European Union

Europe must provide humanitarian aid, and reach unity on handling migration, according to MEPs speaking at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday morning.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Development

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Length of video : 96'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The European Parliament is in recess over the summer holidays from 26 July to 22 August 2021.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Malta's attorney general has called for a life sentence for businessman Yorgen Fenech for allegedly masterminding the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, which rocked the country four years ago, The Guardian reports. The attorney general, Victoria Buttigieg, laid formal charges against Fenech, who was arrested in November 2019 trying to leave Malta on his yacht, and who is accused of complicity in the murder and related criminal conspiracy.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Afghanistan will no longer be able to access the lender's resources, the BBC reports. An IMF spokesperson said it was due to "lack of clarity within the international community" over recognising a government in Afghanistan. Resources of over €314m from the IMF had been set to arrive on 23 August. These funds were part of a global IMF response to the economic crisis.

Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi told his Russian and Chinese counterparts that Tehran was ready to cooperate with the two countries to establish "stability and peace" in Afghanistan, AFP writes. "Iran is ready to cooperate with China to establish security, stability, and peace in Afghanistan and strive for its people's development, progress, and prosperity," Raisi told China's president Xi Jinping by phone, giving a similar message to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Nearly 100 highly paid bankers left Britain ahead of its departure from the EU, the bloc's banking watchdog said, Reuters reports. The European Banking Authority (EBA) said in its annual survey of bankers earning €1m euros or more a year that Britain saw a drop of 95 high earners in 2019. The country still accounted for 71 percent of the top-paid bankers across the bloc in 2019.

Migration from Afghanistan is likely to increase under Taliban rule, the European Union said on Wednesday, calling on member states to ramp up admission quotas for Afghans in need of protection, particularly for women and girls, Reuters writes. "The instability in Afghanistan is likely to lead to increased migratory pressure," Commissioner Ylva Johansson, who is responsible for migration and asylum in the EU's executive Commission, said in a statement.

The Taliban will collapse if its hardline ethos is undermined and rival factions start playing ball with other extremist groups.

EU ministers have condemned Belarus' use of refugees to "attack" Europe, as Lithuania called for sanctions against countries and companies helping Minsk to do it.

Counterfeiters face prison sentences of up to five years and fines of up to €150,000. Those who use fake health passes could spend three years behind bars.

Armed members of the Taliban kept people desperate to flee Afghanistan from reaching Kabul's airport on Wednesday (18 August), witnesses said, while President Joe Biden vowed to keep US troops in the country until all Americans are evacuated.

One of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen, Yorgen Fenech, has been indicted for the murder of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, prosecutors said in court documents filed on Wednesday (18 August). No date for the trial has yet been set.

EU member states, nervous about a replay of Europe's 2015-16 migration crisis and a surge of Afghan migrants, agreed on Wednesday (18 August) they need to strengthen their external borders.

Poland has sent more than 900 troops to help secure its border with Belarus, its defence minister said on Wednesday (18 August), after a surge in illegal border crossings.

Senior Taliban members have met with former president Hamid Karzai and senior official Abdullah Abdullah as they seek to form a government in Afghanistan, pledging it will be “positively different” from their brutal rule two decades ago. But thousands of...

Membership of the EU remains Serbia’s strategic goal, as two thirds of its trade exchange is with the EU. However, Serbia has become increasingly close to China in recent years in a plethora of areas, writes Serbian journalist Darko Čačić.

Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission is talking a good game when it comes to tackling discrimination on race, gender and sexual identity but now faces a ‘crucial moment’ when these promises must become reality, Swedish MEP Alice Kuhnke tells...

EU lawmakers must put sustainability at the heart of the bloc's trade policy or risk losing public support for it, says Bernd Lange. And that means having civil society at its heart, adds the German lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s International Trade committee.

Which European countries impose the most or the largest GDPR fines? After last month's record sanction for Amazon, EURACTIV takes a closer look.