Europe now

Europe Now brings you a special programme from Kyiv to mark the second anniversary of full-scale war in Ukraine. The fighting has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people and left around a fifth of Ukrainian territory under Russian control, but this has not deterred Kyiv from seeking full membership of the European Union. In this first part of the show, we focus on Ukraine's reforms and its cultural heritage.

Europe Now brings you a special programme from Kyiv to mark the second anniversary of full-scale war in Ukraine. The fighting has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people and left around a fifth of Ukrainian territory under Russian control, but this has not deterred Kyiv from seeking full membership of the European Union. In this second part of the show, we focus on the reconstruction of the country.

It's not often that an EU member state decides to hold a national election just as it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union. But that's exactly what the Spanish government did on July 23, just three weeks after starting its six-month stint at the helm of the EU. In this second part of the show, we focus on Spain's scientific research and the importance of EU funds to the country. 

It's not often that an EU member state decides to hold a national election just as it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union. But that's exactly what the Spanish government did on July 23, just three weeks after starting its six-month stint at the helm of the EU. In this first part of the programme, we meet movers and shakers in Madrid to take the political temperature following the inconclusive result of Spain's July 23 parliamentary vote.

Bulgaria is one of the most recent members of the European Union, and also the poorest. EU funds contribute a vital role to the economy: €12 billion for the period of 2021-2027, and €6.6 billion already thanks to the post-Covid recovery fund.

How does the European Union use cohesion funds to reduce poverty and inequality across the bloc? Our first stops are in two of the EU's poorest countries, Bulgaria and Romania, to look at the role that EU aid plays in the areas of education and public transport. We also visit one of Europe's richest countries - France - to see how the European Union can help to level up parts of the EU that display some surprising inequalities.

Whether they're islands, mountains or territories far from the mainland, such areas are considered by the EU to be regions with a strong natural geographical handicap. The EU's cohesion policy, with its powerful budget, gives these regions substantial resources to help them try to catch up with metropolitan areas. The Europe Now team travels to the French overseas department of Guadeloupe to take a closer look.

Whether they're islands, mountains or territories far from the mainland, such areas are considered by the EU to be regions with a strong natural geographical handicap. The EU's cohesion policy, with its powerful budget, gives these regions substantial resources to help them try to catch up with metropolitan areas. The Europe Now team travels to the French overseas department of Guadeloupe to take a closer look.

The election in September of the far-right Giorgia Meloni as Italian premier has sent shockwaves around Europe, not least in Brussels. Meloni has raised fears that she'll roll back reforms put in place by her predecessor, encourage a harsher climate when it comes to dealing with asylum seekers and even renegotiate the conditions of the EU's post-Covid Recovery Plan.

It went down to the wire, but Budapest and Brussels struck a deal in December that paves the way for the EU to greenlight billions of euros in funding. In return, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban's government agreed to more sustained efforts and reforms to fight corruption, as well as giving up its threat to veto a European aid package to Ukraine. This came after months of disagreements over a host of issues – migrants, the rights of minorities, media freedoms, the justice system and most recently, over Russia and Ukraine.

FRANCE 24's Europe team brings you a new series of Europe Now programmes, focusing on "levelling up" – efforts aimed at making life more equal across Europe's many and diverse regions. We examine both national efforts to level up, and the role that EU funding plays in those attempts. EU structural and cohesion funds have become even more important in the light of the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis, which threatens to increase unequal living standards around Europe.

FRANCE 24's Europe team brings you a new series of Europe Now programmes, focusing on "levelling up" – efforts aimed at making life more equal across Europe's many and diverse regions. We examine both national efforts to level up, and the role that EU funding plays in those attempts. EU structural and cohesion funds have become even more important in the light of the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis, which threatens to increase unequal living standards around Europe.

Summer is here in France — an opportune moment for us to look back on this last parliamentary season in Europe, which got underway in September 2021. For FRANCE 24's Europe team, our job involves travelling around the continent to hear from locals and decision-makers in EU member states. Here are a few moments that stood out for us in our last few programmes.

For the latest edition of Europe Now, we head to Poland and Hungary. These two EU members both border Ukraine and have both taken in large numbers of Ukrainian refugees. But on more political issues, their governments' responses to the war have been drastically different. Our team meets lawmakers from across the political spectrum of both countries to discover why the Polish and Hungarian governments have taken such different stances. We also explore other key issues, such as the ever-expanding EU files on degradations of rule of law.

Independent since 1964, Malta has been a member of both the European Union and NATO since 2004. FRANCE 24's Europe team takes us to the smallest EU member state by both size and population, where our team looks into several areas in which these islands hold an important place in European affairs.

Independent since 1964, Malta has been a member of both the European Union and NATO since 2004. FRANCE 24's Europe team takes us to the smallest EU member state by both size and population, where our team looks into several areas in which these islands hold an important place in European affairs.

Our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson and her team take you to Germany as they visit the region in the west of the country which flooded in July 2021. They explore the new government's climate policy, flood and Covid-19 recovery, foreign policy and more.

Our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson and her team take you to Germany as they visit the region in the west of the country which flooded in July 2021. They explore the new government's climate policy, flood and Covid-19 recovery, foreign policy and more.

In this edition of Europe Now we take you to Slovenia, a country that has been at the crossroads of European empires and power struggles for centuries. This small, mountainous and heavily-forested country is almost completely landlocked. Today, it's home to just over two million people, many of which love nature and have a soft spot for their country's prized honey bees.  

In this edition of Europe Now, we take you to Slovenia, a country that's been at the crossroads of European empires and power struggles for centuries. This small, mountainous and heavily-forested country is almost completely landlocked. Today, it's home to just over two million people, many of which love nature and have a soft spot for their country's prized honey bees.

Summer has begun in Europe: restrictions on travel are ending, beaches and bars are beckoning, and Greece is particularly keen to fill them all with holidaymakers. Greece is the European country that relies the most heavily on tourists for its national wealth. In non-Covid times, the sector generates a fifth of Greek GDP and employs one in six workers. But the sector has been rocked by the pandemic, this after a decade of austerity and financial crisis from which businesses and banks have still not entirely recovered.

Summer has begun in Europe: restrictions on travel are ending, beaches and bars are beckoning, and Greece is particularly keen to fill them all with holidaymakers. Greece is the European country that relies the most heavily on tourists for its national wealth. In non-Covid times, the sector generates a fifth of Greek GDP and employs one in six workers. But the sector has been rocked by the pandemic, this after a decade of austerity and financial crisis from which businesses and banks have still not entirely recovered.

It's spring 2021 and to date France has recorded the most cases of Covid-19 in all of Europe – including non-EU countries – and the third-highest death toll after Italy and the UK. It's now more than one year since President Emmanuel Macron first told French people to stay home and that he would do "whatever it takes" to keep people's businesses and livelihoods going.

It's spring 2021 and to date France has recorded the most cases of Covid-19 in all of Europe – including non-EU countries – and the third-highest death toll after Italy and the UK. It's now more than one year since President Emmanuel Macron first told French people to stay home and that he would do "whatever it takes" to keep people's businesses and livelihoods going.

Sun, sea and sand – but no holidaymakers to enjoy them. In our latest edition of Europe Now, Catherine Nicholson travels to what's normally a holiday hotspot – Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands – to find out how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted daily life, the tourism industry and the wider economy.

Sun, sea and sand – but no holidaymakers to enjoy them. In our latest edition of Europe Now, Catherine Nicholson travels to what's normally a holiday hotspot – Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands – to find out how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted daily life, the tourism industry and the wider economy.

Romania has been through so much since the fall of Ceausescu and Communism in 1989. It has now been an EU member for 12 years and has just held the EU presidency for the first time, but its people remain among the poorest in the bloc. In this programme we explore how corruption scandals have been shaking the government and why well over three million Romanians have left to build a future elsewhere. We find out what this means for them and for the country they left behind.

Romania has been through so much since the fall of Ceausescu and Communism in 1989. It has now been an EU member for 12 years and has just held the EU presidency for the first time, but its people remain among the poorest in the bloc. In part two of our show, we take a closer look at concerns that Romania is becoming the waste basket for Western Europe, as well as why so many French medical and veterinary students are headed to the country.

It's a patchwork country at the heart of the patchwork continent that is Europe: a country of 11 million people, with three official languages, and the de facto capital of the EU. In this edition of Europe Now, we head to Belgium.

It's a patchwork country at the heart of the patchwork continent that is Europe: a country of 11 million people, with three official languages, and the de facto capital of the EU. In this edition of Europe Now, we head to Belgium.

As new political winds blow in Italy, FRANCE 24’s Europe team looks beyond the stereotypes in the country of "la dolce vita". It's been almost a year since Italy's populist Five-Star Movement and far-right Lega (League) party joined forces to form a new government, ousting the centre-left Democrats.

As new political winds blow in Italy, FRANCE 24’s Europe team looks beyond the stereotypes in the country of "la dolce vita". It's been almost a year since Italy's populist Five-Star Movement and far-right Lega (League) party joined forces to form a new government, ousting the centre-left Democrats.

Europe Now travels to Estonia this month, 27 years since the country emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our European Affairs Editor, Catherine Nicholson meets former foreign minister-turned MEP Urmas Paet, plus filmmaker Ilmar Raag, to find out how Estonia has evolved in the past quarter century.

It’s been 100 years since the Baltic states declared their independence – and 27 since they emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Europe Now, FRANCE 24’s European Affairs Editor Catherine Nicholson takes us to the smallest of them. In Estonia, she meets President Kersti Kaljulaid who gives us her view on security threats from Russia, and tells us why she still has confidence in NATO, despite criticism and threats to the body from US President Donald Trump.

In 2018, Hungary and Slovakia have both been under scrutiny over their behaviour as European member states. Both countries are facing European sanctions for refusing to participate in an EU quota system for re-distributing asylum seekers around the bloc. Slovakia has gone from a forgotten EU member state to front-page news after the murder of an investigative journalist, Jan Kuciak, who had been investigating links between the Italian mafia and individuals close to the former prime minister.

The River Danube isn’t the only thing that links Hungary and Slovakia. Both countries share a common history – as part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, as members of the Cold-War era Eastern bloc, and since 2004, as members of the European Union. In 2018, Hungary and Slovakia have both been under scrutiny over their behaviour as European member states. Hungary has come under fire for what Brussels sees as pressure on democratic institutions, the judiciary, the independent press, and more.

Barbed wire, checkpoints, abandoned buildings and military bases: all of these are common sights in Cyprus - a country that remains split in two, 44 years after the Turkish military invaded and occupied the north. In 2017, peace talks slated as the "best and last chance" by the United Nations, collapsed. Following President Anastasiades' re-election in February of this year, our team travelled to Cyprus to unpick the biggest issues that could help, or hinder, the path to peace.

Barbed wire, checkpoints, abandoned buildings and military bases: all of these are common sights in Cyprus - a country that remains split in two, 44 years after the Turkish military invaded and occupied the north. In 2017, peace talks slated as the "best and last chance" by the United Nations, collapsed. Following President Anastasiades' re-election in February of this year, our team travelled to Cyprus to unpick the biggest issues that could help, or hinder, the path to peace.

It's the land of Dali, Gaudi, Pep Guardiola, tourism, industries, mountains, sea ports - and most recently, also very vocal and emotional separatist sentiment. Catalonia's regional election on Dec. 21 seems to have sparked as many questions as it gave answers: If 52 percent of the voters chose anti-independence parties, but the separatists won the biggest number of regional parliamentary seats, how can the region move forward?

It's the land of Dali, Gaudi, Pep Guardiola, tourism, industries, mountains, sea ports - and most recently, also very vocal and emotional separatist sentiment. Catalonia's regional election on Dec. 21 seems to have sparked as many questions as it gave answers: If 52 percent of the voters chose anti-independence parties, but the separatists won the biggest number of regional parliamentary seats, how can the region move forward?

For this episode of Europe Now, our Europe editor Catherine Nicholson digs deeper into the hot topics of the moment in the EU's two German-speaking member states.

For this episode of Europe Now, our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson digs deeper into the hot topics of the moment in Europe's two German-speaking member states.