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Shipwrecks, fences and internal disagreements marked the European Unions efforts this year to stave off new arrivals of refugees while trying to forge a humane migration policy consistent with international law.

Al Jazeera takes a look at some of 2021s significant developments on the issue.

March 20 The migration or interior ministers of Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy and Spain meet in Athens. They call for a strengthening of external borders and for a European mechanism to return migrants and refugees to their countries of origin.

March 29-30 European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson visits the Reception and Identification Centres on Samos and Lesbos for the first time. She announces the approval of 155 million euros ($175m) to build new camps on Lesbos and Chios, in addition to the 121 million euros ($137m) approved in 2020 for new camps to be built on Samos, Leros and Kos, and 22 million euros ($25m) to expand the reception centre at Fylakio, near the Turkish border.

April 22 A shipwreck off the Libyan coast claims the lives of 130 people. The search and rescue ship Ocean Viking finds dozens of bodies in the water.

April 24 Greece shuts down the Kara Tepe refugee camp on Lesbos, herding its hundreds of residents into a tent city at Mavrovounio. Following the burning of Moria camp in September 2020, Mavrovounio is the only large-scale refugee facility on the island. A new camp is to replace it in 2022.

May 11 Greece proposes authorising Frontex the EUs collective border and coastguard agency to operate outside EU waters to better prevent the flow of migrants towards Europe. In the context of the Mediterranean, this could imply patrolling international waters, but in the Aegean, it would almost certainly mean patrolling Turkish territorial waters.

May 18 Thousands of migrants and refugees from African countries try to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, threatening to overwhelm security forces. Video recordings show authorities throwing people back into the sea, but the European Commission remains silent about the incident. Dozens of migrants and refugees also try to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla.

May 24 Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis receives Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri in Athens, offering much-needed political support in the midst of a European Parliamentary effort to remove the Frenchman from his post over allegedly turning a blind eye to illegal pushbacks at EU borders.

May 26 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko threatens to allow migrants and drugs to pour into neighbouring countries. By September, the number of Iraqi refugees crossing into Lithuania from Belarus was reported to be 4,100 by September 55 times the previous years flows.

June 7 A Greek ministerial decision enters into force deeming Turkey a safe third country for Afghans, Syrians, Somalis, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. These nationalities represent 67 percent of asylum seekers in Greece. They are now rarely processed for asylum. Instead, they are asked if there is any reason why they should not apply next door in Turkey.

June 29 The European Asylum Support Office welcomes an agreement to reestablish the body as a fully-fledged European Union Agency for Asylum, with more autonomy and funding. It will ultimately be tasked with redistributing asylum applications across the EU according to member states economic and social capacity to absorb them. A quota system first proposed in 2015 was rejected by a core of anti-immigration states.

July 11 Authorities in Havana, Cuba suppress a large demonstration sparked by food shortages. In the weeks that follow, police go door-to-door, arresting participants who had been filmed. The crackdown leads to a covert exodus of possibly thousands of Cubans to Moscow, Minsk, Istanbul and Belgrade, from where they make their way into EU member states to seek asylum.

July 15 The European Parliament issues a report saying Frontex was witness to pushbacks it did not prevent. The report does not find direct Frontex involvement in pushbacks. Members of the European Parliament or MEPs had called on Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri to resign over pushbacks in December 2020.

July 19 Police on Lesbos hold a press conference to announce they were indicting 10 individuals across four non-governmental organisations or NGOs for alleged espionage and trafficking activity. The NGOs in question are all active in search and rescue operations and have accused the Hellenic Coast Guard of conducting abandonments at sea.

July 21 Greece and Germany issue a joint declaration in Berlin, calling for fair distribution of asylum applicants among member states.

July 25 Possibly the worst single tragedy of the year takes place offshore Libya, with 150 people reportedly drowning in a shipwreck. Filippo Grandi, the head of the UNs refugee agency, urges countries to assume their responsibilities in rescuing those in distress.

July Greeces government rounds up thousands of homeless refugees and moves them into camps across the mainland.

August 15 The Taliban enters Kabul as then-President Ashraf Ghani flees, sealing their control over almost the entire country after a three-and-a-half-month campaign. Panicked residents rush to Kabul airport to flee Afghanistan, leading to an international campaign to covertly rescue as many as possible. Greece receives 819 Afghan evacuees by the end of November.

August 19 Forty-five people, including children, drown north of Libya when the engine on their boat explodes.

August 25 Greece submits to parliament a bill expanding police authority to order deportations, tightening the appeals process and shortening voluntary departure windows.

September 20 The Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre begins to receive the refugee population from the town of Vathy.

September 22 Greece receives its first Afghan evacuees since the fall of Kabul seven female members of parliament and their families.

September 28-29 Some 300 African migrants and refugees attempt to enter Ceuta, after false rumours that border security was relaxed.

October 1 The Greek migration ministry takes over the management of cash aid to refugees, but payments are subsequently delayed causing hunger and difficulty of movement.

October Lithuania continues work on a 500 kilometre-long (311 miles) fence along its border with Belarus. By then, refugees have been pouring over Belaruss borders with Latvia and Poland as well. The EU accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of attempting to destabilise neighbouring countries.

October 31 The Hellenic Coast Guard rescues 380 refugees in a stricken ship south of Crete, in the largest refugee haul of the year. Sattelite-navigation system or GPS information supplied by NGOs suggests the authorities tried to send it back to Turkey before bringing passengers onshore in Kos.

November 12 A refugee-filled boat sinks off the Libyan coast. Forty-six people are rescued and 30 bodies retrieved, but as many as 74 others are feared drowned.

November 24 Twenty-seven refugees drown in the English Channel as they try to cross from France to Britain, in what was billed as the worst such tragedy in northern European waters.

November 27 The Leros and Kos Closed Controlled Access Centres are inaugurated.

November The European Commission shuts down flights bringing refugees to Belarus, and persuades Iraq to repatriate some of its nationals.

December 1 The European Commission puts forward a set of temporary asylum procedures on the borders of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland with Belarus, which allow them to extend asylum registration and to apply simplified and quicker national procedures to deport those whose asylum applications are rejected.

December 20 Albania and North Macedonia are added to the Greek migration ministrys official list of safe third countries.

December 23-25 Three sailing boats overfilled with refugees capsizes in relatively mild weather in three different parts of the Aegean, leading to at least 31 deaths and dozens of people missing. It is the worst Aegean death toll since October 2015, when a boat sank off the coast of Lesbos.

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Timeline: The European Union and migration in 2021 - Al Jazeera English

Steam rises from cooling towers of the Electricite de France (EDF) nuclear power plant in Belleville-sur-Loire, France October 12, 2021. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

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Jan 1 (Reuters) - The European Union has drawn up plans to label some natural gas and nuclear energy projects as "green" investments after a year-long battle between governments over which investments are truly climate-friendly.

The European Commission is expected to propose rules in January deciding whether gas and nuclear projects will be included in the EU "sustainable finance taxonomy".

This is a list of economic activities and the environmental criteria they must meet to be labelled as green investments.

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By restricting the "green" label to truly climate-friendly projects, the system aims to make those investments more attractive to private capital, and stop "greenwashing", where companies or investors overstate their eco-friendly credentials.

Brussels has also made moves to apply the system to some EU funding, meaning the rules could decide which projects are eligible for certain public finance.

A draft of the Commission's proposal, seen by Reuters, would label nuclear power plant investments as green if the project has a plan, funds and a site to safely dispose of radioactive waste. To be deemed green, new nuclear plants must receive construction permits before 2045.

Investments in natural gas power plants would also be deemed green if they produce emissions below 270g of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour (kWh), replace a more polluting fossil fuel plant, receive a construction permit by Dec. 31 2030 and plan to switch to low-carbon gases by the end of 2035.

Gas and nuclear power generation would be labelled green on the grounds that they are "transitional" activities - defined as those that are not fully sustainable, but which have emissions below industry average and do not lock in polluting assets.

"Taking account of scientific advice and current technological progress as well as varying transition challenges across member states, the Commission considers there is a role for natural gas and nuclear as a means to facilitate the transition towards a predominantly renewable-based future," the European Commission said in a statement.

To help states with varying energy backgrounds to transition, "under certain conditions, solutions can make sense that do not look exactly 'green' at first glance," a Commission source told Reuters, adding that gas and nuclear investments would face "strict conditions".

EU countries and a panel of experts will scrutinise the draft proposal, which could change before it is due to be published later in January. Once published, it could be vetoed by a majority of EU countries or the European Parliament.

The policy has been mired in lobbying from governments for more than a year and EU countries disagree on which fuels are truly sustainable.

Natural gas emits roughly half the CO2 emissions of coal when burned in power plants, but gas infrastructure is also associated with leaks of methane, a potent planet-warming gas.

The EU's advisers had recommended that gas plants not be labelled as green investments unless they met a lower 100g CO2e/kWh emissions limit, based on the deep emissions cuts scientists say are needed to avoid disastrous climate change.

Nuclear power produces very low CO2 emissions but the Commission sought expert advice this year on whether the fuel should be deemed green given the potential environmental impact of radioactive waste disposal.

Some environmental campaigners and Green EU lawmakers criticised the leaked proposal on gas and nuclear.

"By including them... the Commission risks jeopardising the credibility of the EU's role as a leading marketplace for sustainable finance," Greens president Philippe Lamberts said.

Austria opposes nuclear power, alongside countries including Germany and Luxembourg. EU states including the Czech Republic, Finland and France, which gets around 70% of its power from the fuel, see nuclear as crucial to phasing out CO2-emitting coal fuel power.

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Reporting by Kate Abnett; Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Frances Kerry and Louise Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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EU drafts plan to label gas and nuclear investments as green - Reuters

On December 8, 2021, the European Commission adopted its proposal for a regulation to deter and counteract economic coercion measures by non-EU countries, such as Russia and China. The Commission committed to make a legislative proposal by the end of 2021 at the latest in a joint declaration by the Council, European Parliament and Commission in February 2021 highlighting the gap in the EUs international trade protection instrument armory.

It appears be an attempt to use the EUs exclusive legislative powers under the Common Commercial Policy (Article 207(2) TFEU) to allow the European Commission to adopt a new range of sanctions against foreign countries, companies and individuals beyond the current sanction regime, which only applies where consistent with international law. By assigning the tool to the realm of trade policy instead of foreign policy, the regulation may be passed by a qualified majority of governments, circumventing the usual unanimity requirement that frequently hampers the EUs foreign policy.

The mechanism is designed to target actions by third countries intended to coerce the EU or a member state to take or withdraw specific policy measuresin other words, state-sponsored efforts that exploit economic links, such as trade and investmentto push for political change in a national government or across the whole EU. However, coercion from private companies and individuals will also be penalized if the conduct is part of an subversive campaign led by a state actor.

The coercive measures that might trigger application of this instrument are not linked to the form of the measures but to the level of their intent to coerce the EU or a member state. The result is a very broad potential scope for coercive measures covered by the proposal.

While the 12 categories of Union Response measures listed in Annex I will require implementation by the member states, the Commission alone has the power to open an investigation of its own initiative and to adopt response measures. These could include:

The EUs countermeasures can target individuals, companies and/or third countries.

The instruments main objective is not to impose punitive measures; rather, it aims toward deterrence in order to preserve the EU and the member states legitimate right to make policy choices and decisions and prevent serious interference in the sovereignty of the EU or its member states. This objective suggests that sanctions will be used as a last resort, after all forms of international engagement have been exhausted.

Any member state, company or entity can bring a complaint to the Commission, which will then investigate the situation and gather the necessary evidence to see if the dispute amounts to economic coercion or relates to measures that fall under the WTOs jurisdiction.

If the Commission establishes that economic coercion has been used, it will proceed by engaging directly with the relevant country and begin negotiations to find a solution. However, if ultimately, such mediation fails and the coercion persists, the Commission can recommend countermeasures, which are then first debated before they can be approved by the member states. In certain urgent situations, the Commission is entitled to act alone to adopt temporarily measures, subject to subsequent scrutiny by the European Parliament and Council.

Once approved, all 27 member states will have to enforce the sanctions against the third country, even if they are not direct victims of the coercion campaign. Unity and solidarity remain key to uphold our values and interests, according to Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, who is responsible for EU trade policy.

The European Parliament and the Council have undertaken to consider the proposal in a timely manner. It has thus far received strong support in feedback in response to the Commissions previous consultations. A new consultation has been opened for the next two months, until February 14, 2022, providing stakeholders and citizens an opportunity to submit additional feedback, which the Commission will report to the Council and Parliament.

In addition, the proposal now needs to be discussed and agreed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It will be considered under the Ordinary Legislative Procedure, whereby the Parliament and Council will internally develop their positions before negotiating with each other in Trilogue discussions with the assistance of the Commission.

France and Germany appear to support the proposal alongside other member states expressing their concern about the growing trend of increasing economic coercion.

However, other countries like Sweden and the Czech Republic, the Nordics, and Ireland have expressed their unease with the far-reaching scope of the instrument, and the potential that it will lead to more protectionism. They emphasized that sanctions should remain exceptional, comply with international law and that their harmful effects on the blocs overall economy should be kept to a minimum. In a joint statement, Sweden and the Czech Republic stated that it would be extremely difficult (especially in a short time) to quantify economic and political damage and find appropriate countermeasures.

The main fear is that the economic coercion proposal would escalate trade disputes, by becoming a trade irritant instead of an effective deterrent against giants like Russia, China and the US. An EU countermeasure could trigger a chain of retaliation measures under the WTO Agreement, which can target completely different sectors. Such escalation is exactly what worries some countries within the EU as well as the blocs like-minded trading partners. It remains to be seen, therefore, if EU capitals will succeed in diluting the instrument.

Additional questions have been raised by economic actors operating in the EU regarding the consequences of potential measures countering coercive third-country actions. For example, the instrument does not provide (so far) for an opportunity to claim compensation for damage suffered by economic operators arising from the EU reactive measures and other actions under the instrument.

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"Economic coercionnew EU jargon for lobbying by third countries: Can the European Commissions proposed regulation to prevent foreign government...

For more than a decade, Neil Currie could sell his companys handcrafted black iron pans and cookware from Shropshire, the birthplace of Britains Industrial Revolution, to customers in Berlin as easily as he could to ones in Birmingham, less than 30 miles to the east. But this year, since Britain left the European Union, Netherton Foundrys sales into the bloc have plummeted.

For 12 months, British businesses have been confronting the reality of the countrys decision to distance itself from its largest trading partner. Initially, the new system collapsed: Perishable goods got stuck at ports, retailers discovered their supply chains were obsolete and trucking companies stopped delivering to the whole island of Ireland.

The worst of the problems (outside of Northern Ireland) eased after a few months. But what remains is a frustrating regime of higher costs, time-consuming customs paperwork and countless lost opportunities.

Netherton Foundrys website sales to the European Union are just draining away, Mr. Currie said. They have dropped 40 percent this year.

Before Brexit, the only discernible difference about sales to the continent were the extra delivery costs. Arranging the shipment took less than a minute. Now, for every different product leaving Britain whether its a specially designed tortilla press or a popular frying pan with locally sourced oak handles a four-page customs form needs to be completed, which takes up to 20 minutes per shipment.

For customers, theres sticker shock. Items cost at least 8.50 pounds ($11.25) more because couriers charge extra to cover the additional administration of customs checks and taxes. And every product takes longer to arrive at its destination. Besides the lost online sales from individual buyers, many European independent shops that used to stock Netherton Foundrys products have concluded its just not worth the cost or the hassle.

We can sell to people, we can do it, but its more expensive, Mr. Currie said. But there is a perception and I think this is possibly even worse that its too difficult.

In its first seven months, the new trade deal reduced Britains exports to the union by 14 percent and imports by 24 percent, according to an estimate by the UK Trade Policy Observatory, a research group. Thats about 44 billion in lost trade. Most of the exports were lost in January as many logistics companies stopped moving goods, overwhelmed by the number of deliveries that were being sent with inaccurate customs paperwork. Since that initial drop, exports have mostly recovered, official statistics show.

But the data doesnt capture how much harder businesses are having to work just to retain the customers they have as they become less competitive.

One of Netherton Foundrys largest customers, a department store in Germany, has required that the pans be sold to it via an intermediary in Belgium so it doesnt have to take on the extra work of importing directly from Britain. With, of course, all the additional costs, Mr. Currie said. We all know its crazy.

The trade deal granted goods made in Britain tariff- and quota-free access to the European Union. But the paperwork required to cross the border and prove the goods met the blocs regulatory standards have become a nuisance. Some companies decided it was not worth the extra costs. Marks & Spencer, a large British retailer, closed its 11 food stores in France, citing supply chain complexities created by Brexit.

Goods trade with Europe was nearly 16 percent below what it would have been in a world without Brexit, according to the latest report by the Center for European Reform, a group that supports the European Union.

These are only the beginnings of the long-run impacts of Brexit, which is expected to make the British economy 4 percent smaller than it otherwise would have been, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. Thats twice as much scarring to the economy than the pandemic is expected to cause, it estimated.

Weve had a year of two halves, said Sally Jones, who leads the trade strategy and Brexit team at EY. Early on, companies were asking granular operational questions about how to keep their businesses running under the new rules. Now, they are working out the long-term issues that require substantial changes. For example, some retailers that relied on a single European distribution center in Britain are finding they cant afford to keep paying the additional tariffs imposed by moving imported goods back out of Britain. They are looking into opening other centers on the continent, relocating jobs and money.

Its something that Luceco, which makes and imports lighting and wiring products from China and sells them to retail stores, is having to consider. It mostly sells the imported products within Britain, but about 3 million to 4 million of the sales are made in the Republic of Ireland.

Its not, thankfully, the biggest chunk, said Matt Webb, the chief financial officer. But its been extremely difficult. The paperwork now thats involved in selling to even Northern Ireland is prohibitive, he said. In addition, tariffs on the items have to be paid twice: when they enter Britain from China and leave for Ireland.

There was always going to come a time when it made sense for us to have a hub in Ireland, Mr. Webb said. All that Brexit has done is brought that day a little closer.

The added costs and challenges of Brexit have arrived while businesses are already desperately trying to navigate the constant tumult of the pandemic, which has led to international shortages of goods, exorbitant shipping costs and surging commodity prices, particularly for energy.

At Netherton Foundry, the first thing that lands in Mr. Curries inbox each morning is an email from his purchasing manager of the top five expenses that have increased in price overnight. Luceco sees increases, too: It used to spend 2 million a year on sea containers shipping its goods from China. Now its 16 million. For customers, Lucecos prices have jumped 12 percent.

Recently, butter and cheese prices have risen 20 percent to 30 percent, said Michael Harte, the managing director of Bridge Cheese, which imports some of its cheeses from Europe and sells bespoke blends to food manufacturers and wholesalers, such as pizza companies, in Britain, on the continent and in the Middle East. And there are soaring energy prices to contend with. Bridge Cheese absorbed these extra costs as long as it could, but since September has passed on double-digit price increases to its customers.

As opposed to singular issues, everything is layered on top of each other, Mr. Harte said.

In an effort to keep Brexit-related costs under control, Bridge Cheese is willing to export only large orders because goods going to the European Union now all have to undergo veterinarian inspections to certify they met health regulations and to check labeling and storage. It costs the same to have 20 pallets inspected as it does just one, Mr. Harte said.

One of his frustrations is that Brexit means there is a massive market on your doorstep that cant be reached competitively for specialty products, he said. In the nine months through September, exports of food and drink to the European Union dropped 14 percent from the year before, according to an industry group. Cheese exports were down 13 percent, it said.

And there are more Brexit impacts to come. Starting Jan. 1, Britain will impose customs checks on goods being imported from the bloc. Also in the new year, companies will have to prove their products are sufficiently British-made to qualify for tariff-free trade. From the middle of next year, additional export border checks, including physical inspections of plant and animal products, will begin.

While the British government insisted on the success of its European trade deal, it was keen to shift companies focus to the promises of trading with countries farther afield. The real opportunities lie in the Indo-Pacific, officials have said.

Companies have sought out more distant customers, but out of necessity, not choice. Since the start of the year, Netherton Foundrys sales to the United States have increased, but they havent made up for the sales lost in Europe.

Some specialized retailers in Europe have remained customers, but the everyday cook shops havent, Mr. Currie said. A dedicated cohort of individual customers remain, too. Many of them are real Anglophiles, he added.

But we must be losing lots of people who are mildly indifferent to us, he said. Its those lost opportunities that we have at the moment, and those are hard to measure.

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For U.K. Companies Brexit Meant Higher Costs and Endless Forms - The New York Times

Brexit turbulence

Almost two years after the UK left the EU and a year after the end of the transition period, things do not look good between London and Brussels.

The year began with new red tape on certain goods entering Northern Ireland from the British mainland.

It's all part of the Northern Ireland Protocol that London signed up to as part of the Brexit.

It keeps Northern Ireland -- part of the UK -- in the European Union's single market for goods. Brussels wants regulatory control on what comes into the single market, so the protocol saw checks imposed on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from the British mainland.

So, to avoid a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Brexit created a de-facto frontier in the Irish Sea.

London, despite signing up to the agreement, claims the protocol has burdened businesses with extra paperwork.

The UK wants to renegotiate the protocol, something Brussels has rejected. In late 2021, the can was kicked down the road into 2022.

Europe is highly dependent on the manufacturing power of China but human rights issues have soured the relationship.

In March, the EU slapped sanctions on Chinese officials citing alleged human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region. Retaliation was swift: China blacklisted 10 individuals, including MEPs, over the EU's decision.

By November, the EU had announced a 300 billion spending plan to help build infrastructures in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The aim is to counter Beijings own overseas investment scheme, The Belt and Road initiative.

But that was not the only source of tension. Ending the year on a low, Lithuania called for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Hungary again clashed with the EU over LGBT rights.

MPs passed a law in June banning the use of LGBT content in schools. The aim of the law was to fight paedophilia and protect the children, claimed the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The controversy was a topic at an EU summit in June and European leaders signed a letter stating their support for the LGBT community.

Orban did not withdraw the legislation. Instead, he said, Hungary would hold a referendum on the issue so Hungarians could decide for themselves.

Along with Hungary, Poland is the other EU country at odds with Brussels.

Brussels and Warsaw are divided over the country's democratic values, the independence of its judiciary and LGBT issues.

Their relationship took a turn for the worse in October when Polands constitutional court ruled EU legislation in some cases did not have supremacy over Polish law.

This ruling calls into question the foundations of the European Union, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Poland's prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, hit back. He said the constitutional court "not only fulfils all independence criteria, but it is a constitutional tribunal that stands guard of the constitution and ensures that it remains the highest law of the Republic of Poland".

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Four key problems the EU faced in 2021 - Euronews