Euractiv.com

Raiffeisen Bank International was warned by the US Treasury in writing that its access to the US financial system could be curbed because of its Russia dealings, according to a person who has seen the correspondence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing early on Thursday (16 May) for talks with counterpart Xi Jinping that the Kremlin hopes will deepen a strategic partnership between the two most powerful geopolitical rivals of the United States.

As the EU prepares for a new mandate, Citeo advocates 11 measures aimed at developing an environmental and sovereign economic model for Europe.

Bulgarian governments that have been in power since 2020 are to blame for the lack of a real political effort to join the eurozone, says the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Dimitar Radev, while stating that joining the eurozone in 2025 remains realistic.

Moldova's Justice Ministry asked a Chisinau court on Wednesday (15 May) to place restrictions on political activities by the pro-Russian Chance party (“Șansă”), which opposes the government's drive for the ex-Soviet state to join the European Union by 2030.

As Polish farmers continue to occupy the country’s parliament building, an organisation no one has ever heard of has launched a hunger strike, leading some to wonder if it has anything to do with farmers and the government to suggest it is likely linked to the opposition PiS party’s EU election campaign.

Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has expressed concern over the escalation of the war in Ukraine, following the cancellation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to southern Europe – which the Portuguese leader said had never been confirmed.

Absolute poverty indicators for Italy have reached levels not seen in the last decade, despite Italy’s GDP having returned to pre-2007-crisis levels, the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) said in its annual report published on Wednesday. 

Spain’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) wants to defeat the far-right and those who want to break up the EU from within, the party’s lead candidate in the EU elections, Teresa Ribera, said on Wednesday, despite polls favouring right-wing forces.

Denník N reports, that the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD, S&D) got shot on Wednesday afternoon (15 may). He was immediately taken to the hospital.

Four Russian state media outlets will be added to the European Union's blacklist, while other measures for the 14th sanctions package against Moscow are still in the early stages of discussion following a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday (15 May).

Six months after Geert Wilders won a stunning election victory, squabbling politicians finally clinched an agreement Wednesday (15 May) on a coalition government, said the Dutch far-right leader, who will not be prime minister.

Germany’s top economic advisory body, the Council of Economic Experts, on Wednesday slashed its growth forecast for 2024, as the country is once again expected to be among the worst-performing economies in the EU.

The French Socialist Party is going into the EU elections with a manifesto based on the war in Ukraine, a green transition, social justice and institutional reform, the party’s EU election list leader Raphaël Glucksmann, who has recently been rising in the polls, unveiled at a press conference Wednesday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has started touring member states to rally support for her second mandate and strengthen relationships with national centre-right leaders. The latest visits were to Split, Croatia, and the Italian capital Rome.

In the context of the war in Ukraine, the three Baltic States want to accelerate the desynchronisation of their electricity grids from Russia and Belarus and complete it by February 2025 at the latest.

The campaign to take over the chairmanship of the EU’s highest military body, the European Union Military Committee (EUMC), came to an end with the election of Irish head of Defence Forces Seán Clancy on Wednesday (15 May).

The assassination attempt against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico exposed deep divisions in Slovak society, which his controversial ruling style polarised further.

Europe’s youth now live in a new and challenging work culture, navigating employment scenarios that didn’t exist 20 years ago. Education-to-work network StartNet hosted a conference exploring a roadmap for youth employment and new European skills partnerships.

European Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni said on Wednesday (15 May) that he is “concerned” that excessive budget cuts could hamper the EU’s fragile economic recovery, adding that public investments will prove key to boosting growth across the bloc over the coming years.