Latest news bulletin | September 17th – Evening - video Dailymotion

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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.

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