Thursday
9th Feb 2023
A joint letter from Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia seeks to create more Turkey-like migrant swap deals. But a pending Greek case at the European Court of Justice may complicate those plans.
The scars of Brexit have left their mark in communities across Wales. The Menai mussel industry has experienced a sharp decline having once been a staple in fish counters and restaurants across Europe; its business model wrecked by post-Brexit rules.
All member states complain about European compromises, each for their own reasons. Nevertheless, these decisions tend to be robust precisely because there is enough in them for everybody. And nobody wants to start negotiating all over again for another deal.
The EU's lobby register remains riddled with errors, with pro-transparency campaigners demanding better data and mandatory rules. The latest findings come amid a raft of proposals by the European Parliament president to weed out corruption in the wake of Qatargate.
As the Europe elections of 2024 are already looming, the centre-right must use the opportunity to rethink its model or risk marginalisation. Because its electoral base is steadily crumbling.
The EU commission gave the Libyan Coast Guard the first of five new EU-funded patrol boats to help prevent migrants and asylum seekers from fleeing to Europe. The handover comes days ahead of an EU summit on migration.
EU Council should expect a flood of new requests for internal documents in the wake of a pro-transparency court win by EU Parliament official turned activist Emilio De Capitani.
When his campaign began two years ago, his rallies in Czech towns could attract as little as 10 to 15 people. While a decorated general and military diplomat, he was a fairly obscure figure.
The EU has appointed a new anti-Islamophobia coordinator after an 18-month long gap which attracted criticism by Muslim rights groups.
Countries that were once democratising are now moving in the other direction — think of Turkey, Myanmar, Hungary or Tunisia. On the other hand, in autocracies mass mobilisation rarely succeeds in changing political institutions. Think of Belarus, Iran or Algeria.
Last June, a Latvian socialist MEP went to Azerbaijan and sang its praises — but the EU Parliament committee he claimed to represent had no idea he was there.
Nick Aiossa, deputy director of Transparency International EU said there is a "culture of impunity" in the parliament among MEPs, which contributed to the Qatargate scandal that has rocked the insitution at the end of last year.
The director of Amnesty International Greece on the political spying scandal that now threatens to bring down prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Activists and NGO staff work with the constant fear that they are being spied on.
A no-confidence vote on the Greek government is set for Friday, following revelations of state-led surveillance on senior military officials and a minister.
The European Parliament does not rule out mandatory anti-harassment training for MEPs — but has left questions of greater support for victims of bullying and abuse open-ended.
"We must do everything we can to be ready with this new system for the next European elections," MEP Sandro Gozi said after the committee vote.
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold", W.B. Yeats wrote. Yet now, a century later in Europe — from Italy, to Hungary, to Belgium and the Netherlands, even in the European Parliament — the centre is shrinking.
MEPs should pay for their own foreign trips to avoid suspicion of undue influence, a German deputy has said after rebelling over a recent visit to Azerbaijan.
"If we want to safeguard our national security in the light of Putin's invasion of Ukraine with all its wider implications, we all have to contribute", said the Danish minister of labour.
The Socialists & Democrats want to regain the vice-presidency seat previously held by Eva Kaili, a Greek socialist MEP charged over allegations of corruption linked to Qatar. The Greens have other ideas and have put forward their own candidate.
Last week, London and Brussels secured a "breakthrough" with an agreement that will allow the EU to share real-time UK data on trade flows across the Irish Sea from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
An MEP voluntary pension fund held millions of euros in shares in petrochemical companies at a time when a UN climate change treaty, backed by the European Parliament, was demanding a sharp reduction in CO2 emissions.
"The idea behind it is for traineeships to be a transition to the labour market, not for young people to be doing traineeships until they are 30 years old", one leading MEP warned.
New year, new Swedish leadership in the European Council. And in 2023 political pariahs, once associated with violent racists and swastika-wearing Nazi sympathisers, are dangerously close to the helm.
Even those EU citizens who have not encountered a lot of difficulties are worried about the cost of living (91 percent), with 96 percent of those who deal with difficulties most of the time worried too.
As Europe ushers in 2023, attention will soon turn to the most pivotal known unknowns of the year ahead. Spain, which will hold national parliamentary elections in December, is worth watching closely.
Sweden is demanding Hungary ratify its Nato accession, following fears Budapest may leverage rule of law and frozen EU funds in exchange.
Emmanuel Macron's government has proposed to raise France's pension age from 62 to 64 and abolish sweetheart pension deals that allow public-sector workers to retire in their fifties. It's about time. France is late to raise its retirement age.
A European 'Foreign Agents Registration Act' would systematically expose the countless lobbyists and influence-peddlers on foreign powers' payrolls, giving Europeans an idea of which countries are lobbying most aggressively and toward what goals.
The European Parliament's voluntary pension scheme held 14,900 shares in Raytheon in 2008 with a market value of $547,000, despite being blacklisted by Norway's sovereign wealth in 2005 for producing and selling cluster munitions.
The Czech Republic goes to the polls on 13 January in the first round of presidential elections, with a second round run-off two weeks later. Results will say a lot about Czechs' vision for their future — and troubled past.
The Schuman Show, a political satire and live comedy show about the EU, has been making waves in Brussels in the last year with sold-out shows.
EUobserver receives tens of thousands of words of unsolicited opinion pieces every day — for one daily slot. So, how do you differentiate your piece from the crowd of others, and actually get published?
