The United States and Ukraine are on the brink of concluding a minerals agreement worth hundreds of billions of dollars in a move that could make Ukraine a critical part of the international supply chain for critical materials.  

EU trade officials have been given an end of 2025 deadline to finalise a trade deal with India — as Brussels seeks new partners to mitigate the headwinds caused by Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. 

On 21 February, Polish MPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of a mechanism for the suspension of the right to submit asylum applications. The measure is quite clearly at odds with the Polish constitution, international law, and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). We are witnessing a full-blown rule-of-law crisis at the EU level when it comes to migration and asylum.

Legal scholars have dubbed it a "sleeping beauty" — a potent yet practically unused EU Parliament instrument akin to the EU's own Article 7, designed to safeguard the rule of law and the integrity of its institutions.

Leaders should ask themselves - is X really what I want my brand to be associated with?

Allow us at EUobserver to blow our own trumpet as 2024 draws to a close, with a look back at the best of the journalistic path we follow — less frothy personality-driven politics, more policy, research and investigations.