European Union

Hungary is unlikely to use Russia's coronavirus vaccine due to its limited production capacity, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Sunday (3 January) while criticising the EU's vaccine acquisition approach.

The German government approved a total of €1.16 billion in arms exports during 2020 to countries involved in both the Yemen and Libya conflicts, reported news agency DPA. Germany, by 17 December, had signed off on permits to export weapons and military equipment worth €752m to Egypt, €305.1m to Qatar, over €51m to the United Arab Emirates, €23.4m to Kuwait, and around €22.9m to Turkey.

Iran has notified UN weapons inspectors it plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent - just below weapons grade - at its underground Fordow facility after the US, in 2017, abandoned an EU-brokered nuclear non-proliferation deal. It also accused the US and Israel of planning a false-flag strike on US assets in Iraq in order to justify US air-raids on Iran in the final days of the Donald Trump presidency.

The Conservative party in the UK would lose 80 seats if an election was held, wiping out its majority and putting it almost neck-and-neck with the opposition Labour, according to pollster Focaldata. The Scottish National Party, who want a second independence referendum, would win 57 out of 59 seats in Scotland. The next election is in 2024. The poll was seen as a public verdict on Brexit and pandemic-handling.

The pandemic death toll in the United States passed 350,000 on Sunday and experts warned of another surge in infections and deaths arising from gatherings at Christmas and New Year, the Guardian writes. Data from Johns Hopkins University shows more than 20 million have been infected, while the vaccination program is running slowly. President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday on Twitter the numbers were exaggerated.

Bosnia must do more to help the 10,000 or so migrants stuck there, after hundreds were left homeless in freezing weather when their so-called 'Lipa' camp burned down last month, the EU has said. "The situation is completely unacceptable. Lives and basic human rights ... are jeopardised," Johann Sattler, an EU special envoy, said Saturday, Deutsche Welle reports. Bosnia has received €85.5m from the EU for migrant assistance.

The shareholders of France's PSA and US-Italian rival Fiat Chrysler are expected to approve their merger on Monday (4 January), creating the world's fourth-biggest automaker by volume, Stellantis.

Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Saturday she hoped her country would leave the UK and rejoin the EU as an independent state. "As an independent member of the European Union, Scotland would be a partner and a bridge-builder," she said. Scotland held a referendum on independence in 2014, but voted to stay British. The UK government has ruled out allowing a second referendum for now.

It is high time Europe makes cultural and historical dialogue part of its enlargement process in the Balkans, following the debacle on Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

The far-right rose in power over the span of 2017 and 2018. But for former EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, they never posed a real threat. "They are not right because their basic societal analysis is wrong," he said.

When decisive, coordinated action from EU institutions and member states was most needed to respond to the first coronavirus outbreaks, the bloc struggled to find a common and timely response. What lessons have been learned?

All EU action on the climate stands at the crossroads between domestic ambition and international cooperation - especially with the G20 countries, which are responsible for about 80 percent of all global emissions.

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko authorised political murders in Germany in recent years, according to a bugged recording, which showed the danger posed by his homicidal regime.

Europe must be an autonomous global actor and it would be “a terrible sign” if the EU blocked a recently concluded investment agreement with China in order to coordinate with Washington, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa told EURACTIV’s partner Lusa in an exclusive interview.

Control of the US Senate – and with it, the likely fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda – will be on the ballot on Tuesday (5 January) when voters in Georgia decide twin runoff elections.

The living conditions of hundreds of homeless migrants in Bosnia, bordering the European Union, are "completely unacceptable", EU envoy Johann Sattler said Saturday (2 January).

The European Union is ready to help drug companies expand coronavirus vaccine production to clear a "bottleneck" in distribution, its top health official said Saturday (2 January).

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 4 - 10 January 2021

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Saturday (2 December) told the European Union "we hope to join you again soon" as an independent nation following Britain's full departure from the bloc.

Bangers and mash, pints of beer, a Europeans vs Britons tug-of-war and renditions of “Don’t Leave me This Way” and “We’ll Meet Again”. UK expats in Spain marked Britain’s departure from the European Union in true British style. Although many...