Belgium

06 Dec 2021; MEMO: In a new report the Guardian has mapped out the surveillance and deterrent systems being used on EU borders to deter refugees.

Last month Poland approved a $398 million, 18-foot-high wall, with cameras and motion sensors to be built along its border with Belarus. It is also sending automated texts to people telling them not to attempt to cross from Belarus.

BRUSSELS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - European Union states spent nearly 200 billion euros ($225 billion) on defence in 2020, the most since records began in 2006, but joint investment by governments fell, the European Defence Agency (EDA) said in a report on Monday.

The EDA, an EU agency that helps the bloc's governments to develop their military capabilities, said the total spending of EU countries except for Denmark - which opts out of EU military projects - reached $198 billion, a 5% increase on 2019.

BRUSSELS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Police fired teargas and used water cannons on Sunday to disperse protesters pelting officers with cobblestones and fireworks as a demonstration in Brussels over government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions turned violent.

A few thousand protesters marched peacefully through the centre of the Belgian capital to the neighbourhood which hosts the headquarters of European Union institutions, where the demonstration reached its end point.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium must tighten its coronavirus restrictions another notch as the latest surge in cases weighs heavily on health services and deprives people with other life-threatening diseases like cancer of necessary treatment, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Friday.

Kindergartens and primary schools will now close for the holiday season a week early, on Dec. 20, and children must wear masks from the age of 6. The government capped attendance at indoor events at 200 people.

BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The European Union's top court should dismiss a challenge by Poland and Hungary to a new tool aimed at cutting cash for member states which break the bloc's democratic rules, an initial legal opinion said on Thursday.

While the advocate general's opinion is not binding, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) usually follows it when making a final ruling, which is expected early in 2022.

BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The European Union's public health agency said on Thursday that the Omicron variant could be responsible for more than half of all COVID-19 infections in Europe within a few months.

The estimate could lend weight to preliminary information about the very high transmissibility of the Omicron variant, above that of the Delta variant, which before Omicron was considered the most contagious of the main coronavirus strains.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The so-called "Summit for Democracy" led by the United States is akin to "launching an ideological crusade" against other countries, Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, has recently written.

The attempt "reduces the multi-color palette of the modern world to a minimalist black and white graphics of a global fight between" what it sees as democracies and autocracies, Kortunov argued in an article published by website Modern Diplomacy.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The top adviser to the European Union’s highest court on Thursday said that the principle of linking the bloc’s budget disbursements to respect for rule of law is compatible with the bloc’s laws and that a challenge by Hungary and Poland should be dismissed.

The right-wing governments of both nations had argued that such action lacked a proper legal basis. Both nations, large recipients of EU funds, have come under increasing criticism over the past few years for veering away from the Western principles of the respect for rule of law in their nations.

BRUSSELS/VILNIUS, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The European Union proposed on Wednesday curtailing some rights of migrants at its frontier with Belarus, a gesture towards member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, even as Brussels acknowledged border tensions were easing.

The EU says Belarus has flown in migrants from the Middle East to push them to cross the border, accusations Minsk calls absurd. Rights groups say at least 13 people have died as migrants have camped in freezing conditions at the border.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Top European Union migration officials offered Wednesday to ease asylum rules for Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in response to what the EU says is a “hybrid attack” by Belarus to destabilize the bloc using migrants.

The move would make it harder for migrants to enter the 27-nation bloc from Belarus, angering nongovernmental organizations.