European Union - The African Mirror

Jun

2021

AU wants Covishield approved

THE African Union has criticised an EU decision not to include Covishield, a version of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine used by the global COVAX facility, on a list of approved vaccines for a digital certificate meant to ease travel in the bloc. Covishield is produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and has been distributed to African nations as part of the COVAX initiative to give poor and developing countries access to COVID-19 vaccines. But Covishield is not one of four vaccines approved by the European Union for its planned digital vaccination certificate, which is intended to allow people to…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

AI is watching: What to know about workplace surveillance

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

ARTHUR NESLEN FROM Swedish retailer H&M being fined 35 million euros ($42 million) for recording employees' private data to Britain's Barclays bank accused of spying on its staff, workplace surveillance has come into the spotlight in recent months. On Wednesday, the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), the European Trade Union Confederation's research arm, said planned regulation by the European Union (EU) to improve privacy does not do enough to stop companies from snooping on their workers in the name of security and efficiency. As artificial intelligence (AI) technology becomes ever more accessible and sophisticated, here's why unions are worried: What kind of surveillance are we…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Vaccine failings cast shadow over EU summit as third wave surges

WORLD

SABINE SIEBOLD and PHILIP BLENKINSOP EUROPEAN Union leaders have met to navigate a common path out of the COVID-19 pandemic as infections surge in many of their countries, seeking agreement on how to ramp up supplies of vaccines after a slow start to immunisations. With distribution of shots uneven across the bloc and member states divided over whether to take a tougher line on vaccine exports, French President Emmanuel Macron spelt out the frustration over inoculation programmes that are running far behind those of Britain and the United States. "We didn't shoot for the stars. That should be a lesson…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Sudan requests mediation over Ethiopian dam

NEWS

SUDAN’S prime minister has written to the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States to formally request their mediation on the Nile water being used to fill Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the Sudanese foreign ministry announced yesterday. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok expressed concern over Ethiopia's stated intention of adding more water to the reservoir behind the hydropower dam for a second year in letters sent on Saturday, the statement added. Sudan had already floated the idea of the four-party mediation with Egyptian support after an African Union-led mediation effort stalled.

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

EU envisages 1 bln euros aid to Ivory Coast to meet sustainable cocoa laws

BUSINESS

ANGE ABOA THE European Union envisages providing around one billion euros over six years to aid Ivory Coast's cocoa sector as it adapts to EU supply chain laws due to be introduced later this year, according to its envoy in Abidjan. "In the context of our future programming for 2021-2027, the EU is envisaging a Team Europe initiative which could mobilise up to one billion euros to accompany Ivory Coast in the transition towards sustainable cocoa production," EU Ambassador to Ivory Coast Jobst von Kirchmann said in an interview. Kirchmann did not say when a final decision would be taken.…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Uganda chafes at EU over Museveni

NEWS

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA UGANDA has accused the European Union of meddling after the bloc's parliament recommended sanctions over a crackdown and arrests of opponents around President Yoweri Museveni's disputed re-election last month. In power since 1986, Museveni was declared winner of the presidential poll with 59% of votes, but his main rival - pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine - rejected the ballot as fraudulent. On Thursday, the EU parliament passed a resolution saying the election was not democratic, police and soldiers used excessive force, and detainees should be released. "Asking Uganda to release suspects already before the courts of law…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

After outcry, EU reverses plan to restrict vaccine exports through Irish border

WORLD

ANDY BRUCE, KATE HOLTON and MARINE STRAUSS THE European Union has abruptly reversed a plan to use emergency Brexit measures to restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines from crossing the Irish border into the United Kingdom after it sent shockwaves through Northern Ireland, London and Dublin. In a steep escalation of the EU's fight to secure vaccine supplies, Brussels had said it would trigger clauses in the Northern Irish Protocol to prevent the vaccines from moving across the open border between EU-member Ireland and the British-run province. Following an outcry in London, Belfast and Dublin, the EU published a statement just…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

EU suspends Ethiopian budget support

NEWS

THE European Union has suspended budget support for Ethiopia worth 88 million euros ($107 million) until humanitarian agencies are granted access to people in need of aid in the northern Tigray region. In a blog post, the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell said Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed now needed to live up to the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded in 2019 by doing all it takes to end the conflict in Tigray. "We are ready to help, but unless there is access for humanitarian aid operators, the EU cannot disburse the planned budget support to the Ethiopian government,"…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

UK parliament approves Brexit trade deal as both sides look to future

WORLD

WILLIAM JAMES and GABRIELA BACZYNSKA BRITISH lawmakers have approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union, as both sides looked to begin a new chapter of relations just days before their divorce becomes a reality. Britain and the European Union were signing the deal on Wednesday and the British parliament will finalise its implementation, ending over four years of negotiation and safeguarding nearly a $1 trillion of annual trade. Both sides said it was a chance to begin a new chapter in a relationship forged as Europe rebuilt after World War Two, but which has often…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Parting is such sweet sorrow’: EU and UK clinch narrow Brexit accord

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE, ELIZABETH PIPER and JOHN CHALMERS BRITAIN clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union just seven days before it exits one of the world's biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire. The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted by a slim margin to leave the bloc, offers a way out of a chaotic finale to a divorce that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two. It will preserve Britain's zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc's single…