Bratislava EU meeting: Merkel says

bloc in 'critical situation'

30 minutes ago

From the section Europe 16 Sep 2016 BBC News

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Media captionCitizens from Ireland, Latvia, the UK, France, Lithuania, and
Germany give the BBC their views on the future of the European Union
The European Union is in a "critical situation", the German
chancellor has said, as leaders meet in Slovakia to discuss ways
to regain trust after the UK's vote to leave the bloc.
Angela Merkel said they needed to show they could improve on security,
defence co-operation and the economy.
But EU countries are deeply divided over how to bolster growth and
respond to the influx of migrants.
Meeting in Bratislava without the UK, they will not discuss Brexit talks.

Eastern leaders offer new menu at EU crisis talks

What has the EU learnt since Brexit?
All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU

"We need solutions for Europe and we are in a critical situation," Mrs
Merkel said as she arrived at the gathering.
"You can't solve all Europe's problems in one summit. What we have to do
is show in our deeds we can do things better in the realms of security and
fighting terrorism, and in the field of defence."

'Brutally honest'
Even though Britain's referendum result is not on the agenda, and British
Prime Minister Theresa May is not attending the summit, there is little
doubt that Brexit will overshadow the meeting.
French President Francois Hollande said: "Either we move in the direction
of disintegration, of dilution, or we work together to inject new
momentum, we relaunch the European project."

Heavy on symbolism, light on results: By

Katya Adler, BBC Europe editor
Donald Tusk is hoping for a public show of unity among the 27 nations of
the EU following Britain's vote to leave in June.
Mr Tusk wants to restore EU stability and credibility with the bloc in the
face of a migrant crisis and issues with the euro currency. But European
leaders are divided, their voters sceptical.
Central and Eastern Europe want powers back from Brussels. Northern
nations view the south as a eurozone liability. Mediterranean countries
balk at German austerity edicts.
So on Friday they will stick to subjects they agree on and those they feel
are relevant to voters' concerns: migration, security and globalisation.
The hard stuff, such as a future trade deal with Britain and how to save
the single currency, will be left for another day.
Katya Adler: The EU's Bratislava blues

Earlier, Donald Tusk, the European Council President, called on EU leaders

to assure citizens they had learned lessons from Brexit and were able to
"bring back stability and a sense of security".
He urged them to take a "sober and brutally honest" look at the bloc's
problems.
Media caption All EU member states flags are flying in Bratislava apart from the
Union Jack, as Ros Atkins reports
The EU response to the influx of migrants is one of the most contentious
points among members.
The summit host, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, is one of a group of
central and eastern European leaders who object to the EU quota system
which distributes migrants across the EU.
He has said Slovakia will not accept "one single Muslim migrant" and has
mounted a legal challenge to the scheme.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (right, with Mr Tusk) has made it clear
his country does not want to take a share of the migrants coming to
Europe
On Tuesday, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn called for
Hungary to be suspended or even expelled from the EU because of its
"massive violation" of fundamental values, specifically the government's
treatment of refugees.
For France, the priority is border security in the wake of a number of
Islamic extremist attacks in the country.

Is Angela Merkel's political capital running out?

Hollande: France's democracy will beat barbarism

France and Germany have outlined plans to deepen European military cooperation, which were reinforced in the State of the Union address by
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday, in
which he called for a European military headquarters.
The UK's departure from the EU removes one of the biggest obstacles to
stronger EU defence in tandem with Nato.

Image copyrightAFPImage captionAll eyes will be on Bratislava castle

(pictured right), and the EU's ability to move forward with Britain left out
The one-day Bratislava meeting is set to be the first in a number of
confidence-building meetings where a "roadmap" should be set up to
culminate in a summit in March in the Italian capital Rome, when the 60th
anniversary of the EU's founding Treaty of Rome will be celebrated.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37380429

Eastern leaders offer new menu at EU

crisis talks
By Rob CameronBBC News, Prague
13 September 2016

From the sectionEurope

Related Topics
Europe migrant crisis

Image copyrightAPImage caption Bratislava Castle: Slovakia plays host at

a momentous time in the EU's history
Leaders of 27 European Union countries meet in the Slovak
capital Bratislava on Friday - without the UK - to discuss a postBrexit EU.
Some believe the meeting could reveal an ideological split between old
and new, between the established order of Europe's more federalist west
and a "counter-revolution" spearheaded by conservative nationalists and
populists in the east.
Divisions over the migrant crisis, observers say, could show the true depth
of the schism.
Poland's Beata Szydlo has two roles. As Poland's prime minister, she
represents 40 million people, many - like herself - devout Catholics.
But Poland also holds the rotating chair of the Visegrad Group, an informal
alliance of four Central European countries. So in a sense she speaks for
the whole region.
Visegrad, says Mrs Szydlo, has "enormous potential" and "a recipe for the
EU" to bring it closer to its disenchanted citizens in the wake of Brexit.
That recipe, she says, will be unveiled in Bratislava.
But what is that recipe? What binds these four countries, beyond a
penchant for smoked meats and sour cream?

Image copyright AFPImage caption PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is the

power behind Poland's Prime Minister Szydlo (foreground)
Pressure for change
In a sense Mrs Szydlo is merely the waitress. She takes her orders from
the master chef toiling away in the kitchen; Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the frosty
head of Poland's ultra-conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS).
He is adamant that neither Poland nor the rest of Europe should take
orders from Germany, especially on the migrant crisis. Instead, he says,
more power should be devolved to the EU's national parliaments.
"Should we wait for the strongest to act? But as a matter of fact there is
only one such strongest," Mr Kaczynski told a recent economic forum in
the Polish town of Krynica, in a veiled reference to Poland's western
neighbour.
"Or should we take the initiative? I am in favour of taking the initiative.
"For this counter-revolution to be conclusive, there must be some changes
in the EU itself, its structure, its decision-making process," he went on.
Many EU colleagues will bridle at that suggestion; Warsaw has received a
formal warning from the European Commission over judicial reforms seen
as a threat to the rule of law.
Image caption Hungarian border fence at Roszke: Muslim migrants are
unwelcome
Brexit vote revives dream of EU army
Migrant vote sparks Hungarian poster war
The castle where a Central European bloc was born

Fiery goulash
Sitting beside Mr Kaczynski was Viktor Orban, Hungary's outspoken,
firebrand leader. If Mr Kaczynski is the sous chef of the "cultural counterrevolution" being cooked up in Warsaw and Budapest, Mr Orban is very
much the chef de cuisine.
"Brexit is a fantastic opportunity for us," said Mr Orban, who has
expressed his wish for Hungary to become an "illiberal" state and speaks
openly of hordes of Muslim migrants besieging Christian Central Europe.
"We are at a historic cultural moment," said Mr Orban. "There is a
possibility of a cultural counter-revolution right now." Hungary will hold a
controversial referendum on 2 October, when voters will be asked whether
the country should reject binding EU refugee quotas.

Pork and dumplings

In Prague, the menu is stodgy at times, but less likely to induce heartburn.
The Czechs also reject EU migrant quotas, and agree with their Visegrad
colleagues on the need to increase security and strengthen the EU's
external borders.
Image copyrightTHINKSTOCKImage caption Dumplings, cabbage and
pork: Not too much Hungarian paprika for Bratislava
But the Czech tone is far less confrontational (with the exception of the
openly Islamophobic President Milos Zeman). There is little appetite here at least inside the cabinet - for abandoning liberal democracy just yet.
"We know very well things we agree on - and these we defend vigorously.
But from the very beginning, 26 years ago, we also agreed to disagree,"
the Czech State Secretary for EU Affairs, Tomas Prouza, told the BBC.
"So we never draw bad blood by trying to force any of the Visegrad Four
countries to accept something they are not comfortable with. This makes
us strong, because we focus on things we consider crucial for the region.
And then we are free to pursue other issues separately if needed," said Mr
Prouza, the prime mover behind Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka's EU
policy.
Image copyrightAFP Image caption Viktor Orban (L) and Robert Fico
strongly oppose the EU scheme for redistributing refugees EU-wide

Banquet host
Which brings us to Slovakia's Robert Fico. It is his restaurant - at least until
Christmas, when his country relinquishes the presidency of the EU. He
called this informal EU meeting (it is not a "summit" because not everyone
has been invited), and it is the first outside Brussels in many years.
Prime Minister Fico too often reaches for the hot sauce. He thundered that
Slovakia would not accept "one single Muslim migrant" and has mounted
a legal challenge to the EU refugee quota scheme.
But like his Czech counterpart, Mr Fico is a pragmatist - acutely aware of
the risk of angering or alienating big, powerful countries and the European
Commission. Weakened by political scandal at home and a recent double
heart bypass, he is keen for Friday's banquet at Bratislava Castle to be a
success.
"The Slovak EU presidency will not associate itself with anything like that
[the Orban-Kaczynski 'counter-revolution']", said Milan Nic, research
director at Bratislava's Globsec Policy Institute.
"The Czechs are neighbours of Germany, and they're very worried by the
rhetoric coming out of Budapest and Warsaw," he told the BBC.

"Also, remember, Mr Orban will be alone in Bratislava. The partner on the

Polish side will be the very weak PM, Mrs Szydlo.
"Messages were passed behind closed doors at the Visegrad summit... not
to disrupt Bratislava. I think it is now understood."

Brexit vote revives dream of EU army

By Jonathan MarcusDefence and diplomatic correspondent
9 September 2016

From the section Europe

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption Brexit could pave the way
for development of the embryonic EU army
The British decision to leave the European Union in the wake of
the Brexit referendum has given renewed impetus to the idea
that the EU should have its own army.
The UK - by far the most capable European military player, along with
France - has always been a brake on such an idea, fearing unnecessary
duplication with Nato.
The UK went along with EU plans up to a point. A British army light
mechanised infantry unit (2nd Battalion the Yorkshire regiment) currently
forms the core of one of the EU's 1,500-strong battle groups: a rapidreaction force capable of being deployed to a crisis zone at short notice.
In fact over recent years the UK has also stepped up defence co-operation
with France - a natural partner, given the scale of their military ambitions.
Indeed, defence was the sector in which the UK was perhaps the strongest
EU player, in part to compensate for Britain's absence from other core
issues of European business - the common currency, the project for ever
greater political union and so on.
But Britain's view was that EU defence co-operation should only go so far.
Nothing should be done to reduce the primacy of Nato and money should
not be wasted on duplicating things that the transatlantic alliance was
already doing.
This - broadly speaking - is the US view too.
What matters in Washington is European defence spending and capability.
The willingness (or as he would see it unwillingness) of America's
European partners to pay more for defence is a key element in the
Republican candidate Donald Trump's critique of Nato.

But now, with the UK in the departure lounge for EU exit, a number of
European leaders are reviving the idea of a stronger EU defence identity summed up in the phrase, "a European army".
Image copyrightAFPImage captionLithuanian troops in Pabrade: Nato has
stepped up exercises in the Baltic region near RussiaImage
copyrightAPImage captionCreating an EU army may be a way to improve
the EU's image, battered by the migrant crisis
This has long been the ambition of the most ardent eurocrats. Back in
March 2015, European Commission President Jean-Claude
Juncker declared that a common European army was needed to
address the problem that the EU, as an international player, was not
"taken entirely seriously" in the world - not least in Moscow.
The Brexit vote has opened the floodgates to the idea. The prime
ministers of Hungary and the Czech Republic have urged the EU to
build its own army. Only this week, German Defence Minister Ursula von
der Leyen, who was visiting Lithuania, declared that "it's time to move
forward to a European defence union which is basically a 'Schengen of
defence'."
This reference to "Schengen", the EU's open borders agreement,
prompted one defence expert I know to comment wryly that it was pretty
rich to talk about a "Schengen of defence" when Schengen had effectively
allowed thousands of refugees to "invade" EU territory.
But an EU army is back on the agenda and it is unlikely to go away.
Nato fears fast-moving Russian troops
Is the West losing its edge on defence?

EU setbacks
The UK's Brexit vote was a blow to the EU's sense of itself.
The EU has already been battered by its failures to deal adequately with a
series of crises: from the Greek bailout to the wave of refugees heading
for Europe's shores. It is perhaps understandable that the EU's advocates
are looking to bolster its standing by moving ahead in other areas.
But it is crucial to realise that there is more politics here than strategic
thought. What exactly does "a European army" mean? Sending soldiers
into harm's way is perhaps the ultimate sovereign decision a government
can take.
Countries enter into alliances like Nato (or indeed the EU itself) because
pooling resources provides greater capability and thus security.

But there is no Nato army as such, just national forces integrated into a
common command structure. They only become Nato forces in the event
of a conflict.
Sections of the British press that hyperventilate whenever the idea of an
EU army comes up miss this essential point: that the term "EU army" is
largely meaningless.
But more European defence there will be. There is already a patchwork of
defence arrangements - some bilateral, some multilateral, some in the EU
and many involving Nato as a whole.
If this leads to more defence and better defence it is probably a good
thing. If it leads to political posturing and duplication then the sceptics
may be right - and the only person who may be happy is Russian President
Vladimir Putin, watching it all from the Kremlin.

Juncker's EU army idea - a useful

distraction?

Katya Adler BBC News Europe editor

9 March 2015

From the section nEurope

Image copyrightAFPImage caption Jean-Claude Juncker's European

Commission has not helped smooth choppy waters in the EU
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has caused
quite a stir by recycling the idea of forming an EU army.
But rather than focusing my mind on external threats, his comments got
me thinking about all the internal battles the EU is facing.
The notion behind a common foreign policy, never mind a joint military, is
for the EU to speak with one forceful voice on the world stage.
But the 28-member bloc is currently a cacophony of fractious squabbling:
over how to deal with Russia, how to battle illegal immigration, how to
face off the prospect of deflation and of course, how to handle Greece... to
cite just a few of the divisions.

Greek farce
Greece and its woes were at the top of the agenda at a meeting of
eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday.
Greece's outspoken finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has just darkened
storm clouds even further by threatening to hold a referendum if the
Greek government's reform programme is now rejected.
Defence Minister Panos Kammenos went so far as to rage that Greece
would then "flood" Europe with refugees, including potential Islamic State
members.

Image copyrightREUTERSImage caption Greek Finance Minister Yanis

Varoufakis has threatened to hold a referendum if Greece's terms are not
met
President Juncker's Commission hasn't helped smooth the choppy EU
waters much either.
While tiny Greece believes it's being sacrificed on the altar of the German
austerity model, the EU Commission recently let influential EU members
France and Italy off the hook again for not sticking to budget deficit rules.
Their finances cannot be compared directly to Greece, but the incident
served to heighten tensions, a feeling of injustice and suspicions of
divergent visions inside the EU.
French and German soldiers have trained together as a joint 2,100-strong
brigade
The army card
Forming an EU army is not a new proposal. And every time it resurfaces, it
is quashed almost immediately.
Note the swift rejection by the British government.
Perhaps, in making headlines with EU army talk, Mr Juncker is following in
the time-honoured tradition favoured by world leaders of trying to divert
attention abroad when all is not well at home.
It's an extremely useful tool.
President Francois Hollande, for example, has suffered the worst
popularity ratings on record of any French leader.
He is well known for making big gestures on the world stage, such as
recently standing alongside Germany to work out the Minsk ceasefire
agreement on Ukraine with Russia.
However, speaking with one voice will never come easy to 28 very
different nation states.

We need a European army, says JeanClaude Juncker

9 March 2015

From the section Europe

BBC News

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionJean-Claude Juncker said

with its own army the EU could respond more credibly to threats
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called
for the creation of a European army to face up to Russia and
other threats.
Mr Juncker said such an army would restore the European Union's foreign
policy standing and show it is serious about defending its values.
It would not be in competition with Nato, he insisted.
A UK government spokesman said defence was a national responsibility
and there was no prospect of a European army.
Mr Juncker has voiced support for a European army before but he
suggested Russia's military action in Ukraine had made the case much
more compelling.
"With its own army, Europe could react more credibly to the threat to
peace in a member state or in a neighbouring state," he said in an
interview with German newspaper Die Welt.
He added: "One wouldn't have a European army to deploy it immediately.
"But a common European army would convey a clear message to Russia
that we are serious about defending our European values."
Image copyrightEPAImage captionNato warships are currently deployed in
the Black Sea amid the conflict in Ukraine

The EU has come in for criticism for its response to Russia's annexing of
Crimea last year and support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Juncker argued that inter-governmental force Nato was not enough
because not all members of the transatlantic defence alliance are in the
EU.
He said a common EU army would send important signals to the world and
the purchase of military equipment would "bring significant savings".
The 28-nation EU already has battle groups that are manned on a
rotational basis and meant to be available as a rapid reaction force. But
they have never been used in a crisis.
EU leaders have said they want to boost the common security policy by
improving rapid response capabilities.
But Britain, along with France one of the two main military in the EU, has
been wary of a bigger military role for the bloc, fearing it could undermine
Nato.
A UK government spokesman said: "Our position is crystal clear that
defence is a national, not an EU responsibility and that there is no
prospect of that position changing and no prospect of a European army."
But German Defence Minster Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the idea.
"Our future as Europeans will at some point be with a European army,"
she told a German radio station.

More on this story

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What has the EU learnt since Brexit?

Gavin Hewitt Chief correspondent BBC News

12 September 2016

From the section Europe

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES EU AND BRITISH FLAGS
An American politician once advised "you never let a serious crisis
go to waste". So has the EU learnt any lessons since the British
vote to leave the union?
This is a week to reflect on the state of the union with a speech and
debate in Strasbourg and then a summit in Bratislava on its future without
the distracting Brits in attendance.
Before the referendum in June, Brexit was judged to be the most serious
crisis facing the EU. Now no-one is so sure. It is a widely-held view that the
malaise goes deeper, that there is a crisis of legitimacy. And the questions
are more fundamental - can the European project rediscover its verve and
confidence or is it shaken and wounded?
There is no leadership, however, and there is no appetite for grand
visions.

World Questions: Brexit and Europe

Brexit: At-a-glance briefing

Brexit vote revives dream of EU army

Brexit: EU's growing impatience over UK's lack of clarity

Angela Merkel was Frau Europe but she is diminished. Probably
prematurely, but the end of the Merkel era is being openly debated in
Germany. Her refugee policy has split the country. For the first time since
World War Two, a right-wing party managed to harvest more votes than
the centre-right in a recent election.
And, in any event, the decision to offer asylum to large numbers of
refugees was a German and not a European invitation.
Former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing once said that "Europe
cannot move ahead without the Franco-German engine" but there are
significant differences between Berlin and Paris.

Francois Hollande's authority has been weakened by successive terrorist

attacks and his failure to modernise and revive the French economy. He is
deciding whether he'll even be a candidate in next year's French elections.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe strains from the
eurozone crisis are still apparent
The far-right party, the National Front, is buoyant in the polls and promises
a French referendum on membership of the EU. Marine Le Pen is unlikely
to reach the Elysee Palace but French voters do not seem in the mood for
European dreams.
In recent years the EU has struggled to escape its tangled problems. The
strains from the eurozone crisis are still sowing divisions. The economy is
recovering and unemployment is falling but the fear of economic
stagnation has not lifted.
Italy is struggling with non-performing loans and a banking crisis potentially now the most serious crisis facing the EU - Portugal could need
a second bailout and Greek debt is still equivalent to more than 170% of
economic output, a problem parked but not resolved.
These challenges are likely to be massaged and, with an election year
approaching in Germany, there is little appetite to offer more financial
assistance or for further eurozone integration.
What the economic problems testify to are the new fault lines dividing the
continent.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThere have been calls for
some eastern EU states to do more for refugees
The so-called Club Med countries are weary from years of low growth and
high unemployment. They want an end to austerity and to bend the rules
intended to return discipline to the eurozone. The stability pact is fraying
and that troubles countries to the north like Germany, the Netherlands
and Finland.
And then there is an East-West divide. To the East lie the so-called
Visegrad countries - Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.
Over the refugee crisis they have defied Brussels and calls to share the
burden. But the divide runs deeper. They are increasingly resistant to
embracing the multicultural society that defines much of Western Europe.
The refugee crisis is unresolved. The migrants are still coming but far
fewer are making the journey across the Aegean from Turkey. Thousands,
however, are making the perilous journey from Libya. Europe is still
without a convincing policy and the arguments over refugee quotas
continue.

So what is to be done? Some are inclined to relaunch the project, while

others believe they must demonstrate their ambition to the world - that
despite the departure of Britain, the project is expanding.
So this week in Bratislava there will be a discussion about defence and
security. There are plans to build a new Brussels headquarters for
European battle groups, although officials insist this is not a step towards
a European army.
The sceptics will say that it smacks of the old EU way; build the
institutions first and the funding and policies will follow.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionThe EU is debating its future
scale and ambitions
The big divide, the major fault line, is over destination. It is in the DNA of
Brussels and many foreign ministries that destiny lies in ever-closer union.
There are, however, voices arguing that deeper is not always better, that
less can mean more, that flexibility is a virtue and not a weakness, that
the light touch can be more effective than micro-management, that the
answer to every problem cannot necessarily be "more Europe".
These pragmatists argue that the EU has huge reservoirs of goodwill.
Even in a country like Greece that has seen its economy shrink by 26%
there has always been a majority for staying in the both the EU and the
eurozone. Hungary has repeatedly argued with Brussels but there are no
moves to leave the EU. The attachment to belonging to the European
family should not be underestimated.
Although 48% of Europeans are worried about migration, the principle of
freedom of movement of people remains popular. The pragmatists say you
can keep the principle while building in flexibility.
There is an understanding that the EU needs some popular initiatives. It
has to become a "champion of the people" as one Brussels official put it
and needs less ideology and more delivery. Why not "listen to the people
on migration" the official asks.
So this week some European leaders will be arguing for smaller projects
that deliver value for the European voter.
The test of the EU is whether it can deliver prosperity and security. Can
the union control migration? Can it restrict the movement of terrorists?
Can it protect its external borders?
This week we'll get a glimpse of what the EU has learnt from the shock of
losing one of its members.

Czechs and Hungarians call for EU

army amid security worries

26 August 2016

From the sectionEurope

Related Topics
Europe migrant crisis
Share
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Hungarian troops patrol a razor-wire fence on the
Serbian border to keep migrants out

Migrant crisis

Anatomy of a shipwreck

Remarkable reunion

Greece's stranded refugees fear being forgotten

Europe's migrant story enters new phase

The leaders of the Czech Republic and Hungary say a "joint European army"
is needed to bolster security in the EU.

They were speaking ahead of talks in Warsaw with German Chancellor

Angela Merkel. They dislike her welcome for Muslim migrants from outside
the EU.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "we must give priority to
security, so let's start setting up a joint European army".
The UK government has strongly opposed any such moves outside Nato's
scope.
The Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak leaders are coordinating their
foreign policy as the "Visegrad Group".
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said building a joint European
army would not be easy, but he called for discussion to start on it.

The EU has joint defence capabilities in the form of 1,500-strong battle

groups, but they have not been tested in combat yet.
Last year European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for
a European army to give the EU muscle in confronting threats from
Russia or elsewhere.

Post-Brexit planning
Slovakia will host an informal EU summit on 16 September to consider the
EU's future without the UK.
No UK minister will attend, as the Conservative government is preparing
the ground for Brexit, in line with the 23 June vote to leave the 28-nation
bloc.
"Brexit is not just an event like any other - it's a turning-point in the EU's
history, so we have to frame a careful response," Mrs Merkel said.

Germany wants the Visegrad countries to help house refugees from

conflict zones, especially Syria, Iraq and Eritrea, but they oppose an EU
quota system.
Germany took in more than a million non-EU migrants last year - a record
influx.

New Hungary fence

Hungary and Slovakia are suing the European Commission at the
European Court of Justice (ECJ), calling its quota scheme for distributing
refugees illegal.
Hungary will hold a referendum on 2 October aimed at showing majority
opposition to quotas.

Hungary's migrants pushed back into Serbia

Hungary and the smugglers' route through Europe

Mr Orban announced plans on Friday to build a second razor-wire fence,
taller and stronger than the first, along Hungary's southern border with
Serbia.
The second fence would be to keep out any future wave of migrants
arriving from the Balkans.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest says Hungary currently allows around
30 people a day through two transit zones built into the existing fence.
Migrants live in wretched conditions beside the fence, waiting to be
allowed through, he reports.
Others pay people smugglers, who bribe police on both the Serbian and
Hungarian side.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all
people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of
claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries
such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as
people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely
to rule are economic migrants.

Visegrad: The castle where a Central

European bloc was born

By Nick ThorpeBBC News, Hungary

21 February 2016

From the section Magazine

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Comp, grammar or private - where did these people go to school?

Red tape turns mayor into town cleaner

The Central European countries of the Visegrad Group - the Czech

Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - emerged as a bloc noone can ignore at this week's European summit. But now that the
group is finally pulling its weight, might it also pull Europe apart?
There are seven Visegrads on my map of Europe - not surprising as it
means "high castle" in Slavic languages - but only one in Hungary. The
River Danube turns 90 degrees here. The tip of Szentendre island
stretches in midstream, bare shingle when the water level is low, a
swirling onslaught of driftwood caught in the willow branches, at full flood
- while overhead, the castle peers down at the river like the captain on the
bridge of his ship, appearing and disappearing in the mist.
This is a place which invites lofty plans. In 1335, Charles Robert, King of
Hungary, John of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia, Casimir the Third of
Poland and assorted Bavarians, Saxons and Moravians met here to clinch
a trade alliance against the Austrian Hapsburgs. They didn't hurry
summits in those days. This one took a leisurely three-to-four weeks.
Some 180 barrels of wine, and 2,500 loaves of bread were on the menu.
In February 1991, in the wake of the collapse of communism, I came here
to witness the birth of the Visegrad Group of countries - Czechoslovakia,
Hungary and Poland. The idea was that they would help each other in
their efforts to join the European Union.

Image copyrightAFPImage captionLech Walesa has a drink (left) before the

press conference at Visegrad in February 1991, while Vaclav Havel
(bottom) turns and glances behind him
When I asked the leaders some innocuous question at the press
conference, Lech Walesa, the founder of the Solidarity Trade Union,
snarled his response. "If you're so clever," he said, "why don't you become
President of Poland?" Even Vaclav Havel's attempt to answer my question
didn't heal my wounded pride.

Not much came of the Visegrad Group then. They were too busy
competing to be first in the club, though in the end they all joined
together, on Mayday, 2004.
The other day they marked their 25th anniversary, with a birthday party in
Prague. Now, at last, the Visegrad four - Hungary, Poland, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia - have a common purpose. Strangely though, it's a
negative one: to keep the migrants out of Europe.

The air is thick with the din of battle. "Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to
persuade Turkey and Greece to slow the flow of migrants will never work!"
they say. "The idea of flying 300,000 carefully screened refugees each
year into Europe, to stop them risking their lives at sea, will dilute
Christian Europe!" They've also issued an ultimatum: if the Merkel plan
isn't working by mid March, they will join forces with Macedonia and
Bulgaria to shore up Europe's defences on their own, sending Hungarian
razor wire, and police and soldiers to defend a wall as tough as the Israelis
have built in the occupied West Bank.
The hope of the Visegrad countries is that behind this wall, Europe, and
especially the Schengen group of countries, can return to normal - a
border-free zone where we can all travel freely and trade nicely with each
other, as we did before. Instead, many in Europe blame the Visegrad
group for sabotaging German-led efforts to reach a Europe-wide
agreement: managing the in-flow of genuine refugees at acceptable
levels, and dividing them fairly. That dispute, along with David Cameron's
efforts to reform the European Union, has driven many to doubt the future
of such a disparate bunch of 28 nations. The irony is that, by finally pulling
their weight, the Visegrad countries actions may have the opposite effect a Europe falling apart into clusters of countries going their own way - just
when the British government thought it had found a solution to the puzzle
of British membership.

Image copyrightAFPImage captionJournalists scramble to speak to a Polish

minister at the European summit

"The European model is dead," Jean Michel de Waele of the Free University
of Brussels told the website, Euractiv. "Our future model should be based
on a core of six or seven countries that are capable of real political union."
The solidarity he believes lies at the heart of the Union, is not shared by
the countries of Central Europe. Instead, he wrote, "they are dripping with
visceral xenophobia".
At the roadside in Asotthalom in southern Hungary last August, before
Hungary erected its first, archetypal fence, I met a group of weary
migrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo. I'm still in touch with
several. Eric is in Paris, and due to be deported back to Hungary any day
now. Aristote is in France too, in a town run by the anti-migrant Front

National, after months living rough on the streets of Brussels with his
pregnant wife. Their baby was born last month. Her name is Taslimah derived from the Arabic "salam" meaning "peace". How are the three of
you now? I asked. "On s'accroche," - he replied. "We're clinging on." Like
birds on the cliffs at Visegrad.

Brexit: No substantive talks for 12

months, Herman Van Rompuy predicts

15 September 2016 BBC News

From the section UK Politics

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Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGESImage caption Herman Van Rompuy

said Brexit had been a "political amputation of the first degree"

Substantive Brexit talks between the UK and the rest of the EU
are unlikely to start much before the end of 2017, a former
European Council president says.
Speaking to the BBC, Herman Van Rompuy said negotiations were unlikely
until a new German government was formed after next September's
election.
The talks will be tough but hopefully of mutual benefit, he said, adding the
UK had to make the "first move".
He described the UK's decision to leave the EU as a "political amputation".
Meanwhile, leaders of every EU country, apart from the UK, are gathering
in the Slovakian capital Bratislava to discuss the future of the bloc.
Brexit: All you need to know
Cameron 'blocked' civil service Brexit talks
The UK voted by 51.9% to 48.1% to end its membership of the EU in a
referendum on 23 June.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said that the government will not trigger
Article 50 - the formal start of the process of leaving the EU - before
2017.
Media captionEx-EU president Herman Van Rompuy says he warned David
Cameron about the EU vote.
Mr Van Rompuy was president of the European Council, which defines the
EU's overall political direction and priorities, from 2009 until 2014.

He told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "Before the German elections
and before there is a new German government, I think no serious
negotiations will take place.
"You can always start with more technical matters, but the hardcore, the
difficult topics, will be tackled after the constitution of a new German
government and that will be October/November."
No 'Brexit effect' in latest jobs data
Brexit 'may bring difficult times' - PM
Mr Van Rompuy described the senior figures appointed to negotiate for the
EU, who include Belgian ex-Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and
French finance expert Michel Barnier, as "very very tough" but also "very
pragmatic".
He denied leaders wanted to "punish" the UK for leaving, but said there
was a desire not to encourage other countries to follow suit.
"Any negotiation will be a difficult negotiation, independent of the
personalities. Of course we want an agreement which represents some
kind of mutual benefit.
"There are huge economic interests, but there are also red lines. It is very
well known that freedom of movement [of EU nationals] is a red line," he
said.

'Not many friends'

Mr Van Rompuy rejected suggestions that the EU should have given
former Prime Minister David Cameron a better deal after he sought reform
of the UK's relationship with the EU, saying the main reason for the Brexit
vote "lies in Britain".
And he said EU leaders had warned former Prime Minister David Cameron
it would be a "mistake" to hold a referendum on membership.
He said the UK already had a "very special status" within the EU, which
was illustrated by it not being a member of the eurozone or
the Schengen Agreement.
But this meant it was also "not fully a member of the hardcore where
decisions are taken".
Image copyrightAFPImage captionGuy Verhofstadt will be one of the EU's
main Brexit negotiators
"Britain had not many friends anymore," Mr Van Rompuy said.
This had been shown during the election of Jean-Claude Juncker as
President of the European Commission in 2014, when Britain was
"isolated" in its opposition to him, he added.

Mr Van Rompuy said despite this, European leaders still viewed Brexit as a
"political amputation of the first degree".
He added: "Because Europe was for many countries still a model, a model
that you can achieve peace among peoples and states that waged wars
for centuries, so it was a model of co-operation and integration.
"That image of a strong Europe, that is tarnished a lot after Brexit."

US election 2016: Trump's anti-Clinton

speech cut short by black pastor

15 September 2016

From the sectionUS Election 2016

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Media captionReverend Faith Green Timmons stopped Donald Trump, as he began to criticise
his political rival, Hillary Clinton

Road to the White House

Demonstrators and decadence at Trump's new hotel

Will Clinton pay for her terrible weekend?

Five ways Clinton loses the election

Can Republicans really dump Trump?

The pastor of a Michigan black church has interrupted Donald Trump as he

pilloried Hillary Clinton in a speech.
Rev Faith Green Timmons cut short Mr Trump as he attacked his Democratic rival's
support for global trade deals.
"Mr Trump, I invited you here to thank us for what we've done in Flint, not give a
political speech," said the Bethel United Methodist Church pastor.

"Oh, oh, OK, that's good," the Republican nominee responded, shuffling papers on
his podium.
He went on to make a few remarks about fixing Flint's drinking water problems,
but some in the crowd began to heckle.
One woman shouted out that the real estate magnate had used discriminatory
housing practices in his buildings.
The businessman responded: "Never, you're wrong. Never would."
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Media captionIs Trump's pitch to black voters a lost cause?
The pastor interrupted again, this time to reproach Mr Trump's hecklers, saying: "He
is a guest in my church and you will respect him".
Mr Trump abruptly ended his speech, which had lasted six minutes.
On Thursday morning, he spoke to Fox News about the pastor who had interrupted
him.
He said he "noticed she was so nervous when she introduced me".
"She was like a nervous mess," he added.

Analysis - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News,

Washington
On Wednesday night, after being admonished by the pastor of a Flint, Michigan,
church, a chastened Donald Trump backed away from his attacks on Democrat
Hillary Clinton and flipped ahead in his written speech on the town's water crisis.
The following morning, Mr Trump unloaded on the pastor, essentially claiming he
walked into her trap.
Mr Trump has made a bit of a habit of playing nice when directly confronted, then
sharpening his claws afterwards. Contrast the demur Trump while visiting Mexican
President Enrique Pena Nieto with the firebrand who took the stage later that day in
Arizona and bashed the Mexican leader on Twitter the following morning.
During the primary season, Mr Trump made a habit of badmouthing Republican
debate moderators after the fact, with his broadsides directed at Fox's Megyn Kelly
being particularly spirited. When he later sat down with her in a one-on-one
interview, however, it was back to being a pussycat.
Critics will likely characterise this as the behaviour of a bully with thin skin. His
supporters will counter that a skilled negotiator doesn't tip his hand in the face of an
adversary. Either way, what you see with Mr Trump one moment isn't always what
you get later on.

The New York businessman has been trying to woo black voters, after polls showed
his level of support at dismal levels.
His Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, returns to the campaign trail four days after
being taken ill at a 9/11 memorial on Sunday.

What you need to know about US election

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Media captionWhy some states matter more than others
How does the US election work?
Why this election will make history
What is it about Clinton that her fans love?
50 Trump supporters explain why they back him

Edward Snowden hits out at critical

report into his activities

15 September 2016

From the sectionUS & Canada

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Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionEdward Snowden fears he will not get a
fair trial if he returns to the US

Edward Snowden has dismissed a report by the House of

Representatives intelligence committee that heavily criticised his
activities.
It rejected his view of himself as a whistleblower, and said he was a
disgruntled employee whose actions did nothing more than help US
enemies.
The report comes a day after two rights groups launched a campaign for
President Obama to pardon Mr Snowden.
The White House has rejected the possibility of a presidential pardon.
The release of the report, two years in the making, also coincides with
that of the film "Snowden", directed by Oliver Stone.
In a series of tweets, Mr Snowden dismissed the report's findings,
writing: "Their report is so artlessly distorted that it would be amusing if it
weren't such a serious act of bad faith."

Profile: Edward Snowden

Oliver Stone tries to sell Snowden film to DC

Snowden: Russia probably behind NSA leak

Whistleblower 'smeared by UK officials'

Mr Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, has

been living in Russia since 2013, when he gained notoriety for releasing
thousands of classified documents that revealed mass phone and internet
surveillance put in place after the 9/11 attacks.
Releasing a summary of its 36-page investigation into the case, the House
committee said Mr Snowden had fallen out with his colleagues and lied
about his background while at the NSA.
It says that most of the material he leaked related to military secrets that
had nothing to do with Americans' privacy but were to "protect American
troops overseas and... provide vital defenses against terrorists and nationstates".
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Media captionSnowden has continued his activism - revealing UK phone-hacking
capabilities "named after Smurfs" last year
Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union launched
their'Pardon Snowden' campaign on Wednesday, urging President
Obama to do so before he leaves office in January 2017.
Amnesty said no-one should be prosecuted for exposing human rights
violations, which, it claimed, is what "indiscriminate mass surveillance of
communications" amounts to.
The ACLU acts as Snowden's legal adviser, and called him "a great
American who deserves clemency for his patriotic acts".

Edward Snowden: Leaks that exposed

US spy programme

17 January 2014

From the sectionUS & Canada

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Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the CIA, left the US in late May
after leaking to the media details of extensive internet and phone
surveillance by American intelligence. Mr Snowden, who has been granted
temporary asylum in Russia, faces espionage charges over his actions.

As the scandal widens, BBC News looks at the leaks that brought US spying activities
to light.

US spy agency 'collects phone records'

Image copyrightREUTERS
Q&A: Prism internet surveillance
What could 'they' know about me?

The scandal broke in early June 2013 when the Guardian newspaper reported
that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was collecting the telephone records of
tens of millions of Americans.
The paper published the secret court order directing telecommunications company
Verizon to hand over all its telephone data to the NSA on an "ongoing daily basis".
That report was followed by revelations in both the Washington Post and Guardian
that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms, including
Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, to track online communication in
a surveillance programme known as Prism.
Britain's electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ was also accused of gathering
information on the online companies via Prism.
Shortly afterwards, the Guardian revealed that ex-CIA systems analyst Edward
Snowden was behind the leaks about the US and UK surveillance programmes.
He has been charged in the US with theft of government property, unauthorised
communication of national defence information and wilful communication of
classified communications intelligence.

UK spy agency 'taps fibre-optic cables'

The GCHQ scandal widened on 21 June when the Guardian reported that the UK
spy agency was tapping fibre-optic cables that carry global communications and
sharing vast amounts of data with the NSA, its US counterpart.

Image copyrightAP
Profile: Edward Snowden
The paper revealed it had obtained documents from Edward Snowden showing that
the GCHQ operation, codenamed Tempora, had been running for 18 months.
GCHQ was able to boast a larger collection of data than the US, tapping into 200
fibre-optic cables to give it the ability to monitor up to 600 million communications
every day, according to the report.
The information from internet and phone use was allegedly stored for up to 30 days
to be sifted and analysed.

Although GCHQ did not break the law, the Guardian suggested that the existing
legislation was being very broadly applied to allow such a large volume of data to be
collected.
GCHQ and NSA eavesdropping on Italian phone calls and internet traffic was reported
by the Italian weekly L'Espresso on 24 October. The revelations were sourced to
Edward Snowden.
It is alleged that three undersea cables with terminals in Italy were targeted. Italian
Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the allegations "inconceivable and unacceptable"
and said he wanted to establish the truth.

US 'hacks China networks'

After fleeing to Hong Kong, Edward Snowden told the South China Morning
Postthat the NSA had led more than 61,000 hacking operations worldwide, including
many in Hong Kong and mainland China.
He said targets in Hong Kong included the Chinese University, public officials and
businesses.
"We hack network backbones - like huge internet routers, basically - that give us
access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without
having to hack every single one," Mr Snowden was quoted as saying.

EU offices 'bugged'
Claims emerged on 29 June that the NSA had also spied on European Union offices in
the US and Europe, according to Germany's Der Spiegel magazine.
Media caption European parliament president Martin Schulz: "I am deeply shocked"

The magazine said it had seen leaked NSA documents showing that the US had spied
on EU internal computer networks in Washington and at the 27-member bloc's UN
office in New York.
The paper added that it had been shown the "top secret" files by Edward Snowden.
One document dated September 2010 explicitly named the EU representation at the
UN as a "location target", Der Spiegel wrote.
The files allegedly suggested that the NSA had also conducted an electronic
eavesdropping operation in a building in Brussels, where the EU Council of Ministers
and the European Council were located.
It is not known what information US spies might have obtained. But observers say
details of European positions on trade and military matters could be useful to those
involved in US-EU negotiations.

Merkel phone calls 'intercepted'

The German government summoned the US ambassador on 24 October - a very

unusual step - after German media reported that the NSA had eavesdropped on
Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
The allegations dominated an EU summit, with Mrs Merkel demanding a full
explanation and warning that trust between allies could be undermined. She
discussed the matter by phone with US President Barack Obama. He assured her that
her calls were not being monitored now and that it would not happen in future. But
the White House did not deny bugging her phone in the past.
Past surveillance by secret police - whether Nazi or communist - has made Germans
very sensitive about privacy issues. Mrs Merkel grew up in the former East Germany,
where the Stasi spied on millions of citizens.
France's President Francois Hollande meanwhile expressed alarm at reports that
millions of French calls had been monitored by the US.
The Guardian later reported that the NSA had monitored the phones of 35 world
leaders after being given their numbers by another US government official. Again,
Edward Snowden was the source of the report.

Embassies 'under surveillance'

A total of 38 embassies and missions have been the "targets" of US spying
operations, according to a secret file leaked to the Guardian.
Countries targeted included France, Italy and Greece, as well as America's nonEuropean allies such as Japan, South Korea and India, the paper reported on 1 July.
EU embassies and missions in New York and Washington were also said to be under
surveillance.
The file allegedly detailed "an extraordinary range" of spying methods used to
intercept messages, including bugs, specialised antennae and wire taps.
The Guardian report also mentioned codenames of alleged operations against the
French and Greek missions to the UN, as well as the Italian embassy in Washington.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that activities to protect national security were
"not unusual" in international relations.

Latin America 'monitored'

US allies in Latin America were angered by revelations in Brazil's O Globo newspaper
on 10 July that the NSA ran a continent-wide surveillance programme.
The paper cited leaked documents showing that, at least until 2002, the NSA ran the
operation from a base in Brasilia, seizing web traffic and details of phone calls from
around the region.

Image copyrightAFP
Is Brazil US espionage target?
US agents apparently joined forces with Brazilian telecoms firms to snoop on oil and
energy firms, foreign visitors to Brazil, and major players in Mexico's drug wars.
Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Chile all demanded answers from the US.
But the revelations on Latin America kept coming, and in September more specific
claims emerged that emails and phone calls of the presidents of Mexico and Brazil
had been intercepted.
Also, the US had been spying on Brazil's state-owned oil firm Petrobras.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a state visit to the US in the most
high-profile diplomatic move since the scandal hit.

US spying 'errors'
Documents leaked to the Washington Post in mid-August suggested the NSAbreaks
US privacy laws hundreds of times every year.
The papers revealed that US citizens were inadvertently snooped on for reasons
including typing mistakes and errors in the system,
In one instance in 2008, a "large number" of calls placed from Washington DC were
intercepted after an error in a computer program entered "202" - the telephone area
code for Washington DC - into a data query instead of "20", the country code for
Egypt.
Later in August, the Washington Post reported that US spy agencies had a "black
budget" for secret operations of almost $53bn in 2013.

SMS messages 'collected and stored'

In January 2014, the Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 News reported that the US
had collected and stored almost 200 million text messages per day across the
globe.
A National Security Agency (NSA) program is said to have extracted and stored data
from the SMS messages to gather location information, contacts and financial data.
The documents also revealed that GCHQ had used the NSA database to search for
information on people in the UK.
The programme, Dishfire, analyses SMS messages to extract information including
contacts from missed call alerts, location from roaming and travel alerts, financial

information from bank alerts and payments and names from electronic business
cards, according to the report.
Through the vast database, which was in use at least as late as 2012, the NSA
gained information on those who were not specifically targeted or under suspicion,
the report says.
The revelations came on the eve of an expected announcement by President Obama
of a response to recommendations by a US panel on ways to change US electronic
surveillance programmes.