Europe

WARSAW (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron told Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday that France was neither pro-Russian nor anti-Russian but simply pro-European.

Macron, speaking during his first visit to Poland since he became president, said he hoped the Polish people could trust Europe to protect them if they were attacked, and that European countries needed to be firm with Russia.

“We need to be demanding in our political dialogue with Russia,” Macron said at a news conference in Warsaw.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she would be prepared to back changes to the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, the bloc’s legal cornerstone if need be, adding that the EU27 must become more competitive now that Britain has left.

“I could well imagine treaty changes should this be necessary,” Merkel said during a news conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. “We are required in view of Britain’s exit to strengthen our competitiveness and to act more quickly.”

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday, dragged down by concern over demand in China after the coronavirus breakout, though the possibility of deeper crude output cuts by OPEC and its allies offered some price support.

Brent crude LCOc1 was down 48 cents at $56.14 a barrel by 1320 GMT, having earlier lost more than $1 to its lowest since January last year at $55.42.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell 10 cents to $51.46 after hitting a session low of $50.42, also the lowest since January last year.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s current account surplus remained the world’s largest last year despite trade tensions, the Ifo economic institute said on Monday, in an estimate likely to renew criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fiscal policies.

The Ifo calculations, reported exclusively by Reuters ahead of publication by the economic institute, put Germany’s current account surplus — which measures the flow of goods, services and investments — at some $293 billion in 2019.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek police fired teargas to disperse migrants and refugees protesting on Monday about conditions in migrant camps on the island of Lesbos and the slow pace of processing asylum requests.

Violence broke out near the Kara Tepe camp, a police official said, after hundreds of people marched from the island’s congested migrant camps to the city of Mytilene.

Aid groups have described living conditions in some of Greece’s island camps as appalling.

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union and Britain clashed over a post-Brexit trade deal on Monday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisting he need not sign up to the bloc’s rules and Brussels warning of tariffs and quotas unless he did.

Britain wants to negotiate a trade deal by the end of 2020, though EU leaders say the further Britain diverges from their rules the less access it will have to the EU market.

MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government says it has closed airspace around Madrid’s international airport after drones were reported in the area.

The Transport Ministry said in a tweet Monday that the airspace around the Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas airport has been closed and advised people to check with the airport’s authorities for further developments.

Enaire, Spain´s air navigation authority, had earlier reported delays in flights owing to the presence of drones in the area.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Union negotiator Michel Barnier set out tough opening gambits Monday in negotiating a future trade deal, making it clear that each side is willing to walk away without an agreement rather than compromise on key issues.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A leaked recording of an exchange between an Iranian air-traffic controller and an Iranian pilot purports to show that authorities immediately knew a missile had downed a Ukrainian jetliner after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard, despite days of denials by the Islamic Republic.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy acknowledged the recording’s authenticity in a report aired by a Ukrainian television channel on Sunday night.

LONDON (AP) — The British government plans to announce new rules for the imprisonment of convicted terrorists after an Islamic militant who was recently released from prison stabbed two people in south London, the second such attack in less than three months.