Category Archives: European Union

Food trade bodies consider legal action over post-Brexit ‘not for EU’ labelling

Posted on by

Producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation

Food industry trade bodies are discussing whether to take legal action against the government over post-Brexit plans that will require all meat and dairy products sold in the UK to be labelled as “not for EU”.

Food producers say the labelling could add £250m a year to their costs, further fuelling inflation, and they are discussing a legal challenge as a viable option if a solution with the government is not found.

Continue reading...

Watchdog urges EU rescue rules change after migrant boat disaster off Greece

Posted on by

Ombudsman says papers show EU agency made four offers to help Greece with surveillance of boat that sank, but got no response

The rules governing the EU’s border and coastguard agency Frontex must be urgently revised if Europe is to avoid a repeat of last year’s tragedy off the coast of Greece in which about 600 people are thought to have died, an official investigation has found.

In one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean sea in recent years, the Adriana, a dangerously overcrowded fishing trawler en route to Italy from Libya, capsized and sank in the middle of the night near Pylos on 14 June. Only 104 survivors were rescued and 82 bodies recovered after the ship, estimated to have been carrying more than 750 people, sank off the Peloponnese.

Continue reading...

Russia could attack Nato states if west fails to support Ukraine, Macron says

Posted on by

French president tells Paris conference Moscow ‘must not and cannot’ win the war and that Europe’s security is at stake

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called for western countries to step up their support for Ukraine, warning that Moscow’s actions in recent weeks signal that Russia could attack Nato states in the next few years.

Speaking at the opening of a hastily convened conference of 20 mainly European leaders in Paris designed to speed up the supply of weapons and financial aid to Ukraine, Macron said Russia “must not and cannot win this war” and that Europe’s own security was at stake.

Continue reading...

‘Putin must lose everything’: defiant Zelenskiy hosts western leaders in Kyiv to mark two years of war

Posted on by

Ukraine’s president met the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium in a show of unity after recent battlefield defeats

Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed western leaders to Kyiv on Saturday on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, declaring that Vladimir Putin “must lose absolutely everything”.

Ukraine’s president met the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Belgium – Giorgia Meloni, Justin Trudeau and Alexander De Croo – as well as the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Continue reading...

Ursula von der Leyen vows never to work with Europe’s far-right parties

Posted on by

European Commission president seeks a second term and says there’s no place for ‘Putin’s friends’ in bloc

The chief of the European Commission has vowed to never work with extremist parties such as the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, no matter how big a vote they get in the European elections in June.

Ursula von der Leyen, officially launching her campaign for a second term in Brussels’s top job against a backdrop of rising concern over security and Russia, said on Wednesday she would only work with “pro-European, pro-Nato, pro-Ukrainian, clear supporters of our democratic values”.

Continue reading...

Europe live: Ursula von der Leyen rejects cooperation with extremist parties

Posted on by

European Commission president says she will never work with parties such as AfD or National Rally, no matter how big a vote they secure in European elections

Campaign Corner: Slovakia

As the campaign kicks off for the June European elections, more parties are presenting their candidates.

We believe that this is an attempt to take over the agricultural protest movement by extreme and irresponsible groups, possibly under the influence of Russian agents.

Continue reading...

EU cuts toxic air limits but still falls short of WHO guidelines

Posted on by

Rules hailed as once-in-a-generation chance to improve air quality but loopholes will let member states delay by up to a decade

The European Union has agreed to set stricter limits on the toxic particles and dangerous gas that dirty its air, but will not aim for the levels that doctors and economists recommend.

The new rules slash the yearly limits for fine particulates known as PM2.5 – which wreak havoc on the whole body because they are small enough to slip into the bloodstream – from 25 µg/m³ to 10 µg/m³, and for nitrogen dioxide, a gas that hurts the lungs, from 40 µg/m³ to 20 µg/m³.

Continue reading...

Polish farmers dump grain in protest as Ukraine dispute deepens

Posted on by

Volodymyr Zelenskiy accuses Warsaw of ‘mockery’ as farmers blockade Ukrainian grain at border

Poland’s bitter dispute with Ukraine over farm imports has escalated as Polish farmers dumped grain from a freight train as part of nationwide protests and Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Warsaw of “mockery”.

In a video address on Monday, Ukraine’s president described the blockade by Polish farmers as absurd at a time when Russia was bombing his country. “The situation is not about grain, but rather about politics,” he said, after a visit to the frontline town of Kupiansk.

Continue reading...

Key allies seek to rein in Israel without letting Hamas off the hook

Posted on by

Diplomatic search for ceasefire in Gaza gathers pace as threatened ground offensive in Rafah draws near

In New York at the UN, in Brussels at the EU, in The Hague, in Cairo, in Rio and even at Westminster, a set of subtle and interrelated diplomatic dances are under way.

Israel’s foremost supporters are attempting to apply the squeeze on their ally while avoiding making undiluted calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza they fear would leave a battered Hamas in charge, its leadership at large.

Continue reading...

EU opens investigation into TikTok over online content and child safeguarding

Posted on by

Video platform under scrutiny over potential breach of Digital Services Act in areas such as age verification

The EU has launched a formal investigation into whether TikTok has broken online content rules including the safeguarding of children.

The European Commission said it had opened official proceedings against the Chinese-owned short video platform over potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Continue reading...

China offers to deepen security ties with Hungary

Posted on by

Beijing’s move comes at a time when Budapest’s relationship with its EU and Nato allies is at a low point

China has offered to deepen security cooperation with Hungary, underscoring Budapest’s warming ties with Beijing just as Hungarian officials snubbed a visiting delegation from Washington.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, met China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, on Friday.

Continue reading...

‘Europe must defend itself’: shadow of war in Ukraine looms over security conference

Posted on by

With ongoing US support far from guaranteed, Ukraine urges Europe to back fight against Russia, for its own sake

On the top floor of Literaturhaus in Munich, the Ukrainian veteran Yuliia Paievska was asked to speak to the elite of the transatlantic security and political establishment, including Hillary Clinton and the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, as they lunched on a three-course meal, served with military precision.

“We are the dogs of war,” Paievska said as she introduced herself, explaining how she had started out as a volunteer and then worked as the chief medic at a hospital on the frontline during the siege of Mariupol. “I had children die in my hands, civilians, elderly. I do not know how you can forgive that. Thousands of soldiers have gone through my hands, thousands of civilians, streams of blood, rivers of suffering.”

Continue reading...

Kremlin accused of ‘covering tracks’ as whereabouts of Alexei Navalny’s body remain uncertain

Posted on by

Outrage over jailed opposition leader’s death grows with detention of over 350 people in Russia who attended vigils

Alexei Navalny’s allies have accused the Kremlin of “covering their tracks” as, two days after the imprisoned opposition leader’s death in custody, uncertainty continued to surround the whereabouts of his body and what it may reveal about how he died.

Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and his lawyer travelled over the weekend to the notorious “Polar Wolf” IK-3 penal colony in Russia’s Arctic north, where Navalny had been held since last year, to track down his body, but received contradicting information from various institutions over its location and left without recovering or seeing her son.

Continue reading...

From beehive to kitchen table: UK beekeepers call for new law to trace honey’s origin

Posted on by

British producers to back EU’s proposed regulations to stop trade in adulterated honey

Britain’s beekeepers are backing ­proposed new rules to combat fraud in the supply chain, ensuring a jar of honey can be traced on its journey of up to 5,000 miles from the beehive to the shop shelf.

The European parliament has agreed new labelling rules and a project to establish a traceability system for honey from harvesting to the consumer. The proposed rules are part of an overhaul of the “breakfast directives”, including the honey directive.

Continue reading...

Google stops notifying publishers of ‘right to be forgotten’ removals from search results

Posted on by

Move comes after Swedish court rules that informing webmasters about delisted content is breach of privacy

Google has quietly stopped telling publishers when it has removed websites from its search results under European “right to be forgotten” rules after a ruling in a Swedish court which the search engine is applying globally.

Previously, when an individual applied to have records about them expunged under EU data protection laws, Google would notify the publisher of the original articles.

Continue reading...

UK could contribute to nuclear shield if Trump wins, suggests German minister

Posted on by

Comments draw Britain into debate about European security without US providing bulk of Nato’s nuclear deterrent

The UK could contribute to a new European nuclear shield if Donald Trump becomes US president again, a senior German minister has suggested, drawing British politicians into the debate about how Europe’s security could be bolstered in the event of the Republican frontrunner winning in November.

Questions over a European nuclear deterrence have intensified after Trump’s remarks on Saturday that he would not defend any Nato member that failed to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence – and would even encourage Russia to continue attacking.

Continue reading...

EU told Slovakia that its reforms risked ‘irreparable damage’ to rule of law

Posted on by

Warnings about legislation scrapping anti-corruption office and lowering penalties were ignored

Brussels told Slovakia it risked doing “irreparable damage” to the rule of law, it has emerged, before the country’s MPs approved legal reforms that critics say are aimed at protecting the prime minister’s political and business allies.

The Slovakian news outlet SME reported on Wednesday that the European commissioner for justice, Didier Reynders, had written last week to Robert Fico’s government urging it not to fast-track the legislative package through parliament.

Continue reading...

Ireland and Spain demand EU reviews Israel trade deal over rights obligations

Posted on by

Joint letters from prime ministers implore the bloc to act over ‘deteriorating’ situation in Gaza

The prime ministers of Ireland and Spain have implored EU leaders to take action over the “deteriorating” situation in Gaza, demanding an immediate assessment of whether Israel is complying with human rights obligations that are stipulated in a trade deal with the bloc.

The letter was sent amid mounting international calls for Israel to drop plans for a military assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, where more than 1 million Palestinians from the north and centre of the territory have fled seeking safety. At least 74 Palestinians were this week killed in an Israel rescue mission in the city in which two hostages were freed.

Continue reading...

David Cameron to meet EU ministers to seek more help for Ukraine

Posted on by

Foreign secretary wants an increase in European defence output and to give profits from seized Russian assets in Europe to Kyiv

David Cameron will discuss strengthening Ukraine’s defences and finances against further Russian aggression with European partners in light of the continuing threat of the US Congress refusing to provide further financial support.

The foreign secretary is due to visit Bulgaria and Poland before meeting a host of European foreign ministers at a security conference in Munich on Friday.

Continue reading...

Post-Brexit watchdog ‘ready’ to investigate flood of cheaper Chinese electric cars

Posted on by

Remarks by head of trade authority come amid fears UK firms could be undercut ‘to extinction’

The head of Britain’s post-Brexit trade watchdog has said it is ready to follow Brussels in launching an investigation into Chinese companies flooding the market for electric cars, but the government has not asked it to do so.

Oliver Griffiths, the chief executive of the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), which advises the government on trade defence, said it was keeping lines of communication open with ministers and had been in close contact with the car industry. “We’ll be ready to go if anyone does come to us,” he told the Guardian in an interview.

Continue reading...