Spanish MEP Juan Lopez Aguilar just returned from a visit to Zaatari, a refugee camp in Jordan, about 12 kilometres from the Syrian border, hosting almost 100,000 Syrian refugees. "It is about the end of the regime, in ...

Deputy secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation Patrick Itschert talks about the European day of mobilisation against austerity.

After a historic debt restructuring, Greece was finally granted its second bail-out this week. Economist Sony Kapoor from think-tank Re-define believes that the success will be short-lived and another bail-out could be ...

Before Christmas, when the European Parliament asked Russia to carry out a full investigation on reports of fraud and intimidation in its parliamentary vote on 4 December, President Dmitry Medvedev told the European ...

An independent Scotland would be one of the wealthiest parts of Europe, but it would stay out of the euro, deputy first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon tells EUobserver during a visit to Brussels this week.

He said the surveys do not promote peace and are part of a decades-long "attempt to undermine [Israel's] very legitimacy." He added: "Giving the accurate picture helps when looking for a solution."

Nuclear expert, the head of the Iran delegation in the European Parliament and Finnish Green MEP Tarja Cronberg is against an EU oil embargo on Iran. She says power-politics could lead to military clashes in the Strait ...

Member states can - under the EU Treaty - block the free movement of workers from new member countries for up to seven years. Italy recently loosened labour restrictions for Bulgarians and Romanians, but nine other EU ...

Oomen-Ruitjen in her latest report on EU-Turkey relations underlined that Ankara must fulfill the EU's so-called Copenhagen Criteria on enlargement in the areas of press freedom and women's rights. She told EUobserver ...

Belarus will only become a democracy when Russia does, Brussels-based opposition campaigner Olga Stuzhinkaya has said, noting that the EU does not figure highly on authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko's Russia- ...

Together with Liberal group leader Guy Verhofstadt, Sylvie Goulard hosted a conference in January 2012 in the European Parliament presenting concrete proposals for the eventual introduction of eurobonds.

Jean-Claude Piris, the former director general of the EU Council's legal service, who helped pen the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, Constitutional Treaty and Lisbon Treaties, referred to the Union's new fiscal compact as ...

The number of suicides in Greece reached a pan-European high during the first half of 2011, according to figures recently released by the Greek health ministry. Experts believe the increase is due to the effects of the ...

On the day Croatia signed the accession treaty to become the 28th member of the European Union in July 2013, incoming foreign affairs and Europe minister Vesna Pusić says tells EUobserver that a referendum on accession ...

The EU recently extended its sanctions on Syria but with the crackdown against protesters continuing, MEPs have been asking Syrian opposition groups what more can be done to pressurise President Bashar Al Assad. ...

In a study carried out together with the WHO, the World Bank estimates that over one billion people live with some form of disability in the world. The 350-page document was presented to the European Parliament by the ...

Europe is entering a very difficult period in its history, says newly elected Liberal Democrat and Reform Party leader, Sir Graham Watson, but Germany has the power to stop the eurozone crisis.

Having visited 200 zoos in 21 EU member states, Dan Turner from the Born Free Foundation concludes that the majority of member states are not respecting the rules laid out in the EU zoo law, worsening the behavioural ...

There is no light at the end of the tunnel for Greece, according to economist Janis Emmanouilidis from the European Policy Centre. "Nobody can predict what will happen", he tells EUobserver over coffee.

EU leaders gathered in Brussels this week to hammer out a deal to save the euro. After tough negotiations with private banks, they finally agreed on a second bail out package for Greece and to leverage the EFSF fund to ...

Ireland has managed to stave off French challenges to its low corporate tax rate, Irish Minister for European affairs Lucinda Creighton tells EUobserver over coffee. With Ireland's economy now doing better than expected ...

In an effort to prevent the euro zone debt crisis from ever happening again, the EU has approved six tough rules to control member states' fiscal policies. EUobserver meets Dutch MEP Corien Wortmann-Kool, key-negotiator ...

"The European Commission should put anti-corruption on the security agenda", says staunch anti-corruption fighter Monica Macovei. The Member of European Parliament from the EPP group has been trying to encourage the EU ...

The EU is examining Serbian-backed proposals to break the deadlock in Northern Kosovo. In this video Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Djelic talks about the solution that Serbia has proposed to EU foreign chief ...

Drivers caught for offences outside their own country will soon have to face the music. According to new legislation approved this week, those caught speeding, crashing red lights or drink-driving in another member ...

"We want to avoid a post-electoral situation like in the Ivory Coast," says Congolese MP Medard Mulangala, who heads the main opposition party in Congo, the Union for a Republican Majority. Tipped as a major candidate ...

In the future, food labels on any product for sale in an EU supermarket will have to display all the food's energy content, fat, carbohydrate and sugar. Labels will even be in the language of the country where the food ...

There is a 50% chance our mission will be successful, says Irish MEP Paul Murphy one week before he boards the freedom flotilla that will take humanitarian aid to Gaza.

"Efforts to achieve equality and fight discrimination must step up in EU member states", director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights Morten Kjaerum said in Brussels this week when presenting the annual report on ...

When in Brussels for the World Copyright Summit, the President of Croatia Ivo Josipović who is also a music composer spoke to EUobserver about his relations with Brussels and the final steps of EU accession talks.

"The European Union can and should do more to help those who are fighting against the tyrant (Muammar Gaddafi)," says Portuguese MEP Ana Gomes. The Socialist MEP, who is just back from visiting Libya, welcomes the ...

The European Union must double its budget if it wants to invest in ares like research and energy - this is the latest conclusion of the European Parliament's report on the financial crisis. The French Socialist MEP ...

The "Real Democracy Now" movement in Spain is a "huge civilization revolution", says the Green Catalan MEP Raul Romeva. In this video, he shares his enthusiasm with EUobserver for this "huge wave that is going to effect ...

"If whistle blowers felt comfortable to speak up.... it would have prevented this crisis from occurring". This is the opinion of Marta Andreasen, the conservative MEP from the Europe for Freedom and Democracy Group in ...

"The possibility to restore internal border checks is an EU question" says migration expert Yves Pascouau. The anaylst from the think thank, the European Policy Centre spent the last ten years researching EU migration ...

This week, several members of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee and the European External Action Service expressed doubts over the UN mandate for direct military intervention in the Ivory Coast. But ...

In a new framework being presented today by the European Commission, the EU calls on member states to draft national strategies for Roma integration by the end of this year. MATTHIAS VERHELST, a European Roma Policy ...

Government cutbacks are leading to increasing youth unemployment in the European Union. Danish Green MEP Emilie Turunen, the youngest deputy in the European Parliament, shares her concerns about the rising joblessness ...

As popular revolts sweep through the Arab world in the name of human dignity and basic freedoms, EUobserver sat down with the chair of the human rights subcommittee of the European parliament, Finish MEP Heidi Hautala, ...