Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
In an attempt to identify the extent of familiarity with some of the developments witnessed by the European Union during the current year, the American magazine Politico published in its European version 17 questions that address some of the statements, positions and events that occurred throughout the current year in various fields.
The magazine asked readers and followers to try to rely on themselves in determining the answers, and in the end, it published the answers to them to measure the reader's ability to identify the matters that occur in the unified European bloc. The questions came as follows:
1. The leader of a country in the European Union survived an assassination attempt this year. Who was that?

2. Which former European Commissioner accused Ursula von der Leyen of "questionable governance"?

3. Who are the four prime ministers of France this year?

4. Which two world leaders did Viktor Orban controversially meet in July after Hungary began its presidency of the European Union Council?

5. Who warned that the European Union would face "slow torment" if it did not take major steps to increase its economic competitiveness?

6. What did von der Leyen suggest the EU could buy more of in order to defuse a potential trade war with Donald Trump’s US?

7. What media outlet broadcasting from the European Parliament has been accused of being a Russian propaganda tool?

8. Name one of the three leading candidates for the liberal Renew Europe party in the European Parliament elections.

9. Which new European Commissioner spent a year abroad at the prestigious English school Eton College?

10. Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union is coming to an end, and Poland takes over on January 1. Which country takes over from Poland?

11. Name at least five of the nine EU member states that will hold parliamentary elections in 2024.

12. When Charles Michel said he would resign as President of the European Council (before changing his mind), what job did he intend to do instead?

13. Which member of the European Commission provided medical support to a sick passenger on a flight from Switzerland to Brussels?

14. Which “Harris” lost an election not in the US but in Europe this year?

15. Who was the first European leader to congratulate Donald Trump on his US election victory?

16. Belgium had the highest turnout in the European elections this summer. Which country had the lowest turnout?

17. Who evaded the police on the perilous return journey to Spain?

And now the answers

1 Robert Fico from Slovakia 2 Thierry Breton 3 Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier, François Bayrou 4 Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping 5 Mario Draghi 6 LNG 7 Voice of Europe 8 Valerie Heyer, Sandro Gozzi or Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann 9 Magnus Brunner 10 Denmark 11 Croatia, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal 12 MEP 13 Ursula von der Leyen 14 Simon Harris from Ireland 15 Emmanuel Macron from France 16 Croatia 17 Carles Puigdemont