European Union

A state-run Taiwanese liquor company said Monday it has snapped up 20,000 bottles of Lithuanian rum that were blocked from China after a diplomatic row broke out between Beijing and Vilnius

In 2022, EU foreign policy looks towards some fire fighting to salvage what is left of the once-dominant dream of building a ‘ring of friends’ from the Caucasus to the Sahara. Over the past year, Europe has woken up to...

The European Commission sent a proposal on 31 December to the 27 member states in which it suggests labelling gas and nuclear energy 'green', De Standaard writes. France asked for this in the so-called taxonomy debate on ruling what is green energy. Germany and Austria reacted negatively to the proposal. "Gas and nuclear energy have no place in the taxonomy," Austrian minister for climate, Leonore Gewessler said.

Germany health minister Karl Lauterbach said at the weekend that 2022 will see "light at the end of the tunnel" and a possible return to normal life from the Covid pandemic. Lauterbach, from the SPD in the governing coalition and a doctor, said :"I do believe that we can live with the coronavirus. That we can get our normal life back completely. And next year will be decisive for this."

It is "very likely" that Russia will invade Ukraine and it can only be stopped by "enormous sanctions", Adam Schiff, the chair of the US House intelligence committee said.

Schools in England returning this week after the Christmas holidays will see students wearing face masks until the end of the month, it was announced on Sunday. The department for education said the advice was "short-term only to support pupils and teachers as they return to schools this term" and would remain in place until 26 January. Rules for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are set by the devolved governments.

Belgium's concertation committee, where all its governments are represented, will meet on Thursday to evaluate the Covid situation as the infections have doubled in one week, De Standaard writes. Ministers will assess the restrictions, decided in December, on culture, sports and nightlife. In December the country's highest administrative court ruled that closing theatres was a disproportional measure, while cinemas decided not to follow the restrictions.

Sudan's civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok announced on Sunday that he was stepping down from his role, Deutsche Welle reports. His resignation comes six weeks after he was reinstated, as part of an agreement with the military that overthrew the government in October. Hours before the announcement, thousands of protesters took to the streets in the capital Khartoum, calling on the military to stop interfering in the transition.

Over 4,000 flights were cancelled around the world on Sunday due to Omicron-related causes, Reuters reports, with more than half of them US flights. The Christmas and New Year holidays are usually a peak time for air travel, but the rapid spread of the Omicron variant has led to a sharp increase in Covid-19 infections, forcing airlines to cancel flights as pilots and cabin crew quarantine.

France on Sunday removed the EU flag from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, where it had been hung to mark the beginning of the six-month French presidency of the EU, after a backlash from rightwing presidential candidates. The flag had been hung from the memorial to the war dead on New Year's Eve, before being removed on Sunday. Officials told AFP the flag had only intended to be temporary.

The European Union adopted its access regulation at the turn of this century. But as work went digital, the rules have failed to keep pace. A lot still goes unrecorded or unregistered, and cannot be accessed easily, if at all.

The report shows that due to Covid-19, Romanians and Bulgarian now die even younger than before. Life expectancy in both Bulgaria and Romania fell by 1.5 and 1.4 years respectively in 2020.

Since hostilities between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front in Western Sahara resumed in November 2020, the EU has been reluctant to play an active role in the conflict.

India started vaccinating children aged 15 to 18 against the coronavirus as it quickly expands its inoculation effort to cover the world's largest adolescent population amid fears the Omicron variant will drive a new surge of infections.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Austria threatening to sue the Commission over the EU taxonomy rules, Irish now being recognised as an official EU language, and so much more.

Although officially introduced on 1 January 1999, the euro became a tangible reality for most Europeans on 1 January 2002, when the first euro coins and banknotes were put into circulation.

Kosovo authorities have expelled a Russian diplomat from the country’s United Nations mission over national security concerns, according to Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz but the UN said they have not been notified. The move comes at a time when neighbouring...

Riot police with batons and shields broke up a crowd of several thousand who had gathered in Amsterdam on Sunday (2 January) to protest against COVID-19 lockdown measures and vaccinations.

The director of the Secretariat of the Energy Community based in Vienna, Janez Kopač, told N1 that newly adopted amendments to the Law on Electricity in BiH’s Federation (Croat and Bosniak part), which limits the increase in electricity prices to a maximum...