Europe

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday said he saw less than a 50% chance that European leaders would reach a deal on the European Recovery Fund at their summit in Brussels.

“I would say less than 50%, but let’s be hopeful”, the Prime Minister said as negotiations on the fund were about to start.

“You never know, we could still come to a compromise. It’s still possible.”

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Friday he was optimistic that European Union leaders meeting in Brussels to discuss a proposed budget and economic recovery plan would reach an agreement but he was not sure when.

“We have intensive and long negotiations ahead of us,” Kurz said. “I came here to reach a result. I remain optimistic that it will work out but I can’t tell you when. The differences in the positions remain big and this means the negotiations will be long.”

FRANKFURT, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Thursday that it decided to keep monetary policy unchanged in its July meeting.

(AP) --- The European Union’s top court ruled Thursday that an agreement that allows thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States is invalid because the American government can snoop on people’s data.

The ruling to invalidate Privacy Shield will likely complicate business for around 5,000 companies, and it could require regulators to vet any new data transfers to make sure Europeans’ personal information remains protected according to the EU’s stringent standards.

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/: A criminal case has been opened against two directors of medical centers, three doctors, and three more staffers with the charges of trafficking children born by surrogate mothers, Investigative Committee’s spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told TASS.

"During investigative activities and active search measures eight members of the criminal group have been detained. Among the accomplices are three doctors of private medical centers, two heads of commercial organizations, and their staff," she said.

LONDON, July 16./TASS/: The UK maintains that Russia made attempts to interfere in the 2019 general election.

"It is almost certain that Russian actors sought to interfere in the 2019 General Election through the online amplification of illicitly acquired and leaked Government documents," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 16. /TASS/: An official ceremony of hoisting the St. Andrew’s Russian naval flags took place on Project 03160 ‘Raptor’ two patrol boats in Kronshtadt in northwestern Russia, the press office of the Pella Shipyard (the boats’ builder) reported on Thursday.

"Therefore, the boats officially entered service with the Baltic Fleet. Both boats were delivered to the state customer ahead of schedule. The acceptance/delivery certificates were signed on July 8, 2020," the press office said in a statement.

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/: Moscow’s municipal authorities hope to avoid another ‘severe outbreak' of the coronavirus infection in the Russian capital, and a new lockdown is very unlikely, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station on Thursday.

"I believe we still have more chances to avoid this [a new lockdown in the city]. It’s clear that there are risks and we need to look at them straightforwardly. But I hope we will still manage to avoid any severe outbreaks," Sobyanin said.

MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/: Washington’s threat to impose sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 and the second line of the TurkStream gas pipeline projects within the framework of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is an undue pressure on the European business and unfair competition, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Swedish activist Greta Thunberg urged European leaders on Thursday to take emergency action on climate change, saying people in power had practically “given up” on the possibility of handing over a decent future to coming generations.

In an open letter climateemergencyeu.org also signed by several thousand people, including climate scientists, economists, actors and activists, the 17-year-old called for countries to start treating climate change and ecological breakdown “like an emergency”.