European Union

A suspected member of the team that murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Khalid Alotaibi, was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Tuesday, sources told Reuters. France acted on a warrant issued by Turkey. French radio RTL said the person arrested was a former Royal Guard of Saudi Arabia who is believed to have been involved in the Kashoggi killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The European Commission is set to propose new legislation requiring companies to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse content. The rules come amid other moves by the EU's police agency Europol to develop AI targeting encryption.

Mandatory vaccination has become a hot topic in the EU, but the European branch of the World Health Organization has warned that it should be "an absolute last resort". Children, meanwhile, account for the highest infection-rates across the continent.

EU ministers failed to agree on a revised set of a new Code of Conduct for tax rules.

EU finance ministers agreed on a new set of rules for value-added tax, opening the door to lower taxes for environmentally-friendly products.

Central and eastern European countries are diverse - but an increasing mistrust in government and a quick spread of conspiracy theories seem to be a common thread between them.

Lacking any monetary policy instruments and fiscal discipline, the economy in the north of Cyprus is suffering the consequences of the recent unorthodox and controversial monetary policy decisions made in Turkey.

A deep-dive into the new German coalition government's thinking on Hungary, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the 'ever-closer' federal state of the EU itself.

On 10-12 December, the European Citizens’ Panel on "European democracy / Values and rights, rule of law, security" will meet for the third and final time.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On 10-12 December, the European Citizens’ Panel on "European democracy / Values and rights, rule of law, security" will meet for the third and final time.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

DRAFT OPINION on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on applying a generalised scheme of tariff preferences and repealing Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Maria Arena

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

DRAFT OPINION on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2013/34/EU, Directive 2004/109/EC, Directive 2006/43/EC and Regulation (EU) No 537/2014, as regards corporate sustainability reporting
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Karin Karlsbro

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EU diplomats have provisionally agreed to blacklist three Russian nationals and one entity, the 'Wagner Group' mercenary outfit, on grounds of human rights abuses in Africa and the Middle East, diplomatic sources said. The decision will be formalised by foreign ministers next Monday. The move comes amid Wagner's increasing presence in Mali, threatening French interests in the region. Europe earlier sanctioned a Russian oligarch, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said to fund Wagner.

Germany has urgesd Iran to present realistic proposals in talks over its nuclear programme, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said, adding that offers Tehran made last week almost all violated earlier agreements, Reuters reports. Its proposals were "not a basis for a successful end to talks," she said. "We reviewed the proposals ... carefully and thoroughly and concluded that Iran violated almost all compromises found previously in months of hard negotiations."

The US has said it would send reinforcements to eastern Europe in response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as imposing severe new economic measures, in a warning to Moscow on the eve of talks between presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, The Guardian writes. Biden will also make clear to Putin the US will not rule out future Ukrainian membership of Nato, a senior US official said.

The US has announced a diplomatic boycott of China's Winter Olympics in February citing its "egregious human rights abuses" against the Uighur minority and posing the question if the UK and EU allies will follow suit by asking their officials to stay away too. The Chinese embassy in Washington said the move was a "grave distortion of the Olympic Charter". US athletes will still be allowed to compete.

Some 277 million passengers travelled by air in the EU in 2020, a decrease of 73 percent on the previous year, according to statistics published by Eurostat on Monday. All EU countries registered a reduction of air transport last year, but the highest drop was observed for Slovenia, Slovakia and Croatia. The aviation industry was severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, after countries imposed strict travel restrictions.

The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday that the EU is "the biggest donor of Covid-19 vaccines in the world", after it shared more than 350 million doses with the rest of the world. She also said that the majority of these vaccines, around 300 million, where shared via the international aid programme COVAX. Some 44 percent of the world population is currently vaccinated, she said.

The majority of EU citizens are worried about the increasing role of digital tools and the internet in the society, a new Eurobarometer survey showed Monday. 56 percent of respondents are worried about cyber-attacks, 53 percent are nervous about their children's safety and 46 percent are concerned about the use of private data. 41 percent expect that the internet and the use of digital tools will bring them advantages.