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Brussels approves Poland's use of post-COVID funds for defence
Brussels approves Poland's use of post-COVID funds for defence

Euronews

time4 hours ago

  • Politics
  • Euronews

Brussels approves Poland's use of post-COVID funds for defence

A fake video has been posted on Russian Telegram channels, featuring Euronews' graphics and claiming that corruption has pushed Moldova to become one of the biggest black markets for arms sales. Euronews neither produced nor published this video. Our graphics and format were copied and used without our consent, and our teams are working to ensure the video is removed from all social platforms. It appeared in a Telegram channel called the "Military Observer" in Russian and has amassed more than 16,000 views at the time of writing. The video alleges that high levels of corruption in Moldova's armed forces mean that the country is now "the largest hub for the black market in weapons." Arms traffickers allegedly use Moldova as a buffer zone for the illegal export of weapons from Ukraine and distribute them elsewhere in Europe and beyond, according to the false video. It attributes a quote to Clara Staicu, Romania's secretary of state for European affairs, in which she supposedly calls Moldova "a perfect transit point for arms traffickers" due to its small size and widespread corruption. It also alleges that the situation has worsened over the past four years, during the presidency of Maia Sandu. The video strongly resembles a Euronews report, but its contents are false. It is unclear where any of the claims in the video supposedly come from and there appears to be no evidence for any of them. However, it is true that Interpol has previously expressed concern about weapons smuggling in Moldova linked to Russia's war in Ukraine. It has launched several initiatives to try and combat the black market of arms, including Project I-FORCE, which aims to bolster the capabilities of law enforcement agencies in Moldova and neighbouring countries to combat international organised crime. Additionally, Transparency International's most recent Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Moldova as one of the lowest in Europe for clean money, above only Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Hungary and Albania. The Moldova video follows hot on the heels of another fake video that was attributed to Euronews and spread online last week, alleging that Romania cautioned French authorities over interference in the Romanian presidential election runoff. Romanian and French authorities, as well as Euronews, all denounced that video and its contents as false. The Moldovan president's office, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Interpol did not immediately respond to our requests for comment. We will update this article when we hear from them. The European Commission on Tuesday permitted Poland to repurpose nearly €6 billion in post-COVID funds to finance defence projects, when the college of commissioners endorsed the Polish request by written procedure. "Poland will be the first to invest billions from the KPO (National Recovery Plan) in security and defence. Successful negotiations paved the way, now other countries are trying to follow in our footsteps," Jan Szyszko, the country's secretary of state in the ministry of funds and regional policy, wrote on X following the Commission's decision. Warsaw was allocated nearly €60bn - of which 25.3 billion are grants - of the Commission's €650 billion plan Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) aimed at kickstarting COVID-stricken economies across the EU. But the facility, which came into force in early 2021, came with strings attached. The funds, doled out in both grants and loans, had to be poured into sectors and initiatives aimed at making the bloc's economy more resilient, sustainable, green, and digital; member states had to submit National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) outlining reforms and investments; the money had to be spent by the end of 2026. The funds however proved difficult for some member states to digest with bureaucratic bottlenecks, shifting political priorities, and high inflation further slowing the process. Member states were however allowed to submit revised plans, which is what Poland did on 30 January, in which it proposed the introduction of a new measure to create an Investment-Equity injection into the Security and Defence Fund. The Commission endorsed the measure, with a spokesperson telling Euronews that defence-related activities can align with the instrument's objective of promoting sustainable growth and enhancing the resilience of member states provided they do not violate the limitations outlined in Article 41(2) of the Treaty on the European Union. Article 41 regulates the financing of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, which includes the Union's defence policy. Paragraph 2 stipulates that expenditures resulting from measures with military or defence implications are expressly excluded from financing from the EU's budget. "RRF support for the defence sector may include financing the expansion of industrial capacity, the technological development of defence products, as well as investments that serve both civilian and military purposes, such as transport infrastructure," the Commission spokesperson also said. Defence has become a key priority for the EU following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine which starkly highlighted the deficiencies and dependencies of the European defence industrial base and the glaring gaps in the bloc's military capabilities. The Commission has put forward a plan to unlock hundreds of billions of euros into the defence sector to fill those gaps and turbocharge European defence manufacturing. The main financial firepowers of this 'Readiness 2030' plan reside in more fiscal flexibility for member states and Commission-issued loans for defence projects. But the EU executive is also backing repurposing funds from other EU programmes, such as cohesion funds, which aim to reduce economic and social disparities across the 27 member states. Meanwhile NATO allies, of which 23 are EU member states, are currently negotiating a revision to the alliance's defence spending target, currently set at 2% of GDP. Washington has called for a 5% target. French police have arrested around 20 people alleged to have been involved in a recent spate of kidnappings and kidnapping attempts against cryptocurrency bosses and their families. The arrests took place on Monday and Tuesday, according to media outlet Franceinfo. French media reported that half a dozen suspects were taken into custody on Tuesday in connection with the attempted kidnapping of the daughter of cryptocurrency boss Pierre Noizat earlier this month. The attack, which took place in broad daylight on 13 May, shocked France. Assailants were filmed trying to kidnap Noizat's pregnant daughter, who was out for a walk with her partner and their child. Tuesday's arrests came after a dozen other people were detained in the commune of Couëron, near the western French city of Nantes, on Monday. In response to the increasing number of violent attacks against cryptocurrency professionals and their families, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau convened an emergency meeting with industry leaders in mid-May. During the meeting, Retailleau outlined ways of ensuring their security, including a plan to give them access to special emergency contact numbers. "These serial kidnappings will be combated with specific tools, both immediate and short-term, to prevent, deter and hinder in order to protect the industry," Retailleau said after the meeting. "The entire state apparatus is fully mobilised to track down the perpetrators and instigators of this violence and put them out of action", he added.

No, Euronews didn't publish a video about corruption in Moldova
No, Euronews didn't publish a video about corruption in Moldova

Euronews

time4 hours ago

  • Politics
  • Euronews

No, Euronews didn't publish a video about corruption in Moldova

A fake video has been posted on Russian Telegram channels, featuring Euronews' graphics and claiming that corruption has pushed Moldova to become one of the biggest black markets for arms sales. Euronews neither produced nor published this video. Our graphics and format were copied and used without our consent, and our teams are working to ensure the video is removed from all social platforms. It appeared in a Telegram channel called the "Military Observer" in Russian and has amassed more than 16,000 views at the time of writing. The video alleges that high levels of corruption in Moldova's armed forces mean that the country is now "the largest hub for the black market in weapons." Arms traffickers allegedly use Moldova as a buffer zone for the illegal export of weapons from Ukraine and distribute them elsewhere in Europe and beyond, according to the false video. It attributes a quote to Clara Staicu, Romania's secretary of state for European affairs, in which she supposedly calls Moldova "a perfect transit point for arms traffickers" due to its small size and widespread corruption. It also alleges that the situation has worsened over the past four years, during the presidency of Maia Sandu. The video strongly resembles a Euronews report, but its contents are false. It is unclear where any of the claims in the video supposedly come from and there appears to be no evidence for any of them. However, it is true that Interpol has previously expressed concern about weapons smuggling in Moldova linked to Russia's war in Ukraine. It has launched several initiatives to try and combat the black market of arms, including Project I-FORCE, which aims to bolster the capabilities of law enforcement agencies in Moldova and neighbouring countries to combat international organised crime. Additionally, Transparency International's most recent Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Moldova as one of the lowest in Europe for clean money, above only Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Hungary and Albania. The Moldova video follows hot on the heels of another fake video that was attributed to Euronews and spread online last week, alleging that Romania cautioned French authorities over interference in the Romanian presidential election runoff. Romanian and French authorities, as well as Euronews, all denounced that video and its contents as false. The Moldovan president's office, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Interpol did not immediately respond to our requests for comment. We will update this article when we hear from them.

Can the EU afford to phase out imports of Russian fuel?
Can the EU afford to phase out imports of Russian fuel?

Euronews

time5 hours ago

  • Business
  • Euronews

Can the EU afford to phase out imports of Russian fuel?

Europe began to wean itself from its dependence on Russia after the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which led to a spike in energy prices. Sanctions have led to significant cuts in imports over three years: oil fell from 27% in 2022 to 3% in 2025, gas fell from 45% to 19% in the same period and coal, which at the time accounted for 50% of EU consumption, stopped entering the EU altogether. However, the EU continues to contribute significantly to Russia's budget, with energy imports in 2024 bringing €23bn into Moscow's coffers. The EU executive now wants to phase out all such imports by 2027, with measures set out in the RepowerEU Roadmap. 'The logic is to use trade and energy policies, which do not require a unanimous vote, as is the case with sanctions,' says Jorge Liboreiro, a Euronews reporter who has been following developments. The bloc has been pursuing a strategy of diversifying its suppliers and importing more gas from the US could be an option. However, the current tariff antagonism with the US has made the EU wary of replacing one dependence with another. 'This is one of the traps we cannot fall into. Diversification and risk reduction means that we really need to have many more suppliers and not put all our eggs in one basket,' argues Svetelina Penkova, a Socialist MEP from Bulgaria and one of the vice-chairs of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). 'I will give the example of a country that has been very receptive: Azerbaijan. It was the first to proactively offer additional supplies of natural gas and it also increased production to meet the growing demand from the EU,' she said. The roadmap proposes a ban on new short-term contracts for pipeline gas and LNG by the end of 2025 and a ban on imports of these gases under existing long-term contracts by the end of 2027. There will also be new restrictions to phase nuclear materials, such as enriched uranium. Market analysts warn forcing companies to stop contracts for the import of fuels could lead to court disputes and high fines, but "the Commission says that companies can invoke the legal argument of force majeure," says the Euronews reporter. "This argument would allow a company to terminate the contract without suffering any penalty because there is a circumstance that is beyond its control," he added. The ITRE vice-chair thinks that the addition of nuclear energy to the mix could help with the phase out process too. 'A balanced energy mix means renewable energy sources and baseload energy. I am very happy that the climate towards nuclear energy in the EU is changing in a positive way because the Union should be investing in nuclear energy in the future", MEP Penkova said. Watch the video here! Journalist: Isabel Marques da Silva Content production: Pilar Montero López Video production: Zacharia Vigneron Graphism: Loredana Dumitru Editorial coordination: Ana Lázaro Bosch and Jeremy Fleming-Jones The prospect of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine being mediated by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican is unlikely due to the influence of Russian Orthodoxy and Moscow's mistrust of the Catholic Church, according to political analysts and religious figures. Shortly after being elected, Pope Leo XIV said that the Vatican could act as a mediator in global conflicts, without specifically mentioning Russia's war against Ukraine. He later confirmed it to Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying the Vatican was indeed willing to host the next round of negotiations to try to put an end the war between Russia and Ukraine. After Kyiv and Moscow's direct talks in Istanbul yielded almost no progress, US President Donald Trump also mentioned the Vatican as a possible venue, following a conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. According to a recent statement by the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the pontiff plans to "if necessary, provide the Vatican, the Holy See, as a direct meeting (place) between the two sides". Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to the Vatican earlier this month and met Pope Leo XIV following his inaugural Mass. Zelenskyy is in favour of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow being held at the Vatican, Ukraine's foreign minister confirmed to Euronews last week. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticised the idea, saying that it would be "a bit inelegant for Orthodox countries to use a Catholic platform" for talks. Moscow's wariness of mediation by the Vatican predates Pope Leo XIV, according to Pasquale Ferrara, the director general for political affairs at Italy's foreign ministry, and a professor of diplomacy and negotiation at the LUISS University in Rome. "I don't think Putin sees the Vatican as having the necessary neutrality," Ferrara told Euronews. "This scepticism existed even under Pope Francis and is rooted in the long-standing coolness between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church." That tension has deep historical roots, stretching back to the Great Schism of 1054, when Christianity split into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. In August 2024, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill banning activities of religious organisations connected to Russia and those that have administrative centres there. The legislation specifically targets the activities of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which is legally subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, the leading church in Russia and a close ally of the Kremlin, fully supporting Moscow's war in Ukraine. All UOC-MP communities were given nine months to fully break ties with the Russian church. Ukraine's Security Service accused a number of clergymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate of collaborating with the Krmelin and justifying Russian aggression. Over 100 UOC-MP clergy members have come under criminal investigation since the outbreak of the full-scale war, the Security Service of Ukraine said. Once a dominant religious group in Ukraine, the past few years have seen many Moscow Patriarchate communities switch allegiance to independent churches, namely the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. Founded in 2018 as an institution representing Ukrainian Orthodoxy fully independent of Moscow, it was granted the tomos of autocephaly — a document signifying canonical independence — by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the most senior priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Moscow Patriarchate hasn't recognised the decision and later tried to portray the Ukrainian government's steps against the Moscow-linked church as "persecution of Christians." The head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Patriarch Kirill, has been an ardent supporter of the war and a vital ally for Putin. Patriarch Kirill's vocal support for Putin's war has drawn criticism from the likes of Pope Francis and was dubbed a 'heresy' by other religious authorities. Dubbed the Tobacco Metropolitan for his alleged profiteering off of duty-free cigarettes in the 1990s, Patriarch Kirill fiercely maintains his pro-war stance, blaming the invasion on "gay parades" and making unproven claims that Ukrainians have been "exterminating" Russian civilians in the Donbas. In early May 2022, attempts by Brussels to add Kirill to the EU's list of sanctioned Russian nationals led to tensions among European leaders after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked the move. The ROC's stance has seen some Orthodox Churches cut ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, including one in Amsterdam. Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate, expressed his doubt about Russia's willingness to genuinely engage in peace talks or accept the Vatican as a mediator. "Pope Leo XIV has no influence over Russia. They don't recognise our Church at all," he told Euronews. The Vatican has a long history of mediating wars, conflicts and political disagreements, although it tends to work behind the scenes and avoid publicising its efforts. One of its greatest achievements in recent history was facilitating the talks between the US and Cuba in 2014 that ultimately resulted in the resumption of diplomatic relations. The Vatican has also often hosted far less secret diplomatic initiatives, such as when it brought together the rival leaders of war-torn South Sudan in 2019. The encounter was made famous by the image of Pope Francis kissing their feet to beg them to make peace. However, for the Kremlin, the idea of Pope Leo XIV mediating peace talks may be seen as an extension of the Catholic Church's Western legacy, according to Ferrara of the Italian foreign ministry. Ultimately, successful mediation depends less on the identity of the mediator and more on the parties' genuine willingness to seek peace, he said. "Russia has not shown the kinds of signals that would indicate a real desire to negotiate," Ferrara added. On 16 May, Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face discussions since shortly after Moscow's full-scale invasion. During the talks in Istanbul, the two sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, in what is the biggest such swap to date. The discussions delivered no wider breakthrough on resolving Russia's war, and no further direct peace talks are scheduled, the Kremlin said last week. Moscow has had no issues with Ankara playing the host. Nonetheless, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga said last week that he believed that the Vatican could still act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. "It is very difficult, yes, but everything is possible with Pope Leo XIV — he enjoys the trust of global leaders," he told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. Ferrara also said that the Vatican may have a role to play, despite the challenges. "We should not be too sceptical about the constructive role religion can play in building a new international order," he added.

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