The Capitals brings you the latest news from across Europe, through on-the-ground reporting by Euractiv’s media network. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
The European news you deserve to read. Welcome to The Capitals by EURACTIV.
In today’s news from The Capitals:
WARSAW
The European Commission told Euractiv that it has long insisted on the need for Poland’s state-owned media landscape to change, although recent attempts by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government have faced backlash from the opposition and have been ruled illegal in national court.
The matter has become a hot potato for Tusk’s government as it seems he has the EU backing but is faced with a divided public opinion.
Euractiv’s Aleksandra Krzysztoszek reports from Warsaw. Read more.
///
BUBBLING IN BRUSSELS
Pressure grows on Hungary to lift Ukraine funding objections. Brussels has been working to solve the Hungarian blockade since Prime Minister Viktor Orbán vetoed the EU’s Ukraine aid package in December, with the bloc’s officials preparing potential concessions in exchange for dropping his veto. Read more.
///
BERLIN
Germany wrestles with calls to ban AfD – again. Revelations that members of Germany’s far-right AfD party secretly met with extremist neo-Nazis and businessmen in a hotel in November have sparked fresh calls for the party to be thrown out of parliament at a time it is polling higher than any of the governing parties at 22%. Read more.
///
PARIS
Séjourné’s surprise FM job throws Renaissance lead candidate race in limbo. Stéphane Séjourné, Emmanuel Macron’s top man in the European Parliament, was appointed French foreign affairs minister on Thursday, leaving a question mark over who will lead Macron’s party in the EU elections in June. Read more.
France’s new cabinet turns right, Renew’s Séjourné is FM, political heavyweights stay put. The new French government was unveiled on Thursday afternoon, with most political heavyweights still in, while the right makes a grand entry with two conservative ministers in top jobs and Renew lead Stéphane Séjourné becomes foreign minister. Read more.
NORDICS & BALTICS
STOCKHOLM
Swedish government to extend travel ban for ‘at risk’ children. The Swedish government is proposing to extend the travel ban on children who are at risk of being taken abroad, namely to be raised in their parents’ home countries, according to Conservative Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Grönvall.
According to her, far too many children in Sweden are still being taken out of the country against their will, as the current travel ban mainly applies to cases where there is a risk of forced marriage or genital mutilation.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
///
OSLO
Norwegian mass killer Breivik claims isolation conditions ‘inhumane’. Mass murderer and neo-Nazi Anders Breivik is once again taking the Norwegian state to court, claiming that his isolation in prison is “inhumane” and violates the European Convention on Human Rights, despite having access to several amenities, and that the authorities are trying to “drive him to suicide”.
Convicted in 2011 of killing 77 people, mainly teenagers, Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison, where he has received no visitors for 12 years.
(Charles Szumski | Euractiv.com)
EUROPE’S SOUTH
MADRID
Spain’s Sumar leader warns of two visions of Europe competing in upcoming EU elections. The European elections will be a face-off between those who push for a Europe that champions equal rights and environmentalism and those who question fundamental rights and hold positions contrary to the EU in the run-up to the European elections in June, warned Spanish Employment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz on Thursday. Read more.
EASTERN EUROPE
PRAGUE
Advocate General: Czechia, Poland breach EU election law. Czech and Polish laws do not allow citizens of other EU countries to join Czech or Polish political parties, violating EU electoral law, according to the EU’s Court of Justice Advocate General Jean Richard de La Tour. Read more.
///
BRATISLAVA
Slovakia needs evidence to condemn North Korea-Russia ballistic missile transfers. Bratislava claims it will join the 48 countries that condemned the alleged ballistic missile transfers between North Korea and Russia to attack Ukraine, noting, however, that it “needs relevant evidence” before doing so. Read more.
NEWS FROM THE BALKANS
SOFIA
Bulgaria’s state-run nuclear plant slams civil activist with SLAPP. Bulgaria’s state-owned Kozloduy NPP has filed a lawsuit requesting €250,000 in compensation, claiming civil activists Natalia Stancheva and Yordanka Kulinska distributed false information about the plant. Read more.
///
BUCHAREST
EU Commission Oks Romanian state aid for ports with increased flows from Ukraine. Romanian ports dealing with an increase in trade flows from Ukraine due to Russia’s war in the country will benefit from a state aid scheme the European Commission approved on Thursday. Read more.
///
LJUBLJANA
Crime in Slovenia back up to pre-pandemic levels. Slovenian police dealt with 54,017 criminal offences last year, up more than a tenth over the year before and on a par with pre-pandemic for years, the latest police statistics show. Read more.
///
BELGRADE | PRISTINA
Kosovo ramps up weapons stocks as Serbia mulls compulsory conscription. Kosovo is set to buy Javelin anti-tank missiles from the US in a move which has bothered Belgrade at a time leaders mull compulsory military service in a bid to ensure the survival of President Aleksander Vucic’s “new Serbian world”. Read more.
***
[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Alice Taylor, Sofia Stuart Leeson]
Read more with Euractiv
Kosovo ramps up weapons stocks as Serbia mulls compulsory conscriptionKosovo is set to buy Javelin anti-tank missiles from the US in a move which has bothered Belgrade at a time leaders mull compulsory military service in a bid to ensure the survival of President Aleksander Vucic’s “new Serbian world”.
Source: euractiv.com
