The EU's foreign policy chief on Monday (22 January) urged Donald Trump to share his "magical formula" for peace in Ukraine, after the former US president claimed he could end the war in 24 hours.

Focusing first on energy and climate in Ukraine's accession negotiations means nothing less than building a common Europe through a pragmatic approach, write Susanne Nies, Olha Bondarenko and Maciej Zaniewicz.

The Bulgarian government is insisting on the introduction of tariffs and quotas on Ukrainian grain imports to the EU, citing the “significant” suffering of local farmers since the EU lifted trade restrictions on Ukrainian produce following the war in Ukraine.

Romanian Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu has been urged to call for the resignation of EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski if Romanian farmers are not granted crop rotation and fallow land exemptions at Tuesday’s Council of Ministers.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who recently has expressed reservations about Bosnia’s EU accession, will meet the country’s top officials in Sarajevo on Tuesday.

Malik Azmani’s chances at becoming the new Renew group chief are dwindling as centrist EU lawmakers criticise his party’s involvement in coalition talks with the Dutch far-right, favouring French President Emmanuel Macron’s pick, Valérie Hayer.

Responding to the threat of water scarcity must include creating a plan to promote water availability in the European Union, namely through management technologies that reduce waste, said Portuguese Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes on Monday.

Spanish left-wing group Sumar is already working on presenting a strong candidacy for the EU elections, as the group sees the elections as the key to its project in Spain and the EU, Culture Minister and spokesman for the progressive Sumar platform Ernest Urtasun told a press conference on Monday.

Representatives of the French Farmers’ Union have urged new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to get things moving in Brussels ahead of next month’s International Agricultural Show as the country grapples with growing farmer protests.

Lawmakers from Germany’s governing parties on Monday rejected calls from the far-right AfD party to hold a Brexit-style referendum in Germany, saying “nobody in their right mind” would support such an idea.

Poland will maintain its military and political support for Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in Kyiv on Monday, after accusing his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán of betraying Europe.

Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Monday (22 January) sidestepped a discussion on the situation in Gaza and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at talks with EU counterparts, opting to show them aspirational videos of future infrastructure projects in the region.

A three-day consecutive Ukrainian drone attack exposed the weakness of Russia's air defence system and the vulnerability of St. Petersburg and Russia's entire Northwestern region, according to Russian and international military analysts.

The European Parliament has initiated an investigation into allegations of misconduct by Spanish MEP Antonio López-Istúriz White of the European People's Party (EPP), an internal document and a source from the European Parliament confirmed to Euractiv.

The European Commission is to propose an innovation strategy on Artificial Intelligence to establish ‘AI Factories’ and boost the uptake of generative AI in strategic sectors, according to an early draft seen by Euractiv.

The leader of Spain's far-right party Vox, Santiago Abascal, is set to stay in as party president until 2028 following an internal direct proclamation, which party sources described as an attempt to "silence dissenting voices".

While a new EU regulation has - on paper - banned the capture of the endangered species for at least six months this year, environmental NGOs have argued that derogations have created considerable loopholes in the law.

The EU Council of Ministers is considering a timid compromise on the tacit approval principle in the EU broadband law and remains dubious about ending intra-EU call surcharges, according to an internal document seen by Euractiv.

Two forums last week – the vanity fair in Davos, Switzerland, and a little-noticed gathering of the Global South in Kampala, Uganda - highlighted how divided our world is.

The Collective in favour of varietal innovation, composed of 30 professional organisations from the agricultural sector, is calling for a science-based regulation for the new genomic techniques (NGT).