What happened in the European Union in January?
Bulgaria is the new president of the European Union since 1 January. It changes every 6 months, and means that all the meetings of the EU countries (the Council) are organised by the Bulgarians. For the Bulgarian diplomats, it's an opportunity to show they can get a lot of decisions done in the EU. There's always a website for each presidency, the new one is here.
A new presidency is also a moment for journalists to take a look at the country. Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, has been criticised because they might not do enough against corruption (article).
What happens with the 73 seats in the European Parliament when the United Kingdom leaves the EU? No final decision yet, but a committee (a selected number of people in Parliament) have decided the Parliament should shrink. Plus, some of the remaining seats could be voted for in so-called trans-national lists.
These lists would allow all EU citizens to vote for those seats. Now they can only vote for the ones reserved for their country. If it becomes reality, some politicians will start campaigns in the whole of Europe. But not yet, because the whole Parliament still has to vote for the proposal in the beginning of February. Plus, the EU countries also have to agree (article).
Sometimes, several EU countries hold meetings with each other. One of these groups is called the 'Club Med', short for Mediterranean (article). All the southern countries had a meeting with their political leaders to mainly talk about migration. In the press conference after the meeting, they said they wanted to have better EU migration decisions (article).
In Brexit news, the EU agreed there could be a transition period after 31 March 2019. That is the date on which the UK has to legally leave the EU. In that transition period, the UK will have to continue to follow EU rules, but won't be able to make those rules (article).
