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The European Union ranks as the worlds second-largest economy by gross domestic product, but few people globally see it as an economic leader ahead of China or the United States, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

Across the 38 nations in the survey, a median of just 9% view the countries of the EU as the worlds leading economic power. By comparison, 42% name the U.S. and 32% name China, while an additional 7% name Japan.

Even in the 10 EU countries included in the survey, a median of only 9% see the EU as the worlds top economy. By contrast, 42% name China and 38% name the U.S., with an additional 7% naming Japan. (Europe is the only region globally where more people today see China than the U.S. as the worlds leading economy.)

The comparatively low international rating of the EUs economy comes despite its economic power at least as measured by gross domestic product in purchasing power parity dollars (i.e., exchange rates adjusted for differences in the prices of goods and services across countries). By this measure, EU member countries collectively generated $20.3 trillion in GDP. The EU trails only China and ranks ahead of the U.S. and Japan.

As recently as 2014, the EU outranked all other countries in terms of GDP, but even then, few people globally cited it as the worlds top economy, according to earlier Pew Research Center surveys.

The country most likely to name the EU as the worlds top economy in the new survey is Germany, itself the worlds fifth-largest economy by GDP. Still, only one-in-four Germans say the countries of the EU are the worlds leading economic power, compared with 41% who name China and 24% who name the U.S.

The only other European countries where one-in-ten people or more see the EU as the worlds top economy are the Netherlands (13%) and Poland (10%). Outside of Europe, other countries where at least one-in-ten name the EU include Jordan (15%), Tunisia (15%), Colombia (14%), Vietnam (14%), Canada (11%), Mexico (11%), Tanzania (11%) and South Africa (10%).

Only 3% of Italians see the EU as the top economy, while a slightly larger share (7%) name Japan and about four-in-ten each say the U.S. or China. And just 5% of Greeks cite the EU or Japan as the leading economy, while 39% name China and 44% say the U.S. No more than 5% of Italians or Greeks have ever named the EU as the worlds leading economy since the question was first asked in these nations in 2012.

Countries outside the EU where 5% of people or fewer say the EU is the leading economy include Nigeria (4%), Lebanon (3%), Senegal (3%), South Korea (3%) and India (2%).

While few Europeans see the EU as the worlds top economy, Americans are far more positive about the status of their own economy. About half of Americans (51%) say the U.S. is the worlds top economic power, even though the U.S. ranks below the EU when it comes to GDP. (On a per capita basis based on purchasing power parity dollars, however, the U.S. outranks the EU, as well as China and Japan.)

The Japanese, much like Europeans, tend not to see their own country as the worlds top economic power. Just 7% of Japanese say this, and Japan does in fact rank behind China, the EU and the U.S. in GDP.

Topics: Europe, Globalization and Trade, World Economies

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Few see EU as world's top economic power despite its relative might - Pew Research Center

Within the European Union, Romania and Bulgaria have the highest shares of first children births to teenage mothers. In 2015, a total of 12.3 percent of all births of first children in Romania were part of this category. With 11.9 percent, that value is very high in Bulgaria as well.

According to Eurostat, Hungary is next, with 9.0 percent. In comparison, the share of first births to teenage mothers in Italy is only 1.2 percent, in The Netherlands and Slovenia it is 1.3 percent.

In all of the European Union, 47 percent of women gave birth to their first child, when they were between 20 and 29 years old, while 45 percent of first-time mothers were in their thirties, Eurostat said today. All of this applies to 2015.

There were 93,000 births of first children to teenagers in all of the E.U., and 87,000 to women aged 40 or older. Most of the latter cases were registered in Italy and Spain. In those two countries, but also in Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal, there were more first births to women in their thirties, than to those in their twenties, as opposed to all other E.U. countries.

On average, women in E.U. countries, who gave birth to their first child, were 29 years old.

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European Union: Most teenage mothers in Romania and Bulgaria - The Sofia Globe

European Union countries have begun the process of sending migrants who arrived over the last five months via Greece back there to have their asylum applications assessed, resuming a practice that was suspended as Greece struggled to cope with a massive refugee influx.

EU rules oblige migrants to apply for asylum in the country they first entered. But the requirement was put on hold as hundreds of thousands of people, many of them Syrian refugees, reached Greece on boats from Turkey in 2015.

The EU's executive arm recommended in December that member countries gradually resume sending unauthorized migrants who arrived after March 15 back to Greece, which often is the first point of entry to the 28-nation EU.

Some countries have requested permission from Greece to return such people, but none have been transferred since mid-March, Greek officials say.

"Greece has to give assurances that they have adequate reception conditions," European Commission spokeswoman Tove Ernst said Tuesday, adding that the country's services for migrants, overwhelmed a year ago, had improved to the point that the commission felt comfortable making its non-binding recommendation for transfers to resume.

Greece's asylum service says it has received requests to accept more than 400 returned migrants. Seven people, most of them Syrian nationals, have been accepted so far.

A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry confirmed Tuesday that Berlin has asked Athens to take back 392 asylum-seekers.

"So far, no transfers to Greece have taken place yet," Johannes Dimroth told The Associated Press. "However, I can tell you that to date the confirmation from Greek authorities has been received in three cases."

The Greek asylum office put the German request number at 354 asylum seekers.

Austria, Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and non-EU countries Norway and Switzerland have also asked to transfer smaller numbers, according to the asylum service.

Greece's migration minister said the returns would involve "tiny numbers."

"We will accept a few dozen people in coming months," Ioannis Mouzalas told private Skai TV Tuesday. "This will be done provided we have the proper conditions to receive them."

Mouzalas said it was a "symbolic move" dictated by Greece's EU obligations.

He added that Greece's EU partners so far have taken in more than 30,000 refugees and migrants under relocation and family reunion programs.

Greece's asylum service said the refugees and migrants returned to Greece under the rules known as the Dublin agreement would be housed in rented accommodations or camps on the mainland. They also will have the option of seeking asylum in Greece, the service said.

Dimroth said it wasn't possible to say when the deportations from Germany would take place, or how many people the country ultimately would seek to send back to Greece. He said it depends on the number of people who request asylum in Germany and fulfill the conditions to receive it.

The number likely to be sent to Greece represents only a tiny fraction of the total number of migrants required to leave Germany.

Germany deported a total of 3,085 people to EU member states Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein in accordance with the Dublin agreement during the period Jan. 1 to June 30 this year. The figure for the same period last year was 1,758.

Under a September 2015 agreement, EU countries committed to take in 160,000 migrants from overburdened Greece and Italy over two years. Fewer than 30,000 people have relocated a month before the scheme expires.

The European Commission is encouraging EU nations "to show solidarity with Greece, in particular by continuing to fulfil their relocation commitments."

Costas Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece. Frank Jordans and David Rising in Berlin contributed.

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EU nations start process of returning migrants to Greece - ABC News

A video clip shows a coastguard ship travelling slowly in the Mediterranean Sea, off the North African coast.

What sounds like gun fire can then be heard twice in the footage.

The video was published on Twitter by humanitarian organisation MSF and Proactiva Open Arms, a non-governmental organisation from Spain.

The Barcelona-based NGO aims to rescue refugees from the sea that arrive in Europe fleeing wars, persecution or poverty.

TWITTER

Video of Libyan coast guard firing warning shots at Proactiva

Zach Campbell, Barcelona-based freelance jorunalist

The group also re-tweeted Zach Campbell, a freelance journalist from Barcelona, who said the coastguards were being trained and were having gear supplied to by Europe.

He said: Video of Libyan coast guard firing warning shots atProactiva@openarms_fund. The same CG that Europe is training and supplying gear to.

Meanwhile, Proactiva Open Arms said on Tuesday that one of its boats had been barred by Italy and Malta from disembarking migrants rescued two days ago, according to Reuters.

Humanitarian groups have played a growing role in rescuing migrants who pay criminal gangs for passage from Libya.

TWITTER

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Nearly 1,000 migrants leave Libya bound for Europe in just 24 hours

This has led to accusations in Italy that they are facilitating people smuggling and encouraging migration, something which the groups deny.

It was not clear why the Golfo Azzurro, run by Barcelona-based Proactiva Open Arms, was not allowed to dock in Lampedusa. It is now in international waters.

The Italiancoastguardcould not be reached for comment.

European states have squabbled over how to deal with the flow of more than 600,000 migrants to Italy since 2014.

Italy has said the European Union has not given it enough help.

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WATCH: Shocking clip of EU-trained Libyan coastguards 'shooting' at NGO workers - Express.co.uk

On 25 July, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) held a ceremony at the Burj Shemali camp to celebrate three years of cooperation to improve the living and health conditions of Palestine refugees in Lebanon through rehabilitation works with the support of the European Union (EU).

The project, Improvement of Housing and Health Conditions of the Most Vulnerable Palestine Refugees in Lebanon, funded by the EU with EUR 400,000, helped rehabilitate over 440 shelters in 9 out of the 12 camps in Lebanon, ensuring that the beneficiary families are able to live in safe and healthy shelters. The project also entailed rehabilitation works to three health centres in Saida, Ein El Hilweh and Burj Shemali camps.

The Deputy Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Gwyn Lewis, said: Today I would like to recognize the hard work and achievements of this project as we stand inside the rehabilitated Burj Shemali Health Centre, a health centre that, prior to its rehabilitation, was struggling to cope with the needs of the camps population.

I look forward to the continuation and, indeed, development of this partnership between UNRWA, the EU and the other partners on the ground, supporting the basic human needs of Palestine refugees in Lebanon, she added.

In addition to the rehabilitation works, the EU support allowed the three health centres to adapt the Family Health Team approach, which focuses on the comprehensive history of the patient, rather than treating the specific ailment, thus providing a more person-centred approach to their health-care needs. EU and UNRWA: Together for Palestine Refugees

Since 1971, the European Union and UNRWA have maintained a strategic partnership governed by the shared objective to support the human development, humanitarian and protection needs of Palestine refugees and promote stability in the Middle East. Today, the European Union is the largest multilateral provider of international assistance to Palestine refugees. This reliable and predictable support from the European Union enables UNRWA to provide core services to more than 5 million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza, including quality education for roughly half a million children and primary health care for more than 3.5 million patients. Collectively, the EU and its Member States are also among the largest contributors to the Agencys humanitarian emergency appeals and projects in response to various crises and specific needs across the region. The partnership between the European Union and UNRWA has allowed millions of Palestine refugees to be better educated, live healthier lives, access employment opportunities and improve their living conditions, thus contributing to the development of the entire region.

Background Information

UNRWA is confronted with an increased demand for services resulting from a growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees, the extent of their vulnerability and their deepening poverty. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions and financial support has been outpaced by the growth in needs. As a result, the UNRWA Programme Budget, which supports the delivery of core essential services, operates with a large shortfall. UNRWA encourages all Member States to work collectively to exert all possible efforts to fully fund the Agencys Programme Budget. UNRWA emergency programmes and key projects, also operating with large shortfalls, are funded through separate funding portals.

UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection and microfinance.

For more information, please contact:

Huda Samra Communications Advisor Lebanon (Arabic and Francophone) Mobile: +961 81 666 134 h.samra@unrwa.org

Abdallah Chebly EU Delegation to Lebanon Communication Officer Mobile: +961 71 522701 Office: +961 (1) 569400 ext: 295 abdallah.chebly@eeas.europa.eu

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UNRWA and the European Union Celebrate Three Years of Shelter Rehabilitation - Reliefweb