Month: August 2025

French trade unions on Friday called for nationwide strikes on 18 September, as a political crisis deepens ahead of a confidence vote that could topple the prime minister. The move follows French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s surprise gamble to hold the vote on 8 September, following months of deadlock over the government’s plans to slash […]

The Irish government has published a new National Rare Disease Strategy 2025–2030, its comprehensive policy framework aimed at improving outcomes for the estimated 300,000 people living with rare diseases across the country. The strategy, launched by Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD, outlines 11 key recommendations to enhance diagnosis, treatment, and support services, while […]

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has denied that Europe accepted a lopsided trade deal with the United States out of fear that Washington might stop supporting Ukraine militarily. “There is no linkage between the two,” von der Leyen said with a smile at a press conference in Finland on Friday. Asked if the […]

COPENHAGEN – European defence ministers gave “broad support” for training Ukrainian troops inside the country once a ceasefire is reached with Russia, but not before, the bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Friday. Kallas said her proposal to immediately expand the European Union training mission’s mandate so it can be used as soon as […]

PARIS – French and German leaders rolled out a catalogue of joint projects on Friday in Toulon, vowing to prove their partnership still drives EU policy. Trumpets sounded and smiles flashed as Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz opened the 25th Franco-German Council of Ministers, which the French president hailed as a “turning point” in bilateral […]

All of Europe must realise the “urgency” of resisting Russia and the “predator” Vladimir Putin, Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, in one of her most vociferous criticisms yet of the Russian leader. Speaking in Riga alongside Latvia’s Prime Minister, Evika Siliņa, the Commission president said that Moscow’s “hybrid warfare” on Europe and increasingly […]

COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Hungary’s signature is missing from a European statement condemning this week’s Russian strikes on Ukraine. The large-scale Russian attack, coming a day before a meeting of European Union foreign and defence ministers in Copenhagen, severely damaged the bloac’s own delegation in Kyiv and the British Council’s offices, among other civilian buildings. The […]

The French government has confirmed industry warnings that supermarkets in France sold Ukrainian eggs containing antibiotic residues that are prohibited in the EU, and is pressing Brussels to tighten border controls. French retail giants Carrefour and Leclerc sold hundreds of thousands of such eggs, the National Committee for the Promotion of Eggs (CNPO), which represents […]

Europe is a largely secular place. But if there is one person whom EU leaders deem a modern-day deity, it’s Mario Draghi. The former European Central Bank president – widely credited as the “man who saved the euro” from the dustbin of history during last decade’s eurozone crisis – has conspicuously returned to the European […]

MADRID – The digital ministry has cancelled a multi-million-euro contract with telecoms giant Telefónica to expand Huawei equipment in the national academic and research network, El País reports.  According to the contract, its purpose was to supply, install and manage Huawei-made routing equipment operated by Telefónica, in order to expand RedIRIS-NOVA’s IP connectivity services. RedIRIS-NOVA […]