European Union

Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to be officially nominated as the Democratic candidate after Joe Biden's withdrawal from the US presidential campaign, but for many prominent party colleagues and Democratic voters, as well as Europe's press, this is a mere formality. Her chances against Trump and above all her record as former attorney general of California are now the subject of heated debate.

Two of the European Parliament's committees have set up a joint working group to monitor the implementation of the AI Act.

The idea of having an EU budget, including for agriculture, based on political conditions and milestones, as is the case with the bloc’s post-pandemic recovery fund, is "unacceptable," the outgoing Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski told Euractiv.

The constitutive meetings of the European Parliament's standing committees and subcommittees took place in Brussels on 23 July 2024, following the appointments of their members in the plenary sitting of 16-19 July 2024. During the constitutive meetings, each committee and subcommittee is electing its respective bureau, made up of a Chair and Vice-Chairs, for a two-and-a-half year mandate. The newly set up committees then starts holding their regular meetings during the same week following their constitutive meeting.

The SEDE constitutive meeting took place on Tuesday, 23 July 2024 from 13.00 to 13.30hrs in room József Antall 4Q2 (Brussels). The meeting was webstreamed.

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SEDE missions 2023:

• India - 17-21 December 2023
• Israel and OPT - 8-10 December 2023
  
• Germany and Poland - 24-26 July 2023
  
• Armenia - 19-22 June 2023
  
• Romania and Moldova - 15-18 May 2023
  
• Djibouti and Somalia - 1-4 April 2023
  
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 20-23 February 2023
  

AFET-DROI-SEDE calendar of meetings - 2nd half of 2024
SEDE meetings' calendar 2024
EP calendar 2024
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the country's newly acquired hawkish stance on defence against internal critics and "populists" on Wednesday, saying that times are calling for stronger deterrence rather than arms control.

Olympic swimming and triathlon events can now take place in the Seine, which now meets European bathing water standards, an NGO controlling water quality confirmed, following massive cleaning efforts by the French authorities and a spell of dry weather.

Italy will host an event in the autumn to present a network to transport hydrogen from the southern Mediterranean to northern Europe, its energy minister told Reuters on Wednesday, saying Switzerland could also be involved.

The Paris Olympic Games will welcome thousands of athletes from all over the world, as well as police officers from some forty countries, who will be supporting the French police forces in providing security for the world's biggest sporting event.

The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN met in Laos on Wednesday (24 July) as it seeks to advance a stalled bid to resolve a crisis in Myanmar and cool tensions in the South China Sea, days ahead of a gathering of top diplomats from the world's biggest powers.

While EU countries are generally making progress on rule of law, Slovakia, Hungary face criticism when the European Commission presented its fifth annual report on Wednesday (July 24).

The war in Ukraine and the US presidential election dominated a NATO summit in Washington this month but, away from the public stage, the alliance's military planners have been focused on assessing the enormous cost of fixing Europe's creaking defences.

As European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen prepares to spend the summer interviewing potential candidates for her new team, she may face challenges on three key fronts.

Portugal's government wants to privatise flag carrier TAP sooner rather than later to take advantage of market interest in the airline and is moving forward with preparatory work, Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said on Wednesday (24 July).

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will visit China from 26-31 July on her first trip there since taking office, aiming to improve trade with China, a person involved in the planning told Reuters.

The United States on Wednesday (24 July) criticized an Israeli bill that would declare the UN agency for Palestinian refugees a terrorist organization, saying that such efforts are "incredibly unhelpful."

European Union member states discussed options for extending the renewal period of sanctions on Russian central bank assets to secure a major Group of Seven loan to Ukraine, an EU draft document showed and diplomats said on Wednesday (24 July).

The rise of a young generation of far-right voters - conservative, anti-immigration, and fiercely nationalist - is a phenomenon shaping new electoral strategies all over Europe.