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EU’s first event at EXPO 2020 titled ‘EU Green Deal’

EU’s first event at EXPO 2020 titled 'EU Green Deal'

The event also includes debates with industry, representatives of research, innovation and financial institutions on financing innovations for the energy transition and on implementing energy transition projects…reports Asian Lite News

Over 100 international officials, policymakers and innovators recently attended the first European Union event at Expo 2020 Dubai titled, “EU Green Deal: Research & Innovation as a driver towards climate neutrality”.

The event was hosted in partnership with the Sweden Pavilion in the Sustainability District and featured a high-level hybrid workshop, and an EU projects’ networking village showcasing success innovation stories and breakthroughs.

EU’s first event at EXPO 2020 titled ‘EU Green Deal’

ANDREA MATTEO FONTANA, AMBASSADOR, EU COMMISSIONER-GENERAL, EXPO: “The EU is paving a responsible path to becoming the first climate-neutral region in the world by 2050. So, at Expo 2020, we will look at how we can promote green economies, renewable energy, reduce pollution and tackle climate change, thereby ensuring a green economic recovery post-COVID-19.”

The aim of the event, taking place conveniently during Expo’s Climate and Sustainability Week and the EU Climate Diplomacy Weeks currently ongoing, is to highlight the EU’s excellence in research and innovation as a tool towards climate neutrality and sustainability, and the EU’s ambition of cooperating with partners toward the achievement of this global goal.

Mariya Gabriel, the EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, in her message at the event highlighted that research and innovation are at the centre of the EU action against climate change.

“While COVID-19 has presented serious challenges to societies, individuals and businesses. There is today an opportunity to use this disruption as a catalyst for positive change: Building back better, greener and in a more gender-neutral way are key goals,” noted Jan Thesleff, Commissioner-General at the Swedish Committee for the participation at Expo 2020, Co-Chair of the MENA-OECD Women’s Economic Empowerment Forum.

EU’s first event at EXPO 2020 titled ‘EU Green Deal’

Other high-level officials and policymakers addressed the event including Jan Budaj, Minister of Environment of Slovak Republic; Natasa Pilides, Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry of Cyprus; Dr. Hannah Neumann, Member of European Parliament chairing the Delegation for Relations with the Arab Peninsula; Dr. Mohamed Al Rashidi, Director of Electricity & Water Department and Acting Director of Energy of GCC General SecretariatL and Gauri Singh, Deputy Director-General of IRENA, among others.

During the workshop, the high-level experts presented the new EU research and innovation programme (Horizon Europe) and discussed ways to promote and finance clean energy innovation, featuring the ambitions activities of Mission Innovation, a key multilateral initiative in the context of the European Green Deal that the EU is presently co-chairing.

The event also included debates with industry, representatives of research, innovation and financial institutions on financing innovations for the energy transition and on implementing energy transition projects.

The networking village featured successful EU projects and breakthroughs that already help deliver the European Green Deal objectives and climate neutrality, including in partnership with Mission Innovation members.

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-Top News EU News Europe

EU Army still a pipe dream

Proponents of an EU armed force that operates independently of Washington will also have to win over sceptics within the bloc; the Baltic states and Poland are not in favour of any new defence pact excluding the US…reports Asad Mirza

Proposals for a European Union (EU) army have re-emerged after the Afghan fiasco – but many member states still remain ‘hard to convince, about its feasibility.

It seems that the EU has learnt the lessons of the abrupt end of the US-led mission in Afghanistan and furthermore after AUKUS, that the US is a trying to build a coalition of English speaking Anglophonic nations in the defence realm and that time has now come for them to guard their interests themselves.

In her annual state of the union speech in the European Parliament in Strasbourg recently, Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, described the withdrawal of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, and the subsequent collapse of President Ashraf Ghani’s administration troubling. She urged the European leaders to acquire the “political will” to build up its own military force to de deployed at or prevent any future crises.

She is also reported to be working with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, on issuing a “new declaration” on EU-Nato relations by the end of the year. She has also said there would be crises where the EU’s own military force should operate independently from both the UN and Nato.

Germany’s current Defence Minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has said that von der Leyen is right. Real EU defence depends on the political will of the member states. That’s why Germany and France must lead any such exercise.


European solidarity

For some, this state of affairs revived the old idea of a European military – with the EU’s chief diplomat himself urging the bloc to create a collective armed force.

“The need for more European defence has never been as much evident as today after the events in Afghanistan,” EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell told journalists at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign and defence ministers in Slovenia recently, where the Afghanistan debacle featured prominently.

The EU needs to create a “rapid response force” of 5,000 soldiers, Borrell said. EU military committee chairman Claudio Graziano also agreed with the idea, which should be supported with a genuine “will to act” he is reported to have said.

This phrase appeared once again, when Macron talked about Afghanistan with visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the ElysEe Palace. The two leaders gave a joint statement urging the EU to develop “strategic autonomy” so it can take “more responsibility for its security and defence”.

Going one step further France has recently inked a defence deal for supply of 13 Rafael jets and 3 frigates to Greece. By choosing French Rafael, Greece rejected the bid by US’s Boeing for F-16 planes.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen



Critics of the proposal

The idea of common defence, one attacked by some critics of the EU as evidence of fomenting nationalism building, has a long and chequered history. It dates back to 1990s and the Yugoslav Wars. A joint 1998 statement by France’s then President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that the EU “must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces”, an assertion which fits Emmanuel Macron very well today.

In 1999, the EU agreed to raise a contingent of 50,000-60,000. In 2007, the bloc created a network of two “battle groups” of 1,500 troops from each country. They have since never been requisitioned.

Proponents of an EU armed force that operates independently of Washington will also have to win over sceptics within the bloc; the Baltic states and Poland are not in favour of any new defence pact excluding the US.

In addition perceptions within the EU states differ as to what is a threat to its interests. For example the Baltic states consider Russia as an existential threat as per geopolitical realities but Russia is a key energy partner for Germany, and an ally for Hungary.

Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel also backed the EU army idea in 2018, amid suggestions that the EU “could no longer count on the United States” under Donald Trump’s leadership. Other European leaders who had advocated for such an army have included Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Czech President Milos Zeman and former Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

French President Emmanuel Macron

Pushes for an EU-force have public support, too. A 2017 Eurobarometer poll collated by Statista found that 74 per cent of respondents in the Netherlands and Belgium supported the idea. In France and Germany, backing for the proposal was 65 per cent and 55 per cent percent respectively, but in EU’s traditionally more neutral countries, like Austria (45 per cent), Ireland (46 per cent), Finland (42 per cent) and Sweden (40 per cent) it was mellowed. In the UK, only 39 per cent of survey respondents were in favour.

Other critics of the proposal include Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg himself, who has warned that an EU force “cannot defend Europe” without NATO assistance.

Military analysts say that most EU governments can’t investment more in defence and they are further concerned about the risk of undermining Nato. In 2019 EU’s 27 member states’ expenditure on defence stood at 1.2 per cent of the GDP compared with 3.4 per cent by the US.

International security and defence analyst Brooks Tigner has also pointed to potential funding issues. In a 2018 opinion piece for the Atlantic Council, Tigner wrote that while the idea for an EU army might appear “impressive on paper”, but none has any realisation of what the collective cost of operations might be. He added that the bloc would have to resolve a plethora of other “technical, legal, and administrative differences” that would “boil down to the most mundane things such as soldiers’ rights”.

Pic credits Wikipedia

A leaders’ summit dedicated to European defence will be convened by von der Leyen and tMacron, in the first half of next year, when France holds the rolling presidency of the EU. The concept of an EU army would be debated and discussions will be held about “why this has not worked in the past” at the next summit von der Leyen has said.

Overall, as in the past, this time too it seems that the idea might get turned down due to its feasibility but it would help politicians like Macron and other European leaders to root for more nationalism and nationalistic tendencies, independent of the US.

(Asad Mirza is a political commentator based in New Delhi. He writes on Muslims, educational, international affairs, interfaith and current affairs. Views expressed are personal)

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Afghanistan UAE News UK News

UK-UAE bonhomie

UK-UAE

The UK is eagerly trying to find an ally in the Gulf region, which could guarantee its interests and contain any threat to it not just in the region but beyond in other Arab states too…reports Asian Lite News

The withdrawal of the US forces from Afghanistan before the deadline has dealt a severe blow to the special relationship between the US and UK and also the EU member states. They insist that the withdrawal before time was a hasty decision and their view was not taken on-board. They also base their criticism of US President Joe Bidens decision on the inputs by both the British and other countries intelligence that such an action might end up in chaos, and the subsequent events leading to the rout by the Taliban forces in Afghanistan, proved their point.

In this scenario the UK is eagerly trying to find an ally in the Gulf region, which could guarantee its interests and contain any threat to it not just in the region but beyond in other Arab states too.

UAE flag

The British leaders seems to have identified an ally which fits this profile, and who is better equipped to help the UK surmount this problem. He is Sheikh Khalifa bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Intelligence sharing between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the UK has helped save British lives and the country is seen as a regional-leader in combating terrorist finance and extremist propaganda.

The events in Afghanistan affected the long-term special relationship enjoyed between Britain and the UAE, but in a positive direction. In a statement, Britain’s ambassador in Abu Dhabi has said that the evacuation of UK citizens from Kabul was made possible by the assistance of the UAE which provided a staging airport as well as support from across government ministries.

Dubai over the past 30 years or so has been transformed by engineering, finance and enterprise, aided not least by Britain’s distinctive connections with the territory and its people since the early 1800s a century and a half before the formation of the Emirates of the present.

Around 200,000 Britons live in the UAE and more than a million visit each year, for business or tourism. The UAE is Britain’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, and the UK is the UAE’s third biggest partner in non-oil commodities trade. Britain is one of the largest investors in the UAE, which also has many major investments here.

Britain played a key role in establishing the UAE and its military forces which originated in the British-led Trucial Oman Scouts. UAE forces also fought with in the 1990-91 Gulf War along with the US coalition and with NATO forces in Kosovo. It was also the only Arab nation, which deployed troops in Afghanistan during the 20-year US-led campaign, conducting combat operations alongside other coalition forces and providing significant humanitarian aid.

Besides assisting the British evacuation from Kabul, the UAE Air Force played a major role of its own in the operation, and the country is now hosting thousands of Afghan refugees.

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Regional Imperatives

Due to the threatening bloom of jihadist forces in Afghanisatn, Britain’s alliance with the UAE will become increasingly important. Some key portfolios in the new Afghan government have been entrusted to hardened terrorists Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, Britain’s lead agency on countering terrorism, warned last week of a greater threat to the UK in the coming months and years following withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In this scenario no other world leader is better equipped to help understand and contain this rising threat to Britain and its international interests than Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the greatest adversary of radical Islamism in the Arab world.

Sheikh Mohammed helped stem the escalating regional challenge of the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt; UAE forces combated Al Shabab in Somalia, supported the Libyan National Army against its Islamist opponents and fought against Islamic State in Syria and Iran-sponsored Houthi insurgents, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Yemen.

Perhaps due to this newfound love for the UAE, Lord Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has nominated Mohammed bin Zayed for the same award in recognition of his “historic achievements in advancing peace in the Middle East”.

Britain does not agree with all UAE foreign policies for example its support for Assad in Syria, which UAE views as a prop against Islamists as well as Turkish and Iranian aggression in Syria.

British and UAE intelligence services are close. Intelligence provided by the UAE has helped save British lives and the country is a regional-leader in combatting terrorist finance and extremist propaganda, including on the Internet. The Emirates actively share its de-radicalisation programmes and ideas with allies across the Arab world, the West and countries such as India.

UK’s anxiety

Britain faces a growing de-radicalisation response, with tens of thousands on its watch lists, a growing jihadi prison population and increasing radicalisation in its universities.

The Arab disenchantment with the US over its earlier withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iranian aggression in the region and a growing nuclear threat, have forced many leaders that the Biden administration is no longer a dependable ally. This could cause some to turn increasingly towards China or Russia; both already active in the region and on the lookout for opportunities to further strengthen their hold over the region.

The other option for protection which many Arab countries might not favour but a far better one from the West’s point of view is Israel, which has the most powerful military in the Middle East and the will to use it when necessary.

In recent times the change in Arab stance towards Israel was made possible by the Abraham Accords, which publicly opened the path for increased cooperation, and here too the single most important player was the UAE.

The Biden administration does not seem to much enthused by the Abraham Accords, and the best bet to the UK and other western countries in this scenario seems to be looking to the UAE’s leadership to further strengthen and broaden the regional security cooperation to guard their interests.

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-Top News EU News Travel & Tourism

Europe tourism plummets 61% during Covid

Paris, Sept. 4, 2020 (Xinhua) -- People wearing masks walk on the Trocadero Place near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, Sept. 3, 2020. The French government aims to mobilize 100 billion euros (118 billion U.S. dollars) in a recovery plan "of historic size" to help the country recover from the coronavirus pandemic crisis, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Thursday. Ecological transition, competitiveness and social cohesion were identified as the three pillars of the plan dubbed "France Relaunch," which Castex said was "the most massive announced to date among major European countries." (Xinhua/Gao Jing/IANS)

Eurostat said this drop was reflected in the number of nights spent in EU tourist accommodation establishments between April 2020 and March 2021, reports Asian Lite News

Tourism in the European Union (EU) during the year of the Covid-19 pandemic fell by a staggering 61 per cent, according to figures released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the bloc.

Friday’s figures confirmed how tourism was among the sectors most affected by the pandemic due to travel restrictions as well as other precautionary measures taken by individual countries in response to the outbreaks, reports Xinhua news agency.

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Eurostat said this drop was reflected in the number of nights spent in EU tourist accommodation establishments between April 2020 and March 2021.

This translates into a drop of 1.7 billion from the 2.8 billion nights spent between April 2019 and March 2020, prior to the start of the pandemic.

Among the EU member states with available data, the highest decreases were recorded in Malta, where tourism dropped by a massive 80 per cent; Spain, down by 78 per cent; and Greece, down by 74 per cent.

EU

Tourism shrank by 70 per cent in Portugal, and 66 per cent in Hungary.

Eurostat said data for Ireland, France, and Cyprus were not available.

The pandemic also had an adverse effect on internal tourism, with the total nights spent by domestic tourists down by 45 per cent.

This was not the case in Malta and Slovenia, the only two EU countries where internal tourism increased by 20 and 25 per cent, respectively, in the year under review.

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-Top News EU News UK News

‘EU-UK Ties At Crossroads’

European Commission’s Maros Sefcovic said the Northern Ireland protocol is a “cornerstone” of the Brexit deal, and called on the UK to respect its commitments, reports Asian Lite News

The relationship between the European Union (EU) and the UK is “at crossroads” amid the Northern Ireland row, warned Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of inter-institutional relations and foresight.

“We are at a crossroads, now we have a choice of which path to go down: either we are working together, with the UK abiding by its international obligations and engaging in a good faith. Or, the UK continues to take unilateral actions,” Sefcovic said at an event on Friday.

Sefcovic warned that a wrong choice could lead to a downward spiral, taking the attention of both parties away from what should be their main goal, building a strong strategic partnership, reports Xinua news agency.

Sefcovic was referring to the UK’s seemingly unwillingness “to find workable solutions” to the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is aimed at implementing a soft border on the island of Ireland and preserve the peace induced by the Good Friday Agreement.

The protocol is a “cornerstone” of the Brexit deal, emphasised Sefcovic, calling on the UK to respect its commitments.

On June 9, officials from both sides held talks in London on the Northern Ireland Protocol ahead of the G7 Summit but produced no breakthroughs.

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Tensions have been rising between the two sides on post-Brexit trade and a “grace period” for some border checks that will end at the end of this month.

According to reports, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said last week that the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol had been “very lopsided” and had had “real world effects” on the people.

UK

He called for the EU to show “a bit of respect”.

Meanwhile, Sefcovic on Friday estimated that the EU had already shown great understanding by turning their “rules upside down and inside out”, and that they are ready to go “beyond flexibility” to make things work.

The implementation of the protocol has already led to violence, as riots erupted in Belfast in April.

Loyalists and nationalists claimed that the trade agreement would create barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Under the Protocol, Northern Ireland will continue to apply EU customs rules at its ports, to allow goods to flow into the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the EU.

Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of inter-institutional relations and foresight. (Photo: twitter@MarosSefcovic)

This is known as the Irish sea border, a new trade border between Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.

The Belfast Agreement, or the Good Friday Agreement, is a set of agreements signed between the British and Irish governments as well as the major political parties in Northern Ireland on Good Friday, April 10, 1998.

The deal, viewed as a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process, had helped end a period of conflict in the region.

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-Top News EU News

Belarusian airlines banned from flying over EU

A sign with a portrait of the arrested Belarusian journalist Protasevich and the words "Free Roman Protasevich" is pasted on the ground outside the General Post (IANS)

The 27 countries are obliged “to deny permission to land in, take off from or overfly their territories to any aircraft operated by Belarusian air carriers”, the bloc announced, reports Asian Lite News

Starting from Saturday, Belarusian air carriers’ will be banned from flying over the European Union (EU) airspace and also using runways in response to the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight and detention of a dissident journalist and his girlfriend last month.

The 27 countries are obliged “to deny permission to land in, take off from or overfly their territories to any aircraft operated by Belarusian air carriers”, the bloc announced on Friday after member states envoys in Brussels formally signed off the move.

Belarusian
Demonstrators display Belarusian flags during a rally in Ukraine calling for the release of Raman Protasevich (Photo Ukrinform/dpa/IANS)

Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega were on board a commercial flight between EU countries Greece and Lithuania that was rerouted on May 23 to Minsk shortly before it reached Vilnius due to an alleged bomb threat, reports dpa news agency.

No bomb was found, but both were detained.

The bloc slammed the act as an affront to both air safety and freedom of the press.

The EU has also called on all bloc-based carriers to avoid flying over Belarusian territory.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) condemned Minsk’s behaviour but also criticized the EU.

“Two wrongs do not make a right. Politics should never interfere with the safe operation of aircraft and politicians should never use aviation safety as a cover to pursue political or diplomatic agendas,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, said in a statement.

The bloc is also preparing a package of economic sanctions on individuals involved in the incident, but this could still take some time to finalize, according to dpa’s diplomatic sources.

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-Top News COVID-19 EU News

EU to start Covid passport scheme from July

The plan will set up a Covid digital certificate system that policymakers hope will make it easy for travellers to prove their status, reports Asian Lite Newsdesk

The European Union’s (EU) Covid-19 passport scheme will be up and running from July 1, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said.

The announcement on Friday came a day after negotiators from EU member states, the European Parliament and the European Commission agreed on the regulations that will govern this Covid-19 travel document, Xinhua news agency reported.

The freshly struck deal on the scheme will allow travel in summer, Reynders said at a press conference here, adding that this was “good news for all European citizens”.

“All member states must get fully ready during the month of June, so they can hit the ground running,” Reynders said.

He added that the European Commission was offering technical support and up to a million euros per state to help.

There will be a six-week transition period for member states that need more time.

The scheme will allow EU citizens to travel more freely within the EU in total health safety and will support economic sectors dependent on free movement, Reynders told journalists.

Three types of certificates will be available free of charge, in paper or digital format: one attesting vaccination with an EU-approved shot; a second showing negative test results; and the third for people who have recovered after having been infected with Covid-19.

Regarding the cost of the required tests, Reynders said the Commission will also mobilise an additional 100 million euros to support member states in providing affordable tests.

Covid

The regulation underlines that member states shall refrain from imposing additional travel restrictions on the holders of an EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate, unless they are necessary and proportionate to safeguard public health.

“It is in all of our interests to make this work. Citizens will be able to travel safely. Businesses will be able to benefit from their spending, and transport will be able to operate,” Reynders said.

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-Top News COVID-19 EU News

EU revises vaccine export system

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen makes a statement at an extraordinary European Parliament plenary session in Brussels, Belgium, July 23, 2020. (European Union/Handout via Xinhua/IANS)
The principle of reciprocity will be applied to non-EU countries having at their disposal a large production capacity…reports Asian Lite News.

The European Commission presented a revised version of its export transparency mechanism for Covid-19 vaccines, with Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis claiming that it does not constitute an export ban.

The mechanism takes aim at vaccines produced in European Union (EU)-based facilities of pharmaceutical companies that are bound by an advance purchase agreement (APA) with the EU. The new version includes two new criteria — reciprocity and proportionality — for assessing whether these vaccines can be exported to non-EU countries, according to Dombrovskis, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

The principle of reciprocity will be applied to non-EU countries having at their disposal a large production capacity. The European Commission and the EU member states will examine if the flow of imports and exports of vaccine and vaccine substances between the bloc and destination country is even.

Proportionality is about finding the right balance, the commissioner explained. The European Commission and the member states will take into account the specific situation of the country of destination, including its vaccination rate and the existing availability of Covid-19 vaccines.

AstraZeneca vaccine

Vaccine exports towards low- and middle-income countries covered by the COVAX (Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access) facility remain exempted.

Put in place on January 30, the export and transparency mechanism was launched when the EU argued that some pharmaceutical companies failed to honor their commitments to deliver the promised amount of doses to the EU countries but still could export vaccines from their EU-based facilities.

Originally due to expire on March 12, the mechanism has been extended until June 30.

(Photo: Pallav Paliwal)

A total of 381 export requests have been introduced by pharmaceutical companies bound by an APA with the EU, and only one has been declined.

AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish vaccine manufacturer, had applied to export 250,000 doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Australia, while falling behind its delivery schedule for the EU.

“I remind you that AstraZeneca has only delivered a small portion of its agreed contractual commitments,” Dombrovskis said.

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