Section: European Voice (EU)
Farm ministers to assess Russian import ban
Agriculture and fisheries ministers from the European Union’s member states will on Monday (26 January) assess the effects of a Russian ban on imports of agricultural products from the EU, which has been in place since August. Latvia, which on 1 January took over the presidency of the Council of Ministers, has indicated that it will follow...
Latvia spells out its health policy ambitions
Guntis Belēvičs, Latvia’s health minister, has given European Voice a personal take on his country’s ambitions in the health field during its presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers in the first half of this year. “Until now, we’ve been treating those who are ill. We’ve reached a point where it makes sense to...
EU’s review of Russian policy off to rocky start
The European Union’s member states struggled this week to launch a review of their long-term strategy towards Russia against the background of intensified fighting in Ukraine by pro-Russian separatists. A discussion about the EU’s relations with Russia had long been scheduled for the agenda of a meeting of foreign ministers on Monday...
Foreign ministers tune in to ways of hitting back at Russian media bias
There was no shortage of Orwellian moments at the European Union foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday (19 January), as leaders agreed to explore extraordinary measures to counter Russia’s “active propaganda campaign” – and then vowed that their response would not itself amount to propaganda. “We are losing this information...
Where our problems lie
The Snow Meeting organised by the Lithuanian foreign ministry each January is a highlight of the European security calendar. It is like Davos, except that attendance is measured in dozens, not thousands, and is in the lovely lakeside surroundings of Trakai, not that drab Swiss ski resort. Another difference is deep expertise: the politicians,...
Rafał Trzaskowski – sociable patriot
Starring in “Our Backyard”, a 1980 Polish children’s television series, eight-year-old Rafał Trzaskowski appeared to have a promising career as an actor in his sights. It did not work out that way. Thirty-five years later as an expert on European Union affairs, he has moved smoothly from academia to the European Parliament and on to...
EU foreign ministers unite behind a Russian media strategy
Like sand through the hourglass, so the items up for discussion at the European Union foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday (19 January) eventually flowed through to the pressing problem of what TV content the EU could provide to counter Russian “active propaganda campaign”. The consensus: keep it entertaining. According to those attending...
The Russian threat runs out of fuel
For Europe, the defining event of 2014 was Russia’s annexation of Crimea and military intervention in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. The Kremlin’s actions directly challenged key principles that have guided Europe for more than six decades, particularly the renunciation of the use of force to alter national borders. But Russia...
Latvians outline terror response as raids take place across Europe
Police forces across Europe staged anti-terror raids last night (15 January), with two suspected militants killed close to the Belgian city of Liege. The Liege suspects had been under surveillance for several weeks, after having returned from fighting in Syria, Belgian authorities said. They were said to be planning to carry out a major attack on...
EU imagines a new start with Russia
Foreign ministers from the European Union’s member states are scheduled to spend most of their meeting on Monday (19 January) discussing how to improve relations with Russia if it meets its commitments to help end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The debate will be based on a discussion paper from the European External Action Service...
