European Union (EU) Delegation Celebrated Europe Day 2025 in Somalia
This year's Guest of Honour was the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia, Hamza Abdi Barre, who delivered a keynote speech. The EU Ambassador, Karin Johansson, addressed the audience, highlighting the EU's future-focused partnership with Somalia. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Delegation of the European Union to Somalia.
Disclaimer: The contents of this press release was provided from an external third party provider. This website is not responsible for, and does not control, such external content. This content is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis and has not been edited in any way. Neither this website nor our affiliates guarantee the accuracy of or endorse the views or opinions expressed in this press release.
The press release is provided for informational purposes only. The content does not provide tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability, value or profitability of any particular security, portfolio or investment strategy. Neither this website nor our affiliates shall be liable for any errors or inaccuracies in the content, or for any actions taken by you in reliance thereon. You expressly agree that your use of the information within this article is at your sole risk.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, this website, its parent company, its subsidiaries, its affiliates and the respective shareholders, directors, officers, employees, agents, advertisers, content providers and licensors will not be liable (jointly or severally) to you for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, incidental, punitive or exemplary damages, including without limitation, lost profits, lost savings and lost revenues, whether in negligence, tort, contract or any other theory of liability, even if the parties have been advised of the possibility or could have foreseen any such damages.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arabian Business
an hour ago
- Arabian Business
EU relaxes Schengen Visa rules for some citizens from July 2025: Report
The European Union has relaxed visa requirements for Turkish citizens seeking to enter the Schengen area, with new measures taking effect from July 15, aimed at addressing long-standing complaints about bureaucratic delays. EU Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Hans Ossowski announced the changes on Friday, describing them as a step towards resolving issues that have frustrated Turkish travellers for years, Reuters reported. The European Commission's decision simplifies the process for obtaining multiple-entry visas to the 27-country bloc. Under the new system, Turkish citizens who have previously used visas correctly can obtain a six-month visa from their second application. This can then be extended to one-year, three-year and five-year multiple-entry visas in subsequent applications. 'It will be much easier and much faster for Turkish citizens,' Ossowski told reporters in Ankara. The ambassador acknowledged the changes would help address Turkish complaints about lengthy bureaucratic processes but warned the measures would not permanently solve all problems. For years, Turkish citizens have faced delays in the EU's visa system, which operates through accredited visa agencies that have struggled with high application volumes. Turkey welcomes Schengen Visa reforms Turkey's foreign ministry welcomed the move and confirmed that Turkish institutions and the EU Commission would continue seeking further visa relaxation measures. Trade Minister Omer Bolat described the decision as a 'facilitation that our citizens have been awaiting for a long time.' Speaking to the state-owned Anadolu news agency, Bolat also said Turkey wanted to begin talks on modernising its customs union with the EU and expanding the accord to include service and e-commerce sectors. The visa changes come amid signs of renewed engagement between Turkey and the EU after years of strained relations. Turkey has held EU membership candidate status since 1999, but its accession process has been frozen over concerns including human rights and democratic backsliding. Recent months have seen increased economic cooperation and diplomatic engagement. Ossowski emphasised that the EU has offered Turkey visa-free travel prospects for more than a decade and called for urgent revival of the liberalisation process. 'Every other candidate country has visa-free travel except Turkey,' he said. 'It is urgent to re-engage in this process of visa-free travel in the Schengen space and the EU.' The European Commission plans to restart formal negotiations after the summer break and will work with Ankara on fulfilling six remaining benchmarks required by the visa liberalisation roadmap, according to Ossowski. 'We are ready, the Commission is ready to work closely with Turkish authorities,' he said. The EU and Turkey have been discussing possible workarounds to address the slow processing times that have affected Turkish visa applications due to high demand.
The National
7 hours ago
- The National
EU's wave of Russia sanctions three years later doesn't signal urgency
If the Russia -Ukraine War was the First World War, then by now we would be past the Russian Revolution about three years in. If it were the Second World War, the Germans would be about to surrender at Stalingrad. But in our present, with fighting largely deadlocked, Europe has just begun a cautious offensive on the economic front. The latest package of sanctions adopted on Friday takes aim at Russia's energy earnings. The mostly ineffective cap on the price of Russian oil exports using EU ships or services will now be set at 15 per cent below market prices, instead of $60 per barrel as previously, meaning $47.6 per barrel initially, which will be revised several times per year. Czechia's exemption from the EU ban on Russian oil imports has ended, closing one small remaining spigot. Further ships in Russia's 'shadow fleet' and traders working with Russian oil have been added to the sanctions list, as has 'one entity in the Russian LNG [liquefied natural gas] sector'. And transactions with the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea by any EU operator are banned. Perhaps most materially, the EU has also banned the import of refined petroleum products made from Russian crude in third countries, mostly affecting India and Turkey, but potentially GCC countries, too. Indian fuel exports to the EU doubled in 2023 to 200,000 barrels a day, and have remained elevated since. The latest European sanctions have already markedly tightened the diesel market. Indian refiner Nayara, owned 49.13 per cent by Russia's state Rosneft, is hit with sanctions. Previous European sanctions have been notably leaky. The Russian war juggernaut has been slowed but not derailed. Brussels still seems lackadaisical about the urgency of the situation, as missiles and drones pound Ukrainian cities, and thousands of North Korean troops appear on the battlefield. Europe's own bloody colonial history should tell it the fate of those who allow foreign military adventurers to interfere in their domestic affairs. Is it enough? Putting sanctions only now on a pipeline that was mostly blown up in September 2022 may not be the height of courage. More aggressive measures have been hamstrung until now by opposition from some EU members, who are either politically friendly to Russia, or who claim that special circumstances should entitle them to exemptions. Sanctioned goods, including military components, continue to flood into Russia through backdoors in Central Asian states and through China. The oil price cap has been largely ineffective because it is hard to monitor, and because Greek and other European shipowners have been happy to sell old vessels into the shadow fleet. The most effective sanctions on Russian energy were imposed by Moscow itself, and by the still mysterious bombers of the Nord Stream pipeline. Russia started cutting down on gas exports to the EU from September 2021, well before launching its invasion, then imposed payment conditions that most of its buyers rejected. The EU did at least move in March to ban the trans-shipment of Russian LNG through European ports. This was an inconvenience, as Russia's Arctic LNG terminals typically use expensive ice-class tankers, then transfer their cargoes to standard vessels in warmer waters. In May, the European Commission presented a roadmap to phase out remaining imports of Russian LNG and gas by pipeline. In 2024, Russia sold about 21 billion cubic metres of LNG and 27 BCM of gas by pipeline to the EU, still almost a fifth of the bloc's total. The pipeline gas would anyway fall this year, since transit by Ukraine, having remarkably continued through the war, was finally cut off at the end of last year. The LNG will be diverted to other markets, primarily in Asia, but the pipeline gas has no other outlet. Russia currently earns roughly $230 billion per year from its exports of oil, gas and coal. This has already fallen from around $400 billion during the invasion year of 2022. The new measures on gas would cut its revenues by some $5 billion annually. Effective wielding of the new, lower price cap on oil might chop off $30 billion or so over the course of a year. Enforcement will be crucial, as Russia, like Iran, continues to juggle the shadow fleet, and traders find way to obfuscate oil's origins. Higher costs for tankers and transactions add a few more billion. But this is nibbling at the edges, not biting into the jugular vein. The wildcard is the US. President Donald Trump's erratic moves on the conflict and his threats of the puzzling 'secondary tariffs' on countries buying Russian oil are hard to analyse. New, much more aggressive sanctions proposed in Congress would target Russia's trade partners, but they have been paused during a 50-day hiatus announced by Mr Trump. It is not clear if the US will join enforcement of the new oil price cap, which will be crucial in its effectiveness. Where Russia stands Still, the Russian economy is under strain. Budget revenues have been revised down this year because of lower global energy prices. The national wealth fund could be depleted by next year, as the government withdraws from it to cover the deficit. The economy contracted in the first quarter, despite the huge spending on military production, even official figures admit of inflation being about 10 per cent, and central bank interest rates are at 20 per cent. The future of the war effort depends crucially on the direction of oil prices, and how far Opec+ is able to keep raising output without seriously denting the market. By October, Russia's allowable crude production will not be far short of its previous historic high in 2022. It will become apparent how sustainable this level is. Oil prices have shrugged off the impact of the Israel-Iran war. They were not excited either by the news of the latest sanctions. As for gas, the expected increasing oversupply from next year onwards may stiffen sinews in European capitals to get off Russian supplies entirely. It does not seem likely that this war will end like the Eastern Front in the First World War, with bread riots in Petrograd, nor like the Second World War, with crushing battlefield defeats accompanying economic collapse. But sanctions are putting ever more sand in the gears of a war machine already strained to its limits. The hope in Kyiv must be that the pressure on their weary soldiers and civilians eases, and a combination of military and financial pressure opens a path to genuine peace.
Al Etihad
3 days ago
- Al Etihad
European Commission welcomes adoption of EU mandate to launch negotiations with GCC countries
19 July 2025 00:56 BRUSSELS (WAM)The European Commission and the High Representative welcomed the European Council's decision authorising them to enter into negotiations with each of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - ith the aim of concluding bilateral Strategic Partnership Agreements (SPAs).The aim of the SPAs is to provide for an ambitious, modern, comprehensive and effective framework for bilateral cooperation tailored to the shared priorities and objectives of the EU and each respective GCC is in line with the efforts to enhance our relations with GCC partners set out in the 2022 Joint Communication on a Strategic Partnership with the Gulf and the October 2024 EU–GCC Summit in negotiation frameworks cover a wide range of topics, including foreign and security policy, justice and law enforcement, trade and investment, energy and climate, digital transformation, environment, connectivity, education, research and innovation, culture, and enhanced people-to-people SPAs will mark a turning point in the relations with Gulf partners, being truly strategic partnerships, addressing common challenges and harnessing joint opportunities across the rapidly evolving Middle East will start as soon as possible. The order and pace of negotiations will follow the expression of interest from the side of the partners.''There is huge untapped potential in the EU's relationship with the Gulf region. As of today, we will negotiate bilateral Strategic Partnership Agreements with the six Gulf partners. These should bring many mutual benefits across a wide range of priority areas, from increasing economic diversification to jointly tackling security challenges, and working together on digitalisation and connectivity. "We are beginning a new era of enhanced EU-Gulf cooperation," said Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European to Maroš Šefčovič, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security; Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency, the Strategic Partnership Agreements with the GCC countries will provide a major boost to our trade and investment relations, creating new opportunities for businesses, enhancing market access, and promoting economic growth. We can unlock the full potential of our economic partnership and strengthen our position as a global trading Šuica, Commissioner for the Mediterranean said: ''Our partnership with the GCC partners is built on mutual respect and shared objectives. Through the Strategic Partnership Agreements, we aim to take our cooperation to the next level. We are deepening and widening our bilateral relations in a wide array of areas putting always people at the center. "These partnerships will also allow for strengthening our cooperation at regional level to build peace and promote stability and prosperity in the broader Middle East.''
