The Turkish AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is planning to run in the European Elections in Germany, according to media reports, with high-ranking German politicians warning that the move could expand Turkish influence within the EU.

A low-risk, high-reward solution exists that can help American and European machinery exporters resolve a persistent technical barrier to trade, if policymakers choose to act.

Forthcoming cuts to psychiatric care at Sweden’s largest hospital could lead to more deaths, 29 doctors from the hospital have warned, in the latest example of the country’s deepening health crisis.

France is lagging behind its initial renewable energy targets for 2023, although it is set to pick up the pace by 2030, but not enough to meet EU targets, the latest figures from the French Renewable Energy Observatory published on Thursday (25 January) show.

Hungary's far-right Our Homeland party would lay claim to a western region of Ukraine that is home to about 150,000 ethnic Hungarians if Ukraine loses its statehood due to Russia’s invasion, the party's leader said late on Saturday (27 January).

Three US service members were killed and at least 34 wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on US troops in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and US officials said on Sunday (28 January).

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Italy’s PD announcing a protest against Meloni’s use of state TV ahead of EU elections, the Polish opposition leader likening Tusk to Hitler at a PiS rally, and so much more.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a letter over the weekend to the Greek government greenlighting the purchase of up to 40 F-35 fighter jets as well as some “gifts” of military equipment no longer needed by US armed forces.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy voiced the danger of the Ukraine conflict escalating into World War Three, as he pressed his case for support from nations from Germany to the United States in an interview with German state broadcaster ARD on Sunday (28 January).

Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government is sending a specially commissioned envoy to explain the government’s actions in the area of the rule of law to the EU institutions, but the envoy, who in past claimed vaccines against COVID-19 were biological weapons, is sparking controversy.

International ultraconservative organisations influenced the Czech lawmakers’ decision to reject the Istanbul Convention on Wednesday, Czech law analysts warned, adding that the decision was accompanied by a disinformation campaign.

The opposition, who marched on Friday in protest of the election results, is calling to annul last month’s national elections, claiming numerous irregularities, and calling for an independent investigation by relevant authorities.

If Bosnia and Herzegovina does not open accession negotiations in March, not only will it lose the whole of 2024 on the way to the EU, but it may also never get the chance to negotiate membership again, Croatian MEP Željana Zovko warned in an interview with Euractiv.

Household loans may need to be tightened based on this year’s first-quarter results, Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev said on Sunday as his country tries to curb inflation to meet its last remaining condition to join the eurozone in 2025.

The leader of the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS, ECR) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, compared the actions of Donald Tusk’s new government to those of Hitler at a party rally in the central Polish city of Lublin.

The two favourites in the Finnish presidential elections, former centre-right prime minister Alexander Stubbs and former Green foreign minister Pekka Haavisto will go to a second round on 11 February, while EU commissioner Jutta Urpilainen crashed out with just 4.4%, blaming her defeat in part on the European Commission's rules on the candidacy of commissioners.

The EU and its member states can and must jointly do more for animal welfare. This is the clear message the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council wants to convey by organising  a one-day conference dedicated to our treatment of animals, write Stella Kyriakides, Ben Weyt, Celine Tellie and Bernard Clerfay.

A fierce debate is raging in Czechia about whether the country should retain or end the so-called protected distribution channel, which obliges pharmaceutical manufacturers to supply selected suppliers with medicines.

A leaked European Commission paper on “industrial carbon management”, to be published on 6 February, lays the groundwork for captured carbon dioxide to be “recycled” in chemical processes or used as maritime and jet fuel, while accounting for non-emitted CO2 in the bloc’s carbon market.

Italian left-wing opposition party PD will hold a ‘pro-press freedom’ sit-in outside the headquarters of national public broadcaster RAI, announced party leader Elly Schlein, over Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s alleged monopolisation of state TV for campaigning ahead of June’s EU elections.