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Ombudsman says papers show EU agency made four offers to help Greece with surveillance of boat that sank, but got no responseOpinion: Emily O’ReillyThe rules governing the EU’s border and coastguard agency Frontex must be urgently revised if Europe is to avoid a repeat of last year’s tragedy off the coast of Greece in which about 600 people are thought to have died, an...

Exclusive: Shift in sentiment requires EU politicians to focus on defining an acceptable peace, say authorsSupport for Ukraine among Europeans remains broad, but nearly two years after the full-scale invasion barely 10% now believe it can defeat Russia, according to an EU-wide survey – with some form of “compromise settlement” seen as the most likely end point.The shift in sentiment – this time last...

Video platform under scrutiny over potential breach of Digital Services Act in areas such as age verificationThe EU has launched a formal investigation into whether TikTok has broken online content rules including the safeguarding of children.The European Commission said it had opened official proceedings against the Chinese-owned short video platform over potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Continue reading...

With ongoing US support far from guaranteed, Ukraine urges Europe to back fight against Russia, for its own sakeOn the top floor of Literaturhaus in Munich, the Ukrainian veteran Yuliia Paievska was asked to speak to the elite of the transatlantic security and political establishment, including Hillary Clinton and the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, as they lunched on a three-course meal, served with...

Outrage over jailed opposition leader’s death grows with detention of over 350 people in Russia who attended vigilsAlexei Navalny – obituaryAlexei Navalny’s allies have accused the Kremlin of “covering their tracks” as, two days after the imprisoned opposition leader’s death in custody, uncertainty continued to surround the whereabouts of his body and what it may reveal about how he died.Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, and...

Lawyers see Basir’s case as test of European policies that fail to provide safe routes to sub-Saharan asylum seekers For 25-year-old Basir, it was a ray of hope after fleeing Sudan more than a decade ago. For his lawyers, the asylum request he made from Morocco was the ultimate test of whether Spain – and more broadly the EU – was willing to provide...

EU diplomat Johan Floderus’s sister calls on Sweden to start speaking up loudly to demand his releaseThe family of a Swedish EU diplomat imprisoned in Iran for more than 663 days fear he will be given a death sentence or life imprisonment within the coming days after prosecutors sought the maximum sentence in his case.“I ask how can this be happening? He is my...

The latest protest comes less than a day after Ursula von der Leyen met with farming groups in a bid to appease themHundreds of tractors choked Brussels city centre on Thursday and angry farmers pelted the European parliament with eggs. Although agriculture was not on the agenda for EU leaders meeting just up the road, politicians may find that they ignore these grievances at...

Member states hope to persuade Hungary to remove its block on funding at Brussels emergency summitEU leaders have returned to Brussels for a second showdown in two months with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán over his refusal to sanction a new €50bn assistance package for Ukraine.A mixture of frustration and anger prevailed in the city as leaders arrived for dinner on Wednesday night on the eve...

French agriculture minister set to hold takes in Brussels as around 10,000 protesters turn outValérie Hayer, a French politician and president of the Renew Europe group in the European parliament, has spoken out about the impact of Brexit.“Four years ago, the United Kingdom left us,” she wrote, adding:Purchasing power, social security, global influence, border protection: nothing, absolutely nothing, has been a success. The populists...

Andrea Leadsom says businesses experiencing ‘some friction’ should ‘adapt’ to changes in trade rulesBusiness live – latest updatesBritish businesses experiencing “some friction” when trading with the European Union after Brexit is the “price you pay” for “being a sovereign state again”, a government minister has said.On the fourth anniversary of Britain officially leaving the European union, the health minister and Brexiter Andrea Leadsom said...

French government set to respond after being surprised by scale and fury of grassroots demonstrations in agriculture sectorPierre Bretagne woke at 4am to feed the cows on his organic farm near the coastal town of Pornic in western France, then did something he had never dared to before.He made a cardboard protest banner about the nightmare of French bureaucracy and went to cheer on...

European Commission president says policymakers have to find a way forward to find lasting solutions for farmersHere are photos from France this morning, where farmers are continuing to block roads.Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, said today there was a “sense of urgency” that things had to improve for Europe’s agriculture sector.I think we all sense that there is an increasing division...

France, Poland and Austria among nine countries where radical rightwing parties predicted to finish firstPopulist “anti-European” parties are heading for big gains in June’s European elections that could shift the parliament’s balance sharply to the right and jeopardise key pillars of the EU’s agenda including climate action, polling suggests.Polling in all 27 EU member states, combined with modelling of how national parties performed in...

Three people questioned on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter after collision in Pamiers, south of Toulouse A woman and her teenage daughter have died in southern France after a car hit a roadblock where they were standing. The blockade had been set up by farmers taking part in growing anti-government protests.The 35-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter were killed at 5.45am when a car went...