European countries are pioneering techniques to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. Yet progress varies widely between countries, and even among communities within the same country. POLITICO Studio sat down with Neil Mulcock, vice president, international government affairs at Gilead Sciences, to learn more about the latest best practices for testing, prevention and treatment, and how Europe can move forward to end the epidemic, once and for all. This Q&A is part of POLITICO Telescope: The New AIDS Epidemic, an ongoing exploration of the disease today. Neil Mulcock, vice president international ..read more

There’s a battle going on across the Alps. And the spoils of war are … chocolate! If you know anything about the northern Italian region of Piedmont you may have heard of Fiat cars, the Juventus football team or perhaps Nutella.  But the famous chocolate spread is not the only delicacy the area has to offer — and its second-most famous sweet is now tearing the region apart.  Gianduiotto is a staple of Piedmont’s cuisine: A small, ingot-shaped chocolate made of cocoa, hazelnuts and sugar, all wrapped in gold paper. (Think: solid Nutella.)  To cement the link between the sweet and ..read more

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s hunt for raw materials is running into new roadblocks — at home and abroad.  Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa’s recent resignation over a corruption probe in connection with lithium mining concessions in the north of the country has just dealt another blow to Brussels’ ambitions to diversify its supply of raw materials needed for green and digital technologies.  Currently, the EU relies on imports to satisfy its rapidly growing hunger for lithium, a key ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles, with China accounting for 60 p ..read more

A new, post-Brexit trade row is looming for key U.K. industries but do ministers want to trigger fresh negotiations with Brussels? Business groups representing U.K. energy and steel sectors are looking nervously at a potential financial cliff-edge, when additional export costs are introduced through the EU’s carbon border tax. That comes into full force in 2026. Energy bosses worry it could cost firms hundreds of millions of pounds each year. Some sector lobbyists want leaders in London and Brussels to start aligning U.K. and EU carbon prices, in a bid to avoid future costs. But that would req ..read more

Montenegro’s parliament voted in a new government on Tuesday, following weeks of negotiations and nearly five months after the country went to the polls. The small Balkan country will be led by a coalition of pro-European, pro-Serb and Albanian minority parties, helmed by former finance minister and ex-Goldman Sachs banker Milojko Spajić, who leads the centrist Europe Now Movement. At 36, he is the youngest prime minister in Europe. “Our vision is Montenegro as the Switzerland of the Balkans and the Singapore of Europe”, Spajić told parliament ahead of the vote. He pitched his government’s mai ..read more

Meta announced Monday that it would start offering paid-for subscriptions for Facebook and Instagram, its popular digital services, within the European Union from next month. Those forking out for a monthly subscription will not have their personal information used to target them with advertising, while those who do not pay will still have their data collected to power Meta’s lucrative advertising model. People will be able to pay between €9.99 and €12.99 a month, depending on whether they want to access the subscriptions via either the web or their smartphones. The fees will allow users to ac ..read more

BRUSSELS — The spyware deployed against Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, was made and marketed by a European company. A link sent to Metsola as a reply to a post on X was designed to infect the device of anyone who clicked on it with Predator surveillance software. Predator is produced and sold by the Intellexa alliance, a collection of surveillance technology firms controlled by a holding company based in Ireland, according to a report by Amnesty International, which uncovered the attempted hack. It allows an attacker to gain full access to victim devices, including micr ..read more

Switzerland and Sweden are not the same country! But it’s clear that some people get them confused, as Sweden has released a video addressing the issue. “It’s time we make the distinction between our two nations as clear as day by deciding who talks about what,” VisitSweden — a government-owned company that promotes Sweden as a tourist destination — said in a video campaign released Tuesday. Sweden’s proposal includes a list of reserved topics for each country: Switzerland gets to talk about watches, LSD (the drug was invented by a Swiss chemist) and cows, while Sweden is granted communication ..read more

The far-right and euroskeptic Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is set to make its strongest-ever showing in national elections, according to exit polls published Sunday night by the SSR public broadcaster. The SVP, which centered its campaign on anti-immigrant rhetoric, is projected to win 29 percent of the vote, up from 25.6 percent four years ago and higher than pre-election polls. It has been the country’s largest party since 2003. In an election dominated by domestic issues, the three other main parties — the Social Democrats, the Free Democrats and the Center Alliance — were seen as recording r ..read more

Disclaimer: This article was written by a Swiss. Around five million Swiss voters will head to the polls on Sunday for a general election that will see them pick 246 lawmakers who will eventually elect a government. That government will have the difficult tasks of preserving Switzerland’s neutrality in a war-torn Europe; restoring confidence in the banking sector after the bailout of one of its largest institutions; fixing a damaged relationship with the European Union; and bringing health costs down. Sounds boring? We’re here to change your mind with four reasons you should be interested. It ..read more