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The British prime minister insists the government has a "clear plan" that is "right for the country" after its mini-budget caused market turmoil and an opinion poll nosedive

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen heralded the new pipeline as a "game changer" at an inauguration ceremony in Sofia.

The Japanese vice defence minister says North Korea's fourth missile test in a week is unprecedented and threatens regional and international security.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Here are the key developments related to Russia's war in Ukraine this Saturday.

This is how Catalonia's independence movement is faring after it tried to break away from Spain in 2017.

No agenda, no slant. Get the picture without the commentary.

Scientists have been excelling at their job lately: we’re getting better at battling cancer and we’ve helped the ozone layer hit a significant recovery milestone. Plus the four-day working week might soon go mainstream.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Brazil's top presidential candidates exchange insults at last televised election debate ahead of Sunday's vote.

Locals in the German town of Feldheim have worked together combining green and renewable energies to make their town entirely energy auto sufficient.

A revived Hurricane Ian made landfall on coastal South Carolina on Friday, threatening the historic city of Charleston with severe flooding.

Former president Lula da Silva vowed to get EU-Mercosur deal up and running in six months if re-elected.

European countries leveled broad condemnation at Russia on the day Vladimir Putin signed decrees to illegally annex Ukrainian land.

The strike sent shrapnel tearing through vehicles that were hoping to collect people from Russian-controlled areas of the region

Competitors from Russia would have to show they don't support the war in Ukraine, Thomas Bach told an Italian newspaper.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signs an accord to annex the occupied regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia at a treaty signing ceremony in St George’s Hall at the Kremlin.

Rights groups say up to 83 killed as Tehran attempts to crackdown on persistent demonstrations; forces open fire on group stoning police station in city near Pakistan border.

In Russia, at the border with Georgia, Finnad and Kazakhstan, lines of thousands of vehicles are visible since the announcement of the "partial mobilization" by the Russian president.

While EU governments still mull over introducing a cap on gas prices, some businesses are more in a hurry for solutions to the energy crisis. In Brussels, the epicenter of the EU, a group of restaurants owners have imagined how a future without gas and electricity would look like for gourmets.

Vladimir Putin said four occupied and annexed Ukrainian regions will be part of Russia "forever" and declared "victory will be ours" at Moscow rally.

Despite religious protests and a restricted Pride march, the annual EuroPride event for the LGBTIQA+ community in Europe, went ahead in Belgrade and makes history as the first in the Balkans and South-East Europe.

Karen Melchior is a Member of the European Parliament (Renew Europe) from Denmark, and member of the European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup. Speaking to euronews reporter Valérie Gauriat at Belgrade’s EuroPride this september.

Maria Walsh is a Member of the European Parliament from Ireland (Fine Gael, EPP), and Vice-President of the European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup. Attending the Belgrade EuroPride2022, she was among those who urged the Serbian Presidency to lift the ban on the march due to end a week of events.

Helena Dalli is the European Commissioner for Equality. Attending the Human Rights conference at Belgrade’s Europride2022, she spoke to euronews reporter Valerie Gauriat of the importance of defending LGBTQI+ rights, in a European context where civil rights as a whole are increasingly under attack.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Wolfgang Kubicki, an FDP lawmaker, has said he is unconcerned about the lawsuit.

Turkey’s parliament has yet to ratify Sweden and Finland’s membership in NATO, and Friday's step was widely seen as aimed at securing Ankara’s approval.

Sorin Cimpeanu is accused of 'fraudulently appropriating' 13 chapters of a university course he had taught.

Analysts believe that the New Unity party of PM Krišjānis Kariņš will take the most votes.

Ukraine will request to be accepted into the alliance according to the fast-track procedure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday.

The city of Braga in Portugal has seen an influx of Brazilian expats in recent years in search of a better life. The city is now home to some 13,000 Brazilians. However, some hope the elections could serve as a turning point for Brazil.

Is Bulgaria entering a downward spiral or will Sunday's election help end the political turmoil engulfing the country?

The blast occurred at an education centre in Kabul on Friday morning.

Here's our latest round-up of what's happening in Ukraine.

This book is one of the most important ever written on Britain’s tortuous relationship with Europe in the last 50 years. It has been dismissed as a book written by a haut fonctionnaire, what in English would be called a Whitehall Mandarin. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reason Barnier comprehensively out-negotiated his [...]

The post Barnier’s Secret Brexit Diary – A British perspective appeared first on The Federal Trust.

What is it about England’s right-wing journalism and France? The obsessive hate against France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in papers like the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Spectator is without precedent. As news arrived of the death of 27 refugees drowned in the Straits of Dover, the Daily Mail summed up the style and language of the Francophobe press. It blasted the “Tantrum [...]

The post The Macron Obsession – a Very English Virus appeared first on The Federal Trust.

The extraordinarily tight outcome of the German elections has created the danger for the European Union of prolonged negotiations before the next federal government can be formed, lasting even as long as until Christmas. However, it also contains a most significant opportunity. This is not merely due to the defection of voters from the anti-European [...]

The post The German elections and the future of the euro appeared first on The Federal Trust.

This essay was commissioned by Léo Keller on behalf of the Blogazoi blog, as part of a collection to be published following the German election.   It is over 21 years since Angela Merkel took over from Wolfgang Schäuble as leader of the CDU, Germany’s most consistently successful political party. Schäuble, the heir apparent to the long-serving [...]

The post Angela Merkel, Britain and Europe: a view from offshore appeared first on The Federal Trust.

From Unidentified Political Object to European Democracy Thirty years after the foundation of the European Union by virtue of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty the nature of the Union has been established at last. At the time of its creation as successor of the European Communities the EU used to be described by the then President [...]

The post The Identity of the EU appeared first on The Federal Trust.

6 years ago I published a book “Brexit. How Britain Will Leave Europe.” It came out before the May 2015 election. It set out all the reasons, based on 20 years of door knocking in what we now call a red wall seat, why I thought that if a populist plebiscite on Europe were to [...]

The post A Brexit Cassandra appeared first on The Federal Trust.

Within ten days after the finalisation of the UK withdrawal from the EU, the European Union is to start an ambitious Conference on the Future of Europe. The aim of the Conference is to discuss the place of the citizens in the construction of the Union and to underpin European democracy with a solid political [...]

The post Building Bridges in times of Divergence appeared first on The Federal Trust.

In May 2021 Northern Ireland will mark the hundredth year of its existence. These years have been marked by long periods of turmoil rather than any sense of contentment or stability. There has been and remains an atmosphere of unease. Governments in Northern Ireland have been marked  by periods of social and religious discrimination, been [...]

The post A United Ireland – An Empty Slogan? appeared first on The Federal Trust.

The author wishes to dedicate the present essay to the memory of the ever inspiring Michael Burgess, in live Founder and Director of the Centre for Federal Studies at the University of Kent.   For decades, it has been common practice in academic circles to refer to the EU as a rare bird, an ‘ava [...]

The post The European Union: From organisation ‘sui generis’ to democratic regional organisation appeared first on The Federal Trust.

The future of the financial services industry - centred in the City of London - matters enormously to the health of the United Kingdom’s economy. The Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) has few provisions on financial services and the UK now appears set to drive a wedge between EU and British rules so it can [...]

The post Brexit: Ending the City’s Dominance of European Finance? appeared first on The Federal Trust.

All the articles you should not have missed this week.

Russian president Vladimir Putin invoked Jesus, Satan, and transsexual bogeymen in a Kremlin ceremony for carving up Ukraine on Friday.

MEPs at the Strasbourg plenary are expected to discuss Russia, Iran, Hungary, and vote on common chargers for consumer devices.

EU energy ministers have adopted a package of measures to intervene in the electricity markets and reduce high energy prices. But the main topic of the day was how to deal with the gas price itself.

Anna and Mariya Muzychuk are world champion grandmaster chess players from Ukraine. On Thursday, they played an exhibition event in Brussels. EUobserver was able to speak to Anna on how the war has impacted her and the game.

The EU and Australia should aim to proactively reduce vulnerabilities and dependencies. Both have strong economic links to China, which aims to intimidate the EU and Australia in the hope that it can change our political positions.

EU energy ministers reached an agreement on Friday on measures to reduce high energy prices during a council meeting in Brussels, the Czech EU Council presidency announced. The proposal includes a binding target to reduce electricity consumption, a cap on market revenues from low-cost electricity producers such as renewables and nuclear power plants and a so-called "solidarity contribution mechanism" to channel excess profits from fossil-fuel extractors to consumers.

"Russian disinformation is almost like a nightmare. It takes the very worst of us, our worst beliefs and deepest fears, and amplifies them through social media algorithms".

Energy ministers are meeting on Friday to discuss ways to reduce energy prices and shield citizens and industry from soaring bills. Here are the most important issues.

EUobserver spoke with several business figures and all confirmed they voted for Georgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy because it promised stability, less bureaucracy and tax cuts. Matteo Salvini's anti-EU rhetoric scared them, while they trust Meloni has "more common sense".

The EU Commission said Thursday it would file a legal challenge against Malta for its golden passport program, which allows wealthy foreigners to buy citizenship, and access to the EU's Schengen zone, for an investment of around €1m. Malta suspended it for Russians and Belarusians, but continues for all other nationalities. The commission argues that the scheme breaks EU rules because it does not require beneficiaries to live in Malta.

Some have tried to justify Big Tech's meagre tax payments in EU states with heavier tax burdens by emphasising the fact that these companies create jobs and invest in next-generation technologies. However, their market dominance comes at a steep cost.

Academics and biotech research organisations with corporate interests have been leading the lobby campaign to deregulate new genomic techniques in the EU — using 'climate-friendly' and 'science-based' narratives, according to a report.

A vast network of European ships helps keep Putin's oil economy afloat. European vessels have shipped millions of tonnes of oil, gas and coal from Russian ports in the six months since the invasion, Investigate Europe and Reporters United reveal.

The EU is aiming to blacklist Russian celebrity philosopher Alexander Dugin and strike at Russia's oil, steel, and forestry industries in its latest sanctions, new proposals say.

The Netherlands is the only EU state where the minimum income is above the poverty line. A minimum income is not a wage but rather a social safety net to ensure people do not end up destitute.

The EU is aiming to ban Russian imports worth €7bn a year in its next round of sanctions, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen declared Wednesday, without saying which new products would be hit. It's also proposing to ban more dual-use high-tech exports and impose a price cap on Russian oil. New blacklists will for the first time impose visa-bans and asset-freezes on people helping Russia circumvent EU sanctions.

As more-and-more AI-operated tools surround us — think of package-delivery drones, self-driving lorries, cleaning robots — the EU executive set out a bill to alleviate the burden of proof for consumers.

This morning several media outlets, including Der Spiegel and The New York Times, reported that the CIA warned several EU countries this summer of a potential attack Nord Stream. Danish defence minister Morten Bødskov denied these claims on Wednesday. "Neither the government nor I have been notified," he told government broadcaster TV2. "I also don't think these explosions are something you would be warned about."

The unidentified drones seen flying near Norwegian offshore oil and gas platforms reported earlier this week have occurred over a period of "months." This is what Amund Preede Revheim, who leads the investigation, told EUobserver in an email on Wednesday. "The events have occurred over months," he said, but declined to specify further how far back the first sightings were made "for the sake of the investigation".

The Queen's funeral was an impressive demonstration of solidarity from the EU towards a country that left the Union in 2020, and with whom the EU's relations have never recovered. Can the new King Charles III build bridges to Brussels?

Russia could interrupt its remaining gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine, Russian-controlled energy giant Gazprom announced on Wednesday. Gazprom warned earlier this week that gas supplies via Ukraine were at risk due to a legal dispute with Ukraine's state-owned gas company Naftogaz over transit fees. After the alleged "sabotage" of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Moscow is now threatening to impose sanctions on Naftogaz over the arbitration proceedings.

The Czech EU Council presidency has presented to member states a compromise proposal on energy emergency measures, due to be adopted during Friday's energy council. Under the latest agreement, countries would have the right to cap excess profits from low-cost electricity producers in a way that allows them to retain 10 percent of such revenues. Meanwhile, fossil-fuel companies' windfall profits from 2022 could be exempted from the market revenues cap.

A group of 15 member states has called on the European Commission to present plans to introduce a bloc-wide cap on the price of gas at Friday's energy council. "The cap should be applied to all wholesale natural gas transactions, and not limited to import from specific jurisdictions," reads the letter signed by Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 explosions were "the result of a deliberate act" EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday. "All available information indicates those leaks are the result of a deliberate act," he tweeted. "We will support any investigation aimed at getting full clarity on what happened and why and will take further steps to increase our resilience in energy security."

Italy's new prime minster-in-waiting, Giorgia Meloni, wants to set up a naval blockade to prevent migrants and asylum seekers fleeing Libya. The idea is unlikely to see the light of day.

The EU Commission urged the new Italian government to stick to reform plans, as it gave the green light on Tuesday for the payment of €21bn from the Covid-19 recovery fund. The EU has allocated around €200bn in total for Italy, which it can access after it meets a series of reform targets. Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni's electoral victory raised concerns in Brussels that Rome wants to diverge from reforms.

Measuring stations connected to the Swedish National Seismic Network (SNSN) detected powerful underwater explosions close to the leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. Poland has already declared it "sabotage".

Greece has proposed establishing a special fund to support vulnerable households and businesses struggling to pay energy bills, to be financed through a levy of €10 per megawatt hour on gas consumed by electricity producers, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Greece said the levy could raise up to €9bn, and help Europe get an €80bn loan from the European Investment Bank to set up the fund.

EU countries are stalling on plans to halve pesticide use amid concerns it could hinder agricultural production in Europe and harm global food security.

EU sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and plans for further energy sanctions have prompted skyrocketing energy prices, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács tweeted on Tuesday. "It has become clear that the sanctions which have been introduced are doing more harm to Europe than to Russia," he said, arguing if sanctions were lifted, prices would drop immediately. The EU is currently preparing new sanctions following Russia's general mobilisation.

The UN report's findings should be met by the EU with a more principled and human rights-centred approach to China — urging the UN Office on Genocide Prevention to conduct an assessment of atrocities.

France wants to start building its first new-generation 'European Pressurised Reactors' nuclear reactor before May 2027, Reuters reported on Tuesday. French president Emmanuel Macron plans to build at least six new reactors as part of efforts to put his country on the path toward climate-neutrality. The reactors, which will replace current sites reaching the end of their lifespan by the end of 2030, will cost an estimated €51.7bn.

EU majority building for near-total ban on Russian diamonds, as Belgium says it won't veto sanctions, which could cost 10,000 jobs in Antwerp.

Poland's prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines were caused by sabotage. "Today we faced an act of sabotage, we don't know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it's an act of sabotage related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine," he said during the opening of a new gas pipeline between Norway and Poland.