The European Union has never had a coordinated strategy to ditch coal – and that shows in the mismatch between regions and countries, as illustrated this week with the dispute between Poland and Czechia over the Turów coal mine.
BRUSSELS | SOFIA |
SKOPJE
EU officials will arrive on Friday in Sofia with a compromise solution to overcome the Bulgarian veto against North Macedonia starting accession negotiations, former Bulgarian foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva announced, warning that their proposal is against the Bulgarian interest. Read more.
At the same time, Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic on Thursday said North Macedonia has fulfilled all the democratic conditions to open EU accession talks, but it is constantly being “kicked” around, after Sofia criticised his statements about Bulgaria’s policy on that EU membership aspirant. Read more.
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EU PRESIDENCY
Conclusion of CAP reform a ‘priority’, Portuguese agriculture minister says. Portuguese Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes has reiterated that the goal of completing the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) during the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the EU to “ensure a greener and more resilient agri
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the figurehead of the Belarus opposition currently living in exile in Lithuania, has called on Finland to take leadership and initiate roundtable talks between Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, the Belarussian civil society and also neighbouring Russia, noting that such a three-party summit would be an important step in finding a way out of the current crisis.
Finland is “a mighty country” whose “power and influence” are underestimated by many and which has “a unique opportunity to help us find a solution”, Tikhanovskaya told the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) in an interview on Sunday.
Tikhanovskaya made a similar appeal to Finland for the first time already in March when she visited Helsinki and met with President Sauli Niinistö, Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
PORTO SUMMIT
LISBON. Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa hopes that the Social Summit in Porto on Friday will be a milestone in the EU history with the achievement of a general agreement subscribed by European institutions and, for the first time, social partners.
“If we succeed at the Social Summit to obtain for the first time a compromise in which the Council and the Commission sign an agreement with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), with Business Europe, which is the association of European SIBS, with the confederation of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with the confederation of general services companies, then it will be the first time in the EU history that there is a general agreement bringing together all social partners and European institutions,” Costa told
As the Finnish parliament is set to have the required two-thirds majority to approve the EU’s stimulus package worth €750 million on Wednesday, a Brussels official has reportedly been pressuring Finland to approve the package, claiming that failure to approve the package would result in “unprecedented damage” to the country’s reputation, the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) and tabloid newspaper
Iltalehti reported.
The reported comment has divided parliament, with some taking it as an example of a thinly veiled threat attempting to influence the Finnish parliament. For others, it was seen as a de facto outcome of the parliament’s possible rejection.