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Espace de liberté, sécurité et justice
Assistance sociale : l’accès des ressortissants de pays tiers résidents de longue durée à une mesure de sécurité sociale, d’aide sociale ou de protection sociale ne peut pas être subordonné à la condition d’avoir résidé au moins dix ans dans un État membre

CU
A szabadságon, a biztonságon és a jog érvényesülésén alapuló térség
Szociális ellátás: a harmadik országok huzamos tartózkodási engedéllyel rendelkező állampolgárainak valamely szociális biztonsági, szociális ellátási vagy szociális védelmi intézkedéshez való hozzáférését nem lehet attól a feltételtől függővé tenni, hogy legalább tíz évig valamely tagállamban tartózkodjanak

CU
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
Social assistance: access for third-country nationals who are long-term residents to a social security, social assistance or social protection measure cannot be made conditional on the requirement of having resided in a Member State for at least 10 years

La Russie a l'intention de détruire des dizaines d'avions de guerre fournis par l'Otan dès leur arrivée en Ukraine.

Serbie, note du 19 août 2022

- Toska • Le blog d'Andrijana Milosev / Serbie

Autrefois, Albin Kurti et Vetëvendosje soutenaient la Palestine, comparant volontiers son sort à celui du Kosovo. Mais depuis le 7 octobre 2023, le Premier ministre n'a pas eu un mot pour dénoncer le génocide en cours à Gaza. Analyse d'un revirement.

- Articles / Kosovo 2.0, Kosovo, Israël-Palestine , Relations internationales, Kosovo Vetëvendosje

Die italienische Ministerpräsidentin Giorgia Meloni versprach am Sonntag (28. Juli), die Zusammenarbeit mit China „neu zu beleben.“ Bei ihrem ersten offiziellen Besuch in Peking seit ihrem Amtsantritt unterzeichnete sie einen dreijährigen Aktionsplan.

A Magyar Honvédség jelentős változásokon megy keresztül, hogy megfeleljen a modern kihívásoknak és megerősítse a nemzeti védelmet. Kajári Ferenc altábornagy, a Honvéd Vezérkar főnökének helyettese a XXIII. Euroatlanti Nyári Egyetemen tartott előadásában hangsúlyozta, hogy a honvédelem nemzeti ügy, és a katonai képességek fejlesztése mellett a nemzeti ellenállóképesség erősítése is kulcsfontosságú.

A honvédségnek folyamatosan alkalmazkodnia kell a változó környezeti hatásokhoz, mint például a migrációs válság, a pandémia és az orosz-ukrán háború. A Honvédelmi és Haderőfejlesztési Program keretében jelentős fejlesztések zajlanak a haderő modernizációja érdekében, beleértve a high-tech eszközök beszerzését, a digitális katona programot, valamint a területvédelmi erők és a tartalékos rendszer megerősítését.

A NATO elvárásoknak megfelelően Magyarország 2023-ban elérte a védelmi költségekre fordított 2 százalékos GDP-arányt, biztosítva a forrásokat a további fejlesztésekhez. A haderő folyamatosan elemzi az orosz-ukrán háború tapasztalatait, és ennek alapján fejleszti képességeit, beleértve a drónok alkalmazását, a nagy hatótávolságú precíziós csapásmérő képességet, a kiberképességet és a légvédelmet.

A toborzó- és kiképzési rendszer is jelentős fejlődésen ment keresztül, hogy biztosítsa a megfelelően motivált és jól kiképzett állomány utánpótlását. A tartalékos rendszer fejlesztése nemcsak a honvédelem megerősítését szolgálja, hanem a honvédség nagyobb társadalmi beágyazódását is elősegíti.

The post Magyar Honvédség: Új Képességek és Nemzeti Ellenállóképesség a Fókuszban appeared first on Biztonságpiac.

Written by Ralf Drachenberg.

The EU’s leaders took two crucial decisions at their summit on 27 June to set the framework for the new institutional cycle: one on high-level appointments, the other on the Union’s political priorities for the next 5 years, the Strategic Agenda 2024-2029. Since the adoption of the previous edition of the EU’s long-term priorities in 2019, the EU has had to face major crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, and the change in the security environment following Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

Are these global challenges reflected in the EU’s new long-term political priorities or has the list of political orientations remained unchanged? Is the new Strategic Agenda more of a continuation or does it constitute a real shift? To answer these questions, this briefing examines the new Strategic Agenda, outlining its content, developments in its substance during the adoption process, and similarities and differences with the political priorities set in the previous institutional cycles.

The findings of the analysis (see the table in the Annex) show that the Strategic Agenda 2024-2029 constitutes an important shift in the EU’s political priorities compared with the previous Strategic Agenda, but that elements of continuity remain quite apparent nevertheless. The most obvious changes are the significance of security and defence, the importance granted to enlargement, the addition of new elements on EU competitiveness, and the salience of democracy (within the Union and in relations with third countries), which is a headline priority for the first time. Another noteworthy development is that less attention is paid to climate and environmental issues, even if some points were introduced during the drafting process.

At the same time, there is a substantial degree of continuity with the Strategic Agenda 2019-2024. Less than 20 % of the policy aspects are completely new, even though the length of the Strategic Agenda document has increased by 25 %. This observation tends to indicate that the previous EU priorities remain relevant and that a reshaping of the Agenda (rather than starting from scratch) was considered sufficient. Interestingly, many of the elements added seem to be a reiteration of policy issues addressed by the European Council in its conclusions over the last 5 years. Thus, the document appears to be a collection of previously agreed positions rather than a new set of guidelines. While the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the change in the geopolitical context have fed into the new Strategic Agenda, other major issues of recent years such as health and energy are less explicitly referred to than could have been expected considering the severity of the crises with which the EU has been confronted.

The European Council’s role in setting the EU’s political priorities

The European Council is composed of the Heads of State or Government of the EU Member States, as well as its President and the President of the European Commission. Its role, as defined in Article 15 (1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), is to ‘provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development’ and to define its ‘general political directions and priorities’. The European Council sets the 5-year political priorities for the EU, at the start of the institutional cycle, shortly after the European elections, in a document known as the Strategic Agenda.

The Strategic Agenda influences the political priorities of the new Commission President and feeds into the subsequent Commission annual work programmes. Therefore, the guidelines outlined in the Strategic Agenda are likely to be reflected in the legislative proposals put forward by the Commission and, in turn, in the legislative work of the Parliament and the Council.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Strategic Agenda 2024-2029: Continuity or paradigm shift?‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni vowed on Sunday (28 July) to "relaunch" cooperation with China, signing a three-year action plan during her first official visit to Beijing since taking office.

Britain's government declared the country was "broke and broken" ahead of an assessment of the public finances on Monday which the newly-elected Labour Party will use to blame their predecessors for a 20 billion pound (€23.7 billion) shortfall.

Stage Fanfare Balkan et Kaval Bulgare 2024
Heure et lieu
24 juil. 2024, 14:00 – 28 juil. 2024, 10:00
Le Tapis Vert , Le Tapis Vert, 61320 Lalacelle, France
INTERVENANTS
Gaël AugustinTrompette
Joaquim Juigner-Dewelle Tuba
Guillaume Klaval Saxophone, clarinette
Pol Small Percussion
Kiril Belezhkov, Kaval
et Bénédicte Jucquois Animation danse (Atelier le samedi AM et bal le vendredi et le samedi soir).
Informations et inscriptions ici

- Agenda / France - Régions

Véritable festival au cœur du Festival, le Village du Monde met à l'honneur une région du globe. Sur sa scène dédiée, le Dôme, la musique y joue un rôle central. Chaque année, les décors, la musique, les stands d'artisanat et de nourriture du Village du Monde sont repensés pour une expérience immersive placée sous le signe du respect, de l'ouverture, et de la fête bien sûr !
Prochaine escale : les Balkans, région multiculturelle d'Europe du Sud-Est ! La péninsule des Balkans est un (...)

- Agenda / Suisse

An igapó, a flood-prone wooded area on the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu River, with fruit on the dry ground. This is where the piracema, or fish reproduction, was supposed to take place, frustrated by the scarcity of water released by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on this stretch of the river in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The fruits are lost and stop feeding the fish by falling on the ground and not in the water. Credit: Mati / VGX

By Mario Osava
BELÉM, Brazil, Jul 28 2024 (IPS)

The decade-and-a-half-long battle for life in the so-called Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Xingu river, a stretch of the river dewatered by the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant in the Brazilian Amazon, has a possible solution, albeit a partial one.

The mega power project divided the waters of the Xingu. It has taken up most of the river and emptied the now 130-kilometre U-shaped Reduced Flow Stretch (TVR, in Portuguese), whose banks are home to two indigenous groups and a community, all affected by the depletion of fish, the basis of their livelihood.“We have become illiterate about the river, and the fish. We no longer know how to read what is happening in the river”: river dweller.

A proposal drawn up by these villagers and scientific researchers makes it possible to recover the minimum conditions for the reproduction of fish, which have declined since the plant began operations in 2016. The goal is to mitigate the project’s negative impacts on the people living in the area.

But Norte Energía, the concessionaire of Belo Monte, estimates that this alternative would cost it a 39% reduction in its electricity generation. The dilemma pits the vital needs of the riverside population against the company’s economic feasibility.

Belo Monte, 700 kilometres southwest of Belém, is one of major power and logistics projects that abounded in Latin America in the first two decades of this century. It is the third largest hydroelectric plant in the world, with a capacity of 11,233 megawatts and an expected effective generation of only 40% on average.

Josiel Juruna, speaking at a July meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, in the city of Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

The Xingu river in the eastern Amazon region attracted energy interest because of its average flow of 7,966 cubic metres per second and the gradient that allowed Belo Monte to have its main power plant with a water fall of 87 metres.

But its flow has excessive variations, with floods 20 times higher than its low water level. With less than 1,000 cubic metres per second in low water, it lowers the plant’s average annual generation.

To prevent the flooding of the Volta Grande of the Xingu (VGX) and, within it, of the two indigenous lands of the Juruna and Arara peoples, a canal was built to connect the two points of the curve, diverting about 70% of the river’s waters and draining the life out of the curved section.

A sarobal, an island of stones and sand, prone to flooding in the Vuelta Grande of Xingu, in Brazil’s eastern Amazon. It used to be a fish breeding site, but lost that function due to the water shortage caused by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, which diverted 70% of the river’s water into a channel used for power generation. Credit: Mati / VGX

The power plant and the ecosystem’s disruption

In addition to taking away water, the project disrupted the environment, especially water cycles, and thus human, animal and plant life. “We have become illiterate about the river, and the fish. We no longer know how to read what is happening in the river,” said a river dweller at a hearing organised by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in August 2022.

Piracema, the upstream migration of shoals of fish during spawning, is vital to sustain livelihoods in the VGX, stresses Josiel Juruna, local coordinator of the Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring (Mati).

Belo Monte deteriorated the quality of life of river dwellers by making piracema unviable.

That is why Mati, led by some 30 university scientists and local researchers, prioritised the monitoring and recovery of the piracema, understood as a site for procreation, apart from monitoring and measuring other ecological aspects in the stretch most affected by the hydroelectric plant.

An Independent Environmental and Territorial Monitoring team observes critical points in the low-flow section of the Xingu river, whose waters have been diverted to the canal that feeds the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Courtesy of Juarez Pezzuti

As a result of their participatory research, launched in 2014 by the Juruna people and the non-governmental Instituto Socioambiental, in 2022 Mati presented to environmental authorities the Piracema Hydrograph, which indicates the flow necessary for the reproduction of fish in the VGX.

This is an alternative to hydrographs A and B, which govern the flow of water that Belo Monte releases to the VGX, in defined quantities for each month, to meet the conditions agreed for the operation of the hydroelectric plant. They are also called Consensus hydrographs, applied according to different pluviometric conditions.

These flows were defined in the environmental impact studies carried out by specialised companies, but paid for by Norte Energía, to obtain the license for the construction and operation of the plant.

A sample of the hydrographs that should govern the amount of water destined each month to the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu river to sustain its ecological functions. In purple and with flow figures for each month, the hydrograph proposed by indigenous people, riverside dwellers and scientific researchers to recover the lower and more productive piracemas. Credit: Mati / VGX

Piracema, key to river life

Indigenous people have always disagreed with these hydrographs because they do not ensure the necessary flow for maintaining the ecosystem, which is indispensable for the fish, the basis of their diet and the income they obtain from the sale of surplus fish.

It releases insufficient water at inappropriate times, ignoring the dynamics of the piracema, according to Juruna.

“The Belo Monte hydrograph only allows flooding in April, but the piracema requires lots of water between January and March, so that it fills the sarobal and igapós, where the female fish arrive to spawn and then the males for fertilisation,” he told IPS in Belém.

The word sarobal in Brazil defines an island of stone and sand, flooded and with vegetation of grasses and shrubs that provide food for the fish. Igapó is also a flooded area of banks and small waterways, with trees and vegetation that produce fruit and other foodstuffs.

Without water, the fish do not have access to their breeding grounds or to the fruits, which fall on the dry ground. Juruna often shows a video of a curimatá, a fish abundant in the Xingu, with dried eggs in its belly. It “couldn’t spawn” because there was no water in the piracema at the right time, he explained.

Apart from more water, the Piracema Hydrograph requires bringing forward the release of more water for the Vuelta Grande by at least three months. And maintaining the flood for a few months is also indispensable to feed the fish with the fruits falling in the water and not on the ground.

In fact, it is necessary to increase the flow of the VGX with ‘new water’ from November onwards, so that the fish start to migrate. “Without the right amount of water at the right time, there is no piracema”, the basis of river life, stresses a Mati report.

Fish killed by a fall in water flow in the Xingu river’s Vuelta Grande. Credit: Mati / VGX

Irrecoverable way of life

The Piracema Hydrograph will not restore the former way of life in the Vuelta Grande. That would require restoring past conditions, without the hydroelectric plant, admitted Juruna. His goal is to rehabilitate “the lower piracemas”, i.e. the sarobals and the floodable igapós with a little more water than what Belo Monte releases.

“The higher piracemas will no longer exist,” he lamented.

There will be no fish as before, the Juruna have already become farmers and mainly cultivate cocoa. A recovery of the piracemas will allow them to fish for their own food, but hardly for sale and income, he said.

Community life has declined among the indigenous people, who increasingly feed themselves on ‘city products’ and move more and more to Altamira, a city 50 kilometres away from the indigenous land of Paquiçamba, where the Jurunas live.

With Belo Monte, a road to the city was built and motorbikes have multiplied in the indigenous village, Juruna observed. Their way of life has been profoundly altered, but the indigenous people are resisting the death of their river and the Mati have added their traditional knowledge to scientific research.

Biologist Juarez Pezzuti, a professor at the Federal University of Pará, based in Belém, and a member of Mati, believes it necessary to dispel the idea of Belo Monte and other hydroelectric plants, especially those in the Amazon, as sources of sustainable energy.

“They emit greenhouse gases in a similar proportion to fossil-fuel thermoelectric plants,” he told IPS. In addition to flooding vegetation when the reservoir is formed, they continue to do so afterwards, because as their waters recede, the vegetation that will later be flooded is renewed.

Their downstream impacts are only now beginning to be studied. In the Amazon, they dry up the igapós, as has already been seen in the Balbina power plant near Manaus, capital of the neighbouring state of Amazonas.

It is a technology in decline, whose social, environmental and climatic costs tend to be better recognised and call into question its benefits, he concluded.

An igapó, a flood-prone wooded area on the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu River, with fruit on the dry ground. This is where the piracema, or fish reproduction, was supposed to take place, frustrated by the scarcity of water released by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant on this stretch of the river in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The fruits are lost and stop feeding the fish by falling on the ground and not in the water. Credit: Mati / VGX

By Mario Osava
BELÉM, Brazil, Jul 28 2024 (IPS)

The decade-and-a-half-long battle for life in the so-called Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Xingu river, a stretch of the river dewatered by the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant in the Brazilian Amazon, has a possible solution, albeit a partial one.

The mega power project divided the waters of the Xingu. It has taken up most of the river and emptied the now 130-kilometre U-shaped Reduced Flow Stretch (TVR, in Portuguese), whose banks are home to two indigenous groups and a community, all affected by the depletion of fish, the basis of their livelihood.“We have become illiterate about the river, and the fish. We no longer know how to read what is happening in the river”: river dweller.

A proposal drawn up by these villagers and scientific researchers makes it possible to recover the minimum conditions for the reproduction of fish, which have declined since the plant began operations in 2016. The goal is to mitigate the project’s negative impacts on the people living in the area.

But Norte Energía, the concessionaire of Belo Monte, estimates that this alternative would cost it a 39% reduction in its electricity generation. The dilemma pits the vital needs of the riverside population against the company’s economic feasibility.

Belo Monte, 700 kilometres southwest of Belém, is one of major power and logistics projects that abounded in Latin America in the first two decades of this century. It is the third largest hydroelectric plant in the world, with a capacity of 11,233 megawatts and an expected effective generation of only 40% on average.

Josiel Juruna, speaking at a July meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science, in the city of Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Mario Osava / IPS

The Xingu river in the eastern Amazon region attracted energy interest because of its average flow of 7,966 cubic metres per second and the gradient that allowed Belo Monte to have its main power plant with a water fall of 87 metres.

But its flow has excessive variations, with floods 20 times higher than its low water level. With less than 1,000 cubic metres per second in low water, it lowers the plant’s average annual generation.

To prevent the flooding of the Volta Grande of the Xingu (VGX) and, within it, of the two indigenous lands of the Juruna and Arara peoples, a canal was built to connect the two points of the curve, diverting about 70% of the river’s waters and draining the life out of the curved section.

A sarobal, an island of stones and sand, prone to flooding in the Vuelta Grande of Xingu, in Brazil’s eastern Amazon. It used to be a fish breeding site, but lost that function due to the water shortage caused by the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, which diverted 70% of the river’s water into a channel used for power generation. Credit: Mati / VGX

The power plant and the ecosystem’s disruption

In addition to taking away water, the project disrupted the environment, especially water cycles, and thus human, animal and plant life. “We have become illiterate about the river, and the fish. We no longer know how to read what is happening in the river,” said a river dweller at a hearing organised by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in August 2022.

Piracema, the upstream migration of shoals of fish during spawning, is vital to sustain livelihoods in the VGX, stresses Josiel Juruna, local coordinator of the Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring (Mati).

Belo Monte deteriorated the quality of life of river dwellers by making piracema unviable.

That is why Mati, led by some 30 university scientists and local researchers, prioritised the monitoring and recovery of the piracema, understood as a site for procreation, apart from monitoring and measuring other ecological aspects in the stretch most affected by the hydroelectric plant.

An Independent Environmental and Territorial Monitoring team observes critical points in the low-flow section of the Xingu river, whose waters have been diverted to the canal that feeds the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the Brazilian Amazon. Credit: Courtesy of Juarez Pezzuti

As a result of their participatory research, launched in 2014 by the Juruna people and the non-governmental Instituto Socioambiental, in 2022 Mati presented to environmental authorities the Piracema Hydrograph, which indicates the flow necessary for the reproduction of fish in the VGX.

This is an alternative to hydrographs A and B, which govern the flow of water that Belo Monte releases to the VGX, in defined quantities for each month, to meet the conditions agreed for the operation of the hydroelectric plant. They are also called Consensus hydrographs, applied according to different pluviometric conditions.

These flows were defined in the environmental impact studies carried out by specialised companies, but paid for by Norte Energía, to obtain the license for the construction and operation of the plant.

A sample of the hydrographs that should govern the amount of water destined each month to the Vuelta Grande of the Xingu river to sustain its ecological functions. In purple and with flow figures for each month, the hydrograph proposed by indigenous people, riverside dwellers and scientific researchers to recover the lower and more productive piracemas. Credit: Mati / VGX

Piracema, key to river life

Indigenous people have always disagreed with these hydrographs because they do not ensure the necessary flow for maintaining the ecosystem, which is indispensable for the fish, the basis of their diet and the income they obtain from the sale of surplus fish.

It releases insufficient water at inappropriate times, ignoring the dynamics of the piracema, according to Juruna.

“The Belo Monte hydrograph only allows flooding in April, but the piracema requires lots of water between January and March, so that it fills the sarobal and igapós, where the female fish arrive to spawn and then the males for fertilisation,” he told IPS in Belém.

The word sarobal in Brazil defines an island of stone and sand, flooded and with vegetation of grasses and shrubs that provide food for the fish. Igapó is also a flooded area of banks and small waterways, with trees and vegetation that produce fruit and other foodstuffs.

Without water, the fish do not have access to their breeding grounds or to the fruits, which fall on the dry ground. Juruna often shows a video of a curimatá, a fish abundant in the Xingu, with dried eggs in its belly. It “couldn’t spawn” because there was no water in the piracema at the right time, he explained.

Apart from more water, the Piracema Hydrograph requires bringing forward the release of more water for the Vuelta Grande by at least three months. And maintaining the flood for a few months is also indispensable to feed the fish with the fruits falling in the water and not on the ground.

In fact, it is necessary to increase the flow of the VGX with ‘new water’ from November onwards, so that the fish start to migrate. “Without the right amount of water at the right time, there is no piracema”, the basis of river life, stresses a Mati report.

Fish killed by a fall in water flow in the Xingu river’s Vuelta Grande. Credit: Mati / VGX

Irrecoverable way of life

The Piracema Hydrograph will not restore the former way of life in the Vuelta Grande. That would require restoring past conditions, without the hydroelectric plant, admitted Juruna. His goal is to rehabilitate “the lower piracemas”, i.e. the sarobals and the floodable igapós with a little more water than what Belo Monte releases.

“The higher piracemas will no longer exist,” he lamented.

There will be no fish as before, the Juruna have already become farmers and mainly cultivate cocoa. A recovery of the piracemas will allow them to fish for their own food, but hardly for sale and income, he said.

Community life has declined among the indigenous people, who increasingly feed themselves on ‘city products’ and move more and more to Altamira, a city 50 kilometres away from the indigenous land of Paquiçamba, where the Jurunas live.

With Belo Monte, a road to the city was built and motorbikes have multiplied in the indigenous village, Juruna observed. Their way of life has been profoundly altered, but the indigenous people are resisting the death of their river and the Mati have added their traditional knowledge to scientific research.

Biologist Juarez Pezzuti, a professor at the Federal University of Pará, based in Belém, and a member of Mati, believes it necessary to dispel the idea of Belo Monte and other hydroelectric plants, especially those in the Amazon, as sources of sustainable energy.

“They emit greenhouse gases in a similar proportion to fossil-fuel thermoelectric plants,” he told IPS. In addition to flooding vegetation when the reservoir is formed, they continue to do so afterwards, because as their waters recede, the vegetation that will later be flooded is renewed.

Their downstream impacts are only now beginning to be studied. In the Amazon, they dry up the igapós, as has already been seen in the Balbina power plant near Manaus, capital of the neighbouring state of Amazonas.

It is a technology in decline, whose social, environmental and climatic costs tend to be better recognised and call into question its benefits, he concluded.

African Games champion Cynthia Ogunsemilore is suspended at the Olympics after testing positive for a banned diuretic and masking agent.

South Sudan says it felt disrespected by the gaffe, which organisers said was a "human error".

The European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States join forces to implement outcomes of the 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4).

Statement by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1970 of 15 July 2024 amending Decision (CFSP) 2023/1532 concerning restrictive measures in view of Iran’s military support to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to armed groups and entities in the Middle East and the Red Sea region.

The Council adopted decisions establishing the existence of excessive deficits for Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia. In addition the Council established that Romania, which is under the excessive deficit procedure since 2019, has not taken effective action to correct its deficit and therefore the procedure should remain open.