News

The financial package outlined for Portugal in the next EU budget could still be improved, Portuguese MEPs José Manuel Fernandes and Pedro Silva Pereira have said, noting the urgency of concluding negotiations before next May's European Elections.

Less than a month after Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the Union talked of the need for a ‘partnership of equals’ between Africa and the European Union, migration control was once again the main prism through which the EU views Africa …

Euro-area leaders agreed on Thursday (18 October) to accelerate the work to bolster the monetary union as the European Commission questioned half a dozen member states’ efforts to balance their public accounts, particularly Italy.

In what can be seen as a replay of the Salzburg summit, European leaders had dinner last night without British PM Theresa May, while negotiations stumbled yet again over the Irish border issue. Meanwhile, other EU countries are quietly gearing up to meet the March 2019 deadline. France chief among them.

Bulgaria could end up being marginalised if pro-EU parties achieve very good results in next May’s European Parliament elections, said Bulgarian MEP Svetoslav Malinov during a discussion about the upcoming poll.

Retailers are putting pressure on EU lawmakers to postpone a much-awaited vote next week on the European Commission’s proposed directive on unfair trade practices, EURACTIV.com has learnt.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is considering running for the presidency of the European Commission if a coalition of nationalist groups wins the next EU elections, he said in an interview Thursday (18 October).

Support for the EU is at its highest level for 26 years. However, this enthusiasm is not reflected in the projections for turnout at the next European elections. EURACTIV France reports.

UPDATE: Lawmakers in the European Parliament backed a 35% cut in carbon dioxide emissions from new trucks by 2030, in a vote on Thursday (18 October) over new rules that seek to fight global warming without harming industry.

Hungary’s maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orbán took the gloves off and challenged his European People’s Party (EPP) at a pre-summit meeting on Wednesday (17 October), saying he wanted to remain an EPP member but should be accepted as he is, sources close to the issue told EURACTIV.com.

Global carbon emissions will rise to a new record level in 2018, making the chances of reaching a target to keep temperature increases to 1.5 or 2°C "weaker and weaker every year, every month," the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

Twitter published a trove of some 10 million tweets that it said are potentially the product of state-backed operations by Russia and Iran, shedding new light on the scale and nature of misinformation campaigns mounted by the two nations.

The EU's top official, Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, joked on Wednesday (17 October) about the removal by Polish authorities of a plaque bearing his name, saying it was more important they did not "unscrew" Poland from the European Union.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini denounced the "madness" of western sanctions against Russia, during a trip to Moscow Wednesday (17 October), and launched a fierce attack on the European Union.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel sought to defuse bilateral tensions at an EU summit yesterday (17 October) after Flemish and Spanish authorities traded accusations over Spain's handling of Catalonia's illegal declaration of independence and imprisonment of separatists.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov disclosed on Wednesday (17 October) that his country had been targeted by “terrible” Russian cyberattacks before its EU presidency.

Senior US and EU officials blamed each other on Wednesday (17 October) for a lack of progress in ongoing trade talks, reviving the possibility of fresh tariffs on European cars, said the American representatives.

Around one-fifth of Serbian citizens potentially want to emigrate in search of a better life and better-paying jobs, according to a new survey. Most of them are young people and almost all of them want to go West. EURACTIV Serbia reports.

British PM Theresa May appeared to open the way to extend the post-Brexit transition period until December 2021, as EU leaders offered an olive branch to her in a bid to break the impasse during the EU summit on Wednesday (17 October).

EU aid spending fell for the first time in 5 years in 2017, according to the CONCORD AidWatch Report 2018 published on Wednesday (17 October).

The EU's Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said on Wednesday (17 October) that the "ambitious" trade deal made with Vietnam could “pave the way” for an agreement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), despite scepticism on the other side.

A parliamentary group, bringing together 135 French MPs from across the political spectrum, wants to collectively carry the issues of the ecological transition, particularly during the debate on the 2019 finance bill. EURACTIV France’s media partner the Journal de l’environnement reports.

Theresa May and her EU counterparts seem likely to trot out the line that a Brexit deal will, probably, be struck, albeit at the 11th hour at this evening’s EU summit. The chaos promised by ‘no deal’ is very much in the minds of officials on both sides of the Channel.

The EU's Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová will sit down with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Thursday (18 October), as they launch a review of the EU-US privacy shield, while certain EU MEPs remain unconvinced by the agreement.