European Union

After seven years of growth, the eurozone's outlook is deteriorating. There is a risk of a recession if the trade war with Washington worsens, while member states continue to disagree over the completion of the economic and monetary union that would help them cope with a downturn.

French union CGT called on Wednesday for more strikes in France, after president Emmanuel Macron pledged in his New Year's Eve speech to push through the pension-system reform - despite weeks of nationwide strikes by trade unions. Macron said he expected his government to quickly find a compromise with unions, but without backing down on key principles, Reuters reported. Another day of mass protests is set for 9 January.

The mother of a British woman convicted in Cyprus of lying about being raped by 12 Israeli men has supported calls for tourists to boycott the country, BBC reported. The 19-year-old was found guilty of causing public mischief, which prompted the UK to express "serious concern" about the case. The teenager said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the incident, which the police deny.

The largest low-emissions zone in southern Europe opened in Barcelona on New Year's Day, banning the most-polluting vehicles from entering the entire metropolitan area of the city and some satellite towns, the Guardian reported. Petrol-driven cars bought before 2000 and diesels older than 2006 are banned and face a fine of €100-€500 each time they enter the zone. A moratorium will be in place for the first three months.

Austrian conservative leader Sebastian Kurz struck a coalition deal on Wednesday (1 January) with the Greens to ensure his return to power and bring the left-wing party into government for the first time, three months after Kurz won a parliamentary election.

Brexit and EU enlargement will be priorities during Croatia's six-month presidency of the bloc, Foreign Minister Goran Grlić-Radman said Wednesday (1 January).

The EU is working on a slew of new legislative proposals to make Europe a better place to live. Read on to discover what you can expect in 2020.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The EU is working on a slew of new legislative proposals to make Europe a better place to live. Read on to discover what you can expect in 2020.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The European Central Bank should not favour so-called "green" assets in its multi-trillion-euro bond-buying programme or its work as bank supervisor, incoming ECB board member Isabel Schnabel said in an interview published on Monday (30 December).

The expected showdown about the EU's post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the development of the bloc's new food strategy could set a cornerstone in the process of shaping Europe's agriculture in the decades to come.

Turkey is considering sending allied Syrian fighters to Libya as part of its planned military support for the embattled government in Tripoli, four senior Turkish sources said on Monday (30 December), with one adding that Ankara was leaning toward the idea.

Moscow and Kyiv on Monday (30 December) signed a five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, after months of difficult talks but just ahead of a looming New Year deadline.

Europe’s and Huawei’s joint journey is entering a new phase.

EXCLUSIVE: US sanctions will apply to any additional lines to the Russia-sponsored pipeline Turkish Stream, EURACTIV has learned. Serbia has already competed and Bulgaria is building expensive infrastructure to import gas from Turkish Stream and carry it further to Hungary and Austria.

From the commitment to fighting (and possibly defeating) cancer to the food labelling minefield, the bar will be set pretty high when it comes to health and food safety in 2020. Will the EU be able to live up all its over-ambitious promises?

At the heart of recent protest movements in Europe and elsewhere is a sense that economic growth has left many people worse off, even if, in most countries, the headline GDP figures suggest that countries are much wealthier.

The UK will leave the EU in January. But the Article 50 process was always supposed to be the easy bit. In 2020 talks will focus on post-Brexit trade relations, with a tight timetable and the threat of no deal.

The "2010s" will end together with 2019. European media take the opportunity to look back on a decade marked by crises and upheaval. Commentators take stock of how the world has faced up to these challenges.