European Union

The EU and UK are unlikely to conclude talks on future relations before end-2020, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said. "It would be reasonable to review things in the middle of the year ... to see if an extension is needed," she told French newspaper Les Echos on Friday. The UK is to stay in the EU customs union despite Brexit in January under a transition deal.

Precision farming practices have helped Greek extra virgin olive oil growers keep overhead cost low and ultimately ‘save’ the product from mounting pressure on its market price, EURACTIV Greece’s media partner Ypaithros Chora reported.

Holiday recess

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

As more of us turn to online shopping, watch our video to discover five ways the EU makes e-commerce safer for everyone.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

As more of us turn to online shopping, watch our video to discover five ways the EU makes e-commerce safer for everyone.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Transport faces a packed 2020, both in terms of policy and politics. Here are five of the issues to look out for.

The Tunisian Presidency has denied claims that the country would join an alliance with Turkey and Algeria in light of the ongoing crisis in Libya and insisted it wanted to preserve its neutral status, without taking part in any coalitions.

Hundreds of backers of Montenegro's pro-Serb opposition took to the streets of the capital Podgorica on Thursday (26 December), rallying against a law they say would strip the Serbian Orthodox Church there of its property.

Turkish government's two-year old ban deemed illegal by constitutional court in victory for "universal access to knowledge".

The French justice department says it is convinced Oussama Atar, a 35-year old Belgian, was the mastermind behind the deadly attacks in Paris (13 November 2015) and Brussels (22 March 2016) and behind the failed attacks on the Thalys train in Verviers and Villejuif, De Standaard writes. Atar, who was killed in Syria, was the head of an Isis brigade which planned terrorist attacks in Syria and Europe.

A British idea previously lambasted by engineers - to build a bridge from Scotland to Northern Ireland - might be "viable", Irish leader Leo Varadkar has said.

The number of migrants arriving in Italy by sea decreased by 50.72 percent in 2019 compared to 2018, according to the Italian ministry of interior. Compared to 2017, the numbers fell even by 90.38 percent. From the 11,439 migrants who arrived in Italy, 2,654 were from Tunisia, 1,180 from Pakistan and 1,135 from the Ivory Coast, while 1,618 of them were unaccompanied minors.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the government will submit a bill in parliament to vote on sending troops to Libya. The UN-backed Libyan government requested Turkish military help to defend Tripoli against the army of general Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by France, Russia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates. The Libyan government of PM Fayyez Saraj is receiving aid from Italy, Qatar, and Turkey.

An opinion poll conducted in December showed 64 percent of Ukrainians were in favour of joining the EU, Unian reports. Only 13 percent wanted accession to the Russia-led Eurasian customs union. The number of people in favour of the EU has grown steadily since 2014, when support was 57 percent, and was higher in western, central, and southern Ukraine. In the more russophone east Ukraine, EU support was 43 percent.

The Croatian government must ‘urgently’ address reports suggesting it is denying access to asylum procedures in the country, a high-ranking official from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) told EURACTIV Croatia in an interview.

Italian Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti told Reuters on Wednesday he had resigned after failing to obtain from the government billions of euros he said were needed to improve the country’s schools and universities.

Russia has condemned Turkey’s intention to send troops to Libya to support Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of the UN-backed Government of National Accord of Libya against the head of the Libyan National Army, General Khalifa Haftar.

As Europe struggles with financial and political obstacles besetting its joint defence policy efforts, and NATO faces internal rifts and an increasingly assertive Russia and China, here are six issues to watch in Europe's security and defence in 2020.

With six out of 10 votes, Turkey's Constitutional Court on Thursday ruled that the government's ban on access to online encyclopedia Wikipedia violated freedom of expression, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

2020 will be a decisive year for the EU’s relations with China and its success will largely depend on the fate of the long-running bilateral investment treaty negotiations, writes Fraser Cameron.