European Union

On Wednesday afternoon, MEPs will discuss their priorities for the 17-18 October EU summit with Tytti Tuppurainen, Jean-Claude Juncker and Michel Barnier.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

On the occasion of the International Day of the Girl 2019, Women Political Leaders (WPL) is connecting accomplished female politicians with the future generation of Leaders by sharing their personal experience to shows that a woman’s place is in politics.

Fossil fuel subsidies should end and there is "no future in coal", the EU's would-be green commissioner, Frans Timmermans, has said in his pledge to make the EU carob neutral.

Only seven out of 28 EU states have so far supported a draft plan to disembark and relocate migrants rescued in the central Mediterranean, following a meeting in Luxembourg.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

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With 553 votes against 14, the Italian parliament has overwhelmingly agreed on reducing the number of parliamentary seats. The house of representatives' seats would drop from 630 to 400, the senate from 315 to 200 to cut costs. The seat reduction was one of the major campaign pledges of the Five Star Movement, which is in a coalition government with the Democratic Party. The constitutional change still needs a referendum.

Eight European countries have signed a letter to the future climate commissioner Frans Timmermans calling him to raise the objective to reduce emissions from 40 percent to 55 percent by 2030, Deutsche Welle reports. The countries are France, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, and Luxembourg. They ask "the European green deal to drive the in-depth transformation and bold measures needed across all sectors of the economy."

Senior EU diplomats told The Guardian that it is probable the EU will extend the deadline for a deal on Brexit until June. After the call between German chancellor Angela Merkel and UK prime minister Boris Johnson it seems that a deal on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is impossible before 31 October. The European Parliament already indicated it would support a Brexit extension.

Rule-violating digital firms should only be broken up as a last resort and fines were a better way to keep them in line, the EU's "tax lady", Margrethe Vestager, told MEPs.

Four senior Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday (8 October) they believed the Trump administration may withdraw from a treaty that allows unarmed surveillance flights over US, Russian and other territory, warning it would be a gift to Russia and undermine confidence in the US commitment to Ukraine.

Denmark's Margrethe Vestager obtained the seal of approval from European Parliamentarians on Tuesday evening (8 October), after a hearing in front of MEPs in which she rallied the importance of improving the EU's digital transformation as well as the bloc's green initiatives.

The US announcement to give free reign to a Turkish offensive into Northern Syria has consequences for migration to Europe as well.

Brexit talks between Britain and the European Union teetered on the brink of collapse on Tuesday (8 October), with tit-for-tat claims of intransigence and sabotage before an end of October deadline.

Russia's military intelligence, the GRU, operates a secret cell, called Unit 29155, tasked with subversion and assassination operations in Europe, the New York Times reports, citing Western and Russian security officials. The Moscow-based unit, commanded by general Andrei Averyanov, contains veterans from Russia's Chechen wars and was behind recent destabilisation efforts in Moldova, an attempted coup in Montenegro, and attempted assassinations in Bulgaria and the UK, the report adds.

Anti-torture witnesses told Germany but not the EU about abuse on a forced return flight to Afghanistan last year, posing questions on Europe's human rights safeguards.

The White House slammed the door in a letter Tuesday on any cooperation by President Donald Trump's administration with the Democrats' impeachment probe, calling it "constitutionally invalid."

Turkish forces, together with the rebel Free Syrian Army, will cross the Syrian border "shortly", President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s communications director said early on Wednesday (9 October), as a surprise withdrawal of US troops made way for the Turkish incursion.

In an interview with EURACTIV Germany, Karsten Neuhoff, a climate expert and professor, spoke about Germany's hotly-debated climate protection bill, stressing that a clear regulatory framework with "clear and credible paths for reducing emissions" is attractive for businesses.

Germany warned on Tuesday (8 October) of a repeat of the chaotic influx of migrants that caught the European Union unprepared in 2015, while Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus sounded the alarm over a resurgence of arrivals from neighbouring Turkey.