Saturday
23rd Oct 2021
EU heads of state and government on Friday, at a summit in Brussels, demanded more sanctions against Belarus "as a matter of urgency" and want the European Commission to tweak rules governing borders to tackle "state-sponsored smuggling".
Last October, the European Commission gave an optimistic outlook on the adoption of its migration and asylum pact. EU commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas said its pact on migration was lowering the landing gear - suggesting agreement was possible.
The picturesque town of Trakai in Lithuania tells a story of well-intentioned biodiversity and green infrastructure investment nearly costing its old town one-fifth of its trees.
Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte suggested Poland's Covid-19 recovery money should not be approved until Warsaw respects the rulings of the European Court of Justice and dispels doubts about the independence of its judiciary.
EU leaders called for an "ambitious global response to climate change" to keep the 1.5 degrees global warming limit within reach - after scientists concluded that the projected global increase in fossil-fuel production for 2030 is inconsistent with this target.
China's growing economic footprint in Ukraine may already be producing geopolitical consequences that put the country at odds with core European priorities. Volodymyr Zelensky decided earlier this year to withdraw Ukraine's condemnation of Chinese government crimes against the Uighurs.
The first topic leaders discussed at the EU summit were the continent's soaring gas prices, which have lead to a spike in household energy bills - amid widespread disagreement on how to solve the issue.
Dutch lawyers are seeking damages on the behalf of a Syrian family they say were unlawfully returned to Turkey from Greece on a Frontex-operated return mission.
The summit discussion comes after the EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said this week the bloc's executive will take action against Warsaw, for challenging the supremacy of EU law.
MEPs have backed the EU's Farm to Fork strategy for sustainable food systems, despite considerable efforts by agri-food lobbyists to delay and weaken the proposal.
Romania was criticised during a crisis in the Suez canal earlier this year when the country was the source of 130,000 of the 200,000 live animals stranded without food and water during the shipping bottleneck.
The EU has called for an end to energy price speculation, but it is still unclear how far the commission is willing to go to stem market forces.
Fair Trials, EDRi and other civil society organisations are calling on MEPs to hold true to protect our fundamental rights. We urge MEPs to vote against the revision of Europol's mandate, which distinctly lacks meaningful accountability and safeguards.
The EU Commission has restarted its effort to rewrite European fiscal rules, but some countries, such as Italy, are off the charts on debt in terms of an existing pact.
Czech president Miloš Zeman is being stripped of his powers due to bad health, creating post-election limbo in Prague.
The surge of Covid-19 infections in eastern EU member countries, particularly the Baltic states, is putting health systems under increasing pressure, prompting governments to reimpose restrictive measures.
Ursula von der Leyen said the commission might use either an infringement procedure, an EU probe into the ruling, the new tool of conditionality which could lead to the suspension of EU funds, or the Article 7 sanctions procedure.
Poland doubled the number of troops to 6,000 on its Belarus border, amid an ongoing standoff with stranded migrants - at least seven of whom have died as temperatures start to plummet.
Why the European Parliament's vote against the discharge of Frontex is the only plausible position for anyone who values human life.
With Poland throwing the legal order of Europe in disarray, Russia rationing Europe's gas supply and the UK reneging on its Brexit commitments, perhaps the moment has come again to read a few essays by French philosopher Michel de Montaigne.
What we call for is another approach to the financing of the European Grean Deal. While a lot of attention is being paid to decarbonisation, the other two aspects - de-financialisation and democratisation - are largely ignored.
Russia has suspended its embassy to Nato citing a spy row, but some EU diplomats see it as part of a wider attack on multilateralism.
Péter Márki-Zay, 49, won the run-off of the first ever primary elections in Hungary, organised by six opposition parties in order to have one united opposition figure run against Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz candidates.
The EU has exported more than one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines this year, and announced it will donate 500 million extra doses to poorer countries in the coming months.
The ultra-conservative candidate Jeanine Áñez from Bolivia was selected by the Spanish far-right Vox for the EU Sakharov prize on behalf of the conservative ECR. Socialist MEPs were instructed to support her, over a Western Sahara activist.
Despite being the first black head of state in modern western Europe, the life of Florentine duke Alessandro de' Medici is relatively unknown.
In a Kafka-esque irony, Frontex is withholding public access to documents pertaining to the response of a public institution to a protest by members of the public on grounds that this would violate the "public interest".
Indecision on what kind of EU military forces would fight in what kind of conflicts is holding back EU ambition on "strategic autonomy", according to an internal document.
There is a stretch of brand new, EU-funded railway line from the town of Bitola in North Macedonia to the Greek border, but no train has ever used it.
MEPs have voiced serious concern on rule of law in Slovenia, amid snubs and hate-speech by its top officials.
Vaccine roll-outs, energy prices, migration and an upcoming climate summit will top the agenda at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, while MEPs in Strasbourg tackle rule of law.
MEPs in the legal-affairs committee have urged the EU Parliament president to sue the EU Commission for failing to use its new rule-of-law powers.
MEPs at committee level are seeking greater protection against lawsuits aimed at silencing and intimidating journalists and civil society in Europe.
