Category Archives: European Union

EU agrees ‘historic’ deal with world’s first laws to regulate AI

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Agreement between European Parliament and member states will govern artificial intelligence, social media and search engines

The world’s first comprehensive laws to regulate artificial intelligence have been agreed in a landmark deal after a marathon 37-hour negotiation between the European Parliament and EU member states.

The agreement was described as “historic” by Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner responsible for a suite of laws in Europe that will also govern social media and search engines, covering giants such as X, TikTok and Google.

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Marine and Jean-Marie Le Pen to stand trial over alleged misuse of EU funds

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French far-right party denies irregularities in employment of parliamentary assistants

French far-right politician Marine Le Pen will stand trial alongside 27 others over alleged misuse of EU funds, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Friday, charges that Le Pen’s party said it contested.

Twenty-eight defendants will be brought to court, including Le Pen and her father, Jean-Marie, the office said, confirming French media reports.

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EU agrees plan to enable member states to end all gas imports from Russia

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New power to allow importers to sever ties would help to end Europe’s reliance on Russian supplies

EU countries may soon be able to halt their last remaining Russian gas imports under plans to ban Russian energy companies from their pipelines and terminals.

The European Council and parliament have agreed new rules that could empower the EU’s member states to crack down on companies from Russia and Belarus that have continued to import Russian gas into Europe since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine by buying import capacity at key EU import terminals and pipelines.

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Ukraine’s Hungarians in spotlight as Orbán threatens to block EU accession

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In Hungarian-majority villages in Zakarpattia region, many feel little connection to the war and side with Hungarian leader

In the village of Bodalovo, the clock in almost every home is set to Budapest time. The televisions are tuned to M1, Hungary’s main government-controlled news channel, which portrays the world as seen by the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán. The language spoken on the street, in the church and at the school is Hungarian.

Yet Bodalovo is in the far western corner of Ukraine. It is one of numerous villages in the Zakarpattia region populated almost entirely by ethnic Hungarians. And as Orbán threatens to veto plans to begin EU accession negotiations for Ukraine next week, Ukraine’s small Hungarian community is in the spotlight.

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls for ‘glass half full’ view as he meets Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens – Europe live

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Erdoğan told the Greek head of state that his visit to Athens hailed the start of a new era between the two countries

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, cannot be allowed to “blackmail” the rest of the EU by threatening to block Ukraine membership talks unless it releases withheld funds to Hungary, centre-left MEPs have said.

“This is a make or break moment for the EU,” said Pedro Marques, vice chair of the Socialist and Democratic group in the European parliament.

At a moment in which the US Congress has just outvoted a proposal by Joe Biden to continue to support Ukraine, we cannot put ourselves in a situation where the Ukrainians see that we are also not capable of continuing to assist them.

It also not acceptable, from my point of view, that anyone gets the perception that at the end of next week, Orbán got his way and got his €30bn in exchange for allowing the EU to continue to assist Ukraine.

Ministers of the two countries will have constructive meetings. We’ll discuss what steps we can take on all issues. Preparations have been made by ministers … I believe it will be better for the future of both sides to speak seeing the glass half full.

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EU must face legacy of colonialism and support reparations, say MEPs

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Draft resolution to European parliament committee is first formal attempt to place reparations for slavery on EU agenda

The European Union should urgently address and reverse the lasting impacts of European colonialism and support a reparations programme to rectify continuing injustices, according to a draft resolution to be presented to the European parliament’s development committee.

Noting that the EU has made “no concerted efforts to recognise, address and rectify the lasting effects of European colonialism on social and international inequities”, the draft resolution calls for the creation of a permanent EU forum on restorative justice.

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EU set to suspend Brexit tariffs on EVs for three years in major boost for car industry

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Commission moves to delay 10% sales charge after intense lobbying by EU and UK carmakers

The European Commission looks set to propose a three-year delay to a 10% tariff on sales of electric vehicles between the EU and the UK, in a major boost for car industries across Europe.

Duties were due to kick in on 1 January 2024 but all the major carmakers in the UK and Europe including BMW, Volkswagen and Stellantis have been lobbying for a temporary reprieve.

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EU expected to issue veiled warning to China over supply of cut-cost goods

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European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping at summit on Thursday

The EU is to tell China that its €400bn (£343bn) trade deficit is not sustainable long term amid fears that it will flood the bloc with subsidised electric cars, solar panels and medical devices, threatening European manufacturing and jobs.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, and Charles Michel, the European Council president, will meet Xi Jinping at a summit on Thursday, the second of its kind this year.

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EU must not ‘appease’ Viktor Orbán by unfreezing billions earmarked for Hungary

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Commission may be prepared to to give Budapest €10bn after leader threatens to derail EU plans to open accession talks with Ukraine

The European Commission has been urged not to “appease” Viktor Orbán by unfreezing billions of euros for Budapest, as the Hungarian prime minister threatens to derail EU plans to open accession talks with Ukraine and grant Kyiv fresh aid.

The Hungarian government’s moves in recent years to undermine independent institutions, as well as concerns about corruption and alleged misuse of European funds, have led Brussels to withhold over €27bn (£23bn) earmarked for Hungary.

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Brexit-backer Richard Desmond invokes EU law to sue Gambling Commission

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Ex-Express owner is expected to claim regulator made errors during bidding war for national lottery contract

Richard Desmond, the Brexit-backing media tycoon, is invoking EU law to sue the gambling regulator after it rejected his “fanciful” bid to run the national lottery, in a suit that could deprive good causes of millions of pounds.

The former owner of the Daily Express has vowed previously to seek damages from the Gambling Commission after his company Northern & Shell missed out on a 10-year contract, worth £6.5bn, to run the lottery from next year.

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‘Alone you are weak’: top German politician calls for closer links between UK and EU

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Martin Schulz, former leader of Germany’s ruling SPD, says the Brexit divide is harming efforts to solve international crises

A leading figure in Germany’s ruling Social Democratic party (SPD) has called for far closer links between the UK and the European Union, amid rising concerns the Brexit divide is harming efforts to solve international crises, including mass migration.

Martin Schulz, a former SPD leader and candidate to be chancellor of Germany, said it was vital that regular meetings, known in EU jargon as “structured dialogue”, be set up to bind the UK closer to the EU – and Germany – once again.

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World’s biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor launched in Japan

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Joint project with EU involves more than 500 scientists and engineers and more than 70 companies

The world’s biggest operational experimental nuclear fusion reactor – a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity’s future energy needs – has been inaugurated in Naka, Japan.

Fusion differs from fission, the technique used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one.

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European officials ‘deeply concerned’ for Muslims amid surge in attacks

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Representatives from 10 countries sign statement warning of rising hate crimes against Muslims and Jews

Anti-racism officials across Europe have called on law enforcement agencies to remain alert for hate crimes against Muslims and “spare no effort” to protect them, in one of the first statements aimed at addressing a rise in Islamophobia amid the Israel-Hamas war.

The statement, signed by representatives from 10 European countries as well as EU officials, notes the rising number of hate crimes, hate speech and threats to civil liberties that have targeted Muslim and Jewish communities across Europe in recent months. Both “have become targets of physical and verbal attacks”, with people feeling “more and more unsafe and threatened, online and offline”, it read.

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Younger Britons are more pro-EU but ‘fixing’ Brexit not their priority

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Ursula von der Leyen hopes young people can drive a rapprochement but polls show they have other things on their minds

“We goofed it up, you have to fix it,” the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday in a message to the younger generation about Brexit.

Fixing it would be “the direction of travel” with regard to the UK rejoining the EU, she told an audience in Brussels. But as the fourth anniversary of Brexit approaches, is it likely that Britain’s millennials and generation Z will demand a rapprochement?

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EU hatches backup plan to lessen impact of 10% Brexit tariff on EVs

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Exclusive: ‘Cushion’ for carmakers facing looming tariff under deal for vehicles traded between EU and UK from start of 2024

The European Commission has hatched confidential Plan B proposals to “cushion” the impact of a looming 10% tariff on imports and exports of electric vehicles, the Guardian has learned.

The proposal was presented to member states on Monday in response to pressure from carmakers to amend some of the conditions imposed when the UK left the EU in January 2021.

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Sunak rejects von der Leyen’s comments that UK could rejoin EU

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European Commission president said Brexit could be fixed because leaders had ‘goofed it up’

Rishi Sunak has rejected the suggestion that Brexit could be in peril after Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, claimed that the UK could be on a path to rejoining the European Union.

At an event in Brussels on Tuesday night, von der Leyen admitted that European leaders had “goofed up” over the departure of Britain from the bloc and suggested the younger generation could “fix” it.

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Government offices in EU can ban wearing of religious symbols, court rules

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Decision made in case of Muslim employee in Belgium states that restrictions must be applied equally

Government offices across the EU can ban employees from wearing religious symbols, such as Islamic headscarves, in the interest of neutrality, the EU’s top court has ruled, though it stressed that such restrictions must be applied equally to all employees and fit within the legal context of each member state.

The decision, published by the court of justice of the European Union on Tuesday, said such bans were permissible in order to enforce an “entirely neutral administrative environment”.

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Parthenon marbles row raises fresh fears over fraught UK-EU relations

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War of words between Athens and London escalates after Rishi Sunak’s snub to Greek prime minister

Rishi Sunak’s snub of his Greek counterpart over the Parthenon marbles raised fresh questions about Britain’s fraught relations with its European neighbours as a war of words between Athens and London escalated on Tuesday.

A meeting on Tuesday between Sunak and Kyriakos Mitsotakis was cancelled because the Greek prime minister reneged on assurances that he would not use a UK visit as a “public platform” to lobby for the return of the marbles to Athens, Downing Street said. The Greek side has denied any such assurances were given.

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Fivefold rise in number of EU citizens refused entry to UK since Brexit

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Home Office data reveals impact of end of free movement and raises questions over Border Force hostility

The number of EU citizens refused entry to the UK since Brexit has increased fivefold, Home Office figures show.

In the first three quarters of 2019 just over 2,200 people from the EU were turned away at the border – compared with 11,600 in the first three quarters of 2023.

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Toxic air killed more than 500,000 people in EU in 2021, data shows

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European Environment Agency says half of deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to recommended limits

Dirty air killed more than half a million people in the EU in 2021, estimates show, and about half of the deaths could have been avoided by cutting pollution to the limits recommended by doctors.

The researchers from the European Environment Agency attributed 253,000 early deaths to concentrations of fine particulates known as PM2.5 that breached the World Health Organization’s maximum guideline limits of 5µg/m3. A further 52,000 deaths came from excessive levels of nitrogen dioxide and 22,000 deaths from short-term exposure to excessive levels of ozone.

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