European Union

After a thorough analysis in cooperation with EU countries we have identified many regulatory restrictions that hamper innovation and investment in the retail sector.

Committee meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

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Donald TUSK, President of the European Council, visits EU leaders in preparation of the June 2018 European Council.

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The leaders of France and Germany’ will meet in Berlin on 19 June for a preparatory summit ahead of the European Council at the end of the month. But the two countries continue to hold different views on the subject of the economy. EURACTIV.fr reports.

The Council requested the Commission to explore options for improving the EU's compliance with the Aarhus Convention.

On 18 June 2018, the Council extended the restrictive measures in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia until 23 June 2019.

Five years ago, the founders of ‘Teachers on the Road’ started visiting fifty refugee homes in the German states Rhineland-Palatine and Hesse. A lot has changed since then – and not always for the better. EURACTIV Germany reports.

German media report that Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested on Monday in relation to the investigation into the 'Dieselgate' emissions-cheating scandal. Newspaper Handelsblatt said prosecutors were worried that he would obstruct the investigation by talking to witnesses. The illegal defeat devices which parent company Volkswagen Group was revealed in September 2015 to have used in millions of diesel cars, were first developed at Audi.

Committee meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

Police fired tear gas against protesters in Greece and Macedonia over the weekend, as diplomats signed a name deal to unlock EU enlargement.

EU states, plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein, registered 728,470 asylum applications last year, a 44 percent drop compared to 2016. Germany had the highest registrations at 222,560, followed by Italy and France.

Non-citizens from Nigeria to Afghanistan get a binding 'vote' on whatever the EU's internal debates submit to them. They will vote with their feet on whether to keep trying their luck when faced with a new system.

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On 18 June 2018, Federica MOGHERINI, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, hosts the annual G5 Sahel Ministerial Meeting in Brussels.

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EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom met Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in Canberra on Monday to officially launch negotiations on a free trade deal, with the first round of negotiations to be held in Brussels in early July. The two traded goods worth €48bn and services worth €27bn last year. It "would benefit small & large companies on both sides, creating jobs & growth," tweeted Malmstrom.

Last weekend some 175,000 people in the Basque country demanded a 'right to decide'. For some, it means more autonomy from Spain, others independence. "We want to open a second front within the Spanish state," says one Basque politician.

An agreement on a eurozone reform is "within reach," said French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, according to German media, following discussions with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz (SPD) in Hamburg over the weekend. There are still two or three open points, which should be solved at the latest when German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron meet on Tuesday at Merkel's Schloss Meseberg country residence.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and the new Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte will meet in Berlin on Monday, in a series of bilateral meetings this week aiming to foster agreement on a new stricter EU migration policy ahead of next week's EU summit. French president Emmanuel Macron met Conte in Paris already on Friday, where the two called for asylum processing centres to be set up in migrant countries.

German chancellor Angela Merkel was Sunday offered more time to agree a new EU migration policy by her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, who said he did not want Germany's government to fall. Seehofer wants police stationed at borders - against EU rules - turning back migrants arriving from other EU countries. Merkel plans a series of bilateral meetings with EU leaders ahead of next week's summit to find a solution.

The 32% renewable energy target agreed by EU negotiators last week is still “much lower” than what would be needed to reach the Paris goals on climate change, argue experts at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany.

The Czech Communist party will withhold support from the next government if the Social Democrats stick to their nominee for the post of foreign minister, Communist leader Vojtech Filip said on Sunday (17 June).