European Union

A landslide and unexpected victory for the Yes camp: two-thirds of voters in once strictly Catholic Ireland cast their ballots for the liberalisation of the country's abortion laws. At 64 percent, voter turnout was higher than for the referendum on gay marriage. Journalists take differing views of the result and examine the repercussions it may have elsewhere.

Spain's Socialists want to topple the head of government Mariano Rajoy with a no-confidence motion. His conservative People's Party (PP) was ordered to pay a fine of 245,000 euros last week as a result of a ruling in the Gürtel corruption scandal. Will Spain's prime minister survive this latest challenge?

After strikes that have gone on for two months, France's government has pledged to absorb 35 billion euros of the state rail company SNCF's debt and raise annual investment by 200 million euros. In return, the company must agree to reforms. Commentators are not convinced the deal will work.

The European Commission presented its long-awaited marine-litter-busting proposal on single-use plastics on Monday (28 May). The first legislative proposal from the Plastics Strategy aims to help the EU clean up the continent's beaches and waterways.

The European Commission proposed on Monday to ban the use of plastic in the production of cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws, drink stirrers and sticks for balloons. "These products won't disappear, they will just be made with different materials," said commission first vice-president Frans Timmermans. The proposed ban aims to tackle single-use plastics, often found on beaches. "We are at risk of choking our oceans in plastic," said Timmermans.

Connected and automated cars will collect enormous amounts of data. While sharing this data has the potential to optimise the driving experience for all, questions of data privacy naturally arise – not least as GDPR rolls out.