The EU on Friday congratulated Keir Starmer on Labour’s election win in Britain, with Brussels foreseeing warmer ties with London — though little scope to change existing post-Brexit arrangements.

European Council President Charles Michel called Starmer’s victory “historic”, and stressed the EU and Britain “are crucial partners”.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen added she looked forward to working with Mr. Starmer “in a constructive partnership to address common challenges and strengthen European security.”

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Britain’s new Prime Minister has vowed to reduce trade frictions with the European Union, forge closer security arrangements — and relax travel restrictions for touring musicians.

But Mr. Starmer is also adamant his government will never reverse Brexit nor seek to be part of the European single market. His slogan is “Make Brexit Work”.

While that necessarily reduces the scope for better dealings, a more cooperative London will be greatly welcomed in Brussels, according to one EU official and one EU diplomat, both speaking on condition of anonymity.

A “return to internationalist policies” from London would be “refreshing”, the EU official said.

“If there is a different approach, one of cooperation and not with a hostile attitude, then things become easier — but not simpler,” the diplomat said.

They both warned all “easy” points of cooperation had already been hammered out and enshrined in a painstakingly negotiated 2020 EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement and a 2023 Windsor Framework.

But even if the overall deal would not be changed, some aspects could have hard edges filed down, they and analysts said.

Defence cooperation

Those could include: easing some rules around plant and animal imports; Britain continually aligning with EU rules on chemicals and standards; opening up youth exchange programmes; and mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

One key area where both sides see a priority is close cooperation is defence.

Increased geopolitical instability, notably with Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the prospect of a new Donald Trump U.S. presidency — with fears America could retreat from its global security role — are fuelling that.

“It is in the interest of the EU and also the U.K.,” the EU diplomat said. “It would be interesting if the British come back on that issue with proposals.”

Mr. Michel said he would see Starmer on July 18 when Britain hosts a European Political Community summit “where we will discuss common challenges, including stability, security, energy and migration”.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas — tapped to become the EU’s next foreign policy chief — noted “the U.K.’s commitment to our common security” in her own congratulatory message to Mr. Starmer.

Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, told AFP the surge in international volatility and the “big danger” of what a President Trump might do made shared defence “more relevant”.

Britain and 23 of the EU’s 27 member countries are in NATO, the usual forum for defence cooperation. But Mr. Trump during his 2017-2021 presidency called into question America’s commitment to the alliance.

No more ‘psychodrama’

While Britain under the Conservatives ended up taking a very arm’s-length stance with Brussels on ideological grounds of post-Brexit “sovereignty”, Starmer’s government is expected to shift to a “rational policy discussion” about U.K. interests, Leonard said.

The Tories, he said, grappled with a decades-long “psychodrama around Europe… which has destroyed the party”.

But Labour still has to bow to Britons’ general animosity to immigration, he cautioned.

“I think the only really, really strong red line is about returning to freedom of movement, because that’s the only clear signal which came out of the Brexit referendum,” he said.

Barry Colfer, director of research at the Institute of International and European Affairs, also said the result of the U.K. elections was not so prominent in Brussels’ thinking right now.

“What’s happening in France or even what’s happening in the U.S. I think plays a much more central role in the EU,” he said.

That said, European elites were “optimistic” about what Mr. Starmer’s stance would be, he added, anticipating a “generally more pragmatic, evidence-driven, constructive approach” with more diplomatic outreach than under his Tory predecessors.

“I can just see more enhanced cooperation in really obvious areas where it’s a win-win situation between the U.K. and the EU to cooperate: around climate change, and security, around scientific research, around digitalisation,” Mr. Colfer said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas walk together to a media conference during an EU summit in Brussels, early on June 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

European Union leaders signed off on a trio of top appointments for their shared political institutions on Thursday, reinstalling German conservative Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission for another five years.

At the side of Ms. von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive branch, would be two new faces: Antonio Costa of Portugal as European Council president and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas as the top diplomat of the world’s largest trading bloc.

“Mission Accomplished,” outgoing EU Council President Charles Michel told reporters after chairing a summit of the bloc’s leaders, as Ms. von der Leyen and Ms. Kallas accompanied him at a joint a news conference. Mr. Costa took part via video-link.

Ms. Von der Leyen expressed her gratitude for a shot at a second term of office, saying: “I’m very honored and I’m delighted to share this moment.”

Ms. Kallas, who as the EU’s top diplomat will lead the bloc’s foreign and security policy with Russia’s war on Ukraine in its third year, noted that “there is war in Europe, also growing instability globally. My aim is definitely to work for the European unity.”

Both Ms. von der Leyen and Ms. Kallas should now be approved by European lawmakers. Mr. Costa’s nomination only needed the leaders’ approval, and he will start in his new role in fall.

After the three centrist political families in the European Parliament struck a deal earlier this week, the top jobs package was widely expected to be approved without controversy at the summit in Brussels.

But far-right politicians, emboldened by their strong showing in EU parliament elections earlier this month, slammed it as a stitch-up.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made clear her displeasure at being excluded from preparatory talks with a small group of leaders who divvied up the top jobs. Her nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists group emerged as the third force in the EU parliament elections earlier this month.

Ms. Meloni voted against Portugal’s Costa and Estonia’s Kallas, two sources close to the discussions told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Ms. Meloni abstained on Ms. von der Leyen for European Commission president, the same sources confirmed. The officials requested anonymity in line with EU practice.

In a post on X, Ms. Meloni said the way that mainstream parties put forward the trio “is wrong in method and substance. I decided not to support it out of respect for the citizens and the indications that came from those citizens during the elections.”

Nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the only other major critic of the deal.

“European voters were cheated,” he said on Facebook Thursday evening. “We do not support this shameful agreement!” His objections were moot: the package only needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

The June 6-9 election saw the EU’s legislature shift to the right and dealt major blows to mainstream governing parties in France and Germany, but the three mainstream groups managed to hold a narrow majority of seats.

Mr. Costa, a former Portuguese prime minister, hails from the center-left Socialists and Democrats group, which came second. Ms. Kallas is prime minister of her tiny Baltic home country. She comes from the pro-business liberal group, which is also home to embattled French President Emmanuel Macron and lost seats in the June poll, trailing into fourth place.

EU top appointments are supposed to ensure geographic and ideological balance, but ultimately it is the 27 leaders who call the shots – and generally the most powerful among them.

While Mr. Costa’s appointment is decided by EU leaders alone, both Ms. von der Leyen and Ms. Kallas will also need to be approved by a majority of lawmakers. With 720 members, the threshold is 361. That vote could happen when the newly constituted European Parliament meets for the first time in July.

The European Council is the body composed of the leaders of the 27 member states. If confirmed, Mr. Costa’s role as president would be to broker deals within an often hopelessly divided political club. In Portugal, he is known as a savvy negotiator.

But Ms. von der Leyen’s role is the most powerful. As commission president, her job is to devise and implement the bloc’s shared policy on everything from migration to the economy and environmental rules.

With the far right pushing back against the flagship EU policies ushered through in the last five years, Ms. von der Leyen’s critics charge she is poised to roll back ambition.

Brussels:

European Union leaders agreed on Friday to nominate Ursula von der Leyen of Germany for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive body.

At a summit in Brussels, the bloc’s 27 national leaders also picked former Portuguese premier Antonio Costa as the future chair of their European Council meetings and selected Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as the next EU foreign policy chief.

The leadership package represents continuity for the 27-member bloc, with centrist pro-EU factions keeping hold of top posts despite a far-right surge in elections to the European Parliament earlier this month.

The deal was announced by the current European Council president, Charles Michel, on social media.

The trio won broad backing from leaders but diplomats said right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni abstained from the vote on von der Leyen and voted against Costa and Kallas.

Von der Leyen’s nomination still needs approval from the European Parliament in a secret ballot – widely seen as a trickier proposition than her endorsement by EU leaders.

At the summit, the EU also signed a security agreement with Ukraine, debated how to bolster EU defences against Russia and agreed bloc’s strategic priorities for the next five years.

The security deal underlines EU support for Kyiv fighting off Moscow’s invasion for a third year, despite gains by the far-right in European elections, uncertainty created by French snap elections and the U.S. presidential vote in November.

The agreement lays out the EU’s commitments to help Ukraine in nine areas of security policy – including arms deliveries, military training, defence industry cooperation and demining.

“These commitments will help Ukraine defend itself, resist destabilisation, and deter future acts of aggression – more concrete proof of the EU’s unshakeable resolve to support Ukraine for the long haul,” Michel said.

The leaders will reiterate their pledge to support Ukraine as long as it takes, stressing that “Russia must not prevail” and that Ukraine must get back the land annexed by Moscow.

DEFENCE DEBATE

The war in Ukraine laid bare the EU’s lack of preparedness for a conflict as the bloc struggles to supply Kyiv with enough weapons against Russia, prompting calls for more EU coordination of defence systems and investment in defence industries.

Diplomats said von der Leyen told the summit that between 1999 and 2021, the EU increased defence spending by 20%, China by 600% and Russia by 300%, even before Moscow’s massive rise in military spending after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

According to diplomats, von der Leyen told leaders the EU needed to invest 500 billion euros ($535.30 billion) in defence over the next 10 years. Financing options ranged from national contributions, dedicated revenue streams – called the EU’s own resources – and joint borrowing, von der Leyen said.

Investment in defence is part of the EU’s “strategic agenda” that the leaders aim to agree before dinner on Thursday – a document that tells EU institutions what European governments want them to focus on during their 2024-2029 term.

Apart from defence, the agenda calls for a more competitive EU to withstand economic pressure from China and the United States and for preparing the bloc for enlargement that would include Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Secret shipment: The EU estimates around 6 billion cubic metres of Russian LNG was shipped via the bloc’s ports last year.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The European Union (EU) on June 24 slapped new sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine, targeting Moscow’s shadow fleet of tankers moving liquefied natural gas (LNG) through Europe.

At a meeting in Luxembourg, where the sanctions were endorsed, EU Foreign Ministers also expressed concern about a rise in hybrid attacks by Russia — including allegations of election interference, cyber-attacks and sabotage.

In an effort to push Russia into using more costly routes for energy purposes, the EU will “forbid reloading services of Russian LNG in EU territory for the purpose of transshipment operations to third countries,” the Ministers said in a statement.

The EU estimated that about 4-to-6 billion cubic metres of Russian LNG was shipped via EU ports last year. Russia is suspected of running a “ghost fleet” of up to 400 ships to evade sanctions and keep up the flow of energy earnings so that it can finance the war.

The measures will target ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore transfers as well as reloading operations. It also involves a crackdown on the re-export of LNG via the EU, plus a ban on new investments to help Russia complete LNG projects it is working on.

Scores of new “entities” — often companies, banks, and other agencies — were also added to the EU’s list, including some in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Many are accused of circumventing the bloc’s sanctions or providing sensitive equipment to Russia.

Targeted entities

More than 50 officials were also being targeted with asset freezes, as well as travel bans. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and scores of lawmakers and oligarchs are among more than 1,700 people already listed by the EU.

Over 400 entities previously hit include companies working in the military, aviation, shipbuilding and machinery sectors, the Wagner mercenary group, political parties and banks.

As they arrived for the meeting, some Ministers insisted that action must be taken to end hybrid attacks in Europe by Russia that take place in a “grey zone” just below the threshold of military action which are aimed at destabilising Ukraine’s backers.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said that “there’s a plethora of actions they have been undertaking against European countries.”

Finland has closed border crossings with Russia, blaming the Kremlin for an orchestrated campaign exploiting migrants.

“There is no observer status in Europe anymore to Russia’s aggression. We are all victims of Russia’s aggression,” she said. “It is crucial that we keep on aiding Ukraine because Russia only understands power.”

Her Lithuanian counterpart, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said there is “ample evidence” of malign activity by Russia.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that we are yet sending the right message,” he said. “Moscow has to get a very clear message that whenever they escalate, they will receive an answer from our side.”

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

European Union countries on June 17 gave final approval to a major and long-awaited plan to better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc.

After surviving a razor-thin vote by lawmakers last summer, the so-called Nature Restoration Plan faced opposition from several member states for months amid relentless farmers’ protests that contributed to leave the bill in a deadlock.

The law, which aims at restoring ecosystems, species and habitats in the EU, was finally adopted at a meeting of environment ministers at Luxembourg after rallying the required support from a qualified majority representing 15 of the 27 member states and 65% of the EU population. “This is the final step before this law can enter into force,” said the Belgian presidency of the EU Council.

The Nature Restoration plan is a part of the EU’s European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets, and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues.

Under the plan, member states will have to meet restoration targets for specific habitats and species, to cover at least 20% of the region’s land and sea areas by 2030.

The countries agreed to coordinate the respective countries’ bio policies, regulations, and research and development support measures. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

South Korea, India, the United States, Japan, and the European Union (EU) have come together to launch an alliance to put joint efforts into building a resilient supply chain in the biopharmaceutical sector, the South Korean presidential office said in Seoul on June 6.

The inaugural meeting of the Biopharmaceutical Alliance, held in San Diego during the Bio International Convention 2024, had representatives from government officials and bio and pharmaceutical companies from the participating countries, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

The participants emphasised the importance of a reliable and sustainable supply chain and agreed to coordinate the respective countries’ bio policies, regulations, and research and development support measures.

They acknowledged that the production of essential raw materials and ingredients is concentrated in a few countries and agreed to work together to build a detailed pharmaceutical supply chain map.

The alliance was launched in response to the drug supply shortages experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

South Korea and the U.S. agreed to form the alliance during their dialogue on core emerging technologies in December and expanded it to include Japan, India and the EU, the report said.

File picture of a multicolour 10 Polish Zloty coin marking Poland entering the European Union is presented by the National Bank of Poland in 2004. The Finance Minister in Poland’s pro-European Union government says the country is still not ready to adopt the euro currency.
| Photo Credit: AP

Twenty years after joining the European Union, Poland is still not ready to adopt the euro currency, the finance minister in the pro-European Union government said.

Andrzej Domanski, Finance Minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said in an interview on TVN24 on April 29 that Poland joining the eurozone, the currency union of 20 E.U. members, is not justified at this time.

He said he believed that having its own currency, the zloty, helped Poland avoid recession during the global financial crisis and to weather other shocks.

On May 1, Poland and nine other countries will mark the 20th anniversary of joining the EU in 2004. Under the terms of membership, Poland committed itself to replacing the zloty with the single European currency.

Brussels:

 Adult content companies Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos will have to do risk assessment reports and take measures to address systemic risks linked to their services to comply with new EU online content rules, the European Commission said on Friday.

The three companies were designated as very large online platforms last December under the Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires them to do more to remove illegal and harmful content on their platforms.

Pornhub and Stripchat will have to comply with these DSA obligations, among the strictest, on April 21 and XVideos on April 23, the EU executive said.

“These specific obligations include submitting risk assessment reports to the Commission, putting in place mitigation measures to address systemic risks linked to the provision of their services,” it said in a statement.

The companies will also have to meet additional transparency obligations, including related to ads, and providing access to data for researchers.

Companies risk fines as much as 6% of their global annual turnover for DSA breaches.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The European Union said on Friday it had agreed to impose sanctions against four people and two entities over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The listed entities are Lehava, a radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youth, the European Union Council said in a statement.

Two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, are also listed, it added.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and the area has been under military occupation since, while Israeli settlements have consistently expanded. Palestinians envisage the West Bank as part of a future independent state also including Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Brussels:

European Union leaders agreed Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Iran’s drone and missile producers over Tehran’s unprecedented weekend attack on Israel, EU chief Charles Michel said.

“We have decided to put in place sanctions against Iran, it is a clear signal that we wanted to send,” the European Council president said at an EU summit in Brussels.

“The idea is to target the companies that are needed for the drones, for the missiles.”

Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile onslaught over the weekend against Israel, which caused little damage after most of the projectiles were intercepted.

Tehran’s first-ever direct assault on Israeli soil came in response to a deadly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus widely blamed on Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will decide how to respond to Iran’s attack as global powers called for restraint to avoid escalation.

The EU leaders in their statement from the summit urged “all parties to exercise the utmost restraint and to refrain from any action that may increase tensions in the region.”

The EU has already imposed sanctions on Iran over its supply of drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine, but they have had little effect on cutting the ties between Tehran and Moscow.  

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)