The European Commission has urged member states to move more quickly when it comes to administering vaccines and identifying the spread of new COVID-19 variants. The arrest of Alexei Navalny in Moscow has made waves across Europe. And Conte looks to form a pro-European alliance in Rome.
On Tuesday 19 January, the European Commission called on EU member states to expedite their coronavirus vaccination programmes, setting a target of vaccinating at least 70 per cent of adults by the summer.
EU has summer in its sights
To many, this figure seems somewhat optimistic given the sluggish pace at which most member states’ vaccination programmes have taken off – partly, in fairness, owing to delays in vaccine approval and production. Yet RTV SLO reports that Slovenia is well-placed to achieve this goal – assuming that the vaccines it has ordered arrive.
With a total population of just over 2 million, the country has ordered more than 2.5 million vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and half a million from Moderna. This puts it firmly on the right track, as prime minister Janez Janša confirmed.
Janez Janša, Prime Minister of Slovenia (in Slovenian):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“If these deliveries come to fruition, we will not even need many more doses of vaccine.”
The Commission is also calling for further contact restrictions and increased testing. Specifically, it urges member states to extend genome sequencing to between five and ten per cent of positive test results. Many member states are currently examining less than one per cent of test samples, which the EU’s executive believes is not sufficient to determine the spread of the different variants or to detect new mutations.
Germany will certainly play its part, confirmed Chancellor Merkel, who also expressed a desire to see greater uniformity across the bloc so that her country’s efforts were not undermined by potentially laxer approaches by other member states.
Indeed, EU heads of state were meeting via video conference on Thursday evening (21 January) to discuss how they could better work together. The possibility of intra-EU movement restrictions, such as a requirement for negative PCR tests and quarantine or even an EU-wide ban on non-essential travel, was on the agenda, as ams reports.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany (in German):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“In addition to vaccination, we will also deal with the topic of mutation. We have to ensure that all of our neighbouring countries are really working in the same direction here. If that is not the case, we will also have to take immigration-related precautions because we cannot allow what [German] citizens are doing and what we are imposing on them to be ruined letting the virus back in again. This calls for a uniform European approach.”
One specific proposal made by several countries including Greece and Malta is to introduce an EU-wide COVID-19 vaccination certificate granting citizens who have been vaccinated the right to travel within the EU, free from restrictions.
Luxembourg has expressed reservations, as foreign minister Jean Asselborn told the country’s lawmakers on Tuesday (January 19). Euranet Plus member station 100,7 shares his comments.
Jean Asselborn, Foreign Minister of Luxembourg (in Luxembourgish):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“You have to differentiate between a vaccination certificate (the yellow one we all know in Luxembourg), where a COVID vaccination would be listed alongside the other ones, and the idea that those who are vaccinated would automatically be allowed to travel while others would not. We, the Luxembourgish government, have real reservations about this – we think that we could take such an approach only once everybody has had the chance of being vaccinated. At the moment, this would be discriminatory and therefore not advisable.”
Even if none of these potential measures are officially imposed at EU level following Thursday’s meeting, the hope is that those that exist might at least be better coordinated, and that countries that have not yet implemented them can be persuaded to do so.
Navalny arrest adds insult to injury
In plenary this week, MEPs have strongly condemned the arrest of poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who returned to Russia on Sunday 17 January after more than four months spent recovering from his assassination attempt in Germany, as ams reports.
Navalny’s detention at a Moscow airport was broadcast live, with the ensuing arrest taking place in a hastily constructed ‘court’ inside a police station, without Navalny’s lawyer present. Heads of state from around the world were quick to condemn the arrest.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany (in German):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“I naturally demand the immediate release of Mr Navalny. As does the federal government as a whole. We believe that this is the right course of action and also very urgent.”
Latvijas Radio spoke to MEP Sandra Kalniete, previously Latvia’s foreign minister, who said that what happened next hinged on how Russian society reacted to this latest development.
Sandra Kalniete, Member of the European Parliament – EPP, Latvia (in Latvian):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“In the coming days, it will become clear whether Navalny’s supporters remain the same core group, or whether the outrage is much more widespread and bigger protests ensue. At the moment, I do not think that anyone has the answer to this question. Yes, a new generation of Russians has grown up, but the question is to what extent are the Russian people informed. Navalny’s arrest was watched online by a lot of people around the world, but how many watched it in Russia? The TV channel Tvrain suggested that it was around one million, and I don’t know if one million is enough for a resistance movement to emerge in Russia like the one we are currently seeing in Belarus.”
Polish MEP Witold Waszczykowski agrees, but adds that it is not down to the Russians alone. Speaking to Polskie Radio’s Radio Gdańsk, he highlights that Europe’s hand is strong – but that to bring about change, bold and coordinated action is required.
Witold Waszczykowski, Member of the European Parliament – ECR, Poland (in Polish):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“Europe is not powerless over Russia – it can still strengthen and extend sanctions against Russia. I have written many times that, in the end, Russian society must feel the impact. Putin acts as he does because he has the backing of Russian society, who do not see the price of Putin’s policy, of his aggression. And this requires the determination of statesmen in Europe, especially in Western Europe, not just to think about the next election – how to win the next election, how to earn some quick money from a deal or two with Putin…”
MEPs Kalniete and Waszczykowski are just two of a slew of EU voices calling for sanctions against the Russian officials implicated in the arrest of Navalny and some of his supporters. Kalniete said specifically that the EU should make use of its new ‘Magnitsky Act’, which was adopted last December to accelerate the sanctions process.
In fact, on Thursday afternoon (21 January), MEPs passed a resolution calling on the bloc to impose sanctions on Russian officials and halt the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline (which will transport Russian natural gas to Europe) in response to the Kremlin’s latest actions.
Vestager talks priorities in Portugal
Interviewed by Rádio Renascença during the College of Commissioners’ visit to Portugal at the end of last week (14/15 January), Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for ‘A Europe Fit for the Digital Age’, suggested that the first signs of economic recovery may be visible from the autumn.
But Vestager stressed the extent to which Europe’s economic recovery depends on digital development, at which one-fifth of Europe’s recovery fund will be targeted. This area is also a key focus of the Portuguese Council presidency.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission (in English):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“Our leaders, they have decided that 20 per cent – at least 20 per cent – of the recovery fund should be used for digital. One obvious thing to do is to offer education. It can be basic skills; it can also be very high-level skills, because even in this crisis, there are still hundreds of thousands of open positions for people who have digital skills, and this will increase. So skills is an obvious one. Second could be investing in connectivity. A lot of people are still not well-connected. I think a lot of parents have said ‘Why don’t our kids have a good connection if they cannot go to school?’ […] Thirdly, that we also invest cross-border.”
Vestager, who is also the EU’s competition commissioner, defends digital-market regulation, believing that large ‘gatekeepers’, such as Amazon, must be prevented from taking advantage of the small businesses that are forced to rely on their platforms. And she proceeds to make a similar argument for fairness in taxation.
Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission (in English):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“For me, it is very simple because it’s a question of tax fairness. The huge majority of businesses, they work very hard to make a profit. On that profit, they pay their taxes. That’s the general rule. They have to look at other businesses – who are their competitors for skilled employees, for clever people, for customers, for capital – who do not pay their taxes to the same level, who do not contribute to the society where they do their business. So, I want to be able to say to all these many, many, many, many businesses who pay their taxes. Well, rest assured, your competitors, they pay their taxes as well.”
Conte clings on
Giuseppe Conte survived his no-confidence vote in the Italian Senate on Tuesday 19 January, clinging on to his position as the leader of a now-minority government.
Matteo Renzi’s defecting party ultimately abstained, seemingly reluctant to cast the final blow to the incumbent government – perhaps because no opposition party seems too keen to step up to the plate in such troubled times, muses Radio 24.
The time appears to be long gone since Conte, alongside then-deputy-PM Matteo Salvini, pursued an overtly populist agenda. Italy’s premier has more than softened his stance towards the EU. Indeed, he has explicitly endorsed its agenda. This change of heart was confirmed in his speech to Parliament on Tuesday, when he described the kind of governing alliance he now hoped to form.
Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy (in Italian):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“I call upon this alliance to express an unequivocal pro-European vocation, and I can only include those political forces that will support this critical decision to avoid a drift towards nationalism and sovereignist ambitions.”
This represents quite a U-turn (an ‘EU-turn’, even!), given the anti-EU rhetoric of Conte’s earlier days in politics.
Gridlock between Skopje and Sofia
The process of EU enlargement, and in particular Bulgaria’s veto preventing the launch of North Macedonia’s accession negotiations, is the focus of BNR’s European Week.
Bulgaria is coming under increasing pressure from other EU member states to withdraw its veto. However, for the time being, at least according to MEP Andrey Kovatchev, Sofia seems to be sticking to its guns.
Andrey Kovatchev, Member of the European Parliament – EPP, Bulgaria (in Bulgarian):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“Firstly, this is not a veto – simply a postponement of the start of negotiations. European integration is a two-way street. Bulgaria is not a candidate member, but a full member of the EU. The other side should do their bit, not constantly seek something that isn’t there. It is extremely annoying that [North Macedonia’s] government is travelling around member states and slandering Bulgaria. Bulgaria has no problem with [North Macedonia’s] identity, nor do we have a problem with the Macedonian language. The problem is more fundamental and at the root of the creation of the EU – for Europeans not to slay one another, not to hate each other, not to say things about their neighbours that are untrue.”
While Bulgaria points the finger at North Macedonia over the longstanding tensions relating to language, history and identity, its own position reflects a strong nationalist stance – one that is strongly backed by public opinion and unlikely to alter much prior to its upcoming elections in the spring.
Greece’s former foreign minister and MEP, Georgios Katrougalos, also took part in the debate. BNR asked him how Greece found resolution to its own dispute with North Macedonia – a dispute over the name of the Western Balkan nation.
Katrougalos explained how in the Greek-Northern Macedonian dispute, nationalists on both sides were kept well out of the talks. He also stressed that the focus should be on the future, not on the past.
Georgios Katrougalos, former Foreign Minister of Greece (in English):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“First of all, we must isolate all kinds of national hatred – all these nationalist elements in both countries (as I said before, that was happening both in Greece and in North Macedonia) – and after that, have a calm discussion. I don’t think that we can have any kind of, let’s say, censorship of history in which one country is going to dictate to the other their understanding of the past. There is, of course, an objectivity in history – I’m not saying that everything is subjective. But it is not the role of diplomacy of state relations to try to define, with objectivity, historical truth. The relationships between states should be based on mutual respect and international law. We must leave the past behind us.”
Lisbon is hopeful that accession negotiations can be formally opened with North Macedonia and Albania by the end of June – and before the end of its Council presidency. But only time will tell.
MEP suspended for psychological harassment
Luxembourgish MEP Monika Semedo, from the Renew Europe group, has been sanctioned by the European Parliament for psychologically harassing three former assistants. The assistants resigned and filed a complaint early last year.
Parliament president David Sassoli announced his decision on Monday (18 January) at the start of the plenary session. Semedo has been suspended for 15 days and will not receive her allowances during this period.
A representative of the ‘MeToo EP’ movement welcomed the action taken in an interview with 100,7.
Miriam-Lena Horn, representative of the ‘MeToo EP’ movement (in German):
Click on the button to load the content from Soundcloud.
“This happens very, very rarely. To my knowledge, this is one of the first cases of psychological harassment in which sanctions have actually been imposed. And it has never happened for sexual harassment. What we can see here is just how difficult it is to file a complaint. It also shows a potential lack of confidence in the institution on the part of victims.”
- Author: Joanna Neville, Euranet Plus News Agency
