Saturday, August 17, 2019
Estonia’s candidate for EU commissioner, Kadri Simson (Centre), is meeting designated president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Tuesday next week. According to Simson, the meeting will be short, and portfolios won’t be discussed. Simson told ERR on Friday that any broader talk about the incoming commissioners’ subject areas will have to wait until all of them have been appointed. She added that her upcoming meeting with…
In mid-July the new EU Commission President announced new priorities for the whole EU with a consequence that all the states including those in the Baltics have to turn these priorities into the national political-economic order. The Union’s strategic planning is clear and the EU member states’ leaders agreed on the agenda, though some 3-4 – mostly eastern European states – did not see these priorities as “nationally acceptable”. But…
The influx of migrants and asylum seekers to Europe in recent years has shown the need for a fairer, more effective European asylum policy. Although the record migratory flows to the EU witnessed in 2015 and 2016 have subsided, Europe – due to its geographic position and stability – is likely to remain a destination for asylum seekers and migrants amid international and internal conflicts, climate change and poverty. There…
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (New Unity) and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, discussing issues on the agenda of Finnish Presidency at the Council of the EU, assumed that the UK might leave the EU without a deal, both ministers said in the joint press conference today. “We understand that the British parliament might not ratify the deal and the UK will not be an EU member on October 31.…
Lithuania’s regions outside the capital can expect to receive the highest possible financial assistance from the European Union in 2021 through 2027 after the European Commission updated statistical data for cohesion allocations last week, splitting the country into two separate regions with different development levels. One region consists of the capital of Vilnius and the other covers the rest of the country. If the revised territorial classification is finally approved,…
On 23 July, Vice-Minister Albinas Zananavičiaus met with his counterpart from Poland Konrad Szymański, who was paying a visit in Vilnius. They discussed on-going negotiations on the European Union multiannual financial framework, tackling climate change, and other topical issues on the EU agenda. “While negotiating on the future EU multiannual budget, we aim at its fairness and balance, at the Cohesion Policy which would continue closing a gap in the…
The Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union’s political group in the parliament has decided to propose Economy and Innovation Minister Virginijus Sinkevicius as the country’s candidate to be a member of the next European Commission. “We had a vote today on a candidate for European commission. The group unanimously supports the candidature of Virginijus Sinkevicius,” Ramunas Karbauskis, the ruling party’s leader, told reporters on Thursday.
Minister of Finance Martin Helme (EKRE) posted a message on social media on Wednesday criticizing Ministry of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for European Affairs Matti Maasikas, who had expressed concerns regarding the direction of Estonia’s foreign policy. Prime Minister Jüri Ratas (Centre) in turn wrote another message on social media himself in defense of Estonia’s officials. In his post on Wednesday afternoon, Martin Helme, deputy chairman of the Conservative People’s Party…
The EU said the bloc’s 28 member states held great responsibility for the wave of money-laundering scandals hitting the continent Wednesday, urging tighter and more centralised control of banking. “We have stringent anti-money laundering rules at EU level, but we need all member states to implement these rules on the ground,” said Vera Jourova. “We don’t want to see any weak link point in the EU that criminals could exploit.…
The European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andruikaitis, has criticised UK prime-minister-in-waiting Boris Johnson in a scathing blog post. The post was published on the European Commission’s website just hours before it was officially announced that Mr Johnson’s had defeated Jeremy Hunt to become the next leader of the Conservative Party. In it, Mr Andirukaitis claims that Mr Johnson is a dishonest, Yeltsin-like figure who would lead the UK…
