of a hat as the forms to immigration defense trade the european agency to protect democracy european council for interior security european climate bank in 4 in favor of when i was the head of the list of when they thought in the european union election and now this isn't a program of mrs fonda lion her new green deal includes a european climate bank includes. a 1000000000000 euros in the coming 7 years are to finance green projects so this is precisely what we have where advocating for and this is precisely what the rope in union is indicating committed to but there was a huge backlash against your climate proposals was in there with the yellow vests protested against the new carbon tax which was introduced trying to get the troops to change their behavior people in rural areas so it was deeply in the tax had to be abandoned or are you handled through out here all you have. claims for more pro and vironment and more anti global warming policy and at the same time people fear not in my backyard not on my are hugely expensive we face it every single developed country choose one single tax yea

of a hat in the forms to immigration defense trade the european agency to protect democracy european council for interior security european climate bank and the reaction from the rest of europe was resulting silence to these proposals are. i'm not sure we are talking about the same word about my country or about here rob you're obviously very anti mccrone that's all right that's a surprise because i thought that was fair journalism but it is not that's your right or right it's my it's my duty to put the other side to you your macro support i'm putting the other side to you ask the growing that's the way you see things that are necessarily the way other people eternalism but that's alright i don't deny others who wrote to learn to 1st answer or less or go to reform confront yes they are working we are the 2nd most attractive kountry in the european union for foreign investors we have one of the highest growth rates in the european union we half the number of unemployed which is the driven creasing steadily you have 3 terms the unemployed number of germany that's right but we don't have many j

agreement the meeting has just started with the head of the european commission and the head of the european council mr michel stated before the meeting that he's looking for a frank and open dialogue with the turkish leader and that he hopes that will help to deescalate the situation in turkey clearly the european union wants that turkey goes back into except in the agreement of the refugee deal that was made between the e.u. and turkey in 2016 about from the line actually demo hopes that a quick solution can be found by saying before the meeting already that this will probably take weeks if not longer and it's only the beginning of a dialogue we're talking about what the european union wants but does the e.u. really speak with one voice here when it comes to migration. when it comes to sticking to that steel saving the refugee deal one has made with turkey everybody is all on one page when it comes to how that can be achieved there are different opinions because there are some member states that diplomats have told me it's for instance of france but old soul austria who are against giving immediat

the had of the european council shall we shall call it a strong political debate in other words a proper and serious raul over the right response the right an adequate economic response to the corona crisis you have countries in the south of europe particularly spain and italy who would like to see so-called corona bonds mutual iced debt in europe something that germany austria and the netherlands reject clearly at the moment on the other hand there's more likely measures like tapping into the fund the european stability mechanism the 400000000000 euro fund that is also disputed because the netherlands for instance say this is only a last resort while it's only says it's too little too late so at the end of the day the leaders opted for the minimum common denominator they were buying more time to date and the decision is now that the finance ministers have to come back in 2 weeks with proposals how to address this crisis economically and adequately matus in brussels thank you and here's some more of the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic 3 months into the outbreak and the to

commission chief earth 100 lion says that number could increase to 25000000000 euros today european council president charles michel chaired a rare virtual get together of the e.u. leaders by video conference the e.u. has been under fire for its noticeable silence since the outbreak began. on the coronavirus is said to calls and president a disruption to german football with some matches being played without fans for the very 1st time and that's going to hit one of the biggest clashes in the german bundesliga the darby between dortmund and shako which will now take place behind closed doors on saturday before that blood bath will play cologne tomorrow also in an empty stadium. german football is known for attracting a sea of supporters last week some fans of glad bought took precautions against the coronavirus but the same seats will be empty during their next home match against rival cologne setting a historical precedent for the top flight in germany. thriftiness a lean into primarily affects the founders but of course it will also hit him a. bit since most you can imagine there are finan

welcome you to this press conference after the video conference that we had yesterday of the european council i'd like to welcome the german chancellor to talk to i'm going to matt cook the german health minister. and. the head of the robert carr institute and the chancellor would begin ladies and gentleman. yesterday evening i suppose it was late afternoon we had a conference with the european commission president of the 109 and the president of the central bank christine legarde etc. and with the heads of state government and i would like to just inform you about this conference. we obviously discussed the whole question of the coronavirus that was the focus of our video conference and just as an aside it was the 1st video conference of the heads of state government so you can see that digitization a new forms of communication have even reached as we discussed a number of different issues the 1st was the question of containment of the danger emitted by the corona virus the virus has reached europe it is here and we all need to understand this and the response that we put in place to a virus

conference given by was left on the line the head of the european commission and the head of the european council sean michel and the language they used is a constructive engagement they shared different opinions and if i may translate that diplomatic language to you it basically means 0 movement what was enough on the line however said is that the turkey refugee deal is still valid and that there is now a fact finding mission spearheaded by the diplomatic chief of the european union jobs of perella and his turkish counterpart so those 2 men all supposed to single out now up to map out areas where they will check whether the turkey refugee deal holds or web potential problems are and what does this mean then for the situation at the border between turkey and greece. that's really hard to say was enough on the line said that the talks were good and there was a starting point and so for the situation on the border it doesn't mean i would say for the moment not much not much change she said there is a move forward is possible provided it's recip broke will that we'll have to see really to what exten

crisis diplomacy in ankara air to one met european council president shall michel on wednesday afternoon very little was reported on the meeting you foreign affairs chief use a phone on the other hand didn't mince his words on his trip to ankara he demanded that turkey no longer encourage migrants to head for the e.u. the e.u. has now promised $60000000.00 euros in immediate aid for the refugees in northern syria. are turning to the coronavirus china is reporting another drop in the number of new cases of the infection but the death toll in the country where the outbreak began is now nearing 3000 globally more than 94000 cases of the infection have been identified in italy the death toll has now risen to more than 100 with the state jump of 28 people dying in just the last 24 hours the italian government announced today that it will close all schools and universities across the country until mid march so many people in corona's virus affected areas are concerned about being stuck at home if they have to sell foreign team and that is leading people are leading to people stockpiling food a

yesterday we saw a real strong byport expressed not only the president but the president ofof the european councilying greece is europe's shield at the moment. european unione president trusts the greek government and what they are doing. this is controversial because a lot of people are upset about what the greek border authorities are doing in trying to send a strong message to o te migrants, don't come, we will turn you away. greek said they will stop accepting asylum applications and the commission seems to be delaying making a ruling if that is legal. the commission is standing firm behind greece. totoday i suspect we will see a similar message from those home affairs ministers in suppoportig greeeece. we will see if any of the ministers from other countries start to get nervous about supporting greece unconditionally. in terms of what they can offer now, money is really it. the eu border force remains so small and understaffed. anchor: thank you. we will bring you developments on that story throughout the day at 5:00 p.m. paris time this wednesday there will be a meeting of eu interior minis

alliance and then he moved on to meet the head of the european commission and the head of the european council and also emphasizing that he wants more help with the refugee crisis in turkey more financial aid and do we know what the european union wants to get out of these talks mean to brussels wants to try to save this migrant agreement that it has with turkey right. exactly and so that is why michel said he wants an open and frank dialogue and he wants signals and that was reiterated by a number of prime ministers today particularly from greece and its attack it's made clear he wants signals that turkey is interested in deescalating the crisis that from the perspective of the e.u. turkey has brought about by sending refugees deliberately to the border claiming that that border to the e.u. is open whereas in fact it was not open and that is what brussels wants to clarify before they are ready to mate potential concessions in your game the european union doesn't speak with one voice here very much so when it comes to saving that deal that 2016 refugee deal because it makes makes sure that on

joint press conference between the turkish european sides following this meeting it fell to the european council president charles michel and the european commission president. to meet the press she said that this meeting was a good thing essentially because it showed that there were still lines of communication open essentially one of the positives that she was taken was that turkey and the e.u. can still sit down and discuss things even if it does seem that all they can do at the moment is agree to disagree today's discussion focused on mapping the areas in which we can work both in the e.u.'s interests and in turkey's interest and indeed as you said a lot goes back to the e.u. turkey statement of 2016 which remains valid turkey's decision to tell migrants that they wouldn't try and stop them crossing into the e.u. has resulted in some incredibly tense scenes at the border that at times have spilled over into violence. to repeat commission president was asked a question by a turkish journalist about the actions of greek forces at the border these turkish journalist accuse greek forces of using

side and the turkish side following this meeting but we did hear from charles michel the european council president and on the line the european commission president mr michel well he said that this was a step forward that had been taken in relations between the e.u. it that these talks were important in establishing progress in the short medium and the long term and he said that the slack would now be taken up by yourself by l.b. high representative for foreign affairs who'd be working closely with the turkish foreign minister to try and get well come to a solution to the current impasse over the 2016 e.u. turkey refugee deal he also said that they would be called contact over the coming days between the e.u. side and president to one of turkey. on the line for her part she said that it was important that there was lines of communication still open pretty much that's where we are at the moment they're happy that they're still able to talk to one another face to face very diplomatic language used by the european commission president as you would you'd really expect essentially saying that

listening to the press conference by the head of the european commission and the head of the european council the language they used was constructive engagement they share different opinions. if i may translate that diplomatic language do you call it basically means zero movement. what she said is that the tricky refugee deal is still valid, and that there is now a fact-finding mission spearheaded by the diplomatic chief of the european union and his turkish counterpart. those two men are supposed to single out to map out areas where they will check whether turkey refugee deal holds or potential problems are. brent: what does this mean for the situation at the border between turkey and greece? georg: it is really hard to say. von deland said that the talks were good and a starting point. the situation on the border, i would say for the moment a means not much change. she said there is a move forward possible, provided it is reciprocal, and we will have to see really to what extent this pans out and to what extent erdogan refrains from further propagations sending people to the border. brent:

meeting of european union leaders today a meeting not in person but by video conference the european council president charles michel chaired the virtual get together which was called to coordinate the e use response to the epidemic european union is now promising to use quote all the tools at its disposal to lessen the impact of the corona virus outbreak. over more i'm joined now by barbara these all in brussels good evening to you barbara with all of italy under a lockdown is europe now on course to copy china locking down millions of people is that even possible here in europe. they can't copy china of course because there you have big brother style mass surveillance and europe has to as we saw in italy if peel to the to the common sense and the sort of the citizens and say these are reasonable and do this because it's really fall in everyone's good and that seems to work so far to a certain extent and we don't know yet whether all of europe will go to have to go into lockdown but we've seen this across the continent that countries like spain are now closing schools greece is doing it fra

and protect the borders we must act together to avoid a humanitarian and migration crisis the european council president charles michel is expected to visit the region very soon alongside the greek prime minister to assess what's going on on the ground as europe tries to get together its response to turkey's decision to open its borders to refugees and migrants in a situation which is beginning to look increasingly similar to that which we saw in 2015 a study of skin or blue is an m.e.p. for greece's series of party he believes the e.u. must change of strategy towards turkey. beautiful day good morning specifically because you know another just given the billions of euros to mr and the land to take care of for the refugees but the now the problem right now the momentum. of the ground. kind of payment syria and that's why he wants more support to from nato and the european union which is blackmailing usually is dutch way i mean he suddenly after the use of forces were both in syria you know decided to drop of the bloggers and said to introduce you to europe but you know digital human beings the

european health ministers prepare to meet on friday one infection was registered inside the european council building itself not just towns and cities now but the seats of government and parliament are in its path i don't know how al-jazeera let's go back to the situation in. joining us rector of the. university on skype from rome thank you for your time sir. tell us about the effect this is having on you and the uncertainty i guess over the future of the academic year. no i will good afternoon will be with supervision is new to lee he has been member he's been taken by the government says as we know the government has introduced a pretty strict measures are already for for a few days up north where the outbreak has been more severe but at the same time yesterday the government as recommended that school university in fact are to suspend the. classes on song campus concerts and at the same time to introduce strict measures for a. launch event center launch to be to be postponed or basically. shut down so there is quite a bit of fear especially wouldn't it comes to assess the economic implica

the european council president charles michel is expected to visit the region very soon alongside the greek prime minister to assess what's going on on the ground as europe tries to get together its response to turkey's decision to open its borders to refugees and migrants in a situation which is beginning to look increasingly similar to that which we saw in 2015 or more on this we're joined now by the president of the austrian institute for european policy and security in vienna thanks for joining us great to have you on the program today this is something turkey has been threatening to do for a while hasn't it what's its goal here what designer aim to achieve by opening its borders with the e.u. . i would say primary goal probably is to develop pressure against the european union in order to squeeze old more money and maybe also some other assistance in specially in economic questions do you think financial assistance here is the primary goal or do you think it's seeking support for its military operations in northern syria in adler province. do not think the government really belie

the european council president child michel is expected to visit the region very soon alongside the greek prime minister to assess what's going on on the ground as europe tries to get together its response to his decision to open its borders to refugees and migrants in a situation which is beginning to look increasingly similar to that which we saw in 2015 but that's it for me i'll be back in let's say 30 minutes with another full look at your news this is our. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics or business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. hello and welcome to cross talk more all things considered i'm peter lavelle showdown in syria as the damascus government continues its drive to liberate the.

and protect the borders we must act together to avoid a humanitarian and migration crisis the european council president charles michel is expected to visit the region very soon alongside the greek prime minister to assess what's going on on the ground as europe tries to get together its response to turkey's decision to open its borders to refugees and migrants in a situation which is beginning to look increasingly similar to that which we saw in 2015 on your correspondent there verna fassel is the president of the austin institute for european policy and security in vienna he told us the e.u. needs a comprehensive approach now to tackle this crisis. i think it's it's ok that turkey is looking for help for fighting still is instance but this is not everything what we have to look at is also how can people be brought to go back to their home country this is the 1st reason and this fires i seed many 100000 people who left syria in the past they did not belong to the opposition forces but they just fled due to the. horrible situation of fighting. of the different groups and of course at least som

stockholm on skype we have coal built a former prime minister of sweden and the co-chair of the european council on foreign relations in seattle we have sarah on towie she's an incoming professor of modern islam the fordham university and in washington we have melinda liu she's the beijing bureau chief at newsweek magazine welcome to you all call bill can i come to you 1st which president or prime minister got it wrong and which president or prime minister has got it right. i have a good story we have to debate that it is fairly obvious that a number of the chinese avoided the reactive to late to even try to suppress the information or what's going on and that how the treatment to the effect i think is fairly obvious. present tramples fairly late to put it right that diplomatically recognizing what was happening and as you indicated earlier in in europe i think there was an understanding that things were happening i married into it but there was an initial attempt to see go in actual solutions to the detriment of the supermarket the european union. so there's a lot of that and then i. call it no

and protect the borders we must act together to avoid a humanitarian and migration crisis the european council president sharma shell is set to visit the border between greece and turkey to assess the situation on the ground for himself as it continues to increasingly resemble what we saw in 2050 these are all over r.t. . another deadly day in afghanistan police there say at least 3 people have been killed 11 others wounded in an explosion near a football ground in the eastern province of khowst no one has admitted carrying out the a turk however earlier on monday the taliban said it would really launch operations against the tao there kabul government after president gammy refused to commit to the terms of a peace deal between the united states and the islamist group the reduction in violence has ended now an operations will continue as normal as part of the us taliban agreement on mujahedeen will not attack foreign forces bus operators will continue against the kabul administration forces i would caution everybody to to think that there's going to be an absolute sation of violence in afghani

the european council president charles michel is expected to visit the region very soon alongside the greek prime minister to assess what's going on on the ground as europe tries to get together its response to turkey's decision to open its borders to refugees and migrants in a situation which is beginning to look increasingly similar to that which we saw in 2015. peter all of our europe correspondent developing story from israel tonight now to preview on israel seen its highest election turnout in over 2 decades this monday as voters head to the polls for an unprecedented 3rd time in under a year seems to be no election voting where there according to the essential election committee as of 8 pm local time there over 65 percent of eligible voters are cast their ballot election is seen by many as a referendum on progress not you know he's facing a corruption trial in 2 weeks exit polls suggest his locoed has picked up seats but it's not yet clear whether or not they can have a commanding majority in the knesset the last 2 rounds of elections and 2900 failed to deliver a viable governme

epidemic european union leaders have held emergency talks by video conference not in person and european council president charles michel hosted the rare virtual get together g. day as the spread of the virus gathers pace across europe the news 27 member states have been criticized for being slow to react. more i'm joined now by a barber pole in brussels good evening to you barbara with all of italy under a lockdown is europe now on course to copy china locking down millions of people is that even possible here in europe. they can't copy china of course because there you have big brother style mass surveillance and europe has to as we saw in italy if peel to the to the common sense and the sort of the citizens and say these are reasonable and do this because it's really fall in everyone's good and that seems to work so far to a certain extent and we don't know yet whether all of europe will have to go into lockdown but we've seen this across the continent that countries like spain are now closing schools greece is doing it france is doing in public. culture cultural events are being canceled eve

on to this but it is moving so rapidly they are having a problem well there is an emergency european council summit we understand up planned for today what will be discussed there. this is a new form it to begin with it's going to be a video conference of all the 27 heads of state and government of the european union and they're trying to get their replies in there and says and they're to do the virus in the spread of the virus more coordinated because the e.u. commission has said quite clearly today don't kid yourself the virus is know everywhere it is within every european country so nobody can sort of get away and say i'm not touched by this they have to coordinate more and plus something that has been has gone down very badly here in brussels was that france and germany last week they were hoarding masks and certain protective equipment and everybody else says this is not the time for national editors and this is the time for us to stand together and to really get our eye on susan are our reactions together. reporting from brussels barbara good to speak to you. meanwhile in china preside

the european council president charles michel is expected to visit the region very soon alongside the greek prime minister to assess what's going on on the ground as europe tries to get together its response to turkey's decision to open its borders to refugees and migrants in a situation which is beginning to look increasingly similar to that which we saw in 2015. there's been a backlash against sexual minority rights in poland where a 3rd of municipalities have declared themselves l d b t free zones to takes a look at how the move clashes with what he used principles of shared european values. in its simplest terms the idea of the e.u. is one of many countries working together under one umbrella towards a common landscape yet you don't have to scratch far below the surface to find divisions what seems to be becoming more clearly etched is the divide between the west and the east in the latest round of disconnect between the values of the east and west the focus has turned to l g b t rights anti l g b t sentiment has been on the rise in poland. if. you eat. now in poland nearly 100 mi