Category: EU Reporter

Firms in the EU should be able to stop workers from wearing religious symbols, such as headscarves, so long as their rules on religious neutrality “applied to all workers in a general and undifferentiated way”, the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled on Thursday. The ruling came over a Belgian case in which L.F., […]

Long-standing rule of law and democracy issues in Hungary “remain largely unaddressed”, therefore the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Strasbourg-based rights watchdog, has voted to place the country under its full monitoring procedure. Hungary is only the second EU country, besides Poland, to be placed under full monitoring, which involves regular […]

Some 143 UN states voted in favour of an EU-drafted resolution condemning Russia’s “attempted illegal annexations” of eastern Ukraine in New York Wednesday, with five against, and 35 abstentions. Belarus, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Syria joined Russia in opposing the text. China, India, Pakistan, and South Africa abstained. “The world has sent a clear message […]

There is still no consensus on gas price caps — but EU countries reached a general agreement to purchase gas through a joint platform before next summer.

The EU, in June, already granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, and to Georgia with conditions — with the Russian aggression speeding up the accession process.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that “lost” gas flows from damaged Nord Stream pipelines could be redirected to the Black Sea, to create a European “gas hub” in Turkey, Reuters reported. Putin also insisted that gas supplies could be delivered to Europe through one part of the Nord Stream 2 which is not affected. […]

Nato would likely fire on military bases in Russia if it hit ones in Poland in a “proportionate” exchange of conventional air strikes, a European former military chief has said.

A group of 45 NGOs on Wednesday issued a manifesto urging EU countries to ban so-called ‘forever chemicals’ — technically per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — in consumer products by 2025, and across all uses by 2030. The European Commission pledged to ban all non-essential uses of PFAS in 2020, under the EU chemicals strategy for […]

Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya Wednesday called on “every Russian soldier” to leave Belarus and said all involved in Russian attacks from Belarus’ territory “must be held accountable”. Referring to Russia, Tikhanovskaya said Belarus and Ukraine has the same enemy. She argued that Ukraine and Belarus’ fate is intertwined. “Without [a] free Belarus, there will […]

A verdict is expected soon on the EU Commission over projects it financed to help sketchy governments abroad spy on people, which could then be used against rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents.