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A 24-year-old Czech student shot dead his father, then killed 14 people and wounded 25 others at his Prague university on Thursday (21 December) before possibly killing himself, police said, marking the country's worst-ever mass shooting.

The French city of Montpellier on Thursday (21 December) became the latest European metropolis to allow all its residents to ride public transport for free.

The nature of the implementation of the European Commission's controversial directive to limit foreign interference will be up to leaders of member states, Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica explained in an interview with Euractiv.

French Senators criticised the government's stance in the AI Act negotiations, pointing towards lack of copyrights protection and the influence of a lobbyist with alleged conflicts of interests: former digital state secretary Cédric O.

In an interview with Euractiv, French Secretary of State for Biodiversity Sarah El Haïry reflected on the EU's progress this year, following the COP28 summit in Dubai, the adoption of France's national biodiversity strategy as well as the EU's pesticides directive and nature restoration law.

As the Trump-Biden rematch looks increasingly certain, the debate about the old age of the candidates is rising.

Welcome to EU Politics Decoded, where Benjamin Fox and Eleonora Vasques will bring you a round-up of the latest political news in Europe and beyond every Thursday.

The ruling from the German constitutional court in Karlsruhe, declaring the transfer of 60 billion Euros in Covid-related debt to the Klima- und Transformationsfond (KTF) unlawful, has cast a shadow of uncertainty over Germany's economic security agenda, argues Tobias Gehrke.

Marine Le Pen's support for French President Emmanuel Macron’s tough immigration bill on Tuesday (19 December) signifies another victory for Europe’s far-right this year, just months ahead of critical EU elections. 

Harmonisation of regulatory standards and keeping legislation up with scientific advances is needed to unleash stem cell transplant and therapies potential which can save the lives of people living with different conditions.

The EU’s promised plans for an overarching sustainable food systems law may not have come to light in Brussels, but that has not stopped actors on the ground across the EU from taking action to make their own vision of a sustainable food future a reality.

Bio-based chemicals have the potential to partly replace fossil fuels in applications like fertilisers and plastics, but the transition will take decades and there are still big challenges ahead to scale up production without harming the environment, scientists say.

Fifteen or twenty years will be needed “at the very least” to phase out fossil-based fertilisers and switch to bio-based solutions, says Kevin O’Connor. But it can be done with the right incentives, he argues in an interview.

As expected, fossil fuels dominated the headlines from the recent COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai. However, a less-talked-about aspect of the discussions was farming and nature restoration, a focus experts argue is key to safeguarding our environment.

Member states must do everything to ensure the Platform Work Directive provisional deal is approved, Parliament file rapporteur Elisabetta Gualmini told Euractiv in an interview, warning that France’s refusal to vote on the text is “unacceptable”.

Russia's embassy in Yerevan denounced Thursday (21 December) the temporary suspension of Russian broadcaster Sputnik's local branch over "offensive" comments a presenter made about Armenia on air.

The immense scale of transformation underway in the automotive sector should give Europe cause to rethink how it regulates in the interest of both consumers and the competitiveness of its industry, argues Sigrid de Vries.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich on Wednesday (20 December) lost a legal challenge aimed at overturning European Union sanctions imposed on him in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The European Commission has shelved proposals to boost the roll-out of heat pumps with a dedicated action plan, a move that will likely delay the initiative beyond the EU elections in June.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo on Wednesday (20 December) described China as a "sometimes very hostile" country, following allegations that Beijing had recruited a member of the Belgian far-right party Vlaams Belang as an intelligence asset.