Latest news bulletin | February 13th – Evening - video Dailymotion

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00:00Behind me you can see the discarded flags and high-visibility vests that some demonstrators

00:08were carrying this morning in central Munich when a car drove into them from behind.

00:14Twenty-eight people, including children, were injured.

00:16The suspected 24-year-old Afghan-born asylum seeker was arrested at the scene.

00:21Police say that they believe he acted alone, but authorities have not yet ruled out that

00:25this could have been an attack.

00:27This of course comes a day before a whole host of world leaders are expected to descend

00:32on the Bavarian city for a three-day security conference.

00:36This includes U.S. Vice President G.D.

00:38Vance, but also Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

00:42But this also comes in the midst of an election cycle with German voters set to go to the

00:47polls on February 23rd.

00:50Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AFD far-right party, which currently is second in the poll,

00:56has tied the incidents to migration, calling for a turning point in the country's migration

01:02policy.

01:03This is Alice Tidy reporting from Munich for Euronews.

01:11European foreign ministers warned that Ukraine's future must involve both Europe and Kyiv.

01:17As news broke that U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed

01:22to immediately hold peace talks.

01:52Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin and Trump agreed in a telephone

02:05conversation to organize a meeting in person.

02:09And that the Russian president told Trump he is ready to receive Americans in the country.

02:15Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet the U.S. Vice President at the Munich Security Conference

02:25by the end of the week in what is expected to bring, for the first time, some sense of

02:30clarity over how Washington sees the end of the war in Ukraine.

02:34Expectations in Kyiv are both very high and very cautious.

02:38Could Ukraine be forced into territorial concessions?

02:41What we could see in Ukraine is a situation where a peace agreement follows certain lines

02:48where Ukraine is able to avoid a de jure concession of territory to Russia.

02:57In a de facto sense, it's going to be very hard for Ukraine to physically reclaim that

03:02territory under the present circumstances.

03:07But if Ukraine can avoid a de jure solution that gives territory to Russia, it can at

03:15some point in the future reclaim that territory.

03:18Of course, we understand that de-occupying all of the occupied territories in the military

03:24way, it's probably very difficult, if not impossible, at least at this point where we

03:32are at in 2025.

03:35But saying that, hey, you know, it's Russia, let's forget it, it cannot happen.

03:42And we do think that people on the occupied territories, which is basically a black hole

03:48with no human rights respect whatsoever, their interests have to be on the table as well.

03:58Kravchuk says any deal would also need to guarantee that Russia would not come back

04:02in a few years after regrouping and preparing better, especially given Ukraine's bitter

04:07experience with the so-called Minsk agreements after Russia's first invasion in 2014.

04:13A Minsk agreement was without the United States.

04:15And it also proves that this format, just Europe, without the involvement of the President

04:22of the United States, doesn't really work.

04:24So what are the security guarantees?

04:26And I really hope that during the Munich Security Conference, this issue will be addressed.

04:32We don't need another Minsk, but we also do not need another Budapest Memorandum.

04:36Well, obviously, Europe wouldn't be able to make up for it for the United States, either

04:40politically or in practical material terms.

04:43The new administration, I think, has understood the importance of Ukraine and the importance

04:50of maintaining a coherent approach with Europe.

04:55And so I would hope that that continues.

05:00The leader of Austria's far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, has called for fresh

05:05elections after coalition talks with his party and the center-right OVP collapsed on Wednesday.

05:11Kickl was taxed with forming a coalition government by President Alexander Van der Bellen after

05:16Austria's other parties banded together in order to keep Kickl out of power.

05:21I thanked the President for the fact that we have had a very, very trustworthy base of

05:27conversation in the last few weeks, although we have very different ideological approaches

05:33in many areas.

05:37And in this conversation, I also expressed my opinion to the President that it would

05:43be good and that it would be about time, if perhaps the head of state would now be able

05:49to support a quick re-election.

05:54Meanwhile, Austrians are expressing mixed reactions to the announcement which marks

05:58the second time coalition talks are failed.

06:01I would say that it was a game of truce that was lost.

06:05I am angry with Putin because the others took three months and did nothing.

06:09And he says that the government will be in power in a week, and that is not true.

06:13Time for a re-election.

06:15Kickl came first in elections held in September with 28% of the vote.

06:20However, with the FPO unable to form a government, Austria now enters an unclear political situation.

06:35To simplify and reduce the administrative burden for companies, this is the approach

06:40that Brussels is proposing to improve European competitiveness.

06:44According to the EU Commission's working plan, the first areas that will be impacted

06:49include important pieces of legislation.

06:52Among them is corporate sustainability due diligence, which ensures companies address

06:57human rights and the environmental impact of their actions.

07:00Taxonomy, which defies the criteria for economic activities to be aligned with a net-zero trajectory,

07:06is also addressed.

07:08There is much at stake.

07:10Without simpler and more cost-effective rules, Europe will keep up losing economic weight.

07:16We must be clear.

07:18Simplification and enhancing Europe's competitiveness are not ends in itself.

07:23What we are pursuing is to set the right conditions to have more innovation, more business,

07:29higher growth and better jobs in Europe.

07:32Those are important not only to maintain our well-being and social model,

07:37but also our ability to succeed in green and digital transition.

07:44The European Construction Industry Federation welcomed the initiative,

07:48but also submitted a 24-point position paper and warned that the current framework

07:53does not make it attractive for small and medium-sized enterprises to finance sustainable activities.

08:03When it comes to the specific reporting obligations, it is of immense importance

08:09to reduce the complexity of sustainability reporting by reducing the number of data points

08:15defined in the framework of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

08:19There are more than 1,100 individual data points that companies have to disclose information upon.

08:27This is too much and this also affects small and medium-sized enterprises

08:32that get those information as requests from their business partners along the value chain.

08:40While the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels was in closed-door negotiations

08:44with big businesses, a few days ago, dozens of NGOs and interest groups protested outside the building.

08:52They fear that the simplifications will affect workers' rights

08:55and that environmental sustainability standards will be watered down.

09:00This legislation, again, the workers, the people, it's about the impact that huge multinationals

09:05have on them throughout the globe, in Europe and abroad.

09:09If you listen to the Commission, the only thing they seem to care about

09:13is how to make life easier for business, which we argue is just a fancy way to say

09:18how can we make business, make the planet burn even faster than it currently is.

09:23The European Commission has promised that the proposals will not compromise the green transition

09:27and insist they will make it cheaper.

09:32The agreement with Mercosur is completely absurd.

09:34The competitiveness of our companies will be reinforced.

09:39Dependent on some, defended by others, misunderstood by many,

09:42the so-called Mercosur Agreement has generated great passion in the farms of the whole European Union,

09:48especially here in France.

09:50The European Commission has just signed it, to the great dismay of almost all French farmers

09:55who openly oppose an ambitious and complex agreement that has been in negotiations for 25 years.

10:03The Common Market of the South, Mercosur and the European Union have agreed to trade goods

10:08with reduced or full oranges.

10:10If ratified, it would create a market of about 800 million people,

10:14one of the largest free trade areas in the world.

10:18It would eliminate more than 90% of oranges between Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay

10:23and the 27 community countries.

10:25It would imply fewer taxes on cars, industrial equipment and European chemical products,

10:30in addition to clothing, pharmaceutical products and some agri-foods.

10:35In return, the EU would open its markets more to Mercosur,

10:38in particular to its agri-food products.

10:42It would increase free taxes on sugar and corral birds.

10:46Mercosur could also export 99,000 tons of sugar to Europe.

10:51Mercosur could also export 99,000 additional tons of vaccine to Europe

10:56with reduced oranges, 1.6% of its annual production in Europe.

11:03Germany and Spain support the agreement.

11:05Italy has sent contradictory signals.

11:08Poland, and in particular France, are against it.

11:11Its farmers say that Mercosur producers will not be subject to European labor standards and costs

11:17nor to their strict regulation of pesticides

11:20or hormones and antibiotics in animals.

11:24They also denounce that the agreement undermines consumers

11:27and threatens the sustainability of European Union farms.

Latest news bulletin | February 13th – Evening

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