EurActiv
Mixed feelings in Sofia, Bucharest over Austria’s ‘partial’ Schengen idea
News from Austria suggesting that Vienna is considering easing Romania and Bulgaria into the EU’s Schengen free-travel zone by giving the go-ahead to abolish airport passport checks was welcomed in Bucharest but firmly criticised in Sofia. In late 2022, Austria...
Categories: EurActiv
EU foreign ministers to consider options for next steps in Gaza response
As fighting continues in Gaza, EU foreign ministers on Monday (11 December) are expected to discuss possible next steps in response to the Israel-Hamas war, including a crackdown on Hamas’ finances and travel bans for Israeli settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank.
Categories: EurActiv
Georgians march for EU ahead of candidacy decision
Georgian non-governmental organisations staged a pro-European Union march in the capital Tbilisi on Saturday (9 December), a week ahead of the bloc's decision on granting the country membership candidacy status.
Categories: EurActiv
‘Pay-as-you-throw’: The microchips conquering Europe’s waste bins
To reduce household waste, a growing number of local authorities in Europe have started putting microchips on waste bins and charging people for the amount of trash they throw away.
Categories: EurActiv
EU strikes deal on new hydrogen grid supervisory body
EU legislators on Friday (8 December) struck a political agreement on the final piece of the Union's hydrogen policy, establishing a grid planning body that will gradually become independant from existing gas network operators.
Categories: EurActiv
European Union squares the circle on the world’s first AI rulebook
After a 36-hour negotiating marathon, EU policymakers reached a political agreement on what is set to become the global benchmark for regulating Artificial Intelligence.
Categories: EurActiv
Gaza fighting intensifies, US vetoes Security Council demand for ceasefire
The United States kept up pressure on Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians during a fierce offensive against Hamas militants across Gaza, even as Washington vetoed a UN Security Council demand for an immediate ceasefire.
Categories: EurActiv
Another oil state hosting climate summit? Azerbaijan clears hurdle
Petro-state Azerbaijan has cleared a key hurdle to host next year's UN climate summit despite the controversy over COP28 taking place in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.
Categories: EurActiv
EU climate chief Hoekstra refuses to disclose clients as McKinsey consultant
EU Climate Action Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra has refused to disclose who he consulted for when working for management consultancy McKinsey, in a letter to the European Parliament seen by Euractiv.
Categories: EurActiv
Germany’s SPD kicks off party convention with call for investments
Germany’s governing SPD party (S&D) has kicked off its party convention with calls for more public investments, including by circumventing and reforming the country’s ‘debt brake’.
Categories: EurActiv
Slovak president blasts government’s prosecution reforms, threatens veto
Slovakia's president said on Friday (8 December) she would likely veto the government's planned fast-track changes to criminal law that include scrapping a special prosecutor's office that has focused on corruption, saying the plan needed proper debate.
Categories: EurActiv
UK competition authority mulls investigating Microsoft-OpenAI partnership
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) invited interested third parties to comment on Microsoft’s ongoing partnership with OpenAI on Friday (8 December).
Categories: EurActiv
France’s Le Pen ordered to stand trial in EU funding scandal
French prosecutors on Friday (8 December) ordered far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen to stand trial over claims she used EU funds to finance party activities in France.
Categories: EurActiv
German liberals signal discontent with new EU green buildings law
A newly-adopted compromise on the EU’s new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is already being met with some scepticism from German lawmakers, who fear that the law will interfere with domestic rules.
Categories: EurActiv
Belgium aims to close negotiations on EU open files, focus on bloc’s future
Institutional reforms, competitiveness, and protection of the European way of life are at the heart of Belgium’s EU Council presidency programme in the first half of 2024, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib unveiled at an...
Categories: EurActiv
EU should re-write aid rules to fund local actors, says aid expert
The EU should re-write its rules on aid that currently prevent it from providing funds to organisations that are not based in the EU, leading aid charity Caritas has urged.
Categories: EurActiv
The Brief – The high price of failure will drive an EU migration deal
Few policy topics are as charged and important to politicians and public opinion as migration.
Categories: EurActiv
Agrifood Brief: I miss the rains down in Aragon
In much of Aragon in the northeast of Spain, agriculture is kept alive by large-scale irrigation systems. What some see as the key to ensuring a viable future for the next generation in the region is at the heart of...
Categories: EurActiv
US embassy in Baghdad attacked with rockets, no casualties
Rockets were fired at the US embassy in Baghdad on 8 December in an attack believed to have been carried out by Iran-aligned militias which have targeted US interests in Syria and Iraq over Washington's backing for Israel in its Gaza war.
Categories: EurActiv