France and Spain object to plan for EU transit camp
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France and Spain called for a rethink yesterday on radical German-Italian plans to set up a European Union transit camp in north Africa for refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
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Europe's newspapers analyse the furore over an outspoken EU commissioner and Spain's apparent transatlantic snub
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Germany and France backed away from their call to set a firm deadline for Turkey over its troubled EU candidacy as they warned Syria not to destabilise Lebanon.
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SCHEVENINGEN, Netherlands European Union leaders clashed Friday over a plan to set up camps in North Africa to process immigrants and asylum seekers to help stop the flow of illegal migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.
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Britain has told European Union energy ministers that it opposes European Commission plans to set binding targets on renewable energy generation, a newspaper has reported.
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France and Germany spoke out Wednesday against a US proposal to put NATO in charge of the military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, but US and other officials
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European Union officials Monday rejected a French proposal to cut funding to poor nations in Eastern Europe with low tax rates that tempt investment away from their richer western neighbors.
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European Union foreign ministers failed to agree on Monday whether to set binding targets for the use of green renewable energy sources, setting up a potential clash when the bloc's leaders meet this week.Comment
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France has urged Belarus not to limit the freedom of Belarussian children to travel abroad, Interfax-West news agency said Friday.
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MADRID (International Herald Tribune) - The Spanish government on Tuesday dismissed a proposal by the head of the Basque regional government to let Basques vote on whether to continue being part of Spain. The plan presented to Prime Minister JosÃ© Luis RodrÃ­guez Zapatero by Juan JosÃ© Ibarretxe, head of the Basque government, revived debate about the status of the Basque region amid a crackdown by the authorities on the separatist movement's radicals as well as questions of nationhood threatening to dominate general elections in March.  Zapatero rejected the proposed referendum as unconstitutional and said it was a rehash of a similar plan, floated by Ibarretxe in 2005, that was rejected by Parliament. That plan called for Basques to vote on becoming a "free associated state" within Spain and for separate representation before bodies like the European Union. Ibarretxe, a leading member of the Basque Nationalist Party, which governs the region as part of a coalition, denied that a referendum would be illegal and vowed to press ahead with it in October 2008. He said it would be the first step in a "Basque-style Downing Street process," referring to the 1993 declaration by the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom that paved the way for peace in the British province of Northern Ireland.
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France and Belgium, two of the most vocal critics of the US war in Iraq, would not agree Friday to a planned expansion of NATO&#39;s military training mission in Iraq, but
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European Union officials Monday rejected a French proposal to cut funding to poor countries in eastern Europe with low tax rates that tempt investment away from their richer western neighbours.
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Spain and Cuba said on Thursday they had  held talks on human rights, an issue that led to a diplomatic  freeze with the European Union, but did not say whether they  discussed 59 dissidents held in prison in Cuba.
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FLORENCE: Interior ministers from France and Spain on Monday shot down a German proposal to set up transit camps in North Africa to process asylum seekers before they reach Europe.
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France and Belgium, two of the most vocal critics of the U.S. war in Iraq, would not agree Friday to a planned expansion of NATO's military training mission in Iraq, but officials were confident a deal could be reached within days.
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The EU's executive arm warned that Europe would go ahead and build a revolutionary nuclear fusion project in France without Japan if an agreement with Tokyo is not reached &quot;as soon as possible.&quot;
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Poland is blocking a move by all other EU countries to inaugurate a continent-wide day of protest against the death penalty, with the conservative and staunchly Roman Catholic government in Warsaw arguing for parallel European condemnation of abortion and euthanasia.