The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and Russian aggression have brought into question the EU’s energy security. This has led to thoughts over what measures might need to be taken to ensure the EU’s gas supply in the coming years, given the energy dependency on Russia.
Recent years have seen a slow increase in Euroscepticism and mistrust in EU institutions. Except for policymakers themselves and political science students, Brussels politics often seems too complicated and dry to understand. Anti-EU and pro-nationalist parties are on the rise again and are in particular targeting the people that feel disconnected and far away. Does that leave any hope for the future of the EU?
In an extraordinary summit in the evening of Thursday 24 February, EU leaders met to discuss what Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called a ‘package of massive and targeted sanctions’. Earlier that day, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded to ban Russia from the European payment system SWIFT. In the end, the ban did not happen.
While Estonia is celebrating its Independence Day, many fear an escalation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While usually the day is celebrated with a parade, a speech by the president and a lot of potato salad and vodka, this time young people in the Baltic country are jokingly saying: ‘happy last Independence Day’.
Roberta Metsola from the conservative EPP group is the new President of the European Parliament. The Maltese MEP won the race on Tuesday, 18 January, in the first round of voting, reaching an absolute majority of 458 out of 690 votes cast. She succeeded against two other candidates, Alice Bah Kuhnke from the Greens/EFA and Sira Rego running for the Left.
The President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, aged 65, died early Tuesday morning on 11 January 2022 after hospitalisation over a lung infection. Sassoli had been admitted to hospital on 26 December 2021 following a series of illnesses and hospitalisations in the previous months.
European Union leaders have shown themselves concerned over recent reports that Russia has yet again increased its number of troops close to the Ukrainian border. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen once again pointed out the EU’s solidarity with Ukraine against Russian aggression in a video statement published on her Twitter account.
The European Commission approved another vaccine against the coronavirus to enter the European Market on Wednesday, 10 November. French pharmaceutical company Valneva is expected to deliver almost 27 million doses to EU Member States in 2022, with the possibility of supplying up to 33 million more in 2023.
World leaders are coming together in Glasgow to discuss climate change and the necessary measures to mitigate its effects in the format of the COP26. The Commission’s goal: agree on more ambitious emission reduction targets, put a price on carbon, and scale up investments in climate finance to support developing countries.
The European Commission presented a new Arctic policy on Wednesday, 13 October, with the aim to increase influence in the region. The EU’s new policy is an update of the strategy dating back from 2016, and now focuses heavily on mitigating the effects of climate change, while also positioning the EU as a geopolitical actor in the region.
