Events from 2022 in the European Union.
Incumbents
Events
January
February
- 1 February - The European Union restricts the validity of the EU Digital COVID certificate to only nine months after having received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- 16 February -
- The European Court of Justice dismisses Poland and Hungary's challenges against the regulation and confirms that the regulation is in compliance with the treaties of the European Union. This will allow the European Commission to suspend funds from the EU budget to member states that have rule of law issues which are likely to affect the management of EU funds.
- Bulgarian MEP from the VMRO â Bulgarian National Movement Angel Dzhambazki after defending the governments of Hungary and Poland in a speech at the European Parliament, Dzhambazki insulted his fellow MEP Sandro Gozi (Renew Europe) and apparently made a Nazi salute while leaving the chamber. Dzhambazki's actions were immediately censored by the Vice-President of the European Parliament Giuseppina Picierno, who was presiding over the session.
- 21 February - The European Union says it is prepared to issue sanctions against Russia if the country recognizes the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, breakaway regions of Ukraine that declared independence in 2014. Ukraine considers the quasi-states terrorist organizations.
- 22 February - The foreign ministers of European Union member states agree on a package of new sanctions against Russia.
- 24 February - The European Union says that it will introduce the "strongest, harshest package" of sanctions on the Russian economy in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
- 25 February - The European Union freezes all assets held by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the EU.
- 27 February -
- The European Union says that it will provide fighter aircraft and finance â¬500 million in procurement and delivery of weapons to Ukraine, the first time that the EU has done so. The EU will also provide â¬50 million in medical supplies.
- Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan freeze all assets of the Russian Central Bank and the Russian National Wealth Fund under their jurisdiction, preventing the usage of more than a third of Russia's $630 billion of foreign exchange reserves.
- European Union airspace is closed to Russian aircraft.
- The European Union imposes sanctions on Belarus, forbidding the import of some commodities, including timber, steel, oil-derived fuels and cement.
- 28 February -
- In retaliation of the Russian aircraft ban, Russian authorities prohibit EU and UK airlines from landing in or crossing Russian airspace.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs an application for the country to join the European Union.
- Foreign minister of Germany Annalena Baerbock reacts to the accession request of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that joining the Union cannot be done in a matter of months.
- The presidents of 8 EU member states: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia jointly sign an open letter urging other member states to grant Ukraine candidate status immediately.
March
April
May
- 4 May - The European Union proposes to ban all oil imports from Russia by the end of the year, and also remove Russia's biggest bank, Sberbank, from SWIFT.
- 8 May - The European Union recommends that the United States remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from their terrorist organization blacklist.
- 11 May - The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announce in a joint statement that, starting next week, masks are no longer required for flights or in airports. However, the EASA asks passengers to "behave responsibly and respect the choices of others around them," while the ECDC recommends that passengers continue to practice social distancing if it can be done in a non-disruptive manner.
- 18 May - Two EU members, Finland and Sweden, have applied for membership in NATO.
- 20 May - Russia announces that it will suspend its supply of natural gas to Finland beginning at 4:00 GMT tomorrow due to Finland's refusal to comply with Russia's demand that gas be paid for in rubles.
- 21 May - Russia's Gazprom suspends natural gas exports to Finland over Finland's refusal to comply with Russia's demand that gas be paid for in rubles.
- 30 May - After weeks of deliberations, all of the European Union member states agree to impose an oil embargo on most oil imports from Russia (with the exception of that brought by pipelines), to be fully implemented by the end of the year, and cut off Sberbank from SWIFT.
- 31 May - The United Kingdom and the European Union agree to implement a ban on insuring Russian oil tankers, which will be phased in beginning in 6 months. This will effectively render the vast majority of oil tankers uninsurable as most institutions conducting insurance are located in Western Europe.
June
July
August
September
- September 22 â the Portuguese National Democratic Alternative leaves the European Democratic Party due to ideological divergencies regarding the LGBT community.
- September 24 â On the day before the 2022 Italian general election, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, was asked about possible Vladimir Putin allies in the Italian political system and the upcoming election, to which she replied that "if things go in a difficult direction, I've spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools." The comment garnered a strong backlash from some Italian politicians, especially from Salvini and Renzi.
- September 25 â The 2022 Italian general election is held to elect all 400 seats of the Chamber of Deputies and 200 seats of the Senate of the Republic. Observers commented that the results shifted the geopolitics of the European Union, following far-right gains in France, Spain, and Sweden. It was also noted that the election outcome would mark Italy's first far-right-led government and the country's most right-wing government since 1945.
See also
Overviews
Related timelines for current period
References