Liechtenstein’s parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage on Thursday, making it the 22nd country in Europe to do so. Lawmakers in the German-speaking microstate voted nearly unanimously in favor of the measure, with 24 of the 25 MPs supporting it, Liechtensteiner Vaterland reported. Daniel Seger, parliamentary group spokesperson for the conservative Progressive Citizens’ Party in Liechtenstein, described the passage of the marriage law amendment as a “big relief” after its second reading. “We felt the pressure and the expectation that we should be the last German-speaking country to intr ..read more

PARIS — France announced foreign investment projects worth €15 billion in fields including technology, artificial intelligence and pharmaceuticals, as President Emmanuel Macron hosts a key investor summit in Versailles on Monday. Macron will play host to some 180 foreign business leaders at the ostentatious palace of Versailles at the ‘Choose France’ business summit, where 56 projects are expected to be announced this year, according to the French government, up from 28 projects totaling €13 billion last year. The annual ‘Choose France’ summit is aimed at attracting foreign investment and ..read more

Swiss singer Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest late Saturday in a competition marked by controversy over the presence of Israel and the disqualification of the Dutch entrant. The competition in Malmö, Sweden, was overshadowed by protests over Israel’s participation in the contest amid the ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Nemo triumphed with “The Code,” a pop-rap ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing a non-gender identity. Croatia, which led the public vote, came in second with “Rim Tim Tagi Dim.” Israel’s entrant, Eden Golan, came fifth after receiving a mixture o ..read more

GENEVA — At the western edge of Lake Geneva, where the mighty Rhône river squeezes through a narrow dam, a blunder of French diplomacy is carved into stone for all to see.  The inscription, mounted on the walls of an old industrial building, commemorates the 1884 accord between three Swiss cantons that have regulated the water levels of this vast Alpine lake ever since. It does not mention France — even though some 40 percent of the lake is French territory.  “France, for some reason, wasn’t part of the contract,” said Jérôme Barras as he unlocked a gate below the epigraph to in ..read more

Frances Robinson is a freelance journalist based in London. She writes a newsletter about children’s television called Square Eyes. You may have heard political advisers whispering, spotted some outlandish music videos on social media or just been wondering why there are special deals on Punschrulle online. It’s all because Eurovision is back, and we’re off, once more, to Sweden — Malmö, to be precise — which last hosted the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in 2013. I was there, and it was great. The ESC now takes a full week to unfold, with two semifinals, set to be held today and Thursday, befo ..read more

The vote that Europe cares about the most is almost upon us. No, not the EU election — that only interests about 60 percent of citizens, according to Eurobarometer’s latest survey*. We mean Eurovision. * We should at this point mention all the serious, respectable stories on the EU election produced by our newsroom which you can find at our election hub here. This is not one of them. Armed with data skillfully interpreted and presented in the compelling charts below, we asked ourselves: What if the Eurovision votes held greater political power? What if, instead of (sometimes fleeting) musical ..read more

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe.  As Ukraine struggles to contain the opening moves of an expected Russian offensive in the country’s east, there are again mutterings in some diplomatic quarters about the need to kickstart peace talks. Next month, Switzerland is scheduled to host a high-level international summit to try and chart a path toward peace in Ukraine. And the gathering will no doubt spark more earnest discussions about how to bring the war to a close — although Ukraine’s chief Western backers see little cause to start talks with Russian President Vladimir Puti ..read more

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić tepidly apologized Wednesday for calling Slovenians “disgusting,” clarifying that he was only referring to their politicians. “If I have offended anyone, I want to apologize to the entire Slovenian public, and at the same time, I want to say that I will not apologize to Slovenian politicians because they pursue a disgusting policy toward Serbia,” Vučić said in New York, where he is attending a United Nations Security Council session on Kosovo. He hit out at Slovenia, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, on the sidelines of the meeting by accusing t ..read more

Just as the stock market’s record gains this year have been driven by anticipation of interest rate cuts, Donald Trump’s prospects have been propelled by an irrational exuberance in the political markets. This week demonstrated how the conventional wisdom around Trump’s inevitability has solidified — and why those assumptions, much like the ones around rate cuts, are due for a correction. It has been close to an open secret in the diplomatic corps that America’s allies and adversaries are anticipating a Trump restoration. Discussing who will fill his second-term Cabinet and White House isn’t j ..read more

Governments be warned: You must protect your citizens from climate change — it’s their human right. The prescient message was laced throughout a dense ruling Tuesday from Europe’s top human rights court. The court’s conclusion? Humans have a right to safety from climate catastrophes that is rooted in their right to life, privacy and family. The definition-shifting decision from the European Court of Human Rights means nearly 50 governments representing almost 700 million people will now have to contend with a new era of litigation from climate-stricken communities alleging inaction.  Whil ..read more