European Union

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

The EU is working to further improve the cyber resilience and incident response capacities of both the public and private sector and the EU as a whole.

A previously touted US-EU dialogue on security and defence is set to be launched in early 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell announced in a statement on Friday (3 December).

AI technologies are increasingly being incorporated into newsrooms, but with trust in media already in a precarious position, concerns remain that introducing machine learning could worsen the situation. 

Ukraine rejects any efforts to get it to scrap its plans to join NATO as well as any "guarantee" sought by Russia to ease tensions on the border, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday (3 December).

A ‘geopolitical’ Commission was one of Ursula von der Leyen promises when she took charge of the EU executive just over two years ago. So far, its record has been mixed: from Afghanistan to Aukus, it’s hard to make the case that the EU’s diplomatic muscle is any stronger than before.

GMOs have been known to rub the German Greens the wrong way. But as the party is entering into a three-way coalition government and pragmatists are gaining ground, its opposition to all things gene-editing is becoming a little less clear-cut.

Belgium has introduced new measures to curb the surge of Covid-19 infections in the country, following the third emergency meeting of its federal and regional governments in three weeks.

Rules on the duration and conditions for animal transports need to become stricter, said MEPs on a Parliament special committee after having found numerous breaches of existing animal welfare rules.

Austria's ruling conservatives picked on Friday (3 December) the current interior minister, an immigration hardliner, to lead them and the nation after a wave of resignations by senior officials set off by their fallen star Sebastian Kurz.

Requests for asylum in Europe hit a five-year high in September, with Afghans in particular seeking safety after the Taliban stormed to power in Kabul.

The Council of Europe said Friday (3 December) it will launch disciplinary action against Turkey for refusing to free prominent activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala, triggering a procedure used only once before in the organisation's history.

Across the globe nuclear energy is being developed. If European Union policy-makers are serious about halting global warming and accept scientific findings, they should include nuclear in the so-called taxonomy to meet EU climate goals.

President Emmanuel Macron said he was in favour of "nuclear power being integrated into the taxonomy" on green finance in an address before the European Committee of the Regions on Wednesday (1 December). EURACTIV France reports.

It’s not all about Brexit on the other side of the Channel as England is bracing to face up to another harsh challenge in the coming months: building an entire plasma supply chain from the scratch.

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU.

This week, EURACTIV takes a look at the outcome of the vote on a report on live transport of animals, we explore the Commission's increasingly favorable stance to gene editing.

Russia has massed more than 94,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders and may be gearing up for a large-scale military offensive at the end of January, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament on Friday (3 December), citing intelligence reports. Reznikov...

China has banned Lithuanian products from entering the Chinese market amid growing tensions, according to Lithuanian media on Thursday (2 December). The European Commission said it is still gathering information and will return to the matter later.

EDA Chief Executive, Jiří Šedivý, visited Croatia this week (2-3 December) for high-level talks with Minister of Defence Mario Banožić, Chief of Defence Vice Admiral Robert Hranj, Defence State Secretary Zdravko Jakop, as well as the country’s national policy, capability, armaments and research directors. Mr Šedivý also met with Political Director Petar Mihatov (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and representatives of Croatian Defence Industry Competitiveness Cluster.

Discussions with Minister Banožić focused on the potential and opportunities for Croatia to grow its engagement with EDA. Mr. Šedivý took the opportunity to further present EDA’s work and projects, with a special focus on the cooperation opportunities identified in the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) and the state of play in the PESCO implementation where Croatia is participating in seven projects.  Defence innovation, and EDA’s crucial role in it, were also raised with the minister, following up on the recent debate at EDA’s ministerial Steering Board. Several options for EDA’s future role are currently being discussed, including that of establishing a Defence Innovation Hub within the Agency. The ongoing work on the EU’s Strategic Compass was another agenda point. Mr Mr. Šedivý explained how the Agency contributes to the capability and technology dimensions (Invest chapter) of the Compass while insisting on the need for developing full spectrum, high-end capabilities by using the existing prioritisation and implementation tools such as the CARD, PESCO and the European Defence Fund (EDF).

“I am delighted to have had the opportunity to personally present EDA’s work and role to Croatia. This visit also allowed me to thank Croatia for its continuous support to the Agency and the different EU defence initiatives, including CARD and PESCO, which are crucial for bringing defence cooperation forward. I believe with the challenges that Europe is facing, cooperation remains the best and most effective way of addressing them. There is much potential in defence cooperation and the EDA for Croatia to exploit. I particularly welcome the opportunity to encourage the Croatian authorities to benefit further from collaborative opportunities in defence, especially using the Agency to their full potential”, Mr Šedivý commented.

Croatian Defence Minister Mario Banožić said: “The participation of Croatian companies in projects co-financed by the EDF opens up numerous opportunities. Certain amount of financial resources will need to be invested and this fact should also be considered when planning activities in the coming years. From the very beginning, Croatia has supported the establishment of the European Defence Fund and one of the priorities in the field of defence and security during the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the EU was to support strengthening the competitiveness of the defence industry. Therefore, Croatia supported the initial proposal of 13 billion euros for EDF and also regarding the cooperation - we supported the requirement of having minimum 3 entities from at least three Member States”.

Croatia is involved in several major EDA projects and programmes, such as Military Mobility (under which two technical arrangements for air and surface cross border movement permissions were signed by Croatia on 16 Nov.), the Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear Surveillance as Service (CBRN SaaS) project where a Croatian company (Dok-Ing) is a member of the consortium implementing the project, or the Maritime Surveillance Network (MARSUR) which Croatia joined last year. Yet, the list of opportunities for additional involvement in EDA’s work is long.

The Chief Executive began his trip to Zagreb with a visit to the afore-mentioned Croatian defence company Dok-Ing where he stressed EDA’s industry engagement and the existing opportunities for industry to participate in and benefit from EDA’s activities, especially in the R&T domain.