
Giuseppe Conte: scapegoat or Italy's most cunning politician?
According to a poll published on Monday, 56 percent of Italians want, in one way or another, Giuseppe Conte as their prime minister.
Wednesday
27th Jan 2021
According to a poll published on Monday, 56 percent of Italians want, in one way or another, Giuseppe Conte as their prime minister.
Ultimately, the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, only unveiled in September, risks reinforcing bottlenecks and misery at the borders, should be thoroughly amended before final agreement.
MEPs called for a new law guaranteeing workers can 'disconnect' outside work hours, without repercussion. But they also passed a last-minute amendment, calling on the commission to delay any legislation for three years.
European Democracy Consulting study said continued low numbers, or "even just a feeling of lasting under-representation", will lead to frustration and impact EU governance.
The EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell is going to Moscow in February, even though its opposition star Alexei Navalny will most likely be in prison at the time.
The European Commission has proposed additional measures to limit non-essential travel within and to the European Union - amid fears over more transmissible mutations triggering a new surge in cases across the bloc.
Negotiations on the European Commission's asylum and migration pact among EU states continues. But a rift is widening on the eight-month deadline for capitals to sponsor returns of failed asylum seekers.
Street violence in Russia redoubled calls for new sanctions when foreign ministers meet on Monday, after eight EU states earlier proposed asset-freezes and visa-bans.
Russia could expand hostile operations, such as poisonings, including beyond its borders, if it feels an "existential" threat and there is no European pushback.
The EU's hotspot of Moria, a sprawling ghetto-like camp for migrants and refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, burned down last September. EU leaders declared such scenes would never be replicated. But its replacement faces similar problems.
The director of the European Medicine Agency, Emer Cooke will be quizzed by MEPs in the parliament on vaccine authorisation on Tuesday. EMA is expected to give the green light to the third vaccine at the end of the week.
The EU-Israel Association Agreement, and Israel's systematic violation of its article 2, must be stopped until Israel implements its obligations under international law. This should not be a matter of controversy, but the least peace-loving countries must do.
EU leaders agreed to maintain open borders, while discouraging all non-essential travel, amid fears over the spread of dangerous new coronavirus variants.
The EU is coaxing US president Joe Biden to open up to Cuba amid its worst economic crisis in decades, but foreign money risks feeding the regime's "feared" rule.
Last year's German EU presidency refused corporate sponsorships. But the new Portuguese presidency has decided they are needed and has signed three contracts. One of them is with one of Europe's largest paper companies, The Navigator Company.
The Belgian and Bulgarian prosecutors who were appointed had also not been the experts' first choice. Belgian prosecutor Jean-Michel Verelst has challenged the council's decision at the European Court of Justice.
The UK has raised eyebrows in the EU and at home over its reluctance to give full diplomatic privileges to João Vale de Almeida, the EU's ambassador to the UK.
"Banknotes are still to stay," European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said at a recent conference, "but I think we will have a digital euro."
US president Joe Biden has overturned America's exit from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organisation in his first moments in office, as EU leaders "openly rejoiced".
Trump's social-media ban and the power of platforms has come under public scrutiny in Europe. So what went wrong? And what's the best way forward?
Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, will be meeting three EU commissioners to discuss a "prospective update of [the] EU-Turkey Statement" on migrants.
While some member states hope vaccine certificates could revive tourism, EU officials point out that it is not clear if vaccinated people can still carry the virus and infect others.
Why do authoritarian leaders on the fringes of Europe, such as Turkey's Erdoğan, bother trying to romance the EU?
MEPs urged the EU to stop a Russian gas pipeline and invoke 'Magnitsky Act' sanctions on oligarchs over the arrest of Alexei Navalny, but was anyone listening in Paris or Berlin?
The European Commission has announced targets to accelerate the roll-out of vaccination, and the intention of "a common approach" on possible vaccine certificates. Both topics will be discussed by EU leaders on Thursday.
Portugal's prime minister António Costa will on Wednesday discuss with European Parliament president David Sassoli and MEPs and try to resolve the issue of who will chair the conference.
MEPs are drumming up support for an inquiry into the EU's controversial border and coast guard agency, Frontex. So far, the Greens, the left-wing GUE, and Renew Europe are on board - amid expectations the centre-left S&D will also join.
The time has come to address the enduring flaws of the single market and to launch the necessary reforms to create a stronger and more prosperous Union.
Washington's dazzling security-dominated Asian engagement may get all the attention - but the EU has done a pretty good job of hammering out its own Asia policy over the last few years.
The greatest mistake the EU institutions can possibly make at this juncture, is to turn the Conference on the Future of Europe into yet another round in the outdated feud between the federalists and the inter-governmentalists.
EU countries hinted new sanctions might come if Russia further harms opposition hero Alexei Navalny, but France and Germany want business as usual for now.
The European Commission unveiled its plans for the 'New European Bauhaus' initiative - an environmental, economic and cultural project whose aim is to design "future ways of living" in a sustainable manner.
Belarus president authorised political murders in Germany in recent years, according to a sensational recording of his former spy-chief obtained by EUobserver.