World
EU approves 10th package of sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war
![EU approves 10th package of sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war EU approves 10th package of sanctions on Russia over Ukraine war](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-02-24T175813Z_347017948_RC2RHZ9R5SZG_RTRMADP_3_UKRAINE-CRISIS-ANNIVERSARY-TANKS.jpg?resize=1920,1440)
EU sanctions have been designed to make financing the warfare harder for Russia, in addition to starve it of tech tools and spare components.
The European Union has accredited a tenth bundle of sanctions towards Russia on the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU officers mentioned.
The most recent spherical of sanctions supplies for added commerce restrictions on Russia, the Swedish EU Council Presidency introduced in Brussels on Friday night, and are designed to make financing the warfare harder in addition to starve Russia of tech tools and spare components for arms used towards Ukraine.
The bundle consists of tighter export restrictions relating to dual-use items in addition to measures towards entities supporting Russia’s warfare, together with spreading propaganda in assist of the invasion and delivering drones utilized by Russia to assault Ukraine.
“Collectively, the EU member states have imposed essentially the most forceful and far-reaching sanctions ever to assist Ukraine win the warfare,” the EU presidency introduced on Twitter.
“The EU stands united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian folks. We are going to maintain supporting Ukraine, for so long as it takes.”
Collectively, the EU Member States have imposed essentially the most forceful and far-reaching sanctions ever to assist Ukraine win the warfare.
The EU stands united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian folks. We are going to maintain supporting Ukraine, for so long as it takes.
(3/3)
— Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU (@sweden2023eu) February 24, 2023
The measures are additionally meant to blacklist extra people together with what the West says are Russian propagandists, these Kyiv holds answerable for deporting Ukrainian youngsters to Russia and people concerned within the manufacturing of Iranian drones deployed on the entrance line of the warfare.
The bundle was additionally designed to chop off extra Russian banks, together with the personal Alfa-Financial institution and the web financial institution Tinkoff, from the worldwide system SWIFT and minimize commerce between the EU and Russia by greater than 10 billion euros ($10.5bn), in accordance with the bloc’s govt.
With simply two hours to go to midnight on Friday, negotiators from EU member states made it throughout the end line to agree on the sanctions after Poland earlier threw a spanner into the works.
Warsaw had mentioned the proposed restrictions on EU imports of Russian rubber included such an enormous quota of imports exempted, and such lengthy transition intervals, that they’d don’t have any impact in apply.
Different EU nations have been baffled that Warsaw – a number one Russia hawk within the bloc – was risking having no new sanctions introduced on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s assault towards Ukraine over only one ingredient of a broader bundle.
All member states have to approve sanctions for them to be enacted, making negotiations among the many 27 typically tedious and prolonged.
“That is very dangerous optics. What was presupposed to be key here’s a message of solidarity with Ukraine on this special occasion,” mentioned one diplomat concerned within the confidential negotiations between the 27 EU nations within the bloc’s hub Brussels.
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal posed in entrance of 4 Leopard battle tanks offered by Poland and posted a sequence of images of them being handed over as his embattled nation marked a yr for the reason that begin of the invasion.
Shmyhal stood with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki for the pictures posted on Telegram.
“A yr in the past, tanks went to Ukraine to deprive Ukrainians of their freedom,” Schmyhal mentioned. “At the moment, tanks have additionally entered Ukraine, however to guard freedom.”
Poland is giving Ukraine 14 Leopard A2 tanks. Morawiecki additionally mentioned 60 PT-91 predominant battle tanks could be offered after they have been promised in January.
The PT-91 Twardy is a Polish fight car primarily based on the Soviet T-72 tank however additional developed and modernised.
Earlier, Poland’s defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak mentioned Ukrainian troopers could be educated by Polish, Canadian and Norwegian instructors on the Leopard coaching centre in western Poland.
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World
Germany's right wing poised for major wins as centrist parties stumble
![Germany's right wing poised for major wins as centrist parties stumble Germany's right wing poised for major wins as centrist parties stumble](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-2169317905.jpg)
Germany’s right wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is expected to win its first election since the party was formed in 2013, as anti-mass immigration sentiment sends voters to the polls.
Exit polls on Sunday showed AfD securing a winning 33.5% share of the vote in Thuringia and 31.5% in Saxony. Meanwhile, the center-left Social Democratic Party – to which Chancellor Olaf Scholz belongs – brought in less than 8% of the vote in both states, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The election follows a wider trend of success for conservative groups across Europe in recent months. French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s government narrowly quashed a conservative takeover of the French parliament earlier this year.
Analysts say the ultimate impact that AfD and other party politicians can have will be determined by how willing centrists are to work with them.
GERMAN RIGHT WING CANDIDATE STABBED IN LATEST ATTACK AHEAD OF ELECTIONS
DRESDEN, GERMANY – AUGUST 29: A skinhead supporter of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party waves a German flag while taunting leftist, anti-fascist protesters following the final AfD Saxony election rally prior to state elections on August 29, 2024, in Dresden, Germany. The AfD is currently leading in polls in both Saxony and Thuringia ahead of state elections scheduled for Sunday in both states. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
“The center-right will decide to what extent an AfD win would be a turning point: So far, they have been relatively consistent in excluding cooperation — more so than in other Western European countries,” Manès Weisskircher, a political scientist at the Dresden University of Technology, told the Journal.
The German elections this weekend come just days after a Syrian immigrant killed three people in a stabbing spree in Solingen, Germany. ISIS claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack shortly after.
![Emergency services and police at a stabbing scene in Germany Friday](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/Stabbing-scene-Germany.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Emergency services and police are deployed near the scene where three people were killed and injured in an attack at a festival in Solingen, western Germany, the German dpa news agency reported, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Gianni Gattus/dpa via AP)
Federal prosecutors in Germany identified the suspect as Issa Al H., omitting his family name because of German privacy laws.
GERMAN TERROR ATTACK SUSPECT IDENTIFIED AS A SYRIAN REFUGEE, CHANCELLOR VOWS TO IMPLEMENT STRICT IMMIGRATION
ISIS said the attacker targeted Christians “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
Der Spiegel magazine, citing unidentified security sources, said that the suspect had moved to Germany late in 2022, and sought asylum.
![Scholz gives speech in Berlin](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/GettyImages-2156486483-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing a surge in right-wing sentiment across Germany. (John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images)
Similar attacks by Muslim migrants across Europe have spurred anti-immigration sentiment. Even the left-leaning Scholz called for strengthening immigration laws and ramping up deportations in the wake of the attack.
“We will have to do everything we can to ensure that those who cannot and are not allowed to stay in Germany are repatriated and deported,” Scholz said while visiting the sight where the stabbing happened.
“This was terrorism, terrorism against us all,” he said.
Fox News’ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report
World
Seven EU members hadn’t received any post-Covid funding by end-2023
![Seven EU members hadn’t received any post-Covid funding by end-2023 Seven EU members hadn’t received any post-Covid funding by end-2023](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/69/58/16/1200x675_cmsv2_e50ff906-3ebe-5eb2-bccc-66f739cec99e-8695816.jpg)
Continued delays are jeopardising the EU’s €724bn post-Covid recovery fund, warns a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
Three years after creating a huge fund to stimulate post-pandemic recovery, EU member states have used under a third of the €724bn in grants and loans, EU auditors said in a report published today (2 September).
By the end of 2023, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden had not received any post-Covid money at all, the EU Court of Auditors said.
Almost all member states have experienced delays in submitting payment requests, whether due to political turmoil, uncertainty over the rules, or national administrative capacity, the report said.
The Netherlands and Hungary did not sign operational agreements, the first step required to access EU funds, while Sweden did not submit a payment application, it added – while others such as the Netherlands were held back by protracted coalition negotiations.
“For the Recovery and Resilience Plan you really need political consensus and support and that the government stands behind the plan, and the Netherlands was waiting for that stability,” Ivana Maletić, senior auditor at the Luxembourg-based EU agency, told Euronews in an interview.
In the more complex case of Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s government has to meet 27 milestones intended to fight corruption and safeguard judicial independence, which he hasn’t yet done.
The other four countries — Belgium, Finland, Ireland and Poland — submitted payment requests later than others, so they were still being assessed by the European Commission, which directly manages and implements the fund, at the end of 2023.
One quarter not completed on time
Unlike cohesion funds, the normal vehicle for EU regional spending, post-pandemic financial support is tied to progress on meeting commitments, and member states are behind schedule in meeting these targets and absorbing funds.
“Timely absorption of the RRF is essential: it helps to avoid bottlenecks in carrying out the measures towards the end of the Facility’s lifespan, and reduces the risk of inefficient and erroneous spending,” said Maletić, who led the audit.
Halfway through the six-year implementation plan for the post-pandemic funds, 24% of the planned reforms and investments have not been completed on time — meaning that a significant number of the trickiest promises have yet to be fulfilled, the ECA found.
With the RRF due to expire in August 2026 and no extension expected, EU auditors are recommending the Commission provide further support to strengthen how similar funds are designed in future.
“It can happen that for some actions, member states receive substantial amounts of funds without finalising them at all because it will not be possible to finalise them within the given time,” a senior auditor told a press conference on Monday (2 September) — though Brussels then doesn’t have the power to claw back money.
The EU executive however rejected auditors’ recommendations to stop funding incomplete actions and recover transfers.
“The Commission does not consider that payments based on progress is a risk and has no legal basis to recover funds already disbursed in relation to milestones and targets already and still fulfilled,” said its response.
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