European Union

The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a proposal to digitalise EU cross-border justice systems, aiming at making them more accessible and effective. Under the new draft law, the EU executive wants to tackle inefficiencies affecting cross-border judicial cooperation and barriers to access to justice in cross-border cases. Shifting paper-based communications to electronic formats would save up to €25m per year across the EU in postage and paper costs.

The fourth wave of infections surge is expected to peak by mid-December in Germany, which could mean having 6,000 intensive care being occupied by Christmas, the country's association for intensive care medicine (DIVI) said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. There are only 9,000 beds where patients can receive artificial respiration, compared to 12,000 from a year ago, DIVI said. Currently, there are some 4,600 Covid-19 patients in the ICU.

The first known case in the US caused by the Omicron variant is a fully vaccinated person who had previously travelled to South Africa, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Omicron has been reported in at least two dozen countries, including several EU member states, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Israel. The US government has asked fully vaccinated people to get a booster to increase protection against infection.

A Frontex employee claims he was pushed back in Turkey, beaten and taken by the Greek authorities along with another 100 migrants. A story published in the New York Times echoes complaints from human-rights groups that Greek authorities often expel...

The accountability of the European Commission to the directly elected Parliament is at a low point in history, and Parliament’s current leadership is completely neglecting its scrutiny role. It is time for a change, writes Sophie In't Veld.

The US urged Russia on Wednesday (1 December) to pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border, Reuters reported, warning that a Russian invasion would provoke hard-hitting sanctions. "We don't know whether president [Vladimir] Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so in short order," US secretary of state Antony Blinken said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday called for direct negotiations with Russia to end an eight-year war with pro-Russian separatists in his country's eastern part. "We must tell the truth that we will not be able to end the war without direct talks with Russia," Zelensky told lawmakers. On Tuesday, Russia reportedly amassed 115,000 troops around Ukraine, in regions it has annexed and where it is backing separatist fighters.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and rising cost for raw materials, renewable energy had another year of record growth, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported on Wednesday. About 290GW of new renewable energy generation capacity - most of it wind and solar - has been installed, beating the previous record of last year. The IEA expects renewable energy generating capacity to overtake fossil fuels and nuclear energy combined by 2026.

More than eight months after the Dutch election, the end of the longest-running cabinet formation may be in sight, Het Financieele Dagblad reported on Wednesday. The four negotiating parties hope to present a coalition agreement in the week before the Christmas recess, which starts on Friday, 17 December. Prime minister Mark Rutte and his fourth cabinet could then possibly start in early January.

The Omicron variant poses a "race against time," the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said, adding that the EU should also discuss whether mandatory vaccination is necessary

The EU proposal does not mention China directly, but it offers to counter Beijing's almost €3 trillion Belt and Road programme - which critics say has pushed some countries to unsustainable level of indebtedness.

"If Brazil is stripping its forests, that is because it has to repay foreign debts. Countries like Brazil, or African countries, are encouraged to borrow dollars instead of their own currency" explains South African economist Ann Pettifor.

Cases of COVID-19 in Spain have exceeded 10,000 in the last 24 hours, the Spanish health ministry reported on Wednesday. As a result, they recommend limiting the number of participants in “public and social events”, particularly during the Christmas celebrations...

The EU Commission presented a proposal to allow relaxing EU asylum laws in Poland, Lithuania and Latvia for six months. It says all rights will be respected - but deflected questions on whether a Polish law on pushbacks complies.

Former European Council president Herman van Rompuy plus local authorities warned EU policymakers against making the Conference on the Future of Europe a one-off exercise, arguing that democracy will continue to be under pressure after 2022.

The women's professional tennis tour announced it was suspending all tournaments in China amid what its chairman called "serious doubts" about the safety of Chinese player Peng Shuai, who accused a top Communist Party leader of sexual assault.

The suggestions below were put on paper after the inspiring and intensive consultations held in Strasbourg last week with the exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, her team and MEP friends of democratic Belarus in the European Parliament.

The first case of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been found in Ireland, it was announced on Wednesday.  The discovery was described by the director of Ireland’s National Virus Reference Laboratory, Dr Cillian de Gascun, as having involved...

The European Commission is ready to unilaterally secure the supply of medicines between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Commission Vice President Maros Šefčovič told lawmakers on Wednesday. “I would 100% prefer if we can present this good solution as a...

Defending the rule of law will be one of the major challenges when France takes over the rotating EU Council presidency in January, said President Emmanuel Macron. He was invited by the European Committee of Regions (CoR) to debate democracy...