Euractiv.com

“There is no better member state of the EU than Portugal to deal successfully” with negotiations on the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday (6 January). EURACTIV’s media partner Lusa reports.

Democrats completed a sweep of the two US Senate seats up for grabs in runoff elections in the state of Georgia, giving the party control of the chamber and boosting the prospects for President-elect Joe Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda.

The first doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed next week, an EU source told EURACTIV.com, amid growing tensions among EU member states over the distribution of the 100 million additional doses of Pfizer’s vaccine booked by the European Commission.

Ireland has ramped up direct shipping routes to mainland Europe since the end of the Brexit transition period, seeking new passages to the EU bypassing freight jams feared at UK borders.

The European drugs regulator could soon give the go ahead for an extra sixth dose to be extracted from Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine vials, lifting the number of available shots at a time when supplies are short.

Additional red tape and customs declarations means electricity will no longer flow as smoothly as it used to when the UK was a full member of the European Union, leading to “increased costs of energy trading,” an EU spokesperson told EURACTIV.

World leaders and governments on Wednesday (6 January) expressed shock and outrage at the storming of the US Capitol in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump.

In the gravest assault on the symbol of American democracy in more than 200 years, hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday (6 January) in a stunning bid to overturn his election defeat.

The US House of Representatives and Senate were forced to delay their proceedings to certify the November presidential election after armed protestors breached the Capitol building on Wednesday (6 January). The building is now on lockdown with politicians instructed to remain in their offices.

Thousands of Romanian Orthodox Christians crowded into the harbour of the Black Sea port of Constanta on Wednesday (6 January), breaking social distancing rules to celebrate an Epiphany service. Similar gatherings took place in Burgas, Varna or Sofia, in Bulgaria.

China's delayed carbon trading system will start operating in February, the environment ministry has said, as the world's biggest polluter takes steps towards decarbonising its economy by 2060.

The EU's medicines watchdog approved on Wednesday (6 January) a coronavirus jab by US firm Moderna, giving a shot in the arm for Europe's slow-moving vaccine roll-out.

Hong Kong police arrested 53 people in dawn raids on democracy activists in the biggest crackdown since China last year imposed a new security law which opponents say is aimed at quashing dissent in the former British colony.

EU was hesitant on Wednesday (6 January) to resort to trade sanctions following the announcement of heavy sentences of journalists in Vietnam, a latest development in the communist country’s crackdown on dissent. Three journalists, members of the Independent Journalists’ Association...

Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party on Tuesday (5 January) inaugurated a parliament controlled by allies of President Nicolás Maduro, while the opposition convened a rival committee of legislators in a virtual session, following disputed elections on 6 December.

The price of permits on the European Union carbon market has soared to record levels in the first trading days of the year, hiking costs for polluters as the EU prepares measures to enforce deeper emissions cuts.

Thirteen member states issued a call to the European Commission to support the Eastern Partnership countries in their efforts to obtain affordable and fair access to the COVID-19 vaccines, according to a joint letter seen by EURACTIV.

More than 650 households and commercial properties in a village near Gateshead in the north of England will trial the use of blended green hydrogen to be used for heating, reports EURACTIV's media partner, edie.net.

The current discussion, especially in American and European epistemic circles, about the future of transatlantic relations, may never be as important as now as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to start his new administration in Washington D.C, writes Vasile Pușcaș.

Democrats won one hotly contested US Senate race in Georgia on Wednesday (6 January) and pulled ahead in a second, edging closer to control of the chamber and the power to advance Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s policy goals.