Wednesday
28th Jul 2021
The European Union has vaccinated 70 percent of its adult population with one shot. "The EU has kept its word and delivered," said EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. However, only 57 percent of adult Europeans are fully-vaccinated.
Santo Stefano is being revived through a €70m refurbishment project to turn it into a high-level European think-tank, academy and open-air museum aimed at boosting the European integration project by training 'enlightened' EU youth, scholars and politicians.
The polls are not in Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg's favour - but she thinks she has a 50-50 chance of winning a third term. Like Merkel, both are female leaders of conservative parties, and know how to win elections.
Researchers at the Dutch-based Transnational Institute linked the shipment of European arms to conflicts around the world with the forced displacement of at least one million people.
The US decided not to lift travel restrictions for visiting EU nationals, given the spike in Covid-19 infections.
After Brexit, the UK ceased to be a member of the Lugano Convention, an international treaty which governs cross-border civil and commercial legal disputes. In May, the European Commission published an opinion calling for the UK's re-application to be rejected.
Hundreds of documented cases of pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers tell the story of a European Union whose member states seem to resort to increasingly degrading and inhuman practices in the management of its external borders.
The surge of Covid-19 cases due to the spread of the more contagious Delta variant has prompted a debate in Germany over whether people who have not yet been vaccinated should face restrictions - after other countries made similar moves.
This month the OECD Inclusive Framework agreed on the main building blocks of new tax legislation for a global minimum tax and for the digital economy. However, Hungary did not join - this is why.
MEPs have shown consistent support for action against authoritarian regimes other than Russia or China, but unanimity requirements in the votes of the European Council are considered a clear impediment for a more effective EU foreign policy.
Technology is not the main barrier to the deployment of wind energy needed for the Green Deal. Presently, there are no market mechanisms for offshore grid development projects to be bankable.
The open letter is from the embassies of Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, US.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has announced a referendum on his country's controversial new anti-LGBTIQ law - in response to criticism from the European Union which called the new legislation discriminatory.
The EU deploys thousands of advisers to its missions abroad. Without addressing reform as a profoundly political struggle, however, the EU will remain successful only in operational advisory and trainings.
The survey was carried out in seven member states that have not yet adopted the single currency: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Denmark has decided not to join, having negotiated an opt-out.
Slovenian foot-dragging on the appointment of prosecutors to a new EU anti-graft office may trigger a decision by the European Commission to take it to court. Slovenia's prime minister Janez Janša said they would be appointed by autumn.
The concern of Germany's Constitutional Court was that the European Court of Justice did not sufficiently check the action of other EU branches of power. The Polish situation is the exact reverse: the government is taking control of the courts.
The rule-of-law report comes in a crucial moment as Brussels is currently approving member states' recovery plans, conditional on having a robust justice system and anti-corruption framework.
Europe continues to be one of the most-affected regions in the world by the surge of Covid-19 cases - driven by the spread of the more contagious Delta variant and relaxation of measures.
An international investigation over the weekend by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said 180 journalists had been targeted by Israeli spyware. Among them were Hungarian reporters.
Almost 500 undocumented migrants in Brussels have been demanding a legal pathway for residency in Belgium. Most have been on hunger strike since 23 May, with some now refusing water. MEPs are demanding the Belgian government offer them a solution.
EU legislation to clean up supply chains and corporate governance has been delayed after fierce industry lobbying. Voluntary commitments have repeatedly failed, now it is time for decisive regulatory action.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will continue to travel to member states to "personally hand over the assessment" of the EU executive on national Covid-19 recovery plans.
The EU forest strategy aims to plant at least three billion additional trees in the EU over the next decade to increase natural greenhouse gas removals - while boosting bioenergy "within sustainable boundaries".
The EU is firming up plans for a military mission to Libya in order to compete with foreign powers there, according to a leaked paper seen by EUobserver.
Two German firms were fine to ban Muslim women from wearing headscarves, the EU court has said, in a ruling which alarmed rights groups.
The European Commission wants to impose an import levy on certain goods produced in third countries with lower environmental standards, from 2026. From 2023 to 2025, importers will only have to report emissions embedded in their goods.
A group of MEPs delivered their final report into the EU's border agency Frontex. After a four-month probe, they found it had failed to take its responsibility to protect fundamental rights at Europe's external borders.
Why should any Israeli politician view this lack of commitment to the EU's human rights principles as anything other than a licence to continue sending bulldozers to remove Palestinians from land the EU deems part of a future viable Palestine?
Poland has taken a first step over the rubicon in its war on EU law by saying the EU's top court has no authority to impose an injunction on its legal reforms.
The European Commission's proposal would effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars and lorries in the EU from 2035, as part of its massive 'Fit-for-55' package.
The EU wants to become the first continent to reach net-zero. But revenues from the Social Climate Fund will be low, and not commensurate with the task of renovating 35 million homes or getting millions of cars off the road.
A group of Syrians fleeing their country say that Greece has become too dangerous and expensive as an option to enter the EU, in order to claim asylum. They have instead opted for Libya and the highly-risky Mediterranean sea-crossing.
