His Imperial Highnesses Government of United Duchies Public Relations Department
-
Statement on kidnap of Journalists by Asperninian authorities
We condemn the kidnap of RTD journalists and Yosainese merely performing their job and duties to report fairly, impartially and accurately on the stories on the ground for just doing their job. We call on Aspern to release the journalists with immediate effect and respect freedom of the press. If this does not happen within one week Aspern will be placed on a list of countries where it is banned to do business in or with. We will not tolerate the political arrests of our citizens for just doing their jobs and reporting on stories ongoing on the ground. -
Statement on Gaddaland and Aspern situation
We will as a government take up the Sertian offer of negotiating through them and a third party nation for the release of the kidnapped journalists from RTD after consultation with the families of the journalists. We are thankful for the offer and care shown by our Sertian friends. These negotiations will be jointly done with Yosai so as to ensure a resolution for both nations journalists families. -
Statement on Foreign Assistance and Development Programmes
We as of today will be removing any conditions on foreign assistance and development money beyond sustainable development and anti-corruption restrictions. This means the end of the policy requiring money to be spent on products made domestically in the country of the foreign assistance recipient. This has come after it has come to our attention it has made programmes using Duchian money harder to develop especially in smaller countries where there is not a manufactauring base at present. The policy was aimed at developing manufactauring bases however this has proven to be uneconomic and just resulted in less development in target countries. All aid will now be unrestricted and handed to trusted governments and organisations to spend how they wish using local knowledge and expertise.We will seek to set up a co-ordinated aid programme under ECON to more effectively pool foreign aid money from all ECON states and share adminstration costs of the funds among member states for more efficiency. -
Statement on Terror Attacks
We have today faced a brutal terror attack that was a cowardly attack on humanity. To kill innocent members of the public and target family events intentionally to kill children is a disgraceful disgusting act. We in the government are taking this very seriously. We at a COBRA meeting have decided the borders and airports will remain closed until Monday. We are setting up emergency checkpoints at stations around the country , all public events have been cancelled until Monday while we seek to make the public safe. We are urgently hunting down the perpatrators of this cowardly act and promise we will seek and get justice. We will stay strong and united as a nation and defeat these terrorists. There will be a review into the lowering of security recently and whether such a move was appropiate and if more security and arming of police are needed in the future.We do not wish to have a police form that is all armed as this is a barrier to public trust of police and against over 100 of years of tradition in our nation. However we recognise this may have to be revised following recent events.
-
Istkalen situation
We do condemn the coup of a legitimate democratic government by the National Salvation Council and still refuse to recognise the NSC as the legitimate government. However we do believe the EU and Europe must proceed cautiously with its response. Sanctions risk making the poorest and most innocent Istkaleners pay the highest price while the government do not suffer or can evade the sanctions. We do not believe at this time that sanctions are the answer however we will leave the ultimate decision on the vote up to our councillour James Mizrachi-Roscoe who is independent of the government here in Cair Para. We do not believe the threshold typically used for United Duchies of a nation presenting a threat to United Duchies or its allies in ECON or citizens of ECON is currently the case. There has as of yet been no killings on foreign soil or intimidation of citizens on foreign soil that the United Duchies government is aware of so we do not believe as of yet sanctions are the appropiate response. Never the less we do call on the NSC to respect democratic norms and civil liberties for all including the LGBTQ in Istkalen and will consider asylum applications from Istkaleners. -
Statement on Spain and Telum Trade Situation
We condemn the antagonistic and dangerous interviews given by President Juncker that contain half truths and lies. The facts are Spain has had almost two years to come and negotiate the future trade relations as have Inimicus and North Diessan but all three have fully ignored the calls for talks to settle on a stable zero tariff and low trade barrier arrangement with visa free arrangements. The transition arrangements clock ran out forcing us by law to introduce 10% tariffs at a minimum as is our standard tarriff rate without treaty. We would also like to point out the tariffs on the Inimcus and North Diessan are 35% and not 50% as claimed by Juncker.We have also called for Inimicus and North Diessan to meet to discuss issues and reverse the seizure of assets from Duchians a racist and xenophobic act that targeted people based on nationality. We therefore had to act and freeze innitially for 3 months and then seize assets of those with links to the governments of North Diessan and Inimicus to compensate our companies for their losses to the North Diessan and Inimicus seizures. These two countries have refused to come to the table and talk over any issues that exist. We are keen to resolve all diplomatic issues through talks and Spain , Inimicus and North Diessan are free at any time to meet and resolve issues and resume the zero-tariff, and zero visa arrangements as well as education exchange progammes we had under Telum. We are not the tension causers here, we have given an open invitation to resolve issues if Spain , Inimicus and North Diessan don't take the oppurtunity there is nothing more we can do.
-
Unification of Duchies Quality Standards
We are proud to announce we have unified the miriad of quality assurance schemes in Duchies to four quality assurance schemes for products that garuntee the world leading Duchian standards in sustainability, quality , labour and environmental standards. The schemes will be run by the national bodies of the Duchies Federation of Manufacturing and Duchies Association of Farmers in conjunction with sector specific organisations and environmental groups. The new logos are available to use on any products that meet the standards made by Duchian or foreign companies selling in the United Duchies. The marks will garuntee the the product is long lasting and made to the highest safety , environment and sustainability standards saving you money in the long run and making sure you contribute to the ethical economy. Look for these marks on goods going forward to garuntee you get the best products money can buy made to world renowned Duchian manufactauring quality standards.Find out more HERE. -
Change in Vehicle Tax systems for 2024
While we welcome the widespread adoption of BEV vehicles we are concerned with higher sales of heavier less efficient EV models especially that of crossovers and their impact on the road surface maintenance bill. we have therefore decided the vehicle tax will be split into two ways of calculating vehicle tax. Petrol and petrol hybrids will be calculated the same system as previous with the new rates of:Band Co 2 per km 2024 Euros 1 0-100 g co2 per km £133 €206.31 2 101-140 g co2 per km £333 €515.76 3 141-160g co2 per km £449 €696.28 4 161-180g co2 per km £606 €939.98 5 181-200g co2 per km £819 €1,268.97 6 201-220 co2 per km £1,105 €1,713.11 7 221-240 co2 per km £1,492 €2,312.70 8 241-260 g co 2 per km £2,014 €3,122.14 9 261-280 g co 2 per km £2,719 €4,214.89 10 281-300g co 2 per km £3,671 €5,690.10 11 301g- 350g co 2 per km £4,956 €7,681.64 12 351g + co 2 per km £5,556 €8,611.80 From this year BEV , Biofuel and Hybrid Vehicles will have road tax calculated under a new weight based method:
Weight class KG Tax Dux Libra Euros 1 0-1500 £133.00 €206.15 2 1501-1750 £250.00 €387.50 3 1751-2000 £350.00 €542.50 4 2001-2250 £500.00 €775.00 5 2251-2500 £600.00 €930.00 6 2501-2750 £1,000.00 €1,550.00 8 3001-3500 £2,150.00 €3,332.50 9 3501-4000 £2,450.00 €3,797.50 10 4001-4500 £2,950.00 €4,572.50 11 4501-5000 £3,350.00 €5,192.50 12 5001+ £3,850.00 €5,967.50 The move should hopefully balance out emissions and road damage factors.
-
Terrorist threat level set to Critical
We have in response to statements on twitter and social media by one Tarek Al-Wazir and evidence from intelligence set the terror level to critical. This means we consider there is a high risk of terrorism in the immediate future if we do not act. We are authorising police extra powers to deal with any threats and the authorisation to deploy armed police in all major areas of cities such as stations , airports , stadiums and major events. We will not cower to terrorists and will make sure events are safe. We are reviewing security arrangements for the families named in the tweets and the families of politicians who may be under threat. We will act against all forms of terror and not stand for this threat to all Duchians. -
Creation of Public Broadcaster Content Library
In partnership with all public brodcasters in the United Duchies we have set up a Duchian Public Broadcasters Content Library. This project will be funded by a 0.5% of revenue membership fee and at least 50% of their programmes being put into to the content library in for access . The project shall give all producers working for public broadcasters access to clips, assets , graphics and programmes much like if you pay for access to shutterstock you get access to all images and clips in the shutterstock library. This will mean producers don't have to individually licence clips or programmes or travel with production crews and presenters to create duplicate content wasting public money on producing content and shall enable the production of many more original programmes with the same budgets benefitting all Duchians by reducing repeat programmes on television. The idea was proposed by Mary Beck and shall be in existence until such time an EUBC content library is created. We will welcome other public broadcasters to put their only programmes and content in on the same terms to widen the benefit of the programme. The Public Broadcaster Content Library shall exist until a bigger international Content Library is founded.
