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Ireland’s National Public Health Emergency Team is considering whether to introduce mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers, according to Irish media. The issue was raised at a meeting earlier this month, where complications related to the ethics, legality and logistical feasibility...

Soldiers and police have been deployed in Austria’s largest airport Schwechat to check whether those leaving the airport are travelling from southern African countries in a bid to stem the spread of the new Omicron variant. People who are vaccinated,...

Albania’s President Ilir Meta has welcomed Bulgaria’s proposal that Albania and North Macedonia’s EU accession path be decoupled, allowing Albania to progress. Albania’s EU path has been linked to that of North Macedonia. This meant that the veto by Bulgaria...

With Germany in the midst of the fourth pandemic wave, Olaf Scholz, who is set to take over as chancellor next week, has made a case for making the COVID-19 jab mandatory for everyone. “My suggestion is yes, that the...

Romanian flag carrier Tarom brought back 46 Romanian and 18 EU citizens to Bucharest from Johannesburg on Tuesday afternoon. The country is also preparing to repatriate tourists blocked in Morocco. The Romanian authorities sent a plane to South Africa to...

In a major operation that resulted in the raid of two vaccination centres, the arrest of three doctors, and a dentist, the police found 250 people who had been issued a Green COVID-19 pass despite not being vaccinated. A prosecutor...

Germany's incoming chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday positioned himself in favour of mandatory Covid-19 vaccination from February 2022, a party source said, according to the AFP. The news come after several politicians called for the federal and state governments to introduce mandatory jabs to push up the country's inoculation rate of 68 percent. Mandatory vaccination has became a hot topic in the EU, after Austria announced such a move.

The Omicron Covid-19 variant was present in Europe at least 10 days ago, before South African health experts alerted the world to their concerns around the newly-identified variant, The Guardian writes. The Dutch health authority said it found the Omicron variant in two local cases going back 11 days, showing it was already in Europe before the reports came out of South Africa on 24 November.

The fight for workers’ rights in Brussels is intensifying: the European Parliament is now ready to begin negotiations on a minimum wage directive and to vote on a new report putting pressure on the European Commission to legislate.

Frankfurt's higher regional court has found a 29-year-old guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity resulting in death, sentencing him to life in prison. The Frankfurt case is the first in the world to decide whether a former member of the so-called Islamic State group played a role in the attempted genocide of the Yazidi religious group. The defendant passed out when the verdict was read aloud in court.

The oil major Shell is considering a return to Libya with a plan to develop new oil and gas fields and infrastructure, as well as a solar project, two sources told Reuters, a decade after exiting the North African country because of unrest. The plan marks a rare new oil and gas foray by the energy major as it seeks to cut fossil fuel investment and slash greenhouse gas emissions.

The European Commission on Wednesday is set to reveal a €300bn plan to propel the EU's infrastructure and global influence, reports the Associated Press. The programme is expected to mobilise both private and public capital. Asked if the plan aims to counter China's influence, a commission spokesperson is cited as saying they want to "cooperate with our partners".

At least one negotiating cluster should be opened by the end of the year as part of Serbia’s EU integration process, said EU Integration Minister Jadranka Joksimović in Belgrade on Monday, adding that all EU Member States had taken part...

Barbados has gained its independence, after 396 years of rule by the British, The Guardian reports. Dame Sandra Mason was sworn in as president by the chief justice and took the oath of allegiance to her country, replacing the British Queen as head of state. A handover ceremony was attended by Britain's Prince Charles and the singer Rihanna, who is Barbadian.

Green German MEP Viola von Cramon-Taubadel has expressed hope that the German government’s position on Serbia will change due to implementing reforms and applying the rule of law. Von Cramon, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs...

French far-right pundit Eric Zemmour announced on Tuesday that he will run for president in next year's election, staking his claim in a video peppered with anti-immigrant rhetoric and warnings France must be saved from decline, France24 writes. Zemmour is the most stridently anti-Islam and anti-migrant of the challengers seeking to unseat president Emmanuel Macron in the April 2022 vote.

Poles will soon benefit from tax cuts and see a reduction in fuel prices as part of the so-called “anti-inflation shield”, the government announced on Tuesday. “Today we have started to implement the assumptions regarding the anti-inflation shield. It is...

According to Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg "it is important to distinguish between Nato allies and partner Ukraine. Nato allies, there we provide [Article 5] guarantees, collective defence guarantees, and we will defend and protect all allies."

On Tuesday the legislative voted for holding, likely on the same day as parliamentary elections next spring, what the ruling Fidesz calls a “child protection” referendum, widely considered to be targeting the LGBTQI community, Telex reported via national press agency MTI. The parliamentary...

The EU drug regulator's chief said the bloc is ready to tackle mutations and allow for the fast-track approval of redesigned vaccines. The EU's disease agency said all known European Omicron cases were so far asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.