European Union

Ukraine's foreign minister said Wednesday (25 May) his country "badly" needed multiple launch rocket systems to match Russian firepower as he pressed Western allies for heavy weapons at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps.

The process of justice for murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been “excruciatingly slow and half hearted”, Sophie In’t Veld said on Wednesday following a three day rule of law mission by a European Parliament delegation to Malta.

The new rules will allow Eurojust to store and preserve evidence relating to war crimes and to process and analyse such evidence and share the information with the competent national and international authorities.

European Council President Charles Michel went to Helsinki for a meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. The two leaders met to discuss the agenda for the upcoming special meeting of the European Council and their support for Ukraine. President Michel expressed his full support for Finland's application for NATO membership.

European Council President Charles Michel met Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in Stockholm in preparation of the upcoming European Council. He expressed EU’s full support for Sweden's decision to apply for NATO membership.

Representatives of the EU member states, the Western Balkans and Turkey, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, as well as representatives of the central banks of the Western Balkans and Turkey issued a joint statement following their annual economic policy dialogue.

Hungary's government will impose windfall taxes on banks and large private companies' "extra profits" in a bid to rein in a swelling budget deficit, turning again to a policy that has helped Viktor Orban avoid raising taxes for families.

On Wednesday 8 June at noon, the LUX European Audience Film Award 2022 winner will be announced in the European Parliament hemicycle in Strasbourg, France.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

On Wednesday 8 June at noon, the LUX European Audience Film Award 2022 winner will be announced in the European Parliament hemicycle in Strasbourg, France.

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

The Dutch journalists' trade union, the Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (NVJ), has filed a lawsuit at the EU Court of Justice challenging EU sanctions against Russian propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik, which were banned in Europe in March. The ban is too loosely worded and was "punishing the European people, by not treating them like adults and not giving them the possibility to access information," NVJ said, Reuters reports.

EU countries have frozen just €23bn of Russian Central Bank reserves, compared to some five times that by the US (and some €280bn in total by Western countries), EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders said Wednesday. The EU Commission the same day tabled new laws on seizing criminal assets — a measure which could be used to confiscate Russian money in future and use it to pay for Ukraine's reconstruction.

EU leaders will vow to continue arming and financing Ukraine in the face of "unspeakable" Russian "atrocities", according to a draft of next week's summit declaration.

While Europe's dependency on Russian energy makes headlines, the EU is also increasingly keen decrease its dependency on third states - most notably China - when it comes to essential raw materials.

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to accelerate the process of handing Russian citizenship to residents of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Reuters reported. This was already the case in the Russian-backed separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in southeastern Ukraine, where around 800,000 Russian passports have been issued since 2019. Meanwhile, the Russia's parliament has approved a law removing age limits for army recruits.

A handful of Palestinian civil society groups have denounced, in a letter , European Parliament president Roberta Metsola's visit with Israeli officials and MPs. They also accuse Metsola of being complicit "in the institutionalised domination and systematic oppression of the Palestinian people." Metsola's visit coincided with a decision by Israel to bar a European Parliament delegation from entering Gaza and meeting with Palestinian NGOs.

British prime minister Boris Johnson has rejected calls to resign, following the publication of an independent report into a string of parties held at Downing Street during the UK's Covid lockdowns — in breach of government guidance at the time. Johnson, who attend several of the parties investigated, told MPs and press he believed they were work events. He has already been fined by Metropolitan police over one party.

The Commission is open to a German proposal to delay new EU rules on crop rotation in order to increase wheat production in the light of the Ukraine war, after the idea won approval from a number of member states.

The EU's border guard, Frontex, says it has over 2,000 agents, 13 vessels and over 200 patrol cars deployed at Europe's external borders. The Warsaw-based agency is still looking for a new chief after Fabrice Leggeri resigned, following intense media and NGO scrutiny over rights abuses, plus an internal anti-fraud probe by EU watchdog Olaf.

Hungary's premier Viktor Orbán declared a state of emergency due to the war in neighbouring Ukraine hours after pushing a constitutional amendment through parliament, where two-thirds of MPs are controlled by his Fidesz party, allowing his government special powers.

Political pressure is mounting for the European Parliament to unilaterally strip Russian lobbyists of their access badges.