European Union

The British parliament’s defence committee said on Thursday (9 October) that it had found clear evidence that telecoms giant Huawei had colluded with the Chinese state and said Britain may need to remove all Huawei equipment earlier than planned.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The Spanish government invoked a two-week state of emergency on Friday to impose a partial lockdown on Madrid, after weeks of tension with the regional government of the capital, El País reported. Spain's prime minister Pedro Sánchez previously urged the regional government chief, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, to impose restrictions to limit the movement of citizens in Europe's worst Covid-19 hotspot - after a Madrid court had struck down the measures.

Mathieu Michel, brother of European Council president Charles Michel, and himself a Belgian state secretary, has tested positive for Covid-19, the office of prime minister Alexander De Croo said. Mathieu Michel is going into quarantine. The Belgian federal government will not go into quarantine, as the state secretary did not have high-risk contacts with other members of the government, the statement said.

Committee and political groups meetings - Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Welcome to EURACTIV’s AgriFood Brief, your weekly update on all things Agriculture & Food in the EU. You can subscribe here if you haven’t done so yet. Very few other theoretical concepts have had a greater impact on recent world...

China has officially joined World Health Organization-led Covid-19 vaccine programme, Covax, which aims to distribute 2bn vaccines around the world by the end of 2021, The Guardian reported. "This is an important step China has taken to uphold the concept of a shared community of health for all and to honour its commitment to turn Covid19 vaccines into a global public good," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday.

Vanessa Nord believes that a rethinking is underway in Germany's professional sports. In 2019, the 28-year-old founded a company that supports clubs on their way to sustainability: ecologically, socially and economically. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The European Parliament is to test a biometric attendance register for MEPs taking part in meetings at its Brussels premises, internal documents seen by EURACTIV reveal learned. The move has provoked worry among privacy-conscious members of Parliament, who oppose the move to capture MEP fingerprint data. 

MEPs voted for changes at the European Commission, more ambitious climate targets, and discussed the rule of law in EU countries during the 5-8 October plenary session in Brussels.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

MEPs voted for changes at the European Commission, more ambitious climate targets, and discussed the rule of law in EU countries during the 5-8 October plenary session in Brussels.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Civil society organisations are calling on the EU to halt the production and export of banned pesticides to third countries, some of which they say can be detected in food sold back to the EU market.

European Parliament budget negotiators walked out on Thursday night (8 October) from negotiations with member states and suspended all further talks until next week, saying they "will come back to the table once there is a real will from the Council’s side to find an agreement".

French plans to ring-fence EDF's nuclear arm from the rest of the power giant have triggered differences between Paris and Brussels over how it should be structured, according to a source close to the discussions.

Telecoms operators Orange Belgium and Proximus  have decided to progressively replace Huawei-made mobile equipment in Belgium and Luxembourg with Nokia  gear, two sources close to the matter said.

EU nationals will not be able to travel to the UK using their identity cards from October 2021 under new measures announced by the UK government on Thursday (8 October).

A leaked version of the EU-Mercosur treaty negotiation text, published by Greenpeace Germany, has no provisions to ensure the Paris climate agreement is enforced, leaving the door open to further deforestation in the Amazon, campaigners say.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about EU travellers travelling to the UK can no longer present their identity cards, as well as so much more.

Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov said he was ready to resign once a new cabinet was appointed to end the power vacuum in the Central Asian nation gripped by unrest since opposition supporters seized government buildings on Tuesday.

The ​Media Freedom Rapid Response​ partners and media freedom organisations strongly condemn the decision by the High Court of Montenegro to sentence investigative journalist Jovo Martinović​ to one year in prison for participating in drug trafficking. “The court refused to...