World

EU will approve Ukraine aid with or without Hungary: von der Leyen

Published

4 months ago

January 16, 2024

EU will approve Ukraine aid with or without Hungary: von der Leyen

The European Union will, if needed, find a way to bypass Viktor Orbán’s veto and approve the €50-billion special fund for Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

The package, which is designed to provide Kyiv with financial support until 2027 and plug the government’s ballooning public deficit, is being held up by Hungary, an impasse that has left Brussels effectively without any money for the war-torn nation.

Following a dramatic summit in mid-December, where Orbán made good on his threat and derailed the unanimous vote, EU leaders are set to reconvene again on 1 February to give the so-called Ukraine Facility a second try.

“I think it’s very important to engage with all 27 member states of the European Union to get the €50 billion for four years for Ukraine up and running,” the president of the European Commission told a group of media, including Euronews, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

“This is the phase we’re in right now. It’s the preparation for the extraordinary European Council on the 1st of February. It’s hard work. We have discussed many different issues.”

Ahead of the meeting, Hungarian officials have floated two key demands in exchange for lifting the veto: splitting the Facility into four annual tranches, which would allow Orbán to block the cash at a later stage, and extending the deadline to spend COVID-19 recovery funds, which would give Budapest more time to unlock the frozen money.

Von der Leyen did not comment on these requests but made it clear the bloc would find a way to approve the €50-billion fund – with or without Hungary’s blessing.

“My personal priority is to have an agreement by 27 (countries). And if this is not possible, we are prepared for an agreement by 26,” the Commission chief said.

“But I strongly support and prefer an agreement by 27.”

Although EU officials have avoided publicly discussing such Plan B, von der Leyen’s words reflect that work is well underway to avoid a repeat of the December fiasco. The Financial Times previously reported Brussels was crafting an alternative that would allow the Commission to borrow €20 billion on the financial markets.

During a bilateral meeting in Davos, von der Leyen promised Volodymyr Zelenskyy that her executive would strive towards “securing the means to recover, rebuild and reform” through the proposed Facility.

“We focused on the need to unblock the decision to provide Ukraine with €50 billion in long-term EU assistance at the (February) summit. Ukraine is hoping for a consensus on this issue,” Zelenskyy said after the meeting.

Earlier on Tuesday, von der Leyen gave a speech at the World Economic Forum underlining the urgent need to provide Ukraine with “predictable financing throughout 2024 and beyond.” The goal has become even more pressing in the face of the legislative deadlock in Washington, where fresh funding is obstructed by Republicans.

“Ukraine can prevail in this war. But we must continue to empower their resistance,” von der Leyen told the audience in Davos.

“They need a sufficient and sustained supply of weapons to defend Ukraine and regain its rightful territory. They need capabilities to deter future attacks by Russia. And they also need hope,” she went on.

“They need to know that, with their struggle, they will earn a better future for their children. And Ukraine’s better future is called Europe.”

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World

Emily Blunt Says She’s ‘Absolutely’ Wanted to Throw Up After Kissing Certain Actors During Filming: ‘I’ve Definitely Not Enjoyed Some of It.”

Published

3 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Press Room

Emily Blunt Says She’s ‘Absolutely’ Wanted to Throw Up After Kissing Certain Actors During Filming: ‘I’ve Definitely Not Enjoyed Some of It.”

Emily Blunt got candid during a recent appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” (via People) about how she’s had to fake chemistry over the years with certain co-stars she just struggled to connect with on set. Blunt has acted opposite many high-profile leading men throughout her career, from Matt Damon (“The Adjustment Bureau”) to Tom Cruise (“Edge of Tomorrow”), Dwayne Johnson (“Jungle Cruise”), Ryan Gosling (“The Fall Guy”) and Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”).

“Have you wanted to throw up?” Stern asked Blunt about kissing some of her male co-stars during filming. The Oscar-nominated actor responded: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s sort of extreme loathing, but I’ve definitely not enjoyed some of it,” Blunt added.

Blunt declined to name any co-star she couldn’t generate chemistry with, but she did say: “I have had chemistry with people who… I have not had a good time working with them.”

“Sometimes it’s a strange thing. Sometimes you could have a rapport that’s really effortless, but it doesn’t translate onscreen,” Blunt continued. “Chemistry is this strange thing. It’s an ethereal thing that you can’t really bottle up and buy or sell. It’s like there or it’s not…It’s just easier when you have a natural rapport with someone.”

Blunt has been acting for so long that at this point she has a formula down for how to build chemistry, saying: “I’ve got to find something I love about everybody. I have to find something … Even if it’s one thing.”

“It might be that they have a nice laugh or I like how they speak to people. They’re polite. I mean, it might be something random,” Blunt explained. “But find something you love about that person or something you love about them as the character and then kind of lean into that.”

Blunt earned an Oscar nomination earlier this year for her supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which took home the Academy Award for best picture. She’s currently on the big screen in Universal Pictures’ action romance “The Fall Guy,” co-starring Ryan Gosling.

World

Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz for annual March of the Living, reflect on Oct. 7 attacks

Published

4 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Press Room

Holocaust survivors visit Auschwitz for annual March of the Living, reflect on Oct. 7 attacks

Several thousand Jews, including Holocaust survivors personally affected by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, walked through the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp on Monday for the annual March of the Living ceremony in Poland.

Walking along the 1.8 mile path towards the crematoria of Birkenau, they paid tribute to the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War Two.

This year’s ceremony was overshadowed by the events last year when 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas-led rampage through Israeli towns and 253 hostages were taken, according to Israeli tallies.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS CONFRONT RISING DENIAL, ANTISEMITISM IN NEW DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

Daniel Louz, a 90-year-old whose hometown Kibbutz Beeri lost a tenth of its residents to the Palestinian attackers, came to the Auschwitz camp on Monday for the first time since his mother’s family was killed there in 1942.

A wooden guard tower stands at the site of former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau during ceremonies marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the camp and International Holocaust Victims Remembrance Day, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, on January 27, 2022. (Jakub Porzycki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters/File Photo)

“I am convinced that on October 7 in Beeri the good souls (of the Holocaust dead) protected me and did not let the Hamas criminals shoot at our home,” Louz told Reuters. “So that I might be able to tell the story. I am really thankful to you all.”

More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz, which Germans set up in occupied Poland during World War Two.

More than three million of Poland’s 3.2 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust.

“Prior to October 7 it is my belief … that the worst event in human history happened on these grounds. That this place, the very word Auschwitz, speaks volumes in one word about fear, death, destruction, annihilation,” Phyllis Greenberg Heideman, President of the International March of the Living, said during Monday’s event.

“And then came October 7, and perhaps we have to come as a people to the realization that perhaps in some ways the Shoah (Holocaust) isn’t over for us. It’s not a competition, certainly not a comparison, it’s a continuum.”

World

Tech compliance reports, Newsletter

Published

5 hours ago

May 6, 2024

Press Room

This week’s key events presented by senior tech and industry reporter Cynthia Kroet

Key diary dates

Monday 6- Wednesday 8 May: High-Level Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) organised by the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU.

Monday 6 May: Deadline for online platforms regulated under the Digital Services Act to submit transparency reports.

Tuesday 7 May: NGO Seas at Risk to publish report on under-sea mining.

In spotlight

EU platform rules return to the spotlight this week, since today (6 May) is the deadline for the largest online platforms – those with more than 45 million users per month – to hand in their transparency reports under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

It’s the second batch of reports after the stringent rules started applying to the likes of Facebook, Amazon and TikTok last August.

With the submission of the first reports in October, platforms were scrutinised over the low number of content moderators they had in some of the smaller EU member states. Facebook has a single employee looking at Maltese content, and three in Estonia, claiming that much of the process is automated. In comparison, TikTok, which has fewer users per month, has six people looking at Estonian content and none for Maltese.

In light of the latest DSA probes started by the European Commission last week: into Facebook’s and Instagram’s handling of disinformation and ability to stop Russian fake news, all eyes will be on platforms’ election preparedness. And it remains to be seen if the social media platforms have taken more action compared to half a year ago.

With just about a month to go to the European Parliament election, the Commission is trying to ramp up platform preparedness for the poll. Stress-tests last month (24 April) were designed to help mitigate risks that may impact the integrity of elections and their services, for example.

However, as the latest Facebook and Instagram probes show, the Commission largely counting on the willingness of mother company Meta to comply; since there is no deadline for when the probes might end.

Policy newsmakers

@Kergueno @Uspaskich

MEPs interests

MEPs collectively earn more than €8.6 million a year from outside jobs – including from private companies that also actively lobby on EU policy, according to a report published by Transparency International EU today (6 May). Topping the list is Lithuanian MEP Viktor Uspaskich, who declares €3,000,000 per year working for a company called Edvervita UAB. The group, including Raphaël Kergueno, senior policy officer at Transparency, has called for EU lawmakers to be banned from moonlighting, as figures show over two thirds of the 705 deputies disclose activities in addition to their core role.

Policy Poll

Should MEPs elected to the next European Parliament be permitted remuneration:

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