The Polish government is linking its approval of a revised EU financial plan to the release of funds from the Corona reconstruction program. Unanimity in the Council is needed for the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), Polish representative Andrzej Sadoś said yesterday at the General Council in Brussels. “And in this context, Poland […]
The EU Commission has significantly weakened the reporting requirements under the regulation on subsidies from third countries. This was the authority’s response to criticism from industry and member states. The new rules for subsidy control are aimed primarily at companies from countries such as China, but apply equally to European companies operating outside the EU.The […]
Mark Rutte is a political survival artist. The right-wing liberal politician has been in power in the Netherlands for almost 13 years, and in a very fragmented party landscape. On Friday, the 56-year-old buried his fourth coalition. And yet he can hope for another term in office if he wants to.Today, the parliament in The […]
On Sunday, the EU and New Zealand agreed to cooperate closely in research policy. For the first time, researchers from a distant country will be able to benefit from the EU’s Horizon Europe research program. The agreement is part of the strategy to bind like-minded partners more closely to Europe. In parallel, the EU and […]
On Friday, the EU Commission proposed the collective withdrawal of the EU and its member states from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). It was responding to the lack of support for last year’s negotiated reform of the 1990s international treaty, which is the basis for many lawsuits by energy companies in private arbitration courts.Initially, the […]
Mr. Simonsen Leal, Commission President von der Leyen wants to sign the trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur by the end of the year. Do you think that’s realistic?I assume that my country wants an agreement – provided it is the one signed in 2019. If the EU now imposes other conditions, that will […]
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sees resolute implementation of her own policies as the best response to the rise of extremists in the EU. The parties of the democratic center must “show that we have a clear idea of how we want to tackle the changes that are taking place”, she said. It is […]
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is pressing ahead with work on a special levy on profits from frozen Russian state assets, despite concerns from ECB President Christine Lagarde and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Von der Leyen said after Friday’s EU summit that the EU and its allies had already taken the most important […]
The Ukraine war, migration and China – foreign policy dominates the EU summit starting today. Remarkably, diplomats have already largely finalized the wording of the final declaration in advance. Not so long ago, refugee and China policy were topics that the heads of state and government could argue about for nights on end.But most member […]
Negotiations between the EU and India are not progressing fast enough to be concluded by the end of the year as hoped. “We are not as far along as we should be“, a senior EU official said yesterday in Brussels. Both sides are meeting at high frequency, he said, but positions are often still far […]