Copernicus Climate Change Service says 2024 marks ‘a new milestone’ and should raise ambitions at Cop29 summit
It is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, the European Union’s space programme has found.
The prognosis comes the week before diplomats meet at the Cop29 climate summit and a day after a majority of voters in the US, the biggest historical polluter of planet-heating gas, chose to make Donald Trump president.
Continue reading...Single Trade Window designed to reduce friction on imports and exports will be halted until at least 2026 amid cost fears
A key part of the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy has been put on pause for more than a year amid government concerns over the cost of implementing the scheme.
The introduction of the Single Trade Window (STW), which is designed to reduce friction for traders moving goods in and out of Britain, had already been delayed from late October to January next year, but will now be halted until at least 2026.
Continue reading...Populist groups capitalising on costly environmental policies that affect farmers by offering them support
The painful impacts of the climate crisis and globalisation have left farmers in Europe marginalised and vulnerable to populist politicians, warn anti-racism campaigners and academics.
They argue that if the transition to a low-carbon economy is not properly funded, planned and equitable, it risks fuelling a resurgence of the far right across the continent.
Continue reading...Maia Sandu’s victory amid claims of Russian interference boosts EU hopes and deals setback to Kremlin
Europe’s most powerful leaders have congratulated Moldova’s pro-western president, Maia Sandu, after she won a second term, cementing the country’s EU aspirations and dealing a setback to the Kremlin.
With nearly 98% of the vote counted in the second round of the presidential elections on Sunday, Sandu had 54% of the vote, ahead of Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Kremlin-friendly political newcomer, backed by the pro-Russia party of Socialists.
Continue reading...Thousands of small farms have closed according to analysis of official but opaque data from EU member states
The European Union gave generous farming subsidies to the companies of more than a dozen billionaires between 2018 and 2021, the Guardian can reveal, including companies owned by the former Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš and the British businessman Sir James Dyson.
Billionaires were “ultimate beneficiaries” linked to €3.3bn (£2.76bn) of EU farming handouts over the four-year period even as thousands of small farms were closed down, according to the analysis of official but opaque data from EU member states.
Continue reading...The steep and stark environmental decline was not supposed to happen under the common agricultural policy
Revealed: the growing income gap between Europe’s biggest and smallest farms
The Rhine overflowed last winter, covering fields miles from the river and in some places leaving just the tops of trees visible.
But Thomas Bollig, who farms just a few miles from the banks of the Rhine, was not worried. Even as floods inundated the fields of his neighbours, making sowing impossible, his holdings were largely unaffected. Bollig farms organically, and the natural methods he uses to improve his soil allow his fields to hold more water when it rains, and release it gradually, coping well with floods and droughts.
Continue reading...Nearly all are deemed ‘high-risk’ and so will need customs declarations and phytosanitary certificates
Every year, hundreds of thousands of Christmas trees make the journey into the UK to take pride of place in living rooms across the country.
But the the cross-border operation faces a new hurdle this year. Plants coming from the EU will be subject to post-Brexit border checks that importers are warning will increase costs for sellers, and probably push up prices for consumers.
Continue reading...Greek Cypriot Costa Koushiappis to be removed from UK even though his application is pending with Home Office
An EU citizen caught up in a Home Office backlog of applications for post-Brexit residency status is to be deported by Border Force officials in Scotland.
Costa Koushiappis, 39, who is Greek Cypriot, has been told to show up at Edinburgh airport at 7am on Friday to be forcibly put on a flight to Amsterdam just weeks after he received an email from the Home Office to say it could take a further 24 months to process his application for status.
Continue reading...Formal investigation opens amid concerns Chinese shopping website is breaching Digital Services Act
The EU has launched formal proceedings against the Chinese shopping website Temu amid concerns it is failing to halt the sale of illegal products online.
A formal investigation was opened on Thursday with the European Commission citing concerns over the platform, which is a cut-price rival to Amazon.
Continue reading...EU and US demand investigation as opposition and pro-European president cry foul
Officials in Georgia said a partial recount confirmed the ruling party had won its disputed election, while a global research and data firm called the official results reported by the electoral commission “statistically impossible”.
The pro-western opposition on Thursday repeated its earlier assertions that the parliamentary vote had been “stolen” by the ruling Georgian Dream party and it refused to recognise the results, plunging the Caucasus country into uncertainty.
Continue reading...Western powers call for investigation into Georgian Dream party election win amid reports of voter intimidation and fraud
The European Commission has said it will not recommend opening EU membership talks with Georgia unless the country changes course, days after the increasingly anti-western Georgian Dream (GD) party won pivotal parliamentary elections amid reports of irregularities and voter intimidation.
The commission recommended that Georgia be granted EU candidate status last year – something Ukraine and Moldova had already achieved – but made clear at the time that this could be withdrawn if the government in Tbilisi did not follow through on agreed reforms.
Continue reading...Campaigners say 21% of people at workshops did not disclose on their applications relationships with firms being discussed
More than one in five attenders at EU events on regulating big tech companies did not disclose links to the industry when applying to take part, according to transparency campaigners who say hidden networks are distorting public debate.
Researchers at three NGOs analysed nearly 4,000 registrations at European Commission workshops organised earlier this year to test companies’ compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a law to curb anti-competitive behaviour.
Continue reading...Mood among protesters is one of deflation as some say Georgian Dream has already won
Thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets in the capital, Tbilisi, to rally against the results of a contested weekend parliamentary election in which the increasingly anti-western governing party was declared victorious amid reports of irregularities and voter intimidation.
The demonstration outside the parliament in the city centre was organised by the country’s pro-western opposition, which has refused to concede defeat and has accused the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party of election rigging.
Continue reading...Trade body for France’s travel industry reportedly writes to UK home secretary over concerns for programme’s future
A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK.
New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the then UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
Continue reading...Trade body Energy UK also estimates total energy cost of leaving bloc could reach £10bn by end of decade
Brexit has added up to £370m a year to the price of power supplies from Europe, according to industry representatives who calculate that the total energy costs of leaving the EU could amount to £10bn by the end of the decade.
Energy UK, the sector’s trade body, has called on Keir Starmer to negotiate a closer trading relationship with the bloc as part of the “reset” he is seeking with Brussels.
Continue reading...Sakharov prize goes to María Corina Machado and Edmundo González after contested presidential election
The European parliament has awarded its top human rights honor, the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, to Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González for “representing the people of Venezuela fighting to restore freedom and democracy”.
Machado was set to run as the democratic opposition candidate against the incumbent president, Nicolás Maduro, in Venezuela’s contested 2024 election, but she was disqualified by the government, so González took her place. He had never run for office before the presidential election.
Continue reading...Chipmaker disputed 2009 decision that it abused its market position in case dating back two decades
The US chipmaker Intel has won a long-running battle to quash a fine of more than €1bn imposed by the European Commission for allegedly abusing its market dominance in the sale of computer chips.
In a final ruling on Thursday, theEuropean court of justice upheld an earlier judgment that had quashed the €1.06bn (£880m) fine and partly dismissed the charges of anticompetitive behaviour.
Continue reading...‘Dehumanising rhetoric’ blamed as almost half of respondents say they recently suffered discrimination
Muslims across Europe are grappling with a “worrying surge” of racism that is being fuelled in part by “dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric”, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as it published a survey in which nearly half of the Muslim respondents said they had recently experienced discrimination.
Published on Thursday by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the survey of 9,600 Muslims across 13 member states found that racism and discrimination threads through most aspects of their lives.
Continue reading...Inquiry preceded controversial migration deal linked to claims of abuse in increasingly authoritarian country
The European Commission is refusing to publish the findings of a human rights inquiry into Tunisia it conducted shortly before announcing a controversial migration deal with the increasingly authoritarian north African country.
An investigation by the EU ombudsman found that the commission quietly carried out a “risk management exercise” into human rights concerns in Tunisia but will not disclose its results.
Continue reading...Former teacher was detained in Budapest for alleged attack on neo-Nazis before being released in June
Hungary has called on the EU to strip parliamentary immunity from the Italian MEP Ilaria Salis, who was detained for 16 months in Budapest after an alleged attack on neo-Nazis.
The case of Salis, 39, a teacher from Monza, near Milan, sparked diplomatic protests and anger in Italy after she was brought last January to court in Hungary in chains, her hands cuffed and feet locked together.
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