Polish MEP Sylwia Spurek of the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament on Wednesday announced that she will defect to the Green party. Spurek becomes the first Polish member of the Green group. Spurek said she wanted to act in accordance ...

Seven parties finally agreed on a government in Belgium on Wednesday morning - 16 months after the elections. The parties are the Flemish and Francophone socialists, liberals, greens and the Flemish Christian Democrats. If the members of the seven parties ...

The EU's Court of Auditors has warned that child poverty is increasing due to the pandemic's economic fallout, with 23 million under-18s already below the poverty line and with overall unemployment forecast to increase from 7.5% to 9.5% next year. "EU ...

Britain's controversial internal market bill, giving the government powers to renege on its EU withdrawal agreement, passed a second reading vote by 340 MPs against 256 on Tuesday. It still has to be approved by the upper house. And MPs added an amendment ...

When EUobserver started in September 2000, we were one of the first online newspapers publishing for a pan-European public. There was a lot of news, important for all Europeans - but usually only to be read in national newspapers and via domestic ...

The regional chief of Catalonia, Quim Torra, on Tuesday (29 September) appealed against his sentence for disobedience, a day after the Spanish Supreme Court upheld a decision to ban the separatist leader from public office for 18 months and ordering him to ...

France's minister for digital, Cédric O, said on Tuesday that more work was needed to convince French people to download the Covid-19 tracing app, The Guardian reported. Only three million people have downloaded the French app, called StopCovid, based on a ...

The UK on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, his son and other senior government officials. The British government imposed the sanctions, along with Canada, which include a travel ban and asset freeze on eight ...

Poland's health minister Adam Niedzielski on Tuesday ruled out a nationwide lockdown, although he announced a curfew on bars and restaurants in the areas most-affected by the coronavirus, Reuters reported. There would also be a limited number of people who ...

The EU Commission defended on Tuesday (29 September) vice-president Vera Jourova against a demand from Hungary for her resignation. Prime minister Viktor Orban, in a letter to commission president Ursula von der Leyen, said the resignation of Jourova, who ...

Armenia says Turkey shot down one of its fighter jets, in the conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Armenian defence ministry said the Armenian Sukhoi Su-25 was shot down by a Turkish F-16, a claim disputed by Turkey. "We ...

A report from the NGO Earthsight on Wednesday revealed that major European car manufacturers, including BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, are using leather linked to the destruction of a South American forest inhabited by one of the world's last uncontacted ...

Shared challenges are supposed to give countries a powerful impetus to cooperate. In recent years it has often been argued that the increasing uncertainty 'surrounding' Europe would lead to better cooperation 'within' Europe. And the corona pandemic should ...

For years, the message from the European Commission to human rights defenders concerned about the systematic dismantling of the rule of law and democracy in their country was literally "don't knock on the wrong door." Well-intentioned official guidance ...

Celebrate with us, and become an expert on Europe For 20 years now, EUobserver has been and continues to be the online source for independent, in-depth news on what is happening in Europe. We report on the big stories, but also on small stories that ...

Spain's Supreme Court has barred the regional president of Catalonia, Quim Torra, from holding office because he displayed separatist banners from a government building during Spain's general election last year. He "repeatedly and stubbornly disobeyed the ...

Taiwan has thanked the EU for help in a sensitive name dispute with China, Reuters reports. The Brussels-based Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy had listed six Taiwanese cities as being in China, but Taiwanese complaints saw their location ...

Belarusian writer and opposition activist Svetlana Alexievich has left the country to seek medical treatment, but her trip was not linked to politics and she planned to return home, her aides said on Monday. EU diplomats in Minsk have been helping to ...

The global death toll from the novel coronavirus, which first emerged in China late last year and has swept across the world, reached the one million mark on Monday (28 September) . The United States has the highest death toll with over 200,000 fatalities, ...

Turkey has reportedly sent Syrian mercenaries to Azerbaijan, opening a new chapter in its war with Armenia. Between 700 and 1,000 Syrian fighters from the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) were preparing to go to Azerbaijan last week, according to ...

The German EU presidency on Monday (28 September) put forward a compromise draft proposal on linking EU funds to respect for the rule of law, in an effort to break the ongoing institutional deadlock on the issue. The presidency and the European Parliament ...

The European Commission wants member states to increase deportations of people not entitled to international protection. But its latest plan, part of last week's migration and asylum pact, to get them to sponsor returns for other member states may simply ...

The residents of Timişoara, Romania's third-largest city, on Sunday chose a new mayor for the next four years - who just happens to be a German, rather than Romanian, citizen. Dominic Fritz won 54.8 percent of the vote, beating the incumbent Nicolae Robu - ...

The new proposal for financial assistance and trade support to Belarus should be understood as an investment to safeguard part of the broader EU neighbourhood from negative scenarios for the whole of Europe. Until a free and internationally-recognised ...

Some 120m Covid-19 tests from two companies, which can show results in 15 to 30 minutes, will be supplied to low-and middle-income countries for around €4 each, The Guardian reported on Monday. The World Health Organization has approved one of the tests ...

The Dutch government has increased restrictions for its citizens on bar and restaurant visits, and on foreign travel. The Netherlands have declared Belgium as an 'orange'-level alert risk. Until now only travel to Brussels and Antwerp was restricted. ...

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has found the Covid-19 pandemic worsened Roma and Travellers' poverty and discrimination. The FRA report revealed these communities faced stricter lockdown as precautionary measures, many Roma and Travellers lost ...

Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny while he was undergoing treatment for poisoning in a Berlin hospital, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert confirmed on Monday, Deutsche Welle reports. Navalny reported the " ...

A group of 234 NGOs and academics have expressed concern about the European Commission's roadmap on critical raw materials, presented earlier this month. "Paradoxically, the expansion of mining to meet growing demands for renewable energy and other ...

A new survey on Monday by Eurofound - the EU agency that focuses on social and work-related policies - found that trust in the EU increased in July, while confidence in national governments declined. The largest increase was recorded in Italy and Spain, ...