European Union

One of Brussels' top two leaders has defended the European Union's efforts to reach an investment agreement with China, ahead of summit meetings with US President Joe Biden.

Croatia’s Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek signed a Global Pledge on Media Freedom during a meeting with the UK’s undersecretary for European neighbourhood and the Americas, Wendy Morton, in Zagreb on Monday, the ministry said in a statement....

The Serbian government passed a resolution to support Serbia’s negotiating position for Chapter XV – Energy, ahead of the next EU-Serbia intergovernmental conference, the ministry of mining and energy reported on Monday. “Two chief obstacles to opening the chapter on...

Romania’s parliament approved a law to regulate telecom networks and infrastructure, which could exclude Chinese giant Huawei from having access to its future 5G mobile networks. Telecommunication companies will need a ”clearance” from the country’s Supreme Defence Council (CSAT) in...

Bulgarian police seized 500kg of heroin hidden in a warehouse in the industrial zone of the southern Bulgarian city of Sliven, having arrived through the port of Varna, which is emerging as a major entry point for drug trafficking through...

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders has reiterated his call for Slovenia to appoint European delegated prosecutors after Slovenia annulled the appointment procedure. “We need two European delegated prosecutors from Slovenia,” he told the press on the sidelines of a...

The Dutch government has presented a report about the start of EU membership talks with Albania to parliament, listing six conditions that it considered should be met in view of the intergovernmental conference. The report relies on the European Commission’s...

Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová will appoint Samuel Vlčan as agricultural minister on Tuesday after he was appointed by Prime Minister Eduard Heger. The move comes despite incumbent Ján Mičovský announcing his decision to withdraw his resignation and to continue in...

US Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday (7 June) she had “robust” talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on fighting corruption to deter immigration from Central America and bluntly warned migrants to not come to the United States.

Slovakia will recognise Hungarian vaccination certificates, including the cards of those who received the Russian or Chinese jabs, national news agency MTI reported, citing the Slovak TASR agency, after the announcement made by Slovak Foreign Secretary Martin Klus. Klus said...

Coal mining at the Turów coal mine can go ahead, but Poland must pay Czechia compensation of €40 to 50 million and review the permitting processes under which Polish authorities prolonged the license for mining. These are the key points...

Italian Economy Minister Daniele Franco told parliament during a hearing on Monday that the country hopes to “close by the end of the month the negotiations with the European Commission for the relaunch of the Italian national airline Alitalia.” “The...

The Austrian government has cited “the balancing of interests” as the reason for missing the deadline to implement the EU’s copyright directive. “It is of importance for the ministry of justice that the directive will be implemented soon and that...

German Health Minister Jens Spahn of the Christian Democrats (CDU) has been accused of deliberately distributing faulty masks to the needy during the coronavirus pandemic, leading to calls for his resignation. Spahn is facing fierce criticism from his party’s coalition...

Belgium’s Parti Socialiste (PS) has unexpectedly spoken out in favour of a headscarf ban in a debate that has been raging in the country since last week. The PS is said to have unanimously decided that “the wearing of convictional...

A pro-Islamic Party Nyanset (Nuance Party) is targeting Sweden’s Turkish and Muslim communities in a bid to reach the election threshold of 4% and enter parliament in the 2022 elections. Party leader Mikail Yüksel announced to his 200 followers on...

The way clean or low-carbon hydrogen was defined under the EU’s green finance taxonomy could have been more ambitious, with a higher emission threshold excluding all unabated fossil fuels from hydrogen manufacturing, says Jorgo Chatzimarkakis.

"We were a start-up nation, we are going to become a nation of large technology companies," Economy Minister Bruno le Maire told a conference on Monday (7 June), adding that “France has a vocation to be one of the nations writing the 21st century”. EURACTIV France reports.

US and Australian authorities hacked into an app used by criminals to read millions of encrypted messages, leading to hundreds of arrests of suspected organised crime figures in 18 countries, Australian officials said on Tuesday (8 June).

Joe Biden will fight what he calls a “defining” battle for democracy on his first foreign presidential trip, meeting top US allies in Europe ahead of a tricky summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The busy agenda — with G7, NATO...