Friday

29th Mar 2024

Agenda

Tricky EU visit for Erdogan this WEEK

  • The Turkish leader's trip to Brussels was meant to celebrate the recent restart of accession talks (Photo: svenwerk)

Turkey, Ukraine, Serbia, and global warming will dominate this week’s agenda in Brussels.

The increasingly authoritarian Turkish PM, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will on Tuesday (21 January) visit the EU capital for the first time in five years.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

His trip was meant to celebrate the recent restart of accession talks. But instead, EU chiefs are likely to criticise his purge on Turkish policemen who tried to investigate corruption in his inner circle.

EU officials expect a brief, but lively, press conference. “Erdogan will have prepared his rebuttals well in advance,” one contact said.

The equally authoritarian Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovych, will on Monday be discussed by EU foreign ministers.

Germany has said Europe should freeze co-operation with Ukraine unless he rolls back new laws which criminalise pro-EU protests.

In other business, ministers are to suspend sanctions on some Iranian oil sales and on shipping insurance in return for a freeze on uranium enrichment.

They are also set to give the green light for an EU military operation in the Central African Republic.

The following day, Serb PM Ivica Dacic and EU ministers will hold the first ever round of accession talks with Serbia.

“It will be mostly ceremonial,” the Greek EU presidency says, but it crowns years’ worth of EU and US diplomacy in the Western Balkans.

Meanwhile, the European Commission will on Wednesday unveil new targets for cutting CO2 emissions by 2030.

Original proposals spoke of a 40 percent cut on 1990 levels. But leaked papers indicate it will go for 35 percent, while dropping renewable energy targets from 27.7 percent to 24.7 percent.

The change is reportedly due to industry lobbying. A commission spokeswoman on Friday underlined the need for EU industry to remain “competitive.”

The commission will the same day publish new ”fracking” guidelines.

The technique, used to extract shale gas, could generate wealth and improve energy security in France, Germany, Poland and the UK. But toxic chemicals pose a risk for groundwater reserves.

For their part, MEPs will interview the Greek foreign minister (Monday), justice minister (Tuesday) and finance minister (Wednesday) in light of Greece’s current EU chairmanship.

They will on Monday start three-day talks with 140 national MPs on how to improve democratic oversight of EU economic governance.

They will on Tuesday also vote on an EU law about returning stolen art treasures to their home countries.

Outside Brussels, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton will on Wednesday go to the so-called Geneva II peace talks on Syria in Montreux, Switzerland.

But there is little hope of a breakthough amid violent division in the rebel camp.

EU justice ministers will on Thursday and Friday also flock to an informal meeting in Athens.

They will discuss how to improve legal aid for vulnerable people and recent commission ideas on how to curb radicalisation of Muslims and far-left or far-right activists.

Senior EU officials will on Wednesday also go to the annual meeting of politicians, intellectuals and billionaires in Davos, Switzerland.

Top guests this year include British PM David Cameron, the Queen of Jordan, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, as well as arch enemies Hassan Rohani of Iran and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

Environment, Ukraine imports, fish and Easter this WEEK

This week, expect no more than talks on environment, agriculture and fisheries, including discussions between the Polish and Ukrainian governments over angry protests by Polish farmers objecting to cheap grain imports from Ukraine.

EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK

This week, EU leaders come together in Brussels for their usual two-day summit to discuss defence, enlargement, migration and foreign affairs. EU ministers for foreign affairs and EU affairs will meet earlier in the week to prepare the European Council.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us