In December, EU leaders agreed to open accession negotiations with Ukraine. While the European Commission said in a recent report that the country needed to implement further reforms, the German government has now said that Ukraine has fulfilled these reforms.
In a watershed moment breaking with decasdes of previous policy, Spain, Ireland and Norway announced last week that the recognition would come into force on Tuesday. While the majority of UN member states recognize the state of Palestine, most EU states do not.
The economy ministers of Germany and France have called for reforms to EU economic policy. A concept published on Thursday also calls for a shift away from fossil fuels, although the two countries differ on how to achieve this.
Maximilian Krah, the lead candidate for Germany’s far-right AfD party in the EU elections, will no longer make public appearances after telling the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that not all members of the SS were criminals.
A new Eurobarometer survey published by the European Commission shows that while Europeans’ foreign language skills have improved, the proportion of respondents who can speak German has fallen.
Georgia’s parliament has adopted its controversial “foreign agents” law, despite intense protests in the country. EU and NATO officials, including two European Commissioners, also heavily criticised the law.