Category Archives: European Union

Ursula von der Leyen says ‘direction of travel’ is EU membership for Ukraine

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European Commission head is seeking to curb Russian influence in central and eastern Europe

The EU has said it will be impossible to envisage a future for the bloc without Ukraine and Moldova as members, in part to reduce Russian influence in east and central Europe.

While other countries such as Romania and Bulgaria took 11 years to become members of the EU, joining in 2007, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, hinted the future of the new accession candidates will be swiftly decided.

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EU softens China strategy by adopting ‘de-risking’ approach

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Decision agreed quickly at Brussels summit of leaders as bloc highlights vulnerability of supply chains

EU leaders have launched a policy towards China of “de-risking”, a softening of its unofficial “decoupling” approach that reflects concerns over the economic damage of cutting off the world’s second-biggest economy or entering a trade war with it.

The decision was agreed quickly at a summit of leaders in Brussels after the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, went into the summit with consensus among the 27 member states.

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EU looks to Egypt partnership to tackle people-smuggling networks

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Leaders already exploring plans with other African nations to tackle root causes of migration-related deaths

The EU may seek a new wide-ranging partnership with Egypt including measures to stem irregular migration and break criminal people-smuggling networks.

EU leaders are already exploring plans beyond a looming €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to other countries in Africa as part of a wider bid to tackle the root causes of migration-related deaths and disappearances.

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EU’s flagship nature laws in jeopardy after voting stalemate

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Nature Restoration Law vote tied at 44 in favour and 44 against amid claims of lies and fake news

The future of the EU’s flagship environment laws are again hanging by a thread with a cliffhanger vote, flared tempers and accusations of lies, fake news and manipulation of voting in the European parliament.

Emotions were running high after voting on the European parliament committee steering through the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) ended in a dead heat on Tuesday, with 44 votes in favour and 44 against. It can now progress to a vote of the full parliament in a plenary session in July.

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Labour puts pressure on government over frozen Russian assets plan

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Party to use opposition debate to call for workable proposals, saying Moscow must pay for destruction in Ukraine

Labour has made a partial break from the government over its Ukraine policy by demanding ministers come up with a plan to freeze Russian assets within 90 days. It is also demanding a deadline is set after which it will be a criminal offence to fail to disclose information about the whereabouts of Russian assets.

Labour, which has been reluctant to make public any differences with the government over the Ukraine war, has decided to put pressure on ministers, believing other countries are ahead of the UK with plans to seize Russian assets.

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EU accused of whitewashing Tunisian regime in bid to stem migration

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Bloc is set to give country £860m despite rapid erosion of democracy since President Kais Saied took power in 2021

The children of prominent jailed Tunisian judges and politicians have accused the European Union of betraying its values by whitewashing the regime of President Kais Saied in the vain hope that he can stem the flow of migrants to Europe.

The EU is set to provide Tunisia with €1bn (£860m) in aid despite the obliteration of democracy in the country over the past two years.

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Prigozhin mutiny was monster acting against his creator, says top EU diplomat

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Josep Borrell says Putin is facing consequences of working with Wagner and Russian military power ‘is cracking’

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny in Russia was “the monster acting against his creator”, the EU’s foreign policy chief has said.

“The political system is showing fragilities, and the military power is cracking,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Luxembourg as he arrived for a meeting with ministers from across the 27-member bloc.

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London mayor’s office ‘banned’ from flying EU flag on referendum anniversary

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Exclusive: A change in planning rules has stopped the EU flag from being raised, say City Hall sources

Ministers have been accused of criminalising the flying of the European Union flag on government buildings in England after London’s City Hall was told it could be prosecuted for displaying it on the anniversary of the Brexit referendum.

Seven years after the referendum on leaving the EU, the Greater London authority (GLA) had planned to fly the flag on Friday but officials were advised that under the latest regulations they would need to secure permission from the local authority.

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Draft EU plans to allow spying on journalists are dangerous, warn critics

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Move to allow spyware to be placed on reporters’ phones would have a ‘chilling effect’, say media experts

Draft legislation published by EU leaders that would allow national security agencies to spy on journalists has been condemned by media and civic society groups as dangerous and described by a leading MEP as “incomprehensible”.

On Wednesday, the European Council – which represents the governments of EU member states – published a draft of the European Media Freedom Act that would allow spyware to be placed on journalists’ phones if a national government thought it necessary.

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Ukraine lacks capacity to process huge sums in aid, official admits

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Largest amount of money Kyiv previously worked with was $6bn a year in 2014, Mustafa Nayyem says

Ukraine will struggle to absorb the expected billions of western private and public sector aid for its recovery not due to corruption, but a simple lack of capacity to process and invest such huge sums, a senior Ukraine official has said on the eve of the UK-sponsored Ukraine recovery conference in London.

“It is about the capacity to work with this amount of money,” said Mustafa Nayyem, the head of the Ukraine State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development.

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Lack of consensus on next Nato chief could lead to Stoltenberg staying on

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Disagreement over possible successors may mean secretary general is asked to remain in role at next month’s summit in Lithuania

Political disagreements, vetoes and personal reluctance make it increasingly likely that the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, will be asked to remain in post for another year at the Nato summit in Lithuania next month.

It would be the third time the former Norwegian prime minister has been asked to extend his almost 10-year term.

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EU countries accuse TfL debt collectors of breaching data protection laws over London penalty fines

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Belgium and Dutch vehicle licensing agency say citizens’ details obtained unlawfully to issue driving fines

Two EU countries have accused Transport for London’s debt collection agency of breaching data protection laws to obtain the names and addresses of citizens in order to issue fines for driving in the capital.

Motorists from across Europe have been hit with penalties, some totalling thousands of pounds, for driving in London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez). Penalty notices are being sent to foreign motorists who enter the capital without pre-registering their vehicle, and the Guardian has revealed hundreds of drivers have been fined despite driving emissions-compliant cars.

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UK delis could be forced to put up prices after new Brexit tax

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Plan to charge £43 per consignment could see some small businesses struggle to stay open

Many UK businesses which import food products from the European Union will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops such as delicatessens, under proposals set out by the government last week.

The planned charge of £43 per consignment, outlined in a consultation document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), was described on Saturday by a leading industry figure as “the sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime” that was already fuelling inflation.

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Norwegian Roxy Music model Kari-Ann Moller fights to stay in UK after Brexit

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Husband, Chris Jagger, uses 1972 album cover to support settlement application for Moller, who has lived in UK for 74 years

As a result of Brexit, Norwegians living in the UK were required to apply to the EU settlement scheme – despite Norway not being a member state – to remain living in Britain.

But after former model turned yoga teacher Kari-Ann Moller was stopped by British immigration officials earlier this year and told she was not allowed to remain because of her Norwegian passport, her husband, Chris Jagger – brother of Rolling Stone Sir Mick – got involved.

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Greece shipwreck: hopes of finding survivors fade on final day of search

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Nine suspects expected to face court as search enters third day and initial response to disaster is criticised

Rescuers have launched the third and final day of their search for survivors of one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters, as authorities detained nine suspected people-smugglers and criticism of Greece’s initial response mounted.

The Greek coastguard said on Friday a helicopter, a frigate and three smaller vessels were searching waters 50 miles (80 km) from the southern town of Pylos where the fishing boat, reportedly carrying between 400 and 750 people, sank on Wednesday.

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Tesco boss: food inflation has probably peaked but prices will stay high

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Ken Murphy says higher costs of grocery imports because of Brexit are partly to blame for rising prices

The chief executive of Tesco has said food inflation has probably peaked but warns that prices are likely to stay high.

Ken Murphy, the head of the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, said the price of milk, bread, cooking oil and some vegetables such as broccoli had come down this month but inflation continued in other essentials, including rice and potatoes, as aweather issues and locked-in increases in the price of labour and energy continued to bite.

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EU regulator orders Google to sell part of ad-tech business

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Competition commission accuses firm of favouring its own services to detriment of rivals

The EU has ordered Google to sell part of its advertising business, as the bloc’s competition regulator steps up its enforcement of big tech’s monopolies.

The competition commission said it had taken issue “with Google favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers”.

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Massive strike pits African fishers against ‘superprofitable’ EU firms

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About 2,000 crew members withdrew labour over pay and conditions, as well as citing serious breaches of overfishing rules by Spanish and French companies

The waters of west Africa and the Indian Ocean boast some of the world’s largest, healthiest populations of tropical tuna, and that makes them havens for industrial tuna fishing fleets, owned by countries vastly richer than the nations whose borders form these coastlines.

In order to protect the fish populations of poorer African nations from rapacious overfishing by richer countries, EU tuna vessels are bound by agreements centred on the sustainability and “social empowerment” of third countries.

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Discrimination is a bigger AI risk than human extinction – EU commissioner

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Commissioner says existential threat unlikely, but ‘guardrails’ needed for decisions affecting livelihoods

Discrimination is a bigger threat posed by artificial intelligence than possible extinction of the human race, according to the EU’s competition commissioner.

Margrethe Vestager said although the existential risk from advances in AI may be a concern, it was unlikely, whereas discrimination from the technology was a real problem.

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EU may give Tunisia more than €1bn in aid to help finances and stem migration

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Ursula von der Leyen says €900m will be macrofinancial assistance while €105m will help combat people-smuggling

The European Union is considering providing more than €1bn (£850m) in aid for Tunisia to rescue state finances and deal with a migration crisis, the EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.

Speaking in Tunisia, Von der Leyen said €900m would be macrofinancial assistance while an immediate €150m would support a reform agenda set by the International Monetary Fund.

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