#ursula-von-der-leyen

#ursula-von-der-leyen

Ryanair has been forced to cancel 400 flights as a result of strikes by French air traffic controllers, the airline's boss has said, as he urged the European Union to take action.The mass cancellations across Europe on Tuesday representing one in eight flights scheduled by the continent's largest airline are merely the latest to be grounded by industrial action, with walkouts at airports blamed by Ryanair for more than 4,000 cancellations this year so far.

1. Moldova is pressing for a faster EU membership process, with its leader attending a summit in Chisinau to discuss the issue.
2. EU officials have acknowledged Moldova’s progress in implementing reforms in areas such as justice, the rule of law and public administration.

A Russian defeat in Ukraine will not derail China's rise, while relations between Beijing and the EU will be critically affected if Xi Jinping does not push Vladimir Putin to withdraw his forces, European ministers have been told.The message comes in a paper drawn up by the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who is meeting the EU's 27 foreign ministers on Friday in Stockholm to discuss how the bloc should recalibrate its policy towards Beijing.

Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Russian forces may have to advance as far as Kyiv or Lviv in Ukraine, Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview to Russian news agencies.Nothing can be ruled out here.

Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the international criminal court, will plead on Monday for extra cash to pursue Russian war crimes in Ukraine, including the potential prosecution of Vladimir Putin for overseeing the abduction of children from Ukraine to Russia.Khan made his dramatic move against the Russian president last week ahead of a conference in London co-hosted by the UK and the Dutch government aimed at raising cash to fund the ICC's war crimes investigatory work inside Ukraine.

Up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia invaded in February, according to Kyiv's presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.At certain points in the war, Ukraine said that between 100 and 200 of its forces were dying each day on the battlefield, making Podolyak's estimate seem conservative.

EU authorities have called on Greece to conduct an independent investigation into video footage that purports to show the forced expulsion of asylum seekers from its territory.In a statement on Twitter released the day after Greek elections, the EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, said her officials had written to Athens with a formal request that this incident be fully and independently investigated.

Joe Biden is set to visit Belfast to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement despite the Democratic Unionist party's continued boycott of the power-sharing government that the peace pact established.The US president, who is of Irish heritage, is also expected to travel to Dublin as part of his wish to mark his family connection while in office.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has rejected claims the king was drawn into political matters when meeting the European Commission president after a new Brexit deal was agreed.Ursula von der Leyen was welcomed to Windsor Castle on Monday, and took tea with King Charles.It led to the Democratic Unionist party and some Conservative Brexiters accusing the prime minister of dragging the monarch into politics, calling the moment crass and controversial.

A Russian missile strike overnight destroyed a Red Cross warehouse containing aid in Odesa.The Odesa regional organisation of the Red Cross society said workers and volunteers were not in the 1,000 sq metre unit at the time.The provision of humanitarian aid and the activities of some projects of the Odesa Regional Organisation of the Red Cross of Ukraine have been suspended, the statement added.

BRUSSELS European Union foreign and defense ministers agreed on Monday to spend up to 2 billion euros, or $2.14 billion, to supply Ukraine with badly needed artillery shells, replenish their own national stocks and ramp up Europe's ammunition production.But as is typical for the bloc and its 27 member states, the details of the agreement must still be worked out and questions remain about the speed of the response a crucial matter as Ukraine prepares for a spring counteroffensive.

King Charles III met with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, at Windsor Castle on Monday afternoon, where the pair shared some tea and posed for a photo.But the seemingly unremarkable afternoon cuppa has proved controversial to some in Britain.They saw the king's decision to meet with a major E.U. leader as too political and directly in conflict with his apolitical role, as Ms. von der Leyen was in the country to finalize a new Brexit deal.

LONDON King Charles III and Camilla, the queen consort, will travel to France and Germany this month, making their first state visits since Charles ascended to the throne in September, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.The visit will celebrate Britain's relationship with France and Germany, marking our shared histories, culture and values, said a statement from the palace.

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas discusses what Europe has learned since last year's invasion of Ukraine.It's been one year since Russia invaded Ukraine.To mark the occasion, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the secretary general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, travelled to the Estonian capital.

The European Research Group (ERG) of hardline Brexiter Conservative MPs has formally rejected Rishi Sunak's revised plan for trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, increasing the potential size of a Tory rebellion against the plan.The ERG, which remains influential, if not to the same extent as during the Brexit negotiations under Theresa May, has said it cannot accept the so-called Windsor framework, unveiled last month by Sunak after talks with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.

Rishi Sunak's hopes of ending years of Brexit infighting with a revised deal for Northern Ireland have suffered a double blow as Boris Johnson came out against the plan while pressure mounted within the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to reject it.In his first public comments since the Windsor framework was unveiled on Monday, Johnson used a speech to a conference in London to say he would find it very difficult to back the plan, arguing it would stifle the UK economically.

Pope Francis offered prayers for unity and peace in Italy as Giorgia Meloni, Italy's first female prime minister, took the helm of the country's most rightwing government since the second world war.Meloni and Salvini, who is deputy prime minister, were also congratulated by their European far-right allies.

Western leaders have largely dismissed a peace plan for Ukraine laid out by China's government, arguing that Beijing does not have the international credibility to act as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.China's government called for peace talks while urging all parties to avoid nuclear escalation and end attacks on civilians, in a statement which appeared to maintain Beijing's stance that the west was fuelling the conflict and which analysts dismissed as anodyne.

Paris hosts a vast gathering to coordinate urgent aid for Ukraine.From left, Olena Zelenska, Ukraine's first lady; President Emmanuel Macron of France; Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal of Ukraine and Catherine Colonna, France's foreign minister, in Paris on Tuesday.Credit...Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters PARIS  In the latest attempt to buoy Ukraine through what is already a brutal and dark winter, international leaders have announced the immediate delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars to repair electricity supplies, water systems, roads and health centers pummeled by Russian strikes.

Ukraine warns of a new wave of Russian strikes.A Ukrainian soldier making his way through the rubble of a building in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, last week.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times Ukrainian officials are warning that Russia is preparing to unleash a new wave of strikes, even as utility crews work to restore power supplies devastated by recent bombardments and as increasingly frigid weather presents new challenges on the battlefield.

Increasingly frigid winter weather presented new challenges for Ukraine on Sunday as mud churned up the battlefield and snowfall made the government's task of restoring power supplies devastated by weeks of Russian bombing all the more urgent.The state energy company, Ukrenergo, said that there was enough electricity to cover 80 percent of the country's consumption needs because nuclear power stations, disconnected from the national grid by Russian attacks last week, had been brought back online.

For a Brexit-minded MP, the parallels may seem striking: an electorally embattled prime minister trying to push through a controversial Northern Ireland deal in the face of Tory and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) scepticism.But one thing has changed: this is 2023, not 2019.Theresa May's struggles with Brexit, and her tumbling popularity with voters, led to her being forced out as prime minister by Conservative backbenchers.

The king will host the EU chief, Ursula von der Leyen, after the signing of the final Northern Ireland protocol agreement with Rishi Sunak, prompting a furious reaction from the Democratic Unionist party and Tory Brexiters, who accused the prime minister of dragging the monarch into politics.The former DUP first minister Arlene Foster said she cannot quite believe that No 10 would ask HM the king to become involved in the finalising of a deal as controversial as this one.

Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has rejected claims that the King was being drawn into political controversy over his meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

A proposed meeting between King Charles and the president of the EU Commission just days before an expected deal on the Northern Ireland protocol has been cancelled at the last minute.Sources close to the palace said this was done for 'operational reasons' but the meeting was seen by some as an attempt by the government to politicise the monarchy.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has insisted any personal concerns over his safety will not deter him from visiting Northern Ireland.Mr Varadkar, who became Taoiseach for a second time last week, has become deeply unpopular within some sections of unionism and loyalism who claim he was an instrumental figure in the creation of Brexit's contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.

The most interesting part of the press conference between the UK prime minister and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, was probably what Rishi Sunak said about the deal including a Stormont brake, which will allow the Northern Ireland assembly to stop new EU single market rules from applying in the region.

After years of red tape and political rows over sausages and sovereignty not to mention the collapse of the power-sharing agreement in Stormont a new deal has finally been struck over the Northern Ireland protocol.Rishi Sunak and the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, have announced their Windsor framework to ease the flow of goods between Northern Ireland and Britain.

The European Union's defense ministers are gathering on Wednesday in Stockholm to consider proposals to use the bloc's budget to order and purchase up to one million shells for Ukraine at an estimated cost of 4 billion euros ($4.2 billion).That point is to address a production problem.Ukraine is going through shells faster than the West can supply them, but making more shells is expensive.

European Commission's Ursula von der Leyen says the war in Ukraine is a fight of democracy against autocracy and for the respect of international law'.Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has accused Russia of carrying out atrocious war crimes in Ukraine and called for a special tribunal to be formed to investigate and prosecute them.

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: the EU announces a new plan for cleaner tech; the latest IPA Bellwether Report suggests market growth despite economic downturn; and CoinDesk explores a partial or full sale.EU Commission reveals Green Deal Industrial Plan
The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has revealed plans for a new Green Deal Industrial Plan to "make Europe the home of clean tech and industrial innovation on the road to net zero."

The European parliament's senior leaders have agreed unanimously to strip a Greek MEP implicated in a bribery and corruption scandal of her role as one of the body's vice-presidents.The decision on Eva Kaili needs to be approved by two-thirds of the European parliament's 705 MEPs, who are due to vote on the matter later on Tuesday.

Ireland knows what it means to struggle for the right to exist, the European Commission president has said.Ursula von der Leyen added that Ireland had gone above and beyond in its support for Ukraine.She made her comments during an address to a joint sitting of the Houses of the Oireachtas in Dublin to mark Ireland's 50-year membership of the European Union.

A security officer at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday.The security officer suffered light injuries, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid.In the wake of the incident, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv's embassies abroad to urgently strengthen security, a ministry spokesperson said.

Joe Biden has said the missile that landed in Poland, killing two people, was unlikely to have been fired from Russia due to its trajectory.The US president was speaking at the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, after convening an emergency meeting of western leaders to discuss the explosion on Nato territory that has the potential to take the war in Ukraine into a new even more dangerous dimension.

Chinese authorities dropped a trade fair speech by the European Council president, Charles Michel, that was critical of Russia's war in Ukraine, diplomats have said.The recorded message by Michel was meant to be one of several from world leaders and heads of international bodies played at the opening on Friday last week of China's International Import Expo in Shanghai.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes an appeal for unity at a summit with regional leaders in Berlin.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has told leaders of six Balkan countries aspiring to join the European Union that it is high time to overcome regional conflicts and stand together as Russia wages war in Ukraine.