Category Archives: European Union

EU countries cut Covid isolation periods in Omicron balancing act

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Ireland latest to change guidance for boosted, as surge across continent threatens economic paralysis

Ireland has become the latest EU country to cut the isolation period for many people who contract Covid-19, as record infection numbers spark fears of crippling staff shortages in essential public services, as well as retail and hospitality venues.

Spain, Portugal and Greece reduced isolation times this week while others, such as Germany and France, are considering doing so and Italy cut its quarantine for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who has tested positive.

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France suspends rule denying British residents of other EU countries transit

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Government says border officials will show tolerance toward those who had gone back to UK for Christmas

The French government has suspended a new rule that prevented British nationals legally resident in other EU countries from travelling through France to reach their homes, a move that caused confusion for thousands of travellers.

Border officials would “show tolerance” in order to “allow these nationals to transit through France to reach their residence in a country of the European Union after the Christmas and New Year period”, the interior ministry said in a statement. It came as Germany also relaxed rules for British visitors.

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Trapped at Europe’s door: inside Belarus’s makeshift asylum dormitory

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About 1,000 people, mostly Kurds, are waiting at a converted customs centre in Bruzgi for the chance to cross into EU

The giant warehouse towers over the Belarus countryside, less than a mile from the Polish border. In this 10,000 sq metre space patrolled by dozens of armed soldiers, 1,000 asylum seekers are crammed among countless industrial shelving units, held up on their way to Europe in the midst of a frigid winter.

“We’re trapped in this building,” says Alima Skandar, 40. “We don’t want to go back to Iraq and we can’t cross the border. Please, help us.”

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Faced with Covid, Europe’s citizens demanded an EU response – and got it | Luuk van Middelaar

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The pandemic finally brought into being a European public, as we discovered that our health is a common concern

March 2020: an insidious virus seeds itself across the globe pitching tens of thousands in the European continent into a life-and-death battle. Most European countries secure their borders; millions of households lock their front doors. Hellish scenes flash by, feeding fears of infection. In Europe a disaster is unfolding, but there is no joint response.

The loudest cry comes from Italy, hit by the virus early on. Appeals for help go unanswered and bitter reproaches ensue. The EU is slow to react: the fact that Brussels’ institutions lack the “competences”, or formal powers, to act in the field of public health impresses no one. When, soon thereafter, an economic depression looms, prophets of doom start predicting the end of the EU.

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Iran nuclear deal: eighth round of talks begins in Vienna

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Tehran is keen to verify US sanctions have genuinely been lifted

An eighth round of talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal has begun in Vienna, with Iran saying participants have been largely working from an acceptable common draft text and that its team was willing to stay as long as it takes to reach an agreement.

The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said he wanted the focus of the coming round of talks to be on how Tehran could verify US sanctions had genuinely been lifted. The landmark 2015 deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew the US, had lifted sanctions on Iran in return for controls on its civilian nuclear programme.

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Polish president vetoes media law criticised by US and EU

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Law would have prevented companies outside the EEA from holding a controlling stake in Polish media companies

The Polish president has vetoed a media ownership law that critics said was aimed at silencing the US-owned news channel TVN24.

“I am vetoing it,” Andrzej Duda said in a televised statement, after the EU and the US heavily criticised the law.

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Johnson’s pig-headed reign approaches its tragicomic climax | William Keegan

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Events in the run-up to Christmas have conspired like twists in a novel to reveal the true character of Tory Brexiters

There was a moment last year when Boris Johnson was reported to have gone awol (absent without leave) from governing the country in order to work on a book about Shakespeare.

At the time, many commentators blamed his absence for a crucial delay in decision-making which contributed to thousands of avoidable, Covid-related deaths. Be that as it may, or was, he returned to the helm of state, brushed off many a criticism, and managed to persuade gullible members of the media and electorate that he possessed Teflon qualities and was invincible.

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One year on, most voters say Brexit has gone badly

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An Opinium poll also found that 42% of people who voted Leave in 2016 had a negative view of how it had turned out

More than six out of 10 voters believe Brexit has either gone badly or worse than they expected – a year after the UK left the EU, according to an anniversary poll for the Observer.

The Opinium survey – coming a week after the minister in charge of Brexit, Lord Frost, resigned from Boris Johnson’s government – also found that 42% of people who voted Leave in 2016 had a negative view of how Brexit had turned out so far.

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Brexit one year on: so how’s it going?

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Those promised rewards for Britain of leaving the EU should surely be with us by now. What have been the costs and gains of ‘taking our country back’?

• UK and the EU set to remain best of enemies as 2022 dawns

On New Year’s Day the UK will have been fully out of the European Union for a year: out of its political and legal structures, out of its single market, out of its customs union.

This was what Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – who led the Leave campaign – had wanted. No awkward halfway house like Theresa May had negotiated. No Brexit light. Out completely. Gone. Brexit well and truly done.

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Polish deputy PM says Germany wants to turn EU into ‘fourth reich’

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Jarosław Kaczyński’s remarks in far-right newspaper are latest episode in Poland’s lengthy standoff with EU

The head of Poland’s ruling party, Jarosław Kaczyński, has said Germany is trying to turn the EU into a federal “German fourth reich”.

Speaking to the far-right Polish newspaper GPC, the head of the Law and Justice party (PiS) said some countries “are not enthusiastic at the prospect of a German fourth reich being built on the basis of the EU”.

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‘The fight goes on’: the struggle to save Europe’s songbirds

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Campaigners help close the loophole allowing glue-trapping in France, but the battle to save endangered bird species goes on

“Chasse à la glu has ended, but the fight to save other birds is not over,” says campaigner Yves Verilhac. “We are now battling to stop other cruel hunting methods that lead to the killing of skylarks, lapwings, golden plovers, thrushes and blackbirds.”

Two years ago, Verilhac, of France’s Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO), was fighting to stop the French tradition of chasse à la glu – hunting songbirds with twigs and branches covered in adhesive.

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Brussels launches legal action over Polish rulings against EU law

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European Commission says it has ‘serious concerns’ about challenges by Warsaw’s constitutional tribunal

The European Commission has begun legal action against Poland over rulings by the country’s constitutional court that challenged the supremacy of EU law, in an escalation of the long-running battle between Brussels and Warsaw.

The EU executive said it had “serious concerns” about the Polish constitutional tribunal and its recent case law, citing rulings where the court had challenged the primacy of EU law.

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‘The need is still there’: last young refugees arrive in UK as family reunion route closes

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Activists lament that a safe, legal way into Britain has closed with Brexit, when stranded children need it as much as ever

‘When I was a child in Afghanistan I loved to watch my uncle play chess. Now I have joined the local club here.” Samir is grinning as he talks about settling into life on England’s south coast. “I’m very happy here, just being with my family, going for walks to look at the Christmas lights. It’s really beautiful.”

After arriving in Greece alone two years ago, when he was just 16, and spending many months homeless and terrified in the port city of Patras, Samir recently made a journey that most refugees can only dream about. He said goodbye to the friends he had made in a camp for unaccompanied minors – other teenagers from Somalia, Iraq and Palestine – and travelled safely and legally to join his father and sister in the UK.

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EU in row over inclusion of gas and nuclear in sustainability guidance

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Activists including Greta Thunberg criticise ‘fake climate action’ in response to planned investment taxonomy

The European Commission is facing a backlash from Greta Thunberg and fellow climate activists over plans to include gas and nuclear energy in a “green” investment guidebook.

Both energy sources are expected to feature in the next part of the EU’s “taxonomy for sustainable activities”, which is expected at the end of the year, following a period of intense political bargaining between the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen; the French president, Emmanuel Macron; and Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

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Dutch border-hoppers ignore Belgium and Germany’s ‘stay away’ plea

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Restaurants have had a rush of visitors since lockdown was imposed in the Netherlands on Sunday

People hopping over the border to Belgium and Germany to avoid the Dutch lockdown are filling the neighbouring countries’ restaurants and shops despite calls for them to “stay away”.

Since Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, announced the closure of hospitality and non-essential shops from Sunday, border regions have experienced a rush of visitors.

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Liz Truss to hold Brexit talks with EU over NI protocol

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The foreign secretary, now chief negotiator with the EU, wants ‘a comprehensive solution’

The UK’s newly appointed chief post-Brexit negotiator, Liz Truss, said she would speak to her EU counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, on Tuesday amid renewed calls to rip up the controversial Northern Ireland protocol.

The cabinet minister, who is also the foreign secretary, said she wanted to negotiate “a comprehensive solution” to the agreement, which requires post-Brexit checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

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‘We need free speech’: protests erupt across Poland over controversial media bill

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The bill, yet to be signed into law, would tighten rules around foreign ownership of media

Poles have staged nationwide protests including a thousands-strong rally outside the presidential palace to demand the head of state veto a law they say would limit media freedoms in the European Union’s largest eastern member.

Unexpectedly rushed through parliament on Friday, the legislation would tighten rules around foreign ownership of media, specifically affecting the ability of news channel TVN24, owned by US media company Discovery Inc, to operate.

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Liz Truss to take on Brexit brief after David Frost resignation

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The foreign secretary is assuming responsibility for the UK’s relationship with the EU, says Downing Street

The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, is to take over responsibility for the UK’s relationship with the EU after the Brexit minister Lord Frost’s resignation, Downing Street has said.

She will be adding ministerial responsibility to her foreign portfolio with immediate effect.

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Furious response from DUP over Northern Ireland protocol

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Lord Dodds says UK ‘falling into line’ with EU and retreating from commitment to trigger article 16

The government’s retreat from its hardline position in negotiations with the EU over Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland has elicited a furious response from the most senior unionist in the House of Lords.

Lord Dodds, the former deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist party, has issued a veiled threat of “action” unless it restores the option of pulling the plug on the Northern Ireland protocol by using the article 16 process.

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Northern Ireland: what are EU and UK proposing and will deal be done?

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EU law on medicines may be rewritten and UK has climbed down over ECJ. Here’s what we know

The UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020 and all EU rules fell away at the start of 2021. Soon after, a row broke out over the Northern Ireland protocol, the tortuously negotiated agreement to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU single market and customs union.

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