European Union

As the EU continues to deal with the impact of the pandemic, while delivering on priorities such as fighting climate change, here’s what to look out for in 2021.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

As the EU continues to deal with the impact of the pandemic, while delivering on priorities such as fighting climate change, here’s what to look out for in 2021.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen held a leaders’ meeting with China, represented by President Xi Jinping, via videoconference on 30 December 2020. The meeting focused in particular on progress achieved on negotiations on investment.

European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement in Brussels on behalf of the European Union.

EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Council adopts decision on the signing

President Charles Michel spoke with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson following the agreement reached on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 28 December 2020 - 3 January 2021

The EU issued a declaration expressing concern about the humanitarian situation, and the allegations of human rights violations and ethnic targeting in Ethiopia.

European Council President Charles Michel welcomes the agreement on the future EU-UK relationship as major step forward.

The Council prolonged the mandate of its two Common Security and Defence Policy missions in Somalia: the civilian capacity-building mission EUCAP Somalia, and the military training mission EUTM Somalia, until 31 December 2022.

The turn of the year has brought me something I never envisaged at the beginning of 2020: residency in Portugal. The certificate available to British citizens who arrived before the end of the transition period on December 31st gives me the right to spend five years in the country, at which point I can renew it or apply for Portuguese citizenship.

While I’ve made no firm decisions about where I’m going to be in the long term, for a time at least I’m joining what Samantha North calls ‘digital émigrés‘ – a growing group of international professionals who, being able to work remotely, up sticks and go abroad because they find their home country no longer suits them. They’re a more settled variant of the digital nomads which Lisbon has increasingly been attracting: cosmopolitan, welcoming to foreigners and – apart from the cost of accommodation – inexpensive, the Portuguese capital has sun, sea and co-working spaces.

Some of the more recent arrivals may be part of the Brexodus trend which has led British citizens to secure their right to live in another European country before the UK’s departure from the European Union. ‘Brexiles’ sometimes attribute their decision to a change in perception of the UK, their faith in a tolerant, cosmopolitan society replaced by a view of an insular country wary of foreigners.

In reality, of course, each person’s decision to uproot and go elsewhere is made up of myriad factors and feelings, not least their particular circumstances at the time. Life in a foreign country carries irremediable challenges: no matter how well you integrate, master the language or love your adopted country, you are always an incomer. That’s why, having been tempted by several other countries, I’ve always decided, in the end, that home was home. Living in Britain assured me the comfort of communicating in my native language and being surrounded by familiar cultural references. I also had the profound sense of safety that comes from the conviction that your society is liberal, humane and stable.

So it’s a surprise to find myself contemplating life in another country for the first time. My last minute dash for Portuguese residency, just three weeks before the Brexit deadline, wasn’t just because I’d lost my face-to-face work during the pandemic and, like many others, the ability to do things important to me. It was also due to what the UK’s Covid response revealed about the country’s priorities and values. Theatres and performance venues have been shut down without the compensation that would ensure their survival, and millions of freelance, creative people have been excluded from the generous financial support offered to the majority. Cafes, restaurants and pubs have been subject to so many restrictions and on-off closures that it’s likely that many will never re-open. It all adds up to a society which places little value on the kinds of shared experience and communal life that only take place in public space. And because of the long-term implications of these measures, I could see Britain, in the medium term at least, becoming a greyer, more privatised and monocultural place.

In contrast, European countries that I’ve been following throughout the pandemic seem committed to preserving their way of life, demonstrating how each country’s response is a distinctive reflection of its politics and culture. Visiting friends in Paris in the summer, I was impressed by how readily the French had recovered their savoir-vivre and were – while angry debates about holidays were raging in Britain – happily resuming their summer trips to other regions and continental countries.

Here in Portugal, bars and cafes – seen by George Steiner as a defining feature of European life – remain open, albeit with some restrictions. The calmness I recognise from my first visit to Lisbon some twenty years ago prevails, along with a sense that life goes on. Shops are open, and it’s still possible to visit a museum or attend a performance. On the streets and in homes, the sociability characteristic of southern Europe is visible and audible. ‘The Portuguese don’t want to give up their culture,’ a local told me. Hearing about how government decisions are being made in the UK, she laughed loudly and told me that the constitution formed after the dictatorship would prevent such a situation in Portugal.

At Christmas the authorities published advice with a focus on enabling the elderly to have dinner with their families and to see their grandchildren. I’ve been amused by an article about Portuguese police visiting those who live alone – a refreshing contrast to the many reports of the enforced isolation of the elderly in the England of 2020, when even those suffering from dementia or the last weeks of their lives have been forbidden contact with their loved ones.

All of which has brought the questions with which I began my research into European cities into sharp focus: what does it mean to ‘belong’ to Europe? What are European values? And how do I do maintain my European values in a country that seems ever-further removed from them. Unexpectedly, I’ve been forced by my nation’s response to a global crisis to take a deeper look at the question of ‘how to remain European’ than I ever anticipated when the UK left the EU at the beginning of 2020. One of the likely results is that my three cities will become four, and the book evolve into a more personal story about affinity with place.

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UK lawmakers endorsed Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU on Wednesday (30 December) with a thumping 521 to 73 majority, setting the country on course to retain its free trade with the EU when it leaves the Single Market at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Tuesday (29 December) that will revive sobering-up stations previously used to allow severely intoxicated people to recover from their inebriation.

The EU and China agreed ‘in principle’ on Wednesday (30 December) to an investment deal that will give European companies greater access to Chinese markets and help redress what Europe sees as unbalanced economic ties. EU leaders and China’s President...

Argentina’s Senate voted on Wednesday (30 December) to legalize abortion, a first for a big country in Latin America and a triumph for women’s rights campaigners achieved over the visceral objection of the Catholic Church.

Russia said on Wednesday (30 December) it had summoned Britain's ambassador to tell her it was expanding the number of British citizens banned from entry in response to London sanctioning Russian officials over the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

US President Donald Trump’s pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated US obligations under international law, UN human rights experts said on Wednesday (30 December).

Moscow on Wednesday (30 December) expanded a list of UK officials banned from entering Russia in a tit-for-tat response to British sanctions imposed over the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that...

New tremors shook Croatia early Wednesday (30 December) as the Adriatic country was still picking up the pieces of a deadly earthquake that claimed at least seven lives and reduced buildings to rubble a day before. The new 4.8 and...

The Czech Republic has allowed squeezing an extra dose from COVID-19 vaccine vials supplied by Pfizer and BioNTech, taking advantage of an extra reserve amount put into the vials by the maker, the Health Ministry said.