European Union

Infections, hospitalisations and deaths associated with COVID-19 could have been much higher without the help of vaccinations in Italy, a recent report published by the National Institute of Health (ISS) has found. The COVID-19 vaccination campaign has avoided about eight...

The war in Ukraine has conquered the hearts and minds of the Finnish public as it has triggered painful memories of Finland’s own history, leading people to donate in unprecedented numbers. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, five million...

An Irish immunologist has warned that a new, more infectious variant of COVID-19 is likely spreading in Ireland. A number of cases of the new variant, Omicron XE, have been confirmed across the UK, including Northern Ireland. Kingston Mills, an...

The prime minister’s office and the foreign office were targeted by the Pegasus spyware, according to Citizen Lab, a Canada based investigative group. Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto, said on Monday that it had informed officials in...

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) is shutting down all investigations into money laundering in the Netherlands by Russian oligarchs due to fears of creating a political battle with Moscow, according to Dutch media NRC. The money laundering investigations accused several...

The European Parliament said Sunday (17 April) it will try to recover money owed by Marine Le Pen over fraud allegations as the far-right leader prepares to face President Emmanuel Macron in France's unpredictably close election run-off.

The French embassy was re-established in Kyiv this weekend after security conditions were deemed “acceptable” in the Ukrainian capital. The French embassy returned to Kyiv on Friday (15 April), while it continues to advise French nationals against travelling to Ukraine...

Social Democrats in the Bundestag have come to the defence of party elder Manuela Schwesig, the regional leader of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and, until recently, a leading advocate for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline after she was asked to step down. Schwesig is the...

Robert Golob, a former energy executive who did not have a party until January, has overtaken Prime Minister Janez Janša in the polls with just a week to go before election day. Golob’s Freedom Movement, a small and largely dormant...

Poland will receive €59 million in advance from the REACT-EU programme to support Ukraine refugees, Polish RMF FM radio reported, citing Brussels sources. The money will be ready for immediate use to provide the Ukrainians who fled the war and found themselves in...

The Russian embassy in Cyprus has rejected as unfounded press reports suggesting that Moscow was mulling establishing a consulate in the territories occupied by Turkey in the north of the island. “We would like to emphasise that the recent rumours,...

In an interview with Kronen Zeitung about his recent visit to Moscow, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Russian President Vladimir Putin was in “top condition”, and he did not notice any signs of psychological illness. Despite much speculation that Putin could be suffering from some mental or...

The Czech deputy ambassador to Moscow was asked by Russian authorities to cooperate with secret services before being expelled from the country, while another Czech diplomat was also approached, but both refused to cooperate. Moscow expelled deputy Czech ambassador Tomáš...

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally submitted a completed questionnaire on EU membership to the bloc's envoy in Kyiv on Monday (18 April) and said he believed this step would lead to his country gaining candidate status 'within weeks'.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Ukraine and an unidentified EU country of being behind a series of hoax bomb threats against Air Serbia planes.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen traded barbs Monday (18 April) as they returned to campaigning for the French presidency ahead of a prime-time debate that is likely to prove decisive ahead of Sunday's second-round run-off.

Prospects of a swift return to civilian rule in Chad seem to be fading nearly a year after the son of the country's veteran leader took the helm after his father died fighting rebels.

Oil edged lower on Monday (18 April) as worries over slowing demand in China balanced support from concern over tight global supply and the deepening Ukraine crisis.

Ukraine and Russia have failed to agree on humanitarian convoys for the evacuation of civilians from war-affected areas for the second day, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Monday (18 April).

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Serbs rallying against Russia's exclusion from the UN Human Rights Council, Austria saying it will prosecute Russian war crimes, and so much more.