European Union

Scientists at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) have been tracking ongoing emissions from the La Palma volcano. The Cumbre Vieja volcano eruption in the Canary Islands caused large plumes of sulphur dioxide to travel over North Africa and Europe. Those plumes travelled mainly across northern Africa and southern European countries, including Spain and Portugal, eventually reaching Belgium and the Netherlands, affecting these countries' air quality.

Polish divers have recovered the body of a 19-year old Syrian national from the river Bug on the Belarusian border, local police told the PAP news agency. "Documents were found next to the body," the police said. A second rescued Syrian man said Belarusian police officers had pushed them both into the river on Tuesday, the Polish police added. The death was the eighth confirmed one since the border-emergency began.

Syria is using currency manipulation to evade EU and UN sanctions, with the National Bank of Syria, a blacklisted entity, taking in $60m (€52m) in 2020 of the real value of aid money meant to soothe poverty in government-held areas, according to research by US think-tanks. UN contractors procured goods at the official SYP2,500/$ exchange-rate, but those dollars were worth SYP3,500/$ on the black market, in the complex scam.

Nato defence ministers in Brussels Thursday adopted a classified 'Concept for Deterrence and Defence in the Euro-Atlantic Area', designed to counter novel Russian threats, such as hypersonic cruise missiles, battlefield robots, military AI, and anti-satellite systems, Reuters reported. The renewed focus on Russia comes despite ever-growing US interest in the Indo-Pacific region. The deterrence plan also involved reacting to a potential simultaneous Russian attack in the Baltic and Black-Sea areas.

The Albanian economy’s recovery is faster than expected but remains fragile, according to the World Bank. In a report published on Thursday, the World Bank said that there should be a focus on policies that will support sustainable growth while ensuring...

Britain has charged with terrorism the man alleged to have stabbed to death MP David Amess last week. The 25-year old Ali Harbi Ali, a Londoner who was the son of an ex-media adviser to a Somalian prime minister, "considered himself affiliated to Islamic State", a banned extremist group, British prosecutor James Cable said Thursday. Amess' family urged the British public to "set aside hatred" in its reaction.

Increasing numbers of infections in Flanders have made the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) return Belgium to 'red' again on the European coronavirus map. The Walloon and Brussels region were red zones already. A region is marked red if the infection ratio per 100,000 citizens remains between 75 and 200 and the positivity ratio is four percent - or when the infection ratio is higher then 200.

A Kosovo-Serbia working group held its first EU facilitated meeting in Brussels on Thursday in the hopes of finding a permanent solution to the license place dispute. The establishment of the group was agreed last month in Brussels. It followed...

The first topic leaders discussed at the EU summit were the continent's soaring gas prices, which have lead to a spike in household energy bills - amid widespread disagreement on how to solve the issue.

Greece has agreed to shelter a group of 35 Afghan human rights workers and their families following a short stay in neighbouring North Macedonia, AP reported. North Macedonia’s government said the 35 had been transported Thursday to Greece, the latest European Union...

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte suggested Poland's Covid-19 recovery money should not be approved until Warsaw respects the rulings of the European Court of Justice and dispels doubts about the independence of its judiciary.

TheUS Embassy in Sarajevo is the “epicentre of instability” in the country and is working towards turning BiH into a “Muslim state”, said Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik. This comes after Gabriel Escobar, US Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing policy towards the...

EU leaders called for an "ambitious global response to climate change" to keep the 1.5 degrees global warming limit within reach - after scientists concluded that the projected global increase in fossil-fuel production for 2030 is inconsistent with this target.

The European Commission’s yearly report on Serbia’s progress in the European integration process is cautiously optimistic, the head of the EU delegation to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, said on Thursday. “The report stresses everything that needs to be done, especially in...

Last October, the European Commission gave an optimistic outlook on the adoption of its migration and asylum pact. EU commission vice-president Margaritis Schinas said its pact on migration was lowering the landing gear - suggesting agreement was possible.

China's growing economic footprint in Ukraine may already be producing geopolitical consequences that put the country at odds with core European priorities. Volodymyr Zelensky decided earlier this year to withdraw Ukraine's condemnation of Chinese government crimes against the Uighurs.

President Klaus Iohannis designated the interim defence minister Nicolae Ciuca to form the new government after Dacian Ciolos failed to get parliament’s confidence vote. Iohannis hopes Nicolae Ciuca, a well-respected army general who participated in NATO operations in Afghanistan, Iraq...

The picturesque town of Trakai in Lithuania tells a story of well-intentioned biodiversity and green infrastructure investment nearly costing its old town one-fifth of its trees.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday (21 October) threatened to expel the US, German and eight other Western ambassadors after they issued a rare joint statement in support of a jailed civil society leader.

According to the Investigative Institute of Ján Kuciak, the Slovak government paid out around €24 million to letterbox companies. The money was meant to help small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic. The investigative journalists revealed that the companies have...