Europe

Mafia scams involving farming, tobacco, VAT and alcohol are taking billions out of EU funds. The Covid pandemic has opened the floodgates.

Italy’s Mafia is older than the country itself and, despite the cyclical efforts to stamp out its influence, the rise of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta clan to displace the Sicilian Cosa Nostra underscores its intrinsic place in Italian society.

Businesspeople, academics, journalists and a top trade unionist have formed a group with the purpose of repairing fractured UK-EU relations.

In the wake of the tragedy in the Channel, media commentator LIZ GERARD’s searing essay exposes how newspapers demonised refugees - and encouraged ministers to follow them.

Ultravox sung about Vienna, Freddie Mercury duetted with Montserrat Caballe on Barcelona and The Stranglers told us all roads lead to Rome but Suede's Europe is Our Playground couldn't be more wrong today

News that you might have missed from around the continent, selected by Steve Anglesey.

Despite the UK's head start in the vaccine race, it is now falling behind the rest of Europe.

You might not be able to reach your favourite continental European destination this summer – or find a booking at the British seaside either. But you can still pay a fleeting visit to sunny climes with Steve Anglesey’s quiz, in which each answer is somewhere you might have been (or hope to be heading) in more normal times

Few things could better connect the continent than an affordable, integrated rail system joining up its great cities. As airlines struggle, travel horizons shorten and climate change becomes ever more pressing, if it doesn’t happen now, when will it?

How has the US – ridden with culture wars and deeply divided on so many issues – managed to largely legalise weed with so little fuss and furore, while supposedly liberal Europe lags behind?

Covid travel restrictions have dealt a serious blow to the import of holiday tunes from the continent

Rob Hughes asks how long Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will stay at the top before they finally retire from football Some day, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will cease being the most extraordinarily gifted among more than 250 million men and women playing football around the world. Their body clocks are ticking. They face […]

A 13-year-old skateboarder, a German policewoman, an Afghani woman cyclist attacked for daring to ride her bicycle... some of the most absorbing European stories at this Olympic Games.

Hand-wringing about the plight of migrants crossing the Channel and Mediterranean by boat - and angry words about their treatment - will only go so far. What would liberal progressives actually like to see done?

Great European Lives with Charlie Connelly is now available as a podcast, brought to you by Charlie Connelly and The New European.

Keith Floyd’s charm turned him into a caricature. SOPHIA DEBOICK thinks that, instead, he should be remembered as the nation’s culinary pioneer “Pick young, small, un-flowering dandelion leaves. Wash and dry them carefully. Serve with olive oil, salt and sherry vinegar and cubes of hot fried bread.” This was the delicious simplicity of Floyd’s Food, […]

Nowhere are the tensions between tolerance and intolerance felt more acutely than in Poland, where some areas have tried to introduce 'LGBT-free' zones

This was meant to be its moment but across the continent, populism has peaked. So what is replacing it?

England's footballers have brought joy to the nation. Nonetheless, ROB HUGHES explains how our opponents still have much to teach us

An apartment that costs 180,000 euros (£155,000) per month to rent is available in Monte Carlo One, a luxury block overlooking Monaco’s famous Place du Casino.

The Faroe Islanders are in the process of connecting up their archipelago with a series of breathtaking tunnels. Could they be setting an example for the UK to follow?

The unending migrant crisis and mounting death toll in European waters presents the continent with its greatest test... one it is failing badly.

A seemingly unbridgeable chasm is splitting the continent between countries that see LGBT rights as the core of European identity of freedom and tolerance, and those that see them as a threat to that same identity

Some surprise choices - and some usual suspects missing - as JASON SOLOMONS selects the 50 greatest European movies

Turkey has followed through on a pledge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in March in withdrawing itself from an international treaty to prevent violence against women. May 11 marked the tenth anniversary of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention.  It created robust and legally […]

EU leaders have failed to agree on the proposal of holding a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the near future.  It is not yet clear whether this proposed summit would include all 27 leaders or only Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s chief executive, and Charles Michel, its chairman.  Leaders’ decision to reject […]

María Paz Fuentes Fernández's family got a shock after her death - she had booked a local newspaper notice banning them from her funeral

For the 5th anniversary of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, campaign group Best for Britain has projected the names of thousands of British people in the centre of Brussels.  Their aim was to express feelings of continued goodwill, familiarity and solidarity with the country’s closest neighbours.  The message was projected onto the Station […]

Turkey has been gripped by a scandal involving a mafia boss on the run making extraordinary allegations about the country's political elite

Birger Ruud helped to change his sport for good, before serving his country against its Nazi occupiers It’s hard to imagine a sport more exhilarating for the competitor than ski jumping. The jumper hauls themself onto the in-run, skis perfectly parallel, crouching as low as possible as they hurtle down a slope as steep as 38 […]

Since the start of the Syrian civil war 10 years ago, Europe has taken in more than one million refugees. So what has been the impact on the continent?

The week's weirdest news from Europe includes a drug mix-up in Poland, a trigger-happy pensioner in Germany and a violent squirrel in Turkey