Why are Armenia and Azerbaijan back to the brink of all-out war? Dozens have been killed in a flare-up of July’s tensions in the separatist Armenian-speaking enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. This time, it has escalated with both sides declaring martial law and competing images to back up rival claims. It could escalate even further, what with Turkey…
PARIS (Reuters) – The EU is right to continue talking to Britain for now, and should not overreact to British tactics that could be aimed at pushing Brussels to break off negotiations over a Brexit trade deal, France’s European affairs minister said on Thursday. The British government won initial approval in parliament this week for…
That the European Union takes to the moral high ground on international law when it suits it is hardly new. Nor is its infringement of international treaties, even when they are its own. For six months now, the European Union has been in breach of its fundamental international treaty: the 2007 Lisbon Treaty. Brussels has…
As coronavirus cases rise across Europe the World Health Organization has sounded the alarm about how bad the situation really is. WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, warned on Thursday the situation across the continent looks as bad as it was at the height of the first peak. Kluge said: “We have a very serious situation…
At a solemn ceremony at the Panthéon to mark the 150th anniversary of the (re-)birth of the Republic, president Macron chose a 59-year-old anti-Brexit British expatriate to be one of five newly naturalised French citizens emblematic of what it means to become French. Macron does nothing without gauging its historical and political theatre. Coming just days…
Boris Johnson says the UK is ready for any eventuality The chances of the UK leaving the European Union without a trade deal have risen sharply as negotiations have been threatened by London’s insistence that it have full autonomy over its state-aid plans, according to negotiators and diplomats. Fears in Dublin, London, Brussels and other…
Mr Barnier was due to hold emergency talks today with UK chief Brexit negotiator David Frost amid a stand-off over state aid rules and fishing rights (REUTERS ) EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier today stepped up warnings across Europe that there will be new barriers with the UK even if an 11th-hour trade deal is struck. Ahead of travelling to…
It remains unclear whether this proves to be a mere bump on road or will mark the beginning of a permanent reorientation in Turkish defense priorities. Key Point: Ankara’s revived interest in Russian military hardware comes during a time of acute strain in Turkey-NATO relations, an opening that the Kremlin has effectively been working to exploit….
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz (L) attend a cabinet meeting at the German chancellery in Berlin, Germany, 19 August 2020. [EPA-EFE/CLEMENS BILAN] German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Sunday (23 August) that the European Union’s recovery package financed by joint borrowing was a long-term measure rather than a…
The graph of Spain’s daily coronavirus case count is taking on an emphatic U-shape, with 3,715 new infections in the past 24 hours – joining Germany and France on Wednesday in reporting the most cases since lockdowns helped Europe quash an initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic months ago. France reported 3,776 cases in the…