France, Germany and the Netherlands have raised concerns over entry-exit system, originally due to launch in 2023
Plans to fingerprint passengers entering the EU from 10 November are to be delayed for a third time after concerns were raised by France, Germany and the Netherlands, it has emerged.
The introduction of the entry-exit system (EES) requiring non-EU citizens to have their fingerprints or photos taken before entering the Schengen area has already been delayed twice.
Continue reading...Beijing also considering duties on European petrol cars after EU imposed extra levies on Chinese electric vehicles
China has imposed tariffs on EU brandy imports in an escalating tit-for-tat trade row with Brussels over extra levies on Chinese-made electric vehicles.
Beijing also said it was considering duties on imported petrol cars from Europe.
Continue reading...Hungarian prime minister voiced support for former US president ahead of hosting EU leaders in Budapest
Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orbán has said he will open “several bottles of champagne” if Donald Trump returns to the White House next month, underscoring his differences with mainstream European leaders.
The Hungarian prime minister is due to host fellow EU leaders for a summit in Budapest a few days after the US presidential election on 5 November.
Continue reading...ECJ ruling follows Afghan women’s challenge to Austrian court refusal to give them refugee status
The European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled that gender and nationality alone are sufficient grounds for a country to grant asylum to women from Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban have sharply curtailed women’s rights.
Authorities in Austria refused refugee status to two Afghan women after they applied for asylum in 2015 and 2020. The women challenged the refusal before the Austrian supreme administrative court, which in turn requested a ruling from the ECJ, the top European Union court.
Continue reading...Decision opposed by five countries including Germany, where car firms say it could be ‘fatal’ blow for industry
EU leaders have given the green light to extra tariffs on electric vehicles from China despite opposition from five countries including Germany, where car manufacturers condemned the decision as a potential “fatal” blow for the auto industry.
The European Commission – which provisionally approved the step in June after an inquiry found that Beijing’s state aid to auto manufacturers was unfair – now has free rein to impose steep tariffs for five years from the end of this month.
Continue reading...Move over European convention on human rights likely to put pressure on Tory leadership candidates to follow suit
Boris Johnson has called for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European convention on human rights, a move likely to increase pressure on those vying for the Conservative leadership to follow suit.
The former prime minister told the Daily Telegraph there was a “strong case” for a vote on the ECHR, which some Tories blame for hampering their efforts to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Continue reading...Credibility ‘damaged’ by proposed 12-month delay, which followed lobbying from governments and firms around the world
A former top environment official has said the EU’s credibility on its climate commitments has been damaged by plans for a one-year delay to a law to combat deforestation that followed intense lobbying from companies and governments around the world.
Virginijus Sinkevičius, a Lithuanian MEP who was the environment commissioner until mid-July, said postponing the deforestation regulation would be “a step backward in the fight against climate change”.
Continue reading...PM promises ‘constructive’ relations, despite resisting talks with the bloc on a proposed youth mobility scheme
Keir Starmer has vowed to turn the page on the UK’s relationship with the EU, despite differences with Brussels over proposals for a European youth mobility scheme.
The prime minister said: “Of course, there will be challenges” in resetting relations but insisted he was “turning the page on the old way of doing these negotiations” in favour of a more “constructive” approach.
Continue reading...French far-right leader and 24 others from National Rally party allegedly embezzled European parliament funds
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has gone on trial on charges of embezzling money from the European parliament, in a high-profile case that could endanger her presidential ambitions.
“We have not broken any rules,” the three-time presidential candidate of the far-right National Rally (RN) said before the start of the hearings in Paris, adding that she was in a “very calm” mood.
Continue reading...Prime minister hopes to use talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week to prepare for a reset in the spring
Keir Starmer will use a meeting with the European Commission president this week to pave the way for a springtime overhaul of Britain’s Brexit deal, amid warnings that closer ties will be essential in his government’s desperate search for growth.
The prime minister will meet Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday. However, it comes with home secretary Yvette Cooper still vehemently opposed to an agreement that would allow young people to move more freely between Europe and the UK – a measure that EU diplomats regard as key to unlocking more serious talks in the spring.
Continue reading...Sergei Lavrov accuses west of using Ukraine ‘to defeat’ Russia days after Putin shifts Moscow’s nuclear posture
Russia’s top diplomat warned on Saturday against “trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power”, delivering a UN general assembly speech packed with condemnations of what Russia sees as western machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere – including inside the United Nations itself.
Three days after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, aired a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused the west of using Ukraine – which Russia invaded in February 2022 – as a tool to try “to defeat” Moscow strategically, and “preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade”.
Continue reading...PM hopes to work more closely on defence, borders and trade with EU as he sets meeting with von der Leyen
Keir Starmer has said a new relationship with the European Union will not be easy “but is possible” before a meeting with Ursula von der Leyen next week, as he set out defence, borders and trade as areas where he hopes for improvement.
The prime minister spoke of his hopes for a reset and did not rule out accepting an EU proposal for greater youth mobility – including easier travel, study and work for under 30s.
Continue reading...The bloc’s migration pact, finally agreed after a decade of talks, is already in peril as states outdo each other in efforts to get tough
In 2015, when more than 1.3 million people headed to Europe, mostly fleeing a brutal war in Syria, the response of Germany’s then chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to say “Wir schaffen das” (“We can manage this”), and open the country’s borders.
Less than a decade later, and faced with a flow of irregular arrivals less than 10% of what it was at the peak of the bloc’s migration crisis, EU capitals are increasingly saying, “No, we can’t”. Or, perhaps more accurately, “We won’t”.
Continue reading...‘Whiteness’, low youth engagement and lukewarm pro-Europeanism in some states risks eroding bloc’s founding values, expert says
Voting patterns and polling data from the past year suggest the EU is moving towards a more ethnic, closed-minded and xenophobic understanding of “Europeanness” that could ultimately challenge the European project, according to a major report.
The report, by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), identifies three key “blind spots” across the bloc and argues their intersection risks eroding or radically altering EU sentiment.
Continue reading...Country held chair due to rotating presidency despite Orbán government being under EU sanctions procedure
Hungary’s government has presided over EU talks on upholding democratic standards across the continent, in a development one prominent MEP described as “outrageous”.
Viktor Orbán’s government has been under an EU sanctions procedure since 2018 for posing a “systemic threat” to democracy and the rule of law.
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen criticised for merging equality commissioner role into brief including crisis management
More than 50 rights organisations from across Europe have expressed their “shock and dismay” at Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to do away with the standalone EU position of equality commissioner, describing it as a “downgrading” of the fight against discrimination.
Von der Leyen presented her lineup for the new commission in Brussels earlier this month. Her 27 commissioner designates – senior EU officials who hold positions akin to government ministers – included Hadja Lahbib, currently Belgium’s foreign minister, who was tasked with a portfolio that spans preparedness and crisis management as well as equality.
Continue reading...Letter sent to EU said Brexit had gravely affected ‘the coherence of policies’ on asylum and migration
Germany and France have called for a Europe-wide deal on migration and asylum with the UK government, to capitalise on Labour’s more “constructive” approach to EU-UK relations.
In a letter to the EU home affairs commissioner, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, and her former French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said Brexit had gravely affected “the coherence of migration policies”.
Continue reading...Trading relationships at ‘breaking point’ because of delays and costs, garden centres and nurseries warn
Exporters of plants and flowers from mainland Europe are turning their backs on supplying Britain as “painful” new Brexit border checks are putting some trading relationships at “breaking point”, garden centres and nurseries have warned.
The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents garden retailers and growers, said long-held links between British nurseries and EU suppliers were now being put under strain because of the delays and costs associated with the new border processes.
Continue reading...António Guterres ‘gravely alarmed’ by RSF assault on al-Fashir as EU foreign policy chief warns of another genocide
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is “gravely alarmed” at reports of a full-scale assault on the Sudanese city of al-Fashir by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and has called on its leader to halt the attack immediately, according to Guterres’ spokesperson.
“It is unconscionable that the warring parties have repeatedly ignored calls for a cessation of hostilities,” Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
Continue reading...Despite cementing control, the EU commission’s president faces a daunting second term amid the rise of the far right
Ursula von der Leyen was leaving nothing to chance. At a private meeting with members of the European parliament in Strasbourg last Tuesday, she chose not to reveal who would get what job in her incoming European Commission, due to take office at the end of the year.
Then immediately afterwards, during a brisk 21-minute press conference, she announced every single name, leaving MEPs fuming. “That’s not how it should be done,” said one.
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