Belgium

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday is unveiling sweeping new legislation to help meet its pledge to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade, including a controversial plan to tax foreign companies for the pollution they cause.

The proposals by the European Commission, which is the EU’s executive branch, will cover everything from tougher caps on car pollution to new national limits on gases from buildings. It will see a revamp of the bloc’s emissions trading scheme under which companies pay for the gases they send into the air.

BRUSSELS, Jul 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Commercial flights in the European Union (EU) are showing an upward trend as summer begins, according to data published yesterday, by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

Along with the tourism industry, the aviation sector has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, grounding aircraft on the tarmac, as containment measures and travel bans were put in place.

BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - The European Union will try to reassure Bosnians of its readiness to admit their country one day, according to an internal document seen by Reuters, after an unofficial EU diplomatic note raised doubts about Brussels' commitment.

That note, circulated among EU officials in April, proposed redrawing borders along ethnic lines in the Western Balkans in an attempt to unblock stalled reforms in the region. It caused anxiety in Bosnia, which aspires to join both the EU and NATO.

BRUSSELS, July 12 (Reuters) - The European Union should consider imposing more sanctions on Belarus because Minsk is flying in migrants from abroad to send them illegally into the bloc, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Monday.

His government accuses Belarusian authorities of sending hundreds of mainly Iraqi migrants across the border into Lithuania, an EU member state.

Lithuania began building a 550-km (320-mile) razor wire barrier on the border with Belarus on Friday, a move that EU foreign ministers were due to discuss in Brussels. 

BRUSSELS, July 12 (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to launch a global infrastructure plan linking Europe to the world, its latest step after deals with India and Japan and a similar pledge by the Group of Seven richest democracies.

Suspicious of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative to link Europe to Asia via infrastructure in a bid for greater influence, the EU set out a formal path for an ambitious "connectivity" plan from 2022.

BRUSSELS, July 11 (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Belgian woman who died from COVID-19 in March had contracted two variants of coronavirus at the same time, which is believed to be the first documented case of its kind, a scientific congress and Belgian media said on Sunday.

The case, discussed at this year's European Congress on Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), shows that it is possible to catch two COVID-19 variants simultaneously, the society that organised the congress said in a statement.

BRUSSELS, July 10 (Reuters) - The European Union has delivered enough coronavirus vaccine doses to member states to reach a target to fully vaccinate at least 70% of adults in the bloc, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Saturday.

Von der Leyen, who had tweeted on May 9 that the EU was on track to meet its goal of inoculating 70% of adults by summer, urged EU countries to increase vaccinations and said about 500 million doses would be distributed across the union by Sunday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union handed down $1 billion in fines to major German car manufacturers Thursday, saying they colluded to limit the development and rollout of car emission-control systems.

Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen along with its Audi and Porsche divisions avoided competing on technology to restrict pollution from gasoline and diesel passenger cars, the EU’s executive commission said. Daimler wasn’t fined after it revealed the cartel to the European Commission.

Lisbon (Portugal), Jul 3 (AP-PTI) Countries across Europe are scrambling to accelerate coronavirus vaccinations and outpace the spread of the more infectious delta variant, in a high-stakes race to prevent hospital wards from filling up again with patients fighting for their lives.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s asylum agency said Tuesday that the number of people seeking international protection in Europe hit its lowest level last year since 2013, but that the drop was due mostly to coronavirus travel restrictions.

The European Asylum Support Office, or EASO, said in a new report that 485,000 asylum applications were made in the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland in 2020. That’s a 32% decrease over the previous year.