Welcome to EURACTIV’s Tech Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.    “We are willing to discuss possible solutions brought up in the discussions regarding the issue on INL [Independence to...

The Irish government is "grateful and somewhat surprised" that the European Commission did not reject their draft regulation for health warning labels on alcohol, despite renewed attempts by other member states to block the proposal. 

The European Central Bank raised interest rates by 0.5% on Thursday (2 February) and explicitly signalled at least one more hike of the same magnitude next month, reaffirming it would stay the course in the fight against high inflation.

Polish Sports Minister Kamil Bortniczuk on Thursday (2 February) said he expected several dozen nations to come out against the inclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

While the regulation to establish a European digital identity continues its legislative process, the European Commission has recently launched a pilot project to see how this could work in practice. We discuss the project and its potential impact on the...

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Germany waving goodbye to the pandemic era as it drops its mask mandate, Sweden and Finland going ‘hand in hand’ as the Nordics close ranks against Turkey, and so much more.

The push for stricter transparency rules in EU lobbying is a step in the right direction following the “damaging” Qatargate scandal, but policymakers should also keep a close eye on NGOs’ funding by foundations or other associations, whose donors are...

The Greek parliament will discuss on Friday a key piece of legislation to ban criminal organisations from running in the upcoming national elections. The objective is to block a neo-Nazi party from running, but some legal loopholes may endanger the...

The European Central Bank will favour bonds issued by greener companies as it starts running down its €5 trillion portfolio of bond holdings from March, it said on Thursday (2 February).

China slammed the planned visit by the speaker of the Czech lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, to Taiwan in March, calling it a ‘wrongful decision’. The Chinese government has urged Adamová to cancel her trip, Reuters reported on Thursday. China...

Romanian state-owned company Romgaz and Azeri oil and gas company Socar will sign a new contract for the delivery of natural gas on Friday.

The European Union's ban on imports of Russian refined oil products, including diesel and jet fuel, will disrupt global flows once it takes effect on Sunday (5 February) and could hurt Moscow more than an embargo on crude oil.

Albania has risen four places in The Economist 2022 Democracy Index, making it one of the best-performing countries of the year, resulting in an upgrade from hybrid regime to flawed democracy. The scoring system looks at performance in several key...

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti addressed the parliamentary assembly on Thursday and stated the conditions under which the Association of Serb Municipalities would be acceptable. The association was agreed and signed upon in 2013 under the previous government, but it...

Geological works in north-western Bosnia-Herzegovina have unearthed highly concentrated gold deposits, which will now be tested for possible exploitation, the company doing the works said on Thursday. Miloš Bošnjaković, general manager of Lykos Balkan Metals, said gold was discovered along...

The government Plenipotentiary for the Security of the Information Space of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Żaryn, warned at a press conference about a disinformation campaign taking place in the country concerning refugees from Ukraine. Ukrainian refugees often fall victim...

Eleven MEPs called for a thorough investigation into the death of a Slovak citizen – who died after being held in custody at Charleroi airport in 2018 – after it was announced that the charges against the responsible police officers...

Spain received a total of 71.6 million tourists in 2022, which is 14.3% less than the number of tourists welcomed in 2019, the year before the pandemic broke out, official figures released on Thursday revealed. The recovery of foreign tourism...

Spanish unemployment rose by 70,744 people in January, while Spanish Social Security shed some 215,047 contributors at the end of the Christmas sale season when thousands of temporary jobs came to an end, according to data from the Social Security...

EXCLUSIVE. Nine EU member states, including France, have called on the European Commission to include low-carbon hydrogen – produced from nuclear electricity – in the EU's renewable hydrogen targets.