Wednesday
16th Jan 2019
If the European parliament votes in favour of the new Morocco agreement without knowing that it complies with the European Court of Justice judgement, how can it demand that other countries respect international law and their own courts?
As China's growth seems to be slowing, some observers see the country amid what the New York Times called a "severe downturn". As they mistake China's secular deceleration with cyclical fluctuations, they miss the rapid increase in Chinese living standards.
Vladimir Putin's nightmare of Petro Poroshenko's re-election will be even certain as Ukrainians rally around the flag. Next March's election is not just to elect a new president but also a commander-in-chief to deal with five more years of Putin.
The EU defence establishment has locked itself into an arms race on autonomous systems, while locking out the voice of civil society from the debate.
Backsliding on rule of law and democracy have led to EU penalties for Moldova - a former success story for EU policy in the former Soviet region.
The Greens have demanded an EU parliament code of conduct probe against a group of MEPs following an EUobserver investigation on Moroccan lobbying.
The leader of the liberal Alde group, Guy Verhofstadt, has denied the public a debate on a controversial trade deal between the EU and Morocco, EUobserver has learned.
Germany has reacted with disdain after America's "unusual" ambassador to Berlin threatened sanctions against its new Russian gas pipeline.
Iran ordered four terrorist attacks in Europe in recent times, the EU has said, while imposing new sanctions.
The EU needs to get its act together as US leader Donald Trump continues to wreck the global order.
The EU has repeatedly called on outgoing president Joseph Kabila to hold elections. It said the expulsion was "completely unjustified".
Russia has tested a "hypersonic" missile capable of a nuclear strike anywhere in Europe, in what Russian president Vladimir Putin called "a great New Year's present for the country".
The murder of two Scandinavian backpackers in the Atlas mountains before Christmas shocked the EU.
EU diplomats in Bosnia have voiced sympathy for protesters against lawlessness in the Serb entity ruled by Russian darling Milorad Dodik, after demonstrations in Banja Luka left one police officer injured.
EU allies have voiced dismay on Trump's sudden idea to pull out of Syria, amid fears of a resurgence in Islamist terrorism, Kurdish massacres, and fresh surges of refugees.
With US forces leaving, there is a realistic scenario that Turkey would seize the opportunity to invade Rojava, killing the aspirations of the Kurds for autonomy in a federal Syria in the future, similar to the situation in Iraq.
The Kosovan deputy PM calls on Nato members to follow the US in supporting the enlargement of the Kosovo Securitiy Force. "Kosovo owes it to both its own people and the international community to take this step", Behgjet Pacolli says.
Chinese hackers have been reading sensitive EU diplomatic cables for the past three years, according to a US cyber-security firm.
The EU commission is giving more time to the Swiss government to endorse a deal that would put various sectorial agreements to access the single market under one deal. Nevertheless, after Brexit, the EU has had enough of exceptions.
Germany and the US have defended Kosovo's "sovereign right" to create an army, despite Serbia's abhorrence of the move.
Professor Richard Betts led an EU-funded research project into global warming. Although he sensed an increase in determination at UN climate talks in Poland, he condemned as an "insult" the refusal of several countries to welcome a new report.
New EU human rights sanctions ought to be named after Russian activist Sergei Magnitsky - but only informally, the Dutch PM has said, in what some see as Russia "appeasement".
Bulgaria is to face renewed EU scrutiny over a Russia gas pipeline, four years after its previous project, South Stream, failed.
MEPs ultimately adopted a controversial report on an EU trade deal with Morocco - despite the sudden resignation by French liberal Patricia Lalonde as the file's rapporteur only moments beforehand. Her departure follows an EUobserver investigation into lobbying by Morocco.
Russian propaganda activity has raised alarm of further escalation in Ukraine, amid other concern on Moscow's role in French rioting.
The European Commission is struggling to respond to questions on how it can include the disputed territory of the Western Sahara into its aviation agreement with Morocco - following a recent order from the General Court of the European Union.
EU officials will shortly start drawing up new human rights sanctions, if ministers give the nod to a Dutch plan at talks in Brussels.
EUobserver has exposed Moroccan lobbying at the European Parliament, prompting a probe to be launched against several MEPs. The Greens have now decided to boycott next week's Morocco trade vote in protest, saying the lobbying investigation must be finished first.
Serbia, backed by a fake news campaign, has threatened to send its army to stop "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovar Serbs, stirring bad memories of the Balkan wars.
A Turkish former Nato official, living in exile in Belgium, tells EUobserver what he and others went through when the Erdogan regime branded them traitors.
Some EU leaders do not understand US president Donald Trump's realpolitik, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has said.
South Sudan's country director for the World Food Programme (WFP) says he could save donors some $100m if they were to front-load funds today to stave off hunger in the war-torn country, which saw a mass rape last month.
The finances and opulent lifestyles of Kremlin linked Oligarchs should be scrutinised fiercely in line with EU money laundering legislation.
