European Union

Zurich Insurance Group will drop out of Russia's Nord Stream 2 project in the face of looming US sanctions against European companies that support construction of the $11 billion gas pipeline, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The European Commission was forced to delay publication of detailed implementing rules on the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy because of the sheer number of comments received and a threat of blockage from eastern and southern EU member states, EURACTIV can reveal.

North Rhine-Westphalian (NRW) premier Armin Laschet has been elected the new chair of Germany's ruling conservative CDU and will lead the party into the September Bundestag elections, with a good chance of becoming the next chancellor. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Russia's arrest of opposition star Alexei Navalny when he landed in Moscow on Sunday night merited new EU "restrictive measures" unless he was quickly freed, Lithuania's foreign minister, among others, tweeted in response. The initial draft of an EU statement, drawn up by the European External Action Service, did not threaten sanctions, an EU source told EUobserver. But EU foreign ministers holding an informal videoconference on Monday might change that.

Portuguese finance minister João Leão has tested positive for coronavirus after meeting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and other top officials in Lisbon Friday, Reuters reports. The event, which was held at the Belem Cultural Centre to celebrate Portugal's EU presidency, came despite surging infection figures and national lockdowns in Europe, posing questions on whether it should have gone ahead. Two EU commissioners and their entourages also attended.

"Evil is attacking. It's attacking our country, fatherland, state. Attacking the institution at the centre of our [Polish] identity, attacking the [Roman] Catholic church," Polish deputy prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński said in a speech in church in Strachowice, southwest Poland, Sunday. Kaczyński's "evil" referred to women's rights protesters campaigning against new anti-abortion laws. A handful of demonstrators gathered outside the church, which was holding a memorial for Kaczyński's late mother.

Eurostar said in a statement Sunday that due to a drop of 95 percent in passengers, it was facing an existential threat, adding "without additional funding from government, there is a real risk to the survival of Eurostar … the current situation is very serious," The Guardian writes. The company said that while government loans had been extended to aviation, international high-speed rail was also suffering from the pandemic.

North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet was elected Saturday as the new leader of Germany's ruling party, the Christian-Democrat Union (CDU). He is set to be the successor of current German chancellor Angela Merkel. In his acceptance speech, Laschet promised to continue Merkel's line. However, only a minority of Germans back Laschet as the conservative candidate to succeed Merkel in elections later this year, according to a poll.

Israel should extend its corona-vaccination programme to the 4.5 million Palestinians living under its occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, the New York-based campaign group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), has said. Some 20 percent of Israeli citizens, including Jewish settlers, have already received the jab in one of the world's fastest inoculation roll-outs. But "nothing can justify" denying people vaccines on grounds of their ethnicity, HRW's Omar Shakir said.

Israel on Sunday (17 January) advanced plans for 780 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said, adding the move puts Israel "on a collision course" with the incoming US administration.

Documents recently stolen by hackers from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam and published on the dark web showed the EMA came under pressure from top EU officials in Brussels and from pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and BioNTech to quickly approve the coronavirus vaccine, according to Le Monde, which recovered 20 of them. The EMA claimed hackers had manipulated some of the texts prior to publication, however.

A local man walked into a pharmacy in Galway, western Ireland to buy medicine for his dog five years ago and now he is making history in the European Court of Justice.

The European Border and Coast Guard Day is held every May. The event includes movies, football and volleyball matches between Frontex and national border guards, shooting competitions and exercises to detect smugglers.

A new report warns that the use of artificial intelligence and autonomous arms are fuelling military escalation for future conflicts and threaten peace in Europe and worldwide.

EU leaders talk vaccines, while the Portugues EU presidency introduces itself to MEPs. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president of the United States, and the EU hopes this will mark a new beginning for EU-US relations.

This week the European Commission's Directorate for Cooperation and Development changes its name to the Directorate-General for International Partnerships - in a symbol of how early-industrialised countries seem to be losing influence to the benefit of some emerging countries.

Frontex has pledged to create a searchable central document management system by the end of the year, while Europol has agreed to be more proactive.

Police detained top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Sunday (17 January) when he flew back to Russia months after barely surviving a poisoning attack, prompting a new wave of Western condemnation.

The outgoing Trump administration's decision to classify Yemen's Huthi rebels as terrorists will only cause more suffering for the people of that war-torn nation, Joe Biden's nominee for national security advisor said Saturday (16 January).

The European Union on Saturday (16 January) welcomed a promise by Palestinian leaders to hold their first elections in 15 years, urging Israel to facilitate the ballots.