After attending school in Finland and later the U.S., Belgium and the U.K., Stubb entered politics in 2004 as a member of the European Parliament. He hit the Finnish big time in 2008 when — to his own surprise — he was named foreign minister. Praised by allies for his high-energy approach to politics, he was … Read more
Kaczyński spoke to Wojciechowski on Friday afternoon and asked him to resign, people in the European Commission told POLITICO, adding that Wojciechowski was “seriously considering” doing so. Farmers in Poland blockaded roads and major border crossings with Ukraine on Friday at the start of a month-long series of protests across the country. The farmers demand … Read more
On Friday, Netanyahu announced he had ordered defense forces to “submit to the cabinet a dual plan for both evacuating the population and bringing down the battalions” ahead of an “intensive operation.” “It is impossible to achieve the war goal of eliminating Hamas and leave four Hamas battalions in Rafah,” his office said. Netanyahu’s plans … Read more
The party’s final boost then came courtesy of the reemergence of irregular migration as a political issue, as well as Europe’s energy and inflationary crises begat by the Russia-Ukraine War. In 2022, 112,272 asylum applications were lodged in Austria — that’s more than at the height of the migration crisis in 2015. Year-on-year inflation peaked at 11.2 percent in January 2023 … Read more
Outside the courtroom, Bayrou said the court’s decision marked the end of a “seven-year-long nightmare.” It was initially estimated that the European Parliament had incurred €1.4 million in losses from the embezzlement scheme, but the institution’s legal defense had lowered the figure to €293,000 by the start of the trial, AFP reported. Bayrou endorsed Macron … Read more
As the U.S. strikes reportedly killed more than 40 people, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement that it represented “another adventurous and strategic mistake by the United States that will result only in increased tension in instability in the region.” Russia called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, … Read more
Demands and priorities Britain is providing the executive an extra £3.3 billion to start patching holes in services and pay long-delayed wage hikes that just triggered the biggest public sector strike in Northern Ireland’s history. The trouble is, the head of Northern Ireland’s civil service, Jayne Brady, has already told the new leaders that these eye-watering sums are still … Read more
Duda had said on Friday that he did not know if Ukraine would “regain Crimea,” adding that the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, “is a special place … because in fact, if we look historically, it was in Russia’s hands for most of the time.” The remarks drew strong criticism as Warsaw has … Read more
From Wednesday, EU businesses sending agricultural produce to the U.K. will need to comply with onerous new paperwork requirements — with some warning they will give up exporting across the Channel as a result. The extra bureaucracy will be compounded by new physical checks on consignments from April, and yet more layers of paperwork from … Read more
This includes issues in the awarding of public contracts, restrictions on academic freedoms, a “child protection law” widely viewed as homophobic and the treatment of asylum seekers. The row over the so-called child protection law has turned into legal action, as 15 member countries and the European Parliament have joined a lawsuit brought by the Commission … Read more
