Author: Press Room

A video recently shared on Instagram claims that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is “automatically increasing” her own salary by €2,400 per month. The claim has resurfaced on social media after being amplified by far-right political figures, including former MEP Florian Philippot, who cited an article published by the German newspaper Bild. The article states that “EU officials have received their seventh pay rise in three years”. According to publicly available data published by EUR-Lex — the European Union’s official database of legal texts and public documents — it is true that the salaries of EU officials increased…

Published on 16/01/2026 – 11:17 GMT+1 Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico will President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residency in Florida on Saturday, aiming to deepen ties between the two countries. Fico, who is politically aligned with the MAGA agenda, has praised the US for its efforts to end the war in Ukraine and follows a similar hardline approach to migration. Separately, the two could discuss plans that would see Slovakia entering a business agreement to buy nuclear reactors from the US in a project that could be worth around €13 to €15 billion, according to Slovak media. Fico’s ally…

Published on 16/01/2026 – 9:40 GMT+1 •Updated 9:56 Latvian Defence Minister Andris Sprūds on Friday sought to play down concerns about potential tensions within NATO following threats by the US it could use military force to annex Greenland, saying he’s confident “it’s not the end at all” of the alliance. Sprūds called on Euronews’ morning show Europe Today to “not over-dramatise” the situation, noting that NATO – of which the US and Denmark are both members – has long managed internal disagreements without undermining collective defence. “We are in the process of discussing, especially the dialogue between the United States…

Good Friday morning from Brussels. Just in: Latvia’s defence minister Andris Sprūds has told our flagship morning show that Europe needs to “realise what it’s dealing with” when contemplating talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Yes, we can engage in some diplomatic activity, but there must be some limits in terms of how far we can go,” he said, throwing cold water on calls on the EU to name an envoy for talks with Russia. Watch. But we lead this morning with the latest on Iran. As tension still lingers over the Middle East, the European Union’s diplomatic arm has…

Published on 15/01/2026 – 18:21 GMT+1 •Updated 18:22 Eight European Union member states on Thursday had their plans to use their allocation from the bloc’s new €150 billion loan for defence scheme approved by the European Commission. Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania are set to benefit from the first wave of financial assistance under the EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) initiative, after the Commission submitted a proposal to the Council for formal approval. “It is now urgent for the Council to approve these plans to allow fast disbursement,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said…

If the European Union wants to remain a key player in wind power production, member states need to follow Germany’s example, a major leader in the continent’s wind industry said in an exclusive interview with Euronews. Former Belgian energy minister Tinne Van der Straeten, who was recently appointed CEO of WindEurope, the wind energy industry trade body in the EU, explained to Euronews that the industry is still facing significant challenges expediting permits to unlock wind power projects in some EU countries, a problem that undermines the bloc’s overall climate goals. Van der Straeten pointed to Germany as “the perfect…

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will present fresh sanctions against Iran to member states as early as today to punish Tehran for its violent crackdown on protesters, two diplomats familiar with the discussion told Euronews. The proposed measures would fall under the EU’s human rights sanctions regime against Iran and would add to a wide range of travel bans and asset freezes already in place. At the start of the week, Kallas signalled that she was prepared to pursue fresh sanctions in response to the crackdown, which has claimed thousands of lives since protests began nearly two…

Published on 15/01/2026 – 14:29 GMT+1 “This theocracy should no longer be in power,” EP President Roberta Metsola said to Euronews. But standing between the protesters and regime is one ruthless entity: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC. Who are they? They are not just an army — they are an elite killing machine founded in Iran in 1979 to protect the ideology of the Islamic revolution, and they answer only to the Supreme Leader. The IRGC is estimated to be a force of 150,000 elite troops, backed by a 600,000-strong Basij paramilitary network. In return for their loyalty,…

Published on 15/01/2026 – 13:19 GMT+1 Amid mounting pressure in Europe and abroad, Elon Musk’s social media platform has announced that it is implementing “technological measures to prevent its AI tool, Grok, from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis”, a restriction that will apply to all users, including paid subscribers. Grok’s image editing function had been used by some users to virtually undress pictures of real women and underage girls. The situation, described as “appalling” and “disgusting” by the European Commission, prompted the EU executive to launch a request for information and…

A pro-Russian Telegram channel is sharing fake, doctored Euronews clips, some that include AI-generated voiceovers based on the voices of real Euronews reporters, to spread negative narratives about Ukrainian refugees in Europe. One clip focuses on the tragic fire in Crans-Montana, which blames a Ukrainian refugee for the blaze, despite no evidence to support this claim. The video adds approximately 15 seconds to a real Euronews report on the fire. It includes footage taken from social media that shows the blaze spreading and adds fake captions in Euronews’ style. Whilst the authentic clip starts narrating that a preliminary investigation revealed…