The two-day Summit starting Thursday has as one of its prominent focuses the increasing prices in the European energy bill. The soaring prices across Europe after the almost two years of lockdown has mainly impacted low-income households struggling to deal with the
Last week, the Latvian government took the hard decision of going back into lockdown after opening entirely in the summer. The two opposing sides for and against the vaccines are coming to the contrast observed in most countries in Central and Eastern
A golden statue portraying the late soprano Maria Callas was erected under the Acropolis and close to the Roman theatre of Herodes Atticus. There Maria Callas, at the height of her career, performed for the Greek audience in 1957. It was her
What remains of the debt brake after the corona crisis? The debt brake adopted in 2009 for the state finances of the Federal Republic of Germany meant the end of a policy that today wanted to solve problems at the expense of
The 2021 federal elections in Germany raised numerous questions On the evening of September 26th, many of the parties must have felt like winners. The empty phrases like thanks to the trust of the voters as well as the self-evident assumption of
A lack of investment in digitalization hinders innovation Resting on your laurels is a trait that is almost instantly penalized in business. In the German economy, some industries have long been considered a source of innovation that contributed to new standards. Germany
Building wealth is becoming increasingly difficult in Germany Associating poverty with people who live in Germany is not necessarily easy. Numerous groups in Germany such as low wage earners, single parents and senior citizens are at an increased risk of impoverishment. As
Calls are growing to abolish Italian neofascist movements after violent protests against Covid-19 vaccine passes in Rome, during which demonstrators tried to force their way into the official residence of the Italian prime minister. Twelve people, including Roberto Fiore, the founder of
Emmanuel Macron has said French military forces have killed the leader of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi. “It’s another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel,” the French president said on Wednesday night, without disclosing the location
A historic impeachment trial gets underway in Denmark on Thursday against a former minister who spearheaded dozens of tough immigration measures. Inger Stoejberg is accused of unlawfully ordering the separation of young asylum-seeking couples in 2016. She is facing a landmark lawsuit,
A series of murders in Marseille has sparked a political row over the growing turf wars between drug gangs who are terrorising poor housing estates, where one recent shooting victim was only 14 years old. Dominique Laurens, the public prosecutor in Marseille, warned
Sweden’s only remaining mountaintop glacier, which until 2019 was also its highest peak, lost another two metres in height in the past year due to rising air temperatures driven by climate change, Stockholm University says. In 2019, the south peak of the
Not until the automatic doors of Eurostar arrivals opened could Sue Stevens be sure that her daughter, Laura, had made it back from Paris. Eighteen bitterly hard months had passed since they had seen each other, while a late moment of bureaucratic confusion at
Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has left Japan on a Vienna-bound plane after she refused to fly home earlier this week. The 24-year-old, who had sought refuge at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, had been expected to take a flight direct to Warsaw but switched
A Belgian judge has opened an investigation for possible manslaughter over floods there that claimed 38 lives, the prosecutors office in the city of Liege announced. The investigating magistrate has the task of identifying who might be responsible for “involuntary homicide by
It earned the nickname “Titanic of the mountains”, but now the monumental and ill-fated train station at Canfranc is to get a new life as a five-star hotel, 51 years after the international rail link across the Pyrenees closed. The story of
The grief-snapped mother is still there, cradling her dead child 84 years on, as is the fallen soldier with his stigmata and the horse with its silent screams. However, the Guernica now on its way to a museum in the Basque country
Pope Francis is alert, breathing without assistance and in a good overall condition after surgery to remove part of his colon, the Vatican has said. The 84-year-old is expected to stay in hospital for seven days barring any complications, following his three-hour operation on
Ryanair’s passenger numbers surged in June, with the rollout of Covid-19 vaccination programmes across Europe boosting confidence in air travel. The no-frills airline, which in June reported the biggest annual loss in its 35-year history, carried 5.3 million passengers on 38,000 flights
If the residents of Apes’ Den are pleased to see a larger than usual number of Britons snapping them, cooing over them or, indeed, edging gingerly away from them, they give little indication of it. It is not much of a stretch to suggest
Venice has missed tourists – but not their bad habits. In an echo of the pre-pandemic era, authorities have been cracking down on uncouth behaviour as visitors flock back to the lagoon city. A French tourist was fined €150 (£128) after paddling
Italy’s public broadcaster Rai has come under fire for broadcasting leaked CCTV footage of a fatal cable car crash that killed 14 people near Stresa, in the north of Italy. Last month, the cable car connecting the Lake Maggiore resort town of Stresa to a nearby mountain
Russian officials have reacted angrily after the head of Ukraine’s football association unveiled a new national team shirt emblazoned with a map of Ukraine that includes Crimea. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and has sought to integrate the peninsula into Russia permanently, but it is internationally
Two cars have been swallowed by a sinkhole on a street in Rome, one of many to blight the Italian capital in recent years. A Mercedes SUV and a Smart car fell into the six-metre-deep and 20-metre-long chasm on Via Zenodossio in
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial for the alleged illegal campaign financing of the massive, showman-style political rallies he staged during his failed re-election bid in 2012. Sarkozy, president for one term from 2007 to 2012, was not present for
Hundreds of thousands of European citizens could find themselves in limbo after 30 June and left without documented legal rights to remain in the UK if the Home Office does not clear a backlog of more than 320,000 applications for post-Brexit residency status, campaigners
A German “jab to freedom” bill that would from this weekend lift social-distancing rules, testing requirements and curfews for people who have been fully vaccinated, is drawing criticism for discriminating against young people still months from getting their first dose. The legislation,
For half a century, the police procedural Tatort (“Crime Scene”) has provided a rallying point for Germany’s culturally diverse regions, gathering viewers around their television sets every Sunday night to watch detectives from across the country solve gruesome murders over the course of 90
Represented by MEPs Hannah Neumann and Marc Tarabella, Delegation Arab Peninsula in the European Parliament hosted a virtual debate on Migrant Workers in the Gulf. The meeting was attended by some international organizations, unions, NGOs, and representatives of some Gulf states. William
On Hydra, the Greek isle long famous for an artistic community that once included Leonard Cohen, expatriates are not having a good pandemic. Roger Green, a British writer who has lived on the island since the early 90s, says some are afraid
Greece will take a first step towards reopening its tourism industry by dropping quarantine rules for travellers from more than 30 nations if they’ve been vaccinated or tested negative for Covid-19. From next week, incoming citizens from across the European Union and
Germany’s health minister has said he wants to hold talks with Moscow about obtaining supplies of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, in an effort to boost the country’s inoculation campaign. Jens Spahn said Germany would have no hesitation in acting independently of
Europe may not be subject to the drastic lockdown measures introduced to combat the first wave of coronavirus a year ago, but many countries still face another Easter of greatly reduced meeting and movement. In France, new restrictions come into effect across the country
In December, two weeks before the European Medicines Agency authorised the first vaccine against Covid-19 for use across the European Union, Berlin unveiled a plan to rocket-fuel its immunisation drive with German precision engineering. Jabs would be mass-administered in purpose-built vaccination centres
Winters in Berlin are notoriously tough but this year has been like no other. “I’m really tired of it,” Ina Eggers, a teacher in the city, says. “Winter is always hard but now [with lockdown] we don’t have anything to do, so
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats face questions over their new leader and the impact of a corruption scandal involving face mask production following historic defeats in German regional elections on Sunday – just six months before a national vote. Merkel’s successor as chancellor is due
Germany suffered its largest economic contraction since 2009 last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, with gross domestic product shrinking by six percent. Industry leaders are now calling on Ms Merkel to publish a strategy allowing pandemic restrictions to lift to help
The French President has come under huge pressure with France lagging behind several other countries in vaccinating its tens of millions of citizens. This situation hasn’t been helped by the chaotic rollout from the European Union, which ignited a row with vaccine
An ally of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has announced plans for a new nationwide protest in support of the jailed politician, telling Russians to gather in residential courtyards on Sunday evening and turn on their mobile phone torches. Tens of thousands of people have
Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank chief, has accepted a mandate to try to form a new Italian government as the country seeks a way out of the political crisis triggered by the collapse of its most recent coalition. Draghi, nicknamed
Brussels will publish a revised regulation to potentially block vaccine exports out of the EU on Saturday, after an international outcry over its initial plans to erect an export border for doses on the island of Ireland. The European commission’s newly drafted
Hans-Olaf Henkel, who stepped down from the European Parliament in 2019, lamented the narrow defeat in Saturday’s CDU leadership contest of Friedrich Merz, describing him as the only senior German figure who understands what a colossal loss Brexit represents to the EU. Mr Laschet, Prime Minister
European leaders have voiced relief at Joe Biden’s inauguration, hailing a “new dawn” for Europe and the US, but warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and transatlantic ties will be different in future. “This new dawn in
And Dr Joseph Downing suggested the next year to 18 months will be crucial as France and other members of the EU27 keep tabs on the UK’s fortunes outside the bloc. Mr Macron is under pressure with the numbers of people who have had the jab currently
Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades has begun, with 900 witnesses testifying against more than 350 people, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the powerful ’Ndrangheta. A high-security 1,000-capacity courtroom with cages to hold the defendants has been
And Nicolas Bay, whose National Rally party colleague Marine Le Pen, could well be Mr Macron’s opponent once again next year, also said the European Union was guilty of multiple failures which had slowed down the process across the continent. Mr Macron is under significant
Earlier this week it emerged the German Chancellor encouraged the blocking of a bid by four European health ministers to secure large orders of the coronavirus vaccine last year. Instead, the countries handed over authority to the European Commission to ensure a
The Moscow metro has hired female drivers for the first time in its recent history, following changes in Russian legislation prohibiting women from many professions. The Russian capital’s transport system, which oversees the sprawling metro network, said in a statement that “the first female
At least seven people have been killed and dozens injured after a strong earthquake hit central Croatia, destroying buildings and sending panicked people fleeing into rubble-covered streets in a town south-east of the capital Zagreb. The European Mediterranean Seismological Center said an earthquake
Officials in Gibraltar are making daily patrols of the territory’s Barbary macaque population amid fears that the iconic monkeys could be vulnerable to the coronavirus. The British overseas territory has been relatively spared by the virus, documenting about 1,000 confirmed cases and six deaths. But as
