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MEPs are set to re-write their internal rulebook to strengthen the European Parliament’s transparency and integrity regime as part of the response to the Qatargate corruption scandal. 

Dear readers, Welcome to EU Politics Decoded where Benjamin Fox and Eleonora Vasques bring you a round-up of the latest political news in Europe and beyond every Thursday. In this edition, we look at the latest evidence of the accountability...

The EU will aim to recycle at least 45% of each “Strategic Raw Material” contained in the Union’s waste under plans voted on by the European Parliament’s industry committee on Thursday (7 September).

Ding dong! Wedding bells ring in the European Parliament. Is it the Parliament's latest bizarre, contortionist move to get the youth involved, such as getting celebrities to promote the EU elections? Surprisingly, not. Is it the European People's Party's newest strategy to get new voters, as their poll projections are plummeting? Perhaps.

Welcome to EURACTIV’s weekly Economy Brief. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. With next year’s European elections closing in and conspiracy theories about the Digital Euro flying through the ether, the European Parliament is taking an overly cautious stance,...

The United Nations General Assembly designated today, 7 September, as the International Day of Clean Air. But the air we breathe globally is still not clean enough, and climate change is aggravating the situation, harming people’s health and diminishing their...

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary got a rude welcome in Brussels on Thursday (7 September) when he received two cream pies to the face while standing next to a cardboard cutout of EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Following concession on the UK’s Online Safety Bill, the government remains of the opinion that message scanning for harmful content cannot happen until it is ‘technically feasible’ without compromising users’ privacy, yet tech companies are optimistic about potential changes. The...

Ukraine has started exporting grain via Croatian seaports, aiming to broaden its export routes while its Black Sea ports are blocked, a senior Ukrainian official said on Thursday (7 September).

Civil society groups and academics have urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to push ahead with the proposal for an EU legislative framework for sustainable food systems amid concerns its fate hangs in the balance. 

The G20 grouping of nations has agreed to grant permanent membership to the African Union, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday (7 September), citing people familiar with the matter.

The European Commission's top brass have not yet found an agreement on the delicate issue of Ukraine’s grain exports in their meeting on Wednesday (6 September), with only a week to go until current restrictions on the matter expire.

With mining set to increase in the near future, its negative impact on vulnerable communities and ecosystems is bound to worsen. Governments need to ensure their protection from the activities of the mining industry, write Diego Marin and Jan Morrill. 

Economy professor Dirk Niepelt warns that too many financial stability safeguards might mean that the digital cannot fulfill its role as an attractive public alternative to private payment providers.

The current animal welfare legislation is outdated and in need of an urgent update to respond to societal expectations and scientific evidence. The European Commission should stay true to its commitment to publish this proposal.

With a new text of the EU Data Act unveiled by EU legislators on 27 June, it should be considered whether the legislative proposal will be a catalyst or roadblock to the vision of a “Europe fit for the digital age”, write Francesca Blythe, Lauren Cuyvers, and Matthias Bruynseraede.

The ongoing revision of Italy’s recovery plan, which triggered a confrontation with municipalities, carries deep implications for the country’s internal politics, its economy and the EU approach to fiscal integration, making a failure of the plan a no-go for Brussels.

The United Kingdom will join the European Union's satellite programme for Earth observation and Horizon Europe research scheme with a rebate in its financial contribution to compensate for the years it has missed, it announced on Thursday (7 September).

The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record, according to data from the European Union Climate Change Service released on Wednesday (6 September).

This week, EURACTIV’s Beyond the Byline podcast looks into the EU’s enlargement strategy. With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine bringing the topic of EU enlargement back into sharp focus, the next political season could be crunch time for decisions that...