TAG: Missions
The Gaza war is escalating. How bad will the Middle East crisis get?
On October 7, Hamas fighters launched a bloody attack against Israel, using paragliders, speedboats...
8 months ago
Who will be the next European commissioners?
BRUSSELS — You’ve got mail!Before taking a break to spend time with her family, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will ask the EU’s national governments to send in the names of who they want to be in the next team of commissioners.Each co...
2 months ago
Hungary demands EU action against Ukraine as Russian oil spat escalates
BRUSSELS — Hungary on Monday said it had asked the European Union to take action against Ukraine for imposing a partial ban on Russian oil exports, arguing the move was jeopardizing Budapest’s energy security.Kyiv last month adopted sanctions blocking the...
2 months ago
Hungary’s gatherings get cold shoulder after Putin visit
BRUSSELS — Hungary’s moment on the EU stage is increasingly playing to empty seats.On Tuesday, numerous countries didn't send their senior ministers to a Hungarian-hosted gathering of energy officials in Budapest, with at least four saying it was in prote...
2 months ago
Starmer’s ‘quiet’ climate radicalism sets up battle with Farage
LONDON — Early last year, U.K. Labour leader Keir Starmer’s top green lieutenant traveled to Berlin. He was there to take notes on a German government full of climate vim. Starmer’s man Ed Miliband — then in opposition, now the U.K. energy secretary — enc...
2 months ago
How Ed Miliband became Britain’s most divisive government minister
LONDON — Six weeks on from Labour’s resounding election victory, no one in Keir Starmer’s Cabinet has moved quite as quickly as Ed Miliband. A former (failed) Labour leader, who critics deemed too left-wing and awkward to win over the British public, Mil...
2 months ago
Eurozone ministers’ meeting in doubt over Hungary’s approach to Putin
BRUSSELS ― A meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Budapest next month could be canceled over mounting anger at Hungary's love-in with Russia. The head of the gathering, Irish Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe, will decide by next week whethe...
1 month ago
EU boycotts only make us stronger, Hungarian finance minister says
The boycotts of Friday's EU finance minister meeting in Budapest have only made the country stronger, Hungary's finance minister Mihály Varga said.Speaking in Budapest after the meeting, Varga said the “long list of our participants” for Friday’s meeting...
1 month ago
France mourns its loss of influence in von der Leyen’s new Commission
BRUSSELS — Emmanuel Macron's clout on the European stage just isn't what it used to be.One day after now-former French Commissioner Thierry Breton resigned in a huff, five French officials bemoaned a loss of influence for Paris in Brussels after Ursula vo...
4 weeks ago
IMF axes controversial Russia visit after outrage from European capitals
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) indefinitely postponed its planned visit to Russia, according to Russian state-run media.An IMF delegation was scheduled to travel soon to Russia for the first time since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine i...
4 weeks ago
Keir Starmer channels his inner Boris Johnson
LONDON — Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson were the bitterest rivals. Yet it turns out they have one thing in common: a love for windmills bobbing in the ocean.Back in 2020, Johnson, then U.K. prime minister, conjured a patriotic vision of a green post-pande...
3 weeks ago
The EU was built on red tape. Now it wants to slash it.
BRUSSELS ― For decades, the European Union loved to regulate. Now, it wants to do the opposite.Where once, the "Brussels Effect" saw the EU set laws and standards the rest of the world couldn't help but follow, soon there will be a European commissioner f...
3 weeks ago
European Commission maps out ‘power grab’ over €1.2 trillion money pot
BRUSSELS ― European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is laying out how she plans to pressure countries to implement key economic reforms if they want to access the EU’s €1.2 trillion seven-year cash pot.The Commission's budget officials mapped ou...
1 week ago