European Union

Coronavirus infections are hitting record levels in many countries across Europe as winter takes hold, prompting a call for action from the World Health Organization which described the new wave as a "grave concern".

Digital industries welcomed the European Commission’s announcement of the Chips Act that aims at making Europe more resilient to external supply shocks, but warned that the strategy should not be driven by political imperatives alone.

Fatih Birol says ‘big step forward’ is possible only if all commitments are implemented in full. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Leaders toss coin for photo-op, It’s not easy getting into COP and Council of Europe debate, please just stop. 

A new body to promote tech entrepreneurship, an enhanced funding programme, a flagship tech event - all these recent signs point to Portugal’s new ambition to become an innovation hub.

Indonesia, Poland, Vietnam and other nations pledged on Thursday (4 November) to phase out use of coal-fired power and stop building plants, in a deal at the COP26 climate summit that failed to win support from the United States and large coal consumers such as China.

Kazakhstan aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, which means expanding the share of renewables to 83% and halting heat generation from coal after 2050, Serikkali Brekeshev told EURACTIV in an interview.

In today's news from the Capitals, find out more about an increasing number of Czechs getting the jab following the announcement that bars and restaurants will check COVID-19 certificates, Bulgaria's appaling treatment of vulnerable people, and so much more.

Britain on Thursday (4 November) became the first country in the world to approve a potentially game-changing COVID-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by US-based Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, in a boost to the fight against the pandemic.

Lithuania, last week, started building a 3.4-metre high steel fence topped with 0.6 metres of razor wire along its shared land border with Belarus, Reuters reports. The fence is aimed at warding off migrants entering from Belarus. Lithuania has set aside some €152m to erect the 500km fence, which it intends to complete by September next year.

Russia has expelled a Dutch journalist, Tom Vennink, from the Volkskrant newspaper for "administrative violations", three months after it expelled a senior BBC correspondent, Sarah Rainsford. "It is not acceptable for the Netherlands when a journalist is forced out of the country against his will," Dutch foreign minister Ben Knapen said. Vennink had once failed to register his home address and seek permission to visit a Russian region, Russia said.

With regard to EU enlargement, the citizens of the Western Balkans, but also many EU citizens, expect EU institutions and the member states to abandon hypocrisy, writes Aleksandra Tomanić.

Only a quarter of senior positions in economics at universities and business schools are held by women, according to a recent study. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), pushes for more women in economics, saying “diversity is key to creating knowledge”.

Portugal is set to hold snap elections on 30 January, said the country's president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. Portugal's national assembly had rejected the government's draft budget for 2022. De Sousa said it was the first time a draft budget had been knocked back in decades.

Representatives of the EU's climate negotiating team at COP26, including EU presidency holder Slovenia and its chief negotiator Tina Kobilšek, reaffirmed their commitment to a successful outcome at the UN climate talks during a press conference in Glasgow on Thursday (4 November).

The city of Vienna will restrict access to cultural events and hairdressers, bars, and clubs to people who are either vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 by the end of the week – effectively banning unvaccinated from participating in Vienna’s...

The Latvian parliament on Thursday (4 November) allowed businesses to fire workers who refuse to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or transfer to remote work, as the country battles one of the worst COVID-19 waves in European Union.

BiH Presidency Serb member Milorad Dodik is far from being the only source of problems in the country, the head of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament and leader of the most prominent Croatian party in BiH, HDZ...

Sberbank Europe announced the selling of its subsidiaries in Croatia, BiH, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia to the Belgrade-based AIK Bank, Slovenia’s Gorenjska Banka and Agri Europe Cyprus Limited. Those three entities are owned by Serbian entrepreneur Miodrag Kostić, known in...

More than 1,000 universities and science academies in Europe have urged the European Commission to let Britain quickly join its €95.5bn 'Horizon' research programme, following 10-months of Brexit-linked delays. Excluding the UK was "endangering current and future plans for collaboration" and could "result in a major weakening of our collective research", they said in an open letter. Only a "global community" could "move forward from the Covid pandemic", they said.