European Union

The rift between the Socialists and the far left, sharpened by months of clashes in parliament now appears entrenched

The Cyprus-led Council presidency is asking capitals' views on proposed omnibus changes to the GDPR's definition of personal data and on pseudonymisation

Newsletter - 19-22 January 2026 - Strasbourg plenary session

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

In today's edition: Ryanair loonies, chemical friends, Polish blackout

Berlin allowed to subsidise more than a dozen new gas power stations, EU source confirms

The Greenland meeting in Washington on Wednesday ended without an agreement being reached: the US government is sticking to its takeover plans and Denmark's Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said at the end of the meeting: 'We therefore still have a fundamental disagreement, but we also agree to disagree.' In addition to Denmark, several other EU countries plan to show a military presence on the island. Commentators across Europe try to make sense of the new situation.

Hungary has granted asylum to Poland's former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro. The Polish public prosecutor's office has brought numerous charges against him, including embezzlement of state funds and leading a criminal organisation. Ziobro was justice minister in the PiS government from 2015 to 2023 and is considered the architect of a controversial judicial reform. What's behind this unusual situation between EU states?

In an interview for the British podcast The Rest is Politics, Maia Sandu, President of the Republic of Moldova, said that she would vote in favour of unification with Romania if a referendum were held on the issue. She noted that for a small country like Moldova, it was becoming "increasingly difficult to survive as a democracy, as a sovereign country." Is unification a realistic option?

Two former employees of singer Julio Iglesias have filed a complaint against him in Spain for human trafficking and sexual assault. The 82-year-old singer allegedly sexually harassed and humiliated employees at his villas in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas in 2021. The complaint follows a report published by the news site eldiario.es and the television station Univision Noticias after a three-year joint investigation into the incidents.