More Blogs : 4th September

Russian corruption, the war and opportunity costs. Vitaliy, The 8th Circle (en)

"... 'According to the independent National Anti-Corruption Committee in Moscow, corruption costs the country $40 billion a year. It’s almost routine for people to have to bribe bureaucrats to obtain documents, register property, or secure a place for their child in school. Half of all bribes in Russia are paid to doctors..."

EU High Court Invalidates Sanctions Against Al Qaeda. Jonathan Winer, Counter Terrorism Blog (en)

"In a devastating blow to existing international financial sanctions against terrorist groups, the EU's highest court has today overturned the sanctions program imposed by the European Union on Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The ruling by the European Court of Justice annulled the EU's freezing of the funds of Yassin Al-Kadi (...)

The immediate practical impact of this ruling remains fuzzy indeed, even if the medium-term implications are clear. Each EU member state has independent obligations to enforce UN Security Council Resolutions. Despite the Court of Justice ruling breaks, the UN order continues to require U.N. member states to freeze assets of people and entities designated by the UN for funding terror groups. The contradiction between the UN resolution requiring asset freezes, and the EU ruling, finding the EU sanctions invalid given the lack of due process, provides a further reason the countries that are part of the EU will need to develop a process solution promptly."

Quand l'absence de cohérence du projet européen cohérent mine l'europe : énième illustration par les pesticides (après les OGMs, les brevets triviaux, le règlement Ben Laden, j'en passe, et des meilleures). Publius (fr)