Press Cartel: Google launches digital news project in Europe

The Digital News Initiative launched on Tuesday is a partnership between Google and eight European news publishers aimed at supporting quality and innovative journalism.

The project brings together German media outlets Die Zeit and FAZ, Les Echos in France, UK's the Financial Times and The Guardian, as well as NRC Media in the Netherlands, Spain's El Pais and La Stampa in Italy.

Carlo D'Asaro Biondo, head of Google's strategic relationships in Europe, said in a statement that the partners would focus on product development, innovation as well as training and research, while setting up a working group to "increase revenue, traffic and audience engagement."

As part of the initiative, Google will spend around 150 million euros ($160 million) on various digital projects over the next three years.

Some publishers such as Germany's Axel Springer and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, however, have stayed away from the venture.

But welcoming the initiative, Tony Danker, international director of Guardian news and media, said the test of the initiative's success was "whether it leads to meaningful change to ensure journalism flourishes in the digital age."

The move by Google follows the company's recent decision to change the way it will handle searches from mobile devices. The firm's search algorithm now gives higher priority to sites that optimize their content for small screen mobile devices.

The new partnership also comes at a time when Google finds itself in the midst of mounting criticism in Europe.

The European Commission recently announced it was probing the Mountain View-based firm for alleged anti-competitive practices and distortions in its search results. Google faces fines of up to $6.6 billion if the charges are proven. Google, however, has strongly rejected the accusations.

Read more: Google launches digital news project in Europe | Business | DW.DE | 28.04.2015

The Netherlands - Insurance Industry:Merger VMDeerenberg and KOSTER Insurances b.v

VMDeerenberg in Bodegraven and KOSTER Insurance b.v. in Alphen a/d Rijn announced they have agreed to cooperate and merge their activities. As a result of this merger, a large consulting company in the area of risk management, damage and revenue insurance, pensions and mortgages services, has been created right in the center of the Netherlands, known as the “Green Heart”. 

For Wim Koster, the CEO of Koster Insurances b.v. this merger is a logical move. After 30 years of service and having built a profitable, pro-active and solid corporation together with his spouse and business partner Jolanda of Mil, Wim says: "We have chosen for VMDeerenberg because we believe that through them we can provide continued good and reliable services and security for our clients and to our employees. VMDeerenberg seeks these same values, as we move along in the coming year, and continue our progress."

For Herman Broere, owner of VMDeerenberg, the merger with KOSTER Insurances b.v. is a welcome addition to his company: "Wim Koster, and Jolanda van Mil have built a large and reputable retirement advisory and insurance company, and besides having an excellent reputation, KOSTER insurances unique automated online support systems are able to address and communicate all administrative and retirement solutions electronically in 'real time' .This is very distinctive and unique in the market." 

To guarantee the transparency of this merger VMDeerenberg Holding B.V.'s name will be changed into VMD KOSTER Group B.V.  Consequently as a result of this merger VMD KOSTER Group B.V., including their sister companies employ 66 people. Premium income is EUR 50 million. The company presently has over 30,000 clients and services some 70,000 policies through VMDeerenberg or KOSTER in management.

Mortgage sales amount to more than EUR 47 million. Turnover from billings, subscriptions and fees are EUR 5.2 million. The locations of operation of VMD KOSTER Group B.V are in Alphen aan den Rijn and Bodegraven in the Netherlands

EU-Digest

Britain - Elections Miliband leads ‘new generation taking charge of Labour’

Edward Samuel Miliband, aged 45, leads a party of waning fortunes since Tony Blair held power. He is on record as saying he believes he is the best person …“to move us on from New Labour… to get back in touch with the concerns of working people.”

Some of course call him ‘Red Ed’, given his Marxist father and his left-wing mother.
Their Oxford and London School of Economics-educated son, however, won the support of the unions while sticking up for middle income earners, vowing tax cuts and better services with accountability.

In a rousing speech, he said: “Everything in this manifesto is funded. The deficit will be cut every year. And I offer this manifesto as proof — a better plan, for a better future for our country.”

Ed Miliband’s older brother David, policy chief for Blair and then foreign minister under Brown, eased out of politics when Ed won the Labour leadership in 2010. Ed had left a journalist career behind him and now became head of the Opposition, record young, at 40. David seemed not to bear him any hard feelings.

Miliband was favourable to devolving authority to lower levels of government, although critics on the left complained he was too far right, yet slowly the party began performing better. Labour also won more seats in the European elections, ahead of the conservatives though behind UKIP.

Read more: Miliband leads ‘new generation taking charge of Labour’ | euronews, world news

EU Parliament: More than 30,000 lobbyists and counting: Brussels under corporate siege

When the Polish MEP Róża Thun was elected five years ago, she thought the job would be fairly straightforward. She hadn't reckoned with the lobbyists.

Take mobile phone charges. She saw the fact that EU citizens pay eye-watering sums in other EU states as an anomaly that needed fixing. But it wasn't that simple. "We had telephone companies and lobbyists who started to invade us," she recalls. "They obviously didn't want to reduce roaming charges because it would hit them in the pocket."

To stroll around the vast, ugly and permanent building site that is Brussels' European district is to brush up against the power of the lobbies. Every office block, every glass and steel construction within a kilometre of the EU Commission council and parliament is peopled by some of the globe's biggest corporate names.

Thousands of companies, banks, law firms, PR consultancies and trade associations are there to bend ears and influence the regulations and laws that shape Europe's single market, fix trade deals, and govern economic and commercial behaviour in the European Union of 507 million people.

Lobbying is a billion-euro industry in Brussels. According to Corporate Europe Observatory, a watchdog campaigning for greater transparency, there are at least 30,000 lobbyists in Brussels, nearly matching the 31,000 staff employed by the European commission and making it second only to Washington in the concentration of those seeking to affect legislation. Lobbyists sign a transparency register run by the parliament and the commission, though it is not mandatory.

By some estimates, they influence 75% of legislation. In principle, lobbyists give politicians information and arguments during the decision-making process. In practice, the corridors of the parliament often teem with individuals, who meet MEPs in their offices or in open spaces such as the "Mickey Mouse bar" (nicknamed so because of the shape of its seats) inside the parliament.

They explain their concerns, provide a "position paper", and send in suggestions for amendments to legislative proposals. Of course, the final decision is taken by MEPs. But examples are legion of the tail wagging the dog.

Lobbying is such a crucial part of the climate in Brussels that it has spawned manuals, a documentary (Who Really Runs the EU?) and even "the worst lobby awards". Not surprisingly, the biggest movers and shakers agitate for the biggest industries with the most to gain – and lose – from European legislation.

Basically, if you are in Bruxelles or Washington - the lobbyists have taken over and politics have not much to do with Democracy anymore.

EU-Digest

Greece - Power Play: Tsipras ready for reforms, to replace Varoufakis in bailout talks

As Greece moved closer toward bankruptcy, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras seemed more eager to strike a deal with his international creditors.

Tsipras was finally ready to cut pensions, speed up privatizations and increase Value Added Tax (VAT) in luxury islands like Mykonos and Santorin. These proposals would be soon presented to the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), media reports said on Monday.

"We need to find a solution by mid-May," Nikos Filis, parliamentary representative of Tsipras' party Syriza said on Greek radio.

Tsipras was finally ready to negotiate after he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem in separate phone calls on Sunday. He then met Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, causing the media in Greece to speculate that Varoufakis might eventually be removed from the position of chief negotiator in Greece's talks with its creditors.

Tsipras' decision could be traced back to a Eurogroup meeting in Riga last week, where eurozone finance ministers accused Varoufakis of being a "gambler" and leading his country in the wrong direction. "They want his head," said a headline in the Greek daily Ta Nea.

Euclid Tsakalotos, the deputy foreign minister, would henceforth lead all bailout talks for Greece, Tsipras said. However, Varoufakis would still remain finance minister, although his close confidante was being replaced with Nikos Chouliarakis, who has worked with the IMF, the EU and the European Central Bank before.

Read more: Tsipras ready for reforms, to replace Varoufakis in bailout talks | News | DW.DE | 27.04.2015

EU telecoms reform to address competition from WhatsApp, Skype - by Julia Fioretti

The European Commission will take into account increased competition from cable operators and alternative services such as WhatsApp (FB.O) when it overhauls Europe's telecoms rules next year, a move that will be cheered by the telecoms industry.

A draft seen by Reuters of the Commission's strategy for creating a digital single market says telecom operators compete with "over-the-top" services "without being subject to the same regulatory regime".
"It is necessary to design a fair and future-proof regulatory environment for all services," the document says.

The bloc's telecom firms such as Orange (ORAN.PA) and Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) have long called for lighter-touch regulation, after years of declining revenues and competition from new entrants, to enable them to invest in network upgrades.

Telecom companies point to increased competition from services such as Skype (owned by Microsoft (MSFT.O)) and online messaging as a reason for easing the regulatory burden.

Considering Skype, or any other "voice-over-IP" application, as a substitute for traditional phone services could lead to those companies being subject to the same obligations as traditional operators, such as offering emergency calls.

The new European executive, which took office in November, has made investment in superfast broadband a priority. But incumbent telecom operators say the current set of rules does not provide incentives to invest in their networks. The Commission will unveil its proposals for an overhaul of the telecoms framework in 2016, the document states. Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip is expected to unveil his digital single market strategy on May 6.


Read more: EU telecoms reform to address competition from WhatsApp, Skype | Reuters

Europeans Fight U.S. Trade Deal With Fear of McHospitals, Fracking Under Eiffel Tower (and they should)-by Leo Cendrowicz

It will afflict Europe with American abominations on an almost Biblical scale: cheap and dirty food, toxic waste, mind-numbing movies and television, gas-guzzling cars, all while scrapping healthcare and erasing labour rights.

That, at least, is how angry European activists are painting a planned trade deal between the European Union and the United States. A legion of horrors has been evoked about an agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, which is currently under negotiation.

Dozens of groups have sprung up to oppose the planned pact, like Stop TTIP (whose website describes the deal as “a corporate coup that will put power and money into the hands of corporations and away from the elected government.”) and No TTIP (“TTIP would lock in the privatization of our public services, erode government protection for people and the environment and threaten a new round of unjust economic reforms forced on the poor”).

U.S. and E.U. officials are currently in New York this week for their ninth round of talks to hammer out the details of deal. But on Sunday, tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Madrid, Helsinki, Warsaw, Prague and other cities in simultaneous colorful demonstrations against TTIP.

Europe’s anti-TTIP campaigners characterize the plans as a diabolical plot to allow the likes of McDonalds to take over hospitals, Exxon to frack under the Eiffel Tower, and Google to take over parliaments. “It’s the most contested acronym in Europe,” admits Cecilia Malmström, the E.U. trade commissioner, who is in charge of the European side of the negotiations.

Work on TTIP will continue for the moment. Planned for over a decade before its formal launch in 2013, the negotiations are expected to last at least another two years. But the real test will come when the ratification process begins in European and American legislatures – some 898 amendments have so far been proposed in the European Parliament’s TTIP wish list.

 If anger continues to swell, it could dilute TTIP or derail it completely. If that happens, TTIP’s many opponents would celebrate. Whether their interests would be served by the trade pact’s demise is another matter. But even TTIP’s supporters accept that in its current form, the agreement has become a lightning rod for almost every European discontent.

Read more: Europeans Fight U.S. Trade Deal With Fear of McHospitals, Fracking Under Eiffel Tower - The Daily Beast