European Union

adidas v EUIPO - Shoe Branding Europe (Représentation de trois bandes parallèles)
Intellectual and industrial property
The General Court of the EU confirms the invalidity of the adidas EU trade mark which consists of three parallel stripes applied in any direction

The five men in the contest to be Britain's next prime minister disagreed how to handle Brexit in a TV debate Tuesday. Boris Johnson, the favourite, said he would leave the EU in October even if he had no deal. Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, environment minister Michael Gove, and home secretary Sajid Javid envisaged short-term delays of the exit date, while outsider Rory Stewart ruled out no-deal at all costs.

North Macedonia must wait until October to start EU accession talks despite its historic name deal with Greece, Europe has said, with Albania in deeper trouble.

House prices grew overall by 15 percent in the EU between 2010 and 2018 on average - but with big differences from country to country, according new figures from Eurostat. The highest increases were observed in Estonia (+83%), Latvia (+61%), Austria (+56%), Sweden (+55%) and Luxembourg (+50%), while the largest decreases were recorded in Italy (-17%), Spain (-12%) and Cyprus (-8%).

Over the weekend, as private jets evacuated prominent members of the Democratic Party and their allies, Moldovans celebrated the peaceful power transition. Looking beyond the euphoria that surrounded the celebrations, the new government is facing many challenges.

China is the most trade-restrictive partner for the EU with 37 barriers recorded in 2018, four more than the year before, affecting EU exports up to €25.7bn, according to the European Commission's Trade and Investment Barriers report. Russia ranked second with 34 obstacles. Trade tensions between the EU and US also increased in 2018, to 23 barriers, four more than in 2017, affecting EU exports worth €6.8bn.

Low-ranking EU officials are to represent Europe when America unveils part of its "Deal of the Century" on the Arab-Israeli conflict in Bahrain next week.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday against a planned toll on German motorways for non-residents despite an earlier opinion from the court's advocate general had deemed the toll as fair, since foreigners are not subject to German motor vehicle tax. German transport minister Andreas Scheuer had wanted the levy to take effect in October 2020 and already invested heavily in technology to run the scheme.

French people have emerged as the most sceptical in the world about the safety of vaccines, with 33 percent disagreeing that vaccines are safe and 19 percent believing they are not effective, according to Gallup's first Global Monitor survey. Western Europe is the most sceptical region in the world when it comes to the perceived safety of vaccinations, with one-in-five (22 percent) disagreeing that vaccines are safe.

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Facebook plans to introduce its own form of currency, Libra, revealed on Tuesday, was met with scepticism in Europe. French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, demanded that it would be scrutinised by G7 central banks, and said it was "out of the question that it becomes a sovereign currency". German conservative MEP, Markus Ferber, called on the EU commission to start working on a regulatory framework to govern virtual currencies.

Washington is looking to impose financial sanctions on Turkish firms beyond those that build parts for the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 fighter jet, due to Ankara’s plans to buy a Russian-built S-400 NATO non-compatible air defence system, a top Pentagon official said on Monday (17 June).

The EU said Tuesday (18 June) that eight of its 28 member countries aim to phase out coal-powered electricity by 2030, triggering charges it is missing the mark under the Paris climate deal.

Brexit figurehead Boris Johnson will look to cement his stranglehold of the UK leadership race Wednesday (19 June) after emerging unscathed from a TV debate against his four remaining rivals.

An EU ministerial meeting on Tuesday (18 June) ended up as a major disappointment for North Macedonia, which had nurtured hopes that its historic agreement with Greece  on the country's name would be rewarded with an EU accession ticket.

The energy transition will hit the poor hardest unless it's balanced by a shift in taxation, says Christian Egenhofer. The EU needs to acknowledge this and get started by lowering taxes on electricity to achieve the EU’s carbon reduction goals at least cost, he argues.

The European social contract is broken and inclusive economic policies should be on the top of the next European Commission's agenda, policymakers said at the Brussels Economic Forum on Tuesday (18 June). 

If we’re going to feed the planet sustainably by the middle of the century, the food has to come in much larger volumes from Asia and Africa, told EURACTIV.com in an interview Simon Winter, head of Syngenta Foundation.

11,000 industrial sites subject to the so-called Quotas Directive are collectively reducing their emissions. However, this is not necessarily because of the European emissions trading scheme (EU ETS). EURACTIV's partner le Journal de l'Environnement reports.

President Donald Trump launched his 2020 reelection campaign Tuesday (18 June), whipping up a crowd of at least 20,000 with a nationalist boast about the US economy being the "envy" of the world and warning that opposition Democrats want to "destroy" the country.