European Parliament

Greece's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the far-right party Spartiates (Spartans) will be excluded from the upcoming European parliament elections. 

The Supreme court unveiled the final roster of parties that are set to compete on June 9 and deemed that the far-right party could not participate.

Attacks against migrants, refugees and LGBT people in Greece surged to their highest level in nearly a decade last year, a report by the Athens-based Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN) has found.

The network recorded 158 attacks in 2023, up from 74 in 2022. Of those, 89 targeted migrants, refugees or asylum seekers and 61 targeted LGBT people, it said.

New Democracy's decision to nominate Fredi Beleri, the imprisoned mayor of Himare, as a candidate for the European Parliament aims to highlight Albania's violation of the rule of law as a European concern. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis made this clear on Wednesday, while also condemning attempts to monopolize these "progressive" issues.

The leadership of the "We Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria" (WCC-DB) coalition, consisting of Kiril Petkov, Asen Vassilev, Hristo Ivanov, and Atanas Atanasov, has formally announced their joint participation in the upcoming early parliamentary elections and the elections for members of the European Parliament on June 9, 2024.

STRASBOURG - At the proposal of rapporteur Matjaz Nemec, the European Parliament on Tuesday approved visa liberalisation for holders of Serbian passports issued by the Serbian Coordination Directorate for Kosovo-Metohija, which operates as part of the Serbian Interior Ministry.

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to back a year-long extension to tariff-free trade for Ukrainian farm produce, while introducing new curbs on the level of imports to assuage protesting EU farmers.

The parliament voted by 428 votes to 131 with 44 abstentions in favour of the extension, which will now apply from June 6 after clearing this final procedural hurdle.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) in Blagoevgrad has nominated Elena Yoncheva as a candidate for the European Parliament, sparking intense debate and speculation.

More than 114,200 voters have registered for mail-in balloting in the June 9 European Parliament elections, surpassing last year's turnout from abroad, according to Greece's Interior Ministry. 

Participation is expected to increase further as the platform enters its final week of operation. 

Government officials have developed a set of five tests to determine whether the June 9 European Parliament elections will be a success or failure.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis urged Greek voters to hand candidates on ruling New Democracy's party ticket a comfortable majority in the European Parliament elections this June.