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The Dutch journalists' trade union, the Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten (NVJ), has filed a lawsuit at the EU Court of Justice challenging EU sanctions against Russian propaganda outlets Russia Today and Sputnik, which were banned in Europe in March ...

EU countries have frozen just €23bn of Russian Central Bank reserves, compared to some five times that by the US (and some €280bn in total by Western countries), EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders said Wednesday. The EU Commission the same day tabled ...

EU leaders will shortly vow to continue arming and financing Ukraine in the face of "unspeakable" Russian "atrocities ... suffering and destruction". That is the thrust of a draft EU-Ukraine summit statement, dated 24 May and seen by EUobserver. "The ...

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to accelerate the process of handing Russian citizenship to residents of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Reuters reported. This was already the case in the Russian- ...

A handful of Palestinian civil society groups have denounced, in a letter , European Parliament president Roberta Metsola's visit with Israeli officials and MPs. They also accuse Metsola of being complicit "in the institutionalised domination and ...

British prime minister Boris Johnson has rejected calls to resign, following the publication of an independent report into a string of parties held at Downing Street during the UK's Covid lockdowns — in breach of government guidance at the time. Johnson, ...

The EU's border guard, Frontex, says it has over 2,000 agents, 13 vessels and over 200 patrol cars deployed at Europe's external borders. The Warsaw-based agency is still looking for a new chief after Fabrice Leggeri resigned, following intense media and ...

Hungary's government has declared a state of emergency and given itself sweeping new powers in the wake of the war in Ukraine, prime minister Viktor Orbán announced. The new authority allows the Budapest government to approve measures by decree, curb ...

Political pressure is mounting for the European Parliament to unilaterally strip Russian lobbyists of their access badges. "Accreditation of lobbyists for Gazprom and other Russian state-affiliated entities should be immediately revoked," said Pedro ...

A Ukrainian environmental lawyer, backed by a group of climate activists, has filed a complaint with the European Ombudsman, arguing that imports of Russian fossil fuels breach EU law and violate international human rights. In a potential new line of ...

Dear Editor, While authors Emese Pásztor and Sanjay Sethi in EUobserver take a rather biased stance on Hungary's state of danger due to the Covid pandemic and now the war in Ukraine, in their attempt to paint prime minister Viktor Orbán and his government ...

At a speech to the American Bar Foundation in 1962, President John Kennedy's secretary of defense Robert McNamara unveiled a term Mutually Assured Destruction to incapacitate the Soviet Union in the event of a nuclear attack. Using a retaliatory strike, it ...

The Dutch government will recognise cases of institutional racism via its tax authority, secretary for tax affairs Marnix van Rij said. "We must not deny that this has happened and that we must do something about it," he told Dutch press on Wednesday. For ...

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, called on other EU members to "really start" reforming their pension, housing, and labour markets. His remarks came days after the EU Commission admonished the Netherlands ...

EU leaders will have no good news for Ukraine on the Russia oil ban next week, amid confusion on what Hungary really wants. "We should not stare at the summit," EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told press in Davos on Tuesday (24 May), referring ...

The global deal to increase tax paid by multinational companies is being pushed back with the EU aiming to secure an accord in June, hoping to overcome opposition by Poland by then. The landmark deal, signed by 140 countries in 2021, would ensure ...

An UN-affiliated body working in Libya has offered a bleak outlook of a country that remains gripped by armed militias. Federico Soda, who heads the Libya mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), described a vicious cycle of abuse in ...

Fruits and vegetables produced in the EU are still contaminated with hazardous chemicals, despite years-old promises by EU member states to phase them out. Nearly a third of apples and half of all blackberries analysed in a major study had traces of ...

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán's overtures to Moscow and Beijing are as distasteful as they are detrimental to Hungary's national interest. The most recent case in point? Hungary's veto of the proposed embargo on the EU's imports of Russian oil. ...

Among the many unforeseen consequences of Russia´s attempted invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Europe's mental map is shifting. Since the fall of communism, countries like Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova were perceived as lingering in a twilight zone ...

France says Ukraine will eventually join the European Union, even if takes 20 years. "I am convinced that Ukraine will be part of the European Union," said Clement Beaune, France's minister of state for European affairs. The comment follows a proposal ...

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday (24 May) the EU could support a push to confiscate Russian central bank assets to help rebuild Ukraine post-war. "We should leave no stone unturned, including, if possible, Russian assets," ...

Extensive economic ties with autocratic regimes, such as Russia and China, carry a security risk, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary-general said on Tuesday (24 May), telling the global business and political elite in Davos that protecting values is more ...

Russia is using food security as blackmail, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in Davos on Tuesday. "Russia is now hoarding its own food exports as a form of blackmail — holding back supplies to increase global prices, or trading ...

Environmental groups on Tuesday launched legal action against Dutch aviation giant KLM for their 2019 "Fly Responsibly" campaign, regarded by campaigners as greenwashing. The NGOs argued that the campaign falsely promotes the sustainability of flying and ...

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has ruled out discussing the EU's proposed oil embargo of Russia at next week's summit of leaders. In a letter seen by the Financial times addressed to the European Council's president, Charles Michel, he said his ...

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he no longer recognises the prime minister of Greece— Nato ally and neighbour — Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whom he accused of seeking to block the sale of American F-16 jets to Turkey. "There's no longer anyone called ...

The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Tuesday cryptocurrencies may pose a risk to financial stability if the market maintains its rapid growth of the last two years and financial institutions become increasingly involved with crypto-assets. The ...

British prime minister Boris Johnson is facing renewed questions after photos showing him drinking at an event during a Covid-19 lockdown in November 2020 were released by ITV News. BBC reported that at least one person who attended was fined, but the ...

Sweden is recommending a fifth Covid-19 vaccine dose for people with an increased risk of becoming seriously ill, including pregnant women and anyone aged 65 and over, authorities said Tuesday. Officials said the country must "be prepared for an increased ...