European Union

Ethiopia's "siege" on its restive Tigray region is creating a "man-made famine", the European Commission has warned.

A French court has ordered Twitter to explain within the next two months what the company is doing to tackle hate-speech on its platform, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Lobby groups, including UEJF French Jewish students association, SOS Racisme and SOS Homophobie, have put pressure on Twitter to do more. A UK bill, announced in May, would fine 10 percent of companies' turnover if they failed to prevent online abuse.

EU states should renovate three percent of public buildings a year to make them "nearly zero-energy buildings" by adding insulation and installing greener heating systems, the European Commission is planning to propose, Reuters reports. The EU construction industry will also have to cut energy consumption from the sector by 1.5 percent a year. The draft figures are double the current EU targets for renovation and consumption.

Germany has arrested a 75-year old politics expert on charges of spying for China. Klaus L., from the centre-right affiliated Hanns Seidel Foundation, gave China information on "current affairs" from 2010 to 2019, prosecutors said. He was also an informant for 50 years for Germany's homeland security service, the BND, German media said. He traveled widely in Asia and Russia and had reportedly been recruited at a conference in Shanghai.

Last month was the second-hottest June on record for Europe, and the hottest on record for North America - where heatwaves conditions persisted, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday. Arctic Siberia recorded high temperatures, while Antarctic temperatures were colder than usual. After 2016, 2019 and 2020, June 2021 joins June 2018 as the fourth-warmest on record globally.

Austria's far-right former deputy chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache went on trial Tuesday on charges of offering to change the law to secure financial favours for a party donor. He faces five years in prison. The charges came after police seized his phone and other materials when he also solicited money from a woman posing as a wealthy Russian in a sting in Ibiza, which triggered the collapse of Austria's then coalition.

Belarus has threatened to halt transit of EU goods via its territory after Europe's recent economic sanctions. "First: not a step inside the Belarusian market; second: not a step through Belarus ... the same should be done with the Germans. Let [them] supply their products to China and Russia through Finland or Ukraine," Belarus president Aleksander Lukashenko said Tuesday, Reuters reports. He also jailed a political opponent for 14 years.

The European Commission unveiled on Tuesday its Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy - with a commitment to improve the sustainability expertise of financial advisers. The EU executive also published a legislative proposal for voluntary EU green bonds' standards. Bonds can be used in long-term projects, aligned with the so-called EU taxonomy. However, NGOs have raised concern over the possibility of labelling gas and nuclear energy as "green" investments.

Dutch MEP Malik Azmani said the EU Commission should not have approved Slovenia's national Covid-19 recovery plan without prime minister Janez Janša appointing the prosecutors.

Leaked documents revealed "limited progress" in talks on revising the controversial Energy Charter Treaty - triggering renewed calls from activists to pull out of the agreement, seen as a stumbling block to a clean-energy transition.

Neither Commission nor EU leaders have reacted to the Austrian government's amorphous fight against "political Islam". Their silence is deafening over French president Emmanuel Macron's controversial draft 'separatism' bill. Or Social Democrat-led Denmark's legislation relocating asylum seekers to third countries.

Could the Green Deal, the European Climate Law, the Just Transition Fund tackle illegal deforestation, arsons, water, air and soil pollution, traffic of ozone-depleting substances and protected species, poaching, overfishing etc.? The answer is clearly 'no', we need a prosecutor.

Faced with soaring numbers of new COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated young people, the Spanish city of Barcelona has announced it will shut down nightlife venues from this weekend. EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.

Thousands rallied Tuesday (6 July) in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to denounce attacks on the LGBTQ community that shocked the Caucasus nation and forced activists to cancel a planned Pride march.

Estonia accused Russia on Tuesday (6 July) of detaining one of its diplomats after a "set-up" designed to make him look like a spy, saying the incident showed Russia was choosing confrontation in its relations with Europe.

A recent survey suggests that Europeans believe airlines should be required to pay tax on aviation fuel. The European Commission should heed the public and not the aviation lobby, writes Ciarán Cuffe.

The European Union urged London on Tuesday (6 July) to consider a Swiss-style veterinary agreement with Brussels on agri-foods to end a post-Brexit 'sausage war' row over certain goods moving between Britain and its province of Northern Ireland.

Parliament adopted the 2021-2027 fisheries and aquaculture fund to support the blue economy, protect biodiversity and promote international ocean governance.
Committee on Fisheries

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The European Parliament adopted on Tuesday (6 July) the final version of the ePrivacy derogation, a temporary measure enabling providers of electronic communication services to scan and report private online messages containing material depicting child sex abuse. The provisions also...

MEPs endorsed a temporary regulation that allows web-based service providers to continue fighting child sexual abuse material online on a voluntary basis.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP