Author: Press Room
Published on 17/01/2026 – 17:58 GMT+1 •Updated 18:51 EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday hailed the choosing of “fair trade over tariffs” as the European bloc signed a major trade deal with South America’s Mercosur nations that has been 25 years in the making. “We choose fair trade over tariffs, we chose a productive long-term partnership over isolation,” Von der Leyen said at the ceremony in Asuncion, Paraguay. European Council head Antonio Costa said the deal sent “a message of defense of free trade, based on rules, of multilateralism and international law as the basis for relations between…
By Euronews with AFP Published on 17/01/2026 – 17:02 GMT+1 Thousands of people took to the streets of Denmark’s capital on Saturday to protest at US President Donald Trump’s push to take over Greenland. The protest followed Trump’s warning on Friday that he “may put a tariff” on countries that oppose his plans to take over mineral-rich Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark. They also coincided with a visit to Copenhagen by a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress that has made clear the opposition of many Americans to the Trump administration’s sabre-rattling. Waving the flags of Denmark and Greenland, the…
Published on 16/01/2026 – 9:29 GMT+1 Usually, Portuguese presidential elections are predictable. But not this time. Why? With rents soaring while wages stagnate, it pushes frustrated voters toward extremes. So, who is riding this wave of anger? First, The Veteran: António José Seguro. A former socialist leader pitching himself as the safe pair of hands who returns from political exile. Then, The Liberal: João Cotrim de Figueiredo. A pro-business MEP and a vice-president of Renew Europe, who promises to cut taxes and shake up the economy. Finally, The Showman: André Ventura. The far-right opposition leader, who is a former TV…
The European Commission is seeking support from heavy industry representatives, like the steel or aluminium sectors, to back a ‘Made in Europe’ component in upcoming legislation, a letter seen by Euronews shows. The aim is to revive a struggling industry in the face of competition from China and the United States. The call comes in the run-up to the EU executive’s announcement of the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA). Its purpose is to boost the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries while keeping European production competitive. A similar bill was adopted by the European Union in 2024 to prioritise the production of domestic…
Zac Austin from Scotland is one of the founders of Pacifico Biolabs. His international team is working towards a world without hunger. Using a new technique to produce meat substitutes from mushroom cultures. In Leipzig’s Bio-City, regional, national and European funding instruments are interlinked. Hundreds of young companies are laying the foundations here for Europe’s market leadership in future technologies. Austin: “Leipzig is a fantastic location where a large number of start-ups and biotech companies have set up shop.” We are not allowed to film everything in the Pacifico laboratory; a lot of the machines and production processes are strictly…
Two dozen humanitarian workers on trial for participating in search and rescue operations on the island of Lesvos accused of smuggling migrants were acquitted by a Greek court on Thursday evening. After more than seven years of legal limbo, the Lesvos Court of Appeal cleared the defendants of charges, which included membership of a criminal organisation, facilitating the entry of third-country nationals into Greece and money laundering, for a period from 2016 to 2021. The group faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Presiding judge Vassilis Papathanassiou told the court that the defendants would be acquitted because their…
More and more migrants in the EU are being sent back to their home countries or returned elsewhere, according to the latest Eurostat data. In the third quarter of 2025, nearly 42,000 non-EU citizens were expelled by member states. That’s a 19% increase compared to the same period in 2024, when member states carried out around 35,000 repatriations. The vast majority (82%) left the European Union, while about 18% of these returns were to other EU countries. Among them, Germany has decisively scaled up operations. In the past year, Berlin has tripled the amount to nearly 12,000 in Q3 2025,…
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…