EUROPEAN POLITICS
Politics is an inevitable element at the Eurovision song contest (ESC) but the integrity of the voting system now had to be reinforced after a wilful voting bloc was uncovered last year, a representative of the competition’s organisers told EURACTIV.…
The EU’s sanctions on Russia because of the war in Ukraine do not affect the Bulgarian economy, acting Economy Minister Nikola Stoyanov told parliamentarians on Thursday. Stoyanov was requested to speak to parliamentarians on Thursday, following a request filed by…
Finance Minister Christian Lindner has postponed a government decision on next year’s budget for the second time as the coalition’s three parties remain split on the issue. While the government was set to decide on the state budget for 2024…
After meeting King Willem-Alexander, the Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague on Thursday to discuss cooperation on trade and climate change, though onlookers criticised the warm reception after tensions have risen in recent…
GroenLinks (GL/Greens) and the Labour Party (PvdA/S&D) will not present a joint election programme for next year’s European Parliament elections despite overwhelming support within both parties, according to internal sources. The two parties entered an alliance on the national stage…
The four parties currently trying to form Finland’s new government are divided on the future allocation of development funds to non-EU countries, including Ukraine. Aiming to find a consensus on how to reach the ambitious target of cutting public debt…
The Austrian government has lauded its ability to facilitate a key secret exchange between top US and Chinese officials as relations between the superpowers are somewhat ‘frosty’. Vienna, which inherited its reputation as a key diplomacy hub from the Cold…
Miroslav Lajcak, EU envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, met Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Pristina Thursday to discuss the issue of establishing the Association of Serb Municipalities before crossing the highly-symbolic Ibar Bridge. Following his meeting with Kurti, Lajcak said…
Poland supports Albania’s path to EU membership, according to President Andrzej Duda who was in Tirana on Thursday to meet with his Albanian counterpart Bajram Begaj, who asked Duda to support Kosovo’s NATO membership. Following the meeting with Begaj, Duda…
Hungary has failed to adequately address the EU’s concerns around the judicial package, which risks billions of Euros in much-awaited EU funds, several NGOs, including Amnesty International Hungary, said. The Hungarian parliament has voted in favour of a bill initially…
Dutch entities that unnecessarily terminated their Gazprom contracts due to government pressure to comply with EU sanctions will be reimbursed entirely, Climate and Energy Minister Rob Jetten (D66/Renew) wrote in a letter to parliament on Wednesday. For fear that the…
The government is set to approve urgent measures to ease the severe economic impact of the historic drought in the country, Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera confirmed ahead of an extraordinary government meeting on Thursday. The Council of Ministers…