⊂ EUROPE ⊃
UK wants to avoid vaccine export ban: Britain is prepared to share its AstraZeneca vaccine supplies to prevent the EU implementing a blanket export ban on Covid-19 vaccines to the UK, „The Times“ has reported. According to the newspaper, the British government is prepared to negotiate with the EU on how to divide up stocks of an active ingredient made at the Halix factory in Leiden. It will also work with the EU to improve production there. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged international cooperation over vaccines, saying a third wave of coronavirus elsewhere in Europe would inevitably affect the UK. Johnson spoke on Sunday to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to steer them away from bans. He said Monday that he was reassured that European leaders don’t want to see blockades. The European Commission, which has coordinated vaccine orders for the EU, said reciprocity was key. A US-based Phase 3 study has found the shot was effective in preventing Covid-19 and reported no evidence of the thrombosis-related events that have concerned EU countries.
thetimes.co.uk, theguardian.com, reuters.com, dw.com, politico.eu
EU targets China officials over Uyghur abuses: The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials on Monday for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The EU targeted four senior officials in Xinjiang. The sanctions involve a freeze on the officials’ assets and a ban on them travelling in the EU. China responded immediately, slapping sanctions on 10 European individuals and four institutions that it said had damaged China’s interests. The EU has also imposed sanctions over repression in North Korea, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in Libya, torture and repression against LGBTI people and political opponents in Chechnya in Russia, and torture, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings in South Sudan and Eritrea. Furthermore, sanctions were imposed on 11 high-ranking Myanmar military and administration officials who stand accused of orchestrating a military coup in early February.
apnews.com, reuters.com, politico.eu
Massive fire sweeps through Rohingya camp in Bangladesh: A massive fire broke out at a camp in Bangladesh housing Rohingya Muslim refugees from neighbouring Myanmar on Monday, reportedly destroying hundreds of ramshackle dwellings. According to the authorities, the fire broke out in one of 34 refugee camps and spread to two others. Mohammed Shamsud Douza, the deputy Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said authorities were trying to control the blaze. Rohingya refugees in the camps said many homes were burned down and several people had died, but neither the authorities nor the UNHCR could confirm the number of deaths. The cause of the blaze has not been established. The fire is the second big blaze to hit a refugee camp in Bangladesh so far this year.
npr.org, zeit.de, reuters.com
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New allegations of massacres in Tigray: Almost three weeks ago, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights called for an independent investigation into human rights violations that may amount to war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. A CNN investigation published on Friday revealed a massacre which took place during a religious festival in the town of Dengelat late last year. Now, more evidence of sexual violence being used as a deliberate weapon of war is emerging from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Women are being gang-raped, drugged and held hostage, according to medical records and testimonies from survivors shared with CNN. According to the doctors, almost all the women they treat recount similar stories of being raped by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers.
cnn.com, cnn.com
Six member states urge EU to re-focus on Bosnia: Six southern and eastern EU countries are asking the bloc’s foreign ministers to focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina and help the barely functioning Western Balkan country implement key reforms that should boost its dwindling EU membership bid and ease simmering tensions in the region. Bosnia-Herzegovina remains hostage to ethnic tensions between Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosniaks, with an unwieldy and barely functioning government. It has dragged its feet on democratic and economic reforms and has barely advanced its EU membership bid.
euractiv.com
EU sets up the European Peace Facility: As of Monday, the EU is equipped with a new financial instrument that will cover all its external actions that have military or defence implications under the Common Foreign and Security Policy. The European Peace Facility is an off-budget fund worth approximately €5 billion for the period 2021-2027, to be financed through contributions from EU member states. The ultimate aim of the fund is to enhance the EU’s ability to prevent conflict, preserve peace and strengthen international stability and security.
consilium.europa.eu
Brexit reality stokes fears for the peace in Northern Ireland: A dispute between Britain and the EU over the implementation of the so-called Northern Ireland protocol – designed to prevent a “hard” Irish border – has raised fears that the outrage it has caused among some caught in the middle could spill over into violent protest in the coming months. Northern Ireland remains deeply split along sectarian lines, 23 years after a peace deal largely ended three decades of bloodshed. Many Catholic nationalists aspire to unification with Ireland while Protestant unionists want to stay in the UK. Preserving that delicate peace without allowing the UK a back door into the EU’s single market via the border between Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland was one of the most difficult issues of nearly four years of tortuous talks on the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU. The protocol aimed to solve this by keeping Northern Ireland in both the UK’s customs territory and the EU’s single market. However, the subsequent disruption at Northern Irish ports to trade in everyday goods originating in Britain since the UK left the EU’s orbit on 31 December mean the matter is far from settled.
reuters.com
EU Parliament: Hearing on Covid vaccines with the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Emer Cooke this Tuesday handelsblatt.com
Sputnik V: Russian President Putin criticises EU official over comments on Sputnik V vaccine reuters.com
European Central Bank plans “digital euro” mdr.de
Cybersecurity: Council of the EU adopts conclusions on the EU’s cybersecurity strategy consilium.europa.eu
Sustainable farming ambitions: Between the CAP and the Green Deal euractiv.com
⊂ QUOTE OF THE DAY ⊃
„That is the path back to the Middle Ages.“
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn has criticised Turkey’s recent withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.
spiegel.de
⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃
Council of Europe Commissioner calls on Spain to better protect freedom of expression: In a letter to Spain’s justice minister, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, asked Spanish authorities to amend the country’s criminal code to strengthen existing safeguards of the right to freedom of expression and facilitate the work of Spanish courts in making decisions in full line with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. She noted that a growing number of criminal convictions, including custodial sentences, have in recent years been handed over on artists for controversial lyrics and other performances, and on social media activists for statements considered offensive on grounds of several criminal code provisions, in particular provisions on glorification of terrorism and on libels and insults to the crown. Rapper Pablo Hasel was recently arrested in Spain because his lyrics were found to have encouraged violence and insulted the monarchy, resulting in nationwide protests in support of the rapper.
coe.int, reuters.com
Slovak economy minister resigns: The leader of a junior Slovak coalition party said on Monday he was resigning as economy minister to help resolve a political crisis which has shaken Prime Minister Igor Matovic’s government. Richard Sulik’s announcement comes a day after Matovic offered his own resignation, with conditions, as his government has been reeling from a dispute sparked by a purchase of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine which has not been cleared by the EU drug regulator.
reuters.com
Amazon workers in Italy go on strike: Amazon workers took strike action in Italy on Monday, with 75% of the company’s workforce heeding the call to protest, according to strike organisers. The Italian protest comes after an e-commerce surge, with goods sold online in 2020 rising by a record 31% to 23.4 billion euros. This has prompted unions to seek tighter rules on workloads and shifts for drivers who they say deliver as many as 180-200 parcels a day. The unions say the workers who never stop have helped make Amazon’s stellar profits possible. However, they said that the only thanks the employees have gotten is more work and more pressure to work faster. Rather than improved working conditions, better pay, the right to organise and a safety net to catch them should they fall ill with Covid-19, employees are being pushed harder every day.
nbcnews.com.com, dw.com
Bulgarian PM calls on Russia to cease espionage activity: Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has called on Russia to stop conducting espionage activities in Sofia after six Bulgarian citizens were arrested in Sofia for allegedly participating in a Russian spy network on Friday. Commentators say the Bulgarian spy scandal has repercussions in NATO and could weigh in terms of further EU and US sanctions.
euractiv.com
Five years on, former PM remembers bombings that changed Belgium: It has been five years since Islamist bombers slaughtered 32 people in the Belgian capital Brussels, in an attack then prime minister Charles Michel says changed the country forever. In an AFP interview, Michel – now the president of the European Council and host of EU summits in the city – said he was still marked by the events of 22 March, a “terrible shock” that had a lasting impact.
euractiv.com
Church bells mark one year since first Czech Covid death: Church bells rang out across the Czech Republic Monday to mark one year since the first Covid-19 fatality in the country with the highest per capita death rate in the world. People were also asked to observe a minute’s silence to remember the dead, and members of a local movement drew 20,000 crosses onto the pavement of Prague’s historic Old Town Square.
france24.com
Kosovo parliament backs Kurti as new prime minister: Kosovo’s parliament backed Albin Kurti as prime minister on Monday, more than a month after the small Balkan country held a snap election. Kurti, whose coalition secured 67 votes in the 120-seat parliament, said its main priorities will be the fight against corruption and the creation of jobs. If it wants to join the EU, Kosovo must also improve relations with neighbouring Serbia, which is a candidate for membership in the bloc. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia refuses to recognise it. Before the vote, Kurti said he wants to resolve all pending issues with Serbia, but added that recognition of Kosovo’s independence by Belgrade remains the main precondition. Kurti has already served as prime minister, for 50 days last year, until his coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo, sided with the opposition to topple him, mainly over the handling of the Covid pandemic.
reuters.com
Carnival in Marseille: Arrests after illegal gathering krone.at
Lithuania: Political leadership vaccinated with AstraZeneca in front of running cameras tagesschau.de
Bulgaria offers Biontech cooperation handelsblatt.com
Austria: Further easing of Covid restrictions after Easter the earliest kurier.at
Italy seizes German refugee rescue ship „Sea-Watch 3“ dw.com
Avian flu in the Czech Republic: 40,000 ducks to be culled de.euronews.com
⊂ POLITJOBS ⊃
+++ECOS sucht Partnerships & Development Manager (m/f/d)+++Science Europe seeks Junior Communications Officer (m/f/d)+++GIZ sucht Leiter:in des Projekts Wertschöpfungskettenförderung (m/w/d)+++GIZ cherche Conseiller:e (h/f/a) spécialisé:e en politique fiscale et administration des finances publiques+++bitkom sucht Referent:in EU Public Affairs (m/w/d) +++GIZ seeks Head of Component (m/f/d) „Improving Regional Trade in Seed Potatoes in East Africa“+++European Business Summits seeks Communications, Programme and Research Assistant (CIP) (m/f/d)+++Jobs at politjobs.eu +++ Don’t miss any jobs with the politjobs.eu job alert +++
⊂ LAST BUT NOT LEAST ⊃
A strategy to protect Europe’s forests: Forests have a huge economic value, especially for industries such as pharmaceuticals, furniture, paper and tourism. According to the EU Commission, 60% of forests in Europe are in the hands of private owners, offering more than three million jobs to European citizens. This Wednesday is World Wildlife Day – this year with the theme of trees and habitats. The EU Commission wants the member states to plant at least three billion trees by 2030. A public hearing will run until mid-April to collect ideas for a new forest strategy for the next few decades. In the past five years, around eight billion euros from EU funds have been made available for forest management.
de.euronews.com