European Union

Germany would not rule out transferring its military mission in Mali to another country if the danger is too great, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said Sunday (19 December).

Russian oligarch and football club owner Roman Abramovich has got a Portuguese passport under a law allowing naturalisation of descendants of Sephardic Jews who had been persecuted by the Roman Catholic inquisition in early modern times. Thousands of Israelis have also secured EU nationality since the Portuguese law was passed in 2015. But most wealthy Russians have done it in recent times via buying passports from Cyprus or Malta instead.

British foreign secretary Lizz Truss is to take over post-Brexit talks on Northern Ireland customs after Lord Frost, the former British negotiator, quit on Saturday saying he was unhappy with the current government. "My team and I will continue to cooperate with the UK in the same constructive spirit on all important tasks ahead," the EU negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said.

The EU has suspended its military mission in Central African Republic after Russian mercenaries began taking control of EU-trained soldiers. "The temporary suspension of our operations aims to avoid any overlapping with these mercenaries and ensure they do not use the Central African soldiers we have trained," general Jacques Langlade de Montgros, the commander of the EU mission, said in The Times. Dozens of EU instructors have already gone home.

Germany imposes quarantine on travellers from Britain starting on Monday and require a negative Covid-19 test for entry into the country, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said, Reuters reports. Germany's regional health ministers had urged the national government on Saturday to introduce tougher rules on people arriving from Britain and called on Berlin to classify Britain as a virus-variant area, enforcing a two-week quarantine on all travellers.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte announced on Saturday evening a sudden hard lockdown, ordering the closure of all but the most essential stores, as well as restaurants, hairdressers, gyms, museums and other public places from Sunday until at least 14 January. In a press conference, Rutte said that he was shocked over the rise of the new Omicron variant, leaving the government no other choice than going back into lockdown.

It was another divisive weekend for Albania’s Democratic Party as Chairman Lulzim Basha, and founder, ex-president and prime minister and persona non grata in the US, Sali Berisha, both held votes to oust the other. Berisha was declared non grata...

The parliament of Kosovo approved a €2.75 billion budget for 2022 in an extraordinary Friday session that was boycotted by the opposition. The 2022 budget has earmarked €100 million for the military to bring Kosovo’s defence spending to 2% of the country’s...

Budapest will veto any proposal to impose EU sanctions on Milorad Dodik, Serb member of the tripartite BiH Presidency,  Foreign and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote on his official Facebook profile. He recalled that the new German foreign minister, Annalena...

The biggest Bosniak SDA party has called for a larger NATO and EUFOR contingent in the country over the Serb entity, Republika Srpska’s, plan to transfer state-level powers in defence and security, the judiciary and taxes to the entity level....

The police and security services in Bosnia and Herzegovina have said they did not receive any information of a threat to the security of Croatian President Zoran Milanović. The decision to cancel the visit was made based on a security...

Remembrance policies were in the hands of oligarchs using them for manipulation and glorifying convicted war criminals, said RECOM Reconciliation Network coordinator Natasa Kandić on 17 December. “The glorification has risen to such heights that public spaces across the states...

There are currently 4,578 migrants housed in 13 shelters and asylum centres in Serbia, 322 children, the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migrations has said in a press release. On the occasion of International Migrants Day, Saturday, the Commissariat noted...

The results of the far-right Bridge party’s referendum campaign against COVID-19 certificates and to regulate the work of the national COVID-19 crisis management team are expected to be known on Wednesday (22 December), but the party announced it already had...

Romania’s new Agriculture Minister Adrian Chesnoiu has said he will try to find a way to include some agriculture projects in the national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP). Since they entered the government about a month ago, representatives of the...

The new ruling coalition is pressuring Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev to resign, arguing that he fails to fight high-level corruption. The term of office of the Prosecutor General in Bulgaria is seven years, of which Geshev has served only two....

As the Omicron variant spreads fast but amid pressure from tourism companies, the Greek government amended restrictions for those entering Greece. The aim is for people not to end up in hospital’s intensive care units, Greek health minister told EURACTIV Greece....

Russia's threat of war against Ukraine should be seen in in terms of its geopolitical and political needs, Kyiv's new ambassador in Brussels has said.

German defence minister Christine Lambrecht said that Nato will discuss Russia's proposals for the alliance's military affairs on its eastern border, but it will not permit Moscow to "dictate" its security affairs, Deutsche Welle writes. Moscow provided a list of military demands on Friday to the US and its allies. These demands included withdrawing Nato's enhanced forward presence battalions from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

France is set to bring in corporate sponsors for its EU Council presidency in the first half of 2022, despite calls to end with this controversial practice.