Author: Press Room

Published on 15/05/2026 – 10:05 GMT+2 Helsinki Airport resumed normal flight operations on Friday after suspending air traffic for three hours due to a drone warning, officials said. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The airport suspended air traffic from 4:00 am-7:00 am local time after safety authorities issued a danger alert for the southern Uusimaa region over a potential drone in the area. “Although flights are operating again, the disruption will cause delays and cancellations on Friday, May 15. Morning delays may also affect departing and arriving flights later in the afternoon,” Helsinki Airport said in a statement. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo…

Published on 15/05/2026 – 11:06 GMT+2•Updated 11:08 Vienna is hosting its 70th anniversary, but the “United by Music” motto is under its heaviest strain yet. Let’s look what’s behind the glitter. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT With only 35 participating countries, the lowest level since 2003, the competition is struggling to survive the grit of real-world geopolitics. Europe is witnessing its largest boycott ever, with five nations, so Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland, pulling out over Israel’s inclusion. And in a move of direct protest, Slovenia has replaced the live broadcast with a documentary series titled “Voices of Palestine.” Even inside…

Published on 15/05/2026 – 12:01 GMT+2 Denmark’s Queen Margrethe has undergone an angioplasty procedure after being admitted to hospital this week for chest pain, the palace said in a statement on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The court said the queen had “a balloon dilation of a coronary artery” at Copenhagen’s main hospital Rigshospitalet, where she was admitted on Thursday. The queen, who has been a chain smoker for much of her life, was in “good condition” but would remain in hospital for “a few more days,” the palace said. Margrethe, who abdicated in 2024 and turned 86 on 16 April, attended…

Thirty-six countries, mainly from Europe, have signed up to a special tribunal to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, which will be headquartered in the Dutch city of The Hague. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The joint pledge was formalised on Friday during the annual meeting of foreign affairs ministers of the Council of Europe, a human rights organisation that has taken the lead in addressing the jurisdictional gap left by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ministers endorsed a resolution laying down the structure and functions of the management committee that will oversee the tribunal. Among its…

Published on 15/05/2026 – 15:58 GMT+2•Updated 17:47 Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz has acknowledged shortcomings in the conservative-Social Democrat coalition and announced that he intends to communicate his political course more clearly in future. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT At the German Catholic Convention in Würzburg, the CDU leader said that while dispute is part of democracy, it has to lead to results. At present, he said, there may be too many arguments and too little being achieved. The federal government is planning a reform package on tax, the labour market, pensions and cutting red tape before the summer recess. In recent weeks, however,…

Published on 15/05/2026 – 20:28 GMT+2•Updated 20:57 Hundreds of road surfaces in western Hungary may be contaminated with asbestos. One of these areas is the Oladi plateau, a suburban part of Szombathely that is currently under construction, which may have been exposed to contamination for eight to ten years, when stones were transported there from Austrian mines. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Tamás Weiszburg, a geologist and former head of the mineralogy department at Eötvös Loránd University, explains to Euronews the dangers asbestos poses to the human body. “On its own, it is just a piece of rock; it is the form that…

The Spanish government is seeking to contain a scandal linked to EU pandemic funds, categorically denying that it used European money to pay pensions, as member states prepare for tough budget talks amid deep divisions over how funding should be allocated. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT An official in Madrid with direct knowledge of how EU funds are structured told Euronews that a technical matter is being instrumentalised in a way that is “simply false”, accusing the opposition of playing politics over what it describes as an accounting issue. A Spanish budget watchdog reported earlier this month that the government of Pedro Sánchez…

Published on 15/05/2026 – 18:13 GMT+2 Norway’s foreign ministry has defended a decision to revoke export licenses linked to a naval missile system for Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur warned that the move could impact confidence in European defense suppliers. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The move had blocked delivery of the Naval Strike Missile system as well as launcher components that had been destined for Malaysia’s littoral combat ship program under the terms of a 2018 deal. The purchase had been planned as part of the Southeast Asian nation’s wider naval modernisation efforts. The Norwegian ministry on Friday said that while Oslo “greatly…

At least seven individuals — including multiple figures with ties to Europe’s far-right — have been barred from attending a rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson in central London on 16 May. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT A number of those barred by British authorities were set to address crowds at the “Unite the Kingdom” march, but the Home Office declined their electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a system brought in earlier in 2026 that, once granted, allows visa-exempt foreign nationals to visit the UK multiple times over a period of two years. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said that they were banned…

Five countries pushed back against the European Commission’s plans over what they see as an increasingly centralised vision for planning Europe’s future electricity, according to a document seen by Euronews. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Bulgaria, Finland, France, Poland and Sweden argue that the European Union’s green transition risks becoming slower, more expensive and less secure if Brussels attempts to command grid development from the centre. Instead, they are proposing a Europe of coordinated regions rather than a fully centralised energy union. “An exclusive focus on a top-down approach would hinder the (Grids) Package’s objective. We alternatively suggest that the regional planning and…