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Good morning A first for starters: half of European investment bank employees fear retaliation for speaking out about misconduct, according to an internal survey seen by the Financial Times.
Today, our Madrid bureau chief Pedro Sánchez talks about a trip to three African countries, and our climate reporter presents a new case against the EU’s move to classify airlines as sustainable.
Overcome the
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has embarked on a three-day trip to West Africa in a bid to stem a record number of unauthorised migrants seeking to gain a foothold in the European Union by boat to the Canary Islands. writes Barney Jobson.
Background: The dangerous Atlantic route to the Canary Islands, 1,300 kilometres from mainland Spain, has seen a sharp rise in irregular migration to the EU this year. It exacerbates the EU’s migration problems and fuels political attacks against Sánchez at home.
The prime minister arrived in Mauritania late yesterday and is due to visit Gambia and Senegal today and tomorrow as he seeks to strengthen ties with heads of state, sign legal migration agreements and praise Spanish police already working in the region to stem illegal flows.
Upon his arrival in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, Sánchez said that he would provide new “inspiration” to Spain’s relationship with Africa. “Spain is committed to safe, orderly and regular migration,” he added.
The number of small boat arrivals in the Canary Islands rose to 21,620 in the first seven months of this year, a 154 percent increase on the same period last year, according to data from the EU border agency Frontex.
By contrast, the number of irregular migrants taking the Mediterranean route via Italy fell by 64 percent – largely due to crackdowns on people smugglers in Tunisia and Libya – making it the busiest route overall, with 32,239 crossings.
The sharp rise in the Canary Islands, which have seen a total of 340 boats this year, is largely explained by the dire situation in Mali, which is ruled by a military regime fighting an Islamist insurgency.
Another driver of migration on the West African coast – particularly in Senegal – is the behaviour of EU-flagged vessels, which are blamed for overfishing and breaching laws, the Financial Times said. reported this month.
Most of the boats to the Canary Islands leave from Mauritania and Senegal, but tiny Gambia – the smallest country on the African continent – receives visits from Sánchez because its criminal gangs play an important role in filling the boats.
The transatlantic route for migrants is one of the most dangerous in the world. In the first five months of this year, an estimated 4,800 people died trying to use it, according to the Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders.
Spanish government officials say the number of attempted crossings will increase in the coming weeks as the waters calm.
Chart of the day: attack
kyiv has renewed its call for Western allies to lift restrictions on the use of weapons against Russian military targets in response to Moscow’s air strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Luxury flights
Brussels is back to school and facing another challenge to the EU’s sustainable finance classification, which governs which investments can be considered green. writes Alicia Hancock.
Background: The EU taxonomy came into force in 2020, but the classification of “green” investments has already landed the European Commission in a legal dispute, particularly over its criteria for gas and nuclear energy.
Now a consortium of five NGOs, backed by a 35,000-strong petition, is taking the commission to court over its decision to include fossil-fuel-powered planes and ships in the taxonomy. Investors can pour money into these modes of transport as long as they meet certain performance standards. The NGOs consider them “weak”.
“This taxonomy will raise billions of euros in private funding,” said David Kay, legal director of the NGO Opportunity Green. “But the aviation and shipping benchmarks send completely the wrong signal to investors: they drive investment in planes and ships that pollute the climate for decades.”
Current conditions would allow all order books of airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air to be considered “green”, as well as 90 percent of future Airbus flights, according to the NGO Transport & Environment, which was not involved in the lawsuit.
The commission declined to comment.
The NGOs, including Fossielvrij NL and Protect our Winters Austria, brought their case to the European Court of Justice on Tuesday after the Commission refused to carry out an internal review of the rules in June.
What to see today
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European Commission Vice-President Vĕra Jourová met with Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar.
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