Browsing: EU

A group of French lawmakers met on Tuesday to try and strike a deal on a contested bill that will toughen France’s immigration laws and has highlighted the difficulties for President Emmanuel Macron of running the country with no majority in parliament. Beyond the details of the controversial bill on which left and right-wing lawmakers sought to see eye to eye, “this is a political power struggle, a tug of war for who is really controlling this flagship law,” FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent said.

The current 10-year trend is “going in the wrong direction”, warns the worrying environmental report.

A volcanic eruption began on Monday night in Iceland, south of the capital Reykjavik, following an earthquake swarm, Iceland’s Meteorological Office reported.

Delegates from Russia’s ruling party unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin ’s bid for re-election at a party conference in Moscow on Sunday, state agencies reported, just a day after the Kremlin leader’s supporters formally nominated him to run in the 2024 presidential election as an independent. Meanwhile Putin warned of “problems” with neighbouring Finland after it joined NATO earlier this year, saying Moscow will create a new military district in north-west Russia in response, in an interview published Sunday.

Reuters exclusively reported that Apple (AAPL.O) has offered to let rivals access its tap-and-go mobile payments systems used for mobile
The post Apple offers to let rivals access tap-and-go tech in EU antitrust case  appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

“This is the first cardinal to be prosecuted in a Vatican criminal court”, said FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Rome, Italy, Seema Gupta.” Cardinal Angelo Becciu is the most senior Vatican official to face such charges; “the 75-year-old cardinal was a former advisor to Pope Francis, so he was somebody who would meet with the pope and he was seen as a papal contender”. 

French actor Gerard Depardieu’s Legion d’Honneur medal is under review following a string of allegations about sexual aggression and a TV documentary in which he was heard making lewd comments about women. 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for an “intelligent compromise” over a controversial immigration bill as his government battles a political crisis following the rejection of the flagship legislation in parliament.

Talking Europe sat down with the prime minister of Bulgaria, Nikolai Denkov, during a crucial EU summit that approved the start of EU accession talks for Ukraine and Moldova – but failed to find an agreement on budget support for Ukraine. We take the political temperature in the summit room with our guest, and discuss some regional and Bulgarian developments as well – notably Sofia’s efforts to join the Schengen free travel area, which is currently under negotiation between Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and the European Commission. 

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been removed from a prison near Moscow and taken to an undisclosed location, his spokeswoman said Friday, citing a court representative.

Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the International Olympic Committee rules mandating Russian athletes compete at the Paris Olympics as neutrals. 

New Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government was sworn in by the president on Wednesday, the final step in a transfer of power that marks a huge change after eight years of nationalist rule.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces the biggest parliamentary test of his premiership on Tuesday when lawmakers vote on his flagship migration policy of sending asylum seekers who arrive illegally in Britain to Rwanda. Sunak is seeking to revive his key plan after the UK Supreme Court ruled last month that Rwanda was an unsafe place to send those arriving in small boats on England’s southern coast, concluding it would breach British and international law.

French opposition lawmakers on Monday rejected an immigration bill without debating it, in a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron ’s government, which had championed the proposed law as one of its flagship measures. The government has yet to decide whether to keep pushing for the adoption of the bill intended to strengthen the country’s ability to expel foreigners considered undesirable or withdraw it.

It’s the second coming of Donald Tusk with implications well beyond Poland’s borders. Two months after a general election marked by a huge turnout comes a comeback for the center-right leader. Tusk’s first stint as prime minister was followed up by a move to Brussels where as president of the European Council, he found himself clashing with the leadership of his own country. 

Poland’s parliament voted in favour of Donald Tusk becoming prime minister on Monday, putting an end to eight years of nationalist rule and setting the stage for a thawing of relations with the European Union.

Allies of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Monday that they had been unable to locate him for six days, and that he had likely been transferred to another facility.

French artificial intelligence start-up Mistral AI announced Sunday it had raised 385 million euros ($414 million), becoming one of Europe’s two AI leaders.

EU member states and lawmakers clinched a deal on Friday on how to draft “historic” rules regulating artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT — after 36 hours of negotiations.

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Friday visited the French overseas island of Mayotte, the poorest place in the European Union, amid a growing water crisis. Due to a drawn-out drought compounded by years of underinvestment and water mismanagement, the island’s inhabitants have access to water only one every three days.

The war in Ukraine has forced a major rethink in European security, with both Sweden and Finland abandoning their long-standing policy of non-alignment and applying for NATO membership last year. But while Finland was admitted into NATO this April, delays have persisted on Sweden’s entry, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan linking a serious of unrelated issues to Ankara’s ratification of Sweden’s accession – the latest of which is a potential sale of US F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. We discuss what Sweden’s entry to NATO would actually mean with Sweden’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.

Denmark’s parliament on Thursday adopted a law criminalising the “inappropriate treatment” of religious texts, effectively banning Koran burnings after a series of desecrations of Islam’s holy book sparked anger in Muslim countries over the summer.

Europe Briefing – Gunman on the run in Brussels & Conor McGregor running for Irish presidency Police in Brussels are still hunting Friday’s gunman -…

Increasing uncertainty surrounds Western funding for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s escalating efforts to cripple the nation’s energy infrastructure.