Newsletter
Newsletter
EUROPE
Holocaust Remembrance Day in many countries around the world: Wailing sirens across Israel brought life to a standstill, with cars and trucks coming to a halt on motorways so that citizens could remember the 6 million Jewish people who were murdered. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog placed wreaths at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial before a ceremony in the Knesset during which names of Holocaust victims were read out. In Germany, the Israeli embassy commemorated the millions who were murdered with a ceremony at the Sachsenhausen Memorial, the site of a Nazi concentration camp. German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann denounced the Nazi regime’s crimes at the the commemoration event. „We will feel the shame forever,“ he said. dw.com
EU ambassador assaulted in Sudan amid internal violence: The European Union’s ambassador to Sudan was assaulted in his own residency Monday, according to the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell, amid a violent power struggle between rival military factions. A spokesperson for the European External Action Service confirmed it is Aidan O’Hara, from Ireland. The spokesperson said the ambassador is OK and is continuing his duties. The violence in Sudan erupted over the weekend between army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. politico.eu
Poland and Ukraine reach agreement on transit of grain: Poland has reached an agreement on restarting transit of Ukrainian grains through its territory as of Friday, Polish agriculture minister Robert Telus has said, adding transits would be monitored and sealed. Poland’s development minister Waldemar Buda added a ban on imports of Ukrainian food products to Poland would remain in place. Pressure has been mounting on Brussels to work out an EU-wide solution after Warsaw and Budapest announced bans on some imports from Ukraine at the weekend, with other countries in eastern Europe saying they are also considering action. independent.co.uk, news.sky.com
Switzerland prohibits re-export of arms to Ukraine: Even after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Switzerland is not backing down from its ban on transferring war material to Ukraine. Swiss neutrality laws mean that the government cannot support any side in military conflicts, said Swiss President Alain Berset. Switzerland could not be asked to break its own laws, he added. Scholz had previously stressed that the changing times forced everyone to rethink their policies. tagesschau.de
- Germany delivers Patriot air defence system to Ukraine. kyivindependent.com
Russian parliament votes to introduce life sentences for treason: Russian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to introduce life sentences for those convicted of treason, part of a concerted drive since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine to step up punishment of dissenters and perceived traitors. On Monday, a Moscow court had sentenced opposition politician activist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison on treason and other charges, the harshest sentence handed down to a Kremlin critic since Russia invaded Ukraine last February. Because of their expressions of solidarity with Kara-Mursa, the ambassadors of the US, Great Britain and Canada were summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. reuters.com, spiegel.de
- Macron wants China’s help to bring Russia and Ukraine to table. bloomberg.com
- Sweden starts largest military exercise in over 25 years. dw.com
- Thousands turn out for anti-government protest in Prague. apnews.com
EU Commissioner draws attention to Crimean Tatars’ struggle for human rights: A report by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatović has warned that Crimean Tatars in Crimea, and especially those opposing Crimea’s illegal annexation by Russia, are being subjected to numerous patterns of serious violations of human rights, persecution, discrimination, and stigmatisation by the Russian occupying authorities. She added that „Crimean Tatars have been exposed to a never-ending string of human rights violations and unfairly cast out of their ancestral homeland many times in the course of their troubled history.“ coe.int
Parliament approves core EU climate legislation: The European Parliament on Tuesday gave its final blessing to key pieces of legislation that form the backbone of the EU’s flagship climate policy package — putting them one step closer to becoming law. The revision of the EU’s carbon market, known as the Emissions Trading System, includes fully integrating aviation into the mechanism and extending it to cover shipping emissions. It also compels power generators and heavy polluters to curb their pollution by 62% by 2030. politico.eu
New rules for electrical appliances in standby mode: The EU Commission adopted new rules to reduce the energy consumption of electrical appliances when they are in standby mode. The revised rules introduce a number of amendments to the 2008 ecodesign regulation on standby, off mode and networked standby, last updated in 2013, following an extensive consultation exercise and scrutiny from the European Parliament and the Council. energy.ec.europa.eu
Campaigners sue EU for labelling gas and nuclear investments as green: Greenpeace and other campaign groups are taking the European Commission to court, seeking to overturn EU rules that class nuclear energy and natural gas as climate-friendly investments. The groups are targeting the EU’s „taxonomy“, a list of investments that can be labelled and marketed as sustainable in Europe. The complex scheme aims to guide investors towards projects that support the EU’s climate change goals. reuters.com
Stricter EU lobbying rules after corruption scandal: The European Parliament has decided to prohibit former members from lobbying legislators for six months after leaving office in response to a bribery scandal that has rocked the EU. The reform comes as the parliament grapples with the fallout from the scandal involving the alleged bribery of members said to have been paid to push the interests of Qatar and Morocco. thejournal.ie
EU legislators strike deal on €43B chips plan: The EU’s plan to boost microchips production in the bloc got the green light on Tuesday. Negotiating teams from the EU Parliament, the Swedish Council presidency, and the EU Commission agreed on the Chips Act, a range of measures meant to bring the EU’s share of the global semiconductor value chain to 20% by 2030 (it currently stands at 9%). politico.eu
EU lawmakers find compromise on EU supply chain law: Members of the EU Parliament reached an internal agreement on the corporate sustainability due diligence directive, proposed by the Commission in February 2022 to hold large companies accountable for human rights abuses and environmental violations in their value chain. The meeting allowed MEPs to resolve many contentious points that previously delayed the legal affairs committee’s vote on the file. The vote is now set to take place next week. euractiv.com
Brussels announces plans to defend itself from growing cyber threats: The defence system will be based on the prevention and detection of cyberattacks thanks to a pan-European cyber-shield made up of public and private centres. This will mean entrusting part of the bloc’s defence to private companies and forcing member states to cooperate. euronews.com
EU revamps rules for bailing out mid-size banks and protect deposits: As markets gradually return to normalcy following weeks of turbulence, the European Commission has unveiled a new set of rules to further protect deposits, prevent bank runs and ensure taxpayers do not end up footing the bill every time a financial institution falls victim to its own mismanagement. euronews.com
EU auditors: A third of EU live animal journeys last over eight hours euractiv.com
China: EU’s climate policy chief Frans Timmermans postpones China trip after positive COVID test politico.eu
Brexit: EU won’t demand Horizon contributions but UK launches alternative scheme euractiv.com
Inflation: Food prices surge at European Parliament politico.eu
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has renewed her call for more economic independence from China. ec.europa.eu
NATION
Macron defends pension law: French President Emmanuel Macron defended his controversial pension reform in a televised address on Monday, insisting that raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 was necessary to keep the country’s pension system from collapsing. Macron acknowledged that the reform was unpopular. He gave his government 100 days to heal the country. „Ahead of us are 100 days of appeasement, unity, ambition and action in the service of France,“ he said. He announced negotiations in the coming months about key issues like improving employees‘ income, pushing professional careers forward, better sharing wealth and improving working conditions, including for older workers. dw.com
France’s first big wildfire of the year: France’s government sounded the alarm Monday about the growing risk of forest fires because of climate change, as hundreds of firefighters in the country’s parched south wrestled with their biggest woodland-destroying blaze so far this year. The fire erupted Sunday and burned on more than 1,000 hectares of land along the Mediterranean coast, and spread across the border into northeastern Spain. abcnews.go.com
Several people stabbed in German fitness studio: An attacker seriously injured at least four people at a fitness centre in the German city of Duisburg on Tuesday evening, police said on Twitter. Authorities confirmed that an operation led by police from the nearby city of Essen was under way and advised citizens to avoid the area. „There is still no arrest,“ a spokesman for the Essen police told dpa news agency. dw.com
Biden stresses bond between Ireland and US: On his first presidential visit to Northern Ireland, Biden stressed that American investment can help fuel economic growth – especially if the fractious politicians in Belfast resolve a new political crisis that has rattled the Good Friday peace deal and put Northern Ireland’s government on pause. Biden touted the „unlimited possibilities“ for investment and growth offered in the UK-ruled territory, 25 years on from a historic peace deal brokered by the US government. france24.com
Europe’s most powerful nuclear reactor kicks off in Finland: Finland’s much-delayed and costly new nuclear reactor, Europe’s most powerful by production capacity, has completed a test phase lasting more than a year and started regular output, boosting the Nordic country’s electricity self-sufficiency significantly. The Olkiluoto 3 reactor, which has 1,600-megawatt capacity, was connected into the Finnish national power grid in March 2022 and kicked off regular production on Sunday. apnews.com
UK’s Sunak probed over outside interest related to wife: The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has opened an inquiry into whether Prime Minister Rishi Sunak failed to declare a relevant interest. The probe relates to a verbal exchange about childcare policy between the prime minister and a panel of senior members of the House of Commons on 28 March, media reported. Sunak was asked by the committee if he had any interest to declare on the matter, to which he replied: “No”, despite his wife Akshata Murty owning a minority stake in a childcare company called Koru Kids. scmp.com
Italy to allow ChatGPT to return if OpenAI takes useful steps: Italy’s data protection watchdog is ready to allow the return of the ChatGPT chatbot at the end of April if its maker OpenAI takes useful steps to address the agency’s concerns, the authority’s chief Pasquale Stanzione said in an interview. OpenAI took ChatGPT offline in Italy in late March after the watchdog temporarily restricted its personal data processing and began a probe into a suspected breach of privacy rules. reuters.com
- Signal joins WhatsApp in petition against UK Online Safety Bill. cybernews.com
Merkel awarded Germany’s top order of merit: Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded the country’s highest order of merit despite criticism over her legacy, receiving praise for her discipline and passion during 16 years as chancellor. She was presented with the honour by the president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin on Monday evening in recognition of her contribution to German political life at an event attended by her political allies, including the current chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the former national football coach Jürgen Klinsmann, Ulrich Matthes, an award-winning actor who had helped improve how she delivered speeches, as well as family and friends. theguardian.com
Air France and Airbus acquitted in trial over 2009 plane crash: Airbus and Air France were acquitted of manslaughter charges by a French criminal court on Monday over their role in the 2009 crash of a flight from Rio to Paris that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board. The ruling did not come as a surprise. At the end of the two-month trial last year, after reviewing all of the evidence, prosecutors had taken the unusual step of announcing that they would not seek convictions, arguing that there was not enough evidence to hold the companies criminally liable. The court agreed. nytimes.com
Belgian authorities ask for immunity of Greek MEP to be waived over sexual harassment claim: Belgian authorities have requested that the immunity of Alexis Georgoulis, the popular Greek actor who was elected as a member of the European Parliament with SYRIZA, be waived. The request is over a case of alleged sexual harassment that dates back three years ago, Euronews reported. euronews.com
Hundreds of migrants reach Italy: Giorgia Meloni under pressure de.euronews.com
Water politics: How Spain’s drought became a battle ground for rural votes euractiv.com
EU Commission urges Greece to recover illegal state aid for 2007 wildfires euractiv.com
NUMBERS
Regional cost differences and uneven enforcement of EU animal transport rules by member states incentivise live animal transport, leading to loopholes and risks to adequate animal welfare standards, according to the European Court of Auditors. According to data from the EU Commission, over a third of live animals’ journeys in the EU are between eight and 24 hours long. euractiv.com
AT LAST
Absolut vodka exports to Russia discontinued after outcry in Sweden: The maker of Sweden’s Absolut vodka has said it is ceasing all exports to Russia after calls to boycott the brand flared up in Sweden and on social media. Absolut’s owner, Pernod Ricard, confirmed earlier in April that it had resumed some exports to Russia after previously halting them in March 2022, soon after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine. But the move sparked criticism, including from prominent politicians in Sweden. theguardian.com