Tag Archives: European Union

Reuters reports: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute on Tuesday after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him, European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said. The Europeans snubbed Washington’s top envoy days after the storming of the U.S. Capitol by thousands of supporters of …

Reuters reports: The European Union’s top diplomat said on Sunday that last week’s siege of the U.S. Capitol exposed the dangers of allowing the degradation of democratic values to go unchecked and disinformation to spread on social media. “What we saw on Wednesday was only the climax of very worrying developments happening globally in recent years. It must be a …

The Independent reports: Greece has appointed its first openly gay minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle. Nicholas Yatromanolakis made history after he was named the new deputy minister of culture on Monday. The 44-year-old was promoted from his role as general secretary of contemporary culture at the same department. The appointment which made him the first openly gay minister …

Sky News reports: A number of British expats hoping to return to their homes in Spain say they have been stopped from boarding their flight at Heathrow Airport. Two airlines have reportedly claimed their proof of residency documents were no longer valid after the end of the Brexit transition period with the EU on 31 December. Spanish and British authorities …

Reuters reports: The father of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday he was in the process of applying for a French passport to maintain his ties with the European Union after Brexit. Stanley Johnson, a former member of the European Parliament who voted Remain in Britain’s 2016 referendum, told RTL radio he wanted to become a French citizen …

Ansa reports: The news was in the air for days, now it’s official. In Spain there will be a register of people who refuse the Covid vaccine. The vaccine will not be mandatory, said Health Minister Salvador Illa, but whoever decides not to do so will be included in a “register” which will then be shared with other European Union …

The New York Times reports: From nursing homes in France to hospitals in Poland, older Europeans and the workers who care for them rolled up their sleeves on Sunday to receive coronavirus vaccine shots in a campaign to inoculate more than 450 million people across the European Union. “Today, we start turning the page on a difficult year,” Ursula von …

The Associated Press c: The first shipments of coronavirus vaccines have arrived across the European Union as authorities prepared to administer the first shots to the most vulnerable people in a coordinated effort on Sunday. The vaccines developed by BioNTech and Pfizer arrived by truck in warehouses across the continent on Friday and early Saturday after being sent from a …

The Independent reports: Boris Johnson has confirmed that UK and EU negotiators have finally agreed a Brexit trade deal, just eight days before the transition period was due to end – in a historic move for Britain. It follows a press conference given by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and former chief negotiator Michel Barnier just moments ago …

The Associated Press reports: Negotiators from the European Union and Britain worked through the night and into Christmas Eve to put the finishing touches on a trade deal that should avert a chaotic economic break between the two sides next week. Trade will change regardless come Jan. 1, when the U.K. leaves the bloc’s single market and customs union. But …

Reuters reports: Britain formally left the European Union on Jan. 31 after its 2016 referendum, busince then it has been in a transition period under which rules on free travel and trade remain unchanged. That period ends on Dec. 31. Fourteen European countries, including Portugal and Spain, will grant Britons arriving before Dec. 31 the right to five years of …

Politico Europe reports: EU countries are moving to halt travel from the United Kingdom over concerns about a new, infectious strain of the coronavirus. The Netherlands announced a flight ban Sunday from the U.K. while Belgium will impose a 24-hour stop on all travel from Britain to Belgium. Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio also said Sunday that in …

NBC News reports: Lost among the jubilation of America’s vaccine rollout this week is an uncomfortable reality: The world’s poorest countries will have to wait months and possibly years to see any doses at all. The U.S., Canada, Britain and the European Union have pre-ordered enough Covid-19 shots to inoculate their populations several times over, subject to regulatory approvals. In …

The Sunday Times reports: Supermarkets are this weekend stockpiling food and other goods after being told by ministers that a no-deal Brexit is on the cards. Food producers have warned there will be shortages of vegetables for three months and emergency planners predict that no-deal would spark panic-buying on a scale that could dwarf the coronavirus crisis. In a sign …

Reuters reports: European Union members debated on Monday how best to “renew and reinvigorate” transatlantic relations after the departure of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to an internal document seen by Reuters. Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries considered five broad policy areas on which they see greater opportunities for cooperation when Joe Biden takes over as president after four …

The Guardian reports: Brussels has put itself on a collision course with the Polish and Hungarian governments after proposing to criminalise hate speech against LGBTQ+ people under EU law and secure recognition of same-sex partnerships across the bloc’s borders. Věra Jourová, a European commissioner, said the measures followed new “worrying trends”, with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reporting that …

The BBC reports: The European Union has agreed to buy up to 300 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, after it showed strong results in trials. Deliveries are expected to start by the end of this year, the companies said. But the EU refused to provide details on how the vaccine would be rolled out, insisting that “a number …

Reuters reports: Europe’s new COVID-19 cases have doubled in five weeks, propelling the region on Sunday across the bleak milestone of 10 million total infections, according to a Reuters tally. Just last month, both Latin America and Asia reported over 10 million total cases in their regions. The United States alone has over 9 million cases with a rapidly accelerating …

Axios reports: France has become the second country in Western Europe to surpass 1 million COVID-19 cases, Johns Hopkins University data shows. The big picture: France had reported 1,000,369 cases and 34,075 deaths from the coronavirus by Thursday morning, per JHU. French President Emmanuel Macron declared a state of health emergency and imposed a curfew on virus hot spots earlier …

Reuters reports: Spain became the first Western European country to exceed 1 million COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, doubling its tally in just six weeks despite a series of increasingly stringent measures to control the second wave of the virus. Health ministry data showed total cases had reached 1,005,295, rising by 16,973 from the previous day. The death toll increased by …