Latest European Union News

Latvia's foreign minister will step down after a probe over his office's use of private flights

Mar. 28, 2024 12:12 PM EDT

HELSINKI (AP) — Latvia’s top diplomat said on Thursday he will step down in the wake of a criminal probe over the use of expensive private flights by his office when he acted as the Baltic country’s prime minister between 2019-2023. Following a meeting with Prime Minister Evika...

Poland and Ukraine leaders cite progress on regulating Ukrainian food imports to ease farmer anger

Mar. 28, 2024 10:50 AM EDT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The prime ministers of Ukraine and Poland said they made progress Thursday toward meeting demands of Polish and western European farmers who want restrictions on cheap Ukrainian food imports that they say undermine their livelihoods, but they announced no breakthrough. ...

France's Macron tells Brazilian execs that prospective Mercosur-EU deal is 'terrible' and outdated

Mar. 27, 2024 19:38 PM EDT

SAO PAULO (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron told Brazilian executives on Wednesday that a proposed deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur is bad for both parties. Speaking at a forum in Sao Paulo, Macron said the Mercosur-EU deal is...

How events in Moldova's breakaway Transnistria region raised fears of Russian interference

Mar. 27, 2024 12:02 PM EDT

Since Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago, fears have risen in neighboring Moldova that it could also be in Moscow’s crosshairs. Like Ukraine, Moldova is a former Soviet republic that has aligned itself with the West and aspires to join the European Union. And both countries hope...

50 years after the former Yugoslavia protected abortion rights, that legacy is under threat

Mar. 27, 2024 07:50 AM EDT

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — With vigils outside clinics, marches drawing thousands and groups of men kneeling to pray in public squares, religious and neo-conservative groups have been ramping up pressure to ban abortions in staunchly Catholic Croatia. The fierce debate has fueled...

Spraying manure and throwing beets, farmers in tractors again block Brussels to protest EU policies

Mar. 27, 2024 03:20 AM EDT

BRUSSELS (AP) — Farmers threw beets, sprayed manure at police and set hay alight on Tuesday as hundreds of tractors again sealed off streets close to the European Union headquarters, where agriculture ministers sought to ease a crisis that has led to months of protests across the 27-member bloc....

France will soon deliver 78 howitzers to Ukraine to meet Kyiv's urgent needs, defense minister says

Mar. 26, 2024 12:17 PM EDT

PARIS (AP) — France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will boost its supply of shells to meet Kyiv's urgent needs for ammunition to fight Russia's full-scale invasion, the defense minister said Tuesday. Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at a...

How EU deforestation laws are reordering the world of coffee

Mar. 25, 2024 22:06 PM EDT

BUON MA THUOT, Vietnam (AP) — Le Van Tam is no stranger to how the vagaries of global trade can determine the fortunes of small coffee farmers like him. He first planted coffee in a patch of land outside Buon Ma Thuot city in Vietnam's Central Highland region in 1995. For years,...

A major European nature protection plan stumbles at the final hurdle. 'How could we give that up?'

Mar. 25, 2024 12:54 PM EDT

BRUSSELS (AP) — A major European Union plan to better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc and fight climate change was indefinitely postponed Monday, underscoring how farmers' protests sweeping the continent have had a deep influence on politics. The deadlock on the bill, which...

Bulgaria's prime minister-designate withdraws after talks between political coalitions fail

Mar. 25, 2024 07:36 AM EDT

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria’s prime minister-designate withdrew her nomination on Monday after negotiations between two political coalitions failed, which could send the European Union's poorest member country into a new crisis. Maria Gabriel, a former EU commissioner, had...