On Sunday 16 August, the largest rally in Belarusian modern history took place. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets all across Belarus to participate in the Freedom March. These peaceful demonstrations had clear demands: the release of all unlawfully detained people, the prosecution of those responsible for police brutality, and holding of new presidential elections.

The sheer numbers clearly show that the Belarusian population wants change, and wants it now. The EU stands by them.

With more and more shocking reports of inhumane conditions and treatment in places of detention, the European Union expects a thorough and transparent investigation into all alleged abuses, in order to hold those responsible to account. The European Union Delegation to Belarus has conveyed our expectations to the Belarusian authorities.

As agreed by the EU Foreign Ministers at our recent video conference, the EU is working on new listings for sanctions against those responsible for violence, repression of peaceful protests, and the falsification of election results.

As announced by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, EU Heads of State or Government will discuss the situation in Belarus on Wednesday, where I will update them on progress on these EU initiatives.

On 14 August 2020, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) report titled ‘Afghanistan: Key socio-economic indicators. Focus on Kabul City, Mazar-e Sharif and Herat City’.

During 2016, EASO initiated a pilot project to facilitate Member States’ cooperation on the development of country guidance notes on Afghanistan. In the context of this project, the need for updated information was identified on topics of relevance for the consideration of Internal Protection Alternative (IPA) in Afghanistan, with a focus on the cities of Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif. This choice of focus was also kept for the 2020 update of Country Guidance on Afghanistan.

After providing some background information on these three cities, the 2020 EASO COI report Afghanistan, Key socio-economic indicators looks into several socio-economic indicators, including poverty, food security, housing, access to employment, education and healthcare, freedom of movement. The information is provided for the country, and where available for the three cities separately. Additional attention is paid to specific vulnerable groups such as IDPs, returnees, women and children.

The report was drafted by EASO COI Sector in accordance with the EASO COI Report Methodology. It was reviewed by experts from Denmark, Danish Immigration Service and by ACCORD, the Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation.

At the end of 2019, with 2.7 million refugees, Afghanistan was the third largest country of origin of refugees in the world. Afghan continued to be the second most common citizenship of asylum applicants in the EU+ as of June 2020.

This report is part of a series of EASO COI reports on Afghanistan due to be published in 2020.

The Office hereby informs you that the information related to closing dates and submission requirements for plant material will, as from 15/10/2020, be updated daily on the CPVO website. Such data may be found under “Technical examinations/Submission of plant material-S2 gazette” and will be published annually (15/02) in a .pdf format

The official Gazette of the CPVO and the S2 Gazette 4.2020 have been published and are available for free in electronic format only (PDF).

You may download both gazettes from the Gazette page.

A search tool is available to identify these modifications on the web site of the Office: S2 Gazette

Today’s announcement by Turkey of renewed drilling activities by the Yavuz vessel in a maritime zone which has been delineated by Cyprus and Egypt regrettably fuels further tensions and insecurity in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This action runs counter and undermines efforts to resume dialogue and negotiations, and to pursue immediate de-escalation, which is the only path towards stability and lasting solutions, as reiterated by EU Foreign Ministers last Friday.

I call on the Turkish authorities to end these activities immediately and to engage fully and in good faith in a broad dialogue with the European Union.