Zoran Radosavljevic Archives

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday (12 January) he would personally talk to each of the six Western Balkan leaders to hear what they expect from the plans by Bulgaria's EU presidency to revive their long-stalled EU membership prospects.

EU chief Donald Tusk warned in an emotional speech on Thursday night (11 January) against having a "game of thrones" in the Western Balkans, as Brussels seeks to encourage the region's efforts to reform, leave behind ethnic hostilities and join the bloc.

Member states may not reach a stage where they could take a vote on sanctions against Poland during Bulgaria's six month EU presidency, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Thursday (11 January), explaining he would prefer to resolve the crisis through dialogue and avoid sanctions altogether.

Bulgaria, buoyed by its good macroeconomic indicators, expects to apply by the end of June to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-2), an anti-chamber for adopting the single currency, Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov said on Thursday (11 January).

Looking at 14 years of the EU's attempts to determine once and for all what to do with the Balkans (since the first EU-Balkan Summit in Thessaloniki in 2003), one cannot help wondering whether wholehearted commitment on both sides might have been lacking all along.

The EU will start negotiating in January its future relations with the UK - along the lines of free trade agreements it has signed with Canada or Japan - and agrees to have a transition period in place from when Britain formally leaves the bloc in March 2019 until the end of 2020.

Slovenia and Croatia failed to resolve a border dispute that has poisoned their relations in last-minute talks between their two prime ministers on Tuesday (19 December) and Slovenia said it would now implement an international court ruling which Zagreb dismisses as invalid.

The European Ombudsman has asked European Council President Donald Tusk to consider publishing information about meetings he and his cabinet hold with interest representatives, in line with the EU's push for more transparency.

The UK economy is likely to suffer for a decade after leaving the EU under the most probable post-Brexit trade scenarios, according to a new study from the RAND Corporation, made available to EURACTIV.com before publication.

The ride-hailing app Uber has joined global public transport association UITP to help improve mobility in the cities, reduce the use of private cars and avoid congestions. The move should also help Uber shed its image of a scandal-hit digital novelty app and become a trusted partner in urban mobility.

The Western Balkans countries are in a much better shape than they were in the 1990s but the European Union should open accession talks with them as soon possible or risk seeing them wooed by Russia, China or radical Islam, the prime minister of Albania told an event in Brussels on Tuesday (5 December).

Many's the time the EU has seen months of deadlocked negotiations produce a last-minute breakthrough. News of progress from Theresa May's fateful talks with EU chiefs in Brussels on Monday may, therefore, not come as a major surprise.

Maltese police have arrested ten suspects in the murder of anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Monday (4 December), after an EU delegation left the island last week saying there were serious concerns about the rule of law there.

Liquid E-fuels made from renewable power, the latest buzzword among proponents of alternative fuels, are not the answer to Europe's quest to decarbonise transport because their production is still inefficient and costly, according to a new study being published today (1 December).

A Bosnian Croat war crimes suspect died on Wednesday (29 November) after apparently taking poison in the courtroom of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which confirmed his sentence for atrocities during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

Exactly a week from now, on 4 December, the messy Brexit negotiations might become somewhat clearer.

After 24 years, the Hague Tribunal (the more widely known name for the unwieldy International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - ICTY) is scheduled to finish work in December.

MEPs went all political this week, with debates in Strasbourg zooming in on the rule of law and tax evasion. We've heard indignation, anger, condemnation and calls for action but only time will tell how much of this will translate into tangible results.

Bulgaria and Romania have made some progress in implementing judicial reforms and the fight against corruption but "there is still more work to be done," the Commission said in its regular report on the two countries that remain blocked from joining the borderless Schengen area despite becoming EU members in 2007.

A Scandinavian co-production entitled Sámi Blood, exposing racism faced by northern Europe's indigenous inhabitants in the 1930s, won this year's Lux Prize awarded by the European Parliament for promoting European cinema.

Slovenia’s President Borut Pahor won another four-year mandate on Sunday (12 November) despite a strong showing by a relatively unknown challenger in the presidential runoff vote.

The EU took a major step towards building closer defence ties on Monday (13 November), with 23 member states signing a landmark agreement, promoted by France and Germany, to fund and boost cooperation following Britain’s decision to leave the bloc.

The European Commission adopted on Friday (10 November) a roadmap aimed at removing barriers for the smooth transport of military troops and gear inside the bloc, as part of efforts to create the European defence union.

EXCLUSIVE: EU companies investing in oil and gas extraction overseas can reap hefty profits but also threaten global carbon targets. In reaction, a number of civic groups have jointly proposed a carbon tax on products and income derived from overseas extraction.