European Union

EU lawmakers placed new obligations on 'Big Tech' companies to allow people to install the operating system and app store they want – forcing Apple and Google to open up their ecosystems to third-party app stores.

The number of commercial satellites in orbit is growing exponentially, as is space tourism - and with it, problems with debris. Does Europe want to join the race and invest in more satellites and future Moon or Mars missions?

"America is back" may have soothed souls in the past but today's world is a 'mix and match' one where nations don't want a binary choice between aligning with the US, or becoming part of Beijing's orbit.

Kazakhstan has never had an election deemed free-and-fair by credible international observers. Kazakh authorities show unwavering intolerance towards any group, movement, or party critical of the government, and have arbitrarily applied abusive 'extremism' accusations against political opponents.

Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki tried to defend the free fall of Poland’s currency as he announced a possible intervention to stabilise the situation. The central bank’s euro exchange rate is the highest in 12 years at 4.72. “We will do...

Hungary will not participate in the EU’s joint procurement scheme but will also forgo ordering Russian or Chinese vaccines in its next order. “It was a wise and responsible decision by the government not to participate in the second round...

On Tuesday, Catalan independence party, the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC) said it will vote for the Spanish budget for 2022, paving the way for its approval before the end of the year,  EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported....

Portugal’s economy could converge with the EU this year or the next, Prime Minister António Costa said on Tuesday. “We converged with the European Union in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and everything points to us resuming the path of...

The minimum period to get a booster shot after taking two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccine, or the Johnson & Johnson single-dose, will be five months instead of six, according to a letter published Tuesday by the...

Finland will bid for the chair of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2025, President Sauli Niinistö said on a visit to Germany. 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Summit in 1975. The Helsinki Final...

Ireland’s Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) announced on Tuesday that, while it would not issue an outright ban on data centres connecting to the country’s national grid, new measures would be put in place to curb their energy usage....

Austria has warned that the different measures taken by EU countries to tackle the pandemic could lead to fragmentation in how the COVID certificate is used. According to European Affairs Minister Karoline Edtstadler, the COVID certificate must be strengthened to...

Europe remains "in the firm grip" of COVID and the continent's death toll could top 2.2 million this winter if current trends continue, the World Health Organisation warned on Tuesday (23 November).

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel on Wednesday to Croatia and a day later to Rome. This will allow him to “prepare the French presidency of the Council of the European Union,” which begins on 1 January for six months,...

France allegedly negotiated with Israeli-owned NSO group to buy its Pegasus spying software, according to the MIT Technology Review. Talks reportedly broke down after revelations in July identified Emmanuel Macron as one of the software’s many targets. Contacted by EURACTIV France,...

“The Republika Srpska Army will not be formed,” High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt said in an interview with the Voice of America. Republika Srpska (RS) is Serb entity in BiH. During talks with Schmidt, US National Security...

Michel Barnier, the former European Union Brexit negotiator and now a challenger for the French presidency, said France had lost control of immigration and that a sense of impunity prevailed.

The European Commission is considering a pilot project under the name “prepositioning” to be implemented for the first time in Greece next summer. Forest firefighters from Europe’s north, such as Sweden, will settle in Greece and other countries facing major...

“In the last years, after a few quiet decades, we can again observe an increase in the activities of Iranian special services in Europe as well as their growing aggression mainly against opposition to the regime in exile,” the Czech...

The first-ever three-way government coalition negotiations are due to be concluded n Berlin as the Greens obtain last-minute concessions such as a sped-up coal phase-out. The social democrat SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP had negotiated, first in 22...