European Union

In The Netherlands tension in the labour market is high as there are more vacancies than unemployed people, the Dutch broadcaster NOS reports. "This we haven't seen in 50 years," Peter Hein van Mulligen, chief economist of the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) said. For every 100 unemployed people, there are 106 open vacancies in the second quarter of 2021, which makes it hard for employers to find employees.

Two wildfires, fanned by strong winds, raged out of control near Athens on Monday, forcing the evacuation of villages, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, Reuters reports. More than 500 wildfires have broken out in recent weeks across Greece, which, like other countries in the Mediterranean region including Turkey and Tunisia, has seen some of its highest temperatures in decades.

Postal voting for Germany's federal election began on Monday, piling pressure on conservative chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) to reinvigorate his floundering campaign or else risk losing out to a left-leaning coalition, Reuters reports. Although polls show that the Bavarian leader, CSU politician Markus Söder, is still more popular than Laschet, Söder ruled out replacing Laschet, saying "the ballots are printed, the posters are pasted, it's been decided."

Poland's ambassador to Israel has been recalled until further notice, the foreign ministry said on Monday, in a further sign of the deteriorating relations between the countries after Warsaw introduced a law affecting World War Two property restitutions, Reuters writes. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid on Saturday branded Poland's law "antisemitic and immoral". Lapid said the head of Israel's embassy in Warsaw was being called back immediately.

Several EU member states are worried that the Taliban takeover would trigger a replay of the 2015-16 migration crisis when the bloc has seen the arrival of over one million asylum seekers in a matter of months.

EU countries have resumed evacuations from Kabul airport, the last piece of allied-controlled territory in Afghanistan, as Taliban forces urged people to return to normal life.

The struggle for the survival of the Taliban's survival starts today. Afghanistan is a potential sink hole of instability. And we know what sinkholes do: they usually drag a much wider region down.

Thousands of people desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul's airport on Monday (16 August) after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the United States to pause evacuations, as President Joe Biden confronted mounting criticism over the US withdrawal.

As violence in Libya has waned this year, the number of would-be migrants to Europe intercepted so far has doubled compared to the same period of 2020, experts say.

Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan praised the Taliban's conduct and said the group, still officially designated a terrorist organisation in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities.

EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks via videolink Tuesday (17 August) on the situation in Afghanistan as European nations scramble to evacuate personnel from the country, officials said.

An appeals court ruled that two historians accused of tarnishing the memory of a Polish villager in a book about the Holocaust need not apologise, overturning a lower court ruling that raised fears about freedom of academic research.

The humiliation of the lightning Taliban takeover in Afghanistan after a 20-year war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives has raised a question for the United States' staunchest European ally: Is America really back as President Joe Biden promised?

Austria, which has insisted that it plans to keep deporting illegal immigrants back to Afghanistan even as the Taliban seized Kabul, on Monday (16 August) suggested setting up "deportation centres" in nearby countries as an alternative.

The EU issued a declaration condemning in the strongest terms the unlawful attack committed on the merchant vessel Mercer Street, off Masirah Island in Oman, on 29 July.

The EU issued a declaration on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, celebrating the resilience and resourcefulness of indigenous peoples around the world.

The EU issued a declaration on the first anniversary of the 9 August 2020 fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus.

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2021/1192 of 19 July 2021 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism, and repealing Decision (CFSP) 2021/142.

European Council President Charles Michel participated in the third video conference in support of the Lebanese people chaired by French President Macron.

The Council has imposed restrictive measures on eight more individuals responsible for serious human rights violations in Nicaragua and/or whose actions undermined democracy or the rule of law, including Vice-President Rosario Murillo.