Euobserver.com

EU commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johnasson called the decision not to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join a "disappointment" — and said the executive will work to include the two countries by 2024.

Thousands of Europeans have lost their jobs as a result of the energy crisis, a new report shows, but overall industrial output has remained stable throughout the year.

More than 1,600 testimonies of alleged illegal pushbacks of migrants and refugees throughout the EU has been published, collated by the Border Violence Monitoring Network and the Left party — adding to the mounting evidence of abuse.

The European Commission has asked the member states' leaders assembling in Brussels next week for the customary end-of-year European Council to approve EU candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Doing so would be a mistake.

The EU Commission is also taking legal action in another case, where it says China is restricting European companies' rights over their high-tech patents.

A new EU Commission bill wants to ensure the rights of a child from same sex couples are upheld in all EU states — at a time of backsliding of LGBTI+ rights in Poland and Hungary.

From the outset, arms manufacturers eyed this war as a profitable business opportunity. Structural changes took place across the EU, not only to fast-track arms to Ukraine, but also to make more public finance available to the highly-lucrative arms industry.

"We cannot afford any more delays," Czech minister Zbyněk Stanjura said of aid to Ukraine, adding that his country's EU presidency is "fully committed to finding a compromise".

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, is currently drawing a pension from a European Parliament fund that is some €400m in debt and may require a taxpayer bailout at a time of rising inflation and high energy costs.

Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, is currently drawing a pension from a European Parliament fund that is some €400m in debt and may require a taxpayer bailout at a time of rising inflation and high energy costs.

How should democratic states co-operate with authoritarian governments in the future? My organisation, Democracy Reporting International, has studied the security strategies of 13 democratic governments to understand how they see this relationship.

The agribusiness narrative is a masquerade. A smokescreen to water down environmentally-friendly reforms and maintain industrial agriculture. A smokescreen to which a majority of European policy-makers, including member states, are dangerously buying into.

The German constitutional court declared the EU's €800bn pandemic recovery fund 'legal' — although there was one dissenting voice.

Hungary will be in the spotlight on Tuesday as EU governments struggle over suspending EU funds to prime minister Viktor Orbán's government — despite rule of law concerns — and unlock key EU policies which Budapest has been blocking.

The EU's border police Frontex is set to deploy guards throughout the Western Balkans as part of a wider plan to stop migrants from reaching EU states.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and French finance minister Bruno Le Maire called for new EU borrowing in the face of US green subsidies — but Dutch and German finance ministers both said they opposed such a tool.

The EU Commission has downplayed Russia's threat to stop selling oil to countries which adopt a Western cap on prices.

While the European Union openly criticises China for abusing its the mostly Muslim Uyghur population, the EU turns a blind eye to the way India treats its own Muslim minority — because it wants India as a strategic ally.

Vladimir Putin himself is somewhat suspicious of Serbia's leader, as are most who deal with the opaque Aleksandar Vucic. The Russian president has preferred to keep his Serbian counterpart compliant, via a tight rein of annually-reviewed gas pricing.

On Tuesday, EU finance and economy ministers are expected to discuss a whole series of highly-political files, with one country tying it all together: Hungary. EU and Western Balkan leaders will also meet in Tirana.