Euractiv.com

Polish farmers have come to the defence of EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski after Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and the opposition made calls for his resignation.

Foreign ministers from the French-German-Polish ‘Weimar Triangle’ will meet outside Paris on Monday for a ‘working meeting’, with the threat of a potential Trump re-election in November and military leaders warning of Russia’s threat to NATO looming in the background.

Israel launched a special forces operation that freed two Israeli hostages in Rafah amid air strikes early on Monday (12 February), which local health officials said killed 37 people and wounded dozens in the southern Gaza city.

Echoing other delegations’ concerns, Romania’s rising far-right party AUR has expressed they will backtrack on their decision to join the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament if Hungarian ruling party Fidesz joins.

Germany’s liberal FDP party wants to reopen negotiations on the EU’s Due Diligence Directive after the issue was removed from the agenda of a meeting of EU ambassadors last Friday, which the party says shows the poor quality of the preliminary agreement reached in December.

Top European officials rejected former US President Donald Trump's comments on Sunday (11 February) after he suggested the United States might not protect NATO allies who aren't spending enough on defence from a potential Russian attack.

The White House on Saturday (10 February) rejected comments made by former US President Donald Trump about not protecting NATO allies from a potential Russian invasion as "appalling and unhinged."

In this week's edition: Munich Security Conference preview, Russia sanctions and CETA revival.

Hungarian President Katalin Novák, a close ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, announced her resignation Saturday (10 February) following outrage over a pardon granted to a man implicated in a child sexual abuse case.

Belgian socialist MEP Marie Arena, whose Brussels home was searched last July as part of the European parliament "Qatargate" bribery scandal, was questioned by investigators Friday (9 February), according to her lawyer.

The European Commission and Canada have agreed on the "interpretation” of parts of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that relate to investor protection from environmental regulation, in a push by Brussels to persuade member states to ratify the bilateral multibillion-euro deal.

The European Parliament and member states reached an agreement early Saturday (10 February) on reforms to EU budgetary rules aimed at boosting investment while keeping spending under control.

Political groups in the European Parliament have offered radically opposing views on the EU’s recommended climate objective for 2040 this week, in a foretaste of debates to come after the June EU election.

Non-state actors adopted a joint declaration in support of adaptation to climate change as part of the Belgian presidency of the EU Council in Liège on Thursday and Friday (8-9 February).

Up to six people may soon enter an alternative to marriage in Germany, a 'civil union of mutual legal responsibility', and this is just one example of how the country's coalition government has been quietly pushing the boundaries of social change.

The EU member states approved the European Commission proposal for a derogation on land set-aside requirements. The measure was part of a package to appease farmers' protests, which however continue in Southern and Eastern Europe.

Thousands of tractors took to the Polish streets in a huge nationwide demonstration on Friday (9 February) as local farmers, inspired by their colleagues from other EU countries, resumed their protest against the European Green Deal and the imports from Ukraine.

Sustainability measures are necessary but “forcefully” imposed on farmers while other economic sectors - such as tourism - are left untouched, a representative of young farmers in Spain’s Catalonia told Euractiv, warning that the far-right wants to be the voice of neglected rural areas in Europe. 

The EU’s defence programmes and funds have multiplied after the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, to boost collaboration in different steps of an equipment’s life cycle: research, development, production, acquisition, and transfer to third countries. 

Europe is on the cusp of a technological revolution. Unlike the Industrial Revolution’s massive factories, the bio-revolution centres around micro-factories. Biosolutions represent the fusion of biology and technology, offering powerful tools to address climate change.