Category Archives: European Union

More than 2,200 people died in Mediterranean in 2024, UN finds

Posted on by

Figure includes hundreds of children, who make up one in five migrants trying to reach Europe fleeing war and poverty

More than 2,200 people either died or went missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe in search of refuge in 2024.

The figure, cited in a statement from Regina De Dominicis, the regional director for Europe and central Asia for the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, was eclipsed on New Year’s Eve when 20 people fell into the sea and were reported missing after a boat started to take in water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.

Continue reading...

French and German ministers to meet Syria’s de facto leader

Posted on by

Jean-Noël Barrot and Annalena Baerbock in highest-level visit by major western powers since rebels toppled Assad

The foreign ministers of France and Germany are to meet Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Damascus in the highest-level visit by major western powers since rebels toppled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad last month.

Jean-Noël Barrot and Annalena Baerbock, who arrived separately in the Syrian capital on Friday, would hold talks with the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on behalf of the EU, their ministries said.

Continue reading...

Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine cease as transit agreement expires

Posted on by

Ukraine president hails ‘one of Moscow’s biggest defeats’ as deal’s end brings power cuts in breakaway Moldovan region

Russian gas has stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine, ending a major energy route that goes back to Soviet times and had even survived three years of full-scale war between the two states.

Ukraine cut off the transit route after an agreement signed in 2019 expired in the early hours of New Year’s Day, marking a new milestone in Europe weaning itself off Russian gas supplies over the past few years, and prompting immediate power cuts for hundreds of thousand of people in a breakaway region of Moldova.

Continue reading...

Ukraine halts supply of Russian gas to Europe

Posted on by

Ukraine ends agreement to allow gas to flow through its pipelines, with European supplies set to be tested as cold weather forecast later this week

Ukraine has halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network, almost three years into Moscow’s all-out invasion.

The move comes after a prewar transit deal expired during the final hours of 2024 and as the continent braces itself for a plunge in temperatures that could hasten the drain on gas reserves.

Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the transit “in the interest of national security” after Russia refused to alter its stance on the war.

“This is a historic event,” he said in an update on the Telegram messaging app. “Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and [this] aligns with what Ukraine has done today.”

Continue reading...

Former EU environment chief warns against backsliding on climate crisis

Posted on by

Virginijus Sinkevičius, a former environment commissioner, criticises bloc’s decision to delay deforestation law

A former EU environment commissioner has warned against backsliding on the protection of nature and the battle against the climate crisis after the bloc decided to delay its landmark deforestation law.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Lithuanian MEP and a vice-president of the European parliament’s Green group, said he disagreed with the decision to amend the deforestation law in order to give companies a year of extra time to ensure their products are not implicated in the felling of trees.

Continue reading...

Senior Labour figures urged Tony Blair to delay arrival of EU citizens in UK

Posted on by

Cabinet was split over east European countries joining in 2004, with some ‘extremely concerned’ by its implications

Senior figures in Tony Blair’s government, including John Prescott and Jack Straw, urged the then prime minister to delay opening the UK labour market to eastern European nationals shortly before they became EU citizens, newly released documents reveal.

Papers released to the National Archives in Kew, west London, showed Prescott and Straw warned of a surge in immigration unless some controls were put in place.

Continue reading...

Donald Tusk’s Polish revival masks deeper divisions with German neighbours

Posted on by

Warsaw’s return to the European mainstream with presidency of the EU Council may not be quite what it seems

Germany’s chancellor appears to be heading for defeat; France’s president is mired in crisis. But while Europe’s traditional power duo are in the doldrums, there is a strong, stable and pro-EU leader east of Paris and Berlin – Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk.

For European officials, it’s a helpful gift of the calendar that Poland takes charge of the EU Council rotating presidency from 1 January.

Continue reading...

ECB faces tough task after flip in fortunes for eurozone economies

Posted on by

Economists say EU countries hardest hit by 2010s debt crisis now in stronger position than France and Germany

The European Central Bank is facing a tough balancing act in 2025 as it tries to navigate a reversal of fortunes in eurozone economies, as the hardest-hit nations of the 2010s debt crisis outperform the traditional core.

Highlighting a potential shift in power dynamics within the single currency bloc, economists said countries in the EU periphery ravaged by last decade’s sovereign debt crisis were in a stronger position than northern Europe’s most powerful nations, including France and Germany.

Continue reading...

‘Let’s see who will be leaving’: Georgia’s presidential standoff nears crunch point

Posted on by

Georgian Dream government threatens pro-west president with jail if she refuses to leave office on Sunday

All eyes in Georgia are fixed on the elegant 19th-century Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi, where a defining moment looms. Who will occupy its halls on 29 December?

On Sunday, Georgia’s pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, is supposed to hand over the keys to her successor, Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former football player turned far-right politician who is backed by the ruling and increasingly authoritarian Georgian Dream (GD) party.

Continue reading...

‘Let’s see who will be leaving’: Georgia’s presidential standoff nears crunch point

Posted on by

Georgian Dream government threatens pro-west president with jail if she refuses to leave office on Sunday

All eyes in Georgia are fixed on the elegant 19th-century Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi, where a defining moment looms. Who will occupy its halls on 29 December?

On Sunday, Georgia’s pro-western president, Salome Zourabichvili, is supposed to hand over the keys to her successor, Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former football player turned far-right politician who is backed by the ruling and increasingly authoritarian Georgian Dream (GD) party.

Continue reading...

Wolves to lose protection, as EU lowers bar for shooting wildlife

Posted on by

Downgrading species’ protection status for political gain puts decades of conservation efforts at risk, says WWF

Europe’s wolves will lose their “strict protection” status, alarming conservationists who fear for the survival of an animal brought back from the brink of local extinction.

A committee charged with saving wildlife took the wolf’s protection status down a notch on Tuesday after members voted through a proposal from the European Union that lowers the bar for shooting a wolf.

Continue reading...

Georgian police fire teargas at pro-EU protesters as political crisis deepens

Posted on by

Tbilisi experiences fifth day of demonstrations amid anger over ruling party’s decision to shelve EU accession talks

Georgian police have fired teargas to try to disperse thousands of pro-EU demonstrators rallying in the centre of Tbilisi amid a deepening political crisis in the Black Sea nation.

The country’s prime minister hours earlier had vowed “no negotiations” with the opposition, enraged by the ruling Georgian Dream party’s decision to shelve EU accession talks after it claimed victory in an election they decried as fraudulent.

Continue reading...

Starmer rejects false choice between Trump’s US and EU in key speech

Posted on by

At lord mayor’s banquet in London, British PM says ‘national interest demands that we work with both’

Keir Starmer has “utterly rejected” the idea that the UK must choose between the United States and Europe when Donald Trump comes to power, arguing that it is in the national interest to work with both.

The prime minister said the UK would “never turn away” from its relationship with the US, despite the difficulties the new administration could pose, as it had been the “cornerstone” of security and prosperity for over a century.

Continue reading...

Georgian opposition leader arrested after fourth night of protests

Posted on by

Police detained Zurab Japaridze as he was leaving rally outside parliament against suspension of EU accession talks

Georgian police have arrested a prominent opposition leader after using water cannon and teargas to scatter anti-government protesters who rallied outside parliament for a fourth consecutive night.

The protests were sparked by the government’s announcement last week that it was suspending talks on joining the EU. Critics saw that as confirmation of a Russian-influenced shift away from pro-western policies, something the ruling party denies.

Continue reading...

Protesters rally in Georgia for fourth night as opposition grows to freeze on EU talks

Posted on by

Georgian media reports protests in at least eight cities and towns after Saturday’s demonstrations leave 44 in hospital

Protesters rallied in Georgia’s capital for a fourth consecutive night on Sunday and there were signs that opposition was spreading to the government’s decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union.

For months, tensions have been rising between the ruling Georgian Dream party and opponents who accuse it of pursuing increasingly authoritarian, anti-western and pro-Russian policies.

Continue reading...

‘The EU wants Ukraine to win this war’: who is its new chief diplomat Kaja Kallas?

Posted on by

She stepped down as Estonia’s prime minister to take up foreign policy role replacing tough talker Josep Borrell

It was no surprise that Kaja Kallas went to Ukraine on her first day as the EU’s chief diplomat.

Kallas, who stepped down as Estonia’s prime minister to take up the role, was accompanied in Kyiv on Sunday by the new European Council president, António Costa, and European enlargement commissioner, Marta Kos, marking the leadership changeover at the EU institutions on 1 December.

Continue reading...

Georgian president calls government illegitimate, claiming rigged election

Posted on by

Salome Zourabichvili says she will not stand down as parliament is invalid, after PM halts EU accession talks

The Georgian president, Salome Zourabichvili, has called the country’s government illegitimate and said she would not leave office when her term ends next month, defying the prime minister as he accused pro-EU opposition forces of plotting revolution.

The South Caucasus country was thrown into crisis on Thursday when the prime minister of the Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze, said it was halting EU accession talks for the next four years over what it called “blackmail” of Georgia by the bloc, abruptly reversing a long-standing national goal.

Continue reading...

Instagram actively helping spread of self-harm among teenagers, study finds

Posted on by

Researchers say parent company Meta is failing to remove explicit images on the social media site

Meta is actively helping self-harm content to flourish on Instagram by failing to remove explicit images and encouraging those engaging with such content to befriend one another, according to a damning new study that found its moderation “extremely inadequate”.

Danish researchers created a private self-harm network on the social media platform, including fake profiles of people as young as 13 years old, in which they shared 85 pieces of self-harm-related content gradually increasing in severity, including blood, razor blades and encouragement of self-harm.

Continue reading...

Iran and Europe seek to break nuclear impasse before return of Trump

Posted on by

Talks held in Geneva as Iran looks to avoid potential snapback of UN sanctions over nuclear programme

Iran and the so-called E3 grouping of the UK, France and Germany have agreed to continue holding talks in the near future in an attempt to find a way out of an impasse over Tehran’s nuclear programme, in what may be the last chance of a breakthrough before Donald Trump takes up the US presidency again.

Trump, who pursued a policy of “maximum economic pressure” against Iran during his first term, returns to the White House on 20 January.

Continue reading...

Georgia protesters clash with police after PM suspends EU membership talks

Posted on by

President accuses government of declaring ‘war on its own people’, as thousands take to streets over fears government is steering country towards Russia

Police clashed with protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi early on Friday, after the country’s ruling party said the government would suspend talks on European Union accession until 2028.

The country’s interior ministry said three police officers were injured, two of whom were hospitalised.

Continue reading...