EURACTIV News
US stops UN from recognizing a Palestinian state through membership
The US on Thursday (18 April) effectively stopped the UN from recognizing a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny Palestinians full membership of the world body.
Categories: EurActiv
Bulgaria likely won’t join eurozone in January 2025 despite government goal
Bulgaria may join the eurozone at the end of 2025, Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev said on Thursday, missing the previous 1 January 2025 goal of the government and the main political parties in Sofia.
Categories: EurActiv
Two Polish ex-ministers sentenced for abuse of power to run for MEP seats
Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, two former ministers sentenced for the abuse of power and pardoned by current President Andrzej Duda, will run in the European elections, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party announced Thursday.
Categories: EurActiv
EU sees signs China supplying dual-use components to Russia, Dombrovskis says
The EU sees signs that China is supplying components to Russia that could be used to make weapons, a top EU official said on Thursday (18 April).
Categories: EurActiv
Czech lawmakers’ debate on EU migration gets heated, draws attention of Commissioner
A debate on the EU's Migration Pact in the Czech parliament on Thursday caught the eye of EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson and turned heated as MPs argued over the reception of refugees in the Czech Republic.
Categories: EurActiv
Eucalyptus: Portugal’s sustainability dilemma
Portuguese eucalyptus forests are helping to replace plastics, but as the country's climate warms up, this highly flammable tree is a growing threat to people and biodiversity.
Categories: EurActiv
Lebanon: Refugees, proximity to conflict, instability, make EU leaders nervous
Fearing new migration waves toward Europe, EU leaders are looking at ways to support Lebanon with economic aid package to be delivered by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the coming days.
Categories: EurActiv
Bosnian Serb MPs adopt a report denying the Srebrenica genocide
Bosnian Serb lawmakers adopted a report denying that the killing of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war constituted genocide, and thousands of Serbs later protested against a UN resolution to commemorate the atrocity.
Categories: EurActiv
Spain could unilaterally recognise Palestinian statehood ‘within weeks’
Spain’s government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), will decide in the coming weeks whether to recognise Palestine as a state, regardless of whether other EU countries join Madrid in this decision, official sources told Euractiv’s partner EFE on Thursday.
Categories: EurActiv
EU Commission OKs Stockholm’s new petrol, diesel car-free zone
The European Commission has approved the creation of an environmental zone in the city centre of Stockholm, where petrol and diesel cars will be banned entirely from 2025.
Categories: EurActiv
Macron to give ‘Sorbonne II’ speech, hopes to give campaign momentum
French President Emmanuel Macron will next week deliver a speech similar to the one he gave seven years ago at the Sorbonne University, where he laid out a detailed reform agenda for the bloc and revealed his Europhile credentials, a move he and his party hope will pull his party out of the polling slump it is currently in ahead of the European elections.
Categories: EurActiv
Two suspected Russian spies arrested in Germany for planned attacks
Federal prosecutors arrested two suspected Russian spies in Bavaria on Thursday on suspicion of espionage and planning attacks on military targets to undermine support for Ukraine.
Categories: EurActiv
Slovak government scrambles for arguments amid EU farm subsidy delay
Slovak Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč is keeping quiet about his meeting with European Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski over the delayed release of EU farm subsidies, known as direct payments, which the Slovak government has still not paid to all eligible Slovak farmers, putting them at risk of not receiving them.
Categories: EurActiv
The EU’s economic destiny, according to the Letta report
In today's episode of Today in the EU, we decrypt the 147-page long report by former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta that all EU institutions have been waiting for. Letta's analysis of the EU's single market was commissioned by the European Council a year ago.
Categories: EurActiv
A ‘difficult’ summit: Corporate tax, single supervision scrapped from conclusions
European Council president Charles Michel described EU leaders' competitiveness summit as “difficult” - as calls for harmonising corporate tax rules and centralising the supervision of financial sector firms were scrapped from the final Council conclusions.
Categories: EurActiv
Belgium praises Hungary’s strong commitment to EU competitiveness agenda
“What I am very pleased to hear is that the Hungarian presidency was very clear in the fact that they take this as one of the key elements of their presidency,” Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Thursday (18 April).
Categories: EurActiv
UN’s Summit of the Future, EU regions and cities preparing for SDG upgrade [Advocacy Lab Content]
The UN’s Summit of the Future takes place on 22-23 September in New York, hosted by the UN General Assembly. It provides a high-level forum to determine the next steps in achieving all 17 sustainable development goals.
Categories: EurActiv
Kazakhstan president enacts new laws protecting women and children [Advocacy Lab Content]
Kazakhstan will guarantee better protection of women’s rights and children’s safety. Kazakh President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has endorsed significant amendments to new laws envisaging harsh penalties for perpetrators of abuse.
Categories: EurActiv
Romania’s six billion euro bet to accelerate digital public services [Advocacy Lab Content]
Despite boasting IT specialisation, Romania struggles with one of the most underdeveloped digital public bureaucracies in the region. A new €6 billion injection from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan could revitalise the sector.
Categories: EurActiv
Spain will include ‘work-related mental health’ in disease surveillance
Spain's Ministry of Health is to include in its national epidemiological surveillance system a state register in which any suspicion of work-related mental suffering will be reported, because “work is breaking workers”, Belén González, the coordinator of this pioneering initiative, told Euractiv's partner EFE in an interview.
Categories: EurActiv