Euobserver.com

The European Commission's self-declared policy of not doing any harm in Libya appears increasingly strained, following reports Frontex collaborated with the Tariq Bin Zeyad Brigade — a Libyan militia with ties to the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

As negotiators enter the final stretch of talks at the UN climate conference in Dubai, a group of countries united in a call for a fossil-fuel phase-out.

Handing the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Jina Mahsa Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran has to be backed up by substantial European policymaking, writes MEP Cornelia Ernst.

This year's COP28 casts its eye on agriculture, which generates one-third of global emissions. A sector in which EU climate policies lack ambition — as even acknowledged by members of the EU delegation.

EU leaders will gather in Brussels for their final summit of 2023, with a tough agenda that includes Ukraine, the Middle East, enlargement, and the revision of the EU budget, including €50bn financial aid for Kyiv.

There are claims by some member states that there are pots of unused cash sloshing around in the EU's coffers. This is simply untrue. By European Parliament budget rapporteur MEPs Jan Olbyrcht and Margarida Marques.

Moldova, Europe's poorest country, is working hard to combat tuberculosis. The country wants to be tuberculosis-free by 2030, at the same time as joining the EU. That's quite a challenge.

"We have honesty in our approach towards climate change and a lot to show", Nordic Council's top-woman told EUobserver before travelling to the climate conference in Dubai.

Since the cycle of violence started earlier this year in Sudan, more than six million people have been displaced. With increasingly fewer safe areas within the country, thousands have been forced to flee to neighbouring countries — especially Egypt.

The example of Ukraine illustrates that donors like the EU should be more ambitious about the localisation of aid. And this funding to local actors needs to be predictable, flexible, and longer than the typical one-year funding cycle.

The EU should consider visa bans on violent Israeli settlers, as well as a tougher crackdown on Palestinian group Hamas, in reaction to the Gaza war, EU foreign-relations chief Josep Borrell has said.

EU finance ministers are set to discuss debt and spending rules over dinner on Thursday evening (7 December), in what officials say may turn into an all-nighter.

With less than a month to go before the start of a new leadership of the European Investment Bank, the world's largest multilateral lender, the path seems finally clear for one of the candidates, Spanish finance minister Nadia Calviño.

While some strengths may have been overlooked recently, leading to a more pessimistic outlook on the EU and the euro area than the truly deserve, are there reasons for optimism?

The EU is hoping for a political breakthrough on asylum reform during morning-to-midnight closed-door marathon negotiations on Thursday.

Disruption at the Polish-Ukrainian border by disaffected Polish truckers is escalating, potentially affecting delivery of military aid to Ukraine. A Polish request to reintroduce permits for Ukrainian drivers has been described as "a shot to the head" during war.

Researchers at the European Central Bank revealed that commercial banks in the eurozone, touting themselves as 'green,' issue more loans to major polluters than average banks.

EU leaders will meet their Chinese counterparts in Beijing for the first face-to-face summit since 2019. Their agenda includes trade imbalances, economic security, Ukraine and human rights — what can be expected by the end of 48 hours of talks?

2023 marks the 20th anniversary of China and the EU's comprehensive strategic partnership, established in 2003. This occasion provides an opportunity to review the past and look into the future, and discuss how to further develop a sound China-EU relationship.

What is obvious is that PiS put in place a set of interlocking safeguards for itself which, even after their political defeat in Poland, will render it very difficult for the new government to restore the rule of law.