European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi has announced a new plan for economic growth in the Western Balkans. Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel will travel to Washington to discuss issues including import tariffs, climate change and Russia’s war on Ukraine. The European Commission says there have been fewer illegal crossings at the Austrian-Slovenian border.
At a time when migration is high on the agenda and in the run-up to the European elections next year, the European Newsroom (enr) spoke to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, on migration, the upcoming ballots and EU enlargement.
The European Commission proposes that EU countries extend the licence for the herbicide ingredient glyphosate by ten years. Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, is named as a 2028 European Capital of Culture. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier calls for a European solution to migration problems.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the Italian Island of Lampedusa and proposed an emergency plan to help Rome manage migratory flows. A list for Spain’s proposal to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official EU languages inadvertently omitted Croatian. Twenty young European ambassadors from the Western Balkans clean the beaches of Lake Prespa in North Macedonia as part of the EU-funded “EUBeachCleanup” initiative.
The German government has suspended an agreement with Italy to voluntarily take in refugees due to Italy’s refusal to respect the Dublin rules. In other news: Slovenia and Luxembourg pledge for equal treatment of all EU candidates and the preservation of Schengen. Slovak and Hungarian police are combating illegal migration together.