NATO ministers approve new reinforcements for eastern Europe

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO defense ministers on Wednesday approved new multinational reinforcements to beef up defenses of frontline alliance members most at risk from Russia, the alliance's secretary-general announced.

Jens Stoltenberg said the plan adopted by the United States and NATO's 27 other members calls for the use of troops from multiple countries who rotate in and out of eastern European member states rather than being permanently based there.

He said military planners will make recommendations on the number and composition of troops needed this spring.

The soldiers "will be multinational to make clear that an attack against one ally is any attack against all allies and that the alliance as a whole will respond," Stoltenberg told a news conference following the first session of the two-day defense ministers' meeting.

Getting firm commitments, or even deciding how many NATO troops should be rotated eastward, may take time, however.

Douglas Lute, U.S. ambassador to NATO, said he expected defense ministers to agree on "a framework" but that actual force levels will probably be hammered out only after consultations with NATO's supreme commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove.

One NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make public statements, told The Associated Press one proposal under consideration calls for creation of a brigade-sized force: roughly 3,000 soldiers.

On Feb. 2, the Obama administration announced its own plans to quadruple spending on U.S. troops and training in Europe.

U.S. officials say that if Congress approves the $3.4 billion proposal, it would mean year-round presence in Europe of an American brigade engaged in training, mostly in small units sent to the NATO members nearest Russia.

What's more, enough tanks and other hardware would be stockpiled in advance to equip another U.S. armored brigade whose troops could be airlifted to Europe in case of a crisis. Most of that equipment would be stored in Western Europe, rather than in countries closer to Russia.

A senior NATO official, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal alliance deliberations, said the U.S. now hopes its European NATO partners will commit to new investments for deterrence that correspond to the increased funding and troops, equipment and training moves the Pentagon wants.

At Wednesday's meeting, "many allies" announced how they intend to contribute to NATO's enhanced presence in the east, Stoltenberg said, but declined to give details. He said the overall goal was to reassure skittish allies and deter Moscow without completely alienating the Russians in the process.

"This is about striking many different balances," the NATO chief said.

On Monday, Russia's envoy to NATO warned his country will respond to a buildup of alliance forces near Russian borders. In remarks shown on Russian television, Alexander Grushko said the deployment of NATO forces in eastern Europe "can't be left without a military-technical answer."

"Russia won't compromise its security interests," Grushko said.

Stoltenberg said he will be meeting Friday with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Munich, Germany, and will stress that NATO harbors no hostile intent toward Moscow.

"I will underline that what NATO does is defensive, it is proportionate and it's fully in line with our international obligations when it comes to our increased presence in the eastern part of the alliance," Stoltenberg said.

Following a request by Turkey, NATO's defense ministers are also reviewing what the U.S.-led political and military alliance might do to help slow the influx of migrants into Europe by sea.

NATO already has AWACS surveillance planes, air policing and maritime patrol aircraft and an increased number of warships in the eastern Mediterranean under the reassurance measures agreed for Turkey in December, Stoltenberg noted. But he said more time is needed to evaluate how NATO might contribute to easing the migrant crisis, and added that he hoped to be able to make an announcement Thursday.

"We all understand the concern and we all see the human tragedy," Stoltenberg said.

The International Organization for Migration on Tuesday said 409 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, and that migrant crossings in the first six weeks of 2016 are running at nearly 10 times the rate of the same period last year. IOM said 76,000 people have reached Europe by sea, nearly 2,000 per day, since Jan. 1.

Germany, the leading Europe destination for the migrants, many of whom are fleeing war or poverty in their Middle Eastern or African homelands, welcomed the discussions at NATO.

"It is good that the Turkish government has asked NATO to help for the surveillance of the sea. We are aiming at stopping the business of the smugglers," German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.

Source: NATO ministers approve new reinforcements for eastern Europe

Le Parisien: Bulgaria cheapest skiing destination in Europe

10 February 2016 | 12:20 | FOCUS News Agency

Paris. This winter Bulgaria's Bansko mountain resort offers the cheapest holidays for the skiing fans, as seen in the comparative analysis of TripAdvisor covering 42 destinations in Europe, French newspaper Le Parisien writes.The study compares the prices for hotel room, skiing equipment, skiing classes, diner and drinks, for a one-week holiday of a four-member family.With a total required budget of EUR 1,727 Bansko is ranked as the most accessible destination.Russia's Sochi comes second in the chart with EUR 2,210, followed by Germany's Berchtesgaden – EUR 2,571.

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Source: Le Parisien: Bulgaria cheapest skiing destination in Europe

The European travel insurance that doesn't cover you in Spain: Insurers exclude popular holiday destinations as medical costs soar

Albert Heath and his brother-in-law David Towe spent a year planning their trip to the Pieta Military Cemetery in Malta.

They wanted to lay a wreath at Christmas on the grave of David's uncle, Private Wallace Towe, who died 100 years ago aged 21 of wounds suffered at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, in World War I.

They booked their flights last March and arranged to stay in a hotel in Sliema, two and a half miles from the cemetery on Our Lady of Sorrows Street where Wallace is buried.

In September, each bought a week-long European travel insurance policy from specialist insurer Insure & Go.

Travel insurance: The European cover Albert had been sold excluded Spain, Cyprus, Turkey and Malta

But when Albert, 82, returned from Malta in January he noticed something odd in the policy document's small print.

The so-called European cover he'd been sold excluded Spain, Cyprus, Turkey and Malta — the very place he had just been. Bizarrely, it would have covered him in North African countries such as Egypt and Morocco.

Albert, a retired chief inspector engineer from Coventry, says: 'I couldn't believe it. I said on the phone I needed cover for Europe — how can Europe exclude popular sunny countries like Spain and Malta?

'I'm glad I didn't know while I was away or I would have been worried the whole time that had I needed to claim they wouldn't have paid up.'

This is the first time Money Mail has seen a European insurance policy that does not cover popular holiday destinations.

But we have now discovered that several major insurers are writing this type of policy as medical costs soar in countries such as Spain.

When you take out travel cover, the main options are Europe, worldwide excluding the U.S., or worldwide including the U.S.

Insurance for America is usually more expensive due to hefty medical fees — a night in intensive care can cost anything up to £6,000.

Check the small print: Several major insurers are writing policies that do not cover popular holiday destinations as medical costs soar in countries such as Spain

Now insurers are applying similar rules to Europe. The Post Office, All Clear and Insure & Go admit to doing so. All Clear says the average travel insurance claim is twice as high in Spain at £6,400 than in France, where it is £3,199.

Often travellers who fall ill in these countries are transported in a private ambulance or taken to a private hospital instead of using the state system.

This is to avoid over-burdening these nations' stretched public finances. But it means extra costs for insurers.

Insure & Go says only customers who call in to declare a medical condition are offered policies excluding major European countries, where appropriate.

If they are going to Spain, Cyprus, Turkey or Malta they are put into category A; those going elsewhere in Europe are put into category B. Both are priced accordingly.

Some countries outside Europe are covered because they are popular package holiday destinations.

When Albert called, he explained he has a permanent catheter and takes aspirin daily for an irregular heartbeat.

He should have been put into category A for Malta. But the call handler clicked the wrong box. This meant Albert was not sent the correct policy and went away without vital cover.

New York: Insurance for America is usually more expensive due to hefty medical fees

Insurers claim they categorise people in this way to avoid penalising those visiting countries with lower medical costs.

But travellers with medical conditions already pay extra to compensate for the higher risk they pose to insurers.

Without cover for his medical conditions, Albert would have paid just £25.20. But after declaring them his premium jumped to £98 — even though the policy didn't cover Malta.

Had the call handler correctly noted Albert's destination he would have had to pay £26 more — just because he was going to a different part of Europe.

Albert says: 'I admit that I never read the paperwork. I just paid over the phone using my card and filed it away when it arrived a few days later. But I picked Insure & Go because it was supposed to give a good deal to older holidaymakers travelling with medical conditions.

'There is clearly a lesson to be had in reading the small print.'

A spokesperson for Insure & Go says: 'Having listened to the call Mr Heath made to us we, rather embarrassingly, found we had made an error.

'Mr Heath did tell us he was going to Malta but for some reason the wrong region was selected on our system.

'We would like to apologise to Mr Heath and reassure him that should he have needed to claim on his insurance we would have honoured the policy that he requested, not the one we wrongly issued him.' 

 

Source: The European travel insurance that doesn't cover you in Spain: Insurers exclude popular holiday destinations as medical costs soar

Will the EU really fence off one of it’s own members?

Migrants carry their belongings inside a camp, as they wait to cross the Greek-Macedonian border, near the village of Idomeni, Greece, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis

IDOMENI, Greece — The European Union's weakest link could become an open-air refugee camp if some European leaders get their way. Amid concerns that Greece is failing to protect Europe's external frontier, calls have grown louder to quarantine it by helping Macedonia seal its southern border — which refugees must cross to continue their journeys north — and suspend Greece from the EU's passport-free Schengen zone.

Such proposals would effectively ring-fence Greece from the rest of the EU, trapping tens of thousands of asylum-seekers in a politically and economically fragile country with neither the infrastructure nor funds to care for them. Most migrants know this. Hence, Greece has never been their destination. It is merely a conduit to more affluent nations deeper into the continent.

More walls around Europe will not stop them. Rather, they will find other routes or be driven further underground.

The Greek border town of Idomeni offers a glimpse into what Greece's refugee crisis will become if the country is cut off from the rest of Europe. The border crossing and transit camp, located along the railway tracks connecting Greece and Macedonia, has emerged as a tense choke point for migrants traveling northwest through the Balkans.

Smugglers controlled this area long before Europe's migration crisis exploded last year. Those mafias "disappeared totally" last summer, when Balkan nations including Macedonia began allowing all asylum-seekers 72 hours to traverse their countries legally,  according to Antonis Rigas, a field coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) at Idomeni. For the first time, a "humanitarian corridor" to Germany was open, and the route arguably safer than ever before. It was chaos, of course, but controlled chaos, with tens of thousands entering and exiting Greece in a matter of days.

That all ended in late November. In a bid to keep out "economic migrants," Macedonia and other western Balkan countries said they would admit only Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, who are likelier to fall under the legal definition of a refugee. Greece had no say in this nationality-based filter of questionable legality — and it had no choice but to deal with the thousands stranded in Greece because of it. At Idomeni, violent protests broke out among the thousands of "others," who came from countries such as Morocco, Iran, and Somalia. And smuggling activity has roared back, aid workers and volunteers say.

Greece, crippled by six years of austerity, has been slow to systematically register the flow of migrants arriving on its Aegean islands — so much so that the European Commission said it found "serious deficiencies" in Greece's protection of Europe's external frontier. If these deficiencies persist within three months, Europe's 26-member Schengen Area could vote to reimpose border controls for up to two years. This decision would effectively cut off Greece, which does not share a land border with any other Schengen countries, from the rest of the zone. The greatest impact for Greece would be economic, slowing the movement of people and goods at air and sea ports.

Meanwhile, some European leaders have already given up on Greece and are setting their sights on Macedonia and Bulgaria. Hungary and Austria are calling for reinforcement of the barbed-wire fence Macedonia built at Idomeni last fall. It is already causing bottlenecks of several thousand people on the Greek side as Macedonia opens and closes the crossing randomly, without warning.

This is how Greece, the entry point into Europe for more than 850,000 asylum-seekers last year, is already becoming a vast holding pen. It can do little to deter refugee boats from reaching its 8,498 miles of coastline — the longest in Europe. Once they reach Greek territorial waters, "pushbacks" would violate international law.

But if Idomeni is any indication, an era of closed European borders will just push those trapped in Greece to try ever more dangerous routes to get out. Groups like the UNHCR and International Organization for Migration encourage those blocked from traveling through Macedonia under the nationality-based filter policy to return to Athens, where they can apply for asylum or return to their home countries voluntarily. Determined to move on, many stay at Idomeni, sleeping in abandoned buildings or fields as they attempt to cross the border covertly.

Further, blaming Greece for Europe's migration woes ignores the roots of the problem, in particular Syria's ongoing war. Criminal networks in Turkey reaped millions sending refugees and migrants to Europe last year. The EU's 3 billion-euro deal with Turkey to stop migration flows has made little difference in the number of arrivals to Greece so far. Severing the Balkan route at the Greece-Macedonia border without first stopping boats from leaving Turkish shores is playing directly into the hands of smugglers in Europe.

Another major problem is the lack of legal alternatives for refugees to reach Europe — or move within it once they arrive. The EU-Turkey deal focuses on keeping refugees in Turkey rather than letting them come to Europe safely. And the EU's relocation scheme, which pledged to move 160,000 asylum-seekers from Greece and Italy to other European countries, has moved only 481 so far, the European Commission reports. Because of its slowness, few asylum-seekers choose to participate. According to the Greek asylum service, only 13 countries have made relocation slots available. So before Europe talks about walling off Greece, the relocation program, if it is to work, needs to be sped up and other EU members pushed to shoulder their share of the burden.

Further, Greece cannot afford food, medical care and shelter for those who would be stranded if its border with Macedonia is permanently sealed. The country has already spent more than 2 billion euros on the refugee crisis in the past two years. Six years of austerity have left it unable to provide medical and social services to many of its own citizens, let alone hundreds of thousands of foreigners who would be trapped indefinitely if its border was sealed.

For refugees escaping war and persecution, reaching their destinations in Europe amid ever more restrictive border policies is "like a video game," said Faye Karavasili, an attorney from Vienna who quit her job to volunteer with refugees in northern Greece. "They fight their way through, but then they get to the next level and it's a new set of obstacles."

By circumstance of its geography, Greece is the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis. Ring-fencing it from the rest of the continent will not help it, nor will it do anything toward solving the largest mass movement of people since World War Two.

The challenge for Europe, then, is to transcend the loud, populist rhetoric of a few self-interested states. It must work with Turkey to cut down on smuggling networks and provide incentives for refugees to remain there under humane circumstances. Otherwise Europe will have another humanitarian crisis on its hands in Greece.

Source: Will the EU really fence off one of it's own members?

Is Living in Europe Cheaper than in America?

Overall, Europe often has lower costs when measured against the United States. These financial benefits should be measured carefully against factors including income level, monetary conditions, destination and economic conditions. International travel often involves time commitments and expensive trans-Atlantic airfare; making it worthwhile takes good financial sense and planning.

Municipalities

Where a person stays in the U.S. and Europe makes a difference in cost, and since residential expenses are among the largest for most households, locality is a significant factor to consider. For example, San Francisco, New York City and Washington, D.C. have rental rates well above the national average. Similarly, Paris, Hamburg and Barcelona have higher-than-average rates within their respective countries. Statistics such as the Expatistan cost of living index also show southern Europe to be less expensive than many northern European destinations.

Currency

Currency values and local pricing also influence costs. The Big Mac Index is an example metric that shows how specific retail chain costs differ across countries using a base currency such as the dollar. To illustrate, a Big Mac costs less in Europe even after adjusting for national gross

domestic product (GDP) per person. In other words, individuals and families with dollar-denominated incomes are more likely to experience a higher standard of living in countries such as Spain, France and Germany. The extent of this benefit fluctuates over time as currency exchange rates rise and fall.

Taxes

Taxes are higher in Europe and include a value-added tax (VAT) that can be as high as 25%. This sales tax is refundable for American tourists if they obtain and complete VAT refund paperwork and do not use the goods before returning to the U.S. Even with VAT, many European goods and services are still less expensive than the same or similar items in the U.S. Another benefit is that Americans who pay U.S. income tax do not necessarily have to pay European income tax even if they live there. Since top tax brackets on earnings range between 40 to 50% in France, Germany and Spain, after-tax income for higher-earning Americans is greater.

Products

Even though the cost of living in most of Europe is lower than in the U.S., smart spending on certain items such as designer jeans and gasoline is wise. This is because these consumer goods are typically priced higher in Europe. Since many European vehicles have double the fuel efficiency of American models, compensating for higher gas costs is possible. Another factor pertaining to products is the rate at which costs rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics International Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), much of Europe, with the exception of France, experienced a higher rate of inflation than the U.S. between 1999 and 2013.

Seasons

The time of year also influences the cost of goods and services in specific locations within the U.S. and Europe. For example, short-term rental rates in popular Spanish beach areas such as Tarifa and Costa de la Luz are likely to be higher when an influx of tourists occurs. Carefully navigating or locking in tenancy rates or rent-to-own arrangements during the off-season is a way to circumvent this issue. Familiarity with local shopping trends and tourist price traps, and even learning the local language also helps.

Europe is cheaper than the U.S. based on variables such as prices of goods and services, exchange rates and market conditions. Several quantitative indicators verify that Europe is cheaper, yet some important factors account for higher costs in some circumstances. Being savvy and knowledgeable about local customs, price patterns and international financial matters helps with maximizing the advantages.

Source: Is Living in Europe Cheaper than in America?

European Cross-Border B2C E-Commerce Report 2015

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Source: European Cross-Border B2C E-Commerce Report 2015

Finnair marks A350s for Asia routes

Finnair has earmarked the substantial capacity of its new Airbus A350 fleet for routes linking Europe and Asia.

The Helsinki-based carrier has firmed up the plan to use the world's latest wide-body jet on its long-haul flights to Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Those Asian cities represent the next batch of destinations for Finnair's A350s, which have already been serving Shanghai, Bangkok and Beijing.

Finnair recently turned its second daily flight from Helsinki to Bangkok into an A350 service, joining the first A350 daily flight that made its debut on Dec 20.

Jani Peuhkurinen, head of Finnair's sales for Asia-Pacific and East Europe, said greater use of A350s on routes between Europe and Asia reflected the airline's strategy to tap traffic demand between the continents.

"We focus on routes between Asia and Europe and using our Helisinki base for connecting to other European destinations. That will be the cornerstone of our operations," the executive told the Bangkok Post.

Within this year, the 92-year-old airline will have seven A350s flying, up from two at the end of last year.

Finnair has ordered 19 A350s from European aircraft maker Airbus.

These aircraft will be gradually introduced to Finnair's fleet over the next eight years as it replaces older long-haul aircraft models such as the A330 and A340.

The novelty of the A350 will appeal to flyers with its new experience and higher level of comfort while being more fuel-efficient for the airline, said Mr Peuhkurinen.

Finnair is scheduled to start A350 flights to Hong Kong on March 4 on a daily basis but will also use the older A330 model on the route.

A combination of A350 and A330 models will also be used on flights to Singapore starting on May 6.

A350 flights will be introduced on Finnair's Fukoka route three times a week in early May.

The airline will make Guangzhou its 15th destination in Asia in May with four flights a week using the A330.

Mr Peuhkurinen said Finnair was still working on the next destinations for its A350s.

Finnair has no plan to acquire A380 double-decker superjumbos for its fleet as it sees the A350 as a good fit for its strategy.

"We would rather improve frequencies than have this huge aircraft in our fleet," Mr Peuhkurinen said.

Finnair's A350 is configured with business and economy classes with 297 seats.

Meanwhile, Finnair will terminate its flights from Helsinki to Krabi and Phuket on March 30 and April 3, respectively, as planned.

It has been operating two flights a week to Krabi and three per week to Phuket only for the tourism high season. Its winter season programme ends around the end of March.

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Source: Finnair marks A350s for Asia routes