Despite German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s best efforts and the French government’s compromise proposal, Bulgaria refuses to budge on its position in the dispute over EU accession talks with North Macedonia. Scholz and Macron had hoped to find a solution before the EU-Western Balkans summit on Thursday, as Bulgaria has been blocking the start of talks […]
From the Bavarian city of Elmau, where the G7 summit ended yesterday with an urgent appeal to China to convince Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine, we now head straight to Madrid, Spain, for the NATO summit. On the menu there: “Russian Salad”. The name of the dish made of peas, potatoes, carrots, and […]
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs spoke of a “great success” and “ambitious targets” after the energy ministers adopted their positions on the Renewable Energies Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive yesterday. However, the Council’s targets fell short in several respects of what the Commission and Parliament want to achieve in view of the […]
Women in traditional dirndl dresses, men in lederhosen, plus a proud prime minister in a traditional janker: The G7 heads of state and government were met with a large helping of local flair when they arrived at Munich Airport. A very Bavarian prelude to a summit marked by serious global crises. A price cap on […]
Yesterday, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne unveiled the new cabinet after a long period of deliberation. After Macron lost his absolute majority in the parliamentary elections in June, the goal of the new government is to reflect the changed balance in the National Assembly. However, Macron is sticking with familiar faces, […]
For the first time since his unsuccessful appearance at the end of the G7 summit, the German chancellor has again spoken out about security guarantees for Ukraine. Details are currently being agreed with the partners and Ukraine, Olaf Scholz said yesterday in the ARD summer interview. However, the commitments for the period after the war […]
The EU wants to trade more sustainably with New Zealand in the future. The agreement states, for example, that both sides will implement the Paris Climate Agreement. However, just as important as climate protection is the message of the deal: in turbulent times, democracies stand closely together. Till Hoppe has analyzed the trade agreement. 345 […]
In NATO’s new strategic concept, which was adopted in Madrid yesterday, China appears as a “challenge” for the first time. Although NATO had already classified the People’s Republic as a “systemic challenge” previously, this is now also stated in the paper that will determine the course of the next ten years. Stephan Israel analyzed what […]
The Irish data protection authority DPC has big plans: It wants to ban Facebook and Instagram from transferring personal data and has forwarded a draft decision to the other European supervisory authorities to this end. That would mean a de facto ban on the two services in the EU. But Falk Steiner explains why this […]