Azerbaijani President Aliyev announces snap election
Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, has signed a decree implementing a snap presidential election in the nation to be held in February next year.
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‘Traitorous’ Ukrainian opposition MP ‘assassinated’ in Russia
Sources within the Ukrainian Government have claimed responsibility for the assassination of Illia Kyva, a prominent pro-Russian member of the country's political…
Qatargate: Has Socialist Euro MP Marie Arena been protected?
The newly appointed investigating judge, Aurélie Dejaiffe, wants Arena, a Belgian politician, to be investigated but has got nowhere with her request, it is claimed…
UK immigration minister quits, calling PM Sunak’s Rwanda bill a ‘triumph of hope over experience’
Amid the ongoing immigrants’ small-boats saga that has long been dogging the Conservative-led UK Government, immigration minister Robert Jenrick has suddenly quit.
Eastern European nations struggle to boost military power amid supply-chain crunch
Eastern European nations are signing multi-billion-euro arms deals to bolster munition supplies as the Ukraine war nears the end of its second year, though overstretched…
Budget crisis ‘pushing German Government to edge of collapse’
Germany's Government risks collapse amid a budget crisis that has put coalition partners sharply at odds, according to political experts.
Spanish PM Sánchez wobbles as hard-left party quits governing coalition
Less than a month after his re-election as Spain’s leader, Sánchez must deal with the decision of the five MPs who make up Podemos to quit the Sumar group in…
What is the real Donald Trump doctrine in foreign affairs? At its core is a belief in American exceptionalism – but it is certainly not isolationism
With polls now regularly placing Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden in next year’s US presidential election, the extraordinary prospect of his return to the Oval…
Albanian opposition wants to block asylum agreement with Italy in the courts
The centre-right Democratic Party (DP) in Albania is going to the country’s Constitutional Court to fight an asylum agreement between the progressive Albanian…
G7 leaders agree to ban imports of Russian diamonds from January next year
As part of efforts to limit Moscow's income from precious stones and to support Ukraine, the Group of Seven (G7) countries will ban imports of Russian diamonds from…
EU thrashing out landmark AI rules in marathon overnight talks
The two sides agreed to a provisional deal on how to regulate fast-growing generative AI systems such as ChatGPT in the early hours, overcoming one of the biggest…
Spain looking to overcome ‘doubts’ about making Catalan, Basque and Galician official EU languages
Spanish ambassadors to the other 26 European Union Member States have received a document from José Manuel Albares, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, detailing…
EC ‘aims to create single market for defence’
The European Commission wants to create a "single market for defence" to better prepare the European Union for times of crisis, according to a leaked document.
Spain’s Puigdemont locks horns with EU’s Borrell again, this time over ‘sexist speech’
Spanish Junts leader Carles Puigdemont has grilled the European Commission on "sexist speech" by Josep Borrell, the EU's top diplomat.
Let’s give Austria-Hungary a chance – Europe needs some Habsburg values
Discussion on Russian state television emerged this week which saw Russian propagandists arguing for the re-establishment of "the great Austro-Hungarian territory"…
‘Our soldiers would have to throw stones if war broke out,’ says former Belgian military top brass
Ex-Lieutenant General Marc Thys, former Belgian Vice-Chief of Defence, has claimed Belgium is not at all ready for armed conflict, saying that within hours of an…
German fairy tale forest to be felled for wind turbines
A large area of Reinhardswald, an ancient German forest featured in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, is being partially cut down in favour of 241-metre tall…
No backbone? No protection: Octopuses left high and dry under EU law
Octopus species are not protected under animal welfare rights in European Union law, the European Commission has confirmed.
My UK immigration ‘love tax’ nightmare – plus update
Brussels Signal sub-editor Chris Nelson fears new immigration rules mean he will have to choose between living with his wife in the Philippines or his family in…
UK signs new asylum-relocation treaty with Rwanda
A new treaty between the UK and Rwanda has been signed in response to a British Supreme Court ruling declaring the Conservative Government’s controversial Rwanda…
EU ‘not adequately monitoring potential Ukraine aid fraud’
The European Union has not been properly monitoring the potentially fraudulent use of cash sent to Ukraine, MEPs have said
Reliving the Odyssey among Greece’s vast island network
Few people appreciate just how enormous Greece’s network of islands is.
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Chinese media calls Moody’s ‘biased’ for negative economic outlook
Chinese state media called Moody's "biased" on December 6 for its negative rating outlook on the world's number two economy, but some analysts said the government's…
The kids are not alright: Most EU pupils’ educational results tumble in PISA rankings
The latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), one of the most prominent student-ranking organisations in the world, are causing…
EU’s draft free-speech law ‘too weak’, say lawyers and journalists
The European Union's proposed free-speech legislation is "too weak" and does not reflect legal reality, lawyers and media professionals have told Brussels Signal.
UK to rejoin EU’s Horizon science programme, irritating Brexiteers
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's post-Brexit UK is to rejoin the European Union's Horizon science programme, set to become an associate country to the scheme…
EU aims to force Big Tech and others to make their products repairable
The European Union is to target so-called "planned obsolescence" in products amid the bloc's ongoing technology regulation efforts.
Meta hit with European consumer group complaint over users’ DSA access move
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has been hit with a formal complaint over its attempts to charge European users to access the European Union’s Digital Services…
Berlin’s spätis show how things tend to go right when Europe keeps it simple
Can the EU political establishment learn something from the späti, the late-night convenience store that is ubiquitous in the German capital?