European Union

Mealworms are safe for human consumption according to a new opinion by the EU Food Safety Agency (EFSA), paving the way for the first EU-wide approval.

Germany's Christian Democrats are set to elect their new leader among the three candidates vying for top post this weekend. But the winner might not necessarily go on to become the party's designated candidate to run for the chancellorship in this year’s general election.

One of Italy’s largest-ever mafia trials kicked off on Wednesday (13 January), with more than 320 suspected mobsters and their associates facing an array of charges, including extortion, drug trafficking and theft.

The German federal parliament (Bundestag) is to decide whether agroforestry will be recognised as a form of land use in the future, which would make the practice eligible for funding in the national strategic plan under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). EURACTIV Germany reports.

The US government executed convicted murderer Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, on Wednesday (13 January), after the Supreme Court cleared the last hurdle by overturning a stay.

Members on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committees will debate the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on Thursday at 10.00 CET.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Members on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committees will debate the new EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on Thursday at 10.00 CET.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The Parliament hearing on “Facing the sixth mass extinction and increasing risk of pandemics: what role for the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030” will be held on Thursday.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The Monthly Highlights publication provides an overview, at a glance, of the on-going work of the policy departments, including a selection of the latest and forthcoming publications, and a list of future events.
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Germany's largest lender, Deutsche Bank, will no longer do business with outgoing US president Donald Trump-affiliated entities, according to reports in the New York Times and Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources, on Tuesday. The move comes after Trump incited a lethal riot in the Capitol last week. A bank spokesman declined to comment to EUobserver for "legal reasons". The bank has reportedly loaned the Trump Organization $340m [€280m].

DRAFT REPORT on the 2019-2020 Commission Reports on Bosnia and Herzegovina
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Paulo Rangel

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Lack of transparency has recently fuelled uncertainty and disinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccination in Europe, say MEPs.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The EU has designated 2021 as the European Year of Rail to promote the use of trains as a safe and sustainable transport. Find out more.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

AstraZeneca and Oxford University filed a formal bid for temporary authorisation of their coronavirus vaccine, the European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday. A decision could come by 29 January, the Amsterdam-based regulator added. "An opinion on the marketing authorisation could be issued by 29 January, provided that the data submitted on the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine are sufficiently robust and complete," the agency said.

"Freedom of the media as well as an effective and independent judiciary are central elements of our relations with Ukraine," Peter Stano, the EU foreign service spokesman, said Tuesday following new developments in the trial, in Kiev, of the alleged killers of journalist Pavel Sheremet in 2016. The EU has "repeatedly called on the Ukrainian authorities" to ensure "those responsible for this atrocity [were] brought to justice", Stano said.

City of London bankers are losing hope in normal rights to trade in euro-registered shares in the wake of Brexit. "This is the beginning of market fragmentation," Conor Lawlor, director for Brexit at UK Finance, a bankers' group, told a British parliament hearing Tuesday, after €6bn of trades shifted from London to Amsterdam and Paris in one day last Monday. The EU had no incentive to open up, he added.

Brussels, the EU capital, is seeing a new surge in corona-infections after expats returned home from other member states after Christmas holidays. "In the past two weeks, we have had some 50,000 travellers returning from red zones," a government spokesman told the VRT broadcaster Monday. The expat-heavy Brussels districts of Etterbeek, Ixelles, and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre saw the steepest rises, amid a 62 percent jump between 31 December and 6 January.

The US is planning to deploy some 15,000 National Guard troops to Washington and state capitals nationwide in the run-up to president-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on 20 January, amid fears of protests by armed, far-right groups in support of outgoing president Donald Trump, who has claimed, falsely, that November's election was rigged. The move comes after EU leaders voiced "shock" last week when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building.

A World Health Organization (WHO) team of experts will arrive to China on 14 January to investigate the origin of the pandemic, Chinese authorities said on Monday. China previously blocked their arrival over a "misunderstanding". "We look forward to working closely with our counterparts on this critical mission to identify the virus source and its route of introduction to the human population," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Foreigners face a ban from Amsterdam's cannabis coffee shops as part of wide-ranging plans to discourage organised crime and cut back on drugs tourism, the Guardian writes. The city's mayor, Femke Halsema, said 58 percent of foreign tourists in Amsterdam come mainly to consume cannabis. She has proposed allowing only Dutch residents to enter its 166 marijuana-selling coffee shops. The measure will likely come into force sometime next year.