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Wallonia's regional government on Thursday became the first European authority to sue Volkswagen over its emissions fraud. The office of Wallonian environmental minister Carlo Di Antonio said in a statement that an attempt to negotiate with the German ...

The European Commission will not finish its legal guidance - designed to help member states determine whether the use of cheating software in cars is illegal - this year as announced, a spokeswoman said on Thursday (22 December). As long as that work is ...

The EU approved a new Swiss law on Thursday (22 December) that will allow EU citizens to work in Switzerland, opening the way to solve a two-year crisis.
 An EU-Swiss joint committee, where all 28 EU states are represented, said that the law passed last ...

Several EU commissioners have suggested cutting Poland's EU funding over its breaches of the rule of law, according to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita. They raised the issue during a meeting on Wednesday when the commission issued new recommendations to the ...

The European Commission has asked member states to upgrade trade relations with Turkey, but said this would be conditional on respect for democracy. The proposal comes amid fraying relations with Turkey over its crackdown on alleged coup sympathisers and ...

The European Commission is shoring up money laundering measures to regulate cash flows and freeze terrorist assets. On Wednesday (21 December) it presented a host of bills to tighten cash controls, ease cross border police probes, and speed up asset ...

European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has tasked commissioner Andrus Ansip to temporarily take responsibility for the digital economy portfolio, which includes copyright reform. Ansip will take over on 1 January 2017 from commissioner Guenther ...

Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena bank has failed to clinch the support of private investors for a rescue plan. That makes a taxpayer-funded bailout, possibly up to €20 billion, the only way for Italy's third largest bank to survive. According to EU rules, ...

Slovakia's first ever EU presidency drew praise from Brussels officials and succeeded in strengthening the government's political position at home, but probably failed to spark higher public interest in European affairs. Prime minister Robert Fico's ...

Romania's Social Democrats have proposed Sevil Shhaideh, 52, to be the country's next prime minister after winning elections on 11 December. A member of the country's Tatar minority, Shhaideh would be the first female Muslim to head an EU country. She's a ...

The European Commission is promoting another set of measures to crack down on terrorism and crime as part of its so-called security union. A trio of EU commissioners on Wednesday (21 December) said the latest legislative proposals will "strengthen", " ...

The European Commission is hoping that Donald Trump, the incoming US president, will back down in a potential visa war, but terrorist attacks in Europe could make that less likely. The EU executive said in a statement on Wednesday (21 December) that it ...

Former commissioner Neelie Kroes received a "reprimand" from the EU executive for failing to declare an off-shore company and earnings while getting an allowance after she left her position. But the public shaming, announced on Wednesday (21 December), ...

The “general and indiscriminate retention” of emails and electronic data by governments is illegal under EU law, the bloc’s highest court has ruled. National governments can order only targeted data retention in order to fight serious crime, the European ...

The European Commission has given Poland more time to restore the independence of its constitutional court, or face the risk of sanctions. The move also buys the EU executive more time to rally other EU institutions - the EU Council and the European ...

Even if you’re not on Twitter, you will have seen at least some of US president-elect Donald Trump’s tweets. They make headlines all over the world, causing diplomatic incidents, stock losses and calls for Twitter to suspend Trump’s account for inciting ...

The European Commission has delayed making a decision on whether to block visa-free travel for Americans - a move it is duty-bound to make because the US imposes visa requirements on Bulgarians, Croats, Cypriots, Poles and Romanians. The commission said it ...

The EU-Singapore trade deal must be concluded by member states and ratified by EU countries' parliaments, an advocate general at the EU's top court said in an opinion published on Wednesday (21 December). The advisory opinion, if followed by a subsequent ...

EU countries must ratify the EU-Singapore trade deal because it oversteps the exclusive powers of the bloc, the European Court of Justice's advocate general has said in an opinion. She said issues such as government procurement and intellectual property ...

Deals between the EU and Morocco do not apply to Western Sahara, the European Court of Justice has ruled. The judges dismissed the case brought by Polisario, the Western Sahara independence movement, which wanted the EU-Morocco deals to be invalidated. ...

The UK government's "general and indiscriminate" retention of personal data is not permitted under EU law, the EU's Court of Justice has ruled. UK Brexit secretary David Davis initially launched the case when he was a backbench MP in 2014, challenging a ...

The leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice has called on opposition MPs to "respect the law" and end their blockade of parliament. Jaroslaw Kaczynski said the sit-in was against Poland's criminal code, adding: "We are reaching out a hand to the ...

A Macedonian court ordered on Tuesday a re-run of parliamentary elections in two polling stations because of irregularities. The repeat votes will take place on 25 December. The conservative VMRO-DPMNE won two more MPs than the Social Democrats (SDSM) in ...

Spain announced Tuesday it had formed a task force of the Bank of Spain, the Spanish Stock Markets agency (CNMV), and the economy ministry to attract London-based financial firms looking to relocate after Brexit. A group of EU cities including Paris, ...

A majority of Dutch senators will support the deal on the EU-Ukraine treaty that PM Rutte brought home last week from an EU summit, Dutch state broadcaster NOS reported on Tuesday. Rutte needs a majority in both houses of parliament to ratify the treaty ...

Istanbul’s new 5.4 km Eurasia Tunnel under the Bosphorus Strait has officially opened, with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and prime minister Binali Yildirim driving through it at an opening ceremony on Tuesday. The tunnel will ease traffic congestion in ...

Ukraine’s parliament approved the country's budget for 2017 on Wednesday in the hope of triggering more aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The budget deficit will be kept at 3 percent of gross domestic product, in line with IMF requirements, ...

British prime minister Theresa May rebuked plans presented by Scotland on Tuesday (20 December) to stay in Europe's single market, saying they were "impractical" and relied on unacceptable assumptions about Scotland's position. Scotland's first minister ...

More than 20 years after the Balkan wars, Bosnia, a country whose people once fled to seek protection, is struggling to take care of even a small number of refugees from Africa and the Middle East.  Some of them end up in a prison-like detention centre ...

The European Commission may ask member states to punish Poland with sanctions on Wednesday (21 December), which would be the first time such a measure has been taken in the EU's history. Poland's failure to reverse controversial reforms that have paralysed ...