Euractiv.com

Italy and France's far-right leaders launched their European Parliament election campaign on Monday (8 October) with an attack on the "Brussels bunker" they hope to enter en masse after the May vote.

On Saturday, as top climate scientists were putting the final touches to the latest shattering UN report on climate science, thousands of people were protesting against the expansion of one of Europe’s biggest, dirtiest coalmines, writes Jagoda Munic.

Experience garnered during previous enlargements has taught the EU a lesson: that the bloc should not import existing disputes when granting membership, an EU spokesperson told EURACTIV, after FYROM President Gjorge Ivanov accused Brussels of “double standards”.

European Union environment ministers will seek a compromise on Tuesday (9 October) over how tough to be on curbing carbon dioxide emissions from cars and vans, with Germany warning too tough targets could harm industry and cost jobs.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe urged far-right Italian leader Matteo Salvini on Monday (8 October) to drop his "posturing" on immigration and help find a European response to the issue.

In recent years, many thousands have died and millions more had to flee their homes due to conflicts in which religion has been used to justify discrimination and violence. Countering these dangerous distortions is one of the challenges that religious leaders will address in Astana on 10 and 11 October, writes Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

The agreements on the various parts of the EU clean energy package were hard fought, but their signing marks the beginning of the battle to implement them, as much as it does the end of the struggle to agree them, argues Adrian Joyce.

The vision for decarbonising the European building stock is clear enough: now comes the time for the member states to enforce these commitments.

Every year, the ‘Euro bubble’ is alive and buzzing in anticipation of one of the biggest events in the European political calendar; the President of the European Commission’s annual State of the European Union address, writes Zuzana Vaneckova.

The European Commission’s proposed recommendation on strengthened cooperation of all stakeholders against vaccine-preventable diseases should not remain a “piece of paper” as it needs to bring tangible results for all age groups, Commission officials told EURACTIV.com.

Doing business across EU borders should be frictionless. But in reality, European companies still face excessive bureaucracy when posting workers to another EU country, writes Thilo Brodtmann.

The European Commission will take the unprecedented step of rejecting a national budget later this month if the Italian government does not improve its announced deficit figures, EU officials told EURACTIV.

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) is the single authoritative voice on advertising self-regulation in Europe, working with regulators and industry representatives to ensure ads work both for consumers and business.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called on Europe to "stand up" to the far-right during a speech at the opening session of the European Week of Regions and Cities on Monday (8 September).

The European Commission's proposal to oblige tech firms to pay a 3% levy on revenues faced a further setback on Sunday (7 September), as Ireland joined a growing list of member states opposing the measures.

There is currently no country in the world where men and women are truly treated equally. At the current rate of progress, according to indicators from the World Economic Forum, it will take an estimated 217 years to achieve full gender parity. We cannot afford to wait that long, writes Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

Europe has an easy decision to make soon: either save trillions of euros, prevent the deaths of thousands of people and do its part to save the planet from climate oblivion. Or keep going the way we are. Staggeringly, the former option is not everybody’s first choice.

France wants to make compliance with the Paris Agreement on climate a precondition to signing European trade agreements. However, this is an issue where France is struggling to get the other 27 members to make progress on. EURACTIV France reports.

To create trust, companies have to be transparent in what they are doing and how they treat employees.

Industrial sectors such as cement and steelmaking will continue emitting CO2 even if they switch to 100% renewable energy, says Camilla Skriung who calls on the Norwegian government to take action now – without waiting for EU funding – in order to get the first projects off the ground.