European Union

After the most recent attack in Ankara observers fear Turkey could hit back with an offensive in Syria, provoking an open confrontation between Moscow and Ankara. How will the two countries react?

The EU summit in Brussels is turning into a showdown on the Brexit issue. Will Prime Minister David Cameron manage to secure enough concessions from his EU partners to persuade his countrymen to stay in the EU?

The Nobel Peace Prize winner and Polish popular hero Lech Wałęsa is once again facing allegations that he worked for the communist secret service. Files have surfaced which reportedly confirm this. Will Polish history have to be rewritten?

Apple chief Tim Cook has refused to help the FBI disable the security features of an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernadino attackers. In an open letter he said he would defy a court order to cooperate with the intelligence service. Is Apple right to insist that its mobile phones must not be broken into?

The European Union will let most of its sanctions against Belarus expire on the grounds that ahead of Lukashenko's re-election in 2015 the number of human rights abuses in the country decreased and political prisoners were freed. But is lifting the punitive measures the right solution?

With borders being sealed in reaction to the flood of refugees, high unemployment, huge debts, and far-right parties and movements on the rise, Europe's integration is grinding to a halt. Is this the end of the big peace project?

Plenary and committee meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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Britain's David Cameron leaves the EU summit building at 5:30am on Friday morning

If you’re reading this morning’s note to find out if David Cameron sealed his “new settlement” deal to change the UK’s relationship with Brussels at last night’s EU summit, you’ll have to wait at least a few hours more. The first night’s debate over the British prime minster’s renegotiation plan was more contentious than many expected and left leaders deliberating into the early morning hours, with the session breaking up just before 2:30am.

After the summit ended, Mr Cameron went off for a private conversation with Donald Tusk, the European Council president who has been brokering the deal, to decide how to proceed at today’s session, which is due to start at 11am – though officials warned that could slip since the summit’s dinner debate on migration went on for more than five hours, longer than organisers had planned. Mr Tusk was to have separate bilaterals with France’s François Hollande, Belgium’s Charles Michel and Czech premier Bohuslav Sobotka before leaders reconvene, and sherpas and lawyers were working away through the morning to draw up another draft text for summit’s second day. “We have made some progress, but a lot remains to be done,” a tired-looking Mr Tusk said before heading off to his meeting with Mr Cameron.

The FT Brussels bureau’s Brexit watcher Alex Barker has pulled together all the blow-by-blow colour from last night’s session, including Mr Cameron and Mr Tusk frightening of the assembled leaders by warning talks may last into the weekend. Alex’s story relates how Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister who is no stranger to marathon summits, was among the more annoyed premiers in the room, wondering aloud why they were debating the nuances of the phrase “ever closer union” when the EU was at risk of “disintegrating” over its mounting refugee crisis.

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