The regional and federal elections in Germany this year will have an impact on the development of the Union's common policies. Yet Germany is often more "national" than some of its partners and less European than in the past, Jean-Dominique Giuliani points out. Many questions arise, in particular about the link that Angela Merkel's successor will want to maintain with France.

On February 25, the Union extended its sanctions for one year against those responsible for the electoral fraud in Belarus during the presidential elections of August 9, 2020, and for the repression against demonstrators, the opposition, and journalists. To follow this crisis, the Foundation offers you a chronology of events and links to European responses and initiatives.

Meeting on February 25 and 26, the 27 heads of State and government maintained restrictions on non-essential travel and called for the acceleration of vaccine licensing, production, and distribution processes. They called for global multilateral cooperation to address future health emergencies. They also discussed security and defence issues, recalling their desire to increase the Union's capacity to act autonomously, and their desire to strengthen the Union's responsiveness in the area of cyber security. They discussed the political and strategic nature of the Union's partnership with its southern neighbourhood.

The European Union and the United Kingdom held the first meeting of the Joint Committee of the Withdrawal Agreement after the end of the transition period on February 24. Maros Sefcovic and Michael Gove welcomed the progress on the rights of British and European citizens. They reviewed the implementation of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland and stressed the need to strengthen the dialogue with business and stakeholders. The Joint Committee approved the extension until April 30 of the provisional application of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed in December.

On February 25, members of the Environment and Health (ENVI) and Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committees organized a hearing of the CEOs and representatives of the laboratories (AstraZeneca, Moderna, CureVac, Novavax, Pfizer and Sanofi) with which the Union has signed contracts for the delivery of vaccines against Covid-19. They requested clarification on vaccine deliveries and insisted that pharmaceutical companies honour their contracts.

The ministers responsible for industry reached an agreement on 25 February on the proposal for a directive on the publication of country-by-country information on the accounting of multinational companies. They discussed national recovery plans and discussed with Commissioner Thierry Breton, the action of the working group to increase industrial production of vaccines against Covid-19.

In response to the Venezuelan government's decision to declare the head of the Union's delegation to Venezuela "persona non grata", two days after foreign ministers decided to sanction 19 Venezuelan officials for "undermining democracy", the Council decided on February 25 to declare Venezuela's representative to the Union "persona non grata".

In conclusions delivered on February 25, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the Union considers that Hungary violated European law when in 2018 it adopted the so-called "Stop Soros" law, which criminalized the assistance of NGOs to applicants for international protection and introduced a new ground for inadmissibility of such applications. The Advocate General's opinion is not binding when the Court renders its judgment.

The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, presented her institution's priorities for climate, social and economic resilience in a speech at the European Parliamentary Week on 22 February. She stressed that the pandemic is not over and that this requires adapted policies. She also stressed the importance of making good use of the NextGenerationEU recovery plan.

In a report on the Union's action to improve Europeans' basic e-skills, the European Court of Auditors identified a number of challenges to be met in order to achieve the objectives set, including allocating adequate funding to improve e-skills and ensuring effective monitoring of projects for the period 2021-2027 in order to assess the results of the actions.

On February 24, the German Expert Committee for Research and Innovation presented its annual report recommending that the government align its future R&I policy with priorities such as sustainability goals, technology development, artificial intelligence, hydrogen and quantum technology. Chancellor Angela Merkel said that digital and climate action are the two major challenges for the future.

On February 19, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, announced the launch of the programme of four third generation nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SNLE 3G).

At the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting on February 26, it was decided that the economic support plans developed by the States will be maintained as long as the pandemic requires it. The United States also removed the main obstacle to the adoption of an international agreement on the taxation of digital giants.

On 25 February, the Armenian Chiefs of Staff demanded in a press release the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian, denouncing his conduct of the foreign policy in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. N.Pachinian called this declaration a "coup d'état" and ordered the dismissal of the Chief of Staff. He then led a procession declaring that "the army cannot participate in the political process". A counter-demonstration was organized by the opposition, calling for the resignation of N. Pachinian. On 27 February, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian declared the dismissal of the Chief of Staff unconstitutional.

Irakli Garibashvili of the Georgian Dream Party was sworn in as Prime Minister by the Parliament on February 22. He succeeds Guiorgui Gakharia, who resigned on February 18 in protest against a court decision to place political opponent Nika Melia in pre-trial detention, and announced on February 23 the arrest of N. Melia. Melia's supporters demonstrated in Tbilisi to protest the arrest and call for early elections. Visiting the country on March 1, European Council President Charles Michel took part in a meeting between the Prime Minister and the opposition and gave them until March 16, the date of a meeting of the EU-Georgia Association Council, to move towards a political solution.

On February 23, the UN Security Council held a debate on the link between climate change and threats to international peace and security. UN Climate released its first synthesis report of national action plans on 26 February. To limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C, global emissions must be reduced by 45% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. The report encourages the States to step up their efforts and achieve strong transformations, notably through post-COVID-19 recovery plans, in order to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Euro-zone annual inflation was 0.9%, compared with -0.3% in December, and 1.2%, compared with 0.3% in December for the Union, according to figures released by Eurostat on February 23rd. The countries with the lowest rates were Greece (-2.4%), Slovenia (-0.9%) and Cyprus (-0.8%), and the countries with the highest rates were Poland (3.6%), Hungary (2.9%) and the Czech Republic (2.2%).

On February 25, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) published its report on the military balance in 2021, devoted to defence spending and tensions between countries. The report points out that international tensions remained high in 2020, particularly in Libya, Yemen and Nagorno-Karabakh, and that these tensions resulted in an increase in defence spending of 3.9% in 2020.

Until March 21, the Opole Contemporary Art Gallery offers visitors the opportunity to discover the World Press Photo Exhibition 2020 as it passes through Poland. This event presents press photos selected from the 63rd annual World Press Photo competition, as well as the winning productions from the 10th annual digital storytelling competition.