European Union

Uzbekistan is celebrating on Wednesday (1 September) the 30th anniversary from its independence from the Soviet Union, as a milestone in its nation building, while it is looking forward to the next stage of its development called “Third Renaissance”.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about EU subsidies probably no longer flowing into Czechia, the pandemic further exacerbating Italy's plumetting birth rate, and so much more.

Austria’s interior and foreign ministry hosted a security conference with the Central Asian states Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan together with the migration ministers of Greece and Denmark, as well as the German interior secretary on Monday to discuss the further...

Turkey will be present in Bosnia and Herzegovina but only if Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats unite and say they want Turkey as a mediator, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told local reporters upon his return from last week’s visit to...

Croatia will not stop the search for the disappeared, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at an event marking the International Day of the Disappeared and Remembrance Day for people who went missing in the Homeland War, adding that it would...

Bulgarian health authorities are proposing a serious tightening of restrictions at the start of the fourth wave of the pandemic, but are facing opposition from the caretaker government and the party with the largest parliamentary group – ‘There is such...

The Slovak government evacuated 28 people with direct links to the country despite warnings from the Chairman of the National Council and leader of the second-largest governing party, Boris Kollár, insisting his party would not allow for more Afghans to...

Germany's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) extended their lead over chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in the latest poll published, Reuters reports. The poll showed support for the SPD and their chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz jump by 2 percentage points to 25 percent, the highest reading in the survey in four years. CDU's Armin Laschet lost 3 points to reach a record low at 20 percent. The Greens stood at 16.5 percent.

Since the adoption of the controversial law banning the portrayal of LGBTQI content to minors, the number of citizen complaints received by the national media regulator has increased nearly seven fold, Telex reported via Magyar Hang. The National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH)...

The European Commission has warned that it may put a halt on sending subsidies to the Czech Republic if the country does not improve its check of conflict of interest and provision of subsidies for the firms from trust funds,...

A coalition of member states, led by Poland, has blocked a statement regarding the situation at the Poland-Belarus border in Usnarz Dolny.

Portugal’s Constitutional Court on Monday unanimously declared rules of the Cybercrime Law that provided for access to emails without a judge’s order unconstitutional, following a request for review from President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. In a statement read by the...

The pandemic aggravated the declining birth rates in rich countries, with Italy seeing the sharpest decline in 2020. There were 16,000 fewer births and the country saw its birth rate reduce by 9.1%, according to a study of the Bocconi...

Alar Karis, the only candidate nominated in Estonia’s presidential election has failed to get the votes in the parliament needed to become the republic’s ceremonial president. In the first round of voting on Monday, Alar Karis, the director of the...

A citizens’ initiative to ban sexual orientation and gender identification conversion therapy is moving forward to being considered by parliament after it gathered the needed 50,000 signatures within only a month. In all likelihood, such therapies will be prohibited and...

Faced with a nosedive in the polls, German chancellor hopeful Armin Laschet (CDU) has decided to lift the veil on his future cabinet. The move comes amid calls from within his conservative party for Laschet to take a step back...

France will abolish support measures for businesses on 30 September and introduce a new compensation scheme from October for the sectors still affected by the health restrictions, covering 70-90% of the fixed costs not covered by revenue, Economy Minister Bruno...

The European Commission has reiterated its threat to withhold EU budget funds from companies, such as Agrofert, clandestinely controlled by Czech billionaire-prime minister Andrej Babiš due to fears that he breached conflict-of-interest rules. The Commission "will interrupt any future payment claims in respect of such companies pending the implementation of system improvements to address this risk," a spokesman said Monday. The European Parliament, in June, also urged a grant freeze.

Alphabet Inc's Google unit, Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp are the three biggest lobbying spenders in Europe in a battle against tough new laws aimed at curbing US tech giants' powers, a study released on Tuesday (31 August) showed.

The UN Security Council Monday failed to take up France's proposal to create a UN-controlled "safe zone" at Kabul airport for people trying to leave Afghanistan. It called for a "safe, secure, and orderly departure from Afghanistan of Afghans and all foreign nationals," however. China and Russia abstained from the vote. Russia also called on the US to unfreeze Afghanistan's gold and foreign currency reserves at the Word Bank.