Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00According to a recent Democracy Report, trust and participation to elections around the
00:05world are falling and Europe is no exception.
00:12Poland's Prime Minister has called for European funding for relief efforts following floods
00:17in Central Europe.
00:21Trying to balance politics, geography and gender, Ursula von der Leyen revealed her
00:25next team of European commissioners and their portfolios.
00:31Riot police were deployed as tensions between Ceuta and Morocco continued for the third
00:35night in a row.
00:41Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that it has regained control of a village
00:46in its Kursk region.
00:54Trust and participation in elections all over the world is declining for eight years
00:58in a row.
01:01Something that is also happening in Europe, as the global state of Democracy Report states.
01:06For Europe, polarisation in politics is one of the issues, says Sam van der Staak, the
01:11director of International Ideas Europe programme.
01:16It's countries that have been in the news, but also a lot of countries that as an outsider
01:20you wouldn't suspect.
01:22Countries like Greece and Bulgaria and Spain and Portugal and the Netherlands and outside
01:28the EU, the United Kingdom.
01:31They're still very healthy functioning democracies, but you see that in parts of the system things
01:36are cracking.
01:37And that's often because the politics is really putting a lot of pressure on how democracy
01:42functions.
01:43There's more polarisation, there's more pressure from political parties to say things
01:50need to change.
01:51And of course there's a lot of citizens that are dissatisfied by the way that democracy
01:54is delivering on their everyday concerns.
01:57But not everything is bad news in Europe.
01:59For van der Staak, the improvement in Central and Eastern European countries is closing
02:03the divide between old, established democracies and newer ones, helping Europe come together.
02:09The state of Democracy Report identifies, however, two main causes to explain why politics
02:13loses credibility.
02:15We've seen it in countries like France, Spain, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, all across Europe
02:22there's been votes for the extremes that after the election stay out of power and people
02:28then wonder why go and vote at all.
02:30There's also the pressure from outside.
02:32So we see that there's forces such as Russia, but also other authoritarian powers that try
02:39to abuse this weakness that we're seeing to stir even more dissatisfaction.
02:46So there's a pressure from outside, through disinformation, through cyber attacks on the
02:51elections, through foreign funding.
02:55For van der Staak, elections worldwide are a source of concern, with 10% lower participation
03:00than 15 years ago, and with 20% of recent years' elections where the losing candidate
03:06does not accept the outcome.
03:08We are with Zimbabwe.
03:15Hundreds of electric vehicles are reportedly sitting idle for years at one of Europe's
03:20most important ports, Zeebrugge in Belgium.
03:24Up to three million EVs are shuttled from cargo ships onto trucks every year for sale.
03:29But a glut in Chinese overproduction and sluggish European consumer demand has put the green
03:35technology firmly in the park.
03:38Just after the COVID-19 crisis, starting in 2022, we started to see a significant increase
03:44in the volume of electric cars.
03:46But purely electric cars come from China, because they have the technology, they have
03:52the raw materials, and so, unfortunately, most European manufacturers also produce
03:58their electric cars in China.
04:00European EV registrations pale in comparison to gas-powered vehicles, representing only
04:0613.5% in July.
04:09And while there is interest in driving green, the EU has pumped the brakes on importing
04:13China-made EVs by imposing a series of street tariffs.
04:17Only time will tell which route Europeans decide to take.
04:22It's been a big day for German opposition party, the Christian Democrats.
04:28Firstly, CDU politician Orstef von der Leyen unveiled her new EU Commission cabinet on
04:34Tuesday.
04:35Both the CDU and Germany can celebrate having a woman in the top EU role for the second
04:41time.
04:42Additionally, Friedrich Merz was confirmed as the CDU chancellor candidate ahead of next
04:48year's German federal elections.
04:51With tensions between Germany and Austria rising after the German government reintroduced
04:56spot checks at all of its land borders starting from this week, Austria has already put its
05:01foot down and said it wouldn't accept any migrants that were turned away at the German
05:06border.
05:08However, with Magnus Brunner being nominated for the top migrant commission job in the
05:14EU, it seems likely that Austria may use this to defend its tough stance on migration.
05:21Liv Stroud, in Berlin, for Euronews.
05:28Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says more than a billion euros of funding will be needed
05:34for relief efforts following widespread flooding in Poland.
05:39Tusk's call for European aid follows days of heavy rainfall across swathes of Central
05:45Europe, which has caused severe flooding in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania
05:51and Austria.
05:52At least 18 people have been killed in the floods so far and evacuations have taken place
06:17in Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria.
06:24An emergency shelter has been set up in the Tillen Exhibition Hall in Austria, while more
06:29than 5,000 troops have been deployed to southern Poland to help fortify sandbanks along the
06:35Nissa-Klodzka River.
06:39Flood alert levels remain high in the Czech Republic, although meteorologists expect water
06:44levels in southern Bohemian rivers to reduce throughout the day.
06:49Slovakia's interior minister says the flood situation there is improving, but attention
06:55must now be turned to aftermath relief efforts.
06:59Meanwhile, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has called for the solidarity
07:05of all of Europe to provide as much support as possible to the countries affected by flooding.
07:15After weeks of consultations behind closed doors, the Commission's president announced
07:20on Tuesday the policy portfolios of her 26-strong team of commissioners.
07:29There will be six executive vice presidents who will deal with big umbrella portfolios.
07:34In picking these specific ones, Ursula von der Leyen ensured that her new team will have
07:39geographical as well as political representation.
07:42Two from Socialists, Spain and Romania, one from EPP, Finland, one from ECR, Italy, and
07:48two from Liberals, France and Estonia.
07:52Six executive vice presidents, four women, two men.
07:56If you look at the geographical balance, three are from member states that joined before
08:03the fall of the Iron Curtain.
08:07Three are from member states that joined after Europe was reunited.
08:12From the Baltics, the Nordics, and Eastern Europe.
08:17We have ministers and prime ministers, very different backgrounds, with one common goal
08:24and that is to make Europe stronger.
08:28One of the names that are more controversial is Rafael Lefito from Meloni's hard right
08:32party who has been nominated to be executive vice president for cohesion and reforms.
08:39The 22 commissioners from the other member states complete the team.
08:43There are some new portfolios such as energy and housing, Mediterranean and defense.
08:50Last time the topic of global warming was absolutely top and this was the reason why
08:58I started the European Green Deal.
09:00The dominance of this topic is still there, but this time, for example, the topic of security
09:08triggered by the Russian war in Ukraine, but also the topic of competitiveness has a much
09:14broader, much more impact on the composition and the design of the political guidelines
09:20and then of course the organization of the college.
09:24It was also a surprise that the hardliner Austrian commissioner, Magnus Brunner, will
09:28be the commissioner for internal affairs and migration.
09:32The Hungarian commissioner, Oliver Varhely, got the weak portfolio for health and animal
09:37welfare.
09:38I have already carried out for the commission.
09:40Ursula von der Leyen's first goal was to have gender balance in her new team, but the best
09:45she could do was the 40-60 ratio.
09:48She gave, however, four of the executive vice president positions to women.
09:52One of them is Romania, which retracted its original candidate after von der Leyen lobbied
09:57for that.
09:58After the first relief, now comes the hard part of the commissioners.
10:04The new commission is expected to be in place at least the 1st of December.
10:14Poland declared a state of natural disaster after heavy flooding killed at least five
10:18people.
10:21The Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, says this will facilitate evacuation operations
10:26and expedite financial support for victims.
10:29I called for this meeting to take the decision as soon as possible to introduce a state of
10:37natural disaster.
10:38I turned to the Ministry of Finance and at the moment we have a reserve for the needs
10:44of people who are stranded by water, currently a billion zlotys.
10:49Evacuations as a result of the widespread flooding also took place in the Czech Republic,
10:53Austria and Romania.
10:56The majority of the Czech Republic was impacted by the heavy rain and authorities declared
11:01high flood warnings in roughly 100 places.
11:05The Oder river that flows to Poland reached extreme levels in Ostrava, the third largest
11:11Czech city.
11:13Many parts of the city were under water and centers have been set up for those who had
11:18to evacuate.
11:21Meanwhile Hungary braces itself for the rainfall.
11:24This helped fortify some of the most threatened areas.
11:28The mayor of Budapest warns that the capital faces what could be the biggest flood of the
11:32decade.
11:33The Hungarian Interior Minister, Sander Pinter confirmed that 12,000 troops were on standby.