European Union

Germany has added France's eastern Moselle region to its list of "variant of concern" areas, triggering tougher entry requirements at the border between the two neighbours, Deutsche Welle writes. Under the new restrictions, almost all travel will be banned. There are only a few exemptions, including lorry drivers and certain key workers. Anyone crossing the border will have to provide a valid negative Covid-19 test.

Italian researchers have discovered that healthcare workers with obesity produced only about half the amount of antibodies in response to a second dose of the jab compared with healthy people, The Guardian writes. Although it was too soon to know what this means for the efficacy of the vaccine, it might imply that people with obesity need an additional dose to ensure they are adequately protected against coronavirus.

The Iranian foreign ministry has announced it is not willing to attend EU-brokered talks with the US over the future of the Iran nuclear deal because Washington has not done enough to lift sanctions against Tehran, The Guardian writes. The new US administration committed to returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, had said it was willing to attend talks, and might lift sanctions at the negotiating table, but not before.

Three policemen were injured, one of them needing hospital care, and 23 people were arrested in anti-lockdown protests in Dublin on Saturday. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the demonstration had "posed an unacceptable risk to both the public and gardaí [police]". "It is utterly horrifying to see our members being placed under incredible ... danger," a police spokeswoman said, after some protesters had discharged fireworks at police at point-blank range.

The EU has asked its ambassador to Cuba to explain why he signed a letter asking US president Joe Biden to stop being "hostile" to Havana.

The increased regulatory scrutiny of tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft has triggered a rise in lobbying activities by these companies in Brussels, and, accordingly, an exponential grow of their budget for these activities.

To help bridge the stubborn gender pay gap, the EU Commission will present pay transparency measures so that differences in wages and salaries do not remain hidden from employees.

The Embassy of Ethiopia would like to set the record straight to the esteemed readership by stating the following facts about the situation in Ethiopia particularly in Tigray.

I hope that the sanctions from the Foreign Affairs Council will increase the likelihood of seeing Alexei Navalny and his supporters leaving Russian prisons alive, unharmed, and in the nearer future than otherwise.

EU leaders restated old vows to slowly develop a joint European military-industrial complex and armed forces at a video-conference Friday. The EU's "autonomy" would be "complementary" to its traditional alliance with the US, EU Council president Charles Michel said. Increasing domestic European production of critical items, such as vaccines, were part of the strategy, the European Commission said. Leaders are to discuss troubled Russia and Turkey relations in March.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

"In the context of the exponential growth of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the President of the European Parliament has announced a number of measures to contain the spread of epidemic and to safeguard Parliament's core activities.

The current precautionary measures adopted by the European Parliament to contain the spread of COVID-19 do not affect work on legislative priorities. Core activities are reduced, but maintained to ensure that the institution's legislative, budgetary, scrutiny functions are maintained.

The meetings will be with remote participation for Members (being able to view and listen to proceedings, ask for the floor and intervene in the meeting). Other participants are invited to follow the meeting through webstreaming.

Following these decisions, the next ordinary AFET Committee meetings will take place on 1st March (via videoconference).

EP Calendar 2021
AFET-SEDE-DROI meetings
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

To mark this year’s International Women’s Day on 8 March, the European Parliament is underlining the crucial role of women during the Covid crisis.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Human rights group Amnesty International has said Eritrean troops fighting on the side of Ethiopian government forces massacred hundreds of civilians when conquering the town of Aksum in Ethiopia last November. "There were a lot of ... house-to-house killings," one witness said. The EU recently urged Ethiopia to lift its "blackout" on what is happening in its war-torn Tigray region, where violence was said to be "out of control".

The United States has carried out airstrikes in Syria targeting facilities near the Iraqi border used by Iranian-backed militia groups, The Guardian writes. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a rocket attack in Iraq earlier this month that killed one civilian contractor and wounded a US service member. "The operation sends an unambiguous message: president Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel", the Pentagon said.

Malta has wrapped up its investigation into the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, after a defendant pled guilty and gave evidence, with oligarch Yorgen Fenech accused of being the mastermind of the crime. A European Parliament group said Thursday there was still "a very long road ahead" for justice in the case, amid an ongoing public enquiry into government attempts to cover up corruption and protect her killers.

The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounted to genocide, in the first such move by a European country, news agency Reuters writes. Activists and UN rights experts say at least 1 million Muslims are being detained in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists accuse China of using torture, forced labour, and sterilisations.

There was no violence in Thursday's attempted "military coup" in Armenia, but it made EU influence in the South Caucasus look smaller than ever.

EU leaders have discussed how to accelerate the rollout of vaccines, amid fears over more transmissible mutations triggering a new surge in cases.