European Union

The EU's ambitious new budget proposal to drive recovery following the coronavirus pandemic is a good start. But long-term investment will also be needed in health, social protection, and human development, writes Emily Wigens.

When the Spanish government put the country on lockdown in March to contain the spread of the coronavirus, tourism in the Canary Islands quickly dropped to zero. But the Atlantic archipelago hopes to rebound soon.

EU-China relations will be one of Germany's EU presidency priorities in foreign policy matters, with an overall objective of "strengthening Europe as an anchor of stability in the world," said Chancellor Angela Merkel. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The EU needed higher financial guarantees from states over the next seven years in order to hedge against the cost of a potential no-deal Brexit in 2021, Johannes Hahn, the EU' budget commissioner said Thursday. "Our proposal is to increase the [budget] ceiling ... if they [the UK] don't pay what they promised to pay [due to hard Brexit] , it is sound financial management on our side," he said.

The EU is willing to move in negotiations on future EU-UK relations, but Britain must make a bigger effort in talks, EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan said Thursday, adding that negotiations had not made much progress. "Perhaps the UK has come to the conclusion that there's not going to be a deal. I hope not, because we want a deal," he said ahead of new talks due next week.

World leaders on Thursday (29 May) called for resilience and cooperation after the pandemic recedes, during a UN videoconference in which the United States, China and Russia did not participate.

Germany is seeking to use new targeted EU sanctions against cyber-attackers to impose visa bans and asset freezes on the head of Russian military intelligence and one of his alleged operatives in Germany over Russian hacking of the Bundestag in 2015, the German foreign ministry has said. The Russian military intelligence service, the GRU, was "strongly suspected of being responsible for the hacking attack," a German spokesman said Thursday.

The European Commission has proposed a €9.4bn stand-alone programme dedicated to health known as EU4Health. The proposal is touted as a first step towards a possible Treaty change when it comes to health.

It took Belgium years to decide if a top colonel was spying for Russia - potentially exposing Nato to "grave damage".

The European Commission's recovery package increases five-fold the Just Transition Fund, which aims to support the transition of fossil fuel-dependent regions. But commission vice-president Frans Timmermans warned the allocation of funds could be anchored to Green Deal commitments.

Internal document shows diplomats questioned whether the secretariat of the Council of the EU was legally allowed to write guidelines on the financing of the six-month rotating EU presidency activities.

While Covid-19 brings China one step closer to technology-perfected authoritarianism through improvised health apps and real-time surveillance, Europe is busy looking inward.

The EU Council on Thursday extended restrictive measures against the Syrian regime. "The EU remains committed to using every tool at its disposal to push for a political solution to the conflict that would benefit all Syrians and put an end to the ongoing repression," said the EU's foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell. Sanctions against Syria were introduced in 2011. However, exceptions are foreseen for humanitarian purposes.

Cyprus expects to receive some 600,000 passengers in August, transport minister Yiannis Karousos said Thursday, noting that this estimate includes people flying in on commercial and private planes, Ekathimerini writes. "There is a gradual lifting of measures," Karousos said, noting that "we are kicking off on June 9, and by June 20 passengers from a number of countries won't need to present a certificate [for coronavirus]."

A report on Thursday by the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) urges EU governments to respect fundamental rights when using contact-tracing apps to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It also calls for open-source solutions to enhance transparency and confidence in the tools. "Respect for fundamental rights forms part of our public health strategies. This includes maintaining privacy and data protection legal safeguards," said FRA director Michael O'Flaherty.

The number of Americans who lost their jobs in the past 10 weeks soared to more than 40 million, with unemployment claims continuing to rise, the Guardian writes. Earlier this month, department of labor reported that more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent, up from 4.4 percent in March - the highest numbers since the Great Depression.

The coronavirus outbreak is causing major disruptions for those who are outside mainstream educational programs across Europe. While many have managed to turn to distance learning, those not in education, employment or training (NEETs) are even more excluded from support schemes.

On Thursday (28 May), German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) testified before the investigative committee tasking with deciding on the responsibility for the government's 'toll debacle,' which could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros.

The 2021 budget priorities should be to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and support the recovery, building on the Green Deal and digital transformation.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

On Thursday, Budgets Committee Members approved €279 million in EU aid following extreme weather events in Austria, Italy, Portugal and Spain in 2019.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP