The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has issued the following statement following the arrest of Alexei Navalny at Moscow Airport yesterday:- “I condemn the detention of Alexei Navalny yesterday by the Russian authorities, upon his return to Russia. The Russian authorities must immediately release him and ensure his safety.” “Detention of…
The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “We, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and the United States Secretary of State, underscore our serious concern at the mass arrests of 55 politicians and activists in…
The Ugandan people turned out to vote in multiparty national elections on 14 January despite an environment of intimidation and fear. The US State Department expressed concern about the credible reports of security force violence during the pre-election period and election irregularities during the polls. They have urged independent, credible, impartial, and thorough investigations into…
Evidence has been tabled before the US congress in a committee report alleging that China may have committed genocide in Xinjiang. The report is the latest in a long series of indictments of China’s treatment of Uighurs and other non-Han racial minorities. China has come under intense international criticism over its policies in Xinjiang. China…
As part of the vaccination rollout plan in Belgium, the Skyhall, the iconic former transit hall at Brussels Airport, is set to become the vaccination centre for the residents of the towns of Zaventem, Wezembeek-Oppem and Kraainem. “From the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Brussels Airport has actively contributed to protecting public health by providing…
Consider this: on the day the UK announced it had given the coronavirus jab to 1.5m of its citizens, there were some EU member states yet to vaccinate a single one of their citizens. These included The Netherlands, which has always prided itself on its healthcare system but neighbouring Belgium also pretty much matched the…
The Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) is the EU system for the orderly winding-up of failing banks within the Banking Union, to avoid costly bail-outs. Since its establishment in 2015, the SRM has progressed in preparing for bank resolution, according to a new European Court of Auditors (ECA) report. However, the auditors find that further steps are needed in certain crucial…
Despite a spectacular economic reaction to the pandemic crisis, the authors of the 2020 edition of the European “Bilan social’’, express concerns about the so-called ‘social affairs players’ being sidelined in the new Recovery and Resilience Facility, the “fuzzy” EU commitment to gender issues, the EU response to rising in-work poverty and the setting a new…
Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament are leading the drive to reject the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) Quick Fix.On Thursday they voted against it in the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee. The European Commission’s declared objective was to amend the MiFID regime to alleviate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis…
Despite all the benefits of teleworking, it is now important not to slide into a culture of “round-the-clock” availability of employees That was one of the messages to emerge from the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) when it held a remote hearing on the challenges of teleworking. Bringing together EESC and European Parliament (EP) members, as…
