European Commission - The African Mirror

Oct

2023

Wanted: Thousands of Ukrainian judges, in huge overhaul sought by EU

VIRA Levko, a judge in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, typically handles dozens of administrative cases and several criminal hearings every day. And she says there are others who are far busier than her. When Levko tells colleagues abroad about her workload, they find it hard to believe. "They don't understand how a judge can hold so much information in their head," she told Reuters at the Dniprovskyi district court. Ukraine is desperately short of judges and is kick-starting a long-delayed nationwide hiring spree to fill more than 2,000 vacancies and vet around as many sitting judges for potential malfeasance. The…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Belgium says attack to Brussels metro today is ‘unlikely’

WORLD

MARINE STRAUSS BELGIUM'S crisis centre said that an attack on the Brussels metro was unlikely after EU institutions and international embassies warned their employees of bomb threats in central Brussels. Federal body OCAM, which analyses risks to the country, added in a statement that police had carried out a security sweep of the metro as a precaution. While the Brussels prosecutor opened an investigation, the general threat level for Belgium remained at 2 on a scale of 4. Belgian daily Le Soir said the European Commission informed the police on Tuesday afternoon of an email written in Russian and referring…

Feb

2022

By The African Mirror

EU launches reset with Africa after pandemic disruption

COVID-19

JOHN CHALMERS and PHILIP BLENKINSOP THE EU welcomed more than 40 African leaders to Brussels in an effort to reassert its influence on a continent where China and Russia have made hefty investment inroads, and where many felt let down by Europe's COVID-19 vaccines rollout. The European Union will offer several packages of support at the summit to bolster health, education and stability in Africa, and will pledge half of a new 300-billion-euro ($340.9 billion) investment drive launched to rival China's Belt and Road Initiative. But the meeting also takes place just as France and its allies fighting Islamist militants…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

EU launches big climate plan for “our children and grandchildren”

WORLD

KATE ABNETT EUROPEAN Union policymakers have unveiled their most ambitious plan yet to tackle climate change, aiming to turn green goals into concrete action this decade and set an example for the world's other big economies to follow. The European Commission, the EU executive body, set out in painstaking detail how the bloc's 27 countries can meet their collective goal to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% from 1990 levels by 2030 - a step towards "net zero" emissions by 2050. This will mean raising the cost of emitting carbon for heating, transport and manufacturing, taxing high-carbon aviation fuel and…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19: Latest on worldwide spread

COVID-19

THE European Union's drugs regulator approved Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine, and the European Commission extended its scheme requiring authorisation for vaccine exports until the end of June due to continued concerns about supplies within the bloc. DEATHS AND INFECTIONS * Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals for a case tracker and summary of news. EUROPE * Health authorities in Denmark and Norway said they had temporarily suspended the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine shots after reports of the formation of blood clots in some who have been vaccinated. * Italy's decision to ban a batch of AstraZeneca vaccine was taken following…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

EU unveils plans to avoid Brexit chaos as ‘no deal’ looms larger

WORLD

JOHN CHALMERS and ELIZABETH PIPER THE European Union's executive has laid out contingency plans for a 'no-deal' Brexit at the end of the year to minimise disruption to air traffic and road and rail travel after talks between British and EU leaders failed to break an impasse. The European Commission also proposed that Britain and the EU continue to offer reciprocal access to their fishing waters for up to a year, but London quickly rebuffed the idea. Agreement on fishing rights has been one of the most emotive sticking points in negotiations for a trade deal that has eluded the…