Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
Category
π
NewsTranscript
00:00These are the first pictures at the first meeting of the new College of Commissioners that will be ruled by Ursula von der Leyen.
00:07Right after her, with a super portfolio including competition and the transition to a cleaner industry,
00:13there will be the Spanish socialist Teresa Rivera.
00:16She is set to become the second most powerful woman in the EU.
00:20One of her main tasks will be transforming the European industry so the EU can reach its 2050 zero emissions target,
00:28taking the block from grey to green.
00:32I think that it is also important to understand that what we try to do is not to colour or switch from a colour to another colour,
00:42but to try to identify in a crystal clear manner what does not harm our ecosystems, our environment,
00:54and how we can do it in a way that from an economic and social perspective makes sense.
01:01However, her long career as a climate change expert and her anti-nuclear stance has granted her some opposition.
01:08The EPP wants her mandate to be different from the previous vice president on the green transition.
01:15We don't need a second Timmermans.
01:17He was pushing things on industry, on SMEs, on farmers, and people were overwhelmed, so we need another attitude.
01:30Since 2018, Rivera has been one of the most powerful women in Pedro SΓ‘nchez's government in Spain.
01:36During her mandate, she negotiated the Iberian exception that allowed Spain and Portugal to limit the price of energy
01:43and calendarise the closure of the nuclear plants in Spain.
01:46But first, she will have to pass the final exam from the European Parliament like all the other future commissioners.
01:57The European Union is set to allocate 14 million euros to the Canary Islands to improve their ability to accommodate migrants.
02:08The funds will also be used to strengthen support for unaccompanied migrant children and teenagers,
02:14many of whom lost their parents during the perilous boat journey from West Africa.
02:20EU Commissioner Margarita Skinas made the announcement while on a visit to the islands,
02:25where he met with President Fernando Clavijo Batlle.
02:30Skinas highlighted the enormous pressure faced by Canarian institutions in the face of the growing crisis,
02:37while Batlle added that Skinas had spoken of unity and solidarity during their meeting.
02:45Between January and August of this year, the Canary Islands have recorded the arrival of 22,300 migrants,
02:52a number which is expected to increase in the coming months.
03:01The European Commission has rebuffed the Dutch government's recent request
03:06to secure an opt-out clause from the EU's migration and asylum rules.
03:11A Commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels it had received the Hague's letter,
03:17penned by the Dutch Minister for Asylum and Migration,
03:20and that there were no plans currently to provide the exemption.
03:24There's no treaty change upcoming, therefore this is the current situation.
03:30We have also taken and welcomed the fact that the Minister has said that they will continue to
03:37prioritise the implementation of the pact, which is clearly a priority for the Commission.
03:43Marjolein Faber, the Dutch politician in charge of asylum and migration,
03:47wrote the government wanted to drastically reduce the volume of migrants to the Netherlands
03:52to deliver better social services.
03:55However, the member of the far-right ultranationalist party conceded in the communique
04:00that if their request fell on deaf ears, the Hague would continue to uphold the EU's migration rules.
04:07Trust and participation in elections all over the world is declining for eight years in a row.
04:16Something that is also happening in Europe, as the Global State of Democracy report states.
04:22For Europe, polarisation in politics is one of the issues,
04:26says Sam van der Staak, the director of International Ideas Europe programme.
04:31It's countries that have been in the news, but also a lot of countries that,
04:36as an outsider, you wouldn't suspect.
04:38Countries like Greece and Bulgaria and Spain and Portugal and the Netherlands
04:43and outside the EU, the United Kingdom.
04:47They're still very healthy functioning democracies,
04:50but you see that in parts of the system things are cracking.
04:54And that's often because the politics is really putting a lot of pressure on how democracy functions.
04:59There's more polarisation, there's more pressure from political parties to say
05:05things need to change, and of course there's a lot of citizens that are dissatisfied
05:09by the way that democracy is delivering on their everyday concerns.
05:13But not everything is bad news in Europe.
05:15For van der Staak, the improvement in Central and Eastern European countries
05:19is closing the divide between old, established democracies and newer ones,
05:24helping Europe come together.
05:26The State of Democracy report identifies, however,
05:28two main causes to explain why politics loses credibility.
05:32We've seen it in countries like France, Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria,
05:38all across Europe there's been votes for the extremes that after the election
05:43stay out of power and people then wonder why go and vote at all.
05:47There's also the pressure from outside.
05:49So we see that there's forces such as Russia, but also other authoritarian powers
05:55that try to abuse this weakness that we're seeing to stir even more dissatisfaction.
06:02So there's a pressure from outside through disinformation,
06:05through cyber attacks on elections, through foreign funding.
06:11For van der Staak, elections worldwide are a source of concern
06:14with 10% lower participation than 15 years ago,
06:18and with 20% of recent years' elections where the losing candidate
06:22does not accept the outcome.
06:29The European Union has begun the process of deducting a 200 million euro fine
06:35from Hungary's share of the EU budget after Budapest missed the payment deadline
06:40for a second time.
06:42Hungary was fined by the EU's top court for breaking the bloc's migration rules
06:47by depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum.
06:51When it comes to the 200 million euro fine, the 15 day deadline expired yesterday.
06:58That means that the commission is in accordance with the applicable rules
07:02moving to what we call the offsetting procedure.
07:06So what we are going to do now is to deduct the 200 million euro
07:11from upcoming payments from the EU budget towards Hungary.
07:16The court has also imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros
07:20for every day that Hungary fails to comply.
07:24In response to the fines, Hungary has threatened to send migrants
07:28from its southern border to the EU's headquarters in Brussels.
07:34It's also threatened to sue the EU executive to reimburse the cost
07:38of protecting the bloc's external border,
07:41which the government says has cost roughly 2 billion euros.
07:47Both the Italian and French defence ministers attended the second day
07:52of the European Air and Missile Defence Conference that took place in the Italian capital.
07:57The debate over how to better protect European skies against the Russian threats
08:02touched on the military, industrial and political aspects
08:05in the presence of around 200 military and business leaders.
08:09Russia's war in Ukraine has sped up the need to strengthen
08:12the defence system across the continent.
08:14Along with that, questions have been raised on how to support the European arms industry.
08:19But, as Italy's defence minister Crosetto says, it's a race against time.
08:23Ensuring the self-reliance of the European defence sector is one of the priorities.
08:45Either we have a European industry that has the European capacity
08:50and should not depend on anyone, or we are not able to guarantee its self-defence.
08:57Building a dialogue among key players and connecting them is crucial
09:00and it was one of the aims of the conference.
09:03Having a cooperation between European states, European defence and European industry,
09:10while eliminating all the bureaucratic barriers that make us waste time.
09:16I think this strategic reflection is good.
09:18It forces all players to share, to discuss.
09:22It also allows us to closely associate the teams of the Atlantic Agency.
09:26It also allows us to nourish a stronger intimacy between industrialists and our soldiers.
09:32Another conference has already been announced for next year,
09:35but the debate is set to continue within European institutions.
09:38The EU has just named its first defence commissioner.
09:42Bolstering European defence and security is in fact at the heart of the next EU Commission's agenda.
09:48Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews in Rome.
09:55The European Union has begun the process of deducting a 200 million euro fine
10:01from Hungary's share of the EU budget,
10:04after Budapest missed the payment deadline for a second time.
10:08Hungary was fined by the EU's top court for breaking the bloc's migration rules
10:13by depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum.
10:17When it comes to the 200 million euro fine, the 15 day deadline expired yesterday.
10:23That means that the Commission is in accordance with the applicable rules,
10:28moving to what we call the offsetting procedure.
10:31So what we are going to do now is to deduct the 200 million euro from upcoming payments
10:38from the EU budget towards Hungary.
10:41The court has also imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros
10:45for every day that Hungary fails to comply.
10:49In response to the fines, Hungary has threatened to send migrants
10:53from its southern border to the EU's headquarters in Brussels.
10:58It's also threatened to sue the EU executive to reimburse the cost
11:03of protecting the bloc's external border,
11:06which the government says has cost roughly 2 billion euros.
11:11Draft Resolution A-ES10-L31-Revision 1 is adopted.
11:23The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a Palestinian resolution on Wednesday
11:29demanding that Israel end its unlawful presence in Gaza
11:33and the occupied West Bank within a year.
11:36The resolution also demands the withdrawal of all Israeli forces
11:40and the evacuation of settlers from the occupied Palestinian territories without delay.