EU, Maghreb 'share common interests' on migration, security

Jean-Thomas Lesueur, a general delegate at the Thomas More Institute, stressed the need for increased cooperation between the European Union and the Maghreb countries in an interview with EurActiv France.

• The figures are startlingly low, says Lesueur: intra-regional trade between the five Maghreb countries of North Africa represents just 3% of the trade taking place in the region.
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• "In an October 2009 report, the IMF indicated that the lack of regional integration made even more severe the impact of the economic crisis on the Maghreb region," he said.
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• Lesueur stressed the need for dialogue between these countries. For example, Algerian oil and gas remain in the domestic market and the intra-Maghreb high-speed motorway project has been talked about for 30 years.
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• Striking a more optimistic note, "some Algerian, Moroccan or Tunisian entrepreneurs think that they must work together" and put political considerations aside, he said.
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• Lesueur said the EU had a role to play in putting an end to the conflict between Morocco and Algeria over Western Sahara, a 266,000 square-kilometre territory that has been a bone of contention between the two countries.
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• According to him, the new distribution of portfolios within the European Commission should accelerate progress, as several commissioners are concerned by the issue. He also proposed to appoint a coordinator.
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• "We urge the EU to reinvest itself in the region and place its relations with the Maghreb at the top of its agenda," he said.
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• Moreover, "the EU should help projects and business development," he said, stressing the importance of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), launched in 2008 under the French EU Presidency.
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• Migration and anti-terrorism policy
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• On migration, Lesueur explained that Morocco had problems similar to those faced by Europe in dealing with its southern neighbourhood. As sub-Sahel migrants move north to reach Europe, "Maghreb countries are transforming themselves into transit countries, and are also slowly turning into host countries," he said, remarking that thousands of Senegalese are currently living in Algerian capital Tangiers.
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• This, he argued, highlights the common challenges faced by Europe and the Maghreb, as he says the countries in the region may soon start experiencing ethnic tensions and even racism.
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• To deal with such problems, Lesueur says the EU's Frontex agency should open offices in the South Sahel region and work in close cooperation with Maghreb countries. "It is not sufficient to return illegal migrants from Spain to Morocco," he stressed.
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• In reality, he said the EU's migration policy "is being played out in Nouakchott [Mauritania] and Dakar [Senegal]," not on the island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily. "Lampedusa represents the failure of the EU's migration policy," he said.

• Similarly, he said European security and anti-terrorism policy is not being played out at the EU's southern borders, but 3,000 kilometres away. "In the anti-terrorism area, Algeria and Morocco have pretty well cleared Al Qaeda off the ground," he remarked. But the organisation has now retreated further south to Mali, Cameroon and Senegal, he said.

Euractiv

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Facebook expansion is putting users' privacy at risk, warn U.S legislators

Facebook are facing a major battle with U.S legislators over plans to expand their social network, after they were accused of putting their users privacy at risk.

Four U.S senators said the website needs to make it easier for its 400 million users to protect their personal details as the site opens more avenues for them to share their interests online.

• Having built one of the web's most popular hangouts, Facebook is trying to extend its reach through new tools called 'social plug-ins.'
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• These enable Facebook's users to share their interests in such products as clothes, movies and music on other websites. For instance, you might hit a button on Levis.com indicating you like a certain style of jeans, and then recommend a movie on another site.
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• That information about the jeans and the movie might be passed along to other people in your Facebook network, depending on your privacy settings.
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• Facebook says all this will help personalize the web for people. It stresses that no personal information is being given to the dozens of websites using the new plug-ins.
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• However, it still means that information that hadn't been previously communicated could get broadcast to your social network.
  
• And Facebook is indeed sharing some personal information with three websites that Facebook hopes will demonstrate how online services can be more helpful when they know more about their users.
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• The sites with greater access to Facebook's data are business review service Yelp, music service Pandora and Microsoft's Docs.com for word processing and spreadsheets.
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• Facebook users who don't want to be part of the company's expansion have to go through their privacy settings and change their preferences.
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• Senator Charles Schumer said the onus instead should be on Facebook to get users' explicit consent, a process known as 'opting in.'
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• 'They have sort of assumed all their users want their information to be given far and wide, which is a false assumption,' Mr Schumer said.
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• Mr Schumer sent a letter calling for simpler privacy controls to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 25.
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• The concerns were echoed by Senator Michael Bennet, Senator Mark Begich and Senator Al Franken.
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• Facebook tried to assure Mr Schumer that its latest idea won't invade users' privacy.
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• 'We welcome a continued dialogue with you and others because we agree that scrutiny over the handling of personal data is needed as Internet users seek a more social and interactive experience,' Facebook vice president, Elliot Schrage, wrote to Mr Scumer.
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• But the senator called Facebook's response inadequate.
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• He pledged to introduce legislation that would expand the Federal Trade Commission's powers over Facebook and other social networks if the regulatory agency doesn't feel it has the authority to require more straightforward privacy controls.
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• The political pressure could undermine Facebook's ambition to create a more social, open web that could make it easier to aim online advertising at consumers based on their presumed interests.
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• Facebook would probably thrive in a more communal Internet because it has amassed a huge database of personal information since Mr Zuckerberg set up its website in a Harvard dorm room six years ago.
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• If Facebook's plans pan out, it could change the way people think of social networking.
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• Instead of communicating on a closed website, Facebook's users could interact with one another over the entire Web. More sharing could spawn more customized websites that look different to each person visiting, depending on their friends and preferences.
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• While Mr Zuckerberg has likened his vision to an online nirvana, critics see another hole in the crumbling walls of online privacy.

Daily Mail

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US: Iran strike 'still an option'

US military action against Iran is still an option as a measure to halt the country's nuclear programme, the Pentagon has said.

• "We are not taking any options off the table as we pursue the pressure and engagement tracks," Geoff Morrell, the US defence department's press secretary told reporters on Wednesday.
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• The comments came as officials faced a flurry of questions after Michele Flournoy, the US undersecretary of defence for policy, reportedly said that a strike against Iran would be a "last resort".
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• "It is not on the table in the near term," Flournoy was quoted as saying during a visit to Singapore.
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• Asked about Flournoy's reported remarks Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said US strategy over Iran's nuclear programme remained unchanged, with Washington focusing on diplomatic efforts to persuade Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment.
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• "The president always has at his disposal a full array of options, including use of the military," he said.
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• Morrell told reporters that Flournoy's remarks were not "anything new".
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• "It clearly is not our preference to go to war with Iran, to engage militarily with Iran. Nobody wishes to do that, but she also makes it clear it's not off the table."
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• He said the US preference for diplomacy over military action held true for the current administration, as well as the government of former president George Bush.
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• Morrell also acknowledged that nearly 200,000 troops deployed in countries bordering Iran - Afghanistan and Iraq - could face attacks in the event of a possible US strike.
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• "We have troops in close proximity to Iran that are potentially targets of retaliation should action be taken," he said.
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• He added however that the Pentagon is "very confident" that it could defend the United States against the threat of an Iranian ballistic missile strike.
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• A recent report by the defence department to congress concluded that Iran could develop a missile capable of striking the United States by 2015.
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• Iran already has the largest deployed ballistic missile force in the Middle East, comprising about 1,000 missiles capable of hitting targets up to 1,930km away, the report said.
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• 'Hellish dominance'
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• The US has 25 long-range interceptor missiles based in Alaska and California, as part of a system designed to defend the country against an attack from North Korea or Iran.
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• Eight of 14 tests of the interceptors have been successful, while the remaining tests suffered software glitches and other technical problems.
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• But US officials say the system should still work in the event of an attack.
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• The Iranian leadership meanwhile has reacted angrily to what it sees as a US threat to attack the country with nuclear arms.
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• Earlier this month Barack Obama, the US president, issued a revised policy on the future use of US nuclear weapons, but noted that Iran and North Korea were excluded from the new policy.
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• "The international community should not let Obama get away with nuclear threats," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday.
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• "We will not allow America to renew its hellish dominance over Iran by using such threats," he was quoted as saying by local media.

by Agencies

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