Новости за 25.01.2021

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned AstraZeneca representatives on Monday that they must meet contractual obligations in vaccine delivery supplies, following news of delays. "She reminded Mr Soriot [AstraZeneca CEO] that the EU has invested significant amounts in the company upfront precisely to ensure production is ramped up even before the conditional market authorisation is delivered," a commission's spokesperson said. No legal action has been taken so far.

Kaja Kallas, a former MEP and a daughter of a former EU commissioner, is to become Estonia's first woman prime minister after a coalition deal between her centre-right Reform Party and the left-wing Centre Party Sunday, Estonian news agency ERR said. "Best wishes to the new, gender-balanced, pro-European, reform-minded government!", Dutch MEP Sophie in 't Veld tweeted. A previous, Centre Party-led government coalition recently collapsed in a corruption scandal.

Greece and Turkey are to resume talks over competing maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean on Monday, according to Reuters. The talks were a "window of opportunity", but Ankara needed to "abandon this line of confrontation", EU foreign relations chief Josep Borrell told the news agency, after Turkish warships and gas-drilling vessels routinely violated Greek and Cypriot-claimed waters, recently prompting targeted EU sanctions.

Rioters looted stores, started fires, and clashed with police in several Dutch cities on Sunday in protests against anti-corona lockdown measures, resulting in more than 240 arrests, Reuters reports. National broadcaster NOS said riot police had been deployed in at least 10 cities and towns after a curfew went into effect at 9PM. Vehicles were set alight, police were pelted with stones, and public property was destroyed, it reported.

Wind, solar, and other renewable energies created 38 percent of EU electricity last year, while fossil fuels, led by coal and gas, generated 37 percent, a report by think-tanks Ember and Agora Energiewende said. The renewable sector overtook fossils for the first time, but the bloc aso showed wide disparity, with Denmark, for instance, using 61 percent of renewables and Germany 33 percent, but Czechs and Slovaks under 5 percent.

"There is an emergency" in France because the more contagious coronavirus strain first discovered in Britain was "the equivalent of a second pandemic", Jean-Francois Delfraissy, the head of France's Scientific Council, which advises the government, told French broadcaster BFM Sunday. "If we do not tighten regulations, we will find ourselves in an extremely difficult situation from mid-March," he also said, indicating that France might soon adopt a third national lockdown.

Some 51 percent of people in Northern Ireland wanted a referendum on independence, according to a survey by pollster LucidTalk, British newspaper The Times reported, in what it called a potential "constitutional crisis" in the wake of Brexit. More people (42 percent) than before also wanted a united Ireland. Meanwhile, half of Scottish people wanted a second independence referendum, the Panelbase pollster found, with 49 percent keen to leave Britain.

Portuguese far-right party Chega came third in presidential elections in Portugal Sunday with 11.9 percent, up from 1.3 percent in a parliamentary election in 2019. "For the first time an openly anti-system party has disrupted the traditional right, with nearly half a million votes," Chega leader André Ventura said. The centre-right president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was re-elected with 60.7 percent Sunday, ahead of Socialist Ana Gomes on 12.9 percent.

Germany's far-right AfD party has filed two lawsuits designed to stop German intelligence service, the BfD, from designating it as a threat to national security and putting it under surveillance, according to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The BfD already did so to the AfD's youth wing two years ago and interior minister Horst Seehofer was poised to extend the measures, the newspaper said, ahead of upcoming federal elections in Germany.

Street violence in Russia redoubled calls for new sanctions when foreign ministers meet on Monday, after eight EU states earlier proposed asset-freezes and visa-bans.

Russia could expand hostile operations, such as poisonings, including beyond its borders, if it feels an "existential" threat and there is no European pushback.

MEPs called for a new law guaranteeing workers can 'disconnect' outside work hours, without repercussion. But they also passed a last-minute amendment, calling on the commission to delay any legislation for three years.

The EU's hotspot of Moria, a sprawling ghetto-like camp for migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, burned down last September. EU leaders declared such scenes would never be replicated. But its replacement faces similar problems.

Investing in the Arab world, in a smart way, is also investing in the European Union's future itself. Let's hope that the disasters of the last decade help to shape the neighbourhood policy of the next 10 years.

The director of the European Medicine Agency, Emer Cooke will be quizzed by MEPs in the parliament on vaccine authorisation on Tuesday. EMA is expected to give the green light to the third vaccine at the end of the week.

The EU-Israel Association Agreement, and Israel's systematic violation of its article 2, must be stopped until Israel implements its obligations under international law. This should not be a matter of controversy, but the least peace-loving countries must do.