European Union

EU Council president Charles Michel told EU Parliament group chiefs Tuesday he "regretted" the incident in Ankara last week in which EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was not given a chair, in what looked like a sexist insult, according to an AFP source. Michel also put forward a plan for "seating arrangements" and "speaking slots" that would ensure "dignified treatment of both presidents" in future, Politico reported.

Nato and the US have put on a show of solidarity with Ukraine over Russia's military build-up, with American president Joe Biden offering to hold a summit with Russia to defuse tensions.

The European Parliament will examine the European Commission’s sizeable expenditure on big consultancy firms, recently revealed by EURACTIV.com, and propose a different approach to limit their influence in structural reforms, the chair of the Parliament’s budgetary control committee has said. 

The digital platform aiming to allow European citizens to share and debate ideas will start next Monday. Some MEPs criticised the rushed rolling out of the digital platform.

Spain plans to invest 68% of its share of the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund in ecological transition and digitalisation between 2021 and 2023, EURACTIV’s partner EuroEFE reports.

Libya has freed a man under UN sanctions for trafficking and drowning migrants, Abd al-Rahman Milad, due to "lack of evidence" in his trial, The Guardian reports. "It's absurd Italy gives money to Libya's coastguard - [a] country that released a trafficker who threatened two Italian citizens," Nello Scavo, one of two Italian journalists under police protection after being threatened by al-Rahman Milad because they wrote articles about him, said.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the right to liberty and freedom of expression of Turkish journalist and author Ahmet Altan had been violated due to his detention and imprisonment on charges related to the 2016 coup attempt, Ekathimerini writes. Altan, 71, was detained over allegations that he disseminated subliminal messages related to the coup attempt during a TV programme, and articles criticising the government.

A report published by the European Court of Auditors on Tuesday revealed the EU is still far from reaching its Green Deal target of having one million charging points for electric vehicles by 2025. EU auditors recommend the European Commission to set out a strategic roadmap to meet charging infrastructure targets since 150,000 new charging points would be needed each year (almost 3,000 a week) to close the gap.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Moscow expected the Iranian nuclear deal to be saved and condemned EU sanctions against Iran, saying they could undermine ongoing nuclear talks, Deutsche Welle reports. "We expect that it will be possible to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)," Lavrov said, referring to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, after talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran.

The European Commission is seeking clarification from Johnson & Johnson about the company's "completely unexpected" announcement of delays in COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to the EU, an EU official told Reuters on Tuesday (13 April).

France suspended all flights from Brazil on Tuesday amid mounting fears over the particularly contagious Covid-19 variant. "We note that the situation is getting worse and so we have decided to suspend all flights between Brazil and France until further notice," prime minister Jean Castex told parliament. The P.1 variant is causing havoc in Latin America's largest nation and increasingly raising alarm bells in Europe.

Johnson & Johnson said it has decided to delay the roll-out of its Covid-19 vaccine in Europe, after a recommendation by US health authorities for a "pause" in administering the one-shot vaccine after reports of very rare cases where recipients developed blood clots. The firm said it was reviewing the data with US authorities, DPA reported. The company had started the vaccine roll-out on Monday in the EU.

Germany's federal government on Tuesday agreed on controversial changes to national law, after several states failed to control the third wave of the pandemic, the AFP reported. The law would allow chancellor Angela Merkel's government to introduce nationwide curfews from 9 pm to 5 am, limit private gatherings, and close schools and enterprises in regions with high infection rates. The bill still needs to be approved by parliament.

Denmark is stripping Syrians of residency rights - the first country in the EU to do so - amid threats to deport them back home. The EU did not comment directly, but warned that Syria is not safe.

While most MEPs have been vocal in support of the proposal by the European Commission for EU-wide vaccine certificates, key questions remain - ranging from fundamental rights, to its scientific validity.

Of the €30bn allocated to Romania under the EU recovery fund, just four percent is slated to go to renewable energy and energy-efficiency. Despite the pressing need to decarbonise Romania's heat and power sectors, this is not an investment priority.

Happy Ramadan? The UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief warned the Human Rights Council last month that institutional suspicion of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim has escalated to "epidemic proportions" worldwide.

We often talk about the need to establish a relationship between equals in our partnership with Africa. This paradigm needs to be more than a declaration of good intentions

Italy aims to spend almost 7 billion euros ($8.33 billion) in European recovery funds on ultra-fast networks, up 60% from a previous goal, as ministers lay out alternatives to a long-delayed single national broadband plan, sources told Reuters.

“Local and regional governments represent a key partner for the EU Delegations” writes Frédéric Vallier, Secretary General of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), on behalf of PLATFORMA. He signed the foreword of a study on EU Delegations...