The Nation Newspaper

Tag: EU

  • EU plans €140m for Northeast rehabilitation

    EU plans €140m for Northeast rehabilitation

    The European Union plans to contribute €140 million towards the rehabilitation of the Northeast affected by Boko Haram.

    Head of the EU Delegation to ECOWAS and Nigeria, Amb. Michael Arrion said the support is in addition to what the EU already pledged in Oslo in terms of monetary commitments.

    Arrion added that they are aware that 25 LGAs out of 27 need strong support in terms of rehabilitation in Borno state and the EU will contribute to that.

    He made this revelation yesterday in Abuja, when members of the Progressive Alliance of Democrats and Socialists in the European Parliament visited members of the  #BringBackOurGirls (#BBOG) advocasy in Abuja.

    His words, “I am happy to tell you that very soon we will be in Borno to announce a support recovery and rehabilitation. We will be working with the Borno authorities. I took your message. We know that 25 LGAs out of 27 need strong support in terms of rehabilitation. We will contribute to that, I promise you.

    “We will announce our plans in two weeks’ time. The support is in addition to what we already pledged in Oslo in terms of monetary commitments. In Oslo we pledged €140m in humanitarian response.

    “We are going to announce another package for Borno which is more or less the same amount but this is not for humanitarian assistance but something more long term to address the needs in terms of reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery. We will implement this package with the state authorities, with Governor Kashim Shettima and the Commissioner for the 3Rs.

    “Of course we cannot be everywhere at the same time but we will work together with other partners, donors and concentrate on a few LGAs. The priority is water, sanitation and electricity. Others will take health and education. We intend to provide electricity to some health centres and rehabilitate some of these centres.”

  • NCAA to meet EU aviation commitee on Medview ban

    NCAA to meet EU aviation commitee on Medview ban

    The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is expected to meet with the European Union Air Safety Committee (ASC) this week on the current ban slammed on Medview Airlines.

    The spokesman of NCAA, Sam Adurogboye disclosed this on Tuesday.

    The meeting, he said is part of several engagements with the European Commission following a failed application by Medview Airlines for a Third Country Operator Authorisation to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

    The airline’s application failed during documents’ verification stage.

    “Medview Airlines’ application did not comply with Regulation (EC) No 2111/2005 and therefore could not qualify for approval,” Adurogboye said.

    The spokesman said NCAA later received the notification of non-compliance through the office of the Nigerian Mission to International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

    He added: “Upon receipt of notification, the Director General of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, met with senior officials of European Commission in Gaborone, Botswana, during the Regional Safety Oversight Organization Conference in February this year.

    “During this meeting, extensive discussions were held with a view to resolving the matter.

    ” Similarly, the Regulatory Authority engaged Medview Airlines to straighten out issues arising from the failed application to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

    “However, the EU Air Safety Committee invited NCAA and Medview for a tripartite meeting in Brussels on the 25th – 26th April, 2017. After the deliberations, the European Commission with the full support of the EU Air Safety Committee unanimously decided to ban Medview Airlines.”

     

  • World Bank trains 70 Delta govt. officials on financial management

    World Bank trains 70 Delta govt. officials on financial management

    The State Employment and Expenditure For Results (SEEFOR ) project, which is sponsored by the World Bank and EU, has trained 70 Delta Government officials on prudent management of resources.

    The State Coordinator of SEEFOR, Mr Benson Ojoko, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba on Sunday.

    Ojoko told NAN that the training was done in conjunction with the state government.

    He said that the civil servants made up Permanent Secretaries, Directors of Research and Planning were chosen from the core ministries, department and agencies of the state to participate in the training.

    He said that the training was aimed at building the capacity of the government officials, who played vital roles in implementing government policies and programmes.

    Ojoko said that the training being carried out under the Public Financial Reform Component of SEEFOR project was aimed at building capacity towards sustainable development of the state.

    The coordinator said that the training, which was centred on Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS), was in line with the state government’s development agenda.

    He explained that MTSS strategies were aimed at improving healthcare and infrastructure as well as ensuring the wellbeing of the people of the state.

    “MTSS is a tool for effectively translating government policies and programmes into concrete programme which will ultimately impact on the people.

    “It also helps in ensuring proper planning especially as it relates to making provision for existing government projects or investments during budget process.

    “MTSS helps to address the menace of abandoned projects because it is implemented under a multi-year budget framework,’’ he said.

    The coordinator said that the second phase of the exercise, which would focus on procurement reform and integrated financial management information system, would be held in two weeks’ time.

  • EU donates N66 million cold rooms, generators to Osun

    THE European Union (EU) has donated two vaccine chain cold rooms with two 500KV standby generators to the Osun State government.

    At the handing over and commissioning of the project at  Ife Central and Irepodun Local Government Areas of the state, EU Sign Project Team Leader, Dr. Ibrahim Yisa, valued the projects at N66 million.

    He commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for providing free health care for the residents of the state, particularly rural dwellers.

    Yisa enjoined the people of lfe Central and Irepodun Local Government and health workers to abide by the rules guiding the use of the Vaccine Cold Rooms.

    He also appealed to nursing mothers and pregnant women to avail themselves of the opportunity of the available health facilities and support the immunisation exercise in the state.

  • EU fines Facebook 110m euros over misleading WhatsApp data

    EU fines Facebook 110m euros over misleading WhatsApp data

    European Union antitrust regulators on Thursday said they would fine Facebook 110 million euros (122.4 million dollars) for providing misleading information over its purchase of messaging service WhatsApp in 2014.

    Calling it a “proportionate and deterrent fine,” the European Commission, which acts as the EU’s competition watchdog, said Facebook had said it could not automatically match user accounts on its namesake platform and WhatsApp but two years later launched a service that did exactly that.

    “The Commission has found that, contrary to Facebook’s statements in the 2014 merger review process, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook and WhatsApp users’ identities already existed in 2014, and that Facebook staff were aware of such a possibility,” the Commission said.

    The commission added that the fine would not reverse the Commission’s decision to clear the purchase of WhatsApp and was unrelated to separate investigations into data protection issues.

    Reuters reported on Wednesday that Facebook was set to be fined.

  • Macron favorite in opinion polls as France elects new president

    Macron favorite in opinion polls as France elects new president

    After a tumultuous election campaign filled with scandal and surprises, the French public began to vote on Sunday on whether a pro-European Union centrist or an anti-EU, anti-immigration far-rightist will lead them for the next five years.

    Opinion polls indicate they will pick Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who wants to bridge the left-right divide, resisting an anti-establishment tide that has seen Britons vote to leave the EU and Americans choose Donald Trump as U.S. president.

    But should an upset occur and National Front candidate Marine Le Pen win, the very future of the EU could be on the line.
    Macron, who wants to deregulate the economy and deepen EU integration, has a 23- to 26-percentage-point lead over Le Pen in the opinion polls.
    Forecasts proved accurate for the presidential election’s first round last month, and markets have risen in response to Macron’s widening lead over his rival after a bitter television debate on Wednesday.

    “We increased our equity exposure and added some French stocks after the first round.

    “The major political risk of a Le Pen victory appears to be disappearing,’’ Francois Savary, Chief Investment Officer at Geneva-based fund management firm Prime Partners, said.

    In a campaign that has seen favorites drop out of the race one after the other, Le Pen, who wants to close borders, ditch the euro currency and clamp down on migration, is nevertheless closer to elected power than the far right has ever been in Western Europe since World War Two.

    Even if opinion polls prove accurate and France elects its youngest president ever rather than its first female leader, Macron himself has said he expects no honeymoon period.

    Abstention could be high, and close to 60 per cent of those who plan to vote for Macron say they will do so to stop Le Pen from being elected to lead the euro zone’s second-largest economy rather than because they fully agree with the former banker-turned-politician.

    Sunday’s election will in any case not end the battle between mainstream and more radical policies in France, with parliamentary elections next month equally crucial.

    Once the presidential ballot is over, attention will switch to whether the winner will be able to get a majority in parliament, with one poll this week showing that such a majority was within reach for Macron.

    Much will also depend on both the candidates’ score on Sunday.

    Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, on Thursday told L’Opinion daily that a 40 percent score would already be “a huge victory” for the National Front.

    Whoever wins will spell a new chapter in French politics.

    The major left-wing and right-wing parties — the Socialist Party and The Republicans — that have ruled France for decades both suffered humiliating defeats in the election’s first round.

    The campaign was hit by yet another surprise on Friday night just before the quiet period which forbids politicians from commenting started.

    Macron’s team said a massive hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign-financing information online.

    Pollsters will publish initial estimates at 8 pm (1800 GMT), once all polling stations are closed.

    More than 50,000 police officers will be on duty. Security will be a prime concern in the wake of a series of militant attacks in Paris, Nice and elsewhere in the past few years that have killed more than 230 people.

  • UK baulks at £84bn EU exit bill

    The United Kingdom won’t pay a 100bn-euro (£84bn) “divorce bill” to leave the European Union, Brexit Secretary, David Davis has said, as the two sides clashed over the issue.

    He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the UK would pay what was legally due, in line with its rights and obligations, but “not just what the EU wants.”

    EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said there was no desire to punish the UK but “its accounts must be settled.”

    While he wanted a “cordial” Brexit, he warned the “clock was ticking” now.

    Publishing his Brexit mandate, Mr. Barnier said the EU would “put all its efforts” into reaching a deal but said negotiations must start as soon as possible after “10 months of uncertainty” and suggested the outcome of June’s general election would not change anything.

     

  • EU urges review of Nigeria’s tax system

    EU urges review of Nigeria’s tax system

    • ‘EPA will diversify economy’

    The Eurorpean Union (EU) has advised Nigeria to review it’s tax system to be able to make reseanable impact.
    EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Michel Arrion said the EU is willing to work with the country in addressing the situation.
    Arrion spoke in Abuja yesterday during a media briefing on the up-coming Europe Day Celebration and 60 years anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
    He said Nigeria needs to tackle the root problem of tax avoidance. “The tax base of Nigeria is much too low compared with the GDP, only 15 per cent percent of the GDP is collected by the states as taxes and revenue. The average in any country is minimum of 15 up to forty 40. So Nigerians do not pay taxes and that is the real problem. In average, I am not saying that people do not pay taxes.
    “This is an issue even in Europe, where our people want to know why their money should be given to people who dont like paying taxes. We stopped given aides to many Latin American countries and to many Asian countries. Until recent we were given development aides to China and India. “But India is now showing in satellite and we are given money to India. Still there are 300 million poor people in India. If we do something in India, we should do soothing to the poor.”
    The Ambassador explained that the problem of Nigeria is a paradox of a rich country with a lot of poor people; explaining that the problem of the country is that of redistribution of resources.
    He therefore said it was wrong to lay the balme of tax avoidance on the foot of multinationals.
    While not denying the fact that some multinationals are avoiding tax, the ambassaodr said that tax aviodance by the multinationals is not at the core of the country’s problem, stressing, “You can always change your regulations, you can always fix this problem of tax avoidance by multinational companies.”
    He explained that once the multinationals don’t pay tax in Nigeria, “they do not pay taxes in Europe either. So they are using tax havens and other tax arrangement. So we can work together. But the core of the problem is not the multinationals, it is exactly the same when people discussing corruption, please fix your problems of corruption in Nigeria.
    “Of cause there are stolen assets in Europe, but try exploit your problem, trying to blame the fact that corrupt people are sending and transferring money outside Nigeria. I know it is part of the problem but it is not at the core of the issues.”
    Arrion who also spoke on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which Nigeria was yet to sign onto, swhen the agreement remains a veritable means of the country achieving it’s economic diversification plan.
    He also denied the insinuation that EPA will make Nigeria a dumping ground for EU member countries, stressing that “ I don’t think Nigeria can be a dumping ground for European export. Not at all. All our exportation of finished products are excluded. By the way you are already a dumping site for Chinese products and we will not be able to compete with China. So there is absolutely no reason for us to export finished products, there is no risk, there is o treat of European exportation that will be dumped in EVOWAS countries. We have also made it clear that we have stopped all export subsidy for agricultural products. We have stopped all farm subsidy in Europe. So when you hear people referring to farm subsidy in Europe is simply wrong. We believe that the EPA will precisely bring about needed equipment for the people who want to industrialize, particularly in agro-allied sector and raw materials, spare parts will benefit from the EPA.”
    He also added, “We are trying to explain that the EPA will contribute to the diversification of the economy. because the EPA will contribute to the industrialization of Nigeria. Because the importation of machinery and equipment will see an improvement by lowering the taxes, so there will be a decrease of import duties for machinery and equipment and industrial equipment, while at the same time, all finished products are excluded from the deal.”
    On EU partnership with Nigeria, he said, the region has been collaborating with Nigeria in the last forty years now, citing the role the regional body played during the 2015 general elections. He noted that the peaceful and transparent election was just a reflection of what Nigerians wanted.
    He added that if there is anything at all, EU has contributed to transition and transparent electoral process.
    In terms of amount spent, he said “it is difficult to say it’s a lot, and nothing when compared to the wealth of Nigeria. We are talking
    about between 100 -200 million euros every year, we are spending in Nigeria. It’s a lot but its nothing when divided by 180 million Nigerians. So in average,nits one euro per Nigerian. So it’s not a lot .”
    On the issue of irregular migration, EU Ambassador to Nigeria said Nigeria has a role to play in stopping irregular migration by providing alternatives for the people.
    “We want to have an agreement with Nigeria to tackle the problems of irregular migration, working on the root causes and addressing human capacity of the citizens,” he added.

  • Boko Haram: EU, UNICEF to train teachers on emergency preparedness

    To protect learning environment in the country, the European Union (EU) and the United Nation Children Fund (UNICEF) have concluded arrangement to train teachers on how to identify risk and the steps to take.

    Since the start of insurgency in the North East in 2009, Boko Haram has killed more than 611 teachers and about 19,000 educators have fled from the violence.

    The Conflict and Disaster Risk Reduction campaign in schools is part of a specially designed intervention funded by the EU.

    The 18 -month project not only supports children affected by the Boko Haram violence by helping them access education and protection services, it also develops detailed plans with communities so schools can offer safer learning environments.

    The programme is expected to address the complex nature of the crisis across Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.

    Reducing the vulnerability of school systems in this emergency is a key part of the multi -sectoral response that draws on expertise from education and child protection specialists. In conflict situations, the education sector is vulnerable to violence and insecurity, so it is a particularly relevant area for Conflict and Disaster Risk Reduction.

    One important aspect of the initiative is to train teachers to identify risks and to develop emergency preparedness and response plans together with the community child protection focal points to reduce the danger for children in an area where bomb explosions, armed attacks and abduction remain a constant threat.

    According to UNICEF, the programme is a multi -country effort to protect children and teachers from the effects of conflict.

    “With 1.3 million children displaced in this crisis, it is imperative to support schools so parents can get their children back in the classroom,” said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

    “Ensuring access to education for crisis affected children is important, however opening schools is not enough. Children and teachers need to be equipped with knowledge and skills, to be prepared and able to mitigate the effects of something dangerous happening around the school premises.”

     

  • Oxfam, EU distribute 10,800 bags of fertiliser to 1,500 farmers in Kebbi, Adamawa

    An international agency, Oxfam in Nigeria with the support of the European Union has distributed dry season farming inputs to farmers in Kebbi and Adamawa States in its bid to improve livelihoods of small holder farmers.

    The organisation distributed 10, 800 bags of fertilisers to 1,500 farmers in the two states.

    It also distributed 800 surface irrigation water pumps to 62 farmers in the states.

    Oxfam Livelihood and Private Sector Manager, William Mafwalal, said the distribution was part of the Pro Resilience Action (PROACT) Project, an EU Support to Food Security and Resilience in Northern Nigeria.

    “Six thousand bags of fertiliser were distributed to 1,500 farmers, as 400 surface irrigation water pumps were also handed over to over 62 farmers groups in Jega and Birnin Kebbi Local Governments of Kebbi States while 4,800 bags of fertilizer and over 400 water pumps were distributed to dry season farmers in Fufure and Guyuk Local Governments of Adamawa State for the 2017 dry season farming activities.

    “In the first phase of support, a total 625 farmers are benefiting from the dry season farming inputs, out of which 350 are women in Adamawa. In Kebbi, of the 1,500 beneficiaries, 590 are women.

    Mafwalal said Oxfam through the project was supporting the state governments in its efforts towards improving agricultural productivity, enhancing food security and reducing poverty, especially among small holder farmers in rural communities.

    Adamawa State Deputy Gvernor, Martins Babale, warned farmers not to sell farm inputs provided to them by the government and development organisations, but to improve their lives.

    He said the support to farmers in the state was a demonstration of commitment in ensuring food security in the state.

    In his remarks, Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Kebbi State, Alhaji Mohammed Dandiga, called on the beneficiaries to use the farm inputs to improve their productivity.

    Programme Manager, Kebbi State Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (KARDA), Mallam Sanusi Illo, on his part, said the distribution of the inputs to the farmers was timely and strategic.