In this week's edition: European ammo plans take shape, EU defence strategy preview and more.

A senior member of Slovakia's government met his Russian counterpart on Saturday (2 March) in a rare high-level encounter between a European Union member state and a country the EU has sought to isolate.

Mediators expected to reconvene in Cairo as soon as Sunday (3 March) and search for a formula acceptable to Israel and Hamas for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, sources with knowledge of the talks said, after foreign governments resorted to airdrops to aid desperate civilians in the Palestinian enclave.

A bitterly fought election in Belgrade -- a focus of widespread allegations of fraud during Serbia's local and parliamentary polls in December -- will be re-run, the acting city mayor said on Saturday (2 March).

European socialists are seeking to lead European Commission portfolios on the green transition, economy, and social affairs for the next mandate, the socialist EU leading candidate Nicola Schmit told Euractiv in an exclusive interview.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte signed a security deal with Ukraine in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday (1 March) and said the Netherlands would help fund the supply of 800,000 artillery shells to hold back Russian forces.

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow on Friday (1 March), two weeks after President Vladimir Putin's top critic died in an Arctic prison.

The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) is close to overtaking the socialists in their two strongholds, Romania and Portugal, according to the latest EU elections projection by Europe Elects for Euractiv. And there are other interesting changes in party rankings in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.

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A looming hard-right shift casts a shadow on June’s EU elections and Europe’s left is using the topic to mobilise their voters, but the consequences are rather damaging.

This week began with EU countries calling on the European Commission to "reorientate" the CAP. At the Council meeting last Monday, member states discussed some of the EU executive's proposals to make the CAP simpler, and pushed for more. One of the areas some of them want to explore is the protection of farmers in the food chain - as they are seen as the economically weaker players in the sector.

A broad coalition of members of the European Parliament has written to the leaders of EU institutions urging them to ban all Russian energy from Europe, including pipeline gas and LNG.

The truth behind all of Vladimir Putin’s current rhetoric is that if Ukraine falls, he will not stop there, writes Alexander Temerko. Alexander Temerko is a Ukrainian businessman who held senior posts in the Russian Defence Ministry. The first time Putin...

France's right-leaning Senate approving a bill enshrining the right to abortion in the country's Constitution - after the National Assembly did the same at the end of January - is a defeat for the far-right and the pro-life movement, Camille Butin of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) told Euractiv in an interview.

The eurozone’s core inflation rate dropped to its lowest level in nearly two years in February, bolstering hopes that Europe’s inflation crisis may have permanently abated and that the European Central Bank (ECB) will cut interest rates later this year.

The EU’s largest economy takes longer than many of its peers to follow orders from Brussels, the Commission’s Single Market report showed, pointing to the wider threat that the bloc’s lethargic policy implementation poses to its competitiveness.

The Austrian government has agreed to provide an undisclosed part of €200 million for building a pipeline to boost the country’s ability to import natural gas via Germany, amid growing political pressure to reduce dependence on Russia.

Prominent Italian parliamentarians committed on Thursday (29 February) to “strengthening the immunity system” of their society by making sure that global brands stop advertising with media outlets that spread disinformation

Welcome to Euractiv’s Tech Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU.

The EU is based on four fundamental freedoms but it is time for a fifth: the free movement of energy. Integrated clean energy markets positively influence climate protection and future economic success, argues Monika Köppl-Turyna.