Browsing: Europe

Europe is a continent and is different to the European Union.

Switzerland’s non-membership of the EU means it is viewed as more neutral than countries like Austria, Ireland or Sweden.

The head of the Russian Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said overnight he had taken control of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don as part of an attempt to oust Russia’s defence minister. The 62-year-old’s open challenge to Moscow’s military comes after months of growing tensions over the conduct of the war in Ukraine.

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called for an armed uprising to topple Russia’s military establishment on Friday, prompting President Vladimir Putin to denounce the mercenaries’ actions as “treason” and Russian authorities to call for Prigozhin’s arrest. British intelligence said early Saturday that some of the group’s forces were heading towards Moscow. Follow FRANCE 24’s reports from the field and analysis.

Talking Europe devotes a special programme to levelling up – efforts to reduce inequalities and disparities in the European Union. Featuring extracts from our own reporting from around the continent, we take a comprehensive view of the EU’s cohesion policy with Elisa Ferreira, the Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. She insists that levelling up “has really worked”, but says that “this does not mean that everything is perfect”. She also urges member states to reflect on the political cost of the continuing imbalances between European regions.

NATO organised a major air deployment exercise designed to demonstrate the unity of its members in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in the face of potential threats from Russia amid the war in Ukraine. The exercise, named “Air Defender 23”, began on June 12 and ends on June 23. It has brought together some 250 aircraft from 25 NATO member and partner countries, including Japan and Sweden, a country applying to join the military alliance.