European Union

The Ukrainians will elect a new president on 31 March. Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is leading the polls, ahead of current president Petro Poroshenko and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. A second round of voting seems likely. Commentators explain what challenges the new head of state will face.

Donald Trump is saying that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report has exonerated him. It came to the conclusion that there was no criminal collusion between Trump or his election campaign team and Russian agencies. But the report is less clear on the question of whether the president obstructed justice. Journalists examine the consequences for the US election campaign and politics in Moscow.

This Franco-German project, criticised by the French extreme right, was launched in Paris on Monday (25 March). The new chamber aims to facilitate exchange, not political decision-making. EURACTIV France reports.

The well-being of EU citizens should be made a priority and an intersectoral approach integrating policy areas such as housing, fighting pollution and digital transformation into health can also help bring about new economic models, MEPs and civil society representatives agree.

In the digital world, the evidence of cyberattacks is often spread across technology providers, telecom operators, and victims. Furthermore, if it is a government behind the cyberattack then the challenge of proving their responsibility becomes all the more complex.

SM (Enfant placé sous kafala algérienne)
Citizenship of the Union
A minor in the guardianship of a citizen of the EU under the Algerian kafala system cannot be regarded as a ‘direct descendant’ of that citizen

Spain v Parliament
Staff Regulations of Officials
Differences of treatment based on language are, in principle, not allowed in the procedures for selecting staff for the EU institutions.

MEPs will discuss and vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday on a highly-disputed reform of copyright to fit the digital age, and ensure that authors, composers, artists, film-makers and other creators receive payment for their works when published online. In future, digital platforms would be responsible for filtering out videos and music and other creative content that are published in breach of copyright law.

France has signed €40bn of business deals with China, despite concerns on strategic investment and human rights abuses.

MPs from France and Germany met on Monday for their first biannual joint parliamentary session in Paris, as agreed under the Aachen treaty signed in January. The new French-German mini-parliament is composed of fifty deputies from each country, selected proportional to their numbers in the national parliament. It aims to improve Franco-German cooperation in Europe.

The European Parliament's leadership, the Bureau, decided on Monday in Strasbourg to limit polling ahead of May's elections following pressure from the political groups, reported Bloomberg. Only four polls will get published instead of nine as originally planned. Surveys published in February and March showed that Christian Democratic and Socialist groups would remain the biggest parties. As of 23 April, a purdah will apply.