We use cookies in order to ensure that you can get the best browsing experience possible on the Council website. Certain cookies are used to obtain aggregated statistics about website visits to help us constantly improve the site and better serve your needs. Other cookies are used to boost performance and guarantee security of the website.
With your permission, we will use AT internet cookies to produce aggregated, anonymous data about our visitors’ browsing and behaviour on our website. We will use this data to improve your experience on our website.
To get more information about these cookies, how and why we use them and how you can change your settings, check our cookies policy page.
(Photo: The Press Service of the President of the Republic of Belarus)Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Metropolitan of Minsk and Mogilev, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz visit the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1 April 2013 in times of better relations. When they met Lukashenko said the Roman Catholic Church is very important in Belarus and its influence in the society is large.
Belarusian authorities allowed the Catholic archbishop of Minsk to return home for Christmas after lifting a four-month ban on him entering the country during the ongoing protesting against government actions.
Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk-Mohilev was denied entry to Belarus on Aug. 31 while returning from a trip to neighboring Poland.
He shed tears on his return, calling for unity, reconciliation, and forgiveness during his country’s continuing political upheaval, Cruxnow reported.
“The Apostolic Nunciature express its gratitude to the State Authorities of Belarus for responding positively to Pope Francis’ request to return Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz to celebrate the Nativity of the Lord with the faithful of which he is pastor,” the Vatican’s diplomatic representative in Belarus said Dec. 22.
The Belarus authorities had invalided the 74-year-old Kondrusiewicz’s passport, and border guards had blocked him from returning to Belarus from Poland.
DEFENDED PROTESTS
The archbishop had spoken in defense of protests following a disputed presidential election, and protestors have called for new elections.
Since then, the country’s opposition leaders have been forced into exile. Thousands have taken to the streets in persistent demonstrations in which protestors, including Catholic clergy and laypeople, have been beaten and jailed.
At one point, police barricaded the doors of the church of Saints Simon and Helena in Minsk and, hours later, arrested demonstrators who took refuge inside as they left the structure, Crux reported.
Widespread protests have beset Belarus following the disputed Aug. 9 presidential poll in which the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko was declared to have won with 80% of the vote.
Electoral officials said that the opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, earned 10% of the vote. The opposition claims that she gained at least 60% of votes, Catholic News Agency reported.
Lukashenko has been president of Belarus since the position was created in 1994.
He has suggested Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, who also is also believed to have Polish ancestry, might be a citizen of more than one country.
An envoy from the Vatican had met Lukashenka earlier in December in the capital Minsk before the entry ban was lifted.
Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, the apostolic nuncio to the United Kingdom, acted as a special envoy of Pope Francis to Lukashenko, delivering a letter on Dec. 17.
It had a request regarding Archbishop Kondrusiewicz.
Archbishop Gugerotti was an apostolic nuncio to Belarus from 2011 to 2015
Kondrusiewicz noted that while he has spent the bulk of his time as an archbishop abroad, he always held Belarus close to heart, “because this is my Motherland,” Crux reported..
“When I crossed the border, I knelt down and prayed, I kissed this land,” Kondrusiewicz said Dec, 24, noting that “the motherland cannot be thrown out of the heart,” said Radio Free Europe.
“This is my land. I grew up here; I want to be here. I want to serve here. And I have never opposed Belarus, I have always defended the interests of Belarus, and I will continue to do so,” the Catholic leader said.
Catholicism is the second-largest religious tradition in Belarus, after Eastern Orthodoxy.
Provisional implementation is to remain a unique exception, said EP leaders. Parliamentary oversight will start soon to adopt the EP position before the end of the provisional application.
On Monday 28 December, the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament and President David Sassoli exchanged views with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier on the deal reached on 24 December on the future relationship between the EU and the UK.
The Conference of Presidents reiterated Parliament’s thanks and congratulations to the EU negotiators for their intense efforts to reach this historic agreement that can now form the basis of a new partnership.
In the spirit of unity that prevailed throughout the negotiation process, and given the particular, unique and specific circumstances, the Conference of Presidents accepts a provisional application to mitigate the disruption for citizens and businesses and prevent the chaos of a no-deal scenario. This decision on this specific provisional application neither constitutes a precedent nor reopens established commitments made among EU institutions. It should not serve as a blueprint for future consent procedures, underlined the political groups’ leaders.
The Conference of Presidents also decided to examine with the Council presidency and the Commission a proposal to slightly extend the period of provisional application, allowing for a parliamentary ratification during the March plenary session.
The Committees on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, together with all associated committees, will now carefully examine the agreement and prepare Parliament’s consent decision to be discussed and adopted in plenary in due time and before the end of the provisional application. In parallel, the political groups will prepare a draft resolution accompanying the consent vote.
The political groups’ leaders stressed Parliament’s will to monitor closely the implementation of the EU-UK agreement in all its details. They underlined that parliamentary cooperation is a key part of the future treaty between the EU and the UK. When the right time comes, Parliament will seek to establish contact with the UK Parliament to cooperate.
On a specific note, leaders regret the UK’s choice not to include Erasmus programme in the agreement.
Amid political chaos in Nepal, China is sending a vice-minister of the Chinese Communist Party to Kathmandu to “assess the ground situation”.
The Kathmandu Post quoted two Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders confirming that Guo Yezhou, vice-minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China, is arriving in Kathmandu on Sunday for a four-day visit.
During the visit, Guo will meet the senior leaders of both the factions of the NCP, according to sources.
Sources in both the factions of the NCP confirmed that Guo, along with his four-member team, will land in Kathmandu on Sunday morning.
Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Head of Department of Foreign Affairs of the NCP (Dahal-Nepal faction), while confirming that the Chinese side communicated about Guo’s visit to Kathmandu, denied divulging details “at this point of time”.
Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari had dissolved the Lower House on Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s recommendation. The move has invited 12 petitions in the country’s apex court, claiming it to be “unconstitutional”, including one by former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal who filed the plea on Tuesday.
After dissolving the Parliament, Oli also proposed elections on April 30 and May 10, 2021, nearly two years ahead of the schedule.
Seven cabinet ministers had submitted their resignations after the Parliament dissolution was ratified by the President.
Oli has been facing pressure from the rival factions of the NCP, led by former prime minister Dahal and Madhav Nepal.
In particular, the Chinese envoy in Nepal has been hyperactive in recent weeks, meeting the President as well as Prachanda under the garb of mundane official agendas. It is thought the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to play a big brother role in keeping the Nepal Communist Party together. India has refused to be drawn into the Nepal turmoil, with the MEA terming it as Nepal’s internal matter, though it has expressed it is keeping a watch on developments.
Children in Odisha, India take lessons in the open air as a precaution against COVID-19.
School closures as a result of health and other crises are not new, at least not in the developing world, and the potentially devastating consequences are well known; loss of learning and higher drop-out rates, increased violence against children, teen pregnancies and early marriages.
What sets the COVID-19 pandemic apart from all other crises is that it has affected children everywhere and at the same time.
It is the poorest, most vulnerable children who are hurt the most when schools close and so the UN was quick to advocate for continuity of learning, and the safe opening of schools, where possible, as countries began to put lockdown measures in place: “unfortunately, the global scale and speed of the current educational disruption is
unparalleled and, if prolonged, could threaten the right to education”, Audrey Azoulay, the head of the UN education agency, UNESCO, warned in March.
A 14-year-old girl tunes into English and science lessons in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.
Students and teachers found themselves grappling with unfamiliar conferencing technology, an experience that many found difficult to cope with, but which was, for many living in lockdown, the only way to ensure any kind of education could carry on.
However, for millions of children, the idea of an online virtual classroom is an unattainable dream. In April, UNESCO revealed startling divides in digitally based distance learning, with data showing that some 830 million students do not have access to a computer.
The picture is particularly bleak in low-income countries: nearly 90 per cent of students in sub-Saharan Africa do not have household computers while 82 per cent are unable to get online. “A learning crisis already existed before COVID-19 hit”, a UNICEF official said in June.” We are now looking at an even more divisive and deepening education crisis.”
However, in many of the developing countries where online or computer learning are not an option for most students, radio still has the power to reach millions of people and is being used to keep some form of education going. In South Sudan, Radio Miraya, a highly trusted news source run by the UN mission in the country (UNMISS),
began broadcasting educational programming for the many children who, due to COVID-19 measures, were unable to be in the classroom. You can hear excerpts from the Miraya programmes in this episode of our flagship podcast, The Lid Is On.
A seven-year-old girl studies online at home in Kyiv, Ukraine, as schools remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite such efforts, the UN was warning in August that the long-term impact of disrupted education could create a “lost generation” of children in Africa. A World Health Organization (WHO) survey of 39 sub-Saharan African countries revealed that schools were open in only six nations and partially open in 19.
By the end of the year, 320 million children were still locked out of schools worldwide, and UNICEF felt compelled to issue a call for governments to prioritize school reopening and make classrooms as safe as possible.
“What we have learned about schooling during the time of COVID is clear: the benefits of keeping schools open, far outweigh the costs of closing them, and nationwide closures of schools should be avoided at all costs”, said Robert Jenkins, UNICEF Global Chief of Education.
As much of the world experiences a spike in COVID-19 cases, and with vaccinations still out of reach of most people, more nuanced policies are needed from national authorities, declared Mr. Jenkins, rather than blanket shutdowns and closures:
“Evidence shows that schools are not the main drivers of this pandemic. Yet we are seeing an alarming trend whereby governments are once again closing down schools as a first recourse rather than a last resort. In some cases, this is being done nationwide, rather than community by community, and children are continuing to suffer the devastating impacts on their learning, mental and physical well-being and safety”.
Who does the European Parliament offend by properly celebrating Christmas?
I recently read that Spanish MEP Isabel Benjumea tried to organise the putting up of a crib in the European Parliament during the Christmas festivities. After writing to the highest authorities she was eventually informed that the decision had to come from the department that looks after the maintenance of the building of the European Parliament. She later received a reply from that department saying that it is not the policy of the European Parliament to put up a crib, which celebrates the birth of Christ, as this could “offend others”.
May I politely ask who are these others that would be offended by having a crib put up in the European Parliament?
Europe, so far, is Christian and the European Parliament should be representing Christian values.
I am fully aware that there are people of different races and religions in Europe today but, as far as I know, the majority is still supposedly of Christian faith, albeit many of those supposedly Christian do not practise their faith at all as materialism has, unfortunately, taken over in many parts of our society. Here again I ask: who is offended?
If anyone should be offended then let them speak out and, thus, not enjoy the public holidays in Europe and work on Christmas Day.
So why do we put up all those street decorations around the world in December? Is it because we are celebrating the month of electricity?
December 25 is the day that our Lord Jesus Christ was born and the Christian world celebrates this day not just as a holiday but as a religious holiday.
The lighting up of our streets and the decorations we put up is to celebrate the birth of Christ but the most symbolic image of this event is the crib, which teaches us and reminds us Christians of the birth of Christ.
Europe so far is Christian and the European Parliament should be representing Christian values
The very word itself, Christmas, signifies Christ.
Why, then, do we give presents to each other on Christmas? This symbolises the presents that the three Magi Kings gave: gold, representing kingship on earth, frankincense, a symbol of deity, and myrrh, an embalming oil as a symbol of death.
It is rather ironic, therefore, that on the celebration of Christ’s own birthday we give presents to everyone except to the birthday boy Himself, Christ. We even try to forget that He exists by refusing to celebrate His birthday.
I do not expect to see such decorations and a crib in a non-Christian country but to have our own European Parliament claim that the reason why they do not want to have a crib is not to offend a minority is offensive to the majority.
It is obvious that the European Parliament is absolutely spineless. I urge the president of the European Parliament to reconsider such an offensive decision and change the policy. He should also apologise for offending the majority of us Christians by refusing to display a crib.
May I ask how many non-Christian MEPs there are? I am sure the answer would be a definite minority.
If this is correct, then the European Parliament is willing to please this minority and offend the majority.
Well, this is, therefore, a new definition of ‘democracy’!
I fully recognise that my argument will fall on deaf ears as the only MEPs who might read my article are the Maltese ones who are Christian.
Therefore, I ask them to protest this issue because, while we are only a minority, it seems that minorities seem to be respected more in the European Parliament than the majority.
I would also suggest that, as a beautiful gesture, every government of the European Union member states donate a crib to the European Parliament to show that Europe is all about Christian values.
Francis Vassallo, former governor, Central Bank of Malta
Independent journalism costs money. Support Times of Malta for the price of a coffee.
Health system reforms in the Republic of Moldova have expanded the number of people benefiting from publicly financed health care and the range of services covered. Better access has reduced unmet need for health care. However, this greater use of services has increased people’s exposure to out-of-pocket payments – for example, through co-payments for outpatient medicines. A new report released by WHO finds that around 1 in 6 households in the Republic of Moldova experiences catastrophic health spending.
Medicines – largest single driver of financial hardship
Financial hardship is heavily concentrated among poor people, pensioners and people living in rural areas. Outpatient medicines are the largest single driver of catastrophic out-of-pocket payments and their contribution to financial hardship has increased over time.
For poorer households, inpatient care is the second-largest driver of catastrophic health spending, perhaps linked to informal payments for hospital care (the use of cash or presents to secure services), which have also increased.
Financial protection undermined by gaps in coverage
The share of the population covered by the Republic of Moldova’s national health insurance fund has increased in recent years, but over 10% of the population still lacks coverage, mainly because entitlement is linked to payment of health insurance contributions. The number of people who work in the informal sector and cannot afford to pay contributions is significant.
For those who are covered by the health insurance fund, financial protection may be undermined by the limited range of publicly financed outpatient medicines, heavy co-payments for these medicines, underdeveloped strategic purchasing and the practice of informal payments.
As a result of these gaps in coverage, poorer households are at high risk of being uninsured, facing financial barriers to access and experiencing catastrophic health spending.
Pandemic demonstrates value of universal health coverage
In working to control the COVID-19 outbreak, the Republic of Moldova has used reserve funds to guarantee free hospital treatment for everyone, regardless of health insurance status. As the longer-term economic disruption caused by COVID-19 becomes more evident, this short-term measure could be turned into a permanent feature. De-linking entitlement to all health services – not just hospital care – from payment of contributions would ensure that everyone is covered.
Re-designing the coverage of outpatient medicines will also help strengthen financial protection – for example, by extending the range of outpatient medicines covered, ensuring that poor households and people with chronic conditions are exempt from co-payments and introducing a cap on co-payments for everyone.
Moving towards universal health coverage requires a commitment to steadily increasing public spending on health. This is even more important in the context of COVID-19, which demands greater public investment in health, better use of existing resources and policy responses carefully designed to reduce unmet need and financial hardship for people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
“Universal health coverage must remain a policy objective that is central to the agenda of recovery and rebuilding in the coming months,” said Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems in the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Members of the European parliament are set to begin scrutinising the post-Brexit trade deal on Monday just days after the European Union and the United Kingdom reached a Christmas Eve agreement.
According to The Guardian, a number of MEPs has urged that more details about the agreement be revealed, and how the EU will make sure the Boris Johnson government does not “use its new freedoms” to shift away from crucial social and environmental standards in the upcoming years.
Despite the “Brexmas” deal being concluded at the very last minute, MEPs are expected to give it a green light. The agreement, however, is unlikely to be approved before it’s supposed to come into effect on 1 January when the 11-month Brexit transition period ends.
The European Union and the UK reached a trade deal last Thursday following months of tough talks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the deal as fair and balanced, while UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that it might not be a “cakeist treaty”, but was still “what the country needs at this time”.
The PM noted that the deal will create a giant free trade zone starting from 1 January and raise the country’s share of fishing quotas from around half to two-thirds in 5.5 years. Fishing rights had been among the thorniest issues in post-Brexit negotiations.
Following the announcement of the deal, the FoodDrinkEurope confederation, the Copa and Cogeca interest group for European farmers, and the European Liaison Committee for Agricultural and Agri-Food Trade (CELCAA) called on the authorities to take urgent measures that include, among other things, the development of an effective transition phase, provision of human, technical, and financial resources to put in place the new customs and sanitary measures, as well as assurance of a continued formal communication channel between agri-food chain operators, on one side, and the European Commission and national authorities, on the other.
Members of the European parliament will start belated scrutiny of the post-Brexit trade agreement on Monday, after EU and UK negotiators finally struck a deal on Christmas Eve.
The delays in finalising the agreement have left MEPs with no chance to approve the deal before it comes into force on 1 January. The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will start a round of national and party consultations with MEPs.
MEPs from all factions are angry that they will be unable to scrutinise the deal fully in advance, but the chances of them rejecting it are low because the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has kept them fully informed throughout the talks.
Some MEPs, however, feel the sovereignty of the parliament has been systematically undermined either by Boris Johnson’s negotiating tactics or the commission’s indifference to MEPs right to ratify treaties.
Some German Green MPs have demanded greater scrutiny and clear sanctions if the UK breaks the rules, pointing to the plethora of joint committees and working groups that will now be set up between the UK and the EU.
MEPs have also called for more detail about how Brussels will be able to ensure a Conservative-led UK government does not use its new freedoms to diverge from key social and environmental standards in the years ahead.
There are no provisions in the deal to prevent the UK shifting to a lower tax economy, although in practice the deficits run up as a result of the coronavirus pandemic are likely to lead to tax increases in the coming years.
Many MEPs are also concerned about Brexit’s implications for the continued unity of the UK. Some insist the European parliament should make it clear it would welcome an independent Scotland joining the EU, a stance that would cause concern in Spain faced by a separatist Catalonia.
The president of the European parliament, David Sassoli, welcomed the deal on Christmas Eve and implied that most of its red lines had been preserved.
“The parliament is now ready to react responsibly in order to minimise disruption to citizens and business,” he said. “The parliament will continue its work in the responsible committees and the full plenary before deciding whether to give consent in the new year.”
Udo Bullmann, a German socialist member of the parliament’s trade committee said MEPs would “put the agreement through its paces over the next few weeks and then decide on its value. The rules on competitive conditions and market access will be examined in particular so that no new loopholes for dumping practices and tested EU standards arise.”
David McAllister, the parliament’s Brexit commissioner, said in an interview with Die Welt that the deal “would have far reaching consequences for people, companies and public administrations. Trade between the EU and the UK will no longer run as smoothly as it would when when we jointly tackled the internal market and the customs union.”
Iratxe García, the leader of the parliament’s socialist group, emphasised that the deal could not set a precedent for the way the commission consults the parliament on future trade deals. “This is a unique situation and there has and never will be an agreement quite like it, either in its nature or its procedure,” she said.
Pedro Silva Pereira, the socialist representative on the Brexit coordination group, said: “We will now analyse the final outcome of negotiations but, having had regular contact with the EU negotiating team, we believe that this agreement deserves our full support since it ensures a new relationship based on fair trade and high standards, avoiding social, environmental and regulatory dumping, and protecting our fishing communities.”
He is one of many MEPs who hopes the UK will come to see purpose in cooperating on a common foreign policy, something that is not covered by trade agreement.
