Author: Press Room
Published on 26/01/2026 – 18:38 GMT+1 Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Finland on Monday had their national investment plans under the EU’s new €150 billion loan for defence scheme approved by the European Commission. These eight countries had asked for a total of €74 billion in funding – around half the total amount the Commission plans to raise on the market to finance its Security Action for Europe (SAFE) programme – with Poland accounting for €43.7 billion alone. This is the second round of approval after eight other countries – Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Portugal…
By Euronews Published on 26/01/2026 – 18:57 GMT+1 This year’s World Economic Forum in Davos took place at a particularly tense time. Europe and the United States displayed their disagreements on Greenland in speech after speech, raising fears of a trade war between the historic partners. Although Washington ultimately backtracked after an agreement with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on a “framework of future deal” over the Arctic territory, the scars run deep and the economic risks remain. For Harvard University professor Gita Gopinath, tensions over Greenland and Donald Trump’s threats of import duties against several European countries marked a political…
Published on 26/01/2026 – 18:25 GMT+1 “Donald Trump is very important to NATO and very committed to NATO”, Secretary General Mark Rutte said remarks at the European Parliament on Monday as many MEPs worry about the president of the United States’ aggressive rhetoric against Europe. Whereas Trump’s threats to control Greenland have been defined as “the end of NATO” by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Rutte said he believes that US President “deserves to be defended” and “is doing a lot of good stuff” for the NATO alliance. “The 2% [of the GDP spending target on defence] reached by all…
After a dramatic week spent fretting over Greenland’s future, Europe is shifting its political focus back to the crisis that risks redefining its security architecture for generations to come: Russia’s war on Ukraine. Europeans are hoping that the preliminary deal that convinced Donald Trump to abandon his attempt to seize Greenland through punitive tariffs will allow the two sides of the Atlantic to resume their common efforts to end the full-scale invasion, which the unprecedented row over the mineral-rich Danish territory briefly threatened to derail. With the full-scale Russian invasion nearing the fourth-year mark, European leaders are throwing their weight…
Published on 23/01/2026 – 17:52 GMT+1 Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary could have quoted Frank Sinatra in response to Elon Musk calling him an “utter idiot” on X. In response, Ryanair boss launched a “Big Idiot” seat sale with cheap flights for Elon and all the other, quote, “idiots,” end quote. But away from the noise, how do their business models actually impact us? First, the environment. Ryanair’s fleet of more than 600 planes emitted over 16 million tonnes of CO2 last year. Then again, data centres for X and GrokAI are part of an industry that consumes so many resources…
By Aida Sanchez Alonso & Méabh Mc Mahon Published on 26/01/2026 – 10:56 GMT+1 •Updated 11:16 “I think the work that the Commission is doing in India is very, very important,” Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence Thomas Byrne told Euronews as EU leaders visit India to try to close a Free Trade Agreement with the Asian country. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa travelled to New Delhi on Saturday in hopes of clinching a deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The Mother of All Deals”, as nicknamed by Von der Leyen,…
Published on 26/01/2026 – 11:06 GMT+1 “It’s a very small ask,” US President Donald Trump said about his desire to buy Greenland, calling it just “a big, beautiful piece of ice.” He reportedly raged when Europe sent troops there. But let’s be honest: sending around 40 soldiers from eight nations was more about sending a message than sending actual power. But what if we assembled a European army? If you combine all European countries, we actually have around 1.5 million active-duty soldiers. That sounds huge, but it is a logistical nightmare. While the US military operates with 32 weapon systems,…
By Alessio Dell’Anna & Baptiste Goudier Published on 26/01/2026 – 12:02 GMT+1 The EU’s woodland is marginally growing, with a reported 0.1% year-on-year increase, according to Eurostat. Taking into account both forest expansion and losses, whether from logging or natural events like fires, droughts and pests, Ireland leads, way above the EU average, with a net 1.2% annual growth in wooded area. Next are Estonia (+0.33%), Bulgaria (+0.26%) and France (+0.25%). Only a few countries reported (minimal) drops — all between -0.06% and -0.01% — namely Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and Poland. What’s the controversy behind Portugal’s forest growth? Woodland losses aside,…
As investigators worked to identify the cause of a deadly train crash in Spain, unfounded theories about the origins of the tragedy have surfaced online. On 18 January in Adamuz, southern Spain, three carriages on a train operated by the private company Iryo derailed and crossed onto a separate track before colliding with another train operated by Spain’s state-owned Renfe rail operator, which crashed into an embankment. At least 45 people died in one of the worst train crashes in the country’s history. Days later, a train driver was killed in a separate derailment near Barcelona, and another train crashed…
By Peggy Corlin & Maria Tadeo Published on 26/01/2026 – 11:13 GMT+1 European Union trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said a trade deal with India is “very close” as the bloc aims to reduce steep tariffs for European companies in one of the fastest growing, but heavily protected, markets in the world. In an interview with Euronews, Šefčovič said the two sides are “checking their final numbers” and referred to the agreement as the “mother of all deals” as it looks to open a market of 1.4 billion people for European exports and services. India maintains duties as high as 150% in some sectors,…