Belgium

BRUSSELS, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Friday rushed to announce it has given the green light to anti-viral drug Remdesivir for treatment of COVID-19, making it the first drug authorized at the European Union (EU) level for the purpose.

EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said the EU has expedited the authorization, approving the drug, made by American biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, in an exceptionally short timeframe.

BRUSSELS, July 2 (Xinhua) -- The three presidents of the leading European Union (EU) institutions will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel next week to discuss the thorny issue of the bloc's proposal to revive its economy by raising debt, the European Commission said on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Negotiations towards the European Union’s coronavirus recovery fund still have a long way to go before a summit of EU leaders later this month, a senior EU official involved in the talks said on Thursday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said negotiators aimed to keep the size of the proposed 750 billion euro ($846.75 billion) recovery fund but to reduce the size of the EU’s multi-year budget slightly.

BRUSSELS, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A pan-European poll has found that the majority of respondents hold an "increasingly" negative view of the United States amid the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. media CNBC reported on Monday.

The survey, commissioned by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a pan-European think tank, interviewed 11,000 people from nine European countries from the last week of April this year to early May, reported CNBC.

TRIPOLI, July 1 (NNN-Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) Delegation to Libya on Wednesday condemned the presence of foreign mercenaries in Libya and called on all Libyan and regional players to make efforts to lift oil blockade.

“We call on all Libyan and regional actors to constructively engage in efforts to lift the blockade. We strongly condemn the presence of foreign mercenaries in Libya, including the Sharara oilfield and any other oil infrastructure,” the Delegation said in a statement.

BRUSSELS, June 30. /TASS/: The EU will begin to open borders with 14 states starting July 1, with Russia and the US not making the list, the EU Council informed in a statement published on Tuesday. The document notes that China may be the fifteenth state if it is willing to open its borders to EU residents.

30 June 2020; MEMO: The Belgian Chamber of Representatives will today be voting on whether to “formally recognise the State of Palestine.”

BRUSSELS, June 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Belgium’s King Philippe expressed his “deepest regrets” for the harm done during Belgian colonial rule in DR Congo, in a first for his country.

“I want to express my deepest regrets for these wounds of the past whose pain is reawakened today by the discrimination still present in our societies,” Philippe said Tuesday in a letter to Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi to mark the country’s 60th independence anniversary.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is edging toward finalizing a list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter Europe again in coming days, with Americans almost certain to be excluded in the short term due to the number of U.S. coronavirus cases.

Spain’s foreign minister said that the list — which is likely to be made public Tuesday — could contain 15 countries that are not EU members and whose citizens would be allowed to visit from July 1.

BRUSSELS/CHICAGO (Reuters) - European Union countries failed to settle on Friday on a final “safe list” of countries whose residents could travel to the bloc from July, with the United States, Brazil and Russia set to be excluded.

Ambassadors from the 27 EU members convened from Friday afternoon to establish criteria for granting quarantine-free access from next Wednesday.