Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Behind me you can see the discarded flags and high-visibility vests that some demonstrators
00:08were carrying this morning in central Munich when a car drove into them from behind.
00:14Twenty-eight people, including children, were injured.
00:16The suspected 24-year-old Afghan-born asylum seeker was arrested at the scene.
00:21Police say that they believe he acted alone, but authorities have not yet ruled out that
00:25this could have been an attack.
00:27This of course comes a day before a whole host of world leaders are expected to descend
00:32on the Bavarian city for a three-day security conference.
00:36This includes U.S. Vice President G.D.
00:38Vance, but also Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
00:42But this also comes in the midst of an election cycle with German voters set to go to the
00:47polls on February 23rd.
00:50Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AFD far-right party, which currently is second in the poll,
00:56has tied the incidents to migration, calling for a turning point in the country's migration
01:02policy.
01:03This is Alice Tidy reporting from Munich for Euronews.
01:11European foreign ministers warned that Ukraine's future must involve both Europe and Kyiv.
01:17As news broke that U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed
01:22to immediately hold peace talks.
01:52Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Trump agreed in a telephone
02:05conversation to organize a meeting in person.
02:09And that the Russian president told Trump he is ready to receive Americans in the country.
02:15Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet the U.S. Vice President at the Munich Security Conference
02:25by the end of the week in what is expected to bring, for the first time, some sense of
02:30clarity over how Washington sees the end of the war in Ukraine.
02:34Expectations in Kyiv are both very high and very cautious.
02:38Could Ukraine be forced into territorial concessions?
02:41What we could see in Ukraine is a situation where a peace agreement follows certain lines
02:48where Ukraine is able to avoid a de jure concession of territory to Russia.
02:57In a de facto sense, it's going to be very hard for Ukraine to physically reclaim that
03:02territory under the present circumstances.
03:07But if Ukraine can avoid a de jure solution that gives territory to Russia, it can at
03:15some point in the future reclaim that territory.
03:18Of course, we understand that de-occupying all of the occupied territories in the military
03:24way, it's probably very difficult, if not impossible, at least at this point where we
03:32are at in 2025.
03:35But saying that, hey, you know, it's Russia, let's forget it, it cannot happen.
03:42And we do think that people on the occupied territories, which is basically a black hole
03:48with no human rights respect whatsoever, their interests have to be on the table as well.
03:58Kravchuk says any deal would also need to guarantee that Russia would not come back
04:02in a few years after regrouping and preparing better, especially given Ukraine's bitter
04:07experience with the so-called Minsk agreements after Russia's first invasion in 2014.
04:13A Minsk agreement was without the United States.
04:15And it also proves that this format, just Europe, without the involvement of the President
04:22of the United States, doesn't really work.
04:24So what are the security guarantees?
04:26And I really hope that during the Munich Security Conference, this issue will be addressed.
04:32We don't need another Minsk, but we also do not need another Budapest Memorandum.
04:36Well, obviously, Europe wouldn't be able to make up for it for the United States, either
04:40politically or in practical material terms.
04:43The new administration, I think, has understood the importance of Ukraine and the importance
04:50of maintaining a coherent approach with Europe.
04:55And so I would hope that that continues.
05:00The leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, has called for fresh
05:05elections after coalition talks with his party and the center-right OVP collapsed on Wednesday.
05:11Kickl was taxed with forming a coalition government by President Alexander Van der Bellen after
05:16Austria's other parties banded together in order to keep Kickl out of power.
05:21I thanked the President for the fact that we have had a very, very trustworthy base of
05:27conversation in the last few weeks, although we have very different ideological approaches
05:33in many areas.
05:37And in this conversation, I also expressed my opinion to the President that it would
05:43be good and that it would be about time, if perhaps the head of state would now be able
05:49to support a quick re-election.
05:54Meanwhile, Austrians are expressing mixed reactions to the announcement which marks
05:58the second time coalition talks are failed.
06:01I would say that it was a game of truce that was lost.
06:05I am angry with Putin because the others took three months and did nothing.
06:09And he says that the government will be in power in a week, and that is not true.
06:13Time for a re-election.
06:15Kickl came first in elections held in September with 28% of the vote.
06:20However, with the FPO unable to form a government, Austria now enters an unclear political situation.
06:35To simplify and reduce the administrative burden for companies, this is the approach
06:40that Brussels is proposing to improve European competitiveness.
06:44According to the EU Commission's working plan, the first areas that will be impacted
06:49include important pieces of legislation.
06:52Among them is corporate sustainability due diligence, which ensures companies address
06:57human rights and the environmental impact of their actions.
07:00Taxonomy, which defies the criteria for economic activities to be aligned with a net-zero trajectory,
07:06is also addressed.
07:08There is much at stake.
07:10Without simpler and more cost-effective rules, Europe will keep up losing economic weight.
07:16We must be clear.
07:18Simplification and enhancing Europe's competitiveness are not ends in itself.
07:23What we are pursuing is to set the right conditions to have more innovation, more business,
07:29higher growth and better jobs in Europe.
07:32Those are important not only to maintain our well-being and social model,
07:37but also our ability to succeed in green and digital transition.
07:44The European Construction Industry Federation welcomed the initiative,
07:48but also submitted a 24-point position paper and warned that the current framework
07:53does not make it attractive for small and medium-sized enterprises to finance sustainable activities.
08:03When it comes to the specific reporting obligations, it is of immense importance
08:09to reduce the complexity of sustainability reporting by reducing the number of data points
08:15defined in the framework of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards.
08:19There are more than 1,100 individual data points that companies have to disclose information upon.
08:27This is too much and this also affects small and medium-sized enterprises
08:32that get those information as requests from their business partners along the value chain.
08:40While the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels was in closed-door negotiations
08:44with big businesses, a few days ago, dozens of NGOs and interest groups protested outside the building.
08:52They fear that the simplifications will affect workers' rights
08:55and that environmental sustainability standards will be watered down.
09:00This legislation, again, the workers, the people, it's about the impact that huge multinationals
09:05have on them throughout the globe, in Europe and abroad.
09:09If you listen to the Commission, the only thing they seem to care about
09:13is how to make life easier for business, which we argue is just a fancy way to say
09:18how can we make business, make the planet burn even faster than it currently is.
09:23The European Commission has promised that the proposals will not compromise the green transition
09:27and insist they will make it cheaper.
09:32The agreement with Mercosur is completely absurd.
09:34The competitiveness of our companies will be reinforced.
09:39Dependent on some, defended by others, misunderstood by many,
09:42the so-called Mercosur Agreement has generated great passion in the farms of the whole European Union,
09:48especially here in France.
09:50The European Commission has just signed it, to the great dismay of almost all French farmers
09:55who openly oppose an ambitious and complex agreement that has been in negotiations for 25 years.
10:03The Common Market of the South, Mercosur and the European Union have agreed to trade goods
10:08with reduced or full oranges.
10:10If ratified, it would create a market of about 800 million people,
10:14one of the largest free trade areas in the world.
10:18It would eliminate more than 90% of oranges between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay
10:23and the 27 community countries.
10:25It would imply fewer taxes on cars, industrial equipment and European chemical products,
10:30in addition to clothing, pharmaceutical products and some agri-foods.
10:35In return, the EU would open its markets more to Mercosur,
10:38in particular to its agri-food products.
10:42It would increase free taxes on sugar and corral birds.
10:46Mercosur could also export 99,000 tons of sugar to Europe.
10:51Mercosur could also export 99,000 additional tons of vaccine to Europe
10:56with reduced oranges, 1.6% of its annual production in Europe.
11:03Germany and Spain support the agreement.
11:05Italy has sent contradictory signals.
11:08Poland, and in particular France, are against it.
11:11Its farmers say that Mercosur producers will not be subject to European labor standards and costs
11:17nor to their strict regulation of pesticides
11:20or hormones and antibiotics in animals.
11:24They also denounce that the agreement undermines consumers
11:27and threatens the sustainability of European Union farms.