European Union

  This week our podcast focuses on a security conference organised by Austria with the Central Asian states to discuss further strategy regarding Afghanistan. Austria and other EU countries are asking Afghanistan’s neighbours to manage migrations flows and prevent a...

The Netherlands' advertising watchdog has urged Royal Dutch Shell to stop running a campaign promoting fuel purchases as 'carbon neutral', providing that customers purchase offsets. EURACTIV's media partner, edie.net. reports.

France and the Netherlands signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday (31 August) to intensify synergies for the research and development of quantum technologies, joining the race in building high-performance supercomputers. EURACTIV France reports.

Set up in 2005, the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) is the world's first international emissions trading system. Since its establishment, the concept has had plenty of detractors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted debates on stronger European health policy cooperation. In Germany, the EU's most populous country and strongest economy, which holds a general election on 26 September, political parties are divided over whether and how the EU’s role should be strengthened.

Ireland hit Facebook’s WhatsApp with a record 225 million euro ($266 million) fine on Thursday following an inquiry into the messaging app’s transparency around sharing personal data with other Facebook companies. WhatsApp said the fine was “entirely disproportionate” and that...

At a special meeting on Tuesday the EU interior ministers failed to reach an agreement on binding conditions for taking in Afghan asylum seekers. Despite the strong desire to reach a consensus, the EU Commission failed due to opposition from Austria, Hungary, Denmark and Slovenia, among others. Instead, Afghanistan's neighbouring countries are now to receive money for taking in refugees. Europe's press is for the most part incensed.

Nato began its mission in Afghanistan 20 years ago. Today, most experts consider the strategy of building a democratic state on the basis of military support to have failed. More than 3,500 troops belonging to Nato and its allies lost their lives in Afghanistan. While some commentators point to lessons to be learned from the fiasco, others say the self-criticism has gone too far.