A radical rethink on energy, finance and jobs is needed for a sustainable future that reflects modern Europeans' concerns The UK appears to be afflicted with a particularly crass and narrow-minded Europhobia, but it's not just citizens in the UK that have fallen out of love with the EU. It will take a decade or more to renew any sense of loyalty, let alone love, among many Europeans, and that will...
The founder of France's far-right National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, downplayed remarks made Tuesday that the Ebola virus could address Europe's immigration problem saying it was purely an "observation" about potential disasters. Le Pen handed over the party leadership to his daughter in 2010, but is running as an MEP. ...
The EU on Wednesday launched a new challenge to Russia at the World Trade Organisation over import duties on vans from Germany and Italy. Brussels has also sued Moscow over duties imposed on goods from Lithuania, Poland, Moldova and Ukraine. ...
"The EU is no social union," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Passauer Neuer Presse, adding that Germany does not want to pay unemployment benefits to EU citizens who come to Germany solely for that. An EU court opinion on Tuesday said Germany can reject benefit claims to avoid 'social tourism'. ...
EU discussions on creating an energy union have been overshadowed by a Russia-China gas contract worth over €300 billion. ...
Former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy recommends putting an end to the border free Schengen agreement. ...
The 2014 EU elections got under way in The Netherlands and in the UK on Thursday, with Dutch voters starting at 7.30am local time and British voters at 8am British time. ...
After three years Portugal is free of the 'troika' but austerity measures have left citizens frustrated with the EU and most voters will not bother going to the urns. ...
Thousands of EU citizens get two votes in the EP election, one where they live and one in their home country. Different national systems mean it is virtually impossible to accurately monitor double voting. ...
While figures with a history of anti-homosexual discourse freely run as candidates for the European Parliament, gay people remain silent about their sexuality in Romania. ...
How will the European Parliament look after the European elections on 22-25 May? Find the latest flash estimates here. ...
Gender equality has entered Spain's EP election debate following a comment by the conservative's lead candidate about men's "intellectual superiority" over women. Miguel Arias Canete took five days to apologise for his remark. Socialist top candidate Elena Valenciano, and Martin Schulz, said the incident is a reason to vote red. ...
A growing number of academics say the ruling could help make the internet more harmonious than it is today The fallout from the recent European court of justice ruling on the "right to be forgotten" has reached far and wide in the past week, prompting an international discussion about how personal information is used online. Mario Costeja González succeeded in his bid to have two...
Germany's political elite is complacent about the far right, and is failing to fight for the Europe it helped to create On a recent Monday morning in Brussels, a German diplomat just back from a weekend in Berlin is chatting to colleagues. "Can you imagine," he tells them, "my neighbours asked me whether Angela Merkel was planning to move to Brussels! She is on all her party's posters...
Virus 'could sort out demographic explosion' and by extension Europe's 'immigration problem', says founder of Front National Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France's far-right Front National, has suggested the deadly virus Ebola could solve the global "population explosion" and by extension Europe's "immigration problem". At a cocktail party before an election rally in Marseille on...
The European Union is suffering a lack of vision that may be terminal. The solution is to create a decentralised federation The European Union is in crisis. It is a crisis of democratic legitimacy precipitated by a loss of public trust and confidence in many member states. The grand project of an ever-closer union has stalled. Some fear it is going into reverse. Anti-EU sentiments and parties are experiencing...
The party is poised for a second-place finish exactly where it came in last time around. Let's not get swept up by the rhetoric In newsrooms across the country, articles chronicling Ukip's rise and triumph are being prepared: whether it's " the irresistible rise to power ", "Why the Conservatives must listen to Ukip" or "Ukip versus the Westminster bubble", we're getting...
UK citizens at foreign universities or travelling for three months face habitual residence test to claim jobseeker's allowance British citizens travelling or studying abroad for more than three months are being refused benefits on their return under new rules designed to crackdown on benefit tourism from eastern Europe. Changes to the habitual residence test, designed to make it harder for European...
If you're thinking of shirking on your democratic responsibilities, bear in mind you're going to see an awful lot more of Nigel Farage on telly if Ukip wins. And that's not all 10 good reasons not to vote for Ukip It's incredibly tempting not to go out and vote, for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps you think that you work too hard. Or that the polling station is too far away. Or that mankind is but a...
Ravages of eurozone crisis tipped to propel far left bloc to more than 50 seats, as Greens slip from fourth to sixth largest caucus The far left is expected to overtake the Greens for the first time in the next European parliament, according to final opinion polls ahead of voting across 28 countries on Thursday. Depending on the complicated manoeuvring to form electoral blocs following the elections,...