European Union

US President Joe Biden said Friday (3 December) he would make it "very, very difficult" for Russia to launch any invasion of Ukraine, which warned that a large-scale attack may be planned for next month.

Pope Francis on Sunday (5 December) returned to the island of Lesbos, the migration flashpoint he first visited in 2016, calling the neglect of migrants the "shipwreck of civilisation".

EU member states could agree on a draft regulation on roaming in the EU in the coming days, Slovenian Minister of Public Administration Boštjan Koritnik said in Brussels on Friday (3 December). Koritnik, whose country holds the rotating EU Council...

In this week’s edition: NATO's Russia worries, China on EU's (investment) mind and Croatia's border violence.

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 4 - 12 December 2021

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

The Ministers of Home Affairs and Justice of Slovenia, representing the Presidency of the Council of the EU, together with the European Commission, met on 1-3 December 2021 with their counterparts from the Western Balkans at the annual EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs.

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.