The International Criminal Court in the Hague announced Wednesday it has opened an investigation into alleged crimes during the brief 2008 war in and around South Ossetia between Georgia and Russia. According to Dutch media, it is the first time a case is opened regarding crimes not in Africa.
Cameron has cancelled visits to Denmark and Sweden on Friday to "take stock" of UK membership negotiations with EU Commission president Juncker as a progress update is expected next week.
Russian behaviour is a bigger security concern than the migrant crisis and terrorism, according to a report by US military commander in Europe.
The European Commission has accused Greece of "seriously neglecting its obligations" to manage its frontiers amid broader threats to extend border controls in the Schengen area to two years.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei closed Wednesday his exhibitions at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum and the Faurschou Foundation gallery in Copenhagen in protest against the Danish parliament’s approval on Tuesday of a law that allows authorities to seize valuables from asylum-seekers and delay family reunifications. Faurschou backed the artist’s decision.
The Volkswagen scandal has convinced the EU executive to seek greater powers. "We have to make sure this never happens again," said commissioner Katainen.
Belgian PM Charles Michel urged France to find a solution to the growing camps around Calais, known as the "jungle", and nearby Dunkirk sheltering thousands of migrants trying to reach the UK. Michel, who will meet with French PM Manuel Valls Monday, said bad conditions push migrants into neighbouring Belgium.
British PM David Cameron will meet EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Friday, cancelling a previously scheduled visit to Sweden and Denmark, Downing Street said in a statement on Wednesday. They will discuss the UK's membership renegotiation, the latest push to find a compromise before a mid-February summit.
EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici will propose measures to stop corporate tax evasion on Thursday, according to fellow commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis. He told journalists the proposals would "close loopholes" and insisted the EU would be "more ambitious" and go beyond what has already been agreed among OECD members.
Croatia's new prime minister is a political nobody. He is controlled by men who are about as pro-European as Kaczynski in Poland or Orban in Hungary and the EU should be worried.
France's justice minister Christiane Taubira resigned on Tuesday, as a bill to revise the constitution is reaching parliament. "Sometimes staying is staying, sometimes resisting is leaving," she said. The bill includes measures on the state of emergency and stripping citizenship from convicted terrorists with dual nationality, a measure she opposed.
Hassan Rouhani arrives in France after a visit to Italy. He is expected to buy more than 100 Airbus planes in a series of multi-billion-euro deals.
The latest report from Transparency International ranks Bulgaria as the most corrupt in terms of perception in the entire EU.
German chancellor faces increasing pressure from coalition allies to cap the number of migrants.
Hundreds of taxi drivers have blocked major Paris roads in a protest at competition from app-based taxi services including Uber. Drivers also protested in Toulouse, Lille and Marseille as part of a nationwide public-sector strike in France. At least 20 drivers were arrested for "violence or carrying weapons", police said.
Bosnia will apply to join the EU in the next month in the hope of winning candidate status in 2017. "We obtained from the Dutch presidency a date, February 15, to submit our application to join the EU," chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency Dragan Covic told reporters on Tuesday.
