European Union

Hundreds of Pakistanis gathered on the square outside the Parliament building in Athens to celebrate the New Year. However several dozen were slapped with fines for flouting Covid restrictions, and on social media videos of the gathering triggered a wave of hate comments, with talk of the 'occupation' of Syntagma Square and a 'population replacement'.

Google has been dubbed a platform of 'paramount significance across markets' and will be subject to extended abuse control rules to combat uncompetitive practices, according to Germany's Federal Cartel Office on Wednesday (5 January).

Car manufacturing in the UK stalled last year due to pandemic woes, including a global semiconductor shortage, despite demand for greener electric vehicles soaring, industry data showed Thursday (6 January).

On Thursday, Russia sent paratroopers into Kazakhstan to quell a countrywide uprising after deadly violence spread across the tightly controlled former Soviet state.

A Russia-led military alliance said on Thursday that it will send peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after violent protests led to the resignation of the government earlier this week, AP reported. Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had asked allies for help in controlling the unrest, including the seizure and setting alight of public buildings. Demonstrations were sparked by a rise in fuel prices in the central Asian nation.

New daily infections, fulled by the spread of the Omicron variant, are breaking records in Europe, prompting several member states to consider further unpopular restrictions.

Serbian president Alexsandar Vučić has complained that Austrialia "maltreated" world number one tennis star Novak Djokovic, after his dramatic visa refusal at an Australian airport on Wednesday. Serbian star Djokovic was attempting to enter the country to compete in this month's Australian Open, with a "medical exemption" rather than a vaccination declaration. Vučić said: "I told our Novak that the whole of Serbia is with him."

The US on Wednesday imposed fresh sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, accusing him in a statement of corruption and threatening the stability and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegoina, Reuters reports. The US Treasury also imposed sanctions on a TV station, Banja Luka-based Alternative Television, saying Dodik had acquired it in order to control its agenda. The Treasury designations freeze any of Dodik and ATV's US assets.

Sweden has created an agency to combat disinformation ahead of the country's September election, AP reports. The new Swedish Psychological Defence Agency is to "defend our open and democratic society and free opinions by identifying, analysing and responding to inappropriate influences and other misleading information directed at Sweden or Swedish interests." No specific countries were named. The general election is on 11 September.

Poland's government, led by the Law and Justice party, is facing claims it purchased and used the Pegasus spyware against opponents, Euronews reports. Liberal newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported this week that Poland's Central Anti-Corruption Bureau bought the Israeli-created software in 2017. Pegasus allows users to remotely hack into phones. Last month, AP reported that the phones of Polish opposition figures was hacked dozens of times.

The German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned in Washington that "it is out of the question, and let me make this very clear - there cannot be a decision on the security in Europe without Europe."

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Italy making vaccines mandatory for the over-50s, large Czech farms threatening the new government to not approve the planned changes for the national CAP strategic plan, and so much more.

The opposition and medical associations have mounted pressure on the Greek government to distribute free PCR tests for people, as Greeks seem to be the only EU citizens who still pay to get a molecular test.

A stalled hydropower plant project has received Chinese backing, signalling that work could soon be underway in an area of outstanding natural beauty popular with tourists. Three dams will be built on the Shala River in north Albania, a region...

After an action packed 2021 full the Common Agricultural Policy reform, there’s still some fun in store for the agrifood sector in 2022, from the adoption of the national strategic plans to the review of the sustainable use of pesticides directive.

Russia has accused Kosovo of being provocative and “aggravating interethnic relations” following the designation of a Russian UN diplomat as persona non grata. On 31 December, a Russian diplomat with the UNMIK was earmarked for expulsion and designated non grata...

The US will not hesitate to use sanctions to send a strong message to corrupt and destabilising actors in the region, Gabriel Escobar, the US special envoy for the Western Balkans told the Montenegro agency MINA. He assessed that the identity policy,...

The US has sanctioned Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik and his associated media channel Alternativna Televizija (ATV) for “corrupt activities and continued threats to the stability and territorial integrity of BiH”. This is the first designation issued under US President Joe Biden’s executive order...