EU disability ministers are meeting in Paris on Wednesday (9 March) to take stock of the EU's disability strategy and exchange best practices. EURACTIV France spoke to the French secretary of state in charge of people with disabilities who initiated the meeting within the French EU Council presidency framework.
France is intensively preparing for its EU presidency starting in January while working closely with Slovenia, whose stint at the helm of the EU is ending, French Ambassador to Slovenia Florence Ferrari told STA in an interview.
In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV, Christiane Lambert, president of the EU's farmers association COPA-COGECA, looks back at the major agricultural issues of the year in France and Europe and discusses her expectations for when France takes over the rotating EU Council presidency next month.
The general approach to the Digital Services Act (DSA) has been one of the major achievements of the Slovenian Presidency and on 25 November, EU ministers unanimously adopted the mandate to initiate the interinstitutional negotiations on it. The agreement was reached just 11 months after the presentation of the proposal under the leadership of the Slovenian Presidency.
The European Commission, Parliament, and Council will start negotiating the final version of Europol's new mandate on Wednesday (27 October), which could be ready by December, Slovenia's interior minister Aleš Hojs told EURACTIV.com in an interview. According to him, "positions of …
After the successive crises over two decades, a core issue for the Conference on the Future of Europe should be how to ensure the resilience of the EU and put policies in favour of European citizens first, Slovenia's State Secretary Gašper Dovžan told EURACTIV.
The EU needs to move "as soon as possible" from a wait-and-see approach to a problem-solving strategy in dealing with enlargement and the Western Balkans, Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar told EURACTIV in an interview about the priorities for his country's upcoming EU Council presidency.
Digital transformation of the way Europeans live and do business is one of the priorities of the Portuguese EU Council presidency, which ends on 30 June. To find out how much has been achieved, and what Portugal's successor, Slovenia, should pursue, EURACTIV spoke to Hugo Santos Mendes, Portugal's deputy minister for communications.
Portugal is optimistic an agreement can soon be reached on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the country's Agriculture Minister Maria do Céu Antunes told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
Relations between the EU and India, especially in the context of an increasingly influential China, will be the central point of the Portuguese EU presidency, Portugal's Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
In an interview with EURACTIV Germany, director of the Asia programme of the European Council of Foreign Relations, Dr Janka Oertel, described how Germany could play a pivotal role in changing the EU's relations with China and might even force the exclusion of Huawei from the planned 5G expansion across the EU.
In an interview with EURACTIV Croatia, German Federal Economy Minister Peter Altmaier spoke about the forthcoming EU presidencies of Croatia and Germany, the controversial zero growth ('Schwarze Null'), and the cooperation with the Western Balkan states.
In a wide-ranging interview, the former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who has founded a new centre-left force, Pro-Romania, doesn’t mince his words criticising his former party, the ruling PSD. The Party of European Socialists (PES) should, if necessary, show PSD the red card, he says.
Romania's EU presidency will push to improve the prospect of membership talks for Western Balkan nations of Macedonia (FYROM) and Albania, but only after the European elections in May, the country's European affairs minister told EURACTIV in an interview.
Austria's Federal Economic Chamber represents the interests of the country's economic operators but is also a cornerstone of the social partnership enshrined in the constitution. Its president, Harald Mahrer, spoke to EURACTIV Germany about Austria's economic goals in a changing global economy.
In a wide-ranging interview, Victor Negrescu, the Romanian Minister Delegate for European Affairs, presents the priorities of the upcoming Romanian Presidency (1 January-30 June 2019), during which the European elections will be held, as well as the first post-Brexit EU summit.
As Romania prepares to hold the rotating EU presidency at the start of 2019, EURACTIV met with Dacian Cioloș. The former prime minister and agriculture Commissioner has just set up a party in Romania similar to Emmanuel Macron's En Marche, with one eye on the European elections.
During its July-December EU Presidency, Austria wants to set its own focus on China. To prepare for this, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz paid a visit to the Middle Kingdom. EURACTIV Germany reports from Vienna.
Unusually low fuel prices in Bulgaria are probably the result of cartels, or contraband, Bozhidar Danev told EURACTIV.com in an exclusive interview, saying the authorities have so far been unable or unwilling to address the issue.
In a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday (22 November), Russia’s ambassador to the EU discussed Syria and other conflicts, the upcoming Eastern Partnership Summit, his country's relations with Turkey and Bulgaria's Presidency of the Council of the EU.
In an exclusive interview in his Vrana Palace near Sofia on 17 November 2017, Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha shared his thoughts on the upcoming Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. A version of this interview on the website BulgarianPresidency.eu contains the original transcript in Bulgarian.
In a wide-ranging interview, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, whose country takes over the EU's rotating six-month Presidency in January, discussed European policies, the upcoming Bulgarian Presidency, and his contradictions with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
The former long-serving leader of the S&D group in the European Parliament Hannes Swoboda provided insight ahead of the visit to Brussels on Wednesday (8 November) of the Bulgarian government in preparation for the upcoming Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Pilar del Castillo, the Spanish centre-right MEP leading negotiations on the EU's new telecoms bill, defends in an interview the European Parliament’s agreement on telecoms competition.
