European Union

Negotiations over the post-Brexit trade deal are expected to continue this week after EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost failed to reach an agreement over the weekend, the BBC reported. Barnier said talks were at a "crucial" point on Sunday, while a British government source described the negotiations as "difficult" because of the "significant differences" regarding fisheries rights and the so-called level playing field.

Now that the EU has raised its 2030 emissions reduction target from 40% to 55%, questions are being asked about how utility operators can make the changes necessary to transform the energy system.

Many countries have announced restrictions on UK travel after a new coronavirus strain was detected there, triggering tighter measures in the country, including a lockdown affecting more than 16 million people in London and the southeast of England, Reuters reported. The new variant discovered could be up to 70 percent more transmissible. British prime minister Boris Johnson will hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the international travel restrictions.

A Georgian national was elected for the first time as judge at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) - an important designation for a country awaiting investigation of alleged war crimes committed during a short war with Russia in 2008.

A report from France's high council on climate published on Saturday warns that the rollout of 5G networks could be responsible for an extra 3-7bn tonnes of CO2 emissions. "Our request [for a moratorium] is even more relevant today, now that the high council has said that we need to assess the technology's environmental impact before deploying it," said Éric Piolle from the French Green party.

The three films competing for the 2021 LUX Award are: Another Round, Collective and Corpus Christi.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The three films competing for the 2021 LUX Award are: Another Round, Collective and Corpus Christi.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Before winter holidays put an end to a very unusual year, EURACTIV takes a look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the bigger picture of international relations.

A project in Cornwall, England, is building on the county’s history of tin mining, looking to restore jobs and boost the local economy by developing a new geothermal plant that will produce electricity, heat and, hopefully, lithium.

Germany and Finland have repatriated five women and 18 children from Syrian camps housing suspected family members of Islamic State (Isis) militants, the BBC reports. The foreign ministries of both countries said the women and children were brought back this weekend for humanitarian reasons. Three of the women were under investigation for allegedly belonging to Isis. Hundreds of Europeans who joined Isis are in Kurdish-run camps in northern Syria.

A Union that protects must be pragmatic in its Southern Neighbourhood - starting from the Sahara and placing security and counterterrorism at the centre of its thinking for the region, writes Mario Mauro.

Former US secretary of state James Baker and former national security adviser John Bolton, two of the most influential Republican voices on foreign policy and national security, have criticised the Trump administration's recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, urging the administration of president-elect Joe Biden to reverse the move, Haaretz reports. The recognition was part of a broader deal to establish diplomatic ties between Israel and Morocco.

The United Kingdom has endured in one form or another for hundreds of years but between Brexit and the coronavirus, the country is creaking and some suggest it may be on the verge of breaking up entirely.

EU citizens with pre-settled status in the UK can access welfare benefits, according to a  landmark judgement by the UK Court of Appeal on Friday (18 December).

Anthony Gardner, the former US ambassador to the EU, urged president-elect Joe Biden on Twitter to sack all ambassadors appointed by president Donald Trump on Inauguration Day. "Exactly four years ago I received telegram from incoming Trump team to vacate on Jan 20,'" Gardner tweeted on Sunday. "Time for similar telegram to go out now: all Trump politically-appointed ambassadors to leave Jan 20."

As the European Union is revising the TEN-T rail freight corridors under the new Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, the effective connection of the Eurasian rail routes with the EU Core Backbone Network is a key priority, writes Pierre Borgoltz.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Sunday hailed the country's "courageous" spies as he visited the headquarters of the Foreign Intelligence Service to mark its 100th birthday, The Moscow Times reports. Putin, himself a former KGB officer, thanked all those who protect Russia from "external and internal threats" and called them "reliable and courageous people," and for guaranteeing "the sovereign, democratic and independent development of our multinational society."

With the new US administration, Washington has again taken up its role as a guarantor of multilateral system, former EU Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou who runs for the OECD top job, told EURACTIV.com in an interview. “I think it has become...

Sherin Khankan is a female Imam who runs the Mariam Mosque in Copenhagen. The idea for the mosque came a month before two planes slammed into the World Trade Center skyscrapers in New York on 11 September, 2001.

Our special anniversary magazine gives an overview of the major events of these past 20 years - and, for every event, we talked to one of the key players. It makes this magazine a historic document of recent EU history.