Section: European Voice (EU)
Russia agrees cease-fire, but EU sanctions may follow regardless
Ukraine, pro-Russia separatists and Russia have signed a conditional cease-fire agreement, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko announced at the end of a NATO summit in Wales on Friday (5 September). However EU leaders and Barack Obama, the US president, remain sceptical that the deal represents a real solution to the conflict. “We are hopeful,...
EU farm ministers call for further compensation
Agriculture ministers held an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday (5 September) to take stock of the effect of the Russian ban on EU food imports on the EU agricultural sector. Russia banned the import of meat, fruit, vegetables and other foods on 6 August, in retaliation for EU sanctions for Russia’s military involvement in Ukraine....
The EU’s grand coalition asserts itself
The national leaders of the European Union’s member states agreed last Saturday (30 August) that Donald Tusk should chair their future summits as president of the European Council and that Federica Mogherini should become the Union’s foreign-policy chief. The twin appointment emerged only after two special summits, at the end of July...
Leaders promise to get tough with Russia
Herman Van Rompuy had called the special European Council so that the EU’s national leaders could belatedly agree on who should fill the Union’s remaining top jobs (including his own). But as often happens at EU summits, other issues made their way onto the agenda. Discussion took account of the dramatic developments in Ukraine, where...
EU to add to sanctions on Russia
The European Union is poised to tighten sanctions against Russia tomorrow (5 September) in response to an escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, which is already the most serious armed conflict in Europe since NATO’s bombing of Serbia in 1999. After a week of intensive discussions, prompted by more brazen Russian troop movements into eastern...
EU agriculture ministers to hold emergency meeting
Agriculture ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Friday (5 September) to take stock of the effect of the Russian ban on EU food imports on the EU agricultural sector. Dacian Cioloş, the European commissioner for agriculture, outlined the impact of the ban on EU agriculture at the meeting of European commissioners today (10...
Ukraine: ‘permanent ceasefire’ agreed with Russia
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has announced that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has agreed to a “permanent ceasefire” in eastern Ukraine, the site of six months of intensifying fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists aided, allegedly, by Russian servicemen. The three-sentence announcement, made shortly...
Putin-Barroso dispute over alleged ‘take Kiev’ claim
Russia has threatened to release a recording of a disputed phone conversation between Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, in which Barroso claims the Putin said “if I wanted I could take Kiev in two weeks”. Putin disputes Barroso’s claim, which was made to European...
EU hurries to strengthen sanctions on Russia
European Union institutions have begun days of intense discussions about a new set of measures intended to persuade Russia to roll back its military activities in Ukraine and to engage in substantive peace talks with Ukraine. Debate about Russia’s increasingly overt engagement in fighting in Ukraine preoccupied the EU’s national...
MEPs return for committee meetings
Members of the European Parliament will this week hold the first committee meetings after the summer break. The Parliament’s 20 committees and two sub-committees met, for the first time since May’s election, in July to elect their chairs and vice-chairs. But most did not engage in any legislative work. This week will see the first...
