EU migrant plan suffers blow as eastern Europe says no

A group of eastern European countries on Thursday rejected the EU’s new plan for handling migrants because it was not tough enough, dealing a blow to efforts to solve one of Europe’s thorniest problems.

The leaders of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic – who all have a tough anti-immigration stance – held talks with top EU officials as the bloc tries to reform asylum rules five years after the continent was engulfed by a migrant crisis.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive, published new plans on Wednesday for tougher border controls and streamlined procedures for expelling rejected asylum seekers.

But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the measures did not go far enough, insisting refugees must be screened in camps outside Europe.

“There is no breakthrough – there are many changes but that is not yet a breakthrough,” Orban told reporters after talks in Brussels with his Czech and Polish counterparts and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Together with Slovakia, the three countries make up the Visegrad Group, which has vehemently resisted previous EU efforts to distribute refugees using a mandatory quota system.

“Breakthrough would mean outside hotspots, so nobody can step on the ground of the European Union without having permission to do,” Orban said, referring to the idea of screening centres located outside Europe.

Orban said the “tone of the proposal” was more to his liking, but said “the basic approach is unchanged”.

“They would like to manage migration and not to stop the migrants,” he said.

“The Hungarian position is: ‘Stop the migrants’. That’s two different things.”

The EU plan to reform the so-called Dublin regulation on asylum seekers – which von der Leyen herself admits has failed — was launched two weeks after fire destroyed an overcrowded migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, thrusting the issue back into the spotlight.

Under the plan, EU countries that do not want to take in more migrants could instead take charge of sending those whose asylum requests are rejected back to their homelands.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis dismissed the idea of countries unwilling to house migrants ensuring their repatriation as “fundamental nonsense”.

“At first sight it seems the European Commission still hasn’t understood that to stop illegal migration we have to stop illegal migrants when they arrive on European soil,” Babis said.

His Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki said the Visegrad group would stick by its demands for “the most rigorous and effective border control policies”.

“We want to prevent problems at source rather than have to then deal with the huge and controversial proposals we have in 2016, 17, 18 on migrant policy,” he said.

After her meeting with the three leaders, von der Leyen tweeted that they had had a “good discussion” and “agreed to work closely together”.

The EU’s plans also disappointed those on the other side of the debate, migrant rights activists condemning them as caving to xenophobia and populism.

EU launches investigation into Chinese optical fibre cable imports

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission launched an investigation on Thursday into imports of optical fibre cable from China, which EU manufacturers believe are being sold in Europe at artificially low prices.

The case comes as the 27-member European Union wants the digital economy to be a key part of its economic recovery and demands a greater opening of Chinese markets.

Europacable, which brought the complaint on behalf of the EU producers, said some 1.2 million kilometres (745,000 miles) were installed in Europe last year, with 15-20% coming from China. Chinese imports rose by 150% from 2016 to 2019, the industry group said.

EU anti-dumping investigations take up to 15 months, but provisional duties can be put in place within eight. Final tariffs, if imposed, would normally apply for five years.

The largest producers in the EU are Italy’s Prysmian Group PRY.MI, U.S. company Corning GLW.N and France-based Nexans NEXS.PA and Acome.

Major Chinese optical fibre cable makers include Yangtze Optical FC 6869.HK, Hengtong Group 600487.SS, Fiberhome 600498.SS and Futong.

The Commission has already carried out a series of investigations into glass fibre products from China and imposed tariffs. It also has 29 ongoing trade defence investigations, 18 of them including products from China.

President Ilham Aliyev: There is a very high-level partnership between the European Union and Azerbaijan

AZERTAG.AZ :President Ilham Aliyev: There is a very high-level partnership between the European Union and Azerbaijan

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Bello discounts massive loss of jobs amid threat from European Parliament

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said there is no basis to fear what doomsayers describe as imminent loss of about 200,000 jobs for Filipino workers as a result of the possible Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) withdrawal. 

In a statement, Bello said they are confident that the European Commission will find “no valid and convincing reason to withdraw such privileges.”

“We believe we have been compliant with the fundamental requirements and processes for the country to continue enjoying the privileges under the GSP+,” he said on Wednesday. 

“We fared well in the country report to the European Commission which provides a scorecard of Philippine compliance with 27 international conventions,” added Bello.

The country report, he said, is an inter-agency effort, where DOLE actively participates in the process of providing updates and factual evidence, particularly on matters pertaining to the observance of labor rights.

Bello also revealed that the Philippines is the only country in the ASEAN that ratified eight fundamental conventions with respect to labor — Freedom of Association and Protection on the Right to Organize Convention, Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, Forced Labor Convention, Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, Minimum Age Convention, Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, Equal Remuneration Convention, and Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention.

“Our government is doing its best to comply with all the EU GSP+ requirements in promoting the welfare of workers,” he said.

Bello said among them are the adoption of measures such as the Occupational Safety and Health Law, Expanded Maternity Benefit Leave, Anti-Age Discrimination in Employment.

“Our government recorded milestones in protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of our workers both locally and overseas,” he said.

“These are just some of the significant policies in support of the labor rights in the country and we will be relentless in this undertaking,” added Bello.

The European Parliament in a resolution called for the revocation of certain tariff benefits given to Philippines over concerns on the alleged deteriorating human rights situation.

MEPs asking for a reshaping of EU-China relations framework

Brussels [Belgium], September 24 (ANI): The Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have asked the European Union to reshape the EU-China relations framework after Beijing charged for personal protective equipment (PPE) given to European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When China was facing the pandemic, the European Union came forward and sent tons of goods/equipment to China, spending millions of euros on the process. Germany, France and Italy were major contributors to the aid relief.

However, when coronavirus cases arose in European countries, Beijing did not donate the PPE to Italy, and charged for the very equipment Italy had previously donated to China.

Spain was forced to return faulty test kits to China, and the Netherlands had to recall 600,000 faulty coronavirus face masks imported from China.

“Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Anna Bonfrisco, Matteo Adinolfi, Valentino Grant, Marco Dreosto, Luisa Regimenti, Alessandro Panza, Stefania Zambelli, Simona Baldassarre, Gianna Gancia and Francesca Donato of the Identity and Democracy Group have asked for reshaping the EU-China relations framework,” EU Chronicle reported.

In April, the Italian Identity and Democracy Group MEPs raised a parliamentary question to the European Commission asking that considering the EU-China investment agreement should be signed this year.

In July, High Representative/Vice-President Borrell responded that “the European Commission is working with the Member States and international partners on all fronts to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak” and that “the first priority is to guarantee the health and safety of all EU citizens: protecting people from the spread of the virus, supporting the health systems and health workers while maintaining the flow of goods, mitigating the effects on the economy and helping people get back to their homes”.

In an attempt to restore its humanitarian image following the crisis, China had projected in April to the world that it would donate PPE to Italy.

But later it was revealed, it was not a humanitarian gesture but a business- Beijing had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy, several media reports claimed.

A senior Trump administration official was quoted by The Spectator as saying that it is much worse than that and China “forced Italy to buy back the PPE supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak.”

“Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population,” the administration official explained. “China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it … and charged them for it,” he added.

Spain had to return 50,000 quick-testing kits to China after discovering that they were faulty.

In some cases, instead of apologising or fixing the issue, China has blamed its defective equipment on others. It condescendingly told The Netherlands to ‘double-check the instructions’ on its masks, for example, after The Netherlands complained that half of the masks sent by the Beijing did not meet safety standards, the media reported. (ANI)

Belarus: Lukashenko’s new mandate lacks democratic legitimacy, EU says

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President Aliyev: Azerbaijan-EU partnership at high level

By Ayya Lmahamad

High level of partnership exists between Azerbaijan and the European Union, President Ilham Aliyev said while receiving credentials of the newly-appointed Ambassador of Sweden Christian Kamill on September 24, Azertag reported .

“Sweden has always actively participated in cooperation between the European Union and the region. There is now a very high level partnership between the European Union and Azerbaijan and this partnerhship covers many areas. I hope the negotiations on the new agreement will continue successfully,” the president said.

The president said that the cooperation with the EU continues, despite disruption of some plans due to COVID-19. 

Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan has signed documents on strategic partnership with one third of EU member states, which demonstrates the high level of cooperation. In addition, he stated that two years ago Azerbaijan and EU also signed a document on partnership priorities, which is very important for further development of cooperation.

“We are very grateful that the European Union supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty of its borders in this document. It is a very important sign of a fair and just approach to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the president emphasized.

“As for our bilateral relations, we want them to become more intense. I am confident that such opportunity will appear through the ambassadors’ activity,” Aliyev said.

In turn, Ambassador Kamill stressed that Sweden is ready to support the Azerbaijan-EU cooperation.

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EU expected to provide multi-million euro support to Armenia for COVID-19 response, judiciary reform

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is expected to sign a 30 million euro financing agreement with the European Commission envisaged for supporting Armenia’s judicial reforms.

The project is directed at supporting Armenia’s reforms in the justice sector in conformity with its obligations under the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the EU.

In addition, the Armenian Government is expected to sign a financing agreement with the European Union as part of the Armenia-EU 2020 annual action plan which will provide Armenia with 30 million Euros in support for the COVID-19 response and mitigation of the negative consequences in the healthcare and socio-economic areas.

The agreements are expected to be formally approved by the Armenian government at the September 24 Cabinet meeting.

The agenda of the Cabinet meeting also includes the signing of a grant agreement with the Asian Development Bank envisaging a 2 million dollar grant to Armenia for the COVID-19 response.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan