European Union

Lithuania will have to increase its maximum working age to 72 if it wants to maintain its current age dependency ratio – the ratio between the number of working-age people and the population of seniors they need to support –...

Ukraine urged Western allies to show they were prepared to punish Moscow with new sanctions, including kicking Russia out of the global SWIFT payments system, to deter the Kremlin from resorting to more military force against Ukraine.

A referendum on the reunification of Ireland would not happen for a “very long time to come,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Northern Ireland’s BBC Spotlight programme. After describing himself as a “proud unionist,” Johnson said he would rather...

European countries prepared on Wednesday (21 April) to start using Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine and speed up their vaccination campaigns after Europe's drug regulator backed the shot and deliveries started trickling in after a week-long pause.

While EU Treaties clearly stipulate that the European Central Bank “shall support the general objectives of the European Union", politicians cannot simply stand by, hoping that it will use its discretionary power to act on them, writes Grégory Claeys.

India has set a world record of new cases, with 314,835 being recorded on Wednesday, and 1m cases in just four days, The Guardian writes. It surpassed the previous record of just under 300,000 set by the US in January. It comes as fears mount over oxygen supplies and hospital beds in some areas of India, as the surge of cases puts enormous pressure on the health system.

Spain's far-right VOX party has ignited the campaign for Madrid's upcoming regional election with a series of controversial posters taking aim at social benefits received by unaccompanied minors who arrive as migrants. EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.

US president Joe Biden is expected to formally recognise the killing of Armenians by Turkey in 1915 as "genocide", US officials have told the AP news agency, in a potential rift with Nato ally and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who denies it. Biden might do it in a speech on Armenia's Day of Remembrance on 24 April, AP said, after over 100 congressmen urged him to "tell the truth".

French-Austrian vaccine developer Valneva on Wednesday (21 April) announced that it had launched a Phase 3 trial of its candidate vaccine against Covid-19 -- the last testing stage before seeking regulatory approval.

Russia should pay "costs" for its 2014 bomb attack in the Czech Republic, the US has said, as Nato and the EU face a "crucial test" of diplomacy.

A group of UN rights experts expressed alarm Wednesday (21 April) at the deteriorating health of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and called for his urgent medical evacuation from Russia.

The West would face an "asymmetrical, rapid, and harsh" strike if it crossed a "red line", Russian president Vladimir Putin said in a speech Wednesday, which focused on coronavirus and the economy. "We'll decide for ourselves ... where the red line is," he said. He accused Western powers of plotting a coup in Belarus. His Cold-War rhetoric came amid a military build-up around Ukraine and redoubled opposition protests in Russia.

Japan is poised to declare a state of emergency in the capital, Tokyo, plus two other regions, amid a fourth coronavirus wave, just three months before the start of the Olympic Games, The Guardian reports. Domestic media said the government was considering tougher measures for Tokyo, Osaka prefecture and neighbouring Hyogo prefecture, as experts warned that mutant strains of the virus were driving new outbreaks and straining health services.

UN human rights experts called on Russia to allow jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be medically evacuated and treated abroad, saying they believed his life was at risk, Reuters reports. The UN experts said: "We believe Navalny's life is in serious danger," adding "We are deeply troubled that Navalny is being kept in conditions that could amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Syria's voting rights in an international anti-chemical weapons body were suspended Wednesday, after 87 member states voted in favour of the sanctions, 15 against, and 34 abstained at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. Proof Syria has been gassing its own people was "irrefutable", Luis Vassy, France's OPCW ambassador, who introduced the motion, said. The suspension was the first-ever in the OPCW's 24-year history.

Hungary's government plans to tweak laws that underpinned its attacks on foreign-funded universities and civil society organisations, which the EU's top court struck down for breaking EU rules, Bloomberg reported. One draft amendment would scrap provisions that the European Court of Justice said placed "discriminatory and unjustified restrictions" on foreign donations to NGOs. Another would amend rules that effectively forced the George Soros-funded Central European University to move to Vienna.

Germany's Constitutional Court gave the green light to approve legislation ratifying the European Union's recovery fund, as it dismissed legal challenges against the debt-financed investment plan, Deutsche Welle writes. The decision is key to launching the bloc's €750bn recovery spending to mitigate the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the ruling does not mark final approval in the case, as the court still has to make a definitive judgment.

Angela Merkel also said that the EU should better take into consideration the different experiences of eastern European countries - which are becoming increasingly confident and do not necessarily want an 'ever-closer union'.

The European Commission unveiled the first-ever legal framework to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in Europe - banning 'social scoring' systems and facial recognition for law enforcement in public spaces, with narrow exceptions.

The European Commission has laid out rules classifying industrial logging and the burning of trees and crops for energy as 'sustainable' investments. Decisions on whether to also list gas and nuclear energy as 'sustainable' investments will be made later.