Author: Press Room

Published on 27/01/2026 – 19:13 GMT+1 European lawmakers issued a declaration on Tuesday urging the European Union to unlock the potential of nuclear fusion energy, stressing its role in boosting the bloc’s competitiveness as a future electricity source. MEPs made the case during a public hearing in the European Parliament calling for a “clear, predictable regulatory framework” that would attract investment, given the astronomical costs that fusion energy will likely demand. “Fusion has reached a turning point. European industrial capability and private investments are converging toward deployment. What is now required is clear political backing and effective mechanisms to attract…

Published on 27/01/2026 – 18:40 GMT+1 •Updated 19:07 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that his country is aiming to join the European Union in 2027. Posting on X after a phone conversation with the Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, Zelenskyy said EU membership could be a part of a range of international security guarantees after ending the war. “Ukraine’s accession to the European Union is one of the key security guarantees not only for us, but also for all of Europe,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine contributes to Europe’s collective strength in the fields of security, technology, and economy. “That…

Existing differences of opinion about digital rules in the European Union and the United States should not be a source of confrontation, but should be treated in a respectful way, the Executive Vice President of the EU Commission, Henna Virkkunen, said on Euronews’ flagship programme The Europe Conversation. “When we speak about democracies like the European Union and the USA, I think democratic countries and friends, we can handle those kinds of differences in our rules with respect,” urged Virkkunen, whose portfolio in the Commission includes Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. “Europeans are very committed to our rules because we…

More than one in four young Europeans aged between 15 and 29 were working and studying at the same time in 2024, according to the latest Eurostat figures. This situation was most common in the Netherlands (74.3%), Denmark (56.4%) and Germany (45.8%). By contrast, Romania (2.4%), Greece (6%) and Croatia (6.4%) reported the lowest shares among EU countries. The main driver for working alongside one’s studies is financial concerns, but experts say that students’ motivations can differ depending on where they’re from and which sector they’re in. “Some students are motivated primarily by financial considerations, and others use employment or…

Published on 27/01/2026 – 15:40 GMT+1 According to France’s health watchdog, half of teens spend between two and five hours a day on their smartphones. But your reporter went for dinner with some tech lobbyists, and it is clear now this ban sounds like a nightmare. Let us investigate. Supporters say it protects kids from harmful content. Over one-half of European teens have seen online pornography. The average age of first exposure? Just 11. And in the era of Elon Musk’s GrokAI, they do not even need to search for it. They can generate it. Let us cheer for the…

The United States has produced 40 AI foundation models. China has developed 15. All of Europe combined has created just three. The European Union is losing the global “AI race” on nearly every key metric except regulation. While China and the United States invest billions in infrastructure, talent, startups, labs, and research, Europe remains focused on rules. Policy burdens and fragmentation across 27 member states create major hurdles: progress is inconsistent, talent leaves, and capital goes elsewhere. Clark Parsons, leader of the European Startup Network, is blunt about the imbalance. “The EU should stop patting itself on the back for…

Online platforms like X have “very clear obligations” to restrict illegal content, the EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen told Euronews’s flagship Europe Today morning show Tuesday, a day after the EU opened a formal investigation into the AI chatbot Grok for spreading sexualised images of real women and underage girls without their consent. “Service providers have to have practices in place to make sure illegal content is not spread online,” the European Commission executive vice president said. Virkkunen added that the Commission is also analysing other risks linked to Grok beyond the now-modified image feature. Grok is an AI chatbot…

European Union member states now have access to European-made “secure and encrypted” satellite communication, the bloc’s Commissioner for Defence and Space announced on Tuesday. “Last week we started GOVSATCOM operations,” Andrius Kubilius said from the European Space Conference on Tuesday, referring to the European Union Governmental Satellite Communications programme. “That means all member states can now have access to sovereign satellite communication. Military and government. Secure and encrypted. Built in Europe, operated in Europe, under European control.” He described it as the “first step in satellite connectivity”. Expanded coverage and bandwidth set for 2027, while the operationalisation of the Infrastructure…

Emmanuel Macron went viral last week for the iconic sunglasses he wore at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but the French president was also subject to viral claims of a different kind amid the geopolitics. Various posts on X, including some that were seen and shared thousands of times, claimed that Pope Leo XIV cancelled a meeting that he was due to have with Macron in early January, over his disapproval of the Notre-Dame cathedral’s new stained-glass windows. Pope Leo also called the change a “travesty”, according to one post, and allegedly criticised a proposed assisted dying law in…

Published on 27/01/2026 – 10:40 GMT+1 The European Commission said it is scrutinising Hungary’s request for €17.4 billion under the European Union’s Security Action For Europe (SAFE) programme due to the country’s poor record on public procurement transparency and conflicts of interest, with MEPs warning that the money could be diverted for the political benefit of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Hungary is the only EU country where EU funds are suspended due to the high risk of corruption. Out of the €27 billion foreseen for Hungary in this budgetary period, €17 billion is suspended, with payments conditional on reforms to…