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Tensions between Greece and Albania have simmered since May when the Albanian ethnic Greek mayoral candidate, Fredi Beleri, running under an opposition banner, was arrested two days before the local elections on suspicion of vote buying.

Greece is blocking Albania for opening EU accession process

By: EBR | Monday, November 20, 2023

Greece is blocking a letter from the 27 member states to the EU Commission on opening up the first five chapters of the accession process, a source revealed

EU officials have been evasive about the reasons for the delay of the EU’s latest sanctions package against Russia, despite the public announcement of European Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv two weeks ago.

What’s next for EU sanctions on Russia?

By: EBR | Monday, November 20, 2023

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has applied 11 packages of sanctions against Moscow, with measures spanning across sectors and including some 1,800 individuals and entities

“The world is moving in the wrong direction, unable to curb its addiction to fossil fuels and leaving vulnerable communities behind in the much-needed energy transition,” Tedros said, adding that it is necessary to reach the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting global warming to 1.5°C to protect public health, goals that the UN warned in September, we are at risk of missing.

Health consequences of the climate crisis needs more focus in policy-making

By: EBR | Friday, November 17, 2023

Despite an increase in EU policies on health and climate, there are calls to link the two even further as almost 25% of excess mortality in Europe can be traced back to the health impacts of fossil fuel burning

The EU Talent Pool will additionally support the implementation of Talent Partnerships. These are tailor-made partnerships with non-EU countries, providing mobility for work or training.

Commission proposes new measures on skills and talent to help address critical labour shortages

By: EBR | Thursday, November 16, 2023

The Commission is proposing to establish an EU Talent Pool to facilitate the recruitment of jobseekers from non-EU countries in EU-wide shortage occupations

Yet if Brussels is going to open accession negotiations with Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and grant Georgia the status of a candidate country, the EU in its current form is unprepared. It cannot defend itself. And it is ambiguous about defending the rule of law in its member states.

Before Enlarging, the EU Must Cement Democracy at Home

By: EBR | Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Admitting countries from Eastern Europe and the Balkans would complete the European project

The European Parliament last week finalised its negotiating stance on ‘Euro 7’, a regulation aimed at tightening vehicle pollution limits

Euro 7: The winner takes it all

By: EBR | Tuesday, November 14, 2023

The European Parliament last week finalised its negotiating stance on ‘Euro 7’, a regulation aimed at tightening vehicle pollution limits

The implications of Europe’s digital laggardness are still unclear, although there seems little ground for optimism. But it may be that AI will be so transformative that who owns it matters less than who uses it to greatest advantage. The second part of this article will address the factors involved.

Europe’s AI weakness has a long history of missed opportunities

By: EBR | Tuesday, November 14, 2023

The more AI (artificial intelligence) makes headlines, the clearer it is that Europe has failed disastrously to keep up in the global race for digital technologies

“We call on EU institutions to present a clear agenda for gradual and accelerated integration with concrete implementation steps until 2024 and beyond,” Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia wrote in the document they circulated ahead of a joint ministerial meeting with the six Western Balkan countries in Brussels.

‘Friends of Western Balkans’ push for more cooperation with region on EU foreign policy

By: EBR | Monday, November 13, 2023

Western Balkans representatives should join their EU counterparts more regularly to align with the bloc’s common foreign and security policy, according to a non-paper on “deeper cooperation” with the region

Together, the center-right and center-left in Germany could change the constitution to harden the rules on unwarranted asylum claims, and thereby make the debt brake fit for purpose.

Debt and Migration: Does Germany Need a New Consensus?

By: EBR | Monday, November 13, 2023

Germany needs to take major decisions on migration and fiscal policy soon

Parliament and the member states’ representatives agreed on a budget of €189.4 billion for 2024, following a conciliation meeting between the institutions on Saturday (11 November).

European Parliament and EU countries agree on 2024 EU budget

By: EBR | Monday, November 13, 2023

Negotiators of the European Parliament and the EU Council reached an agreement on the bloc’s 2024 budget

EU lawmakers back recognition of parental rights across the EU

By: EBR | Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Members of the European Parliament agreed their position on a proposed EU regulation to ensure parental rights are recognised across the Union independently from how a child is born

It is a bit rich for the von der Leyen Commission, which has spent recent months brokering agreements – and then loudly extolling their virtue – with Tunisia and Egypt that are specifically designed to prevent people from migrating to or seeking asylum in Europe, to claim that the bloc’s rules prevent the outsourcing of migration control.

Outsourcing EU hypocrisy

By: EBR | Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Last week’s agreement between the UK and Austria to work together on ‘third country’ asylum schemes is the latest confirmation that the EU’s southern borders extend well beyond the Mediterranean Sea

However, the “alcohol consumption notably” part was scrapped when groups’ negotiations were already over, according to the source, who pointed the finger at the push to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) to keep the reference to ‘harmful use of alcohol’ only.

WHO lobbies EU lawmakers against watering down alcohol cancer risk

By: EBR | Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Ahead of a crucial European Parliament vote, the World Health Organisation (WHO) sent a letter to MEPs -expressing increasing concern about the state of play of the EU’s flagship Beating Cancer plan due to “scientifically inaccurate and worrisome” wording on alcohol use

Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf, which extends significantly beyond the 200 nautical miles of the EEZ, creates substantial economic opportunities but also vulnerabilities.

Why Ireland Matters for European Security

By: EBR | Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and changes in the global security environment, Ireland is undertaking a much-needed national debate on security policy

“The spike of antisemitic incidents across Europe has reached extraordinary levels in the last few days, reminiscent of some of the darkest times in history,” the commission said in a statement.

European Commission says ‘European Jews today are again living in fear’

By: EBR | Monday, November 6, 2023

The European Commission condemned the jump in anti-Semitism across the EU since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East

As for combatting the risks, the annual report takes stock of the current situation regarding intelligence and foreign interference and has laid down several measures to counter threats, including introducing binding rules, awareness-raising campaigns, and sanctions at the EU level.

End ‘denial’ on foreign interference, French report says

By: EBR | Friday, November 3, 2023

The French Parliamentary Delegation for Intelligence (DPR) has identified Russia, China, Turkey and Iran as leading the way in terms of foreign interference in France and Europe, and while Moscow currently holds the top stop

Now, President Emmanuel Macron’s government has decided to take the language war to court over the European Commission’s recent move to hire new officials using a selection process involving some tests that are only given in English.

War of the lingua franca

By: EBR | Thursday, November 2, 2023

England may be out of the EU, but English has not gone anywhere

The UK government said publicly it would back a temporary suspension on supporting or sponsoring any exploitation licences to mine metals from the sea floor until enough scientific evidence was available to understand the impact on ecosystems.

UK backs suspension of deep-sea mining in environmental U-turn

By: EBR | Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Britain has announced its backing for a moratorium on commercial deep-sea mining, after criticism from scientists, MPs and environmentalists of its previous stance in support of the emerging industry

The move by AWS last week came as part of an overall trend whereby American hyperscalers – a term used to describe cloud service providers with massive operations – seek to address the concerns of EU countries looking to keep their data within Europe’s borders.

France and Germany increasingly drift apart on digital sovereignty of cloud sector

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 31, 2023

The recent announcement of “a new, independent cloud for Europe” by Amazon Web Services (AWS) has underlined the growing divergence between the positions of Paris and Berlin regarding digital sovereignty in the cloud sector

Fewer than half of the African Union’s 54 member states have signed up to the deal that prevents ‘mobile’ multinational companies from shifting their profits from one tax regime to another.

It’s time rich countries ’talked tax’ with poorer ones

By: EBR | Tuesday, October 31, 2023

It’s been a zig-zag path for governments that have long wanted to nail tax-dodging mega-corporations, and 2023 will go down in the annals as the year they did so