European Union

French Prime Minister Jean Castex attempted on Wednesday to defend the government’s vaccination strategy before an angry Senate that was highly critical of its slowness. “Don’t try to judge our vaccination strategy, which will take several months, you know that...

After suffering in recent opinion polls, North Rhine-Westphalian leader Armin Laschet gained a boost in the race for the CDU helm on Wednesday, after receiving endorsements from five CDU parliamentary group leaders from the country’s eastern and western states. “We...

People who get vaccinated against COVID-19 in Poland will receive a confirmation document, a “vaccine passport”, after having received a second dose of the vaccine, according to Polish deputy Health Minister Anna Goławska. Poland is the latest country to welcome...

Digital decoupling between China and the United States could severely impact EU businesses in China and they should "prepare for the worst" and may be forced into a costly separation of their international operations, European business groups said.

This week Ursula von der Leyen signalled the EU’s desire to lead the world in the fight against global deforestation. But if the key drivers of deforestation aren’t addressed, progress will remain limited, writes Julia Christian.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has rejected a proposal by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for an EU-wide COVID-19 vaccination certificate for travel, saying “it is not good to divide Europe in two”.

Even after US President Trump is gone, the underlying causes of division, mistrust, and frustration won't go away and Europe must future-proof itself against any risks to democracy – particularly in the online world, writes Věra Jourová.

US lawmakers, Wednesday, voted by 292 to 197 to impeach outgoing president Donald Trump for "inciting an insurrection" in the Capitol riot last week. Trump's trial is to begin after president-elect Joe Biden is due to take office 20 January. Asked if Europe should be scared Trump's far-right followers posed a threat to US stability, Robert Baer, an ex-CIA security expert, told EUobserver: "Short-run, probably not. Long-run, scared as hell".

Italy was plunged into political crisis Wednesday (13 January) after former premier Matteo Renzi withdrew his party from the ruling coalition, risking the collapse of the government in the middle of a raging coronavirus pandemic.

The Spanish government is ready to approve before Friday (15 January) an extension of temporary lay-off schemes put in place March last year to protect jobs for around 800,000 workers affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the tourism and services sectors. EURACTIV’s partner EuroEFE reports.

Italian politics is in chaos, but a less chaotic one than it might seem to a Swedish or German observer. Put simply, Renzi wants Conte both alive and dead.

Estonia's ruling coalition, including the far-right and anti-EU EKRE party, collapsed Wednesday after the Centre-party prime minister Juri Ratas resigned when senior staff were named as suspects in a corruption inquiry. The Estonian president asked the leader of the centre-right Reform party, Kaja Kallas, to form a new government instead, which is unlikely to include EKRE. The developments scrapped an EKRE-led plan for a referendum on gay marriage.

Belgian King Philippe's car was hit by stones, a police station was set on fire, and streets were vandalised when people rioted near Brussels-North train station Wednesday evening. The events, involving some 500 people, began as a protest against the death, in police custody, of Ibrahima B., a 23-year old, Saturday. The violence was "unacceptable", Belgian interior minister Annelies Verlinden said, while promising to investigate alleged police "misconduct".

Leading centre-right and liberal MEPs have called on Lisbon to clarify the appointment of José Guerra as its EU public prosecutor, amid efforts to depoliticise the new anti-fraud body.

The US executed 52-year old Lisa Montgomery, a death row inmate, on Wednesday. Montgomery had committed a gruesome murder but she was also mentally ill. The EU is now demanding the US reverse all pending federal-level executions

"This has been the darkest period for human rights in China since the 1989 massacre that ended the Tiananmen Square democracy movement," the global, New York-based pressure group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report Wednesday, citing China's persecution of the Uighur minority, Hong Kong activists, and Tibetans as examples. HRW director Kenneth Roth said the EU was not serious about Uighur rights in its new China investment treaty.

The dried yellow mealworm or "Tenebrio molitor larva" is safe for human consumption, the European Food Safety Agency (Efsa) in Parma, Italy, said Wednesday, in its first approval of an insect as a "novel food". The Efsa opinion could lead to EU-wide approval after a French firm which farmed the worms, Micronutris, applied for a permit. Novel foods are seen as alternatives to high-CO2 emitting food sectors, such as cattle.

EU officials warned that "one of the biggest challenges" ahead will be fighting the spread of vaccine misinformation and addressing vaccine hesitancy.

Alexei Navalny announced he will return to Russia with the words "meet me", after more than four months recuperating in Berlin from an attempt to poison him with the nerve agent Novichok, the Moscow Times reports. Opposition supporters on social media took his message as an invitation to show up and welcome him. Most commentators, however, expect Russian law enforcement to arrest him at the airport.

The Greek socialist “Movement of Change” party (S&D) has lashed out against the ruling conservative New Democracy party (EPP), accusing it of a right-wing turn putting the country’s democracy at risk.   The socialist leader Fofi Gennimata said the government...