European Union

A local prosecutor's office in Poland on Tuesday (18 January) launched proceedings in a case involving a senior opposition figure's phone being hacked by spyware developed by Israel-based NSO Group.

The European Commission's strategy to phase out combustion engines in favour of electric vehicles is a political choice that carries environmental and social risks, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in an interview with European newspapers.

Studies of pregnant women found the two most widely used COVID vaccines pose no risk to mothers or babies, the EU's drug regulator said on Tuesday (18 January).

While MEPs are busy in Strasbourg with the mid-term renewal of high-level roles in the European Parliament, parties are asking themselves how to give health more room in parliamentary business.

During her official visit to Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke of "fundamental disagreements" with Russia, but spoke positively of Russia's agreement to revive the Normandy format.

Following the 2008 economic crisis, the EU socialists almost collapsed in successive elections across the bloc. Back then, they put the blame on the “grand coalition” they had formed with the centre-right.

Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi said on Tuesday (18 January) the situation in his country was normalising, following the unrest that shook it in the first days of the new year, and Russian troops, which he said helped prevent a possible coup d'etat, were withdrawing.

On 24 January, the Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold a hearing on multilateralism. MEPs will discuss with leading experts and practitioners the role which the EU should play in promoting a rules-based, networked and effective multilateralism, as well as those policy tools which could make the EU more effective in this role.
Location : ANTALL 2Q2
Draft Programme
Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2022 - EP

Maltese centre-right MEP Roberta Metsola on Tuesday was elected the European Parliament's new president, in the first ballot with 458 votes. She is the first woman in 20 years to take the helm of the 705-member assembly. She has been criticised for her anti-abortion stance, although she pledged she will represent the parliament's view on reproductive rights. Metsola succeeds Italian socialist David Sassoli, who died earlier this month.

EU countries who fail to fulfil their emissions cut pledges should be fined, the European parliament's lead negotiator on climate policy, Swedish centre-right MEP Jessica Polfjard, has said. "Member states who don't reach their climate targets must face consequences," she said Monday, Reuters reports. But the idea could hurt poorer EU states with larger coal sectors. And Poland and Bulgaria have not even set national net-zero emissions targets yet.

Russia already has "hundreds" of mercenaries in Mali, but there was no sign they were using EU-trained Malian soldiers, an EU spokesperson has said.

The EU has urged Russia to free Alexei Navalny on the one-year anniversary of his arrest. "We reiterate our call on the Russian authorities for his immediate and unconditional release without further delay," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday. The anti-corruption activist was detained for a parole violation after recovering from an assassination attempt using a chemical weapon. He is serving a two-and-a-half year sentence.

The European Parliament honoured the memory of the late parliament president, David Sassoli, at a plenary session in Strasbourg on Monday. Sassoli died on 11 January after months of health issues. French president Emmanuel Macron described Sassoli as "a man of rare benevolence" whose "ideas and vision were large enough for a continent." European Council president Charles Michel and former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta also spoke at the ceremony.

Sweden's security services are investigating three incidents involving unidentified drones above its Frosmarks, Oskarshamn, and Ringhals nuclear power plants last Friday. Sweden's military, last week, also reinforced patrols on and around its Baltic Sea island of Gotland amid a dramatic spike in Nato-Russia tensions. "Security threats against Sweden have increased with a ... more complex threat picture," the security service said in a statement on Monday.

EU officials on Monday removed Argentina, Australia and Canada from the EU's 'whitelist' of countries for which it recommends no Covid-linked travel restrictions. As of Monday, member states are expected to gradually lift travel restrictions at the external borders for residents coming from Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and China. The list is updated regularly.

"Each further aggressive act will have a high price for Russia, economically, strategically, politically," German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said in Kyiv Monday, prior to meeting Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow Tuesday. Her visit is one of few high-level EU-Russia contacts on Russia's war-threats. But senior German politicians are against harsh Russia sanctions, such as stopping the Nord Stream 2 pipeline or blocking it from 'Swift' international payments.

Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic would be banned from playing in the French Open tournament in May under current rules, the French sports ministry said Monday. Djokovic refuses to get vaccinated, but under a new vaccine-pass law adopted by French MPs Sunday he would be barred from taking part, it told Reuters. "This will apply to everyone who is a spectator or a professional sportsperson ... no exemption," France said.

A French court on Monday fined far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour €10,000 for inciting racial hatred over his remarks to the CNews broadcaster in 2020. "They're thieves, they're killers, they're rapists ... they should be sent back," Zemmour had said of migrants who were unaccompanied minors. Zemmour is polling fourth behind president Emmanuel Macron, conservative contender Valérie Pécresse, and the far-right Marine Le Pen ahead of April's vote, Reuters reports.

The commission is expected to come forward with concrete proposals in the next months, and the debate is likely to heat up in June.