European Union

Germany recorded more than 4,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with health minister Jens Spahn calling the latest numbers "alarming", according to DPA newswire. Top health officials warned of a second wave that could be more severe than the one in the spring. The numbers showed 4,058 new infections, compared to 2,828 on Wednesday.

A crossparty group of British MPs urged the government to consider removing Huawei from the country's 5G networks as soon as 2025 saying there is "clear evidence of collusion" between Huawei and the Chinese state.

According to the World Health Organisation, poor mental health claims the lives of 140,000 people per year by suicide in the European region. Their lives could be saved if mental health care and support were properly funded.

While the leaders of Greece's Golden Dawn facing lengthy jail terms, the atmosphere remains tense in Athens and some other parts of Greece. Depending on the exact sentencing, further clashes between anarchist-leftists and remnants of the extreme-right may ensue.

AMENDMENTS 1 - 585 - Draft report on the foreign policy consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Hilde Vautmans

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Parliament regrets the “significant deterioration” of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Parliament regrets the “significant deterioration” of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions taking stock of the human rights situation in Eritrea, Nicaragua and Saudi Arabia.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Human Rights

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions taking stock of the human rights situation in Eritrea, Nicaragua and Saudi Arabia.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Human Rights

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions taking stock of the human rights situation in Eritrea, Nicaragua and Saudi Arabia.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Human Rights

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

With youth unemployment on the rise in the EU, MEPs want member states to take stronger action to counter the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on young people.
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

With youth unemployment on the rise in the EU, MEPs want member states to take stronger action to counter the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on young people.
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Parliament supports legislation that aims to ensure the tunnel railway connecting continental Europe and the UK continues to operate safely and efficiently.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Parliament supports legislation that aims to ensure the tunnel railway connecting continental Europe and the UK continues to operate safely and efficiently.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The European Commission signed on Thursday its third contract for a potential Covid-19 vaccine, with the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. The deal will allow member states to purchase vaccines for 200 million people - with the possibility to extend that to an extra 200 million doses. The commission has previously sealed deals with AstraZeneca and Sanofi-GSK, but it is also negotiating with CureVac, BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna.

Junqueras i Vies v Parliament
Law governing the institutions
Le pourvoi contre l’ordonnance du vice-président du Tribunal rejetant la demande de référé de M. Junqueras i Vies est aussi rejeté

Yesterday saw Michael Gove and David Frost, the UK leads for the current negotiations with the EU, give evidence to Parliamentary committees. They were very upbeat about it all, pointing to the increasing chances of a deal and sounding conciliatory about compromises on state aid, even as they acknowledged the continuing problems elsewhere. I noted this on Twitter, but expressed some doubt about it too, since I wasn’t clear whether this was actual “things are going to work out”, or more covering-of-backsides in case it didn’t: the space between ‘it’ll happen’ and ‘it’d have happened if only the other lot had tried as hard as we have’ is relatively small. Which provoked this response:

There's a bit of a dbl standard here. When UK doesn't present a view it is 'not engaging'. When it does, and I thought today's session illuminating, it is accused of blame management. The EU is never accused of same even though, in a sense it is constantly engaged in it too.

— John Rowland (@rowlandreport) October 7, 2020 I take the point, since I’m well aware that I’m much harder on the UK than the EU in this process and that several readers constantly assume I think the UK should just do whatever the EU wants. The second point can be dealt with briefly, since my interest is in the parties finding a mutually-acceptable outcome to these negotiations, because that’s the result that will most likely produce stable and constructive relations between them. Where that outcome lies is for the negotiators to decide, not me, but I certainly don’t think it’ll be possible if either side dictates terms. On the first point, some more consideration is merited. John’s last comment is certainly true: the EU is, and has long been, very aware of the reputational management aspects of Brexit. The process matters in of itself, but also as a marker of the EU’s wider objectives with its external partners: concessions to the UK would potentially mean concessions elsewhere. The difficulties of the period since 2016 have only strengthened the concern not to get played by the UK into becoming the villain of the piece. But the two parties have taken very different approaches to the managing of their image in all this. The UK has consistently had a very tight circle of people around the Prime Minister determining policy, with the bare minimum of engagement with those outside government (and not a huge amount within it). Recall the fights to give Parliament, the courts or any sectoral interest a say in the various stages of creating and developing the British position. By contrast, the EU has gone the opposite route, with a very high level of transparency from the start. Sure, that’s partly because of the terrible experience of TTIP, and partly because the EU is a very leaky organisation anyway, but still the decision to have very public binding of member states and EU institutions to the several mandates is striking. Some of this comes down to the representation of Brexit as an existential threat to the EU, driving all on that side towards both high levels of solidarity and to a clear desire for a negotiated outcome (i.e. a deal). The same isn’t true of the UK, where through either calculation or misunderstanding the scale of Brexit wasn’t fully internalised by the government, resulting in much more contestation of the practice and purpose of the exercise. Put differently, while the EU has taken a line that has been consistent both across time and across its constituent elements, taking actions that reflect that line, the UK has none of that. As yesterday’s evidence underlined, much of the work necessary to give effect in the UK to the things already agreed between the two looks doubtful for their 1 January deadline, be that on the Irish protocol implementation or the measures needed for even the British version of what they want from the Future Relationship talks. Chuck in all the other things, like the Internal Market Bill or the continuing unwillingness of Number 10 to talk to anyone about their plans, and a degree of scepticism about the British ‘position’ is warranted. This comes back to the question of trust, which is going to colour strongly the next few years of EU-UK relations: words are cheap, so they need to be backed up by appropriate action, and durably so, before they can have real weight by themselves. And that’s for the good of both the UK and the EU, if they want to find that mutually-acceptable outcome.

The post Sauce for the goose? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

The European Commission signed on Thursday a €70m joint-procurement contract with the pharmaceutical firm Gilead for the supply of up to 500,000 doses of Remdesivir - the only medicine with a marketing authorisation in the EU for the treatment of Covid-19 patients needing oxygen. All EU and EEA countries, the UK, as well as six candidate and potential candidate countries are participating in this joint procurement.

Crown Van Gelder
Freedom of establishment
A customer may submit a complaint against the operator of the national grid following a power failure

Union des industries de la protection des plantes
Approximation of laws
France validly informed the Commission of the need to take measures intended, in particular, to protect bees