European Union

Ukraine has every right to strike targets inside Russia in self-defence, including using Nato-supplied weapons, British armed forces minister James Heappey said Tuesday. "Ukraine is targeting what I would say are completely legitimate military targets to disrupt Russian logistics supplies," he told The Times. "They make those choices just as the Russians make the choices to indiscriminately bomb Ukrainian towns and cities," he said.

Moldova's pro-Western president Maria Sandu warned Tuesday some "forces inside Transnistria" were in "favour of war", referring to the country's Russia-controlled breakaway region. Sandu spoke after emergency meetings following explosions and rocket attacks in Transnistria Monday and Tuesday, as well as belligerent statements by Russian politicians and generals. Moldova, like Ukraine, used to be a Soviet vassal, but recently applied to join the European Union.

The UN's refugee agency predicts more than 8 million Ukrainians could end up fleeing the country, it said at a conference in Geneva Tuesday. The "UNHCR and partners are seeking $1.85bn [€.72bn] to support a projected 8.3 million refugees in ... Hungary, the Republic of Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, as well as other countries in the region, including Belarus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic," UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said.

Russian threats will not stop Finland joining Nato, a senior Finnish official has indicated, amid memories of its 'Winter War' with the Soviet Union.

France is proposing several changes to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act to ensure better alignment with the new legislative framework, the EU’s legislation that regulates market surveillance and conformity assessment procedures.

The European Commission has raised concerns over the impact of the next winter's heating costs on the continent's economy.

German economy minister Robert Habeck said it can end its dependence on Russian oil within days, after previously saying it would take till the end of the year. He made the announcement on Tuesday after meeting his Polish counterpart Anna Moskwa in Warsaw. "A problem that seemed very big a few weeks ago is now a lot smaller. Germany has got much closer to independence from Russian oil," he said.

There is a 'good chance' that transnational lists at the European elections 'could fly', according to the EU lawmaker seeking to take the proposal into law.

The ECB is under internal pressure to raise interest rates, but economists warn it will cause unemployment and economic hardship.

The war in Ukraine is painfully exposing the decline of German leadership in Europe. Once referred to as the European ‘hegemon’ during the euro crisis, Berlin is now showing hesitance and indecisiveness instead of leading Europe through what could be described as the crisis of the century.

For a decade we have been watching the extreme, mostly from the political right, growing, or at least entrenching itself, and turning elections into democracy plebiscites. And it seems that nobody has found a convincing recipe to stop them.

Thierry Breton, the EU's commissioner for the internal market, issued a warning to Elon Musk following his takeover of Twitter. "Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules — regardless of their shareholding," said Breton, in a tweet. Musk purchased Twitter for $44bn [€41.2bn]. Breton said Musk will need to "quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act."

Europe's transition to a sustainable and digital society is only possible with a strategic approach to the raw materials needed to manufacture chips, electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, the EU's internal market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Monday (25 April).

Though there may be a budding optimism that the worst impacts of the COVID crisis are over, for the many businesses put on ice by pandemic restrictions, the thaw will be long and gradual.

Discontent with the absence of a hoped-for electoral reform in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina, Zagreb has blasted as "illegitimate" the upcoming elections in BiH, while the European Commission repeated they were key for the fragile Balkan country's European future.

The European Union warned Tuesday (26 April) that Russia's invasion of Ukraine risks setting off a fresh nuclear disaster in Europe, 36 years after the accident at the Chernobyl plant.

Spain and Portugal announced on Tuesday an agreement with the European Commission to temporarily limit the price of natural gas for 12 months, Spanish media reported. The reference price of gas will be initially fixed at around €40-per-megawatt-hour, but it will have to reach an average price of €50-per-megawatt-hour throughout the period that the mechanism is in place. Spain and Portugal last month requested setting a maximum of €30-per-megawatt-hour.

Thanks to efforts to diversify oil suppliers and with support from the Polish government, Germany is days away from being independent of Russian oil, Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck said.

The European Court of Justice has ruled against Austria for imposing and reimposing internal border controls — and fining one person €36 for refusing to show a passport. Such checks may only be introduced for six months when there is serious threat to public policy or internal security. Austria failed to substantiate those threats, but still imposed checks in violation of the Schengen Borders Code, said the court.

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