EU to uphold ban on Putin's 'cronies'
EU states are expected, next week, to extend for six months their blacklist of Russians and Ukrainians deemed responsible for the war in Ukraine.
EU states are expected, next week, to extend for six months their blacklist of Russians and Ukrainians deemed responsible for the war in Ukraine.
EU migration commissioner Avramopoulos said he hopes to one day travel to Turkey without a passport in a statement that aims to smooth over tensions with Turkey in the wake of the military coup.
EU leaders must be frank and deal with even the most difficult issues when they meet in Bratislava in two weeks, EU Council chief Donald Tusk says.
The president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos are on an official visit in Ankara. Both are set to meet Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Their visits will be followed next week by the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the EU's enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn. Turkey had earlier complained that EU officials did not show solidarity after the failed coup in July.
Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager rejects accusations that the €13 billion sanction against Apple was politically motivated.
The European Commission told MEPs in the transport committee on Thursday that it does not want to set up an independent European market surveillance authority to check car companies follow the rules. The committee's rapporteur had proposed such an agency. The commission also said it didn't want to wait for the parliament's Dieselgate committee to finish, but get the reform approved by parliament and member states as quickly as possible.
EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager on Thursday backed the merger joint venture between Hutchison and VimpelCom operators in Italy. "This case shows that telecom companies in Europe can grow by consolidation within the same country, provided effective competition is preserved," she said in a statement.
Transparency campaigners launched on Thursday a revamped website "to allow journalists, researchers and the interested public to search, sort, compare and analyse EU lobby data over a period of several years". The site, Lobbyfacts.eu, has been around for a while but the latest edition includes data from February 2012 onwards.
Suspending free-trade talks with the US would not be "wise", EU finance commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Thursday, two days after France said it wanted them to stop. Moscovici, the French member of the commission, told a meeting of French ambassadors that it would be better "to enhance the level" of the negotiations on the proposed TTIP deal.
Austria is ready to fight the EU on the CETA free trade deal with Canada, just as it did with migration policy last year, chancellor Otto Kern has said. "This will be the next conflict in the EU that Austria will trigger," he told broadcaster ORF late on Wednesday. "We must focus on making sure ... we don't shift the power balance in favour of global enterprises," he said.
Poland's environment minister says logging is needed in Bialowieza primeval forest to control pests, but ecology activists disagree.
The EU Commission's decision that Apple should pay €13 billion in taxes to Ireland is "maddening", "disappointing" and "political", the US company's chief Tim Cook has said. He told Irish broadcaster RTE the figures given by the commission about what Apple paid were "false" and that neither Apple nor the Irish government had done anything wrong.
The consumer commission says VW misled its Australian customers and should face a "significant penalty", but the carmaker says the legal case will provide no benefit to consumers.
German leader Merkel promised a "sympathetic hearing" to Italian PM Renzi's post-quake reconstruction plans, which would likely require sidestepping EU budget discipline rules. "Given the catastrophe we have seen ... I am certain the [EU] stability and growth pact will enable us to find good solutions," Merkel said on Wednesday. Renzi said the disaster response efforts should not be included in end-of-year deficit calculations.
The British government has said it wouldn't accept free movement of EU workers after Brexit, but still wanted “unique” access to the single market.
MEPs' first exchange of views on CETA revealed that the socialist block is still undecided on the deal, and Canada's visa obligation for Bulgarian and Romanian citizens looks like a major stumbling block.
The leaders of Germany and Italy on Wednesday called for more repatriations of migrants who didn't qualify for asylum. Angela Merkel and Matteo Renzi said they faced similar problems with handling the numbers of arrivals. "Not all can stay," Merkel said, calling for more readmission deals, and more development aid to countries whose nationals regularly try their luck in Europe. "It is unthinkable that we can accommodate everybody," Renzi said.
Political parties in Macedonia agreed on Wednesday to hold general elections on 11 December following two failed attempts to hold a vote. The deal was reached after a six-hour meeting, brokered by the European Union. Party chiefs agreed on forming a cross-party body to monitor the election campaign, which must be installed 100 days before the vote.
Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has overtaken chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ahead of Sunday's election there, a poll said. The Insa survey published by Cicero magazine Wednesday found 23% support for AfD against 20% for CDU, marking a setback for Merkel in her home state. The social democrat SPD is set to win with 28%.
Libyans are set to start patrolling their own territorial waters next summer after extensive EU-led training.
NGOs play a increasingly dominant role in rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, but they need EU help otherwise their efforts are like emptying the Mediterranean with a spoon.
Romania elections will be held on 11 December, the government announced on Wednesday. Prime minister Dacian Ciolos, who heads a government of technocrats with a one-year mandate, said those based in other countries would be able to vote electronically at smaller stations after criticism that Romanians had to queue for hours at embassies and consulates. Many were unable to vote in a November 2014 presidential ballot.
Acting PM Mariano Rajoy lost a confidence vote on Wednesday and is likely to lose another one on Friday. The deadlock could lead to new elections in December.