European Union

The Portuguese Foreign Minister has said that the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union is working with Mercosur countries on "additional clarification" on environmental standards in the trade agreement negotiated with the EU.

Portugal's secretary of state for European affairs acknowledged on Tuesday that vaccines not certified by the EMA but are already circulating in Europe might be included in the EU digital vaccination certificate due to be presented soon by the Commission.

If Gazprom could be persuaded to increase gas transit revenues for Ukraine, that would give the Biden administration a reason not to impose sanctions to block Nord Stream 2’s completion and ammunition to fend off criticism from those who want...

The Loyalist Communities Council, which represents Northern Ireland's unionist paramilitary groups, has "temporarily" withdrawn its backing for the 1998 'Good Friday' peace accord in order to pressure the UK and EU to change the Brexit deal, which left Northern Ireland in the EU customs' zone. It called for "peaceful and democratic" opposition. But its intervention showed the fragility of the security situation some two decades after sectarian fighting ended.

A man armed with an axe has attacked and injured eight people in a southern Swedish town in what authorities called a suspected terrorist crime, The Guardian writes. The attack happened in the small town of Vetlanda, about 190 km southeast of Göteborg, Sweden's second largest city, on Wednesday afternoon. His motive was not immediately known. The man was taken into custody after being shot in the leg by police.

The Arctic is once again at the centre of geopolitical and strategic discussions, mainly for one reason - climate change - and it is imperative to act now, write Virginijus Sinkevičius and Boris Herrmann.

A group of prominent Israelis have warned Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz not to cooperate with Israel on vaccines, citing what they termed vaccination “apartheid” vis-à-vis the country’s Palestinian population.

France has outlawed a far-right group called Génération Identitaire, for "promoting hate speech inciting discrimination or violence against individuals because of their origin, race, or religion". The group, which trained members in martial arts and conducted vigilante border-control operations, had also received financial donations from Brenton Tarrant, who murdered 51 people in a mosque in New Zealand in 2019.

The EU has condemned Belarus' jailing, for two years, of a doctor, Artsiom Sarokin, who disclosed the true cause of death of a Belarusian protester, Raman Bandarenka, last year. Bandarenka "was shamefully beaten to death" by plain clothes police, the EU said in a statement Wednesday. Sarokin was jailed Tuesday in a behind-closed-doors trial. A Belarusian journalist Katsiaryna Barysevich, from tut.by, was jailed for six months in the same case.

Austria's ex-foreign minister Karin Kneissl has joined an ever-expanding list of senior Austrian and German politicians working as Kremlin lobbyists.

A management board at Frontex is tasked to make sure its operations stick to the rules. An internal probe, known as the working group, will soon deliver its final report on the Warsaw-based agency.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has invested €890 million in gas projects since it pledged to phase out investments into fossil fuels by 2022, contradicting the bank’s "gas is over" narrative, activists say.

The European Commission presented on Wednesday a strategy to strengthen the rights of people with disabilities for the period 2021-2030. Brussels will propose a EU disability card to ensure the mutual recognition of disability status between member states by the end of 2023. Additionally, the EU executive will launch an initiative to improve social services for people with disabilities, including their participation in electoral processes.

Germany, Poland, and Switzerland offered help with treating Covid-19 patients in the Czech Republic, after a surge in infections. Czech interior minister Jan Hamacek said Germany has offered dozens of beds in its hospitals. Poland is to provide around 200 beds, Switzerland was ready to help with 20 beds. The day-to-day increase in new cases reached 16,642 on Tuesday, with a record over 8,000 Covid-19 patients needing hospitalisation.

The debate over Fidesz had become an unbearable political burden on EPP - but it also represented a core dilemma for many centre-right, mainstream parties struggling to deal with their populist challengers.

National governments, led by the Portuguese presidency, have watered down provisions that MEPs are trying to introduce to raise the amibition of the first-ever European Climate Law.

German intelligence is to do surveillance, using informants and wire-taps, on the far-right AfD party, the third-largest in parliament, amid fears its extremist wing, which was already being spied on, was gaining influence. AfD candidates taking part in regional and federal elections later this year will be exempted from the measures, Der Spiegel reported. "The intelligence agency is acting purely politically", AfD parliamentary leader Alice Wiedel responded.

EU and US visa-bans and asset-freezes imposed Tuesday on Russian officials over the mistreatment of opposition figure Alexei Navalny had no meaning because they did not go abroad or hold assets there due to their sensitive positions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday. "This is practically a duplication of the restrictions these people face under Russian law," he said. Russia would retaliate, "but not necessarily symmetrically", its foreign ministry said.

In its quest for a quick deliverable in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union is trying to broker a deal that risks entrenching the power of Croat nationalists who are resisting moves to make the country more functional.

Portugal’s secretary of state for European affairs Ana Paula Zacarias on Tuesday urged for an “immediate and effective” plan to get the COVID-19 vaccines to people living in refugee camps. “This is a humanitarian issue that needs a speedy and immediate approach […] given the difficult...