European Union

István Hollik, communications director of the ruling Fidesz party and ex-government spokesperson, tested positive for coronavirus. Head of the Prime Minister’s office, Gergely Gulyás, and deputy minister Balázs Orbán, a state secretary in the cabinet, have been quarantined since Wednesday....

Most of mainland Portugal will remain on alert in the next fortnight due the COVID-19 pandemic, while the Lisbon metropolitan area will be in contingency, the government said on Thursday. By 15 September, the whole of mainland Portugal will become...

Secondary school students in the public education sector are planning to ‘strike’ from 16-18 September when classrooms reopen in protest at what they see as a botched up resumption of the school year amid a rising number of COVID-19 cases...

France has suspended the glue-trapping of songbirds this year but stopped short of abolishing the controversial practice which is criticised as barbaric by bird lovers and banned under European Union regulations.

More than 2.5 billion hours of wage guarantee funds known as CIG and solidarity funds have been authorised in order to deal with the COVID-19 emergency, said the Italian welfare agency INPS in a statement. The number of hours of...

Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister and Environment Minister, Isabella Lövin, announced her resignation on Wednesday. Not only did Lövin leave the government, she also stepped down from her position as co-leader of The Green Party, which has followed the model of...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to appoint former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot as a trade adviser has prompted a backlash, with critics citing his climate scepticism and lack of expertise on trade. Abbot, who led the right-wing Liberal party...

Liberal leader Egbert Lachaert (Open VLD), who is set to inform the Belgian King later on Friday about his progress in finding a solution for Belgium’s federal government puzzle, is officially trying for a coalition without the country’s biggest party,...

In a press conference that lasted nearly two hours, Prime Minister Jean Castex, along with Health Minister Olivier Véra and Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, presented France’s updated COVID-19 measures on Thursday. The number of “red zones” where the virus is...

The Austrian government is expanding its state-financed testing to include employees at restaurants, camping sites, and hostels as of 1 September. Previously, only hotel employees were regularly tested for free, and at present, between 2,000 and 4,000 tests are conducted...

Germany’s leaders reached an agreement to largely harmonise the country’s coronavirus restrictions, following a virtual meeting between the regional state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday (27 August). However, the implementation will be left up to the regional entities....

EU foreign ministers meeting in Berlin are struggling to agree on the bloc's planned sanctions against Belarus and at the same time come up with an adequate response to Turkey over the escalating tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

A nuclear energy venture founded by Bill Gates said Thursday (27 August) it hopes to build small advanced nuclear power stations that can store electricity to supplement grids increasingly supplied by intermittent sources like solar and wind power.

While China currently produces the cheapest electrolysers in the world, Europe leads on innovative technologies which are better suited to produce green hydrogen seen by many as a silver bullet to decarbonise the energy system.

Major European nations France, Germany and Spain announced tougher infection control measures Thursday (27 August), joining the ranks of countries battling an increase of coronavirus cases.

Europe’s academies of science have called on EU lawmakers to introduce a “radically new standard” in the blocs’ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to ensure net carbon emissions from biomass power stations are “properly accounted for and declared”. The ETS is...

Today more than ever, the world needs leadership in the field of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Kazakhstan keeps providing this leadership, writes Jonathan Granoff. Jonathan Granoff is the president of the Global Security Institute. In 1949, the first of over...

Poland will ban flights from 46 countries, including France and Spain, as of 2 September, according to a draft regulation published on Thursday (27 August), as the country grapples with a spike in coronavirus infections.

Montenegro's pro-West leader is fighting to extend his party's 30-year grip on the EU candidate country on Sunday (30 August) in polls dominated by identity debates and anxiety over a pandemic-hit economy.

Negotiations between Parliament and Council finally started after EU leaders found a common position on the long-term EU budget and recovery fund on 21 July.
Committee on Budgets

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