If the EU and UK clinched a last-minute Brexit deal, there would not be enough time to ratify it by 1 January, when a transition period expires, because the EU had 35 legislatures, including regional ones, which needed to sign off on it, an EU diplomat said Wednesday. But a "pragmatic" solution could be to designate the new agreement an EU-level treaty, to sign off by ministers at one stroke.
Forty two journalists and media workers have been killed while doing their jobs this year, according to the International Federation of Journalists' annual tally, the Guardian reports. A further 235 are in prison in cases related to their work, the report showed. Mexico topped the 2020 list of countries where the most journalists were killed for the fourth time in five years, with 13 killings, followed by Pakistan with five.
EU-based banks and EU consumption is helping to fuel the rapacious destruction of the climate-critical Amazon rainforest, writes Giulia Bondi.
France is to tighten restrictions on clandestine home-schooling and online hate speech under a new bill approved by the French cabinet Wednesday, in reaction to recent jihadist killings. It will also extend bans on wearing religious symbols by state employees and restate a ban on polygamy. The "law of protection" was "not aimed against religions or against the Muslim religion in particular", French prime minister Jean Castex said.
The probability of no deal has increased as a last-ditch effort by British prime minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen did not bridge gaps.
Polluting emissions have long been a concern in the dairy industry, with methane released from cow belches and flatulence fueling global warming, causing floods and droughts, which in turn impacts on production.
EU leaders will agree to blacklist more Turkish officials at Thursday's summit, but an arms embargo or economic sanctions are "off the table" until at least March.
President-elect Joe Biden plans to name China expert Katherine Tai to serve as the nation's top trade negotiator, US media reported Wednesday (9 December).
The Arctic is a unique region and is becoming more important in international politics. The region is under high attention as the Arctic itself is changing, mostly due to climate change. However, with the attention, also must come the responsibility,...
The possible compromise would delay triggering the new mechanism originally designed to police the rule of law in member states. Legal experts in capitals are "digesting" the draft, one EU diplomat said.
Switzerland has been letting Chinese agents from Beijing's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) secretly travel to the country to interrogate Chinese nationals that the Swiss wanted to deport, under the terms of a "readmission pact" covering the past five years,
first published on Wednesday by Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders. The MPS agents stayed on two-week missions paid for by Swiss taxpayers and produced classified reports for the Swiss government.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Wednesday it had been the subject of a cyberattack. The EMA is currently concluding a scientific assessment for the approval of two Covid-19 vaccines, developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. A conclusive opinion is expected within weeks. "The agency has swiftly launched a full investigation, in close cooperation with law enforcement and other relevant entities," EMA said in a statement.
The European Commission on Wednesday defended Fabrice Leggeri, the executive director of the EU's border and coast agency Frontex. Leggeri has been under scrutiny following allegations of pushbacks - with some MEPs demanding his resignation. Asked if they still had confidence in Leggeri, the EU's home affair commissioner Ylva Johansson responded "yes".
The EU's new mobility strategy aims to reduce transport's carbon footprint by 90 percent by 2050 - with the electrification of road transport, the use of biofuels and more high-speed rail traffic. But no ban on short-haul flights.
The European Commission has not ruled out allowing police access to encrypted services. Instead, it says a balance needs to be found to protect rights while at the same time offering some leeway to law enforcement.
Playing on euroscepticism has proven effective numerous times so far - but PiS is well aware that this strategy has its limits: Poles themselves are still very pro-EU.
Research by the London School of Economics forecasts that a no-deal Brexit could be three times as bad as the pandemic for the UK economy, writes mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the president of the Committee of the Regions.
Here is the unhappy truth: Europe's Southern neighbourhood is a security mess, and no-one is going to come to the rescue. The neighbourhood is Europe's geopolitical Achilles' heel.
In an exclusive interview in Amsterdam with
EURACTIV’s partner EFE, Emer Cooke, the executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), stressed that Europeans are much “better protected" if the COVID-19 vaccine is authorised by the EU agency.
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