Tag Archives: CEEU

World

Spanish tourist hotspots seek return to curfews as youth infections rage

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MADRID, July 9 (Reuters) – Spain’s Canary Islands and its Mediterranean region of Valencia have asked the government to bring back curfews to counter a soaring COVID-19 infection rate among unvaccinated youngsters that is threatening to scupper the vital summer tourism season.

Nationwide, cases had been dwindling over recent months but began to surge from the middle of June, propelled by the more contagious Delta variant and more socialising among younger groups.

Concerned by the surge, Germany designated Spain a high-risk area on Friday, obliging returning travellers to take a test to avoid quarantine and potentially cutting off an important source of high-spending sunseekers read more .

France had already warned its citizens from visiting, though Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto defended Spain as safe. read more

Hospital admissions have begun to edge up but remain far below levels seen earlier this year, while intensive care occupancy is less than 7%.

Daily deaths have been declining since April as the most vulnerable groups, such as elderly people and those with pre-existing conditions, have been vaccinated.

Since a state of emergency expired in May, regional authorities have been responsible for the COVID-19 response but need court authorisation or a government decree for strict measures like lockdowns, travel bans and curfews. read more

The Canaries’ regional government said late on Thursday it would ask its Supreme Court to authorise a 12:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on Tenerife, which has the islands’ highest coronavirus incidence.

Defending the measure, regional leader Angel Victor Torres told Cadena Ser radio on Friday it would prevent crowds building up at nightand over the weekends.

“Pressure on hospitals is starting to grow. In Tenerife, ICU occupation is at around 15% and young people are being admitted to intensive care,” he said.

Valencia, home to the popular resort of Benidorm, and the central region of Castilla and Leon, had already asked the central government for curfews but Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Wednesday that they were “not on the table.” read more

Highly dependent on tourism, Spain is trying to strike a delicate balance between opening up enough to entice back travellers while keeping infections in check.

Britain, which was Spain’s largest source of foreign tourists before the pandemic, announced earlier on Friday that it planned to scrap a 10-day quarantine requirement for fully vaccinated travellers returning from other countries in the coming weeks. read more

Reporting by Nathan Allen, editing by Inti Landauro and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Lithuania toughens Belarus border with razor wire to bar migrants

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VILNIUS, July 9 (Reuters) – Lithuania began building a 550-km (320-mile) razor wire barrier on its border with Belarus on Friday after accusing Belarusian authorities of flying in migrants from abroad to send illegally into the European Union.

The government said the military-style wire coil would cost 4.9 million euros ($5.81 million) to put up and run along most of the frontier, which passes over sparsely populated areas and large stretches of forest and marsh.

At a later date the barrier will be reinforced with a two metre (6.5 ft) high border fence topped by razor wire, costing an additional 41 million euros, the interior ministry said.

Hundreds of migrants have crossed from Belarus in recent days, most of them Iraqi citizens, Lithuania has said.

Belarus in May decided to allow migrants to enter Lithuania in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the bloc after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil and arrested a dissident blogger who was on board.

“If someone thinks we will close our border with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine and will become a holding site for those running from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Tunis and further down Africa – if someone thinks so, he is misguided, to say the least”, Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.

Belarus is guarding the border now only as much as it is “profitable” to it, and as much as it can financially, the president said.

Lithuania responded on Wednesday by announcing it would put up the frontier barrier and deploy troops to prevent migrants crossing illegally into its territory. read more

Coils of razor wire lie on the ground on the border with Belarus in Druskininkai, Lithuania July 9, 2021. REUTERS/Janis Laizans

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In a related move, Lithuania’s parliament will meet on Tuesday to urgently pass legislation streamlining asylum application reviews, including shortening their initial review to no more than 10 days, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said.

All people who crossed the border illegally would be kept locked up, the draft law says, meaning an end to occasional short trips outside detention that are currently permitted.

Just over 1,500 people crossed the frontier illegally from Belarus this year, with 900 of them coming over in the first nine days of July.

The first stretch of the new barrier, to be completed on Friday, will run 500 metres (1,640 feet) in length and measure 1.8 metres (six feet) in height, the army defence chief’s spokeswoman Ruta Montvile told Reuters.

Simonyte told the national broadcaster she did not expect the migrant flow from Belarus to subside on its own.

“As the Belarus regime is making money from these people for visa charges and, I think, gets other income from them as well – it would be difficult to expect any positive trend without additional means of impact”, she said.

Simonyte said on Wednesday Belarus had been offering migrants flights to Minsk, citing documents found on at least one migrant who had reached Lithuania. read more She said the main airport from where people flew into Belarus was Baghdad, and her foreign minister said people also came Turkey.

The Lithuanian-Belarus border is 679-km (420-mile) long. About 78 km (48 miles) was fenced in preceeding years, and about 258 km (160 miles) are monitored electronically, according to the interior ministry.

($1 = 0.8433 euros)

Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius
Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean

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World

As Hungary’s anti-LGBT law takes effect, some teachers are defiant

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BUDAPEST, July 8 (Reuters) – When Hungary passed legislation last month curbing children’s access to discussion of homosexuality, transgender chemistry teacher Floris Fellegi-Balta was not sure he would be able to continue teaching at all.

Hungary’s new anti-LGBT law, which comes into force on Thursday, has caused anxiety in the LGBT community and added uncertainty to life under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has stepped up its campaign against LGBT people ahead of elections next year.

Orban, in power since 2010, has grown increasingly radical on social policy in what he portrays as a fight to safeguard traditional Christian values from Western liberalism.

“I kept poring over the law to see whether I could even continue teaching,” said Fellegi-Balta, who specialises in biology and chemistry in a Budapest secondary school and is in the process of reassignment.

“One interpretation of the law is that by showing up and teaching, I am displaying transsexuality.”

The school, which is private, told him he should not worry. “We will do everything to keep the school a liveable place for the student body and to earn the trust of parents and our students,” one official told Reuters.

“And if a concrete case arises, we will argue our point on every legal forum,” she said.

The Hungarian law says under-18s cannot be shown pornographic content, or any content that encourages gender reassignment or homosexuality. It also proposes setting up a list of groups allowed to hold sex education sessions in schools.

Fellegi-Balta runs an extracurricular workshop which discusses LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues and supports children in handling problems in their private lives.

“From a scientific standpoint, I would be lying if I did not tell children about the existence of homosexuality and transsexuality. But this does not mean I would be promoting these issues,” he said. “We will not exercise self-censorship.”

“CHILDREN ARE NOT BLIND”

Activists gather in front of a huge rainbow baloon put up by members of Amnesty International and Hatter, an NGO promoting LGBT rights, at Hungary’s parliament in protest against anti-LGBT law in Budapest, Hungary, July 8, 2021. REUTERS/Marton Monus

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The law, which has drawn condemnation across Western Europe, says teachers found violating it could face as yet unspecified penalties, which will be defined later.

Legislation will also determine whether courses like the one Fellegi-Balta is holding conform to the new law, a government spokesman said.

Orban’s government says the law is not aimed at homosexuals but is about protecting children and that it should be mainly up to parents to educate their children about sexuality.

After the law was passed, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union published a post on a Facebook group saying the new law was unfair and so civil disobedience against it was justified.

Some teachers told Reuters they would continue to discuss LGBT issues in school, as such provisions of the law were unrealistic given that pupils themselves often raise the subject in class after reading about it online or watching a film.

“Children are not blind,” said Eva Gadanecz, who teaches in a public secondary school in Budapest. “They are not deaf, they live in the world and if they raise this in class or on a field trip, then you respond.”

Gadanecz told a story about a teenage girl who had shown her self-inflicted scars on her skin as she struggled to come to terms with her sexual identity.

“By talking about these issues, allowing children to see that they are not alone and that this is normal and accepted, then perhaps one teenager less will commit suicide, or two will avoid depression,” she said.

“I will continue as I have done so far. I am not willing to change anything.”

Adam Nemeth, a psychologist and former chair of the LGBTQ Section of the Hungarian Psychological Association, said it was his professional duty to treat patients regardless of any legal constraints.

“Honestly, if it really becomes a law in a sense that they are going to apply it, I am really looking forward to the case against me,” he said.

“If they said that I am harming my clients by being … respectful to their identies, I am up for them to bring it on… I am very angry with the whole thing.”

Reporting by Gergely Szakacs and Anita Komuves in Budapest and Alicja Ptak in Warsaw, Editing by Angus MacSwan

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Business

EU fines Volkswagen, BMW $1 bln for emissions cartel

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  • Sets precedent by applying antitrust law to technical talks
  • Daimler gets off fine after blowing whistle on cartel
  • VW considering taking legal action
  • BMW says cleared of suspicion of emissions cheating

BRUSSELS, July 8 (Reuters) – The European Commission fined German carmakers Volkswagen and BMW a total of 875 million euros ($1 billion) on Thursday for colluding to curb the use of emissions cleaning technology they had developed.

The case, separate to the so-called ‘Dieselgate’ scandal over software designed to cheat on vehicle emissions tests, sets a precedent by extending the application of European competition law to technical-level talks between industry players.

In this case, talks held a decade ago centred on design standards for AdBlue, an additive used to cleanse nitrogen oxide from the exhaust gases produced by diesel-powered cars.

“This is a first,” European Union antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager told a news conference in Brussels. “We have never had a cartel whose purpose was to restrict the use of novel technology.”

Under a settlement, Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) will pay a fine of 502 million euros and BMW (BMWG.DE) 373 million euros. Daimler, also part of the cartel, was not fined after revealing its existence.

Vestager said the German carmakers, which included VW units Audi (AUDVF.PK) and Porsche (PSHG_p.DE), had possessed the technology to reduce harmful emissions more than required under EU law but avoided competing to do so.

“So today’s decision is about how legitimate technical cooperation went wrong. And we do not tolerate it when companies collude,” said Vestager.

The EU had narrowed the original scope of its investigation to ensure its charges stuck.

IS TECHNICAL COLLUSION POSSIBLE?

Vestager said that all of the parties had agreed to settle the case and “have acknowledged their role in this cartel”.

Volkswagen, however, said it was considering whether to take legal action, saying the penalty over technical talks about emissions technology set a questionable precedent. read more

“The Commission is entering new judicial territory, because it is treating technical cooperation for the first time as an antitrust violation,” Volkswagen said, adding that the fines had been set even though no customers had suffered any harm.

The nub of the carmakers’ complaints boil down to whether setting common technical standards amounts to anti-competitive behaviour – or whether indeed it makes it easier for an industry as a whole to embrace new technology.

The Commission said in its 2019 charge sheet that the German carmakers had colluded to restrict the size of AdBlue tanks between 2006 and 2014, thus making the urea-based additive less convenient to use.

BMW noted in its defence that it had been cleared of suspicion of using illegal ‘defeat devices’ to cheat emissions tests. read more

“This underlines that there has never been any allegation of unlawful manipulation of emission control systems by the BMW Group,” BMW said in a statement.

In the Dieselgate scandal, VW admitted to using such defeat devices, leading to more than 32 billion euros ($38 billion) in vehicle refits, fines and legal costs for the Wolfsburg-based carmaker.

($1 = 0.8460 euros)

Editing by John Chalmers, Douglas Busvine, Maria Sheahan, Elaine Hardcastle

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World

Hungary rejects EU demand to ditch ‘shameful’ anti-LGBT law

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BRUSSELS, July 7 (Reuters) – Hungary on Wednesday rejected a demand from the European Commission and many EU lawmakers to repeal new legislation banning schools from using materials deemed to promote homosexuality.

Last month, EU leaders lambasted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban over the legislation in a tense discussion behind closed doors, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte telling Budapest to respect EU values of tolerance or leave the bloc.

“Homosexuality is equated with pornography. This legislation uses the protection of children as an excuse to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation,” Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s executive Commission told the European Parliament. “It is a disgrace.”

The Commission can open a new legal case against Hungary at the European Court of Justice or use a new mechanism designed to protect the rule of law in the 27-nation bloc by freezing funding for countries that undermine democratic standards.

Orban, who faces a national election next year, has said the new law aims to protect children and does not discriminate against sexual minorities.

His chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, reiterated that stance on Wednesday: “Brussels’ efforts to have us allow LGBTQ activists into schools and nursery schools are in vain, we are not willing to do that.”

The case is the latest flare-up between Hungary and the EU, which has already launched an investigation againstBudapest for undermining democracy. Orban has steadily tightened restrictions on media, NGOs, academics and migrants despite the criticism from Brussels, international watchdogs and rights groups.

Demonstrators attend a protest against a law that bans LGBTQ content in schools and media at the Presidential Palace in Budapest, Hungary, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo

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Hungary’s conservative ally, Poland, is expected to block any attempt to impose the maximum EU penalty of suspending Budapest’s voting rights in the 27-nation bloc.

‘OFFENSIVE AND SHAMEFUL’

EU lawmakers urged the Commission not to release to Hungary funds earmarked for supporting its economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic if they are to contribute to Budapest’s anti-LGBT agenda or before it can ensure solid anti-fraud protection.

Discriminating against LGBTI+ people is illegal in the EU, said Iraxte Garcia Perez, a Spanish EU lawmaker and the head of the socialist faction in the European Parliament.

“That is why the new law in Hungary must be repealed. An offensive and shameful law that goes against human rights.”

Lawmakers also spoke against so-called “LGBT-free zones” that some local authorities established in Poland, which also faces EU legal action.

At the other end of the spectrum, Spain became the first large EU country last month to approve a draft bill to allow anyone aged over 14 to change gender legally without a medical diagnosis or hormone therapy.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called the split over values between the liberal West and more conservative eastern countries such as Hungary and Poland a “cultural battle” that damages EU unity.

Reporting by Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Toby Chopra, Giles Elgood and Gareth Jones

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World

Lithuania says Belarus is flying in migrants, plans border barrier

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VILNIUS, July 7 (Reuters) – Lithuania on Wednesday accused Belarus of flying in migrants and said it would build a barrier on the border to prevent them crossing illegaly into its territory.

Belarus decided to allow migrants to cross into Lithuania in response to European Union sanctions imposed after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land on its territory and arrested a dissident blogger aboard.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said Belarus has been offering migrants flights to Minsk, citing evidence found on at least one migrant who had reached Lithuania.

“There are travel agencies, direct flights that connect Minsk with Baghdad for example, and there are agencies both in Belarus and other countries that operate and attract ‘tourists’ to Minsk,” Simonyte told Reuters.

She said the main airport from where people flew into Belarus was Baghdad, but she would not rule out people also flying in from Istanbul.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on May 26 that his country would no longer prevent migrants from crossing its western border into the EU.

Simonyte said Lithuania would take action to stop migrants crossing the border by increasing patrols and building a barrier.

“We will begin building an additional physical barrier, which divides Lithuania and Belarus, which would be a certain sign and a certain deterrent to organisers of the illegal migration flows,” she told a news conference.

She also said the country, a Schengen free travel area member, was considering imposing border controls with neighbouring EU countries to stop the migrants travelling from it towards Western EU countries.

Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Jon Boyle and Giles Elgood

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World

South Korea considers reimposing restrictions as COVID-19 cases surge

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  • S.Korea reports 1,212 new daily cases
  • Movement restrictions extended in Seoul
  • Officials warn tougher curbs could be reinstated
  • Delta variant being fuelled by young and unvaccinated

SEOUL, July 7 (Reuters) – South Korea reported its second highest number of daily new COVID-19 cases ever on Wednesday, just days after it began easing social distancing restrictions in some parts of the country, buoyed by an accelerated vaccine rollout.

With the majority of the 1,212 new cases coming from densely populated Seoul, officials extended movement curbs in the capital and surrounding regions for at least another week and are considering pushing restrictions back up to the highest level.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said the country’s fourth wave of the virus, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, was spreading rapidly, especially among unvaccinated people in their 20s and 30s.

Kim urged people in that demographic to get tested preemptively “to protect not just yourself, but everyone in your family, friends, school and the country.”

“If the situation is not under control after monitoring for two to three days, it might leave us with no choice but to impose the strictest of all social distancing levels,” Kim said.

President Moon Jae-in ordered the military be mobilized to aid wider contact tracing and urged authorities to install additional testing centres in densely populated areas, presidential spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee told reporters on Wednesday.

The daily caseload was the worst since Dec. 25, when South Korea was experiencing a third wave of the pandemic.

Officials had been moving in recent weeks toward a full reopening of the country. Movement restrictions in much of the country were eased on July 1, although officials in greater Seoul held off as they watched case numbers beginning to creep up again. read more

Health experts said the relaxation of measures that restricted business operating hours and social gatherings outside of Seoul, along with the knowledge that further easings would be coming, led to public complacency, particularly in socially mobile younger people in the capital.

Around 85% of the new locally transmitted cases were in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to more than half of the country’s population.

“While the infection rate has dropped relatively in the people aged over 60 on the back of inoculation drive, the transmission continues in the unvaccinated group,” said Kim Tark, associate professor of infectious disease at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital.

“It’s a reminder to speed up vaccination for people under 60.”

VACCINES ARRIVE

Just 10% of the country’s population of 52 million people have been fully vaccinated, while 30% have received at least one shot, the majority of them aged over 60.

The Korean Medical Association urged the government to refrain from any hasty decisions to ease social distancing policies with vaccinations at low levels.

The country received 700,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) from Israel on Wednesday under a swap arrangement, along with a separate shipment of 627,000 directly purchased doses. read more

Some of the new supply will be sent to greater Seoul for inoculation programmes due to start on July 13, authorities said.

Improved vaccination levels have helped lower South Korea’s mortality rate to 1.25% and the number of severe cases to 155 as of Wednesday, down significantly from 1.41% and 311 cases reported during the previous peak in late December.

The country has reported a total of 162,753 infections and 2,033 deaths during the pandemic.

Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Jane Wardell

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World

Iran begins process of making enriched uranium metal; U.S., E3 dismayed

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VIENNA/WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) – Iran has begun the process ofproducing enriched uranium metal, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Tuesday, a move that could help it develop a nuclear weapon and that three European powers said threatened talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Iran’s steps, which were disclosed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and which Tehran said were aimed at developing fuel for a research reactor, also drew criticism from the United States, which called them an “unfortunate step backwards.”

U.S. and European officials made clear that Iran’s decision would complicate, and potentially torpedo, indirect U.S.-Iranian talks seeking to bring both nations back into compliance with the 2015 deal, which was abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump.

The deal imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme to make it harder for Tehran to develop fissile material for nuclear weapons in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. After Trump withdrew, Iran began violating many of its restrictions.

Tehran has already produced a small amount of uranium metal this year that was not enriched. That is a breach of the deal, which bans all work on uranium metal since it can be used to make the core of a nuclear bomb. read more

“Today, Iran informed the Agency that UO2 (uranium oxide) enriched up to 20% U–235 would be shipped to the R&D laboratory at the Fuel Fabrication Plant in Esfahan, where it would be converted to UF4 (uranium tetrafluoride) and then to uranium metal enriched to 20% U–235, before using it to manufacture the fuel,” an IAEA statement said.

A confidential IAEA report seen by Reuters said the agency had confirmed that Iran had taken the second of the four steps described, making clear it has begun the process.

Britain, France and Germany said on Tuesday they had “grave concern” about Iran’s decision, which violates the nuclear deal formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). read more

“Iran has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon,” they said in a joint statement issued by Britain’s foreign ministry.

“With its latest steps, Iran is threatening a successful outcome to the Vienna talks despite the progress achieved in six rounds of negotiations,” they said, and urged Iran to return to the talks, which began in April and adjourned on June 20. No date has been set for a next round.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Washington was not setting a deadline for the talks but noted “that as time proceeds Iran’s nuclear advances will have a bearing on our view of returning to the JCPOA.”

Price said the United States found it “worrying” that Iran was continuing to violate the agreement “especially with experiments that have value for nuclear weapons research.

“It’s another unfortunate step backwards for Iran,” he said.

Reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna and by Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed in Washington;
Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Jonathan Landay and Simon Lewis in Washington and by David Milliken in London;
Writing by Francois Murphy and Arshad Mohammed
Editing by David Goodman and Sonya Hepinstall

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Business

French champagne industry group fumes over new Russian champagne law

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PARIS/MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) – France’s champagne industry group on Monday blasted a new Russian law forcing foreign champagne producers to add a “sparkling wine” reference to their bottles and called for champagne exports to Russia to be halted.

The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, requires all foreign producers of sparkling wine to describe their product as such on the label on the back of the bottle — though not on the front — while makers of Russian “shampanskoye” may continue to use that term alone.

The French champagne industry group called on its members to halt all shipments to Russia for the time being and said the name “champagne”, which refers to the region in France the drink comes from, had legal protection in 120 countries.

“The Champagne Committee deplores the fact that this legislation does not ensure that Russian consumers have clear and transparent information about the origins and characteristics of wine,” group co-presidents Maxime Toubart and Jean-Marie Barillere said in a statement.

French Trade Minister Franck Riester said he was tracking the new Russian law closely, in contact with the wine industry and France’s European partners.

“We will unfailingly support our producers and French excellence,” he said on Twitter.

Moet Hennessy, the LVMH-owned French maker of Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon champagnes, said on Sunday it would begin adding the designation “sparkling wine” to the back of bottles destined for Russia to comply with the law.

LVMH (LVMH.PA) shares were down around 0.2% on Monday afternoon, underperforming the Paris bourse, which was up 0.34%.

Shares in Russian sparkling wine maker Abrau-Durso (ABRD.MM) were up more than 3% after rising as much 7.77% in early trade.

Abrau-Durso president Pavel Titov told Radio France Internationale on Saturday his firm does not have sparkling wines that would be called “champagne” in its portfolio and said he hoped the issue would be resolved in favor of global norms and standards.

“It is very important to protect the Russian wines on our market. But the legislation must be reasonable and not contradict common sense … I have no doubts that the real champagne is made in the Champagne region of France,” he said.

Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Leigh Thomas in Paris and Alexander Marrow in Moscow;
Writing by Geert De Clercq
Editing by Alison Williams, Andrea Ricci and Catherine Evans

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Business

Saudi Arabia pushes back on UAE opposition to OPEC+ deal

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DUBAI, July 4 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s energy minister pushed back on Sunday against opposition by fellow Gulf producer the United Arab Emirates to a proposed OPEC+ deal and called for “compromise and rationality” to secure agreement when the group reconvenes on Monday.

It was a rare public spat between allies whose national interests have increasingly diverged, spilling over into OPEC+ policy setting at a time consumers want more crude to aid a global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, voted on Friday to raise output by some 2 million barrels per day from August to December 2021 and to extend remaining cuts to the end of 2022, but UAE objections prevented agreement, sources had said. read more

“The extension is the basis and not a secondary issue,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television channel.

“You have to balance addressing the current market situation with maintaining the ability to react to future developments … if everyone wants to raise production then there has to be an extension,” he said, noting uncertainty about the course of the pandemic and output from Iran and Venezuela.

The UAE said on Sunday it backs an output increase from August but suggested deferring to another meeting the decision on extending the supply pact. It said baseline production references – the level from which any cuts are calculated – should be reviewed for any extension. read more

The standoff could delay plans to pump more oil through to the end of the year to cool oil prices.

“Big efforts were made over the past 14 months that provided fantastic results and it would be a shame not to maintain those achievements. … Some compromise and some rationality is what will save us,” the Saudi energy minister said.

“We are looking for a way to balance the interests of producer and consumer countries and for market stability in general, especially when shortages are expected due to the decrease in stockpiles,” he added.

Responding to oil demand destruction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, OPEC+ agreed last year to cut output by almost 10 million bpd from May 2020, with plans to phase out the curbs by the end of April 2022. Cuts now stand at about 5.8 million bpd.

OPEC+ sources said the UAE contended its baseline was originally set too low, but was ready to tolerate if the deal ended in April 2022. The UAE has ambitious production plans and has invested billions of dollars to boost capacity.

Prince Abdulaziz, who stressed Riyadh’s “sacrifice” in making voluntary cuts, said no country should use a single month as a baseline reference, adding there was a mechanism to file objections and that “selectivity is difficult”.

The regional alliance that saw Saudi Arabia and the UAE join forces to project power in the Middle East and beyond — coordinating use of financial clout and, in Yemen, military force — has loosened as national interests came to the fore.

Abu Dhabi extricated itself from the Yemen war in 2019, saddling Riyadh. Saudi Arabia this year took the lead to end a row with Qatar despite reluctance from its Arab allies.

The kingdom has also moved to challenge the UAE’s dominance as the region’s business and tourism hub as Riyadh vies for foreign capital to diversify its economy away from oil.

Reporting by Marwa Rashad in London, Ghaida Ghantous in Dubai and Alaa Swilam in Cairo; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Peter Cooney and Daniel Wallis

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