Browsing: EU Featured

A Serbian opposition party formally lodged a complaint on Friday against alleged fraud by President Aleksandar Vucic’s ruling party during parliamentary and local elections last month.

Talking Europe interviews the EU commissioner in charge of jobs and social rights, Nicolas Schmit. He speaks to the importance of protecting workers, particularly the “gig” or “platform” workers, whose status is at the core of a dispute between the European Commission and several EU member states. He also addresses the issue of “social dumping” – people being paid below their level of skills – an issue of relevance not only to EU workers, but also to Ukrainian refugees that have been granted permission to live and work in the EU. Plus, he explains the implementation of the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages, as economic conditions in Europe threaten people’s purchasing power; especially that of poorer members of society.

Two renowned anthropologists have spent the past five years documenting the lives of migrants in one specific place. Didier Fassin and Anne-Claire Defossez chose to assist aid workers at a reception centre in the French Alpine town of Briançon, close to the Italian border. They looked at how the migrants were living, what support they received, as well as how they were treated by police. The pair were even arrested while carrying out their research, simply for helping the migrants. They spoke to FRANCE 24’s Gavin Lee in Perspective.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday replaced his foreign minister but maintained other key figures in their posts, in a reshuffle that tilted his cabinet to the right and leaves all the top ministries in the hands of men.

A chance discovery in a Lithuanian church cellar in 2017 led to the unearthing of a collection of lost stories of Jewish teenagers depicting their lives in the 1930s. Ken Krimstein, a cartoonist for The New Yorker, was so moved by the autobiographical accounts that he travelled to Vilnius to read them in person.

South Africa asked the International Court of Justice to order Israel to immediately suspend its military operation in Gaza, where it says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians. FRANCE 24’s Fernande van Tets is in The Hague with the details.

A former interior minister and his aide have launched hunger strikes from prison after being detained on abuse of power charges Tuesday for masterminding a fake graft case to discredit another politician in 2007. 

Several countries in Europe, including France, have already adopted the so-called Nutri-Score, a food ranking system displayed on packaging aimed at helping people choose healthier food. The system essentially gives food and drink items a score from A to E based on their key ingredients, such as sugar, salt and fibre. But the algorithm is now changing to better reflect nutritional reality, as FRANCE 24’s Julia Sieger explains.

Azerbaijan told France Wednesday not to “intervene” in its internal affairs after Baku arrested a Frenchman on espionage charges with tensions running high between the two countries.

After a swift rise up the ranks, 34-year-old Gabriel Attal took the reins as France’s new prime minister on Tuesday. With a background steeped in privilege, the first openly gay head of government is expected to bring new energy to President Emmanuel Macron’s government, which has been weakened by months of protests over pension reform, the lack of a parliamentary majority and low approval ratings.