European Union

More than 175,000 people in Spain's autonomous Basque region on Sunday formed a 200km human chain calling for the right to hold a referendum on independence from Madrid. Last year's independence referendum in the Catalan region prompted a brutal crackdown by Spanish security forces and saw several of its political leaders jailed or in exile.

Italy's new interior minister Matteo Salvini threatened on Sunday to close the country's ports to a migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean carrying more than 600 people, and has asked Malta to open its doors to the vessel. Malta has refused to take the ship, Aquarius, in, saying in a statement it took the migrants onboard in international waters off Libya, in rescue operations coordinated by Italy.

Despite Brexit, the UK is still Europe's most favoured destination for foreign investment, attracting 18 percent of all foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, according to the EY Attractiveness Report. France enjoyed surging project numbers (up 31 percent) and has become a direct competitor to Germany and the UK. Europe's three largest economies, Germany, France and the UK together accounted for almost 50 percent of all FDI projects.

Emails leaked to UK press revealed on Sunday that British businessman Arron Banks, who backed the 'Leave' campaign in the Brexit referendum, had more extensive contacts with Russian officials than previously claimed, meeting Russia's UK ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, three times, rather than once and shared at least one phone number for the Trump transition team with the Russians. He also refused an offer to participate in a Russian goldmine deal.

As an EU judicial mission prepares to leave Kosovo, the assessments of its decade-long mandate are mixed -- hailed by officials but criticised by the public.

France and Germany made "significant progress" towards an agreement on eurozone reforms at marathon talks in Paris this weekend, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Sunday (10 June), but aides said there was still some work to do.

Former Finnish prime ministers Alexander Stubb and Jyrki Katainen left open the possibility on Saturday (9 June) that they would run to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the EU executive’s president next year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday (10 June) she was more open to French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to reform migration and defence policy in Europe than his hopes to bolster the euro.

French farmers began a blockade of oil refineries and fuel depots on Sunday evening (10 June) over plans by Total to use imported palm oil at a biofuel plant, which have fanned farmer discontent over unfair competition.

Italy's new coalition government has no intention of leaving the euro and plans to focus on cutting debt levels, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria said on Sunday (10 June), looking to reassure nervous financial markets.

Politicians in Poland's ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party are pushing to join the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) after next year's European elections. EURACTIV Poland's media partner, Gazeta Wyborcza, reports.

Chinese President Xi Jingping has praised the "unity" of the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement (SCO) at the opening ceremony of the organization's summit in the coastal Chinese city of Quingdao.

The debate on the controversial draft law on “fake news” is set to continue in France but the law will not be adopted before July. Meanwhile, Brussels refuses to legislate this sensitive subject.  EURACTIV.fr reports.

After stoking expectations among Liberia’s voters for rolling back poverty, President George Weah is facing the twin pressures of time and money to carry out his promises. On 22 January, Weah became president of the one of the world’s poorest...

Despite France’s commitments it is struggling to get its aid to the poorest countries as well as for gender-equality programmes, according to an assessment by the OECD. EURACTIV.fr reports.

In an interview at the European Development Days in Brussels, Perez underlined Coca-Cola's hopes to work with the EU on its flagship External Investment Plan that seeks to build partnerships between local communities, governments, and the private sector.

The United States and Canada swung sharply on Sunday toward a diplomatic and trade crisis as top White House advisers lashed out at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a day after US President Trump called him "very dishonest and weak."

With Europe’s relative weight diminishing on the world stage, it becomes easier and easier for outside parties to play divide and rule and take advantage of European disunity, says Alexander Mattelaer.

With European elections coming up in May 2019, you probably want to know how the European Union impacts your daily life, before you think about voting. In the latest in a series of posts on what Europe does for you, your family, your business and your wellbeing, we look at what Europe does for Bird watchers.

Like many of us, you may derive great pleasure and inspiration from watching wild birds and listening to their song. Birds are also an essential element of our ecosystems, which provide us with clean water, pure air, food, medicines and important raw materials.

For these reasons, the European Union protects the 500 wild bird species naturally present in Europe. Through a law adopted in 1979 (the oldest EU law on the environment), the European Union protects bird species in two ways. On the hand, it created protected areas to maintain habitats for 194 species that are particularly threatened (these nature protected areas are part of the wider Natura 2000 network of wild spaces). On the other hand, it bans most activities that directly threaten wild birds, like killing them deliberately, capturing or trading them.

© Jesus / Fotolia

BirdLife, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) developed, with European Union financial support, a system to collect information on threats to and plans for conservation of about 50 bird species. Projects protecting 54 bird species also have priority access to European funds under the LIFE programme.

You may have noticed that numbers of common farmland birds in Europe, such as sparrows and swallows, have fallen recently. However, EU action has helped to protect Europe’s most threatened birds from further decline. One example is the Spanish Imperial Eagle (Aquila Adalberti), whose population has recovered from 50 pairs in 1974 to about 150-160 pairs today.

Further information

• EPRS publication on ‘Safeguarding biological diversity: EU policy and international agreements’ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_IDA(2016)582020
• European Commission’s Directorate General for the environment website, http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature

The leaders of the G7 gathered in Charlevoix, Canada, agreed the summit communique.