Belgium

BRUSSELS, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- As winter comes, the circulation of viruses that cause COVID-19 and seasonal influenza could possibly trigger a "twindemic," the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides warned on Friday.

"As we move from autumn to winter... we need to take action and ensure our health systems do not become overburdened," Kyriakides said in a statement.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union announced plans Wednesday to open a representation in the Arctic and vowed to protect environment in a region the bloc says is of key strategic importance.

The 27-nation bloc said it will open a European Commission office in Greenland and use EU funding to promote sustainable development in the Arctic.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The great Brexit brawl is heading into its next standoff on Wednesday when European Union concessions to improve trade in Northern Ireland look likely to be deemed insufficient by the United Kingdom.

Officials said that the EU’s top Brexit official Maros Sefcovic is to propose major practical changes in the Byzantine system of customs and checks in Northern Ireland, which is U.K. territory but remained part of the EU’s borderless trading market when the U.K. left the bloc last year. Under the new rules, goods must be checked between Britain and Northern Ireland.

12 Oct 2021; MEMO: The European Union yesterday extended sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime for an additional year over the latter's use of chemical weapons against civilians.

In an official statement, the European Council said the sanctions would be placed "until 22 October 2022," adding that they were also imposed on "two Syrian research centres and a Russian chemistry research institute."

BRUSSELS (AP) — It was late on Christmas Eve last year when the European Union and Britain finally clinched a Brexit trade deal after years of wrangling, threats and missed deadlines to seal their divorce.

There was hope that now-separated Britain and the 27-nation bloc would sail their relationship toward calmer waters.

Don’t even think about it.

Such was the bile and bad blood stirred up by the diplomatic brinkmanship and bitter divorce that, two months from another Christmas, insults of treachery and duplicitousness are flying again.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Thousands of people young and old marched through Brussels on Sunday to push world leaders to take bolder action to fight climate change at the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow starting this month.

Some 80 organizations took part in the protest, aiming for the biggest such event in the European Union’s capital since the start of the coronavirus crisis, which stopped the climate movement’s weekly marches in its tracks.

BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The European Union's executive called for an investigation on Thursday into illegal migrant pushbacks after a report by German media outlets Der Spiegel and ARD documented what they said were Greek and Croatian officials carrying out such operations.

The joint report said Greek and Croatian special forces sometimes concealed their identity during such operations, which at times were violent.

BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The expulsion of eight members of Russia's mission to NATO is not linked to a particular event, but the alliance needs to be vigilant in the face of "malign" Russian activity, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

Stoltenberg said the eight, whose expulsion was announced on Wednesday, were "undeclared Russian intelligence officers". 

BRUSSELS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - NATO has expelled eight members of Russia's mission to the alliance who were "undeclared Russian intelligence officers", a NATO official said on Wednesday, the latest deterioration in East-West ties that are already at post-Cold War lows.

The expulsion of the Russians was reported earlier by Sky News, which said Moscow's mission to the alliance headquarters in Brussels would be halved "in response to suspected malign Russian activities, including killings and espionage".

BRUSSELS, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission aims to make sure that French fishermen will be issued licenses needed for them to continue to operate in the territorial waters of the United Kingdom (UK) and Jersey, a Commission spokesperson said here on Wednesday as tensions mount between France and the UK over the matter.

"Finding a solution and continuity to the fishing activities of the European fishermen and women remains a top priority," Vivian Loonela, the Commission's coordinating spokesperson for fisheries matters, said.