European Union

How to secure the support of workers in industry for the European Green Deal? Make it social! IndustriAll European Trade union has identified the key requirements to secure their support for what is announced as the flagship initiative of the new European Commission.

A report of the European Court of Auditors published on Wednesday concludes that the EU needs to strengthen and better monitor its legal requirements for national budgetary frameworks. It highlights the risk of inconsistency between the European Commission's and independent bodies' assessment of member states compliance with EU fiscal rules. "The EU legal framework governing national budgetary frameworks leaves room for improvement," said Mihails Kozlovs, responsible of the report.

The EU is leading the science-based fight against climate change and it will also lead on science-based plant innovation, writes former EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

Energy security, EU-Eastern relations and geopolitical challenges are set to be among the focus points of the 8th session of the joint parliamentary assembly.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Energy security, EU-Eastern relations and geopolitical challenges are set to be among the focus points of the 8th session of the joint parliamentary assembly.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Making our buildings climate-proof is not only about reducing the 36% of CO2 emissions they are responsible for, but about doing so while caring for the people that live in them, writes Oliver Rapf.

Greener business models are starting to gain in popularity, as environmental legislation starts to bite and company heads decide their balance sheets will look healthier in the long-run if they embrace change.

Consorzio Tutela Aceto Balsamico di Modena
Agriculture and fisheries
The protection of the name ‘Aceto Balsamico di Modena’ does not extend to the use of the non-geographical terms of that name such as ‘aceto’ and ‘balsamico’

French president Emmanuel Macron clashed with US president Donald Trump and Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Nato, as the future of the alliance begins to fray following Ankara's invasion into north-east Syria in October.

The European Environmental Agency's latest report predicts that Europe will not achieve its 2030 climate and energy targets "without urgent action during the next 10 years". As a result, the social systems of production and consumption must be transformed.

Global CO2 emissions edged up 0.6 percent this year compared to 2018 and by 4 percent compared to 2015, when world nations signed the Paris climate accord to slow global warming, according to data from the Global Carbon Project, an academic organisation, Tuesday. EU and US coal demand was falling, but Chinese demand was rising, it said. Strong gas and oil demand, including for ever-popular SUV cars, were also factors.

After a visit to Hungary, seven press freedom organisations declared that "since 2010, the Hungarian government has achieved a degree of media control unprecedented in an EU member state." According to the organisations "the construction of a pro-government media empire serves as a vast propaganda machine for the government of prime minister Viktor Orbán." They called on the EU "to take all available measures to respond."

Bosnia should urgently close a temporary migrant camp or people will "start to die" during the winter period, a European human rights official warned Tuesday (3 December).

Almost 90 percent of EU nationals resident in the UK who appealed negative decisions on being able to stay after Brexit won their challenge, The Public Law Project, a British NGO said Tuesday. Some 3.4m EU citizens need to get temporary or permanent permits to stay after 31 January. The abnormal appeals rate indicated that British "automated data checks and initial decision-makers are getting things wrong", the NGO said.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out about the clash between France and the US at the NATO summit, and so much more. The Capitals brings you the latest news from across Europe, through on-the-ground reporting by EURACTIV’s media network.

French MPs said criticism of Israel can sometimes amount to antisemitism in a resolution passed by 154 votes against 72 Tuesday. "Criticising the very existence of Israel as a collective composed of Jewish citizens is tantamount to hatred towards the Jewish community," the preamble said. There could still be "free criticism of the Israeli government's policies and positions", it added, amid alarm it could be used to silence Palestinian voices.

Iceland's prime minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said she will focus on green and family-friendly measures and less on economic growth, the BBC reports. She is joining earlier initiatives from Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern to promote a "well-being" agenda. Following economists like Joseph Stiglitz, she said that environmental disasters are happening because of the world's one-sided focus on GDP growth instead of "inclusive growth".

In a joint press conference with Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, Belarus' president Alexander Lukashenko called on Serbia to establish closer ties to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Russian-led economic bloc, AP reports. Lukashenko said that it will take at least 10 to 15 years before Serbia might join the EU and that Serbia "will not regret" joining the EEU - which comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.