Author: Press Room

Good morning. I’m Mared Gwyn. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Today, as European Commissioner Dubravka Šuica joins the first formal meeting of US President Donald Trump’s controversial “Board of Peace” in Washington, there is deepening outrage in several European capitals. As scooped by my colleagues Maïa de la Baume and Jorge Liboreiro, a raft of member states voiced criticism of Šuica’s trip – which was not coordinated with EU governments – in a closed-door meeting of ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday. France, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia and Portugal were among those who raised strong objections. Germany, Sweden and Lithuania also spoke up. France…

The EPSO AD5 competition that leads to administrator-level posts at the European institutions, is back after seven years. IT failures, the pandemic, a cancelled competition that had to be rerun at a cost of about €300,000, and criticism from the European Ombudsman over an outdated and opaque testing system all contributed. EPSO’s leadership has admitted the institution’s reputation has suffered. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT During this pause, private coaching companies continued to support candidates preparing. Firms like EU Training and ORSEU Concours continued to offer courses, webinars, practice exams, and one-on-one coaching. Now that the AD5 exam is back, candidates are turning…

Europe doesn’t have an innovation problem, but a scale problem, says the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), noting how the continent excels at research and pilot projects, but consistently fails to convert technological breakthroughs into large-scale industrial deployment. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The hefty report was presented on Wednesday as energy ministers gather on the sidelines of the IEA’s ministerial meeting to take stock of the latest technological achievements in the energy sector. Among the technologies assessed are the development of small modular reactors (SMRs), fusion energy, or carbon capture and storage – all set to play a role…

The Spanish government’s controversial decision to approve a decree that will regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers has sparked debate across Europe. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Alongside more measured criticism and analysis, a wave of misleading claims has surfaced. Some widely shared posts on X, amassing millions of views and thousands of shares, claim that these newly regularised migrants will be given the automatic right to vote. Others say that they will be put on a fast track to citizenship, allowing them to vote and, in turn, creating a “loyal voting bloc” for Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his left-wing government.…

Published on 18/02/2026 – 18:02 GMT+1 EU member states will extend the bloc’s mechanism to regulate price spikes beyond 2030 in a bid to ensure the carbon price under the upcoming tax on cars, vans and buildings does not spike excessively when the system takes effect in 2028. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Households and businesses using fossil fuels for heating and transport will likely see higher bills once the new version of the European Union’s emissions trading system (ETS2), or carbon market, comes into full effect, and resistance to the system’s full implementation has been growing. Slovakia and the Czech Republic have…

Published on 18/02/2026 – 18:59 GMT+1•Updated 19:20 EU lawmakers have drafted a procedure to select the future host of the European Custom Authority, a new decentralised agency tasked with supporting and coordinating national customs administrations across the bloc. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The agency is expected to be set up in 2026 and operational in 2028. Many EU countries have put themselves forward as potential hosts for the new body, including Belgium, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Romania. In a committee meeting in January, all the nine countries presented their candidacy, with Spain, France, Poland and The Netherlands…

The European Commission’s surprise decision to dispatch Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica to the first formal gathering of the Board of Peace in Washington has sparked outrage among several member states, with France leading the charge in voicing both institutional and political objections. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT During a meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday, critics argued that Šuica’s participation, which was not communicated to capitals beforehand, lacks the necessary mandate and risks being interpreted as a collective endorsement of the contentious initiative, several diplomats told Euronews, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Member states were up in arms” in the meeting,…

Published on 18/02/2026 – 16:25 GMT+1 Hungary and Slovakia announced on Wednesday that they would suspend diesel exports to Ukraine amid growing tensions over oil deliveries, saying they need to secure their energy supplies to replace imports of Russian oil through the damaged Druzhba pipeline – with Hungary also accusing Ukraine of political blackmail and interference. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The row is another showcase of conflicts between the two EU governments, which are still importing large quantities of Russian crude oil via Ukraine, and Kyiv, which has repeatedly called on them to fully decouple themselves from Russian energy. Oil transfers from…

Published on 18/02/2026 – 7:30 GMT+1 On 20 August 2025, International Criminal Court Justice Nicolas Guillou went from a respected judge to a pariah for American companies. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT That day, US President Donald Trump put him under US sanctions for authorising the issuance of an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant, over their role in the destruction of the Gaza Strip. Since then, Guillou’s life has become a nightmare – and his experience illustrates just how dependent Europeans are on US services as transatlantic tensions rise. Gillou and his family…

Good morning. I’m Mared Gwyn. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Just in: The US ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, has hailed State Secretary Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference as “positive” for the trans-Atlantic alliance, adding that it’s a “hallmark of a great diplomat” to be able to say the things the audience “wants and doesn’t want to hear.” Puzder also hailed European “progress” in aligning its approach to migration policy with the US’s, and defended Rubio’s call for more alignment between both blocs. He also suggested that the Trump administration has helped Europeans to stop hitting the snooze button…