News of the EU: Infos by an Expert for International Affairs

About the author : Leopold Stoeger is a european citizen and trained in international affairs.

1 december 2024 : New President of the European Council : Antonio Costa

Antonio Costa replaces Charles Michel as President of the European Council, for the period 1 december 2024 to 31 may 2027. Mister Costa was prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024. Source : European Council Meeting from 27 june 2024

16 september 2024 : EU Commissioner Thierry Breton (France) resigns

The french EU commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, withdrew from his position. He informed that the « questionable governance » of the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, motivated his decision. The former industry leader (CEO of France Telecom) and former minister for economy in France (2005 until 2007) will be replaced by Stéphane Séjourné, who had been until now the minister for foreign affairs of France. Source : New York Times  

17 july 2024 : Covid-Vaccines : The EU Commission did not inform sufficiently on purchase agreements (Judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU)

Case T-689/21:

“The Commission did not give the public sufficiently wide access to the purchase agreements for Covid-19 vaccines”.

Source: Press Release of the Court of Justice of the EU

Click here to get the Full Judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (available in several european languages)

17 july 2024 : Re-election of Ursula von der Leyen as President of the EU-Commission

Miss von der Leyen got 401 votes from the 720 deputees of the EU Parliament. Born in 1958 in Belgium as daughter of the german politician Ernst Albrecht (who worked already for the precursor organisation of the European Union), she studied medicine before starting her political career with the german CDU party. From 2005 to 2019 she was Federal Minister in Germany, for Labour, Social Affairs and Defence. From 2019 to 2024 she did a first term as president of the EU Commission.

The new EU Commissioners will be nominated in the near future.

Source : EU Parliament Press Info 

16 july 2024 : New President of the EU Parliament : Roberta Metsola (Malta/ Partit Nazzjonalista)

The Maltese Roberta Metsola (* 1979) got re-elected as president of the EU Parliament, a role that she occupies since January 2022. The EU Parliament has 720 members in total. 699 votes were given, of which 623 were valid ones. Roberta Metsola, a trained lawyer, is member of the « Partit Nazzjonalista » from Malta (which belongs to the Group of the European People’s Party/ Christian Democrats). She got 562 votes.

The second candidate – Irene Montero (*1988) from the Podemos-Party in Spain – got 61 votes.

The duration of the presidency term will be 2,5 years.

Source : EU Parliament Press Info  

1 july 2024 : Hungary ensures the presidency of the Council of the European Union (6 month term)

Hungary replaces Belgium in this role, who ensured the presidency under the motto « Protect, strengthen, prepare ».

The seven key priorities of Hungary are : strengthen the EU’s competitiveness and the EU’s defence policy, make the EU’s enlargement policy consistent and merit based, counteract on illegal migration, shape the future of cohesion policy, focus on a farmer-oriented EU agriculture policy, work on new demographic realities.

Source : Council of the EU  

9 june 2024: European Elections 2024

About 400 million people in the 27 EU countries were allowed to vote. To see the results for all EU countries, go to this site of the EU Parliament.

In 2024, the number of the members of the EU parliament raises from 705 to 720.

The parlamentarians are responsible for EU legislation and the definition of the EU budget (both together with the council of the EU). Their third task is to supervise the various EU institutions. The EU Parliament also elects the president of the EU Commission (the candidate proposal is done by the European Council). 

19 January 2024 : EU will use more Artificial Intelligence (AI) & outsourcing for translations

The EU Directorate General for translation (DGT) publishes each year a « Management Plan ». On the 28th may 2024, the « Management Plan 2024 » is available only in English, but not in the other 23 official languages of the EU.

Page 4 of the « Management Plan 2024 » informs :

« To tackle the increasing pressure on resources, resulting from sustained high demand for translation combined with ongoing reductions of in-house staff, DGT will continue to implement and monitor the implementation of a set of measures (…) ».

Among these measures is the outsourcing of translations (called « Trad-23 »), starting with March 2024. The EU’s neural machine translation (NMT) service – called « eTranslation » – is now available in 992 language combinations, including Chinese and Arabic. It must be used via a special portal for registered users. 

Artificial Intelligence will furthermore be used for various other language services, including speech transcription, the generation of drafts for policy briefings and more.

Sources :  DGT Management Plan 2024   and EU E-Translation Portal 

14 December 2023 : Georgia gets EU Candidate Status

The country in the Caucasus Region has a population of roughly 4,9 million inhabitants, with a GDP per capita of 17 100 USD (in 2022). Its total surface is 70 000 square kilometres, of which 18 % are occupied by Russia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia). Source : EU Commission Georgia File  

June 2022 : Ukraine obtains EU Candidate Status

February 2022 : Ukraine, which is in war with Russia, applies to become a member of the EU. The candidate status is achieved a few months later, in june 2022.

The renowned swiss newspaper NZZ reports the estimated costs of an entry of the Ukraine in the EU :  185 billion EUR over a period of seven years (of which 100 billion EUR alone concern agricultural subsidies).

Source :  EU Commission Ukraine File  and Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Share this article with your friends &  colleagues:

Further interesting content for you: 

News from Germany

News from Austria

News from France