European Union

The European Commission is due to set out on Friday (17 December) legal changes to ease the transport of medicines from Britain to Northern Ireland, a move that could relieve EU-UK tensions over the British province's future after Brexit.

MEPs adopted a resolution on Thursday with an overwhelming majority on forced labour in the Chinese factory Linglong in Zrenjanin and on ecological protests in Serbia. The parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, Vladimir Bilčik, said he hoped that the opening of...

The Assembly of the city of Loznica in western Serbia on Thursday repealed its decision to adopt the Spatial Plan for the city which would allow the Rio Tinto company to open a lithium mine. Development and investment advisor Mahmud...

MEPs have criticised the Slovenian government over its "attacks, smear campaigns, and slander" against journalists, saying it had created a "climate of hostility, distrust and deep polarisation". Thursday's non-binding resolution did not mention prime minister Janez Janša, who has personally insulted reporters on social media. But it was an embarrassment for his country in the last days of its EU presidency.

EU leaders failed to agree on how to respond to high energy prices on Thursday's European Council summit.

President Zoran Milanović sent a letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stating dissatisfaction and opposition to the adopted Council conclusions on enlargement and stabilisation and association process because they do not guarantee the rights of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a...

Romania could become almost energy independent when Romgaz and OMV Petrom extract the first barrels of natural gas from the Black Sea, according to energy minister Virgil Popescu.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has expressed his support for the government’s activity so far and said that talks about new taxes or increasing existing ones are part of normal debate. There is a difference between decisions adopted and enforced and...

The prosecutor’s office has refused to launch an investigation against Bulgaria’s new Prime Minister Kiril Petkov for making allegedly false statements about his citizenship in a declaration to the president in May before being appointed caretaker economy minister by the head of...

The European Central Bank took another step in rolling back its crisis-era asset buying programme on Thursday (17 December). It will hold down borrowing cost next year however, and even said it may restart emergency stimulus if necessary. With the euro zone economy near its pre-pandemic size, pressure is mounting on the bank to follow its global peers in turning off the money taps, and hiking rents.

Germany's infrastructure regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, will not make a decision on allowing natural gas flows to Europe from Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline before July next year. "A decision won't be made in the first half of 2022," Jochen Homann, the agency's president, told reporters on Thursday. Russia's Gazprom owns the pipeline.

EU leaders failed to guarantee a coordinated approach to travel measures for the Christmas holiday season during their summit meeting. Instead they stressed that boosters shots are "crucial" and "urgent" to curb the new wave of Covid-19 infections.

Almost 12,000 prospective asylum seekers in Europe were illegally forced back across a border this year, says the Danish Refugee Council (DRC). Some 6,000 alone took place between July to November, it says.

This election will be further tarnished by the total absence - for the first time in Hong Kong's history - of opposition parties, following the all-out war waged by Beijing against the city's historically spirited pro-democracy movement.

France will ban non-essential travel to and from the UK from the weekend, for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, to slow the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that is causing record numbers of cases, AFP reported Thursday. The government wants to buy time for its vaccination-booster campaign. French citizens and EU nationals could still return, but will need a negative test, and a blanket quarantine will be enforced.

Leaders also said the EU "encourages diplomatic efforts and supports the Normandy format in achieving the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements."

French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said there are some 110,000 fake health passes circulating in the country. "The problem with the fake health passes is that they often involve the collusion of real doctors or real nurses," he told the France 2 broadcaster. He noted some 100 people had been arrested as a result of 400 investigations.

European Union leaders reiterated on Thursday (16 December) their political commitment to finishing the bloc's banking union, but set no date for it, underlining the deep disagreements between governments on what needs to be done to get there.

With the new centre-right government entering office on Friday, the Czech Republic may reconsider its negative stance on relocating child refugees from Greek hotspots. “I am a parent myself and the reluctance to help children from war zones is an...

Poland’s government “will take necessary legal steps” to block the elements of the Fit for 55 package “that would be incompatible with the nation’s interest and just transition,” said Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa at Thursday’s press conference in...