Friday
8th Dec 2023
What is obvious is that PiS put in place a set of interlocking safeguards for itself which, even after their political defeat in Poland, will render it very difficult for the new government to restore the rule of law.
Six months ahead of the EU elections, knocking an 'elitist' climate agenda is looking like a vote-winner to some. Saving the Green Deal and the EU's climate ambitions starts with listening to Europeans who are struggling to make ends meet.
In chess, if you touch a piece with the intent to move it, you are obliged to move that piece. That also applies to the West's defence of Ukraine.
The optics of a nine-fold increase of annual funding for Israel, in the middle of its devastating military campaign in Gaza, stands in contrast with the attempted suspension, delaying and constraining of EU development aid for the Palestinians.
Since last week, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta corporation is forcing its European users to either accept their intrusive privacy practices — or pay €156 per year to access Facebook and Instagram without tracking advertising.
The Food Information to Consumers package would have finally regulated the health or nutrition claims companies make on their products, claims like "heart-healthy" "30-percent less fat" or "no added sugar". Legislation on these claims is now 15 years overdue.
A European citizens' initiative — signed by 1.4 million people — saw the EU Commission promise to ban cages for 300 million farmed animals. Then the farming lobby got involved.
Discussion of the biggest existential threat humanity has ever faced is barely mentioned on billboards or signage in Dubai — yet visitors are made aware quite quickly that t world rugby sevens tournament is imminent.
After working with people in unusual employment situations for a decade, I thought I had seen it all as a union organiser. Then I began dealing with Uber.
After months of intense and often volatile debate, the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) is near completion. What are the key battlegrounds?
It is high time for Slovak PM Robert Fico to realise that any display of compliance or even understanding towards Moscow constitutes a threat to what Fico calls the "national-state interest of Slovakia", writes the former prime minister of Slovakia.
There is still work to be done — especially when it comes to guaranteeing the Global North's participation in financing Loss and Damage, and ensuring the Global South has representation and oversight on the World Bank's board.
As the new EU climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, heads to COP28, three senior MEPs question his ties to the fossil-fuel industry — and call for him to disclose all his ties while working for 11 years for McKinsey.
On Wednesday, EU special representative for human rights, will arrive in a country in turmoil. Eamon Gilmore's visit risks legitimising the Cuban regime if he does not take a firm public stance on the human rights situation.
Bordering Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt, Sudan is in the immediate vicinity of the European neighbourhood and the ongoing war in Africa's third-largest country, could have worse repercussions than the Libyan collapse for the EU.
This week the pesticide reduction law will be voted on in Strasbourg. It has become severely hollowed-out by the centre-right European People's Party, writes Brussels-lobbying watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory.
In spite of backtracking by the European Commission, few realise that the EU's funding to Palestine for the year 2024 is effectively on hold, just as the commission advances €18m for Israel, writes Irish MEP Barry Andrews of Renew Europe.
EU legislators are just weeks away from enabling racial profiling and unlawful de facto detention across Europe's external-border member states.
While the EU makes efforts to reduce emissions at home, progress is dwarfed by the EU's financial sector's climate-harming, profit-seeking investments outside of its own borders, write the directors of Climate Action Network, Friends of the Earth, and Action Aid.
The lack of EU common ground on ending Gaza's intolerable tragedy makes it essential that member states which want a ceasefire break free of the EU institutional straitjacket and take urgent action on a national level.
The European Investment Bank is one of 22 of the world's 50 most important multilateral organisations which have never been led by a woman, writes ex-PM of New Zealand Helen Clark.
What remains baffling, to Ukrainians fighting for their country and environmental NGOs fighting to save the planet, is that terminals in Belgium and France continue to serve as transshipment points for Russian LNG cargoes destined for India and China.
The Socialists & Democrats are gathering in Málaga to prepare their manifesto for the 2024 European elections. With house prices doubling in countries like Latvia, Luxembourg, Czechia, and Austria, the S&D is calling for affordable housing for young Europeans.
Over the last month, moves by several European governments to curb expression and protest in response to the unprecedented violence in Israel and Gaza/West Bank appear designed stifle dissent, deny collective grief, and create a 'chilling effect', writes Amnesty International.
I am uncomfortable with historical analogies to describe periodic spikes in antisemitism — but images of mobs storming an airport in Dagestan in search of Jews, crowds yelling "Gas the Jews!" in Sydney come 85 years after the Nazi 'Kristallnacht'.
The Other Ukraine party presents itself as the peace party, but its actual role is not to represent any sort of 'Ukrainian government-in-exile', but to function as a front for Russian disinformation offensives targeting Western countries providing support for Ukraine.
As negotiations on the hotly-contested EU Nature Restoration Law enter the endgame, one key amendment on making restoration rules work with fisheries policies will determine whether the law can bring biodiversity back to European seas.
The EU is faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, geopolitical considerations are prompting it to hasten Ukraine's integration. On the other hand, many in the EU and Ukraine believe in merit-based progression — conditional on Kyiv's reforms.
Some 140 EU ambassadors meet their boss in Brussels this week. Unfair though it may seem, Europe's global credibility depends on how strongly it pressures Israel on agreeing to a humanitarian ceasefire, protecting civilians and allowing more aid into Gaza.
If the current trends remain unchanged, the campaign in Gaza will be on track to becoming one of the deadliest urban conflicts in recent history.
At present, the ECJ considers documents about ongoing proceedings to be confidential and only makes them available once the proceedings have concluded. Arguments submitted by parties are never published, blinding the public to the full picture.
The war abruptly halted the 2021/22 season, but that didn't stop president Volodomyr Zelenskyy's vision from 2020 of revitalising football in overlooked Ukrainian cities.
The same Europe that condemns Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine condemns Hamas when it does the same — but not Israel. This is a gift to Moscow and a disgrace to Europe.
