Browsing: Europe

Europe is a continent and is different to the European Union.

Switzerland’s non-membership of the EU means it is viewed as more neutral than countries like Austria, Ireland or Sweden.

As French mayors are targeted in violent attacks, many feel abandoned EU

As French mayors are targeted in violent attacks, many feel abandoned

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Less than two months after losing his home in an arson attack, the mayor of a town in western France resigned this week, citing, among other things, a “lack of support from the state”. Amid an increasingly tense political environment, attacks against mayors in France are multiplying. And some say they have been left to fend for themselves.

‘The country is becoming a desert’: Drought-struck Spain is running out of water EU

‘The country is becoming a desert’: Drought-struck Spain is running out of water

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Spain is running out of water. After a long and painful drought, the country has been hit by an unusually early heat wave, evaporating even more of the “blue gold” it still has left in its reservoirs. While farmers fear for their survival, environmentalists say it is time for “Europe’s back garden” to rethink how it uses and manages its increasingly scarce water supply.

‘Without water, we are nothing!’: Spain’s crippling drought reignites tensions over Tagus river EU

‘Without water, we are nothing!’: Spain’s crippling drought reignites tensions over Tagus river

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An early scorching heatwave across Spain has worsened the impact of the country’s long-term drought, causing unprecedented damage to the country’s crops. As farmers grow desperate for irrigation, the government’s plan to limit the rerouting of water from the nation’s longest river – the Tagus – for agricultural purposes lies at the centre of a heated debate. FRANCE 24 reports.

Graham Norton brands EBU ‘an iron fist’ after President Zelensky barred from addressing nations at Eurovision final England news

Graham Norton brands EBU ‘an iron fist’ after President Zelensky barred from addressing nations at Eurovision final

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Graham Norton addressed the EBU’s decision (Picture: John Phillips/Getty Images)

Eurovision host Graham Norton has described the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as ruling ‘with an iron fist’ after its decision to block Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky from speaking at the final.

The presenter hailed a ‘golden age’ of the competition on the eve of the grand final in Liverpool and said he had no involvement in the decision not to let Mr Zelensky address the worldwide audience of 160 million.

The EBU, which produces the event, said on Thursday night that it had declined Mr Zelensky’s request to speak on Saturday over fears it could politicise the contest.

‘The Eurovision Song Contest is an international entertainment show and governed by strict rules and principles which have been established since its creation,’ their statement begins.

‘As part of these, one of the cornerstones of the contest is the non-political nature of the event.

‘This principle prohibits the possibility of making political or similar statements as part of the contest.’

Presideny Zelensky has been barred from speaking at the Grand Final (Picture: EPA)

Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won Eurovision last year (Picture: AP)

The EBU went on to commend Mr Zelensky for his ‘laudable intentions’.

At a press conference on Friday, Norton said: ‘As far as I know, it’s an EBU decision and, as we know, the EBU, they rule with an iron fist so what they say goes.’

He added he was not able to laugh at the acts in the contest any more because the standard has improved so much since he started commentating on the show in 2009.

He told journalists: ‘I personally think we’re going through a golden age of Eurovision.

It is against Eurovision’s rules to make political statements (Picture: REUTERS)

‘I really think the shows of the last few years have been great, really good songs.

‘There was always kind of a nostalgic thing and a kitschy thing and a campy thing and there’s a little bit of that left but, actually, now it’s just a bunch of great pop songs.

‘It is a serious song contest. I still have a joke from the commentary box but they’re different jokes.

‘You can’t laugh at the acts any more because they’re so good.’

Mae Muller said this year feels ‘very, very special’ (Picture: SplashNews.com)

This comes as UK entry Mae Muller called it a huge honour to see Ukrainian flags in the streets, as Liverpool prepared to host on behalf of the war-torn country.

She said: ‘I think this is what Eurovision’s about. It’s proof that us, as human beings, can come together and we can support each other.

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‘It feels like a very, very special year and no matter what the outcome is tomorrow night, I will look back at this moment with such a sense of pride.’

The 25-year-old singer added that she was ‘ready to get this show on the road’.

The Eurovision Grand Final airs Saturday, May 13 at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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MORE : Kalush Orchestra has ‘deep gratitude’ for Eurovision host UK following Ukraine President Zelensky’s admission

MORE : Ukrainian former Eurovision star Tina Karol singing in grand final as act of ‘resistance’

Head of EU’s democracy watchdog: ‘We have to raise our voices’ EU

Head of EU’s democracy watchdog: ‘We have to raise our voices’

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The watchdogs of EU democracy will have to be “much louder in the future” if they hope to see off a mounting threat from homegrown populists and autocrats who are chipping away at Europe’s founding commitments to free speech and the rule of law, a top EU official has warned. “We have to make sure, wherever democracy is under threat, [where there is] shrinking space of civil society, then we have to raise our voices,” Oliver R?pke, the newly elected president of the European Economic and Social Committee, an advisory body within the European Union, told FRANCE 24.