Spanish centre-left MEP Juan Lopez Aguilar chairs the European Parliament's civil liberties committee and is the lead on the crisis regulation, a bill presented by the EU commission last September as part of its migration and asylum pact.

Will the Global Gateway become yet another dead-end? If the Green New Deal, projects to secure supplies of important minerals, the Open Strategic Economy and now this are put together, then the pieces of the puzzle could fall into place.

In Europe, there is a prominent victim of injustice whose case I take quite personally. It seems that Turkey's leaders do as well and, to prove it, they and have gone to such absurd lengths to keep him behind bars.

Jonas Grimheden is the EU's border agency Frontex fundamental rights officer. Almost seven months into his job he says the agency "could be seen as being implicated or supportive of fundamental rights violations". His recommendations have yet to be implemented.

The emergence of the new and more-contagious Omicron variant has revealed how "perilous and precarious" the Covid situation is and "why the world needs a new accord on pandemics," the chief of the World Health Organisation said.

A Paris-based NGO found pesticide producers cost the EU €2.3bn in subsidies, while only booking €900m in profits - and suggest the money is better spent elsewhere.

As Germany enters a new phase in its political history, the European Union faces a fresh foreign policy challenge on its doorstep that will test its credentials as a cohesive organisation.

Almost every weekend, protesters continue to hold demonstrations and sit-ins across Italy in opposition to the so-called "green pass" — proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative Covid test needed to access workplaces and a whole host of public services.

The European Commission spent €542.4m between 2016 and 2020 for studies written by external private contractors. The findings are part of a larger probe into how large consultancies are increasingly landing lucrative contracts, amid questions on possible conflicts of interest.

Russian mercenaries have taken command of at least one EU-trained battalion to help "predate" the Central African Republic, a leaked report said.

As the fourth wave hits the EU, an increasing number of member states are taking measures to curb the number of infections, and hospitalisations.

EU authorisation of glyphosate is set to be renewed next year. It has now received an initial positive safety review - which researchers say is based on a faulty industry-led study.

The EU proposal is a big step forward for transparency online but it still falls short in two areas: a missed chance at mandating ad libraries and a failure to ban some types of data being used for targeting.

Nordic countries launched several initiatives at the COP26 climate conference which will have a real impact on the ground. Nordic and UK pension funds are to invest billions in clean energy and climate initiatives. Greenland has joined the Paris Agreement.