Author: staff
Working at the European Commission is one of the most coveted civil service jobs in Brussels. Yet, officials employed there describe high pressure, bureaucracy and burnout. Our colleague Seb Starcevic has interviewed dozen officials from different commissioners’ cabinets and directorates-general, varying in age, nationality and seniority. On the podcast, Zoya Sheftalovich and Sarah Wheaton parse through what these insiders had to say about their working conditions. Next, last week’s Ceuta crisis — when a surge of migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish exclave — has revived a basic question: Why does Spain still hold territory in North Africa? With…
The Commission — which has a workforce of some 30,000 — hired a chief confidential counsellor, Lene Naesager, to deal with staff harassment issues, in May 2024. She has a team of 40 counsellors across the Commission and its executive agencies. Since September 2024, the chief counsellor, who reports to Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin, has received 960 reports from “colleagues feeling harassed, alleged harassers, witnesses, managers and HR correspondents,” according to a Commission spokesperson. However, the chief counsellor “has no mandate to investigate and is not entitled legally to qualify the conduct as harassment as defined in the Staff Regulations,” the…
Why people want a job at the European Commission — and why so many end up miserable – POLITICO Skip to main content
But the campaign has run into strong opposition from Malta. The tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea, with a population of just over half a million people, is home to a burgeoning betting sector. It says that higher taxes will cripple its gambling industry, boost illegal operators and drive firms outside the bloc. “[Malta] will not accept the introduction of any EU-level taxes designed to sustain the bloc’s spending,” the country’s Prime Minister, Robert Abela, told the Maltese Parliament in June. But Shilton, who lost more than £1 million in betting on horse racing over 45 years and now runs…
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond in this Euronews news bulletin. In just a few minutes, our newsroom brings you the latest news and breaking news across world affairs, business, politics, culture, entertainment and travel, with the context you need to make sense of a fast-moving day. Reported with the independence and the European perspective that define Euronews, this regular round-up gives you a clear and reliable overview of the stories shaping our world right now, wherever you are watching from.
By Una Hajdari with AP Published on 05/08/2026 – 15:27 GMT+2 China has announced a series of economic measures against the United States, including controls on drone exports and a ban on dealings with six American entities. The move is in response to recent restrictions imposed by Washington. Tensions are simmering between the world’s two biggest economies ahead of an expected visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the US in September. This comes despite signs of warming ties during his meetings with US President Donald Trump in Beijing in May. China’s Commerce Ministry said the sanctions are a response to recent US…
From border management and asylum rules to integration and the rights of people living in Europe without legal status, migration continues to raise difficult questions for policymakers. Spanish MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar (Socialists & Democrats) and Swedish MEP Tomas Tobé (European People’s Party) discuss how Europe should manage migration, including the use of the “safe third country” concept and Spain’s large-scale regularisation plan. Another major issue on the EU agenda this year was the EU-Mercosur trade agreement. With the deal dividing opinion across Europe, Swedish EPP MEP Jörgen Warborn and Irish Renew MEP Ciaran Mullooly debate its potential benefits…
Iran and Oman on Wednesday finalised an agreement on what Tehran calls the geographical coordinates of a proposed shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran and Oman are preparing a joint statement on the agreement which includes technical, legal, security and environmental points. Separately, Iranian media quoted official sources saying that the reopening of the Strait would depend on the US ending its naval blockade of the country’s ports. The key aspect of such an agreement revolves around Tehran’s insistence to charge fees for passage as it claims sovereign control of the…
Officials told WELT — which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer group — that the device’s detonator failed to function, preventing an explosion. They also said the drone was found just meters from a Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft. According to the report, it contained Semtex, the explosive used in the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. According to WELT, security authorities have internally classified the incident as an attempted attack. No suspects had been detained as of Wednesday evening. Germany’s Interior Minister…
Published on 05/08/2026 – 18:22 GMT+2 Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic party’s Senate primary election in the US state of Michigan on Wednesday, highlighting key internal differences over the party’s direction. El-Sayed narrowly defeated moderate congresswoman Haley Stevens – who was backed by many of the party’s senior establishment figures such as Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer – in what became a proxy battle for the party’s direction. He will now go on to face Republican Mike Rogers in November to keep Michigan’s Senate seat with the Democrats. November’s elections will determine the makeup of Congress for US…