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Germany’s Education Ministry recently called on the country’s universities to end co-operation with the Confucius Institute (CI), the state-backed body that offers courses in Chinese language and culture.
“I do not want the Chinese government to influence our universities and our society,” said Anja Karliczek. “We have left too much room for the Confucius Institutes and done too little to build up independent competence in China in Germany.”
The warning is the latest setback in Europe for CI, Beijing’s most important instrument of soft power overseas. In April 2020, Sweden closed the last of its CI classrooms; Norway followed suit in March this year. In 2019, the director of the CI at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel was expelled from the country for espionage and the institute there closed.
Between 18.30 and 19.45, MEPs will vote, among other things, on
the requests for the waiver of the immunity of Filip De Man, Zdzisław Krasnodębski and Ioannis Lagos.
the EU-Honduras Voluntary Agreement on forest policy and timber trade.
a resolution on chemical residues in the Baltic Sea based on citizens’ petitions.
The results will be announced on Tuesday morning at 9.00.
Live coverage of debates and votes can be found on Parliament’s webstreaming and on EbS+.
For detailed information on the session, please also see our newsletter.
All information regarding plenary, including speakers’ lists, can be found here.
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