Eurotopics.net

China is the world's largest diplomatic power, according to the Australian Lowy Institute's Global Diplomacy Index 2019. Europe is increasingly feeling Beijing's growing economic and geopolitical clout, among other things due to Beijing's Belt and Road initiative. How should the EU respond?

In the run-up to the Nato summit next week in London, French President Macron and Nato Secretary General Stoltenberg met on Thursday for talks at the Elysée Palace. During the meeting Macron reiterated his criticism of the Alliance. Commentators also call for a debate on the organisation's future.

The ten-year gas contract between Russia and Ukraine expires at the end of the year. Currently both countries are negotiating new contracts for the supply and transit of gas to the EU. The process revolves around bilateral claims running into the billions as well as the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, which will render transit via Ukraine to Northern Europe obsolete. How can the tensions be resolved?

Thousands of tractors lined up in front of Brandenburg Gate on Tuesday and there was traffic chaos and hay on the Champs-Elysées on Wednesday. But it's not only in Germany and France that farmers are venting their anger. In the Netherlands and Denmark, for example, they're demonstrating against new environmental regulations and for better pay. Are the farmers' protests justified?

Shortly before COP25 - the UN Climate Change Conference - kicks off in Madrid, a new UN report has set alarm bells ringing: the goals of the Paris Agreement can only be met by slashing greenhouse emissions by seven percent per year over the next decade. None of the national climate plans formulated so far would achieve this goal. On the contrary, greenhouse gas emissions are increasing worldwide. Commentators demand action.