European Union

Sanna Marin is to become Finland's new prime minister - the youngest in the country's history at 34 years of age. Marin, who is currently minister of transport and communications, was picked as the candidate for the post by her Social Democrats party and is now expected to be voted into office by parliament. What changes will the new prime minister bring?

MEPs will debate the “European Green Deal” to make the EU the first climate-neutral continent, on Wednesday 14:00, in an extraordinary plenary sitting in Brussels.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

MEPs will debate the “European Green Deal” to make the EU the first climate-neutral continent, on Wednesday 14:00, in an extraordinary plenary sitting in Brussels.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

MEPs discuss new measures to tackle the climate emergency at an extraordinary plenary session, as well as honour human rights activists and prepare for a conference on the future of Europe.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

MEPs discuss new measures to tackle the climate emergency at an extraordinary plenary session, as well as honour human rights activists and prepare for a conference on the future of Europe.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Hundreds of explosions and bursts of small arms fire were reported on the contact line in east Ukraine, as France prepares to host the first peace summit on the war in three years.

Urgent UN talks on tackling the climate emergency are still not addressing the true scale of the crisis, one of the world’s leading climate scientists has warned, as high-ranking ministers from governments around the world began to arrive in Madrid for the final days of negotiations. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Over 250 civil society organisations and trade unions say that the Energy Charter Treaty is incompatible with the Paris Climate Agreement and the new Green Deal - becoming an obstacle to the clean-energy transition.

Lega leader Matteo Salvini's recent scolding of the iconic hazelnut spread 'Nutella' has exposed flaws in the 'Italian first' formula that has led the Italian to past electoral successes.

Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn is trying to convince his EU counterparts to recognise Palestine, Axios reports. In a letter to his colleagues and to EU high representative Josep Borrell he writes: "it is time to start a debate within the European Union on the opportunity of a recognition of the state of Palestine by all its member states," adding "in no way would it be directed against Israel."

The European Central Bank's new president Christine Lagarde has announced that the Frankfurt-based institute will soon undertake a strategic review, its first since 2003.

For the time being, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) will continue being part of Germany's grand coalition with conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU).

Brussels' minister for the promotion of multilingualism, Sven Gatz, presents a plan at the Brussels regional parliament on Monday to ensure everyone graduating from school at 18 in Brussels speaks French, Dutch and English. "The Brussels government has made of multilingualism a priority to make better function the cosmopolitan city, to stimulate social cohesion between its citizens and prepare them better for the labour market, Gatz said.

French president Emmanuel Macron and prime minister Edouard Philippe decided to go ahead with their pension reforms plans despite four-day long protests and strikes that brought national transport to a standstill. The government wants to unite 42 different pension plans into one plan and give financial incentives to work longer without changing the retirement age of 62. The three railway unions called for another general strike and protests on Tuesday.

Sanna Marin, Finland's current transport minister, has become the country's next prime minister. Selected by the Social Democrats, she will be the youngest prime minister in Finland's history, and the third female prime minister. At 34 years she is possibly the youngest prime minister in the world. The previous Finnish prime minister lost the confidence from his coalition partners following his handling of a postal strike.