European Union

Doctors without Borders' (MSF) rescue boat - GeoBarents - is seeking to disembark 186 people it has rescued in the Mediterranean Sea. The NGO had also recovered 10 corpses earlier this week from a boat with 99 survivors. "Some had to identify the dead bodies of family members or friends who perished in front of their eyes," said MSF.

The European Commission's chief spokesperson Eric Mamer said there would be no negotiations with the Belarus regime, noting that its foreseen "technical talks" announced on Wednesday will deal purely with repatriations of trapped migrants and asylum seekers. Those talks will be held between Belarus and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration. "There is no question of negotiating with the Lukashenko regime," said Mamer.

The Polish army detained hundreds of migrants who crossed the Belarus border, and accused Belarusian special forces of masterminding the operation, France24 writes. Around 2,000 people, mainly from the Middle East, are estimated to be living rough near the Polish-Belarus border, in dire conditions. G7 foreign ministers on Thursday urged Minsk to end the migrant crisis: "We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign."

Almost 200 MEPs want to use remote voting rather than attend next week's session in Strasbourg, due to Covid-19 worries. The parliament's senior administrator has instructed staff to follow Belgian four-day home working rules - as has the European Commission.

The European Commission should give greater legal clarity on what terrorism actually means in EU criminal law - to prevent abuses of fundamental rights and discrimination against specific groups, an EU agency has warned.

France must reinforce cooperation with Britain on the thorny question of migrant Channel crossings, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday (18 November), accusing London of "oscillating between partnership and provocation".

The EU Commission also decided to extend - for another six months - the relaxation of state-aid rules to help member states cope with the economic fallout from the Covid- pandemic.

Why no price-aggregating website for international trains in Europe? Why is it almost impossible to buy a single ticket for a cross-border train? It's easier to go by plane - and governments are making sure it stays that way.

Regional politics, competing global priorities and, sadly, a deliberate misinformation campaign that seeks to dismantle the agency jeopardise the critical mission of one of the United Nations' true success stories.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday (18 November) cautioned against holding direct talks with Belarus on the unprecedented migrant crisis along Poland's border, saying it would "legitimise" the regime.

As the COVID-19 situation sharply deteriorates in the CEE region, both the Slovak and Hungarian governments introduce new measures. Bratislava has chosen a light version of a ‘lockdown for the unvaccinated’, while Budapest has tightened mask rules. The Slovak government...

As the EU’s Strategic Compass aims for quicker, more effective and more flexible EU foreign policy, according to Czech MEP Alexandr Vondra (ECR), it de facto calls for a qualified majority voting system in the Council of Ministers. “This demand is absolutely...

Madeira is now in the high-risk category for COVID-19, moving from orange to red on the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) map, which supports travel decisions in the European Union (EU). After being in the green category in...

The current situation on the border with Belarus should not be compared to Europe’s migration crisis from six years ago, since it is closer to military action, Finish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said in an interview with a group of...

Some vaccination centres in Ireland report up to 50% of those who have booked appointments to receive COVID-19 booster shots fail to turn up, the head of Ireland’s health service has said. Some centres are experiencing between 25-50% of missed...

MPs adopted a bill from the presidential majority to combat animal abuse on Thursday with 332 votes in favour, one against, and ten abstentions. Some primary measures include putting an end to the sale of kittens and puppies, animals in...

As Germany faces the full brunt of the fourth wave of the pandemic and vaccination rates continue to be lower than those of Spain and Italy, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and the 16 minister-presidents agreed to a new set of...

France and Germany accused Russia on Thursday (18 November) of breaking diplomatic protocol after Moscow published their confidential correspondence over Ukraine, the latest sign of deteriorating ties between Moscow and the West.

Caretaker Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov accused Turkey of meddling in Bulgarian internal affairs during the presidential and parliamentary elections held on 14 November. On Thursday (18 November), the foreign ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador to Sofia for explanations. “Bulgaria expects...

What Poland is doing “right now, in the moment of this migratory crisis, is right” and that it is acting “on behalf of the European Union”, according to German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer who visited Warsaw at the same time...