Belgium

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has referred Britain to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing fully to recover illegal state aid of up to 100 million euros ($118.9 million)granted as tax exemptions in Gibraltar.

The Commission, which oversees competition policy in the 27-member EU, said on Friday the corporate tax exemptions covered passive interest and royalties between 2011 and 2013 and so took place before Britain exited the European Union.

18 Mar 2021; MEMO: The European Union has frozen plans to blacklist more senior executives at Turkey's state-owned Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), four diplomats said, according to an exclusive report by Reuters. This is the clearest sign that a diplomatic offensive by Ankara this year is bearing fruit.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Wednesday to blacklist Chinese officials for human rights abuses, two diplomats said, the first sanctions against Beijing since an EU arms embargo in 1989 following the Tianamen Square crackdown.

EU ambassadors approved the travel bans and asset freezes on four Chinese individuals and one entity, whose names will not be made public until formal approval by EU foreign ministers on March 22, as part of a new and wider rights sanctions list.

BRUSSELS, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission proposed on Tuesday to accelerate the delivery of ten million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for the second quarter of 2021.

The proposal came on the heels of an agreement with the vaccine manufacturer, but it remains to be approved by the European Union (EU) member states in the joint Steering Board, the executive arm of the EU said in a statement.

BRUSSELS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- A cluster of European countries -- France Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Cyprus, Portugal -- on Monday joined the growing ranks of their peers suspending the use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine over blood clot concerns.

They described the move as a precautionary measure pending a decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which had greenlighted the use of the vaccine in the European Union (EU) on Jan. 29.

BRUSSELS, March 15. /TASS/: No talks are underway between the European Commission and Russian coronavirus vaccine producers, the commission’s Spokesperson Stefan de Keersmaecker told reporters on Monday.

"No talks are ongoing between an EU team and the Russian vaccine producer," he said in response to a question. "The member states and the commission may decide at any time together to expand the existing vaccine portfolio," the European Commission spokesperson pointed out.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union figures show that the 27-nation bloc has allowed the export of over 34 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines over the past weeks despite shortages at home as it continues to struggle to get its vaccine drive up to speed.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union responded on Wednesday to a summons from Britain in a dispute over accusations of vaccine nationalism, the latest in a series of skirmishes between the bloc and its former member since it left the EU.

The EU would send charge d’affaires Nicole Mannion, effectively the EU deputy ambassador to Britain, to a morning meeting with British foreign office permanent under-secretary Philip Barton, an EU official said.

BRUSSELS, March 9 (Xinhua) -- John Kerry, the United States' Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, on Tuesday underlined the cooperation between the U.S. and European Union (EU) on the fight against the climate crisis during his visit to Brussels.

Kerry stressed that the world is facing not only a climate crisis but also "a moment of the greatest opportunity that we've had since perhaps the industrial revolution to build better to renew ourselves and our economies."

BRUSSELS, March 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The European Union said it was working to secure a big increase in Covid-19 vaccine supplies to improve its slow roll-out, as the United States denounced what it called a Russian disinformation campaign.

The urgency of the global vaccine push was underlined by Latin America hitting 700,000 pandemic deaths, and Italy alone announcing that its toll had topped 100,000.