Agrégateur de flux

France’s highest constitutional body ruled that 32 of the 86 articles in the French government's controversial immigration bill are unconstitutional, in a much-awaited judicial ruling on Thursday (25 January).

Leading MEPs have confirmed that the member states cannot agree on incluing rape in the directive to combat violence against women. About 15 countries are in favour, but with Germany and France against it, there is no qualified majority.

La Russie pourrait-elle lancer une guerre contre l’Allemagne et l’OTAN dans les années à venir ? Cette hypothèse a été évoquée par Boris Pistorius, ministre allemand de la Défense, le 19 janvier dernier, dans une interview accordée au quotidien allemand Der Tagesspiegel. Une telle crainte est toutefois à relativiser : Poutine s’est montré incapable de réaliser ses ambitions d’invasion totale de l’Ukraine et, depuis le début de la guerre, la position internationale de la Russie s’est considérablement affaiblie. Certes, en attaquant l’Ukraine, la Russie de Vladimir Poutine est devenue une puissance ennemie de l’OTAN, mais tout porte à croire qu’elle n’a pas les moyens de lancer une guerre de cette ampleur.

As Georgia gears up for a crucial general election this autumn, some worry the country could be at risk of going down the same road into authoritarianism, as its big neighbour Russia.

The two countries look like allies—but are increasingly regional competitors.

Les dirigeants du secteur de la santé réunis au Forum économique mondial de Davos ont discuté de l'importance de se préparer à l'apparition d'une nouvelle pandémie mondiale, la "maladie X".

Um bessere Bedingungen für Landwirte zu schaffen, soll auch die Marktmacht von Supermärkten und der Lebensmittelindustrie gestellt werden, bestätigte Bundeswirtschaftsminister Robert Habeck (Grüne) bei einem Besuch der Grünen Woche am Mittwoch.

Die EU führt bereits Projekte zusammen mit italienischen, französischen und deutschen staatlichen Entwicklungspartnern durch, um die Kapazitäten der tunesischen Marine und Küstenwache zu stärken, wie mehrere Dokumente und ein Sprecher der Europäischen Kommission gegenüber Euractiv bestätigten.

Top footballer Senzo Meyiwa was killed on the orders of singer Kelly Khumalo, a South African court hears.

Fortress Europe (German: Festung Europa) was a military propaganda term used by both sides during World War II, which referred to the areas of continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, as opposed to the United Kingdom across the Channel.

The EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding is in its early stage of implementation, for instance, when it comes to the €105 million for migration announced in July 2023, a European Commission spokesperson told Euractiv. 

Le Conseil constitutionnel a annoncé, jeudi, la censure d'une large partie de la loi immigration, décision très contestée à droite mais satisfaisante pour le gouvernement, qui s'apprête à promulguer le texte "dans les prochaines heures" pour appliquer les premières mesures "dès ce week-end".

Armenia’s recent attempts to diversify its security partnerships have left it with increased narratives of the country's “Ukrainisation”.

Electricity prices on the EU wholesale market have been on a downward trend in recent months, a development some governments see as an opportunity to remove subsidies introduced in response to the energy crisis, while others see as a bad signal for the energy transition. 

The EU will be able to reach its energy goals and reduce CO2 emissions as long as policy makers take a “more pragmatic” and science-based approach when it comes to biofuels, Valérie Corre, President of the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE), told Euractiv in an interview. “I believe that we need to have much more pragmatism in our decision making process, looking at facts and science and not let dogmatism in the way. Because when you take a dogmatic approach, you are missing the pointn […] you are killing opportunities that are really at our disposal to act today as we speak”, she said.

This week, a debate erupted between central bankers on whether economists are better described as a "tribal clique" (European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde) or "violinists" (former deputy governor of the Irish Central Bank.)

Alors que le mandat du Nigérian Akinwumi Adesina à la tête de la Banque africaine de développement prend fin en 2025, le dirigeant tchadien multiplie les efforts pour que ce poste revienne à son cousin, Abbas Mahamat Tolli.

Across land, sea, air, space and cyber, military operations increasingly rely on data. That makes access to cloud technologies essential. A European Defence Agency-financed study has concluded that cloud computing can be applied to defence, both at the strategic level and in the field, to help European armed forces achieve information superiority against an adversary.

The EDA study over four years, ‘Cloud Intelligence for Decision Support and Analysis’ (CLAUDIA), looked at the application of civilian cloud technologies in defence, including computing capabilities, data storage and software tools hosted externally. Results of the study were presented on January 25th, with a view to follow-up activities looking at constraints to cloud computing in defence.

Given the pressures of the battlefield, such as relying on a range of connections from satellites to radios in an extreme environment, EDA’s research is crucial to increasing situational awareness and shortening reaction times across multiple domains.

As cloud technology uses virtualisation − creating a virtual version of servers, storage devices and networks using software −  the study focused on the overall advantages for defence. These are simplicity, flexibility and the ability to scale up in military environments, as well as working with ‘big data’ supported by artificial intelligence (AI) tools. These advantages can significantly improve the situational awareness and decision-making process both at strategic and tactical level.

CLAUDIA’s objective was to research using cloud technologies to support analysis of hybrid warfare including:

• Management and processing information from heterogeneous sources
• Tactical cloud infrastructure for Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) − or C4ISR − systems
• Information-process enhancement by using AI and big data
• Joint strategic, operational and tactical level simulators
• Simulation as a Service (SaaS) for computer simulations of theatres of war (synthetic environments) and rapid scenario generation

Thanks to CLAUDIA, a Software Analysis (SWAN) platform has been developed to demonstrate the cloud-based capabilities, with different modules to address the different technology topics, including:

• Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Analysis at the strategic level
• Tactical Cloud
• Internet of Military Things
• 5G for Tactical Cloud and AI in Wargaming

The demonstration showcased the benefits of cloud technologies with the SWAN platform at both the strategic and tactical level. Edge computing – at or near the location of either the user or the data source –  was also introduced to demonstrate the benefits of using such technologies in the field, providing real-time situational awareness with enhanced data and visual capabilities. The demonstration included simulation and wargaming for a hybrid warfare scenario, with the use of wargaming and advanced training and exercises capabilities. The study recommended making the SWAN platform available to all Member States for further testing.

EDA's wider role

EDA supports its 27 Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks allowing it to the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.

Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here. 

Russland versucht in der Ukraine durch weitreichende Desinformationskampagnen den möglichen EU-Beitritt in ein negatives Licht zu rücken. Bislang zeigen die Maßnahmen allerdings wenig Wirkung. 

The next ordinary meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 from 9.00-12.30 and 14.30-17.30hrs and Thursday, 15 February 2024 from 9.00-12.30 in Brussels (room SPAAK 5B1).

The meeting agenda and documents will be published here.

SEDE missions 2023:

• India - 17-21 December 2023
• Israel and OPT - 8-10 December 2023
  
• Germany and Poland - 24-26 July 2023
  
• Armenia - 19-22 June 2023
  
• Romania and Moldova - 15-18 May 2023
  
• Djibouti and Somalia - 1-4 April 2023
  
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 20-23 February 2023
  

SEDE meetings' calendar 2024
EP calendar 2024
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP