Wonder around (as so many tourists do) Brussels’ Quartier de L’Ilot Sacre (“Sacred Island”) and you are still likely to be regaled by waiters trying to lure you into their restaurants. The practice is actually no longer supposed to take place but such was the impact of the pandemic that some say they’ve little option…
Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan have been urged to forge “ever closer” relations in order to see off the potential threat from “belligerent” neighbours. This was one of the messages from foreign policy expert John C. Hulsman who was speaking at a Brussels conference on Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Hulsman, a Board Member of the…
Former Ukrainian Miss Universe Julia Gershun has spent the last three months in tireless humanitarian efforts to evacuate women and children from Ukraine. The UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Peace Committee of Ukraine spoke to James Wilson about the urgent priorities ahead. Before the Russian attack on Ukraine in the early hours of 24…
The former mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro has won just over 50% of the votes in a runoff election in Columbia. He beat right-wing populist Rodolfo Hernández to the Presidency. Petro will be the first left-wing President in the history of Colombia. Pedro Marques, S&D vice-president for foreign affairs, said, “We warmly congratulate our friend Gustavo…
The EPP says it wants Croatia to become the 20th country to join the euro. “Croatia fulfils all the legal and technical criteria for joining the single currency and the EPP Group fully backs its adhesion”, said Siegfried Mureşan MEP, negotiator of the Report taking stock of the progress made by Croatia on the road…
The Council has today decided to renew the sanctions introduced by the EU in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation, until 23 June 2023. The restrictive measures currently in place were first introduced in June 2014, and include prohibitions targeting the imports of products originating from theillegally annexed Crimea or…
What do you do with infrastructure that your invading army has seized? In early March, the Russians captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). This is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe which has six reactors with a total capacity of 6 GW. Despite being captured and having interim curator managers sent from the…
The Co-Chairmen of the ECR Group in the European Parliament, Prof Ryszard Legutko (Poland) and Raffaele Fitto (Italy) say they strongly support the accession of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia to the EU. “The granting of candidate status is an elementary stop signal to Russia that the times of post-Soviet imperialism are finally…
The European Commission has presented its Opinions on the application for EU membership submitted by Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova as invited by the Council. Last Friday’s opinions are based on the Commission’s assessment in light of the three sets of criteria to join the EU agreed by the European Council: political criteria, economic criteria and…
The European Commission has launched infringement proceedings against the United Kingdom for not complying with significant parts of the Protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland. Despite repeated calls on the UK government to implement the Protocol, it has failed to do so. This is a clear breach of international law, says the EU. The aim…
