European Union

Macedonia is poised to become Nato's 30th member state, Nato head Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels on Wednesday after the alliance signed an accession protocol with Skopje. "It's a proud day for us all," Stoltenberg said, adding that it would join in about a year after the 29 Nato allies ratified the move. "History doesn't simply happen, you have to make it happen," Macedonian foreign minister Nikola Dimitrov said.

According to media reports the EU Commission will forbid a merger between the train divisions of Siemens and Alstom. The producers of the ICE and TGV wanted to fuse to be able to compete against their Chinese rivals and had the backing of the governments in Paris and Berlin. Are the Brussels competition watchdogs making the right decision?

US President Donald Trump has held his second speech on the State of the Union - before a Congress no longer dominated by the Republicans. Prompted no doubt by the fact that the Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives in November, Trump's speech writers incorporated signals of compromise. But commentators are unconvinced.

Several European countries and institutions have joined the push for a changeover of power in Venezuela. They have recognised parliamentary speaker Juan Guaidó as interim president and set up a contact group with other Latin American countries. But the European states are far from united on the issue, which has prompted a lively discussion among commentators.

Francis has become the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula. On Monday in Abu Dhabi he and the grand imam of al-Azhar university, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, signed a declaration against war and terror. Observers take a closer look at how the United Arab Emirates presents itself to the world and at the Church's alliances in the Middle East.

The withdrawal by the US and Russia from the INF Treaty on the use of land-based mid-range nuclear missiles has stoked fears of a new arms race. Both sides accuse each other of violating the terms of the treaty. Commentators examine who could be hardest hit by the decision.

The authorities in southern Denmark have made a case of unfair competition public: the Danish rescue service Falck allegedly edged its Dutch competitor Bios out of the market with a smear campaign led by two PR agencies. Bios had won a contract that Falck also bid for in 2014 but was forced to file for bankruptcy after the campaign. Danish media are shocked.