BRUSSELS
\nThe \u200cEU must be prepared to project its power more assertively as it can no longer rely on a \u201crules-based\u201d system against threats and must determine if its institutions and systems help or hinder its credibility, European Commission President Ursula von der \u200cLeyen said on Monday.
\n\u201cWe \u200cwill always defend \u200cand uphold the rules-based system that we helped to build with our allies, but we can no longer rely on it as the only way to defend our interests or assume its rules will \u200cshelter us \u200cfrom the complex threats that \u200cwe face,\u201d von der Leyen said \u200cat a conference for EU ambassadors.
\n\u201cWe urgently need to reflect on whether our doctrine, our institutions and \u200cour decision making \u2013 all designed in a postwar world of stability and multilateralism \u2013 have kept pace with the speed of change around us. Whether the system that we built \u2013 with all of its well-intentioned attempts at consensus and compromise \u2013 is more a help or a hindrance to our credibility as a geopolitical actor,\u201d she added.
\nThe public prosecutor\u2019s office in southwestern Switzerland\u2019s Wallis canton, where the upmarket ski resort of Crans-Montana is located, declined to provide further details.However, a source close to the case confirmed to media that Nicolas Feraud, mayor of the Crans-Montana municipality, is among those under suspicion, as reported by Swiss media.
\nThe source said a former municipal councillor in charge of security, a former fire safety officer and his deputy, and a current member of the public safety team, had also been placed under criminal investigation.The move widens the scope of the investigation into the tragedy, which took place in the early hours of January 1 at Le Constellation, a bar in the town.
\nThe bar\u2019s owners, French couple Jacques and Jessica Moretti, are facing charges of manslaughter by negligence, bodily harm by negligence and arson by negligence. Crans-Montana\u2019s current head of public safety and a former fire safety officer in the town are also under criminal investigation.
\nWallis public prosecutors are tasked with determining the exact circumstances of the fire, whether safety regulations were complied with and who was responsible for what.Public prosecutors believe the fire started when champagne bottles with sparklers attached were raised too close to the bar\u2019s basement ceiling, igniting the sound insulation foam.
\nThe municipality triggered outrage on January 6 when it revealed that no annual safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.
\nThe five current and former municipal officials now under criminal investigation, as well as Jacques Moretti, are to be questioned by the public prosecutor\u2019s office between April 7 and 15, another source close to the case told. At the end of February, 58 survivors were still in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics in Switzerland and abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS The \u200cEU must be prepared to project its power more assertively as it can no longer rely on a \u201crules-based\u201d system against threats and must determine if its institutions and systems help or hinder its credibility, European Commission President Ursula von der \u200cLeyen said on Monday. \u201cWe \u200cwill always defend \u200cand uphold the rules-based …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":94858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94875,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94863\/revisions\/94875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}