NATO Sends Warships to Aegean Sea to Stymie Smuggling, Help With Refugee Crisis

by ALEXANDER SMITH

CNBC

NATO is deploying three warships to the Aegean Sea to help stem Europe's spiraling migrant crisis, the alliance's chief said Thursday.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, said the three ships currently under German command had been ordered to move to the area "without delay" to stymie deadly smuggling works.

The vessels — from Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 — will be deployed to a section of the Mediterranean called the Aegean Sea, a body of water separating Greece and Turkey that serves as one of the main arteries for refugees and migrants trying to enter Europe.

EU executive to push Greece, Italy more on migration

Tue Feb 9, 2016 2:47pm EST

BRUSSELS | BY GABRIELA BACZYNSKA

The EU executive will push Greece and Italy on Wednesday to do more to control migrants arriving across the Mediterranean, as time runs out for Athens to fix frontier chaos or be suspended from Europe's free travel zone.

EU leaders will meet next week under growing pressure to get the migration crisis under control before warmer spring weather encourages a surge of new arrivals.

More than a million people reached Europe last year, putting pressure on security and social systems in some EU states and exposing deep rifts within the 28-nation bloc.

Greece expects bailout review to resume next week: minister

Mon Feb 8, 2016 3:43pm GMT

ATHENS | BY RENEE MALTEZOU AND ANGELIKI KOUTANTOU

Reuters

Greece's lenders still need to be persuaded that Athens can plug a bigger than expected fiscal gap when talks on reforms needed under an international bailout resume next week, the finance minister said on Monday.

Talks between the heads of the EU/IMF mission reviewing Greece's progress and the government over a tough pension reform plan, fiscal targets and the handling of bad loans, took a break on Friday after four days of meetings.

Why ring-fencing Greece from Europe won’t solve anything

By Tania Karas February 9, 2016

Reuters

IDOMENI, Greece — The European Union’s weakest link could become an open-air refugee camp if some European leaders get their way. Amid concerns that Greece is failing to protect Europe’s external frontier, calls have grown louder to quarantine it by helping Macedonia seal its southern border — which refugees must cross to continue their journeys north — and suspend Greece from the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone.

Such proposals would effectively ring-fence Greece from the rest of the EU, trapping tens of thousands of asylum-seekers in a politically and economically fragile country with neither the infrastructure nor funds to care for them. Most migrants know this. Hence, Greece has never been their destination. It is merely a conduit to more affluent nations deeper into the continent.

Protests Grow Against Greek Plans to Build Migrant Camps

Residents on the Aegean island of Kos block a Greek army camp

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI

Updated Feb. 8, 2016 9:48 p.m. ET

17 COMMENTS

ATHENS—Protests against Greek government plans to build camps for refugees and other migrants escalated on Monday, further testing Greece’s ability to meet European Union demands to control the massive inflow of people via the Aegean Sea.

Residents on the Aegean island of Kos, where locals and riot police have been clashing daily since Friday, blockaded an army camp where the government wants to build a migrant registration and screening center, preventing construction work.

THIS is what could push Greece out of the euro

Holly Ellyatt   | @HollyEllyatt

22 Hours Ago

The pressure of thousands of migrants is piling on the pressure on a Greece struggling with a stagnant economy, rising social tensions and political pressure and could push the country back towards an exit from the euro zone, analysts Eurasia Group have warned.

Europe has been left reeling from the influx of migrants heading to the region, most of whom are fleeing civil war in Syria in the Middle East. However, Greece is struggling more than others as it and Turkey have become the first port of call for the migrants.

Cheap Cigarettes Are Burning Greece's Finances

By Nikos Chrysoloras

February 8, 2016 — 2:01 AM EET

On an unremarkable morning on Stournari street in downtown Athens, just a few blocks away from the epicenter of every riot the city has seen during its recent crisis years, two men of Asian origin politely and openly hawk cigarettes to passersby.

The illegal packs of R.G.D.-branded smokes cost 1.50 euros ($1.70) each, less than half the price of 20 Marlboros or Prince at one of Greece’s ubiquitous street kiosks.

As Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras walks another tightrope between creditor demands for additional belt tightening and a social backlash, the scene exposes an unhealthy truth: Greeks could smoke, drink and gamble their way out of their next financial hole, if only they were taxed on all of it.

Exclusive: Iran wants euro payment for new and outstanding oil sales - source

Fri Feb 5, 2016 5:15pm EST

NEW DELHI | BY NIDHI VERMA

Reuters

Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief.

A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil.

Greek Pensions Reform Sparks Clashes in Test for Tsipras

 Marcus Bensasson

 Eleni Chrepa

Bloomberg

February 4, 2016 — 3:02 AM EET Updated on February 4, 2016 — 7:07 PM EET

The 38-year-old Greek banking and commercial lawyer is part of a month-old bar-association boycott of the country’s courts, in protest against the government’s pension-reform plans. He says they cripple small businesses and the self-employed, raising the tax and social insurance for a young lawyer with annual income of 20,000 euros ($21,900) by 27 percent to 13,800 euros.

“A reform is supposed to be a new scheme that helps you improve an existing situation,” said Vrysopoulos, who started his own law firm in 2011. “This is not a reform at all. It’s a way to get more money to repay your loans as a country.”

Don't Let Greek Pensions Threaten the Euro

4 FEB 2, 2016 2:00 AM EST

By Editorial Board

Bloomberg

Greece is a small country, but for much of 2015 its problems were big enough to threaten the survival of the euro system. A year after Alexis Tsipras took charge as prime minister, the government seems committed to meeting the obligations demanded by its creditors in return for further aid. Neither side should allow the remaining sticking point -- pension reform -- to jeopardize the euro again.

The Greek economy is still in intensive care, and the unemployment rate is stubbornly high, but the situation is improving. The economy is expected to shrink by only 0.7 percent this year, and 2017 could see growth of 1.9 percent. The nation’s credit rating has been upgraded.

Anti-austerity protests are paralyzing Greece

 Reuters

Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas, Reuters

Feb. 4, 2016, 10:07 AM          3,123  3

ATHENS — Scuffles broke out and the police used teargas during a mass rally in Athens on Thursday as Greeks railed against government pension reforms needed to meet demands of international creditors.

Demanding an end to austerity, about 50,000 Greeks marched on Parliament in central Athens. Breaking away from the main block of demonstrators, black-clad youths hurled stones and petrol bombs at police officers, who responded with rounds of teargas and stun grenades, Reuters witnesses said.

Greece's Economy Is Getting Crushed Between Austerity And The Refugee Crisis

The most common arrival point for refugees entering Europe is a country in dire economic straits.

 02/03/2016 05:46 pm ET | Updated 21 hours ago

The refugee crisis is testing the limits of Greece’s flagging economy, jeopardizing its ability to handle a flow of refugees that shows no signs of slowing.

Added to the existing strains of austerity, the renewed economic pressure from the crisis is stoking fears within the Greek government that a new wave of anti-refugee xenophobia could take hold unless the European Union and Turkey significantly step up to help manage the crisis.

A report by Yannis Stournaras, the governor of the Bank of Greece, confirms as much. The report, presented to the European Central Bank’s general council on Dec. 17, compiles existing research on the economic effects of the refugee flows to demonstrate the risks the crisis poses for Greece.

REFUGEE CRISIS: EUROPE SLAMS GREECE'S BORDER 'NEGLECT'

BY JOSH LOWE ON 2/3/16 AT 12:36 PM

Newsweek

Brussels has accused Greece of “seriously neglecting” its obligation to protect the EU’s external border and urged the country to step up measures to control migration.

The European Commission on Tuesday endorsed a damning report into Greece’s border controls that concluded: “ Greece is seriously neglecting its obligations and there are serious deficiencies in the carrying out of external border controls that must be overcome and dealt with by the Greek authorities.”

Europe’s refugee story has hardly begun

Paul Mason

Monday 1 February 2016 18.45 GMT

The Guardian

With a million new refugees expected in Europe this year, Greece faces a diplomatic onslaught and an existential crisis

he refugee story has hardly begun. There will be, on conservative estimates, another million arriving via Turkey this year – and maybe more. The distribution quotas proposed by Germany, and resisted by many states in eastern Europe, are already a fiction and will fade into insignificance as the next wave comes.

Germany itself will face critical choices: if you’re suddenly running a budget deficit to meet the needs of asylum seekers, how do you justify not spending on the infrastructure that’s supposed to serve German citizens, which has crumbled through underinvestment in the Angela Merkel era?

40 percent of Germans demand Merkel's resignation over refugee policy, poll says

Unhappy with her government's refugee policy, four out of 10 Germans want Chancellor Merkel to resign, a new poll has shown. The news came just after the ruling grand coalition unveiled its new asylum package.

Deutsche Welle

2-2-2016

While 39.9 percent of Germans surveyed by the pollster Insa for "Focus" magazine said Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policy is grounds for her to step down, 45.2 percent of the more than 2,000 people polled said they did not believe she should leave office. The remaining 15 percent did not state an opinion.

Merkel has long enjoyed high popularity ratings among Germans but that support has dwindled in recent months, particularly as the numbers of asylum seekers entering Germany from the Middle East and North Africa has increased.

BofA: The Oil Crash Is Kicking Off One of the Largest Wealth Transfers In Human History

A $3 trillion shift year from oil producers to global consumers.

 Joe Weisenthal

 TheStalwart

February 1, 2016 — 4:49 AM EET

Bloomberg

Economists are still hotly debating whether the oil crash has been a net positive for advanced economies.

Optimists argue that cheap oil is a good thing for consumers and commodity-sensitive businesses, while pessimists point to the hit to energy-related investment and possible spillover into the financial system.

A new note from Francisco Blanch at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, however, puts the oil move into a much bigger perspective, arguing that a sustained price plunge "will push back $3 trillion a year from oil producers to global consumers, setting the stage for one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history."

Blanch and his team already see evidence that the fall in the price of crude is having a positive impact on demand, and say that it could accelerate even further if prices don't pick up.

U.S. Warship Enters Waters Claimed by China Without Approval

  Alan Bjerga

January 30, 2016 — 5:53 PM EET Updated on January 31, 2016 — 8:58 AM EET

Bloomberg

The Pentagon confirmed it sent a ship into waters claimed by China, calling it a “freedom of navigation” operation meant to challenge attempts by that country and others to restrict navigation in the area.

The USS Curtis Wilbur got to within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Triton Island in the South China Sea, Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said by e-mail Saturday.

The island, administered by China, is part of the Paracel islands chain in the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou ignored a rebuke from the U.S. and visited an island in the contested area earlier this week, reiterating claims to the disputed waterway.

U.S. Broadens Fight Against ISIS With Attacks in Afghanistan

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ERIC SCHMITTJAN. 31, 2016

WASHINGTON — The United States has carried out at least a dozen operations — including commando raids and airstrikes — in the past three weeks against militants in Afghanistan aligned with the Islamic State, expanding the Obama administration’s military campaign against the terrorist group beyond Iraq and Syria.

The operations followed President Obama’s decision last month to broaden the authority of American commanders to attack the Islamic State’s new branch in Afghanistan. The administration — which has been accused by Republicans of not having a strategy to defeat the group — is revamping plans for how it fights the terrorist organization in regions where it has developed affiliates.

Economists to Cameron: refugee crisis response 'morally unacceptable'

In open letter to PM, more than 120 leading economists including former UN and World Bank officials say UK can do far more

The Guardian

More than 120 leading economists, among them former government, UN and World Bank officials, have lambasted the UK government’s response to the refugee crisis, calling it seriously inadequate, morally unacceptable and economically wrong.

In an open letter to David Cameron, the economists argue that as the world’s fifth-largest economy, the UK “can do far more” and are calling on the government to take a “fair and proportionate share of refugees, both those already within the EU and those still outside it”.

Greece Resists Its Role as European Union’s Gatekeeper

By LIZ ALDERMANJAN. 30, 2016

The New York Times

IDOMENI, Greece — On a recent weekday, 40 buses jammed into the parking lot of a gas station near the Macedonian border, carrying thousands of refugees who had survived a perilous crossing on wintry seas from Turkey.

Now they were approaching ground zero in the intensifying debate over how to curb the unceasing stream of men, women and children from war-ravaged and poor nations in the Middle East and Africa heading to the safety and prosperity of Europe.