File picture of a multicolour 10 Polish Zloty coin marking Poland entering the European Union is presented by the National Bank of Poland in 2004. The Finance Minister in Poland’s pro-European Union government says the country is still not ready to adopt the euro currency.
| Photo Credit: AP

Twenty years after joining the European Union, Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro currency, the finance minister in the pro-European Union government said.

Andrzej Domanski, Finance Minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said in an interview on TVN24 on April 29 that Poland joining the eurozone, the currency union of 20 E.U. members, is not justified at this time.

He said he believed that having its own currency, the zloty, helped Poland avoid recession during the global financial crisis and to weather other shocks.

On May 1, Poland and nine other countries will mark the 20th anniversary of joining the EU in 2004. Under the terms of membership, Poland committed itself to replacing the zloty with the single European currency.

Brussels:

 Adult content companies Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos will have to do risk assessment reports and take measures to address systemic risks linked to their services to comply with new EU online content rules, the European Commission said on Friday.

The three companies were designated as very large online platforms last December under the Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires them to do more to remove illegal and harmful content on their platforms.

Pornhub and Stripchat will have to comply with these DSA obligations, among the strictest, on April 21 and XVideos on April 23, the EU executive said.

“These specific obligations include submitting risk assessment reports to the Commission, putting in place mitigation measures to address systemic risks linked to the provision of their services,” it said in a statement.

The companies will also have to meet additional transparency obligations, including related to ads, and providing access to data for researchers.

Companies risk fines as much as 6% of their global annual turnover for DSA breaches.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The European Union said on Friday it had agreed to impose sanctions against four people and two entities over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The listed entities are Lehava, a radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youth, the European Union Council said in a statement.

Two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, are also listed, it added.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and the area has been under military occupation since, while Israeli settlements have consistently expanded. Palestinians envisage the West Bank as part of a future independent state also including Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Brussels:

European Union leaders agreed Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile producers over Tehran’s unprecedented weekend attack on Israel, EU chief Charles Michel said.

“We have decided to put in place sanctions against Iran, it is a clear signal that we wanted to send,” the European Council president said at an EU summit in Brussels.

“The idea is to target the companies that are needed for the drones, for the missiles.”

Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile onslaught over the weekend against Israel, which caused little damage after most of the projectiles were intercepted.

Tehran’s first-ever direct assault on Israeli soil came in response to a deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus widely blamed on Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will decide how to respond to Iran’s attack as global powers called for restraint to avoid escalation.

The EU leaders in their statement from the summit urged “all parties to exercise the utmost restraint and to refrain from any action that may increase tensions in the region.”

The EU has already imposed sanctions on Iran over its supply of drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but they have had little effect on cutting the ties between Tehran and Moscow.  

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Precision game: Partial view of the special mirror systems used to activate laser at the ELI project in Romania.
| Photo Credit: AFP

In the control room of a research centre in Romania, part of the European Union’s Infrastructure ELI project, engineer Antonia Toma activates the world’s most powerful laser, which promises revolutionary advances in everything from the health sector to space.

The laser at the centre, near the Romanian capital Bucharest, is operated by French company Thales, using Nobel prize-winning inventions.

France’s Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland of Canada won the 2018 Nobel Physics Prize for harnessing the power of lasers for advanced precision instruments. “The sharp beams of laser light have given us new opportunities for deepening our knowledge about the world and shaping it,” the Nobel Academy’s citation said.

Mr. Mourou confessed he was “very moved” by his “incredible odyssey” — from the U.S. where he spent 30 years, to bringing this project to fruition in Europe.

“We start from a small luminous seed with very, very little energy, which will be amplified millions and millions of times,” said Mr. Mourou, 79, trying to give a sense of the “huge step taken”, the “phenomenal powers” achieved.

Possible applications include treating nuclear waste by reducing the duration of its radioactivity, or cleaning up the debris accumulating out in space, he added. For Mr. Mourou, just as the last century was that of the electron, the 21st century will be that of the laser.

A rising tide of anti-migrant misinformation has flooded Bulgaria, stoking rallies and xenophobia ahead of Sofia’s partial accession to the European Union’s visa-free Schengen zone.

After more than a decade of talks, EU members Bulgaria and Romania finally got the green signal in December to join the Schengen zone, but only for air and sea travel, from the end of this month.

The move came after Austria lifted its veto. But in exchange, Vienna insisted that Bulgaria and Romania take back asylum seekers who entered Europe through those countries.The bloc’s so-called Dublin regulation stipulates that migrants must apply for asylum in their first European port of call.

The pro-Western government in the EU’s poorest country has consequently faced attacks both from the left and the far-right. In January, the leader of the pro-Russian Vazrazhdane party Kostadin Kostadinov, said Bulgaria could become “the world’s biggest refugee camp”.

Some far-right politicians posted videos on social media they said showed “migrants beating up young Bulgarians” in Sofia. Police, however, described the incident as an altercation between two rival Bulgarian groups.

Security has been stepped up in the capital and at refugee centres after several incidents targeting foreigners and anti-refugee rallies.

War footing:European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, center left, with other EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: AP

European Union leaders grappled at a summit meeting on Thursday with how to get more weapons to Ukraine’s outgunned forces while also re-arming their own countries in the face of Russia’s emboldened President Vladimir Putin.

Over two years into Moscow’s war against its neighbour, Kyiv’s troops are struggling to hold back the Russian army as Western deliveries of ammunition have faltered.

Mr. Putin meanwhile has tightened his iron grip over his country by winning a new six-year term at elections after opposition was crushed.

“On Ukraine, we need to continue and certainly accelerate our support,” Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said at the start of the meeting. “The necessity today is ammunition.”

As a $60 billion package remains stalled in Washington, the European Union’s 27 leaders debated a plan to spend profits from 200 billion euros in frozen Russian central bank assets on weapons for Ukraine.

The proposal could unlock some three billion euros a year for Kyiv, but leaders were not expected to give the final go-ahead on Thursday.

That would come on top of more than 33 billion euros that the EU says it has provided towards arming Ukraine since the Kremlin invaded in February 2022.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had been cautious about undermining EU markets, threw his weight behind the plan as legally sound. But the Kremlin warned it would use legal and “other methods of retaliation” to hit back.

Alongside the efforts to get more weapons to Kyiv, the EU is also scrambling for ways to boost Europe’s defence industry to be able to arm Ukraine and build up its own forces.

Brussels has put forward a raft of proposals aimed at ramping up capacity but there are complaints that Europe is still not moving fast enough.

While Russia has put its economy on a war footing, the EU has fallen well short of a promise made last year to supply Ukraine with a million artillery shells by this month. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic has spearheaded its own initiative aimed at hoovering up hundreds of thousands of shells available around the world to send to Kyiv.

‘Joint borrowing’

France and Estonia have pitched the idea of using joint borrowing, similar to the massive package of support the EU came up with during the COVID-19 pandemic, to fund defence spending.

But a majority of member states, led by so-called “frugal” countries such as Germany, are unwilling to go anywhere near that far.

“If that doesn’t fly, then propose something else, some other solution that we can solve this problem, because there is a big problem of funding the defence industry,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said.

Instead, the discussion was set to focus on getting the EU’s lending arm, the European Investment Bank, to expand its funding for the sector.

At the moment, the bank is limited to investing in only a small number of “dual-use products” that can have both military and civilian functions.

While the response to the conflict in Ukraine was set to dominate the summit, EU leaders were also looking for a united stance on the war in Gaza, with United Nations chief Antonio Guterres in attendance.

Diplomats say an overwhelming majority of countries support a call for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in Israel’s offensive and a warning for it not to launch a ground operation in Rafah.

But Irish premier Leo Varadkar said staunch Israeli allies the Czech Republic and Austria were reluctant to back that wording, in the latest obstacle to EU unity on the issue.

“The response to the appalling crisis in Palestine has not been Europe’s finest hour, quite frankly,” he said.

Bosnia’s membership

Closer to home, EU leaders look set to give the green light to opening membership negotiations with Bosnia as Russia’s war has sparked a push to expand the bloc.

Diplomats said that the Balkan state would likely get an agreement on launching talks, but they could only start in earnest when the country has passed more reforms.

“It’s a two-step approach,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

“Yes, opening membership talks, but also, yes, working on all the outstanding issues before we can take the next step.”

The EU will provide assistance to cash-strapped Egypt. In this file photo, Egyptians count money at a currency exchange office in downtown Cairo, Egypt.
| Photo Credit: AP

The European Union on March 17 announced a $8 billion aid package for cash-strapped Egypt amid concerns that economic pressure and conflicts and chaos in neighbouring countries could drive more migrants to European shores.

The deal is scheduled to be signed during a visit by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Belgium, Italy, Austria, Cyprus and Greece, according to Egyptian officials.

The package includes both grants and loans over the next three years for the Arab world’s most populous country, according to the European Union Mission in Cairo.

According to a document from the EU mission in Egypt, the two sides have promoted their cooperation to the level of a “strategic and comprehensive partnership,” paving the way for expanding Egypt-EU cooperation in various economic and non-economic areas.

The EU will provide assistance to Egypt’s government to fortify its borders especially with Libya, a major transit point for migrants fleeing poverty and conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and will support the government in hosting Sudanese who have fled nearly a year of fighting between rival generals in their country.

Also read: Unable to survive in Egypt, refugees from war-torn Sudan return home

Egypt has for decades been a refuge for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa trying to escape war or poverty. For some, Egypt is a destination and a haven, the closest and easiest country for them to reach. For others, it is a point of transit before attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.

While the Egyptian coast has not been a major launching pad for people smugglers and human traffickers sending overcrowded boats across the Mediterranean to Europe, Egypt faces migratory pressures from the region, with the added looming threat that the Israel-Hamas war will spill across its borders.

The package drew criticism from international rights groups over Egypt’s human rights record. Amnesty International decried the deal and urged European leaders not to be complicit with human rights violations taking place in Egypt.

“EU leaders must ensure that the Egyptian authorities adopt clear benchmarks for human rights,” said Amnesty International’s Head of the European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie in a statement. Geddie pointed to Egypt’s restrictions on media and freedom of expression and a crackdown on civil society.

Some EU members close to Israel, such as Germany and Austria, had said they were ready to approve sanctions on violent settlers after more had been imposed on Hamas
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The European Union is close to agreeing sanctions on Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank after Hungary signalled an end to its opposition, European diplomats said on March 15.

While much international attention has focused on Hamas’ cross-border assault from Gaza and Israel’s subsequent war there, European officials have also expressed increasing concern about rising violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

But the EU’s 27 member countries have struggled to agree sanctions against those responsible, even after the United States and Britain imposed such measures.

Some EU members close to Israel, such as Germany and Austria, had said they were ready to approve sanctions on violent settlers after more had been imposed on Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.

Hungary, a staunch ally of the Israeli government, had been the most vociferous opposing sanctions on settlers.

But diplomats said Budapest had now allowed proposed sanctions to pass through the EU system. Some said the sanctions could be approved by EU foreign ministers on Monday but others said more time would be needed.

“There’s an agreement on working group level,” said one diplomat.

“The context in the region has worsened,” said another, citing a possible reason for Hungary reversing its opposition.

Hungarian officials at the foreign ministry were not immediately available for comment.

The struggle over the proposed sanctions reflects broader divisions on the Middle East, with some EU countries strongly backing Israel while others lean more towards the Palestinians.

The proposals initially under discussion focused on imposing sanctions on around a dozen people or organisations, according to diplomats.

The EU has not spelled out what the sanctions would entail but officials have said they would include bans on travel to the EU.

“It will probably be fewer than a dozen now after negotiations, but that’s ok as the important thing is to do it now,” the second diplomat said.

The EU has already imposed sanctions on Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks and diplomats say more are in the pipeline.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service said that every month since June last year has been the warmest such month on record.
| Photo Credit: AP

The world, last month, experienced the warmest February on record, with the average temperature being 1.77 degrees Celsius more than the February average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period, the European Union’s climate agency said on March 7.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) also said that every month since June last year has been the warmest such month on record.

Scientists attribute the exceptional warming to the combined effects of El Nino — a period of abnormal warming of surface waters in the central Pacific Ocean — and human-caused climate change.

C3S last month said the global mean temperature breached the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold for an entire year for the first time in January. A permanent breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius limit specified in the Paris Agreement, however, refers to long-term warming over many years.

Explained | How El Nino could impact the world’s weather in 2023-24

According to climate scientists, countries need to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Earth’s global surface temperature has already increased by around 1.1 degrees Celsius compared with the average in 1850-1900 — a level that has not been witnessed since 1,25,000 years, before the most recent ice age.

This warming is considered the reason behind record droughts, wildfires and floods worldwide. With an average temperature of 13.54 degrees Celsius, February 2024 was 0.12 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest February in 2016, the EU’s climate agency said.

“The month was 1.77 degrees Celsius warmer than an estimate of the February average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period,” C3S said in an update.

The global average temperature for the last 12 months (March 2023–February 2024) is the highest on record, at 0.68 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average and 1.56 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average.

“The daily global average temperature was exceptionally high during the first half of the month, reaching two degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 levels on four consecutive days (February 8–11),” C3S scientists said.

The average global sea surface temperature (SST) for February 2024 was 21.06 degrees Celsius, the highest for any month in the dataset. The previous high was in August 2023 (20.98 degrees Celsius).

C3S director Carlo Buontempo said, “February joins the long streak of records of the last few months. As remarkable as this might appear, it is not really surprising as the continuous warming of the climate system inevitably leads to new temperature extremes.

“The climate responds to the actual concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so, unless we manage to stabilise those, we will inevitably face new global temperature records and their consequences,” Mr. Buontempo said.

The World Meteorological Organization on Tuesday said the 2023-24 El Nino has peaked as one of the five strongest on record and will continue to impact global climate in the coming months despite a weakening trend.

The United Nations agency also said above-normal temperatures are predicted over almost all land areas between March and May. The WMO said there is about a 60% chance of El Nino persisting during March-May and an 80% likelihood of neutral conditions (neither El Nino nor La Nina) from April to June.

There is a chance of La Nina developing later in the year, but those odds are currently uncertain, it said. Scientists closely tracking the development in India have said La Nina conditions setting in by June-August could mean monsoon rains would be better this year than in 2023.

El Nino — a periodic warming of the ocean surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean — occurs every two to seven years on average and typically lasts nine to 12 months.

It is associated with increased rainfall in the Horn of Africa and the southern U.S., and unusually dry and warm conditions in Southeast Asia, Australia and southern Africa.