European Union Politics

The rescue ship "Ocean Viking" is allowed to bring more than 370 boat migrants rescued from distress at sea to Augusta in Sicily. This was announced by the operator organization SOS Mediterranee on Sunday evening. Italy had assigned the crew the port near Syracuse. A heavily pregnant woman had reportedly been flown to the island of Lampedusa earlier by Italian authorities.

After that, there were still 373 people on board who had been rescued by four inflatable boats off Libya in recent days, he said. The crew had appealed to Malta and Italy to take them in. The arrival is expected for Monday.

Hungary will still reject any attempt to link the rule of law the European Union's budget and its coronavirus recovery fund, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.

The Hungarian and the Polish governments are under EU investigations for undermining the independence of courts, media and non-governmental organisations, so they risk losing tens of billions in funds. Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński told DW that his government will never accept any proposal that "would effectively leave us at the mercy of the European Commission."

In a direct contradiction of German minister of defense, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, French president Emmanuel Macron said shortly before visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that the European Union should pursue its attempts to get strategic autonomy, especially regarding military matters.

He admitted that the EU still has no strategic sovereignty, but should continue to try to become a fully established European power, even with a new administration in the White House in the near future.

The European Union faces a crisis after Hungary and Poland vetoed the bloc's historic €1.8tn budget and coronavirus recovery plan over attempts to link funding to respect for democratic norms.

The move unravels months of negotiations over the scale and terms of the EU's spending and sets the stage for a stormy videoconference meeting of the bloc's leaders on Thursday. The 27 EU heads of state and government had signed off on the broad spending package and the inclusion of a link to respect for the rule of law in July, after days of hard debate.

The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has proposed stricter climate goals for the European Union in her first State of the European Union address. Following her proposal, 55 percent of emissions should be cut until 2030, compared to 1990.