Trade between the European Union and Russia kept sliding in the final quarter of 2023, as Brussels continues efforts to decouple itself from Moscow in the lead-up to the second anniversary of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

The EU executive proposed measures to loosen monitoring, controls and environmental requirements to alleviate the administrative burden of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on growers and member states, according to a document seen by Euractiv.

Pressure mounted on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine as lawmakers from his governing coalition voted on Thursday (22 February) for a resolution to deliver “long-range weapon systems” to Ukraine.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski blamed the bloc's “trade and climate policies” for farmers’ discontent after the European Parliament’s agriculture committee called on him to stand up for European farming. 

Addressing Europe’s shortage of affordable housing is crucial to tackling the continent’s cost of living crisis and establishing a viable social market economy, panellists convened by the EPP told a group conference.

"Freedom isn't free" is an idiom used to describe sacrifice during times of crisis, used widely in the US to express gratitude to the military for defending freedom.

The next European Commission that will be appointed after June's EU election will focus on implementing green laws adopted in the current mandate and boost investments in clean tech to meet the EU’s 2030 climate goals, a top official has said.

The new Pact on Migration and Asylum will not only violate human rights, but will also prove to be ineffective for the goals it has been conceived for, writes Gaia Romeo.

EU member states should find ways to increase support to Ukraine, particularly the delivery of badly needed ammunition, the bloc's chief diplomat Josep Borrell urged his counterparts in a letter seen by Euractiv.

The controversial appointment of German CDU MEP Markus Pieper as the new EU envoy for small and medium-sized enterprises has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group’s new far-right friends have started making some more moderate national delegations uncomfortable.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ponders as a possibility for some parties within the conservative group (ECR) to join her centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the new European Parliament after June’s EU elections.

The European Union faces a looming threat to its (SMEs) due to the complexities of standard essential patent licensing. SMEs struggle with opaque negotiations, unfair pricing, and the risk of market exclusion. The proposed regulation promise transparency, fairness, and support for innovation.

In the wake of the farmers' protests, the German government has tried to pin the blame on supermarkets. The German Monopolies Commission has now concluded that there are indeed imbalances, although it warns against hasty political decisions.

The hot topic of the month in Brussels is industrial competitiveness and how it can be connected more closely to the European Green Deal. European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, appointed to lead the Green Deal portfolio last year, has a plan.

In recent decades, political institutions have witnessed a gradual erosion of trust among their constituents, a trend exacerbated by the economic and financial crisis. According to the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), over the past 20 years, vote turnout in both Western and Eastern democracies has dropped by an average of 10 percentage points. Within the European Union, which has faced criticism from citizens, non-governmental organizations, and other civil society groups, the challenge of greater involvement in European policy-making is consistently highlighted. From 2002 to 2010, the percentage of Europeans expressing dissatisfaction with politics increased from 31% to 43% (EPRS). Participatory budgeting (PB) emerged as a solution to rejuvenate democratic participation, reinforce civil society, modernize public services, and combat corruption in the EU. According to the EPRS, the number of participatory budgeting experiments in the EU surged from 55 to over 1,300 between 2005 and 2012, engaging more than 8 million EU citizens. Currently, PB is primarily employed at the municipal level, where citizens are invited to propose and vote on initiatives to be executed through the local budget. Although there are instances at regional and national levels, this practice has yet to be implemented on a European scale. In the context of the H2020 project DEMOTEC , join this Euractiv Virtual Conference to discuss PB and its potential at an EU level. Some questions to be discussed include: - How will PB work in practice concerning specific policies at an EU level? - How can PB complement representative democracy? Is it a valuable tool for improving citizens' trust in EU institutions? - What challenges are associated with implementing such a process at an EU level?

In Paris on Wednesday (February 21), French Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said he would convene a meeting of the Nuclear Alliance on March 4. This will be an opportunity to discuss the implementation of nuclear projects of common interest.

President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "crazy SOB" during a fundraiser in San Francisco on Wednesday (21 February), warning there is always the threat of nuclear conflict but that the existential threat to humanity remains climate. "

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Macron’s party struggling to find an EU lead candidate, Central European farmers rallying against EU policies and being backed by national governments, and so much more.

The US administration's decision to suspend the granting of permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals will have major consequences for the energy security of the EU, writes Andrea Di Giuseppe.