#EUROPEAN UNION

Calls from the Kremlin for direct Russian flights to the U.S. to be restored as a condition for a ceasefire in Ukraine are facing opposition from the EU, Politico reported on Friday.

The agreement between Germany’s conservatives and social democrats that was agreed upon last week stipulates that their coalition government would oppose further expansion of the European Union unless the bloc scraps its unanimity principle.

Poland’s finance minister has called for urgent agreement on EU loans to support member states’ defense spending.

Massive Chinese imports could be a big issue for Europe, the minister warned.

The European Union has voted to impose tariffs on a raft of U.S. imports in response to Donald Trump applying a 25% levy on steel and aluminum from the EU.

Hungary’s government is “on Putin’s team” when it comes to attitudes to the war in Ukraine, according to Estonia’s foreign minister.

Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius spoke at an EU Security Forum in Warsaw.

The Polish presidency of the EU Council will hold technical discussions with member states in late April to explore the possibility of abandoning the biannual clock change, Polish news agency PAP reported citing EU sources.

Europe needs a team of negotiators and a special envoy for ending the war in Ukraine, Finnish President Alexander Stubb told France 24 television.

European antitrust regulators hit Google with two charges of breaching landmark EU rules on Wednesday and ordered Apple to help rivals connect with its iPhones and iPads, continuing with a geopolitically charged crackdown against Big Tech.

Europe’s largest union of journalists has demanded an apology from Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán after he characterized reporters as “bugs” and threatened a “clean up” of the media and other sectors.

The plan, however, could exclude the UK and the U.S.

The Netherlands' parliament has approved a series of motions calling on the government to reduce dependence on U.S. software companies, including by creating a cloud services platform under Dutch control.

Hungary’s parliament passed a law on Tuesday to ban a Pride march by LGBTQ+ communities and backed a resolution opposing joint EU borrowing for defense spending as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gears up for a summit in Brussels later this week.

Radio Free Europe is among several U.S.-funded media outlets set to lose funding.

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski criticized Hungary’s planned referendum on Ukraine’s EU accession amid rising tensions between Warsaw and Budapest over support for Kyiv.

Hungary and the United States will agree on an economic cooperation package that will help the Hungarian economy and could offset the effect of possible U.S. tariffs, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Saturday.

European leaders on Thursday backed plans to spend more on defense and pledged to continue to stand by Ukraine in a world upended by Donald Trump’s reversal of U.S. policies.

A summit of EU leaders in Brussels has approved plans that could provide as much as €800 billion to beef up the the bloc’s defense.

The EU has accused Bosnia’s Serb-majority region of undermining the country’s constitution after it banned the centrally-run judicial system from operating on its territory.