European Union

The pushback from EU countries against the European Commission's new forest strategy, which seeks to protect biodiversity and enhance the role of trees in capturing CO2, has been "hyperbolic", according to the forestry NGO Fern.

The world's economy is currently a free rider on the vital services forests provide. This system needs to be replaced by investment into forest protection which sees trees as what they are - the natural infrastructure our economy is dependent on, argues Daniel J. Zarin.

The top US military officer, General Mark Milley, has provided the first official US confirmation of a Chinese hypersonic weapons test that military experts say appears to show Beijing's pursuit of an Earth-orbiting system designed to evade American missile defenses.

The director of CINEA, a recently-established EU agency managing €55 billion in EU funding for clean energy and transport, told EURACTIV about the challenge of ending fossil fuel projects entirely, saying coal and natural gas assets “are not simply going to go away” and need to be managed during the transition.

Over the past few months, corridor gossip has spread about an alleged Commission proposal for a 5,000 unit-strong EU “initial entry force”. Political will is both the main trigger and obstacle in the process, write Francesca Romana D'Antuono, Reinier van Lanschot, and Emile Fabre.

In today's news from the Capitals, find out more about one in five hospital beds in France having to close due to labour shortages, Czechia not making the vaccine mandatory for workers, and so much more.

The criteria for designing e-commerce platforms as gatekeepers do not reflect their business model, according to a letter signed by eight European technology companies including Booking, Allegro and Zalando.

Iran said Wednesday (27 October) it will resume talks with world powers in November on reviving a nuclear deal after a five-month gap in the face of mounting warnings that international patience was wearing thin.

The COVID-19 pandemic was much more than a health crisis for Europe, which means it needs to transform from rule-political machinery to a political body able to deal with unexpected events, political philosopher and historian Luuk van Middelaar told EURACTIV.

The ruling Socialist Party boycotted, for the third time, on Wednesday (27 October), a meeting with a committee set up to investigate possible abuse of central and local public administration in the run-up to the April general elections. Opposition parties...

The European Commission has called for the depoliticisation of sport after Serbia prevented Kosovo’s team from participating in the 2021 World Boxing Championship being held in Belgrade. Commission spokesperson Peter Stano said that “the Kosovo Boxing Association [should] not be treated differently...

A French government spokesman has threatened "systematic customs and sanitary checks on products brought to France and a ban on landing seafood" at French ports, a major UK gateway to EU markets, saying Britain had granted French fishermen just half the licences agreed under Brexit. A French minister also warned on cutting electricity to British Channel Islands. The UK threatened to hit back at any sanctions with a "calibrated response".

Israel, Wednesday, gave the green light to build some 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank, according to TV broadcaster Kan and NGO Peace Now. The move came shortly after the EU and US condemned Sunday's decision to build 1,350 settler homes. Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney also said Wednesday Israel was wrong to "unjustifiably undermine civil liberties" by using counter-terrorism laws against six Irish and EU-funded Palestinian NGOs.

The Italian senate voted by 154 to 131 on Wednesday to block a new law criminalising homophobic and misogynist attacks as well as violence against disabled people. Far-right parties had said it would lead to "homosexual propaganda" and the Vatican had said it would curb "freedom of thought". But for Pina Picierno, a centre-left MEP, the decision was "one of the worst pages in the history of the Italian republic".

EU countries blocked mention of waiving vaccine patents to help fight the pandemic at a meeting in Africa, overshadowed by the Sudan coup.

Political commitment to decentralisation is observed in North Macedonia, but more clarity in law and practice is needed to further improve the decentralisation reform in the country, according to a recommendation adopted by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional...

An EU source close to the issue has told EURACTIV that the European Commission is mulling partly backing off on its demands and may concentrate on just one - abolishing the Disciplinary Chamber. 

Serbian virologist Dr. Milanko Šekler said on Wednesday (27 October) that only an around-the-clock use of the COVID-19 pass would “make sense”. But Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić stated that such passes would not be needed for the time being....

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel on Wednesday (27 October) admitted he should have acted "differently" after accusations he plagiarised swathes of his university thesis.

The EU Commission has agreed a €60m grant for Moldova to help its pro-EU government deal with an energy crisis linked to hard-nosed bargaining by Russia. "The grant ... is great news for the Moldovan people," Moldovan prime minister Natalia Gavrilița said Wednesday. The FT recently reported Russia's Gazprom had asked Chișinău to dilute an EU trade treaty in return for securing supplies, but the Kremlin denied the report.