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Europe must accelerate efforts to transform its economy into a circular one focused on reusing or repurposing materials to cut waste, a necessity if it is meet climate targets, the European Environment Agency warned Thursday (21 March).

Bulgarians and Romanians will no longer be subject to checks when officially entering the Schengen Area at the EU's internal air and sea borders from 31 March, although checks will still be carried out when crossing land borders.

Bulgaria has decided to invest more than €295 million in the so-called ‘Vertical Corridor,’ a key initiative between seven Balkan countries’ gas transmission operators to reduce reliance on Russian gas.

French regulators said Wednesday (20 March) they were fining Google €250 million for breaching commitments on paying media companies for reproducing their content online and for using their material for its AI chatbot without telling them.

Polish EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski is to blame for the problems that led to farmers’ protests in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s office said in response to a letter the EU official sent to the prime minister, adding that he should “get on with his job”.

Portugal’s outgoing Prime Minister António Costa (PS) will receive a statuette alluding to the headquarters of the European Council at what will be his last EU summit in Brussels after eight years in power.

Spain’s far-right VOX party, now parliament’s third-largest force, will launch its EU election manifesto, under the slogan “Europe Alive 24”, at its annual party conference on 18-19 May, party sources confirmed on Wednesday.

Russia has significantly worsened Europe and Sweden’s security policy, and its confrontational approach must be dealt with, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström noted in his foreign policy statement to the Swedish parliament on the occasion of Sweden’s recent accession to NATO.

The joint EU election list formed by the French Socialist Party and leftist “Place Publique” led by Raphaël Glucksmann scored 13% in polls published on Wednesday and could be a cause for concern within Macron’s Renaissance camp that their core voter base is shifting to the left.

Russia is illegally consolidating its control over occupied Ukrainian territory by creating a "climate of fear" with practices such as arbitrary detention, killings and torture, the head of a UN reporting mission in Ukraine said.

The policymakers behind the EU's AI Act, passed by the European Parliament with a large majority on 13 March, aimed to set a new global standard for regulating the technology, but not everyone agrees the impact will be as vast as promised.

Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has asked Luís Montenegro, leader of the centre-right PSD (EPP), to form a government during an audience held on Thursday (21 March) night, putting an end to eight years of Socialist rule.

In this episode of our daily podcast Today in the EU, we are looking at EU leaders gathering in Brussels on 21-22 March

Facing a new sense of urgency, EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels on Thursday (21 March) to discuss making military support to Ukraine more sustainable while ramping up their own defences.

EU liberals kicked off their campaign for June's European election to a muted reception, amid internal divisions that have forced the multi-party alliance to agree on a joint electoral programme of the lowest common denominators. 

Europe’s ever-challenged wind industry gathered in Bilbao, Spain, where the industry stressed its value to policymakers, celebrated legislative wins, and pointed to a less turbulent horizon.

Ahead of the European Parliament elections in June, business groups have presented their wish lists for the next legislative cycle, focussing on simplifying rules and paperwork but not calling to turn away from climate policy.

At the European Free Alliance (EFA) General Assembly, the party’s two Spitzenkandidaten, Maylis Roßberg and Raül Romeva, sat down with Euractiv’s Jennifer Baker to discuss their brand of politics and the 2024 campaign.

For health organisations, the EU Parliament’s public health committee’s (ENVI) agreed compromise on the revision of the EUs pharmaceutical legislation could go further.

The Parliament and the Council found a compromise to prolong the trade liberalisation until June 2025 ensuring an ‘emergency brake’ in case of excessive imports of certain food products from Kyiv, but the EU Ambassadors postponed their final decision while the European Parliament Trade Committee approved it.