This week, the EU has launched a training mission for Ukrainian soldiers. It is the largest EU military mission so far. At the defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels, its outlines became clearer. When it comes to delivering weapons to Ukraine to replenish depleted stocks, the EU warns individual member states against going it alone.
The Schengen Area, the largest border control-free travel area in the world, should soon expand to include at least one new member, if not three. So far, the area consists of 22 EU member states and four non-EU countries. Now three more EU members are knocking on Schengen’s door – Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania.
With the 2015 Paris Agreement, the international community committed itself to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. At the Glasgow summit in 2021, a number of states assured that they would no longer invest into coal, oil and gas. Russia’s war in Ukraine threw many things into disarray. Now, the climate targets are to be improved at the UN’s COP27.
While energy prices on the markets are falling, the EU member states and the EU Commission continue putting their heads together over the question of how to tackle the energy crisis. For months, negotiations were revolving around a gas price cap. Last week’s result of the European Council on this question is still vague.
The renewal of the Spanish General Council of the Judiciary has been blocked for four years now. As Spain will hold the EU Council presidency in the second half of 2023, Brussels is urging the country to end the deadlock in the appointment of new incumbents to important judicial positions.
On Wednesday, the EU Commission recommended granting Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) the much-awaited EU candidate status. As recently as mid-June, when Ukraine and Moldova were given the prospect of EU membership, however, the EU had still been cautious regarding Bosnia. Geopolitically, the move comes at the right time, as it could not only prevent the Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska (RS) from seceding, but also put a stop to Moscow’s ambitions in the region.