The Minister of Economy and Finance of France said that the single eurozone budget could amount to 0.2-0.5 percent of the GDP of 19 of its member states. The Minister of Economics and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany Peter Altmaier and his French counterpart Bruno Le Mayor announced the creation of a special a joint fund designed to support structural reforms in the EU member states.
The new initiative is presented in a report released on Wednesday, June 20, by the Ministry of Economics in Berlin.
Investments should be allocated to projects that emphasize the added value and attractiveness of the European model, the agency stressed.
Eurozone single budget
Bruno Le Mer also commented on plans to create a single eurozone budget, announced on June 19 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. The French minister stressed that the parties «have not yet agreed on the size of the deductions.» We can talk about 0.2-0.5 percent of the GDP of 19 member states of the euro zone. Le Mayor is convinced that the amount of 20-25 billion euros can serve as a “good starting point”.
Junker’s praise and critic of Söder
Meanwhile, the head of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, supported the reform package proposed by Paris and Berlin, and praised the chances of their implementation. “I think this is a very balanced proposal,” he stressed, adding that they have enough potential for consensus, even if not all 19 countries support them at once.
In turn, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (Markus Söder) opposed the innovation. “We cannot create additional shadow budgets or weaken the stability of the single currency,” he said, urging Merkel not to mix migration policy and financial aspects. Söder expressed concern that the German Chancellor, using financial incentives, will try to attract other EU countries to cooperate on the refugee problem.
Austrian Chancellor proposes to send EU border guards to Africa
The number of Frontex European border services should be increased ahead of schedule to 10 thousand, Sebastian Kurtz said in an interview with the German weekly Welt am Sonntag. “The new political mandate should allow Frontex to work in third countries with the consent of local authorities,” Kurtz said in an interview with German weekly journal Welt am Sonntag, published on Sunday, May 27.
According to Kurtz, such a measure would “put an end to the dirty business of migrant carriers and prevent people from boating on a dangerous route in the Mediterranean Sea”.
The Chancellor of Austria, the country that will chair the Council of the European Union from July to December 2018, noted that he generally supported the proposal of the European Commission to increase the number of Frontex to 10 thousand people, but did not agree that it was planned to recruit new staff until the end of 2027 of the year. “It is too late, it must happen much faster if we want to effectively stop illegal migration,” said Sebastian Kurtz.
Italy blocked the statement of the EU summit participants
The participants in the Brussels summit did not agree on a statement on trade and defense policy of the European Union. Italy refrained from expressing its position. Participants in the two-day summit of the heads of state and government of the EU in Brussels on Thursday, June 28, did not agree on a statement on a number of issues. According to sources of news agencies among diplomats, the planned statement on EU trade and defense policy has been blocked by Italy due to differences in views on Brussels’ migration policy.
Due to the lack of a statement, the press conference of the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission was postponed the next day, the European Council said.
At the same time, Italy, together with Spain, Malta, the Netherlands and France, agreed on a draft version of the agreement of the participants in the EU migration policy summit. Earlier, the new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte noted that the EU countries have repeatedly expressed solidarity with Italy’s position on migration. Rome expects “actions that follow the words,” Conte emphasized.
Named the country from which migrants send the most money to Ukraine
In 2017, Ukrainian labor migrants sent the most money from the EU countries — $ 1.64 billion, while from the CIS countries — only $ 340 million.
It is reported by the NBU.
Poland is the leader in the volume of funds transferred by Ukrainian zarobitans — for the entire 2017, $ 3.12 billion came from Ukraine to this country, and $ 865 million for the first 3 months of this year.
In second place in terms of revenue, Russia is $ 1.36 billion for the whole of 2017 and $ 300 million for the first quarter of 2018.
The United States closes the top three in terms of transfers to Ukraine — $ 679 million in 2017 and $ 192 million in January-March 2018.
In 2017, labor migrants transferred $ 9.33 billion to Ukraine, and $ 2.61 billion in the first 3 months of 2018.
