European Union

Monday’s hearings feature two vice presidents-designate: Věra Jourová (Czech Republic) and Josep Borrell (Spain). The latter has been proposed as the EU's foreign policy chief.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Monday’s hearings feature two vice presidents-designate: Věra Jourová (Czech Republic) and Josep Borrell (Spain). The latter has been proposed as the EU's foreign policy chief.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

EU nationals will be unable to access their personal records held by the UK government in immigration cases, following a high court ruling on Thursday (3 October) that said "immigration exemption" introduced last year was not unlawful.

Air travel is not the only threat to life on earth, but it is a useful barometer of runaway economic growth and development that, if allowed to continue unmitigated, will irreparably harm the planet, writes Jonathan Gornall.

Rapid urbanisation and climate change are intertwined, making decarbonisation of the built environment paramount to stabilising the future. The technologies that will deliver significant emissions reductions there will deliver benefits for all those involved, writes Casey Talon.

Croatia's European commissioner nominee, Dubravka Šuica - who has been highly-critised at home for not being fully transparent - promised during her European Parliament grilling that she will work "towards the rule of law and transparency".

Switching from coal to gas in power generation is the single most important action Europe can take to get on the path to net-zero emissions by 2050, argues Simon Blakey, a European gas expert.

National courts in EU states can order Facebook to delete content "worldwide", Europe's top tribunal has ruled, in what the US social media giant called an attack on free speech.

The Austrian politician, who has been a commissioner for the last ten years, won the support from MEPs as he pledged he would be an "honest broker" in budget talks.

The EU should pump money into its economies in slow times, Italy's nominee for financial affairs commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, told MEPs in his hearing on Thursday. There should be "adequate use of fiscal space to face the risks of a slowdown in our economy", he said. Italy has broken EU fiscal limits, but Gentiloni also pledged to pull down public debt and to be neutral toward Italy's national interests.

A number of MEPs pressed Margaritis Schinas to drop the "Protecting the European Way of Life" title of his portfolio, which deals with migration. But Schinas refused, claiming it needs protecting from terrorists and populists. He failed to convince.

The EU should tax US or other foreign firms which cause excessive pollution in Europe, Italy's nominee for financial affairs commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, has said. "We'll try to be very quick and effective on a carbon border tax," he said at his European Parliament hearing Thursday. There should be an EU-wide tax on giant digital firms, he added, in remarks that risked enflaming an ongoing US-EU trade conflict.

Incoming European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will live, eat and sleep in a tiny new 25m2 flat next to her office in the EU commission's Berlaymont building's top floor in Brussels, German daily Die Welt reported. The arrangement would cut security costs and save von der Leyen from Brussels traffic. Von der Leyen also lived at her ministry in Berlin, while keeping her main residence in Hanover.

Scotland's highest civil court will hear on Friday a request from three individuals seeking to force a delay of Brexit. The legal proceedings are issued against prime minister Boris Johnson personally to force him to abide to the "Benn Act", passed by opposition MPs in the UK parliament and ordering the government to request a Brexit delay if a deal has not been signed off by 19 October.

The leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said on Thursday (3 October) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit proposal would not be amended and that the Irish government's negative reaction was making a no-deal EU divorce more likely.

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British business activity wilted in the third quarter, especially in manufacturing, according to a survey on Friday (4 October) that boded poorly for the country's economy in late 2019 as it faces the Brexit crisis and a global slowdown.

In the search for alternatives to fossil fuels, gas as an energy vector has the capacity to play a decisive role. To do this, it is absolutely necessary to green our gas as much as possible, writes Jean-François Carenco.

A summit between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany is expected to take place within days in an effort to settle the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. But such a summit is pointless, especially when Putin will play his role of 'нас тут нет' (we are not here), says Hanna Hopko.

Estonia’s former energy minister, Kadri Simson, won the European Parliament’s backing on Thursday (3 October) to take over the European Commission’s energy portfolio after a public hearing which left many MEPs unconvinced and green activists furious.