European Union

Denmark's Social Democratic election winner Mette Frederiksen has secured the support of the Socialist People's Party SF, the Red-Green Alliance and the left-liberal Danish Social Liberal Party to form a minority government focusing on the climate and welfare. The plan: to lower emissions by 70 percent by 2030. But not all the press reactions to the new government are positive.

Part of the judicial reform in Poland violates EU law, the ECJ has ruled after the EU Commission filed a complaint against the country. The forced retirement of judges, which Warsaw had already revoked, is illegal according to the ECJ's ruling. The court is still examining other parts of the judicial reform but commentators find this first decision reassuring.

The Nordic country sees the rule of law as an existential guarantee in a rule-based international order, and wants to tackle the concerns raised in several member states during its EU presidency.

While France is challenging the meat quotas provided for in the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, it plans to ratify the EU-Canada free trade agreement (CETA), which has been criticised by French beef producers. EURACTIV France reports.

The reform of the legal system in Poland "fundamentally violates" all its elements and the government in Warsaw needs to do more to avoid "undermining public confidence in it," the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights said in a report published on Friday (28 June).

German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze announced that she will be holding talks with representatives of all states that have so far refused to join the EU's carbon neutrality objective for 2050. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The next EU Commission should take a stronger position on innovation in the pharma sector, the new leader of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

The Week Ahead 24 – 30 June 2019

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Climate negotiations ended in Bonn, Germany on Thursday (27 June), with oil-dependent Saudi-Arabia insisting on questioning the scientific value of the UN's 1.5 °C IPCC global warming report. No agreement has been reached on the carbon mechanisms enshrined in article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

The EU will continue to defend liberal values, it pledged at the "G20" summit of wealthy nations in Japan - after Russia said liberalism was dying.

The release of methane emissions from drilling has been a beguiling problem for the oil and gas industry. But EU satellite data points toward a solution.

The Greek conservative New Democracy (ND) party is poised for a come back to power after four years in opposition. Just over a week before snap general elections on 7 July, the party, at 36 percent, is nine points ahead of leftist governing Syriza (27 percent), a survey by Pulse-Skai found. If elected prime minister, ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis would strengthen the EPP in talks on future EU top-posts.

Ireland's parliament passed Thursday a motion allowing troops from the neutral country to join EU defence forces in a German-led battle group with Austrian, Czech, Croatian and Dutch personal next year. Sinn Fein's Aengus O'Snodaigh opposed the motion, saying that "battle groups are not peacekeepers. The words 'battle groups' mean that they are trained to go into battle". No EU battle group has yet been in action.