In a fast-track procedure, the European Parliament and Council adopted new rules for gas storage on Monday, 27 June, only two months after the Commission’s initial proposal. The rules will foster energy security in light of the Russian war in Ukraine that is affecting the EU’s energy market.
Ukraine and Moldova are now officially candidates for joining the European Union. This is the conclusion reached by EU leaders at the European Council summit on Thursday, 23 June.
Laws as envisioned by the European Parliament, no more Hungary blocking sanctions against Russia because of their de facto veto power. This is what Members of the European Parliament want for the future of the EU.
European leaders finally reached a consensus on the Commission’s proposed sixth sanctions package in the late evening of Monday, 30 May. The new sanctions include a phase-out of Russian oil by the end of this year, which has been the main point of contention in the negotiations over the past weeks.
European Council President Charles Michel visited Sweden and Finland on 25 May to show the EU’s support in their bid to join NATO after Turkey vetoed their application. Their membership is of high importance, he says.
The Council and European Parliament will sign off new rules for Eurojust, the EU’s agency for Criminal Justice and Cooperation, on 30 May, allowing it to store and preserve evidence related to war crimes and process and share it with relevant authorities.
The European Parliament wants the Council to start accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia in light of the war in Ukraine. In two reports adopted by the plenary on Thursday, MEPs acknowledge the progress both countries have made on the way toward EU membership.
Almost half of the Member States are not happy with the treaty change proposed by the European Parliament as an outcome of the Conference on the future of Europe. In a non-paper, thirteen of the 27 Member States declare their dismay at the proposals that would strengthen the European Parliament’s powers as a legislator and would strengthen the role of citizens in electing their representatives, also in the Commission.
European Parliament members in the Constitutional Affairs Committee want the Parliament to get a ‘general and direct’ right to initiative after the next time the Treaties are revised.
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.
