The European Commission finalized a draft of a banking data-sharing agreement with the U.S. today. The draft will now be presented to the European Parliament and the heads of state meeting for final approval before taking effect. A similar deal was torpedoed by the EU parliament in February due to concerns over privacy infringements. In a nod to parliamentarians’ concerns, the new agreement includes conditions to limit shared data to information related to ongoing terrorist investigations and to forbid data mining. This is the first significant example of the EU parliament’s expanded powers under the Lisbon Treaty. I remain convinced [...]
Earlier this month, Peruvian and Chilean leaders agreed to consider resuming confidence-building measures in order to rein in mutual defense purchases. In an e-mail interview, Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, discusses Peru-Chile relations. WPR: What is the current status of bilateral relations between Peru and Chile? Farnsworth: Both countries have a lot to gain by working together and serving as models for others in the region. Strong democratic governance, growing economies, free trade agreements with the United States and a growing relationship with Asia-Pacific nations has positioned both Peru and Chile to play an important [...]
Freedom House’s annual review of the world’s most-repressive societies is a fixture among human rights advocates as a gauge of where the most work needs to be done. This year’s list features a set of countries that also represents major engagement challenges. Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan all ranked as the world’s most-restrictive countries on political and civil liberties in Freedom House’s report (.pdf), “The Worst of the Worst of 2010: The World’s Most Repressive Societies.” Belarus, Chad, China, Cuba, Guinea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, and Syria fared only slightly better. “In this report, [...]
