Новости за 19.05.2021

The European Parliament has voted to spend €17.5 billion on making the EU economy more green by a majority of 615 against 35. The so-called Just Transition Fund still needs unanimous approval by EU states in a move expected in June. The Greens praised the fact it cannot be spent on fossil fuels or nuclear energy. But "it's just too small", German Green MEP Niklas Nienass said after Tuesday's vote.

Twenty six European countries, but not the EU, have urged a ceasefire on Gaza, after Hungary, once again, undermined unanimity.

Demand for summer flights to US cities Los Angeles, Miami, and New York was up 300 percent after Germany loosened coronavirus travel restrictions, German airline Lufthansa said Tuesday. It resumed flights to Orlando and Atlanta. It also saw the same three-fold rebound in flights to Greece and to the Spanish islands of Ibiza and Majorca, with its budget unit, Eurowings, to lay on 500 extra European flights.

"Although the City will remain Europe's largest financial marketplace, its Golden Age as Europe's financial capital is over," Howard Davies, the chairman of NatWest Bank, one of Britain's largest lenders, said in an op-ed in the Project Syndicate magazine Tuesday. "We're looking at financial-services regulations and seeing what we can do now [that] we're able to move on from EU arrangements," he added, on trying to make London more competitive.

Finland's parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of the EU's €800bn Covid-19 recovery plan, which required a two-thirds majority in parliament. The vote had been delayed by a week after the nationalist and eurosceptic Finns party prolonged the parliament debate by filibustering. Last month the parliament's constitutional law committee ruled the legislation required a two-thirds majority to pass - which prompted the centre-left government to seek support from opposition parties.

Spain has warned of a "serious crisis" for Europe after some 6,000 people entered Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in northern Morocco. The European Commission has voiced its support for Spain as diplomatic tensions with Rabat heat up.

The previous two efforts for a unified corporate tax framework have run into the ground, because the unanimity required by the member states to agree such a scheme was unachievable. Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta, Sweden and the Netherlands were opposed.

The relationship between Israel and the Palestinians is actually an oversized Stanford Prison Experiment. That 1970s experiment showed that if you give people power, they start to abuse that power very quickly.

Czech president Miloš Zeman apologised to Serb president Aleksandar Vučić for Nato's bombing of Serbia in 1999, when Zeman was in government after joining the Western alliance. "I'd like to personally ask the Serbian nation for forgiveness," Zeman told Vučić in Prague Tuesday. The Nato operation, which killed 500 civilians, stopped Serbia's attack on Kosovo. The pro-Russian Zeman also wants Prague to renege on its previous recognition of Kosovo's sovereignty.

At least 57 migrants drowned in a shipwreck off Tunis as they tried to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, while 33 were rescued, the Tunisian Red Crescent told Reuters. "33 Bengalis were rescued [and] 57 others drowned in a boat carrying about 90 migrants that set off from Libya towards Europe," Red Crescent official Mongi Slim said.

Germany's competition authority announced on Tuesday it was investigating US giant Amazon over "anti-competitive practices," AFP reported. "We are first of all examining whether Amazon is of paramount significance for competition across markets," said watchdog chief Andreas Mundt. Under a new law, giving authorities more power to hold tech companies accountable, regulators could "take early action against and prohibit possible anti-competitive practices by Amazon," he added.

The International Energy Agency said on Tuesday that "a total transformation of the energy systems" would be needed to reach net-zero emission by 2050 - including no investment in new fossil-fuel projects from now on, Reuters reported. In a climate-neutrality compatible scenario, sales of new internal combustion engine passenger cars should be banned by 2035 and the global electricity sector must reach net-zero emissions by 2040.

The EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly has launched a major inquiry into how European Commission handles cases in which EU officials move on to private-sector jobs - examining 100 personnel files across several departments.

A feminist remake of the Brussels metro map pays tribute to the women who have shaped European history, from Simone Veil to Joan of Arc.

Georgia is an ideal case study to prove the effectiveness of EU policies, mainly because the EU's leverage in Georgia is the highest of all Eastern Partnership states.