Europe

https://archive.is/ts2rE

Leading German auto supplier Aumovio said on Friday that it had received permission to source Nexperia semiconducters from China again.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was optimistic that chip exports from China would resume.

"It seems the way is now open for a resumption of deliveries," Merz told journalists at the COP30 climate conference in Belem, Brazil.

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Europe should consider measures against China if trade ties with the Asian nation continue to deteriorate, according to Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel.

Nagel said Friday that the region needs to let China know that its actions are being scrutinized and that Europe’s core industries must be protected.

“Europe has to think about how do we retaliate, maybe, when things are escalating further,” he said Friday in Frankfurt. “But my impression here is that first of all it’s important that we talk to each other. I think we should understand better what’s going on.”

The European Union is concerned about China’s restrictive trade measures and is seeking to defend its industries from a glut of subsidized Chinese competition. Beijing has also been restricting shipments of rare-earth magnets used in everything from electric vehicle batteries to defense manufacturing — requiring companies to obtain import permits.

Nagel will travel to China this month along with German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil. He hopes the trip will provide an opportunity to improve relations.

“To discuss things in a cooperative sense, I guess, is the best that we can do to overcome one or the other stress situation we had in the past,” he said.

Half of the respondents said they feel unsafe in public places, on the streets and on public transportation. Eight years ago, that figure was only half as high.

The greatest fears relate to theft and verbal attacks in public. Less common are concerns about becoming a victim of physical or sexual assault or a terrorist attack.

On Wednesday, a drone flew above Gilze-Rijen airbase for several minutes. Air traffic controllers spotted the drone from the tower. The marechaussee arrived at the scene but found no further traces of the drone.

A spokesman for the marechaussee confirms the drone’s observation to NU.nl, following previous coverage of the Volkskrant. Air traffic control made a report of "potential espionage," after which the military arrived at the scene.

It is not known who was driving the drone and where it came from. When the marechaussee arrived, the drone was already gone. The incident happened at the beginning of the evening.

"The drone has been flying above the base for a few minutes. Then the air traffic controllers kept sight of it," the spokesman says. "We tried to figure out the route, but that didn't lead to results in the end."

Last week, several drones were also seen above Belgian air bases and airports, including Zaventem near Brussels. The Belgian defence minister has expressed suspicions of spying from Russia.

The military says it has no concrete indications that it is also about espionage in the Netherlands. The spokesman said it saw few similarities with Belgium. "It doesn't look like the scenes mentioned there, like flying in formation or the size of the drone."

Gilze-Rijen is a helicopter base of the Air Force. There are Apache combat helicopters, and Chinooks and Cougars, which are both transport helicopters.

About 50 young men disrupted a Serbian cultural event in Split on Monday evening, demanding that participants and guests leave.

Witnesses said the group, masked and dressed in black, approached the Blatina District Council building and told people to exit. Police said there was no physical violence, although offensive language can be heard in recordings. Organizers and participants complied. The event featured a folklore dance performance by a group from Novi Sad and was part of Serbian Culture Week.

Archived version

Germany’s parliament recently held a special session to discuss whether members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) may have been deliberately acting in Russia’s interests. The debate was initiated by lawmakers from the Social Democrats (SPD) and the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, who demanded explanations from AfD’s leadership after the populist party made a series of unusually detailed parliamentary inquiries into the state of the country’s defense and cybersecurity systems, according to a report by Der Spiegel.

Thomas Röwekamp, chair of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee and a CDU member, said AfD lawmakers had submitted “systematically connected and extremely detailed” questions about the Bundeswehr’s capabilities and “combat readiness gaps.” The scope and level of detail, he said, “cannot be explained by a legitimate interest in parliamentary oversight of the government.” Röwekamp suggested that the effort appeared to be “a targeted and systematic collection of military information from the Defense Ministry and the Bundeswehr, information of significant value to foreign powers — in particular Russia, which has for years continuously intensified its espionage and hybrid attacks against Germany.”

Georg Maier, interior minister of the German state of Thuringia, earlier said his ministry had observed similar AfD inquiries in the state parliament, focusing on transport, energy, and digital infrastructure. He suggested the party might be “acting on the Kremlin’s orders” in its inquiries.

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• Austria's Ministry of Economy has migrated to a Nextcloud platform
• It's the latest move in a European trend to shift away from Big Tech
• Other agencies that have taken the same path away from Microsoft include the Austrian military, Danish government organizations, and the French city of Lyon

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Even before Azure had a global failure this week, Austria's Ministry of Economy had taken a decisive step toward digital sovereignty. The Ministry achieved this status by migrating 1,200 employees to a Nextcloud-based cloud and collaboration platform hosted on Austrian-based infrastructure.

This shift away from proprietary, foreign-owned cloud services, such as Microsoft 365, to an open-source, European-based cloud service aligns with a growing trend among European governments and agencies. They want control over sensitive data and to declare their independence from US-based tech providers.

Also: Europe's plan to ditch US tech giants is built on open source - and it's gaining steam

European companies are encouraging this trend. Many of them have joined forces in the newly created non-profit foundation, the EuroStack Initiative. This foundation's goal is " to organize action, not just talk, around the pillars of the initiative: Buy European, Sell European, Fund European."

What's the motive behind these moves away from proprietary tech? Well, in Austria's case, Florian Zinnagl, CISO of the Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism (BMWET), explained, "We carry responsibility for a large amount of sensitive data -- from employees, companies, and citizens. As a public institution, we take this responsibility very seriously. That's why we view it critically to rely on cloud solutions from non-European corporations for processing this information."

Austria's move and motivation echo similar efforts in Germany, Denmark, and other EU states and agencies. The organizations include the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which abandoned Exchange and Outlook for open-source programs. Other agencies that have taken the same path away from Microsoft include the Austrian military, Danish government organizations, and the French city of Lyon.

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https://archive.is/Jvmnn

The Dutch government is ready to shelve the ministerial order that gave it the power to block or change key corporate decisions at Nexperia, if China allows exports of its critical chips again, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Given the constructive nature of our talks with the Chinese authorities, the Netherlands trusts that the supply of chips from China to Europe and the rest of the world will reach Nexperia’s customers over the coming days,” Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Vincent Karremans said in the statement.

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The EU in October floated plans to double tariffs on foreign steel -- taking a leaf from US President Donald Trump's book to shield the bloc's struggling industry from cheap Chinese exports.

The bloc's executive proposed hiking levies on steel imports to 50 percent and slashing the volume allowed in before tariffs apply by 47 percent.

"I will support these proposals to the best of my ability and hope that appropriate regulations will be put in place," [German chancellor Friedrich] Merz said.

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As an addition:

• The steel industry is one of the most subsidized industrial sectors across all countries, mainly to preferential loan terms as debt is the sole source of funding in the industry.

• Across all countries, larger steel firms are subsidized than smaller ones, and state-owned enterprises receive more subsidies than other firms.

• China is by far the largest steel maker, producing more than half of all crude steel in the world. China's subsidization rate is ten times that of OECD countries. In addition to government grants and below market borrowings, measures include subsidized energy prices and preferential tax treatment for steel firms.

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Archived

Czech President Petr Pavel said on Wednesday, November 5, that security in the Indo-Pacific region is closely linked to Europe’s security. Speaking at the European Values Summit in Prague, he commended the European Values Center for Security Policy (EVC) for establishing an office in Taiwan, underlining the importance of understanding the Indo-Pacific situation for Europe’s trade stability and security.

The summit, organized by the EVC, aimed to promote dialogue and cooperation on security policy. This year’s meeting focused on Taiwan’s security, resilience, technology, and the relationship between NATO allies and the Indo-Pacific Four: Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. Experts from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and the United Kingdom also attended.

In his address, Pavel highlighted the EVC’s role since its founding in 2005 in defending freedom, democracy, and the rule of law through public awareness and expert analysis. He noted that after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the center was among the first to warn about Russian disinformation and hybrid warfare.

Pavel warned that democracy now faces both external and internal threats. He urged democratic nations to restore public trust through persuasive and reasoned communication, stressing that no country can truly isolate itself in today’s interconnected world, where security challenges in one region quickly affect others.