AZERTAG.AZ :President Ilham Aliyev: There is a very high-level partnership between the European Union and Azerbaijan

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Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said there is no basis to fear what doomsayers describe as imminent loss of about 200,000 jobs for Filipino workers as a result of the possible Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) withdrawal. 

In a statement, Bello said they are confident that the European Commission will find “no valid and convincing reason to withdraw such privileges.”

“We believe we have been compliant with the fundamental requirements and processes for the country to continue enjoying the privileges under the GSP+,” he said on Wednesday. 

“We fared well in the country report to the European Commission which provides a scorecard of Philippine compliance with 27 international conventions,” added Bello.

The country report, he said, is an inter-agency effort, where DOLE actively participates in the process of providing updates and factual evidence, particularly on matters pertaining to the observance of labor rights.

Bello also revealed that the Philippines is the only country in the ASEAN that ratified eight fundamental conventions with respect to labor — Freedom of Association and Protection on the Right to Organize Convention, Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention, Forced Labor Convention, Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, Minimum Age Convention, Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, Equal Remuneration Convention, and Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention.

“Our government is doing its best to comply with all the EU GSP+ requirements in promoting the welfare of workers,” he said.

Bello said among them are the adoption of measures such as the Occupational Safety and Health Law, Expanded Maternity Benefit Leave, Anti-Age Discrimination in Employment.

“Our government recorded milestones in protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of our workers both locally and overseas,” he said.

“These are just some of the significant policies in support of the labor rights in the country and we will be relentless in this undertaking,” added Bello.

The European Parliament in a resolution called for the revocation of certain tariff benefits given to Philippines over concerns on the alleged deteriorating human rights situation.

Brussels [Belgium], September 24 (ANI): The Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have asked the European Union to reshape the EU-China relations framework after Beijing charged for personal protective equipment (PPE) given to European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When China was facing the pandemic, the European Union came forward and sent tons of goods/equipment to China, spending millions of euros on the process. Germany, France and Italy were major contributors to the aid relief.

However, when coronavirus cases arose in European countries, Beijing did not donate the PPE to Italy, and charged for the very equipment Italy had previously donated to China.

Spain was forced to return faulty test kits to China, and the Netherlands had to recall 600,000 faulty coronavirus face masks imported from China.

“Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Anna Bonfrisco, Matteo Adinolfi, Valentino Grant, Marco Dreosto, Luisa Regimenti, Alessandro Panza, Stefania Zambelli, Simona Baldassarre, Gianna Gancia and Francesca Donato of the Identity and Democracy Group have asked for reshaping the EU-China relations framework,” EU Chronicle reported.

In April, the Italian Identity and Democracy Group MEPs raised a parliamentary question to the European Commission asking that considering the EU-China investment agreement should be signed this year.

In July, High Representative/Vice-President Borrell responded that “the European Commission is working with the Member States and international partners on all fronts to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak” and that “the first priority is to guarantee the health and safety of all EU citizens: protecting people from the spread of the virus, supporting the health systems and health workers while maintaining the flow of goods, mitigating the effects on the economy and helping people get back to their homes”.

In an attempt to restore its humanitarian image following the crisis, China had projected in April to the world that it would donate PPE to Italy.

But later it was revealed, it was not a humanitarian gesture but a business- Beijing had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy, several media reports claimed.

A senior Trump administration official was quoted by The Spectator as saying that it is much worse than that and China “forced Italy to buy back the PPE supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak.”

“Before the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China protect its own population,” the administration official explained. “China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even all of it … and charged them for it,” he added.

Spain had to return 50,000 quick-testing kits to China after discovering that they were faulty.

In some cases, instead of apologising or fixing the issue, China has blamed its defective equipment on others. It condescendingly told The Netherlands to ‘double-check the instructions’ on its masks, for example, after The Netherlands complained that half of the masks sent by the Beijing did not meet safety standards, the media reported. (ANI)

By Ayya Lmahamad

High level of partnership exists between Azerbaijan and the European Union, President Ilham Aliyev said while receiving credentials of the newly-appointed Ambassador of Sweden Christian Kamill on September 24, Azertag reported .

“Sweden has always actively participated in cooperation between the European Union and the region. There is now a very high level partnership between the European Union and Azerbaijan and this partnerhship covers many areas. I hope the negotiations on the new agreement will continue successfully,” the president said.

The president said that the cooperation with the EU continues, despite disruption of some plans due to COVID-19. 

Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan has signed documents on strategic partnership with one third of EU member states, which demonstrates the high level of cooperation. In addition, he stated that two years ago Azerbaijan and EU also signed a document on partnership priorities, which is very important for further development of cooperation.

“We are very grateful that the European Union supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty of its borders in this document. It is a very important sign of a fair and just approach to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the president emphasized.

“As for our bilateral relations, we want them to become more intense. I am confident that such opportunity will appear through the ambassadors’ activity,” Aliyev said.

In turn, Ambassador Kamill stressed that Sweden is ready to support the Azerbaijan-EU cooperation.

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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is expected to sign a 30 million euro financing agreement with the European Commission envisaged for supporting Armenia’s judicial reforms.

The project is directed at supporting Armenia’s reforms in the justice sector in conformity with its obligations under the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the EU.

In addition, the Armenian Government is expected to sign a financing agreement with the European Union as part of the Armenia-EU 2020 annual action plan which will provide Armenia with 30 million Euros in support for the COVID-19 response and mitigation of the negative consequences in the healthcare and socio-economic areas.

The agreements are expected to be formally approved by the Armenian government at the September 24 Cabinet meeting.

The agenda of the Cabinet meeting also includes the signing of a grant agreement with the Asian Development Bank envisaging a 2 million dollar grant to Armenia for the COVID-19 response.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan