In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Germany's CDU favour an alliance with the left to secure a second von der Leyen Commission, a Bulgarian court putting a stop to the country's largest EU-funded environmental project, and so much more.

This week, we are discussing the artificial intelligence liability directive (AILD), a key part of the EU's continuously evolving digital rulebook.

On Thursday Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court stopped the controversial project to build a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) waste incinerator in the centre of Sofia, which would have used EU funding to turn the capital's waste into heat and electricity.

The EU Prosecutor is doing a good job in investigating cases related to the rule of law as Greek citizens mistrust domestic justice and the conservative New Democracy government (EPP), Greece’s main opposition Syriza party (EU Left) leader Stefanos Kasselakis told Euractiv.com in an interview.

Slovakia has become increasingly embroiled in controversies over its relations with Russia, with the US recently extending Russia sanctions to a Slovak company, the Interior Ministry granting protection to a pro-Russian actor, and a parliament official giving an interview to Russian television and spreading pro-Kremlin narratives.

Poland will deport two men who were arrested in Poland in early April on suspicion of assaulting Russian opposition figure Leonid Volkov in Vilnius, the spokesperson for Lithuania’s prosecution service, Gintarė Vitkauskaite-Satkauskiene announced on Thursday.

Under mounting political pressure, US President Joe Biden broke his silence on campus unrest over the war in Gaza on Thursday (2 May), saying Americans have the right to demonstrate but not to unleash violence.

Politicians are the main threat for media freedom in Europe with a third of member states being labelled as ‘problematic’ and even the ‘good’ and ‘satisfactory’ countries, seeing their scores drop, according to Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index 2024, published on Friday (3 May).

An industry project launched by the rail industry sector's skills alliance (STAFFER) and sponsored by the European Commission is reaching an end after almost four years. Euractiv spoke to project participants, who will present concrete policy recommendations for the next Commission in October.

The 80 years since the genocidal deportation of the Crimean Tatar people are not just a tragedy for the Crimean Tatars, but a systemic diagnosis and a historical warning of what Russian imperialism is. MEP Anna Fotyga, former foreign minister...

The resignation scare Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez gave the whole country last week has “weakened” and undermined the unity of his separatist and left-wing partners who ensure his government’s stability, the regional president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, said on Thursday.

The Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has approved a decree that aims to ensure strategic coherence in the spending of all EU funds received by Italy, while economists remain cautious about its potential impact.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s conservative CDU party prefers a deal with left-wing rather than right-wing forces to support her second mandate in an investiture vote, the party’s delegation leader Daniel Caspary said on Thursday, adding, however, that it depends on whether left-wing parties are reliable.

Russian military personnel have entered an air base in Niger that is hosting US troops, a senior US defense official told Reuters, a move that follows a decision by Niger's junta to expel US forces from the country.

Vladimir Putin sees domestic and international developments trending in his favor and likely will press on with aggressive tactics in Ukraine, but the war is unlikely to end soon, the top US intelligence official said.

France and Japan agreed on Thursday (2 May) to start formal talks on a reciprocal troop access deal, strengthening military cooperation in amid rising maritime tensions in the Indo-Pacific region and the war in Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron promised three billion pounds (€3.5 billion) of annual military aid for Ukraine for "as long as it takes" on Thursday (2 May), adding that London had no objection to the weapons being used inside Russia.

With France set to host China's President Xi Jinping on his first state visit to Europe in five years, Paris and Brussels are trying to find the right balance between taking an offensive stance against Beijing and attracting new investments.

EU countries generally agree that green technologies are crucial to meet climate targets and stay competitive in the renewable energy market. They agree less on how to boost their competitiveness vis-à-vis the United States and China. 

Europe must boost its investment in R&D, skills, infrastructure, and the integration of eco-friendly and advanced technologies if it is to achieve its environmental objectives and maintain a competitive edge, say institutional banks.