European Union

Continuing recent efforts to improve its armed forces, Serbia took over four more MiG-29 aircraft from Belarus. The country wants to join the European Union but not NATO, and is seeking good ties with both Moscow and Washington. EURACTIV.rs reports.

Brexit is bad news for British fans of Sicilian wine and good pasta. Sicilia Agricoltura reports. The past three years of current affairs have been marked by the many questions concerning Brexit: from the conditions of the withdrawal treaty to...

The UK agreed its first major post-Brexit trade pact on Wednesday (27 February) when the World Trade Organisation confirmed that the UK will join the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) as an independent member if it leaves the EU without a Brexit agreement.

Tourism is one of Europe's biggest assets and should therefore be more prioritised, MEPs, ministers and European Commission officials said at a recent EURACTIV event. They agreed the biggest opportunities are in sustainability, supporting local economies and improving communities around Europe.

Shay McArdle is 21 years old. He lives in Dundalk, Ireland, and has no idea what a hard border looks like or what it was like to live through the 'Troubles'. But he is committed to preserving the state of peace that he was born into.

Amazon EU
Environment and consumers
Advocate General Pitruzzella proposes that the Court rule that an e-commerce platform such as Amazon cannot be obliged to make a telephone number available to consumers

Craeynest and Others
Environment and consumers
Advocate General Kokott proposes that the Court of Justice should rule that national courts must, on application by affected individuals, examine whether air sampling points were sited in accordance with the criteria set out in EU law

Baltic Media Alliance
SERV
Advocate General Saugmandsgaard Øe: the Audiovisual Media Services Directive does not preclude the adoption by a Member State of a measure imposing an obligation to broadcast or retransmit a foreign television channel only in packages available for an additional fee, in order to restrict the dissemination by that channel to the public of that State of information inciting hatred

Línea Directa Aseguradora
Approximation of laws
Advocate General Bot proposes that the Court should declare that spontaneous burning of a vehicle parked in a private garage for more than 24 hours falls within the concept of ‘use of vehicles’

The Dutch co-chair of the anti-EU Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, Marcel de Graaff, says the EU should not get involved in determining what is truth and what is disinformation.

The EU should strive to be a world leader in digital services, Finland and 16 other member states have said, following French and German proposals on industrial "champions".

The European Commission on Wednesday said Italy's excessive economic imbalances poses a risk to the countries inside the eurozone. "Italy is experiencing excessive imbalances. High government debt and protracted weak productivity dynamics imply risks with cross-border relevance, in a context of still high level of non-performing loans and high unemployment," said the EU executive.

EU lawmakers on Wednesday in a committee working on tax fraud demanded the European Commission come up with a proposal for a European financial police force with investigative powers. The committee proposed the idea as part of a report that summarised its year-long probe into financial crimes and tax havens following scandals like Luxleaks and Panama Papers.

The Guardian newspaper on Thursday reported the EU is increasingly exasperated by Facebook's failures to live up to its commitments to fight disinformation ahead of the EU elections. It says Facebook had only managed to set up fact-checkers in eight of the 28 EU member states. The European Commission is set to present a progress report, also on Thursday, on social media efforts to tackle the abuse.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has spoken out against the Dutch state's purchase of a 12.7 percent stake in Air France-KLM. Le Maire said the airline should be "managed without national public interference". The row follows internal wrangling over shared management. The Dutch purchase, worth some €680m, had caught the French by surprise.

Huge amounts of synthetic fuels generated from renewable energies will be required to fully decarbonise the German economy, according to industry association BDI, which eyes yearly imports of 340 terawatt hours (TW/h) by 2050 – the equivalent of Germany’s entire power fleet.

A Russian national working for a high-tech company and suspected of spying was arrested earlier this week in Sweden. On Wednesday, Sweden's head of counter-intelligence Daniel Stenling said the "individual is suspected of having been recruited as an agent by a Russian intelligence officer who was working under diplomatic cover in Sweden."

The Capitals brings you the latest news from across Europe, through on-the-ground reporting by EURACTIV’s media network. /// PARIS Super Barnier to the rescue: Michel Barnier did not hesitate to be hard on his centre-right political family (EPP) and easy on Macron...

In May, hundreds of millions of Europeans will head to the polls to elect the next members of the European Parliament. Yet around 500,000 persons with disabilities will not be able to exercise this most basic of democratic rights.

British MPs agreed Wednesday to give Prime Minister Theresa May more time to work on her EU withdrawal deal after she promised they could delay Brexit if necessary, but European leaders warned that any postponement would come with conditions.