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Every Wednesday, the European Circle delivers an overview of the most important topics from the European Union and the European nations.

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Every Wednesday, the European Circle delivers an overview of the most important topics from the European Union and the European nations.

Newsletter

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Wednesday, 16 March 2022: European leaders risk train ride to meet Zelensky, NATO nations to meet in Brussels next week, Russia formally departs Council of Europe
16. März 2022

⊂ EUROPE ⊃

European leaders risk train ride to meet Zelensky: Ukraine has praised the courage of three European leaders who made a long, hazardous journey by rail from Poland to Kyiv in a show of support as the city came under further Russian attack. The prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday evening. They are the first international leaders to visit Zelensky since Russia unleashed war on its neighbour on 24 February. „Your visit is a powerful expression of support for Ukraine,“ the president is quoted as telling the group. bbc.com

NATO nations to meet in Brussels next week: US President Joe Biden will meet NATO and EU leaders in Brussels next week for a summit to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with no sign of Moscow backing down. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the 24 March meeting in a Twitter post on Tuesday and the White House confirmed Biden would attend, as well as a European Council Summit the same day. reuters.com

  • Slovakia approves NATO deployment welt.de
  • Hungary will stay out of Ukraine war, PM Orban tells rally reuters.com
  • New UK sanctions target Russian oligarchs and trade npr.org

Russia formally departs Council of Europe: Russia announced Tuesday that it formally left the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog. The head of the delegation at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Pyotr Tolstoy, handed a letter from Russia’s long-serving foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, to the Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of the Council of Europe, Russian state-run Tass reported. Russia’s departure from the body potentially preempts the country’s expulsion following its invasion of Ukraine. dw.com

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EU expands sanctions against Russia to ban luxury goods: The European Union has expanded its already-long list of sanctions against Russia to heavily restrict the export of EU-made luxury goods towards the oil-rich country. The luxury ban targets a vast catalogue of products worth over €300 that includes, among other articles, clothing, footwear, leather, fashion accessories, pearls, jewellery, gold, silversmith, diamonds, suitcases, handbags, purses, wallets, wigs, skincare, perfumes, as well as works of art, antiques, cutlery, porcelain, china and fine pottery. euronews.com

More than 2.8 million flee Ukraine war: The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began has topped 2.8 million, the United Nations said Monday. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said 2,808,792 refugees had now left the country – up another 110,512 from Sunday – making it the largest refugee exodus in Europe since World War II. news.yahoo.com

Europe sets 2027 deadline to end reliance on Russian oil and gas: Europe has given itself just five years to break its addiction to Russian oil and gas. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that EU leaders had agreed to spend the next two months drafting proposals for eliminating the bloc’s dependency on Russian energy imports by 2027. cnn.com

EU finance ministers agreed on carbon tariff rules: EU finance ministers reached an agreement outlining the bloc’s new rules on carbon tariffs on imports, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Finland’s finance chief Annika Saarikko said after a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday. The CBAM targets imports of carbon-intensive products, in full compliance with international trade rules, to prevent offsetting the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts through imports of products manufactured in non-EU countries, where climate change policies are less ambitious than in the EU. reuters.com, consilium.europa.eu

EU finance ministers: Global minimum tax hits roadblock as EU states disagree on directive. euractiv.com

European Central Bank surprises markets with move to wind down stimulus sooner than planned: The European Central Bank on Thursday announced it will wind down asset purchases faster than planned as it assesses the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The ECB said in a statement that it will end its bond-buying programme in the third quarter, if economic data allows it. cnbc.com

EU lawmakers demand a ban on ‘golden passports’: Concerned that EU citizenship is for sale, the European Parliament proposed new common rules to address the many problems linked to ‘citizenship/residence by investment’ schemes. The commitment by the EU Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, and the US to limit wealthy Russians with ties to the government from accessing ‘golden passports’ was raised during last week’s debate in plenary. europarl.europa.eu

EU countries to call for the establishment of a cybersecurity emergency fund: European governments have drafted a declaration to reinforce the EU’s cybersecurity capacities, including establishing a new fund and increasing EU funding to support national efforts. euractiv.com

Cryptocurrencies in the EU: new rules to boost benefits and curb threats: MEPs agreed on draft rules on supervision, consumer protection and environmental sustainability of crypto-assets, including cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins. europarl.europa.eu

EU Parliament agrees on position on battery regulation: The EU Parliament has adopted its position on new regulations for batteries’ entire product life cycle. MEPs in the EU Parliament have gone beyond the position of the Environment Committee and are proposing stricter requirements in terms of sustainability, performance and labelling. electrive.com

Initial agreement to board quotas for women: EU states have given initial approval to pushing firms to appoint women to at least 40% of non-executive director roles or 33% of all board jobs by 2027, the latest attempt to advance a draft law that has been stalled for a decade. reuters.com

US chip manufacturer Intel announces €33bn investment in Europe: The investment will support the establishment of a new mega fab in Germany, the expansion of an existing factory in Ireland, an R&D and design hub in France, and production and research capacities in Italy, Spain and Poland. euractiv.com

Climate: Europe’s permafrost is inevitably thawing spiegel.de
Coal phase-out plans on hold: EU countries eye coal over gas supply fears euractiv.com
Eurovision Song Contest: Ukraine competes de.euronews.com
Inside information: EU top court defends freedom of finance journalists politico.eu
Streaming: Amazon wins EU approval for MGM film studio purchase bloomberg.com

⊂ QUOTE OF THE DAY ⊃

I have a direct question to Macron and Scholz: How many times have you been or spoken to Moscow? What did you achieve?
Paris and Berlin must acknowledge that the eight years of diplomacy, which they have been conducting with Moscow, only led to escalation and ultimately the current war, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman told „Euractiv“ in an exclusive interview.
euractiv.com

⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃

EU Parliament calls for proceedings against Hungary and Poland: The European Parliament said the EU Commission must take urgent action and immediately apply the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism by notifying the member states concerned in writing. Parliament stresses that it is “high time” for the Commission to fulfil its duties as the guardian of the EU Treaties and react to the ongoing violations of the principles of the rule of law in some EU member states, which pose a danger to the European Union’s financial interests. europarl.europa.eu

French interior minister heading for Corsica for talks after violent protests: France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday that he would travel to Corsica later this week and hold talks with local elected officials after violent protests erupted on the weekend, a few weeks before the presidential election. reuters.com

NATO Allies demonstrate strength and unity with exercise Cold Response in Norway: Tens of thousands of troops from across Europe and North America are training together in harsh climatic conditions as part of Norwegian exercise Cold Response 2022. The exercise is defensive and long-planned, and it demonstrates NATO’s ability to respond decisively to any threat, from any direction. Around 30,000 troops from 27 nations, including NATO’s close partners Finland and Sweden, are taking part in the exercise, as well as about 220 aircraft and more than 50 vessels. nato.int

Poll: Majority of Finns now want to join NATO. reuters.com

Coronavirus:

  • Germany set to relax Covid restrictions dw.com
  • Netherlands drops last Covid rules amid hospitalisation rise nltimes.nl
  • Austria restricts free Covid tests tagesschau.de
  • France lifts COVID-19 rules on unvaccinated, mask wearing apnews.com
  • Architect of Sweden’s light-touch COVID response gets job at WHO reuters.com

Assange denied permission to appeal against extradition: The UK Supreme Court has refused to allow Julian Assange his latest appeal against extradition to the US. A court spokesman said Assange’s application did not raise „an arguable point of law“. The decision is a major blow to his hopes to avoid extradition. bbc.com

Mother of 2015 Bataclan attacker jailed for ‚financing terrorism‘: The mother of one of the 2015 Bataclan concert hall attackers has been convicted of „financing terrorism“. Fatima Hajji was found guilty of sending more than €13,000 to her son and his partner while they were in Iraq and Syria, between 2014 and 2015. euronews.com

French court sentences three over jihadist murder of priest: A French court on Wednesday sentenced to jail terms of up to 13 years three men charged with connections to the brutal 2016 jihadist killing of an 85-year-old priest that shocked the country. france24.com

Danish PM personally apologises to six Greenland children over 1950s social experiment: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has personally apologised to six Greenlandic children who were brought to Denmark in 1951 as part of a social experiment. The six children are the only living survivors of 22 youths who were moved to the Danish mainland over 70 years ago for a „better life“ to become a Danish-speaking elite. They soon began to suffer from the failed experiment, separated from their abandoned families in Greenland – then a Danish colony until 1953. euronews.com

Election campaign in France: Candidates position themselves on the Ukraine war de.euronews.com
France: Macron proposes raising retirement age to 65 as part of presidential campaign euronews.com
Paris: Ancient tombs and sarcophagus unearthed beneath Notre Dame theguardian.com
Armenia and Turkey sign landmark agreement to normalise ties rferl.org
Hungary: Orbán loyalist Katalin Novák elected first female president theguardian.com
Serbia: Gang leader offers to testify on top crime cases balkaninsight.com

⊂ POLITJOBS ⊃

MDF Training & Consultancy is looking for a Business Development & Project Manager (m/f/d)+++FRONTEX – European Border and Coast Guard Agency  is looking for a Security Officer (m/f/d)+++Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) sucht eine:n Entwicklungshelfer:in (m/w/d)+++FOUR PAWS is looking for a senior media officer (m/f/d)+++Erste Lesung sucht Berater:innen (m/w/d)+++ Activist in Risk Zones (ARZ) Fridays for Future (FFF) is looking for an Emergency Evacuation Coordinator (m/f/d)+++ GIRP – European Healthcare Distribution Association is looking for a German-speaking Association Affairs Executive (m/f/d)+++Jobs at politjobs.eu +++ Don’t miss any jobs with the politjobs.eu job alert +++

⊂ LAST BUT NOT LEAST ⊃

Eiffel Tower grows over 19 feet after new antenna attached: The Eiffel Tower grew 19.69 feet on Tuesday after a new digital radio antenna was attached to the top of the Paris monument. The tower, built by Gustave Eiffel in the late 19th century, now measures 1082 feet after the DAB+ (digital audio) antenna was airlifted onto its peak by helicopter under a leaden sky. nypost.com