Euobserver.com

The illicit use of spyware in Europe is worse than the Watergate scandal which brought down US president Richard Nixon — yet EU authorities are ignoring the danger, MEP Sophie in 't Veld tells Wester van Gaal.

Serbia and Kosovo have stepped back from the brink of violence after ethnic Serbs began dismantling roadblocks in northern Kosovo

I won't bore you with platitudes about what a momentous year this has been, you'll probably have enough of those conversations tomorrow at your New Year's Eve. So here are our favourite stories of the year, in no particular order.

In response to the US Inflation Reduction Act, the EU has announced its own package of counter-subsidies. The question is whether a green industrial arms race will speed up the transition to clean energy or derail it.

Leaked EU papers are clickbait for Brussels media, but how do journalists get them and what are they good for?

If small and medium-sized businesses can kickstart the world's economy, we need to ensure that job creators are chasing the right goals—and at the right pace.

Forget "old-fashioned" deep fakes, the challenge to democracy posed by "fully-synthetic media" which can be created seemingly out of thin air is much greater.

In 2012, it was against Orbán's Hungary that the EU first proposed to suspend cohesion funds under strengthened budgetary rules, after Budapest failed to step up efforts to end the country's excessive government deficit. Then Orbán toed the line.

Buzzwords like 'strategic' and 'autonomy' have long been heard among Brussels' policy-makers, think-tankers, and academics. However, the concept has only become a real priority recently, bringing the geopolitical role of the EU to the top of the agenda.

A showdown is likely among MEPs and governments over the EU Commission's proposal on Artificial Intelligence and fundamental rights. The legislation, likely to be agreed next year, will be key in fighting discrimination in the virtual and real world.

The most stubborn misbelief about the EU's inability to deal with its illiberal regimes in Poland and Hungary is the idea that the EU doesn't have the legal tools to deal with these democratic backsliders. It does and always has.

A metaverse gala event organised for the European Commission on Thursday (29 November) attracted a handful of confused ballon-like avatars. The gala was a part of €387,000 metaverse project, financed by the European Commission's foreign aid department.

What's a credible dystopian nightmare for a leading writer on AI and Big Data? "It's going to be the size of a mosquito and it'll be an aerial drone".

Given the rapid pace of digitalisation, the EU has rushed to set and regulate digital standards. Many new initiatives are led by Margrethe Vestager, EU commissioner for competition, who says the focus must be on making technology work for people.

The inflationary "threat" is a favourite bogeyman of conservative and neoliberal economists. For them it's a question of defending savers and wealth and preparing the ground for austerity policies. This vision fails to identify the actual reasons behind price rises.

EU parliament president Roberto Metsola blamed "malign actors linked to autocratic third countries" for the Qatargate corruption scandal. But the parliament's Bureau has for years seeded a culture of impunity where MEPs can get away with almost anything.

The European Union has impressive digital ambitions and an equally-impressive array of initiatives, proposals, directives and regulations, all designed to make the bloc 'fit for the digital age'. But what do they all mean — and will they all work?

The threat to civil society organisations protecting human rights now not just from Russia, Turkey, Hungary and Poland but also from elected governments in states whose democracies appear healthy, such as France, Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Almost 16,000 European arrests warrants were issued in 2020, compared to just over 20,000 in 2019, according to a European Commission document.

"The Chinese Mission to the EU and I look forward to reaching out to EU partners and interlocutors from all sectors with an open heart and open arms."