Displaying items by tag: Germany

Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, has outlined her vision of Europe's future ahead of taking over the rotating EU presidency, saying the pandemic will be a 'stress test' for the bloc. The presidency is responsible for directing the Council's work on legislation, ensuring cohesion between member states, and supervising the continuity of the EU agenda. She welcomed the proposal for a 750-billion euro rescue fund announced by Ursula von der Leyen on 27 May, but said more still needs to be done. She has previously said that Europe is facing its biggest crisis since the EU was founded and wants the bloc to take more global responsibility in handling the fallout from the pandemic, especially as ties with the USA remain strained. The US is Europe’s most important partner, but there are currently more difficulties than Europe would like.

Some European countries are cautiously coming out of lockdown. Italy is opening some factories and construction sites. Spain is allowing hairdressers and small businesses to reopen. Germany’s children are back at school. France is also easing lockdown. Political leaders now grapple with the economic and social shocks that lockdown has left behind, while trying to avoid large-scale second waves of infection. Italy is contending with a fresh rise in migrant arrivals from Libya, an ongoing economic crisis, and uneven support from Brussels. Spain is squabbling over spending as Catalan separatist leaders have seized on the pandemic to reignite the argument that their wealthy industrialised region would be better off independent from the devastated economy of the rest of Spain. Germany handled the coronavirus crisis better than other large European countries and favours cautious reopening, but business groups and local governments want to move faster.

Europeans are relaxing coronavirus restrictions for children, with Spain allowing under-14s out of their homes from this week. Holland’s primary schools reopen next month, and French children aged 5 to 11 will return to school on 12 May, but with a limit of 15 pupils per class. The following week, older children will return in selected year groups. Angela Merkel warned that Germany may be rushing its lockdown exit as physical distancing is relaxing and smaller shops reopen. She said Germany remained ‘on the thinnest ice’ despite early achievements. Belgium has a detailed plan to lift coronavirus restrictions gradually, starting on 4 May, when fabric shops will open in order for people to comply with requirements for children over 12 to wear masks on public transport. From 11 May all shops and schools will reopen, with limited pupils in each class.

The Willow Creek 2020 Leadership Conference in Germany started on 27 February with 7,400 attendees, but ended abruptly after one of the speakers contracted coronavirus. The speaker was never present during the event, but was involved with the preparations. Three people who had contact with him have since tested positive for coronavirus. Also an EU prayer meeting due to take place in Zagreb was cancelled due to coronavirus. Pray for the organisers of the many planned 2020 gatherings to make wise decisions due to health and safety issues. Pray also for the plight of homeless refugees as borders and societies close down. See also

The Berlin conference on Libya, attended by rival leaders in the civil war and many international leaders including Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Erdogan, concluded on 19 January. It set forth mechanisms for the establishment of a cease-fire committee which will meet regularly. However, few expect short-term changes on the ground in Libya, as a sustainable resolution remains elusive. In the days following the summit, observers said that Turkey’s increased involvement in the conflict has expanded its diplomatic clout in the nine-year conflict; it has positioned itself as a key broker in developments moving forward. Boris Johnson said that the aim of the conference was to ‘stop jockeying for position. The people of Libya have suffered enough. It is time for the country to move forward.’ 

The leader of the German Evangelical Alliance, Reinhardt Schink, spoke out against the tragedy of Christian refugees and migrants who are sent back to Afghanistan and Iran, even though they could face prison, torture and death. He cited statistics about asylum-seekers who have converted to the Christian faith in Germany, but later been rejected by the authorities. ‘Behind all these nameless figures are devastating personal destinies, and risk us harming our own values system. Authorities should use the “know-how” of the Christian churches.’ He said that experts should engage with church leaders, who guarantee that a person has effectively been baptised, taken a Christianity course, and become an active member of a church community. Schink added, ‘It looks as if pastors are suspected of not telling the truth. We hurt ourselves as a country when precisely those migrants who had integrated well and had become bridge builders between cultures are expelled.’

France, Germany, and Britain have told the UN's secretary-general that Iran has developed a ballistic-missile system capable of delivering a nuclear weapon in violation of the Security Council resolution. A letter from those countries, plus Russia, China, and the USA, stated that the development of such missiles was inconsistent with the resolution endorsing a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and urged Tehran not to pursue activity related to such missiles. Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the letter ‘a desperate falsehood to cover up European countries' miserable incompetence in fulfilling their commitments to the nuclear deal. He said, ‘If Britain, France, and Germany want a modicum of global credibility, they can begin by exerting sovereignty rather than bowing to US bullying.’ Pray for Iran’s church leaders amid the upheaval. They are praying that God will give them strategies to use the current unrest to advance His kingdom.

13,000 people have died since fighting began between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian soldiers in 2014. On 10 December 2019 Russia and Ukraine made progress towards restoring peace in eastern Ukraine, at a Paris summit mediated by Germany and France. A joint communique stated, ‘The sides commit to a full and comprehensive implementation of a cease-fire, strengthened by the implementation of all necessary support measures, before the end of the year 2019’. A prisoner exchange was also agreed. Angela Merkel said the meeting gave renewed momentum to reviving a 2015 Minsk peace agreement that had stalled. Please pray that nothing will prevent the withdrawal of heavy weapons, the restoration of Kyiv's control over its borders, and wider autonomy plus local elections for the separatist regions. The last time the four national leaders gathered in this format was in 2016.

As 70-80 worshippers in a synagogue in Halle observed Yom Kippur, their holiest day of the year, a gunman shot at a locked door. The camera at the entrance showed him trying to break into the building, but the door remained closed. God protected them. The attack, streamed live, was a chilling reminder of the mosque attack in New Zealand which was also online in real time. Footage also shows the assailant laying a home-made explosive outside and uttering anti-Semitic statements. He shot and killed a passer-by, and another man nearby. Following the attack, the synagogue congregants were filmed singing and dancing on a bus transporting them from hospital. They finished the concluding prayer for Yom Kippur inside the hospital. The attacker wanted to carry out a massacre and had nine pounds of explosives in his car.

A prayer walk along the former east-west border is being undertaken by German intercessors, from 3 October to 9 November, with the slogan ‘From a lifeless divide to a new lifeline’. The walk will take place along two routes, one from the north and one from the south, to a central meeting point. Its aim is to thank God for freedom and unity, and to pray for further reconciliation and understanding between former East and West Germany.