European Union

The Erasmus Days in October are an opportunity for the European Parliament to encourage young people to vote in the upcoming European elections next May. As many as 72% of those under 25 did not vote in the previous elections in 2014. EURACTIV.fr reports.

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EU Ministers for Transport, Infrastructure, and Communications meet on 7 and 8 June 2018 in Luxembourg to discuss topics of transport and telecommunications. The agenda includes, among other topics, key proposals on drivers' driving and rest times, the posting of road hauliers and cabotage restrictions; safeguarding competition in air transport; port reception facilities for the delivery of waste from ships; electronic road tolling and exchange of information; and the use of hired vehicles. On the second day, the Council is due to agree on a general approach on a proposed Cybersecurity Act regulation. Ministers discuss a proposal to update privacy rules for electronic communications (ePrivacy), and a draft directive to promote the re-use of public sector information.

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An international conference was held in Astana on Tuesday (5 June) to mark the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's new capital. Dubbed Tselinograd during Soviet times, it was renamed Astana (meaning capital city in Kazakh) in 1998 and is now rebranding itself as a go-to venue for international mediation talks.

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In this section you will find footage of the meetings of Donald TUSK, President of the European Council.

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European Union anti-fraud investigators suspect Greece and Hungary may have become the main EU centers of a multi-million-euro scam involving imports of Chinese clothing and footwear that uses the infrastructure of China’s new “Silk Road”.

Astana is celebrating its 20th anniversary as capital of Kazakhstan. A remarkable city with futuristic buildings, Astana has positioned itself as a centre that hosts many important events and is developing as a financial hub in Eurasia.

Europe and Africa need a partnership which should focus on the new realities in both regions. Europe can become the region's main partner during its transformative revolution if it listens to civil society representatives, writes Shada Islam.

Lawmakers agreed to cap the price of phone calls and SMS messages between EU countries and sealed a deal to encourage investment in fast internet networks during a late-night meeting on Wednesday (6 June).

A group of MEPs led by Dutch liberal Sophia in 't Veld and called the "Rule of Law monitoring group", is to monitor Malta's investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia amid lack of faith in Maltese due process. The group, created Tuesday by the civil liberties committee in the European Parliament, has a mandate to conduct fact-finding missions and hearings until the end of the year.

The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats (SD) party is on course to win one in five votes in elections in September, an opinion poll by the country's statistical office said Tuesday. SD polled to win 18.5 percent of votes, up 5.6 points on 2014 elections. The ruling, centre-left Social Democrats polled at 28.3 percent (down 2.7 points) and the main centre-right opposition party, the Moderates, got 22.6 percent (down 0.7).

Turkish fighter jets repeatedly violated Greek airspace Tuesday in an area overhead the Greek defence minister's visit to the Aegean island of Psaros in what Athens saw as revenge for its decision, on Monday, to free eight Turkish officers who fled there after the failed coup in Turkey in 2016 instead of extraditing them. Greece had become "a refuge for coup plotters," the Turkish foreign ministry said the same day.

Conservative Spanish prime minister Marian Rajoy took a swipe at his successor, the centre-left's Pedro Sanchez, Tuesday, in a tearful speech announcing his own resignation over a corruption scandal. He said Sanchez, who relied on the left-wing Podemos party and Catalan and Basque nationalist factions to get into power, would face a "stigma" or extremism that "will accompany this government from the first moment of its existence until the end".

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned that both Poland and the EU would end up as losers if Poland tore down EU values on judicial independence. "Where these values are called into question, we all lose," he said in Warsaw on Tuesday. "If the cohesion of the European Union breaks down, none of us will gain national clout," he said, amid threats of EU sanctions over Polish judicial reforms.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is unhappy at EU plans to make it finance infrastructure projects in Iran to offset US sanctions in Europe's bid to save the nuclear arms control deal, Reuters reports. "The bank is unhappy with the [European] Commission proposal because the bank raises funds on US markets," one EU diplomat said. The Luxembourg-based lender has also denominated about a third of its loans in US dollars.

Poland's ruling PiS party is angling to move from the anti-federalist ECR group in the European Parliament to the centre-right EPP ahead of EU elections, Polish media report, citing diplomats and PiS insiders. The move comes as the British Conservative Party prepares to quit the ECR due to Brexit, hollowing out the faction. Hungary's Fidesz party, an EPP member, is now seen by PiS as its principal EU ally instead.

Russian president Vladimir Putin in an official state visit to Austria has demanded Western sanctions be lifted against Russia. "These actions are harmful for everyone," he said. The sanctions were imposed as a response to Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. His demands come amid a renewed push by populist and right-wing movements in places like Italy to have the sanctions removed.

When UK premier Theresa May meets Norway's Erna Solberg in London on Wednesday, they my find that they have a lot in common, including managing difficult in-and-out relations to the European Union.

Despite being depicted as amovement with racist and xenophobic undertones, the Catalan pro-independence movement represents the most heterogeneous sectors of society. 



On the day it outlined its reaction to US tariffs on steel and aluminium, the EU commission also launched a case against China on property rights - an issue on which EU and US are working hand-in-hand.

Roadside sensors reveal that of the newest diesel cars, 91 percent does not even achieve to remain below the previous generation NOx emission limit.