Tag Archives: European Union

Taliban control 65% of Afghanistan, EU official says, after series of sudden gains

KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on captured Afghan territory on Tuesday as civilians hid in their homes, and a European Union official said the militants now control 65% of the country after a string of gains as foreign forces pull out.

President Ashraf Ghani called on regional strongmen to support his government, while a U.N. official said advances made in human rights in the 20 years since the hardline Islamists were ousted from power were in danger of being erased.

In the capital Kabul, Ghani’s aides said he was seeking help from regional militias he has squabbled with over the years to rally to the defense of his government. He had also appealed to civilians to defend Afghanistan’s “democratic fabric.”

In the town of Aibak, capital of Samangan province on the main road between the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul, Taliban fighters were consolidating their control, moving into government buildings, residents said.

Most government security forces appeared to have withdrawn.

“The only way is self-imposed house arrest or to find a way to leave for Kabul,” said Sher Mohamed Abbas, a provincial tax officer, when asked about living conditions in Aibak.

“But then even Kabul is not a safe option anymore,” said Abbas, the sole bread winner for a family of nine.

Abbas said the Taliban had arrived at his office and told workers to go home. He and other residents said they had neither seen nor heard fighting on Tuesday.

For years, the north was the most peaceful part of the country with an only minimal Taliban presence.

The militants’ strategy appears to be to take the north, as well as the main border crossings in the north, west and south, and then close in on Kabul.

The Taliban, battling to defeat the U.S-backed government and reimpose strict Islamic law, swept into Aibak on Monday meeting little resistance.

Taliban forces now control 65% of Afghan territory, are threatening to take 11 provincial capitals and are trying to deprive Kabul of its traditional support from national forces in the north, a senior EU official said on Tuesday.

The government has withdrawn forces from hard-to-defend rural districts to focus on holding major population centers, while officials have appealed for pressure on neighboring Pakistan to stop Taliban reinforcements and supplies flowing over the porous border. Pakistan denies backing the Taliban.

The United States has been carrying out air strikes in support of government troops but said it was up to Afghan forces to defend their country. “It’s their struggle,” John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters on Monday.

‘DEEPLY DISTURBING REPORTS’

Taliban and government officials have confirmed that the Islamists have overrun six provincial capitals in recent days in the north, west and south.

Security forces in Pul-e-Khumri, capital of Baghlan province, to the southeast of Aibak, were surrounded as the Taliban closed in on the town at a main junction on the road to Kabul, a security official said.

Gulam Bahauddin Jailani, head of the national disaster authority, told Reuters there was fighting in 25 of the 34 provinces and 60,000 families had been displaced over the past two months, with most seeking refuge in Kabul.

About 400,000 Afghans have been displaced in recent months and there has been an increase in numbers of people fleeing to Iran over the past 10 days, the EU official said.

Six EU member states warned the bloc’s executive against halting deportations of rejected Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Europe despite major Taliban advances, fearing a possible replay of a 2015-16 crisis over the chaotic arrival of more than one million migrants, mainly from the Middle East.

A resident of Farah, the capital and largest city of Farah province in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran, said the Taliban had taken the governor’s compound and there was heavy fighting between Taliban and government forces.

Civilians said the Taliban had captured all key government buildings in the city.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said reports of violations that could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity were emerging, including “deeply disturbing reports” of the summary execution of surrendering government troops.

“People rightly fear that a seizure of power by the Taliban will erase the human rights gains of the past two decades,” she said.

The Taliban, ousted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, appeared to be in a position to advance from different directions on Mazar-i-Sharif. Its fall would deal a devastating blow to Ghani’s government.

Atta Mohammad Noor, a northern militia commander, vowed to fight to the end, saying there would be “resistance until the last drop of my blood.”

“I prefer dying in dignity than dying in despair,” he said on Twitter.

India sent a flight to northern Afghanistan to take its citizens home, officials said, asking Indians to leave. The United States and Britain have already advised their citizens to leave Afghanistan.

The United States will complete the withdrawal of its forces at the end of this month under a deal with the Taliban, which included the withdrawal of foreign forces in exchange for Taliban promises to prevent Afghanistan being used for international terrorism.

The Taliban promised not to attack foreign forces as they withdraw but did not agree to a ceasefire with the government.

(Reporting by Afganistan bureau, additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Sabine Siebold and John Chalmers in Brussels; Editing by Nick Macfie and Mark Heinrich)

EU holds up Hungary’s recovery money in rule-of-law standoff

By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union’s executive missed its own deadline to sign off on billions of euros in economic recovery aid to Hungary, delaying its decision in an attempt to win rule-of-law concessions from Budapest.

Hungary is set to receive 7.2 billion euros in EU stimulus funds meant to kickstart economic growth mauled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The funds will start flowing once the Brussels-based European Commission accepts national plans on how to spend them to ensure digital and green transitions, among others goals.

However, the Commission is using the money as leverage to push Hungary on its observance of the rule of law, an area where the increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has clashed with the EU.

A spokeswoman for the Commission said on Monday it was still analyzing the plan Budapest submitted and might propose a longer delay should it consider “months rather than days” were still needed to decide on it.

While the spokeswoman declined to give detail, the bloc’s Economics Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said last week: “We are working on aspects to do with the respect for the rule of law.”

The Hungarian Prime Minister’s office said in a statement to state news agency MTI that talks with the Commission had been close to completion but that after Hungary’s law banning from schools materials seen as promoting homosexuality was passed, the European Commission came forward with what they said were “absurd demands”.

“The ideologically motivated political attacks obviously slow down the acceptance of the plan which was formulated earlier, in professional consultations,” the PM’s office said.

It added that talks were continuing with the Commission.

The Commission has long wanted Hungary to improve its public procurement process to combat “systemic irregularities” – or fraud.

Orban has also infuriated many of his EU peers in recent weeks with a new legislation that bans from schools materials seen as promoting homosexuality, the latest in a series of laws seen as discriminatory and restricting people’s rights.

Budapest has clashed with the EU on multiple occasions over Orban’s treatment of migrants and gay people, as well as the tightening of curbs around the freedom of media, academics and judges.

Orban portrays himself as a crusader for what he says are traditional Catholic values under pressure from the liberal West.

Belarus leader threatens to halt transit of EU goods via his country to east

KYIV (Reuters) – Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, on Tuesday threatened to stop the transit of European Union goods via his country to Russia and China in retaliation for EU sanctions.

The 27-nation bloc imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions on Belarus last month, targeting its main export industries and access to finance after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident blogger.

Rating agencies and analysts say the sanctions will leave Lukashenko largely unscathed and able to continue financing the economy and his security forces.

But officials in Belarus have spoken of economic warfare being waged on their country, and Lukashenko on Tuesday raised the prospect of counter sanctions that would halt the transit of EU goods via Belarus eastwards.

“First: not a step inside the Belarusian market; second: not a step through Belarus either,” Lukashenko told a government meeting.

“Exactly the same should be done with the Germans. Let (them) supply their products to China and Russia through Finland. Or through Ukraine,” he added.

Lukashenko did not specify when transit could be blocked and which countries, beyond Germany, could be affected.

When asked about the potential transit block earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin said disruption to supply chains could not be ruled out and that serious work would be required to minimize such problems if they occurred.

Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said his government would “look at the behavior of our European partners” and take what he called appropriate measures that would not damage the Belarusian economy.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Lukashenko orders closure of Belarus border with Ukraine – BelTA

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Belarus’ leader Alexander Lukashenko on Friday ordered the closure of the border with Ukraine, seeking to block what he called an inflow of weapons to coup-plotters detected by his security services, BelTA state news agency reported.

The move appears to deepen a standoff between Belarus and outside powers angered by his government’s forcing down of a Ryanair flight in May and arrest of a government critic who was on the aircraft.

Western countries imposed sanctions on Belarus to punish it for the action, and the European Union and Ukraine have also banned Belarus-registered flights from entering their airspace.

Lukashenko, who has repeatedly accused Western ill-wishers of trying to oust him from power, said rebel groups that were planning to carry out a coup had been uncovered in Belarus.

Speaking at a gathering marking the country’s Independence Day, the veteran leader said Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and the United States were behind the alleged rebel activity, BelTA reported.

“A huge amount of weapons is coming from Ukraine to Belarus. That’s why I ordered border-security forces to fully close the border with Ukraine,” Lukashenko said.

Belarus shares a border with Ukraine in the south. It borders Poland and Lithuania in the west, Latvia in the north, and Russia in the east.

The move to shut borders with Ukraine comes days after Belarus recalled its permanent representative to the European Union for consultations after Brussels imposed economic sanctions.

But Lukashenko, who was also sanctioned by the West for a sweeping political crackdown, is seen largely unscathed by the penalties and able to continue financing the economy and his security forces, rating agencies and analysts have said.

(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Toby Chopra, Editing by William Maclean)

U.S., other nations call for unimpeded delivery of aid to Syria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and other nations in a joint statement on Monday reiterated their call for immediate nation-wide ceasefire in Syria and unimpeded delivery of aid to the war-torn country.

The group of 19 countries as well as the European Union and Arab League said in the statement released after a meeting of their ministers that United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, the 2015 resolution that laid out the steps for a ceasefire and political transition in Syria, is the “only solution” to the country’s decade-long conflict.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert)

EU and UK say Hong Kong newspaper raid shows China cracking down on dissent

By Guy Faulconbridge and Robin Emmott

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union and Britain on Thursday said a police raid on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily showed that China was using a new national security law to crack down on dissent and silence the media rather than deal with public security.

Just days after the world’s richest democracies scolded China over human rights at a Group of Seven summit and the NATO military alliance warned Beijing over its ambitions, Hong Kong police made dawn arrests of Apple Daily newspaper executives.

Five hundred Hong Kong police officers sifted through reporters’ computers and notebooks at the daily, the first case in which authorities have cited media articles as potentially violating the national security law.

The raid “further demonstrates how the national security law is being used to stifle media freedom and freedom of expression in Hong Kong,” EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali said in a statement.

“It is essential that all the existing rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents are fully protected, including freedom of the press and of publication.”

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also said the raid was aimed at silencing dissent.

“Freedom of the press is one of the rights China promised to protect in the Joint Declaration and should be respected,” Raab said, referring to an accord guaranteeing autonomy for Hong Kong when London handed over its colony to China in 1997.

Hong Kong Security Secretary John Lee described the newsroom as a “crime scene” and said the operation was aimed at those who use reporting as a “tool to endanger” national security.

Western leaders say Chinese President Xi Jinping, 68, is cracking down on Hong Kong, which Britain handed back to China in 1997, and Western security officials have expressed apprehension about Xi’s next target.

Britain and its allies say the national security law breaches the “one country, two systems” principle enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British treaty that guaranteed Hong Kong’s autonomy.

China has repeatedly warned Britain and the United States to stop meddling in its affairs and says many Western powers are gripped by an “imperial hangover” after years of humiliating China during the 19th and 20th Centuries.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Robin Emmott; Editing by Alistair Smout and Peter Graff)

UK-EU ‘sausage war’ talks yield threats, not progress

By Elizabeth Piper and Philip Blenkinsop

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Britain and the European Union failed on Wednesday to agree any solutions to ease post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland and exchanged threats in a standoff that could cloud a weekend international summit.

Since Britain completed a tortuous exit from the EU late last year, its relations with Brussels have soured further, with each side accusing the other of bad faith over a part of their Brexit deal that covers goods movements to Northern Ireland.

The row has been dubbed the “sausage war” by British media because it affects the movement of chilled meats from Britain to Northern Ireland.

On Wednesday, it stepped up a gear, with Britain saying it could again unilaterally extend a grace period waiving checks on some goods, and the EU saying it could advance its legal action, a step that could end in tariffs and quotas.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants a summit of the world’s seven largest advanced economies this weekend at a seaside village in southwestern England to showcase what he calls “global Britain”.

But he could receive a warning from U.S. President Joe Biden, who, according to the Times newspaper, will tell London to respect a deal with the EU that was designed to protect a 23-year-old peace settlement in Northern Ireland.

British Brexit minister David Frost, who is expected to attend the summit, met European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic in London to address the issue.

“There weren’t any breakthroughs. There aren’t any breakdowns either, and we are going to carry on talking,” Frost told reporters.

“What we now need to do is very urgently find some solutions.”

A senior UK source close to the talks said all options were on the table if there was no agreement, including London further extending a grace period that waives checks on some foodstuffs moving to Northern Ireland beyond June 30.

Sefcovic responded in kind, saying the EU was considering advancing its legal challenge over Britain’s actions, which could result in a court case by autumn or the eventual imposition of tariffs and quotas.

WORLD IS WATCHING

“The U.S. administration and the U.S. Congress are following this matter very closely,” Sefcovic told a news conference.

“I’m sure that the G7, also the European leaders, would raise this issue because I think that what we should be focusing on right now should be the economic recovery … and how to form and forge this new strategic partnership between the EU and the UK. Instead of that, we have these very difficult meetings.”

Preserving the delicate peace in Northern Ireland without allowing the United Kingdom a back door into the European Union’s single market across the Irish land border was one of the trickiest issues of the Brexit divorce.

The result was the protocol, which essentially kept the province in the EU’s customs union and adhering to many of the rules of its single market — both of which the rest of Britain has left.

While Brussels is upset that London is failing to honor the protocol, London says it has no choice because some of the checks hamper supplies to Northern Irish supermarkets.

It has also pointed to rising tensions among pro-British unionists in the province, who say the protocol undermines the 1998 peace agreement by loosening their ties to Britain.

Aodhán Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, called for rapid action to protect consumers in the province:

“We need immediate solutions to keep goods flowing now, and we need a breathing space so that the UK Government and the EU can, in the longer term, find a workable solution.”

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Philip Blenkinsop, additional reporting by Alistair Smout, William James and James Davey; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Kevin Liffey)

Britain open to talks over vaccine waivers with U.S, others at WTO

By Alistair Smout

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain is open to talks with the United States and other World Trade Organization members on the issue of IP waivers for COVID-19 vaccines, a government spokesman said after pressure from charities to back U.S. proposals.

U.S. President Joe Biden last week threw his support behind waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines.

British and European Union officials have been skeptical about the usefulness of the proposal, while saying they are prepared to discuss it.

“We are engaging with the U.S. and other WTO members constructively on the TRIPS waiver issue, but we need to act now to expand production and distribution worldwide,” the British government spokesman said, adding WTO negotiations on the waiver would be lengthy as they would need unanimous support.

“So while we will constructively engage in the IP discussions, we must continue to push ahead with action now including voluntary licensing agreements for vaccines.”

Britain has promised to donate surplus vaccines to other countries when it is able to, but says it has no spare shots to give at the moment.

About two-thirds of the adult population of Britain has received a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while Britain has ordered 517 million doses in all.

PEOPLE’S VACCINE

Hundreds of charities, academics and politicians this week signed a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling on him to back Biden’s move on IP waivers.

Pharma companies and other critics of the waiver move say producing COVID-19 vaccines is complex and setting up production at new facilities would divert resources from efforts to boost production at existing sites, potentially compromising safety.

On Tuesday around a dozen protesters sat outside AstraZeneca’s headquarters in Cambridge, eastern England, to coincide with the pharma firm’s annual general meeting (AGM). Some chained themselves to the doors and others unfurled a banner saying “People’s Vaccine not Profit Vaccine.”

AstraZeneca, which has entered into manufacturing partnerships to produce Oxford University’s vaccine candidate globally, has pledged to not profit from sales of the vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic, though the campaigners highlight that the company can determine when that pledge ends.

Asked about the British government’s stance, an AstraZeneca spokesman said the company agreed that the “extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures”, and that this had already informed its approach.

“We have established 20 supply lines spread across the globe and we have shared the IP and know-how with dozens of partners,” the spokesman told Reuters. “In fact, our model is similar to what an open IP model could look like.”

AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said last month that it would maintain its no-profit pledge into 2022, and would keep no-profit or modest pricing for parts of the world thereafter.

(Additional reporting by Andy Couldridge in Cambridge, editing by William James, Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Heinrich)

EU aims to open up to foreign tourists this summer amidst COVID-19

By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union’s executive has recommended easing COVID-19 travel restrictions next month to let foreign travelers from more countries enter the bloc, hoping to boost the stricken tourism industry this summer.

Under current restrictions, people from only seven countries, including Australia and Singapore, can enter the EU on holiday, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated but subject to tests or quarantine.

New proposals from the European Commission on Monday, but still requiring approval by the EU’s 27 member states, would allow in fully vaccinated foreign citizens and those from countries with a “good epidemiological situation”.

“Time to revive tourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle – safely,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.

People arriving from Britain, Russia and a number of other countries would meet the new criteria, according to data provided by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). U.S. citizens would not currently do so.

“We want to have this done before the mass summer travel starts,” an EU official said.

EU member states are due to start discussing the proposal on Tuesday and the official hoped it would be approved this month.

BIG LOSSES

Travel restrictions because of COVID-19 have inflicted heavy losses on the tourism industry in the EU, which at times has struggled to agree a common response to the pandemic.

If the new proposals are agreed, specific EU countries would be expected – but not legally obliged – to follow the new joint approach. Greece has already agreed to welcome vaccinated tourists from Israel.

Other measures to support tourism this summer include a central EU register allowing free travel for the bloc’s citizens holding a so-called “green certificate” proving they have been vaccinated, have had a negative COVID-19 test or have immunity after recovering.

“The green certificate, for the Luxembourg government is one of the elements that would allow us to get back to normality as fast as possible,” Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said in separate comments on Monday.

The Commission recommended allowing people fully inoculated with EU-recognized vaccines to be able to enter from any country, and said other vaccines could be added if they are approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The European Medicines Agency has authorized the use of shots by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca in the EU.

The WHO has also approved those vaccines for use and is expected to decide on the use of two Chinese vaccines this week. Both agencies are considering Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

The Commission said reciprocity should be considered when deciding to allow leisure travel from third countries.

To limit the risk of importing new coronavirus variants, the Commission also proposed a new “emergency brake” that would allow the swift introduction of travel restrictions from countries where the health situation deteriorates sharply.

EU countries would review the situation every two weeks.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by John Chalmers, Timothy Heritage and Giles Elgood)

Czech lawmakers give nod to same-sex marriage, final vote uncertain

PRAGUE (Reuters) – A same-sex marriage bill in the Czech Republic cleared an early hurdle in the lower house of parliament on Thursday, but whether it will become law is uncertain with a general election less than six months away.

The legislation has languished for three years in parliament and has split parliamentary factions as lawmakers voted both in favor and against within their parties.

Around half of European Union countries have same-sex marriage laws.

In the Czech Republic, same-sex couples can enter into registered partnerships since 2006.

Critics say that step removed some obstacles, but does not place same-sex couples on an equal footing with heterosexual couples, especially in legal issues, such as child adoptions or property rights.

The new bill, which was approved in a first reading and will head to committee debate before a final vote, amends the Civil Code to say marriage is a union of “two persons,” instead of “a man and a woman” in the current version.

Opponents seeking to dismiss the bill lacked six votes among 93 lawmakers present.

At the same session, a counter bill also got through an initial vote. It aims for the country’s Constitution to say that marriage of a man and a woman is protected by law.

As the bills have to also pass the upper chamber, the Senate, and be signed by the president to become law, it is uncertain whether there is enough time for either to make it to a final vote before the Oct. 8-9 election.

(Reporting by Robert Muller; editing by Barbara Lewis)