Category: Євросоюз

China may have sabotaged its own prospects for securing a sought-after investment agreement with the European Union when it penalized a long list of politicians, researchers and institutions – including a key member of Germany’s Green Party – in response to recent EU sanctions.The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, or CAI, was agreed to in principle at the end of last year but remains as much as a year from final ratification by the European Parliament, where support from Germany is seen as crucial to its approval.Recent polling shows the Greens – who are considered much tougher on China than the …

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During a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a return to discussions on human rights, saying such consultations in the past have improved relations between their two nations. The comments came during wide-ranging governmental consultations between Merkel and Li — held virtually due to the pandemic — on issues like the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, economic cooperation and other issues. Merkel, who is not running for re-election, noted the regular consultations between the two countries during her nearly 16 years in power improved cooperation on issues from climate change to business. She …

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European Union countries introducing their own COVID vaccination certificates would have to grapple with a myriad of disjointed systems if the bloc fails to build a shared one, a senior official said on Wednesday.   The EU is pushing to have a shared digital health pass to allow tourists to travel freely this summer. But discussions are not yet settled on costs, data and privacy issues, as well as technical and medical aspects of the new system.   “If we can deliver politically, the technical solution will be ready in time. If we don’t, we risk fragmentation across Europe, with …

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Russia ordered the expulsion Wednesday of seven diplomats from Slovakia and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in response to the expulsion of Russian Embassy personnel.      Russia’s Foreign Ministry ordered seven diplomats from the four countries to leave Moscow within one week.   Russia said the countries have displayed “pseudo-solidarity” with the Czech Republic, which last week ordered the expulsion of most Russian diplomatic staffers.   The Czech Republic had alleged that Russian spies were involved in a 2014 explosion at an ammunition depot, a charge Moscow has denied.   Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, among Russia’s …

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Seven Italian former members of the Red Brigades, a left-wing domestic terrorism group active in the 1970s and 1980s, were arrested on Wednesday morning in France, the French presidency said in a statement. Italian arrest warrants were issued for “acts of terrorism,” the statement said. French police are searching for three more suspects who were not at home. The communication to French prosecutors of the 10 requests from the Italian government follows “important bilateral work” to prepare for the arrests, which led investigators to focus on “the more serious crimes,” the French presidency said in a statement. Italy had initially …

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The UK government on Wednesday became the first country to announce it will regulate the use of self-driving vehicles at slow speeds on motorways, with the first such cars possibly appearing on public roads as soon as this year. Britain’s transport ministry said it was working on specific wording to update the country’s highway code for the safe use of self-driving vehicle systems, starting with Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) — which use sensors and software to keep cars within a lane, allowing them to accelerate and brake without driver input. The government said the use of ALKS would be restricted to …

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World powers resumed talks Tuesday in Vienna about revitalizing the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran’s nuclear development program and bring the United States back into the accord that former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from in 2018.Current U.S. President Joe Biden wants to rejoin the pact aimed at keeping Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, although Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.The U.S. does not have a seat at the table for the negotiations, but diplomats from the other countries in the agreement — Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France — are representing its interests at …

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Thousands rallied in Slovenia on Tuesday against the government of right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whom opponents accuse of curbing democratic freedoms in the traditionally moderate nation. The peaceful protest was held on Slovenia’s Resistance Day, which marks the start of the World War II struggle by partisan groups against Nazi German and fascist Italian occupiers. Protest organizers said they were fighting “for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.” Jansa’s government was formed last year after the resignation of a previous, liberal premier. A close ally of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Jansa has faced accusations of fueling hate speech, tightening …

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Monday he was likely to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding that all sides were at the “finish line” of agreeing a new cease-fire.   “It seems to me that everything is going toward the fact that this meeting will take place,” he said.   Zelenskiy has sought a meeting with Putin after the two countries traded blame over a spike in clashes in the Donbass conflict and a build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and in annexed Crimea.   Russia began a troop pullback last …

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European leaders and other American allies say President Joe Biden has done much in his first 100 days in the White House to start rebuilding confidence in U.S. leadership. But while agreeing with his key foreign policy goals, including confronting the global rise of authoritarianism, they are still taking the measure of the Biden administration — as are America’s foes, say analysts and diplomats.They say the 78-year-old Biden has already shown how a switch in the Oval Office can prompt significant political change with a promise of more to come, not only in the United States but across the globe. Observers in …

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Britain froze assets, imposed sanctions and enacted travel bans on nearly two dozen people accused of bribery, kickbacks and fraud on Monday, marking the first time the nation employed its own sanctioning powers to combat international corruption. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told lawmakers that the sanctions would prevent the United Kingdom from being used as “a haven for dirty money,” according to The Associated Press. “Corruption has a corrosive effect as it slows development, drains the wealth of poorer nations and keeps their people trapped in poverty. It poisons the well of democracy,” Raab said, according to Reuters. The list includes 14 Russians …

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Last week’s killing of a police worker outside Paris offers a chilling reminder that terrorism has become a grim feature of life in France. Now the country, which has weathered some of Europe’s most horrific terrorist attacks, joins just a handful of nations that are building concrete reminders. The French memorial-museum will be the first devoted not to one specific terrorism incident but to a broader arc of horror over a half-century. For VOA, Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.Camera: Lisa Bryant    …

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One hundred and eight prominent members of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP went on trial in the capital, Ankara, Monday in connection with violent nationwide protests in 2014 that left 37 people dead.The protests were against the government’s failure to militarily intervene as the Islamic State was poised to overrun the predominantly Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, on Turkey’s border.Speaking outside the courthouse Monday, HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar said the trial is politically motivated.”The party official called this a case of revenge which he said is the product of the defeats that the HDP has made the government suffer,” Sancar said.Ankara accuses …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday demanded that U.S. President Joe Biden reverse his declaration that the World War I-era massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide.In his first comments since Biden’s statement on Saturday, Erdogan said the U.S. leader “has made baseless, unjust and untrue remarks about the sad events that took place in our geography over a century ago.”Erdogan said he hoped Biden “will turn back from this wrong step as soon as possible.”The Turkish leader also advised Biden to “look in the mirror” at the slaughter of Native Americans by …

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Russian authorities ordered all offices of jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny closed Monday as a court reviews a request from state prosecutors to label his Anti-Corruption Foundation an “extremist” group.Labeling the group “extremist” would give Russian authorities more freedom to arrest and freeze assets of those associated with Navalny – the most high-profile opponent of President Vladimir Putin.Members of the group wrote on social media Monday that following the order, it will be too dangerous for them to continue working, but that they would continue to oppose Putin in a “personal” capacity.Russian Opposition Leader Navalny to End Hunger Strike From …

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Italy began lifting COVID-19 restrictions on bars, restaurants, theaters and museums in much of the country Monday, as one of the nations hit earliest and hardest by the coronavirus pandemic tries to reopen.Of the country’s 20 regions, 15 have been designated yellow zones, meaning there is a relatively low risk from the virus. Five are classified orange, and one, Sardinia, is still red.In the yellow zones, coffee bars and restaurants are now allowed to serve customers outdoors after a near-total shutdown of about six weeks. Outdoor amateur team contact sports were also allowed again. The reopening of pools and gyms …

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Russia is considering using convicts to expand a railway line in the far east, a government document showed, as Moscow faces migrant labor shortages due to COVID-19.Restrictions linked to the pandemic have prompted many migrant workers to leave Russia and authorities have warned construction projects could be slowed down.Russia has already brought in soldiers to build a segment of its Baikal-Amur Mainline railway (BAM) in the far east to transport more coal and metal to ports for export to Asia.It is now also considering convict laborers to work on the line which is being expanded as part of a more …

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A top European Union official said Sunday that Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should be able to travel to Europe by summer, easing existing travel restrictions.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told The New York Times that the union’s 27 members would accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Agency. The agency has approved the three vaccines used in the United States.”The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” von der Leyen said. “This will enable free movement and travel to the European …

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In March, one of the world’s biggest container ships became stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal, creating a commercial logjam and spikes in the cost of oil. At a training facility in France, mariners are learning how to avoid a similar predicament.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more. …

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A leading contender to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor this fall has called for “dialogue and toughness” toward China when it comes to defending democratic values and human rights.Annalena Baerbock, the environmentalist Greens’ candidate for chancellorship, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Europe should use its economic might to block Chinese goods made with forced labor and avoid communications technologies that endanger European security.”We are currently in a competition between systems: authoritarian powers versus liberal democracies,” she said in an interview published Sunday.Baerbock cited China’s investment in infrastructure and energy grids through Central Asia to Europe as “brutal …

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