European Union

Kazakhstan’s first president Nursultan Nazarbayev surprisingly resigned on 19 March and announced that the Speaker of the Senate, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, will serve as interim leader before the next presidential election, which will take place on 9 June.

The opposition may not be able to defeat the rulling PiS without him, but if Donald Tusk wants to go home again, he will first have to remember where he came from.

This week's European parliamentary elections will launch a scramble for the continent's top leadership jobs, but won't decide the winners. Here is a guide to the horsetrading. 

Climate change is threatening the future of younger generations, but decision makers are still not taking it seriously. To get them started, youth organisations have joined forces with partners across Europe to come up with a set of five demands for how to solve the crisis.

A connected Europe is closer than you might think. An explosion of new digital services is just around the corner, from autonomous driving to e-democracy and virtual reality.

The Economic and Financial Dialogue between the EU and the Western Balkans and Turkey took place on 17 May 2019 in Brussels, Belgium.

Right-wing populists are campaigning for "cleaning up" and "restoring order" once they are in power. Yet the now infamous ‘Ibiza-Video’ is shaking the Austrian political sphere to the core because it shows the exact opposite - their true colours.

This Tuesday, during the General Affairs Council, ministers of foreign affairs will get a presentation by the Commission about a new Communication on the rule of law. Rather than just listen, ministers should show they are committed to backing up talk with immediate action, write Gráinne de Búrca and John Morijn.

Kazakhstan is investing in human capital and plans to become one of the world’s 30 most advanced nations by 2050. At a recent conference in the capital Nur-Sultan, leaders and economists offered advice, valid also for other countries as well: to focus on education.

A Sweden Democrat party MEP, and number four on the party's EU election list, Kristina Winberg, was on Sunday evicted from the party and removed from its voting list after revealing recorded proof of the party's top candidate, MEP Peter Lundgren, grabbing a woman's breasts during a party gathering last year. On Monday Lundberg admitted the incident but said no harm was intended and they had both been drunk.

Boeing was hit with two wrongful death lawsuits on Thursday (16 May), which claim that the US aerospace giant did not do enough to prevent the fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March. Boeing is currently trying to get its grounded aircraft back into service.

Four-in-five students who benefitted from the EU's Erasmus+ exchange scheme find employment within three months of graduation, according to two new studies. The surveys, which polled nearly 77,000 students and staff and over 500 organisations, found 73 percent said their experience abroad helped them get their first job. Additionally, more than 80 percent of academics on the programme said it led them to develop a more innovative curriculum.

There is growing speculation in Germany that Chancellor Angela Merkel will not complete her mandate, which runs until 2021, if the current left-right “grand coalition” does not fare well in the EU election this Sunday. 

After the resignation of Vice Chancellor and FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache and the announcement that a snap election will be held, Austria remains in a deep government crisis. A video in which Strache holds out the prospect of government contracts to a woman claiming to be the niece of a Russian oligarch was made public on Friday. Strache now faces legal action. What repercussions will the scandal have for Chancellor Kurz and his ÖVP?