by AFP | 28.Mar 2023 | Fact check
The EU ban on sales of new fossil fuel cars from 2035 is expected to be formally adopted this year. Posts shared thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter since December claim that Italy “has decided not to comply” with the ban. Yet, AFP found no trace of an official statement of the sort in the Italian press. What’s more, an EU government cannot legally refuse to implement the regulation, which is an EU law that is directly applicable to the citizens of member states. Finally, the primacy of EU law over national law is enshrined in a declaration annexed to the TFEU — the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union — which was ratified by all EU members, European legal experts told AFP.
by dpa, Europa Press, BTA | 24.Mar 2023 | Digest
In the dispute over the planned ban on new cars with internal combustion engines, the EU Commission has proposed a solution to the German government. Other news this week: EU member states criticize a proposed ban of bottom trawling in the fishing industry and Bulgaria’s interim government does not plan for additional military aid to Ukraine.
by AFP, ANSA, BTA, dpa, STA | 24.Mar 2023 | Key Story
The recent collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the United States and the crisis at Credit Suisse in Switzerland over the weekend set off concerns regarding contagion across the international financial sector. While European governments and financial institutions closely monitor the situation, it is not all bleak.
by AFP, Belga, dpa, EFE | 21.Mar 2023 | Digest
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre expects the energy cooperation with Germany to be stepped-up even further, as the countries are in talks about wind energy, hydrogen and more. French President Emmanuel Macron backs Moldova in the face of “Russian attempts to destabilize” the country. Spain adopts a pension reform along the lines of demands from the European Commission.
by AFP | 21.Mar 2023 | Fact check
The president of France’s far-right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, claimed on January 16 that EU border agency Frontex reported in a January 13 press release that 330,000 people had entered the European Union illegally in 2022. In reality, the agency did not detect 330,000 people, but 330,000 irregular entries into the EU that year. As Frontex explained to AFP, “one person can illegally cross the external border of the European Union several times” and thus be counted several times. Multiple experts interviewed by AFP mentioned the limitations of this figure. They also cautioned against reading too much into the 64 percent year-on-year increase reported by Frontex. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that nearly 188,000 people had entered Europe illegally in 2022, or an increase of 24 percent compared to 2021. A figure that is “much more reliable in terms of actual arrivals,” according to specialists.
