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The European Union agreed Monday to impose sanctions against Belarus, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc. The decision comes amid fury over the nation's forced diversion of a passenger jet to arrest an opposition journalist.

In what EU leaders have called a brazen "hijacking" of the Ryanair jetliner flying from Greece to Lithuania on Sunday, they also demanded the immediate release of the journalist, Roman Pratasevich, a key foe of authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

A brief video clip of Pratasevich, who ran a popular messaging app that played a key role in helping organize massive protests against Lukashenko, was shown on Belarusian state television Monday night, a day after he was removed from the Ryanair flight.

Sitting at a table with his hands folded in front of him and speaking rapidly, Pratasevich said he was in satisfactory health and said his treatment in custody was "maximally correct and according to law." He added that he was giving evidence to investigators about organizing mass disturbances.

In their unusually swift action in Brussels, the EU leaders also urged all EU-based carriers to avoid flying over Belarus, decided to impose sanctions on officials linked to Sunday's flight diversion, and urged the International Civil Aviation Organization to start an investigation into what they see as an unprecedented move and what some said amounted to state terrorism or piracy.

The leaders called on their council "to adopt the necessary measures to ban overflight of EU airspace by Belarusian airlines and prevent access to EU airports of flights operated by such airlines." In addition to Pratasevich, they also urged authorities in Minsk to release his Russian girlfriend, Sofia Sapega, who was taken off the plane with him.

The text was endorsed quickly by the leaders who were determined to respond with a "strong reaction" to the incident because of the "serious endangering of aviation safety and passengers on board by Belarussian authorities," according to an EU official with direct knowledge of the discussions who was not authorized to speak publicly about the private talks.

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Ryanair said Belarusian flight controllers told the crew there was a bomb threat against the plane as it was crossing through Belarus airspace on Sunday and ordered it to land. A Belarusian MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to escort the plane in a brazen show of force by Lukashenko, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for over a quarter-century.

Belarus authorities then arrested the 26-year-old activist, journalist and prominent Lukashenko critic. Pratasevich and his girlfriend were taken off the plane shortly after it landed, and authorities haven't said where they're being held. Ryanair Flight FR4978, which began in Athens, Greece, was eventually allowed to continue on to Vilnius, Lithuania.

U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident and national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised the issue in his call with the secretary of the Russian Security Council, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. She added the administration condemned what she called the "shocking act" of diverting a flight to detain a journalist.

"It constitutes a brazen affront to international peace and security by the regime. We demand an immediate international, transparent and credible investigation of this incident," she said, adding the U.S. was in touch with NATO, the EU, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, among others, about next steps.

EU leaders were particularly forceful in their condemnation of the arrest and the move against the plane, which was flying between two of the bloc's member nations and was being operated by an airline based in Ireland, also a member.

The bloc summoned Belarus' ambassador "to condemn the inadmissible step of the Belarusian authorities" and said in a statement the arrest was yet again "another blatant attempt to silence all opposition voices in the country."

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said "the scandalous incident in Belarus shows signs of state terrorism and it's unbelievable," while EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it amounted to a "hijacking."

EU leaders have tried to bring Belarus closer to the bloc to encourage democratic reforms and reduce the influence of Russia but have failed so far. Ahead of their summit, some EU leaders threatened more sanctions from scrapping landing rights in the bloc for Belarus' national carrier Belavia to exclusions from sports events.

Pratasevich was a co-founder of the Telegram messaging app's Nexta channel, which played a prominent role in helping organize the anti-Lukashenko protests.

Nearly 2 million Belarusians in the nation of 9.3 million people have followed the channel, which has been the main conduit for organizing demonstrations and offered advice on how to dodge police cordons. It also has run photos, video and other materials documenting the brutal police crackdown on the protests.

Belarus authorities have labeled the channel "extremist" and charged Pratasevich in absentia of inciting mass riots and fanning social hatred. He could face 15 years in prison if convicted.

In November, the Belarusian KGB put Pratasevich on a list of people suspected of involvement in terrorism, an ominous sign that he could face even graver charges. Terrorism is punishable by death in Belarus, the only country in Europe that maintains capital punishment.

Amid the international outrage, Moscow quickly offered a helping hand to its ally.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the episode needs to be investigated but that it couldn't be rushed. Moscow and Minsk have close political, economic and military ties, and Lukashenko has relied on Russian support amid Western sanctions.

Originally posted here:
European Union agrees to sanction Belarus after plane diversion - CBS News

Switzerland's national flag and the European Union flag are seen at the European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium April 23, 2021. Francois Walschaerts/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Years of talks to bind Switzerland more closely to the European Union's single market collapsed on Wednesday when the Swiss government ditched a draft 2018 treaty cementing ties with its biggest trading partner.

Faced with stiff domestic opposition to the pact, the cabinet said it would break off talks and try to turn the page with the bloc, which surrounds landlocked Switzerland.

"We are opening a new chapter in our relations, hopefully a fruitful one," President Guy Parmelin told a news conference.

Brussels has been pushing for a decade for a treaty that would sit atop a patchwork of bilateral accords and have the Swiss routinely adopt changes to single market rules. It would also have provided a more effective way to resolve disputes.

"Without this agreement, this modernisation of our relationship will not be possible and our bilateral agreements will inevitably age," the European Commission said. read more

Bern said substantial differences remained on key aspects of the agreement - including on the free movement of people, EU citizens' access to Swiss social benefits, and state aid. read more

"The Federal Council (government) today took the decision not to sign the agreement, and communicated this decision to the EU. This brings the negotiations on the draft of the InstA (treaty) to a close," it said.

EU-Swiss economic ties are now governed by more than 100 bilateral agreements stretching back to 1972. They remain in effect.

But walking away from a deal could over time disrupt and ultimately jeopardise Switzerland's de facto membership in the EU common market which -- unlike Britain which made an unruly exit from the bloc -- Bern is keen to maintain.

Failure to clinch the treaty blocks Switzerland from any new access to the single market, such as an electricity union or health cooperation.

Existing accords will also erode over time, as in the case of an agreement on seamless cross-border trade in medical technology products that lapsed this week.

Swiss officials said they would ask parliament to unblock 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.45 billion) in "cohesion payments" to EU members that were frozen in a 2019 row over mutual recognition of stock market rules.

Parmelin said it was pointless to try to estimate the potential economic costs of the failed treaty deal.

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis conceded there would be disadvantages for Switzerland, but said erosion of the existing bilateral accords would happen slowly.

"That gives us time to react with mitigation measures," he said.

($1 = 0.8975 Swiss francs)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Swiss scupper draft EU treaty in break with biggest trade partner - Reuters

LUXOR The Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Egypt Christian Berger visited today Qena and Luxor governorates in Upper Egypt to witness the sustained impact of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) EU-funded project Enhancing Access to Education and Fighting Child Labour

The 60 million project, implemented from 2014-2019 by WFP in partnership with the Egyptian Government supported rural communities in 16 of the most vulnerable governorates in Egypt.

The project has enhanced access and use of educational platforms, empowered teachers through continued trainings, improved child nutrition through school feeding, supported womens economic empowerment and improved communal awareness on key areas such as nutrition, agriculture, child labour and risks of irregular migration.

Leveraging the results and experience achieved through the EU-WFP project, WFP in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education, continued to provide an integrated package of interventions to community one-classroom schools and equipping them with technological tools and internet connectivity, allowing them to serve as Community Hubs and service delivery platforms for students, teachers, parents and the community at large.

While touring the multi-grade community schools in both governorates, the delegation engaged with teachers and students who spoke of the transformative impact this enhanced means of education had on their lives, wellbeing and future.

It is great to see the impressive outcome of our joint cooperation with WFP in this project that has positively impacted the lives of thousands of children and women across Egypt. The European Union supports 16 Governorates including Luxor and Qena through the 'Enhancing Access to Education and Fighting Child Labour' project, to help children, especially girls, to go to community schools instead of going to work, said Berger. With a 60 million grant from the European Union, the community schools have become a key feature for the communities and are used as Hubs to support community activities a around then. This is done in close cooperation with our partners, especially the Government of Egypt. Our joint efforts have proven to be sustainable and are making a great difference in the communities, he added.

The delegation also saw how WFP in close coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR), is utilizing schools as knowledge hubs to familiarize smallholders with climate-smart farming techniques that minimize crop losses and increase yields.

Building on local expertise, WFP and the Ministry are increasing the farmers resilience and their livelihoods through the introduction of sustainable agricultural and irrigation practices as well as supporting the economic empowerment of rural women with in-kind animal loans.

Berger also met with women who have started their own income-generating projects allowing them to increase their households incomes, build their self-confidence and support their childrens education and nutrition. More than 50,000 women received entrepreneurial and vocational trainings under the EU-WFP joint project, of which 10,000 have launched and are currently sustaining their own income-generating projects through an ongoing revolving loan mechanism managed by partner non-governmental organizations.

Currently, the Government of Egypt and WFP are scaling up their joint support to vulnerable communities to reach a total of 500 villages by 2023 aligning with the Presidential initiative Decent Life which aims to support a total of 1,500 villages in Egypt.

I am very proud of the strong partnership we have built over the years with the EU, the results of which we have continued to foster and are still able to witness to this day. Together we have worked on changing the lives of many vulnerable families in Egypt through two key elements: empowerment and sustainability, said WFP Representative and Country Director in Egypt Menghestab Haile. Today more than ever, as the entire world struggles to deal with the negative impact of the pandemic, I believe that we must all join hands to elevate some of the burdens that COVID-19 has had on millions of people by implementing a household-centered rural development approach.

The EU is one of WFPs largest supporters in Egypt and together the two agencies have jointly made a significant impact on the lives of vulnerable people in Egypt. The EU and WFP joint project supported more than 2 million children in primary schools including 120,000 students and their families in 4,500 community schools. Economic empowerment opportunities were also provided to the mothers which positively affected the family dynamics to the benefit of the new generations.

###

About WFP

The United Nations World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the worlds largest humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change.

Follow us on Twitter @WFP_AR and @WFP_MENA

ContactFor more information, please contact:

Amina Alkorey, WFP/Cairo,email: amina.alkorey@wfp.org

EU Delegation Press, EU/ Cairo,email: DELEGATION-EGYPT-PRESS@eeas.europa.eu

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The European Union and WFP witness sustained impact of collaboration in upper Egypt - Egypt - ReliefWeb

PARIS - The European Union pledged to deliver at least 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries by year's end, and develop vaccine production capacity in poorer nations, as it wrapped up a two-day summit in Brussels.

After being criticized for a slow vaccination start, European leaders say they are steaming ahead on COVID-19 inoculations, securing 1.8 billion doses to cover the next two years enough to export to needy countries outside the 27-member bloc. The bloc says it's also on track to surpass goals of exporting 100 million doses to developing countries.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, "We are working on an initiative to invest one billion euros from Team Europe to develop vaccine manufacturing in Africa the capacity itself in Africa it's a specific initiative with our African partners. An initiative not only for the production, so to build up the manufacturing capacities, but also for skills development, for the management of the supply train of, for example, the necessary regulatory framework through the African Medicines Agency."

In Europe, where many countries are emerging from lockdowns and hospitalizations are dropping, von der Leyen said the EU was on track to inoculate 70 percent of its adults by the end of July. Europe's Medicines Agency is now considering whether to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.

Meanwhile, special COVID-19 digital travel passes aim to open up summer travel for EU citizens who are either vaccinated, immune from having contracted the virus, or have tested negative for it.

Together, says analyst Scott Marcus, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based Bruegel economic research group, the developments are shaping a more favorable tourism outlook for Europe.

"I think things are looking more promising," he said. "I still think that late summer will look better than early summer. But I think we're on track to have a summer at least as good as last summer, and probably better."

Other topics

On Monday, EU leaders announced a flight ban and other toughened sanctions against Belarus, after the forced landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and the arrest of a dissident journalist.

But speaking from Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron said progressive sanctions had their limits and the EU needed to profoundly redefine its relationship with both Belarus and Russia.

Member states also discussed the thorny issue of national emissions targets to meet the bloc's overall goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 55 percent by 2030, and becoming climate neutral by 2050.

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EU to Deliver COVID-19 Shots to Developing Nations - Voice of America

Today we had two key items on the agenda. The first was the COVID situation and the second was the issue of climate change and our ambitions in that area.

On the first item, we were able to express cautious optimism. We believe that we are making progress on vaccination everywhere in Europe. At the same time, we are only too well aware that we must remain vigilant and closely monitor virus mutations and variants.

The second point which we discussed today is linked to the agreement reached with the European Parliament last week on the EU Digital Certificate. We welcome the agreement reached. We are also very pleased that we can speed up the process of revising the recommendation on travel within the European Union. We have set mid-June as the target for adapting this recommendation so that we will gradually be able to return to free movement within the European Union.

Lastly, the third point was international solidarity. At the very beginning of this pandemic, at the European Council's first meeting on this subject, we immediately understood that the only way we could prevail over this pandemic was by all working together in the context of international cooperation. This belief paved the way for the first initiatives to finance research into vaccine development. It also led to the launch of the COVAX initiative and guided the decision taken within the European Union to continue to export doses manufactured in Europe. On average, 50% of the doses manufactured every month have been exported, to over forty countries worldwide.

We were also able to decide officially on the ambition to put in place a mechanism to donate, by the end of the year, at least 100 million doses. The first indications from the member states are that we will most probably go beyond that capacity.

Lastly, we support the work done with the Italian presidency, with the Commission's commitment, in connection with the G20 last week, and in particular the major initiative announced by the Commission: provision of financing to boost manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector, including for vaccines, on the African continent. Special attention must also be paid to Latin America. Several colleagues seated around the table pointed to the need to be engaged in this part of the world as well.

One last point: as I speak, meetings are being held under the auspices of the WHO in relation to the debate on progressing to the negotiation of a treaty on pandemics. And we are hopeful that, in the coming hours, another milestone will be reached in the bid to engage the international community in the multilateral framework, so that together we can learn the lessons from this crisis which is hitting the world, in an effort to take decisions that will make us more robust, stronger, more resilient, better equipped to avert future pandemics and to cooperate better when they occur.

The second topic on the agenda today was climate change. We prepared this European Council.We had a lot of consultations before.All the delegations expressed their priorities, concerns legitimate concerns in order to take into consideration this process and the responsibility of the Commission, who will put on the table concrete legislative proposals in the next week.

We trust the Commission to take this into account. We had important discussions on different topics: ETS, effort sharing, carbon adjustment mechanism and different starting points in the different countries.We reaffirmed our common goals, which are ambitious climate neutrality by 2050 but also the decisions that we took in December last year, decreasing our emissions by at least 55% by 2030.

This is a very complex debate, with many areas which are interconnected. It's important to have a global vision. It's also important to take into consideration the impact assessment for the different member states.You can be certain that we will continue to work a lot with the member states, with the Commission, and with the European Parliament.

It's a process and, in preparation for COP26 in Glasgow, we hope it will be possible for the European Union to continue to play a leading role and to be concrete in order to make progress.

We also agreed that we will come back to this matter at a future European Council meeting once the Commission has tabled its legislative proposals.

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Remarks by President Charles Michel following the second day of the special meeting of the European Council - EU News