nEUwsletter 16/02/2020
- European Horizons Bangor
- Feb 16, 2020
- 6 min read
Conflict between Kosovo and Serbia: towards an easing of the situation?
By Hélène Veysseyre
On Friday 14th February, Serbia and Kosovo, which have been subject to a difficult relationship since the Kosovo War and its independence, signed a letter of intent concerning a deal on rail and road links between the two countries. The agreement was reached through the help of the United States, which sent an american envoy, Richard Grenell, for the negotiations. This deal constitutes an important step towards diplomacy and “a final peace agreement” as declared by the President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, since the two Balkan states are trying to reach the relations previously lost.
Indeed, the establishment of this deal represents a resumption of the past, as Railway connections used to exist between the two countries, when the two were unified through Yugoslavia. Thus, this stage symbolizes one step closer to reconciliation between the two, as previous actions were taken, such as the restart of direct flights between the two countries on january 2020 which have been suspended for 21 years, following the beginning of the Kosovo War.
The understanding of the scope of the deal is linked to the historical background between Serbia and Kosovo. Yet, the conflict finds its origins in two main events: war and independence.
Indeed, historically, the two states used to be unified. Kosovo was considered as an autonomous province of Serbia, really important for the latter as it was home to historic orthodox christian monasteries, symbol of the Serbian’s identity and religion. However, since 1980, as Kosovo was mainly populated by Albanian instead of Serbian, the Albanian Muslim majority was claiming for the establishment of a Republic of Kosovo, which was refused by Serbia and led to a limitation of the autonomy of Kosovo by constitutional amendments. Yet, violence appeared and war was declared in 1998 with the insurgency of the Kosovo Liberation Army representing the albanian muslims majority followed by a violent repression from the Army of Yugoslavia, representing Serbia. The war resulted in the Kumanovo agreements, after more than 10 000 victims, a million of refugees and the intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to convince Serbia to withdraw the serbian forces from Kosovo.
Then, the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia continued through the Kosovo’s Independence declaration on February 17th 2008, subject to controversy concerning its recognition, which Serbia refused to grant. Thus, in regard to the historical tensions between the two countries, the two actions recently taken have a symbolism of reinstatement of communication. Indeed, the resume of flights as well as rail and motorway links, justified by an economic development, allows a symbolism of communication between the two countries, conducive to an easing of the conflict.
Tech Giants to pay more tax in Europe ?
By Mathilde Flamant & Emmanuel Jeanny
Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple and some other global firms have been accused of not paying their fair share of tax in countries that are taxing their operations at a high rate. Indeed, the GAFA have strained existing rules because they are able to book profits in low-tax countries like Ireland, no matter where their customers are.
The OECD ascertained that in 2020 a deal would be reached in order to make global firms pay more tax. The deal would give more powers to governmnents to tax global firms and would include new rules on where tax should be paid, on the proportion of the profits that should be taxed in each country.
Tax evasion of such important firms is a big shortfall for the internal economy of the skewed States. For instance, in the UK, Facebook generated £1.65bn in British sales and paid only £28. 5m in corporation tax in 2018, while Amazon paid £14.7 despite reporting sales of 2.3bn. The global firms have faced criticisms over such low amounts.
This Saturday, during a conference in Munich, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ascertained that Facebook would be happy to pay more tax in Europe in the future. He also stated his enthusiasm about a possible tax reform by adding that: 'we want the OECD process to succeed so that we have a stable and reliable system going forward'.
While waiting for an effective agreement from the OECD, States have different plans to tackle tax evasion of the Tech Giants. On the one hand, the UK plans to introduce its own digital service tax in April, despite risking complaints from the US, that could potentially generate up to £500m per year from firms such as Facebook. On the other hand, France postponed its own digital sales tax until the end of 2020 after US threats.
Railways in Britain: What's next ?
By Alexandre Capel
Private trains operators have seen their reliability collapsed, especially next year in the North of England where over half of Northern Rail’s trains arrived on times. This situation has been particular embarrassing for commuters from this region who take the train every day to get to their work.
However, on many measures Britain’s railway seems to be in good shape: both passenger numbers and freight volumes have grown, ticket – bought in advance – are mid-priced by European standards. But when it comes to commuter services things are totally different: punctuality rates lag behind international peers; season tickets are pricey and train cancellation rates high.
In recent months, the government lost patience and decided that some franchise’s operator would be stripped of its franchise five years ahead of schedule. The service will then be run by “last resort operator”, a publicly owned company which will act independently and for an indefinite duration.
At the beginning of February, the government has also announced the construction of High Speed 2 (HS2), a high-speed line between London and Birmingham. This decision has been contested for its cost.
Emergency meeting on Corona Virus in Brussels
By Laura Samy
The meeting has been called by the Italian Minister of Health Roberto Speranza to discuss the outbreak that has already killed 1,367 people and infected nearly 60 000 worldwide. There have been 50 confirmed coronavirus cases in 11 European countries, with Germany, France and the UK particularly affected.
In the meeting, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides highlighted ‘the urgent need for close cooperation and coordination across Europe and beyond’ as ‘viruses know no borders’.
Even the measure involving the free movement of persons and thus the border control remains within the competence of the member state, EU health ministers have agreed to increase coordination.
The ministers also raised the issue of the stockpiles of medical products which are mainly made in China.In response to this crisis, the EU Commission has already provided €10 million to support research and program concerning the production of medicines to face the fatal virus.
Recent status of Huawei's 5G construction in European countries
By Anastasia Zeng
Even though the U.S. Department of Commerce announced on the 13thFebruary that it would extend the "Temporary General Permission" for 45 days, the fourth amendment to the trading ban imposed on Huawei and its subsidiaries' existing products and services in the United States to prevent the ban on U.S. companies and consumers.
However, it seems like the attitude US government towards Huawei didn’t change. Mark Esper，the US Defence Secretary still warned that “US alliances including the future of NATO were in jeopardy if European countries went ahead with using Chinese Huawei technology in their 5G networks.” He also claimed that “future intelligence cooperation would be at risk, as the US would no longer be certain its communications networks were secure.”
Australia's attitude towards Huawei's global development of 5G technology could be seen as the following issue. According to Australian medias, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab visited members of the Australian Parliament’s intelligence committee. Later, the details of that meeting were leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald, which said an MP had rebuked Mr Raab in the morning over Britian’s Huawei decision, saying Australia was very disappointed.
In addition, Germany, France, Spain and other European countries have not banned the construction of Huawei's 5G technology. All German telecoms operators use Huawei equipment and have previously warned banning it would delay the rollout of 5G and cost billions of dollars. Germany will not exclude Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G mobile networks, saying it wants to create "a level playing field" for vendors.
"Huawei will not be excluded from 5G in France. Everyone can have a place on the market, but we will put limits to protect our sovereignty" French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said, adding "it's understandable that we could prioritise a European operator."
Sources:
- Katalog von Sicherheitsanforderungen für das Betreiben von Telekommunikations- und Datenverarbeitungssystemen sowie für die Verarbeitung personenbezogener Daten
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