Putin calls for trade zone for EU and customs union

Russia's use of diamonds in corruption schemes in Europe and Africa gives upcoming G7 ban a strategic value beyond any moral or financial one, Ukraine says.

Senior EU officials insist a majority of EU states support tougher asylum reforms after Germany decided to drop its veto despite a last minute reported backlash from Italy.

Poland in 2020 imposed a near-total ban on abortion, triggering mass protests — and today the demands for access to safe abortion continue. On International Safe Abortion Day, dozens gathered in Brussels calling for solidarity among member states.

Vasco Alves Cordeiro, president of the European Committee of the Regions, is advocating a revamp of the EU's regional policy so that it better supports all regions in addressing major challenges such as the green and digital transitions.

Germany has announced an increase in police checks on its border with Poland and the Czech Republic — in a bid to respond to irregular migration along smuggling routes.

Emily O'Reilly cited the post-pandemic recovery funds, the windfall taxes on energy companies, and the joint purchase of vaccines, as procedures which received limited scrutiny from the national parliaments — as a result of emergency decision-making powers that bypassed parliament.