Today, beBeer is taking a new step forward by entering into a strategic partnership with our media Brussels Express.

A driving force for beer tourism

At a time when beer tourism is experiencing sustained growth throughout Europe, beBeer in the pocket aims to establish itself as its spearhead. The app does more than just map breweries: it helps travellers discover festivals, brewing communes, craft bars and local initiatives that enrich the region. It is also the same lever for brewers and other players in the sector, who gain visibility among a curious and beer lover audience.

Brussels Express opens its pages to the Europe of beer. For its part, Brussels Express is creating a section dedicated to beBeer. This new editorial space will offer its readers profiles of brewers, reports on local scenes and insights into brewing dynamics across the continent, such as the brand new European network of Brewing Cities and Communes and the associated label. 

Each brewing commune and its local promotors will be given special attention, showcasing the diversity and vitality of European brewing territories.

By partnering with beBeer, the Brussels media outlet is confirming its desire to promote Europe, its traditions and its expertise, particularly in terms of what constitutes a living cultural heritage: beer.

A partnership in the name of common heritage

With this partnership, beBeer gains an essential media showcase to develop its network and establish its European status. Brussels Express, for its part, enriches its content and opens up more to the cultural and economic dimension of beer in Europe.

A partnership that celebrates not only a drink, but above all a shared history, expertise and way of life.

The post « beBeer in your Pocket » goes European with Brussels Express appeared first on Brussels Express.

I meet Marek on a chilly afternoon in downtown Brussels. He has spent a few weeks as a writer in residence at Passa Porta House of Literature, and I’m curious to know what his routine has been like while living here. I want to pry into his creative universe. I want know what magic he’s been able to find in the city.

“I want to show you something,” he says, after reflecting on my question for a while. “I believe it’s one of the places that captures the essence of my being here.”

We walk on Rue de Flandre until the traffic light, then cross Rue du Marché aux Porcs. The brown and yellow leaves lie scattered and crushed on the pavement. “This is it,” he says, as we reach the alley of Rue de la Cigogne. “In the afternoons, after working on the manuscript, I would come here for some quiet. Whenever I needed to recharge, this place right here is where I would come.”

The alley is empty. Only a few bicycles stand next to the water pipes, the trees that have crept and followed a trail close to the walls, and Marek looks at all of this as if there lay a secret meaning he wanted to decipher.

During his residency he also enjoyed going out for a run on Antoine Dansaert and up Mont des Arts, past the Place Royal and further into the park where he would try to untangle his thoughts while giving a few laps around, nodding from time to time to other fellow runners.

Marek had been to Brussels before, in 2017, when he attended the Passa Porta Literary Festival and talked about his book Mapa Anny (The Map of Anna). The book is not only a multifaceted portrayal of the main character, Ana, but also an adventurous exploration form. Conceived as a set of stories told from different points of view, The Map of Anna continue to reveal the multi-dexterity of Šindelka as a poet, novelist, and short story writer.

The Dutch edition of Material Fatigue is on the short list for the Europese Literatuurprijs (European Literature Prize). In the Czech Republic it won the prestigious Magnesia Litera Prose Book of the Year Award, and when I ask about the genesis of the book he recounts, as if it were yesterday, how on a sunny day in 2015 he had been playing with his first daughter, a toddler, and the news of a truck with 70 dead people in Austria appeared in the news. All of them migrants.

“I was shocked,” Marek says. “I had my daughter sitting in my lap. She was babbling something, chewing a toy, and we were enjoying our time, feeling happy. And then the news arrived. I thought, How could this be happening in Europe?”

The shock, he continues, only grew when he started to see the reactions in the Czech Republic. “Some people were even celebrating it. That’s how far the media and some politicians had gone. That made me really angry and sad at the same time. I felt I had to do something about it.”

Shortly after, he began interviewing migrants and refugees, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan. But soon he realized he couldn’t possibly write the book as a documentary retelling someone else’s story. He chose to use all of those experiences to inform the novel, to create the fictional world of the two main characters. “Because if someone came to me and asked, ‘What’s the most horrible thing that has happened to you?’ I wouldn’t do it, I wouldn’t tell them. For my novel I didn’t want to use someone else’s suffering just for effect.”

Material Fatigue tells the story of two brothers, fleeing from an unnamed country which is being ravaged by war. They’ve lost their home and family. They’ve lost their sense of direction. Professional traffickers have smuggled them into Europe. At the start of their long journey they get separated. The novel contains passages that suffocate, narrow spaces that push the limits of what many readers can tolerate.

“I’ve received letters from readers saying that they cannot finish the book because they feel claustrophobic,” he says. “I’m totally fine with that. I just wanted them to experience, even if for a short while, what it feels like to be in a place like that. A refugee camp.”

In the Czech Republic he’s faced difficult moments with people who disagree with his ideas. After the success and media attention that followed the Magnesia Litera Prose Book, he received hundreds and hundreds of hate emails. He had to disable the contact form on his webpage.

“There is too much disinformation these days. The Czech Republic accepted twelve asylum seekers in total. Twelve. Where is the Islamic invasion many politicians like to talk about?”

These days the situation in the Czech Republic has slightly improved as many people have realized that the data and information provided by certain politicians was misleading. They wanted to use the migration crisis to their advantage. Fear can be a powerful currency in politics.

Can literature help us understand each other better, the competing emotions and contradictory behaviors each and every one of us is susceptible to?

In the study where he has been working in his latest project, he tells me about someone close to him who, in the midst of anti-migrants campaigns in Prague, decided to buy a gun. “It’s totally crazy, you know, because I know he is a good person. That’s how complex human beings are.”

Despite the current climate of polarization in different parts of Europe and the US, Marek continuous to focus on his work. He remains hopeful. “It might be naive to think that a book can change how people live but that’s what I can do, and so I choose to do it.”

Before I leave his study on the Rue du Vieux Marché aux Grains, I ask him what souvenir will he take with him when he boards the plain for Prague. “A sore throat,” he replies, and we both laugh. “I take with me the feeling of the colorful and lively city Brussels is. People of all cultures and backgrounds live right here in the center of town, which is not the case in the center of Prague, I can tell you that much. Brussels offers a cultural mix in a city that’s unique.”

The post « I take with me the feeling of the colorful and lively city Brussels is » — Marek Šindelka at Passa Porta appeared first on Brussels Express.

He is taking over at a time when Europe faces challenges from all points, whether we look East to the ascending China and an aggressive Russia or West to President Trump. Those challenges are a given, but there is another country that merits the attention of the new Commission. What happens in Georgia, given its precarious position next to Europe’s belligerent Russian neighbour, should also be firmly on the EU’s agenda.

During June 2019, mass protests took place in Georgia, culminating in police violence being used against peaceful marchers on 20 June. Soon afterwards, the founder of leading Georgian financial institution, London-listed TBC bank, Mamuka Khazaradze, announced a new political movement, stating that the police violence had been a “red line” and that a new Georgian political movement was required to build Western style democracy and mend the widening political rifts in the country. The new Georgian politics seem to be well on the way to being developed, with an event taking place in Anaklia last week at which the ‘Lelo’ movement was born at a seaside rally and it is widely thought it will mature into an official political party in the autumn. Comparisons are being drawn with Macron’s “En Marche”movement that swept to power in France.

However, the European Union should be on high alert. Perhaps unsurprisingly, shortly after his political announcement, prosecutors brought fraud charges against Lelo founder Mamuka Khazaradze and his colleague Badri Japaridze. Concerns that the case is politically motivated have been fuelled by the fact that an 11-year old transaction had to be exhumed in order to try and make a case against Khazaradze. The timing of the charges is seen as being linked to the fact that the Lelo movement is viewed as a potentially serious rival to the main political parties, Georgian Dream (GD) and the United National Movement (NDM). Until now, GD leader Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgia’s richest man, has had the financial clout needed to feel secure in a country where money talks in politics. The entry into politics of a leading business figure such as Khazaradze seems to have caused some unease inside Georgian Dream, not least because polling figures show there is definitely a gap to be filled, with voters disillusioned with both GD and UNM.

The Anaklia deep-water port development, with which Khazaradze has been closely involved, is another reason that his political move is being resisted. Such a transformational transit hub between Asia and Europe is likely to irritate Georgia’s Russian neighbours who will see it as a threat to their influence and domination of regional infrastructure. It is likely that GD Chairman Bidzina Ivanishvili feels threatened by the project.

Europe has every reason to work for a prosperous and democratic Georgia. There have been ups and downs since we all watched with hope as the Rose Revolution took place. Georgia’s vital position at the crossroads between East and West means it could play a big role in global trade and the country’s democratic future is vital.  Prosecution of political opposition figures does not go unnoticed by the international community. The UK, France and USA have all had their embassies voice concerns about the Khazaradzecase. It is up to Georgia to decide what kind of country it wants to be, but its European friends have a crucial role to play. Let’s hope our no-nonsense EU foreign policy chief Josep Borell does indeed have Georgia on his mind.  

The post Will the EU’s new foreign policy chief have Georgia on his mind? appeared first on Brussels Express.

The data showed that the quality of IT infrastructure and the provided support in Brussels is particularly appreciated (87%), whereas other big innovating centres came out with lower results. Amsterdam and Zurich (both ranking at 93%) do prove to be more convenient for starting a business, while Oslo (97%) and Stockholm (100%) rank first in this area.

A few challenges have yet to be overcome by the newly implemented companies, such as building a clientele, recruiting qualified personnel and accessing to capital. Only then can the Belgian capital be recognised as a entrepreneurship-starting centre on an international scale.

Far from them the idea to relocate their activities to an other country, as stated by 9 out of 10 (87%) of new entrepreneurs. This percentage far exceeds the European average of 59%.

This study was carried out by ‘European Start-up Survey and conducted by the consultancy agency PwC.

The post New entrepreneurs find Brussels more attractive than London, Paris or Berlin appeared first on Brussels Express.

The organizer, Christelle Delbrouck, wrote on the Facebook Page:

« In order not to forget the immeasurable losses caused by this Europe of Hatred, we will regularly read, in the public space, the list of these victims (published by United for Intercultural Action). We will start Monday, August 12, 2019 in front of the Berlaymont. And we will start the next Monday, again and again. Because these Humans do not displease their executioners, have existed. And that these deaths are part of history. And when it comes to accountability, they will be part of it. »

The post states: « For many years, Europe has hardened its laws towards the poorest. Today, we want to draw attention to the catastrophic situation imposed on Exiles by our deadly and criminal European policies. Every day, because of this Fortress Europe, men, women and children die on the roads of exile. And our leaders, as the only answer to these horrors perpetrated, « sell » human beings to confirmed dictatorships to guarantee the impermeability of borders. These Exile.e.s are at the mercy of traffickers, slavers or extreme police. They suffer rape, torture, slavery, prostitution, without any reaction from our responsible Europe. Worse, when some people manage to escape their detention, by flight or after giving in to the blackmail of their executioners, they clash with a Mediterranean that has become a cemetery by blocking rescue boats and criminalizing NGOs. »

« And if they manage to land, they are abused, criminalized, parceled, forgotten, insulted by our national governments who reject them, creating a breeding ground for the rise of extremes. Since 1993, more than 40,000 people have died as a result of Fortress Europe’s criminal policy. The figures are probably even more important since the count of these disappeared is only via the NGO United for Intercultural Action. Our countries do not deign to make an official census of their own crimes, as if these people did not exist, had never existed and deserved no respect. Not to mention that many people have disappeared without there being any trace of their passage on earth. »

Their demands are:

• Legal and safe migration routes.
• The unconditional respect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for ALL human beings.
• The recovery of rescues at sea.
• Stopping spending on buffer states that have proved unworthy to deal with the migratory cause (Libya, Turkey, etc).
• Effective and humane reception facilities for the Exiles to provide them with the security, housing, food, education and legal advice they may need to rebuild, settle and become human again.
• Decriminalization of the solidarity of citizens, associations and NGOs towards the most vulnerable people.

The post Citizens gather in front of EU Berlaymont building to denounce the deaths of migrants appeared first on Brussels Express.

But what remains vital to the smooth-running of a holiday, which many of us seem to overlook, is the airport transfer. Travelling to your hotel in an unknown city can be daunting, not to mention expensive.

To clear the air of uncertainty, airport transfers company Taxi2Airport has investigated the most travel friendly cities in Europe.

Analysing data provided by Taxi-Calculator.com, the average price to travel from the city centre to the main airport (or vice versa) for 14 European capital cities has been calculated, taking into consideration price per mile, base fares, and distance*.

Which cities are the cheapest?

For the cheapest airport transfer, results show that Lisbon is the place to be – for a 5.4km journey from the city’s airport to centre will cost travellers a mere €5.79.

In second place is Ankara – Turkey’s capital will set you back only €13.64 for a 26.5km journey.

Meanwhile, the remaining top countries for cheap travel are as follows:

Madrid (€18.56), Berlin (€20.10), Prague (€21.31), Vienna (€23.75) and Athens (€26.45).

Which cities are the most expensive?

Taxi2Airport can reveal that, at a whopping €52.07 (20.8km journey), Amsterdam tops the table as the most expensive capital city to reach, from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

The next most expensive city is, less surprisingly, London at €50.60 for 25.6km – dropping you off at London Heathrow.

In third place is Stockholm. The city’s low fares of €1.13 (and €4.22 base fee) are unfortunately cancelled out by the distance required to reach its airport, Stockholm Arlanda Airport (40.3km) – as such, the overall total becomes €49.76.

Finally, the remaining expensive cities are: Bern (€43.84), Paris (€42.73), Rome (€36) and Brussels (€26.88).

The post Lisbon, Ankara and Madrid: The Most Travel Friendly Cities in Europe appeared first on Brussels Express.

I recently received a mail from Aisha al-Gaddafi, the only daughter of Libya’s former dictator. We didn’t know each other, and yet Mrs Gaddafi wrote very confidently that she would entrust $27.5 million to me if I’d help her to invest the money in my country. She would reward me with a handsome commission of thirty per cent of this sum. She requested that I get in touch with her as a matter of urgency.

I didn’t believe that Mrs Gaddafi personally had written to me, of course. It wasn’t the first time I’d been contacted like this, after all. You’ve probably received a similar missive at least once in your life – in the past as a letter, for a brief time by fax, and for some time now by email. It’s the set-up for a con.

Nigerians call this a “419” after the relevant paragraph of their country’s criminal code. Someone writes to you, claiming to have access to gigantic sums of (misappropriated) money. That someone would like you to help him or her to get this cash out of Nigeria (or Russia or Brazil or some other country). Enterprising Nigerians send out millions of these mails, and if a recipient falls for their trick, they ask for some modest administrative payments to grease the wheels for the big windfall. Agree to a face-to-face meeting with one of these shysters and they’ll lead you a merry dance.

Europeans usually talk or write about 419 cases as an example of the tremendous corruption in countries such as Nigeria, expressing a mixture of indignation and amusement. Less frequently mentioned is the behaviour of the con’s targets, who are generally regarded as victims despite in fact being accomplices. How do the senders of these mails come up with the seemingly fanciful idea of enticing someone in Europe with absurd tales of gold and gemstones? The sting works only because it’s clear to both parties that Nigerians, Libyans or Iraqis are handing over their dirty money to a “whiter-than-white” European to look after and launder. No one is surprised by how obvious it seems that Europeans are blindly trusted to guard the grubbed millions.

This is clearly one of our jobs under the global division of labour. Other people steal, we fence; one dollar washes the other. Every 419 email is a sign that corruption in the global South is only possible because the stolen money eventually ends up somewhere here, be it London or Zurich, Cyprus or Liechtenstein.

And yet we’re appalled by the scale of corruption in the South. Around $50 billion is embezzled every year in the world’s poorest countries. Capital flees to the North. It isn’t quite as easy to designate who’s responsible for the basic tone of globalized capitalism as many of us would like to think. Transparency International, for example, thinks that Somalia is the most corrupt country on earth, whereas the renowned Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, who has been studying mafia-style organizations for decades, is of the opinion that Great Britain is the most corrupt state in the world (London has degenerated into a playground for international crooks).

Transparency and Saviano are both right, but as citizens of Europe, we need to take a look at our own schizophrenia. We demand good governance and launder dirty money – both at once, with our hearts in the sky and our fat arses on the couch of complacency.

In late eighteenth century Edinburgh there lived a man named William Brodie, an elegant gentleman who ran a cabinetmaker’s shop and was respected by his fellow citizens. By day he served on the city council and reliably fulfilled his clients’ orders; by night he would break into his customers’ houses and rob them , until one day he was arrested and executed.

William Brodie would be long forgotten if Robert Louis Stevenson hadn’t seen in him an extreme symbol of a disturbing human trait – the split personality. Stevenson wrote about Brodie three times. His first two attempts were plays that flopped, the third – a fast-paced novella called The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – became a bestseller.

“I was born in the year 18— to a large fortune, endowed besides with excellent parts, inclined by nature to industry, fond of the respect of the wise and good among my fellow-men, and thus, as might have been supposed, with every guarantee of an honourable and distinguished future.” Thus begins Dr Jekyll’s confession in the final chapter of the book. He is an eminent doctor – a man who heals people, who prizes education and knowledge, and a prominent member of society.

At the same time, however, he is the callous and brutal epitome of blind greed, a man by the name of Mr Hyde.

There is no Dr Jekyll on the one hand and Mr Hyde on the other, but a creature that was “committed to a profound duplicity of life.” Also: “I saw that of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both. »

Dr Jekyll is neither innocent nor naïve nor blind. He recognizes the enemy within, and he would dearly love to vanquish him. Eventually, though, he gives up the fight.

A direct line can be drawn between this story and the present. What is true of individuals can also hold for societies as a whole. Europe – or, to be more precise, the European Union – is Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

In 2017 the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, expressed horror at the state of refugee camps in Libya. “I can’t sleep easy when I think about what’s happening to those people who went to Libya to try and improve their lives, only to find themselves in hell.” Europe must not “be silent in the face of this outrageous problem, which dates back to another century”. He was “very shocked” by reports that refugees in Libya were being sold as slaves. “I didn’t know until two months ago the full extent of the problem. It’s become a constant, urgent situation.”

It’s easy to understand Juncker’s horror. In Libya thirty refugees or so are packed into cells measuring less than five square metres, and they’re starving because they’re only fed every three days. According to a report by the NGO Doctors without Borders, their living conditions have been getting steadily worse. Almost a quarter of the inmates in Sabaa prison in Tripoli, the capital, are apparently undernourished, many of them children.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that there are currently around 670,000 refugees in Libya. The German embassy in Niger wrote to the German Chancellery back in 2017, describing what happened to refugees who were sent back across the Mediterranean: “Executions of migrants who cannot pay, torture, rape, blackmail and abandonment in the desert are a daily occurrence. Eye witnesses spoke of five shootings per week in one of the prisons – these were pre-announced and always took place on Friday to free up space for newcomers.”

A study by the Women’s Refugee Commission concludes that virtually every woman who flees via Libya falls victim to sexual violence. Survivors report being raped with sticks, genitals being burnt, penises cut off, and men forced to rape their sisters. Unimaginable atrocities, and all within the past two years.

So what has Juncker done to bring an end to such dreadful circumstances?

Nothing.

What could he have done?

Many things.

That’s because what’s happening in Libya is taking place not only with the EU’s acquiescence but even with direct funding from the bloc, since Libyan border guards are meant to use all available means to prevent refugees from escaping. If refugees endure terrible conditions and die in Libya, this is a direct consequence of a targeted EU policy.

However, it would be wrong to accuse advocates of this policy, like Jean-Claude Juncker, of hypocrisy. His outrage was undoubtedly sincere. He is an heir to the European tradition that has promulgated universal ideals of solidarity around the world since the French Revolution, abolished slavery and played a decisive role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dr Jekyll puts his finger on this conundrum: “Though so profound a double-dealer, I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering.”

The EU declares that it “supports national authorities to improve their capacity to fight traffickers”. In actual fact, though, the distinction between the Libyan authorities and the gangs of people smugglers is somewhat blurred.

“European governments and institutions keep saying that they advocate the end of arbitrary detention of refugees and migrants, but they have not taken any decisive action to ensure this would happen,” said Matteo De Bellis of Amnesty International.

European politicians talk like Dr Jekyll and act like Mr Hyde. The German international development minister, Gerd Müller, drafts repeated plans for saving the world, but little good has come about during his time in in office.

The minister would like western societies to fundamentally change their lifestyles. “We should no longer derive our prosperity from slave and child labour and exploiting our environment.” In his book Unfair he writes: “We must reach a state that allows every person on the planet to live in dignity. The goal is to satisfy everyone’s basic needs of food, water, shelter and work at last, and for the industrialized countries, which have already acquired these material goods, this means we must learn to share. In the long term there must not and will not be any further growth at the expense of others.”

In a speech in honour of the Catholic aid agency Misereor a year ago, he declared: “Instead of ‘I take pity’ we should now say, “I take responsibility” for those things that are in my power. And we have power! As consumers. As businesses producing around the world. As policymakers of great economic powers.”

He went on to quote Cardinal Frings’s challenge to appeal to the consciences of those who shape political, economic and social conditions. That is all very honourable: Minister Jekyll is formulating a clear ethical mission, which every single one of us senses in defining moments. My daughter learned at school that a prosperous Swiss citizen uses as many resources as a whole African village. If we were on a raft, such parasitic and anti-social behaviour would not be tolerated.

Real-life politics is different, though. Every international body prevents indispensable reforms to the global economic and financial system. There have been attempts at various administrative levels of the United Nations over the past four decades to link economic conduct and human rights, and approve binding rules. Most recently, the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on transnational corporations and human rights published a draft agreement on business and human rights a year ago. This “zero draft” – so-called to show that it is provisional and amendable – was the result of years of haggling between the participants. It will now be “discussed” – a euphemism for the neutering of any strict and legally binding restrictions on the often brutal, and almost always exploitative, actions of international companies in poorer countries.

In parallel, the efforts of the global South to be admitted to the OECD-dominated international tax policy committee were vetoed by the North including Germany. That would have been “to increase the fiscal opportunities of poorer countries to determine international regulatory measures, e.g. shutting down tax havens, fighting tax evasion and combating competition for tax dumping.”
As recently as two decades ago, debt relief for the poorest countries was a high-profile political issue. All that stood in the way of writing off developing countries’ debts was the greed and selfishness of industrialized countries. Nowadays, these countries tooth and nail to defend their advantages. When Cyclone Idai recently devastated parts of Mozambique, the heart-rending appeals for debt relief fell on deaf ears. According to IMF statistics, Mozambique is one of the thirty-five states that find themselves in an existential debt crisis. The country is behind with its payments and incapable of servicing its outstanding debts.

Whenever money is involved or “our” prosperity under threat, Mr Hyde rears his ugly head and sabotages the struggle for human dignity and a good life for all.

Instead of binding rules, the EU and the German government (including Minister Müller) opt for voluntary schemes for environmental and social standards.

A year ago I drove for two hours solid through the north of Borneo and as far as the eye could see on either side of the road there was nothing but oil palms where jungle flourished only a generation ago. The view: chemically fuelled monoculture, and growth that leads to death (after two decades the soils are completely exhausted). The Amsterdam Declarations now encourage traders, agricultural companies and food businesses that have contributed to the unique destruction of nature over several decades to voluntarily commit to more stringent standards as part of multi-stakeholder platforms, and to put their business models on a more sustainable footing. There is only one drawback to this old idea – it doesn’t work.

Mr Hyde is particularly rampant in agriculture. Although the latest World Agriculture Report appeals for a radical change in global farming, the EU and its most powerful member states continue to push for the expansion of industrial agriculture complete with intensive use of fertilizers, pesticides and patented seeds. This principally serves the interests and profits of the agricultural corporations involved, while sustainable agro-ecological farming methods barely get a look in.

One could tear one’s hair out over this deep-rooted schizophrenia, but there are also signs of hope. Slavery was as much a fact of late-eighteenth-century life as container ships are today. When small groups in Britain began to question its legitimacy, their ethical beliefs were dismissed because the transatlantic slave trade was immensely profitable for the United Kingdom. It provided jobs, it allowed fortunes to be made and it guaranteed the flow of consumer goods. This was sufficient justification. It’s the same situation today regarding glaring social inequalities and environmental destruction. Mr Hyde’s arguments die hard. And yet fifty years of political struggle finally resulted in the abolition of slavery in Europe.

That too is part of the European tradition. In Crisis in Civilisation, Rabindranath Tagore’s forceful indictment of British rule in India, the poet endeavours to distinguish between resistance to imperialism and a rejection of western civilisation. On the one hand, India was “smothered under the dead weight of British administration”; on the other hand, it should never forget what the country had gained through Shakespeare’s drama and Byron’s poetry and above all “the large-hearted liberalism of the nineteenth-century English politics”. The tragic aspect, however, was that “that which was truly best in their own civilisations, the upholding of the dignity of human relationships, has no place in the British administration of this country”.

It is no secret that the tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ends badly. Robert Louis Stevenson, that well-travelled Scot, encapsulated Europe’s dual nature with remarkable prescience: “Henry Jekyll stood at times aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde; but the situation was apart from ordinary laws, and insidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience. It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty. Jekyll was no worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde. And thus his conscience slumbered.”

The post « Great Britain is the most corrupt state in the world » — An open letter to Europe by Ilija Trojanow appeared first on Brussels Express.

It is very difficult for a politician to refuse advances from human rights activists. This is particularly the case in the institutions of European politics, where, in the absence of hard power of their own, politicians often use humanitarian issues as a platform to engage on an international stage.

Into this morass has stepped what appears at first sight to be an innocuous human rights NGO, fronted by a photogenic and highly articulate young woman who seeks to address the wrongs that are the legacy of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian citizen Lyudmyla Kozlovska, champion of Maidan, defender of the imprisoned and the maligned, and her Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) have become a fixture on the European human rights scene.

However, this NGO, originally founded by another Ukrainian citizen, Ivan Szerstiuk, who is reportedly currently serving an eighteen-year sentence in Ukraine for ordering a murder, in actuality serves a purpose, and indeed a master, far removed from the carefully crafted image it conveys so well.

As well as outstanding arrest warrants, multiple convictions, and considerable wealth, the key clients of the foundation, presented as politically persecuted champions of democracy, share something else in common: allegations of money laundering on a formidable scale.

French MEP Nicolas Bay, speaking during a meeting of the European Parliament’s committee on Financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance earlier this year, named the controversial Kazakh fugitive oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov as being the real figure behind the ODF.  « There are now very real questions about the funding of the activities of that Foundation. All too often, perpetrators of white-collar crimes are able to pass themselves off as victims », he said, calling for a parliamentary investigation into the activities of the organisation.

Bay’s call was echoed by Romanian MEP Andi Cristea, who declared that considering “the ODF’s efforts to defend one or more controversial characters, I believe that significant resources are needed to investigate in Brussels the transparency of the ODF’s funding and the correct recording of lobbying activities in the public register. The image-washing operation that the Foundation led for Ablyazov is not a secret to officials in Brussels.”

Ablyazov, who has multiple convictions and who has served two prison sentences in the past, in Kazakhstan and France, became responsible for possibly the greatest fraud in history when he embezzled some $7.6 billion from the BTA Bank, of which he was head. He has also received a life sentence for ordering the murder of his predecessor at the bank, Yerzhan Tatishev, in 2004. The fugitive also has an outstanding 22 month jail sentence awaiting him, should he ever return to the UK, handed down to him for contempt of court. This was confirmed in recent weeks when the outstanding arrest warrant in his name was formally extended.

His crimes, however, should not be viewed in isolation: he appears to be not a lone criminal, but part of an organised crime syndicate. Brussels-based journalist and author of the book Wanted Man: the story of Mukhtar Ablyazov (2019), Gary Cartwright, stated at a Brussels press conference recently, « if you want to know who Ablyazov’s partners in crime are, simply look at ODF’s client list.”

The list includes the likes of Ablyazov’s son-in-law, Ilyas Khrapunov, wanted in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine, and named in an English court as having been involved in the laundering of Ablyazov’s cash through Donald Trump’s property enterprises. Also Khrapunov’s father, Viktor, a former mayor of Almaty, and, like his son, currently resident in Geneva is another of ODF’s so-called “persecuted oppositionists”.  The former Mayor of Almaty Viktor Khrapunov, his TV-anchorwoman wife Leila, and their son Ilyas stand accused of embezzlement schemes amounting to at least $300 million — they are the subject of lawsuits in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Khrapunovs have been described in the French language press as “one of the richest families in Switzerland”.

Nail Malyutin, currently serving six-years in Russia for stealing $4 million, and who has ties to Aslan “Djako” Gagiyev, a controversial figure whose gang stands accused of orchestrating more than sixty murders is represented by ODF, as is Moldovan businessman Vyacheslav Platon, a businessman named in the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigation into the Russian Laundromat. Platon is currently serving eighteen-years for his part in what became known as the “theft of the century,” in which 12.5% of the nation’s GDP went missing from three banks.

ODF appears, with some success, to have created a model for its wealthy clients: the establishment of a political organisation, positioned in opposition to the government of the country or countries in which they are wanted, and then formulating a campaign for their « human rights », carefully positioning them alongside genuine and high profile victims such as Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov.

This abuse of the human rights platform was attacked by former UK MEP Nikki Sinclaire who said  “For those of us who have fought tirelessly for Human Rights, it feels like a punch in the stomach when someone uses mechanisms to slyly promote their own self interest.  Such actions undermine the work of genuine Human Rights activists and deserve to be highlighted.”

Another vocal critic of ODF is one-time ally, Polish MEP Anna Fotyga, who has severed her links with the organisation stating in the European Parliament that it has “ceased to be a non-political NGO and is not a credible organisation”.

As well as undermining the work of genuine human rights activists, ODF can also be seen to be corrupting important European political institutions. An Interpol Red Notice calling for Ablyazov’s arrest was successfully lifted following successful lobbying of the European Parliament deputies by Kozlovska. There have been questions asked as to exactly how this was achieved. « The MEPs who supported the initiative by ODF were all asked if they, or their families, had received any pecuniary advantage in return for their support, » Cartwright said to the author of this article. « Whilst we have no evidence to suggest that this may be the case, it is noticeable that not one has directly denied it.”

Interpol undermined, parliamentarians possibly corrupted, this is the work that ODF does so well.

However, the organisation itself came under the spotlight when in April of this year Britain’s Sunday Times published a damning article implicating it in money laundering activities allegedly related to Ablyazov’s ill gotten gains. A company owned by Kozlovska’s husband, Bartosz Kramek, was named as having benefited from money laundering activities involving a number of Scottish based companies, to the tune of more than £1 million.

Until the Sunday Times article appeared, Kramek was mainly known for his somewhat bizarre July 2017 call to overthrow the Polish government, encouraging acts of civil disobedience such as the withholding of tax payments and teachers’ strikes. This led to increased governmental interest in Kramer, Kozlovska, and in particular ODF’s finances.

All of this is being presented by ODF as the political persecution of Kramek, thus winning over those who are opposed to the current ruling party such as Belgian Liberal Democrat MEP, Guy Verhofstadt, who personally intervened when Kozlovska was subject to an order banning her from entering the Schengen zone. Thanks largely to his efforts, in March of this year Kozlovska was granted a five year residency permit in Belgium, and the Schengen Information System (SIS), which exists to protect the security of EU citizens, was added to the list of political mechanisms and institutions undermined by the activities of ODF.

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On Tuesday (June 25th) upon the initiative of PACE Member, Italian senator, Roberto Rampi, the controversial Human Rights NGO Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) and the Italian Federation for Human Rights organised a side-event under the banner “Post-elections scenarios in Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan. Between political uncertainty and regime consolidation”.

The moderator was Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Foundation, recently implicated by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper in serious money laundering allegations. ODF, the Sunday Times reported, was allegedly founded and funded, and is under the control of, the notorious Kazakh fugitive oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has convictions for fraud and murder, as well as outstanding extradition warrants from at least three state.

Ms. Kozlovska and ODF have also been accused of being in receipt of Russian money, and having done business with Russian entities that are subject to US/EU sanctions arising from the illegal Crimean annexation, which raises questions over her presence in Strasbourg at this particular time.

Speakers at the event included Kazakh citizen Bota Jardemalie, who is wanted in connection with Ablyazov’s crimes, and Antonio Stango, of the aforementioned Italian Federation for Human Rights. Senator Rampi’s event was also reportedly attended by French MP Andre Gattolin, who whilst he did not speak at the event, appears to enjoy a “good relationship” with ODF.

Ms. Jardemalie, who currently resides in an upmarket suburb of Brussels, Belgium, in the guise of a ‘political refugee’, is the sister of former Kazakh businessman Iskander Yerimbetov, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in his home country for embezzlement.

The event did not arouse any significant interest; the meeting room was almost empty. According to a source from the the Council of Europe, who has information on the preparation of the event, speaking on condition of anonymity, around ten parliamentarians had been invited, but apart from Senator Rampi, only French Senator Andre Gattolin showed up.

As appears to be standard practice at ODF conferences, not a single question was taken from the press. It was noted, however, that Ms. Jardemalie was allowed to dominate proceedings, speaking for 22 of the allowed 60 minutes. Her intervention was largely an invective against former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and the newly elected and formally recognised by the EU, US, UK and other countries President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

This event was effectively a lobbying event on the behalf of Mukhtar Ablyazov and other extremely wealthy wanted and convicted criminals, most, if not all, of whom appear to be implicated in Ablyazov’s crimes, and questions must be asked as to how this was allowed to happen under the auspices of such an important international institution as PACE.

Given the criminal background of Mukhtar Ablyazov, and the serious questions hanging over ODF and the event of June 25th, Senator Rampi was asked questions by a senior Brussels journalist concerning whether either he or any of his family members had ever received money or other gifts/services from the Open Dialog Foundation, it’s employees, or from Mukhtar Ablyazov or any of his family members.

The Senator was also asked if he was aware of recent allegations, and evidence presented, about the Open Dialog Foundation published in the British Sunday Times newspaper in April of this year, and other articles in European media that reveal the details of this organisation’s involvement in money laundering activities, and if he believes that ODF is a credible human rights organisation.

The questions were posed to the Senator on multiple occasions, however no response was received.

Journalists note that during his closing remarks, an embarrassed looking Rampi made vague comments about human rights, but was careful enough to avoid any real discussion of the subject of the conference.

Similar questions e-mailed recently to British Labour MEP Julie Ward, prompted by her interventions to Interpol on behalf of Mukhtar Ablyazov, and apparently at the behest of ODF, were met with banal, and non-committal comments that failed to either confirm or deny the questions posed.

On June 25th PACE representatives were met by a sizeable number of representatives of the Kazakh diaspora from all over Europe, who organised a picket outside the Council of Europe building in Strasbourg.

The impetus for this rally was frustration at the inaction of EU authorities, who have failed take any measures against Ablyazov and his criminal syndicate, many of who reside in EU member states, and who have outstanding extradition warrants against them, who are implicated in organised criminal activities, and whose extradition is demanded by at least three states where they are wanted in relation to serious fraud charges, and outstanding convictions for embezzlement and murder.

Picketers called and chanted in Kazakh, English, French and Russian languages, “Mukhtar is a fraudster” and “The fraudster must be jailed”, calling for him to be either extradited, or to be brought to justice in France.

This ODF event was little more than platform for interested parties to make statements and to defend their own positions; it was in effect a lobbying event on behalf of rich individuals who wish to avoid responsibility for the crimes they have committed.

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The European Patent Office (EPO) has set out an ambitious vision to excel in its role as one of the world’s foremost intellectual property offices.

The EPO’s Strategic Plan (SP2023), unanimously adopted yesterday by its Administrative Council, focuses on achieving five goals that will ensure the EPO is capable of delivering excellence to all its stakeholders.

Staff engagement, a modern IT infrastructure, quality products and services and a high- impact European patent network have all been targeted as strategic objectives that will help the organisation to achieve its fifth and ultimate goal of future sustainability. Each goal features several key initiatives that will be implemented over the next four years, with some projects expected to extend beyond the duration of the current plan.

SP2023 was developed in consultation with the EPO’s 38 member states, patent system users, the public, national intellectual property (IP) offices and EPO staff in two rounds of consultation to ensure that the Office’s priorities strike a balance between all its stakeholders’ needs.

« This Strategic Plan is a clear vision of how we want our Office to look in the future, and how we plan to achieve it, » said EPO President António Campinos. « What we have now is a roadmap for achieving a more sustainable patent office for Europe, better equipped to succeed in an evolving IP landscape. We intend to be a more adaptable and agile organisation that can support inventors everywhere with improved and more responsive services. This may be ambitious, but with the commitment and expertise of our staff, we also believe that it is achievable. »

 

New challenges, a new direction

Since its creation some 40 years ago, the EPO has built its reputation on providing high- quality products and services that are recognised globally: timely delivery of the patent grant procedure, thorough novelty searches, and predictable outcomes of the examination on patentability, as well as fair review procedures of its decisions.

The Strategic Plan was developed against the backdrop of rising demand for patent protection in Europe. Over 174 000 applications were filed at the EPO in 2018 and this figure is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3-4%. There is also clear evidence of the growing economic importance of IP protection. Within the EU, industries that make intensive use of IP rights such as patents, trade marks and registered designs account for some 38% of jobs, 42% of GDP and 90% of external trade. A recent study published by the EPO and EUIPO also showed that SMEs using European patents or bundles of IP rights are more likely to experience high growth.

 

 

However, the combination of an increasingly networked and globalised world economy, new players in the patent system, evolving stakeholder expectations and rapid technological change mean that the EPO faces complex new challenges. SP2023 is a roadmap that will help the EPO to rise to these challenges and make sustainable advances.

 

The Strategic Plan identifies five areas:

• Build an engaged, knowledgeable and collaborative organisation: SP2023 looks at several areas that will help staff to realise their full professional potential. Beyond staff retention measures, the EPO will continue to identify, attract and recruit talent in key areas.
• Simplify and modernise EPO IT systems: the plan outlines several initiatives for simplifying and modernising the EPO’s IT system. These include a single tool to support an end-to-end electronic patent granting process. In response to rising volumes of patent literature worldwide and the growing technical complexity of inventions, the EPO will continue to invest in prior art databases, with a special focus on Asian documentation and standards.
• Deliver high quality products and services efficiently: SP2023 provides for a number of new initiatives that aim to secure the recognised high standard of EPO products and services. These include a user-agreed definition of quality, as well as offering a more flexible patent grant process.
• Build a European patent system and network with a global impact: co-operation with the national patent offices of the member states and international partners will be strengthened. The EPO will review the financial and operational support that it offers to encourage greater participation, ensure cost-efficient and timely delivery, and maximise the impact of co-operation activities.
• Secure long-term sustainability: the initiatives set out in the plan will ensure that the EPO remains sustainable on a long-term basis. They include the creation of an Observatory, a platform that will bring together public and private stakeholders to discuss and debate developments in innovation. Through analyses and studies, the Observatory will provide a more accurate understanding of trends and technologies, allowing effective decisions to be taken. SP2023 also considers the EPO’s environmental impact and sets clear targets for reducing its carbon footprint, lowering energy and paper consumption and eliminating plastics.

 

Drafting SP2023: a collaborative effort

It took several months to draft SP2023, as it incorporated broad-based feedback from a variety of sources. Members of the general public were invited to submit comments in an online consultation on specific topics, and the EPO’s member states shared their views on challenges facing the patent system and how to foster co-operation with the EPO. Additionally, some 100 user groups and other bodies such as SACEPO (Standing Advisory Committee before the EPO) shared their strategic vision and views on enhanced collaboration. EPO staff members were also invited to comment on SP2023 both online and in face-to-face meetings with President Campinos. Two rounds of consultation produced a plan that provides a clear roadmap for achieving the shared vision expressed in the five main goals.

To read the full plan, please visit

 

About the EPO

With nearly 7 000 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO’s centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world’s leading authority in patent information and patent searching.

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