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Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has asked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a "plan" to support the country coal phase-out, saying Bulgaria's own capacity was insufficient to achieve the bloc's 2030 climate goals.

In today's Special Edition of the Capitals, find out more about EU member states' priorities when it comes to their national recovery plans which were supposed to be submitted to the European Commission on Thursday (15 October), as well as so much more.

France and Germany accused Turkey on Thursday (15 October) of continuing to provoke the European Union with its actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and urged it to clarify its positions in the coming weeks.

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Global Europe Brief, your weekly update on the EU in the global perspective from our foreign affairs news team: Georgi Gotev and Alexandra Brzozowski. You can subscribe here. /// THE CLOCK IS …

As Europe celebrates its flagship educational mobility programme, lawmakers in the European Parliament are fighting to increase the budget for what is widely regarded as one of the EU's greatest achievements.

EU leaders on Thursday (15 October) said they will decide on a more stringent climate target for 2030 at a summit in December, leaving more time to forge a united European response to climate change.

Russia said Thursday (15 October) it would withdraw from consultations with the Netherlands and Australia over the MH17 flight shot down over Ukraine in 2014, complaining of "vicious" attempts to pin blame on Moscow.

EU member states must introduce policies to support their wind power ambitions, according to industry lobby group WindEurope.

The prospects of an EU-UK trade deal being agreed imminently faded on Thursday (15 October) after EU leaders took an uncompromising approach on the progress of talks.

European Parliament President David Sassoli asked EU leaders on Thursday (15 October) to increase their financial contributions to the EU budget and called for “imagination” to make progress on the stalled negotiations.

EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday (15 October) left a summit attended by the bloc's 27 leaders after learning that a staff member had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Global technology giants including Google, Microsoft, and IBM, in addition to Chinese players in the market, are welcome to take part in the EU's ambitious cloud infrastructure project Gaia-X, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Thursday (15 October).

The EU on Thursday (15 October) sanctioned senior aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin, including the man known as his chef, over the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny and Kremlin meddling in Libya's civil war.

Forthcoming EU rules to rein in the dominance of the Big Tech giants should include measures to regulate Big Tech from accumulating too many users at the disadvantage of smaller competitors, a position paper from France and the Netherlands says.

After the United Kingdom voted against including guarantees on food standards in its post-Brexit legislation this week, experts have warned that a no-deal Brexit holds wide-ranging ramifications for food safety and businesses.

The European Commission's new chemicals strategy, published on Wednesday (14 October), proposes to ban the most toxic substances by default, authorising them only on a case-by-case basis when they are proven to be indispensable to society.

Negotiations on cohesion policy between the European Parliament, Commission and Council will take place on Thursday (15 October), focusing on how strictly the flow of money is regulated and whether it should be distributed according to economic criteria. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The EU Court of Justice’s advocate general dismissed on Thursday (15 October) the European Commission’s appeal about Poland and Hungary’s tax regimes and recommended upholding the verdict in favour of the two eastern member states.

The European Commission launched a renovation wave and a “new European Bauhaus” on Wednesday (14 October), aiming to rally popular support behind plans to cut emissions from buildings and reduce energy bills.

The European Parliament will hold next week's plenary session by videoconference as a precaution against coronavirus, European Parliament President Davide Sassoli said Thursday (15 October), despite French insistence on resuming the assembly's monthly Strasbourg sessions.

EU antitrust regulators may narrow the scope of their year-long investigation into Amazon to speed up the case against the U.S. online retail giant, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Czech Republic said it was ready to back the EU’s proposed 2030 target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55%, provided that the objective is a collective one and that EU state aid rules do not hamper its nuclear ambitions.

Azerbaijan accused Armenia on Wednesday (14 October) of trying to attack its gas and oil pipelines and warned of a “severe” response as tensions rose sharply around a fraying ceasefire in the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday urged EU leaders to "do as much as possible" to step up the bloc's ambitions to reduce carbon output at this week's summit.