Friday
3rd Jul 2020
MEPs in January 2019 agreed to a rule change in a bid for greater transparency. The rules included requiring committee chairs to publish their meetings with registered lobbyists. EUobserver spoke to six chairs, who haven't done so yet.
The internationally-acclaimed author of King Leopold's Ghost, Adam Hochschild, writes on Belgium's problems with statues, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Some 150 randomly-picked men and women make up Emmanuel Macron's Citizens' Climate Convention. This week Macron invited them to the Élysée Palace and promised - nearly - all of their wishes would come true .
German chancellor Merkel said Europe is in the most difficult situation in its history and its answer to the corona-crisis has to be a powerful one.
Members of the committee on civil liberties widely supported a moratorium on facial recognition for law enforcement purposes, just after the EU data watchdog backed earlier this week the ban on this technology in public spaces.
Angela Merkel is only the seventh woman to chair the Council of the European Union's meetings. And in 2020 there is no woman leading any of the current 11 European civilian missions (let alone the six military operations).
West Bank annexation "was conceived almost entirely by men" and will crush the "dignity and rights" of Palestinian women still further, a group of 40 women leaders have said.
The European Commission says it is in talks with the US biopharmaceutical company Gilead to secure supplies of remdesivir but won't provide any details. The comments follow the purchase of the world's supply by the United States.
Germany took over the EU's rotating presidency with chancellor Angela Merkel pushing for an agreement on the coronavirus rescue package and EU budget.
The EU's regions urged the unlocking of the potential of hydrogen produced from renewable sources, so-called 'green hydrogen', to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
The EU parliament president called death threats targeting MEPs probing possible misuse of EU funds by the Czech PM "unacceptable provocations".
A new report adds weight to previous testimonies of a concerted campaign of forced sterilisation of the Uighur Muslim minority in China. Beijing denies it.
France's oldest nuclear power plant finally closed on Tuesday, one day after president Emmanuel Macron pledged to speed up the country's transition to a greener economy responding to the proposals from the French citizens' convention on climate.
The so-called "all-Russia" vote finishing today, with more than 200 amendments to the Russian constitution, has been marked by systematic electoral fraud, mass mobilisation of the administrative resources, populistic promises or exploiting the historical memory.
"Nothing will stop" Nord Stream 2, Russia has said, after new US sanctions on a pipeline that is seeing the EU side with Moscow against its transatlantic ally.
Disagreements are running deep between EU leaders over the overall size of the budget and recovery package, the criteria and mode of distribution and the conditions, with rule of law "another battle ground opening up".
Slovenia is a nature-lovers' paradise, with snow-peaked mountains, pristine lakes, and a small Adriatic coastline, but coronavirus restrictions have hit hard at tourism, as EUobserver takes a closer look.
A Brussels prosecutor's office has opened an investigation against MEP Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, after she filed a "racist aggression" complaint against Belgian police and spoke out in the EU parliament.
Action on climate change was long-slated as the priority for Germany's six-month presidency of the European Union which starts tomorrow. But as Europe struggles to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, is Germany really going to maintain momentum on climate?
Poland heading for at least three more years of full control by the increasingly un-European Law and Justice party after Sunday's election.
Majority of member states are off-track to deliver on air pollution reduction commitments for 2020 and 2030, EU estimates, as emissions from new cars and vans increased again.
Germany will take over the EU's rotating presidency for the next difficult six months, making two of the three EU institutions led by German politicians and officials. Poland will digest the results of the first round of its presidential election.
Disappointing and frustrating: these two words describe best the way Brussels has been dealing with the conflict in Syria so far.
A majority of the Eastern Partnership countries are plagued by the security deficit and overall political stability in the region is not a given. Wars are a reality, borders are contested and poverty and underdevelopment are facts on the ground.
If EU citizens want to know the truth, then journalists need protection from malicious litigation, as EUobserver joined the list of targets, over an article about the late Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
EU commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson admitted on Thursday that the latest European asylum report reveals a need to better manage migration. In all, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta and Spain received more asylum applicants last year than in 2015.
The amendment to the education law, approved by the Romanian parliament, is pushing the country closer to the authoritarian policies found in neighbouring Hungary and Poland, critics say.
Remarkably, this means that the US now has stricter regulation for facial recognition software than the European Union.
EU countries have said Europe can be transformed without changing its treaties, paving the way for further talks with MEPs and the European Commission.
An EU war-crimes tribunal has publicly stigmatised Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi on alleged "murders" and "torture", wrecking US plans for a Western Balkans summit.
The commission's two-year review also indicates that the authorities based in Ireland and Luxembourg - European headquarters to Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon - need a substantial boost in resources.
The coronavirus crisis has not created an unambiguous political momentum for the mainstream or populist parties, while many think the EU has been irrelvant, a new study revealed.
Inspired by France's Legion of Honour, the EU Parliament's internal bodies are considering a proposal to create an annual award for services to the EU, including a 'Grand Cross', and 'Kinights'. But not all are convinced it is needed.
