France has had to shake up its ambitious plans for the EU, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A crisis that did not prevent the country from reaching agreements on important issues. This is how to sum up the six months of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which ends today, June 30th. French diplomats must pack …

On June 23, the European Union decided to put Ukraine on the route to EU membership, acting with unusual speed and unanimity to drive the embattled country further away from Russia’s influence and closer to the West. At a summit in Brussels, leaders from the EU’s 27 member states obtained the necessary unanimous agreement to award Ukraine candidate status. This …

Following the suspension of Russian gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has accused Moscow of blackmail. But she said the EU was prepared for this scenario and would “provide a collective response”. They are in close contact with all EU states and have been working to secure supplies from other countries, she said before …

Sweden and Finland have pursued a policy of neutrality since World War II, refusing to officially join either side in the Cold War, and pursuing foreign and security policies coherent with this posture. After the end of the Cold War, this strict neutrality was already broken, with both countries joining the EU in 1995 and signing various agreements with NATO …

On the 17th and 18th of February, the European leaders of the Member States of the European Union greeted over 40 African leaders in a long-awaited summit, postponed from 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The summit was intended to lay further grounds in the areas of common cooperation and encourage foreign investment in Africa, especially following the growing Chinese …

The UK’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is currently facing the most politically perilous moment of his premiership, as he continues to come under intense scrutiny over his involvement in a series of N° 10 drinks parties held in the midst of England’s lockdowns aimed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Boris Johnson just announced a plan to take the first steps …

Ukraine has been on mouths of everyone in the recent days due to the seemingly escalating reluctance towards the possibility of them joining NATO. Currently, Russia has amounted more than 100.000 troops at the border with Ukraine, resulting in increased tensions surrounding the region. Multiple international decision-makers have addressed this issue, with Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting with the NATO …

To get started, it must first be addressed some basic concepts, such as what an interest group is. According to the definition used by the European Union in the Green Paper on a European Initiative in favour of Transparency (2006), “they are all those activities carried out with the objective of influencing the formulation of public policies and the decision-making …

In the last two years, the Balkan route has become one of the most frequented routes for illegal and uncontrolled immigration. Afghans, Pakistanis and especially Syrians have embarked on the dangerous journey to survive war and misery via the Balkan route[1]. The region already suffers from its own political, economic and social instability and fragility, and the challenge of the …

The EU and China signed a bilateral Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) in December 2020, after eight years of complex negotiations. The document, intends to provide international investors with broader market access, which will be enforced through state-to-state dispute resolution (Sapir, Dadush,2021) . Although, it does not  include investor protection (such as against expropriation), investor protection is covered by bilateral …