In 2014, not even a third of Europe´s young voters participated in the European Parliament elections. Perhaps surprisingly, Finland was one of the member states with the lowest turnout among youngsters. Here, only 10.4 percent cast their vote. While ...

German MPs are preparing to debate merits of a national 'Magnitsky Act', Norbert Roettgen, a senior MP from the ruling centre-right CDU party has said. "It's fundamentally correct ... to have such a law," he told German newspaper Tagesspiegel, with Green ...

"Human rights violations in Hungary have a negative effect on the whole protection system and the rule of law. They must be addressed as a matter of urgency," the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Dunja Mijatovic has said. A report published ...

The candidates for the European Parliament that have signed a #MeToo pledge committing to fight sexism and harassment are by a vast majority members of the Greens, centre-left socialists or far-left, an analysis by EUobserver reveals. The pledge was set up ...

EU affairs ministers meeting on Tuesday in the Council of the EU adopted new rules that ban the use of plastics in certain throw-away items. The new directive will require producers of single-use products like straws, cutlery, and balloon sticks to use ...

The EU should give up powers to national parliaments in future, Poland has said - amid simmering tensions in the country over gender politics in the run-up to European elections. The proposal to create a "red card" system in which national parliaments ...

Some European companies are urging people to vote in this week's European elections to prevent anti-EU forces scooping too many seats and secure their interests in a stable Europe. Swedish music-streaming company Spotify on Tuesday had over 60,000 ...

Ministers from Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) resigned on Monday, throwing Austria's coalition government led by conservative Sebatian Kurz into chaos. The opposition now wants to overthrow Kurz as chancellor with a motion of no confidence in the ...

UK police on Monday arrested a 32-year-old man on suspicion of common assault after the Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage, had a milkshake thrown at him when campaigning in Newcastle ahead of the UK's European Parliament elections on Thursday. Farage ...

Ukraine's parliament will be dissolved and early elections called, new president Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Monday just minutes after he was sworn in. The former TV star won 73 percent support last month in a landslide victory and walked to the ...

The expected surge in populists and nationalists in the next European Parliament after this week's elections has spooked many. It has fuelled speculation that the legislature could be paralysed if a third of the MEPs are fiercely eurosceptic and anti-EU, ...

Donald Tusk's term as president of the European Council will end on 30 November, which is perfect timing for the Polish opposition. After the parliamentary election in late October, Poland will hold its presidential election in April 2020, and opposition ...

A Sweden Democrat party MEP, and number four on the party's EU election list, Kristina Winberg, was on Sunday evicted from the party and removed from its voting list after revealing recorded proof of the party's top candidate, MEP Peter Lundgren, grabbing ...

Four-in-five students who benefitted from the EU's Erasmus+ exchange scheme find employment within three months of graduation, according to two new studies. The surveys, which polled nearly 77,000 students and staff and over 500 organisations, found 73 ...

"This is a historic moment to free the continent from the abusive occupation organised in Brussels for many years by traitors, such as Merkel, Macron, Soros, Juncker," Italian far-right League party leader Matteo Salvini said in Milan on Saturday (18 May). ...

Austria's president Alexander Van der Bellen on Sunday called for a snap general election in September, after the resignation of Freedom Party vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, trapped in a corruption scandal. A covert film of Strache in Ibiza ...

Swiss voters approved, in a referendum on Sunday, by a two-thirds majority to tighten gun controls, including stricter controls for semi-automatic weapons, bringing the non-EU member state's rules in line with EU rules introduced after the 2015 Paris ...

UK prime minister Theresa May's fourth attempt to get a Brexit deal through parliament appears doomed, as leaked documents cited by the Daily Telegraph suggested it would be a "retread" of old ideas. Conservative leadership frontrunners Boris Johnson and ...

Turkey has the right to drill for oil in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has insisted in a letter sent on Friday to the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, EU member states and UN Security Council permanent ...

The removal of a protest banner against League leader and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini during a visit to Campania on 7 May has fuelled a new trend in Italy of people hanging anti-Salvini banners from their windows as the League leader tours the ...

Italy's Matteo Salvini is currently driving the unification of Europe's right-wing populists. In the wake of the last European Parliament election in 2014, far-right populist parties split in three political groupings. The group called Europe of Nations ...

EU countries repeated their "unswerving commitment to promoting and protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex [LGBTI] persons" around the world in a statement by the EU foreign service on the international anti-homophobia ...

EU states agreed Friday to slap asset freezes and visa bans on individuals responsible for cyber attacks against EU targets or international institutions in Europe as well as those who help or fund them. The sanctions regime comes amid allegations of ...

The EU foreign service has reassured the US closer European defence integration will not harm American arms firms. "The EU remains fully committed to working with the US as a core partner in security and defence matters," it said in a letter made public ...

The euro should play a bigger role in international transactions in order to help skirt potential US sanctions, French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said at a conference in Brussels Friday, Reuters reports. "I don't want our companies to suffer from ...

The political spotlight switches from Brussels to national capitals and regions this week as Europe gears up for the start of European Parliament (EP) elections on Thursday (23 May). The corridors of the EP buildings in Brussels will be all-but empty as ...

Britain's opposition Labour party on Friday pulled out of cross-party Brexit negotiations with prime minister Theresa May, saying they had "gone as far as they can." May had entered the talks after failing to get her withdrawal agreement with the EU ...

Five German climate activists climbed inside segments of the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany on Thursday, skateboarding inside, holding protest placards, and refusing to leave despite police appeals. One of them, calling himself Fynn, ...

An investigation by British broadcaster Channel 4 has shown that anti-EU MEP Nigel Farage got €515,000 worth of personal perks from Aaron Banks, a pro-Brexit British businessman, in the year after the Brexit referendum in 2016. The perks included rent for ...

EU financial affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici has urged Italy not to break EU fiscal rules on debt and deficits. "It's in Italy's interest to have a credible fiscal policy," the French politician said Thursday, adding that Italy's situation would be ...