European Union

Lithuania’s foreign ministry has ordered the Belarusian embassy in Vilnius to cut its diplomatic staff to one in response to a similar action by the Minsk government earlier this week. The Ministry summoned the acting chargé d’affaires of the Belarusian...

Spanish police have arrested three people over their alleged involvement in the killing of a 24-year-old man named Samuel, who was beaten to death in the early hours of last Saturday near a nightclub, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reports.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said travel from the UK to Ireland will be much easier for fully vaccinated people as they will not have to quarantine from 19 July, RTE news has reported. “For others who don’t have the...

“After several months of decline, the epidemic is once again gaining ground in our country”, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal told the press after the weekly Council of ministers on Wednesday, adding that only “massive” vaccination could prevent a fourth wave...

State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs Marco Wanderwitz, who faced criticism in the past over his remarks that East Germans were unable to acclimatise to living in a democracy, released a report on the progress of the formerly...

Unlike the steel and cement industry, the glass sector has a clear path towards decarbonising its processes: electrification. Yet renewable electricity is scarcer than the industry would like, raising concerns about its ability to meet EU climate goals.

The eurozone economy will grow faster than previously thought both this year and next, the European Commission said on Wednesday (7 July), despite emerging concerns the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus could lead to new restrictions.

Looking at EU member states’ National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) for 2030, the European Union is far from harvesting its full solar potential, writes Aurélie Beauvais.

Luring them with football, Serbia’s leadership want to lock Balkan audiences into their favoured TV channels carrying anti-western narratives, which correspond with the country’s growing ties to the likes of China, Russia and Hungary, writes Marko Milosavljevič.

Oriol Junqueras, former Catalan vice-president and pro-independence leader who had been jailed for his role in Catalonia's failed secession attempt, visited Strasbourg and Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday (6-7 July), after being released from prison with a pardon from the Spanish government.

The coronavirus epidemiological curve is rising fast among young people in Spain and the country's regions are accelerating the implementation of new measures to contain the infections among adolescents and the 20-30 group, El Pais writes. Catalonia announced that it would be closing nightlife venues once more. Other regions are pushing for mass testing among young people. Castilla y León has opted to slow down its deescalation of anti-coronavirus measures.

Ethiopia's EU embassy has complained about EU Commissioner Janez Lenarčič's recent statement to MEPs, in which he said Ethiopia was laying "siege" to its rebellious Tigray region and using "starvation as a weapon". Lenarčič's "regrettable" comments "ignore the facts on the ground," the embassy told EUobserver in a letter Wednesday. Similar recent comments by EU envoy and Finnish minister Pekka Haavisto would also "not help alleviate the crisis", it said.

Italy has promised to give battle after Croatia's request to get EU protection for its sweet dessert wine, prošek, produced in the southern area of Dalmatia whose name resembles the iconic Italian bubbly wine prosecco.

Belarus has expelled the head of mission at the Lithuanian embassy in Minsk and the consul general in the town of Grodno, prompting Lithuania to take similar action, and leaving just one consular official from each country in place. "Regretfully [Belarus president Aleksander] Lukashenko chooses to close the door of diplomatic relations with Lithuania," Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said. The EU ambassador in Minsk was also recently expelled.

The EU is planning to create a new anti-money laundering watchdog in the wake of several bank scandals before the pandemic.

A record-breaking heat wave that hit the western United States and Canada at the end of June would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, according to an analysis by a group of leading climate scientists.

Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven on Wednesday returned to office - one week after he resigned - on the back of a parliament vote-of-confidence, in which 176 out of 349 MPs supported his leadership. The centre-left Löfven has held power since 2014 in a coalition with the Greens. He resigned after a clash with his political allies over housing policy and faces general elections next year.

The European Commission said on Wednesday that the EU economy is set to expand by 4.8 percent this year - around half a percentage point higher than provisions under the spring forecast. Growth is predicted to reach 4.5 percent in 2022. However, inflation is now forecast at 2.2 percent this year and 1.6 percent in 2022. From 2022, pressures on consumer prices should moderate gradually, the commission said.

Some 2,087 people died between January and June this year trying to reach Spain from Africa by sea, compared to 2,170 for all of last year, Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras has said, in what makes 2021 the deadliest year in the NGO's 14-year records. The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands was the most lethal, with 1,922 fatalities in 57 shipwrecks. The Alborán sea route also claimed 93 lives.

"This is a crime against journalism and an attack on our values of democracy and rule of law," EU Council president Charles Michel said Wednesday on the shooting, Tuesday in Amsterdam, of Dutch investigative reporter Peter R de Vries. EU Parliament president David Sassoli and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen echoed Michel. "Journalists must be able to do their important work freely," the Dutch royal family also said.