European Union

Of the people voting for the two right-wing parties in parliament – the New Moderates and the Christian Democrats – 42% would be ready to accept the right-wing populist party, the Sweden Democrats, in the same government, according to a...

Norway’s anti-terrorist police (PST) confirmed on Wednesday (9 September) they had arrested a suspect linked to a 1982 attack on the Jewish Community in Paris that had left six people dead and 22 injured. Since 2015, France has been requesting...

Serbia’s government has decided to suspend all military exercises and activities with all of its partners for the next six months to preserve its position of military neutrality, Serbia’s defence ministry announced on Wednesday (9 September). Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin...

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday (10 September) hosts leaders from Mediterranean states for a summit set to be dominated by growing tensions between Turkey and EU states in the east of the sea.

The way humanity produces food, energy and goods is destroying the habitats of thousands of wildlife species, causing plunging population sizes and contributing to the emergence of diseases such as COVID-19, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020, released on Thursday (10 September).

The key mechanism used by Facebook to transfer data from the European Union to the United States "cannot in practice be used" for such transfers, according to Ireland's Data Protection Commission, Facebook said on Wednesday (9 September).

The US will not sign a UK trade pact if it reneges on its Brexit withdrawal agreement, endangering open Irish borders, as it has threatened, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday. "If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord [a 1998 peace deal on Northern Ireland], there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress," she said.

The EU is preparing to lift sanctions on Aguilah Saleh, leader of rebel-held eastern Libyan parliament, in order to help push the peace process forward, Reuters reports. Aguilah is blacklisted by the EU since 2016, being accused of obstructing peace efforts, but now he has become an important powerbroker for a possible accord. "There's a window of opportunity now for the EU to move", one EU diplomat said.

Yousif Al Shewaili, a 21-year old from Iraq who obtained refugee status, witnessed the fires that struck Moria on Tuesday evening. He recounted that at least two people may have died.

Additional 'top-ups' requested by the parliament could amoung to €110bn, an EU source estimated, while member states are giving very limited room for manoeuvre in budget talks with the parliament.

The EU will set up a new college of supervisors, including national and European authorities, to oversee “significant” digital currencies including Facebook’s Libra, according to the European Commission’s cryptocurrency draft proposal seen by EURACTIV.

French far-right MEP Thierry Mariani said he is resigning as a board member of the European Endowment for Democracy. His replacement may be Jerome Riviere - another far-right French MEP from the Identity and Democracy group.

Members of the European Parliament's environment committee on Thursday will vote on a crucial report about the new EU climate law. Lead rapporteur MEP Jytte Guteland expects that most MEPs will support at least 60-percent target for 2030.

With the EU's support, Belarus has a chance to shed its 'oldest dictatorship' title and become instead, the youngest democracy in Europe.

Serbia has pulled out of military exercises with Russia and Belarus, due to start Thursday in Belarus, amid the pro-democracy protests there, the AP news agency reported Wednesday. Serbia's decision came "after tremendous and undeserved pressure" from the EU, Serbian defence minister Aleksandar Vulin said. He also complained of EU "hysteria" and "increasing [Western] attacks against our country". Serbia is an EU accession candidate, but maintains close ties with Russia.

Spain's foreign minister Arancha González Laya has announced that Madrid will negotiate with Britain, Germany and Scandinavian countries to open travel corridors to the Balearics and Canaries islands, El País reported Wednesday. Travellers will be exempted from self-quarantine. Spain has asked the EU to consider regional differences as many have classified nearly all Spain as a 'red area'. The country recorded this week in total almost 9,000 new daily cases.

France has blasted the European Parliament's decision to skip this month's session in Strasbourg, over coronavirus fears. "The decision is incomprehensible and was taken in a rather unilateral way ... The prevalence rate of the virus in Strasbourg is lower than in Brussels," French government spokeswoman Gabriel Attal told media in Paris Wednesday. The EU parliament is obliged to hold 12 sessions a year in France under the EU treaty.

The EU commissioner for energy Kadri Simson said Wednesday that "regions are crucial partners when it comes to implementing our climate and energy policies and finding concrete, practical solutions". Simson called for further cooperation between regions and the commission on the so-called renovation wave. Enrico Rossi, the rapporteur of the Committee of the Regions on the policy, estimated the strategy could generate four million jobs by 2050.

France's Europe minister, Clement Beaune, added his voice to the chorus of EU criticism on Britain's plan to renege on parts of its Brexit withdrawal agreement on Wednesday. "Respect for the agreement is non-negotiable," he said. "Between friends and allies, we need to keep our word, and respect the law," he added. "Agreed deals must be honoured," German economy minister Peter Altmaier said the same day.

The leaders of seven Belgian political parties decided on Wednesday to stop face-to-face meetings for two weeks, after one of the two 'pre-formateurs', Flemish liberal Egbert Lachaert, tested positive for Covid-19. All other people around the table tested negative, as well as Belgian King Philip, who met with Lachaert the day before the test. The seven parties include the Francophone and Flemish socialists, liberal, greens and the Flemish Christian Democrats.