European Union

A €10.6m loan to French far-right and pro-Russian presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to help fight the April election was provided by a Hungarian bank, according to French broadcaster RTL. But the name of the bank remains under a non-disclosure agreement, it said. Le Pen recently met Hungary's far-right and pro-Russian prime minister Viktor Orbán in Madrid. Russia also lent her millions of euros for French elections in 2017.

EU Western-Balkans envoy Miroslav Lajčák and his US counterpart, Gabriel Escobar, have urged Kosovo to grant quasi-autonomy to its majority-ethnic Serb municipalities, Reuters reports. "There's an universal principle that says what was agreed must be implemented and this is what we are telling both parties," Lajčák said Wednesday in Pristina. The deal was agreed by previous Kosovo governments, but Kosovo's PM, Albin Kurti, says it could tear Kosovo apart.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said Northern Ireland would be in "breach of international law" if it unilaterally halted agri-food checks at ports on goods from the UK. He spoke after Northern Ireland's agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, announced on Wednesday he would halt checks at midnight based on new legal advice. The EU Commission and the UK are currently in talks on tweaking their post-Brexit customs treaty.

Pressure is growing on EU lawmakers to ensure agricultural and waste residues are legally required in the production of green jet fuel to prevent a reliance on imported used cooking oil.

Turkey has accused Greek authorities of acting "like thugs" after the bodies of 12 migrants were found on the Greek-Turkish border on Wednesday, having died of exposure. "They behave like thugs", Turkey's interior minister Süleyman Soylu said on Twitter, accusing Greece of having illegally pushed back a group of 22 people trying to get to Europe. But that was "false propaganda", Greece's migration minister, Notis Mitarach, said.

Large numbers of Kremlin-linked Russian mercenaries are leaving the Central African Republic (CAR) to go to eastern Europe in the event of a war on Ukraine, The Daily Beast reports. "Usually when we hear that some have left we find out that they are just a handful ... it's the first time we are hearing that dozens have departed in a month," a senior CAR military officer said.

Kosovo has been urged to find a way to establish the Association of Serb Municipalities (ASM) in Kosovo, without infringing on state sovereignty. Pristina has previously refused, saying it would create a state within a state, like in Bosnia and...

After the elections in April, Serbia will be a united and organised country that looks to the future, Zdravko Pono, the presidential candidate of the opposition United Serbia coalition, said on Wednesday. Ponoš, an army general, was chief of staff...

It is too early to declare victory over the COVID-19 pandemic, said Health Minister Ogerta Manastirliu,  noting that the vaccination rate for two doses has reached 56%. During the presentation of the latest decisions of the Council of Ministers for...

The EU's second-highest court has ruled the EU Commission broke no rules by settling a 2018 antitrust investigation against Russian energy firm Gazprom by obtaining concessions on pricing structures and competitors' access to markets instead of imposing a huge fine. "The General Court finds that the contested decision is not vitiated by any of the procedural or substantive errors raised by the applicant [Polish energy firm PGNiG]," the court said.

The assembly will vote on the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović following the proposal of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić. Krivokapić proposed that the parliament elects the Minister of Finance and Social Welfare, Milojko Spajić, as the new Deputy...

Members of the Croatian Parliament’s Home Affairs and National Security Committee failed to agree on whether the attack by Danijel Bezuk on government offices in Zagreb in October 2020 was an act of an individual or if certain social and...

The National Assembly has passed an act that forces banks to share part of the burden of the surging cost of loans denominated in Swiss francs, a move banks say is unlawful and would be promptly put to the test...

Russia has a stake in crises around the world from Ukraine to Syria, Sudan and Mali -- and that is reflected in its active role at the UN Security Council, contrasting with the relative detachment of the US.

After buying second-hand fighter jets from Portugal and Norway, Romania will continue its plans to upgrade its air force, but new generation fighters will only enter service after 2030. The planes that recently became operational, mainly F-16 fighter jets, will allow...

A Budapest court says it is fine to conflate homosexuality with paedophilia, especially when the prime minster does it too.

When Fridays4Future started our school strikes the EU elections were approaching and you sweet-talked us and told us that you genuinely understood and shared our concerns. Truth is you have co-opted our messages without putting them into practice.

The Ministry of Human Resources has unlawfully kept the media out of hospitals during the pandemic, a Budapest district court ruled on Wednesday. EURACTIV’s media partner Telex challenged in court the decision to ban all media outlets except public television and national news agency MTI from...

The US will send 1,700 additional troops to Poland, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has announced, a decision which Warsaw is happy with. Due to the tense situation in Eastern Europe, components of the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) of infantry from...

The Czech government has praised the European Commission’s decision to include gas and nuclear in the EU’s sustainable taxonomy. Prague was fighting for the green label to be applied to gas and nuclear for months and sees the move as...