European Union

A senior Hungarian official said Viktor Orbán's government could put plans to build a Chinese university in Budapest to a referendum - after thousands protested at the weekend, accusing Orbán of cosying up to Beijing. Gergely Gulyás, Orbán's chief of staff, said on Sunday that the university was not even at the planning phase, and once the plan took shape, in early 2023, it could be put to a referendum.

Slovakia became the second country in the European Union to vaccinate its citizens with the Russian-made vaccine Sputnik V on Monday, Reuters reported. In Hungary, one million people have received two doses of this vaccine. Slovakia in March bought 200,000 doses, announcing it intended to buy two million more. But the vaccination was delayed after months of rows over the jab, which has not received the European authorities' approval yet.

A planned meeting between Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the Nato summit on 14 June will be private, with, at most, a top aide from each side present, Kathimerini writes. According to officials involved in the preparation of the meeting, the closed setting would help a frank exchange of views.

A special audit on how Frontex supports member states in cracking down on "illegal migration and cross-border crimes" has painted a bleak picture of an EU agency, whose annual budget rocketed from €19m in 2006 to €900m in 2021.

EU member states have given the final approval to the €17.5bn Just Transition Fund, intended to support fossil fuel-dependent regions to green their economies - paving the way for EU countries to start receiving the money.

As a membership candidate, Serbia is expected to join foreign policy declarations and restrictive measures of the EU. However, Serbia is unlikely to join the EU measures against Belarus for both international and domestic reasons.

Our investigation reveals war crimes were committed by all parties to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Thousands of civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict. None of the key decision-makers are being held to account.

EU border and coast guard agency Frontex has not managed external borders effectively and is not ready for an increased mandate that will see it swell to a force of 10,000 by 2027, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said.

They are vastly underrepresented in decision making, much more likely to face a future of economic and environmental insecurity, and already enduring declining mental health. Yet, young people make up a significant part of the global population: in 2019, there...

Anti-poverty campaigners on Monday (7 June) criticised a deal reached by seven wealthy countries to impose a minimum tax on multinational companies, saying it would benefit rich nations at the expense of the poor.

Written by Philip Boucher.

STOA’s Centre for Artificial Intelligence (C4AI) produces studies, organises public events and acts as a platform for dialogue and information exchange on AI-relevant topics within the Parliament and beyond. It aims to contribute to the quality and coherence of discussion and policy-making as the EU seeks to coordinate its efforts and influence global AI standard-setting.

Last year, STOA and the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) launched a partnership on artificial intelligence (AI) with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Parliamentary Network (GPN). The GPN is a hub for legislators and officials from parliaments around the world to share experience, identify good practices and foster international legislative cooperation. It includes a Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, and benefits from proximity with the OECD’s AI Policy Observatory and Global Partnership on AI.

In the context of this partnership, we are currently producing a series of podcasts examining various aspects of AI development and policy with key experts from the field.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The first podcast in the series explores the role of international cooperation in AI governance. It includes an extensive conversation between STOA Chair Eva Kaili (S&D, Greece) and Anthony Gooch, Director of Public Affairs & Communications at OECD and Chair of the GPN, on the importance of international cooperation on AI and the role parliaments can play in this respect in the context of the Covid‑19 pandemic, as well as a way of promoting human autonomy and empowerment in relation to AI.

There are also contributions from Jeremias Prassl, Deputy Director of the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford, who shares his perspectives on best practices and capacity building in AI governance, and Kate Crawford, AI scholar and author of the book ‘The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence’, who talks about multilateral initiatives and the distribution of costs and benefits of AI.

You can listen to the podcast here. Watch this space for further podcasts in the series.

Follow us on Twitter at @EP_ScienceTech to stay informed about our activities.

Your opinion counts for us. To let us know what you think, get in touch via stoa@europarl.europa.eu.

Sitting on the beach with an overpriced cocktail in the Montenegrin resort town of Budva while furiously typing away stories on EU affairs would sound like a dream if it was not preceded by a desperate tour-de-ville looking for a stable wireless connection.

The EU should abolish unanimity in its foreign policymaking and not allow itself to be "held hostage", Germany's foreign minister Heiko Maas said on Monday (7 June), after several incidents in recent months derailed the bloc's joint positions on a series of foreign policy matters.

African governments face more immediately pressing economic needs than zero emissions. But meeting those needs and growing the continent's economies will depend on their energy systems evolving, argues Lily Odarno.

Google said it would make changes to its global advertising business to ensure it did not abuse its dominance, bowing to antitrust pressure for the first time in a landmark settlement with French authorities.

Fish stocks in the Black Sea are dwindling and commercial fishing is causing more and more environmental damage, causing concern that has grabbed the attention of NGOs and EU lawmakers. EURACTIV Bulgaria reports.

The EU's recovery fund must be used to support significant investments in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship, also known as Gen-E, write Salvatore Nigro and Andzelika Rusteikienė.

Agricultural ministers were faced with a "totally unacceptable" method of negotiation from the European Parliament during talks on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which "lacked democracy," Greece's agriculture minister Spilios Livanos told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

Cyprus's government broke the law on countless occasions in granting citizenship to thousands of people in a now discredited passports-for-cash scheme, an official inquiry has found.

Written by Marcin Grajewski.

© Arjan / Adobe Stock

Formally, the EU and China have been strategic partners since 2003 – a partnership that was broadened five years ago by the EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation. However, more recently, EU officials and politicians have been expressing increasing concerns over China’s economic expansionism and human rights violations. The current coronavirus pandemic and developments in Hong Kong have had a marked negative impacted on EU-China relations.

This note offers links to recent commentaries, studies and reports from major international think tanks on China, its ties with the EU and related issues. The previous issue on the subject was published in October 2020.

Xi Jinping thought on the rule of law: New substance in the conflict of systems with China
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, April 2021

New trade agreements in Asia: Liberalisation in times of geopolitical rivalry
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, April 2021

Home advantage: How China’s protected market threatens Europe’s economic power
European Council on Foreign Relations, April 2021

Multilateralism after covid-19
European Council on Foreign Relations, April 2021

Chinese sanctions: How to confront coercion and avoid a squeeze on Europe
European Council on Foreign Relations, April 2021

The new China shock
European Council on Foreign Relations, April 2021

Decade of patience: How China became a power in the Western Balkans
European Council on Foreign Relations, February 2021

Après le Brexit, appliquer la ‘méthode Barnier‘ avec la Chine
Institut Jacques Delors, February 2021

Reshaping trade ties with China in the aftermath of Covid-19
Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche, February 2021

The United States, China, and Taiwan: A Strategy to prevent war
Council on Foreign Relations, February 2021

China’s digital silk road: Integration into national IT infrastructure and wider implications for Western defence industries
International Institute for Strategic Studies, February 2021

China’s grand industrial strategy and what it means for Europe
European Policy Centre, April 2021

EU crash course in geopolitics: Lessons from the foreign policy ‘battlefield’
European Policy Centre, March 2021

Chips on our shoulder: Is Europe neglecting design in its semiconductor strategy?
European Policy Centre, March 2021

Vaccine diplomacy: Soft power lessons from China and Russia?
Bruegel, April 2021

China has a grand carbon neutrality target but where is the plan?
Bruegel, April 2021

Is the European Union’s investment agreement with China underrated?
Bruegel, April 2021

The EU-China investment deal may be anachronic in a bifurcating world
Bruegel, April 2021

Form a climate club: United States, European Union and China
Bruegel, March 2021

China’s state-owned enterprises and competitive neutrality
Bruegel, February 2021

China and the WTO: Why multilateralism still matters
Bruegel, January 2021

An EU-China investment deal: A second look
Bruegel, January 2021

Europe’s disappointing investment deal with China
Bruegel, January 2021

Northern expedition: China’s Arctic activities and ambitions
Brookings Institution, April 2021

Jack Ma Taunted China: Then came his fall
Brookings Institution, April 2021

An asymmetric defense of Taiwan
Brookings Institution, April 2021

How China’s savings could help save the planet
Brookings Institution, April 2021

What does Biden’s first 100 days tell us about his approach to China?
Brookings Institution, April 2021

US-China phase one tracker: China’s purchases of US goods
Peterson Institute for International Economics, April 2021

China in the WTO
Peterson Institute for International Economics, April 2021

China’s pursuit of leadership in digital currency
Peterson Institute for International Economics, April 2021

US economic sanctions against human atrocities in China and Myanmar
Peterson Institute for International Economics, April 2021

US-China trade war tariffs: An up-to-date chart
Peterson Institute for International Economics, March 2021

China’s Belt and Road Initiative should be on the World Bank and IMF’s agenda
Council on Foreign Relations, April 2021

The climate challenge and China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Council on Foreign Relations, March 2021

China’s Huawei is winning the 5G race: Here’s what the United States should do to respond
Council on Foreign Relations, March 2021

China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Italy: An analysis of financial cooperation
Istituto Affari Internazionali, April 2021

Technological competition: Can the EU compete with China?
Istituto Affari Internazionali, April 2021

Broadening the Transatlantic partnership to address the China challenge
Istituto Affari Internazionali, December 2020

The EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment
Centre for European Policy Studies, May 2021

Read this briefing on ‘Coronavirus: Latest developments‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.