Euractiv.com

Poland called on Wednesday (21 November) for more forests to be planted worldwide to capture carbon emissions and so curb global warming, speaking ahead of annual UN climate talks to be held in Warsaw next month.

One single sentence devoted to space activities in the EU-UK political declaration states that “the Parties should consider appropriate arrangements for co-operation on space”. Nothing better sums up the 26-page declaration on post-Brexit relations: it promises everything and nothing.

Refugees and immigrants have become modern-day scapegoats for demagogues, who are turning a blind eye to the real causes of the crisis - rising inequalities, according to Greece's Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Georgios Katrougalos. EURACTIV.com reports from Athens.

Ukrainian lawmakers passed the 2019 budget early on Friday (23 November), taking a crucial step to unlock $3.9 billion of loans from the International Monetary Fund to tide over a choppy election period next year.

Top EU officials rebuked Turkey on Thursday (22 November) over its arrests of journalists and academics and the long pre-trial detention of a Kurdish politician, holding a forthright press conference with Turkey’s foreign minister in Ankara that quickly turned tense.

The US government is trying to persuade wireless and internet providers in allied countries to avoid telecommunications equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday (22 November).

Eastern EU countries have a positive opinion of nuclear energy while others like Belgium and Spain are shifting against, says Yves Desbazeille. The big question for the industry is whether Germany will turn even more anti-nuclear than it already is, he says. EURACTIV Slovakia reports.  

Medical experts, not politicians, should decide whether vaccination should be mandatory or not, EU health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis told reporters on Thursday (21 November), adding that the only relevant objective is to reach maximum coverage.

To prevent littering and foster more recycling, some member states are considering setting mandatory deposit-return schemes (DRS) on single-use beverage packaging. For plastic packaging, there are reasons to believe this could happen. But if a DRS on single-use plastic packaging is introduced, would it also include other materials?  

This time it’s Juncker and May in a Brexit schmooze, Italy thinks it's got nothing to lose, and Finns are all about rake news.

Facebook has agreed to pay more than €100 million to end a fiscal fraud dispute, Italian tax authorities said on Thursday (23 October). The announcement came as the social media giant pledged to appeal against an October fine of around €565,000 from the UK's data protection authority.

Spanish premier Pedro Sánchez has embarked on the first official bilateral visit by a Spanish leader to Cuba in 32 years on 22-23 November, at a time when the Communist-run island is looking towards Europe as its ties with the United States fester.

After Green parties unexpectedly surged in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium last month, the movement is now preparing a bid to fill the political vacuum surrounding environmental issues in Italy. But their electoral ambitions are modest, European Greens co-chair Monica Frassoni told EURACTIV in an interview.

The European Commission has started gathering views from EU member states, the packaging industry and online retailers ahead of a comprehensive review of EU rules on packaging waste, part of efforts to boost reuse and recycling rates by 2030.

A new study by clean-energy consultancy ClimAct for Eurima examines different possible scenarios for bringing emissions down to net zero. The study concludes that, without renovation of the building stock, there is no way to reach carbon neutrality before 2050.

European Union negotiators meet on Friday (23 November) to try to clear the last Brexit hurdle before a Sunday summit is due to endorse the withdrawal deal and future ties agreement, but Spain's eleventh-hour objections over Gibraltar mean the final text could not be ready until the last minute.

Forming the basis of our cities, digitalisation and the European energy transition, raw materials are essential components in manufacturing the products of the future, writes Roman Stiftner. With the emergence of new demand, now is the right time for stakeholders to come together and respond to this challenge, he argues.

Visa and Mastercard have offered to trim the fees merchants pay on card payments by tourists in the European Union in an attempt to stave off possible fines after a long-running antitrust investigation, people familiar with the matter said.

The EU's top competition enforcer said Brussels was taking a closer look at allegations that Google had helped introduce false price comparison sites to answer a historic ruling against the search engine giant.

EU and UK citizens will continue to enjoy visa-free travel across the Channel after Brexit, at least for short-term visits, if the draft Political Declaration on future relations made public on Thursday (22 November) is adopted by both sides.