European Union

Czechia is an EU leader when it comes to the density of railway network. With 9,277 kilometres of rail in the country, it would be difficult to find a more connected state within the EU. Quality-wise, though, there are severe...

“You will hang,” far-right lawmaker Grzegorz Braun (Confederacy) told health minister Adam Niedzielski at a debate over the situation in the health sector on Thursday in the Sejm. Braun was thrown out of the chamber and the issue was referred...

The energy industry is at a moment of reckoning. As the global energy demand continues to double and triple, climate change will not wait for us to solve the green energy conundrum on our own schedule. John Redfern is the...

Another twenty cities from around the world have joined the Pact of Free Cities initiative launched in 2019 by Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw mayors. Faced with conservative illiberal governments, these cities launched the initiative to promote democracy and transparency...

The seemingly unstoppable surge of wholesale energy prices in Spain continued on Thursday with a new record of €188.18 per megawatt-hour, a rise of 22% this week, despite government efforts to bring down costs amid public outcry, EURACTIV’s partner EFE...

A lawmaker from the ruling conservative New Democracy party (EPP) has caused turmoil in Greek politics after he re-tweeted an article that made public a list with names of “foreign” underage children in a kindergarten. The article’s aim was to...

According to the government’s new Defence Report, Finland’s defence environment is “tense” and “difficult to predict”. Cyber and information environments and space are lifted as areas next to traditional land, sea and air. The superpower activity in the Arctic is...

Foreign minister Simon Coveney has survived a no-confidence vote brought against him in the Irish parliament on Wednesday. The motion was initiated by opposition party Sinn Féin over an ongoing scandal surrounding the appointment of Katherine Zappone to the post...

Young adults (18-29) are still the most affected by anxiety (27%) and depressive symptoms (24.5%), while the elderly (65 years and over) are the least affected (7% and 6% respectively), a new survey by Sciensano, the national public health institute...

“Yesterday, 3,000 staff of health or medico-social establishments who had not yet been vaccinated out of a total of 2.7 million employees were suspended,” Health Minister Oliver Véran told RTL radio on Thursday (16 September). Since Wednesday (15 September), staff...

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel winds up her farewell tour across Europe, she visited Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday. The two pledged to keep working together closely, even as Merkel is set to become a sitting duck on 26...

A referendum aiming to decriminalise growing and consuming cannabis in Italy has been signed by more than 420,000 people in just four days. At the current pace, it is set to reach the 500,000 signatures it needs to be considered valid much...

Ryanair is planning aggressive expansion in Ukraine if the country joins the European Union's Open Skies deregulated aviation market in the coming months, Group Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Thursday (16 September).

The EU pressed the US Administration to agree on the reform of the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement system amid deep divisions running through the institution.

Angela Merkel has governed Germany for 16 years and proven a reliable ally both in Europe and for the world. Will her party colleague hoping to succeed her follow in her footsteps or diverge from her path in order to forge his own legacy?

The European Parliament adopted by an overwhelming majority a resolution on social protection for platform workers, anticipating key parts of an upcoming EU legislative proposal expected to come out before the end of the year.

France has called a US deal to develop nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia and the UK, but not any EU countries, unveiled Thursday, a "stab in the back," in the words of French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The move is to see France lose out on a multibillion-euro submarine-technology deal with Australia. "This is not over. We're going to need clarifications. We have contracts," Le Drian added.

Russians will head to the polls on Friday. Widespread anger over the stagnation economy has been rising in recent years, and the ruling party, United Russia, polls at historic lows. But it is expected to find a way to maintain its hold over the State Duma. Due to the size of the country, the polling takes three days. Voters will be able to cast ballots through to Sunday.

Russians head to the polls on Friday for parliamentary elections in a test of authority for president Vladimir Putin, whose United Russia party is polling at a near-historic low of just 30 percent. There are few legitimate international observers, after the ODIHR, a Warsaw-based European monitoring body, declined to go because authorities refused to give them proper access. But some pro-Russian MEPs, such as France's Thierry Mariani, are going anyway.

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte will invite British counterpart Boris Johnson to join a security-and-defence cooperation pact with the EU when he visits London on Friday, in a project backed by France and Germany, British newspaper The Times reports. "Afghanistan is a catalyst for further discussion on European defence co-operation, preferably including the UK," a British diplomat said. "We can be a bridge [to the EU]," a Dutch diplomat said.