European Union

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Thursday (8 October) said they were recalling their ambassadors from Minsk for “consultations”, following similar action by fellow EU countries Poland and the Baltic states over a disputed presidential election in Belarus.

Finland is becoming a destination for health care professionals. Reported first by the Talouselämä magazine, a private nursing home company, Attendo, is planning to hire one thousand nurses from the Philippines to staff around 400 homes. Even if unemployment is...

The Viennese administration decided to leave the national crisis committee, which city councillor for health Peter Hacker said this was officially due to scheduling issues. In tackling the COVID-crisis, cooperation between the federal government and the city of Vienna has...

A new lockdown could be coming up if COVID-19 infection numbers don’t start to decrease within ten to twelve days, top virologist Marc Van Ranst warned on Thursday (8 October). “If the figures for the number of infections and hospital...

With 102 votes “in favour” and 65 “against”, French MPs voted in favour of extending the legal time limit for resorting to abortion. On Thursday (8 October), the bill on the reinforcement of the right to abortion, which plans to...

The European People’s Party (EPP), the largest force in the European Parliament, suffered a heavy defeat on Thursday (8 October) over a resolution condemning the democratic backsliding and corruption under the rule of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, and supporting...

The events in Nagorno-Karabakh and Belarus demonstrate that it's time for the EU to review the effectiveness of its Eastern Partnership, writes Urmas Paet.

Lithuania has halted payments of millions of euros for Belarus under the EU cross-border programme after the disputed presidential election, a senior official said Thursday (8 October). Deputy interior minister Tautvydas Tamulevicius said the Baltic EU state “stopped all payments...

If there was any doubt about the importance of a strong relationship between Africa and the European Union they have been dispelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, says Samuel Outlule, Botswana’s ambassador to the EU and Belgium.

Dear Mr. Weber, an ordinary Bulgarian citizen is writing to you, professing to believe in classic European values, as also upheld by the European People's Party - EPP. My name is Momchil Daskalov. My son translated this text.

EU stakeholders are exploring ways to build up confidence in a future COVID-19 vaccine, after polls across the world have suggested that the public opinion still is not convinced.

The debate over a rapid but safe and effective vaccine to fight the COVID-19 pandemic has heated up in Europe and worldwide.

Ursula Von der Leyen is all on her own, Brussels becomes a booze-free zone and the reshuffled Commission is what we’d already known. 

Two German MPs are calling on the European Commission to initiate infringement proceedings against their home country for exporting depleted uranium to Russia, possibly in violation of EU law. EURACTIV Germany reports.

After a lengthy captivity by Islamist insurgents, freed Malian politician Soumaila Cisse, French aid worker Sophie Petronin and two Italians arrived in Bamako on Thursday aboard a Malian military transport plane, Reuters reports. French president Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that with this the last French hostage in the world was freed.

Belgium's ambassador to the EU noted, during Brexit talks in Brussels Wednesday, that British king Charles II had granted 50 Flemish fishermen from Bruges "eternal rights" to use British fishing waters 350 years ago in 1666, The Guardian reports. The ambassador said it to make the point Belgian-British relations had long roots. Charles II had sheltered in Belgium after a civil war in the UK.

MEPs are requesting additional, new funding of €39bn for 15 EU programs. The German presidency argues that budget ceilings, agreed by EU leaders at a marathon summit in July, will be impossible to change without a new leaders' meeting.

The German EU presidency is striving to sort a political agreement on the migration and asylum pact before the end of the year. In reality, it means two months when factoring Christmas holidays.

A group of 86 MEPs wrote on Thursday to the European Commission urging a ban on all cages for farmed animals, highlighting that over 300 million farmed animals in Europe spend all, or a significant part, of their lives in such captivity. They said many EU countries have introduced national laws going beyond EU standards, while calling on the commission to create a level playing-field for farmers.

Two Belgian regional governments, the Brussels regional government and the government of the region of Wallonia have gone into quarantine after a minister in each tested positive for Covid-19. The minister-president of the Brussels region, Rudi Vervoort, announced on Thursday that he had also tested positive. On Wednesday the Brussels government decided to close all bars for at least one month as corona numbers are rising in the Belgian capital.