Новости за 27.08.2020

In a letter sent to German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, leaders of the largest European parliament groups, including the centre-right EPP, leftwing S&D, liberal Renew, and Greens, called for tougher rule-of-law conditions in the EU budget. Without an agreement on this with member states, the parliament cannot pass the long-term EU budget agreed by the EU-27 leaders, the letter said.

EU-UK talks will not be discussed at a meeting of EU ambassadors next week because of the lack of progress in negotiations about the future relationship, the Guardian reported. EU officials think the British government is prepared to risk a no-deal exit when the transition period ends at the end of the year. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier last week said he was surprised by the UK "wasting valuable time".

Belarusian authorities have questioned Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich as part of an investigation into an opposition council created to facilitate the political transition in the country. Alexievich is part of the council's leadership. After being released on Wednesday, she said she had refused to answer questions. Belarusians have been protesting for free elections after Alexander Lukashenko won re-election in a 9 August poll that the EU says was rigged.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is not giving up on Turkish claims in the eastern Mediterranean, he said in a fiery speech.

Kosovo will do its part, but it needs help from Germany to realise its potential as a member of the Euro-Atlantic community.

Spain detected more than 7,000 new corona-infections Tuesday, mostly in Madrid, but also in the Balearic islands, surpassing the US in per-capita cases. France reported over 5,400 new ones, with neighbouring Belgium declaring Paris a "red-zone", forbidding travel. One third of Spaniards told a survey by the Carlos III Health Institute they would refuse to take a vaccine if there was one and 42 percent voiced pessimism on the pandemic.

The EU has frozen the work of its 600-man strong military and police training missions in Mali following a recent putsch there, while admitting it had trained some of those responsible. "Some of the leading figures of the coup d'etat have ... enjoyed training in Germany and France," German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in Berlin. "We don't train armies to be putschists," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The city of Berlin has banned demonstrations planned for the weekend opposing measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, amid increasing infections in Germany. At a recent rally, marchers deliberately did not wear masks and did not kept their distance. About 20,000 people, including libertarians, far-right supporters, and anti-vaccination activists marched in Berlin earlier this month. Several thousand police will patrol Berlin streets at the weekend.

French president Emmanuel Macron has proposed a roadmap for Lebanon, describing the political and economic reforms needed to avoid a "power vacuum" in France's former colony, Reuters reports. The measures include an audit of the central bank, appointment of an interim government capable of carrying out rapid reforms, and legislative elections within a year. "The priority must go to the rapid formation of a government," the leaked French paper reads.

European pharmaceuticals firms are lobbying to protect Covid-19 vaccine makers against legal risks from side-effects, the Financial Times reported. Vaccines Europe, a division of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, has called for a "comprehensive system of no-fault and non-adversarial compensation, and exemption from civil liability". However, EU liability rules consider vaccine makers and other manufactures responsible for the products they put into the market.

EU trade commissioner resigned after Irish government accused him of undermining "the whole approach to public health in Ireland" by flouting anti-coronavirus rules.