.
Europe
Hungary
19 September 2024 European Union (EU) ministers debated the development of a European degree system at an informal meeting of higher education and research ministers in Budapest, Hungary, on 16 and 17 September. The meeting was overshadowed by an ongoing row about Hungary’s access to EU education and research programmes. Hankó, Hungary’s culture and innovation minister, complained that Lemaître, the European Commission’s research and innovation director general, had been blocked by Brussels from speaking at a post-meeting press conference. Instead, Hankó, whose country holds the rotating six-monthly presidency of the EU Council of Ministers until 31 December, spoke alone. “Unfortunately, I was informed one hour ago that he was not allowed to join me after we had a good discussion during the day. It's not easy to have cooperation and dialogue with the commission,” said Hankó. Much of Hungary’s higher education system has been locked out of the EU’s student exchange programme Erasmus+ and its Horizon Europe research cooperation scheme since January 2023, over concerns about Hungary's operation of universities and higher education institutions by “public interest trusts”. The commission claims that these bodies give excessive control over higher education institutions to Hungary's ’right-wing’ government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Hankó said the commission had yet to respond to a document sent by the Hungarian government nine months ago that sought to allay EU concerns about academic independence in Hungary. “We do hope that Brussels will take the necessary measures,” said the minister, adding: “Nor can we ignore that for more than nine months Hungarian students have not received an answer as to why they are excluded from the Erasmus programme and Hungarian researchers from the Horizon programme. If you want a competitive Europe, international cooperation is absolutely essential.” The minister said the Hungarian government would table reforms to its higher education governance system to its parliament anyway and hoped this would force progress on the impasse. As for the EU-wide issues under discussion, the proposed European degree system was a key topic, given the idea had been proposed by the European Commission in a policy paper – communication - issued in February 2024. This kind of EU degree would be awarded after transnational bachelor, masters, or doctoral programmes, delivered by national, regional, or EU HE institutions. Its validity would be automatically recognised across the EU and awarded jointly and on a voluntary basis by groups of universities across Europe, following a common set of criteria agreed at an EU level. Proponents of the European Degree say it would simplify collaboration and mobility between universities by harmonising national regulations – and would also offer students more opportunities for study across Europe, enhancing their employability, while simplifying processes for universities. But there are challenges to overcome, including the diversity of national education systems, mutual recognition of qualifications, and financial sustainability. Delegations also exchanged views on how to prevent institutions unable to issue joint degrees from facing competitive disadvantages. Hankó told the press conference the meeting had had “quite a heated debate about the European degree”. He claimed the commission’s proposal had run into opposition, but progress could be made via consensus. The minister said there had been criticism of suggestions of a Brussels-based body deciding ’what universities and degrees can be awarded in Europe, [as] many countries believed this goes against national systems’. Hankó, whose Eurosceptic government has defended national government powers in Brussels, argued a European degree system “should take into account national characteristics”, and build on the existing Bologna Process mutual recognition and standards system. Ministers also discussed how EU higher education can further deepen and reform the EU single market, following the April report on the topic by former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta. They also assessed how higher education can boost EU competitiveness, following the report by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on the future of the EU's competitiveness, released on 9 September. In this regard, a meeting note from the Hungarian government said it was “convinced that improving the effectiveness of the European research and innovation ecosystems is a key instrument to strengthen the EU's competitiveness”. A key concern is the “fragmentation” of the European Research Area (ERA), which tries to integrate EU innovation and research policies through an array of policy instruments, such as the ERA Forum, the European Research and Innovation Area Committee (ERAC) and the Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe. Hankó told the press conference: “Europe is lagging behind in the global race ... in education [and] lagging behind in research compared to both North America and Asian countries. There is consensus in the EU that we need to take steps to improve our competitiveness.” He said the Draghi report “provided an excellent basis for the Hungarian presidency to work on this issue” – national presidencies run meetings of the EU Council of Ministers during their terms of office. “We need a competitive turnaround. If we look at the last decade alone, we see that the European Union scientific performance has declined by eight percentage points. Europe reached 95% of US productivity by 1995 but has since fallen to 80%,” said Hankó. He touted the so-called “Hungarian model” of how Europe's competitiveness can be improved – orienting academia towards business and industry. “That is why we are proposing to restore the so-called strategic partnership that is about cooperation between universities, vocational training centres and, of course, the business sector,” he said. Raising concerns about a “two-speed Europe” – a common Hungarian government refrain – he highlighted the steep regional contrasts in scientific performance, with only 8% of applicants in Central and Eastern European countries (which countries account for 24% of the population in Europe) accessing EU scientific research funding; a proportion Hankó said was far higher in Western Europe. “Strong nations; strong research cooperation – that’s how we will have strong Europe,” he told. “That's what we recommend to member states of the European Union and the European Commission to make Europe great again,” Hankó said. (Source: universityworldnews *)
* University World News, published in United Kingdom as a free weekly emailed newsletter and website, that reports on higher education news and developments from a global perspective.
Thursday 19 September 2024 11:37 Head of alleged pager manufacturer said to be 'highly educated' Italian. Twenty minutes outside the centre of Budapest, in Ujpest, is an apartment belonging to the family of Barsony, the woman listed as the chief executive of BAC Consulting - the firm linked to the pagers which exploded in Lebanon. Neighbours say Cristiana was actually born and raised in Sicily, Italy - her Hungarian mother having met her father there. A man who lives next door told that he hasn't seen her for several years, the last time being when she came for the funeral of her grandmother who owned the flat. Cristiana's mother still owns the flat but only comes over from Italy for Easter. (Source: news.sky)
by Whitehead
Thursday 19 September 2024 07:50 'European pager manufacturer was Israeli shell company - report'. Yesterday the Hungary-based firm BAC Consulting was under scrutiny after a Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, 'accused' it of manufacturing the pagers that exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday. 'BAC's chief executive denied the allegations", but now 'the New York Times reports' it was an Israeli shell company. It was one of at least three shell companies created to mask the identities of Israeli intelligence officers creating the pagers, the news outlet said, citing three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. 'BAC took ordinary clients as well as Hezbollah but the group's pagers were produced separately, containing batteries laced with the explosive PETN, the officers said. Israel would then trigger the pagers with a message in Arabic that looked as if it had come from Hezbollah's senior leadership. Production was ramped up after Hezbollah got rid of its mobile phones, when its leader warned Israel was using them to gather intelligence on the group. The three intelligence officials told the NYT that Israel had invested millions in developing technology to hack them'. (Source: news.sky)
19 September 2024 The European Commission says it will take the money out of European funds meant for Budapest after the deadline for the payment of a migration-related fine expired. Due to the court decision on its migration policies, it was determined Hungary had to pay a fine of €200 million and a penalty payment of €1 million per day for non-compliance. Budapest refused, claiming this would force them to have open border policies. On September 17, the deadline to adhere to the court decision and pay this fine expired. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán did not immediately publicly react, as the country is struggling with the passage of cyclone Boris. Earlier he labelled the decision as “outrageous and unacceptable”.Hungary and the European Commission have been colliding over migration for a long time. Reacting to the court decision, the Hungarian Government said it plans to confront the capital and send buses filled with migrants to Brussels. “If Brussels wants illegal migrants, they can have them”, Parliamentary Secretary of State 'of the Human Resources Ministry' ((Ministry of the Interior)) Rétvári said on September 6. “If the European Union forces Hungary to let in illegal immigrants, it will offer migrants to be transported to Brussels free of charge,” Rétvári said at a press conference. He reiterated that Hungary was protecting not only its own borders but also Europe’s external ones with its policies. He claimed that, since 2015, the Hungarian southern border fence and the country’s border guards have prevented around 1 million people from entering the EU. “Yet the Court of Justice of the European Union has imposed a ‘disproportionate, unjust’ and ‘gigantic’ fine on Hungary, with which they want to force the country to let illegal immigrants in en masse and to give up its migration policy so far,” Rétvári said. (Source: brusselssignal)
Germany
September 19, 2024, 12:05 PM Violence left Germany shaken and pushed immigration back to the top of the country’s political agenda. An Aug. 23 attack in Solingen left three dead and eight wounded. A 26-year-old Syrian suspect, an asylum-seeker who was supposed to be deported to Bulgaria last year but reportedly disappeared for a time and avoided deportation was arrested. The islamic state militant group has claimed responsibility for the violence. In response, the Interior Ministry extended temporary border controls to all nine of its frontiers this week. The closures are set to last six months and are threatening to test European unity. The effects of the Solingen attack - and other recent violence across Germany - will also be felt at Oktoberfest. In addition to some 600 police officers and 2,000 security staff, more than 50 cameras will be spread across the grounds of the festival - which will be fenced off as well. (Source: abcnews)
European Commission
Thursday, 19 Sep 2024 08:56 European Commission President von der Leyen is due to meet leaders of several flood-hit nations in the Polish city of Wrocław. High winds and unusually heavy rainfall have hit swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia since last week. She would hold talks in the western city with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Brussels said the visit was at the invitation of Mr Tusk. In Hungary, authorities opened a dam in the country's northwest to channel water from the Leitha River into an emergency reservoir in a bid to protect the city of Mosonmagyaróvár. The water was allowed to flow onto agricultural land. In the capital Budapest, the Danube is still expected to peak around or slightly above 8.5 metres tomorrow or Saturday. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited the village of Kismaros, north of Budapest on the banks of the Danube, to see how preparations for rising waters were taking shape. In Kismaros, 70% of the defences were in place, with nearly 100,000 sandbags already used, government spokesperson Kovács wrote on X. "We are waiting for the peak in Kismaros on Friday," Mr Orbán wrote in a post on Facebook. "It will be difficult, but our soldiers will stand their ground. We will do it!" (Source: rté *)
* Raidió Teilifís Éireann (Radio and Television of Ireland)
European Union
19 Sep 2024 While "each European country has the right to secure its national borders", those that are part of the Schengen Area are supposed to be committed to freedom of movement for people and goods. "The Schengen Area was born out of the 1985 Schengen Agreement, named for the town in Luxembourg where it was signed, which aimed to eliminate internal borders among participating European countries". The original treaty covered five countries – France, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – and has since expanded to 27. Observers have raised concerns that tightening border security harms a core value of the European Union. The Schengen Borders Code defines when and how member states can reintroduce temporary internal border controls. These controls are permitted only under exceptional circumstances, such as threats to national security. Each Schengen country has the right to temporarily reinstate border checks in emergencies, but such decisions must be justified and communicated to the European Commission. They need to be well anchored in the best evidence justifying their necessity, proportionality, legitimacy and assessing very carefully their impacts on free movement and fundamental rights. Police checks in border areas 'cannot be systematic' or target 'specific groups'. 'The European Commission tends to apply a light touch to its members', "preferring diplomatic follow up, but not formally launching enforcement infringement proceedings'. The European Parliament can also step in, filing a judicial complaint against the Commission if it fails to enforce EU law. As in the current German case, border control measures are intended to last no longer than six months. In practice, they can be extended indefinitely until they rather become quasi-permanent. That opens the door to border controls becoming increasingly the rule rather than the exception. Ireland – which operates its own travel area with the United Kingdom – is an EU member that does not participate in Schengen. That means those arriving to the country from other EU member states can expect to have to show identification and provide a valid reason to enter. There are other Schengen hopefuls. Romania and Bulgaria have applied for full Schengen participation, but 'were blocked by Austria and the Netherlands, which expressed migration concerns". While it may seem to the casual observer that 'people can come and go as they please', the Schengen Information System (SIS) serves as a database that tracks visa data, arrest warrants, and information on criminals and missing persons. Joining the Schengen Area requires countries to meet strict conditions, including "assuming responsibility for external EU borders", issuing Schengen-compatible visas and aligning their law enforcement with Schengen security protocols. (Source: theparliamentmagazine)
by Döll, Editorial Assistant at The Parliament Magazine
Asia
Japan
(Thursday), 19.09.2024 A Japanese firm says no longer is making the model of walkie-talkies used in Lebanon blasts. Icom exported its radio to foreign countries including in the Middle East from 2004 to 2014. "The production of the batteries needed to operate the main unit has also been discontinued, and a hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company," the firm added. "All of our radios are manufactured at our production subsidiary, Wakayama Icom Inc., in (Japan’s) Wakayama Prefecture, under a strict management system based on ISO 9001/14001/27001, so no parts other than those specified by our company are used in a product," it said. At least 32 people were killed and more than 3 250 injured on Tuesday and Wednesday in wireless device explosions that targeted thousands of pagers and Icom wireless units used by members of the Lebanese resistance group Hamas and medics across Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The blasts came amid mounting border escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, which have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Tel Aviv’s deadly onslaught against the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,000 people, mostly women and children, following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7. (Source: aa *)
* Anadolu Agency, Turkey
Lebanon
September 19, 2024 | 10:37 AM The death toll in Lebanon from the explosions of ICOM wireless communication devices Wednesday has risen to 20, with more than 450 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. (Source: gulf-times *)
* Qatar
Thursday 19 September 2024 08:51, UK Israeli warplanes have attacked southern Lebanon after 32 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured by exploding pagers and walkie-talkies across the country. Meanwhile, a Hungary-based firm have been accused of being an Israeli shell company that manufactured the pagers. (Source: news.sky)
.
