Category: Євросоюз

There have been four outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu in farms in central and northern Italy since the start of the month and about 865,000 chickens, ducks and turkeys will be culled, officials said on Wednesday. The biggest outbreak was at a large egg producing farm in the province of Ferrara. The outbreak was confirmed on Oct. 6 and about 853,000 hens are due to be culled by Oct. 17, the IZSV zoological institute said. Another outbreak involved 12,400 broiler chickens at a smaller farm in the province of Vicenza. The other two were among a small number …

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The Danish government wants to increase its defense budget by 20 percent over the next five years in response to Russia stepping up military activity in eastern and northern Europe. Much of the West has been troubled by Russia’s actions since its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula Crimea and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people. Baltic countries have grown increasingly alarmed. Last year Russia, saying it was part of routine drills, moved ballistic nuclear-capable missiles to its enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and deployed …

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The Council of Europe is asking Italy to explain what its naval ships are doing off Libya’s coast amid concerns that Europe-bound migrants who are sent back to Libya face “a real risk” of torture or inhuman treatment. In a Sept. 28 letter published Wednesday, the council’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, warned Interior Minister Marco Minniti that Italy again risked violating the European Convention on Human Rights. The convention prohibits exposing people to “torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Italy announced in July it was sending naval units to Libya’s coast to help the local coast guard …

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Dinner at the Barcelona home of Catalonia-born Montserrat Armisen, an independence supporter, can be a tense affair. “He criticizes us and doesn’t let us eat in peace,” said Armisen of her husband, Gustavo Gomez, a Colombian who favors keeping the Spanish state intact, and their children, Jordi, 18, and Nicolas, 27. “We go to our protests, return and don’t say anything, but he just carries on,” said Armisen, 55. “It bothers us because there is no respect for us from his part.” For many in Spain, the Catalonia crisis that threatens to fracture the country is also tearing at ordinary …

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Russia accused the United States on Tuesday of pretending to fight Islamic State and of deliberately reducing its airstrikes in Iraq to allow the group’s militants to stream into Syria to slow the Russian-backed advance of the Syrian army. The Pentagon strongly denied the accusations, saying that the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State posts data every day on the number and result of strikes for the public to see. In the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the U.S.-led coalition had sharply reduced its airstrikes in Iraq in …

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan pledged gas, investment and support for the Balkans on Tuesday, in an apparent bid to expand influence in a region frustrated by the slow pace of EU accession. His two-day trip to Serbia — a mainly Orthodox Christian country at fierce odds with Turkey during Yugoslavia’s bloody collapse — could help grow Turkey’s role in a region that spent centuries under Ottoman rule and remains susceptible to big-power rivalries. Turkish influence is already strong among fellow Muslims in Bosnia, Albania and Kosovo. Serbia is Russia’s closest ally in the Balkans. “Together with Serbia and with the …

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European Union Council President Donald Tusk said Tuesday that Brexit negotiations will not move to the next stage focused on trade relations before December at the earliest — not later this month, as Britain was hoping. Tusk bemoaned the slow pace of divorce negotiations with London and said it was still far too early to move to the next phase of planning a new trade relationship because the initial breakup talks have yet to reach “sufficient progress.” “We are negotiating in good faith, and we still hope that the so-called ‘sufficient progress’ will be possible by December,” Tusk said.   …

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The Italian government on Tuesday called for confidence votes in the lower house of parliament to try to force through an electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement. The new voting law, which would be used in a national election due by next May, is backed by the ruling Democratic Party (PD), former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and the anti-migrant Northern League. Unlike the current rules, the new system, known as the Rosatellum, would allow the formation of broad coalitions before the ballot, a factor likely to hurt the maverick 5-Star, which …

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Leaders in Catalonia are facing increasing domestic and international pressure to abandon plans to declare independence from Spain, ahead of a planned speech by Catalonia’s regional president. Catalan regional leader Carles Puigdemont is due to address the regional parliament on Tuesday, and Spain’s government is worried the legislature will vote for a unilateral declaration of independence. Puigdemont has not revealed what his message to lawmakers will be. Political leaders, both domestically and internationally, urged Catalan leaders on Monday to back down to ease growing tensions in the country. Major speaks out Barcelona’s mayor was the latest to speak out against …

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A satirical look at the European Union and its bureaucracy, which opens with a pig running amok in one of Brussels’ main squares, has won the prestigious German Book Prize. Austrian writer Robert Menasse scooped a 25,000 euro prize for his novel Die Hauptstadt (The Capital) on Monday, on the eve of the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Europe’s future hangs in the balance as Britain wrangles with Brussels about the terms of its departure from the bloc after the June 2016 Brexit vote. Despite efforts to provide a united front, the other 27 members remain deeply divided over …

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Any escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula is unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump warned over the weekend that “only one thing will work” in dealing with Pyongyang, hinting that military action was on his mind. “Lavrov underlined the inadmissibility of any escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula, to which the USA’s military preparations lead, and called for contradictions to be resolved by diplomatic means only,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. Lavrov also demanded the return of Russian diplomatic …

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NATO is set to launch a new multinational force in Romania on Monday to counter Russia along its eastern flank and to check a growing Russian presence in the Black Sea following the Kremlin’s 2014 seizure of Crimea. Initially a small force relying on troops from 10 NATO countries including Italy and Canada, as well as Romania, the land, air and sea deployments will complement about 900 U.S. troops already in place. “Our purpose is peace, not war,” Romanian President Klaus Iohannis told the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Bucharest. “We are not a threat for Russia. But we need dialogue …

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The Russian Justice Ministry has warned U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that it may impose restrictions on some of the broadcaster’s operations in Russia in response to what Moscow claims is pressure on Russian state-funded outlets in the United States. The ministry said in a letter dated October 9 that the operations of Current Time television, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with Voice of America, fall under Article 2 of Russian law on NGOs and foreign agents, and that Russia therefore retains the right to impose restrictions on Current Time. “The activity of your organization may be …

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The Kremlin on Monday called for restraint on North Korea after U.S. President Donald Trump warned over the weekend that “only one thing will work” in dealing with Pyongyang, hinting that military action was on his mind. When asked what Russia made of Trump’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters: “Moscow has called and continues to call on the parties involved in the conflict and on those who have anything to do with this issue to exercise restraint and to avoid any steps that would only worsen the situation.” Commenting on a Trump statement that …

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Turkey on Monday urged the United States to reverse its temporary halt to non-immigrant visa applications – a move that was quickly mirrored by Turkey the day before. A statement Sunday from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said, “Recent events have forced the United States Government to reassess the commitment of the Government of Turkey to the security of U.S. Mission facilities and personnel. The statement did not clarify the reasons for which it is reassessing Turkey’s commitment, nor did it say how long the suspension would last. The statement added, “In order to minimize the number of visitors to …

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Is it time to say arrivederci to Christopher Columbus? A movement to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day has gained momentum in some parts of the U.S., with Los Angeles in August becoming the biggest city yet to decide to stop honoring the Italian explorer and instead recognize victims of colonialism.   Austin, Texas, followed suit Thursday. It joined cities including San Francisco, Seattle and Denver, which had previously booted Columbus in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day.   But the gesture to recognize indigenous people rather than the man who opened the Americas to European domination …

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Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared March 19, 2012, the date an Islamic militant killed a Jewish rabbi and three children in Toulouse, “a day of national tragedy.” The gunman, Mohammed Merah, a French petty criminal of Algerian descent, had targeted French soldiers a week earlier in two attacks, one at a shopping center. On March 19 it was the turn of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school. Dismounting a motorbike, the 23-year-old Merah unleashed a fusillade toward the schoolyard, killing first the rabbi as he shielded his two young sons, who were shot also, and then chasing a fleeing …

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A Sarajevo court Monday acquitted a former commander of the Bosnian Army in Srebrenica of war crimes during the Balkan wars of 1990s. Naser Oric, 50, was found not guilty of killing three Bosnian Serb prisoners of war in 1992. The court also acquitted an Oric subordinate, former Bosnian Army soldier Sabahudin Muhic of the killings that took place in Srebrenica area. The prosecution had alleged that Oric and killed the Serb captives in the villages of Zalazje, Lolici and Kunjerac. However, the presiding judge Saban Maksumic said the prosecution was not able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Oric …

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British Prime Minister Theresa May says she is “resilient” despite a difficult speech at the Conservative Party conference and growing threats to her leadership. She told the Sunday Times she would not hide from a challenge as she fights off a rebellion from some legislators unhappy with her leadership. “The truth is my feelings can be hurt, like everyone else, but I am pretty resilient,” she said. Former Prime Minister John Major urged Conservative Party members to support May and scolded those who have plotted against her. “I urge all Conservative [lawmakers] to reflect very carefully on what is at …

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London police have released a 47-year-old man they had detained on suspicion of dangerous driving after his car veered off the pavement Saturday outside the city’s Natural History Museum. Eleven people were hurt in the incident and nine were hospitalized. Officials said none of the injuries was life-threatening. Initially, the crash was thought to be a terrorist attack, but police later said, “The incident is a road traffic investigation and not a terrorist-related incident.” Police said the man was released “under investigation” and did not reveal his identity. Britain is on its second-highest security alert level after five deadly attacks …

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