Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that Western sanctions must remain in place against Russia until it complies with a ceasefire deal with Ukraine.
“The two leaders discussed the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and agreed that the duration of sanctions should be clearly linked to Russia’s full implementation of the Minsk agreements and respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty,” the White House said in a statement released on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Germany.
Obama and Merkel held private talks ahead of the summit and the US president earlier urged his fellow G7 leaders to stand up together against “Russian aggression in Ukraine”.
Peace talks on Ukraine resumed in Minsk on May 6 as clashes have intensified on the ground in a conflict that has killed more than 6,400 people since April 2014.
The negotiations are aimed at enforcing the implementation of a peace deal reached in Minsk in February, leading to an extremely fragile ceasefire that is regularly breached across the eastern conflict zone.
The Minsk deal, agreed under pressure from the leaders of Germany and France, states that all conditions – including a complete ceasefire, the pullback of all heavy weapons and the restoration of Ukraine’s border with Russia to Ukrainian control – should be fulfilled by the end of 2015.
The United States, the EU and Germany all expressed alarm over the renewed violence in eastern Ukraine, with Washington warning Russia it would face new punishment if the crisis escalates.
Diplomats told AFP on Friday that EU leaders meeting in Brussels this month were set to extend sanctions on Russia over its involvement in the fighting in Ukraine until the end of 2015.
The sanctions, which target economic sectors such as Russia’s banks and oil industry, were imposed after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
The White House said Obama and Merkel also discussed the proposed TTIP transatlantic trade deal “to promote growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic” as well as “the importance of working together to promote a successful climate agreement this year”.
Global leaders will gather at a year-end United Nations summit in Paris in a bid to forge a new treaty aimed at fighting global warming.
Merkel has said she hopes the G7 summit, running until Monday, will lend momentum to the drive for a Paris accord.
Greece
The other major issue facing the summit is Greece and its creditors , amid fears the debt-wracked country could crash out of the euro and rock the world economy.
Merkel, a champion of tough eurozone reform and austerity, will host the other leaders of the Group of Seven industrialised democracies – the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan.
Also at the two-day power meet will be Greece’s international creditors – the EU, ECB and IMF – who have wrangled for weeks to hammer out a reform plan that would unlock a final €7.2 billion in bailout funds Athens desperately needs.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and EU President Donald Tusk are among the guests due to speak today, with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde joining them on Monday.
In a sign of growing tensions ahead of a key deadline at the end of June, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has dismissed creditors’ demands as “absurd”.
Juncker yesterday snubbed a phone call from the radical leftist leader, with an EU official reportedly saying there was “nothing to discuss”, although Tsipras, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande later spoke by phone.
The three leaders “took stock of the situation to help move forward the negotiations between Greece and the three (creditor) institutions,” a French source said.
Athens last week withheld a 300-million-euro loan repayment to the IMF, opting instead to group four scheduled tranches into a single payment at the end of the month.
Tsipras on Friday argued that a “cynical” policy of economic asphyxiation and harsh austerity being applied to Greece would ultimately impact other European states in economic difficulty.
There is very little justification for entering into these public-private partnerships where the private company end up recouping their initial investment many times over within just a few years. They represent a poor deal for the State in terms of lost revenue. Surely borrowing the money would be more cost-effective?
@Sean: no brown envelopes that way
@Sean: Have a look at who’s invested in those private companies, that’s the reason right there. We’re being scammed.
@Sean: and have you evidence that they are recouping their investment ‘many times over’? The truth might surprise you.
@Aileen Lawlor: I’m not the one who made the claim. Let them produce the evidence.
All tolls charges should be scraped, we pay enough Taxes.
@Jimmy Pea: yes, let’s scrape those taxes.
Surely the revenue from the already paid for East link will cover a percentage of the proposed hike.
@The Bolt: Its been paid for many, many times over by now. That hike would be nice to get a ministers kids some PS5′s.
Every single penny of profit from tolls going into accounts setup and based in The Isle of Man as there would be absolute uproar if everyone was able to see the huge profits being made!
A classic case of the government upping prices with a flimsy excuse and without a backup plan for the public, forcing them to pay.
Clondalkin to Blanchardstown will take you 15-20 minutes by car on the M50, but well over an hour if you take public transport merely because there’s no direct route. Between 2 of the largest areas outside the M50 and 10k away from each other.
The toll bridges have been paid for many times over, and maintaining the roads isn’t going to be an arduous task with the heap of money currently being raked in.
“May”?? How about tell Eamonn Ryan to sort it out.
@Will Roche: he’d turn it into a bicycle lane
@Will Roche: Eamon told TII to do it
@Jonny Spuds: you’d be quicker getting from Bray to the Airport on the M50 on your bicycle most days…
There is no realistic and economic reason for an increase. Costs have not risen, there is no competition and they are already making huge profits. In fact the opposite should be the case, they should be handing money back to the government coffers
@BadBob: The contracts these PPP have is if the tolls don’t get a set amount of vehicles, passing through the government pay the PPP companies the difference.
But if the companies make a profit, the government doesn’t get a bean.
@BadBob: Are you living in the same country where prices are rising. I presume you mean none of the workers are getting paid any more since the last toll increase and on your planet, there is no construction/road maintenance inflation. I want to live where your fuel costs to move all this man and material does not exist. What world has competition for toll gate revenue- we already have different toll road operators. Maybe your world has no extra traffic congestion, car use and naturally road maintenance overheads. The cash for the eastlink already goes to DCC. The westlink funds pay the not insignificant ripoff price paid to take it public.
They don’t want to give with one hand and take with the other yet that’s what they have been doing for years so why stop now!
Why don’t the government call for fuel price reduction. Diesel in many areas €1.99 ltr yet I happened to get diesel at €1.80 ltr. Cost reduction not getting passed on and gouging by large forecourt operators going on
The result of the out-source-everything ideology of current parties in power. As with all other utilities, we are expected to pay for the cost of supply plus a hefty profit for one or other of the in crowd. When is the GE?
Only justification for M50 charge would be if they where actually building a secound level for more cars and a light rail system.
Can somebody in RTE please find the LLS interview in which Gay Byrne specifically asked (the week of the East Link Toll launch) how long we’d be paying. He was told that as soon as the cost of the bridge was paid (estimates suggested no more than ten years), the toll payment would be scrapped. That was a hell of a lot longer than ten years ago.
@Ernie Gallagher: Dublin City Council said they need the money so voted to retain the toll
Ye right.
Everyone who uses the road should pay, not just at a point you cross. If it goes to upgrading / maintaining the roads then put a 20c toll and relevant increase per vehicle, so at every bridge and capture all users, with a cap at the current price.
Ridiculous you only pay to use at a point. Get off before and drive around.
Can’t believe this government just keep hiking up prices and try to put a good face on it saying it’s. Ot the right time, like they are doing something positive by not letting hike happen just now.
Idiots.
@Rafa Condron: What the f. We have already paid for these roads and bridges you talk about. We are paying for their upkeep with every wage packet. This is about tolls from private companies making massive profits already and trying to make more…. Bull when they say it’s for increased upgrades, etc. That’s only a percentage of the money they make
@Rafa Condron: It’d cost you more to drive around.
We are all part of the rich man’s game of chess!! And we ain’t winning!
They’ll “call for them to be scrapped” and then they’ll say they tried when nobody listens
We are all part of the rich man’s chess game! And we ain’t winning!
have your say