European Union

The countries' foreign ministers met Syria's transitional leader on Friday.

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The EU Commission chief is working from home, a Commission spokesperson said.

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The ÖVP secretary-general blamed the collapse of negotiations on the centre-left party, not the liberals.

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If completing the long-awaited trade deal was a geopolitical move to counter Chinese influence, the EU may have missed the boat.

The post Mercosur deal exposes EU contradictions on key strategic issues, expert warns appeared first on Euractiv.

Poland has taken over the EU Council presidency under the motto "Security, Europe!". For the next six months Warsaw will lead the Council meetings at which the governments of the EU member states prepare and make decisions together. Europe's press discusses the new presidency and compares it with the Hungarian one, which was highly contentious.

Estlink 2, a submarine power cable running between Finland and Estonia, was cut and other cables were damaged on Christmas Day. After departing from Russia, the oil tanker Eagle S was detained by the Finnish coast guard with a missing anchor and seven of its crew members are now under investigation. Europe's media see Moscow's 'shadow fleet' as an instrument of hybrid warfare – and call for tougher countermeasures.

Russian gas stopped flowing through Ukrainian pipelines to Europe at the end of the year after Kyiv refused to negotiate an extension of the transit deal with Moscow as long it continues to wage war against Ukraine. Only small amounts were still being supplied via this route anyway. Gazprom's only remaining pipelines run through Turkey to Hungary and just a couple of other countries.