European Union

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Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 6-13 September 2020

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday announced MEP Mairead McGuinness as the new Irish commissioner. If the European Parliament now approves McGuinness for the post, she will take charge of the financial services, financial stability and capital markets portfolio. Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis will take over trade after previous Irish commissioner Phil Hogan resigned last month over the 'golfgate' scandal. McGuinness is a current parliament vice-president.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not rule out consequences for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project if Russia fails to thoroughly investigate opposition leader Alexei Navalny's poisoning, her spokesman said Monday (7 September).

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Italy and Croatia opening its schools, Macron condemns China's repressive policy against Uighurs, and so much more.

A Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, said on Monday he would submit a request to the Presidency that Bosnia’s embassy in Israel be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He was quickly contradicted by...

The document signed by President Aleksandar Vučić at the White House last week is not legally binding as it was not an international treaty to be ratified by the Serbian institutions, according to former Serbian ambassador to Russia, Jelica Kurjak....

EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue Miroslav Lajčak said in Brussels on Monday (7 September) that “full progress” had been made in negotiations between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on topics opened earlier in the dialogue under the...

Romania’s socialist party PSD is pushing for a 40% pension increase, despite the government’s opposition to such a massive rise with a ballooning budget deficit. The labour commissions in the Romanian Parliament amended the budget revision law that specifies the...

EURACTIV Bulgaria published on Monday exclusive news about impending chaos on the country’s gas market. This time, the reason doesn’t lie with the main supplier, Russia – it is self-inflicted. Without an apparent reason, energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova asked the...

Schools officially started on Monday across Croatia, with 460,000 students enrolled in institutions, which are implementing epidemiological measures imposed by the Croatian Institute of Public Health. Courses will either be held completely in classrooms under the so-called “A Model”, or...

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Corsica on Thursday (10 September), on the sidelines of a meeting of Europe’s southern countries. Moreover, EU Council chief Charles Michel will visit Athens on 15 September. Michel recently...

Spain became the first EU country to confirm more than half a million COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, putting it in ninth place globally, behind Mexico and South Africa, EFE reported. The country passed the grisly milestone...

School started on Monday (7 September) in the province of Bolzano and other regions in Italy. But while 8.5 million students are bracing for a return to school after six months of shutdown, central and regional authorities keep fighting over...

In response to a letter co-signed by about 30 French MPs, French President Emmanuel Macron said the repression against the Uighur Muslim minority in China was “unacceptable” and France would condemn it “in the strongest possible terms”. Read also: The...

The Navalny poisoning and its aftermath are making Finland cast doubt about the completion and future of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, particularly as Germany is now considering whether to withdraw its support. Under the new circumstances, Finland may have...

Considering the limited amount of green hydrogen available, the European Commission should prioritise its use in sectors that cannot decarbonise through other means like electrification, write Miriam Dalli and Mohammed Chahim.

In the EU, 13 percent of deaths are linked to pollution, said a new report published on Tuesday (8 September) by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which stressed the current pandemic put environmental health factors in the spotlight.

The window for a post-Brexit trade deal is closing fast but the basics are already in place for an agreement on the energy sector, and mutual benefits would be huge, writes Michael Grubb.

The 1991 Energy Charter Treaty must be profoundly overhauled in order to remove all “obsolete” provisions protecting fossil fuel investments and hindering climate action, lawmakers from across Europe said on Tuesday (8 September).