European Parliament

The European Commission is not considering changing Europe's policies to cut CO2 emissions from cars, despite a push from the EU's biggest political group to weaken the laws, the bloc's climate policy chief told Reuters on Thursday.

The European Parliament's biggest political group is mounting a campaign to weaken the EU's main policies for cutting CO2 emissions from cars, a draft position paper seen by Reuters showed.

“A formal meeting, as it is logical to have,” will mark the first in-person contact between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis, according to the Prime Minister’s associates. Mitsotakis returned yesterday evening from London.

During a debate in the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Timco Mucunski, Foreign Minister of North Macedonia, refrained from providing a timeline for including Bulgarians as a state-forming nationality in the country's constitution. Despite repeated questions from both MEPs and Bulgarian journalists, Mucunski avoided addressing the issue directly.

A saga that has lasted nearly four months is expected to come to a close tonight in Strasbourg, as MEPs attending the plenary session of theEuropean Parliament will be asked to decide whether to give a vote of confidence to the College of Commissioners, or “Commission von der Leyen 2.0”.

A European political drama unfolded into the early hours of Thursday morning, as the approval of all European Commissioners by the relevant European Parliament committees remained uncertain.

Iliana Ivanova has received unanimous support from the European Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control for her candidacy as Bulgaria's representative in the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Following her hearing, all 21 committee members voted in her favor during a secret ballot.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament agreed to approve all seven pending European Commissioner candidates, according to Politico, citing four MEPs and political officials.

Members of the far-right group "Europe of Sovereign Nations" (ESN) are set to meet in Sofia on November 20 and 21, according to a statement from a spokesperson for the group's chairman, René Aust.

The European Commissioner-designate for health and animal welfare, Hungary's Oliver Varhelyi, failed to sail through his vetting in Brussels on Nov. 6, and will have to provide further written details, according to parliamentary sources.