Romania is moving towards the formation of a pro-European government, with the country at the center of a political crisis following the victory in the presidential elections by the far-right and pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu, an election later annulled due to foreign interference. Four parties of the Romanian Parliament, the former “grand coalition” of the Social Democrats (PSD) and the ...
With the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the fate of the millions of Syrian refugees who left the country to escape the civil war is uncertain. Thousands of them are already heading from neighboring countries to the border crossings with the hope of returning home. And hundreds of thousands are instead in Europe and they too could return or be ...
The European Union is developing a plan to establish a multi-billion-euro fund to support the bloc’s defense expenditures over the next ten years. At the European Council meeting last June, leaders of the 27 member states tasked the Commission with exploring ways to secure the necessary funding for arms purchases within Europe. “We estimate that additional defense investments of around ...
The fall of the “criminal regime” of Bashar al-Assad “marks a historic moment for the Syrian people”. But now all actors in the field must “avoid further violence, ensure the protection of civilians and respect international law, including international humanitarian law”. Winners and losers of the war in Syria The High Representative for Foreign Policy Kaja Kallas asks this. “We ...
Next, the Europa Today newsletter that every Sunday morning tells you what will happen in the coming European week, edited by Alfonso Bianchi (for comments, suggestions or criticisms write to [email protected]). Top of the agenda The ECB accelerates – At the meeting on Thursday 12 December the ECB is expected to decide on a further cut in interest rates by ...
The historic Mercosur Treaty has come to a conclusion, which unites the European Union with four other Latin American countries in a gigantic (almost) tariff-free market. These are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The news was announced on 6 December by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who is in Montevideo in Uruguay to sanction the ...
In Spain there is an ongoing clash between the government of Pedro Sánchez and the opposition Partido Popular (PP) over the reception of migrants, especially as regards unaccompanied minors. The country is facing a sharp increase in flows which reached its peak this summer in the Canary Islands. The different positions on the reception of migrants To better manage the ...
Posing as Ukrainian refugees to gain access to the United Kingdom, taking advantage of gaps in border control systems and the wave of solidarity for the ongoing war. This is the new strategy adopted by human traffickers to make entry into Great Britain accessible to migrants. In addition to the now well-known route across the English Channel, a ‘safer’ route ...
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s first mission to Europe since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine has turned into a confrontation with his Western counterparts. Lavrov, whose last trip to the EU was a visit to Stockholm in December 2021, flew to Malta to attend the ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). A ...
The European Union is finalizing a plan to create a fund worth hundreds of billions to cover the bloc’s defense costs over the next ten years. It was at the European Council last June that the leaders of the 27 member states gave the Commission the task of studying hypotheses on how to find the money needed to support arms ...