Latest news bulletin | September 19th – Midday - video Dailymotion

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00:00These are the first pictures at the first meeting of the new College of Commissioners that will be ruled by Ursula von der Leyen.

00:07Right after her, with a super portfolio including competition and the transition to a cleaner industry,

00:13there will be the Spanish socialist Teresa Rivera.

00:16She is set to become the second most powerful woman in the EU.

00:21One of her main tasks will be transforming the European industry so the EU can reach its 2050 zero emissions target,

00:28taking the block from grey to green.

00:32I think that it is also important to understand that what we try to do is not to colour or switch from a colour to another colour,

00:42but to try to identify in a crystal clear manner what does not harm our ecosystems, our environment,

00:54and how we can do it in a way that from an economic and social perspective makes sense.

01:01However, her long career as a climate change expert and her anti-nuclear stance has granted her some opposition.

01:08The EPP wants her mandate to be different from the previous vice president on the green transition.

01:15We don't need a second Timmermans.

01:17He was pushing things on industry, on SMEs, on farmers, and people were overwhelmed, so we need another attitude.

01:30Since 2018, Rivera has been one of the most powerful women in Pedro Sánchez's government in Spain.

01:36During her mandate, she negotiated the Iberian exception that allowed Spain and Portugal to limit the price of energy

01:43and calendarise the closure of the nuclear plants in Spain.

01:46But first, she will have to pass the final exam from the European Parliament like all the other future commissioners.

01:57Magnus Brunner will be the Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration.

02:02Magnus Brunner won't have an easy path to be part of the European Commission.

02:06The current Austrian finance minister was chosen by Ursula von der Leyen to deal with internal affairs and the migration portfolio.

02:13But his profile and Vienna's hard line on border controls are a source of worries for many in the European Parliament.

02:20First of all, everybody was extremely surprised because his portfolio as finance minister, expert on energy and so on,

02:27never he showed up in the topic of migration with some specific knowledge or engagement.

02:32Secondly, also the Austrian government made some very non-constructive moves in the last years.

02:41They were not very helpful for the migration pact.

02:44They made a veto on the Schengen enlargement for Romania and Bulgaria, which everybody is saying is extremely counterproductive.

02:54Manfred Weber, president of Brunner's European People's Party, on the other hand, defends this pick.

03:01Also extremely important issue is to win back control of our borders.

03:06To stop illegal migration in Europe is a key demand and that's why good to have EPP there in the lead.

03:13For sure, the hearing that Brunner will have to face in the European Parliament is going to be a hard one.

03:18Socialists, liberals and greens will push against a migration policy focused only on strengthening borders

03:24and making deals with third parties to take migrants back.

03:27Austria has even called for EU funds to be used for fences.

03:32But what should never ever happen is the undermining of our fundamental values and human rights.

03:40That's at the core and should always be at the core of any migration policy and any border policy.

03:47Austrians are electing a new parliament on 29th of September with far-right party FPÖ leading the polls.

03:55Which means that if Brunner is finally rejected, the next migration commissioner could come from a different government.

04:04The European Union is set to allocate 14 million euros to the Canary Islands to improve their ability to accommodate migrants.

04:15The funds will also be used to strengthen support for unaccompanied migrant children and teenagers,

04:21many of whom lost their parents during the perilous boat journey from West Africa.

04:27EU Commissioner Margaritis Skinas made the announcement while on a visit to the islands,

04:32where he met with President Fernando Clavijo Batlle.

04:37Skinas highlighted the enormous pressure faced by Canarian institutions in the face of the growing crisis,

04:44while Batlle added that Skinas had spoken of unity and solidarity during their meeting.

04:52Between January and August of this year, the Canary Islands have recorded the arrival of 22,300 migrants,

04:59a number which is expected to increase in the coming months.

05:07The European Union has begun the process of deducting a 200 million euro fine from Hungary's share of the EU budget,

05:15after Budapest missed the payment deadline for a second time.

05:20Hungary was fined by the EU's top court for breaking the bloc's migration rules,

05:25by depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum.

05:28When it comes to the 200 million euro fine, the 15 day deadline expired yesterday.

05:35That means that the commission is in accordance with the applicable rules,

05:39moving to what we call the offsetting procedure.

05:43So what we are going to do now is to deduct the 200 million euro from upcoming payments from the EU budget towards Hungary.

05:53The court has also imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros for every day that Hungary fails to comply.

06:01In response to the fines, Hungary has threatened to send migrants from its southern border to the EU's headquarters in Brussels.

06:09It's also threatened to sue the EU executive to reimburse the cost of protecting the bloc's external border,

06:17which the government says has cost roughly 2 billion euros.

06:25The European Commission has rebuffed the Dutch government's recent request to secure an opt-out clause from the EU's migration and asylum rules.

06:35A commission spokesperson told reporters in Brussels it had received the Hague's letter,

06:40penned by the Dutch Minister for Asylum and Migration, and that there were no plans currently to provide the exemption.

06:48There's no treaty change upcoming, therefore this is the current situation.

06:54We have also taken and welcomed the fact that the minister has said that they will continue to prioritise the implementation of the pact,

07:03which is clearly a priority for the commission.

07:07Marjolein Faber, the Dutch politician in charge of asylum and migration,

07:11wrote the government wanted to drastically reduce the volume of migrants to the Netherlands to deliver better social services.

07:19However, the member of the far-right ultranationalist party conceded in the communiqué

07:24that if her request fell on deaf ears, the Hague would continue to uphold the EU's migration rules.

07:34Both the Italian and the French defence ministers attended the second day of the European Air and Missile Defence Conference

07:42that took place in the Italian capital.

07:44The debate over how to better protect European skies against the Russian threats

07:49touched on the military, industrial and political aspects, and the presence of around 200 military and business leaders.

07:56Russia's war in Ukraine has sped up the need to strengthen the defence system across the continent.

08:01Along with that, questions have been raised on how to support the European arms industry.

08:06But, as Italy's defence minister Crosetto says, it's a race against time.

08:10Ensuring the self-reliance of the European defence sector is one of the priorities.

08:15We are not ready to live the challenge of the times in which we have been given to live.

08:23We are slow.

08:25And it's not an accusation, as is often said to companies.

08:31It's a statement.

08:33Either we have a European industry that has the European capacity and should not depend on anyone,

08:40or we are not capable of guaranteeing our defence.

08:44Building a dialogue among key players and connecting them is crucial, and it was one of the aims of the conference.

08:50Building a cooperation between European states, European defence and European industry,

08:57while eliminating all the bureaucratic barriers that make us waste time.

09:03I think this strategic reflection is good.

09:05It forces all players to share, to discuss.

09:09It also allows us to closely associate the teams of the Atlantic Alliance.

09:13It also allows us to foster a stronger intimacy between industrialists and our soldiers.

09:19Another conference has already been announced for next year,

09:22but the debate is set to continue within European institutions.

09:26The EU has just named its first defence commissioner.

09:29Bolstering European defence and security is in fact at the heart of the next EU Commission's agenda.

09:35Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews in Rome.

09:43After the escape of five inmates from a Portuguese high-security penitentiary,

09:48the Justice Minister announced urgent audits of the security and management systems of the country's 49 prisons.

09:57If the previous government had listened to us, we would have had this problem solved.

10:01We know that there is no security in Portuguese prisons, in any prison.

10:05One of the flaws in security is the deactivation of the watchtowers,

10:09which were replaced by a video surveillance system due to lack of personnel.

10:14These towers not only observed the prisoners, but also detected any strange movement outside the prison.

10:21The periphery has to be guaranteed by human matter.

10:24There is no turning back. The human being has to be there controlling.

10:28And the national level towers are almost all deactivated,

10:32because there are no guards to work inside the cells.

10:34Where are you going to look? There are towers, activate the tower and put the guard inside the cell.

10:44There are no guards, there are no vehicles, the infrastructure is degraded.

10:48The prison system is obsolete.

10:51We continue to say that it is the only country in Europe that has joined the punitive part with the reinsertion.

11:00We cannot join a security force with the reinsertion.

11:05Because we are not guards.

11:07Our job is to guarantee the security of the prison facilities and not to reinsert the prisoners in society.

11:14This problem is further increased by the overcrowding of prisons.

11:18Data from 2023 show that the occupation is above 90% and is already considered high risk.

11:25Above the limit are 24 prison facilities, including the one in Porto.

11:30Joana Mourão Carvalho for Euronews in Lisbon.

Latest news bulletin | September 19th – Midday

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