European Union

Facebook CEO gets away with ignoring difficult questions, as MEPs' lengthy speeches eat up time for follow-up queries.

Households in the UK have lost around €1,025 in real income each as a result of Brexit, said Bank of England governor Mark Carney. "Real household incomes are about £900 [€1,025] per household lower than we forecast in May of 2016, which is a lot of money," he told UK Treasury Committee on Tuesday. He said Brexit has knocked off some €45bn from the British economy.

The Wall Street Journal reported the US may reduce European steel and aluminium imports by 10 percent. The move is part of a wider threat from the US in March to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium. The EU is demanding exemptions and waivers to the US tariffs and warned it would reciprocate the trade threats with its own measures against US businesses.

Australia will be seeking expanded access to the EU agricultural market as part of its free trade talks with the European Union. Australia's PM Malcolm Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday that Australia's farmers have little access to Europe given the broader resistance from countries like France. His trade minister Steve Ciobo said the trade deal would open up opportunities for Australian farmers.

Giuseppe Conte, the law professor slated by Italy's two largest populist parties to become the next prime minister, is facing scrutiny over allegations he embellished his CV. His resume says that he had 'perfected his legal studies' at New York University but a spokesperson told the BBC there was no record of him ever having studied there.

Hate speech laws are spreading in Europe as EU governments and international organisations try to find measures to defuse conflicts.

An energy efficiency target of around 35%, combined with a parallel increase in ambition for renewable energies, would allow the EU to halve its emissions by 2030, write Fiona Hall and Brook Riley.

Belarus on Tuesday (22 May) appointed its first ambassador to Sweden for almost six years, resolving a bitter diplomatic spat over a pro-democracy stunt involving teddy bears.

Accusations of hypocrisy have rained down on the couple that heads Spain's far-left Podemos party for buying a 600,000-euro luxury home with a swimming pool after previously condemning such extravagance.

The EU said Tuesday (22 May) it will consider imposing new sanctions on Venezuela after Nicolas Maduro's re-election was marred by "irregularities" and failed to meet international standards.

Euro-hopeful Bulgaria does not yet meet the criteria to adopt the single currency, the European Commission will say today (23 May) in an assessment of European Union countries that must one day switch to the euro.

Tensions soared between a handful of leading MEPs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the 34-year-old billionaire avoided answering detailed questions on the company’s data policies during a meeting in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening (22 May).

Stung by criticism it has been selling European Union passports for cash, Cyprus has tightened vetting procedures in a scheme that grants Cypriot citizenship to investors, the finance minister said yesterday (22 May).

Market pressure, the strong hand of EU institutions and the limits of power will determine how far the new Italian government will go in shaking up the eurozone’s status quo.

Batteries and storage are set to become even more important as electro-mobility and renewable energy go from strength to strength. That is why EU efforts are meant to help the burgeoning industry compete against the likes of China and electric carmaker Tesla.

French President Emmanuel Macron has to make his political identity clear and clarify whether he is a “real progressive” who wants to contribute to a social Europe, S&D President Udo Bullmann told EURACTIV in an interview.

Europe’s struggle with migrants has led to an increase in funding for border control to authoritarian regimes such as Chad, Niger, Belarus, Libya and Sudan. EURACTIV.fr reports.

Annual summits between China and central and eastern European countries are beneficial to the European Union as a whole, the Chinese government told Bulgaria's foreign minister, brushing off concerns that Beijing is seeking to divide the continent.

Public-private partnerships are vital to achieving the leap forward, deploying new clean technologies at scale and fast, writes Maroš Šefčovič.

The success of the new general data protection regulation (GDPR) will depend on whether data protection authorities enforce the new rules - which, in turn, will be at least partly determined by how many people they employ.