Tag: Security

Meet the New Conservatives giving Rishi Sunak a migration headache

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LONDON — Watch out Rishi Sunak, there’s a new right-wing Tory pressure group in town.

The New Conservatives — a group of 25 MPs from the 2017 and 2019 parliamentary intakes — launched Monday with a headline-grabbing call for the Tory prime minister to do more to cut migration.

They’re urging Sunak — already under pressure over the issue — to focus on meeting his predecessor-but-one Boris Johnson’s 2019 manifesto pledge to get net numbers to below 226,000. So who are the New Conservatives? And what exactly do they want?

The new group is run by Danny Kruger, a former aide to Johnson, and Miriam Cates, a backer of Home Secretary Suella Braverman when she ran for the Tory leadership last year.

Other members of the group include backbenchers Tom Hunt, Jonathan Gullis, Gareth Bacon, Duncan Kaker, Paul Bristow, Brendan Clarke-Smith, James Daly, Anna Firth, Nick Fletcher, Chris Green, Eddie Hughes, Mark Jenkinson, Andrew Lewer, Marco Longhi, Robin Millar, and Lia Nici.

Lee Anderson, the pugnacious former Labour aide turned Tory deputy chairman, was conspicuously absent from the event — and all literature — despite being part of the group and billed to speak right up until late last night. Stand-in Kruger insisted “he’s unwell in bed” but also “doesn’t officially endorse policy proposals” due to his party role.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that this list does not tot up to the advertised 25.

When asked about this at the press conference, Hunt said there were a “wide group of MPs who are supportive of our work,” but that those listed are the ones specifically endorsing the migration policies presented today.

So what do they want?

Cates kicked off the group’s launch event in Westminster by making it pretty clear that the group’s immediate focus is on migration — though there’s clearly plenty more to come.

Her message to Sunak? “The choice is this: cut immigration, keep our promise to voters, and restore democratic, cultural and economic security, or kick the can down the road, lose the next election, and resign ourselves to a low growth, low-wage, labor-intensive service economy with a population forecast to rise by another 20 million in the next 25 years.”

The New Conservatives outlined a 12-point-plan Monday that they claim will do just that. But some of its key recommendations are likely to prove contentious.

Perhaps the most headline-grabbing point is a call to scrap Health and Care Visas, launched to fill gaps in the health and social care sector with overseas workers. The group says this will cut the number of new visas issued by 117,000 and reduce long-term international migration by 82,000.

But big questions remain over exactly how the resultant gaps in the health and social care workforce would be filled with British recruits. UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said the government has “done nothing to solve the growing crisis in care. Now a group of its MPs want ministers to make things a whole lot worse.”

Beyond that pledge, the New Conservatives also want to reserve university study visas for only the “brightest” international students; stop overseas graduates staying for up to two years in the U.K. without a job; and place stricter limits on social housing being allocated to migrants.

They also want to “rapidly implement” the government’s Illegal Migration Bill, which — given its mauling in the House of Lords Monday — may be a tough ask.

Are they rivals to Rishi?

The group sternly rejects the notion that they’re here to cause trouble for the prime minister, with Daly telling assembled journalists Monday that he’s “depressed” by questions of rivalry.

Just to hammer the point home, Daly added that “every single person here today supports the prime minister.”

But they’re undoubtedly a thorn in Sunak’s side as the next election looms.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson insisted Monday that the government’s plans on migration don’t need toughening up. “We have to strike the right balance between tackling net migration and taking the people we need,” the spokesperson said, adding “we believe they strike the right balance currently. We keep our migration policies under review.”

Is this just about migration?

So far — but expect to hear plenty more from the group in the coming months.

Speaking to POLITICO, Hunt said he sees the group focusing on three main issues: migration; law and order; and what they see as the threat to Britain from “woke” ideas.

Hunt stressed that he wants the outfit to be “dipping their toes” into anti-woke issues “generally as a push-back, rather than waking up every morning and thinking ‘right, what’s our next big culture war wedge issue?’” So expect some anti-woke seasoning sprinkled on the New Conservatives’ main course.

Hunt says he’s animated by what he sees as “wokeness” in schools, and a preponderance of “self-loathing in this country.”

“I get concerned when I see the odd poll that says the majority of 18-25-year-olds see Churchill as a villain rather than a hero,” he said. That doesn’t mean the group will call for Britain to start “glossing over the past and saying we’ve always got it right,” he added — but recognizing that “in a struggle of Russia and China, we’re a damn sight better than them.”

So will this agenda help the Tories win in 2024 — or recover afterwards?

Polls suggest the Tories are on course to lose the next election, and badly. The New Conservatives want their ideas featured in the 2024 election manifesto, and believe they have the agenda to connect with working-class voters in the so-called Red Wall seats Johnson snatched from Labour in 2019 and which now look vulnerable.

Cates told the audience gathered in Westminster Monday that: “We want to win, of course we do, but it’s more than that. It’s because we believe that we still have, despite everything, the best chance of delivering for the British people.” She said of the party’s 2019 platform: “The demand for that offer is still there. We want to fulfill it.”

Not all Tories are convinced. Conservative commentator John Oxley argued that the New Conservatives’ impact may be short-lived.

It is, he said, “dominated by the sort of 2019, Red Wall MPs who are very likely to lose their seats next time around. They may be trying to sway the manifesto in a way that helps them, or mark themselves out as immigration hardliners to try and buck the national trend, but it seems unlikely to have much sway with Rishi Sunak.”

And he warned: “Equally, it seems unlikely this group will have much impact on the future of the Conservative Party, as so many of them will be out of parliament when that discussion begins after the election.”

Dan Bloom contributed reporting.



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What is the EU’s Joint Climate-Security Nexus agenda all about?

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By Olivia Lazard, Fellow, Carnegie Europe

Climate security is key to understanding instability and fragility in and outside Europe, and this agenda should be treated as the lens through which to redefine the continent’s economic and political agency, Olivia Lazard writes.

A few weeks ago, the World Meteorological Organisation announced that the world stands a 66% chance to overshoot past the 1.5°C temperature threshold compared to the pre-industrial level for at least one year between 2023 and 2027. 

At the same time, emissions are still rising, and the planet has re-entered the El Niño cycle.

The latter is usually associated with record-breaking temperatures, breadbasket failures and disasters of extreme intensity that have direct impacts on inflationary pressures and fiscal hollowing the world over.

Simultaneously, the safe and just Earth system boundaries study, published in June 2023, tells us that the planet is being sent into ecological overshoot, tearing away at global economic, political, fiscal, financial and societal fabrics from the local to the international level.

The disintegration of the ecological bases upon which global political economies rely spells security troubles for systems rivalry, resource scrambling, livelihood destitution, macroeconomic policy, conflict and war.

Systemic fragility at the heart of collective security

Against this background, the European Commission has just published its first Joint Communication on the Climate-Security Nexus. 

In EU-speak, the communique holds no legislative or budget power. It is a narrative document created with the objective of establishing a set of working priorities around which various parts of the European Commission and the EEAS can rally and coordinate.

The good news is that the narrative is largely on point. It reflects the systemic fragility at the heart of collective security. 

The document enumerates the ways in which climate change is leading to greater shocks and scarcity of food and water; how it acts as an overwhelming force that drives human displacement, impacts infrastructure, dampens budgets, and empowers autocrats and predatory elites. 

It tacitly recognises that climate changes geography and natural resource distribution, opening up new frontiers for geopoliticised competition, such as the Arctic. 

Competition takes on new forms, too. It doesn’t just involve state actors but also organised crime elements who prey on biodiversity and natural resources, making more and more revenue as resources grow scarcer.

Failure to take geostrategic behaviour into account

The document is also unique on one specific point: it recognises that the EU needs to anticipate the deployment of new forms of geoengineering technologies such as solar radiation management. 

It’s a form of planetary management that entails intervening in the bio-physics of our planet with the aim manage the greenhouse gas effect (without actually doing anything to reduce emissions). 

Such technologies are not regulated. Their direct, second and thirdhand effects are poorly understood and pose risks to international security.

One analytical dimension is missing, though: the EU fails to account for the change of geostrategic behavioural patterns that already act on climate and transition instability. 

Russia, for example, already harvests climate fragility faultlines. The Kremlin does not shy away from weaponising fragility and violence in a resource accumulation pursuit for critical minerals, food and water at the expense of global security. 

This particular lack of geostrategic purview and an adequate task force to respond to the challenges at hand leave the EU vulnerable to gaping strategic and security risks.

A specific foreign policy and staff force are much needed

Short of this blindspot, what the joint communication tacitly expresses is that the world has irreversibly tipped into a new security regime because the climate regime has, too.

The not-so-good news is that while the EU frames the narrative relatively well, it is not actually gearing up for the world it depicts. 

The EU needs to have a foreign policy that reflects interconnected challenges and the necessary staff force to conceptualise the stakes coherently within and between each part of the European house. 

This is far from the case. Just to give an example: there are about two people who work on climate security as such standing within the EEAS’ integrated strategy unit. 

The work they focus on mostly directs efforts at contexts of pre-existing fragility related to conflict — not systemic fragility.

The lack of capacity and coordination for matters critical to the EU’s energy security is also concerning. 

While the EU recognises the need to connect the dots between climate stresses and critical mineral sourcing, for example, there is no coordinating mechanism between DG Grow, EEAS, INTPA and other relevant European Commission staff specifically seeking to address the ways in which geopolitical competition, industrial extraction and expansion, climate security risks, maladaptation and conflict risks intersect.

Since no extra budget is allocated to the joint communication for climate security, it means only one thing. 

The agenda can only be used in the next year as a launching pad for a complex multi-dimensional security assessment exercise that the next European Commission can pick up upon to hit the ground running.

Climate security is key to understanding instability

Different parts of the European Commission and the EEAS should come together with an analysis and a roadmap. 

These should address what the union is up against today in terms of the geo-strategic security environment and whether its resources and institutional set-up match the challenges facing the EU — from supply chain security sabotage to failure of stabilisation and policy dialogue efforts, and partnerships that don’t deliver on adaptation — and how to reshape the EU’s foreign policy in the next European Commission.

Climate security is key to understanding instability and fragility from geostrategic to local levels in and outside Europe. It encompasses political-economic, societal, institutional, and defence security today.

If that much is clear, then the EU cannot afford to make this agenda a beggar. It should be treated as the lens through which to redefine the continent’s economic and political agency instead.

Olivia Lazard is a fellow at Carnegie Europe and an environmental peacemaking and mediation practitioner and researcher with over twelve years of experience in the field.

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West after Wagner rebellion: Talk softly and help Ukraine carry a bigger stick

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As the United States and its European allies work to make sense of last weekend’s chaos in the Kremlin, they’re urging Kyiv to seize a “window” of opportunity that could help its counteroffensive push through Russian positions.

The forming response: Transatlantic allies are hoping, largely by keeping silent, to de-escalate the immediate political crisis while quietly pushing Ukraine to strike a devastating blow against Russia on the battlefield. It’s best to hit an enemy while it’s down, and Kyiv would be hard-pressed to find a more wounded Russia, militarily and politically, than it is right now. 

In public, American and European leaders stressed that they are preparing for any outcome, as it still remained unclear where the mercenary rebellion would ultimately lead. Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the revolt, resurfaced on Monday, claiming he had merely wanted to protest, not topple the Russian government — while simultaneously insisting his paramilitary force would remain operational. 

“It’s still too early to reach a definitive conclusion about where this is going,” U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday afternoon. “The overall outcome of this remains to be seen.” 

For the moment, European officials see no greater threat to the Continent even as they watch for signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-decade hold on power might be slipping. 

Western allies attribute the relative calm to how they managed Prigozhin’s 24-hour tantrum. 

During the fighting, senior Biden administration figures and their European counterparts agreed on calls that they should remain “silent” and “neutral” about the mutiny, said three U.S. and European officials, who like others were granted anonymity to discuss fast-moving and sensitive deliberations.

In Monday’s meeting of top EU diplomats in Luxembourg, officials from multiple countries acted with a little-to-see-here attitude. No one wanted to give the Kremlin an opening to claim Washington and its friends were behind the Wagner Group’s targeting of senior Russian military officials. 

“We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” Biden said from the White House Monday, relaying the transatlantic message. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signaled on Monday that his regime would still look into the potential involvement of Western spies in the rebellion.

The broader question is how, or even if, the unprecedented moment could reverse Ukraine’s fortunes as its counteroffensive stalls.

The U.S. and some European nations have urged Ukraine for weeks to move faster and harder on the front lines. The criticism is that Kyiv has acted too cautiously, waiting for perfect weather conditions and other factors to align before striking Russia’s dug-in fortifications. 

Now, with Moscow’s political and military weaknesses laid bare, there’s a “window” for Ukraine to push through the first defensive positions, a U.S. official said. Others in the U.S. and Europe assess that Russian troops might lay down their arms if Ukraine gets the upper hand while command and control problems from the Kremlin persist.

“Russia does not appear to have the uncommitted ground forces needed to counter the multiple threats it is now facing from Ukraine, which extend over 200 kilometers [124 miles] from Bakhmut to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River,” U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in the House of Commons Monday.

Ukrainian officials say there’s no purposeful delay on their part. Russia’s air power, literal minefields and bad weather have impeded Kyiv’s advances, they insist, conceding that they do wish they could move faster. 

“We’re still moving forward in different parts of the front line,” Yuri Sak, an adviser to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, said in an interview.

“Earlier it was not possible to assess the solidity of the Russian defenses,” Sak added. “Only now that we are doing active probing operations, we get a better picture. The obtained information will be factored into the next stages of our offensive operations.”

Analysts have long warned that, despite the training Ukrainian forces have received from Western militaries, it was unlikely that they would fight just like a NATO force. Kyiv is still operating with a strategy of attrition despite recent drills on combined-arms operations, maneuver warfare and longer-range precision fires.

During Monday’s gathering of top EU diplomats, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said now was the time to pump more artillery systems and missiles into Kyiv’s arsenal, place more sanctions on Russia and speed up the training of Ukrainian pilots on advanced fighter jets. 

“Together, all these steps will allow the liberation of all Ukrainian territories,” he asserted.

In the meantime, European officials will keep an eye on Russia as they consider NATO’s own security. 

“I think that nobody has yet understood what is going on in Russia — frankly I have a feeling also that the leadership in Moscow has no clue what is going on in their own country,” quipped Latvia’s Foreign Minister and President-elect Edgars Rinkēvičs in a phone interview on Monday afternoon. 

“We are prepared, as we always would be, for a range of scenarios,” U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters Monday.

NATO allies will continue to watch for whether Russia starts to crumble or if the autocrat atop the Kremlin can hold his nation together with spit and tape. 

“The question is how Putin will now react to his public humiliation. His reaction — to save his face and reestablish his authority — may well be a further crackdown on any domestic dissent and an intensified war effort in Ukraine,” said a Central European defense official. The official added that there’s no belief Putin will reach for a nuclear option during the greatest threat to his rule in two decades.

In the meantime, an Eastern European senior diplomat said, “we will increase monitoring, possibly our national vigilance and intelligence efforts. Additional border protection measures might be feasible. We need more allied forces in place.”

Alexander Ward reported from Washington. Lili Bayer reported from Brussels. Suzanne Lynch reported from Luxembourg. Cristina Gallardo reported from London. 



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How Christina Cacioppo Built Startup Vanta Into A $1.6 Billion Unicorn To Automate Complicated Security Compliance Issues

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The Stanford graduate built a fast-growing software company to automate what had previously been a manual process. She’s now one of America’s richest self-made women.

About five years ago, Vanta CEO and cofounder Christina Cacioppo received a message from one of the customers of her nascent security and compliance automation company that something was wrong. The automated email the customer received each morning detailing what had happened in their Vanta account in the past 24 hours had the wrong company name in it. Cacioppo responded: “There’s a bug, we’re so sorry. We’ll fix it.”

What the customer didn’t realize was that the “automated” email was actually one that Cacioppo had sent early that morning. Cacioppo, who had founded Vanta just months earlier, set her alarm each day for 5:45 a.m. and crafted the emails by hand. She did this to make sure customers liked the emails before spending time writing code that would automate them. Once she knew what customers wanted, she and Vanta’s founding team sat down and wrote the code—and didn’t need to change it for a year and a half.

It’s just one example of the Ohio native’s scrappy approach—which also included everything from buying coffee in bulk from Costco to running Vanta without formal executive or staff meetings for its first two years. That hustle has helped her company land an estimated 5,000 customers including Quora, Autodesk and payments software firm Modern Treasury, with 600 new customers signing up each quarter, according to Vanta. Cacioppo has also helped score $203 million in funding to date from such venture capital firms as Craft Ventures and Sequoia, including $110 million raised in June 2022 that values the company at $1.6 billion. That’s enough to earn Cacioppo, 36, a spot on Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women with a $385 million fortune based on her stake in Vanta.

“Prior to Vanta, the way security and compliance was done was entirely with spreadsheets and screenshots of information that were collected in folders and shown to [certified public accountants],” Cacioppo says. “What we built was a way to do almost all of that work, and do it automated.” Cacioppo cofounded Vanta with Erik Goldman, a software engineer and product designer who is no longer involved in the company.

Vanta’s software automates businesses’ security compliance processes, saving companies time and money. The “security” piece means helping companies meet certain standards for managing and storing customer data; “compliance” is the process of getting certified for doing so. Historically, the process was a highly manual annual or bi-annual scramble. Vanta automates that process via continuous monitoring and real-time reports called “trust reports.” Then auditors, including a network of Vanta-vetted professionals, can go through the data and, hopefully, certify the company as compliant with an array of standards—such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, USDP and others—more quickly.

Currently, Vanta is sitting on enough cash to operate for another three and a half years, Cacioppo says, with most of its $110 million June 2022 funding round still in the bank. Vanta is “definitely on the IPO trajectory,” says Sequoia partner Andrew Reed, who led Vanta’s earlier fundraising round in 2021 and invested again last June. Cacioppo emphasizes that going public isn’t an end goal but rather a stepping stone.

Additionally, Vanta has at least doubled its annual recurring revenue every year since its founding to an estimated $80 million. A subscription business, Vanta charges customers upfront for a year of service. Like many startups, Vanta isn’t profitable, although it was from approximately 2019 to 2021, Cacioppo says.

To get to profitability and a potential public offering, Vanta will need to navigate a growing competitive landscape. Five years ago, the company’s main competitors were individual security consultants. Cacioppo says Vanta was a pioneer in its field of automated security and compliance software, but not anymore: Now, Vanta maintains a list of competitors with some 40 companies on it. Whenever an employee adds another to the list, Cacioppo gives them a stuffed llama—Vanta’s mascot.

Some of its competitors include Drata and Secureframe. Drata, for one, has grown faster than Vanta in terms of valuation, at least: It was founded in 2020 and reached a $2 billion valuation in December 2022.

Vanta’s plan to differentiate itself includes expanding the list of companies its software can work with. Similarly, last year it launched an initiative with a goal to increase the number of compliance standards it supports. The San Francisco-based company is also expanding into Europe: It opened its first European office in Ireland in late 2022, where Reed says Vanta might be even more useful due to Europe’s complex regulatory systems. Additionally, Vanta is keeping its focus on hiring engineers who like talking to customers as well—for the fast feedback loops like those in Cacioppo’s “automated” emails.

“The space is well funded and has a lot of competition, which, from one vantage point, is a good thing,” says Brandon Greer, who leads HubSpot Ventures and invested in Vanta last year. Vanta’s position as a pioneer in the space gives it a leg up, and there’s an “almost limitless total addressable market,” he says.

Sequoia’s Reed says Vanta sits in the top 1% of his investment portfolio in five metrics, including measures of revenue and customer growth.

Cacioppo didn’t always realize she wanted to be a startup founder, even though she knew she liked building things from age 11, when she ran a solo eBay Beanie Baby business. The daughter of two university professors of psychology, she jokes that she didn’t know that adults could be anything besides professors until age 22.

At that point, she was finishing her undergraduate degree in economics at Stanford. She would go on to earn a master’s degree in management science and engineering, also from Stanford. After that, she moved into venture capital, working as an analyst for Union Square Ventures from 2010 to 2012 working on early-stage investments—a job she took because “it’s kind of like academia because you get to run around, find people and ask them questions all day.”

Then she decided that she wanted to build things instead. When she first struck out on her own as a founder in 2013, she told her parents it was a “sabbatical” from her investing job. It wasn’t; she had quit the role.

Her first project—an array of nascent software products under the umbrella “Nebula Labs” that she cofounded with Stanford classmate Matt Spitz, who is now head of engineering at Vanta—didn’t work out, but it did help Cacioppo lay the groundwork for Vanta. After Nebula Labs, Spitz and, a bit later, Cacioppo, both moved to Dropbox. In 2014, Cacioppo started as a product manager of a new Dropbox product, Dropbox Paper—the company’s version of Google Docs.

The idea for Vanta came during Cacioppo’s time at Dropbox, as she was talking to Dropbox customers to get them to use Paper. A member of Dropbox’s legal team told her she couldn’t do that: The security compliance contracts Dropbox customers had signed didn’t yet apply to Dropbox Paper.

As she worked with the legal team to learn about those compliance standards, she remembered thinking about how tedious, manual and error-prone it was. “The way, as an industry, we think about the security of products, is through accountants looking at screenshots? Seriously?”

Cacioppo left Dropbox in 2016 to start Vanta with Goldman, even though they didn’t know what exactly it would become at that point. Their monthslong exploration phase would take them through several ideas, including an app that was like Amazon’s Alexa for biologists. Notably, they waited to write any code until they’d talked to enough security experts and were sure they had a business. After talking to lots of people working in security, they realized there was a need for an automated solution.

At first, Vanta was building its product with individual customers, essentially acting as security consultants themselves, and ran on relatively small amounts of funding—$500,000 from Y Combinator and $3 million in seed funding. The company surpassed $10 million in annual recurring revenue before raising $50 million in May 2021. That figure is an order of magnitude greater than that of the average startup raising its first major funding round, according to Sequoia’s Reed.

As Vanta has scaled from a handful of customers to thousands, Reed says Cacioppo’s customer-obsessed but competitor-aware approach plays out to Vanta’s benefit in a field that’s more crowded now, given that the company continues to develop and innovate its product.

Both Vanta cofounder Goldman and Vanta head of engineering Spitz say one of Cacioppo’s greatest strengths is her ability to dive into a problem she wasn’t previously familiar with, whether it was writing code for Vanta without a computer science or security background—or coming up with a pricing model for Vanta’s first enterprise customers, which she, ever an avid reader, did by “blitzing through” several books in a weekend, Goldman says. The pricing model, guided by customers’ opinions of an “expensive price” they would pay for Vanta’s product, ended up being their model for about two years.

In addition to building a successful software company, Cacioppo has occasionally done some angel investing. She backed team collaboration tool company Notion in 2016 (before Vanta was founded; Notion was one of Vanta’s first customers). In 2022, she invested in several software and security companies including vertical software-as-a-service company Pocus.

Cacciopo also wants to make a difference as a female founder and CEO of a software company: “It’s probably incrementally easier for Vanta to hire a woman than the parallel universe Vanta that’s run by, like … me, but male.” Unlike at many tech startups, Vanta’s senior leadership team is split evenly between male and female executives.

“But I think my highest level pointer message here is that more women should start enterprise SaaS companies,” Cacioppo says, referring to software as a service. “We’ve come a long way, but [we’re] nowhere near parity.”

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IBBC hosts well attended Conference at The Mansion House | Iraq Business News

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On June 16th IBBC hosted it’s best attended London Conference at The Mansion House yet, with over 280 delegates from Iraq, UK, and International European and Middle East countries.

With an overarching theme of ‘Iraq open to the world’ a wide range of panels discussed Iraq’s rapidly improving international position across economic indicators, political relationships, and security. Baroness Nicholson, IBBC President, welcomed delegates, The Lord Mayor spoke of London’s importance as a financial centre and Lord Ahmed (Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and United Nations) presented an upbeat outline of UK’s trading and political relationship with Iraq including significant increase in bilateral trade in the last year. Professor Hamid Khalaf Ahmed, Executive Director for the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq & Advisor to the Prime Minister, spoke on behalf of the Iraqi Prime Minster, to reiterate the determination of the GOI to see through its five priorities, including setting a budget and delivering on targets for corruption and infrastructure development, increase in public sector jobs and investment in education at all levels of Iraqi society. Dr Mohammed Shukri, Chairman, Kurdistan Board of Investment outlined a focus on diverse investment opportunities including agriculture, tech, and infrastructure in the KRG. Two prominent sponsors Mr Sardar Al Bebany, IBBC Executive Committee Member, CEO & Chairman, Sardar Group and Mr Amet Selman, CEO, AAA Holding Group offered their thanks to IBBC audience and outlined their commitment and importance to investing in their people and businesses in Iraq.

Three strong focus areas emerged from the conference, and were reflected in the panels along with other important topics:

Finance, chaired by Mr John Curtin, Ernst & Young Iraq, Included panellists Mr Haider F. Al-Shamaa, International Islamic Bank; Mr Tim Palmer, UK Export Finance; Mr Salahuddin Al-Hadeethi, Ministry of Finance; Dr Yasser Hassan, National Bank of Egypt; Mr Raed Hanna, Mutual Finance Ltd

Energy; Chaired by Mr Luay Al Khateeb, Centre on Global Energy Policy – Columbia U. With a keynote Address from: Mr Laith Al Shaher, Deputy Minister of Oil. Panellists included: Dr Abdulhamzah Hadi Abood, the Advisor from the Ministry of Electricity; Mr Laith Al Shaher, Ministry of Oil; Mr Andrew Wiper, Basrah Gas Company; Mr Mushhood Haider, Scotland Trade, and Investment; Mr Ali Al Janabi, Shell Iraq and UAE; Ms Sara Akbar, Oil Serv 

And keynote discussion on Iraq Open to the World.

Professor Frank Gunter opened the discussion with a keynote presentation of the key findings of his report ‘‘Seaports and Airports of Iraq: Rules Versus Infrastructure’ (see separate briefing here)

Chairman Mrs Hadeel Hasan Al Hadeel Al Hasan LLC led the discussion including, panellists: Professor Frank Gunter, Lehigh University; Mr Steve Alexander; Sardar Group; Mr Richard Cotton, AAA Holdings; Mr Hassan Heshmat, Hydro-C; H.E. Bader Mohammad Alawadi, Ambassador of the State of Kuwait.

Significant panels also included.

Education and skills roundtable; of acute importance due to the technical demands on Iraq’s expanding economy and the need to upgrade university courses and overseas scholarship support for 5,000 Iraqi students from the GOI, Chaired by Professor Mohammed Al Uzri (IBBC Health and Education Advisor) with Professor Hamid Khalaf Ahmed responding to questions and outlining the GOI plans for education with IBBCs University and skills members.

An emergent theme of growing importance is ‘Heritage’, as a business and culturally important sector, chaired by: Professor Mohammed Al Uzri, with Dr John McGinnis, The British Museum; with Prof Gamal Abdelmonem, Nottingham Trent University, Mr Ali Al Makhzomy, Bilweekend; Dr Rosalind Wade Haddon, British Institute for the Study of Iraq; Professor Chris Whitehead, Newcastle University.

During the day there were also a KRG roundtable discussions with Dr Mohammed Shukri and a full complement of KRG businesses and chambers of commerce, A Tech forum on ‘The digitisation of Iraq. Chaired by Ashley Goodall of IBBC, including Mr Saquib Ahmed, MD SAP Iraq; Mr Padraig O’Hannelly, Iraq Business News; Mr Mohsen Garcia, CEO 1001 Media; Mr Peter Chamberlin, Scott Logic, Ms Cynthia El Khoury, Mastercard Iraq; Mr Ali Al-Khairalla, Embassy of the Republic of Iraq (available to view here)

A special ceremony awarded The Rasmi Al Jabri Award (for Iraqi companies dedicated to best international practices and significant growth of Investment and turnover). This year the winners are AAA Holding and Mr Amet Selman for their work for successfully providing fertilizers to the Iraqi market in conjunction with the GOI and third-party agricultural groups. (Video link here). The conference was preceded by an ebullient reception for over 150 delegates the previous evening at the Institute of engineers, where Prof. Dr Sabih G. Khisaf (of Hyperloop Dubai) gave a talk on the importance of engineering and his work on the hyperloop and hosted by John Scott of IBBC.

Christophe Michels, MD of IBBC who chaired the conference commented ‘This is our 11th Iraq Day at The Mansion House and probably the most successful we have had yet. Iraq is rapidly developing, building on a stable budget, good security, political stability, and increasingly good relations with her neighbours. Now is the time for Iraq to truly embrace business and to cut down on outdated bureaucracy, regulations and the corruption going hand in hand with these. If this does not happen, the country risks missing out on all the new opportunities arising from finally opening to the world. As IBBC we are optimistic and will continue to lend our support to our Members and the wider Iraqi community’.

IBBC Spring Conference 2023 Sponsors:

Principal Sponsor: AAA Holding Group

Gold Sponsors: Sardar Group & Trade Bank of Iraq

Bronze Sponsors: Standard Chartered Bank & Hydro – C

To attend future events, including the Iraq SME conference, July 6th, and IBBC Autumn conference in Dubai, Dec 8th, please follow our website.

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Questions mount over latest migrant tragedy in Mediterranean

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Anger is growing over the handling of a migrant boat disaster off Greece last week that has become one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean in years. The calamity is dominating the country’s political agenda a week ahead of snap elections.

The Hellenic Coast Guard is facing increasing questions over its response to the fishing boat that sank off Greece’s southern peninsula on Wednesday, leading to the death of possibly hundreds of migrants. Nearly 80 people are known to have perished in the wreck and hundreds are still missing, according to the U.N.’s migration and refugee agencies.

Critics say that the Greek authorities should have acted faster to keep the vessel from capsizing. There are testimonies from survivors that the Coast Guard tied up to the vessel and attempted to pull it, causing the boat to sway, which the Greek authorities strongly deny.

The boat may have been carrying as many as 750 passengers, including women and children, according to reports. Many of them were trapped underneath the deck in the sinking, according to Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. “The ship was heavily overcrowded,” Frontex said.  

About 100 people are known to have survived the sinking. Authorities continued to search for victims and survivors over the weekend.

The disaster may be “the worst tragedy ever” in the Mediterranean Sea, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Friday. She said there has been a massive increase in the number of migrant boats heading from Libya to Europe since the start of the year.

Frontex said in a statement on Friday that no agency plane or boat was present at the time of the capsizing on Wednesday. The agency said it alerted the Greek and Italian authorities about the vessel after a Frontex plane spotted it, but the Greek officials waved off an offer of additional help.

Greece has been at the forefront of Europe’s migration crisis since 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa traveled thousands of miles across the Continent hoping to claim asylum.

Migration and border security have been key issues in the Greek political debate. Following Wednesday’s wreck, they have jumped to the top of the agenda, a week before national elections on June 25.

Greece is currently led by a caretaker government. Under the conservative New Democracy administration, in power until last month, the country adopted a tough migration policy. In late May, the EU urged Greece to launch a probe into alleged illegal deportations.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is expected to return to the prime minister’s office after the vote next Sunday, blasted criticism of the Greek authorities, saying it should instead be directed to the human traffickers, who he called “human scums.”

“It is very unfair for some so-called ‘people in solidarity’ [with refugees and migrants] to insinuate that the [Coast Guard] did not do its job. … These people are out there … battling the waves to rescue human lives and protect our borders,” Mitsotakis, who maintains a significant lead in the polls, said during a campaign event in Sparta on Saturday.

The Greek authorities claimed the people on board, some thought to be the smugglers who had arranged the boat from Libya, refused assistance and insisted on reaching Italy. So the Greek Coast Guard did not intervene, though it monitored the vessel for more than 15 hours before it eventually capsized.

“What orders did the authorities have, and they didn’t intervene because one of these ‘scums’ didn’t give them permission?” the left-wing Syriza party said in a statement. “Why was no order given to the lifeboat … to immediately assist in a rescue operation? … Why were life jackets not distributed … and why Frontex assistance was not requested?”

Alarm Phone, a network of activists that helps migrants in danger, said the Greek authorities had been alerted repeatedly many hours before the boat capsized and that there was insufficient rescue capacity.

According to a report by WDR citing migrants’ testimonies, attempts were made to tow the endangered vessel, but in the process the boat began to sway and sank. Similar testimonies by survivors appeared in Greek media.

A report on Greek website news247.gr said the vessel remained in the same spot off the town of Pylos for at least 11 hours before sinking. According to the report, the location on the chart suggests the vessel was not on a “steady course and speed” toward Italy, as the Greek Coast Guard said.

After initially saying that there was no effort to tow the boat, the Hellenic Coast Guard said on Friday that a patrol vessel approached and used a “small buoy” to engage the vessel in a procedure that lasted a few minutes and then was untied by the migrants themselves.

Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou defended the agency. “You cannot carry out a violent diversion on such a vessel with so many people on board, without them wanting to, without any sort of cooperation,” he said.

Alexiou said there is no video of the operation available.

Nine people, most of them from Egypt, were arrested over the capsizing, charged with forming a criminal organization with the purpose of illegal migrant trafficking, causing a shipwreck and endangering life. They will appear before a magistrate on Monday, according to Greek judicial authorities.

“Unfortunately, we have seen this coming because since the start of the year, there was a new modus operandi with these fishing boats leaving from the eastern part of Libya,” the EU’s Johansson told a press conference on Friday. “And we’ve seen an increase of 600 percent of these departures this year,” she added.

Greek Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos has urged absolute secrecy in the investigations being conducted in relation to the shipwreck.

Thousands of people took to the streets in different cities in Greece last week to protest the handling of the incident and the migration policies of Greece and the EU. More protests were planned for Sunday.



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Ukraine is fighting for all our freedom, Polish Foreign Minister says

Post By World , ,

Poland and Slovakia’s Foreign Affairs Ministers Zbigniew Rau and Miroslav Wlachovsky, alongside former Estonian president Kersti Kaljulaid, joined Euronews for a special conversation on global security from a Central and Eastern Europe perspective, at GLOBSEC in Bratislava.

Euronews

Mr Miroslav Wlachovsky, Foreign Affairs Minister of Slovakia. Then Mr Zbigniew Rau, Foreign Affairs Minister of Poland. Welcome. And Kersti Kaljulaid, who served as the president of Estonia from 2016 to 2021. There are talks, at least at media level, about the possibility of opening a discussion for at least reaching a kind of ceasefire, do you really think that these attempts are credible, or do you think that the peace finally or even a ceasefire, a stable ceasefire, say it will come only after a military failure of Russia in Ukraine, in Ukraine, with the territorial integrity of Ukraine?

Miroslav Wlachovsky

I would repeat myself, but, I said it several times. The easiest way how to reach peace in Ukraine is that Russia will withdraw its forces. I think what we need here, it’s not just peace, but just peace. It means that this will be the peace will which will recognise the aggressor and will punish the aggressor and will somehow help the victim. That’s what we should aim for. That’s how the international law should work and how the international relations should work.

Kersti Kaljulaid

Frankly speaking, all the talks which will say, let’s settle now for a ceasefire and then negotiate something back would not work. Imagine we had done the same when the aggression started. What was done in Tbilisi a week or two in this conflict? Where exactly would Russians be? 20 kilometres from Kyiv. Sorry, it has to be: first, Ukrainians clear their territory and then we can talk.

Zbigniew Rau

We are all for peace. We are all for ceasefire. This goes without saying. This is the case from Brazil, I suppose, to India, from France to Estonia or Slovakia or Poland. The issue is what kind of peace do you expect? And I can tell you very briefly what I think about it. The desired peace is a just peace that allows us to restore national independence of Ukraine, state sovereignty, territorial integrity, then reconstruction of Ukraine at the expense of Russia, above all, because Russia is guilty of the destruction of Ukraine and then bringing all those who are guilty of this aggression to justice. If you expect a just and lasting peace, it is to make Russia be not in a position to turn back to its imperial practices in foreign policy.

Euronews

Now we have established that Russia must withdraw and abide by international law. And as long as it won’t happen, there won’t be any possibility…

Kersti Kaljulaid

I just wanted to say that is a possibility. But it is for Ukrainians to decide. It is for them to decide if they feel that they are ready to sit and negotiate. If they feel confident they are negotiating from the point of strength, there is a chance. So, it’s not so bleak [a] picture, I would say. But we cannot decide. It’s only the Ukrainians who can decide. I want you to add that.

Euronews

We have seen recently the polemic within the European Union for the grain crisis, the grain import crisis. So, how long do you think your societies will be able to go on in such a kind of emergency situation?

Miroslav Wlachovsky

Well, first of all, it was not our choice. And yes, it is difficult for our countries. But we understand what would be an alternative. And the alternative is much, much bleaker. I mean, no one really wants to be a neighbour of some kind of Putin regime in Ukraine or Putin on our border instead of having as our neighbour, sovereign Ukraine. It’s very simple. And I think the price we are paying is high, but still much lower than the alternative.

Kersti Kaljulaid

I was asked this question from my West Berlin friends. Did they feel like living in a militarised country during the Cold War? No, they did not. I mean, being able to defend yourself adds to the security and the feeling of security of people. So, the more NATO presence in [the] eastern flank, the better.

Euronews

Poland, according to what has been said, is called to become a kind of fortress in Europe. The military spending, for instance, of Poland is growing and it’s playing a relevant political role now.

Zbigniew Rau 

First of all, even referring to yourself, I can say that the Polish Society considers the defence of Ukraine something not only politically correct but something absolutely crucial, even something that we can describe as our existential choice. You see, in the 19th century, when we were deprived of our independence, you couldn’t find Poland on the map of Europe, Polish Patriots came up with this kind of motto for your freedom and ours, so, we were well-known freedom fighters in Europe. The point was in the 19th century, and especially also in the 20th century, that we were ready to fight for freedom of others and for others were not very often ready to fight for our freedom. And now what we experience in this war is that there is a country, namely Ukraine, that in fact is fighting for our freedom, whether it’s [the] freedom of Slovakia, Estonia and Poland. When you are asking about the role that Poland is playing now on the eastern flank, certainly we believe as a NATO ally that the level of military spending in the alliance should be at 2% of GDP. Let me put it this way, [it should be] the floor, rather than the ceiling. And this is for this is the reason why we believe it’s correct to spend right now slightly more than 4% of our GDP this year. But nevertheless, when more than three 3% because I suppose that the very notion of an effective alliance is to consider ourselves. And I think that this is also the case, it should be the case with any other country, a NATO member, [we should] consider ourselves not only as a recipient of security but also as providers of security, that’s the reason. That it is the way we decide to spend this much, because the philosophy behind it is that I am going to help you. First of all, you have to be in a position to help yourself, defend yourself first and then defend others, your neighbours too.

Euronews

Do you think that you have enough understanding and support from the other European partners when it comes to the European Union and also many of them are also NATO partners … Do you think they understand you completely and do you feel that they are supporting you or there is always some ambiguity or something that is not clear when it comes to European Councils or a Council of ministers or NATO meetings and so on, so forth.

Kersti Kaljulaid

You know, I am a market economist. The ‘market’s always right’. And if I look at how reluctantly the industry is investing against the bet that there will be long-term need for ammunition, cannons, tanks, etc. I initially thought that the industry has gone lazy, just looking for guarantees everywhere and so on. But in the year which has passed, the more I talk to them, their prediction is that the willingness to spend more on military equipment is short-lived and it might be over as soon as the war is over or soon after that.

Euronews

Minister [Rau] .

Zbigniew Rau

Well, I suppose that you are raising the fundamental issue here because within the NATO alliance, we always talk about unity…

Kersti Kaljulaid

United in weakness, you mean?

Zbigniew Rau 

No, it’s not a matter of weakness. It’s more a matter of not doing anything. We on the eastern flank think about it in a different way. We have to meet the challenge. And those of us who [are] most sensitive to this challenge, given our geopolitical situation, given our historical experience and so on. We feel obliged to set the agenda, to make this unity simply dynamic, to make it meet with the challenges Just take, for example, that we can manage to build a tank coalition. We decided to send first the fighter jets and so on and so on. Yes. It’s a matter of showing the goal to which we should all go in order to in order to achieve it. So, this is a dynamic kind of unity within NATO, really, and also the European Union needs.

Euronews

Thank you. Mr Wlachovsky, I would like also to say one thing. This is true for the Baltic countries and for Poland. For Slovakia, the situation is a little bit different considering the figures.

Miroslav Wlachovsky

When we are talking about numbers and about the people, I think there is an important word which is called leadership. And the leadership means that you lead despite the numbers and you have to find a way how to convince people that’s really important. But here in this country, the government took important decisions because they thought and I agree with them, it was the right thing to do. Basically, that was it. And it was in the interest of not only Slovakia, but the whole region.

Euronews

Not really popular decision according to the figures.

Miroslav Wlachovsky

Well, there are many unpopular decisions which must be made, you know, and this might be one of them. But I am proud that we were able to do them. And I think it’s not difficult to make a tough decision when everybody agrees. It’s difficult when a lot of people disagree to make a right decision.

Euronews

The title of this debate is “Leading from the Centre”, but don’t you think that this leadership from the centre is a kind of ‘lame duck’, because, for instance, there are some black holes. Let’s talk about a very important absence here. Hungary, for instance. That should be a masterpiece of the (construction).

Kersti Kaljulaid

Maybe indeed, we should always take this kind of lowest common denominator and say we have actually disintegrated from the European Union because there was Brexit. I mean, this is exactly the argument you are making, just the fact that one of the Central and Eastern European countries is playing a different game, showing us how the world would look like if there were no kind of rules-based but interest-based, world view only, not even order. I mean, it’s not fair to us, because we are leading by example. We are spending. We are trying to defend ourselves as much as possible. We are speaking politely, but honestly where we are. We also, I mean sharing honestly and openly our worries that we are not all on the same page and we are having success.

Euronews

And…because in the European Union, anyway, Hungary when it comes to other issues that are not related to security, is a kind of good support for the position of Poland when it comes to the civil rights and rule of law in this kind of issues.

Zbigniew Rau

Are we going to lead in the same way Germany wants to lead Europe? Certainly not, especially not us in Poland, because we believe, in something very fundamental that all EU member states are free and equal in the same way, and the interests of each of us should be represented in the same way.

Euronews

Well, I was about to take a question from Slido now. It’s about, It was about the 2% of spending. The question was about the fact that is it illogical to speak to talk about the strategic autonomy of a European Union when a lot of countries are not reaching the 2% of their spending (on military)? So, the military issue is not a priority for them.

Miroslav Wlachovsky

For me, it’s not about the structures. For me, it’s about the capabilities and the capabilities to act when it’s needed. And I must say that I am a big supporter of the transatlantic link and of NATO as a defense alliance. But I fully understand the wish of our American allies and our American friends. “Please, Europeans be able to deal with these issues on your own when it’s necessary. And for that, we need those capabilities.

Kersti Kaljulaid

In order to project, project power, in order to have influence in the neighbourhood, one needs capabilities, by citation from the High Representative (Borrell). So, the West and East know. But of course, there is a slight discrepancy in that some are talking about strategic autonomy and some are spending and they are not necessarily the same people.

Euronews

Well, the spending is the question coming from slide two. But I guess that the idea was anyway strategic autonomy from NATO and from the United States. I guess that for your countries, this is not the real-life insurance.

Kersti Kaljulaid

But I have never heard it this way. Spoken also by those who invented the term in terminology I’ve never heard, let’s say Nathalie Tocci, or Emmanuel Macron, or Federica Mogherini to say this is what we are doing in order to be not more independent from the US. They’ve always said we are doing this to be able to support US’s global ambition, to defend the free world. But we have to be able to do something ourselves. And there have been lots of misunderstandings. Some words will turn into rude words. It’s not our fault, but the concept is materially right.

Zbigniew Rau

If the European Union believes that it is a global player, responsible for a big geopolitical situation in the world, and if it considers itself a defender of values of the free world, it cannot stay indifferent to the situation in its backyard.

Euronews

Do you think that the most practical way to reconstruct Ukraine, would it be a Ukraine on the waiting list to join the European Union or to start the reconstruction with a Ukraine within the European Union as a member? From a purely, say, practical point of view. And if it’s politically viable or economically viable, what do you think? This is the question for the three of you.

Kersti Kaljulaid

The fact is that for Ukraine to join the European Union, the leaders of the European Union have to be able to tell to their companies and businesses, invest there like you would invest in your own country. The economic environment is the same. Your investment is protected the same way. The rule of law is established the same way. This has not been the case in Ukraine before the war, and I hope they can quickly overcome the difficulties which they had before. And then, of course, they can join, because the EU is an economic union. And we have also this aspect that we cannot just politically decide: “come inside, we will reform afterwards, because we have to give this message to our business skills and invest there”.

Miroslav Wlachovsky

I really strongly hope that we will start with reconstruction of the Ukraine before they join the European Union, because I want to start the reconstruction of Ukraine really quickly. The precondition for that is the war will end. And in the meantime, we have to prepare and we have to find a way how to find the best way, how to help them to reconstruct their country.

Zbigniew Rau

Quite frankly, I suppose the best way to proceed is to launch these two processes in a parallel way.

Euronews

Double track?

Zbigniew Rau

Double track. Indeed.

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Eva Kaili is back with a new story: There’s a conspiracy

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ATHENS — Eva Kaili is spinning up a new, eyebrow-raising narrative: Authorities might have targeted her because she knew too much about government spying.

After months of silence during her detention and house arrest, the most high-profile suspect in the cash-for-influence Qatargate scandal was suddenly everywhere over the weekend. 

Across a trio of interviews in the European media, the Greek European Parliament member was keen to proclaim her innocence, saying she never took any of the alleged bribes that authorities say countries such as Qatar and Morocco used to sway the Brussels machinery. 

But she also had a story to tell even darker than Qatargate, one involving insinuations of nefarious government spying and suggestions that maybe, just maybe, her jailing was politically motivated. Her work investigating the illegal use of Pegasus spyware in Europe, she argued, put her in the crosshairs of Europe’s own governments. 

“From the court file, my lawyers have discovered that the Belgian secret services have allegedly been monitoring the activities of members of the Pegasus special committee,” she told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

“The fact that elected members of Parliament are being spied on by the secret services should raise more concerns about the health of our European democracy,” she added. “I think this is the ‘real scandal.’”

As Kaili reemerges and starts pointing the finger back at the government, the Belgian prosecutor’s office has decided to remain mum. A spokesperson on Monday said the prosecutor’s office was “not going to respond” to Kaili’s allegations. 

“This would violate the confidentiality of the investigation and the presumption of innocence,” the spokesperson added. “The evidence will be presented in court in due course.”

But her PR blitz is nonetheless a likely preview of Qatargate’s next chapter: The battle to win the public narrative.

A European media tour

In addition to her interview with the Italian press, Kaili also appeared in the Spanish and French press, where she expanded on her spying theory. 

In a video interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Kaili said her legal team has evidence the entire PEGA committee was being watched illegally, arguing she does not know how the police intercepted certain conversations between her and other politicians. 

“I was not spied on with Pegasus, but for Pegasus,” she said. “We believe Morocco, Spain, France and Belgium spied on the European Parliament’s committee,” she told El Mundo.

Kaili’s assertions have not been backed up by public evidence. But she didn’t equivocate as she pointed the finger.

“The fact that security services surveilled elected members of Parliament should raise enormous concerns over the state of European democracy,” Kaili said. “This goes beyond the personal: We have to defend the European Parliament and the work of its members.”

Kaili was jailed in December as part of a deep corruption probe Belgian authorities were conducting into whether foreign countries were illegally influencing the European Parliament’s work. Her arrest came after the Belgian police recovered €150,000 in cash from her apartment — where she lived with her partner, Francesco Giorgi, who was also arrested — and a money-stuffed bag her father had.

The Greek politician flatly dismissed the charges across her interviews.

“No country has ever offered me money and I have never been bribed. Not even Russia, as has been alleged,” she told El Mundo. “My lawyers and I believe this was a police operation based on false evidence.”

According to her arrest warrant, Kaili was suspected of being “the primary organizer or co-organizer” of public corruption and money laundering.

“Eva Kaili told the journalist of ‘El Mundo’ not to publish her interview, until she gave them the final OK; unfortunately, the agreement was not honored,” her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said on Monday.

Flying in on a Pegasus (committee)

The allegations — Kaili’s first major push to spin her arrest — prompted plenty of incredulity, including from those who worked with her on the Pegasus, or PEGA, committee. It especially befuddled those who recalled that Kaili had faced accusations of undermining the committee’s work. 

“I have absolutely no reason to believe the Belgian intelligence services spied on PEGA,” said Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld, who helped prepare the committee’s final report. “Everything we do is public anyway. And we have our phones checked regularly, it makes absolutely no sense.”

Kaili’s decision to invoke her PEGA Committee work is intriguing as it taps into a controversial period of her career. 

While the panel was deep into its work in 2022, Greece was weathering its own persistent espionage scandal, which erupted after the government acknowledged it had wiretapped the leader of Kaili’s own party, Pasok. 

Yet Kaili perplexed many when she started publicly arguing in response that surveillance was common and happens across Europe, echoing the talking points of the ruling conservative government instead of her own socialist party. She also encouraged the PEGA panel not to visit Greece as part of its investigation.

The arrest warrant for MEP Andrea Cozzolino also mentions the alleged influence ringleader, former Parliament member Pier Antonio Panzeri, discussed getting Kaili on the PEGA Committee to help advance Moroccan interests (Morocco has been accused of illegally using the spyware).

A war of words?

Kaili’s media tour raises questions about how the Qatargate probe will unfold in the coming months. 

Eventually, Kaili and the other suspects will likely face trial, where authorities will have a chance to present their evidence. But until then, the suspects will have a chance to shape and push their preferred narrative — depending on what limits the court places on their public statements.

In recent weeks, Kaili has moved from jail to house arrest to an increasingly unrestricted life, allowing her more chances to opine on the case. Her lawyers also claim she will soon be back at work at the Parliament, although she is banned from leaving Belgium for Parliament’s sessions in Strasbourg.

Pieter Haeck, Eddy Wax, Antoaneta Roussi and Barbara Moens contributed reporting.



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Moldova ramps up EU membership push amid fears of Russia-backed coup

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CHIȘINĂU, Moldova — Tens of thousands of Moldovans descended on the central square of the capital on Sunday, waving flags and homemade placards in support of the country’s push to join the EU and make a historic break with Moscow.

With Russia’s war raging just across the border in Ukraine, the government of this tiny Eastern European nation called the rally in an effort to overcome internal divisions and put pressure on Brussels to begin accession talks, almost a year after Moldova was granted EU candidate status.

“Joining the EU is the best way to protect our democracy and our institutions,” Moldova’s President Maia Sandu told POLITICO at Chișinău’s presidential palace, as a column of her supporters marched past outside. “I call on the EU to take a decision on beginning accession negotiations by the end of the year. We think we have enough support to move forward.”

Speaking alongside Sandu at what was billed as a “national assembly,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola declared that “Europe is Moldova. Moldova is Europe!” The crowd, many holding Ukrainian flags and the gold-and-blue starred banner of the EU, let out a cheer. An orchestra on stage played the bloc’s anthem, Ode to Joy.

“In recent years, you have taken decisive steps and now you have the responsibility to see it through, even with this war on your border,” Metsola said. “The Republic of Moldova is ready for integration into the single European market.”

However, the jubilant rally comes amid warnings that Moscow is doing everything it can to keep the former Soviet republic within its self-declared sphere of influence.

In February, the president of neighboring Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned that his country’s security forces had disrupted a plot to overthrow Moldova’s pro-Western government. Officials in Chișinău later said the Russian-backed effort could have involved sabotage, attacks on government buildings and hostage-taking. Moscow officially denies the claims.

“Despite previous efforts to stay neutral, Moldova is finding itself in the Kremlin’s crosshairs — whether they want to be or not, they’re party of this broader conflict in Ukraine,” said Arnold Dupuy, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.

“There’s an effort by the Kremlin to turn the country into a ‘southern Kaliningrad,’ putting in place a friendly regime that allows them to attack the Ukrainians’ flanks,” Dupuy said. “But this hasn’t been as effective as the Kremlin hoped and they’ve actually strengthened the government’s hand to look to the EU and NATO for protection.”

Responding to the alleged coup attempt, Brussels last month announced it would deploy a civilian mission to Moldova to combat growing threats from Russia. According to Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, the deployment under the terms of the Common Security and Defense Policy, will provide “support to Moldova [to] protect its security, territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Bumps on the road to Brussels

Last week, Sandu again called on Brussels to begin accession talks “as soon as possible” in order to protect Moldova from what she said were growing threats from Russia. “Nothing compares to what is happening in Ukraine, but we see the risks and we do believe that we can save our democracy only as part of the EU,” she said. A group of influential MEPs from across all of the main parties in the European Parliament have tabled a motion calling for the European Commission to start the negotiations by the end of the year.

But, after decades as one of Russia’s closest allies, Moldova knows its path to EU membership isn’t without obstacles.

“The challenge is huge,” said Tom de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. “They will need to overcome this oligarchic culture that has operated for 30 years where everything is informal, institutions are very weak and large parts of the bureaucracy are made viable by vested interests.”

At the same time, a frozen conflict over the breakaway region of Transnistria, in the east of Moldova, could complicate matters still further. The stretch of land along the border with Ukraine, home to almost half a million people, has been governed since the fall of the Soviet Union by pro-Moscow separatists, and around 1,500 Russian troops are stationed there despite Chișinău demanding they leave. It’s also home to one of the Continent’s largest weapons stockpiles, with a reported 20,000 tons of Soviet-era ammunition.

“Moldova cannot become a member of the EU with Russian troops on its territory against the will of the Republic of Moldova itself, so we will need to solve this before membership,” Romanian MEP Siegfried Mureșan, chair of the European Parliament’s delegation to the country, told POLITICO.

“We do not know now what a solution could look like, but the fact that we do not have an answer to this very specific element should not prevent us from advancing Moldova’s European integration in all other areas where we can,” Mureșan said.

While she denied that Brussels had sent any official signals that Moldova’s accession would depend on Russian troops leaving the country, Sandu said that “we do believe that in the next months and years there may be a geopolitical opportunity to resolve this conflict.”

Ties that bind

Even outside of Transnistria, Moscow maintains significant influence in Moldova. While Romanian is the country’s official language, Russian is widely used in daily life while the Kremlin’s state media helps shape public opinion — and in recent months has turned up the dial on its attacks on Sandu’s government.

A study by Chișinău-based pollster CBS Research in February found that while almost 54 percent of Moldovans say they would vote in favor of EU membership, close to a quarter say they would prefer closer alignment with Russia. Meanwhile, citizens were split on who to blame for the war in Ukraine, with 25 percent naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and 18 percent saying the U.S.

“Putin is not a fool,” said one elderly man who declined to give his name, shouting at passersby on the streets of the capital. “I hate Ukrainians.”

Outside of the capital, the pro-Russian ȘOR Party has held counter-protests in several regional cities.

Almost entirely dependent on Moscow for its energy needs, Moldova has seen Russia send the cost of gas skyrocketing in what many see as an attempt at blackmail. Along with an influx of Ukrainian refugees, the World Bank reported that Moldova’s GDP “contracted by 5.9 percent and inflation reached an average of 28.7 percent in 2022.”

“We will buy energy sources from democratic countries, and we will not support Russian aggression in exchange for cheap gas,” Sandu told POLITICO.

The Moldovan president, a former World Bank economist who was elected in 2020 on a wave of anti-corruption sentiment, faces a potentially contentious election battle next year. With the process of EU membership set to take years, or even decades, it remains to be seen whether the country will stay the course in the face of pressure from the Kremlin.

For Aurelia, a 40-year-old Moldovan who tied blue and yellow ribbons into her hair for Sunday’s rally, the choice is obvious. “We’ve been a part of the Russian world my whole life. Now we want to live well, and we want to live free.”



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Putting health back in health care

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Advances in medical science and technology are rapidly changing and as we saw with the pandemic, diagnostic tests play a pivotal role in health care decision making. They inform treatment decisions, save costs and, most importantly, deliver better outcomes for patients. Unfortunately, these life-changing innovations are all too often not available to many of the people who need them most. Currently, 47 percent of the global population and 81 percent of people in low and lower-middle income countries have little or no access to life-saving diagnostics.

If you’re following the policy trend at large — or even if you’re not — this is where we inevitably turn to discussions of the role of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the pursuit of better access to screening and diagnosis. Population health is not only in the best interest of individual countries, but as evidenced by a global pandemic, it is important to global health as well. UHC — ensuring people can access the health care they need, when they need it, without financial hardship — is foundational to improving world health care.  

Currently, 47 percent of the global population and 81 percent of people in low and lower-middle income countries have little or no access to life-saving diagnostics.

So, where do we start? With better access to diagnostics.

After the world faced a global pandemic and pulled together, we all learned vital lessons which must not be forgotten. First and foremost, we saw that by working together and sharing information early, we could develop diagnostics and vaccines faster. This learning must extend beyond times of crisis.

We also saw that health systems with well-developed diagnostics infrastructure were more effective at containing and controlling the pandemic. And they were better able to continue providing essential diagnostic tests and treatment monitoring for patients with other diseases such as cancer.        

Normally, it would take years to bring a new test to market. Here — through focus and collaboration — we managed to do so in months.

As the world responded to urgent calls for better access to COVID-19 tests, hopes were also expressed that this would spark innovation leading to widespread testing, vaccines and treatments, which ultimately would reduce the spread of the pandemic.

After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a public health concern, the urgency galvanized companies to work at full speed. The first Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests for SARS-CoV-2 were available for limited laboratory use within eight days. Only 64 days later PCR tests were authorized for use and available for scaled-up testing in major health centers.[1]

Normally, it would take years to bring a new test to market. Here — through focus and collaboration — we managed to do so in months.

As reported by the Lancet Commission, investing in diagnostic capabilities has been shown to lead to fewer misdiagnoses, better use of resources, and better patient care.

Driven by necessity, countries invested in diagnostics capabilities to fight the virus and, as reported by The Lancet, real change was seen at a pace that would previously have seemed impossible.

Why stop there? 

Ann Costello, Global Head of Roche Diagnostics Solutions | via Roche

The recommended WHO Resolution on strengthening diagnostics capacity represents an important step toward recognizing access to diagnostics as a policy priority as well as establishing concrete policy measures, to ensure equitable and timely access. It would pave the way for a considerable shift in strengthening our health care systems, driving progress toward global health equity and global health security.

As reported by the Lancet Commission[2], investing in diagnostic capabilities has been shown to lead to fewer misdiagnoses, better use of resources, and better patient care.

Early diagnosis is the cornerstone of sustainable, efficient and resilient health care systems. This in turn would reduce late-stage health care expenditures, including long-term costs of chronic disease management and disability, and better manage costs for patients, payors and governments. 

Increasing access to diagnostics is crucial to controlling and potentially even eradicating certain diseases like cervical cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis and malaria.

Laboratories are an essential component of a sustainable, efficient and resilient health system. But only if there’s enough of them and trained staff to run them. 

The crux of the matter is that staff shortages in both high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries continue to create a barrier to diagnostic services. 

How short-staffed are we? Well, to put a number on it, an estimated shortage in diagnostic workforce capacity saw a need for an additional 480,000-576,000 staff to support diagnostic testing.[2] And who loses when we don’t have enough skilled laboratory professionals? Patients.

Investment in diagnostics such as improving laboratory infrastructure and workforce development must also be supported by smart local regulatory approaches. This will ensure that patients, regardless of where they live, have timely access to innovation and safe, effective diagnostics.

Health care could enter a new golden age, shifting our focus from primarily treating disease to preserving health through prevention and by helping people live longer, more healthy lives.

This can be through adherence to international best practices, such as those created by International Medical Device Regulators Forum and implementation of regulatory reliance models — where one regulatory body (or the WHO) relies on the decisions, such as marketing authorizations, inspections and product changes, already made by trusted authorities and recognized institutions.

Governments should prioritize expansion of professionals with expertise in pathology and laboratory medicine[3] and introduce laboratory personnel as a key component of workforce initiatives to address the needs of currently over-burdened health care systems. 

A new golden age for health care?

Roche is building partnerships to increase access to diagnostic solutions in low- and middle-income countries and to strengthen targeted laboratory systems through workforce training classes. In May 2022, Roche entered a partnership with the Global Fund to support low- and middle-income countries in strengthening critical diagnostics infrastructure. The aim is building local capacity to tackle infrastructure challenges to improve diagnostic results and manage health care waste. This is in line with Roche’s ambition to double patient access to innovative, high-medical-value diagnostics for people around the world.

Health care could enter a new golden age, shifting our focus from primarily treating disease to preserving health through prevention and by helping people live longer, more healthy lives.

To achieve the golden age we need to learn from the past. All public and private stakeholders have a duty to work together to ensure diagnostics continue to improve health outcomes around the world by bringing this important resolution to life. 

Where a person lives should no longer be the key determining factor in their health. We have a tremendous opportunity here, let’s take it. 

[1] Accelerating diagnostic tests to prevent a future pandemic. Bill Rodriguez. Cepi. Available at: https://100days.cepi.net/100-days-mission-diagnostic-test-future-pandemic/ (Accessed 04.04.2023)

[2] The Lancet Commission on diagnostics: transforming access to diagnostics. Fleming, Kenneth A et al.The Lancet, Volume 398, Issue 10315, 1997 – 2050. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(21)00673-5.pdf

[3] https://www.ihe.net/ihe_domains/ihe_pathology_and_laboratory_medicine/ (Accessed: 04.04.2023)



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