European Union

The OECD has called for immigrants to be better integrated, citing the economic advantages of migration. EURACTIV France reports.

Plenary session, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Spain's centre-left prime minister Pedro Sanchez proposed to MEPs on Wednesday that the EU should have a "binding European gender equality strategy, to fight the gender gap, the higher unemployment rate amongst women, and the higher level of precarious working conditions suffered by women predominantly". Sanchez's cabinet consists of a majority of women, a rarity in Europe. On Tuesday, MEPs repeated a previous request for such a strategy.

Commission v United Parcel Service
Competition
The Court of Justice confirms that the Commission’s decision prohibiting the acquisition of TNT Express by UPS must be annulled due to procedural irregularity

UKIP MEP and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage said on Wednesday in Strasbourg that the EU would be in for a big surprise if it forced the UK to hold a second referendum. The EU has "a great tradition, seen with Ireland and Denmark. You make people vote again", he said, adding it would lead to another Leave victory. "We would win it - with a bigger majority".

Germany's domestic spy agency, the BfV, is to start monitoring the far-right AfD party in a move endorsed by the government, but decried as a witch-hunt by the party's leaders.

French president Emmanuel Macron kicked off a two-month national debate tour on Tuesday, meeting some 600 mayors from across Normandy in the northern town of Grand Bourgtheroulde. The town hall-style discussions, announced in a six-page letter on Sunday, are meant to address issues raised by the 'yellow vest' protests and will be broadcast live. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters gathered outside the venue and arrested several.

The EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday that "it is now up to the British authorities to agree how to take things forward towards an orderly withdrawal". Barnier pledged EU readiness to discuss sectoral co-operation, mentioning "research, fisheries, aviation, transport, police, judicial cooperation" and security, if the UK chooses to "go beyond a simple free trade agreement".

Germany's domestic intelligence will step up monitoring for political extremism of the far-right AfD party, sources said Tuesday (15 January), a blow to the party in a busy election year.

After Tuesday's huge defeat of Theresa May's draft EU Withdrawal Agreement, 'no deal' is out and 'no Brexit' back on, writes Sir Graham Watson.

As the euro turns 20, leaders of the EU's main institutions called on member states to complete the reform of the Economic and Monetary Union, admitting mistakes were made in managing the eurozone debt crisis.

"Today, we can say that the euro area has emerged from a crisis so severe as to threaten at times its existence," European Central Bank president Mario Draghi concluded when presenting the ECB's 2017 annual report to MEPs on Tuesday. He added that "monetary policy stimulus is still needed". The hearing was Draghi's last as ECB president, before he leaves in October.

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has hinted that the UK should consider staying in the European Union after Prime Minister May's Conservative government experienced a calamitous defeat in the House of Commons on her Brexit deal last night (15 January).

The European Commission on Tuesday (15 January) proposed to end the veto power member states have over EU tax matters, an idea rejected by several smaller countries including low-tax hub Ireland.

European Parliament lawmakers will today (16 January) vote on a non-binding report calling for a rethink of the EU’s authorisation procedure for pesticides. 

French authorities on Tuesday (15 January) banned the sale of a form of controversial weed-killer Roundup following a court ruling that regulators failed to take safety concerns into account when clearing the widely used herbicide.

An award-winning investigative reporter was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison in Montenegro on drug trafficking charges on Tuesday (15 January), in a ruling slammed by media watchdog RSF as a "disturbing set-back" for press freedom. 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will most probably survive a confidence vote on Wednesday (16 January). But his party Syriza is alone defending the historic name change deal reached between Athens and Skopje.

A number of factors ranging from the end of milk quotas to economic sanctions against Russia and Brexit, have put pressure on the EU milk market, leading Czech industry experts to call for reinstating the quota system. EURACTIV Czech Republic reports.

If the European parliament votes in favour of the new Morocco agreement without knowing that it complies with the European Court of Justice judgement, how can it demand that other countries respect international law and their own courts?