EU leaders have given the green light for a 90-billion-euro loan for Kyiv at their summit in Cyprus after Ukraine repaired the Druzhba pipeline and Hungary dropped its veto. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky praised the decision and called for his country to receive EU membership as quickly as possible.
Spain is facing a severe housing shortage and the government has now approved a housing plan that aims to triple the number of affordable homes and protect them from property speculation. Meanwhile, Ireland is taking a different approach: under a proposed bill, garden sheds could soon be built and rented out without planning permission. The media in both countries take a closer look at the initiatives.
Romania's four-party governing coalition has collapsed after six ministers and the deputy prime minister from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) resigned over austerity measures planned by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and his PNL party. Bolojan has rejected the PSD's demands for his resignation and said that he will lead a minority government. Bucharest is under pressure to reduce its budget deficit and debt, and it faces the prospect of cuts to EU funding if it fails.
This year, for the first time, the French government is allowing bakeries and florists to let their staff work on 1 May, provided they do so voluntarily and are paid double their usual rate. While employers, particularly butchers and fishmongers, are pushing for labour legislation to be further relaxed, trade unions are up in arms.
Just hours before his ultimatum expired, US President Donald Trump extended the ceasefire with Iran for an indefinite period. At Pakistan's request, Trump said that there would be no more attacks until the "seriously fractured" government in Tehran had put forward a "unified proposal" and talks had been concluded. Iran did not attend a round of talks announced by Washington.
The Estonian government is resisting the EU Pay Transparency Directive adopted in 2023, saying it does not want the bureaucratic burden. The directive aims to reduce the gender pay gap. Member states were given until June this year to implement it, with businesses required to ensure transparency and introduce measures to pay men and women equally.
Several members of the management team at the Russian publishing group Eksmo were arrested in Moscow on Tuesday. They are accused of 'extremist behaviour' and of 'disseminating LGBT literature among minors'. Since May 2025, a court case has been underway against three of the publisher's employees who are charged with disseminating youth literature featuring homosexual content.
Since 2021 Hungary has had a law – typical of the Orbán era – prohibiting access to information on homosexuality, trans identity and gender reassignment for the under-18s. The European Court of Justice has now ruled that the law is discriminatory, and that it violates European fundamental rights as well as contradicting the EU's core values.
Former President Rumen Radev's centre-left coalition Progressive Bulgaria won a clear victory in the parliamentary elections, securing around 45 percent of the vote. Radev has affirmed that Bulgaria will continue its European path, but that a strong Europe needs critical thinking and pragmatism. Commentators ask what the election result means for European cohesion.
A proposed change to the curriculum has sparked controversy in Portugal. The country's only Nobel laureate, José Saramago, may lose compulsory reading status in secondary schools. Saramago, who was an avowed communist until his death in 2010, left the country in the 1990s following a row with the Conservatives. Against this backdrop, the proposal by the Conservatives, who are now in power again, has fuelled a heated debate.
More revelations in the Mandelson scandal are upping the pressure on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Mandelson was given the post of ambassador to the US despite failing security vetting. In the House of Commons, Starmer apologised for the appointment but said that at the time of the decision he had not been fully informed.
Romania's four-party ruling coalition is on the brink of collapse: On Monday, the Social Democrats (PSD), the largest party in the government, withdrew their support for the liberal prime minister Ilie Bolojan over proposed reforms and austerity measures, calling on him to resign and threatening to withdraw the PSD ministers from the cabinet if he refused. Bolojan, however, said he has no intention of stepping down and accused the PSD of trying to shirk its responsibilities.