Belgium

BRUSSELS, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.

LONDON -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak warned Wednesday that Britain faces a "significant recession" after official figures showed the country's economy shrank by 2 percent in the first quarter of the year.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union pushed on Wednesday for a gradual reopening of borders within the bloc shut by the coronavirus, saying it was not too late to salvage some of the summer tourist season while keeping people safe.

The EU’s executive Commission urged a return to “unrestricted free movement” within Europe, with plans that include requiring face masks on airplanes and social distancing on trains.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union unveiled Wednesday its plan to help citizens across the 27 nations salvage their summer vacations after months of tough coronavirus confinement and to hopefully resurrect Europe’s badly battered tourism industry.

Around 150,000 people have died across Europe and Britain since the virus surfaced in northern Italy in February, but with the spread of the disease tapering off, people in many countries are cautiously venturing out of confinement to return to work and some schools are reopening.

BRUSSELS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- France and Spain on Monday cautiously joined the ranks of European nations loosening coronavirus restrictions, while the fear of a second-wave outbreak is hanging over.

11 May 2020; MEMO: The EU’s Foreign Affairs Commission could impose sanctions on Israel if the latter implements its annexation plan in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, Israel Hayom revealed on Sunday. According to the Israeli newspaper, an informed source said that EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell is pushing for sanctions.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union start their penultimate scheduled round of trade talks on Monday with little progress on major sticking points before a June deadline to agree on any extension of negotiations.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly refused to prolong the current transition period beyond the end of the year to grant more time for the two sides to agree the scale and scope of their new relationship.

7 May 2020; MEMO: A network of European groups have called on the EU to impose sanctions on Israel in a letter addressed to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union’s 27 leaders on Wednesday gave their “unequivocal support” for the six Balkan countries to eventually become members of the bloc and offered them more financial support as Brussels seeks to check Chinese largesse.

The EU says it has not been given enough credit for the 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) it is providing, an amount officials said outweighs medical supplies Beijing and Moscow sent to Serbia and Bosnia in the early phase of the coronavirus pandemic.

BRUSSELS, May 6 (Xinhua) -- China and European Union (EU) relations have kept a sound momentum of development in the past 45 years. Under the new circumstances, the two sides are now facing shared new missions, and it is more important than ever to keep the China-EU ties in good shape, Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, has said.

Zhang made the remarks in an article published Wednesday by Brussels Times and Euroactiv on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the establishment of China-EU diplomatic ties.

BRUSSELS, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission said in an economic forecast that despite a policy response at both the European Union (EU) and national level, the EU economy will experience a recession of historic proportions this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It projects that the euro area economy will contract by a record 7.75 percent in 2020 and grow by 6.25 percent in 2021. The EU economy is forecast to contract by 7.5 percent in 2020 and grow by around 6 percent in 2021.