#european-union-accession

#european-union-accession

The new checks, part of the EU's new Entry/Exit System (EES), collect digital personal records of third country nationals travelling to the Schengen area and replace the manual stamping of passports.

The idea is to prevent visitors overstaying; the consequence is a 70% increase in security processing times, according to the trade body Airports Council International.

Emergency services, including a helicopter, were seen searching the area, and French maritime authorities recovered people from the water, with one person treated for hypothermia.

Austria's Defense Ministry stated, 'There have indeed been requests and they were refused from the outset.' The refusal is based on the country's neutrality policy, which has been in effect since 1955.

SPD Secretary General Tim Klussendorf told the newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland on Sunday that the ruling coalition should now move swiftly to make the ban a reality. "We finally need clear rules on digital platforms. Addiction-inducing algorithms, hate, and bullying are a massive problem for our entire society and can be particularly dangerous and harmful to children and young people," he said.

At first, it sounds almost too simple like someone claiming they've solved European immigration with nothing more than a calendar and a backpack. But this little pattern, when used intentionally and legally, becomes one of the most elegant travel strategies in the world. It lets you stay in Europe far longer than any tourist visa seems to allow, all without breaking rules, overstaying, or navigating complicated immigration systems.

Gaining citizenship through family or through marriage is possible, but if you don't have any useful relatives or an EU spouse you'll be looking at getting citizenship through residency. From residency requirements to rules on dual nationality, every country in Europe has its own way of tackling naturalisation.

Germany and Italy are deepening defense and economic cooperation with the leaders of the two countries signing an agreement in Rome. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni agreed on closer cooperation in the production of drones, naval vessels, underwater systems and air and missile defense systems. The leaders are also looking to collaborate in the development of electronic warfare and aerial combat defense systems.

We want to speed up the European Union, we want to make it better, and we want to ensure that we have a competitive industry in Europe.

Germany has no equivalent of the US' specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way. Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the far-right party seen by the German newspaper taz this week proposed that a new authority be created within the Bavarian state police named the Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe (AFA), or the "Asylum, Tracing and Deportation group."

The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) is the European Union's legal framework to create uniform, fair, and efficient standards for processing asylum applications. The system's reform, agreed in 2024, will become legally binding in Germany and throughout the EU in June, 2026. EU member states had a two-year implementation period during which the new rules including stricter border procedures were transposed into national law.

Technically, we will be ready in 2027, Zelenskyy told reporters, Reuters reported, adding that by the end of 2026 Ukraine will have implemented the main steps required for membership. I think the European Commission may have a slightly more nuanced view on that, given its last year's progress report pointing to some level of preparation in many areas, with only limited progress on some of the key issues, such as fight against corruption, or insufficient capacity in some areas looked at by the EU.