European Union

There is little legal action against corrupt politicians in Serbia because prosecutors are holding back, fearing possible retribution, according to Serbian judge Dragana Boljević, who spoke to EURACTIV about the EU candidate country's judicial system.

The EU must initiate a comprehensive energy-saving programme as the most effective short-term instrument to provide relief from the energy crisis, writes Graham Weale.

As Germany closes its last nuclear reactors, it is also reactivating old coal power plants to ensure electricity supply security amid Russian threats to turn off the gas tap.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called on the European Union to finance gas interconnections with the rest of Europe, saying new infrastructure should also include green gases such as hydrogen. EURACTIV's partner El Diario reports.

The European Commission has doubled its objective for home-grown biomethane production to 35 billion metres cubed per year by 2030 as part of efforts to bolster the bloc against a looming energy crisis, according to a new communication.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is set to meet his Turkish counterpart in the presidential palace in Ankara in an effort to restore ties between the two countries. Herzog is the first Israeli leader to visit Turkey since 2008.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has put an end to years of cheap oil and gas, a situation expected to last well into next year that is prompting the EU to accelerate its shift to clean energy.

Leaders of US spy agencies said on Tuesday (8 March) that Russian President Vladimir Putin may intensify the assault on Ukraine despite military setbacks and economic hardships resulting from international sanctions, setting up "an ugly next few weeks."

Written by Micaela del Monte.

The military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has pushed hundreds of thousands of people to flee the country and seek shelter in neighbouring countries. With each passing hour, the humanitarian situation is deteriorating both within and outside the country. Several Ukrainian cities have reportedly lost access to water, heating, electricity and basic supplies, while the civilian population is at risk of shelling and violence. While outside Ukraine’s borders, the international humanitarian community has quickly mobilised to provide support, the scale of the situation remains challenging.

Humanitarian situation

As of 8 March 2022, the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, estimated that more than 1.73 million people have fled from Ukraine to neighbouring countries – mainly to Poland, which alone welcomed around 1 million people, but also to Hungary, Moldova, Romania and Slovakia. Mostly women and children are seeking shelter and protection from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the days pass, the conflict is generating casualties, destruction and displacement within and outside Ukraine’s borders, causing one of the largest European humanitarian crises in recent times. The EU has stepped in to help civilians affected by the war in Ukraine, for instance with emergency aid programmes that will cover some basic needs, assistance at the EU borders, and activation of the Temporary Protection Directive (Directive 2001/55/EC). Civil society has shown great solidarity as well, to the point that some argue that this is the ‘biggest show of European mobilisation in recent years’. Nevertheless, the EU institutions recognise that humanitarian needs are expected to be enormous. Even if it is difficult to verify precisely the number of deaths and injured, overall the human costs of the ongoing invasion are already too high. Faced with this humanitarian situation, the Council of Europe has taken action as well. Both Ukraine and Russia have been Council of Europe members, since 1995 and 1996 respectively.

Council of Europe measures

On 21 February 2022, the Council of Europe’s Secretary-General, Marija Pejčinović Burić, strongly condemned the recognition by the Russian Federation, in violation of international law, of the ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk. Along the same lines, a few days later, the representatives of the 47 member states of Council of Europe held an extraordinary meeting, urging Russia ‘to immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations in Ukraine’; another extraordinary meeting was convened to examine the possibility of taking appropriate measures, ‘including under Article 8 of the Statute of the Council of Europe‘. The latter provides for the possibility to suspend a Council of Europe member from its right of representation in the event of serious violation of the principles set out in Article 3. The members of the Council of Europe must accept the principles of the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and ‘collaborate sincerely and effectively in the realisation of the aim of the Council’. While suspension is a temporary measure, Article 8 also provides the possibility for the Committee of Ministers to decide on the expulsion of a member in the case of non-compliance with this request.

On 25 February 2022, the Council of Europe decided to adopt Article 8 measures and suspended, with immediate effect, the Russian Federation from its rights of representation in the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly. However, as the Council of Europe clarified, Russia remains accountable under the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Russian judge, Mikhail Lobov, remains on the European Court of Human Rights, meaning the Court will still be able to receive complaints from Russian citizens.

This is not the first time the Council of Europe has taken action against Russia. Back in 2014, in the aftermath of the Russian annexation of Crimea, a Council of Europe resolution strongly condemned Russia’s military aggression, the ensuing annexation of Crimea and the violation of fundamental rights. Moreover, it called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Crimea immediately. Because this did not happen, a subsequent resolution suspended, inter alia, the Russian delegation’s voting rights and right to participate in election observation missions. In response, Russia suspended its contribution to the Council of Europe’s budget, causing organisational difficulties to the institution (Russia is one of the five major contributors to the Council of Europe’s budget). Eventually, in 2019, the Council of Europe voted to restore Russia’s voting rights, a decision criticised by some.

European Court of Human Rights

Ukraine and the Russian Federation are state parties to the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights is the international court competent to rule on individual or state applications alleging violations of the convention. On 28 February 2022, Ukraine introduced a request before the court – application number 11055/22, Ukraine v Russia (X) – asking for interim measures against the Russian Federation. The request referred to ‘massive human-rights violations being committed by the Russian troops in the course of the military aggression against the sovereign territory of Ukraine’. The following day, the court granted these measures according to Rule 39 of the court’s Rules. According to the court’s press release, the decision was taken because the Russian military action against Ukraine gives rise to a real and continuing risk of serious violations of the civilian population’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, in particular its Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) and 8 (right to respect for private and family life).

The European Court of Human Rights also asked Russia to abstain from attacking civilians, schools and hospitals, and to ensure the safety of the medical personnel and buildings within the territory under attack. Moreover, the court recalled that 2014 interim measures in relation to Russian alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in Crimea, in the context of Ukraine and the Netherlands v Russia (case numbers 8019/16, 43800/14 and 28525/20), remain in force. Although it is too early to assess these interim measures’ effectiveness, it has been noted that interim measures have already been used in relation to situations of armed conflict in the past. The scholar argues that, to determine whether a state party has complied with the interim measures, one should assess whether that same party upholds the convention.

Interim measures

Although interim measures are envisaged in the court’s rules, and not in the European Convention on Human Rights, the state parties are obliged to comply with them: Rule 39 provides for the possibility to adopt such measures at the request of a party, any other person concerned, or of the court’s own motion. According to the court’s case law, interim measures are granted only where there is ‘an imminent risk of irreparable harm’, for instance in cases of expulsion and extradition. The court has also granted interim measures in the event of armed conflicts in the context of inter-state cases, when it considers that an armed conflict gives rise to a risk of serious violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.

European Parliament position

In its resolution of 1 March 2022, the European Parliament strongly condemned ‘the Russian Federation’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against and invasion of Ukraine’. The Parliament recalled that ‘attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure as well as indiscriminate attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and therefore constitute war crimes’. It called on the European Commission, the Member States and United Nations humanitarian agencies to provide humanitarian assistance to the civilian population. The Parliament took note of the numerous reports about ‘violations of international humanitarian law committed by Russian troops, including indiscriminate shelling of living areas, hospitals and kindergartens’, and recalled that, since 2014, more than 14 000 people have lost their lives in a ‘conflict fomented by the Russian Federation in eastern Ukraine’.

Read this ‘at a glance’ on ‘Russia’s war on Ukraine: Council of Europe and European Court of Human Rights measures‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Wary of an invasion by China, Taiwan's military strategists have been studying Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the country's resistance, in which it had to count on its own forces, despite previous declarations of Western support.

Wednesday, 9 March

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Wednesday, 9 March

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

The United States rejected a surprise offer by NATO ally Poland to transfer its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to a US base in Germany as a way to replenish Ukraine's air force in its defense against invading Russian forces.

The European Commission on Tuesday (8 March) presented proposals to reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian gas by two thirds before the end of 2022 as part of a plan to become independent from all Russian fossil fuels “well before 2030”.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about the new sexual harassment allegations levelled against far-right candidate Eric Zemmour, the Spanish PM asking former King Juan Carlos to shed full light on the alleged tax fraud scandal, and so much more.

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As the Russian aggressors cannot fulfill their plan of capturing Ukraine and destroying its armed forces, they are using mass terror tactics as they did previously in Syria, writes Roman Rukomeda.

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The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the EU Parliament will vote today (9 March) on a proposal of its leader Manfred Weber to suspend a lawmaker who criticised the Greek government for the way it handled a scandal related...