The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association is demanding the EU install more electric vehicle charging stations in a letter co-signed with Transport & Environment and the European Consumer Organization. This marks the hundredth time (rough estimate) an auto lobbying entity has tried to pressure the government into spending a fortune to drastically alter the European infrastructure to support the planned glut of EVs.
But it might be a fair request. Regulatory actions have effectively forced the industry into a corner and it now seems giddy at the prospect of an electrified world. The only real downside is that the charging infrastructure and power grids aren’t ready. ACEA estimates that the EU will need to build one million public charging points by 2024, with hopes of seeing three million installed before 2030.
BIC GENEVA — Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is among a group of more than 50 high-ranking legal professionals in Canada who have written an open letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Chief Justice, Ebrahim Raisi, expressing deep concern regarding “new and intense violations” of the human rights of Iran’s Bahá’í community.
The letter—whose signatories include former justice ministers and judges of the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as prominent legal academics and practicing lawyers—condemns a recent court ruling to confiscate Bahá’í properties in Ivel, a village in northern Iran.
“We know the Bahá’í Faith to stand for values of peace, justice, and unity,” the letter states, “values which have been under sustained attack by the Iranian authorities for decades. Violations of the human rights of Iran’s Bahá’ís have already been decried by the Canadian government, the United Nations and numerous human rights organizations. Today, as members of the Canadian legal profession who believe in the rule of law, we too stand with the Bahá’ís of Iran and call upon you, as the head of the Iranian judiciary, to address this new abuse inflicted upon the Bahá’ís of Ivel.”
The unprecedented outpouring of support comes after Bahá’í-owned properties have been unjustly confiscated by Iranian authorities in Ivel, displacing dozens of families and leaving them economically impoverished.
Numerous official documents unmistakably reveal religious prejudice as the sole motive behind the confiscations. Some records show, for instance, that Bahá’ís were told that if they converted to Islam, their properties would be returned.
“The 2020 rulings now establish a dangerous constitutional precedent of judicially sanctioned confiscation that nullifies legitimate property interests based only on the owners’ religious affiliation, thus departing not only from international human rights standards but also from the text and intent of the Iranian constitution itself,” the letter to Chief Justice Raisi states.
Religious discrimination against the Bahá’í community, it further states, “can provide solid grounds for prosecution of Iran’s authorities before international criminal courts and other international institutions.”
Despite repeated attempts by the Bahá’ís in Ivel to appeal for their rights, their lawyers were given no opportunity to see court documents to prepare a defense or to present any arguments.
The situation in Ivel, the letter says, is an “alarming new chapter” in the persecution of a Bahá’í community that dates to the mid-1800s and was once a “thriving and peaceful multi-generational community… of farmers and small business owners.” Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Bahá’ís in Ivel have been “forced from their homes, imprisoned, harassed, and their property torched and demolished.” In 2010, homes belonging to 50 Bahá’í families in Ivel were demolished as part of long-running campaign to expel them from the region.
Diane Ala’i, Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations in Geneva, says, “This letter from prominent legal figures demonstrates that the cruel treatment meted out to the Bahá’ís by the Iranian authorities has not gone unnoticed by the international community. It has, instead, served to galvanize public conscience around the world.”
The history of land confiscation and mass displacement of Bahá’ís in Iran is detailed in a special section of the website of the Canadian Bahá’í community’s Office of Public Affairs.
NCRI-US Welcomes Bipartisan House Resolution Condemning Tehran’s Terrorism and Rights Abuses, Supporting Iran Uprising – Book Publishing Industry Today – EIN Presswire
(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, FEB 12 - The Covid-19 pandemic has
strengthened the belief that the European Union is the right
place to develop effective solutions to fight Covid-19 and its
effects. A new survey, commissioned by the European Parliament
and conducted between November and December 2020 by Kantar,
noted that seven in 10 Italians are optimistic about the EU
recovery plan.At a European level – according to the survey – nearly three
in four of those interviewed (72%) believe that the recovery
plan of the European Union would allow the economy of their
country to recover more quickly from the negative effect of the
coronavirus pandemic. Italy, with 69%, is in line with the
European average. A reported 43% of the Italians interviewed
have a positive or very positive image, up 11 percentage points
compared to the fall of 2019.
In general, according to the survey, Europeans who express a
positive opinion about the EU have increased by 10 percentage
points, compared to the fall of 2019, reaching a total of 50%.
“The message of this survey is clear: European citizens
support the European Union and believe the EU is the right place
to find solutions to the crisis. But the reform of the European
Union is clearly something that citizens want to see and for
this reason we have to launch the Conference on the future of Europe as soon as possible”, said the president of the European
Parliament, David Sassoli. (ANSAmed).
In a resolution on the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, the European Parliament supported the establishment of the Crimean Platform and called to provide support for the initiative.
“The European Parliament repeats its call for [establishment of] an international format for negotiations on the de-occupation of the Crimean peninsula with the active participation of the EU; calls on the VP/HR, the Commission and the Member States to provide all necessary support for the establishment of a Crimea International Platform that would allow the efforts aimed at the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine to be to coordinated, formalised and systematised; considers it important to involve the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, as the only internationally recognised representative body of the Crimean Tatars, in the activities of such a Platform,” according to the text of the resolution adopted on Thursday.
In a recently published Parliament survey, agriculture, food and fisheries have emerged as a major area of disagreement between Brussels and the EU capitals.
Our readers won’t find this news astonishing, as they are very aware of how ruthless and ferocious agri-food spats can become in Europe.
On a weekly basis, they have been briefed about new clashes between EU countries on the front-of-pack labelling, or farmers taking the streets to protest against the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Not to mention new trade deals negotiated by the EU with nefarious consequences on Europe’s agricultural sector that upset every stakeholder, for different reasons.
All these arguments, controversies and disputes enter the internal political debate. And they are well noted by citizens.
This is what has been found in the annual Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the European Parliament and published on Friday (12 February): agri-food and fisheries have been confirmed as an apple of discord between the EU and member states.
While migration is by far still perceived as the main area of disagreement between Brussels and national governments, mentioned by nearly half (47%) of respondents, environmental (20%) and food-related issues (20%) follows immediately after.
To put it in perspective, environment and agri-food are both perceived as more confrontational on the EU stage than public health, despite the recent vaccine row and the criticism of how the EU has managed the pandemic.
The news does not catch us off guard also because some of the funniest demonstrations in EU history belong to the agri-food realm.
My favourite one dates back to February 1971, when a group of Walloon farmers gatecrashed a gathering of agriculture ministers of the then European Economic Community (EEC) with three cows, as a protest against the Mansholt Plan, the first CAP reform ever.
Besides, agricultural spending has always accounted for the lion’s share of the EU budget, and it is well known that where there is money, arguments will abound.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to check in which countries the level of confrontation is perceived as particularly heated.
Surprisingly, in one country – Ireland – agriculture, food and fishery have been ranked as the first contentious issue between the government and the EU institutions.
According to Luke Flanagan, one of the most experienced MEPs on Irish agricultural issues, the problem is created locally rather than in Brussels, as the poll results are most likely due to the largest farming organisation – the Irish farmers association (IFA) – objecting to rules and regulations of the CAP on a regular basis.
“This is picked up by the general public who then presume that this is our major area of disagreement with the EU,” he told EURACTIV.
For another MEP from the democratic socialist party Sinn Fein, Chris MacManus, Irish citizens demand an EU trade policy that bolsters short supply chains, environmental protection and a viable future for rural communities, while the EU has recently failed to respect these red lines.
He referred in particular to the Mercosur agreement as, according to him, it puts at risk most vulnerable indigenous sectors.
“When the EU grants the Mercosur countries 99,000 tonnes of the beef access or the US tariff-free lobster imports, Irish people know that will push their local farmers and fishing communities, who are already struggling, one step closer to financial ruin,” he said.
But Latvia, the Netherlands, and Finland also seem to have a beef with the EU when it comes to agrifood.
The European Commission and fisheries ministers have fought for quite a while on a drastic fishing quota limit in the Baltic Sea to save the cod stock at the risk of collapse, but that took a heavy socio-economic toll on the Latvian economy.
To convey an idea of how “pop” this fight had become, the day before the final vote, fishnet used by electric fishing vessels stood outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, while inside, Dutch folk singer Geke van der Sloot sang the song Lied voor de vissers (“Song for the fishermen”), composed for the occasion.
While in Riga and Amsterdam, the reason for the frictions could be found in fisheries, in Helsinki the disagreement with the EU could be perceived because of different natural conditions.
“We have a short growing season, long winter and implementation of [agricultural] directives are mostly tighter than the minimum,” Finnish MEP Elsi Katainen explained to EURACTIV.
According to her, this clearly sometimes creates a bit of disagreement in the agri-sector, although so far, the CAP has secured profitable farming in the north of the country.
Another explanation could come from the fact that farmers could feel it is unfair to see cheaper products on the market, produced with lower standards, while the EU asks from its farmers a tight regulation on quality and food safety.
For instance, Katainien recalled that Finland is one of the few countries which have properly implemented the ‘pigtail’ directive.
“On the other hand, our high standards are a strength in the export markets,” she added.
The positive news from the survey is, indeed, that providing affordable and safe food, as well as a fair standard of living for farmers, is quite high on EU citizens’ wish list – for 26% of respondents, they are ranked higher than measures to develop renewable energy or better trade cooperation with global players.
EU-Africa partnership must reflect ‘realities of African agriculture’ Future agrifood partnerships between the EU and Africa take into account the realities of farming in Africa, especially in the context of a drive for a greener transition, agrifood stakeholders have warned. Natasha Foote has more.
German lawmakers call for ending exports of banned pesticides Pesticides that are currently banned in Europe may still be exported to foreign countries, an issue which highlights the EU’s lack of coherence, according to the leftist Die Linke and the Greens. EURACTIV Germany reports.
News from the bubble
CAP negotiations to hit a sticking point on social conditionality: Social conditionality is proving to be a thorny issue in the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) negotiations if the most recent special committee on agriculture (SCA) meeting is anything to go by. The meeting, which was held on Monday (8 February) saw nearly all member states raise issues with the inclusion of social conditionality in the reform of the CAP, which would see CAP subsidies would be conditional upon farmers’ upholding working and employment standards.
Three options appear to be on the table, none of which seem to have a clear majority. These include: having the social conditionality (with penalties) conditional on court rulings; including a chapter on social conditionality in national strategic plans; and developing a specific provision on “implementation conditions” that the Commission would check before approving the national strategic plans.
A fourth and supplementary activity was to enlarge the role of Farm Advisory Services to advise farmers on social legislation. Many member states raised the issue that social conditionality was not in the original Commission proposal, and that this falls outside the remit of the CAP, which has already been subject to environmental conditionality. Among those most opposed to the inclusion of social conditionality include Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic and Lithuania. Check out EURACTIV’s article to learn more about the issue.
Protected product: The European Commission has approved the application for the entry of “Ponikve” in the register of protected designations of origin (PDO). Ponikve is an appellation of white, rosé and red wines produced on the Pelješac peninsula in southern Croatia.
Pro-Nutriscore alliance: A coalition of six EU countries – Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Spain – plus Switzerland will establish a transnational coordination mechanism to facilitate the use of the front-of-pack nutrition label Nutri-Score. The news has been hailed by those who advocate for the adoption of this framework as the EU-wide mandatory food labelling.
Wine package prolongation: The European Parliament gave the final green light to extend the length of the Commission’s aid package for winegrowers by a year. To learn more about this set of extraordinary measures, check out our reporting.
Agrifood news from the capitals
UK Organic food consumption is at an all-time high after the demand for organic produce soared over the past year, which has seen the biggest year-on-year increase in sales in 15 years. The organic market, including food, clothing, cosmetics and other products, increased to £2.79bn, a rise of 12.6% on 2019, according to the Soil Association in its annual organic market report, released on Wednesday (10 February). (Natasha Foote | EURACTIV.com)
GERMANY Germany’s cabinet passed a package on insect protection on Wednesday (10 February) after a long dispute between the agriculture and environment ministries (BMEL and BMU) and deep divisions between environmental organisations and farmers. The compromise reached between the BMEL and BMU has provisions to protect certain habitats like grasslands for insects and curb light pollution, which can harm nocturnal insects. An additional package presented by the BMEL severely restricts the use of the glyphosate and completely bans it as of 2023. Environment minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) was pleased with the compromise, saying “The glyphosate phase-out is coming.” Environmental organisations agreed. President of Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), Olaf Bandt, said “Every kilo of pesticide saved, every pesticide-free square kilometer of land and every light source saved are positive for insects and nature. The final phase-out of glyphosate agriculture also points in the right direction.” While agriculture minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) also voiced her approval of the package, farmers associations were highly critical. Joachim Rukwied of the German Farmers’ Association (DBV) called the law “short-sighted and a strategic mistake in environmental protection policy.” (Sarah Lawton | EURACTIV.de)
IRELAND Northern Ireland’s department of agriculture staff resumed checks of animal-based products at two ports on Wednesday (10 February). The checks were suspended on 1 February after threatening graffiti appeared in a number of loyalist areas warning that port staff could be “targets”. According to RTE News, the decision comes after police carried out a threat assessment. (Natasha Foote | EURACTIV.com)
ITALY There is a great deal of uncertainty about who will succeed Teresa Bellanova as Minister of Agriculture in the new government led by the former governor of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi. The latest rumours swirl around a technocratic figure or an agriculture expert, but there are some speculations that right-wing party Lega is interested in the job. At the beginning of the week, the Italian daily La Repubblica reported that even the party’s leader Matteo Salvini could be a candidate for the post. “We want to be part of a government that keeps its head up when negotiating with Brussels if Italian agriculture has to be defended,” he said after the second round of talks with Draghi. (Gerardo Fortuna | EURACTIV.com)
CROATIA The European Commission has approved an investment of more than €86 million from the European regional development fund in Croatia to expand its next generation broadband infrastructure, in line with the EU broadband strategy and policies. The investment will provide Croatia’s rural and suburban settlements with access to high-speed internet services to the benefit of citizens and local businesses. Commissioner for cohesion and reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said: “All Europeans should have stable and fast access to internet services. This has proven to be even more relevant in the coronavirus pandemic context where numerous activities have shifted to a full online format. By contributing to end the digital divide between urban and rural populations, this project will open up to new economic opportunities and boost Croatia’s socio-economic development.” (Natasha Foote | EURACTIV.com)
POLAND Around nine million tonnes of food are wasted in Poland every year while there are some 1.6 million people living in extreme poverty, the Federation of Polish Food Banks has reported. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the problem. The association estimates that the number of people in need of free food in Poland could be even higher, reaching 5-6 million. Households account for nearly half of this amount, with bread, fruit, cold cuts and vegetables wasted the most. The reason for this is usually missing the expiration date, poor quality of products bought or simply buying too much food. These statistics increase the most during holidays and summer, when it is the season for trips and barbecues. (Mateusz Kucharczyk | EURACTIV.pl)
FRANCE France has failed in its ambition to reduce the use of pesticides, according to a report published yesterday (February 9th) by the think tank of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation. According to the report, the use of plant protection agents has grown by 25 % over the past 10 years. The news is seen as a complete failure by the organisation, given that the French government, in 2008, announced its ambition to reduce the use of pesticides by 50 % in 2025. The authors of the report point to numerous reasons for this failure, amongst which a lack of coherence in the attribution of public financing to the agrifood sector. In order to tackle the problem, the think tank calls for a “new contract” between agriculture and society. Transition to agroecology should receive greater support from public and private creditors, while those selling and using pesticides should be subject to financial penalties in the framework of a “polluter pays” system, it concludes. (Lucie Duboua-Lorsch| EURACTIV.fr)
Events
16 February – EURACTIV is holding an event on how a sustainable EU food system will be essential to achieve the sustainable development goals. Learn more.
17 – 18 February – The OLEUM project, which aims to better guarantee olive oil quality and authenticity by empowering detection and fostering prevention of olive oil fraud, will explore the impact of OLEUM on the future of EU policies on olive oil and how it will impact on the olive oil sector economy and practices. See here for details.
17 – 19 February – There is the BIOFACH, the world’s leading trade fair for organic food, which this year will take place completely digital. Learn more.
Maybe it’s the fact that the wave of dull insider accounts of the Trump regime seems to have finally crested. Maybe everyone had a lot of time for high-yield contemplation during 2020. Maybe the entire publishing industry wanted to create some difficult choices for me, personally.
Whatever the reason may be, February has proven to be a particularly exciting month for new releases in Jewish book publishing.
“The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood” Donna Rifkind
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Salka Viertel was a glowing node of connection during the Golden Age of Hollywood, a screenwriter and actor who could call on Greta Garbo, Aldous Huxley and Charlie Chaplin, among many others.
Born in 1889 in Sambor, a small Mitteleuropean city wrested back and forth between long-gone kingdoms, Virtel was an actor and screenwriter who fled anti-Semitic persecution for the welcoming shores of the American West Coast. Viertel’s great talent was for shmoozing; her keen intuition for salon introductions and professional shidduchs made her well-known to the well-known. Rifkind’s biography is the first book-length treatment of Viertel, who is as charming on the page as you might imagine.
“Milk Fed” Melissa Broder
“Milk Fed” is just 304 pages, with a small cast of characters. And yet, to try and succinctly describe what goes on here would be a disservice to this odd, exciting little book.
Broder’s story — about secular American Judaism, the contemporary professional woman’s relationship to food and sex, and an Orthodox woman who works the counter at a frozen yogurt shop — is not for the faint of heart. If you’re appropriately girded, give this one a shot.
“God I Feel Modern Tonight: Poems from a Gal About Town” Catherine Cohen
If you had to put Catherine Cohen into a single category, “comedian” would come closest to describing what she does. But Cohen’s career as a cabaret performer, actor, podcaster and stand-up all points to unique ambitions as an artist — she’s appeared in mainstream shows like “Broad City” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” but she’s also someone who, prior to the pandemic, performed weekly as a chanteuse at a New York club with an unprintable name. And you can still catch her podcast, if you’re missing that live Cohen zing.
“God I Feel Modern Tonight” reads like poetry written by a non-poet; Cohen’s singular voice and performance instincts give her work a quality you don’t come across frequently. The PR for this book tries to brand Cohen as a very particular millennial type that exists more as an elevator pitch than a person — “A Dorothy Parker for our time, a Starbucks philosophe with no primary-care doctor” — but Cohen is blessedly uncategorizable.
“Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World’s First Female Rabbi” Written by Sigal Samuel, illustrated by Vali Mintzi We don’t often write about illustrated children’s books, but an exception must be made for “Osnat and Her Dove.” Why the story of Osnat has stuck with me since I was a child is anyone’s guess, though it probably has something to do with finding the name funny when I was 10 and the fact that I heard it told with great care by the rabbi at Perelman Jewish Day School.
Whatever the reason, Samuels’ retelling and Mintzi’s striking illustrations — brilliant reds, yellows and oranges — transported me back to those days and, for that, I’m grateful.
“Nuestra America: My Family in the Vertigo of Translation” Claudio Lomnitz
Lomnitz, an anthropologist at Columbia University, bites off quite a bit in this family memoir. His eye for the meta-stories of peoples and nations is brought to bear on the forces that shaped the lives of his grandparents, Jews who fled what is now Romania for Peru in the 1920s. They arrived to find that terrible truth that if one insists on being Jewish everywhere, one will be treated as a Jew everywhere.
“Nuestra America” is more than the tragic tale of a family caught in the gears of 20th century -isms, though that subject is certainly worthy of exploration on its own. Lomnitz reads his life and the lives of his family members as closely as he does political and cultural texts, complicating our understanding of both. The language can be a little dry, but the characters and the subject matter are anything but.
The shareholders of the European Investment Fund (EIF) have approved a 64% increase of the EIF’s share capital from €4.5 billion to €7.4 billion.
The EIF’s capital increase will bring substantial additional resources to scale up support for the SME financing market, and venture and growth capital activity.
The capital increase will enable the EIF to play a key role in rolling out InvestEU, the EU’s investment programme for 2021-2027, thereby also supporting the green and digital transformation of the EU economy.
As part of the EIB Group’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, the EIF is also putting in place significant packages to support small businesses across Europe.
The EIF had another record year in 2020, signing operations with a total volume of €12.9 billion benefiting Europe’s economy.
The shareholders of the European Investment Fund (EIF) have approved a 64% increase in its total authorised capital from €4.5 billion to approximately €7.4 billion. With this decision, the General Meeting of shareholders – the European Investment Bank, the European Union represented by the European Commission and 38 public and private financial institutions – gave a strong signal to further extend EIF activity to support European businesses, in particular SMEs, through a series of innovative financial products.
As a result of the capital increase, the EIF will be well-placed to mobilise significantly greater financial support, facilitating access to finance for SMEs and small midcaps, and strengthening the venture and growth capital ecosystem in Europe. The EIF will be well equipped to continue pursuing EU policy objectives, help roll-out the InvestEU programme and in particular finance the green and digital transformation of the EU economy. This will be implemented through a diverse range of products including guarantee instruments, securitisation, micro finance and a reinforcement of the private equity and venture capital business which remain key axes of SME financing support.
The capital increase will help EIF to deploy a significant portion of the new €26 billion InvestEU programme of the European Union, thereby contributing to a wide array of EU policy goals. In parallel, the EIF is well-placed to roll-out SME-focused activities including the EIB Group’s €25 billion Pan-European Guarantee Fund, an initiative aiming to shield businesses against the damaging effects of the pandemic.
EIB Vice-President and Chairman of EIF’s Board of Directors, Dario Scannapieco said: “The EIB Group has been at the forefront in the fight to tackle coronavirus both inside and outside the EU. We are delighted to have strengthened the Group through a decisive increase in EIF’s delivery capacity, allowing it to address the urgent needs businesses are currently facing across the European Union and boost their growth going forward.”
European Commission Executive Vice President, Valdis Dombrovskis said: “I am very pleased that, together with the EU, the other EIF shareholders agreed to strengthen this Fund. This means that the EIF will be fully equipped to implement the InvestEU programme, to help EU businesses in emerging out of the crisis, and to support the green and digital transformation of the EU economy.”
EIF’s Chief Executive, Alain Godard welcomed the strong support of EIF’s shareholders: “The need for EIF support for businesses is now more pressing than ever. The capital increase gives us more firepower to support Europe’s businesses and to address the economic fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. Our mission to support SMEs across Europe remains crucial to stimulating growth, employment and innovation in Europe. In addition to alleviating the effects of the crisis, this capital increase will help us to better address Europe’s ambitions in the fields of digitalisation, innovation, social cohesion and green transformation.”
The EIF has been innovating with new instruments and initiatives in areas from space tech and artificial intelligence, to inclusive finance and social impact, channelling private capital towards public policy objectives. Last year, the EIF had another record year, signing operations with a total volume of EUR 12.9 billion – an increase of 26% on 2019. In 2020, by efficiently multiplying the effect of public resources, the EIF generated much-needed financing for more than 370,000 SMEs and small mid-caps, sustaining around 2.8 million jobs.
The COVID-19 crisis has a strong impact on the EIF’s business and the demand for EIF products. For both business lines, debt and equity, the demand for most EIF products has sharply increased and – due to the magnitude of the economic challenge – a quick reaction to supply and implement decisive measures was commensurate.
Background information:
The European Investment Fund (EIF) together with the European Investment Bank, form the European Investment Bank group. The EIF’s central mission is to pursue the objectives of the EU in supporting Europe’s micro, small and medium-sized businesses, notably by helping them to access finance, achieve growth, innovate, digitalise and perform in a green economy. EIF designs and develops both venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target these market segments.
Dr Richard Wellings, acting research director at the British think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, shared his views with Sputnik on the recent developments in the post-Brexit relations between the UK and the EU.
Sputnik: We’ve heard countless tirades over the shortcomings of the deal with the EU. In the meantime any deal would have brought about an economic setback, not to mention the ongoing pandemic. So how much better off could we have been in the long run?
Dr Richard Wellings: I think Brexiteers were always very honest that there would be teething problems in the short term after Brexit, that there would be an adjustment process. But their view is that the long-term benefits will far outweigh any short-term costs and they will come from freer trade with the rest of the world and also from the freedom to reduce the huge burden of EU regulation on the UK’s domestic economy.
Sputnik: PM Boris Johnson’s Brexit policy representative David, Lord Frost, confirmed that the European parliament was now expected to request an extension to the two-month period to ratify the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. When ratified, how will it affect both parties’ businesses? Dr Richard Wellings: The extension in a way makes sense because we’re in unusual times now because of the pandemic. In usual times, UK businesses would have found it much easier to find partners in the rest of the world to buy cheaper goods and services from outside the EU. But unfortunately, that’s not so easy at the moment because of the pandemic. And also, both the UK and the EU are facing supply chain problems. In fact, these are global supply chain problems because of the pandemic. So, we have problems with shipping capacity and so on, and delays at the ports. I think this extension really makes sense for both parties.
Sputnik: It was reported that Brussels will offer only a three or six-month extension to “grace periods” to ease supermarket supply chains and parcel deliveries to Northern Ireland instead of a requested delay to 2023. What are the chances that the Northern Ireland Protocol will be successfully renegotiated?
Dr Richard Wellings: I think there will be pressure for this issue to be resolved from both the Republic of Ireland and from the UK, and that’s because of the terrible history of conflict in Northern Ireland. I don’t think any party wants to return to that kind of conflict. So, one hopes that the present problems can be resolved. And there has been evidence in recent weeks that we’ve heard of tensions growing in Northern Ireland with some of the paramilitary organisations rearing their ugly head again. I think there’ll be pressure from both sides not to make this a huge issue and really affect either the EU or the UK. And Northern Ireland isn’t particularly important from an economic perspective: it has a very small economy in the overall scheme of things. And it’s not an obvious route to, if you like, smuggle unchecked goods into the rest of the EU because it obviously makes no sense from a geographical perspective to do that.
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The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
“We know that this post-COVID-19 condition – or as some patients also call it ‘long COVID’ and some clinicians call it ‘long COVID’ – is a heterogenous group of symptoms that occur after the acute illness”, said Dr. Janet Diaz, Team Lead, Health Care Readiness at WHO.
“So, these are symptoms or complications that can happen potentially a month after, three months after, or even six months after, and as we are learning more, we are trying to understand the real duration of this condition.”
Citing reported symptoms such as neurological and physical illness, Dr. Diaz noted that an unspecified number of sufferers had been unable to return to work, once they had recovered from the acute sickness caused by the new coronavirus.
“We are concerned obviously with the numbers of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus that the numbers…just by the magnitude of the pandemic, will impact health systems.”
Although comprehensive data on the condition is not yet available, the WHO official insisted that “these (symptoms) were real”.
“Some of the “more common” ailments were “fatigue, exhaustion and post-exertional malaise, cognitive disfunction”, along with what some patients called “brain fog”, Dr Diaz said, describing a “constellation of symptoms”.
Complications
Further research is also needed to drill down into how many COVID-19 sufferers who did not require intensive care unit (ICU) treatment still went on to develop the condition.
“What we know this far is that patients experiencing (a) post-COVID-19 condition could have been hospitalized patients, those in the ICU. So, we do know that has happened in patients who are very sick, but also in patients who were not managed inside the hospital…they have had complications and they have had persistent symptoms or new symptoms…or symptoms that waxed and waned, that came and went after their acute illness.”
To promote a better understanding of post-COVID sickness and support patient care and public health interventions, the WHO has called on clinicians and patients to report data on symptoms to the Organization’s Clinical Platform.
The case report form – which is available in multiple languages – has been designed to report standardized clinical data from individuals after they have left hospital or after recovering from acute illness.
“What we don’t know is why it’s happening, so what is the pathophysiology … of this condition…the researchers are really working hard to get to the answers of these questions,” Dr. Diaz said.
Vaccine deal inked
In a related development, UN Children’s Fund UNICEF announced on Friday a deal to distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, potentially before the end of March.
The agreement is on behalf of the COVAX platform, primarily for developing nations, set up by the WHO, The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
“This supply agreement allows UNICEF to procure up to 40 million doses that have been secured under the COVAX Facility’s Advance Purchase Agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech to be available throughout 2021”, the UN agency said in a statement.
Emergency use approved
The Pfizer-BioNTech jab was the first to receive WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) on 31 December 2020.
It requires ultra-cold chain storage facilities which UNICEF has secured with partners to support governments in their roll-out of a variety of COVID-19 vaccines, it said.
As of Friday 12 February 2021, WHO’s coronavirus tracker reported 107,252,265 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,355,339 deaths.
Regionally, the Americas have seen most cases to date, with 47,814,602 infections, followed by Europe (36,132,951), South-East Asia (13,141,859), Eastern Mediterranean (5,951,021), Africa (2,694,171) and Western Pacific (1,516,916).
