European Union

Euractiv understands that a broad deal to confirm the new Commission could potentially be announced today.

It is the centre ground's job to save the EU from drifting apart in this era of profound change, writes Renew Europe leader Valérie Hayer.

A new wastewater directive could impose financial obligations of approximately €400 million on the Czech pharmaceutical sector, impacting essential medicines availability and hurting generics supply while failing to deal effectively with micropollutants.

A new data report shows a one-off 4.9% reduction in hospital spending on medicines in 2022 in the Netherlands. Good news for the health budget but bad news for patients denied timely access to new medicines.

Egnite, a Graphene-based electrode material embedded in a thin film, is already being used as a brain mapping electrode in tumour resection surgeries. But do ‘brain rights’ sit within citizens’ fundamental rights; or do we need a rethink?

In 2023, the European Investment Bank provided more than €21.3 billion for energy-related projects, of which €8.3 billion was for energy efficiency, jumping from €2.1 billion in 2014 - but the energy-efficiency gap remains challenging.

Climate disasters and advanced green energy initiatives are driving large-scale project funding in Kazakhstan - 80 per cent of natural disasters are water-related. Billions of euros of new inward investment were confirmed this month.

Wiener Stadtwerke is investing EUR 8.8 billion by 2028 to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. A modular system of sustainable products is required for success.

Delistings on Euronext alone have led to a loss of €2.3 trillion in market capitalisation since 2015, a new AFME report shows.

Parliament’s President and political group leaders adopted the following statement marking 1000 days of Russia's illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Parliament’s President and political group leaders adopted the following statement marking 1000 days of Russia's illegal and unjustified war against Ukraine

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

His government must roll up its sleeves to address mounting social discontent.

As the EU embarks on a new mandate, its ambitious goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is driving a renewed focus on shaping a regulatory framework that fosters sustainability and preserves Europe’s competitiveness.

AMENDMENTS 446 - 767 - Draft report Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2024
Committee on Foreign Affairs
David McAllister

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

AMENDMENTS 89 - 445 - Draft report Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2024
Committee on Foreign Affairs
David McAllister

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

As EU negotiators eye a political agreement at a dedicated ‘Mercosur summit’ in Uruguay on 2-4 December, securing clear parliamentary support may give Paris’ firm 'non merci' the political weight Macron needs before the deed is done. 

AMENDMENTS 768 - 1019 - Draft report Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2024
Committee on Foreign Affairs
David McAllister

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

MEPs achieved increases for the 2025 EU budget and secured funds for helping EU countries facing climate-related disasters.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

MEPs achieved increases for the 2025 EU budget and secured funds for helping EU countries facing climate-related disasters.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday 5 November 2024, the EUHealthGov network held its second event. This one-day knowledge exchange workshop brought together academics, policymakers and practitioners to discuss health law and governance in the context of growing uncertainty and intertwined crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has not unfolded in isolation from other overlapping, interacting, and mutually reinforcing crises: from climate change, the war in Ukraine and in Palestine, sharply rising socioeconomic inequities and the cost-of-living crisis, to an exacerbated distrust in liberal democratic institutions, Brexit, and the rise of the far-right and Euroscepticism reflected in the newly elected European Parliament. At the same time, EU law and policy appears increasingly characterised by a state of permanent crisis, which institutionalises governance architectures and tools associated with emergency responses.

The purpose of this workshop was to exchange ideas, experience, and work-in-progress around one question: how do contemporary uncertainties and crises affect health law, policy, and governance in the EU, the UK, and their evolving relationship?

First, Dr Tomislav Sokol (Member of the European Parliament), joined us online and shared an exhaustive and detailed overview of the health-related priorities currently on the agenda in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. The workshop was taking place a few months after the European Parliament elections and in the middle of the Commissioner hearings determining the confirmation of the new college of Commissioners for Ursula von der Leyen’s second term.

Examining these ongoing developments, Dr Louise Bengtsson (Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies), provided her analysis of the new von der Leyen mandate and the role of health policy in this new political landscape. She highlighted the increased overlap and fluidity between Commissioner portfolios, as well as the central focus on competitiveness and security. Amidst the growing role of the EU in health since COVID-19 highlighted by Bengtsson, Dr Mechthild Roos (Augsburg University) presented her current research, which uses the framework of input/throughout/output legitimacy as a lens to understand the European Parliament’s involvement during the crisis phase of the pandemic. She highlighted how the Parliament sought to balance its support for swift, necessary emergency responses on one hand, and the need to prevent the risk of institutionalising modes of governance that bypass ordinary legislative procedures on the other hand.

Diving into the legal and political ins and outs of specific health crises, Juan Collado Pérez-Llantada (University of Liverpool) shared his insights into the role EU law can play in regulating antimicrobial resistance through a ‘OneHealth’ approach. He outlined the existing legal framework. But he also emphasised the difficulty inherent to governing this multifaceted and multilevel crisis, visible notably in the lack of action on the environmental spread of AMR and the issues of competence limitation. Another pharmaceuticals-related crisis was discussed by Mark Dayan (Nuffield Trust). He focused on the medicine shortages in the UK and EU, highlighting the global drivers of the crisis in the nature of pharmaceutical markets and recent disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. He also discussed the UK, EU and Member State responses – including industrial policy approaches and stockpiling.

Finally, the presentations of our two last speakers zoomed out and broadened the geographical scope of analysis even further, putting the EU in a global context. Dr Asha Herten-Crabb (LSE) presented her research on the EU as an emerging global actor. Drawing on critical postcolonial theory, one of the key elements of her research puzzle is to understand how the EU perceives itself and constructs its relationship within the global health architecture in the context of growing decolonisation and anti-West rhetoric. Prof Gabriel Siles-Brügge (University of Bristol) focused the global health crisis represented by non-communicable diseases – and how measures to tackle these were being challenged within the World Trade Organisation’s Technical Barriers to Trade Committee. The crisis in the global trading system has increased interest in such committees amongst the trade officials involved, including within the EU, as they exist outside of the limelight.

The post Health Law and Governance in an Uncertain Europe appeared first on Ideas on Europe.