European Union Undergraduate Financial Aid in UK – BusinessFinanceDaily

European Parliament member visits Yerevan military pantheon (PHOTOS)

European Parliament member (MEP) Francois-Xavier Bellamy (France) visited Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan and published photos from there.

“Yerablur military cemetery. Under each of these thousands of flags is buried a soldier who died last year defending Armenia from [military] aggression. Most of them were barely 20 years old. The whole of Europe must open its eyes and finally break the silence,” the French politician wrote, in particular, on Facebook.

European Union projects enough doses to immunise majority by July

Most European Union member states will have sufficient COVID vaccine supplies to immunise the majority of people by the end of June, much earlier than the bloc’s official target, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg.

Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands will be in a position to fully inoculate more than 55 per cent of their total populations, projections in the document show. The EU wants to immunise 70 per cent of adults by the end of the summer, which – depending on the demographics of each member state – corresponds to around 55-60 per cent of total population.

The projections by the European Commission provide some hope that the EU’s vaccination campaign will improve after a disastrous start dominated by delays, mixed messages and political fighting. The commission expects deliveries of vaccines to increase to about 360 million doses this quarter from just over 100 million in the first three months of the year.

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The document, dated April 1, details the exact number doses that will be available to each government by the end of June. While the overall picture is positive, some member states, including Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria are projected to lag behind. Others, such as Denmark and Malta, will reach the immunity threshold much earlier.

The estimates seen by Bloomberg factor in an agreement last week to redistribute part of an accelerated batch of deliveries to countries where supplies are scarce.

The laggards did not draw the full allocation of the coronavirus vaccines they were entitled to under the EU’s purchase agreements with Pfizer, as well as Moderna, opting instead to focus on AstraZeneca’s cheaper shot. With Astra deliveries behind schedule, these member states may face delays in the reopening of their economies, even after taking into account the mechanism agreed to help them catch up.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who’s leading efforts to ramp up production, has said the bloc will have the capacity to deliver enough doses to reach collective immunity by July 14, provided the doses are injected. The date is symbolic, to coincide with Bastille Day in France.

Say cheese! Cyprus’ famed halloumi gets EU protected status

ARADIPPOU, Cyprus — Cyprus is getting protected status for its prized halloumi, giving its producers the sole right to sell the rubbery cheese in the European Union.

Later this month, the European Union is set to formally give halloumi, or “hellim” in Turkish, the protected designation of origin (PDO) status, which will come into effect from October, according to Cyprus’ agriculture ministry.

The move reaffirms what the industry and state have said for years, said cheesemaker George Petrou, general manager of Petrou Bros. Dairy Products which has about 25% of Cyprus’ export market: that halloumi is Cypriot, with historical accounts suggesting production as early as around 1500.

“Unfortunately in recent years, many countries tried to copy us so the registration will help very much, in that other countries will not produce halloumi or something similar which misleads consumers,” he said.

As a child, Petrou learned the secrets of making halloumi from his late mother, Kakkoulou, who sold it at farmers’ markets. As she gently stirred the milk to separate the curds in a vast “hartzin” or cauldron, he would mill around the kitchen, observing her.

In 1982, Petrou started selling halloumi under the Alambra brand to supplement his income as a first-division footballer, and he hasn’t looked back.

From using 250 liters of milk a day to make halloumi, Petrou’s company, initially set up with an elder brother, now processes 250 tons of milk per day, employing 220 people and exporting to 40 countries.

Its expansion mirrors that of Cyprus’ halloumi production.

Now the country’s second-most valuable export after pharmaceuticals, the industry has grown between 20% and 22% annually for the past five years, according to official data. The agriculture ministry says it has now set its sights on penetrating the China market.

There were hurdles to overcome in securing the prized PDO status, including disagreements on the ratios of goat, sheep, and cows’ milk in the recipe.

Until 2024, the ratios will be set by decree, and after that at least 50% will be made up of sheep and goats’ milk, with the rest supplemented by cows’ milk.

Though recipes for halloumi abound online, for locals, enjoyment is in the versatile cheese’s simplest form – tossed in the frying pan or on a barbecue, eaten raw with melon in the summer, or cubed and thrown in to boil with trahana, a cracked wheat and yoghurt soup eaten in winter.

“A lot of tourists come here looking for it,” said Evroulla Ioannou, who serves up grilled halloumi at her popular restaurant in Nicosia, Cyprus’s capital.

“Some … only know it by name so they come to try it, and from what I see, they really like it,” she said.

Erdogan Confirms Turkey’s Determination to Become EU Member

Earlier in the day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel arrived in Ankara on a working visit for talks with Erdogan.

“During the talks, the sides discussed all aspects of EU-Turkey relations. The [Turkish] president stressed that our goal is to get full EU membership and stated the need for the European Union to take specific steps to support a positive agenda. The officials also discussed the situation in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Eastern Mediterranean, calling for a joint fight against terrorism,” Kalin said, as aired by Turkish broadcaster NTV.

The spokesman described the atmosphere of the meeting as “positive.”

Negotiations on Turkey’s full accession to the European Union began in 2005. However, relations between Brussels and Ankara deteriorated throughout 2020 due to long-standing disagreements over Islamic extremism and human rights, as well as a major feud over Turkey’s drilling for gas in Greek- and Cypriot-claimed territorial waters in the eastern Mediterranean.

US lawmakers urge USTR Tai to seek removal of UK, EU whiskey tariffs

Professor Nein: Economist threatens EU recovery fund

Bernd Lucke has got Germany to halt ratification of the EU’s €750 billion coronavirus recovery fund, sending chills through European capitals. But he insists he’s doing the European Union a favor.

“I didn’t set off any bombs,” the German economics professor and former Euroskeptic MEP said in an interview with POLITICO. “The bombshell is that the European Council developed a completely new finaencial instrument that is contrary to the European treaties.”

Late last month. Lucke spearheaded a complaint to Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe against the debt-financed recovery fund. The court promptly issued an injunction preventing President Frank-Walter Steinmeier from signing off on legislation amounting to Berlin’s consent to set up the fund, while judges decide whether to accept the complaint for full examination.

All EU member states must pass similar legislation before the European Commission can borrow on the markets to establish the fund. A hold-up from any country is a cause for concern in Brussels and around the bloc. But the flagship fund is unthinkable without Germany — so it would be effectively dead if the court in Karlsruhe triggers a long delay or rejects its funding mechanism outright.

This is not the first time Lucke has led a charge against European economic integration. After leaving Angela Merkel’s CDU party, he co-founded the Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 2013, before making an inglorious departure after it lurched to the far right.

He is also no stranger to high-profile cases at the German Constitutional Court. Last year, an alliance he leads won a big victory when the court ruled the European Central Bank’s 2015 bond-buying program would be illegal under German law unless the ECB could prove the purchases are justified.

Lucke argues EU leaders should have seen a legal challenge to the recovery fund coming and acted accordingly: “First, they should have refused to give their consent because it is against the treaties, and second, they should have remembered that in Germany lawsuits before the Constitutional Court are to be expected.”

The European Commission insists it is “convinced of the legality” of the financing mechanism for the recovery fund. A Commission spokesperson said the “EU objective remains to ensure the completion of the ratification process in all member states by the end of the second quarter of this year.”

But the future of the fund now rests with the judges in Karlsruhe, as they examine the complaint filed by Lucke and some 2,280 fellow German citizens. The first key moment will likely come within a few weeks, when the court decides whether to admit the complaint. If they decide to do so, that could delay Germany’s approval of the fund for a year or longer.

A German government spokesperson expressed cautious optimism that the court will take its decision “very swiftly,” given that the judges are “probably aware of the dimension” of the lawsuit.

‘Not a bogeyman’

At its core, the complaint is about the so-called Own Resources Decision, which raises the ceilings on the amount of money the EU can ask for from its member countries. This would effectively provide financial guarantees from EU members to allow the European Commission to borrow money on the international financial markets to establish the recovery fund.

Lucke says this means pooling the debt risk, because under the proposed system all EU countries would be jointly liable for the money that the EU spends via the fund — effectively creating so-called eurobonds and turning the EU into a debt union. As the EU is meant to present balanced budgets, such a move would be against the bloc’s treaties, he says.

“I would like to note: Mrs. Merkel was always against eurobonds. I am not a bogeyman, but I am Mrs. Merkel’s faithful Eckart,” Lucke said, referring to a fairytale character in German literature seen as an honest, incorruptible and reliable companion.

“I am watching to make sure that nothing happens that she has always considered wrong,” Lucke said. “One is not a bogeyman, I hope, if one stands up for the rule of law in the EU.”

Merkel has long opposed the idea of eurobonds but said last year the recovery fund was necessary as a one-off measure to deal with the historic challenge of the coronavirus crisis. She disputes that the funding mechanism amounts to the creation of eurobonds.

“I fear that this is yet another attempt to dupe the public by saying ‘one-off’ and ‘exceptionally,’ but actually paving the way for a permanent fiscal union,” Lucke said. “Once you’ve opened this door, you can’t close it again.”

The legal action puts Lucke in a position similar to one he was in a decade ago, when he quit the CDU in protest at Merkel’s financial rescue policies for countries like Greece.

In 2013, he founded the AfD to campaign for abolishing the EU’s common currency, the euro. Yet as one of the party’s three leaders, he was unable to stop far-right elements gaining influence. When the AfD took a decisive far-right turn amid the 2015 refugee crisis, he quit his own party.

Lucke founded a new party, the Liberal-Conservative Reformists, which is now languishing in political insignificance. He stayed on in the European Parliament, where he had been elected as an MEP for the AfD in 2014, until failing to get reelected in 2019.

That year, Lucke said he was quitting politics and returning to his job at the Hamburg university, where police intervened after protesting students interrupted one of his lectures, shouting “Nazi pig” and “get lost.”

Lucke rejects any association with the far right. “I have always, as AfD leader and in the time since, distanced myself from any form of right-wing extremism. I am an active protestant Christian, and I would never engage in xenophobic or right-wing extremist activities or tolerate them; that is out of the question,” he said.

However, when it comes to his opposition to the financial mechanism behind the recovery fund, Lucke finds himself allied with his former party: The AfD was the only party to vote against the Own Resources Decision in the Bundestag last month. (Leftist party Die Linke abstained.)

“They are not comrades-in-arms,” he said, stressing he made sure none of the 40 main complainants in his Bündnis Bürgerwille (Will of the Citizens Alliance), which launched the lawsuit, had any ties to the party. “There is no common ground, no agreements and no joint action with the AfD.”

Lucke insists he is not against the idea of an EU recovery fund per se, or even economic solidarity within the bloc.

He has proposed an alternative model, whereby each country would borrow money individually on the markets to pay into the recovery fund. Under that plan, countries could still receive more money than they had paid in — with Germany for example contributing more than Spain — but they would each be responsible for paying back their own share.

That plan would not be nearly as attractive to EU members such as southern European countries, which have been hit particularly hard economically by the pandemic and expect to receive large sums from the EU fund. They would face higher borrowing costs than the European Commission, which could borrow more cheaply thanks to the support of Germany above all.

“I would offer you a bet,” Lucke said, predicting that if the German Constitutional Court accepts the lawsuit, “the heads of state and government will get together very quickly and do exactly what I said. Right now, of course, they are trying to put pressure on the court and give the impression that the future of Europe depends on Karlsruhe rejecting our application. But that is wrong.”

Want more analysis from POLITICO? POLITICO Pro is our premium intelligence service for professionals. From financial services to trade, technology, cybersecurity and more, Pro delivers real time intelligence, deep insight and breaking scoops you need to keep one step ahead. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial.

EU-China ties takes ‘sharp turn’ for worse

Brussels [Belgium], April 5 (ANI): Relations between the European Union and China have taken a “sharp turn for the worse”, due to tit-for-tat sanctions imposed by Beijing and Brussels.

Brussels had announced sanctions last week against officials involved in China’s gross human rights violations against its ethnic Uyghur minority in its northwest Xinjiang region. Beijing retaliated with its own sanctions on 10 EU individuals and four entities, including five members of the European Parliament, or MEPs.

According to Voice of America (VOA), while US-China relations have declined in recent years, the European countries have enjoyed a much softer ride. After years of negotiations, Beijing and Brussels finally struck a deal aimed at liberalizing trade between them in the last days of December.

“The breakthrough was made possible by last-minute concessions from Chinese President Xi Jinping and pushes from German officials. The deal, which remains subject to approval by the European Parliament, would ensure that European investors have better access to the fast-growing Chinese market and can compete on a more level playing field in that country,” VOA reported.

“It is the EU’s first sanctions against China on human rights issues since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989,” said Grzegorz Stec, an expert at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Germany, one of the four entities sanctioned by China.

Stec told VOA that the EU has imposed sanctions on China for other reasons, including a move against two Chinese people for cyberattacks last year. But this time, he said, “the EU made it clear that it was due to the human rights issue. China clearly regards this issue as China’s internal affair, and China’s countermeasures are unprecedented.”Among the individuals being sanctioned by China are five MEPs, Raphael Glucksmann, a French MEP and longtime French human rights advocate, said he sees the Chinese action, which includes a ban on visits to the country, as a recognition of his advocacy for Uyghur rights. After his election in 2019, Glucksmann was widely quoted as saying his goal was to become “the voice of the voiceless people.””Fortunately, we have worked hard to raise the public’s attention to this issue, which is why they (China) are angry with me,” Glucksmann told VOA.

China’s investment agreement with Europe is in tatters as major parties in the European Parliament are considering withholding support to the trade deal after Beijing imposed sanctions on EU officials.

China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending members of the community to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination.

Beijing, on the other hand, has vehemently denied that it is engaged in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang while reports from journalists, NGOs and former detainees have surfaced, highlighting the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on the ethnic community, according to a report. (ANI)

Top EU Officials Head to Turkey for a Reset

… ease the latest tensions, European Council president Charles Michel and European … Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday.
The EU wants to continue a 2016 … Turkey’s continuing talks with EU member Greece. The talks … group is calling on the European Union not to ignore human …

EU very worried over Russian military activity near Ukraine’s border

The European Union has expressed “great concern” over the movement of Russian military forces near the border with Ukraine.

Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief, also expressed “unwavering support” for Kyiv after a phone conversation with Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

“We are following with severe concern the Russian military activity surrounding Ukraine,” Borrell tweeted on Sunday.

“Unwavering EU support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

Borrell said he would hold talks with Kuleba and the EU’s 27 foreign ministers at an upcoming meeting in April. Other western leaders, including incoming US President Joe Biden, have said they stand by Ukraine.

Kyiv has accused Russia of massing troops on its northern and eastern borders and in the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The Kremlin did not deny the recent military movements but insisted it was “not threatening” anyone.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014, according to the United Nations.

EU pledges backing to Ukraine after Russian military buildup

The European Union has pledged its “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s government amid concerns of a military escalation in the east of the country or a possible new offensive against the Nato ally after recent Russian troop movements.

Ukraine has accused Russia of massing thousands of military personnel on its northern and eastern borders as well as on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Online researchers have identified troops being transferred to Ukraine’s borders from western and central Russia, including artillery from as far away as Siberia.

On Monday, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said he was “following with severe concern the Russian military activity surrounding Ukraine”. After a phone call with the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, he also pledged “unwavering EU support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The Russian government has denied it is planning a military attack but has not denied the troop movements. The country’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, on Monday said Russia was doing “what it considers necessary” and would “ignore signals” of concern from the United States and other western countries.

Moscow’s aims are unclear. While it regularly holds military exercises in the region, the Russian military deployments “appear out of cycle for such exercises, and are not regular troop rotations”, Michael Kofman, director of the Russia studies program at the CNA corporation, noted late last week. He wrote that Moscow’s goal may be to intimidate Ukraine and put pressure on its western allies to back political concessions in order for Russia to freeze the conflict in the country’s south-east.

Moscow may also have been putting the Biden administration on notice that it remains a formidable power willing to project its power abroad. That signal appears to have been received. US European command raised its threat level from possible crisis to potential imminent crisis, the highest level, last week.

On Monday, Ryabkov hinted at what Moscow’s aims may be, saying that the United States should apply greater effort to enforce the Minsk agreements, a 2015 roadmap out of the conflict that many in Kyiv believe is disadvantageous and was forced to sign during a Russian-backed offensive.

Borrell said he would hold further talks on the issue with Kiev’s top diplomat and foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 nations at a meeting later this month.

Online researchers have collected video and pictures, some of it uploaded to the service TikTok, showing Russian troops and armour being transferred across Russia to the Ukrainian border and into Crimea. They included pictures of train carriages carrying tanks, rocket artillery launches, and trains carrying contract troops to the border region.

Global Recovery: The EU Disburses SDR141 Million to the IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust

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Paris and EU agree deal to save Air France from financial disaster

The French government has reached a deal with the European Commission allowing Paris to inject fresh money into the national carrier, Air France, whose finances are crumbling under the impact of coronavirus restrictions.

The announcement of the agreement in principle was made on Sunday by Bruno Le Maire, the French Economy Minister.

Paris has been involved in several weeks of intense discussions with the European Commission, with a view to securing the future of the national airline company.

The Commission attempts to ensure that state aid does not give companies an unfair advantage.

The French state holds a 14 percent stake in Air France. The company has suffered, like airlines the world over, from a huge reduction in passenger traffic in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

Air France losses in 2020 are estimated at seven billion euros.

State aid will cost Air France landing rights

Bruno Le Maire has not indicated how much help Air France will be allowed under the European agreement, saying that details will be worked out with the company.

Senior management at the airline are to meet on Monday to confirm their acceptance – in principle – of the European deal.

In exchange for increased financial assistance, Air France has agreed to relinquish “a certain number” of its landing slots at Paris Orly airport.

According to EU rules, any government granting more than 250 million euros in aid to a company with “significant market power” had to propose additional measures to safeguard competition.

Rival airline Ryanair, Europe‘s largest carrier in terms of passenger numbers, has criticised previous French state aid for Air France, saying it distorts competition.

‘Very good news for the French aviation sector’

Minister Le Maire described the agreement with the Commission as “very good news for Air France, and for the whole French aviation sector,” adding that negotiations had been “tough”.

The minister declined to say how many slots at Orly Air France would have to give up, but said it would be fewer than the 24 the Commission had initially asked for.

The French government has already given “a lot of help” to Air France to enable the company to weather the Covid crisis, with an initial sum of €7 billion. The state will “not sign a blank cheque” this time around, Le Maire said.

“There are tens of thousands of jobs involved. Air France is strategic for our country,” the minister said.

But the carrier must become more competitive and continue to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, he insisted.

“The taxpayer is making an effort, and Air France must also make an effort,” Le Maire added.

Originally published on RFI

France, EU Seal Deal on Refinancing Air France-KLM

France and the European Commission have agreed on the outline of a state-backed refinancing package for the French arm of Franco-Dutch airline group Air France-KLM, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced Sunday.

Letters: We would suffer a sorry fate as a small nation in the EU

IT was inevitable that nationalists would seize on the LSE report on EU membership and the Velvet Divorce of the former Czechoslovakia (Letters, April 2), despite their earlier rubbishing of other opinions coming out of that academic institution. However, they choose at the same time to ignore the very real and pertinent differences between Scotland and Slovakia.

The industrial strength of Slovakia is founded upon a number of advantages that Scotland does not possess, including low wages, low tax rates, and a favourable geographic location in the heart of Central Europe. Of these, we know that driving down wages is part of Andrew Wilson’s SNP growth strategy, and that reduced public expenditure would be required to apply to join the EU as a new member state, but we are not there yet. Moreover, even the most ardent nationalist will admit that Scotland is a geographically peripheral territory.

EU in No Hurry to Get Sputnik V Into Market Over Competition Fears, Developer Says

“The EU is in no hurry to get Sputnik V as a full-fledged commercial product into its market, fearing its high consumer properties, thanks to which it could slightly push back the products that the European bureaucracy is promoting at home,” Gintsburg said.

Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Epidemiology and Microbiology Centre, received an emergency use authorization in Russia back in August. The vaccine is 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 and is 100 percent effective against severe cases.

The shot is based on the well-studied human adenovirus vector platform and has been approved for use in almost 60 countries. The EU’s medicines regulator launched a review of the Russian vaccine in early March.

In coal-addicted Bulgaria, EU climate goal faces hurdles

With its belching smokestacks, Bulgaria’s Bobov Dol coal plant symbolises the type of industry the EU aims to eliminate—and the hurdles it faces in its green transition.

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Environmental issues barely made a blip ahead of elections taking place Sunday, while critics fear that 10 billion euros ($11.8 billion) in EU green transition funds could fall prey to Bulgaria’s widespread corruption.

Environmentalists say the 27-nation European Union must phase out of coal by 2030 to meet its climate targets. The bloc aims to slash emissions by 55 percent by then.

Eleven EU nations have pledged to phase out coal-powered electricity by 2030. Bulgaria, which emits 4.3 times more greenhouse gases per unit of GDP than the EU average, is not among them.

The country relies heavily on coal to heat homes, with 60 percent of electricity production in winter coming from the pollutant.

Bobov Dol has been in operation since the 1970s, employs 850 people and alone accounts for around four percent of Bulgaria’s energy output.

“We definitely have worries” about the plant having to shut, said Bobov Dol’s CEO Lyubomir Spasov, adding that his aim is to “keep the maximum amount of jobs”.

His priority is keeping the 630-megawatt facility near Sofia open, and to that end he is considering moving away from coal to natural gas or even incorporating a hydrogen plant run on solar power.

The plant will submit an application this year for a slice of the 10 billion euros in EU funds earmarked by Brussels for green projects.

‘Evils’ of corruption

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, whose centre-right GERB party is favoured to win Sunday’s election, supports the EU’s Green Deal, but he has called for more help for eastern European countries that depend on coal.

GERB, however, did not make this a prominent theme in its election campaign, even though a recent poll for the ECFR think tank found that two-thirds of Bulgarians support the closure of coal plants.

Three-quarters of voters were unaware of the parties’ positions on green transition.

Bulgaria is falling short partly because elected officials have been “afraid to engage” on the subject, said Maria Trifonova, assistant professor at the University of Sofia’s department of industrial economics and management.

After a wave of huge anti-corruption protests which began last summer, combatting graft has been a much bigger issue.

The NGO Transparency International ranks Bulgaria as the most corrupt of all EU states.

Hristo Ivanov, leader of the small opposition “Da, Bulgaria!” party, worries that the EU’s green subsidies might end up enriching Bulgaria’s oligarchs.

“Sixty percent of the (EU funding) must be invested in (public) infrastructure, the sector that suffers the most from these evils,” said Ivanov, a former minister of justice who quit his office in frustration in 2014 and has since become one of the country’s most outspoken anti-graft activists.

Ivanov noted that one power plant (not Bobov Dol) that may be in line for green transition money is owned by a prominent, politically well-connected oligarch.

Contaminated rivers

Environmental campaigners say the transition away from polluting energy sources is long overdue.

Desislava Mikova of Greenpeace Bulgaria said Bobov Dol has contaminated local rivers and excess levels of fumes that can cause acid rain have also been recorded.

“My car is all dirty in the mornings, even if I washed it the day before,” said a villager who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

“In the 21st century, to have such a pollutant in your backyard—that can’t be right.”

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                                        <a class="text-medium text-info mt-2 d-inline-block" href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-03-bulgaria-re-imposes-virus-curbs-mortality.html">Bulgaria re-imposes virus curbs as mortality rate rises</a>
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EU has ‘severe concern’ over Russian activity near Ukraine

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs meets EU…

Doha: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met on Sunday with Ambassador of the European Union to the State of Qatar HE Dr. Cristian Tudor.

During the meeting, they reviewed the cooperation relations between the State of Qatar and the European Union and the measures Qatar has taken to enhance labor rights.