European Union

Europe is currently facing an unprecedented sanitary crisis, which will have gigantic economic consequences and could turn into a severe depression. A group of defence experts argue that defence should be included in the critical sectors as the EU renegotiates its next long-term budget that will seek to boost recovery.

The EU foreign service has watered down language about China in a report on disinformation out on Friday. A previous draft of the text, seen by Politico and EUobserver, had prompted Beijing to complain vociferously. The New York Times reported that aides of EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell agreed to censor the text. But an EU spokesman called the report "ungrounded, inaccurate allegations" that contained "factually incorrect conclusions".

In Ukraine's Chernobyl, fires are blazing close to where the world's worst nuclear disaster took place exactly 34 years ago, Deutsche Welle reports. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky visited firefighters still trying to extinguish the flames. Environmental experts feared the fires could stir up radioactive ash and potentially blow contaminated smoke to the capital, Kyiv - about 100km away from the power plant.

Global military expenditure saw its biggest uptick in a decade in 2019 rising to $1917 billion, according to the latest survey by the Swedish Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published on Monday (27 April), marking the first year two Asian countries...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned against reopening tourism destinations too quickly, saying Europe should agree on a common path back to freedom of travel, a newspaper quoted him as saying on Sunday (26 April).

German foreign minister Heiko Mass has warned against restarting tourism too early. "A European race to see who will allow tourist travel first will lead to unacceptable risks," he said in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "We must not let the hard-won successes of the last few weeks be ruined," he added, noting that a trendy ski resort in Austria, Ischgl, became a contagion hotspot in March.

A survey published this weekend in France showed that less than half the population - 43 percent - now supported the maintaining of strict "confinement" measures, down eight percentage points from the previous week, the Guardian writes. The French government will announce details of its plan to slowly ease restrictions across the country from 11 May, including the phased reopening of schools, on Tuesday.

France, Italy, and Spain are starting to relax their lockdowns this week amid more manageable infection rates. Italy is to restart manufacturing on 4 May, but schools will remain closed until September. Spain is letting children play outside for the first time this week. France is to announce its exit strategy on Tuesday. Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal have also begun phasing out the measures.

EU ministers will discuss how and when to reopen borders after the pandemic abates, as lockdown-Europe waits with baited breath for summer.

At this time of mutual solidarity, but also anxiety and concern, we must consider the European security and relevant geopolitical connotations. If we fail to do this, we could rapidly slide from a potential 'Rook' to that of a 'Pawn'.

Spain’s children were allowed to go for first walks on Sunday (26 April), after spending six weeks locked in their homes, as the country continued a downward trend in the number of deaths and rate of infection.

The Berlin-based public relations agency Story Machine has been working with European Commission president Von der Leyen since her days a a candidate for the top EU post. Despite offering the same in-house service, the Commission defended the president's choice.

A decentralised approach to coronavirus contact-tracing apps is starting to gain ground in the privacy debate within the EU and beyond - especially after centralised solutions are reported to pose a risk for fundamental rights.

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 27 April - 1 May 2020

China sought to block a European Union report alleging that Beijing was spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, according to four sources and diplomatic correspondence reviewed by Reuters.

For Noam Chomsky, the overriding lesson of the coronavirus pandemic is that the crisis represents "another colossal failure of the neoliberal version of capitalism" and the situation is made worse in the United States by "the sociopathic buffoons who are running the government" in Washington.

Belgium is to begin a gradual deconfinement with an exit strategy to be rolled out with the key dates of 4, 11 and 18 May, as well as 8 June, the National Security Council (CNS) decided on Friday (24 April).

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Friday that there has been little or no progress in talks on state aid and taxation, fundamental rights standards, fisheries, and the framework of the future trade deal. Meanwhile London refuses to extend the December 2020 deadline for an agreement. "The UK cannot refuse to extend the transition and at the same time slow down discussions on important areas," Barnier said.

Zoom is a video conferencing platform that has been used by the EU and other stakeholders during the COVID-19 crisis, when physical meetings have become impossible. We have all discovered these platforms in recent weeks, and they’re OK. But the...

A frustrated Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, came close to accusing London of derailing talks on a future EU-UK trade pact on Friday (24 April), warning that there were “serious difficulties ahead” if a ‘no deal’ scenario is to be avoided in two months’ time