European Union

Jacques Vandenschrik, the president of the European Food Banks Federation, was quoted in the Guardian newspaper saying the EU's long-term budget proposal seeks to cut almost 50 percent of the €3.8bn in funding to feed the poorest in an effort to offset Brexit bills. "The explanation is that the overall budget of Europe needs to be tightened up. Brexit is one of the arguments," he said.

David McAllister, the German centre-right chair of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, told the Hanover-based RND news portal on Sunday that the return of an independent Scotland into the European Union would be "presumably shorter" when compared to outside candidates. "Scottish institutions are already asking me whether I can be their contact person in Brussels after Brexit," he said.

Poland has cried out for EU solidarity after Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke of Poles as "anti-Semitic pigs" who "colluded" with Hitler.

The outgoing head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, warns companies and financial institutions that fossil fuel assets will potentially be "worthless".

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Sunday (29 December) condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for blaming Poland for the outbreak of the Second World War, saying Moscow was lying to deflect attention from recent failures.

Italy will delay to early 2020 the presentation of a plan to sell its stake in Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the Treasury said on Sunday (29 December), as the bank struggles to shed bad loans.

Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the country's war-torn east exchanged 200 prisoners on Sunday, swapping detained fighters for civilians and servicemen held captive in some cases for years in two breakaway regions.

Turkey unveiled its first fully domestically-produced car on Friday (27 December), saying it aimed to eventually produce up to 175,000 a year of the electric vehicle in a project expected to cost 22 billion lira (€3.3 billion) over 13 years.

More frequent extreme weather events, increasing political nationalism and growing economic inequality are making sustainable development goals harder to achieve. EURACTIV looked at the work of four frontier researchers to explore how a more sustainable future could look like.

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.