As one Member State continues its arguments today to leave the EU, others are queuing up to make friends with the bloc. Yesterday, March 20, a mini-summit for EU-Ukraine was held in Brussels with the current President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker,…
In the first round of the Slovakian Presidential elections last weekend, first place has been won with 40.6% of the vote by Zuzana Čaputová representing the Progressive Slovakia party. Turnout in the elections was 50%. She is an environmental lawyer who campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket, and is hitherto relatively unknown, with no prior experience…
“I presented my Peace Plan in the European Parliament, here in Brussels. It is clear, and it consists of concrete steps. It is completely in accordance with the framework of both the Minsk and Normandy formats. It has great popularity and support in Ukraine. I run for the presidential office in order to achieve peace…
Against a backdrop of increasing violence and armed conflict in the world, a high level conference in Brussels heard heartfelt pleas for peace, and discussed the need for new means of conflict resolution, writes James Wilson. “I am very glad that the issue of this conference is not conflict prevention, but conflict resolution”, Frank Schwalba-Hoth,…
The EU, together with Australia, Canada and the US, has imposed sanctions on individuals for their role in Russia’s use of military force against 3 Ukrainian vessels and their crew in the Kerch Strait and Black Sea in November 2018. The EU sanctions will prevent named individuals from travelling within the EU, and freeze any…
The European Parliament has adopted the European Commission’s revised report on Turkey. Once called the ‘Progress report on Turkey’, the document is now just the ‘Turkey 2018 report’. This means that in the eyes of Europe, Turkey has regressed, not made progress towards its ambitions to join the EU. “Turkey is an important neighbour of…
This week in Strasbourg the European Parliament strongly condemned states that seek to undermine European democracy through disinformation campaigns and fake news in a resolution adopted overwhelmingly in plenary. Commenting on the Resolution, President Tajani stated: “Voter participation is the lifeblood of democracy. To express their right to vote, citizens must have complete and accurate…
As millions of people continue to suffer in Yemen, the European Commission has announced its intention to provide €161.5 million in humanitarian aid for 2019. This brings total Commission support for Yemen since the beginning of the crisis in 2015 to €710 million. Announcing the EU’s contribution today in Geneva, at the conference on the…
Facebook’s global affairs boss Sir Nick Clegg has been challenged to tackle the spread of ‘fake news’ on Facebook ahead of vital European elections, writes James Wilson. Catherine Stihler, chief executive of Open Knowledge International and a former MEP, has written to the former UK Deputy Prime Minister to request more transparency from Facebook and…
Meddling in elections is nothing new for the Kremlin, and Ukraine is not an exception. Russia has no constraints in applying the widest range of instruments to reverse its loss of political influence in Ukraine. The ruling elite in modern Russia still dreams of the geopolitical project of the “Russian World”, to ensure domination of…
