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The latest news from the EU News. Headquarters is located in Brussels with our correspondents and political analyst breaking down the news piece by piece, in-depth and relevant, so you can understand the news with perspective on our dedicated news page for the latest Euro News 24 hours a day.

Talking Europe hosts one of the EU Commission’s vice-presidents, Margaritis Schinas, who is in charge of overseeing the promotion of the European Way of Life. That includes fighting anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination in various forms. Schinas also coordinates the Commission’s work on the Migration and Asylum Pact, which is entering a critical period in negotiations between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. Schinas tells Armen Georgian he is optimistic that the Pact will be completed before the EU elections next June, and that this will be a key part of the legacy of Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission.

The statistics are as damning as they are grim. In the EU, one in three women aged 15 or over has experienced physical or sexual violence – or both. More than half of all women in Europe have been sexually harassed. Only a fifth of women in the EU go to the police when an intimate partner assaults them. Meanwhile, EU member states have failed to agree on how to address the worst crimes against women. Several countries continue to resist calls by Brussels to define non-consensual sex as rape, punishable by a stiff jail sentence. Today, in 2023, there is no common set of rules in the EU to punish rape, to the growing dismay of many. As Europe prepares to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, we discuss the issue with two MEPs.

IN THE PRESS – Thursday, November 23: We look at reactions in the Dutch papers after Geert Wilders’ party wins legislative elections and must now form a coalition to govern. Also: Italian lawmakers pass a law protecting victims of domestic violence, after the death of an Italian student garners front page news. Plus, a new study shows that astronauts may suffer from erectile dysfunction as a result of prolonged time spent in space.

Italy is one of the main countries of arrival in Europe for thousands of minors crossing the Mediterranean on their own. Since the beginning of her mandate as prime minister, far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has prioritised the fight against illegal immigration. This fall, the Italian executive approved a decree targeting unaccompanied minor migrants. The text toughens their living conditions and imposes stricter measures on verifying their age. Our correspondents report from Palermo, on the island of Sicily.

Surveys have fluctuated wildly in the run-up to election day, but observers believe that whichever party wins the most seats in this Wednesday’s parliamentary elections in the Netherlands may need support from at least three other parties to govern. Dilan Yesilgoz, leader of the centre-right VVD party and successor to outgoing PM Mark Rutte, is hoping to cap a meteoric rise by clinching the top job. She would be the first woman to do so in the Netherlands. Born in Turkey, the 46-year-old Yesilgoz has taken a hard line on immigration. For more, we speak to Professor Joop van Holsteijn from the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University.

A new Dutch political party started by Pieter Omtzigt is among those leading in opinion polls for the snap elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday, November 22. Omtzigt, a former Christian Democrat MP, is known for helping bring down the government of Mark Rutte in 2021 after revealing a child benefits scandal, in which thousands of families were wrongly accused of fraud on the basis of their ethnicity. The centrist anti-establishment candidate is shaking up the Dutch political landscape and is already drawing comparisons to French President Emmanuel Macron, who swept to power in 2017 with his new centrist party. So who is Omtzigt, the man who could become the next Dutch prime minister? Our correspondents report.

An Italian tribunal on Monday convicted 207 people and sentenced them to a combined 2,100 years in prison on charges related to their membership in Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta organised crime syndicate, one of the world’s most powerful, extensive and wealthy drug-trafficking groups. The mafia group, which is tied to some 150 Calabrian families, has a near monopoly on the European cocaine trade, bringing in €50 billion annually according to some estimates, FRANCE 24’s Seema Gupta said. 

At the Paris Fire Brigade’s brand new training facilities outside Paris, new recruits are excited to join the ranks of one of the emergency services to be deployed during the Olympic Games next year. Launching a hiring drive to find an extra 300 recruits, aiming to hire a total 1,200 for 2024, the brigade is competing with police, the army and private security companies to employ young people.

Alsu Kurmasheva is a dual US-Russian citizen and journalist who has been detained by Russia since October 18, charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent” despite having travelled to Russia for a family emergency. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Her husband has called for the State Department to designate her as “wrongfully detained”. “She is a US citizen and has the same rights as any US citizen,” he says.