France said on Friday it was still waiting for Britain to issue 150 more fishing licences to French vessels in a post-Brexit row that has strained British-French relations, and that it would “fight every day” to obtain them. The dispute has dragged on since Britain left the European Union, with …
Read More »Ukraine summons Bulgarian envoy over president’s Crimea comments
Ukraine summoned the Bulgarian ambassador on Friday after Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said the Crimean Peninsula was part of Russia after being annexed from Ukraine in 2014. In a presidential debate ahead of Bulgaria’s run-off presidential vote on Sunday Radev said Western sanctions against Moscow were not delivering the expected …
Read More »Austria imposes full lockdown, Germany may follow, as COVID grips Europe
Austria will become the first country in western Europe to reimpose a full COVID-19 lockdown, it said on Friday as neighbouring Germany warned it may follow suit, sending shivers through financial markets worried about the economic fallout. The fourth wave of infections has plunged Germany, Europe’s largest economy, into a …
Read More »Putin says West taking Russia’s ‘red lines’ too lightly
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West was taking Russia’s warnings not to cross its “red lines” too lightly and that Moscow needed serious security guarantees from the West. In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech, the Kremlin leader also described relations with the United States as “unsatisfactory” but …
Read More »Another European country imposes Covid lockdown for unvaccinated
Slovakia has become the latest European country to implement lockdown restrictions on people who haven’t had the Covid vaccine, as it seeks to prevent a resurgence in infections and hospital admissions over the winter. Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger announced the new measures in a press conference on Thursday, declaring …
Read More »Belarus clears migrant camps at border with EU – Belta news agency
Belarus authorities have cleared the two main migrant camps at the border with Poland, bringing the remaining migrants that had been camped in the woods to nearby warehouses, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on Thursday. The move, if confirmed, could be a major development in the crisis at …
Read More »Italy, France to sign Rome treaty aimed at changing EU power balance – sources
Italian and French leaders Mario Draghi and Emmanuel Macron will sign a deal next week to try to tilt the balance of power in Europe after the departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel a government source said. The details of the accord remain undisclosed, but another Italian official said it …
Read More »Armenia asks Russia to help defend it against Azerbaijan amid border tension: TASS
Armenia has asked Russia to help defend its territorial sovereignty against Azerbaijan after a reported heavy border clash, Russia’s TASS news agency said on Tuesday. Tensions between Yerevan and Baku remain high after a 44-day war last year between ethnic Armenian forces and the Azeri army, backed by Turkey, that …
Read More »Poland turns water cannon on migrants at Belarus border
Polish security forces turned water cannon on migrants across the Belarusian border, where thousands have gathered in a chaotic attempt to reach the European Union, video footage shared by authorities showed on Tuesday. The crisis has led the EU to prepare further sanctions against Belarus, which it accuses of attempting …
Read More »EU agrees new sanctions on Belarus, airlines over border crisis
The European Union agreed on Monday to step up sanctions against Belarus, which denounced as “absurd” Western accusations that it was driving a migrant crisis that has left thousands of people stranded in freezing forests on its borders with the EU. The Western bloc is seeking to stop what it …
Read More »Armenia’s PM accuses Azeri forces of breaching border, sacks defense minister
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan’s troops on Monday of violating the border between the two countries and sacked his defense minister, the Interfax news agency reported. Another Russian news agency, RIA, quoted Armenia’s Security Council as saying the incident took place on Sunday but the Azeri troops had …
Read More »Greek health sector workers protest as hospitals struggle with COVID spike
Greek public health sector workers protested in Athens over pay and conditions on Monday as hospitals struggled with a new surge in COVID-19 cases and authorities considered further restrictions. The protesters said they were underpaid, overworked, and understaffed. They called for more hirings, for the government to include them on …
Read More »EU ready to support sanctions on Russian mercenaries: France FM
The European Union agreed on Monday to draft a framework for possible sanctions on Russian mercenaries who could be deployed to West Africa’s Sahel region, France’s foreign minister said. Reuters reported in September that Mali’s military junta was in discussions about deploying Russia’s Wagner Group in Mali, which France says …
Read More »Putin says West, not Belarus, root cause of migrant crisis on border
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Western countries, rather than Belarus, were ultimately responsible for a migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland border, pointing to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia is a key ally of Belarus, which the European Union has accused of mounting a “hybrid attack” by …
Read More »France warns Russia over Ukraine, Moscow denies weighing attack
France on Friday warned Russia against harming Ukraine’s territorial integrity, after the United States shared with European allies its fears over Russian troop movements on the Ukrainian border and over a potential attack. Four European diplomats told Reuters that US officials had raised their concerns about an attack on Ukraine …
Read More »UK, EU keep talking but stay far apart in Brexit trade feud
The UK and the European Union inched away from a diplomatic cliff edge on Friday but remained miles apart in a post-Brexit spat that risks escalating into a cross-Channel trade war. Talks to resolve differences over Northern Ireland trade have dragged on for almost a month, with EU officials increasingly …
Read More »Russia, Belarus hold joint paratrooper drills near Poland amid tensions
Belarusian and Russian paratroopers staged joint drills on Friday near the Polish and Lithuanian borders, during a standoff between Belarus and the EU over migrants camped in freezing forests at the frontier. The exercise at the Gozhsky training ground involved airborne units landing and carrying out combat training, including capturing …
Read More »Austria plans to approve lockdown for the unvaccinated on Sunday
Austria’s government is likely to decide on Sunday to impose a lockdown on people who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus as daily infections have surged to record levels, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday. Schallenberg did not say when the lockdown would take effect, but the two provinces …
Read More »Two dead after Romania’s fourth fatal hospital fire in a year
Two people have died after another hospital fire in Romania. The blaze broke out in the infectious disease wing of a hospital in the city of Ploiești, where 21 patients were receiving care, authorities said. The cause of the fire, which was quickly extinguished, is not yet known, but an …
Read More »Dutch consider new partial lockdown as coronavirus cases hit record
The Dutch government on Thursday was considering whether to impose Western Europe’s first partial lockdown since the summer, as new coronavirus cases jumped to the highest level since the start of the pandemic. A surge in infections that started when social distancing measures were lifted in late September has put …
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