European Union

The EU has so far been hesitant to show support for either side in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict for fear of jeopardising the peace process. EU foreign ministers will hold an extraordinary videoconference on Tuesday (18 May) in search of...

Portugal will open to tourists from nearly all European countries from Monday (17 May), the interior ministry said, following months of restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

There is a parallel between the position in which the European Union is today and that in which Ireland found itself in 2001 following the rejection of the Nice Treaty in a referendum, writes Dick Roche, commenting on the Conference on the Future of Europe.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday (16 May) it is "imperative" for Israelis and Palestinians to stop fighting and resume talks ahead of an emergency meeting this week with his EU counterparts.

Europe's carbon border levy to increase the cost of carbon-intensive goods entering the EU could push the Global South towards less restrictive trade deals, ultimately causing more harm to the environment, writes Muhammed Magassy.

The World Health Organization urged rich countries on Friday (14 May) to reconsider plans to vaccinate children and instead donate COVID-19 shots to the COVAX scheme that shares them with poorer nations. The WHO is hoping more countries will follow...

The European Union already has the right conditions in place for a "safe reopening" of tourism in the summer, its commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton, said on Friday (14 May), while warning that the recovery of the sector "will still take time" after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Russian Ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, discussed the current tensions against the background of purported covert operations by Russian military intelligence GRU on EU soil, jailed dissident Alexei Navalny, the Sputnik vaccine, and the upcoming Economic Forum in St Petersburg.

NATO member Turkey has submitted an application to participate in one of the EU's Dutch-led military project on military mobility, despite tense relations with Greece and Cyprus. While the request is being reviewed, EU diplomats are split over Ankara's possible participation.

US-origin conspiracy theories about the pandemic are spreading on social media and pose a security risk in Europe, according to an AFP investigation. Some 30,000 people in France follow the 'DeQodeurs' conspiracy group on Telegram, another 100,000 follow German demagogues Attila Hildmann and Xavier Naidoo, and 150,000 follow UK conspiracist Charlie Ward. "People are organising in clandestine cells. Obviously it is a threat," French national intelligence coordinator Laurent Nunez said.

Ireland's data regulator can resume a probe that may trigger a ban on Facebook's transatlantic data transfers, the High Court ruled, raising the prospect of a stoppage that the company warns would have a devastating impact on its business.

Sales of vans between 2017 and 2020 showed no reduction in CO2 emissions because EU laws were so weak manufacturers could meet them without selling a single electric-powered vehicle, according to green NGO Transport & Environment. "With pathetic CO2 targets, the boom in e-commerce is becoming a nightmare for our planet," it said. Hybrid vehicles, which should stop being made, see owners rely almost exclusively on fossil-fuel engines, it added.

Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore urged the G7 countries and the EU to donate 150 million vaccines to the Covax vaccine-sharing scheme to bridge the gap in supplies caused by curbs imposed by Indian authorities, as the country battles one of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks, Deutsche Welle reports. "Sharing immediately available excess doses is a minimum, essential and emergency stop-gap measure, and it is needed right now," Fore said.

The Spanish government has admitted it made mistakes in the early days of the pandemic in a report by the National Security body, Spanish media reported. EURACTIV's partner EuroEFE reports.

Belgian politicians have raised security concerns over plans by state-owned Chinese firm Alibaba to build a €100m logistics centre at an airport in the town of Liège. "Chinese intelligence officers could have access to sensitive and secure areas of the airport … The future economic importance of Liège airport to China can't be underestimated," Belgian justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said at a parliamentary hearing last week.

The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia's Tigray region is worse than ever since the conflict began last November, with 5.2 million people needing "emergency food assistance" to "avoid starvation", the EU foreign service has said. Blocking "humanitarian aid as a weapon of war is a grave violation of international humanitarian law", it added, amid previous EU threats to hold Ethiopian officials accountable by putting them under EU visa-bans and asset-freezes.

The EU has "deplored" Russia's designation of the Czech Republic as an "unfriendly state" in April, saying the move went against the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and would cause "further deterioration" in relations. Russia's listing means it can ban the Czech embassy from posting diplomats and hiring local staff. It follows diplomatic expulsions by both sides over a lethal Russian bomb attack in the Czech Republic in 2014.

The British government has instructed border guards to stop locking up EU nationals who entered without a visa in migrant detention centres, following several cases of harsh treatment publicised in UK media. "We have updated our guidance to clarify that overseas nationals, including EU citizens, who have been refused entry to the UK and are awaiting removal, should be granted immigration bail, where appropriate," a Home Office spokesman said.

The UK has agreed to host Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadžić in a high-security prison for the rest of the 75-year old's life sentence, despite fears, voiced by his lawyer, that Muslim inmates in Britain would target him for revenge attacks. The deal between the international tribunal in The Hague and London is the sixth of its type. The UK did not say when or where he would be moved.

Impunity from international sanctions is allowing Israel to create "horror" in Gaza, Hanan Ashrawi, a former top Palestinian official has said.