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Tonight’s presidential debate will start with opening statements by the six candidates, and focus on the following topics:1. Migration / Youth employment2. Climate change / Environment / Taxation / Competition3. International trade / the role of the EU in a changing world / populism / the democratic gap / relevance of institutions

EP Elections 2019: Daily brief May 15

By: EBR | Wednesday, May 15, 2019

A daily newsfeed on country-specific electoral facts, events and debates in all member states

In total 20 European leaders presented their views on the future direction that the European Union should take, between January 2018 and April 2019

EP Elections 2019: Daily brief May 14

By: EBR | Tuesday, May 14, 2019

A daily newsfeed on country-specific electoral facts, events and debates in all member states

Elections to the European Parliament have been fuzzy since 1979, when its members stopped being mere delegates. Yet far from exciting public interest, EU-level democracy has been a damp squib. European election turnouts have fallen from a high of 62% of eligible voters to 42% in 2014. The lack of public interest probably reflects the absence of clear issues.

It’s time to admit the EP elections are a charade

By: EBR | Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Giles Merritt challenges the value of European elections that ignore the most serious threats to EU citizens’ future well being - ageing and economic decline

The European Business Summit also hosted the 2nd edition of the European Leadership Awards with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in attendance. This prestigious and reputable awards ceremony recognizes the outstanding achievement of global leaders shaping Tomorrow’s Europe in the areas of business, politics, entrepreneurship and innovation.

The 2019 European Business Summit shines a spotlight on tomorrow’s Europe

By: EBR | Friday, May 10, 2019

The European Business Summit’s 2019 edition took place on 6th and 7th May in the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Belgium

The European Leadership Awards is a prestigious and reputable awards ceremony recognizing outstanding achievements in business, politics, entrepreneurship and innovation. Begun in 2018 as a joint venture by Euronews and the European Business Summit, every year winners are chosen by a jury of experts from business, academia and media.

Jean-Claude Juncker awarded "European Leader of the Year" Award

By: EBR | Wednesday, May 8, 2019

For the past five years, Jean-Claude Juncker has been at the helm of the European Commission at a time of great challenges for the European Union

Juncker is wrong about Europeans losing their libido and “not loving each other anymore”. There’s plenty of love and affection among Europeans. There’s plenty of public enthusiasm about Europe. It is now up to EU leaders, politicians and policymakers to rediscover their lost passion for Europe.

Juncker is wrong: Europeans don’t need a ’’protective Europe’’, they want a passionate one

By: EBR | Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Elections to the European Parliament used to be yawn-inducing. Leadership changes at EU institutions didn’t really matter and while discussions on the ‘Future of Europe’ were numerous, they didn’t get pulses racing

In the meantime, relations between Belgrade and Pristina have turned sour. In November 2018, Kosovo imposed a 100 percent tariff on Serbian goods because Belgrade has been lobbying against Kosovo joining Interpol, precisely because it would amount to this organization giving Kosovo’s independence more international legitimacy.During the Berlin summit, Merkel, who has taken a close interest in the Western Balkans after she launched the “Berlin Process” in 2014, which was aimed at encouraging regional cooperation and closer integration, had hoped to kickstart a dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo. Another summit will be held in July 2019, this time hosted in Paris by President Emmanuel Macron.

Europe Puts the Western Balkans on Hold

By: EBR | Thursday, May 2, 2019

The European Union’s lack of political strategy toward the Western Balkans can only benefit Russia and China

It used to be that each country’s hopes to become a small EU member state and get the same benefits as those Eastern and Central European countries that joined the EU 15 years earlier were treated on its respective merits.Macedonia – now officially the Republic of Northern Macedonia – has made heroic efforts with Greece to solve its name problem. Albania, too, is moving forward steadily under Edi Rama.Twenty years after European democracies intervened to stop massacres and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, Kosovo is still being punished. The main reason is that Serbia cannot accept that — like Ireland after 1920 — Kosovo is now an independent nation.

Keeping the Western Balkans Outside the EU

By: EBR | Thursday, May 2, 2019

Why on earth are Merkel and Macron slamming the door to the EU shut for Europeans between the Aegean and Adriatic?

Some European leaders believe the response to Trump is to move the EU toward “strategic autonomy”—an ambition as unrealistic as Europe’s ability to forge a serious foreign and security policy. Indeed, Brexit has exposed why calls for strategic autonomy amount to a naive response to the changes taking place in America’s own foreign and security policy. This is because Germany remains reluctant to give Europe the kind of leadership the union now needs.

What Brexit Is Doing to Europe

By: EBR | Tuesday, April 16, 2019

The Brexit saga is exposing the inadequacy of the EU’s foreign and security policy. If only Germany would provide the leadership the union now needs

A pragmatic European response to a right-wing government in Jerusalem can include a clear demand that Netanyahu drops the divisive policy he pursues of aligning with Europe’s least liberal regimes, in return to greater European understanding of Israel’s legitimate security concerns. Such step would benefit the EU in three distinct ways: enhance its relevance in the Middle East; gear internally with loose member states; and increase coordination with Trump’s Middle-East policies.

Israeli Elections offer Stark Choices for Europe

By: EBR | Thursday, April 4, 2019

While the composition of the next government in Jerusalem depends on the Israeli vote, pro-active European policy can influence future outcomes. A pragmatic EU can partake in determining the looming course of action, with each of the alternative Israeli choices

Volodymyr Zelensky, who plays a history school-teacher accidentally propelled to the presidency, won around 30% of the votes, according to exit polls. With around two-thirds of the ballots counted, the actual results are indicating a similar outcome. In second place is Mr Poroshenko with 16%; Ms Tymoshenko is currently third with 13%. Mr Zelensky will now face either Mr Poroshenko or Ms Tymoshenko in the second round scheduled for April 21st. He looks likely to win then.

Ukraine puts a TV comedian in pole position to be president

By: EBR | Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Volodymyr Zelensky wins the first round of presidential elections

The downsides to both a general election and a soft Brexit mean that Mrs. May still has an outside chance of securing a majority in Parliament this week for her withdrawal agreement—perhaps accompanied by a promise to MPs to give them a greater say in the negotiations in the months ahead over the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU.

Brexit’s Endgame

By: EBR | Monday, April 1, 2019

The next ten days will bring to a head the Brexit drama. It has strained the UK’s constitution, threatened its social cohesion, terrified its businesses, appalled its friends, and delighted its enemies

EU member states will also have new recycling targets with increased responsibility for producers. The collection target for plastic bottles will have to be 90 per cent achieved by 2029, plastic bottles will have to contain at least 25 per cent recycled content by 2025 and 30 per cent by 2030.The European Parliament argues that the agreement will strengthen the application of the “polluter pays” principle by introducing extended responsibility for producers to ensure that manufacturers bear the costs. This regime will apply, in particular, to tobacco and to fishing gear, ensuring that manufacturers bear the cost of collecting nets lost at sea.

EU finally seals ban on single-use plastics by 2021

By: EBR | Friday, March 29, 2019

Parliament approved a new law on Wednesday, banning throwaway plastics such as cotton bud sticks, cutlery, straws, stirrers and plates

The Christchurch terrorist, Brenton Tarrant, broadcast his attack live on Facebook in a post which was widely shared before it could be removed. Tarrant, like other Far Right extremists, also used social media to disseminate propaganda, coordinate training, organise protests, raise funds, recruit members and communicate with other extremists across countries and continents.

After the Christchurch massacre, it’s time Europe addressed some inconvenient questions

By: EBR | Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Europe's counter-terrorism policies and operations must also cover Far Right extremists and the expanding influence of their hate-filled white supremacist ideology

By voting down Theresa May‘s deal once again decisively, the UK parliament yesterday rejected the first option, and probably for good. An exasperated EU will not reopen negotiations to further finesse details of this deal. If the UK parliament votes against a no-deal hard Brexit today, as seems highly likely, the softer Brexit variants or a new referendum would be the only options left.

Brexit Mess: The EU Angle

By: EBR | Thursday, March 14, 2019

A short eight-week delay to adjust the joint statement on post-Brexit relations accordingly would be fine for the EU27

EUROCHAMBRES President Christoph Leitl underlined that Chambers are ideally placed to promote the importance of the European elections to citizens. “Our network can decipher the jargon from Brussels into topics that touch the millions of people who work in our member businesses and the millions more with whom they are in daily contact. That is the challenge over the next three months.”

Chamber network kicks off European elections campaign

By: N. Peter Kramer | Wednesday, March 6, 2019

March 6, in the prestigious PressClub Brussels-Europe (PCBE), EUROCHAMBRES* set out its ‘#Chambers4EU’ campaign to encourage EU citizens to vote in May’s European Parliament elections and to vote for candidates who are engaged and committed to an ambitious, forward looking EU agenda

The approach is typical of Macron, who appears to like throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Le Macronometre, a project set up by the think tank iFRAP, shows the president has initiated 60 domestic reforms, of which three have been dropped and the rest either have been legislated upon or are in progress. As implemented, though, these reforms vary in the degree to which Macron has kept his election promises; iFRAP estimates 27 percent of these to be broken, 40 percent more or less kept and 33 percent fully kept

Macron Is Getting Ahead of Himself on Europe

By: EBR | Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The French president’s European election agenda is overambitious and badly thought out

His latest speech—it’s in fact an opinion piece published in several newspapers across the EU addressing the citizens of Europe—makes no mention of Germany or that special relationship, which over the years had driven the European project. It’s as if Macron has lost any hope in Chancellor Angela Merkel helping him pull Europe out of its deep malaise and lack of self-confidence.

Macron’s Bid to Wake Up Europe

By: EBR | Tuesday, March 5, 2019

The outcome of the European Parliament elections will be decisive for the EU’s future

Today, the liberal political elites proclaim, louder than before, progress should be made in European co-operation in three key areas: Under the heading European foreign and defence policy, they demand a boost to the military self-assertiveness that would allow Europe “to step out of the shadows of the USA”; under the motto of a common European asylum policy, they further demand robust protection of Europe’s external borders and the establishment of dubious reception centres in North Africa; and, under the slogan “free trade”, they wish to pursue a common European trade policy in the Brexit negotiations as well as in the negotiations with Trump.

“New” Perspectives For Europe

By: EBR | Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Certainly, the risks associated with a significantly changed state of the world have penetrated public awareness and have altered perspectives on Europe

The origin of the problem, in most general terms, is twofold: (1) globalization that has made the knowledge of differences in income between countries much better known and has reduced the cost of transportation, and (2) large gaps in real incomes between the European Union (especially its more prosperous North) and the Middle East and Africa.

Migration Into Europe: A Long-Term Solution?

By: EBR | Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Why has migration become such a big problem? Many reasons can be adduced: the war in Syria, the integration of Eastern Europe, lack of new jobs in many Western countries following the Global Financial Crisis

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EU Actually

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