Since World War II, no other country has had as large a proportion of its population serve on the frontlines as Ukraine. Could psychedelic-assisted therapy help in their return to civilian life?
Brussels’ drive to cut digital “burdens” is spilling into labour law. A recent paper by lobby group BusinessEurope calls for a sweeping “labour market omnibus” to reduce obligations under EU social law, raising fears that competitiveness rhetoric could undermine workers’ rights and weaken Europe’s social model.
At the start of last year, all 27 EU member states were signed up to the Ottawa Convention, banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines. Now Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finalnd have withdrawn — with silence from Brussels.
Usually, Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s Facebook posts earn him an endless stream of insults, cynical comments and worse. But this time it was different.
A new legislative package — the Defence Readiness Omnibus — threatens to overhaul how weapons are produced and sold, creating a dangerous precedent for global security. By doing so, the EU is effectively proposing to treat lethal technology no differently than bananas or chocolate.
Why do some centre-right European People’s Party MEPs, supported by the far-right, continue to centre the debate on funding for NGOs? The real end goal here is discrediting and defunding NGOs in order to sideline them even further in political decision-making.
With Friday’s Supreme Court verdict Donald Trump is off balance and on the defensive. The moment is opportune to stand up to his bullying tactics. He has not looked this vulnerable since he was reeling from the market reactions to his initial Liberation Day tariffs.
Viktor Orbán has also pledged, in his annual address earlier this month, to “clear out” after the April elections media and civil society organisations deemed to threaten “sovereignty.” Fidesz already directly or indirectly control 80 percent of Hungary’s media.
The Swiss-based International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation (FIDE) rejects allegations that its president, Arkady Dvorkovich, backed Russia’s invasion or organised events in occupied Ukraine, arguing claims misrepresent his honorary CFR role and federation decisions.
The idea of a fast-tracked Ukraine accession to the EU, as early as 2027, is gaining ground in Brussels. But urgency must not come at the expense of principle. The greater risk today is not moving too fast but moving halfway, warns the European Policy Centre.
Europe’s push for an “Airbus of payments” reflects real fears of foreign control, but the political discourse is not getting the diagnosis right. True sovereignty lies not in replacing Visa and Mastercard, but in fostering interoperable European alternatives that compete, writes Judith Arnal.
Israel’s intelligence services already maintain extensive knowledge of who works for these NGOs. The new registration requirements appear designed primarily to demonstrate control, writes the former EU representative to Gaza and the West Bank.
The European Environment Agency warns “according to some estimates, about eight percent of deaths can be attributed to hazardous chemicals. These numbers could be [an] underestimate.” That’s why the EU chemicals REACH policy needs urgent reform.
The EU Democracy Shield has a blind spot: Europe isn’t auditing what AI actually tells its citizens. When Russian-speaking Europeans ask an AI about the war in Ukraine, they may receive systematically different answers than their English-speaking neighbours.
Treating methane as an afterthought in air quality policy is no longer a technical oversight but a political choice, with measurable consequences for citizens’ health, farmers’ livelihoods and environmental resilience.
Spain’s move forces a harder conversation. Is it better to pretend half a million workers do not exist, or to regulate the reality already on the ground?
The US under current management is a critical threat to Europe+ democracies — the UK, Norway, Canada, as well as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. This weekend’s Munich Security Conference is the place to start planning counter-measures.
In Europe, goods and people mostly move freely — but services are still largely stuck behind a web of national bureaucracy. We are, in effect, sanctioning our own economies, warns MEP Barry Andrews.
At their ‘leaders’ retreat’, we are seeing the curtailing of EU democracy in the name of saving Europe’s economy. They should be unleashing citizens’ demand for a stronger, independent Europe.
Bangladesh remains one of Asia’s leading jailers of journalists — with it’s election on Thursday, and Brussels negotiating a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (the bloc’s first with a South Asian nation), the EU has never been in a stronger position, writes the Committee to Protect Journalists.