European Union

2020 has been a year with plenty of dark clouds. Pandemic, economic hardship, layoffs and, of course, climate crisis. Yet, here at the end of 2020, it’s clear that, despite the serious circumstances, the clouds have a silver lining.

The leaders of six leading opposition parties of Hungary officially agreed on Sunday (21 December) to join forces in the 2022 parliamentary elections to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz, in power since 2010.

Britain’s government said Sunday (20 December) it would hold a crisis meeting after countries worldwide banned arrivals from the UK over a new highly infectious coronavirus strain it said was “out of control”, as the WHO called for stronger containment...

Details of last week's new EU sanctions on Belarus have shed light on how the regime is trying to crush a peaceful uprising.

2020 is nearly over. Coronavirus has dominated all the news over the last 12 months but plenty more happened besides. Sam Morgan saves you the trauma of trying to remember it yourselves and looks back at what happened in 2020.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will decide on Monday (21 December) whether to give the green light for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine within the EU.

The Danish parliament agreed on Sunday to exhume about four million mink, culled over a mutant coronavirus strain earlier this year, over contamination concerns. The announcement comes after some of the mink had resurfaced, triggering a wave of local complains over the potential risk of contaminating drinking water and a nearby lake, according to the DW. The exhumation is expected to start in May next year.

The EU push for a multilateral conference on the Eastern Mediterranean to ease tensions in the region has reached deadlock, diplomatic sourced told EURACTIV.com.

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.