European Union

EU Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová has called on technology companies to help ensure that the campaign for the European elections is fair. In view of the rise in manipulated information it was their duty to adopt counter-measures, she said at the start of November in Lisbon. Several governments including France's are looking for ways to tackle fake news. Are social media changing the political culture?

For the second weekend in a row people all over France donned yellow vests and took to the streets to protest hikes in fuel taxes. In Paris there were violent clashes between police and protesters. Commentators ask who or what is the driving force behind the protests.

France's President Emmanuel Macron ordered on Friday that 26 works of art that were stolen by French colonial troops in 1892 in what is today the Republic of Benin should be given back. An expert report had recommended this as the first measure of a comprehensive restitution initiative. Media in Europe and Africa discuss how to deal with looted art.

A new kind of special-purpose bus will start touring the streets of Belgrade before the end of the year, providing help for the most vulnerable group of its residents - the homeless. EURACTIV Serbia reports.

The Dutch data protection authority has given US tech company Uber a €600,000 fine for keeping a data breach secret. In 2016, data from 57 million Uber users worldwide was hacked, but Uber did not report the event until November 2017. Uber's European headquarters is in Amsterdam. Since May 2018, any such failure to report a data breach will be subject to a much larger EU fine.

The EU’s proposed Regulation to monitor terrorist content online has many implications, not least for fundamental human rights and freedoms including privacy. But it also asks Europe’s cloud infrastructure providers to do the impossible, writes Alban Schmutz.

The EU ban on animal testing for cosmetic products came into force in 2013, although  testing is still allowed in Europe for healthcare products and pharmaceuticals, as well as some chemicals and food.

The plight of Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi underscores the need for the EU to beef up its policy tools on protecting religious freedom, writes Adina Portaru.

British prime minister Theresa May told MPs in London Tuesday she was wrong, last week, to have referred to EU nationals in the UK as being guilty of "queue jumping" on immigration. "I shouldn't have used that language in that speech," she said. The jibe had caused offence to the 3m EU citizens who had settled in the UK, tens of thousands of whom worked in the National Health Service.