European Union

Several citizens' initiatives have called on social media for nationwide protests and road blockades on Saturday. The protests have been sparked by the high petrol prices. Angry motorists are donning yellow high-visibility vests as a symbol of resistance. Is the opposition to Macron's policy justified or have the citizens failed to grasp that the reforms are necessary?

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Russia for repeatedly arresting Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, ruling that the arrests were politically motivated. Moscow must now pay Navalny roughly 63,000 euros in compensation. What significance does the ruling have for the Russian regime and its opponents?

A Russian court has ordered the opposition online newspaper The New Times to pay a fine of 22.25 million rubles (300,000 euros) for allegedly missing a deadline for handing in a financial report. A campaign for donations has gathered the money to pay the fine, which the small paper couldn't afford, within just a four days. Commentators from Russia and a neighbouring country are delighted.

Latvia will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of its independence on November 18, the last of the three Baltic states to do so after Estonia and Lithuania celebrated theirs. But the country is divided over how to balance revelry and remembrance.

The Italian government has presented its draft budget to the European Commission without modifications. The latter had rejected it three weeks ago and for the first time ever demanded that a member state submit a revised version. In particular the planned increase in public debt to 2.4 percent of the GDP means that the country now faces an excessive deficit procedure. Will the row between Rome and Brussels escalate?

Angela Merkel's speech on the future of Europe this week produced a few ideas. But even though observers had hoped to hear a new game plan for Europe's mounting challenges, expectations fell short. At least altercations between Parliament and Commission officials were not in short supply.

No one knows the exact figure but the authorities in Madeira consider that about 6,000 Venezuelans of Portuguese descent have taken refuge on their island, where they found themselves in an extremely precarious situation. Euroefe reports.

Banks and firms participating in a special EU initiative to protect trade with Iran risk US sanctions, US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, warned in Brussels Thursday. The EU is working on a 'Special Purpose Vehicle' (SPV) to enable European non-dollar trade with Iran to preserve a nuclear arms control treaty. Brussels wanted the SPV in place this month but no country has offered to host it, Reuters reported.

German chancellor Angela Merkel personally intervened and called Romania's president Klaus Iohannis in April urging him to stop plans by Romania's social-democrat lead government to move Romania's embassy to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Post reports that Merkel also called other European politicians as part of a campaign to block the relocation of European embassies to Jerusalem. The US relocated its embassy to Jerusalem in May.