters and highest among Lib Dem and Labour supporters

Conservatives: 50% chose wind, 33% chose fracking, 17% did not know
Labour: 76% chose wind, 9% chosefracking, 14% did not know
Lib Dem: 78% chose wind,14% chosefracking, 8% did not know
UKIP (Eurosceptics): 41% chose wind, 36%chose fracking, 24% did not know

Interesting note about these figures is that the Conservatives and the right-wing UKIP Eurosceptics had the least understanding of what fracking is all about.

Women were more likely to support wind farms than men. The research found that among women, 68% of women would prefer a wind farm, compared with 9% who would prefer a fracking site. The figures for men were: 56% would prefer a wind farm, compared with 29% a fracking site.

Fracking was more popular in older people. According to the research, of those that preferred fracking over wind, 29% were over 60.

To watch a video on what Fracking does to the environment and your health click here.

EU-Digest

EU -Turkey: Economic integration should come first - by Angelo Santagostino

In the past fortnight, two interesting reports by the Independent Commission (IC) and the World Bank (WB) on Turkey’s relation with the EU have been released. Both give an insightful view of the situation concerning the bilateral relations between EU-28 and a negotiating candidate state such as Turkey. Both share a common view concerning the foreseeable developments of economic integration between both parties.

In the chapter on the Turkish economy, the IC states, “Beyond existing trade, there is much potential for trade between the EU and Turkey in the field of services and public procurement, as well as agricultural goods, were the EU-Turkey custom union to be extended to these two sectors.” This possible development however, was not resumed in the conclusion, where “a credible accession process” is considered the main road for Turkey “to jump into the high income country category.”

Nevertheless, no statement on the opening of Chapters 1 and 3 on the free movement of goods and on the right of establishment and freedom to provide services can be found in the report.

The IC calls for a reset in the accession process this year in order to generate an impact on reform (like the one of 2001-2) and considers that, “there is no better place to start than to open Chapters 23 and 24 in accession talks on the judiciary and fundamental rights, and justice, freedom and security.” 

Read more: EU-Turkey: Economic integration should come first - CONTRIBUTOR

Europe, Russia Ensnared in 'Energy Cold War,' Experts Say - by Alan Neuhauser and Paul D. Shinkman

Europe and Russia have become locked in an “energy cold war,” experts say, walking a razor’s edge between mutual economic dependence and “mutually assured economic destruction.”

“If someone makes a wrong move on this economy or energy war game, everyone can lose,” says Paul Sullivan, a professor of economics at National Defense University and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

“Europe depends on the Russians. The Russians depend on Europe. The question is who’s going to blink?”

The situation grew ever more precarious Thursday when Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to completely shut down the country’s gas pipelines to Ukraine — and, by extension, parts of Western Europe — if Ukraine didn’t pay off the $2.2 billion it owes the Russian-owned gas giant Gazprom.

Yet as much as a gas freeze would cripple the Ukrainian economy and hurt Western Europe, it would also affect Russia — and the consequences for both sides, if allowed to fester, could ultimately prove disastrous.

Read more: Europe, Russia Ensnared in 'Energy Cold War,' Experts Say - US News

Britain: Exit EU, Scrapping Regulations and Business Ethics to benefit Britain, says winner prize for "best UK exit plan" from EU

Corporate control, no rules and regulations,  no business ethics, manipulation of food through bio-engineering,  wile Government and people are left to the mercy of  powerful lobby groups. This is what Britain would look like, say some International Economists, if they would follow Ian Mansfield plan for quitting the EU.

But Britain's free market Institute of Economic Affairs thought differently applauded this plan recently by awarding a 100,000-euro prize to Iain Mansfield, a British diplomat based in the Philippines, who it decided had come up with the best blueprint for a 'Brexit,' a British departure from the EU.

Reuters reports that amid widespread public disenchantment in Britain about the EU's perceived over-bearing role in everyday life Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to give Britons a referendum on leaving the EU in 2017 if he is re-elected next year.

Many British opinion polls suggest a slim majority would vote to leave the 28-nation bloc and that the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) is on course to come first or second in elections to the European Parliament next month.

Mansfield said Britain could join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to avoid bureaucratic burdens on business linked to Britain's membership of the EU, saying it could position itself as somewhere between Switzerland and Turkey, neither of which are EU member states.

What Mr Mansfield, Eurosceptics and PM Cameron don't seem to understand is that" you can't have your cake and eat it too ! "

EU-Digest

While Ukraine crisis escalates many American's do not even know where Ukraine is located

The British Guardian reports today that pro-Russian activists in Ukraine's industrial centre of Donetsk have proclaimed their independence from Kiev and pledged to hold a referendum in the next month, provoking fears that Moscow could be orchestrating a second Crimea scenario in Ukraine's east.

"Seeking to create a popular, legitimate, sovereign state, I proclaim the creation of the sovereign state of the people's republic of Donetsk," said a man into a loudspeaker outside the seized regional administration building to a cheering crowd.

The protesters said they would hold a referendum no later than 11 May on the region's status, and also asked Russia to ready "peacekeeping troops", in a scenario reminiscent of the events that led to the annexation of Crimea last month.

In Kiev, the interim prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said events in the east were being carried out according to a script written in Moscow.

But is this "storm in a cup of soup" really important to the US or to Europe for that matter? The Washington post recently reported: "On March 28-31, 2014, we asked a national sample of 2,066 Americans (fielded via Survey Sampling International Inc. (SSI), what action they wanted the U.S. to take in Ukraine, but with a twist: In addition to measuring standard demographic characteristics and general foreign policy attitudes, we also asked our survey respondents to locate Ukraine on a map as part of a larger, ongoing project to study foreign policy knowledge. 

We wanted to see where Americans think Ukraine is and to learn if this knowledge (or lack thereof) is related to their foreign policy views. 

We also found that only one out of six Americans can find Ukraine on a map, and that this lack of knowledge is related to preferences: The farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the U.S.  to intervene with military force."

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: McDonald's Small Wrap Kills Dutch Teenager Following Allergic Reaction

McDonald's announced it has stopped the sale of a 'Small Wrap Saté' in the Netherlands following the death of a 17-year-old teenager after he got a severe allergic reaction in a McDonald franchise in Amsterdam  from eating the wrap.

The saté wrap, selling for €2 in the Netherlands, consists of  "fried chicken and onions in a spicy peanut sauce", kown in the Netherlands as.Saté sauce. Saté sauce, which has its origins in Indonesia, became a very popular sauce in the Netherlands and is even eaten there on french fries.

A spokesperson  for McDonald's confirmed the product has been withdrawn but declined to give any further information as to questions about warning labels on McDonald's products which contain peanut products or have been prepared in the vicinity of peanut products.

EU-Digest