Tuesday
14th Jul 2020
The chief administrators of the Council, representing member states, have issued draft guidelines on corporate sponsorships of EU presidencies. The guidelines do not ban sponsorships - despite the risks they pose to the EU's reputation as a whole.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Friday and Saturday to discuss in person the EU's long-term budget and recovery plan to respond to the crisis. Meanwhile, the future of the EU-US Privacy Shield might depend on this week's ruling.
We call for applying positive discrimination to the 'Blue Book'. This would imply quotas to ensure the recruitment of people of colour including those from non-privileged backgrounds.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that the European Union is preparing a "coordinated" package of EU-wide and national measures in response to China's new security law on Hong Kong.
When airlines ignore refund claims, reject them or are only willing to offer vouchers or rebooking, they act against EU regulations. "In each of these cases airlines use their customers as lenders," warns one legal expert.
Little wonder the leaders of Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden are unwilling to sign off: they're not going to give money so the Italians can fund a tax cut in the middle of an economic crisis.
Following the first round of negotiations for the Energy Charter Treaty reform, green groups renew their call to the EU and member states to jointly withdraw from the agreement - claiming it is cannot be aligned with the Green Deal.
As the EU struggles to stop breaches of rule-of-law, and democratic backsliding, in some member states, the European Parliament plans to propose one single overarching tool to effectively monitor rogue capitals.
The presidential vote split the country into two, with incumbent president Andrzej Duda emerging victorious after a campaign laced with homophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
My group in the European Parliament, Renew Europe, has just adopted a position paper that highlights our views on SMEs.
The south-eastern EU member state has seen a week of record new coronavirus cases, plus a row in a kebab shop over masks with two MPs.
Ahead of expected tense discussions next weekend among EU leaders, European Council president Charles Michel tries to find common ground: the recovery package's size, and grants, would stay - but controls would be tougher.
Michael Spindelegger, the former minister of foreign affairs of Austria and current director of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), reveals some of the proposals in the European Commission's upcoming pact on migration and asylum.
EU auditors concluded on Thursday that EU key policies adopted to protect and halt the decline of pollinators across the bloc have been largely inefficient and called on the European Commission to better address this issue.
MEPs adopted on Thursday the Mobility Package covering truck drivers' working conditions - rejecting amendments pushed by central and eastern member states. However, the European Commission warned that two new rules might be not align with the Green Deal.
If human rights lawyers are the linchpin for structural change in China – changes that create a positive and reinforcing effect on Europe's interests and values – what should Europe's leadership do?
Dealing with the recovery from the pandemic, the Conference on the Future of Europe seems to have disappeared from the political-media debate.
Over 120 asylum seeking children and teenagers in Greece have so far been relocated to a handful of EU states in a scheme the European Commission says is a demonstration of solidarity. EU states have pledged to take in 2,000.
Civil society organisations criticised that the commission is relying on early-stage technologies that require the continued use of fossil fuels, undermining the EU's 2050 climate-neutrality target set in the Green Deal.
The German chancellor told MEPs that for her restricting fundamental rights to stop the spread of coronavirus was a "very difficult decision". She said the EU must act quick to mitigate the economic fallout.
This will be the most selfish act in recent economic history. It will burden future generations and by no means make the weakest member states better off.
The European Commission says it may create a new system to monitor push backs by EU states. The announcement follows weeks of dithering by the commission, which has refrained from condemning abuse by Greek and Croat authorities, despite mounting evidence.
The economies of France, Italy and Spain will contract more then 10-percent this year, according to the latest forecast by the EU executive, as it urges member state governments to strike a deal on the budget and recovery package.
As with the German government – which presented its own hydrogen strategy last month – the European Commission and other EU institutions appear to be similarly intoxicated by the false promises of the gas industry.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen recorded a video in support of Croatia's ruling party, which the EU executive said was in her "personal capacity" - and admits it was a "mistake" that this was not made clear.
The European Parliament is refusing to disclose documents on an internal debate on whether to set up e-cigarette smoking booths at its premises in Strasbourg and Brussels, posing questions on how it handles transparency on relatively minor issues.
Never a free or media-friendly country, Belarus is intensifying crackdowns on reporters in the run-up to its presidential election in August. Belsat TV journalist Dzmitry Mitskevich experienced it first-hand.
It would lend credence to the idea that Washington is using the withdrawal as a threat to coerce Angela Merkel to cease ties with Russia and China, the US' main rivals.
Why should we learn to love bent cucumbers? And can the Nordic region really help improve the conditions for parental leave in the United States?
Croatia's ruling, centre-right party cruised to victory in Sunday's election despite concerns over coronavirus and the economy.
European Council president Charles Michel is expected to present his compromise proposal on the EU's long-term budget and the recovery fund to national capitals in the second half of the week.
Two cardinals and 110 bishops speak out to demand mandatory corporate due diligence at national, EU and UN-level. "In the time of pandemic, this has become more urgent than ever."
Many people hoped that after corona we would wake up in a friendlier world. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be the case. A cocktail of several fears is fuelling the already existing trend of polarisation, worldwide.
