European Union

France's sports ministry has said foreign athletes vaccinated with drugs which do not have EU approval, such as Russia's Spuntik V or China's Sinovac, will be allowed to come to France, so long as they first stay in a "health bubble" for 24 hours and take a Covid test. "These measures allow all vaccinated athletes, wherever they come from, to participate in competitions in France," a French spokesman told AP.

Russia has de facto "occupied" its neighbour Belarus, MEPs have warned, even as the world's attention focuses on Ukraine.

It took eight rounds of voting to elect Sergio Mattarella — but the government led by Mario Draghi has been strengthened, along with the centre-left Democratic Party.

The ongoing electricity price hike fuelled by the gas crisis makes a reform of EU power market rules more urgent than ever, argue Mike Parr and Simon Minett.

Germany has begun searching for alternative gas suppliers in the event that imports from Russia are interrupted due to tensions in Ukraine.

Local experts have joined international organisations in calling on the Albanian government to be careful over rising public debt levels. Following the 2019 earthquake, the COVID-19 pandemic, and historical spending levels, including dozens of public-private partnerships, Albanian public debt is...

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), the country’s biggest opposition party, will vote for the minority government because it is a better solution than where Montenegro is with the current government, party leader, and Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović has said....

The security situation in the country is stable. So far, there are no indications that would suggest that there could be a threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of North Macedonia, said President Stevo Pendarovski after...

A Warsaw court ruled that the Polish government acted unlawfully by fast-tracking an environmental permit to extend the life of a large lignite mine in Turów

Belgium will cut value added tax on electricity as part of a package to shield consumers from rising energy prices, the prime minister said on Tuesday (1 February).

The renewed calls for action on Pegasus surveillance in Poland and Hungary came after Hungary's data protection authority, headed by an appointee of prime minister Viktor Orbán, said victims were legitimate targets.

A total of 65% of convicts serving time in Serbian prisons have been vaccinated against COVID-19, the ministry of justice reported on Tuesday. In a statement from the ministry’s department for prison terms, the ministry said that over 80% of...

Dragan Čović, president of HDZ BiH, the biggest Croatian party, participated at the special session of the Republika Srpska National Assembly in Banja Luka dedicated to the “political and economic situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina” in which he called for...

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis had a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the recent worrying developments in the Black Sea region, but also the future cooperation between the two countries. During the call, which marked 30...

Polish President Andrzej Duda dismissed Poland’s ambassador to Prague Mirosław Jasiński. The move came after Jasiński criticised Poland for lack of willingness to solve the Czech-Polish dispute over the Turów mine in an interview with the newspaper, Deutsche Welle. “It was a...

In the pursuit of the EU’s set climate ambitions, the proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism risks enabling a depressive industrial strategy ultimately jeopardising the European economy and generating significant environmental impacts outside the EU. Squaring the circle of climate targets entails a Mechanism that works as a safeguard to all European industries and prevents carbon leakage of all sectors, preserving the competitiveness of all EU companies.

US President Joe Biden has selected US ambassador to Slovakia, Bridget Brink, as the new ambassador to Ukraine, CNN reported. Biden has not officially nominated Brink because he is waiting for confirmation from the Ukrainian government. The approval of Ukraine is part...

Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva on Tuesday condemned the “armed movements” taking place in the capital of Guinea-Bissau while stressing that there were no reports of any problems faced by Portuguese nationals in the country. “There are armed movements in Bissau...

Prime Minister António Costa, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday after taking a self-test and an antigen test, will spend seven days in isolation, according to a statement issued by the prime minister’s office Tuesday afternoon. As secretary-general of...

Spain’s agency for medicines and health products (AEMPS) on Tuesday authorised the Spanish DNA-based vaccine from Hipra pharma to move to phase 3, the final stage before being approved in humans. Almost 3,000 volunteers from around twenty hospitals in Spain...