European Union

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has announced plans to re-launch news services in Bulgaria and Romania in a bid to strengthen the media landscape in both countries. In both cases, it marks a return for RFE/RL: the company previously served...

Hungary has become the only EU state to refuse to sign a UN treaty urging parties to "uphold ... their obligations under international law" on migrants. The pact "could inspire millions" of people to come to Europe, Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday. "Its main premise is that migration is a good and inevitable phenomenon. We consider migration a bad process, which has extremely serious security implications," he said.

Nato has said its mutual defence pact was "unconditional and iron-clad" after US president Donald Trump questioned "why" a US soldier should fight for Montenegro, Nato's newest member. "They [Montenegrins] may get aggressive and congratulations, you're in World War III," Trump had said Tuesday. The comments come after he threatened to quit Nato in a row on money and, last year, physically barged aside Montenegro's PM at a Nato summit.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will avoid lending to Iran because US sanctions could jeopardise its ability to raise money on US markets. "There is no European bank which is presently able to do business with Iran," EIB chief Werner Hoyer said in Brussels Wednesday. "We'd risk the business model of the bank," he said, frustrating EU efforts to engage with Iran in line with a nuclear arms control pact.

EU fiscal affairs chief Pierre Moscovici has warned that a US tariff war with the EU could destabilise financial markets. "An escalation - no matter from which side - would have serious consequences for the economy, including for the financial markets, which would hurt all sides," the French commissioner told German daily Augsburger Allgemeine. "That's why we need a gateway to get out of this spiral," he added.

Greece has rejected comments it was forced by outside forces to recently expel two Russian spies. "States, regardless of size, are independent and can exercise an independent, multidimensional and democratic foreign policy" the Greek foreign ministry has said. It spoke after the Kremlin told press the expulsions were "dirty provocations, into which, unfortunately, Athens was dragged." Russia did "not understand the principles and values of Greek foreign policy", Greece said.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker demanded "respect" from media in Brussels Wednesday after being asked whether he had consumed alcohol at a recent Nato summit. "I had sciatica last Wednesday and I had cramps in my legs [at the summit]," he said. He spoke after video footage showed him staggering, chuckling, and being held up by colleagues at the event. Juncker has been dogged by accusations of drunkenness before.

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EU Ministers of Employment and Social policy and Health meet for an Informal session on 19 and 20 July 2018 in Vienna.

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Environmental NGOs have questioned the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) scientific capacity to grant EU member states emergency authorisations for neonicotinoids, whose usage was recently banned.

Carbon capture and utilisation (CCUS) offers “one of the greatest industrial opportunities” for Britain as the world pivots to a low-carbon economy, said Claire Perry, the UK's Energy and Clean Growth Minister.

The European Union said it struck a deal on Wednesday (18 July) with Macedonia to deploy border guards to the non-EU Balkan state to help cope with any migrant surges. Serbia and Bosnia are expected to follow.

The OSCE mission monitoring the conflict in eastern Ukraine said yesterday (18 July) claims that Russia's security agency had received inside information about its activities came as a major blow.

The European Commission has repeated its insistence on breaking up the Ukrainian national gas and oil monopoly Naftogaz, separating transmission from production and supply, which the country had agreed to as a condition for receiving massive Western financing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies, who are pressing her to toughen up immigration policy, should remember their Christian roots and show a sense of responsibility towards the poor and weak, the head of the Catholic Church in Germany said.

Greece will process 1,500 asylum applications from Germany as part of a deal signed between the two countries, Greece's migration minister said yesterday (18 July).

Russia's Defence Ministry said yesterday (18 July) that Russian and Syrian authorities had set up a refugee centre in Syria to help refugees return home from abroad.

Boris Johnson, who quit as Britain's former foreign minister last week, accused Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday of planning a phoney Brexit that would betray voters by failing to take the country completely out of the European Union.

The UK government has taken the somewhat unprecedented step of translating the executive summary of its Brexit White Paper into 22 European languages.

Iron cat 15-19 July 2018 on the Danube

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Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/880 of 18 June 2018 amending Decision 2014/386/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol