Insider politics: why Germany needed US tanks to be offered to Ukraine.
Protesters wave French trade union CGT flags during a rally called by French trade unions against the government pension reform plan in Marseille, southern France, on January 19, 2023.
Nicolas Tucat/AFP
French citizens have protested pension reform for the past 30 years. A historian explains why the evolving power struggle between the streets and the state does not bode well for today’s strikers.
Italian emigrants at Modane train station, West of the Italian border.
Musée national de l’histoire de l’immigration, Paris
Italy’s administration has adopted increasingly hostile policies towards migrants of late. Yet, history reminds us the latter may not be that different from past generations of Italians.
Matteo Messina Denaro is pictured in the back of a police car following his arrest.
EPA/Carabinieri Handout
The mafia boss is the last known face of the Cosa Nostra crime syndicate. But his capture represents the end of an era, not the end of the mafia in Sicily.
In 2009, 150 of the 180 residents of the care facility in Ellignies-Sainte-Anne were French. At the time, approximately 6,500 French citizens living with disabilities were in Belgian institutions due to the lack of appropriate structures in France. The figure has since grown to 8,500, a jump of more than 30%.
Philippe Huguen/AFP
It is estimated that more than 8,000 French citizens with disabilities currently live in Belgium. For many parents, placing their children in foreign institutions is not so much a choice as the only alternative they have.
Is the EU’s new legislation a coup de grâce or a promise of transition for sensitive sectors in fragile countries, such as the steel industry in Bosnia-Herzegovina?
Elvis Barukcic/AFP
Already lacking the means to decarbonise their industry or turn to greener alternatives, poor countries could also be deprived of revenues from exports to Europe.
Scottish independence has its supporters – as did that of Slovakia.
Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images
Despite hopes of a second referendum on independence being dashed, many Scottish nationalists look to Slovakia as an example of how a small nation can stand on its own.
Many of the products we buy are linked to deforestation.
Richard Whitcombe/Shutterstock
Although Paris’s capitalisation overtook London’s in late 2022, the City of London is still Europe’s leading financial centre. Understanding why will require that we look beyond stock indices.
In July 2022, passers-by watch the progress of a fire near Gignac (Hérault).
Sylvain Thomas/AFP
The forest fires that struck the Continent in the summer of 2022 were devastating, yet historical data shows that they were not ‘unprecedented’, contrary to media accounts.
Brussels’ inability to tackle Hungary’s growing authoritarianism reveals a key weakness in the EU system.
The floating LNG storage and regasification unit “Independence”, used as an LNG import terminal in Lithuania, pictured in the port of Klaipeda on 23 August 2023.
Karolis Kavolelis/Shutterstock
Long dependent on Russia for its energy, Lithuania has now entirely broken away from Moscow. To what extent can other EU countries learn from the small Baltic country?
The European Parliament is at the centre of a corruption case that has already resulted in the indictment of several people, including one of its vice-presidents.
Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP
The ongoing corruption scandal in the EU Parliament casts a harsh light both on the practices of Qatar and on some of the flaws in the EU institutions.
Women are still underrepresented in decision-making positions, yet research shows that gender equality can lead to more qualified leaders and better outcomes.
Police lead Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss away from a house in Hessen, Frankfurt after a raid on December 7.
Alamy/dpa picture alliance
A group touting revisionist visions of German history wanted to install minor aristocrat Heinrich XIII as German leader.
France’s Convention for the Climate, held from 2019 to 2020, brought together 150 randomly selected citizens and asked them define measures to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990.
Katrin Baumann/CCC
Decision-making bodies created by random selection, citizens’ assemblies are creating a sense of optimism about democracy among those who have heard about or taken part in them.
The Port of Hamburg has become a contentious topic within the German government.
Westend61 / Alamy Stock Photo
Language-learning research in the Netherlands has determined that using a foreign language rather than just memorizing its grammar can transform how students progress.