European Union

The United States said the first face-to-face meeting between senior US and Taliban officials since the hardline group retook power in Afghanistan was "candid and professional" and that the Taliban would be judged on their actions, not just their words.

Aspects of the global tax reform agreement which have largely gone unnoticed are likely to come in for closer scrutiny in national parliaments of EU countries and in the European Parliament where some pushback can be expected, writes Dick Roche.

Albania has a problem with asylum. Between 2010 and 2019, more than 193,000 Albanians applied for asylum in the European Union, a significant portion of the EU candidate country's population of 2.8 million.

Italian police said on Sunday (10 October) they had arrested 12 people, including top officials of the extreme right-wing party Forza Nuova, following clashes in Rome against a government drive to make the COVID-19 "Green Pass" mandatory for all workers

Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday declared a state of energy emergency due to the ongoing energy crisis. Despite there not being any shortages at the moment, Rama decided to make the move due to expected issues during the winter...

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Saturday called for the EU to condition disbursement of EU funds on upholding the rule of law and fighting corruption. During an interview with Bloomberg after the EU-Western Balkans summit last week, Kurti said...

According to the latest Openness Index, which ranked the governments and parliaments in four countries from the Western Balkans – North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Government of North Macedonia was ranked first on the list, while the...

The United States will step up communication with its European partners to ensure the introduction of effective sanctions for people from Bosnia and Herzegovina involved in corruption, the US Embassy in Sarajevo has announced. US President Joe Biden in June expanded the scope...

Some 50 scholars working on antisemitism and related fields issue a stark warning against the political instrumentalisation of the fight against antisemitism.

Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš seems set to lose power after elections on Saturday in which two opposition coalitions, who both vowed never to work with him, won 108 out of 200 seats in parliament. The country's 77-year old president, Miloš Zeman, who has suffered from a range of health problems for years, was also taken into intensive care on Sunday shortly after holding talks with Babiš.

Serbia is one of the states hardest hit by the virus since the pandemic broke out, said the country’s leading epidemiologist, Dr Zoran Radovanović. In an interview with Nezavisnost.org, Radovanović criticised a decision by the COVID-19 Crisis Headquarters not to...

Italian police have arrested the leaders of the extreme-right Forza Nuova political party over an anti-vaccination rally in Rome on Saturday, which ended in violence. Thousands of people protested against making vaccine-passes mandatory in the workplace. Some tried to push past police into government offices, while others broke into the offices of Italy's main 'CGIL' trade union and the Policlinico Umberto I hospital, where medical staff had erected barricades.

Police Director Nikola Milina said three police officers, identified as some of those in video recordings involved in violent pushbacks against illegal migrants, have been suspended, and further disciplinary steps would be taken. “It is our responsibility to shed light...

Romania has an interim government and an awful situation in its hospitals due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there seems to be no quick fix for the political crisis. President Klaus Iohannis called political parties for consultations on Monday (11...

British Brexit minister Lord Frost will say in a speech in Portugal Tuesday the EU should remove the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) oversight role from a Brexit-linked deal on Northern Ireland customs, British media report. EU Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, is also to unveil "far-reaching" proposals on Northern Ireland on Wednesday, including concessions on import/export of British sausages, but the ECJ's role is sacrosanct for EU institutions.

The government is considering three possible deadlines for the closure of coal-fired power plants – by 2035, 2038 or 2040, Energy Minister Andrey Zhivkov has announced, as quoted by Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). Setting a deadline for the final decommissioning...

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has resigned over allegations his ÖVP party misused state funds to manipulate opinion polls in its favour. "What's required now is stability ... I want to step aside to prevent chaos," he said Sunday, while denying accusations. Kurz is to remain ÖVP chief and proposed his ally, foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg, to replace him, in what some saw as an interregnum prior to a Kurz comeback.

EU approval of Russia's 'Sputnik V' coronavirus vaccine has been delayed because Russia "repeatedly postponed the timing of the inspection requested by the EMA [European Medicines Agency]," the EU's ambassador to Russia, Markus Ederer, told Russian media RBC Friday. The process was a "technical one", but Russian officials "make this about politics," he added. EMA non-approval means Russian travellers face difficulties in Europe because their vaccination-pass is not universally accepted.

Data-rigging allegations against IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva were set to loom over the opening of week-long IMF-World Bank annual meetings on Monday (11 October) as the Fund's executive board failed to conclude its review after yet another marathon meeting.

Emotions ran high at pro-EU rallies in Poland on Sunday in the wake of a landmark, anti-EU court-ruling.