The Internal market EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wanted to push for a Nuclear technologies act to motivate the development of an integrated nuclear industry in Europe, he said on Thursday (April 11). The proposal was welcomed by nuclear developers as EDF.f

This week we talk to Max von Thun, Europe Director at the Open Markets Institute about competition policy.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Zelenskyy thanking Czech President Petr Pavel for the Czech shells-for-Ukraine initiative, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico reaffirmed his country's support for Ukraine, and so much more.

Britain's defence ministry on Friday (12 April) said it would install lasers on warships designed to cheaply shoot down drones from 2027, five years earlier than previously expected, under reforms designed to speed up the deployment of new technology.

The FBI is concerned about the possibility of an organised attack in the US similar to the one that killed scores of people at a Russian concert hall last month, the bureau's director told a House of Representatives panel.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Russian government-backed hackers have used their access to Microsoft's email system to steal correspondence between officials and the tech giant, an emergency directive by the US watchdog released on Thursday (11 April) showed.

Bulgarian farmers will take part in a wave of simultaneous protests in Brussels and EU member states planned for 4 June, just days before the upcoming European Parliament elections, Ilia Prodanov, president of the National Association of Grain Producers, has said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Czech President Petr Pavel for Prague's initiative to purchase artillery shells for Ukraine from outside the EU, which has helped the war-torn country with its ammunition shortage, as the two leaders met in Vilnius on Thursday during the Three Seas Summit.

Mali's ruling military junta on Thursday (11 April) banned media coverage of political parties a day after suspending their activities, marking the latest crackdown on dissent in the West African nation.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, known for his pro-Russian rhetoric, condemned the Kremlin's aggression and pledged Slovakia's support for Ukraine and its EU accession when he met his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal in Slovakia on Thursday.

Portugal intends to speed up the rate at which it spends money from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the country's roadmap for using EU post-pandemic recovery funds, Portugal's new Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said on Thursday, describing the current spending rate as "very low" and wanting to increase transparency in accessing the funds.

The European Parliament's ban on former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont from taking his seat after the previous EU elections in 2019 "violated the fundamental rights of European voters", Puigdemont said after the EU's Advocate-General said on Thursday that the access should have been granted.

The left faction of the pro-migration German Green party vented its frustration about the EU migration reform on Thursday, as militants previously failed to stop the party‘s leading figures from embracing it.

The Asylum and Migration Pact adopted by the European Parliament on Wednesday (10 April) will “weaken the right to asylum” and enshrine in law an ailing approach to migration policy, Eve Geddie, head of Amnesty International’s Brussels office, told Euractiv in an interview.

Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday (11 April), officials said, ramping up pressure on the embattled energy system as Kyiv runs low on air defences.

The Polish parliament discussed on Thursday a draft bill that would liberalise the country’s strict abortion law, but differing views on how far the new law should go continue to divide the ruling coalition.

This June's EU elections would have given the German Greens their first chance to nominate a European Commissioner in over 20 years, but with Commission President von der Leyen seeking a second term, the party has largely lost appetite for the position.

The decision to open an anti-subsidy investigation against Chinese electric cars was not sufficiently coordinated with Berlin, the head of the German car industry association VDA said on Thursday (11 April), criticising von der Leyen’s solo effort.

Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, says he wants Greece to attract more investment from global pharmaceutical companies, to foster life science innovation and the creation of more Greek intellectual property.

The Swedish government is opposed to shortening the regulatory data protection period for new medicines, as currently proposed by the EU Commission in its pharma legislative overhaul. Swedish key stakeholders are demanding a stronger focus on patients.