European Union

New measures to combat the fast spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Madrid enter into force today (21 September), limiting social gatherings to no more than six people and putting neighbourhoods back into partial lockdown for at least 14 days.

The EU home affairs commissioner, who is to unveil a much-awaited asylum reform this week, urged Saturday (18 September) that a system of "mandatory" solidarity on migration be agreed between member states.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Finland's Green Party calling for a discussion regarding the legalisation of cannabis, Norway cutting funds for Polish communities that have adopted resolutions on so-called "LGBT-free zones", and so much more.

Serbian Minister of Construction, Transportation and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlović signed an agreement during a visit to the town of Bratunac in the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska on 18 September with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Communication and Trade Minister Vojin Mitrović...

A couple of days after Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov had a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Bulgarian authorities sent back Turkish national Selahattin Urun While the interior ministry’s migration directorate refused to talk to Urun’s defence...

The Czech Republic’s Communist party (GUE-NGL) and the Christian democrats (EPP) would not reach the country’s 5% electoral threshold and not make it into parliament in a general election, according to a new poll conducted by Kantar for Czech Television....

Polish municipalities which have adopted resolutions on “LGBT-free zones” will not receive money from Norwegian funds, Norway’s diplomacy ministry has informed. The allocation of funds has already been the subject of a dispute between Oslo and Warsaw. This is non-refundable...

Rarely does the death of a judge, let alone a foreign one, make headlines in Greece. But in the case of Ruth Bader Ginsburg – the US Supreme Court justice who died at the age of 87- both traditional media...

Meeting the EU’s proposed new climate targets for 2030 will require a “transformation” of the bloc’s energy system, with a renewed focus on renewables and further efforts to cut fossil fuels in buildings, transport and industry, the European Commission has said.

Facebook has claimed that it is unsure how it can continue to provide services in the European Union, following a recent order from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) for the firm to freeze data transfers to the United States....

Finland’s Green party wants to carry out a comprehensive research on the country’s legislation currently criminalising cannabis due to the changing attitudes and new facts on the matter, adding that it is high time to review the legislation, according to...

The EU wants all Turkish drilling vessels and warships to move away from Greece and Cyprus in order for dialogue to begin, an EU official has said ahead of today’s meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers. EU foreign policy chief...

In a letter dated 2 June, József Magyar, deputy secretary of state for development of European affairs at the ministry of foreign affairs and trade, asked Hungarian embassies in the European Union to provide information about the professional visits of...

The United States will sanction more than two dozen people and entities involved in Iran’s nuclear, missile and conventional arms programs, putting teeth behind UN sanctions on Tehran that Washington argues have resumed despite the opposition of allies and adversaries.

The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Vil Mirzayanov, a scientist involved in the secret Soviet program to create the Novichok nerve agent, has apologised to the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is recovering from poisoning in Berlin, The Moscow Times reports. "I offer my profound apologies to Navalny for the fact that I took part in this criminal business, developing this substance that he was poisoned with," Mirzayanov said in a TV interview.

Thousands of people attended a protest on Sunday in the western German city of Dusseldorf against government restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, Deutsche Welle reports. The organisers had expected as many as 50,000 people would attend, but only a few thousand joined the protest. There were banners with slogans such as "End to panic, coronavirus is a lie."

British banks Barclays, Coutts, and Lloyds are to stop serving UK customers resident in the EU at the end of the year because it will become illegal to do so in the absence of a new post-Brexit deal on financial services, The Sunday Times reports. Lloyds told 13,000 customers in Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Slovakia they will terminate accounts by the end of the year.

Some 12 out of 37 areas of Madrid to undergo new lockdowns on grounds of rising infection rates have held protests saying they were unfair because they targeted mostly areas with a lower per capita income and higher migrant populations, the BBC reports. "No to a class-based lockdown" banners said in the suburb of Vallecas. A regional health chief said he would shut down the whole city if need be.

EU foreign ministers will have nothing to show Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya when they meet her in Brussels on Monday, after Cyprus blocked sanctions.