European Union

Montenegro's pro-West leader is fighting to extend his party's 30-year grip on the EU candidate country on Sunday (30 August) in polls dominated by identity debates and anxiety over a pandemic-hit economy.

Negotiations between Parliament and Council finally started after EU leaders found a common position on the long-term EU budget and recovery fund on 21 July.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Key players in the European seed sector have joined forces to urge the EU Commission to improve the bloc's intellectual property laws and mechanisms and enable an effective plant breeding sector. But there are fears that this may negatively impact small and medium-sized farmers.

On 25 August, the Committee on Foreign Affairs held an extraordinary meeting on the political situation in Belarus. Large-scale civic protests against Lukashenka's regime continue following the presidential elections of 9 August, which were considered neither free nor fair by the European Union.
AFET Members discussed actions the European Union should take to support the cause of democracy and freedoms in Belarus and to reassess its cooperation with Minsk, including within the Eastern Partnership.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed military support for embattled Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday (27 August), while urging a peaceful resolution to unrest and demonstrations that erupted after a disputed election. EU ambassadors in the capital Minsk on Thursday...

"In the context of the exponential growth of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the President of the European Parliament has announced a number of measures to contain the spread of epidemic and to safeguard Parliament's core activities.

On 2 April, the Conference of Presidents updated the EP's calendar of activities to introduce an extraordinary plenary session on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 April in Brussels, and additional dates for remote meetings for EP governing bodies, committees and political groups.

The current precautionary measures adopted by the European Parliament to contain the spread of COVID-19 do not affect work on legislative priorities. Core activities are reduced, but maintained to ensure that the institution's legislative, budgetary, scrutiny functions are maintained.

The next ordinary AFET Committee meeting will take place on 1 September (via videoconference).

New Calendar 2020
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

On the face of it, attending a parliamentary golf society dinner must rank near the top of the list of the stupidest things to lose your job over. Indeed, in the pre-COVIDd era, it would have been unthinkable. Attending the...

German medical specialists are investigating similarities between the attempted poisoning of a Bulgarian businessman and his son in 2015 and the recent poisoning of Russian opposition frontman Alexei Navalny, who is being treated in a Berlin hospital.

EU defence ministers agreed at an informal meeting in Berlin on Wednesday (26 August) to work closer together militarily and develop a common strategic culture, highlighting the growing need for Europe's common defence policy at a time of escalating challenges in the bloc's neighbourhood.

Poland could phase out coal as early as 2035 under a “business as usual scenario,” according to Greenpeace, which performed an analysis of the latest government plans to restructure the country’s virus-hit energy sector.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

In a letter sent to German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, leaders of the largest European parliament groups, including the centre-right EPP, leftwing S&D, liberal Renew, and Greens, called for tougher rule-of-law conditions in the EU budget. Without an agreement on this with member states, the parliament cannot pass the long-term EU budget agreed by the EU-27 leaders, the letter said.

EU-UK talks will not be discussed at a meeting of EU ambassadors next week because of the lack of progress in negotiations about the future relationship, the Guardian reported. EU officials think the British government is prepared to risk a no-deal exit when the transition period ends at the end of the year. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier last week said he was surprised by the UK "wasting valuable time".

Belarusian authorities have questioned Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich as part of an investigation into an opposition council created to facilitate the political transition in the country. Alexievich is part of the council's leadership. After being released on Wednesday, she said she had refused to answer questions. Belarusians have been protesting for free elections after Alexander Lukashenko won re-election in a 9 August poll that the EU says was rigged.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is not giving up on Turkish claims in the eastern Mediterranean, he said in a fiery speech.

Kosovo will do its part, but it needs help from Germany to realise its potential as a member of the Euro-Atlantic community.

Spain detected more than 7,000 new corona-infections Tuesday, mostly in Madrid, but also in the Balearic islands, surpassing the US in per-capita cases. France reported over 5,400 new ones, with neighbouring Belgium declaring Paris a "red-zone", forbidding travel. One third of Spaniards told a survey by the Carlos III Health Institute they would refuse to take a vaccine if there was one and 42 percent voiced pessimism on the pandemic.

The EU has frozen the work of its 600-man strong military and police training missions in Mali following a recent putsch there, while admitting it had trained some of those responsible. "Some of the leading figures of the coup d'etat have ... enjoyed training in Germany and France," German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in Berlin. "We don't train armies to be putschists," EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

Norway is planning to expand oil drilling in previously untouched areas of the Arctic, a move campaigners say threatens the fragile ecosystem and could spark a military standoff with Russia.

The city of Berlin has banned demonstrations planned for the weekend opposing measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, amid increasing infections in Germany. At a recent rally, marchers deliberately did not wear masks and did not kept their distance. About 20,000 people, including libertarians, far-right supporters, and anti-vaccination activists marched in Berlin earlier this month. Several thousand police will patrol Berlin streets at the weekend.