European Union

The Council today agreed on key parts of the draft Council decision establishing the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe.

The regulation adopted by the Council today aims to ensure that from 2030 onwards new cars will emit on average 37.5% less CO2 and new vans will emit on average 31% less CO2.

The rules governing the EU's internal gas market will in future apply to gas pipelines to and from third countries. The Council adopted an amendment to the gas directive.

The EU is taking steps to increase the number of TV and radio programmes available online for European consumers. The Council today adopted a directive which will facilitate the licensing of copyright-protected material contained in such programmes so that they can be made available throughout the EU.

Chile is a close partner of the EU in Latin America. The EU and Chile have a mutual interest in pursuing even closer ties, leading them to agree to upgrade and modernise the Association Agreement signed in 2002. They started negotiations on a modernised agreement in November 2017. President Sebastián Piñera's centre-right government took office in March 2018. Politically, the situation of the Mapuche indigenous community and stricter migration policies have dominated its first year. The government has also tabled comprehensive proposals for tax and pension reform but has found it difficult to implement its reform programme. This is largely because it lacks a majority in Congress and faces a much more diverse political landscape than in the past, making it more difficult to gain broad support for its proposals. However, it has benefited from a robust economic recovery that started in 2018 after two years of sluggish growth. Under President Piñera, Chile has adopted a tough stance against the Venezuelan government, in line with other centre-right governments in South America. Chile played a key role in the launch in March 2019 of the new organisation for regional cooperation, the Forum for the Progress of South America (Foro para el Progreso de América del Sur, PROSUR).
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The IS has claimed responsibility for the devastating series of attacks in Sri Lanka. More than 350 people died and around 500 were injured when eight bombs exploded in several churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday. Hatred of Christians is not taken seriously enough and must be fought with more resolve, commentators argue.

Two major camps are taking shape ahead of Spain's parliamentary elections on Sunday with the ruling Socialists under Pedro Sánchez and the left-wing party Podemos on the one hand, and the conservative Partido Popular (PP) and the liberal Ciudadanos on the other. Commentators worry about how much of the vote will go to the far-right party Vox, which was excluded from TV debates during the campaign.

The campaigns for the European Parliament elections are heating up. Parties are presenting their candidates and publishing their programmes. Forecasts see the Eurosceptics making gains and the established parties losing a substantial number of seats. Whether the British will take part is still unclear. Most commentators focus on their own countries, but some look further afield.

After winning a sweeping victory with 73 percent of the vote in Ukraine's presidential election Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that as president he will fight corruption and seek a peaceful end to the conflict in Donbass. Zelensky is politically inexperienced and made a name for himself as an actor in a comedy series. Commentators have mixed feelings about his election victory.