We are stuck in neutral when it comes to Canada integrating with the United States and Europe, but also with the emerging markets, with China and India.

2a. In the case of equity-based instruments targeting enterprises referred to in Article 32(3) for which the funding agreement referred to in Article 33(5)(b) was signed before 31 December 2017, which by the end of the eligibility period laid down in Article 55(2) invested at least 55% of the programme resources committed in the relevant funding agreement, a limited amount of payments for investments in final recipients to be made for a period not exceeding 4 years after the end of eligibility period may be considered as eligible expenditure, when paid into an escrow account specifically set up for that purpose, provided that State aid r ...[+++]ules are complied with and that all of the conditions set out below are fulfilled.

38. Acknowledges the Commission’s assessment that the levels of debt accumulated by public and private actors restrict the scope for new activities and investments in the Member States; calls, nevertheless, on the Member States neither to consider their national GNI contribution to the EU budget as an adjustment variable in their consolidation efforts, nor to seek to reduce artificially the volume of the EU budget’s growth enhancing expenditure, contrary to the political commitments they have made at the highest level; is, however, fully aware of the economic tension between t ...[+++]he need to consolidate public finances in the short run and any potential increase for some Member States in their GNI-based contribution brought about by an increase in the level of payments in the EU budget; restates, therefore, its strong calls for reform of the financing arrangements for the EU budget – to be agreed in the framework of the 2014-2020 MFF negotiations – by reducing the share of Member States’ GNI-based contributions to the EU budget to 40 % by 2020, thereby contributing to their consolidation efforts ;

While the asylum package, which should define a new, more up-to-date frame of reference, is stuck in the Council, a different view has emerged in the Member States regarding the effectiveness of the asylum procedures based on the rules already in force.

The former, nuclear weapons states, commit to good faith efforts toward nuclear disarmament, in article VI; and the latter, the non-nuclear-weapons states, undertake not to produce or acquire nuclear weapons, in article II. In parallel, all states commit to facilitate cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, in article IV, subject to assurances that such cooperation will not contribute to the development of nuclear weapons, in article III. Although the NPT is arguably the most important international security treaty in existence and has yielded over its 37 years immense security benefits, it is also a treaty that is currently under considerable strain ...[+++].

If these multilateral organizations suffer because of the current crisis and there is a risk that even without war, they're already irreparably damaged from the American standpoint Canada, if not home alone with the United States, will find itself with the United States, with a smaller number of allies, and for Canada, it's particularly important (0935) I think we have to realize that although we've cast our relationships in broad multilateral terms, especially in NATO, Secretary Rumsfeld was expressing a general view that the NATO we knew was the old alliance, that the trans-Atlantic bargain has been replaced by what I would call a trans-European bargain; that for the United States, the locus of security concerns and its relations have mo ...[+++]ved eastward to the countries of eastern Europe; and that, in fact, if this tension leads to an undermining of NATO, there will be more pressure on Canada.