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00:00 At least six civilians have died in Ukraine following fresh Russian drone attacks.
00:07 Jacques Delors, former president of the European Commission, known as the pioneer of the single market in the Euro, has died aged 98.
00:18 The clean-up has begun on Danish beaches after at least 40 shipping containers were lost in the North Sea due to stormy weather.
00:29 The diamond sector in Antwerp prepares to apply the newly agreed sanctions against Russian diamonds.
00:36 Six people have died in fresh Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.
00:46 One person has died at a train station in Kurson where more than 100 civilians were waiting for a train to Kiev.
00:52 The shelling has left 70% of the town's homes without electricity. Despite the devastation, one resident says Kurson will endure.
01:02 I saw how they were building it. I was born in Kurson, I lived there. My heart is breaking.
01:08 But now I am more convinced that Kurson will endure.
01:13 After such strong blows, after which you want to cry,
01:19 you take yourself in your hands and you know for sure that we will endure.
01:22 We will clean everything up, then they will sew windows, the train station. I think it will continue to function.
01:30 In Odessa, another drone strike killed two people and injured three others, according to regional authorities.
01:36 The air offensive comes one day after Ukrainian warplanes damaged a Russian ship on the coast of Crimea.
01:43 Jacques Delors, former president of the European Commission, has died at the age of 98.
01:53 Delors laid the foundations for the modern European Union by creating the single market that made the free movement of people, capital, goods and services possible.
02:02 He also headed the so-called Delors Committee, which proposed the creation of the euro.
02:07 Delors served as France's Minister of Finance from 1981 to 1984.
02:12 He declined to run in the 1995 French presidential election, which was eventually won by Jacques Chirac.
02:20 Jacques Delors, French President
02:24 Born in Paris in 1925 into a humble family, Jacques Delors began his career as a member of the Banque de France in 1945 after studying economics at the Sorbonne.
02:35 Involved in politics and trade unionism from an early age, he joined the French Confederation of Christian Workers, or CFTC, in 1944.
02:44 At the age of 54, Delors was elected a member of the European Parliament in 1979.
02:50 He chaired the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Assembly until 1981,
02:55 when he was appointed Minister of the Economy, Finance and Budget in Pierre Mouroy's government,
03:01 where he participated in the European integration of French economic policy.
03:06 Two years later, he was elected mayor of Clichy and invested himself in the life of this Parisian suburb.
03:13 "Je ne serai pas un montreur de foire."
03:16 But in 1985, he became President of the European Commission, a position he held for a decade.
03:23 During that time, the single market became a reality.
03:26 His achievements include the launch of the European and Economic Monetary Union that led to the euro,
03:32 the European Social Dialogue, the enlargements of the bloc and the Erasmus programme.
03:37 This Economic and Monetary Union became the central plank of the Maastricht Treaty,
03:42 the biggest change since the bloc began.
03:44 The treaty on which Delors worked hard entered into force on 1st November 1993,
03:50 two years before the end of his term in office.
03:53 He then tried to return to French politics, but finally withdrew his candidacy for the 1995 elections.
04:05 He lacked sufficient support and did not want to interfere with his daughter's career,
04:10 French socialist politician Martine Aubry.
04:13 After the death of his wife in 2020, Delors relied on his daughter, with whom he was close.
04:18 "Protect, strengthen, anticipate."
04:26 Those are the watchwords of the 13th Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU,
04:31 which begins on January 1st.
04:34 The country will take the lead in joint discussions during what promises to be a turbulent political period,
04:40 with the European elections at the beginning of June in its sights.
04:43 In practice, the Belgian presidency will not have the usual full six months to complete the 150 dossiers on the table.
04:51 For the Prime Minister, the first priority is to protect citizens and turn the EU towards the future.
04:58 The second element is to strengthen our economy,
05:01 an economy that creates prosperity, employment and social solidarity.
05:08 Help this economy to transition to a sustainable economy,
05:13 an industry that helps us to achieve the objectives of the Green Deal.
05:17 When it comes to the EU's Green Deal,
05:19 the Belgian presidency will have to reach an agreement on carbon emissions from trucks and buses.
05:26 It will also have the task of reaching an inter-institutional compromise on packaging,
05:30 which aims to reduce, reuse and recycle these products.
05:34 Finally, Belgium will oversee the first discussions on the bloc's environmental targets for 2040.
05:42 A Belgian-style compromise will also be required to reach agreement on the revision of the Union's multi-annual budget.
05:52 Last week, the EU's 27 leaders were unable to agree on a budget increase requested by the European Commission.
05:58 Finally, reform of the EU and the possible enlargement of it will be discussed during this six-month period.
06:05 It is to prepare our Europe to be more efficient.
06:12 Before we become bigger, we must become better.
06:17 We must become better in a quicker decision-making process that helps us to keep our unity.
06:23 The signals being sent out by the Belgian authorities on enlargement will be closely followed by the 27 EU member states
06:30 as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Union's great eastward enlargement in the first half of the year.
06:41 The diamond sector in Antwerp is preparing to apply the newly agreed sanctions against Russian diamonds.
06:47 After months of deliberation, the new measures agreed between the G7 and EU countries will start working progressively from January 1st.
06:56 The first to be hit will be rough diamonds, of which Russia is the largest exporter globally with 30% of the total production by volume.
07:05 But tracking diamonds isn't easy.
07:08 This will be a blockchain system where the transformation of a diamond is fully recorded
07:14 and that you can track basically what is going on with the diamonds.
07:18 Every diamond that will be sold in countries that impose the sanctions will have to travel first to Antwerp in Belgium to be certified.
07:25 Through this system, the Belgian city will not be as hard hit by the sanctions aimed at punishing Russia.
07:33 So Antwerp has been always the most important trading hub for diamonds.
07:40 Yes, we were losing that with the current system in place, which I think is a really good system.
07:47 Yeah, yeah, the flows will come back to the European Union and you'll have an impact.
07:53 Having both the G7 and EU on board was key to ensuring that the system would actually hit Russia and the diamonds will not be sold elsewhere.
08:01 Both by around 70% of diamonds globally.
08:04 In 2021, Russia exported 400 billion dollars worth of diamonds, most of them by a single company, Arosa.
08:12 As the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war continues to be felt, a rise in Islamophobic and anti-Semitic incidents has gripped the continent with recent attacks in Paris and Brussels.
08:29 Israel's Ministry for Diaspora Affairs said there was a 500% spike in global anti-Semitic incidents during the first three weeks of the conflict.
08:38 The first thing that we are doing is monitoring social networks, meta and not just meta, to understand, to create a map of war.
08:51 Where are the most dangerous places with the amount of anti-Semitism on social networks.
09:01 In Europe, in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7th October, some pro-Palestinian rallies have been authorized.
09:08 But in Germany, authorities banned those gatherings, claiming there is an imminent danger that the assemblies will result in inciting anti-Semitic slogans.
09:20 We live in Europe here, we live in Berlin, but actually we have German police patrolling us, searching our houses, interrogating us, racially profiling us.
09:30 Berlin police responded by saying police measures are not based on people's appearance but rather on their behavior.
09:37 In November, the French Muslim Council reported receiving dozens of letters with threats or insults and 14 mosques have been vandalized.
09:46 Data are underestimated, under-recorded, under-reported and the phenomenon is not well understood in some member states.
09:56 In addition, Muslim people or people perceived to be Muslims are usually trusting less authorities, so they may also go less to report incidents.
10:09 Since 7th October, Jewish students have been describing a hostile atmosphere in universities in France and other European countries.
10:18 The EU believes that social networks have a part to play.
10:23 We have to acknowledge that a lot of hatred has been transported and has been left unchallenged for a very long time on social platforms.
10:35 And we need to make sure that they adhere to the rules that now apply in the EU.
10:43 The cleanup has begun on Danish beaches after dozens of containers were lost at sea due to stormy weather.
10:53 A Maersk ship lost 46 containers off the northern Jutland coast just before Christmas whilst en route from Bremerhaven to Gdansk.
11:01 Now everything from fridges, needles and shoes are adrift at sea. Maersk said containers were lost due to rough weather.
11:09 We are really saddened by the situation. We take full responsibility and we will be there until it is cleaned up.
11:15 But the cleanup work must be done together with the local authorities who have the knowledge.
11:21 The containers were thought to be adrift between Hansdholm and Skagen off the coast of northern Jutland.
11:27 Local fishermen are worried about bumping into containers and other fragments.
11:32 Locals have been warned by authorities not to touch anything that washes ashore.
11:37 The incident happened when storm Pyr hit Denmark's coast earlier this week.
11:42 (laughing)