Author: Press Room
Published on 12/05/2026 – 18:05 GMT+2 Between 40,000 and 70,000 people marched through the streets of Brussels on Tuesday. The demonstrators gathered at the call of the country’s three main trade unions to denounce the federal government’s reforms, which the trade unions consider to be “anti-social”. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The main issues and demands of the demonstration: pensions, purchasing power and automatic wage indexation. Unions have condemned a pension reform that leaves workers worse off. They have also condemned an attack on the automatic indexation of wages. The rally took place against a backdrop of soaring energy prices caused by the…
Published on 12/05/2026 – 18:19 GMT+2•Updated 18:26 A vast majority of EU member states criticised the reopening of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale during a “heated discussion” among the bloc’s culture ministers on Tuesday in Brussels. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Many ministers also expressed support for the European Commission’s move to freeze a €2 million grant to the Biennale Foundation for allowing Russia’s participation, several diplomats told Euronews. The issue was raised by Latvian Minister of Culture Agnese Lāce, who called for preventing what she described as “the instrumentalization of cultural institutions by Russia.” According to people in the room,…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has no connection to a major corruption investigation conducted by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), involving his former chief of staff, Andriy Yermak. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT On Tuesday, Oleksandr Klymenko, SAPO’s head stated that Zelenskyy “has not been and is not currently involved in the investigation,” which concerns Yermak but also Oleksiy Chernyshov, an ex-deputy prime minister and Timur Mindich, Zelenskyy’s former business partner. The suspects are accused of laundering around €9 million (460 million hryvnias) between 2021 and 2025 through a luxury property development project near Kyiv.…
Published on 12/05/2026 – 16:31 GMT+2 Swedish police said on Tuesday that a “central actor” in the country’s most notorious criminal network, Foxtrot, had been arrested in Tunisia. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Police said in a statement that a man around 30 years old, who is suspected of several violent crimes including murder, had been arrested over the weekend by Tunisian police. The operation was the result of close cooperation between law enforcement in Sweden and Tunisia. “We consider this to be a strategically important arrest which we believe will impact the criminal network’s ability to carry out violent crime,” Niclas Andersson,…
By Alessio Dell’Anna & video by Léa Becquet Published on 12/05/2026 – 10:03 GMT+2 Hundreds of thousands of people across Europe don’t get to treat the weekend as downtime. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT More than one in five workers across Europe — 21.3% — are regularly shifted on Saturdays and Sundays, according to the latest Eurostat data. And in some countries, the average is well above that, especially across the Balkans and the Mediterranean. In Greece, a striking 41% of employees and self-employed workers are active on the weekend, 33% in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 32% Malta, Cyprus and North Macedonia. At the same time, the continent’s…
Last week, Austria expelled three Russian diplomats accused of using diplomatic cover for espionage activities in Vienna. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Soon after, Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said that Austria was taking a tougher approach to spying activities, calling it a “security issue” for the country. “We have communicated this clearly and unequivocally to the Russian side, including regarding the ‘antenna forest’ at the Russian representation,” she said in a statement. “It is clear that it is unacceptable for diplomatic immunity to be used to conduct espionage.” What was she referring to? Researchers and journalists have warned that several Russian diplomatic buildings…
Published on 12/05/2026 – 12:00 GMT+2 Speaking live on Euronews’ morning show Europe Today, Ireland’s minister of state for EU Affairs and Defence Thomas Byrne said that Ukraine remains “very strong and forward in people’s minds in Europe.” ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT His comments come as EU defence ministers meet in Brussels to discuss Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. “The question is how do we best help Ukraine,” Byrne said. “Whether it’s provision of military material, whether it is through sanctions on Russia, whether it’s through peace talks or indeed the enlargement of the European…
Published on 12/05/2026 – 11:50 GMT+2 UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that he intends to stay in office as he met with members of his Cabinet in crunch talks that could determine his future. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Starmer is trying to shore up support within his Cabinet following hefty losses for the Labour Party in local elections last week, which if repeated in a national election would see it overwhelmingly ejected from power. The meeting was taking place after more than 70 Labour backbenchers, representing nearly a fifth of the party’s representation in Parliament, said that Starmer should…
Published on 12/05/2026 – 11:29 GMT+2 UK Minister for Europe Stephen Doughty said Prime Minister Keir Starmer has “accepted responsibility” for Labour’s disastrous local election results, while accusing the hard-right Reform UK party of misleading voters with “false promises”. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Speaking on Euronews morning show Europe Today, Doughty blamed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage for promoting what he described as unrealistic claims about Brexit. “He said Brexit would make us richer — it hasn’t. He said it would bring down migration. In fact, migration went up,” Doughty told Euronews. Reform added more than 1,300 council seats across England and…
The demand is sparking a clash between the Parliament and Ursula von der Leyen’s strict 1.26 per cent GNI spending cap – the budgetary mechanism that limits a government’s spending to a percentage of its total Gross National Income. Net contributors like Germany and the Netherlands argue it’s already too high. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Commission wants to fund new defence and AI priorities by streamlining existing funds. The Parliament insists that these needs mustn’t come at the expense of farmers or regional aid. Following a vote (370 to 201), Parliament demands a 10 per cent budget increase, seeking 1.27 per…