Author: Press Room
António Costa, the president of the European Council, watered down expectations of a two-speed Europe as a magic bullet to break the impasse on economic reforms, a day after the proposal came to the fore in an informal summit of EU leaders. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “It’s a non-issue,” Costa said on Friday in a press briefing attended by Euronews. Several countries, including France, Spain and Denmark, expressed support for using enhanced cooperation to create smaller groups of member states willing to adopt initiatives that could not otherwise be approved due to a lack of consensus. Enhanced cooperation rose to prominence in…
France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has ramped up its fight against disinformation with “French Response”, an official X account which replies to trolls and fake news with humour, irony and provocation. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The account has amassed more than 180,000 followers since its creation in September, taking aim at disinformation peddled by pro-Russian users and US accounts. Meanwhile, White House-aligned accounts have increasingly targeted France on X in recent months. According to ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux, France has decided to shake up its strategy to actively combat disinformation. “The intuition was that you can’t win the information war if you…
Measles cases dropped significantly in Europe and Eurasia in 2025, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO). ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The agency announced a 75% decline, with cases reducing to 34,000 from nearly 130,000 in 2024. It put the decrease down to stronger outbreak response measures and a gradual reduction in the number of people susceptible to the infection. Kyrgyzstan had the highest incidence rate in the WHO Europe region (1,167 cases per million people, which caused a total of 11 deaths), followed by Romania with 222. Despite Romania having the second-highest number of measles cases in…
Published on 13/02/2026 – 10:31 GMT+1 I prepared some numbers for you. Maybe use them as a pick-up line? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Europeans are waiting longer to have children, and there is no sign that will change anytime soon. But here is the twist: delaying parenthood does not necessarily mean giving up on children. In fact, the EU countries where women wait the longest are also the countries with higher fertility rates. And that also might explain the explosion in fertility treatments, which allow couples to extend their window of opportunity. In 2021 alone, there were over 1 million treatment cycles…
By Ilaria Cicinelli & Euronews Published on 13/02/2026 – 12:40 GMT+1 A court in Bari convicted 12 members of Italy’s neo-fascist CasaPound group on Thursday for attempting to reorganise the banned Fascist Party in the first judicial ruling to recognise the movement’s fascist nature. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Five defendants received 18 months in prison, and seven others were sentenced to two years and six months after also being convicted of assault, according to the court. All 12 were barred from holding political office for five years. The case stems from an attack on 21 September 2018 in Bari’s Libertà neighbourhood, when CasaPound members assaulted…
Published on 13/02/2026 – 10:39 GMT+1 Péter Magyar filed a police report on Thursday concerning a video allegedly recorded without his knowledge during a sexual encounter with his ex-girlfriend, accusing the Hungarian government of orchestrating the incident to undermine his political campaign. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The opposition leader claimed his former girlfriend lured him to a Budapest flat in August 2024 following a party, where their consensual encounter was secretly recorded using what he described as “secret service means”. Magyar characterised the incident as a “honey trap” operation. “In Europe, it is unprecedented that a ruling party wants to discredit, blackmail…
There is a golden rule in the EU’s criteria for accepting new members that officials often repeat: membership is “merit-based’, meaning no candidate country can join until fully aligned with EU laws and democratic standards. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT But Ukraine may prove an exception. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for a fixed deadline for Kyiv’s EU accession in US-brokered peace talks with Russia – forcing a major scramble in the EU executive to rethink its decades-old enlargement policy. Speaking to reporters in a WhatsApp chat on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine will “do everything to be technically ready for (EU) accession by…
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola defended the concept of allowing some member states to pursue deeper integration ahead of others, calling it “a pathway to unity” rather than an obstacle. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “We have never been against member states going further,” Metsola told Euronews’ Europe Today morning show on Friday, commenting on discussions about further integration at the previous day’s EU leaders’ retreat. EU leaders met informally on Thursday at Alden Biesen castle in Belgium to discuss competitiveness, joined by former Italian Prime Ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, who have both published influential reports on European economic reform. “We…
Good morning. I’m Mared Gwyn and it’s Friday – here’s another packed newsletter to start your day. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Munich Security Conference kicks off this morning, one year after US Vice President JD Vance stunned 2025 delegates with a blistering speech criticising Europe’s institutions. For many, that speech marked the start of the unraveling of the US-Europe alliance – with ideological tensions continuing to surface, and the recent crisis over Greenland forcing Europe to recalibrate its strategic reliance on Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead this year’s US delegation to the conference, where Ukraine is expected to…
European leaders floated a two-speed union as the fastest way to break a political impasse over economic reforms needed to reboot the European economy, as French President Emmanuel Macron set a summer deadline for a broad deal. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “What we decided today is that between now and June, we will have to finalise the agenda,” Macron said upon departing the castle. “If in June we don’t have concrete prospects and concrete progress, we will continue with enhanced cooperation.” While the EU is built on consensus at 27, frustrations about the pace of reforms prompted calls to work in smaller…