European Union

Find out where you can watch the films nominated for the 2021 LUX Audience Award in your country and how to vote for your favourite.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Greek journalist Kostas Vaxevanis has recently denounced a death contract against him. Less than a month ago, another well-known investigative journalist was murdered in a mafia-styled execution in Athens. EURACTIV has interviewed Vaxevanis to find out about the deteriorating conditions of independent journalism in the country.

Climate change is likely to be a key area to strengthen cooperation between the Republic of Korea and the EU in the coming years, the country's ambassador to Brussels, Yoon Soon-gu, told EURACTIV in an interview about multilateralism, climate cooperation and the EU's Indo-Pacific strategy.

The transition towards a net zero greenhouse gas economy puts the power sector in the spotlight. The clean energy transition should result in an energy system where primary energy supply would largely come from carbon free sources.

India’s coronavirus deaths rose by a record 3,780 during the last 24 hours, a day after it became the second country to cross the grim milestone of 20 million infections after the United states.

Written by Etienne Deschamps,

© L’hymne européen. Disque produit par la Commission européenne et par le Conseil de l’Europe, 1995. Dessin de Jean-Michel Folon © Union européenne

In the inter-war years, advocates of European unity began pondering the choice of an anthem that would convey the feeling of sharing a common destiny and common values. The creation of the Council of Europe in 1949 spurred further calls to this end. Proposals for scores and lyrics for an anthem for Europe began appearing spontaneously. It was not until 1972, however, that the Council of Europe formally adopted the prelude of Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as the European anthem.

For their part, the institutions representing what would become the European Union chose the debates on a citizens’ Europe held in the mid-1980s to adopt Ode to Joy as their anthem too. On 29 May 1986, the European flag and the European anthem were officially adopted at a ceremony held in Brussels. Although the version of the anthem chosen had no lyrics, it has come to symbolise the European Union. It is played at official ceremonies attended by the representatives and/or leaders of the European Union, and more generally at many events with a European theme.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Story of the European Anthem‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

European trade unions welcome ambitious EU climate policies, but warn that they need to be implemented alongside an equally ambitious social transition plan or risk sowing the seeds of a backlash, says Judith Kirton-Darling.

Ethiopia is set to hold elections in a month, but with war in the north, ethnic violence elsewhere and major logistical hurdles, the path to credible polls is littered with obstacles.

In today's edition of the capitals, Italy and Austria take the green travel certificate into their own hands, while the Czech Interior Minister denies exchanging data on the Russian depot blast for Sputnik V, read this and so much more.

“It’s not up to the EU to consider Montenegro’s financial situation. We’re monitoring the reforms of prosecutorial laws and have already talked about it with Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić,” announced European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Olivér Várhelyi during a...

Divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina have become more pronounced during the pandemic because of attempts by local politicians to score political points in the present situation, High Representative for BiH Valentin Inzko told the UN Security Council on Tuesday. Submitting...

Faced with the prospect of a slowing vaccination campaign, Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu has raised the prospect of a potential easing of restrictions for people that have received their COVID-19 vaccinations. So far, Citu has been wary of proposing...

Croatian President Zoran Milanović said on Tuesday that law professor Zlata Đurđević was his candidate for the Supreme Court president and asked members of parliament to think carefully before they reject her because he would not give up. The governing...

More than 470,000 decares of Bulgaria’s land and forests are restricted to the public by hunting fences, many of which are controlled by private companies, announced the Green Laws initiative on Tuesday following a large-scale study under the Access to...

The mission of the model-changing universities is to pull the Hungarian economy forward as the locomotives of the country and to strengthen its competitiveness, the Prime Minister emphasized, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the meeting with minister of innovation...

World Trade Organization head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Tuesday (4 May) named two women to the WTO's four deputy leader jobs for the first time in its history.

The European Union carbon price hit a record high of above €50 per tonne on Tuesday (4 May), a key milestone in what analysts say is likely a long-term climb towards the price levels needed to trigger investments in innovative clean technologies.

Belgium suffered a major cyberattack on Tuesday, Belgian media reported, affecting many of its key institutions. It’s origin is still unknown. Belnet’s internet network, which connects public institutions, higher education and university establishments, research centres and public administrations, has been...

Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (ČSSD, S&D) has denied accusations that he planned to exchange information about the involvement of Russian agents in the 2014 ammunition depot blast in return for 1 million Sputnik V vaccines...

Polish President Andrzej Duda will travel to Bucharest to meet his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis next Monday for a joint teleconference meeting with leaders of the Bucharest Nine (B-9) group. The head of the National Security Bureau, Paweł Soloch, announced...