In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about the Commission giving its greenlight to Stockholm's new diesel and petrol car-free zone, EU Home Affairs Commissoner Ylva Johansson getting wind of the heated Czech parliamentary debate on migration, and so much more.

The US on Thursday (18 April) effectively stopped the UN from recognizing a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny Palestinians full membership of the world body.

Bulgaria may join the eurozone at the end of 2025, Bulgarian National Bank Governor Dimitar Radev said on Thursday, missing the previous 1 January 2025 goal of the government and the main political parties in Sofia.

Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, two former ministers sentenced for the abuse of power and pardoned by current President Andrzej Duda, will run in the European elections, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party announced Thursday.

The EU sees signs that China is supplying components to Russia that could be used to make weapons, a top EU official said on Thursday (18 April).

A debate on the EU's Migration Pact in the Czech parliament on Thursday caught the eye of EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson and turned heated as MPs argued over the reception of refugees in the Czech Republic.

Portuguese eucalyptus forests are helping to replace plastics, but as the country's climate warms up, this highly flammable tree is a growing threat to people and biodiversity.

Fearing new migration waves toward Europe, EU leaders are looking at ways to support Lebanon with economic aid package to be delivered by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the coming days.

Bosnian Serb lawmakers adopted a report denying that the killing of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war constituted genocide, and thousands of Serbs later protested against a UN resolution to commemorate the atrocity.

Spain’s government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), will decide in the coming weeks whether to recognise Palestine as a state, regardless of whether other EU countries join Madrid in this decision, official sources told Euractiv’s partner EFE on Thursday.

The European Commission has approved the creation of an environmental zone in the city centre of Stockholm, where petrol and diesel cars will be banned entirely from 2025.

French President Emmanuel Macron will next week deliver a speech similar to the one he gave seven years ago at the Sorbonne University, where he laid out a detailed reform agenda for the bloc and revealed his Europhile credentials, a move he and his party hope will pull his party out of the polling slump it is currently in ahead of the European elections.

Federal prosecutors arrested two suspected Russian spies in Bavaria on Thursday on suspicion of espionage and planning attacks on military targets to undermine support for Ukraine.

Slovak Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč is keeping quiet about his meeting with European Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski over the delayed release of EU farm subsidies, known as direct payments, which the Slovak government has still not paid to all eligible Slovak farmers, putting them at risk of not receiving them.

In today's episode of Today in the EU, we decrypt the 147-page long report by former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta that all EU institutions have been waiting for. Letta's analysis of the EU's single market was commissioned by the European Council a year ago.

European Council president Charles Michel described EU leaders' competitiveness summit as “difficult” - as calls for harmonising corporate tax rules and centralising the supervision of financial sector firms were scrapped from the final Council conclusions.

“What I am very pleased to hear is that the Hungarian presidency was very clear in the fact that they take this as one of the key elements of their presidency,” Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo said on Thursday (18 April).

The UN’s Summit of the Future takes place on 22-23 September in New York, hosted by the UN General Assembly. It provides a high-level forum to determine the next steps in achieving all 17 sustainable development goals.

Kazakhstan will guarantee better protection of women’s rights and children’s safety. Kazakh President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has endorsed significant amendments to new laws envisaging harsh penalties for perpetrators of abuse.

Despite boasting IT specialisation, Romania struggles with one of the most underdeveloped digital public bureaucracies in the region. A new €6 billion injection from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan could revitalise the sector.