European Union

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about French teachers and parents worried about kids going back to school, Italy's environment minister saying environmental activists are worse than the climate crisis, and so much more.

In case the EU wishes to become a more reliable security provider and global actor, it needs to avoid past mistakes and develop credible military intervention forces that are able to project stability in our neighbourhood, Slovenia’s defence minister Matej...

Economic patriotism is an extremely necessary and desirable phenomenon but Croatia has been lacking it for three decades – that is one of the messages of a panel discussion held at the 16th convention of Croatian exporters. Professor Marijana Ivanov...

Slovenia’s interior ministry has proposed fines for indecent behaviour towards public officials, raising concerns about the protection of freedom of speech in the country amidst continuing protests against the government. In line with the proposed amendment to the act on...

British pub chain JD Wetherspoon on Wednesday (1 September) reported beer supply problems as driver shortages linked to Brexit and the pandemic have affected deliveries to major restaurant and supermarket chains.

The dismissal of Romanian Justice Minister Stelian Ion by Prime Minister Florin Citu has provoked a major crisis in the governing coalition as junior partners USR PLUS are asking the National Liberal Party (PNL) to name a new head of...

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he was very proud his state was the first to have opened a general consulate in Novi Pazar during his visit to the south-western Sandžak (Sanjak) region of Serbia. It holds a special place in...

EU pressure on Bulgaria about North Macedonia will be more intense in the coming months, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev predicted on Wednesday at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia, which brings together Balkan and EU leaders. “I call on all...

Several thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the two largest Slovak cities to protest against government and pandemic restrictions on Wednesday, the day the country celebrated Constitution Day. The protests were organised by opposition parties and extremists, who...

The annual inflation rate in Poland hit 5.4% in August, according to the early estimates by the central statistical office (GUS), meaning 2021 has so far seen the fastest rise in consumer prices since June 2001 and August broke July’s...

The Hungarian capital does not want to host the 2023 World Athletics Championships if the land for the Student City is transferred to the Chinese Fudan University, the city council decided on Wednesday, Telex reported. Green Mayor Gergely Karácsony announced on 26 August he...

Passengers arriving in Portugal from Brazil and the UK are no longer subject to quarantine as part of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the government announced on Wednesday. All citizens, except children below the age of 12, wishing to...

Greece’s new minister of health, Thanos Plevris, who was appointed after a government reshuffle, was forced to apologise for anti-Semitic comments he made in the past following a harsh statement by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece. The...

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis openly disagreed with European Parliament chief David Sassoli over the handling of the looming migration crisis from Afghanistan. Particularly, speaking at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia, Sassoli expressed his disappointment about a recent meeting of...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's controversial referendum about the so-called "Child Protection Act", which triggered infringement procedures by the European Commission over its measures targeting the LGBTQ+ community, may not be legally sound but makes considerable political sense, writes Zoltán Kovács.

Helsinki could declare itself an English-speaking city, Helsinki’s new Mayor, Juhana Vartiainen, has suggested as the country continues to debate the worsening shortage of skilled workers on the labour market which could heavily hamper the recovery from the pandemic. Immigration...

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab defended his handling of the Afghanistan crisis on Wednesday, despite the revelation that the Foreign Office’s own risk assessment had warned that the Taliban could rapidly take over the country in a paper published less...

Austria saw its industry grow by 60% from 2000 to 2020, while the sector presented a mild 10% growth rate during the same period for euro-area countries, a report by UniCredit Bank Austria said on Wednesday. Even for Germany, Europe’s...

Concerns are mounting in France over the return on Thursday of 13 million pupils to in-person teaching as the country’s daily COVID-19 caseload hovers at around 19,000. The hopes for a return to normal and the acceleration of the vaccination...

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Ghebreyesus, German Health Minister Jens Spahn and outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel have officially opened the WHO’s new global Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin. “The WHO hub promises to deliver three key...