Europe

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/17737107

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A top police official said on Friday (4 October) that criminal groups with Russian backing were intent on disrupting Moldova's presidential election, including attempts to seize government buildings.

The 20 October election, in which pro-European President Maia Sandu is seeking reelection, is becoming increasingly heated. The poll is being held alongside a referendum on pressing for European Union membership and officials accuse pro-Kremlin groups of offering cash for voters to reject the EU plebiscite.

National police chief Viorel Cernauteanu said instances of vandals hurling paint at public buildings last month were a precursor to more serious acts.

"We are looking at the intentions of such people and we are not just talking here about destabilising the situation in the country or mass disorder," he told TV8 television.

"They are pursuing more ambitious goals, up to and including the seizure of state institutions."

The Belgian Presidency document outlines categories of people who this new practice may cover. These include asylum seekers and refugees, as well as climate and environmental activists.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), the highest court in the EU, ruled on Friday that women in Afghanistan are subjected to persecution by the Taliban.

The ruling said that certain discriminatory measures adopted by the Taliban constitute "acts of persecution," citing forced marriage and lack of protection against gender-based violence.

As such, the court sided with two Afghan women in Austria who had argued their status as women under the Taliban regime justified receiving refugee status.

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The case came to the ECJ at the request of the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court after the two Afghan women challenged a decision by Austrian authorities to refuse to recognize their refugee status.

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The ECJ said some measures, in themselves, were acts of persecution.

"This is true of forced marriage, which is comparable to a form of slavery, and the lack of protection against gender-based violence and domestic violence, which constitute forms of inhuman and degrading treatment," the court said in its statement on Friday.

It added that other measures, which may not be sufficiently serious to be classified as breaches of fundamental rights when taken on their own, did constitute a breach when taken cumulatively.

The ECJ also ruled that authorities in EU member states do not need to establish whether Afghan women will be subjected to persecution if they return home, on an individual basis. Instead, the court said that "it is sufficient to take into account her nationality and gender alone."

PARIS, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The European Commission is suing EU member states Spain, Cyprus, Poland and Portugal for failing to implement rules aimed at ensuring a global minimum level of taxation for multinational companies, it said on Thursday. All four countries were required to enforce the necessary laws by the end of 2023, the Commission said, adding that they had failed to notify it on any such step. Spanish Budget Minister Maria Jesus Montero said Spain was a "pioneer" in the push for a minimum tax for multinational companies and would comply with the EU requirements in the coming months, with parliament expected to approve new legislation by the end of the year. "We have a regulation that currently includes the 15% tax... but there are other things that need to be incorporated, which is what the Commission is referring to," she said. Contacted by Reuters, the Portuguese government had no immediate comment.

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Moldovan police carried out dozens of raids Thursday after discovering that at least $15 million was transferred from Russia to Moldovan citizens in an "unprecedented" effort to tamper with presidential elections this month.

Moldova's pro-European President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term, has repeatedly accused Russia of political interference in the country, which lies between war-torn Ukraine and EU member Romania.

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More than 100,000 people with the right to vote were thought to be involved in the vote-buying scheme, [police chief Viorel] Cernauteanu said.

Police raided 25 locations over what he called an "unprecedented" and "large-scale phenomenon... to disrupt the electoral process."

The money was funneled into the country of 2.6 million by people affiliated with Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician, police said.

People affiliated with his “criminal organization” recruited 70,000 sympathizers to cast their ballots for a specific candidate in exchange for money. Voters were also told to reject joining the European Union in a referendum set for October 20, the same day as the presidential elections.

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Moldovan police also seized about $1 million of what they called "illegal political financing" from people returning from the April gathering.

In June, the United States, Britain and Canada warned of a Russian "plot" to influence Moldova's presidential elections and "incite protests" if a pro-Russian candidate failed to win.

[Corrected broken link.]

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/44012689

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European Union countries failed to agree on whether to slap China-made electric vehicles (EVs) with steeper tariffs during a closely watched vote that ended with too many abstentions, forcing the European Commission to overcome the political impasse and push its proposal over the finish line.

The outcome of Friday's vote was not publicly available, although several diplomats told Euronews how each member state positioned itself:

• 10 were in favour: Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands and Poland. (45.99% of the EU population)
• 12 abstained: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Finland. (31.36%)
• Five were against: Germany, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia. (22.65%)

The high number of abstentions reflects long-standing qualms about how Europe should stand up to China. Although the political consensus says that Beijing's unfair trade practices merit a forceful, united response, threats of commercial retaliation appear to have dampened the resolve of many capitals as the make-or-break date neared closer.

It was up to the Commission, which has exclusive powers to set the bloc's commercial policy, to break the gridlock and ensure the duties go through.

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In late September, the Russian government submitted a draft budget for 2025–2027 to the State Duma for approval. The plan calls for a record-setting 41 percent of federal spending to go to national security and defense, leaving little doubt that the war in Ukraine is the Kremlin’s top priority. With many citizens struggling economically amid ongoing inflation and labor shortages, however, the Putin administration fears that news of a military spending boost will hurt the authorities’ approval ratings — and has instructed the pro-Kremlin media to cover the budget accordingly, Meduza’s sources say.

The Putin administration is worried the government’s new budget will “create a negative perception among citizens” and could lead to a decline in the government’s approval ratings, two sources close to the president’s political team told Meduza.

Immediately after Bloomberg published an article on the planned defense spending increase on September 23, the Putin administration sent instructions to Russia’s state-backed and pro-Kremlin media telling them to ignore the report, the sources said. Two sources from these media outlets confirmed this to Meduza; one said that officials told reporters “not to touch this topic” because “the budget hasn’t been passed yet.”

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According to another source close to the president’s team, the Kremlin wants media coverage of the budget to inspire “social optimism, not pessimism, in the context that everything is going towards the war.” The source continued: “The messaging around the special military operation’s goals is still unclear. So far, it’s been possible to portray military activity as happening somewhere far away and not affecting people directly. But the increase in military spending could become a trigger: What is the money being spent on and why?”

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The EU said Thursday it was referring Hungary to the European Court of Justice over laws passed by Budapest to curb foreign influence in the country, which critics say aim to silence government opponents.

The European Commission said the legislation passed last year by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's nationalist government violated fundamental rights and other regulations.

"The European Commission decided to refer Hungary to the Court of Justice because it considers its national law on the 'Defence of Sovereignty' to be in breach of EU law," the EU's top executive body said.

Hungary's laws criminalise foreign funding of election campaigns and establish a new Sovereignty Protection Office that has broad investigative powers.

The commission said the wide discretion granted to the new office disproportionately affected civil society organisations, media outlets and journalists.

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While the German government has long stood out at the EU level for its comparatively humanitarian-oriented positions on irregular migration, public pressure after terrorist attacks linked to rejected asylum-seekers has triggered radical measures.

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Aside from tightening border policies, the coalition of Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP) wants to cut all benefits for some rejected ‘Dublin’ asylum-seekers and resume deportations to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The trend has left human-rights-focused lawmakers feeling alienated.

Prominent colleagues speak up less in support of refugees’ human rights, as “talking about human matters is not expedient,” [the Green Party’s lead MP on migration Julian] Pahlke observed.

However, he does not want to keep a low profile after spending four years as a sea rescuer in the Mediterranean. “I saw [refugees] drown in front of my eyes because there weren't enough emergency staff (...), that has left its mark on me,” he said.

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He wants to refocus the debate on more multipartisan concerns surrounding basic dignity, such as the drowning of migrants who are trying to reach Europe.

The pan-European human-rights organisation Council of Europe (CoE) offers a venue for this is, as it is shielded from the controversy of domestic politics and watches over the binding European Convention on Human Rights.

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Reports suggest that Russia plans to spend more than US$500 million in 2024 alone on so-called “patriot projects.” Much of this effort focuses on two areas: the creation of Russian nationalist youth groups, and the politicization of the nation’s schools – both of which have been increasingly prioritized since the war in Ukraine began.

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[The most recent organization to faciliate the Russia's politiccization of the youth] is called the Movement of the First. The organization was launched at Putin’s behest in 2022, months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is modeled on the Young Pioneers – a youth organization of Stalinist ideology during the Soviet years.

Putin has boasted that the organization constitutes a “huge army” and routinely praises its activities, which include everything from more traditional civic activities, like tree planting, to explicitly ideological goals. Children, for example, write letters to service members deployed in the invasion of Ukraine.

[...] Another youth group, the Volunteers of Victory, was established by the Russian state in 2015 and has a similar tie-in to Ukraine, as it was launched shortly after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

[...] Among Russia’s biggest youth organization is the The Youth Army, which claims more than 1.6 million members. It was established in 2016 under Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, with the goal of training children for future careers in the uniformed military.

The organization tries to entice young people to join by touting self-actualization and social belonging in the military. Members are instructed in ideological topics like nationalism and more hands-on training like how to handle weapons.

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In 2023, officials in Russia’s far-eastern regions came up with another general curriculum patriotic project, “The ABC of the Important Matters”. The alphabet, which includes words like “army,” “faith,” “honor,” “fatherland,” “homeland” and “traditions,” is already being taught in many kindergartens and elementary schools.

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"Not in my backyard" is a term normally used in conversations about proposed new housing or rail lines, but a version of it could soon be heard about one of the most dangerous materials on the planet.

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Sellafield, in Cumbria, is the "temporary home to the vast majority of the UK's radioactive nuclear waste", said the BBC, "as well as the world's largest stockpile of plutonium". It's stuck there because no long-term, high-level waste facilities have been created to deal with it.

The "highly radioactive material" releases energy that can infiltrate and damage the cells in our bodies, Claire Corkhill, professor of radioactive waste management at the University of Bristol, said, and "it remains hazardous for 100,000 years".

The permanent plan to handle the waste currently at Sellafield is to first build a designated 650ft-deep pit to store it. Although the contentious matter of its location has yet to be agreed, the facility will hold some of the 5 million tonnes of waste generated by nuclear power stations over the past seven decades. Then, in the second half of the century, a much deeper geological disposal site will be dug, which will hold the UK's "most dangerous waste", such as plutonium.

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