The SNP hopes it can capitalise on the 'perfect storm' of a damaging Brexit, Boris Johnson's scandal-prone Westminster government and the perception that Sturgeon has has handled the COVID pandemic reasonably competently. 🏴🇬🇧 euronews.com/2021/12/09/aye…
Since Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party won another term in office at Scottish Parliament elections in the spring, with an increased vote share, there’s been a steady uptick in diplomatic outreach. 🏴
Foreign diplomats have recently been keen to engage officials in Edinburgh as well as London. 🏴
And Sturgeon boosted her own international profile by holding talks with world leaders and activists during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. 🌍
It’s clear there’s a new focus on external relations ahead of another planned independence referendum. 🗳
The charge is led by Scotland’s de facto foreign minister, Angus Robertson.
Most opinion polls show a majority of Scots are anti-independence, but Robertson says the plans for a new referendum in 2023 hope to build on a trend that shows a shift in the underlying numbers towards more support for independence, compared with the unsuccessful 2014 vote. 🏴🇪🇺
Robertson says the detailed debate around independence will help convince many of the estimated 20% of undecided or previous "no" voters who are open to the idea of independence to shift to the ‘yes’ camp. 🗳
Before getting into the political minefield of another independence referendum, the Scottish government is pressing ahead with its own external affairs plans for Europe.
It’s upgrading its current presence in Copenhagen and establishing a brand new presence in Warsaw. 🇩🇰🇵🇱
Nicola Sturgeon’s diplomatic efforts have not gone unnoticed in European capitals, especially after the 2016 Brexit referendum when a majority of Scots voted to remain in the EU. 🇪🇺
But Professor Wind strikes a note of caution when it comes to planning another independence referendum. 🗳
“It’s also very important not to push it too quickly because they already had one shot at independence, and you cannot keep having referenda where you lose.”
The Scottish government has also worked to develop engagement strategies tailored for bilateral relations with the US, China, Canada, India and Pakistan.
And a high profile role at COP26 was the icing on the cake. 🌍
In the UK, Gethins says, there is a “huge amount of ambiguity” when it comes to foreign policy matters.
“And if there’s ambiguity, there’s opportunity.” 🏴
After Merkel’s long tenure, people have questioned exactly what direction he will take Germany in.
Experts reckon that while Scholz is like Merkel, Germany is not necessarily headed for more of the same, as he's far more decisive than his predecessor.
🇪🇺 With Germany’s status as an EU powerhouse, Scholz’s chancellery might also significantly alter the course of the EU as the bloc deals with significant challenges such as rule of law, the climate crisis and relations with Russia.
After the ECB announced its decision to redesign euro banknotes, Euronews asked you what new theme you’d like to see represented on the currency. 💶
Scroll through the thread for the most popular choices 👇
Many of you voted for prominent European politicians, including German chancellor Angela Merkel. 🇩🇪
Also popular were older politicians seen to have contributed to European unity, including ex-UK prime minister Winston Churchill and ex-EU Parliament president Robert Schuman. 🇪🇺
Some want to see other prominent Europeans throughout history featured, such as Marie Curie, Giuseppi Garibaldi and Julius Caesar. 💶
When animal welfare officers in the Polish city of Krakow were called out to a sighting of an unusual animal squatting in a residential area, their initial reaction was this must be a late April Fool's joke. euronews.com/2021/04/16/mys…
Earlier this week, authorities in Krakow said in a Facebook post that a woman called them to report a creature sitting in the tree across from her house.
"People aren't opening their windows because they're afraid it will go into their house," the woman added.
When the officers arrived, the beast wasn't a bird of prey as they hypothesised, but... a croissant.
The EU invested €2.7 billion on vaccine agreements. Critics say production and delivery delays could have been avoided if the EU included penalties if companies did not produce the agreed-upon doses.
For many countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, buying COVID vaccines has thrown up similar issues to those that existed during the Cold War.
In several European countries, a US-based anti-abortion organisation connected undercover reporters to local doctors for a dangerous abortion reversal treatment. euronews.com/2021/03/25/doc…
A medical abortion, possible for women who are less than 10 weeks pregnant, involves taking two pills that are up to 48 hours apart.
Supporters of abortion "reversal" claim that after taking the first pill, a woman can reverse the abortion before taking the second pill by taking high doses of progesterone. But this isn’t grounded in scientific evidence.