European Union

The EU issued a declaration condemning the Russian authorities’ decision to sentence Alexei Navalny and considering it unacceptable, politically motivated and running counter to Russia’s international human rights obligations.

Article by Charles Michel, President of the European Council; Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission; Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany; Macky Sall, President of Senegal; António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.

In a recently published Parliament survey, agriculture, food and fisheries have emerged as a major area of disagreement between Brussels and the EU capitals.

Russia said on Friday (12 February) it would be ready to sever ties with the European Union if the bloc hit it with painful economic sanctions, a statement that Germany described as disconcerting and incomprehensible.

Lobbying is not a dirty word. But some lobbyists are dirty... On Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution highly critical of the human rights situation in Kazakhstan and of the way the recent parliamentary elections were held there.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna outlined her country’s EU and NATO agenda, the tense relations with Russia, the issue of vaccines and geopolitics.

As the EU and African Union seek to make up for lost time in 2020 by accelerating talks on a new ‘strategic partnership’ covering political and economic cooperation one of the risks is that the talks take place in a vacuum at high political level with little regard for local communities.

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.    “Big Tech may contribute to a rapid take-up of stablecoins, which could create systemic risks and even endanger monetary...

France's National Assembly adopted on Thursday (11 February) a series of articles and amendments for regulating hate online and on platforms and introduced steep penalties, as part of the country's much-debated bill on "reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic". EURACTIV France reports.

British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca has dismissed as untrue a statement by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš that he was offered to sign a separate deal with the company for COVID-19 vaccines.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

In Italy, the Five Star Movement is now also willing to join a government led by the former ECB chief Draghi. The members of comedian Beppe Grillo's party voted on the move on Thursday, with 59.3 percent in favour. But commentators doubt that the risk of instability and blockades has been banished, and are already sizing up the next elections.

The Catalans will elect a new regional parliament on Sunday. Now the parties that advocate independence for Catalonia have signed a joint manifesto affirming that they will not form a coalition with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The latter, however, not only govern in Madrid but are also leading the polls in Catalonia. Even separatist commentators shake their heads in dismay.