Opinions

Last year was the hottest on record, and scientists worry this year will be worse. Thunderstorms in Europe destroyed 9.1 billion euros in assets, while the U.S. also experienced twenty-eight separate weather and climate disasters throughout 2023 costing at least one billion dollars a piece. Again, the most ever. It’s not hard to see a trend.

The EU made the difficult decision on Wednesday (25 September) evening, to de-couple North Macedonia from Albania on their EU path and to start accession negotiations with Tirana, leaving Skopje behind.

Despite the progress we've made in advancing reproductive rights across Europe, young people and women continue to face inequalities in accessing sexual and reproductive services. With many pregnancies in Europe still unintended, this issue needs urgent attention, she warns.

As the EU’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act comes into force, early indications suggest that the UK could miss out on a golden opportunity to follow suit, write Steven Farmer, Scott Morton, and Mark Booth.

Instead of reinventing the wheel on automated vehicle data sharing, the EU should build on existing rules while ensuring a coherent legal framework for sharing data generated by vehicles.

If the EU gives in to calls from carmakers to delay its 2025 CO2 emissions limits, because of the poor state of the automotive industry, it will risk setting a precedent that could undermine the heart of its climate policy.

EU needs a “visible hand” to achieve climate neutrality by turning knowledge into jobs

The EU is increasingly caught in the middle between the US and China’s trade wars, and needs to pick a side

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier succeeded in forming a government after long negotiations, but its days are already numbered as all French political parties are preparing for new elections.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the US, bringing to his interlocutors what he calls a “truly just” peace plan. But let’s face it: peace is not around the corner.

To reap the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), the EU needs to change its regulatory approach, invest in research and development (R&D) and infrastructure, and skills, writes Google's Matt Brittin.

The Netherlands and Hungary are unlikely to get an opt-out from the EU’s migration policy, rarely has it ever happened, when Denmark got theirs, they got lucky – and France got the Strasbourg seat.

As the world races toward a future powered by renewable energy, critical minerals have never been so sought-after. These essential components — cobalt, lithium, rare earth elements — form the backbone of technologies driving the green revolution. But geopolitics and a divided world get in the way: while the potential lack of minerals threatens our collective capacity to achieve that energy transition, we face export restrictions, competing initiatives excluding one another, divergent regulatory standards and investments that are scattered at best, absent at worst.

A la guerre comme à la guerre. The new European Commission, as announced by its chief Ursula von der Leyen, shines with its strong ‘military wing’.

Back in early 2020, Europe’s automotive industry was trying to dismantle the 2020 clean car standard, claiming the Covid-19 pandemic made it impossible to comply. Regulators resisted, battery electric car (EV) sales broke all records in 2020/21, and Europe, for a moment, was even selling more plug-in cars than China.