This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the European Commission concluded the final contracts under the operational €6 billion budget of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. The signature of the final eight contracts worth €780 million covers support for basic needs, health care, protection, municipal infrastructure as well as […]EU signs final contracts under the €6 billion budget of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey
December 18, 2020 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Today, the European Commission concluded the final contracts under the operational €6 billion budget of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey. The signature of the final eight contracts worth €780 million covers support for basic needs, health care, protection, municipal infrastructure as well as […]Greek-Turkish border: MEPs reject Turkey’s pressure, demand common asylum rules
March 11, 2020 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. The EU must help Greece manage its border with Turkey, while ensuring the right to asylum for those who need it, several MEPs said on Tuesday. In a debate with Commissioner Johansson and the Croatian Presidency of the Council, a majority of speakers criticised […]EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey: €6 billion to support refugees and local communities in need fully mobilised
December 10, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. The European Union has fully mobilised the €6 billion operational budget of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, in line with its commitment to the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement. Out of the total Facility budget of €6 billion, €4.3 billion has now been […]EU-Turkey relations: Erdogan plays the refugee card while beefing up gas operations in the Eastern Mediterranean sea
September 11, 2019 by 2 Comments
EU accession talks with Turkey have been suspended as Turkey is showing poor results in upholding human rights, the rule of law, media freedom and the fight against corruption. Turkey is attempting though to change this situation and enhance its relations with the EU discussing current matters with the EU officials and especially with Germany […]Turkey remains numb while its economy is expected to shrink further due to a cocktail of EU and US sanctions
July 17, 2019 by Leave a Comment
The EU Council decided to impose sanctions on Turkey for continuing its illegal drilling operations in the Cypriot territorial waters violating the EU member’s sovereignty rights. The Turkish side however keeps claiming the natural sources in the area and insists on the myth that they have equal rights with the Republic of Cyprus. The under […]EU-Turkey relations: EU considers imposing sanctions while Turkey keeps violating Cyprus’ sovereignty
July 10, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Turkey continues violating the sovereignty rights of Cyprus by conducting a new illegal drilling operation on the northeast of the island. The EU had already urged Turkey last month to stop its gas drilling in waters around Cyprus. Thus the EU bloc will now have to intervene to resolve such disputes. However, Turkey kept on […]Reforms in the Western Balkans and Turkey: annual assessments and recommendations
May 30, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission. Confirming that a credible enlargement policy is a geostrategic investment in peace, stability, security and economic growth in the whole of Europe, the Commission today adopted its annual assessment of the implementation of reforms in the Western Balkan partners and Turkey, together with recommendations on the next […]Turkey’s foreign bribery enforcement framework needs to be urgently strengthened and corporate liability legislation reformed
March 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. In view of Turkey’s continued failure to implement key aspects of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and to enforce its foreign bribery laws, the Working Group on Bribery will send a high-level mission to Ankara in 2020, unless Turkey takes concrete action by October 2019. This decision […]Turkey needs to step up investment in renewables to curb emissions
February 19, 2019 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with OECD. Turkey will see its greenhouse gas emissions continue their steady rise of recent years without concrete actions to improve energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy sources, according to a new OECD report. The OECD’s third Environmental Performance Review of Turkey notes that the […]The horrific trend of the anti-vaccine movement in Turkey
December 12, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Ms. Erva Nur Çınar, a 5th year medical student and human rights activist, currently studying at Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty. She is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer […]Erdogan vies to become Middle East Sultan over Khashoggi’s killing
November 5, 2018 by Leave a Comment
It’s plain by now that the Turkish ‘Sultan’, President Tayyip Erdogan vies to directly implicate Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or MbS, the actual ruler of his country in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The victim was for decades a very high placed systemic journalist in Riyadh, loyally serving the […]The Europeans back Russia-Turkey on Syria: A ‘Waterloo’ for Saudis and their Crown Prince
October 29, 2018 by Leave a Comment
France and Germany have put their weight behind the Russia–Turkey agreement for a lasting ceasefire in Syria. The four leaders also said they agreed to put together a committee to draft a constitution for the political rehabilitation of the devastated country. Last Saturday, the French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Russian […]The Khashoggi affair: A global complot staged behind closed doors
October 25, 2018 by Leave a Comment
For two weeks now practically all Western governments and media are at rooftops for the barbaric murder of Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul. Very few people outside the oil Kingdom and the circles of Middle East ‘experts’ knew about the man, before he was massacred by his compatriots. […]No improvement in respect for EU values: MEPs cut support for Turkey by €70m
September 26, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. Budget Committee MEPs on Tuesday agreed to cancel €70 million in pre-accession funds earmarked for Turkey, as conditions to improve the rule of law were not met. Last November, during the budgetary negotiations, Parliament and Council decided to place in reserve €70 million in […]Draghi to lay his print on long term ECB policies prior to exiting next year
September 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Mario Draghi, the President of the European Central Bank, was criticized by major global financial media for insisting to end the easy money policy this December. The argument is that, after ECB’s Governing Council decided at the end of the prosperous 2017 to end its extraordinary monetary policy, the world has become a riskier place. […]What do the economic woes of Turkey, Argentina and Indonesia have in common?
September 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Michael Hanley, Head of Digital Communications, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum Since Turkey suffered an economic crisis of confidence in September – with its currency falling by some 40% that month – emerging markets around […]The Bavarians threaten Berlin and Brussels with immigration crisis
June 21, 2018 by 2 Comments
In an unprecedented move, the German Interior Minister is betraying his boss – Chancellor Angela Merkel – and is forming an anti-refugee alliance with the extreme right-wing Austrian government and the precarious new Italian populist administration. The impossible German Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Bavarian CSU party and junior partner in the […]The West cannot ignore Russia; dazed Germany sitting on the fence
April 19, 2018 by Leave a Comment
After the missile attacks by the Western trio of US, Britain and France against Damascus and other positions in war torn Syria, the Russian overlords and Assad regime in that part of the world, continues pursuing their agenda, as if nothing happened. From a certain angle truly nothing has changed regarding the military and political […]The missiles fired against Damascus, Syria divided Europe deeply
April 16, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last Friday night till the early hours of Saturday morning the US-France-Britain alliance attacked the Assad/Putin regime of Damascus, with a precipitation of missiles. Seemingly though, the hits have had a greater political impact on Europe than in Syria itself. Germany and Italy, the other two major European Union countries with strong interests in the […]EU to Turkey: No other ties than €3+3bn to upkeep refugees
March 29, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The EU-Turkey Summit in the Black Sea city of Varna last Monday was a chance for the Brussels dignitaries to throw a long list of severe European grievances in the face of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the Commission and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council , went to the […]Russia – US in Syria: Selling Afrin to Turkey but facing off ruthlessly for Ghouta
March 15, 2018 by Leave a Comment
How many more dead and wounded human beings are needed to convince Russia and the US that they must come to terms about the future of Syria? At a time when the mainstream western media are extensively and exclusively reporting the woes of the desperate inhabitants of Ghouta, at another Syrian front in Afrin, the […]The refugee crisis seen through the eyes of a young doctor from Turkey
February 2, 2018 by 1 Comment
This article was exclusively written for the Sting by Ms Idil Kina, a 2nd year medical student from Turkey. Ms Kina is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA). The opinion expressed in this piece belongs to the writer and does not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one. When […]Trump reshapes the Middle East at the expenses of Europe
January 25, 2018 by 3 Comments
Trump’s completely unwarranted aggressiveness towards the rest of the world took a violent thrust this week. His vice President Mike Pence speaking at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, announced a speed-up of the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The move is now to be completed before the end of next […]Erdogan’s Turkey in dire straits for flip flop policies in the Middle East
January 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last week a US federal court convicted Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive of Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank. This is a major financial institution of this country, controlled directly by the government. Attila found guilty on five accounts, for evading the American sanctions imposed on Iran. Most of those punitive measures were lifted in April 2015, in […]Chauvinism and xenophobia will lead to global assertiveness and more wars
October 19, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The immigration crisis of 2015 in Europe exposed the hollowness of the political system of the new millennium in the Old Continent, anguishing to cover the huge social cavities the economic neo-liberalism has created. Unfortunately, economic neo-liberalism didn’t lead to political liberalism, but instead to chauvinism, xenophobia and the insurgence of the extreme right wing […]EU-Turkey relations: Will Turkey manage to revive the EU accession process talks?
October 18, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The EU leaders meet tomorrow in Brussels in a two-day summit where the relations with Turkey and particularly the accession procedure is going to be one of the main topics. The European Commission has been supporting the freezing of the EU membership talks as Jean Claude Juncker condemned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on political […]State of the Union 2017: Juncker’s optimism about EU growth and Brexit’s impact
September 21, 2017 by Leave a Comment
It was last Wednesday when the president of the European Commission made his annual State speech address to the European Parliament pointing out the top priorities for the next year. Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his optimism for the boosting of the EU economy, trade, investment, cybersecurity, industry and democracy. The president of the EC respected the […]Trump ‘used’ G20 to side with Putin and split climate and trade packs
July 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment
While protesters were dynamically trying to reach the part of Hamburg where the G20 leaders of the largest economies of the world were gathered, the most powerful politicians of the globe were reduced to the status of viewers, in the Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spectacle of rapprochement. Trump also ‘used’ the G20 to tell […]Europe to turn the Hamburg G20 Summit into a battlefield
July 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
This week’s G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany is expected to become a battlefield from the very first gathering. Chancellor Angela Merkel is to attack the US President Donald Trump, about his rejection of the Paris Climate Agreement. The American will reply with a demand for ‘free and fair trade’ as he ventures it, especially for […]EU attempts to make new deal with Turkey as relations deteriorate
April 26, 2017 by Leave a Comment
The EU foreign ministers gather in Malta on Friday to discuss about the future relations with Turkey a few days after Erdogan’s narrow and controversial victory in the Turkish referendum. It seems that the EU officials and leaders start fearing that the Turkish president will materialise his threats about abandoning the EU-Turkey refugee deal in […]The US + Britain trivialize mainland Europe, NATO and the EU
March 23, 2017 by Leave a Comment
After the insults the German Chancellor Angela Merkel experienced in Washington last week, the Anglo-American duo last Tuesday orchestrated new assaults on mainland Europe. It’s not only the outrageous option of the no-deal Brexit, which gains momentum in London, possibly being encouraged by Washington. It’s also a fact that Britain and the US escalate their […]Will Turkey abandon the refugee deal and risk losing a bonanza of money?
March 22, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Last week Turkey threatened Europe to reinstate capital punishment and to drop the EU-Turkey pact which was signed one year ago. The desperate need of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to gain more power has forced Turkish officials to release accusations to Europe and especially to the Netherlands, Germany and Brussels in view of the […]Refugee crisis update: EU fails to relocate immigrants from Greece and Italy
March 8, 2017 by 1 Comment
The European Commission announced last Thursday new measures for an efficient EU return policy together with the progress made and must be done by the EU member states on the EU’s relocation and resettlement schemes by September and beyond. The slow relocation pace of refugees transferred from Greece and Italy to the rest European countries […]
