Tuesday
13th Apr 2021
Concern over the low efficiency of Chinese-made vaccines has been mounting since China's top official said existing vaccines offer low protection against Covid-19 - raising questions for those nations relying heavily on the Chinese jabs. That includes Hungary and Serbia.
Since 2018, when the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries started negotiations on the deal that would replace the Cotonou Partnership Agreement, calls for "de-colonising aid" and a strong role for local actors in development have grown.
The European Commission says its president should be treated on an equal footing with the president of the European Council. The issue came to a head over a meeting in Ankara which saw von der Leyen separated from male counterparts.
Four people recently died after taking Russia's Sputnik V anti-corona jab in previously unreported cases, which are being taken "seriously" by the EU regulator, the European Medicines Agency.
This week's snap election in Greenland resulted in a clear majority for the mining-sceptic IA party, in a historic change.
This week negotiations on a renewed nuclear deal with Tehran started in Vienna. Iran is desperate to have a deal quickly. Elections are coming up in June, and the economy is in terrible shape.
Montenegro had requested the EU help pay off a loan from China, reported the Financial Times. But the European Commission says that is not going to happen.
Russia has reassured the EU that its anti-coronavirus vaccines have not caused a single death, following EUobserver's report on potential side-effects.
Russia has suddenly started preparing for full-scale war in Ukraine, but what does it really want?
Rights defenders say Montenegro's treatment of an investigative journalist amounts to a "politically-motivated judicial persecution".
European leaders always fail to mention the Turkish military intervention that led to the end of Khalifa Haftar's infamous military operation initiated in April 2019, and the end of the warlord's ambition to become Libya's 'new Gadaffi'.
Syrian people's suffering is worse than ever, but international aid is shrinking, amid no end in sight to its 10-year war.
The World Health Organization and 25 countries have backed a call for an international treaty on pandemics - first announced by the European Council president Charles Michel. "The next pandemic is not a question of 'if', but 'when'," he said.
A Chinese executive at a global consultancy firm was at the centre of suspected Maltese corruption schemes linked to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, according to an investigation.
The worst maritime animal welfare tragedy in history could, by now, be unavoidable, says Gabrile Păun, the EU director for Animals International, an NGO.
In the eyes of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, there are grounds to believe that war crimes were committed by the Israel Defense Forces in occupied Palestine.
The EU has threatened further sanctions against the Myanmar junta after slayings of women and children, but Russia pledged allegiance to one of its top arms buyers.
EU leaders have offered more refugee aid and customs perks to Turkey at a video-summit also attended by US president Joe Biden.
The European Parliament has called for accession talks to start with Albania and North Macedonia, putting pressure on member states to go ahead.
The EU's good intention behind endorsing the IHRA definition has been to introduce one clear and uniform standard for data about antisemitic incidents. In practice, however, the IHRA definition has turned into a source of confusion and contention.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with Russia and the investment agreement with China are bad for Europe and for transatlantic ties, the US has indicated.
MEPs in the European Parliament are set to vote on a report on North Macedonia. Some MEPs are demanding Bulgaria stop issuing "provocative statements" against the Balkan state.
The sanctions announced against Chinese officials are another example of European peddler politics: offering a little tasting of this and a little of that - without impact.
The EU is keen to display its capacity as a global actor: it has leverage in Yemen to be a force for peace-driven change, and to support Yemenis who are already pursuing peace, despite the horrific risks of doing so.
China and Russia have called for a UN meeting to seek international support against EU and US human-rights sanctions.
Western powers have shamed China on Uighur abuses in a wall of solidarity, which saw China fire back at MEPs, jeopardising a trade treaty.
The transatlantic relationship is still our best chance to defend our values and interests, and now that Trump's gone, we have a renewed chance to do so.
Europe should be ready to kick Turkish president Erdoğan where it hurts (in his economy) if he goes back to his Mediterranean gas piracy, EU officials have said.
The EU has gotten drawn into a verbal punch-up between the Kremlin and White House by endorsing US president Joe Biden's assertion that his Russian counterpart was a "killer".
Mairead McGuinness said "there was quite some head-turning when the UK negotiated with itself an extra period of time" to facilitate the transition - as the negotiations should have been done with the EU.
China is refusing to let EU diplomats conduct a "meaningful" visit to Xinjiang, while claiming EU sanctions over its Uighur persecution are based on "lies".
Europe devotes a lot of attention to 'persecuted Christians in the Middle East'. However, Christians aren't persecuted. They are the victims of terror - like anybody else in the region.
Nearly 230 women and 600 children with EU and UK nationalities remain stuck in dire conditions at camps in north-east Syria. An internal EU document warns of radicalisation if nothing is done to help them.
