World
Italian PM delays justice reforms tied to EU post-pandemic funds
Italy’s new authorities on Monday delayed the applying of a justice reform required to acquire European post-pandemic funds and scrapped a vaccine mandate for well being employees — strikes seen as going in opposition to the earlier administration of Mario Draghi.
Draghi imposed robust COVID curbs and pushed via the contested justice reform geared toward dashing up Italy’s sluggish judicial proceedings.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s cupboard dominated that medical doctors and nurses would now not must be vaccinated in opposition to the illness and stated these suspended from work till 31 December as a result of that they had refused the shot could be instantly reinstated.
Talking at a information convention after the cupboard accepted the measures, Meloni accused her predecessors — Draghi and Giuseppe Conte — of taking an “ideological” method to COVID-19 and stated she would do issues otherwise.
“The earlier governments took a bunch of measures that had no scientific proof,” stated Meloni, sworn on this month on the head of a right-wing coalition.
Final week the economic system ministry additionally really useful that fines of €100 euros for folks over 50 who refused to get vaccinated — one other measure launched by Draghi — needs to be halted.
“At its first cupboard assembly the Meloni authorities has rewarded anti-vaxxers. It might have been onerous to start out in a worse approach,” stated Enrico Letta, head of the opposition centre-left Democratic Celebration.
Delayed reforms would possibly imply delayed funds
On the justice entrance, Meloni stated Draghi’s reform, which was as a consequence of take impact on 2 November, contained quite a few measures to reorganise authorized proceedings, nevertheless it had not arrange the sources and devices to place them into observe.
“Our courts and prosecutors’ workplaces aren’t prepared, and this dangers paralysing our judicial system,” she stated, including that the reform would, in any case, be utilized earlier than the tip of the yr, assembly the deadline set by the European Fee.
The Fee made a part of its €200 billion of restoration funds for Italy conditional on chopping the size of trials by 25% over 5 years in felony circumstances, and by 40% in civil ones.
The choice to delay the reform — which Meloni stated was taken on the request of all Italy’s prosecutors’ workplaces — sparked criticism from the opposition, legal professionals, and consultants.
Gian Luigi Gatta, a felony legislation professor who suggested former Justice Minister Marta Cartabia, stated that if the decree leaves room for parliament to vary Draghi’s reform as agreed with Brussels, this might jeopardise the circulate of funds.
Italy’s lawyer foyer stated in an announcement there was no purpose to justify the postponement of the reform and introduced it might organise protests in opposition to the federal government.
Italy’s union of judges and prosecutors, nonetheless, welcomed the postponement, saying in an announcement that it was crucial to permit time to reorganise court docket procedures.
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A Colombian army helicopter has crashed in a rural area of the country's north, killing 9 soldiers
An army helicopter carrying supplies to troops crashed in a rural area in northern Colombia on Monday, killing nine soldiers on board, the country’s armed forces said.
In a statement, the Colombian military said the helicopter was taking the supplies to the municipality of Santa Rosa del Sur, an area that has recently experienced fighting between the National Liberation Army guerrilla group and the drug trafficking group known as the Gulf Clan.
TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COLOMBIANS PROTEST AGAINST LEFTIST PRESIDENT’S AGENDA
The military statement described the helicopter crash as an accident.
“I regret the death of the nine passengers on board the army’s helicopter” Colombian president Gustavo Petro wrote on X on Monday. “It was supplying troops…that were conducting operations against the Gulf Clan.”
The military said the helicopter crashed around 1:50 pm local time. It was an MI-17 Russian-built chopper that is often used to carry troops and supplies.
Two officers were among the victims of the crash, which also included two sergeants and three privates. None of the passengers on the helicopter survived.
World
Strack-Zimmermann blasts von der Leyen's defence policy
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, one of the lead candidates in the European elections, has issued a blistering verdict of Ursula von der Leyen’s first term in office.
Strack-Zimmermann, who hails from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), is part of a three-candidate team representing the liberal forces in the bloc-wide poll between 6 and 9 June. Currently a member of the Bundestag, where she chairs the Defence Committee, she is vying for a seat in the European Parliament.
In a wide-ranging interview with Euronews, the contender denounced the policies of Ursula von der Leyen, the sitting president of the European Commission, in the fields of defence, economy and fundamental rights. Von der Leyen is running for a second mandate and is widely considered the frontrunner.
“I’m absolutely disappointed,” Strack-Zimmermann said on Monday, speaking in Maastricht hours before a debate with all lead candidates.
The liberal assailed the incumbent for taking too long to put defence at the very top of the EU agenda, only doing so, she said, after Russian troops broke through the borders of Ukraine and unleashed the largest armed conflict in the continent since World War II.
The wait, she added, was particularly striking considering von der Leyen had previously served as defence minister under the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“I have no idea why she didn’t talk about military security when she started to be the president of the Commission because she knows the topic, she has an idea of what happened,” she said, referring to the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
“I was surprised that didn’t say: ‘Come on, we have to do more in Europe,’ because she has the experience.”
When Russia’s invasion began in February 2022, von der Leyen’s executive was still dealing with the shockwaves sent by the COVID-19 pandemic and the roll-out of the recovery fund, built up by record-breaking amounts of joint borrowing and beefed up with stringent spending conditions to accelerate the green and digital transitions.
But in Strack-Zimmermann’s view, this does not cut it as an excuse for procrastination.
“I know the pandemic situation was terrible for everybody. But even then, you could see what (was happening) in Russia. And it was not this or that, it was both. I think if you are the head of the Commission, there is not one (single) topic,” she told Euronews.
“It’s not a very sexy topic talking about weapons, talking about war. It sounds nicer if you are talking about the Green Deal, it’s a softer topic.”
The failure to provide 1 million rounds of artillery shells by March 2024, as the bloc famously promised to Kyiv, underlines the overall fiasco, she added. “It’s a question of time. It’s a question (of) if you say we will deliver it, we have to do it.”
On the economic front, the contender warned environmental policies and excessive bureaucracy put a damper on growth, scared entrepreneurs away and killed “every moment to have ideas to stay in Europe as a company.”
Regarding the protection of fundamental rights, Strack-Zimmermann said it was “unbelievable” that the Commission had unfrozen €10.2 billion in cohesion funds for Hungary one day before a crucial summit that Viktor Orbán had threatened to blow up.
Brussels argued the release was inevitable after Budapest approved a reform to address long-standing concerns about judicial independence. But the overhaul was deemed insufficient by the European Parliament, which filed a lawsuit against the Commission.
“Everybody was very irritated,” Strack-Zimmermann said. “She’s responsible for it. And you could see that the Parliament is not amused about this situation.”
Despite her harsh assessment, the liberal admitted that being a Commission president was a “hard job.”
This interview is part of an ongoing series with all the Spitzenkandidaten. The full interview with Strack-Zimmermann will air on Euronews over the weekend.
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