European Union

EU investigators concluded on Tuesday (3 July) that an under-construction nuclear power plant in Belarus complies with the bloc’s so-called ‘stress tests’ but made a number of recommendations to the national regulator.

In the document they approved last Thursday on the composition of the European Parliament after next year's elections, EU leaders added a reference to the possibility that the UK would still be a member at that time, the Daily Telegraph has revealed. The text says that "in the event that the United Kingdom is still a member state", the current composition will apply until Brexit happens.

A series of conferences dedicated to the China-promoted One Belt One Road initiative are taking place in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. Plans to launch a gigantic renewable energy project with the potential to supply the EU were also mooted.

Without energy storage, the EU target for renewable energy cannot be reached. But that can only succeed if the incentives for investment are set correctly and if “ownership unbundling” rules in the EU energy market are strictly enforced, writes  Dr. Hans Wolf von Koeller.

Plenary session, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

"Irreparable" harm threatens Polish courts if the government gets its way, EU authorities have warned, while opening a new front against Warsaw.

Eurochild has adopted three strategic goals for the coming three years: ending child poverty and institutional care, and raising political visibility to children’s rights.

The Austrian Presidency of the EU will aim to reach agreement on two flagship pieces of legislation during its six-month stint at the EU helm – including new CO2 emissions standards for new cars and vans for 2030 and a controversial reform of the electricity market.

Keramag Keramische Werke and Others v Commission
Competition
The General Court upholds the fine of €57 million imposed on Sanitec Europe and its subsidiaries in the context of the cartel on the bathroom fixtures and fittings market

EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has urged Austria's ruling coalition party to break relations with right-wing partners, Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen. "I wish that the FPO would leave this negative association [the ENF group]. For me it does not belong in this category," he said in Strasbourg on Monday. Austria's OVP conservative chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks in parliament on Tuesday, as Austria takes over the rotating EU presidency.

Every year, MEPs spend some €40m of taxpayer money on things like restaurants and hotels amid public pressure for accountability, given numerous scandals. On Monday, EU parliament leaders decided to keep the public in the dark.

"The populists are not popular. It's 14 percent of the vote in Germany and smaller percentages in other countries," says global campaigner Ricken Patel, considering to use his organisation, Avaaz, to raise turnout in next year's European parliament elections.

"International regulation has to be agreed before the development gets completely out of hand," says one MEP as the European Parliament is due to vote on an EU defence fund that could see taxpayer-funded development of the controversial weapons systems.

Quite a few of the Commission's proposals deserve endorsement. Others warrant adjustment and refining.

French president Emmanuel Macron has fired his ambassador to Hungary, Eric Fournier, after he wrote a memo to the Elysee praising the harsh migration policies of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. The document was published by French investigative site Mediapart. Macron was alerted to the publication at an EU summit in Brussels last week and nominated a new ambassador, Pascale Andreani, over the weekend.

German chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on Monday to build border camps for asylum seekers and to tighten the border with Austria in a political deal with her Bavarian sister party, the CSU, to save her government. She also accepted to keep the CSU's leader, Horst Seehofer, as minister of the interior. The new policy is subject to the approval by the Social Democrats, the third party in Merkel's coalition.

Unemployment in the euro area dropped to 8.4 percent in May 2018 and to 7.0 percent in the whole EU, the lowest rates since 2008, according to Eurostat. The Czech Republic had the lowest unemployment (2.3 percent) followed by Germany (3.4 percent). The highest rates were observed in Greece (20.1 percent) and Spain (15.8 percent). In comparison the unemployment rate in the US was 3.8 percent in May.

US president Donald Trump has sent letters to the leaders of Nato countries, including Germany, Belgium, Norway and Canada, demanding that they increase their defence spending. The letters were sent in June and revealed by the New York Times ahead of the upcoming Nato summit in Brussels on 11-12 July. Trump wrote the US may otherwise consider a response, including adjusting the United States' military presence around the world.

The US Chamber of Commerce on Monday (2 July) denounced President Donald Trump's handling of global trade disputes, issuing a report that argued tariffs imposed by Washington and retaliation by its partners would boomerang badly on the American economy.