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In today’s news from the Capitals:
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the centre-right party Partido Popular (PP/EPP) is teaming up with far-right party VOX as his party announced it would abstain in Wednesday’s vote on the no-confidence motion in the Spanish government, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Saturday. Read more.
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EU INSTITUTIONS
EU ammunition plan for Ukraine runs into third country issues. EU foreign and defence ministers on Monday (20 March) are expected to sign off on a €2-billion plan to raid their stockpiles and jointly purchase much-needed artillery shells for Ukraine, but some continue to voice doubts over the exclusion of third country suppliers. Read more.
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BERLIN
Scholz visits Japan amid efforts to curb dependence on Russia, China. Becoming less dependent on China and Russia was high on the agenda in Tokyo as Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers attended their first-ever bilateral government consultations with Japan this weekend. Read more.
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PARIS
Protests, violent clashes mount ahead of French no-confidence vote. France was marked by a series of protests and violent clashes this weekend, with some targeting parliamentarians after President Emmanuel Macron’s government bypassed parliament to adopt the much-reviled pension reform – a move that will have parties vote on two no-confidence motions in parliament Monday. Read more.
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VIENNA
Austria’s conservatives team up with far-right, again. The Austrian centre-right ÖVP of Lower Austria looks to govern with the far-right FPÖ, forming a right-wing government in the country’s largest state and setting the scene for the upcoming 2024 elections. Read more.
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THE HAGUE
Dutch to introduce carbon cap at airports from 2025. Flights will have their CO2 emissions capped from 2025 depending on the airport, the Dutch cabinet announced on Friday without yet specifying the different thresholds for each. Read more.
UK AND IRELAND
LONDON
Refugee Council: ‘stop the boats’ plan would bar 45,000 children from UK. The Illegal Migration Bill Home coined the ‘stop the boats plan’, would result in 45,000 children effectively barred from refugee status in the UK, according to an upcoming report by the Refugee Council, The Guardian reported. Read more.
NORDICS AND BALTICS
HELSINKI
Hundreds of ‘ghost tankers’ in Gulf of Finland pose a risk to maritime safety. Unidentified tankers are shipping oil through the Gulf of Finland after the G7 implemented a $60 price cap on Russian oil and the EU and UK imposed a ban on the seaborne import of Russian crude oil forcing Moscow to increase long-distance shipments using questionable vessels. Read more.
EUROPE’S SOUTH
ROME
Debate flares in Italy over surrogacy, LBGT rights. The debate on the practice of surrogacy has flared up in Italy as the ruling right-wing was unanimous in condemning gender ideology and the ‘LGBT lobby’, while the Left called for the better protection of children born from heterologous fertilisation abroad or adopted by surrogate mothers. Read more.
VISEGRAD
WARSAW
Coking coal remains on EU critical raw materials list after Polish pressure. Coking coal will stay on the list of raw materials critical for the European Union after Poland, a key producer of the energy source, succeeded in persuading the Commission after the latter published its proposal for a new Critical Raw Materials Act. Read more.
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PRAGUE
Commission suing Czechia for not protecting whistleblowers. The European Commission is suing Czechia for not having introduced rules to protect whistleblowers, a spokesman for the Court of Justice of the EU recently said, the Czech News Agency reported. Read more.
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BRATISLAVA
Slovakia’s biggest supermarket chains cap prices of basic products. The prices of 400 basic products sold across eight of Slovakia’s biggest supermarket chains will be capped for three months, announced Agriculture Minister Samuel Vlčan. Read more.
NEWS FROM THE BALKANS
SOFIA
Bulgarian companies declare record profits amid crisis. Companies registered in Bulgaria have reported record profits over the past two years, despite the country’s dominant political narrative telling citizens the story that the country is in a perpetual state of crisis. Read more.
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BUCHAREST
Romania wants to push euro adoption by 2026. Romania’s government is looking to adopt the euro by 2026, far earlier than the current plan to join the euro area by 2029, announced Finance Minister Adrian Câciu, adding that for this to happen the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) must be fully implemented. Read more.
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BELGRADE | PRISTINA
Serbia, Kosovo ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ on EU-backed deal unpacked. While Kosovo and Serbia reached a verbal agreement on implementing an EU-backed deal to normalise ties over the weekend, disagreements and a lack of clarity over what shape some provisions will take, remain. Read more.
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BELGRADE
Serbia still firmly opposes Kosovo recognition, UN accession. Serbia is ready to do “certain things in our European way” but will maintain its red lines on Kosovo recognition and UN accession, President Aleksandar Vučić said on live TV a day after another round of talks on the normalisation of Belgrade-Pristina relations. Read more.
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PODGORICA
Montenegro’s Dukanovic to face Europe Now! candidate in presidential run-off. Centre-left incumbent Milo Đukanović (DPS-S&D) will be facing Jakov Milatović, nominated by the centrist Europe now! party, in the presidential election run-off on 2 April, according to polls conducted by two independent NGOs after polls closed. Read more.
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TIRANA
Zero child marriages in Albania in 2022. No girls under the age of 18 were married during 2022 in Albania, the first time the number has reached zero since records started to be kept. Read more.
AGENDA
- EU: Foreign Affairs Council discusses the Russian war against Ukraine, and more; Holds joint session with EU foreign affairs ministers; Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi attends;
- Agriculture and Fisheries Council exchanges views on Commission measures to increase resilience of the fisheries and aquaculture sector, trade related agricultural issues, a new deal for pollinators, and more; Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski attends;
- Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson co-host the International Donors’ Conference “Together for the people in Türkiye and Syria”;
- Vice President Maroš Šefčovič participates in event organised by the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU entitled “Europe’s global role after Ukraine”;
- Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi receives Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dačić; Receives the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borjana Krišto; Participates in the Schuman Security and Defence Partnership Forum;
- President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Odile Renaud-Basso holds meetings with Commissioners Johannes Hahn, Olivér Várhelyi; First Vice President of the EBRD Jurgen Rigterink receives Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič;
- European Parliament President Roberta Metsola holds meetings with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, Ambassador of the United States of America to the European Union Mark Gitenstein, Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Borjana Krišto;
- Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence debates establishing the EU defence industry reinforcement through common procurement act;
- ECB Chief Christine Lagarde testifies before European Parliament;
- France: Government faces motion of censure in parliament after forcing through pension reform;
- Spain: Members of European Parliament’s committee of inquiry into espionage via the Pegasus software visit;
- United Kingdom: International justice ministers’ conference in support of International Criminal Court (ICC) work in Ukraine;
- Russia: Chinese President Xi Jinping, Armenia’s FM Ararat Mirzoyan visit;
- Kazakhstan: OSCE press conference on parliamentary elections;
- UN: Security Council holds meeting on Sudan;
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[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Alice Taylor, Sofia Stuart Leeson, Sofia Mandilara]
Source: euractiv.com
