Euractiv.com

The German government wants to create a culture of open data sharing - and is setting a good example. The second Open Data Act, which the cabinet passed on Wednesday (10 February), expands the obligations of public authorities to make their data available to the general public. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Raising awareness of a critical issue too early may prove to be counterproductive, either because short-sighted politicians focus on short-term interests or because they simply do not see what is coming up.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament adopted a set of ambitious proposals on the EU’s circular economy action plan on Tuesday (9 February), including calls to introduce mandatory targets to reduce waste.

The European Commission wants to promote a "strong social dimension" at the May summit in Porto, as part of the Portuguese EU Council presidency, advocating a focus on young people who are facing a "difficult period" due to the COVID-19 crisis​​​​​​​.

While European lawmakers were scolding the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell for his ill-fated trip to Russia, European Council President Charles Michel has announced he will be travelling to Ukraine and Georgia in March -- both countries in conflict over their territory with the Kremlin -- "to stress the EU’s position of support to their sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The EU should prohibit targeted advertising as part of new rules against Big Tech platforms in the bloc's Digital Services Act, the EU's institutional data protection watchdog has said.

The head of the French state-controlled energy group, EDF, defended a planned restructuring of the company, dubbed 'Project Hercules' on Wednesday (10 February), as a spat grows between France and the European Union over the future of the company.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted to pass the EU's €672.5 recovery and resilience facility on Tuesday evening (9 February), unlocking unprecedented funding aimed at helping Europe "build back better" after the COVID-19 crisis.

A range of private media outlets went off the air in Poland on Wednesday (10 February), running blank pages and slogans such as "this used to be your favourite programme," in protest against a proposed media advertising tax they say threatens journalistic independence and diversity.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about the EU likely to ask for a two-month extension to ratify the post-Brexit trade deal, Bulgarian parents opposed to testing their children in schools and kindergartens, and so much more.

Myanmar's military tightened its post-coup grip on power, stepping up a campaign of intimidation against the ousted civilian leadership while pushing harsher tactics as a fifth consecutive day of nationwide demonstrations began on Wednesday (10 February).

Claude Turmes, the Grand Duchy’s energy minister who used to be at the forefront of calls to withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, has backtracked on his earlier statements, saying the EU should first redouble efforts to reform the beleaguered post Soviet-era charter.

Parents of children in schools and kindergartens have opposed the idea of testing their kids for COVID-19 using antigen tests after they were asked by the Bulgarian authorities to fill in a questionnaire checking their attitude towards testing. As this...

North Macedonia has made extraordinary progress in good neighbourly relations, as well as in the reforms needed to start EU accession talks, visiting Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korčok told his hosts, President Stevo Pendarovski and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev,...

Gergely Gulyás, the minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, dismissed as fake news press reports based on documents seen by Reuters, according to which the European Commission has told Hungary to reform its public procurement laws to curb...

The European Commission’s plan for a tobacco-free Europe by 2040, which envisages a stricter regulation of e-cigarettes and other alternatives, has been criticised by Czech anti-drug policy expert and founder of the Institute for Rational Addiction Policies, Jindřich Vobořil. “The...

Athens and the wider area of Attica, where half of the country’s population lives, will go into a stricter lockdown, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday night. The new rules, based on...

The head of a WHO-led team probing the origins of COVID-19 said bats remain a likely source and that transmission of the virus via frozen food is a possibility that warrants further investigation, but he ruled out a lab leak.

The measures to support business and employment from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue for as long as the pandemic lasts, “whatever the cost”, Finance Minister João Leão told parliament on Tuesday. “In this demanding context, we must...

The Kremlin might again be tempted to invent an external threat in an attempt to steer the public’s attention away from societal discontent, Kai Mykkänen, the former foreign minister and current chair of the National Coalition Party’s parliamentary group who...