European Union

Contrary to what president Donald Trump said on Twitter, US defence secretary Mark Esper has acknowlegded that bombing cultural heritage sites in Iran would be a war crime, the New York Times writes. "We will follow the laws of armed conflict," Esper said at a news briefing. On Monday Republican senator Lindsey Graham said "We're not at war with the culture of the Iranian people."

A British teenager convicted of falsely accusing 12 Israelis of gang-rape in Cyprus said she would go to the European Court of Human Rights to clear her name, the Guardian reported. On Tuesday, the 19-year-old student received a suspended jail sentence in a case that sparked criticism in Britian. Her lawyers called it a "sad and tragic case" for a woman whose crime had been to report a sexual assault.

Consumers’ preferences must be considered as the EU strives to become a leader in tackling climate change and the new European Commission is devising a Green Deal for Europe. The role of consumers in decarbonising the heating sector is especially important as the new EU legislative cycle begins.

The European Commission will be represented by its President at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) towards the end of January, signalling the closer ties Ursula von der Leyen has with the exclusive gathering, compared with her predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker.

Polish mobile operator Play Communications is planning to roll out a 5G network in the northern city of Gdynia, its chief executive said, as the country’s telcoms providers rush to be the first to offer commercial next generation services.

The new Austrian coalition government of conservatives and greens was sworn in on Tuesday by president Alexander van der Bellen. While Sebastian Kurz, the chancellor, is male, in total nine of the 17 ministers are women. In Austria it is the first time the Green Party has been part of the government.

The Party of European Socialists (PES), the EU's second-largest political family, usually holds its Congress after the EU elections in autumn. However, currently, there are only rumours that it’s going to take place at some point in spring.

Greece will flag concerns over Turkey's efforts to impose its authority on the eastern Mediterranean at a meeting on Tuesday between Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and US president Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported. Greece is concerned that Turkey could drill for oil and gas in its waters after Ankara sealed a deal with Libya in December. A gas pipeline agreement between Greece, Israel and Cyprus signed last week irks Turkey.

Foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held emergency talks on Iran and Lybia in Brussels on Tuesday (7 January), as the EU continued struggling to find a united response to the two escalating crises in its neighbourhood.

The leader of the Spanish Socialist Party, Pedro Sánchez, was voted back in as prime minister at the second round of an investiture debate on Tuesday by an extremely tight margin - 167 MPs voted in favour, 165 against, with 18 abstentions. Sánchez will now head the first coalition government of Spain's recent history, committed to implementing reformist policies, including an increase in the minimum wage.

France and the US will try to settle their dispute over the French digital tax in 15 days to avoid further tariffs, French Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday (7 January).

Finland's recently-elected Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, has announced that she wants to reduce the number of working hours per week in her country. EURACTIV's partner Ouest-France provides an overview of similar schemes tried across the globe.

While the eurozone's private sector stagnated until December 2019, the manufacturing sector saw a prolonged slump. It is the services sector that continues to drive the Eurozone's growth. EURACTIV's partner La Tribune reports.

Written by Etienne Bassot,

© kojihirano, Eugenio Marongiu, Alfa Photo, Fotosr52, View Apart, Nicolas Economou, Angurt, FooTToo, vchal, Maridav / Shutterstock.com.

A new European Parliament and new European Commission, a new decade, and a new financial framework to adopt for the next seven years – 2020 would seem to be a year full of new beginnings. But 2020 does not start with a blank page: next to the political commitments already made and work programmes already adopted, a range of issues are already on the table, some recent, some less so, but all requiring our understanding, and each calling for action.

To help us to see where we need to focus and take action, the European Parliamentary Research Service has asked a dozen of its policy analysts to select, from myriad interesting topics, ten issues to watch in 2020. These issues concern all aspects of European policies: economic and social, European citizens and migrants, the most advanced technologies and most affected regions, budget and finances, as well as trends within our European borders and across the oceans or at the pole. Some of these issues follow directly from previous editions of this publication – such as the multiannual financial framework, migration, and the impact of US politics on transatlantic relations. Others are assessed in a new light, for example climate action and energy transition. And still others are brand new in this series of publications, such as the ‘gamification’ of EU democracy, and the Arctic.

Behind this diversity, two main themes emerge: climate and solidarity. These two themes will not come as a surprise: they were at the heart of campaigns for the European elections last year, and continue to make the headlines at both European and national levels. The December 2019 Parlemeter – the Eurobarometer survey for the European Parliament – confirms that, first and foremost, European citizens demand a greener and fairer Europe. Climate change, poverty and social exclusion are citizens’ key priorities for the European Parliament to address.

Climate and solidarity have therefore logically inspired the written contributions as well as the visual representation of the ten issues and their interaction, represented on the cover of this publication. In 2020, no issue can be presented, let alone understood, in isolation, detached from its interactions with others. As one example among many, biodiversity calls for climate action, which will affect the adoption of the multiannual financial framework, which will define the Just Transition Fund, which will influence the fight against poverty and exclusion that affect children, who interact via 5G, which enables more on-line involvement of citizens, who coordinate support to migrants using new technologies or express their concerns for the Arctic on line, and so on.

In a world in which all issues are directly or indirectly related to the others, the thinking follows this pattern. It follows that, with this publication as increasingly elsewhere, you can choose to read these issues in any order you wish. Cross-referencing will make the connections and guide you from one subject to the other.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this latest edition of ‘Ten Issues to Watch’ and that it will stimulate your reflections and ignite your curiosity as you explore the challenges and opportunities of 2020.

Read the complete in-depth analysis on ‘Ten issues to watch in 2020‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Facebook said it will remove deepfakes and other manipulated videos from its platform if they have been edited, but not content that is parody or satire, in a move aimed at curbing misinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

US President Trump is apparently intent on further escalating the conflict with Iran: after Tehran announced it would retaliate for the US's killing of high-ranking General Soleimani, Trump threatened to destroy Iranian cultural sites. Several European countries are now urging steps to de-escalate the situation. The confrontation doesn't bode well for transatlantic relations, Europe's press observes.