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Tag: EU

  • Perlu Bayar 5 Euro Dan Daftar Pemeriksaan Online Jika Mahu Ke Negara EU

    Perlu Bayar 5 Euro Dan Daftar Pemeriksaan Online Jika Mahu Ke Negara EU

    Jutaan pelancong seperti dari Singapura yang mengunjungi Eropah perlu melalui pemeriksaan keselamatan secara online dan membayar 5 euro (S$7.60) sebelum ketibaan mereka. Ini sekiranya rancangan EU untuk mengetatkan kawalannya terhadap para pengunjung asing yang tidak memerlukan visa, diluluskan.

    Sistem itu, yang disarankan oleh Suruhanjaya Eksekutif Eropah hari ini (16 Nov), akan memeriksa dokumen-dokumen pengenalan dan maklumat tempat tinggal pengunjung menerusi pelbagai pangkalan data keselamatan dan jenayah Kesatuan Eropah (EU).

    Diberi nama ETIAS, sistem itu juga bertujuan menangani kebimbangan rakyat Eropah berhubung rancangan memperluas perjalanan tanpa visa ke dua negara jiran, iaitu Turki dan Ukraine. ETIAS juga akan dikenakan ke atas para pengunjung dari negara-negara bukan EU di Balkan seperti Albania dan Serbia.

    SERUPA DENGAN SISTEM ESTA DI AMERIKA SYARIKAT

    Serupa dengan sistem ESTA Amerika Syarikat (AS), sistem ETIAS akan menjejas rakyat dari 60 negara yang boleh mengunjungi 26 negara di Eropah yang tidak memerlukan pasport bagi perjalanan singkat tanpa perlu memohon visa terlebih dahulu, termasuk rakyat Amerika, Jepun dan bergantung kepada aturan yang ditetapkan London untuk keluar dari EU – mungkin rakyat Britain juga.

    Sistem ESTA Amerika, yang sah selama dua tahun, berharga AS$14 (S$20) manakala sistem yang serupa di Kanada, eTA, yang sah selama lima tahun berharga AS$5.21 (S$7.40).

    Menyusuli serangan ISIS ke atas Perancis dan Belgium dan kekecohan berkaitan ketibaan ratusan pendatang dan pelarian di Greece, eksekutif itu berharap pemeriksaan sedemikian akan menutup kelemahan-kelemahan di sempadan terhadap anggota militan, penjenayah dan pendatang-pendatang haram pada masa akan datang.

    “Keutamaan kami adalah memastikan keselamatan sempadan dan rakyat kami. ETIAS akan menutupi jurang maklumat menerusi silang pemeriksaan maklumat para pengunjung yang tidak menggunakan visa dengan semua sistem-sistem yang lain,” kata Timbalan Ketua Suruhanjaya, Naib Presiden Pertama Frans Timmermans.

    “Dalam pada itu, ETIAS lebih mudah, cepat, murah dan berkesan,” tambah beliau lagi.

    TUNGGU LAMPU HIJAU PARLIMEN EROPAH

    Skim tersebut kini memerlukan kelulusan daripada pemerintah dan Parlimen Eropah.

    Ia adalah sistem yang diharapkan dapat dibiayai sendiri menerusi yuran permohonan.

    Suruhanjaya itu menganggarkan kos penubuhannya adalah sekitar 200 juta euro manakala kos penyenggaraannya 85 juta euro.

    Tujuannya adalah untuk memberikan kebanyakan pengunjung, dalam masa beberapa minit online, pelepasan bagi seberapa banyak perjalanan sepanjang tempoh lima tahun.

    Sekalipun begitu ia boleh dibatalkan pada bila-bila masa jika terdapat sebarang keprihatinan.

    Mereka yang menolak sistem tersebut boleh membuat rayuan.

    Para pegawai EU berharap ia dapat dilaksanakan setelah diluluskan menjelang awal dekad seterusnya.

    Source: Berita MediaCorp

  • Duterte Gives The Middle Finger, Literally, To EU

    Duterte Gives The Middle Finger, Literally, To EU

    Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has launched a profanity-filled tirade against the European Union, in his latest riposte to international criticism of the rising death toll in his brutal crackdown on crime.

    Mr Duterte punctuated his insults with a rude sign — raising his middle finger — after the European Parliament condemned “the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings in the Philippines”.

    “I say to them, f*** you. You’re doing it in atonement for your sins,” he told local officials in his southern home city of Davao late Tuesday (Sept 20) in comments filmed by broadcaster ABS-CBN.

    The 71-year-old leader had reacted along similar lines to earlier foreign criticism of his drug war, calling US President Barack Obama a “son of a w****” and cursing the United Nations.

    Mr Duterte won elections in a landslide in May after vowing to eradicate the illegal drug trade in six months, and promising that 100,000 criminals would be killed in the process.

    Since he took office on June 30 about 3,000 people have been killed, about a third of them suspects shot dead by police and the rest murdered by unidentified attackers, according to police statistics.

    Mr Duterte said on Sunday he needed to extend his crime war for another six months because the drug problem was worse than he expected.

    The EU parliament last week said it was concerned about the “extraordinarily high numbers killed during police operations…in the context of an intensified anti-crime and anti-drug campaign”.

    Mr Duterte must “put an end to the current wave of extrajudicial executions and killings…(and) launch an immediate investigation into (them)”, the EU resolution said.

    Singling out France and Britain, Mr Duterte said their parliament members were “hypocrites” whose colonial-era ancestors killed “thousands” of Arabs and other peoples.

    “They’re taking the high ground to assuage their feelings of guilt. But who did I kill? Assuming it to be true, 1,700, who are they? Criminals. You call that genocide,” he said.

    “Now the EU has the gall to condemn me. So I repeat it. F*** you,” he said, raising his middle finger.

    In a separate speech on Tuesday, Duterte also repeated a vow to shield police or soldiers from prosecution.

    “If you massacre a hundred and you also number a hundred, why, all of you will get pardons. Restored to full political and civil rights plus a promotion to boot,” he told soldiers during a visit to a military camp.

     

    Source: TODAY Online

  • EU Court Ruled For Hamas To Be Removed From EU’s Terrorist List

    EU Court Ruled For Hamas To Be Removed From EU’s Terrorist List

    BRUSSELS – The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should be removed from the European Union’s terrorist list, an EU court ruled on Wednesday, saying the decision to include it was based on media reports not considered analysis.

    In its ruling, however, the bloc’s second highest tribunal said member states could keep Hamas’s assets frozen for three months to give time for further review or for an appeal.

    The EU’s foreign policy arm said the bloc continued to view Hamas as a terrorist group. “This was a legal ruling of the court based on procedural grounds. We will look into this and decide on appropriate remedial action,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijanic said.

    The United States urged the European Union not to change its stance.

    “We believe that the E.U. should maintain its terrorism sanctions on Hamas,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a regular news briefing.

    Israel, which has clashed repeatedly with Europe in recent years over Palestinian statehood ambitions, demanded Hamas remain blacklisted and said the ruling showed “staggering hypocrisy” toward a Jewish state founded after the Holocaust.

    “It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil six million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing. But we in Israel, we’ve learned,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He branded Hamas “a murderous terrorist organization”.

    Hamas holds sway in the Gaza Strip and its founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel. It has regularly battled Israel, most recently in a 50-day war this summer.

    Most Western countries say it is a terrorist organization, pointing to years of indiscriminate rocket strikes out of Gaza and waves of suicide attacks, primarily between 1993 and 2005.

    HAMAS BUOYED

    Hamas says it is a legitimate resistance movement and contested the European Union’s decision in 2001 to include it on the terrorist list. It welcomed Wednesday’s verdict.

    “The decision is a correction of a historical mistake the European Union had made,” Deputy Hamas chief Moussa Abu Marzouk said. “Hamas is a resistance movement and it has a natural right according to all international laws and standards to resist the occupation.”

    The EU court did not ponder the merits of whether Hamas should be classified as a terror group, but reviewed the original decision-making process. This, it said, did not include the considered opinion of competent authorities, but rather relied on media and Internet reports.

    It said if an appeal was brought before the EU’s top court, the European Court of Justice, the freeze of Hamas funds should continue until the legal process was complete.

    In a similar ruling, an EU court said in October the 2006 decision to place Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers on the EU list was procedurally flawed. As with Hamas, it also said the group’s assets should remain frozen pending further legal action and the European Union subsequently filed an appeal.

    The European Parliament has approved a non-binding resolution supporting Palestinian statehood. The text was a compromise, representing divisions within the EU over how far to blame Israel for failing to agree peace terms.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com