Bulgaria Among EU Leaders in Female Representation in Science and Engineering
In 2023, the number of female scientists and engineers in the European Union reached 7.7 million
Iceland has officially renounced its EU membership bid, according to an official statement.
The country's Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson has already informed the Latvian EU Presidency and the EU Commission and has stressed "the importance of continued strong relations and cooperation between Iceland and the EU, including on the basis of the EEA Agreement."
The EEA, which also includes Liechtenstein and Norway, provides for the inclusion of the three countries into the EU's regime of free movement of persons, goods, services and capital, though it leaves them outside the union.
Iceland's statement also reads the decision was taken following "extensive communications" between the government and the EU.
Reykjavik has requested that the EU "act in accordance with this from now on."
No clear reason is stated for the development, but Eurosceptic parties, which have been spearheading Icelandic politics over the past two years, do not consider EU accession to be a priority.
The country had been a member state since 2009, but had sought to withdraw its application over the past years, reiterating in January it would renew its efforts.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges against the owner and manager of a company in connection with suspected fraud in a public procurement for trolleybuses in Vratsa, Bulgaria
The European Commission has warned that it will take retaliatory measures if the United States moves forward with new tariffs on steel and aluminium
The authorities in Transnistria, a self-declared breakaway region of Moldova, have rejected €60 million in aid offered by the European Union to address the region’s ongoing energy crisis
A consumer boycott targeting large retail chains is gaining traction in Romania, mirroring similar price-related protests in other Balkan countries
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have officially disconnected from Russia’s electricity grid and successfully integrated into the European Union’s power network
On February 1, Slovakia resumed importing Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline
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