2015 in Europe

This is a list of 2015 events that occurred in Europe.

European Union

 * President of the European Commission: Jean-Claude Juncker
 * President of the Parliament: Martin Schulz
 * President of the European Council: Donald Tusk
 * Presidency of the Council of the EU:
 * Latvia (January–July)
 * Luxembourg (July–December)

January

 * 1 January
 * Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes the 19th Eurozone country.
 * The Eurasian Economic Union between Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia comes into effect.
 * 3 January – The Islamic-rooted government of Turkey authorizes the building of the first church in the country since 1923.
 * 4 January – Eight people are presumed dead after the Cyprus-flagged cargo ship MV Cemfjord capsizes off the northern coast of Scotland.
 * 7 January – Gunmen attack the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people and injuring eleven.
 * 9 January – A member of the Islamic State attacks a Hypercacher kosher supermarket at Porte de Vincennes, Paris, killing four people and taking several hostages.
 * 11 January
 * More than 3.7 million people, among them 60 heads of states and governments, march in France to condemn recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
 * Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović becomes the first female President of Croatia.
 * 13 January – A shell hits a bus in eastern Ukraine, killing 12 civilians and wounding 18 more.
 * 14 January – Giorgio Napolitano, the longest-serving President of Italy, resigns due to age.
 * 15 January – Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the franc's value relative to euro, causing a turmoil in international financial markets.
 * 24 January – At least 29 civilians are killed and 102 injured in a mortar attack on Mariupol, Ukraine.
 * 25 January – The Coalition of the Radical Left wins a plurality of seats in the Greek legislative election and forms a coalition government with the Independent Greeks.
 * 26 January – An F-16 jet belonging to the Hellenic Air Force crashes at Los Llanos Air Base, Spain, during a NATO exercise, killing ten people and injuring 21.
 * 27 January – 92 policemen are injured and 180 protesters arrested as anti-government demonstrations in Pristina turn violent.
 * 31 January – Italy's parliament elects constitutional court judge Sergio Mattarella as the country's president.

February

 * 12 February – The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany reach a ceasefire deal after 17 hours of talks in Minsk, Belarus, on the War in Donbass.
 * 14 February – Two people are killed in shootings at a free-speech seminar and at a synagogue service in Copenhagen.
 * 18 February – Conservative Prokopis Pavlopoulos is elected President of Greece.
 * 22 February – Two people are killed and 11 injured in an explosion at a peace rally in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
 * 24 February – A Czech gunman opens fire at a restaurant in Uherský Brod, killing eight people.
 * 27 February – Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov is assassinated in Moscow. The murder of former deputy PM is condemned by world leaders and sparks protests in Russia.

March

 * 1 March – The Estonian Reform Party, led by Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, wins the country's parliamentary election.
 * 4 March – 33 people are killed and 14 injured following an explosion at Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.
 * 12 March
 * Iceland formally withdraws its candidacy to the European Union, filed in 2009 and frozen since 2013. The move is met with protests from civil society.
 * 30 people are feared dead and 40 more injured after a shopping center in Kazan collapses in a fire.
 * 20 March – A solar eclipse is visible across much of Europe, with totality over the Faroe Islands and Svalbard.
 * 24 March – Germanwings Flight 9525 crashes in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

April

 * 1 April – The Russian-flagged fishing trawler Dalniy Vostok sinks off the Kamchatka Peninsula, with 57 confirmed dead and 12 missing.
 * 12–14 April – A series of wildfires in Southern Siberia kill 29 people and leave thousands homeless.
 * 14 April – Up to 400 illegal migrants from Libya drown after their boat capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea.
 * 19 April – As many as 700 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea.
 * 24 April – 14 migrants believed to be from Afghanistan and Somalia are hit by a train and killed while walking along railway tracks in Macedonia.

May

 * 1 May – Expo 2015 opens in Milan, with 145 countries participating. Widespread rioting occurs in Milan as students protesting overspending clash with police.
 * 5 May – 38 police officers and one protester are injured in Skopje in opposition-organized protests against conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's government.
 * 7 May – The UK's Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
 * 10 May – Eight police officers and 14 alleged members of an armed group are killed in fighting in Kumanovo, Macedonia.
 * 22 May – Ireland becomes the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by constitutional referendum.
 * 23 May – Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw wins the 60th annual Eurovision Song Contest with electro-pop ballad "Heroes".
 * 24 May – Opposition candidate Andrzej Duda is elected President of Poland.
 * 27 May – Two separate criminal probes result in the arrest of seven FIFA officials and the raid of its headquarters by Swiss police.

June

 * 5 June – Two people are killed and over 100 wounded in explosions at a rally by the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party in Diyarbakır.
 * 7–8 June – The 41st G7 summit is held in Schloss Elmau, Bavaria.
 * 14 June – Flooding in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, kills at least 19 people and releases zoo animals into the streets.
 * 18 June – The centre-right opposition bloc led by Venstre wins the Danish general election, even though the Social Democratic party remains Denmark's largest.
 * 24 June – 25 people are injured and at least 240 arrested in clashes between protesters and law enforcers over proposed electricity price increase in Armenian capital, Yerevan.
 * 26 June – A man is decapitated and 12 others injured as a follower of the Islamic State group attacks an Air Products factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier.

July

 * 1 July – Greece becomes the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund.
 * 13 July – At least three people die and 13 others are injured in skirmish in the western Ukrainian town of Mukachevo.
 * 20 July – A suicide attack targeting activists in the Turkish town of Suruç kills at least 30 people and injures 100 more.
 * 22 July – A high-speed train collides with a truck in the eastern Czech Republic, leaving three passengers dead and 17 injured.
 * 24 July – An explosion at a fireworks factory in Modugno, Italy, kills at least seven people.

August

 * 5 August – Some 400 migrants are rescued and 25 bodies recovered after a fishing boat carrying an estimated 600 capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea.
 * 19 August – EU finance ministers formally approve the first tranche of a new €86 billion bailout for Greece after parliaments in member states back the move.
 * 20 August
 * Two planes carrying dozens of parachutists collide mid-air over western Slovakia, killing seven people. 31 others on board survive by jumping out with their parachutes.
 * Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras submits his resignation and calls for early elections.
 * Macedonia declares a state of emergency on its southern and northern borders over a surge in migrants and refugees.
 * 22 August – Eleven people are killed when a Hawker Hunter crashes onto a busy road during an airshow in Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom.
 * 27 August – Up to 71 refugees are found dead in the back of a freezer truck in eastern Austria.

September

 * 9 September – Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning British head of state, surpassing the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
 * 13 September – At least 34 migrants drown in the Aegean Sea off the coasts of Farmakonissi trying to reach Europe.
 * 15 September – The Hungarian government declares a state of emergency to cope with the influx of refugees, as almost 10,000 people are detained for illegally crossing the border from Serbia.
 * 23 September – Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigns after company officials admit widespread rigging of diesel emissions test results.

October



 * 4 October
 * Violent storms and flooding hit south-eastern France, killing at least 20 people with two more missing.
 * Portugal's governing centre-right coalition wins the country's general election, which has been widely seen as a referendum on four years of austerity.
 * 10 October
 * At least 97 people are killed and more than 400 others injured in twin bombings at a peace rally in Ankara, Turkey.
 * 250,000 people protest in Berlin against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership accord between the European Union and the United States.
 * 11 October – Alexander Lukashenko is re-elected President of Belarus for a fifth term.
 * 22 October – A masked man armed with a sword kills a teacher and a student in an attack at a school in Trollhättan, Sweden, before police fatally shoot him.
 * 23 October – At least 43 people are killed in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck near the French town of Puisseguin.
 * 30 October – A fire at a nightclub in downtown Bucharest kills 59 people and injures 152 more.

November

 * 4 November – Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his government resign after mass protests over Colectiv nightclub fire.
 * 13 November – Following a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation, the IAAF suspends Russia from all international competition in the sport of athletics.
 * 13/14 November – At least 130 people are killed in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris.
 * 21 November – Nearly 2 million people on the Crimean Peninsula are without electricity after two transmission towers in Ukraine were damaged by explosions.
 * 24 November – Tensions rise between Russia and Turkey, after a Russian Su-24 warplane is shot down by a Turkish Air Force F-16 near the border between Turkey and Syria.

December

 * 30 December-Poland's new conservative government by the Law and Justice Party (PiS) proposed a media bill that would allow it to control public service broadcasters TVP and Polish Radio via a national media council close to the government. This was condemned by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Births

 * 2 May – Princess Charlotte

January

 * 1 January
 * Ulrich Beck, German sociologist (b. 1944)
 * Boris Morukov, Russian astronaut (b. 1950)
 * 4 January – Pino Daniele, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1955)
 * 5 January – Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver (b. 1937)
 * 6 January – Vlastimil Bubník, Czech ice hockey player and footballer (b. 1931)
 * 7 January
 * Tadeusz Konwicki, Polish writer and film director (b. 1926)
 * Cabu, French comic strip artist and caricaturist (b. 1938)
 * Charb, French satirical caricaturist and journalist (b. 1967)
 * Tignous, French cartoonist (b. 1957)
 * Georges Wolinski, French Jewish cartoonist and comics writer (b. 1934)
 * 9 January – Józef Oleksy, 7th Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1946)
 * 10 January – Francesco Rosi, Italian film director (b. 1922)
 * 11 January
 * Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress and model (b. 1931)
 * Jenő Buzánszky, Hungarian football player and coach (b. 1925)
 * 12 January – Elena Obraztsova, Russian opera singer (b. 1939)
 * 20 January – Edgar Froese, German musician (b. 1944)
 * 21 January – Leon Brittan, British politician and barrister (b. 1939)
 * 24 January – Otto Carius, German WWII tank commander (b. 1922)
 * 25 January – Demis Roussos, Greek singer (b. 1946)
 * 28 January – Yves Chauvin, French Nobel chemist (b. 1930)
 * 30 January
 * Geraldine McEwan, English actress (b. 1932)
 * Zhelyu Zhelev, 2nd President of Bulgaria (b. 1935)
 * 31 January – Richard von Weizsäcker, President of Germany (1984–94) (b. 1920)

February

 * 1 February
 * Aldo Ciccolini, Italian-French pianist (b. 1925)
 * Udo Lattek, German football player, coach and TV pundit (b. 1935)
 * 3 February – Martin Gilbert, English historian (b. 1936)
 * 5 February – Henri Coppens, Belgian footballer (b. 1930)
 * 10 February – Karl Josef Becker, German cardinal (b. 1928)
 * 14 February
 * Michele Ferrero, Italian entrepreneur (b. 1925)
 * Louis Jourdan, French film and television actor (b. 1921)
 * Franjo Mihalić, Croatian-Serbian runner and coach (b. 1920)
 * Wim Ruska, Dutch wrestler and martial artist (b. 1940)
 * 18 February – Claude Criquielion, Belgian road bicycle racer (b. 1958)
 * 21 February – Aleksei Gubarev, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1931)
 * 27 February – Boris Nemtsov, Russian politician (b. 1959)

March

 * 1 March – Wolfram Wuttke, German footballer (b. 1961)
 * 2 March – Dave Mackay, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1934)
 * 9 March
 * Camille Muffat, French swimmer (b. 1989)
 * Alexis Vastine, French boxer (b. 1986)
 * Frei Otto, German architect (b. 1925)
 * 11 March – Walter Burkert, German academician and author (b. 1931)
 * 12 March – Terry Pratchett, English author (b. 1948)
 * 15 March – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (b. 1937)
 * 16 March – Andy Fraser, English songwriter and bass guitarist (b. 1952)
 * 19 March – Gerda van der Kade-Koudijs, Dutch athlete (b. 1923)
 * 21 March
 * Hans Erni, Swiss graphic designer, painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor (b. 1909)
 * Jørgen Ingmann, Danish jazz and pop guitarist (b. 1925)
 * 26 March – Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish Nobel poet, psychologist and translator (b. 1931)
 * 29 March – Miroslav Ondříček, Czech cinematographer (b. 1934)
 * 30 March – Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld, Dutch astronomer (b. 1921)

April

 * 1 April – Cynthia Lennon, former wife of John Lennon (b. 1939)
 * 2 April – Manoel de Oliveira, Portuguese film director and screenwriter (b. 1908)
 * 4 April – Klaus Rifbjerg, Danish writer (b. 1931)
 * 13 April – Günter Grass, German Nobel writer (b. 1927)
 * 14 April – Roberto Tucci, Roman Catholic cardinal and theologian (b. 1921)
 * 16 April – Stanislav Gross, 5th Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (b. 1969)
 * 24 April – Władysław Bartoszewski, Polish politician and resistance fighter (b. 1922)
 * 29 April – Giovanni Canestri, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1918)
 * 30 April – Patachou, French singer and actress (b. 1918)

May

 * 1 May – Geoff Duke, British motorcycle racer (b. 1923)
 * 2 May
 * Ruth Rendell, English author (b. 1930)
 * Maya Plisetskaya, Russian ballerina, choreographer and actress (b. 1925)
 * 9 May – Kenan Evren, 7th President of Turkey (b. 1917)
 * 15 May – Renzo Zorzi, Italian racing driver (b. 1946)
 * 18 May
 * Halldór Ásgrímsson, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1947)
 * Raymond Gosling, British scientist (b. 1926)
 * 21 May – Annarita Sidoti, Italian race walker (b. 1970)
 * 24 May – Tanith Lee, British writer (b. 1947)
 * 26 May – Vicente Aranda, Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer (b. 1926)
 * 27 May – Nils Christie, Norwegian sociologist and criminologist (b. 1928)

June

 * 1 June – Charles Kennedy, British politician (b. 1959)
 * 4 June – Hermann Zapf, German typeface designer and calligrapher (b. 1918)
 * 6 June – Pierre Brice, French actor (b. 1929)
 * 7 June – Christopher Lee, English actor, singer and author (b. 1922)
 * 9 June – James Last, German composer and big band leader (b. 1929)
 * 11 June – Ron Moody, British actor (b. 1924)
 * 15 June – Jeanna Friske, Russian actress, singer, model and socialite (b. 1974)
 * 17 June – Süleyman Demirel, 9th President of Turkey (b. 1924)
 * 23 June – Magali Noël, French actress and singer (b. 1931)
 * 25 June
 * Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church (b. 1940)
 * Patrick Macnee, English actor (b. 1922)
 * 26 June – Yevgeny Primakov, Prime Minister of Russia (1998–99) (b. 1929)
 * 28 June – Chris Squire, English musician, singer and songwriter (b. 1948)
 * 29 June
 * Josef Masopust, Czech football player and coach (b. 1931)
 * Charles Pasqua, French businessman and Gaullist politician (b. 1927)

July

 * 1 July
 * Sergio Sollima, Italian film director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
 * Nicholas Winton, British-born Jewish humanitarian (b. 1909)
 * 10 July – Roger Rees, Welsh actor and director (b. 1944)
 * 13 July – Martin Litchfield West, British classical scholar (b. 1937)
 * 14 July – Ildikó Schwarczenberger, Hungarian fencer (b. 1951)
 * 17 July − Jules Bianchi, French motor racing driver (b. 1989)
 * 21 July
 * Galina Prozumenshchikova, Soviet swimmer (b. 1948)
 * Theodore Bikel, Austrian-American Jewish actor, folk singer, musician, composer and activist (b. 1924)
 * 30 July – Alena Vrzáňová, Czech figure skater (b. 1931)

August

 * 1 August – Cilla Black, English singer, television presenter and actress (b. 1943)
 * 3 August – Robert Conquest, British-American historian and poet (b. 1917)
 * 11 August – Harald Nielsen, Danish footballer (b. 1941)
 * 12 August – Jaakko Hintikka, Finnish philosopher and logician (b. 1929)
 * 16 August – Mile Mrkšić, Serbian military officer (b. 1947)
 * 17 August
 * Arsen Dedić, Croatian singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
 * László Paskai, Hungarian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1927)
 * 20 August – Egon Bahr, German politician (b. 1922)
 * 23 August – Guy Ligier, French rugby player and racing driver (b. 1930)
 * 24 August – Justin Wilson, British racing driver (b. 1978)
 * 30 August – Oliver Sacks, British neurologist and author (b. 1933)

September

 * 12 September
 * Adrian Frutiger, Swiss typeface designer (b. 1928)
 * Ron Springett, British football goalkeeper (b. 1935)
 * 14 September – Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Romanian poet, politician and journalist (b. 1949)
 * 17 September – Dettmar Cramer, German football player and coach (b. 1925)
 * 19 September – Jackie Collins, English romance novelist (b. 1937)
 * 23 September – Dragan Holcer, Croatian football defender (b. 1945)
 * 27 September
 * John Guillermin, British film director, writer and producer (b. 1925)
 * Pietro Ingrao, Italian politician, journalist and former partisan (b. 1915)
 * 28 September – Ignacio Zoco, Spanish footballer (b. 1939)

October

 * 2 October – Brian Friel, Irish playwright and short story writer (b. 1929)
 * 3 October – Denis Healey, British politician (b. 1917)
 * 5 October
 * Chantal Akerman, Belgian film director, artist and professor of film (b. 1950)
 * Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria (b. 1938)
 * Henning Mankell, Swedish crime writer, children's author and dramatist (b. 1948)
 * 6 October – Árpád Göncz, former President of Hungary (b. 1922)
 * 7 October – Dominique Dropsy, French footballer (b. 1951)
 * 9 October – Geoffrey Howe, British politician (b. 1926)
 * 17 October
 * Danièle Delorme, French actress and film producer (b. 1926)
 * Howard Kendall, English footballer and manager (b. 1946)
 * 23 October – Paride Tumburus, Italian footballer (b. 1939)
 * 24 October
 * Ján Chryzostom Korec, Slovak Jesuit priest and Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (b. 1924)
 * Maureen O'Hara, Irish-American actress and singer (b. 1920)
 * 30 October – Sinan Şamil Sam, Turkish professional boxer (b. 1974)
 * 31 October – Ants Antson, Estonian speed skater (b. 1938)

November

 * 1 November – Günter Schabowski, German politician (b. 1929)
 * 4 November – René Girard, French historian, literary critic and philosopher (b. 1923)
 * 5 November
 * Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer (b. 1923)
 * Czesław Kiszczak, Polish soldier and politician (b. 1925)
 * 7 November – Gunnar Hansen, Icelandic-born American actor and author (b. 1947)
 * 8 November – Andrei Eshpai, Mari composer (b. 1925)
 * 9 November
 * Ernst Fuchs, Austrian artist (b. 1930)
 * Andy White, Scottish drummer (b. 1930)
 * 10 November
 * André Glucksmann, French philosopher, activist and writer (b. 1937)
 * Klaus Roth, German-born British mathematician (b. 1925)
 * Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany (1974–1982) (b. 1918)
 * 11 November – Phil Taylor, English rock drummer (b. 1954)
 * 12 November – Márton Fülöp, Hungarian professional footballer (b. 1983)
 * 21 November – Linda Haglund, Swedish Olympic sprinter (b. 1956)
 * 28 November
 * Gerry Byrne, English footballer (b. 1938)
 * Barbro Hiort af Ornäs, Swedish actress (b. 1921)