Euractiv.com

The European Commission has set aside three million euros in urgent funding for aid groups to help victims of a deadly 7.2-magnitude quake that struck Haiti at the weekend.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday (17 August) called on the Taliban to prevent Afghanistan from lapsing back into being a breeding ground for terrorism, and said the Western defence alliance has agreed to send additional evacuation planes to Kabul.

The frugal alliance stands to gain very little if their campaign for premature fiscal consolidation following the pandemic succeeds, but they risk exposing the entire EU to serious political and economic consequences, writes Anna Peychev.

As the planet heats up and extreme weather events become more devastating and frequent, Europe’s armed forces and their capabilities will increasingly be challenged as well, argues Lukas Trakimavičius.

Greece does not want to become the entry point into the European Union for Afghans fleeing the escalating conflict in their homeland, Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said on Tuesday, calling for a common EU response to the crisis.

Slovenian environmental NGOs have called on infrastructure minister Jernej Vrtovec to use the country's EU presidency to propose a political discussion on the bloc exiting the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) at an energy ministers' meeting in September.

Hamburg's privacy watchdog has issued an official warning to public authorities on using Zoom, advancing a strict interpretation of international data transfers under the EU's data regime.

Thousands of people desperate to flee Afghanistan thronged Kabul's airport on Monday (16 August) after the Taliban seized the capital, prompting the United States to pause evacuations, as President Joe Biden confronted mounting criticism over the US withdrawal.

As violence in Libya has waned this year, the number of would-be migrants to Europe intercepted so far has doubled compared to the same period of 2020, experts say.

Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan praised the Taliban's conduct and said the group, still officially designated a terrorist organisation in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities.

EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks via videolink Tuesday (17 August) on the situation in Afghanistan as European nations scramble to evacuate personnel from the country, officials said.

An appeals court ruled that two historians accused of tarnishing the memory of a Polish villager in a book about the Holocaust need not apologise, overturning a lower court ruling that raised fears about freedom of academic research.

The humiliation of the lightning Taliban takeover in Afghanistan after a 20-year war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives has raised a question for the United States' staunchest European ally: Is America really back as President Joe Biden promised?

Austria, which has insisted that it plans to keep deporting illegal immigrants back to Afghanistan even as the Taliban seized Kabul, on Monday (16 August) suggested setting up "deportation centres" in nearby countries as an alternative.

The agreement between the EU and Kenya to the implement the Economic Partnership Agreement originally planned with the entire East African Community unties the Gordian knot between its supporters and opponents among African countries in the short term, but has long-term consequences beyond the divergence of tariffs towards the EU, writes Frederik Stender.

Europe's drugs regulator said on Monday (16 August) that it was evaluating the use of Roche's arthritis drug, Actemra, in hospitalised adults with severe COVID-19, in its latest review of a potential coronavirus treatment.

Nine of the 12 founder members of the short-lived European Super League rejoined the European Club Association (ECA) on Monday (16 August), but Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus remain outside as they continue to back the breakaway plan which collapsed in April.

China is looking to fill political and security void in the region after the US troops and the West left Afghanistan, for which it had prepared for a long time, writes Jessica Taneja.

Albania and Kosovo have accepted a US request to temporarily take in Afghan refugees seeking visas to enter the United States, the country two countries said on Sunday (15 August).

Haiti's hospitals were swamped on Sunday (15 August) by thousands of injured residents after a devastating earthquake the day before killed at least 1,297 people as authorities raced to bring doctors to the worst-hit areas before a major storm hits.