European Union

Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has started campaigning to run for Italian president in early 2022, MPs in his Forza Italia party told The Guardian on Thursday. "I've met him twice in the last two weeks and he was totally fired up," one MP said. The 85-year old Berlusconi has been convicted of tax fraud and is still on trial for alleging bringing witnesses in a sex-party scandal years ago.

Britain is sending a further 140 military engineers to help Nato ally Poland secure its border with Belarus after Minsk began flying in asylum seekers and forcing them to storm barbed-wire fences. "Our commitment to European security is unwavering and we'll always offer support to our allies. This non-combat support will assist Polish efforts to protect their border and pass on vital engineering expertise," UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said.

EU governments agreed that Croatia was ready to join the passport-free 'Schengen' travel zone, in a move set to extend membership from 26 to 27 European states. "Croatia is ready," home-affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson said after meeting with EU interior ministers Thursday. Croatia joined the EU in 2013 and the EU Commission recommended its Schengen accession in 2019, but it was not yet clear when the formalities would be completed.

While the situation on the Belarusian border is stabilising, the focus should shift to other hot spots such as Cyprus, Slovenian's interior minister Aleš Hojs warned as EU home affairs ministers met in Brussels on Thursday (10 December).

Shareholders of Shell are expected to approve on Friday a plan to move the company's tax residency to London, from the Hague. The oil and gas giant announced the move in November, arguing that it was necessary to simplify the company's structure. Nevertheless, critics say Shell's decision was motivated by a Dutch court ruling that ordered the company to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030

The Serbian government and Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom have signed agreements to build a Centre for Nuclear Technologies and found a joint company to realise the project in Serbia, a statement released on Thursday said. The agreement was signed...

All politicians should undergo a comprehensive vetting process, said the leader of Albania’s main opposition party, Lulzim Basha on the International Day against Corruption. Political vetting to determine the source of wealth, links to organised crime, and the prohibition of...

More names can be expected to be added to the US list sanctioning individuals suspected of corruption, US Ambassador to BiH Eric Nelson said, N1 reported. “We published sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act which punishes corruption and the worst...

US President Joe Biden gathered over 100 world leaders at a summit and made a plea to bolster democracies around the world, calling safeguarding rights and freedoms in the face of rising authoritarianism the "defining challenge" of the current era.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated at the Summit for Democracy on Thursday that Serbia was ready to be a reliable partner of the US in efforts to strengthen democracy. During the online Summit for Democracy, organised by US President Joe...

The poorest households in Slovenia will soon receive energy vouchers to help them cope with soaring pric. This plan comes after the government has been criticised for not taking action other than bringing the price of heating oil under state...

The shutdown of the last nuclear power plant in Schleswig-Holstein will unclog the electricity grid and unleash wind power in the northern German state, according to its environment minister Jan Philipp Albrecht, reports Clean Energy Wire.

Most Bulgarian citizens oppose concessions to Skopje and lifting the veto before bilateral issues are resolved. According to a Gallup International Balkan poll conducted from 25 November to 3 December, 71% of Bulgarians consider the settlement of Skopje’s relations with...

The EU has launched a €1.5bn programme aimed at promoting human rights and democracy during 2021–2027, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday. The priorities include promoting equality, inclusion and respect for diversity, working towards the universal abolition of the death penalty, as well as supporting pluralist, participatory and representative democracies. EU funds will also support the UN high commissioner for human rights.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) on Thursday welcomed an agreement reached on extending and updating roaming rules – an initiative widely-regarded as an EU success. But BEUC regrets that the final agreement does not include cheaper calls or messaging to another EU country. "Consumers still face disproportionate surcharges" for the so called intra-EU calls, they say. The current rules were due to expire at the end of June 2022.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday warned rich countries against hoarding vaccines, following the emergence of the new Omicron variant. Experts argue that this is inefficient from the epidemiological and transmission perspective, Reuters reported. "There is risk that the global supply is again going to revert to high-income countries hoarding vaccine," WHO's vaccine director Kate O'Brien said. Just 7.5 percent of people living in Africa have been fully vaccinated.

The initiative is particularly aimed at protecting women and the LGBTIQ community as EU member states are already required to criminalise crimes committed with a racist or xenophobic motivation.

Resistance is emerging among some EU states to proposals to help distribute people saved in search-and-rescue operations as part of its pact on migration and asylum.

"Russia is not planning any attack on anybody," Russia's veteran EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, has pledged.

The European Commission has unveiled a proposal aimed at improving employment conditions for gig workers, such as Uber drivers or Deliveroo riders. But industry players claim new rules would lead to the loss of thousands of jobs in the EU.