Catalonia parliament votes in favor of Spanish secession plan

Catalonia's parliament has given the green light to a plan that will set the course for a secession from Spain. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he will file an appeal against the vote.

In a major setback for the politicians vowing to hold Spain together, Catalonian lawmakers voted to approve a bill that opens the door for the region's secession from the country by 2017.
The measure, which lays out a so-called "roadmap for independence," passed on Monday with a 72-63 vote. Last week, representatives from Spain's three major parties - including the ruling Popular Party, as well as the Socialists and the center-right Ciudadanos - made a failed attempt to block the vote.
Following the announcement of the results, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, a conservative, said he would appeal the vote. Last month, Rajoy went on television to declare his opposition to the bill, which was proposed by the pro-secession "Together for Yes" alliance. In unflinching language, the prime minister called the bill an "act of provocation" and promised to "use all the political and legal means" possible to block it.
Independence from Spain has seemed more attainable than ever before for the region, which has its own distinct language and culture and was suppressed for decades under the late dictator Francisco Franco.
In September, Catalonian nationalists, led by left-wing politician Artur Mas, swept parliamentary elections. Mas said the elections served as a de facto referendum of whether or not Catalans wanted to remain part of Spain.
blc/jil (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Obama has lost his Middle East peace ambition

The US president made many attempts to convince Israelis and Palestinians to come together. Now he's scheduled to host Israel's prime minister. This time Obama seems to be less optimistic, DW's Miodrag Soric writes.

Change and hope were two of Barack Obama's main campaign messages when he was elected US president back in 2008. It was about making a new start, and that applied to foreign policy, too. After becoming president, Obama wanted to bring peace to the Middle East . He did, in fact, make many attempts to help Israelis and Palestinians try to come to a compromise. But it didn't work.
Nowadays, Obama has become more modest. The president merely hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make mention of a two-state solution . At the same time, Obama knows that Israel is building more settlements in the West Bank and that militants have not pledged to stop the violence .
Peace in the Middle East remains a dream, for now at least.
A strained relationship
At least the United States has managed to formalize a nuclear accord with Iran . President Obama deemed the agreement a major success. Prime Minister Netanyahu has done all he can to torpedo it. That didn't help the already tense relations between the Israeli and US leadership. The two politicians seem to have been avoiding each other ever since.

But they are professionals. Obama and Netanyahu are not interested in arguing with each other in public. They are, instead, playing for time. Obama will be in office for just one more year. In this period there will be no change in US policy on the Middle East.
Netanyahu doesn't want to waste this time though. After all, Obama did refer to the importance of Israel's security during the negotiations with Iran and Netanyahu is likely to remind him of that. Netanyahu would like to keep a billion-dollar security partnership between the United States and Israel going, too: A memorandum of understanding to this end expires in 2018. The prime minister would like to get a similar agreement that goes for 10 years. That would help finance and modernize Israel's army.
Obama has a real balancing act ahead of him. For domestic reasons, he has to agree to Israel's demands for new weaponry. But he can't agree to everything. Other US partners in the region - Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan among them - also have security concerns. The White House needs to respect these wishes.
The president's failure in the Middle East peace process has disappointed many people in Washington. Meanwhile, the situation has gotten worse in Syria, Iraq and other countries. In The price of oil is also low.
For all these reasons, Washington's interest in the Middle East is starting to decrease. It is now more lucrative for the United States to look toward East Asia, including countries such as China and Korea. That is where the money can be made. But getting involved in conflict in the Middle East? That just costs money.

EU: Luxembourg's FM Jean Asselborn warns of EU collapse due to refugee crisis

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has said the EU might "break apart" under the strain of the migrant crisis. His words come as politicians find themselves at odds over how to deal with the crisis.

Asselborn said on Monday the EU might be heading toward a collapse, as member states struggle to cope with the influx of refugees trying to reach Europe.
"The European Union can break apart," he said in an interview with the German news agency DPA. "This can happen incredibly fast if the rule becomes to shut people out, both internally and externally, instead of maintaining solidarity." His comments refer to the decision made by some member states to implement stricter controls along their borders, thereby forcing other countries to take on more of the burden of the refugee crisis.
The politician said it was possible member states would start shutting down borders completely, thereby putting an end to the Schengen free-travel zone that has been one of the defining freedoms offered to citizens of the EU.
'Critical situation'
"We have perhaps only a few months time (before this happens)," Asselborn warned.
He said while most member states have understood the importance of helping refugees, some member states "have not properly internalized the values of the EU, which are not just material values" - a veiled reference to countries like Hungary, which recently built a fence along its border to keep migrants out.
The EU is in a "very, very critical situation," he said.