Author: Press Room
Published on 18/02/2026 – 18:59 GMT+1•Updated 19:20 EU lawmakers have drafted a procedure to select the future host of the European Custom Authority, a new decentralised agency tasked with supporting and coordinating national customs administrations across the bloc. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The agency is expected to be set up in 2026 and operational in 2028. Many EU countries have put themselves forward as potential hosts for the new body, including Belgium, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania. In a committee meeting in January, all the nine countries presented their candidacy, with Spain, France, Poland and The Netherlands…
The European Commission’s surprise decision to dispatch Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica to the first formal gathering of the Board of Peace in Washington has sparked outrage among several member states, with France leading the charge in voicing both institutional and political objections. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT During a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, critics argued that Šuica’s participation, which was not communicated to capitals beforehand, lacks the necessary mandate and risks being interpreted as a collective endorsement of the contentious initiative, several diplomats told Euronews, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Member states were up in arms” in the meeting,…
Published on 18/02/2026 – 16:25 GMT+1 Hungary and Slovakia announced on Wednesday that they would suspend diesel exports to Ukraine amid growing tensions over oil deliveries, saying they need to secure their energy supplies to replace imports of Russian oil through the damaged Druzhba pipeline – with Hungary also accusing Ukraine of political blackmail and interference. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The row is another showcase of conflicts between the two EU governments, which are still importing large quantities of Russian crude oil via Ukraine, and Kyiv, which has repeatedly called on them to fully decouple themselves from Russian energy. Oil transfers from…
Published on 18/02/2026 – 7:30 GMT+1 On 20 August 2025, International Criminal Court Justice Nicolas Guillou went from a respected judge to a pariah for American companies. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT That day, US President Donald Trump put him under US sanctions for authorising the issuance of an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, over their role in the destruction of the Gaza Strip. Since then, Guillou’s life has become a nightmare – and his experience illustrates just how dependent Europeans are on US services as transatlantic tensions rise. Gillou and his family…
Good morning. I’m Mared Gwyn. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Just in: The US ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, has hailed State Secretary Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference as “positive” for the trans-Atlantic alliance, adding that it’s a “hallmark of a great diplomat” to be able to say the things the audience “wants and doesn’t want to hear.” Puzder also hailed European “progress” in aligning its approach to migration policy with the US’s, and defended Rubio’s call for more alignment between both blocs. He also suggested that the Trump administration has helped Europeans to stop hitting the snooze button…
Published on 18/02/2026 – 11:19 GMT+1 The European Commission has just launched a formal, priority investigation into the e-commerce giant under the EU’s Digital Services Act. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Interested? Let’s unbox this together. Brussels is targeting Shein’s entire business model. They are investigating its addictive design, such as giving users points and rewards to keep them hooked, and demanding transparency about the secret algorithms that drive these products. If Shein is found guilty, it faces multi-million euro fines. France has even threatened to suspend access to the site entirely. And the crackdown does not stop there. Consumer watchdogs are raising…
Published on 18/02/2026 – 12:32 GMT+1 The European Commission has released a strategy to support eastern border regions struggling with economic decline, demographic pressure, and hybrid threats stemming from the war in Ukraine. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Nine EU member states – Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria – are set to benefit from the initiative, which targets areas facing reduced investment, falling populations, and disruptions to cross-border activity. The centrepiece of the strategy is EastInvest, a facility that will disburse €28bn in loans in cooperation with the European Investment Bank and the World Bank to revive investment…
Published on 18/02/2026 – 12:09 GMT+1 European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef has condemned the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Games under their national flags and announced a boycott of the Opening Ceremony, which will be hosted at the Verona Arena on 6 March. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “While Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continues, I cannot support the reinstatement of national symbols, flags, anthems, and uniforms, that are inseparable from that conflict,” he wrote on X. “For this reason, I will not attend the Paralympics Opening Ceremony.” Micallef made his announcement after the International Paralympic…
By Inês Trindade Pereira & video by Maud Zaba Published on 18/02/2026 – 10:30 GMT+1•Updated 11:08 The sciences provide a significant tranche of jobs in Europe — more than 73.8 million people aged from 25 to 64 were employed in the science and technology fields in the EU in 2024. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT A rising number of them were women: the number of female scientists and engineers in the EU increased from 3.4 million in 2008 to 7.9 million in 2024, according to the latest Eurostat data. Nevertheless, there remain disparities across individual sectors. Women researchers are almost at parity in the higher education…
The Trump administration has helped Europeans stop hitting the snooze button and “wake up,” US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said, hailing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s call for greater alignment between the two in his speech at the Munich Security Conference as “positive” for the trans-Atlantic alliance. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT It is a “hallmark of a great diplomat” to be able to say the things people “need to hear and may not want to hear,” Puzder told Euronews’ flagship morning show Europe Today on Wednesday. Rubio’s speech comes a year after US Vice President JD Vance appeared on stage…