European Union & Vaccine Rollout: Disaster Unfolding

For a long time now, the creation of the euro, a dangerous experiment that placed political fantasy over economic reality, has been the most damaging example of just how far, and just how incompetently, those running the EU would go in the name of “ever-closer union.” That dismal precedent may now have been eclipsed by Brussels’s involvement in securing supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine for those who live within the EU’s borders, a lethal experiment that placed political dogma over medical need.

Supported by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, the EU Commission (its administrative arm) took over the negotiations with vaccine manufacturers on behalf of all EU member-states last June. This was designed both as a declaration of EU “solidarity” and because of the belief that bargaining on behalf of the whole bloc could secure the vaccine at a cheaper price, a calculation that appeared to take little account of the economic costs of any delays, and delay was what — for a variety of reasons — Brussels delivered.

The U.K. came to its deal with AstraZeneca (the manufacturer of the Oxford vaccine) three months earlier than the EU, and its contract came with sharper teeth. The EU also took four months longer than the U.K. and U.S. to sign up with Pfizer.

Readmore at: European Union & Vaccine Rollout: Disaster Unfolding | National Review

Coronavirus - EU: Frustration at EU summit on slow vaccination - by Eszter Zalan

A sluggish start to the vaccine roll-out has cast a long shadow on the online meeting of EU leaders, who on Thursday (25 March) discussed the bloc's vaccine strategy.

There has been a muted backing for the EU Commission's plans to tighten export rules, as the bloc wants to make sure pharmaceutical companies, particularly AstraZeneca, deliver on their EU contracts before exporting.

Leaders also resisted Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz's efforts to redistribute vaccines at the summit, which Kurz argued had been unevenly spread among member states.

Read more at: Frustration at EU summit on slow vaccination

Netherlands: Churchgoers breaking COVID rules attack journalists

olice in the Netherlands arrested a man after he hit and kicked a journalist outside a Protestant church that had opened for a full congregation on Sunday despite the country's strict lockdown.

Reporters showed up at the Mieraskerk church in the town of Krimpen aan den Ijssel near the city of Rotterdam.

The church made headlines after reports that it was going ahead with a service for its entire congregation. The Netherlands is under a strict lockdown and has a rising COVID-19 rate.

Read mor at: Netherlands: Churchgoers breaking COVID rules attack journalists | News | DW | 28.03.2021

EU : Spain, Netherlands say open economy key to EU strategic autonomy - by Jan Strupczewski and Foo Yun Chee

Spain and the Netherlands on Wednesday urged the 27-country European Union to keep its economy open, as it tries to become more independent from global powers like the United States and Asia in technology, vaccine production and energy.

The joint call by the two countries, which have large exposure to trade and tourism, comes as the European Commission announced on Wednesday tougher rules on the export of COVID-19 vaccines, including clearer rights to block shipments to countries.

Rea more at: Spain, Netherlands say open economy key to EU strategic autonomy

The Netherlands: Coronavirus Pandemic: Netherlands Extends Travel Ban Until May 15

The Netherlands’ government has decided to extend the advice against travelling abroad for its citizens, until May 15, after taking into account the current infection rate of the Coronavirus in foreign countries.

The decision is an additional preventive measure imposed by the Dutch government to avoid travelling during the Easter holidays, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

In addition, the country’s administration has also decided to extend its restrictive measures after a rise in the number of COVID-19 infections.

Read more at: Netherlands Extends Travel Ban Until May 15 - SchengenVisaInfo.com

Britain-EU relations: Europe's trust in Britain has gone. We're now a problem, not a partner - by Raphael Behr

The pandemic is landing well-aimed punches on the already bruised relationship between Britain and the European Union. A dispute over vaccine supplies threatens to bring blunt instruments of trade war down on delicate national feelings. Not in the darkest hours of Brexit negotiations did either side imagine that supply-chain management would so quickly become a matter of life and death.

At a summit later this week, European leaders will discuss a possible ban on exports to the UK from an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands. There is frustration in Brussels that millions of vaccine doses have gone overseas (mostly Pfizer ones) and none have come over in return. The UK responds that it cannot be blamed for moving earlier, signing better contracts and generally getting its immunising act together faster.

Tory MPs say Brussels is lashing out in jealousy. Vaccination is something Boris Johnson’s government is doing well, and the EU is floundering. That has less to do with Brexit than is claimed by triumphant ministers, but as propaganda the point is irresistible: there is nothing else to trumpet as a benefit of detachment from the continent, and winning the vaccination race resonates with voters grateful for jabs.

Read more at: Europe's trust in Britain has gone. We're now a problem, not a partner | Brexit | The Guardian

The Netherlands: The Dutch housing market in 2021 - booming

Over 75 percent of the houses that come on the market are sold either at the asking price or (far) above; 10% above the asking price has almost become the norm. The number of viewings and offers per property has declined somewhat, however, the pressure remains consistently high. Since January 1, 2021, investors are paying 8 percent in transfer tax and are expected to become more reticent to buy, at least for the time being. This will slightly improve the position of first-time buyers.

As the housing market is so tight and private buyers hardly have insight into the ultimate selling prices of the listed houses, more and more people who are looking for a house opt for the services of a real estate agent. This often gives them a better chance to view the available houses (as estate agents know which houses are coming on the market before they are listed online) and the estate agent can offer more information regarding the state of the house and the expected selling prices. Consequently, they will have a better idea of what price they should offer for a house and, thus, are usually more successful at having an offer accepted.

Read more at: The Dutch housing market in 2021

EU: Dutch researchers test ways to party during the pandemic

It's a music festival much like any other. More than a thousand people are packed together, dancing to thumping beats and chugging beer. They aren't keeping their distance, not wearing masks. It's the way it used to be, before the pandemic. The event took place on Saturday, in the small town of Biddinghuizen in the Netherlands — with government approval.

The Back to Live festival was a trial run. Researchers want to find out if and how large-scale events can take place despite the pandemic. In Biddinghuizen, revelers had their temperatures taken at the entrance to the festival grounds and had to show not just a ticket but also a negative PCR test result. They all got a sensor to wear around their necks tracking their movements, and then the fun could begin.

Read more at: Dutch researchers test ways to party during the pandemic | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 22.03.2021

The Netherlands: Larges Dutch criminal investigation' finds corruption among Amsterdam police

The officer appeared on the radar of the investigative services through the analysis of intercepted messages from the Encrochat encryption service, whose computer server was seized in France on June 12, 2020. This happened after the investigation team had been following the communication between the officer and external parties since April 1, 2020.

This led to the largest Dutch criminal investigation ever. Murders

Read more at: https://nltimes.nl/2021/03/06/larges-dutch-criminal-investigation-finds-corruption-among-amsterdam-police

Womens Rights: Turkey exits European treaty designed to protect women from violence

Hundreds of women gather in Istanbul on Saturday to oppose a move by the Turkish government to exit the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty designed to protect women from violence. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

Turkey withdrew early Saturday from a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first to sign 10 years ago and that bears the name of its largest city.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's overnight decree annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women's rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence.

Read more at: Turkey exits European treaty designed to protect women from violence | CBC News

Germany: Volkswagen to slash up to 5,000 jobs to fund electric vehicle drive

Carmaker Volkswagen will shed up to 5,000 jobs between now and the end of 2023 as part of cost-cutting to finance its transition to electric vehicles, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

Up to 900 employees would opt for an early retirement scheme while others would leave the company as part of a gradual halting of their activities, it said.

It did not give a precise figure for those employees, saying only that it would be in the lower end of a “four-digit number”, an expression usually used to mean between 2,000 to 4,000.

Read more at: https://apiwp.thelocal.com/20210314/volkswagen-to-slash-up-to-5000-jobs-to-fund-electric-vehicle-drive/

EU - Vaccination Certificate: TravelFirst glimpse of new EU 'vaccine certificate' for summer-by Elena Sánchez Nicolás

The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday (17 March) its common approach to vaccine certificates to ease free travel within the bloc - amid concerns over the slow and unequal rollout of vaccines across member states.

The announcement comes after tourism-reliant member states, led by Greece, and industry players like the International Air Transport Association, urged the EU to establish a form of vaccination proof ahead of the summer holiday season. <

Read more at: First glimpse of new EU 'vaccine certificate' for summer

The Netherlands elections- PM Rutte wins for the 4th time: Party leaders react to Dutch election results; Left wing let down

Party leaders from across the political spectrum gave their reactions to the exit poll results after voting in the 2021 parliamentary elections wrapped up. Seventeen parties were projected to take at least one of the 150 seats in the Tweed e Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. Below follows a round up of reactions from party leaders.

Not included are speeches covered in a separate article, like those from Mark Rutte, the leader of the apparent winner VVD, Sigrid Kaag, who led D66 to a second place finish, and Geert Wilders, whose PVV finished in third. Also missing is Thierry Baudet, leader of the FvD, who gave no reaction three hours after the polls closed despite an apparently strong election result based on exit poll data.

It was a "painful" defeat for the Greens, said GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver of his party's projected six-seat loss. "This result also means that colleagues will not come back, and that hurts."

Read more at: Party leaders react to Dutch election results; Left wing let down | NL Times

Netherlands election: Mark Rutte set to win big – but what next?

The outgoing prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, appears headed for a comprehensive victory and fourth successive term in office as the Dutch go to the polls in national elections on Monday, with voting spread over three days due to coronavirus restrictions.

Polls predict Rutte, who has headed three coalition governments of different political complexions since 2010, and his centre-right People’s party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) will win twice as many parliamentary seats as his nearest rival

Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/15/netherlands-election-mark-rutte-set-to-win-big-but-what-next

EU -Vaccines - Oxford/AstraZeneca: Spain joins France, Germany and Italy in pausing Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine

France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Cyprus announced they will stop administering the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine pending an assessment by the EU’s medicine regulator. Spain said it will stop using the AZ vaccine for at least two weeks.

The benefits of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid outweigh the risks of side effects, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is no proven link to blood clots and that people should not panic.

Read more at: Spain joins France, Germany and Italy in pausing Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine – as it happened | World news | The Guardian

The Netherlands: Covid-19: Dutch police break up anti-lockdown protest

Police in the Netherlands have used water cannon to clear anti-government demonstrators from a park in The Hague.

Some 2,000 demonstrators rallied in the centre of the city to protest against Covid-19 restrictions and other government policies. <

Read more at: Covid-19: Dutch police break up anti-lockdown protest - BBC News

German- Turkish Relations: Young Turkish people seek fresh start in Germany amid repression at home

Turkey is once again experiencing a brain drain, as more and more young graduates and other highly qualified workers are leaving the country to start a new life abroad.

Critics blame President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government for failing to offer qualified Turks enough prospects and even stigmatizing them. The criticism has intensified since protests broke out at Istanbul's renowned Bogazici University in January after Erdogan appointed an unpopular rector loyal to his ruling AKP party. The police cracked down heavily on the demonstrations, and politicians have described the student protesters as "terrorists" or even "perverts."

Read More at Young Turkish people seek fresh start in Germany amid repression at home | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 13.03.2021

The Netherlands - racial Reckoning: Caribbean racial reckoning: Sint Maarten confronts Netherlands over coronavirus aid - by Anthony Faiola and Ana Vanessa Herrero

Inside the prime minister’s office in the Caribbean nation of Sint Maarten, the walls of paradise were closing in.

In the former Dutch colony renowned for fish stews and rum cocktails on Great Bay Beach, the coronavirus pandemic had ground tourism to a halt, sparking a financial crisis akin to the aftermath of a hurricane. By December, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said, public coffers were so low that she didn’t know how she could continue to cover the government payroll.

She needed a financial lifeline. Four thousand miles away, Mother Holland was prepared to throw one — but with strings attached. What followed would be a racial reckoning in the Caribbean: a bitter dispute between Sint Maarten’s Dutch overseers in Europe and local politicians representing an island populated predominantly by Afro-Caribbeans and other people of color.

Reas more at: Caribbean racial reckoning: Sint Maarten confronts Netherlands over coronavirus aid - The Washington Post

EU-US Relations: New transatlantic partnership for global change in motion

In a letter sent to Manfred Weber – the chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP), the largest political organization in the EU Parliament, Council, and Commission – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban officially announced that his political party, Fidesz, would resign from the center-right group.

Orban’s decision to pull Fidesz out of the faction came after the EPP, which has dominated EU politics for over 20 years, moved to enact a new rule change that would have paved the way for Fidesz to be suspended from its ranks.

Reas more at: New transatlantic partnership for global change in motion | New Europe

The Netherlands: Lessons from the Netherlands on staying in power

Ask Dutch people about Mark Rutte, their prime minister since 2010, and they recite the ritual Dutch paean to any hero who remains “normaal”: how the eternal bachelor lives in an ordinary flat, having refused to move into the official residence; how he doesn’t even have a coffee machine, just a kettle; how he cycles to work, teaches social studies once a week at a high school in an immigrant neighbourhood of The Hague and, finally, has no noticeable political beliefs. Rutte himself, a Germanophile, likes to quote the late West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt: “Anyone having visions should see a doctor.”

Read more at: Lessons from the Netherlands on staying in power | Financial Times

Cancer Treatment: Cure for cancer the next target for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine inventor Ugur Sahin

The man who invented the first vaccine against the deadly coronavirus is prioritizing a cure for cancer as his post-pandemic target.

Ugur Sahin, the co-founder and chief executive of BioNTech, the firm which developed the earliest authorized vaccine in partnership with Pfizer, told Arab News that successful cancer treatment, using similar techniques he developed in the fight against COVID-19, was his next goal.

Sahin, who developed the vaccine along with his wife Ozlem Tureci, who is BioNTech’s chief medical officer, was appearing in the latest episode of Frankly Speaking, the series of video interviews with leading global policy-makers and business people.

Read more at: Cure for cancer the next target for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine inventor Ugur Sahin

Excercise: Why winter exercise can be especially hard on the lungs - by Laura Glowacki

Canadian Olympic hopeful Katherine Stewart-Jones can't remember when she first started experiencing a cough she and other cross-country skiers call "race hack," but she said it was probably when she started competing in her early teen years.

"Sometimes, it goes like all the way into your back ... it's just this burning sensation," she said. "I'll lean over and just don't want to get up for a while because it hurts.

Read more at: Why winter exercise can be especially hard on the lungs | CBC News

The Netherlands: Dutch dance lovers offered lockdown relief at test event

Dance music lovers in Amsterdam were offered a short relief from COVID-19 lockdown on Saturday, treated to their first live show in over a year while serving as guinea pigs in a research project

A total of 1,300 people were allowed at a carefully orchestrated test event in Amsterdam’s biggest music hall, the ZiggoDome, which in normal times has a capacity of up to 17,000.

Read more at: Dutch dance lovers offered lockdown relief at test event | Reuters

EU-British:Relations: Breton: No AstraZeneca jabs exported from the Netherlands after EU export controls - by illian Deutsch

AstraZeneca subcontractor Halix has not sent any Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses to the U.K. after the EU implemented export controls, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said Wednesday.

In January, the Commission introduced new export controls requiring companies to get authorization from national authorities to export vaccines outside the bloc.

Since then, "everything has stayed in the EU," Breton said, adding that AstraZeneca hasn't requested to send vaccines abroad since the authorization scheme.

Read more: Breton: No AstraZeneca jabs exported from the Netherlands after EU export controls – POLITICO

EU: Covid: What’s the problem with the EU vaccine rollout?

The European Union has been criticised for the slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations in its member states.

It has introduced export controls on vaccines produced in the EU after its rollout was hit by supply problems and delays. They were used for the first time on 4 March, when Italy blocked a shipment of 250,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia.

The scheme, set up in June 2020, allows the EU to negotiate the purchase of vaccines on behalf of its member states. It says this can help reduce costs and avoid competition between them.

Member states do not have to join the scheme, but all 27 EU countries chose to do so.

Read more at: Covid: What’s the problem with the EU vaccine rollout? - BBC News

Netherlands: Explosion at Covid test center in Noord-Holland town

An explosive went off at a GGD coronavirus test center in the Noord-Holland town of Bovenkarspel on Wednesday morning. No one was hurt, the police said on Twitter.

The explosion happened at around 6:55 a.m. at the test center on Middenweg. The police specifically said that an explosive went off, indicating that the blast was intentional.

Read more at: Explosion at Covid test center in Noord-Holland town | NL Times

Christianity: Questions you were afraid to ask in Church

Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale had a special surprize in store for their congregation this past Sunday. A one hour question and answer session, on every kind of question one might have on Christianity, but either never did ask, or if they did, was given an unsatisfactory answer. Impressive and to the point Enjoy the clarity and openness of it, and pass it on to anyone you think would benefit from it.

To watch, click here: https://calvaryftl.org/series/97/sermon/788/questions-youre-afraid-to-ask-in-church/

ECDC: The Netherlands has fourth-highest vaccination rate in EU - by Victoria Séveno

After a late start and a slow couple of weeks, the number of coronavirus vaccinations in the Netherlands has risen significantly over the past two weeks. According to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Netherlands now has the fourth-highest vaccination rate in the EU.

Read more at: ECDC: The Netherlands has fourth-highest vaccination rate in EU