European Union

EU judges in Luxembourg will rule at 9AM on Monday whether the UK could unilaterally revoke Brexit, its press office said. The verdict will fall one day before British MPs vote on the UK-EU withdrawal deal. An EU jurist said earlier this week that judges should back unilateral revocation, putting wind in the sails of anti-Brexit MPs. His "opinion" was non-binding, but the court is expected to follow suit.

Serbia, backed by a fake news campaign, has threatened to send in its army to stop "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovar Serbs, stirring bad memories of the Balkan wars.

Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all public transport free, in a move to prioritise the environment by the re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel. Bettel was sworn in for a second term as prime minister on Wednesday. The new government is also considering legalising cannabis, and introducing two new public holidays.

Foreign ministers should endorse Dutch plans to create targeted EU sanctions for human rights abusers when they meet in Brussels Monday, 90 NGOs, including Fair Trials, Reporters Without Borders, and Transparency International, said in a letter Wednesday. An EU 'Global Magnitsky' Act would be a "critical tool to combat impunity and defend human rights," they said, referring to similar laws in the US named after Russian activist, Sergei Magnitsky.

EU ambassadors agreed Wednesday to add nine people to a Russia blacklist for their organisation of recent "elections" in Russia-occupied east Ukraine, the RFE/RFL news agency reports. The EU also aims to blacklist five others for violations of anti-chemical weapons accords in Russia's use of a nerve agent to try to assassinate a former spy in the UK in March, with EU foreign ministers to endorse the moves on Monday.

Police made at least 80 arrests on Wednesday in an international operation against the Calabrian-based Ndrangheta mafia in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Belgium. It was the largest coordinated joint action against an organised criminal group to date in Europe, Eurojust said. Italian restaurants and ice cream shops used to launder money were among the premises raided. The Ndrangheta is thought to control large parts of Europe's cocaine trade.

Facebook Inc offered some companies, including Netflix and Airbnb, access to data about users’ friends it did not make available to most other apps in 2015, according to documents released by a British lawmaker who said the social media company dodged questions about privacy practices and market dominance.

Poland’s determination to continue providing financial assistance to coal power plants beyond 2030 has sunk an attempt to reform Europe’s electricity market, negotiators have said.

A four-strong contingency of European Commissioners came out with fighting talk against fake news on Wednesday (5 December), as the EU's executive presented its action plan on disinformation. But the funding shortfall in this field somewhat dampened the spirit of the announcement.

Over this special series on COP24, EURACTIV gives you a glimpse into the goings on of the UN climate conference in Katowice and what is driving the conversation there. In this edition: An update on the negotiations, Bulgaria, Canada, open letters, the shipping and car industry, and more.

A Turkish former Nato official in Brussels, living in exile in Belgium, tells EUobserver what he and others went through when the Erdogan regime branded them traitors.

The climate targets of the EU and UN have moved sustainable financing to the top of the agenda of the finance industry. This means banks and investors are called upon to provide green incentives and become more involved in saving the planet, writes Karl Ludwig Brockmann.

The European Commission presented on Wednesday (5 December) a strategy to strengthen the international role of the euro days after member states continued to drag their feet to complete the economic and monetary union.

The public health community needs to adopt a consistent science-based view on new generation tobacco products in order to properly inform regulators around the world and thereby shape a stable framework, James Murphy, the head of Reduced Risk Substantiation at British American Tobacco (BAT) told EURACTIV.com in an interview.

This month, all eyes are on the Polish city of Katowice, where the global climate community is meeting for COP24. Katowice is an important step to make the Paris Agreement a success by defining a robust transparency and accountability system to track progress towards the long-term goal.

Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal came under fire from allies and opponents alike on Wednesday (5 December) after the government was forced to publish legal advice showing the United Kingdom could be locked indefinitely in the EU's orbit.

As the functions of Christian Democratic Union party leader and chancellor have historically always been held by the same person, the next CDU leader could take over Merkel's main job as well.

EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Wednesday (5 December) urged Russia and the US to save a Cold War arms control treaty after Washington issued a 60-day ultimatum to Moscow.

In the middle of the “yellow vest” crisis, France has failed to unblock tax proposals on financial and digital transactions. These two measures for fiscal justice had been advocated by Paris for a long time. EURACTIV France reports.

The European Commission has just released a short-term action plan regarding disinformation, and an assessment of prior commitments. Remarkably, sustainability of the media sector is hardly addressed. Scenarios for this key element of the public sphere are needed, for decisions to be made early in the next mandate.