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”.
European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius criticised Slovenia’s voluntary measures to meet EU Natura 2000 targets. Thousands of Armenians demonstrated in Brussels on Sunday following the Azerbaijani military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Croatia supports Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entry into the EU and NATO.
Several member countries of the European Union, led by Poland and Germany, have welcomed thousands of Ukrainian refugees after Russia’s attack on their country launched on February 22, 2022. More than 84,000 Ukrainian citizens have arrived in Ireland. Against that background, social media users claimed that the Irish government had — at Kyiv’s request — sent extradition notices to Ukrainian nationals living on its territory. The posts were shared in several languages and included a photo of the alleged letter, which claimed that the Ukrainians had evaded military service. Yet Ireland is a signatory to a European convention which does not allow for such extraditions. The letter shared on social media is fake. Ireland’s justice department told AFP it had sent no such letter and experts in European law said its contents lacked legal credibility.
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 temporary import ban on Ukrainian grain for the country’s five EU neighbours ended on September 15. Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland – parliamentary elections are due in the latter two in the upcoming weeks – unilaterally extended their bans to the dismay of the EU. Ukraine consequently filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation.