The United States had been speeding up the long and complicated process of rolling back sanctions on Sudan – including its label as a U.S.-designated state sponsor of terrorism – after Bashir was ousted in 2019. However, the seizure of power by the chairman of the Sovereign Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has changed everything. His…
Europe needs to focus on the cause of the problem – Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s desire to strike back at the EU, write Luigi Scazzieri, Camino Mortera-Martinez and Ian Bond. It is wrong to call what is happening at the border between Poland and Belarus a migration crisis, or to compare it to Europe’s situation in 2015 and 2016….
State institutions in Tunisia must return to functioning normally, MEPs say, urging the authorities to resume an inclusive national dialogue. In a resolution on the situation in Tunisia, MEPs express deep concern that powers are too greatly concentrated in the hands of the president and call for respect for the rule of law. They stress…
On Sunday 31 October the Algerian government announced the cessation of commercial relations between Algeria and Morocco, effectively ending the Algeria-Spain-Morocco pipeline agreement known as the Europe-Maghreb pipeline. The Algerian presidency in a public statement declared that it was no longer willing to extend the contract of the Europe-Maghreb pipeline. The decision to terminate gas…
Fresh concern has been voiced about what has been called the “forced organ harvesting industry” in China. A conference in Brussels, called “China: forced organ harvesting and the CCP”, was told that China conducts “thousands” of such transplants every year and the practice amounts to a “crime against humanity.” Many of those targeted for the…
The European Commission, on behalf of the EU, has disbursed €600 million in macro-financial assistance (MFA) to Ukraine. This is the second and final tranche under Ukraine’s current MFA programme following the first €600 million disbursement in December 2020. With this disbursement, the outstanding amount of loans to Ukraine under its multiple MFA programmes reaches…
In supporting a proposed EU strategy for the Schengen area, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called for more action to be taken to protect the EU’s freedoms and rights in the face of human-rights violations at its external frontiers. The EESC is worried about the reintroduction of internal border controls by some…
As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the world, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere keep setting record highs, writes Chang Tzi-chin. The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August 2021 strongly confirmed that human activity has furthered the warming of the atmosphere, oceans, and…
The European Parliament has called for closer relations with Taiwan guided by the EU’s One China Policy, while issuing warnings over the continued tensions across the Formosa Strait. MEPs hail Taiwan as a key EU partner and democratic ally in the Indo-Pacific, one that contributes to maintaining a rules-based order in the midst of an…
Romania is suffering a multitude of crises as energy prices soar, Covid-19 infection rates are rising to worrying levels, a potential new prime minister is struggling to form a government and the country’s justice system has faced strong criticism in the UK’s High Court of Justice as the judge refused to allow Gabriel Popoviciu to…
