Belgium

6 May 2020; MEMO: As part of its global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the European Union (EU) has allocated €38 million ($41 million) to Palestine, reported the Wafa news agency.

BRUSSELS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Belgium began its first phase of deconfinement on Monday as the Belgian health institute Sciensano confirmed that the spread of the virus in the country is decreasing with a COVID-19 reproduction rate of 0.6 over the past 24 hours.

With the reproduction rate of 0.6, an infected person infects less than one person now, unlike the rate of 2 to 3 at the beginning of the epidemic.

3 May 2020; MEMO: A number of Belgian NGOs have called to put pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities in order to release blocked Palestinian tax money to enable the Palestinian Authority (PA) to afford the medical kits necessary to fight the outbreak of the coronavirus, Quds Net News Agency reported on Friday.

BRUSSELS, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in European countries.

LONDON -- Another 621 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 28,131, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said Saturday.

The figures include deaths in hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

Chairing Saturday's Downing Street briefing, Jenrick said 182,260 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Britain.

LIEGE (Belgium), May 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN World Food Program on Thursday sent a first plane loaded with medical supplies for developing nations especially vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, aiming to ramp up the service to 350 flights per month.

WFP chose nine airports across the world to take part in the special humanitarian air bridge, which will also feature up to 350 passenger flights per month to transport medical and humanitarian teams from early May.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Italy and the EU’s top diplomat made a joint call on Saturday for a humanitarian truce in Libya, saying all sides must resume peace talks.

“We want to unite our voices to those of the U.N. Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres and his Acting Special Representative for Libya, Stephanie Turco Williams, in their call for a humanitarian truce in Libya,” the statement said.

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Europe saw more encouraging signs on Friday as several countries, including the worst-affected, reported falling new COVID-19 infections and deaths.

The initial wave of COVID-19 infections appears to have passed its peak in 20 European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries, according to a new report published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

So far, more than 1.15 million cases and some 113,700 deaths have been reported across Europe, according to the latest data from the ECDC.

BRUSSELS, April 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A plan for injecting billions of euros of emergency aid into Europe’s battered economies has been agreed by EU heads.

Meeting via video, they agreed to set up a massive recovery fund, closely tied to the bloc’s seven-year budget.

They also confirmed that €540bn of financial support would be released through existing mechanisms from June 1.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the fund would mobilise €1 trillion of investment.

BRUSSELS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of European Union (EU) states, though under mounting pressure to prop up their virus-stricken economies, failed to nail down a much-awaited recovery plan at a video-summit on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have resumed their investigation into Boeing’s (BA.N) bid to buy the jetmaking arm of Embraer (EMBR3.SA), with a decision due by Aug. 7, a European Commission filing showed on Wednesday.

The EU executive halted its probe on Feb. 24 while waiting for the companies to provide information it had requested. The so-called stop the clock ended on April 7, according to the filing. Sources said millions of documents have been provided in recent months.