A collection of 30 posts
The European Parliament (EP) chief rule of law negotiator Petri Sarvamaa, MEP, published on Tuesday a petition letter calling to suspend Hungary’s voting rights on the European Council, to President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola. Since regaining power in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Fidesz
After 13 years of knocking on the door, Romania and Bulgaria will join Europe’s Schengen travel zone by March 2024, the European Commission (EC) announced on Monday, 1 January. The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries struck the agreement to join Schengen by air and sea only after Austria
EU leaders voted to begin accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, at a historic summit in Brussels on Thursday 14 December. The EU meanwhile designated Georgia – also a former Soviet republic – as a candidate for membership, a significant shift in the EU’s level of engagement with post-Soviet states.
Donald Tusk was elected as Poland’s prime minister as his government won a vote of confidence in the parliament on Tuesday, 12 December. “Poland is back in Europe,” the country’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, said in Brussels. “This is the most important moment of my political career.
The EU will finance Western Balkans (WB) integration reforms to the tune of EUR 6bn, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Skopje, north Macedonia, on Monday. “These reforms will come with investment,” von der Leyen said during a press conference with North Macedonia Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski.
Incoming Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico did not waste time to state his positions on the war in Ukraine when he spoke to members of the press in Brussels on Thursday, 26 October. “The conflict in Ukraine is not our affair, and we are not involved in it,” the Slovak
The EU’s two top institutions seemed to be suffering from a lack of agreement – and even consultation – over enlargement last week as European Council President Charles Michel proposed a 2030 target for the EU for candidate countries in southern-eastern Europe. “Enlargement is no longer a dream… it is
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called Moldova “the political heart of Europe”, when she met Moldovan President Maia Sandu in the capital city of Chisinau at the second Summit of the European Political Community on Wednesday 31st May. Von der Leyen thanked Moldova for showing “solidarity, which you
As the September 21 deadline approaches, leaders in Brussels are split on whether to finally unlock billions of euros that have been withheld from Hungary due to concerns about the rule of law and corruption in the country. In addition to around EUR 6bn that Hungary was earmarked to receive
EU Commission President von der Leyen proclaimed “the era of Russian fossil fuel in Europe is coming to an end” on Wednesday, after Kremlin-owned energy firm Gazprom cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. The news came after Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned countries refusing to pay for
The EU banned Russian seafaring vessels from entering European ports, as it approved its fifth tranche of sanctions against Russia on Friday. The bloc also embargoed Russian coal supplies from August and enforced restrictions on all transactions with four major Russian banks. “We are proposing a fifth package of sanctions,
The Hungarian Ministry of Finance took the unusual step of issuing a public statement aimed at international investors on Friday. After Sunday’s celebrations, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban woke up to a grim domestic economic reality that includes a plummeting forint, rocketing prices and rule of law disputes that
The United States agreed a deal on Friday with the European Union to provide the bloc with an additional 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas this year to reduce the proceeds received by the Kremlin from energy exports to Europe. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped from America
Leaders of EU member states and six countries in the Western Balkans – known as the WB6 – will renew vows of a “shared future” at Brdo Castle near Slovenia capital Ljubljana on 6 October. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen travelled to all of the WB6 capitals in
President of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen called on Europe to be “bold again” as she addressed climate change, pan-continental security and digital issues in her annual State of the European Union speech on Wednesday. Von der Leyen urged China to be more transparent regarding its