European Union

The Commission is proposing five new cohesion policy areas, including defence. Critics argue that traditional territorial cohesion priorities now face the risk of a generational policy pivot.

Europe needs a unifying goal to tackle the surging youth mental health crisis. The ‘Z Zurich Foundation’ has published a report detailing how the wellbeing of the young can be front and centre of EU policy.

The EU’s Industrial Carbon Management Strategy has spurred some new investment, but the sector is still waiting for overdue deliverables promised by the Commission.

Biosolutions are central to Europe’s green transition, offering scalable, nature-inspired alternatives to traditional industrial methods. This Special Report takes a closer look.

Maintaining the status quo is not viable if Europe wants a thriving economy, according to MEP Morten Løkkegaard.

Euractiv publishes the document asking Czechia to hold the signature of the €16 billion deal

After campaigning on the delivery of the German-Swedish cruise missiles, the new chancellor suddenly backs 'strategic ambiguity'.

Now in their 17th round, this latest volley of sanctions is hardly going to put a dent in Russia’s war economy. For that the EU would do better closing the loopholes in its existing sanctions.

Whether Germany will flout the EU's fiscal rules to boost defence spending will "be clarified in the next few weeks," said new finance minister Lars Klingbeil.

Ireland’s Health and Safety Executive has criticised a new report revealing the country’s shocking last place in Western Europe for new oncology drug access.

Written by Agnieszka Widuto.

On 26 February 2025, the European Commission presented the Clean Industrial Deal, a new EU plan to support competitiveness and decarbonisation of EU industry. The Deal focuses mainly on energy-intensive industries and clean technologies (clean tech). Both sectors face high energy prices, intense global competition and complex regulations.

The Clean Industrial Deal includes several solutions to address this situation. It aims to bring energy costs down, boost demand for clean products, reduce EU dependency on raw materials, improve circularity and restore domestic manufacturing. Planned legislative initiatives in the energy field include a new electricity grids package, revisions of the energy security framework and Energy Union governance, as well as an Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act and a delegated act on low-carbon hydrogen. Recommendations and guidance documents are also planned, for instance on network charges, energy taxation and the design of long-term instruments for electricity supply.

In the short term, the Clean Industrial Deal aims to mobilise over €100 billion through boosting EU-level funding, leveraging private investments and enhancing State aid. The key EU funding sources will be the Innovation Fund, Horizon Europe, InvestEU and a new Industrial Decarbonisation Bank. In the next long-term EU budget, the Competitiveness Fund will support EU investments in research and innovation, industrial deployment and scale-up, manufacturing, clean tech and industrial decarbonisation. The European Parliament is currently working on a resolution on the Clean Industrial Deal. The vote in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) is expected in June 2025, while the plenary vote is planned for July 2025.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Energy dimension of the Clean Industrial Deal‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

The aim, Italian sources said, is to start a conversation on how the human rights convention is interpreted, one that better reflects the “challenges of modern irregular migration.” 

Russia's President Putin has ignored calls for an immediate 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine from France, Germany, the UK, Poland and the US and instead proposed direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. President Zelensky promptly replied from Kyiv that he was expecting to meet Putin in person in Turkey on Thursday. Europe's press takes stock.

The leaders of Britain, Germany, Poland and France visited Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday, where they made a joint phone call to Donald Trump and also reiterated the demand for a 30-day ceasefire as a starting point for negotiations - threatening that otherwise new sanctions against Russia would follow. European media outlets assess the impact of the EU leaders' visit.