European Union

Turkey's main opposition candidate took office as Istanbul mayor on Wednesday (17 April) after a stunning victory over President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party, but the new head of the country's largest city still faces an appeal for the vote to be re-run.

National banking supervisors who control the EU banking watchdog effectively forced it to clear financial regulators in Estonia and Denmark, who were investigated in relation to suspected money laundering activities by Danske Bank, a member of the European parliament said on Wednesday (17 April).

The European Parliament is voting on Thursday (18 April) on the European Defence Fund, a multi-billion military research programme. Not only is this Fund a step in the militarisation of the EU, but it is also undermining European democracy, writes Bram Vranken.

Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) sacked justice minister Tudorel Toader on Wednesday (17 April)  for spurning controversial changes to the national penal code that critics say benefit PSD chief Liviu Dragnea.

Britain should use the next few months to "cool down and rethink" its decision to leave the European Union, the socialist candidate to head the next European Commission, Frans Timmermans, said on Wednesday (17 April).

The European Parliament has backed plans to force online hosting services to remove terrorist content within one hour of reporting, in a move aimed at quelling the spread of extremist propaganda online. However, there was no shortage of those in the industry criticising the timeframe.

Germany, the current co-chair of the UN Security Council, has called an emergency meeting on Libya, amid shelling in greater Tripoli, home to 3m people, in fighting between the EU and UN backed government and Russia-backed warlord Khalifa Haftar. The EU recently urged Haftar to withdraw, but France has also been building links with him to protect its oil interests. The fighting has killed almost 200 people and displaced 25,000.

The Brexit Party of British eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage could win 27 percent of votes in the European Parliament election, according to a YouGov poll out Wednesday. The opposition Labour and ruling Conservative parties, which are internally divided on Brexit, are set for 22 percent and 15 percent, respectively. The pro-remain camp is also split into four parties: Greens (10%); the Liberal Democrats (9%); Change UK (6%) and SNP (4%).

Facebook election ad rules, which ban cross-border campaigns by pan-EU parties as if they were equivalences to foreign meddling, "runs counter to the nature" of the EU project, the top civil servants of the EU's main three institutions, Martin Selmayr of the European Commission, Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen from the EU Council, and the European Parliament's Klaus Welle have said in a 16 April letter to the US tech giant.

Bulgaria, Hungary and Malta were named as the EU's worst offenders on press freedoms by a leading French NGO, while Norway and EU state Finland ranked best.

Romanian senators have backed a law that will let several high level corruption suspects off the hook by shortening the statute of limitations of crimes, in defiance of EU concern on "systemic" abuse of rule of law in the member state, which currently holds the EU presidency. Romanian prime minister Viorica Dancila also pledged to "finalise" other controversial changes, despite European Commission warnings Bucharest could face an EU sanctions procedure.

Greek MPs have voted to seek "every appropriate legal and diplomatic action to satisfy Greece's demands" on WW2-era war reparations from Germany. "This claim is our historic and moral duty," Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras also said. The parliament did not mention a figure, but a committee in 2016 said it was worth €300bn. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert rejected the claim Wednesday, saying it had already been "conclusively settled".

British people should use the extension of the Brexit deadline to 31 October to "calm down and rethink things a bit" and "then look at the issue [of leaving the EU] again" Dutch socialist politician and senior EU official Frans Timmermans said in a TV debate Wednesday. "I absolutely hope that the UK might stay in the EU," he added. "Who knows what might change in the meantime?" Timmermans said.

MEPs have watered down European Commission proposals on Terrorist Content Regulation, saying online firms should have 12 hours to remove offensive material the first time regulators flagged it, instead of just one hour. MEPs also voted, by 308 to 204, to relieve firms of having to monitor their own platforms. An EU official said the diluted bill could not stop live-streaming of terrorist attacks, as recently occurred in New Zealand.

The leader of Poland’s ruling conservatives on Wednesday (17 April) urged opposition leaders to back its view that the country should not join the euro until its economy is on a par with that of western neighbours. When Poland joined...

Reporters Without Borders published their flagship annual ‘World Press Freedom Index’ on Thursday (18 April), revealing that worldwide, authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media, while in Europe, decline of press freedom goes hand in hand with...

The European Commission has revealed that is it looking into antitrust complaints levelled against the Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia, for the company's alleged refusal to license mobile components that could be used in next-generation connected cars.

The Capitals brings you the latest news from across Europe, through on-the-ground reporting by EURACTIV’s media network. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. /// BELGRADE Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow...

EU officials on Wednesday (17 April) accused Brunei of "rude" and "abusive" lobbying against a resolution condemning the Muslim-majority sultanate for imposing the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.

Czech police believe billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babiš should be indicted for alleged involvement in EU subsidy fraud worth two million euros, a spokesman said Wednesday. “The investigation is over and the complete file has been submitted to the state...