Europeans denied their capital stinks (5)
I believe the answer is:
reeks
'stinks' is the definition.
(I know this)
'europeans denied their capital' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'europeans' could be 'ee' (an abbreviation for European written twice) and 'ee' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reeks that I've seen before include "Macgillycuddy's - -" , "Is humming" , "Smells very strongly" , "Smells like the Kerry mountains." , "offensive odours" .)