basically. china's gateway to europe george feb 19th d.w. . this is news live from facebook uncensored australia the tech giant fans news content on its platform as australia plans to make it pay for journalism the government calls facebook's moved arrogant also coming up the humanitarian emergency on the european union store step did your travels to bosnia as border region with croatia to hear

from refugees stranded indefinitely and the local authorities who say they cannot cope. plus nasa prepares its perseverance rover for a daunting descent on to mars we'll find out why mission controllers are in just a fading 7 minutes of terror. i'm sumi so misconducts good to have you with us facebook has blocked news content from its platform in australia it is the latest twist in a heated dispute with the government australia wants to force tech companies to pay for journalistic content google has already struck a deal with australian companies but facebook has been slammed for its actions critics are calling the social media giant arrogant and unconscionable. many australians woke to a surprise this morning facebook could own friended them suddenly they couldn't

access local and international news through the social media site it's a dramatic escalation of a conflict over australian efforts to force tech giants to pay for journalism. i think i spoke beneath this terrible actually i did you say 43 get your gun and i can get all my news in one spot say it will be the impact me. congress said the bomb on news had a huge community impact $17000000.00 australians visit facebook every month it's even being called an assault on democracy. facebook was wrong. facebook sections were unnecessary that way heavy handed and they will damage its reputation here in australia frydenberg said facebook gave no warning of the new shutdown. kamber wants to table a law that would require online giants to negotiate payment for news outlets content or have fees set for them some experts have their doubts about the law and

say it needs to be reevaluated the story is a bit more complicated than just saying that's what forms of content from and they benefit from it's going to them which will benefit so then you probably would also you toss whether. you. need to facebook and google. or fool them to their pages google initially also refused to pay for news content and threatened to pull all services from australia then in a surprise move the internet giant struck deals with australian media firms such as channel 9 rupert murdoch's news corp and 7 west media. australian social media users will be hoping that facebook has a similar change of heart. let's get some more perspective on the story now we can speak to journalist for shall harrison plus she's in sydney hi rochelle good to see you and this is a pretty bold move from facebook here and we saw what the australian treasurer had

to say but what are other lawmakers saying about this thing. absolutely well the australian prime minister scott morrison said this move was disappointing and arrogant statements ironically posted to facebook actually. authorities saying that they were absolutely blindsided by these measures with with the news blackout coming at around 5 30 am local time here in australia scott morrison also saying that sir australia would not be intimidated by big tekken that they will push on to get this contentious media bargaining code legislated and implemented in and pushed through to to become law. we also heard from the treasurer josh frydenberg as you mentioned he called the move heavy handed and long he also concerned that he'd spoken to the facebook chief mark zuckerberg

this day and said that they'd had. constructive discussion and that they both are graded to find a half way forwards or so what about australians what do they think about what facebook's going here. well it's pretty safe to say that is. true an outcry across the board this is a time when people need reliable and credible information more than ever especially during a global pandemic and as you may know australia is also on the fall of a 19 vaccine rollout of those jobs are said to be administered on monday. with stray news is being blocked from sharing or even seeing credible and trusted news credible and reliable news sources this is come as

a big shock to everybody and obviously it hasn't received a lot of criticism and there were some concern as well that it wasn't just news pages that were shut down here also some emergency services can you tell us what happened there. absolutely well the facebook blackout not only affected news organizations as you mentioned they also shut down the facebook pages of the weather bureaus of the bureau of meteorology charities. fire engine urgency services which you know was quite dangerous when for example western australia part of western state of western australia was going through bushfires recent rain today shut down the the facebook pages of emergency services they also shut down the pages of. charities i think i mentioned and health services and government health services so like i said earlier at a time you know during

a global pandemic with people are lying on facebook. to get their trusted news that news on health is not available that is very very worrying indeed journalist rochelle harrison plus speaking to us from sydney thank you so much for bringing us up to date. let's get a look now at some other headlines from around the world 2 journalists have been jailed in bellerose for violating public order. they. were arrested in november during live coverage of a protest in minsk against authoritarian leader alexander lukashenko the u.s. has called for their release. nigeria's president has ordered security forces to organize a hostage rescue operation after gunmen stormed a school and kidnapped 42 people among them were teachers relatives and students who were sleeping in dormitories one student was killed. and german chancellor angela merkel spoken by telephone with the iranian president hassan rouhani to

voice her concern that iran is failing to meet its obligations under a 2050 nuclear deal it's signed with world powers the accord has been in jeopardy since former president donald trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 28 to. protest against the military government and strikes are bringing much of neon mark to a halt thousands have defied authorities to join nationwide rallies police in the capital may be taught to use water cannons against protesters demand the release of elected leader and sponsored shoot officers also stood by as activists painted the slogan save me and mar onto the street a sign that authorities did later wash off. well as these protests continue what should the international community be doing let's bring in kenneth roth executive director of human rights watch mr roth it's good to have you with us here on the show we know that the u.n.

human rights council has strongly condemned this coup which you have welcomed but beyond these strongly worded condemnations what levers does the our international community actually have to use here. i mean the key issue is financial i'm already the crew leader as you know particularly senior general you know you have been subject to your targeted sanctions that is to say asset freezes and travel bans by a number of western countries the real backstop is to go after the business is that the military own and that it uses to finance a coup and it's repression particularly the 2 huge conglomerates that really enter into many aspects of the economy yet money and so there is movement in that direction but that frankly is what the junta will listen to their pocket i just want come back to that point at the top general meant hong kong has been under u.s. sanctions 10 since 2019 if that isn't

a deterrent because this coup still ended up happening why do you think that then further sanctions against top businesses really will act as a deterrent down the road. because it meant i'm wrong has basically lived his entire life in myanmar this is not you know a global guy and so to say that he can't travel to paris to do shopping or that you know they're going to seize a swiss bank account i'm not sure that had a big effect on him personally but the businesses that the military runs are essential to keep the repression going you know are already there been signs that soldiers are tempted to just switch sides to join the demonstrators against this coup one for democracy and the only way to keep them in line is to keep paying them to keep paying for the machinery of repression that requires income and as so many of the protesters are boycotting work you know civil servants not going to work in protest. the military needs these businesses to be operating and if they face

sanctions that's going to cut off their like water and their ability to maintain their repressive ok so targeted financial sanctions against businesses might be affected let's talk about solidarity internationally behind those sanctions where do you see china's role here because if you look at how china has responded to this coup so far it called it essentially a cabinet reshuffle so can beijing be brought on board. you know the chinese government is trying to have it both ways i mean obviously they don't like democracy they are terrified of the idea of a popular uprising overthrowing a dictatorial government you know that's the nightmare xi jinping has all the time so you know of course they're sympathetic to the hunta but at the same time now they're deeply worried about the reaction of the people of myanmar and you saw this with the chinese embassy there just a couple of days ago coming out of its way to say no no we don't support you know we are standing with the people of myanmar now we know that's not true but the big

un multilateral bodies have allow china to get away with that lie on at the u.n. security council there was a statement put out which required unanimity but it was a watered down city the supporters of human rights democracy have not pushed for a strong resolution at the u.n. security council which would then you know quit trying to protest are they going to allow it or are they going to veto it would allow them to it would really force them to take a position in public rather than use their pressure behind the scenes to water things out similarly at the u.n. human rights council in geneva last friday there was a special session there was a tough resolution proposed china watered it down i'm claiming that they what they want to a consensus resolution and the backers of the resolution went along with that you know fearing that a public break by china with bolden the hunter in myanmar then what china did is after it got its watered down resolution it backed away from the resolution anyhow as well we don't really support that so enough of this i think it's time to push

strong statements and make china to stand in we'll have to leave it there kenneth roth executive director of human rights watch thank you so much and you. to spain now where police arrested around 60 people after overnight clashes with thousands of protesters demanding the release of a jailed musician catalan rapper public who was convicted of glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs and tweets he was sentenced to 9 months in prison unrest arrested in several cities including madrid and barcelona. demonstrators in pavlo as those hometown of youth marched to the jail where he is being held. see his detention as an assault on free speech. in nearby barcelona violence flares as protester and set barricades a blaze and police fire rubber bullets. and

similar scenes in madrid as demonstrators fight against what they say amounts to censorship. the. norms is not on your part it's a shame because it's a significant setback for rights and freedoms within the european union and another step towards detect tauriel and fascist state. you place yourself. under several mean just because it has to me a blatant injustice and absolute lack of respect for fundamental rights for freedom of expression the facts speak for themselves today. as though he was arrested after he barricaded himself in the university along with his supporters. the rapper refused to turn himself in to serve and 9 month sentence for tweets and lyrics that prosecutors say glorify terrorism and slander the monarchy. was.

misty international says his detention is unjust and disproportionate high profile celebrities have also joined calls for his release ministers have responded to the furor by relaxing restrictions on free speech the government's junior coalition partner is pushing for the rapper to be pardoned. the european union's migration commissioner is heading to the bosnian border with croatia in an attempt to resolve a worsening humanitarian crisis the u.s. criticized bosnian authorities for failing to read hundreds of migrants after a makeshift accommodation burned down last year did abuse marina styles travel to the lipa camp on the border she met refugees as well as local administrators who say the e.u. has left them in the lurch. a whole life in one backpack.

jaeger. the students. feel. to shun khan and his friends are resting because it's raining at bus ness border with croatia and because their feet are hurting they tell us a creation border forces have just prevented them crossing paths firing warning shots in the air sometime maybe does good good time he can not be does he. need to go badly by the foreign money and beg and. things and push back against you the dream of reaching the european union has spurred thousands of others to disport a region since 2018 many refugees of migrants have chosen to enter the e.u. that you can see here so croatia from bosnia and herzegovina because other european states have made it increasingly difficult to enter. a few kilometers further north

east in-born are several families mostly from afghanistan a living in the bend of houses these families here belong to her sorrow a group which is considered one of the most oppressed in afghanistan going to son is not peace for her for me for all of his. afghan people 1st and taliban and david. is. afghanistan is because no security is not. in our country. there's only one place where she sees a better future for herself hoskins and her 2 boys. are right. these families are staying here because they're just a few meters away from the border but they're also official refugee centers in the

region one is sleep a may only camp which made headlines when it burned down last december the military has since set up a new tense my currency you know half heating and 3 meals a day but 30 of them have to share attend many have to stand in line to be treated 1st k.b.'s not the only reason why most of the un men here are preparing for the next trial to enter the u. so local authorities are the more frustrated because they feel abandoned by the e.u. . just sending money without looking into a solution for the problem is not the ride way. to put this problem. is not already abroad but also our. feigin decision concepts they will set off again and direction of the us.

inshallah again and again they go bag again he was ready. to do we'll be there 5th to attempt to get into creation and from there into italy maybe germany they don't know what will await them there but they're certain the future will be better. a 7 month journey by nasa as new rover comes to a thrilling climax later today the world will attempt to land on mars the most intense part about landing is the 7 minutes that come after perseverance hits the martian atmosphere and must slow down to land on the surface nasa describes those moments as 7 minutes of terror. 10 minutes to touchdown. the perseverance rover must separate from the spacecraft that has brought it to mars next it must position itself to enter the martian atmosphere the

friction of which will heat up its thermal shield to temperatures as high as 1300 degrees celsius. while the mars rover inside the shield will only reach room temperature. when perseverance and speed reaches 1600 kilometers per hour. its parachute will deploy the new range trigger technology will improve the spacecraft's ability to hit him landing target 20 seconds later the heat shield more detached from the entry capsule. allowing the rover to find a safe landing site. at about 2100 meters or 7000 feet above mars surface perseverance will separate from

its parachute and at night its jet packs 8 engines. further slowing the research laboratory on peel's. the sky crane maneuver will lower the rover down to the surface and nylon tethers. next perseverance must reposition its legs and wheels right after touchdown at. must detach from the tethers mission control will only find out whether the mars rover landed successfully 11 minutes after the fact. and whether it will be able to explore just 0 crater it's flora was home to an ancient lake delta system about 4000000000 years ago which left a layer of sediment a promising site in the hunt for microscopic consuls.

the united arab emirates will also explore mars its space probe home enter the red planet's orbit on february 9th and is scheduled to start work this summer. hope will examine the martian atmosphere for years observing weather and seasonal changes. the chinese have big plans for their 1st mars mission they also want to land a spacecraft something only the americans have so far succeeded in doing china's on when one probe has been orbiting the red planet since february 10th it will reach the surface without landing device and for search vehicle in may and send data gathered on mars back to her. next the pro bowl examine the types of minerals on mars and make maps of resources such as border concepts. planetary

researchers are looking forward to all of the new data. well we can talk back to a scientists involved in perseverance and joel hurwitz is an associate professor of geosciences at stony brook university in new york jolla good morning to you there in new york nasa already has a rover on mars it's called curiosity which has been operating since 2012 why is it important to have another one. so this new rover perseverance is jam packed with a whole bunch of new technology that is designed to get up close and personal with the rocks that we're going to be examining and crater in order to address the sort of very detailed science questions we're asking about whether or not mars was both a habitable place and potentially whether or not it was in fact inhabited 3 and a half 1000000000 years ago well we heard that all eyes now will be on perseverance

especially this tricky landing especially that last part where it needs to slow down it's being called the 7 minutes of terror as we said what will be going through your mind during the landing what will you be looking out for. so i'll be watching the landing with my friends and colleagues from the from the perseverance mission and i think we're all going to be you know there with our fingers crossed hoping for the best we know that the engineers who put that landing system together and done a remarkable job so i'm not sure it's all going to go according to plan well you also played a part here here on a team that's provided one of the key instruments onboard this rover we're going to take a look here it's the planetary instrument for x. ray like the chemistry or pixel for short at this what we're seeing right now is an artist's rendering and joel if you can in the simplest terms possible what is pixel and what makes it so interesting. yes so pixel is at its most basic level

it is a chemical analyzer it reaches out it gets right up close to the rocks and it tells us what those rocks are made of and we can use that information to tell us something about the environment that was present when those rocks were being formed and whether or not really there are fossilized bio signatures in those rocks the kind of telltale clues that microbial communities will leave behind in iraq after they are fossilized in place so that's what we'll be using that instrument for now right so a lot of important scientific and scientific knowledge that can be gained from this and we heard that we can also find out more about what mars that sounds like what are you most curious about there. i'm really looking forward to hearing the sound of the wind on mars i've been working on mars rover missions for some time since i was a graduate student actually and we always get these fantastic visual panoramas of the scene out in front of the rovers on mars but we never have the sounds to go

along with those panoramas so so having the the sort of extra sense sensory sensation i guess of of hearing the wind here in the rovers and motors sort of whirring away in the background i think it's going to add a really interesting dimension to our exploration well it's an exciting moment good luck to you and your team there thank you so much for joining us tell her it's a stony brook university in new york. thank you very much. the tokyo 2021 thanks organizing committee has named it japan's alone pick minister as its new president seiko hashimoto will leave the government to take up the role hashimoto is herself a 7 time olympian who competed in speed skating and cycling she workplaces yoshiro mori who resigned after making sexist comments i shall be tasked with regaining support for the games they are scheduled for july but a face widespread public skepticism because of the pandemic. let's get

a reminder now of our top story facebook has blocked all news content from its platform in australia in response to a government proposal to force tech companies to pay for journalistic content critics are calling the social media giants most arrogant and unconscionable. coming up next our show conflicts sound tim sebastian interviews the vice president of the european commission by that it is showing us.

entering the conflict zone to sebastian. this year didn't stop well for the european commission its rollout of the coded lines in the backseat has been widely

sometimes too little too late my guess is we from brussels or the great commission moderators she asked him a new initiative minoff to silence the criticism of the commission on the challenges of incumbency conflicts are. next on t.w. . children 2 continents. one giant problem and name you would get in on it to see the best year you. mean by the end of the changing lady fuel economy jobs how will climate change affect us and our children dot. org and b w dot com slash water. fighting against

a coronavirus pandemic. as the rate of infection in developing. measures are being taken. what does the latest research say. context. the coronavirus of the culture special monday to friday. no one can teach the european union lesson missed the bulk of the bulk receipt. i think. you would succeed this year didn't start well for the european commission it's rollout of the covert 19 vaccine has been widely slanders too little and too late but now it's decided to invest millions into researching new code variants for the try and get some better headlines i guess this week from

brussels is the great commission on my drink this she not move a new initiative be enough to silence the criticism of the commission and the child abuse of incompetent. margarita she was welcome to comment zone thank you for having me you know pouring tens of millions of euros into research on new variance tell me this isn't just a elaborate p.r. exercise to boost your flagging image of the commission. no it is not it is the response to a genuine war that we have both here in brussels and in the capitals of our union because the mutations are happening and these mutants are practically everywhere so we need now to barrel to our vaccines problem we need to develop this capacity

to anticipate to adapt and facilitate that work. to be able to cope with all these potential threats risk to the audience there's a lot of work going on in this field at the moment anyway the world health organization said in january that it was coordinating a massive amount of research on the same subject and drug companies are of course working on 2nd generation vaccines to take account of these new strains so what are you bringing to the table that's going to be new. we're bringing to the table. speed authorization procedures through our european med since agency that would allow these companies not to research meat from scratch but the able to update. the files on the basis of which they're already there vaccines authorized in the european market we're bringing money because for sequencing testing and clinical

trials at the scepter scale we need the funding and more more than anybody else we need pressure pressure to everybody involved to anticipate events and prepare. this is gonna be in your strong point so far has it i mean the issue isn't money we know you've got plenty of money frankly the issue given the painfully slow rollout of existing vaccines is whether your competent as a commission to manage all these projects are you. we are i think the story has not been told of the european vaccination strategy the success of our plan will have to be assessed not at the beginning of the process but at the end of it we have pre-purchase 2300000000 doses of vaccine for all europeans we have bought the 25 percent of the global supply we have

already dispatched 30000000 doses in europe and we have already vaccinated 22000000 europeans this is not. lack of success this is success in the making our own existence there she announced last week the commission president let's face it was forced into a humiliating admission but the e.u. was as she put it not where it wanted to be in combating the virus this after hailing the rollout as a great european success story but it hasn't been has it fact is you were late in granting vaccine authorizations too optimistic about the production of the vaccine to ny even believing that all the doses would arrive on time you were 3 months behind the u.k. in ordering some of these vaccines you admitted all this this was all emitted but there was no apology why why was there this apology this is the european union in the european union politicians do not authorize boxing's they don't have knowledge

eyes either doing an independent regulatory agency. and i think the process we are not in the course this is not a sprint it's a mar now yes to the question of apology that i leave the humiliating party you to to describe but this was something the president stated the obvious that these companies with whom we had contractual relations and they assumed contractual obligations were not ready at the beginning of these contracts to put the capacity the contracts would have required it and they are sorting this release out as we speak so the apology was an apology of the moment of the start of the contracts i'm telling you again if you will succeed in our style of oxidation strategy the fact is mr sheen as the people will have died in europe waiting for you to take decisions and get them the vaccines that could have saved their life someone should take responsibility for that and resign or is there no accountability in this

commission of yours. we are fully accountable to the european parliament to which we which we invested the single took a year ago and the european parliament is fully in line all governments or member states in making this european programme of oxidation a success i leave it to your imagination what would have happened if instead of the european strategy member states would have gone it individually fighting each other over vaccines the big member states would have swapped the market the smaller member states with member had access to the vaccines so we are making this work for everyone and it's working believe me when you say this but this week the senior liberal m.e.p. and former belgian prime minister gave a half star accused. fund their line of prolonging drastically the coven pandemic on mainland europe and the huge cost to lives and the economy he called the

management of the pandemic a fiasco and said after 2 months the rollout of vaccines is dramatically low in europe so you're painting a very different picture from the one that members of the european parliament are seeing you're in trouble if figures like mr pfaff's that are turning against you in this way. you are quoting one of the 751 members i can hurt others if you like i don't know but you should call the majority to make the point that the european parliament is against the commissioner of exit strategy you know in brussels there is what they call the intellectual appeal of pessimists somehow to be trendy to be more durned to make headlines you have to be a pessimist in the brussels bubble well i do not believe in the school of thought and monotonous and i repeat what i told you earlier this european strategy is working at the end of the process you will see that will be one of the most

remarkable european success ever well that's what you say about key figures are losing patience with you in germany for instance the chief minister of bavaria marcus is accused the commission of lacking the necessary sense of urgency and following the typical normal bureaucratic e.u. procedure he's right isn't he people have a right to expect better from you don't get. well of course people have a right to expect better but i would also distance myself from comments coming from a country like germany where the election is already underway and where many key players are jogging for position i had the elections and they always find very convenient to target brussels on basically everything you know so you find it convenient to give me a success story which hasn't yet happened because you're under political pressure the money on the huge political pressure because of the role of vaccines you know

and for the history of failure dealing with this pandemic i mean last year there were admissions from vandalize and that the fundamental purpose of the e.u. which was unified decision making has been sorely lacking she said at the time when europe really needed to be there for each other too many initially looked out for themselves when europe needed an all for one spirit too many initially gave an only for me response the commission is the european union's executive if you can't unite this union isn't it time to hand over to some people who can i would agree with you that the beginning in the beginning of the pandemic our member states last march reacted a bit like individuals individuals stormed the supermarkets and bought toilet paper and passed hoping that they will survive that and make member states closed borders they produced export bans they try to compete against each other but that only

lasted 3 to 4 weeks after members are still closing borders germany knows quarter last week in southern borders causing traffic jams back into italy ignore limbo ignoring the justice commissioner knows the warning that it could lead to. been disrupted is now concerns still member states at the time it were all states the point house trying to make before you interrupted me. is precisely that we given the interdependence of our single markets the integration of our supply chains we can do thinks together only we can do things better only if we do them together and this is happening as we speak and again let me tell you that from borders to public procurement to pulling money for research to buying vaccines all this is part of a common european response which is working well you say it's working and i've

quoted you people who don't think it is working how do we know for instance that there won't be a repeat of the january 30th fiasco where your commission panicked about the shortage of vaccines and threatened to kick a clause in the northern ireland protocol but would have blocked the vaccines from reaching northern ireland the decision was rather reversed after 10 days in an international outcry you're not telling me that that was part of your success story are you the best the measure was not. related to northern ireland or article 6 in protocol the measure which was a valid one was a scheme for an export or a station procedure that would allow the commish to know what's happening with produced in the european market but i don't know the impact of northern ireland that it would have authority or i don't know how in protocols there was a negative impact on the on the northern irish border which was remedied i would say instantly on the same date and for which president underlined herself admitted

that this was an administrative mistake that happened against a very broad measure which we needed and we still need by that time to know who exports where but scenes important are produced in europe under contract obligations with europe you said it was an administrative mistake whose fault was that. well sometimes you know we have to go in to alter sonic fast procedures because when you put in place an export authorization scheme you don't have the time a week or 10 days to organize things you have to do it in few hours not asos whose fault it was who's going to the p.m.'s going to take responsibility for this the president herself took responsibility publicly or be at or be at the european parliament twice last week she said that she assumes personal responsibility for the minister the mistake that happened on that day and which was relevant rectified

to our slick. so how do we know it's not going to happen again one of these administrative mistakes i mean this this caused an enormous amount of diplomatic backlash for you didn't the irish government wasn't informed in advance nor the british government nor the northern ireland assembly arlen's own ambassador called it a very serious mistake how do we know you're not going to do it again because what lessons have you learned from that well let me repeat that when the commission takes market related measures on export authorizations we have to go very very fast otherwise these measures will be. violated by events on the ground so this isn't to have been taken on in an afternoon and i tried to explain to you that these were decisions that were valid because we need this market export export of radiation systems to know how the vaccines are being exported and to whom from europe the

fact that a mistake had happened which was corrected immediately does not mean anything especially when the president of the commission herself took it on herself and publicly in front of the european parliament assured me base that this will not happen again you say there isn't mean anything but it smacks of chaos right at the heart of your commission doesn't it crossed wives panicky decisions no thought for consequences no found hand in control you proud of all this look i can spend also too much time using objectives but i belong to a political school of thought that i'm not more interested in now hns and inverts i don't think that you know value judgements in the confort of the studio can sort out a very complicated situation we are fighting fire in a once in a generation threat to humanity and to europe and we'll do everything that it takes to get it right and we are getting it right. so i prefer to be positive to be

optimistic and look with confidence future it's not just with the pandemic that we've seen missteps as we saw them the other day when your foreign policy chief barrel visited moscow many m.p.'s m.e.p. said he allowed himself to be totally humiliated and achieved absolutely nothing last week 81 members of the european parliament called on the commission president to fire him should he be fired do you think. again you are courting a relatively small number of m.v.p.'s the european parliament has 751 members and the majority for the parliament to take a stance is half plus one that wasn't my question i asked you whether you know it has been fabulous or i'm answering your question before the high representative example or l. is that moscow do you know do happen to know how many ministers of foreign affairs

of member states have already. the answer is that's a no man's neither here nor there is something that several countries in poland on the whole take states told him not to go why were you present their warnings not listened to 1st of all he went on the basis of an agreement by the ministers of foreign affairs council to go to we were surprised to see that no one bothered to criticize the 19 ministers who went to moscow before him but everyone rushed to attack again brussels scapegoating brussels and blaming everything on brussels it's again very convenient very trendy it makes you popular it produces headlines but it doesn't sort out the problems we are in the business of sorting out problems but you didn't sort out any problems and he didn't sort out any problems because he went with no fixed agenda then

a well it's easier to gauge when sections simbo engagement sessions and foreign minister level that's what diplomats are supposed to do prepare high level meetings to the smallest detail and find something the ministers can agree on beryl 14 you better only didn't did it let's see about that let's see how the noise around this visit materializes in terms of policy i'm not sure that everything has to be judged on the basis of what happened in a press conference there were meetings before the press conference and after the press conference and the foreign affairs ministers of the european union are meeting next week to assess globally the situation and move accordingly collected money so the story has not yet been top of this well it's going to be interesting to see how you move in a coordinated manner because half the problem is that the seems incapable of unified action when it comes to russia you couldn't even issue a collective statement after the poisoning of the opposition leader alexander

valley because it was vetoed by the hungarian leader viktor orban so you one more example want to have a disunited multilateral body that can't agree on clear objectives. sorry to break the news but the european union does not have the capacity to decide on foreign policy on the basis of qualified majority foreign policy is still probably the only one together with the only policy where you know limited. and you know limited allows everyone to stop everybody else so of course we can sell flagellate and regret and law meant that the founding fathers and governments sailed to break this last european integration introducing majority voting in foreign policy but that's the situation so you are describing a situation which is given and on the basis of which we tried to do as much and as

best as we can tell it on a lot of foreign policy chief then the problem is we have a foreign policy chief but you don't have a unified foreign policy where the point of my job let me remind you that we are already have sanctions against russia on the started we are already reviewing periodic lease sanctions that have been great unanimously and we do have many other instruments and decisions that have been agreed unanimously but of course we do not have qualified majority that would have allowed us to use to move differently because of the situation and we can spend time lamenting it or regretting it but i don't think we can change it at this stage mr margarita's china has also benefited from the e.u. the lack of a consistent foreign policy hasn't it you you trumpet human rights as a central value to the european union but you threw those considerations to the wind when you signed an investment deal with beijing last month and you the only

assurance from china about human rights was a meaningless and totally on in forcible commitment to make sustained and continuous efforts to ratify intervent international conventions on forced labor. in other words they do their best no timescale maybe 10 years maybe a 100 who knows but why don't you admit it you got nothing from the chinese do nothing but get again living the objectives sides on this earth nothing is a noun. the substance of this of your question with this agreement the european union or paint a level of protection of investment by european companies in china that our american partners or friends already have so this was not an apocalyptic mill think it was aligning european interests to a level of protection that other western powers already enjoyed with china so i'm i

think it was a necessary agreement a welcome agreement and an agreement that creates more jobs and more certainty for the company set for the economy and i would also take issue with your assertion that this was done at the back of human rights precisely a spark of this agreement there are concrete references to the need to ratify the ilo agreements on child labor there are relevant considerations of the situation in young the european union will continue to engage with china in a principled and at the same time problematic when you didn't impress the european parliament did you there was scathing condemnation of the resolution which was unanimously passed which said by rushing to reach this agreement while not taking concrete action against ongoing a grave human rights violations in hong kong province and tibet the e.u.

risks undermining its credibility as a global human rights act or the chair of the parliament's delegation variations with china rinehart political office said it's ridiculous for the e.u. to try selling vat as a success. you didn't you didn't convince them we no one can teach the european union lessons about democracy and respect of human rights we are the world's epicenter of democracy and good governance great look at poland and hungary and can you honestly say that can you honestly say that let me rest of this cast hong kong and then i'm happy to go to poland hungary and hong kong where gravely concerned the situation there is against everything that we stand for we have repeatedly expressed both at the commission at the council of foreign affairs ministers are our position and the situation against the democracy pro-democracy fighters and

activists candidates and these concerns have been put to president xi by the european leaders in their meeting of the 30th of this just just wordsmiths the margarita's you had leverage real leverage with this financial agreement with this trade deal with china and you didn't use that leverage we used it to the best possible outcome at a level comparable to what our american friends did when dealing with china so this was not something that. failed us than we lived up to our standards that the references to i a low resolution child labor situation clearly established let's just work briefly at your claim that the european union is the most advanced model of democracy in society in the modern world seems like a classic exaggeration when you look at poland and hungary. according to human

rights organizations human rights watch for instance says 10000000 e.u. citizens in hungary are effectively living under or thora tarion rule in poland the government is accused by the self of violating the unions laws undermining judicial independence in bulgaria torture is rife along with massive corruption at all levels of government how does that fit into the most advanced model of democracy in society in the modern world. the rule of law and the respect for the rule of law the moccasin and fundamental rights are the jewels and crown of the european union their non-negotiable i do not deny that in certain parts of our geography the their way to history and authority to authoritarianism and tyrion is still has. a resilient presence if you like and we are now for some years working very very consistently and i would say aggressively to remedy

this but colleges in making clear that the rule of law has to be respected by all member states at all levels using their telling our gary of that for 14 years but instead of doing it on li but threatening the nuclear button of far to cause so many of the treaty we have now recently introduced a new approach through a european rule of law make that allows us on a yearly basis to scan examine the situation in all our member states from the point of view of rule of law engage in dialogue abstract and instead of correcting making sure that we shape a situation the way we like it we have introduced a mechanism on conditionality with respect the rule of law in the next e.u. budget we have very many open infringements are and if their hands as we saw with

them are really caught that we're running out of time unfortunately we run out of time although this ecosystem will produce change ok thank you very much for being on conflict and thank you for your time thank you for having.

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this is due to the news live from berlin facebook unfriends australia the tech giant bans news content on its platform as australia plans to make it pay for journalism the government calls facebook's moves eric. also coming up spanish police face a 2nd night of fury and on the rest of the jailing of a cadillac rapper demonstrators demand.