On 17, December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a Ukraine-initiated resolution entitled "Problem of the Militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol, Ukraine, as well as Parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The resolution was previously introduced by a group of 40 states headed by Ukraine.

A total of 66 states supported the document, 19 voted against it, and 72 abstained.

1. Population of Peninsula: 2,356,000 (early 2019)
2. Ethnic Groups in Crimea: Russians (68.3%), Ukrainians (15.8%), Crimean Tatars (10.6%), Belarussians (2%), Armenians (2.1%)
3. The Crimean people are banned from travelling to EU countries. Greeks, Bulgarians, Germans, Italians, Estonians who have relatives abroad cannot visit them. The fundamental principles of free movement have been breached, kinship and family ties have been disrupted, which is in direct violation of the 1975 Helsinki accords.
4. Crimean ports and airports have been outlawed

Position

The group will be called the European Alliance for People and Nations (EAPN) and will  draw its members from ENF, EFDD, and ECR to involve at least 10 parties from as many nations.

Source: Vladimir Frolov, The Moscow Times

Original Text has been edited

“Crimea, of course, is the occupied territory of Ukraine. As it is known and recognized throughout the civilized world, this occupation was completely illegal and violent. The so-called ‘referendum’ cannot be considered an act testifying to the free will of the inhabitants of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea because it was held at gun points of Russian troops and without the participation of a significant number of Crimean Tatar, Ukrainian, even Russian and other ethnic origins.

European Union Member States gave the Commission the green light to start formal negotiations with the U.S. on two agreements, one on conformity assessment, and the other on eliminating tariffs on industrial products.

The directives for the negotiations cover two potential agreements with the U.S.:

In parenthesis percentage consumption of total Russian exports.

1. Netherlands: $43.5 billion (9.7%)
2. Germany: $34.1 billion (7.6%)
3. Poland: $16.5 billion (3.7%)
4. Italy: $16.4 billion (3.7%)
5. Finland: $11.4 billion (2.5%)
6. United Kingdom: $9.8 billion (2.2%)
7. Belgium: $9.2 billion (2%)

Increasing their import purchases from Russia at the fastest pace from 2017 to 2018 were: Germany (up by 120.1%), United Kingdom (up by 73%), Italy (up by 67.3%), and Poland (up by 56.5%).

1. Non à la Turquie dans l’UE.
2. Rétablir des relations équilibrées avec la Russie comme avec les Etats-Unis.
3. Protéger ensemble les frontières extérieures de l’Europe.
4. Rétablir le contrôle aux frontières nationales.
5. Avoir une politique migratoire ferme, refonte du système d’asile, arrêt de l’immigration légale, expulsion des clandestins, priorité nationale pour les aides.
6. Expulser les islamistes étrangers, fermer les mosquées radicales.
7. Abroger la directive sur le travail détaché.

The shadow economy includes the production of goods and services "hidden" intentionally for any of the following reasons:

a) to avoid paying income tax, value added tax and other taxes;

b) to avoid paying contributions to the health system, the social security system etc;

c) to avoid compliance with certain legal labour market standards, such as the mandatory minimum wage per economy, the maximum number of working hours, labour security standards;