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The European Sting’s 2018 in most critical review

December 28, 2018 by Leave a Comment

2019 review

“This is the EU & the world in 2018 as we stung it and you read the most”,
The Sting’s Team addresses its fondest 2019 wishes to our most powerful reader, You.

January

Trump reshapes the Middle East at the expense of Europe

EU Foreign Affairs ministers met on 22 January 2018 in Brussels. They had a debate on the Middle East Peace Process. This meeting prepared the subsequent informal lunch with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss the Middle East Peace Process, bilateral relations and regional developments. From left to right: Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. Shoot location: Bruxelles – Belgium. Shoot date: 22/01/2018. Copyright: European Union

Will the end of QE come along with ECB’s inflation target?

Klaus Regling, Mario Draghi, Jean-Claude Juncker, Antonio Tajani and Jeroen Dijsselbloem (from left to right)
Date: 02/05/2017. Location: Brussels – EC/Berlaymont. © European Union , 2017 Source: EC – Audiovisual Service Photo: Jennifer Jacquemart

Hungary and Ireland build front to say no to EU tax harmonisation plan

Viktor Orbán, Hungarian Prime Minister, at a 2015 event in Brussels, Berlaymont. (Copyright: European Union , 2015; Source: EC – Audiovisual Service; Photo: Lieven Creemers)

February

ECB to people: Not responsible if you lose money on Bitcoin, your governments are

(Photo: :European Central Bank Audiovisual Services)

EU Investment Bank approves € 1.5bn loan for Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)

Gas pipeline in the European Union. (Copyright: EU, 2012 / Source: EC – Audiovisual Service / Photo: Ferenc Isza)

“Beyond the beach: tackling plastic pollution upstream”, a Sting Exclusive by Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment

Mr. Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment, participates in the largest beach clean-up in history at Versova Beach Clean-Up in Mumbai, India. (C) RedBox Filmers (UN Environment, 2016)

March

Trump’s trade war splits the EU; Germany upset with Juncker’s “we can be stupid too”

Trilateral meeting between Cecilia Malmström, Member of the European Commission in charge of Trade, Hiroshige Seko, Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry (on the right) and Robert Lighthizer, US Trade Representative (on the left). Date: 10/03/2018. Location: Brussels- EC/Berlaymont. © European Union, 2018 / Source: EC- Audiovisual Service/Photo: Mauro Bottaro.

The EU clears Bayer-Monsanto merger amid wide competition and environmental concerns

Das Bayer-Kreuz bei Nacht ————————– The Bayer Cross at night

Russia – US in Syria: Selling Afrin to Turkey but facing off ruthlessly for Ghouta

Nikki R. Haley, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. 25 January 2018. United Nations, New York. UN Photo/Evan Schneider.

April

Mainland Europe adopts Germanic cartel business patterns

Press conference by Margrethe Vestager, Member of the European Commission in charge of Competition about maritime car carriers cartel. Date: 21/02/2018. Location: Brussels – EC/Berlaymont. © European Union, 2018 / Source: EC – Audiovisual Service / Photo: Jennifer Jacquemart.

“A global threat lies ahead worsened after the EU’s green light to the Bayer-Monsanto merger”, a Sting Exclusive by the President of Slow Food

“The markets have moved on renewables, policy makers must keep up”, A Sting Exclusive by Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment

Mr Erik Solheim is the Executive Director of UN Environment and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. (UN Environment, 2018)

May

EU Parliament sends controversial copyright law reform back to discussion

The European Parliament hemicycle in Strasbourg (Copyright: European Union, 2017 / Source: EC – Audiovisual Service / Photo: Mauro Bottaro)

Is Germany closer to Russia than the West? Nord Stream II and Iran count more

Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin had met again in Sochi last year. Then, the Chancellor had also discussed international crises with the Russian President. 2 May 2017. Photo: Bundesregierung/Denzel

Climate negotiations on the road to a strong Paris agreement rulebook

Opening session of the forty-eighth session of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 48) and the forty-eighth session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), Ms. Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
© UNclimatechange, 2018 / Source: Flickr – UNFCCC

June

The Bavarians threaten Berlin and Brussels with immigration crisis

In global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, migration and trade, Europe will only have any weight in the world if the member nations pull together, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the 21st WDR Europaforum TV show. “No country can do that alone.” Jun 07, 2018. WDR is a regional public service television channel in North Rhine-Westphalia. (Photo: Bundesregierung/Denzel).

Google prepares to final EU judgement over Android antitrust case

Android figurines (Source: Google. Copyright: Google)

A Sting Exclusive: “EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan – Laying down the foundations for a Greener Financial System”, by European Commission’s Vice-President Dombrovskis

Valdis Dombrovski, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue poses for an internal portrait

July

A Sting Exclusive: “Europe needs decisive progress for stronger cybersecurity”, EU Commissioner Gabriel highlights from Brussels

The article’s writer, Ms Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. (European Commission, 2018)

10 Downing street: Another desperate attempt to unite Britain on Brexit

The UK Government Cabinet in session. Prime Minister Theresa May commences the meeting with her Cabinet at Chequers to discuss Brexit. Chequers, or Chequers Court, is the country house of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. British Prime Ministers use Chequers to hold government cabinet meetings on key issue, demanding long hours of discussion. (10 Downing St. photo, some rights reserved).

China-EU Summit on 16-17 July 2018: “Work together to address common challenges”, by China’s Ambassador to the EU

HE Ambassador of the Chinese Mission to EU, Mr Zhang Ming, delivers a speech at the joint forum ‘EU, China and SDGs: A Likely Alliance?’. © European Union , 2018 / Photo: Jennifer Jacquemart.

August

Greece bailout ends but with no substantial effect on citizens’ life

Date: 24/06/2018 . Location: Belgium,Brussels – EC/Berlaymont. © European Union , 2018 Photo: Etienne Ansotte

US-China trade war at point of no return: Washington’s demands go beyond tariffs

This is when and how the trade war begun. On Tuesday January 23, 2018 in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington D.C., US President Donald Trump signed Section 201 Action to provide relief to US manufacturers, by imposing extra tariffs on imported washing machines and solar cells and modules. Official White House photo, by Shealah Craighead.

Trump fines China with $50 billion a year plus some more…

This is how the trade war started. On March 9, 2018 the American President Donald J. Trump signed the Section 232 Proclamations on Steel and Aluminum Imports, imposing extra tariffs of 25% and 10% respectively (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

September

Parallel downfalls of Merkel and Deutsche Bank threaten Germany and Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Marseille for political talks, on European issues. All smiles but in different ways. Taken 7/9/2018. Photo: Bundesregierung/Bergmann

Trump rejects Europe’s offer for zero car tariffs; he had personally tabled that idea in July

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission (in the middle), accompanied by Cecilia Malmström, Member of the EC in charge of Trade (on the left) visited the White House in Washington D.C., where they participated in meetings with American President Donald Trump. Date: 25/07/201. Location: Washington – White House. © European Union, 2018/Source: EC-Audiovisual Service / Photo: Etienne Ansotte.

EU urges Facebook and other internet giants to comply with consumer protection laws

EU commissioner in charge of consumer protection, Věra Jourová, during last week’s press conference (Copyright: EC Audiovisual services / Source: European Union , 2018 / Photo: Jennifer Jacquemart)

October

Populist Eurosceptics helped by Trumpists seriously threaten the EU edifice

Meeting of the Italian Council of Ministers. First from right Luigi Di Maio, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies, next to him the Italian Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, 10/10/2018. Prime Minister’s office photo.

Security spillovers from Trump’s trade wars: China, Germany prepare for global disorder

President Donald J. Trump addresses the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday, September 25, 2018, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks).

“The Arctic climate matters: to what degree?”, a Sting Exclusive co-authored by UN Environment’s Jan Dusik and Slava Fetisov

Iceberg in Disco Bay, Greenland. The Ilulissat Icefjord in Disco Bay is one of the World’s fastest flowing glaciers and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is located 250km North of the Arctic Circle and it accounts for 10% of the production of Greenland’s calf ice. The Icebergs from the Ilulissat Icefjord are the largest to be found in the Arctic. Latest research concludes that ice loss from both Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating, and that the ice sheets’ impact on sea level rise in the first half of the 21st century will be substantially higher than previous studies had projected. Source: https://bit.ly/2IOTRTq |Year: 2015 | Photographer: Peter Prokosch

November

German egotistic inward turn to badly hurt Europe after Merkel’s exit

On 18 January 1991 Angela Merkel, then 36 years old, gets her first government job as Federal Minister for Women and Youth in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Cabinet. Photo: Federal Government/Christian Stutterheim.

France, Germany challenge Trump’s America on Iran and the reign of the dollar

It’s not the first time they kiss politically passionately. From left to right Angela Merkel, German Federal Chancellor and Emmanuel Macron President of France. Copyright: European Union. Event: European Council – June 2018 (Day 2)

A Sting Exclusive: “Regulators and the shipping industry collaborating for a sustainable future”, written by the Secretary General of IMO

Turning the tide on Marine Pollution (UN Environment, 2018)

December

Britain in chaos: May stays as Tory leader and PM but none can defuse the Brexit time bomb

Last Tuesday, 11 December 2018, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel received the British Prime Minister Theresa May in Berlin. At the Federal Chancellery they discussed the next steps in the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. Brexit will also be on the agenda of the European Council meeting today Thursday,13 December in Brussels. Photo: Bundesregierung/Schacht

The ‘yellow vests’ undermined Macron in France and the EU

European Council – December 2017, family photo. The French President Emanuel Macron (second from left, first row) has always been urging the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (second from right, first row) to look up to a stronger EU. Copyright: European Union.

COP24: Paris agreement remained alive but fragile while the EU attempts to slow down CO2 emissions for new cars

COP24, Katowice 03-14/12/2018
Date: 12/12/2018 Location: Poland,Katowice
© European Union , 2018 . Photo: Irek Dorozanski

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