⊂ EUROPE ⊃

EU to cut Russian gas imports, US to ban Russian oil imports: The EU Commission on Tuesday announced a plan to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds this year. The proposal presents the curbs to Russian imports as a first step toward full independence from fossil fuels “well before” 2030. To start, the EU says it will diversify gas supplies by upping Liquefied Natural Gas and pipeline imports from non-Russia suppliers, boost the production and import of biomethane and renewable hydrogen, as well as upgrade buildings to reduce energy consumption. US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that the United States is banning imports of Russian oil and natural gas. Britain said it will phase out Russian oil this year. washingtonpost.com

Zelensky addresses UK parliament: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared on screens to speak to MPs and, of course, to the country. He echoed Winston Churchill and compared his country’s fight against Russia to Britain’s battle against the Nazis in an historic address to parliament. Zelensky told of his country’s pain as each day, a war „we did not start“ progressed: „Bombs on houses, on schools, on hospitals. This is genocide.“ He urged the British government to tighten sanctions still further.
bbc.com, independent.co.uk, ukrinform.net

EU to review membership for Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova: The EU said Monday that it would begin reviewing membership applications by Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova amid Russia’s increasing escalation of warfare. The three nations — all former Soviet states — applied to join the EU last week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the AFP said. The process to join the EU is lengthy and complicated, sometimes taking more than a decade. Member states must all agree that an applicant can become a candidate before negotiations begin, the agency said. nypost.com

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China’s Xi supports efforts for diplomatic solution to Ukraine conflict: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Tuesday to support all negotiations aimed at a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine conflict, a German government spokesperson said. „The three heads of state and government spoke out in favour of humanitarian relief and access to the contested areas,“ the spokesperson said, adding that their three foreign ministers would enter close consultations to coordinate further efforts to end the conflict. reuters.com

Refugees from Ukraine:

• More than 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine dw.com
• EU countries agree to host Ukrainian refugees under exceptional protection scheme euronews.com
• ‚It’s a mess‘: UK to vet Ukraine refugees at Calais as French claim hundreds rejected euronews.com
• Italy to house refugees in confiscated real estate zeit.de
• Polish president takes in Ukrainian refugees at official residences n-tv.de

Pentagon declines Poland’s MiG-29 offer for Ukraine: The United States all-but declined an offer from Poland on Tuesday to deliver an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine so that the warplanes could be used against invading Russian forces. “We do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Poland had said it was “ready to deploy — immediately and free of charge — all their MiG-29 jets to the Ramstein Air Base and place them at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America.” Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, raised the prospect that Poland’s proposal could inflame tensions with Russia. washingtonpost.com

EU summit this week: EU leaders are meeting this Thursday and Friday for a summit to decide on strengthening their military capabilities and ending dependence on Russian gas, coal and oil supplies. According to German newspaper „Spiegel“, the latest draft of the summit declaration contains a reference to the EU’s duty to stand by in the event of an attack on one of its members, which could be interpreted as a clear warning from the EU to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. spiegel.de

EU to propose sanctions regime against disinformation: The EU Commission will propose a new mechanism to punish disinformation around the world, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday, citing what he said were lies intentionally spread by Russian state-owned media. reuters.com

EU-wide rules to combat violence against women: The EU Commission is proposing EU-wide rules to combat violence against women and domestic violence. The proposed directive will criminalise rape based on lack of consent, female genital mutilation and cyber violence, which includes: non-consensual sharing of intimate images; cyber stalking; cyber harassment; and cyber incitement to violence or hatred. ec.europa.eu

Cryptocurrency: European Parliament will hold vote on crypto bill without PoW provision. cointelegraph.com

ECB meeting: The European Central Bank meets on Thursday with the spectre of stagflation prompting economists to figure that policymakers might delay rate hikes until late in the year. The euro took a breather on Wednesday ahead of this week’s central bank meeting, while commodity currencies eased from recent peaks as investors reckoned war-driven surges in energy, grains and metals could end up crimping demand in the long run. reuters.com

Coronavirus pandemic:

• World’s known Covid death toll surpasses 6 million nytimes.com
• WHO says COVID boosters needed, reversing previous call abcnews.go.com
• Moderna partially lifts patent protection on Covid vaccine tagesspiegel.de

Timmermans cautions against relaxing Green deal goals for sake of food security: EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans stood up for the Green Deal objectives in the EU’s farming policy despite the calls of prioritising food security aspects in the wake of supply disruptions caused by the Ukraine war. “Please, don’t believe in the illusion that […] you would help food production by making it less sustainable, by not opting for Farm to Fork strategy, by not making it more resilient in terms of the natural environment and the food production,” he warned. euractiv.com

Women’s day: Time to address inequalities experienced by women during pandemic: Ahead of Women’s Day, the European Parliament started discussing the disproportionate effects that the pandemic had on women, who ultimately faced more unpaid care work, violence and worsened mental health as a consequence of lockdowns and curfews. “During the last two years, we have seen evidence that the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on women in care work, both paid and unpaid, is at the heart of our society,” said the president of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, during a special interparliamentary committee meeting held on 3 March. euractiv.com

Brexit: Europe’s carbon border levy could pose another post-Brexit challenge for Ireland euractiv.com
Civil society: Parliament calls for EU rules and strategy to counter threats europarl.europa.eu

⊂ QUOTE OF THE DAY ⊃

„We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas.“
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has outlined ambitious proposals to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030.
nytimes.com

⊂ COUNTRIES ⊃

Eight women accuse French presidential candidate of sexual violence: France’s top constitutional body published the official list on Monday of the 12 presidential candidates who have met the requirements to compete in the two-round election on 10 April and 24 April. Polls show that current President Emmanuel Macron, elected in 2017, is the overwhelming favourite to come out on top in the second round run-off on 24 April, after officially declaring his candidacy last week. Meanwhile, several women accused far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour of sexual misconduct in a video posted on a French website Tuesday. In the video, eight women said Zemmour used his position as a prominent journalist in France to make unwanted sexual advances toward them between 1999 and 2019.
france24.com, wsj.com

German intelligence agency allowed to investigate AfD: In a blow to the right-wing AfD party, a German court has sided with Germany’s internal intelligence service and said the agency was justified in its decision to classify the party as a „suspicious entity.“ The decision on Tuesday rejects the AfD’s lawsuit against Germany’s Office for Protection of the Constitution, whose tasks include monitoring extremist groups within Germany. dw.com

Former Austrian family minister arrested: In Austria, another prominent politician is apparently involved in the scandal that toppled Austria’s former chancellor Sebastian Kurz. The former chancellor and his allies had used state money to pay for fake opinion polls and positive media coverage from 2016, when Kurz was foreign minister and seeking to become leader of the People’s Party (ÖVP). Former family minister Sophie Karmasin has been arrested for her involvement in the corruption scandal. derstandard.at

Austria burns another health minister: The Austrian Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein has announced his resignation less than a year after taking office, citing exhaustion due to managing the pandemic and death threats. For Austria, it is the second resignation of a health minister since the start of the pandemic. euractiv.com

Hundreds of migrants attempt in vain to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla: Around 1,000 migrants have tried unsuccessfully to climb over the fences separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco. The representative for Spain’s government in Melilla said Moroccan border guards repelled the attempted crossing on Tuesday. euronews.com

John Bercow was a serial bully, says report: John Bercow was a „serial bully“ while House of Commons Speaker, and would be banned from getting a parliamentary pass, a report has said. The Independent Expert Panel said „his behaviour fell very far below that which the public has a right to expect“ from an MP. Bercow was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019 and presided over a turbulent period during which the House of Commons debated the UK’s exit from the EU. bbc.com

Germany to unleash €200 billion for climate protection: The German government will funnel an extra €200 billion into climate protection, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in a move widely considered a bid to pacify their Green coalition partners over increased military spending. The money would go towards “charging infrastructure, hydrogen technology, the modernisation of industry” as well as the “abolition of the EEG surcharge” in a bid to relieve the citizens straining under record-high energy prices. euractiv.com

Hungary: Prime minister Orban signs decree allowing deployment of NATO troops in western Hungary. reuters.com

Denmark will hold vote on joining EU’s defence pact: Denmark will hold a referendum on joining the European Union’s defence pact as Russia’s war against Ukraine looks to push the Nordic nation, which has often been sceptical about its EU membership, closer to the bloc. bloomberg.com

French army says senior al Qaeda leader killed in Mali: France’s army said Monday that its anti-jihadist force in Mali had killed Yahia Djouadi, a „senior leader“ of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) responsible for finance and logistics. Djouadi, an Algerian also known as Abu Ammar al-Jazairi, was killed overnight from February 25 to 26 around 160 kilometres north of Timbuktu in central Mali, the army said in a statement. france24.com

Presumably protest against Russian attack on Ukraine: Lorry rams into gates of Russian embassy in Ireland, driver arrested euronews.com
Spain: Former king Juan Carlos to stay in United Arab Emirates france24.com
Latvia: EU court advocate general doubts language regime for universities spiegel.de

⊂ POLITJOBS ⊃

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⊂ LAST BUT NOT LEAST ⊃

German embassy: Russia isn’t fighting Nazism: German diplomats called out their Russian counterparts after Russia’s embassy in South Africa said the nation was “fighting Nazism” in Ukraine. “Dear subscribers, we have received a great number of letters of solidarity from South Africans, both individuals and organizations,” Russia’s South African embassy tweeted Saturday. “We appreciate your support and glad you decided to stand with us today, when Russia, like 80 years ago, is fighting Nazism in Ukraine!” Germany’s embassy in South Africa responded to point out that Russia is by no means fighting Nazism: “Sorry, but we can’t stay silent on this one, it’s just far too cynical,” the German Embassy said in a tweet. “What [Russia] is doing in [Ukraine] is slaughtering innocent children, women and men for its own gain. It’s definitely not ‘fighting Nazism.’ Shame on anyone who’s falling for this. (Sadly, we’re kinda experts on Nazism.)” news.yahoo.com