Euractiv.com

People with intellectual disabilities are legally impeded when it comes to voting in seven EU countries, bringing about a de facto lack of access to voting in the European elections in June, the director of Inclusion Europe campaign group told Euractiv in an interview.

Spain’s main opposition force, Partido Popular, has demanded explanations from the government over its recognition of Kosovo passports, claiming it could set a precedent for recognition of Catalan passports in the future.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to meet Israeli leaders on Tuesday (9 January) in his quest to prevent the Gaza conflict from growing into a regional conflagration, as the Israeli military said its fight against Hamas would continue all year.

Far-right Danish People’s Party leader Morten Messerschmidt insists that Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen should not proclaim the new king on Sunday, as is traditional, and that outgoing Queen Margrethe should make the announcement instead.

Top security actors, including Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin and the country’s Commander-in-Chief, Micael Bydén, agree that Sweden could soon be facing a war and called for increased resilience, including among the civilian population.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned on Monday evening following a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron that lasted just over an hour, the Elysée Palace announced in a press release on Monday.

As voter dissatisfaction is on the rise in Europe's largest economy, Germany's political landscape is increasingly fractured, with a new political player attempting to win over voters who turn their back on traditional parties.

An urgent submission has been made to the United Nations Committee Against Torture regarding the alleged kidnap and torture of Serbian opposition politician Nikola Sadulovic after he paid respects at the grave of a Kosovo Albanian war hero in early January, while the EU remains silent on the matter.

Fears that Slovakia’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal could end up as a stranded investment are reinforced by experts who warn that too much LNG infrastructure is being built as fossil fuels are phased out and that there is likely to be a surplus on the market after 2030.

Israel on Monday (8 January) killed a top Hezbollah commander in a strike on south Lebanon, the Iran-backed group and a security official said, as regional tensions soar amid the Gaza war.

French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher will be in Prague on Monday and Tuesday to make progress on Franco-Czech nuclear cooperation, particularly on the construction of new reactors.

For the global aviation sector, it has been a tumultuous start to 2024. The first week of the new year has already seen two major aviation incidents, focusing attention on the resilience and safety of aircraft in operation.

A proposed mandatory deposit return scheme for plastic bottles should be scrapped altogether, French local representatives say, rejecting suggestions by EU member states to exempt countries that already achieve a high collection rate for plastic packaging.

The New Year is a time for looking back and attempting to look forward. Unfortunately, we live in times when the power of the strongest – and the craziest – is replacing the international law embodied by the UN, as imperfect as it was.

Belgium's EU Council presidency will hold a scientific symposium in April on the controversial nutritional labelling of food to “share experiences” on the system, reopening the debate between member states that use it and those opposing its adoption at the EU level.

Germany will provide €900 million to Swedish battery maker Northvolt, as the first country to make use of the European Commission’s new subsidy “matching” scheme that allows EU countries to counter foreign subsidies with their own offers.

While only around a third of the world’s rivers “remain free flowing,” according to campaign group International Rivers, the situation is worse in Europe, where the number of ‘wild’ or free-flowing rivers can likely be counted on both hands.

Ireland’s main nursing organisation has slammed the Irish government after hospitals finished the year with overcrowding, long delays, and inadequate bed space, citing chronic underfunding and unsafe staffing levels.

The European Union should form its own combined army that could play a role in peacekeeping and preventing conflict, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, forced into a bomb shelter by an air alert in Kyiv on Sunday (7 January), pledged millions of dollars to NATO to help Ukraine avert Russian drone strikes and announced donations of generators and transformers.