Month: <span>September 2020</span>

The first cruise ship to return to Greece since pandemic restrictions were eased docked at the port of Piraeus in Athens early on Tuesday morning after the discovery on board of a dozen suspected coronavirus contaminations, the Greek news agency ANA announced.

The ship, Mein Schiff 6, flying the Maltese flag and operating for the Anglo-German tourism giant TUI, is carrying 922 passengers and 666 crew members.

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No one is currently allowed to disembark while personnel from the Greek public health agency have boarded the vessel to carry out tests.

Twelve crew members tested positive for coronavirus after 150 randomised samples were taken, the Greek coastguard said on Monday. According to TUI, they were asymptomatic.

But according to Greek media reports on Tuesday, follow-up tests on the same crew members proved negative.

Passengers had all been diagnosed as healthy after undergoing tests before boarding, according to the coastguard spokeswoman.

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The..

Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has called for European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova to resign over what he says are “derogatory comments” about democracy in the country.

A letter from Orban to EU chief Ursula von der Leyen was tweeted by the former’s spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, in which he said that Jourova’s comments were “inappropriate and unacceptable” and a “blatant violation” of the principle of “sincere cooperation”.

His comments came after Jourova was interviewed by German magazine Der Spiegel this week. Her comments translate as: “Mr Orbán says often that he builds an illiberal democracy. I would say he builds a sick democracy.”

Orban’s government have repeatedly clashed with EU institutions in Brussels in recent years over the government’s policies towards the judiciary, media and academic institutions.

Hungary is currently subject to the Article 7 process, which was triggered by the European Parliament in 2018 over alleged abuses of core EU values. The proce..