European Union

The US officially exited the Paris Agreement on climate change Wednesday, despite being the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, Reuters reported. However, the elections will determine the future of the US in the climate deal since president Donald Trump's Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has promised to rejoin the accord if elected. Trump announced for the first time its intention to withdraw the US from the pact in 2017.

The anti-European president Donald Trump won Florida, a historical predictor of the overall outcome, but many swing states still too close to call on Wednesday morning.

EU leaders will hold another videoconference, on 19 November, on better coordinating efforts against the rising Covid-19 infections across Europe. EU leaders last met in person in October, and agreed to hold regular videoconferences for the coronavirus response. They had their first such meeting last week, to better share data, and coordinate testing and quarantine rules.

The European Commission will introduce fines and sanctions for platforms that repeatedly violate new obligations on managing illegal content online as part of the forthcoming Digital Services Act, an EU executive official close to the matter has informed EURACTIV.

The UK's Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre on Tuesday changed Britain's terrorism threat-level from "substantial" to "severe", interior minister Priti Patel said. "This is a precautionary measure and is not based on any specific threat. The public should continue to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the police," Patel tweeted. The change comes after a gunman in Vienna identified as an Islamist terrorist killed four people on Monday.

The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Matti Maasikas, welcomed on Tuesday president Volodymyr Zelensky's pledge to reform his country's judiciary. "We, as the EU, are ready to cooperate and assist in reforming the judicial system in Ukraine," Maasikas said, adding the latest ruling by Ukraine's Constitutional Court has "put a question mark over Ukraine's fight against corruption". The ambassador urged quick actions to find a "sound solution".

A coalition of 240 MEPs and MPs called on Tuesday on the European Commission to align the controversial Energy Charter Treaty with the Green Deal by excluding investment protection for fossil fuels, and by changing or scrapping the highly-controversial Investor-State-Dispute-Settlement mechanism. Parliamentarians also warned the EU executive to be prepared to jointly withdraw from the treaty by the end of 2020, if the negotiations for its modernisation fail.

MEPs and diplomats from the German EU presidency will return to the negotiating table on Thursday over rules on linking EU funds to respect for rule of law - a key political hurdle to greenlighting the long-term EU budget and Covid-19 recovery package, in parallel discussions. Negotiators were close to sealing a deal last week, but disagreements over a time-limit for member states in deciding on sanctions were too severe.

Leaders in Europe condemned the terror attack in Vienna, with Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz calling it "not a conflict between Christians and Muslims or between Austrians and migrants... [but] a fight between civilisation and barbarism."

Civil organisation say that Hungarian authorities tasked with coordinating EU funds have denied an NGO funding over noncompliance with the controversial law - which has already been struck down by the European Court of Justice.

The EU is not a club of democracies anymore. The Hungarian and Polish governments provide real-life lessons on how to destroy democracy's institutions, and they have plenty of eager students. Any attempt to paint a different picture would be hypocritical.

In the EU, only Portugal, Poland, Lithuania and Slovenia published all contracts signed by public authorities. Most countries held back information on prices paid, arguing it was necessary to preserve secrecy in order not undermine negotiations.

Uzbekistan applied for the EU's highly-prized 'Generalised Scheme of Preferences' trade tool in June this year - but despite some improvements the central Asian country still falls woefully short of these requirements.

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UK government authorities and businesses will not be prepared for life outside the EU’s single market regardless of whether talks on a post-Brexit trade deal bear fruit, the Institute for Government (IfG) think tank said on Tuesday (3 November).

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called on the European Union Tuesday (3 November) to do more to fight "political Islam", which he said represented a grave threat to European values.

Eurozone finance ministers said late on Tuesday (3 November) that Europe “is now better equipped” to address the COVID-19 crisis and ruled out new joint measures to tackle the second wave of the virus.

As millions across Europe face new lockdown measures to tackle the resurging coronavirus, Finland is bucking the trend: infection rates are falling, while attitudes to restrictions remain the most positive on the continent.

Sweden’s largest insurer, Folksam, accidentally leaked private data on about one million of its customers to a handful of the world’s largest technology companies, it said on Tuesday. Folksam, which insures 50% of Swedish homes and individuals, shared the data...

The European Parliament will fight to loosen the conditionality required from national governments in order to receive money from the EU recovery fund, according to the negotiating position MEPs will adopt this week.