Belgium

LONDON, Dec 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — NATO leaders will attempt to make a convincing show of unity on Wednesday when they meet to conclude a summit already overshadowed by bitter rows about the future of the alliance.

Last year, the Western allies’ get-together was derailed by US President Donald Trump’s demand for greater European defence spending, but 2019’s provocateur was France’s Emmanuel Macron.

PARIS, Dec 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Paris, London and Berlin on Saturday welcomed six new European countries to the INSTEX barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone consumer prices grew faster than expected in November, an official estimate showed on Friday, pushed up by a jump in food and services prices despite a slump in energy costs.

The European Union’s statistics office Eurostat said consumer prices in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose by 1.0% on the year, accelerating from 0.7% in October. On the month, prices fell by 0.3% in November.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.9% year-on-year gain.

26 Nov 2019; MEMO: Activists are fundraising for legal action to stop the European Union (EU) from trading with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The organisers of the initiative, who describe themselves as “a coalition of anti-racist associations and committees within the Palestine solidarity movement in Europe”, are hoping to pressure the EU into banning trade with settlements.

BRUSSELS, Nov 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – Foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), agreed to include space as its new operational domain, alongside air, land, sea and cyber, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said Wednesday.

Following the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at the level of foreign ministers, Stoltenberg defended the decision by saying, space “can be used aggressively.”

For a long time, NATO, led by the United States, has been paving its way for Wednesday’s decision.

BRUSSELS, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- "The European Union (EU) and China must work together... I believe China is open to do business with the European Union on trade, but also on like-minded issues like the reform of the WTO (World Trade Organization)," Phil Hogan, the European commissioner in charge of agriculture and trade commissioner-designate of the new European Commission, said on Tuesday.

20 Nov 2019; MEMO: The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said on Monday that the EU’s position on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank remains “unchanged” adding that the settlements are “illegal” under international law.

BRUSSELS, November 19. /TASS/: The European Commission (EC) has recommended direct purchases of the Russian gas totaling around 15 bln cubic meters per year to Ukraine to reduce expensive reverse supplies, a source in the EU’s institutions close to trilateral gas talks told TASS on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS, Nov 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain will lose influence in international affairs and become a “second-rate player” after it leaves the European Union, European Council President Donald Tusk said.

Backers of Britain’s 2016 vote to exit the EU, the world’s largest trading bloc, say that the country – the world’s fifth largest economy – will achieve a new global status unshackled from EU rules and closer to the United States.

Tusk said only a united Europe could confront an assertive China and play an effective global role.

BRUSSELS, November 12. /TASS/: Representatives of the European Union, Russia and Ukraine have failed to reach progress on the key issue of mutual withdrawal of gas claims, including the Stockholm arbitration court and revocation of Kiev’s antimonopoly decisions, at the gas consultations so far, a European source in Brussels told TASS on Tuesday.