Tag: EU

European leaders have to understand that the greatest source of energy in the future will be learning how to use it more efficiently, say Sam Hägglund and Ulrich Paetzold.

The European Union needs to "radically transform" the way it manages water, energy and land to ensure the needs of the poorest people are met and the environment is protected, according to the new European Report on Development.

The energy efficiency bill is entering its final round of amendments, as the first talks between the European Commission, Parliament and Council will commence in an informal meeting tomorrow (11 April).

Crisis-struck Italy is lifting labour market restrictions for Romanians and Bulgarians while nine other EU countries are maintaining their curbs, with several citing high unemployment.

Officers of the Serbian Armed Forces will join the EU's 'Atalanta' anti-piracy mission in Somalia and will help train Somali security forces. EurActiv Serbia reports.

The European Union needs to show it can provide added value if it wants to be seen by India as a full-fledged partner in foreign affairs, otherwise the rising global giant will continue to deal with member states on an individual basis, said EU Ambassador to India Danièle Smadja told EurActiv in an interview in New Delhi.

EU climate leaders have been setting out their environmental agendas for tax, resource efficiency and competition from China in the year ahead, one month after the Cancún climate change summit.

If US President Barack Obama's plan to ban proprietary trading at some banks were to be applied in the European Union, it could be problematic for the bloc's universal banks, an EU document obtained by Reuters said.

A new survey reveals that 47% of Europeans back Turkey's EU accession and 47% are opposed to it. But when the same respondents were asked how would they vote in a referendum on Turkey's membership, 52% say that they would vote against it and only 41% in favour.

"It is process rather than personalities which holds the key to understanding the European Union as it totters into a new world after the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon," writes Tom Spencer, executive director of the European Centre for Public Affairs (ECPA), in a Christmas briefing paper, predicting that "it will be some months yet before we can say with any certainty how the Union will function in its new Treaty garb".

Herman Van Rompuy, Europe's newly-appointed president, spelt out his political vision before hundreds of people at a Brussels gathering of the 'Grandes Conferences Catholiques' shortly before Christmas.

While EU leaders are expected to agree on immediate action to provide financial support for developing countries in Brussels today (11 December), in Copenhagen billionaire investor George Soros has unveiled a plan to provide up to 150 billion dollars for poor countries to access clean technologies.

After EU officials had hailed the prospect of the United States setting targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, the European Parliament yesterday (25 November) called for an ambitious, legally-binding agreement to be struck in Copenhagen and urged EU leaders to bring €30 billion in climate aid to the negotiating table.

Environment ministers made progress on Tuesday (17 November) towards a scaled-down climate deal in Copenhagen next month, with Washington under pressure to promise to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Online resources and social media play a key role in helping politicians shape policies in Europe and the US alike, according to a new survey which found members of the European Parliament lagging behind when it comes to engaging with EU citizens.

Ahead of an EU-US summit in Washington today (3 November), US President Barack Obama said he hopes an "important deal" can be struck at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. But he admitted an agreement would be no more than a step forward and would not solve the world's environmental problems.

The European Commission faces "a difficult and precise balancing act" in drawing up proposals for a new framework on EU financial and economic supervision due this autumn, writes Karel Lannoo, CEO of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), in an August paper.

A war between Russia and Ukraine “could happen in the very near future, and certainly no later than 2017, when the Russian Black Sea Fleet is set to leave Sebastopol, as the lease agreement with Ukraine to use this ‘city of Russian military glory’ expires,” writes George Bovt, a Moscow-based political commentator, in an August paper published by the EU-Russia Centre think-tank.

"It is not possible […] to take an optimistic view of the trade relationship" between the EU and China, writes European Policy Centre founder Stanley Crossick in a May blog post reflecting on the High-Level Economic & Trade Dialogue (HED), which took place in Brussels on 7-8 May.

"Afghanistan reveals Europe's incapacity to formulate coherent collective security strategies and dedicate the resources required to implement them," writes Fabrice Pothier, director of Carnegie Europe, in an April paper.

"Excessively low growth" has brought the European economy to a standstill following a series of violent shocks in the last two years, writes Jean Pisani Ferry, the director of Brussels-based economic policy think tank Bruegel, for Eurointelligence.

"The fact that Turkey lags so far behind when it comes to the fight against bribery and corruption seriously lowers Turkey's status before the EU," argues Zeynep Gögus, the president of Brussels-based NGO TR Plus Centre for Turkey in Europe and EurActiv Turkey's publisher, in an interview with Today’s Zaman, a Turkey-based English daily.

Traces of radioactive and other substances – such as radon, polonium and cadmium – recently found in tobacco leave open questions as to whether they should be regulated at EU level.

The war in Georgia divided the EU instead of uniting it, while differences between its members' positions will thwart the bloc's attempts to develop a common Russia policy, writes Tomas Valasek in an August paper for the Centre for European Reform (CER).