There is a battle in the halls of the European parliament to ensure that the latest report on fundamental rights references the US prosecution and attempted extradition of WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange. The EU's parliament will be voting on its latest report on fundamental rights, which also encompasses media freedom. The report on fundamental freedoms for 2018 - 2019 ori [...]

Having suffered humiliation from the UK, Poland and Hungary, the EU is scrapping its own voting rules in favour of measures to strip funding from member states that choose to follow their own path, not the one decreed by Brussels. In the mother of all ironies, as the clock ticks down to Brexit, it’s not the Palace of Westminster hit by a bombshell this Guy Fawkes Night, but the European Par [...]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that the European Union had adopted the US style of threatening and punishing states with sanctions. "People who are responsible for the Western foreign policy and do not understand the need for mutually respectful dialogue, we probably have to suspend dialogue with them for a while. Especially since [President of the European Commissio [...]

In mid-September, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Berlin does not rule out freezing the Nord Stream 2 project over the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. Olga Petersen, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, told the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda that the increasing pressure on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project started before the sit [...]

The EU has a stated goal of promoting prosperity and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. However, its efforts to secure Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with its southern neighbours have so far had limited success. Luigi Scazzieri writes that with Covid-19 likely to generate a significant economic fallout in the region, it is time for the EU to make a more ambitious offer. [...]

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has rejected US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s push to limit his country’s contacts with Russian and Chinese firms and grant a nuclear power plant construction contract to an American firm. Russia and China pose a threat to Czech energy independence, Pompeo said during his visit to Prague on Wednesday. The top US diplomat warned of what he described as [...]

With the world struggling to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, Poland’s delegation to NATO has been eager to promote cross-border aid and international solidarity on its Twitter account – with one major exception. The Poland In Nato account has posted a slew of tweets in recent days and weeks, highlighting shipments of medical supplies around the world, making sure to include emoji flags in eac [...]

As of Monday, Russia had sent fourteen Il-76 military aircraft to Italy to assist in the fight against the coronavirus. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, Russian military experts will engage in disinfection and COVID-19 prevention after coordinating their operations with Italian authorities. Poland's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs has confirmed via Twitter that Warsaw hadn’ [...]

While the European Union has failed to provide coordinated assistance to Italy in time to prevent the virus, Russia has filled in and dispatched military health workers, virologists and equipment to help the country handle the pandemic. A video went viral of an Italian man replacing a European Union flag with a Russian one, in a gesture of gratitude to Moscow for helping combat the corona [...]

While the world is combatting COVID-19, a real pandemic, it seems the European Union is worried about a fake virus – the omnipotent, omnipresent, all-encompassing “Russian disinformation.” News of a brand-new EU report, still-secret yet seamlessly leaked to the likes of Reuters and the Daily Mail, made over a hundred headlines throughout Europe in the last few days. The report is said to b [...]

ATHENS - Ex-Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has published recordings from 2015 closed-door talks with the Eurogroup on his country’s bailout program to expose the "awful" decision-making of the troika creditors. A trove of audio files recorded between February and July 2015 is available on the website of Varoufakis’ self-styled pan-European DiEM25 party. In a video message, he said he [...]

Caught off guard by the EU’s ban on medical exports, Serbia found help in China as it struggled to prepare for the Covid-19 outbreak, the Serbian president said, adding that it has become clear that European solidarity is a myth. Serbia is the latest country to impose severe restrictions on travel and public gatherings in response to the global epidemic. [...]

On 31 January, the United Kingdom became the first country to leave the European Union after more than four decades in the bloc and its preceding organizations, marking the start of a new era as well as potentially spelling the beginning of new challenges for the political and economic entity comprised of 27 remaining states. The president of France’s National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, said th [...]

The budget changes follow after London and Brussels managed to sign off on the Brexit deal and avoid a further delay, withdrawing the United Kingdom from the bloc after 47 years. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has stated that his country would veto the European Union's long-term budget plan for post-Brexit Europe, stressing it should be lowered. [...]

In December, US President Donald Trump signed the National Defence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, which, among other things, stipulates sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The US also threatened to sanction any company or individual involved in providing services on the project. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg has lashed out at the US over its push for sanct [...]

The TurkStream pipeline, supplying Russian gas to Turkey under the Black Sea, will boost energy security of entire southern Europe and the US won’t interfere with it, said Sakir Arikan, managing director of TurkAkim Gas. The much-anticipated 930km pipeline was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a special ceremony on Wednesday. [...]

The statement comes in response to the imposition of tariffs by the United States on a record $7.5 billion worth of EU goods, after the WTO ruled that EU nations gave illegal state aid to Airbus. [...]

The US Congress has moved forward with legislation to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project in defiance of criticism from Washington's allies in Europe, as the joint venture brings together Russia’s Gazprom, Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie, and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell. [...]

A special trade channel that will allow European firms to bypass American sanctions on Iran is operational - that was the outcome of the meeting between the countries who signed the nuclear deal ditched by US. [...]