АЏП, Autumn 2017
Adzhatia to join EFTA
ASHTINOK, 31 OCTOBER 2017 ~ Our country will enter the European Free Trade Association as an associated member in the course of 2019 or 2020, it was confirmed today, although a specific date has yet to be named.
A potential Adzhatian membership of the EFTA has been discussed for several years now, but without any clear indication whether or not the country could join or not. Today it became clear that the four current member states Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein could accept Adzhatian membership within the next two years, despite the weaker shape of the Adzhatian economy in comparison to the economies of the other EFTA members. A spokesperson of the ministry of economic affairs confirmed that Adzhatia should finish certain reforms in order to make the country compatible with the other members. A final accession date will probably be announced in the course of 2018.
An Adzhatian membership of EFTA may have consequences for the country’s membership of FICT, particularly the Free Trade Agreement that was concluded last year, as the EFTA has a coordinated trade policy of its own. There is a possibility that the EFTA concludes a joint trade agreement with FICT, but that is currently not discussed by the EFTA.
According to political experts, the Adzhatian move to join EFTA may upset Russia that would like to see our country as a member of its Eurasian Economic Union, of which currently Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan are members. In our country, as in many other former Soviet nations, there is a division between pro-Europeans and pro-Russians. Joining EFTA may seem less controversial to pro-Russian citizens though than joining the European Union. It is expected that the political establishment will ‘shut up’ about joining the EU for the time being.
Pizza controversy turns violent
KERCEI, 11 NOVEMBER 2017 ~ An ongoing dispute between local Italian and Adzhatian pizzeria owners has turned violent after a restaurant was targeted with a smoke bomb and was evacuated by the police.
Italian and Adzhatian pizzeria owners in Kercei have been at each other for several months now, after some of the Adzhatians claimed that Adzhatian pizzas are better than Italians, whereas the Italians claim that recipes were stolen from them and modified by the Adzhatians. So far guests hadn’t suffered from the war, but this changed today. The police have made several arrests and closed two restaurants permanently.
Scandal dominates FICT summit
AMARGO, 19 NOVEMBER 2017 ~ It was nothing more than a scandal that unexpectedly hit the Tenth General Assembly of FICT earlier today: an update of the situation in each of the organisation’s four organisations was scheduled, but already the first of them that was discussed, the FICT Social Investment Bank (FSIB), turned out not to meet any of the delegations’ expectations.
The revelation by FSIB director Mr Luc Pálssœn that no projects in FICT member states had received funding by FSIB since he replaced former director Germain Karg in May 2016 due to the fact that FSIB was waiting for the General Assembly of FICT to create the policy guidelines, caused outrage among several delegations. According to some, the tasks of FSIB should have been clear enough – the delegation from Île de Romanhe said that ‘their’ director Mr Karg has found no objections to fund projects in FICT countries – whereas others were astounded that Mr Pálssœn didn’t take any action to signal that he was waiting for instructions and operated as the director of FSIB for one year and a half without doing what the organisation is supposed to do. Mr Pálssœn explained that FSIB did receive money, which was stored for future use.
Voskia, New Courland, Île de Romanhe, and the Republic of MAS called for a complete audit of FSIB and its director, whereas our country expressed its surprise also about the fact that this situation was able to go on unnoticed by the General Assembly for so long.
“It is clear that no procedures were put in place when the organisations were created, to keep an eye on them”, prime minister Ŕanije Erijeź said. “As far as I was told by other delegations, the organisations are rarely asked to report about their activities by the GA. That is unacceptable; they should report annually!”
The Adzhatian delegation presented a motion to inves-tigate the relations between FICT and its organisations, which was accepted. “We asked former FICT ambassador Anatoĺ Bugănskie to chair an international team that should investigate and present a report with recommendations before the next summit of FICT in May next year,” the prime minister announced.
Another motion to investigate FSIB and its director Mr Pálssœn was accepted as well. The review of the other three organisations was postponed to the next summit due to the circumstances.
The summit continued without further problems. The Republic of MAS and Harrawi both presented themselves as candidates to host the 2019 FICT Games; MAS was elected with seven votes to six. A small discussion was held about the possibility to change the logo of FICT. The next summit will take place in May 2018 in Tarmorya.