The EU — which is relying heavily on certification in its recent laws on mining and minerals — should be wary of the new standard, which has serious flaws. 

Russia's historic Tass news agency is to go offline in the EU and people who run Russia’s oil-tanker ‘shadow fleet’ will be blacklisted in future under new sanctions.

What will we see the Trump 2.0 administration do on Europe's 'geographical indicator' foods, like Feta and Chablis? The sector is convenient for retaliatory trade measures given its high political visibility, the fact that GIs tend to be price-premium products and not needed commodities, and are not normally part of complex international supply chains.

Legal scholars have dubbed it a "sleeping beauty" — a potent yet practically unused EU Parliament instrument akin to the EU's own Article 7, designed to safeguard the rule of law and the integrity of its institutions.

Leaders should ask themselves - is X really what I want my brand to be associated with?

Allow us at EUobserver to blow our own trumpet as 2024 draws to a close, with a look back at the best of the journalistic path we follow — less frothy personality-driven politics, more policy, research and investigations.