Over the weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Kyiv for the sixth time since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Reason for her visit to the Ukrainian capital was the country’s reform progress and its bid for EU membership. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, denied a stalemate in the war with Russia. An enr pool journalist reported from Kyiv.
The G7 agreed on a code of conduct for AI developers. Leaders urged the EU to move faster on lawmaking but pointed out that overregulating may be harmful, especially looking at competition from China and the US. In the UK, political and industry leaders have come together to discuss AI at the world’s first global AI Safety Summit, committing to collaboration.
One hundred years after Kemal Atatürk proclaimed the Turkish Republic, the country is trying to balance between east and west. Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to leave his mark on the destiny of the country to the detriment of its illustrious founder by imposing the idea of a “Century of Turkey”.
A number of countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia have announced new controls along their borders. They are trying to prevent people smugglers from using routes through the Balkans to bring migrants to Central and Western Europe. This puts pressure on the Schengen area of free movement and visa-free arrangements with third countries.
More than 74 percent of eligible voters flocked to the polls on Sunday in the largest voter turn-out since the fall of communism in 1989. In a surprise result, Donald Tusk’s pro-European opposition is set to dethrone the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party after eight years of rule, even though it remained the single strongest party in the Polish parliament.
The escalation of violence between Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas has prompted discussions in Brussels over aid programmes for the Palestinian people. The EU has strongly condemned the attack by Hamas on Israel but has sent out mixed messages over the future of its development aid to the Palestinians.