European Union

Russia must respect the sovereignty of Kazakhstan, said the EU, reacting to the deployment of Russian military forces to quell an uprising after deadly violence spread across the former Soviet republic.

In the first episode of 2022, EURACTIV’s Beyond the Byline focuses on the tension between Russia and Kyiv and the EU’s role in it.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has withdrawn its team on the Belarus-Poland border after Warsaw repeatedly blocked access to migrants there trying to enter the European Union, it said Thursday.

French MPs have adopted the COVID vaccine pass bill in the National Assembly on Thursday (6 January) amid fierce debates laying bare the internal struggles of the right-wing. Now, only Senate approval remains. EURACTIV France reports.

France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, will try to reach a common EU position concerning the participation of politicians at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 4 February.

France's data protection watchdog known as the CNIL fined Facebook and Google €60 million and €150 million, respectively, on Thursday (6 December) in its latest crackdown against tech giants violating cookie tracking rules. EURACTIV France reports.

The new German government has made reforming the EU, as well as its own economy and society, one of its top priorities. This year will show how fast and how much the ruling coalition wants to move and how well it will coordinate with its key ally France along the way.

The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday rejected a case brought over a UK bakery's refusal to bake a gay wedding cake, saying British legal options had to be exhausted before it would get involved.

After violent mass protests against rising gas and fuel prices, the government in Kazakhstan has resigned. The country's long-time former president Nursultan Nazarbayev also lost his post as national security chief. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had asked the Russian-led military alliance CSTO for help to bring the situation under control. Europe's press also examines the situation in the light of the troops now being mobilised by Moscow.

French President Emmanual Macron made headlines on Tuesday after saying in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien that he "really wants to piss off the non-vaccinated" and drastically restrict their social life. New Covid restrictions are to apply from mid-January under which the unvaccinated will be denied access to restaurants and theatres and other public spaces. Europe's media accuse Macron of callous electioneering.

Putin's threat of a 'strong reaction' in the event of Nato enlargement has mat with a bitter response in Helsinki and Stockholm. Even if majorities in the traditionally neutral states of Finland and Sweden still oppose Nato accession, this could change rapidly, commentators observe.