All posts tagged: Olaf Scholz

Senior European officials facepalm over Scholz’s Putin call   – POLITICO

Senior European officials facepalm over Scholz’s Putin call   – POLITICO

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“We need to act unified, we need to coordinate, this call was not coordinated between allies, even [though] we got a very deep brief later on,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. Scholz said that during his phone call with Putin, he urged the Russian president “to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to withdraw its troops.” According to a German government spokesperson, Scholz had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the call beforehand. “The Federal Chancellor urged Russia to be prepared to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson said in a statement. Asked whether he would speak to Putin, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said: “I don’t think so.” He added: “It doesn’t look like he [Putin] is willing to negotiate, to the contrary.” “What I see in general is that Putin only listens to facts on the ground,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp about the call. Source link

Germany tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown

Germany tightens controls at all borders in immigration crackdown

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Berlin last year also announced stricter controls on its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. Those, and controls on the border with Austria, had allowed it to return 30,000 migrants since October 2023, it said on Monday. Ms Faeser said a new model would enable the government to turn back many more – but it could not talk about the model before confidential negotiations with the conservatives. The controls could test European unity if they lead to German authorities requesting other countries to take back substantial numbers of asylum seekers and migrants. Under EU rules, countries in the Schengen area, which encompasses all of the bloc bar Cyprus and Ireland, are only allowed to introduce border checks as a last resort to avert threats to internal security or public policy. Germany shares its more than 3,700-km-long (2,300 miles) land border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland. Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any …

Teenager turns himself in for assault on German lawmaker – POLITICO

Teenager turns himself in for assault on German lawmaker – POLITICO

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The teenager reported to police in Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician,” the police said in a statement. The 17-year-old did not provide any detailed information, according to the media outlet Der Spiegel. The SPD has blamed supporters of the far-right party Alliance for Germany (AfD) for the attack on Ecke. “Their supporters are now completely disinhibited and apparently see us democrats as fair game,” the statement on Saturday said. Saxony is one of the AfD’s political strongholds. On Saturday, the police had spoken of four suspects estimated to be between the ages of 17 and 20. The investigation into the other suspects is ongoing. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTION POLL OF POLLS For more polling data from across Europe visit POLITICO Poll of Polls. Anti-far-right protests have been called for Sunday in Berlin and Dresden. “Democracy is threatened by this kind of act,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, also a member of the SPD, said Saturday, speaking a congress of European socialist parties in Berlin. He …

Poland says it too was targeted by Russian hackers – POLITICO

Poland says it too was targeted by Russian hackers – POLITICO

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Poland said it was also “among the targets” of the Russian-controlled hacking group that attacked Germany and the Czech Republic. “Poland stands in solidarity with Germany and with Czechia following the malicious cyber campaign against their political parties and democratic institutions,” the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. The German government said on Friday that email accounts belonging to officials from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party were compromised following an attack conducted by the hacking group APT28 or Fancy Bear. The group is part of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service. The Czech government also put out a statement backing Germany’s claims, saying its intelligence service had detected intrusions by Fancy Bear into Czech institutions around the same time. “Poland, being also among targets of the APT 28, strongly condemns the repetitive and unacceptable malicious cyber campaigns conducted by the Russian actors,” the statement said. The foreign ministry provided no further details about the attack. Source link

Scholz and Macron to hold secret dinner in Paris ahead of Xi’s visit – POLITICO

Scholz and Macron to hold secret dinner in Paris ahead of Xi’s visit – POLITICO

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Scholz and Macron have repeatedly clashed in recent years, most recently in February when the French president opened the door to potentially sending ground troops to Ukraine, which the chancellor strongly rejected. A key topic of the discussion will be the visit of Xi, who arrives in France on Sunday for three days before heading to Serbia and Hungary. The dinner will be a chance for Scholz to brief Macron about his meeting with Xi in Beijing last month. Scholz and Macron also disagree on the potential imposition of EU tariffs on subsidized Chinese electric vehicles. According to the German Marshall Fund’s Noah Barkin, who first reported on the dinner, Macron will try to convince the chancellor to join him for his meeting with Xi next week, alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Another likely dinner topic will be EU politics, particularly defense and its financing. Macron is strongly pushing for so-called defense bonds, which would involve the joint European issuing of debt to bankroll military investments. Scholz has so far rejected the …

Macron and Scholz scramble to create new ‘EU defence club’ | World | News

Macron and Scholz scramble to create new ‘EU defence club’ | World | News

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In the wake of escalating global tensions and looming conflicts, France and Germany are seeking to strengthen European defence cooperation by making it easier for EU countries to collaborate on defence projects. President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz are leading this effort, focusing on reducing administrative hurdles and avoiding fruitless projects. The two countries have proposed creating a “club of the willing and able” among EU governments, where member states work together on identifying and developing defence projects. This concept led to the launch of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), designed to foster collaboration on various defence projects such as troop mobility, cyber, and land warfare. Despite its ambitious goals, PESCO has encountered significant challenges, with limited success to date. Of the initial 68 projects launched under PESCO, four were abandoned due to lack of progress or relevance, and over half will not yield tangible results before 2025. According to Berlin and Paris, PESCO “does not translate into increased strategic relevance and is lacking political attention.” The slow pace of development and the burdensome …

NATO is worth investing in – POLITICO

NATO is worth investing in – POLITICO

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One senior European diplomat said “we are trying to engage as many Republicans as possible and people around” Trump to try and win his ear, but that “it’s very difficult.” Some U.K. government officials believe Britain is uniquely placed among European nations to bend Trump’s ear. The ex-president has shown himself to be something of an Anglophile and has frequently expressed his admiration for the royal family. Britain also has a long-standing record of meeting its NATO defense spending requirements, and ministers hope the U.K. can lead a coalition of Germany, France and Poland to show the U.S. that Europe can and will pull its weight. Poland, like several other eastern European countries, already spends well above NATO’s 2 percent target. Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director at the London-based defense think tank RUSI, said that “it’s likely, as was the case under the last Trump administration, that there’s more potential for a relationship with the U.K.” He added: “I think the way the American debate is going is that the more Europeans do for their own …

Greek government picks EU election wild card — from an Albanian jail – POLITICO

Greek government picks EU election wild card — from an Albanian jail – POLITICO

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Beleri protests his innocence. “With a fake criminal record, no evidence, no other witnesses, except one who was bribed by the police, with an ‘appointed’ judge, in a glass cage without communication with my lawyer, the Albanian court sentenced me today to two years in prison,” he said in a statement. Athens has been pressing Tirana for his release and for him to be sworn in even if this happens in jail, but so far to no avail. Albania’s suspicions about Beleri run deep, often asserting he was involved with an irredentist militant terror network. In 1995 — the year after an attack that killed two Albanian soldiers — he was arrested and sentenced in Greece to three years on probation for complicity over the possession of weapons. His alleged involvement with these activities has been repeatedly investigated by the Albanian judiciary — in 1994, 2005 and 2015 — but without evidence against him being found. Beleri provided evidence, including his stamped passport, that he was in Cyprus when the 1994 attack took place. In …

UK announces £75B defense boost — and challenges Europe to follow suit – POLITICO

UK announces £75B defense boost — and challenges Europe to follow suit – POLITICO

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The commitment, which Sunak insisted would not require spending cuts or tax rises, would bring the U.K.’s annual defense spending to £87 billion in 2030-31. NATO countries are expected to spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense, with 18 members currently on track to do so. Germany hit that target for the first time this year. Former U.S. president and current candidate Donald Trump has suggested he wouldn’t protect countries failing to hit the target if they’re attacked, reigniting debate about defense spend in Europe. In a statement accompanying Sunak’s announcement, No.10 Downing Street said: “If all NATO countries committed at least 2.5 percent of their GDP to defense, our collective budget would increase by more than £140 billion.” The new package will include an investment of an extra £10 billion over the next decade on munitions production and “radical” reforms of Britain’s defense procurement procedures, the British government said. It’s also vowing a new “Defence Innovation Agency” to boost military research and development. “Today is a turning point for European security and a …