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European Union

Climate targets may leave Sweden’s Armed Forces without fuel

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 08:17
Sweden’s ambitious plans to stop using fossil fuels may endanger and limit the military’s ability to carry out its tasks, while biofuels will fail to power most vehicles and could also be unsuitable for Scandinavia’s cold surroundings, the country’s military...
Categories: European Union

EU Commission expects permanent Northern Irish border checks by mid-2021

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 08:16
The European Commission expects permanent border controls at the Northern Irish border to be in place by the middle of the year despite Agricultural Minister Gordon Lyons of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) ordering the halt of any further work...
Categories: European Union

Sunak to keep spending ahead of ‘challenging months’

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 08:16
The UK government will continue to pay the wages of people who have been furloughed because of the COVID pandemic until the end of September as part of the Budget to be unveiled by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Wednesday (3...
Categories: European Union

Merz announces Bundestag candidacy

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 08:15
Former candidate for CDU chair, Friedrich Merz, confirmed that he will run for a seat in the Bundestag in September’s elections on Tuesday. The archconservative, who prior to running to lead the CDU had been out of politics for more...
Categories: European Union

Slovak government faces collapse amid Sputnik purchase

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 08:14
Slovakia faces a political crisis after two junior coalition parties spoke about leaving the governing coalition over the purchase of two million doses of the Russian vaccine negotiated by Prime Minister Igor Matovič. The first batch of Sputnik V vaccines...
Categories: European Union

France under fire for use of Amazon-hosted Doctolib for jab bookings

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 08:10
France's health ministry will have to defend its decision to integrate the medical portal Doctolib, which uses Amazon's hosting services, into its online booking system for COVID-19 vaccinations before France's top court, EURACTIV France reports.
Categories: European Union

EU states find common ground in first debate over trade policy

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:58
Portugal's foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva said the first discussion among EU member states over the European Union's future trade policy was "an excellent starting point," although tough debates on trade and climate policy have yet to be addressed.
Categories: European Union

EU hopes to produce up to 3 bn vaccine doses a year by end of 2021

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:56
The European Union aims to increase the region's COVID-19 vaccine production capacity to 2-3 billion doses per year by the end of 2021, Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton was quoted as saying on Wednesday (3 March).
Categories: European Union

The right to vote for all is a matter of human dignity

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:45
As the European Commission is about to unveil the EU's new Strategy on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for the next decade, Krzysztof Pater writes about one of the areas where discrimination is still acutely felt – the right to vote, effectively denied to many persons with disabilities across Europe.
Categories: European Union

Spain records over 4 million unemployed for first time since 2016

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:33
Spanish unemployment figures in February reached their highest level since April 2016 as the country reels from the economic impact of the pandemic, EURACTIV's media partner  EuroEFE reported.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] UK computer error kept EU in dark on killers and rapists

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:27
The UK failed to inform EU states about 112,490 criminal convictions concerning their nationals on British territory in the past eight years due to a "massive computer failure and subsequent cover-up", revealed by The Guardian newspaper Wednesday. The omissions included 109 killers, 81 rapists, and one man judged guilty of both crimes, posing a potential security risk after they returned home to their EU states having served their sentences.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] Egypt, Sudan call for EU mediation in Nile conflict

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:26
Egypt and Sudan called for international mediation on Tuesday to reach a legally binding agreement with Ethiopia on the filling and operating the of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram writes. This mediation should involve the UN, the African Union, the EU, and the US. The EU stated that it was ready to play a bigger role on condition that all parties involved agreed to it.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] Erdoğan rolls out pro-EU charm offensive

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:22
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told EU ambassadors in Ankara Tuesday he would "strengthen the rule of law based on human rights" in Turkey with new judicial appeals and electoral laws. He told French president Emmanuel Macron by video-link the same day that as "two strong Nato allies" they had "serious potential" to cooperate on Middle East security and counter-terrorism. The pro-EU overtures come after recent EU mini-sanctions on Turkey.
Categories: European Union

US joins EU sanctions on Russia in show of unity

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:11
America has sanctioned Russia for the attempted murder and jailing of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, in a show of return to transatlantic unity.
Categories: European Union

EU ambassador leaves Venezuela after expulsion order

Euractiv.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:10
The EU’s ambassador to Venezuela left the South American country on Tuesday (2 March) after she was expelled last week over a diplomatic spat related to new sanctions. Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, who is Portuguese, left Venezuela aboard a Turkish Airlines...
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] Austria and Denmark will not rely solely on EU for vaccines

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:05
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said his country and Denmark plan to stop relying solely on the European Union for coronavirus jabs, Deutsche Welle reports. Kurz said both countries plan to work with Israel to produce second-generation vaccines. While Israel has vaccinated a large part of its population, the EU has faced criticism for its slow vaccine rollout and slow approval of the vaccines themselves.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] EU top court defends Polish judges' right-to-appeal

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:05
Judges applying to join Poland's Supreme Court should have the right to appeal against the opinions of a body reviewing candidates, the EU's top court said Tuesday, part of an ongoing rift between the EU and Warsaw. The EU court also said that amendments to the law on the National Council of the Judiciary, which in effect remove judicial review of its decisions, including judges' appointments, could infringe EU law.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] EU to probe German €4.3bn lignite plants payout

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:05
The European Commission on Tuesday launched an investigation into whether German plans to compensate lignite-fired power plants for being phased out earlier than foreseen are aligned with EU state aid rules. Under the German coal phase-out law, coal will have to end by 2038. But Germany has agreed to pay €4.35bn to the main producers of lignite-fired electricity for the early closure of power plants.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] France tweaks strategy on AstraZeneca vaccine

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:05
France will allow people under 75 with existing health problems to get the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, the health minister said, changing the country's earlier stance that the vaccine should be for the under-65s only, Reuters reports. France hopes to speed up its vaccination campaign. As of Saturday, 4.55 million people had received at least one shot of vaccine, compared to 6.17 million in Germany and up to 20.9 million in Britain.
Categories: European Union

[Ticker] 'Crimes against humanity' charge against Saudi prince

Euobserver.com - Wed, 03/03/2021 - 07:04
Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and other high-ranking Saudi officials have been accused of committing crimes against humanity in a criminal complaint filed in Germany by Reporters without Borders (RSF), the press freedom group, The Guardian writes. The complaint focusses on the "widespread and systematic" persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia, including the arbitrary detention of 34 journalists there and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Categories: European Union

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