European Union

The implementation of the "Spyros Doxiadis" Action Plan of public health screening is expected to get back on track within the first semester of 2024, as Greece’s new health minister takes office. First up is the cervical cancer screening programme, due to start next month.

The future of European competitiveness and innovation and its global investment attractiveness is at a critical juncture. In the coming years, it’s imperative that EU policymakers remain laser-focused on addressing pressing challenges—including tech, environmental, sustainability, and security policy—and transforming them into opportunities for EU leadership. Join global technology trade association ITI, EU lawmakers, industry leaders, and tech policy experts for this in-person event to explore how policymakers can transition to a more innovative digital economy, strengthen open trade, and further deepen the single market. This event will include a keynote interview and panel conversation with a leading EU policymaker moderated by ITI’s global President and CEO Jason Oxman.

Amid growing farmers' protests across the EU, the French EU Greens chief on Tuesday (23 January) called for a new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that temporarily insures farmers' pay and limitations on free trade deals that could undermine EU farmers' competitiveness.

Ukraine received in 2022 more aid in a single year than any country since records began, according to new data published this week.

With an EU space rulebook in the works, Europeans should already look at the space programme's next generation, including a launcher demand aggregator, and threat mapping strategy, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Tuesday (23 January).

The EU has entered a "golden age" of relations with Egypt, says the European Commission — as it deepens cooperation with a repressive state known for widespread human rights abuses.

In an internal document obtained by Euractiv, the Belgian presidency shared preliminary thoughts on supporting and regulating online influence, tapping into an open discussion at the EU and national level.

The European Ombudsman’s inquiry has found maladministration regarding the European Commission’s meetings with tobacco lobbyists, but the EU executive insists there are sound transparency measures in place.

My two-day field trip to the United Nations Library & Archives Geneva, funded through a UACES-JMCT Scholarship, had the added benefit of being the site of the long-deceased League of Nations and was truly a wonderful location for one to conduct archival research at.

The research I conducted in Geneva was focused on material from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). My research project is Scandinavia in Global Politics: Staffing International Organizations and Seeking Influence (1970-2020). Thus, the aim of my trip was to find out more about the Scandinavian states’ (in my thesis this is defined as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) activities in the two UN sub-agencies stated above in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The archival evidence demonstrated that the Scandinavians, especially Sweden, were the funders of the first resort for ad hoc projects within UNCTAD. The archives also showed that UNCTAD staff were careful to add a gender component to their funding bids in an effort to placate and gain the financial support of the progressive Scandinavians. The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) were also involved in multiple projects to educate and train individuals from the Global South in areas such as Port Management and Industrial Planning and much more than any other Western aid agency within UNCTAD. This ties in with Sweden’s support for the Global South’s New International Economic Order (NIEO) agenda in the 1970s and early 1980s and the pivotal, albeit doomed, role that the Scandinavian states played in supporting the NIEO agenda in the West, especially within the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In addition, the archives helped to trace the early efforts of the Scandinavian states to combat air pollution, which led to the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). Altogether, the evidence found at the UN Archives in Geneva has proven vital for the development of my research project (forming the basis for two chapters) and as hugely complemented the several dozen semi-structured interviews I have done with both Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian practitioners.

More about the UACES scholarship: The scholarships are travel bursaries designed to provide mobility to existing postgraduate students so that they can undertake research in another country.

The post My Research at the Archives of The United Nations Office at Geneva – A Field Trip appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Last weekend, around a million protesters took to the streets in various German cities to protest against the far right. However, even this new wave of civil commitment is unlikely to stop the astronomical rise of the AfD party.

The European Commission released on Tuesday a proposal to review the timelines for companies to comply with the In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation to ensure availability and avoid shortages.

The European Commission is set to adopt a decision establishing the European Artificial Intelligence Office, according to a draft document obtained by Euractiv.

The significance of Germany's nationwide anti-fascist mobilisation cannot be overstated. Authoritarian parties have gained office in many countries by stealth, pretending to be conservative, democratic parties. When they show their authoritarian face, people start to protest — often too late.

A draft report on the state of the rule of law in 2023 endorsed by the Committee on Civil Liberties on Tuesday paints a concerning picture of the state of European values.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

A draft report on the state of the rule of law in 2023 endorsed by the Committee on Civil Liberties on Tuesday paints a concerning picture of the state of European values.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Thursday, Irene Shashar, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, addressed MEPs in a plenary session in Brussels to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Thursday, Irene Shashar, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, addressed MEPs in a plenary session in Brussels to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

From 31 January 2024, certain goods coming from the EU to Great Britain – particularly fresh foods – will be subject to full Brexit border controls and checks for the first time, meaning extra paperwork, delays, and costs.

The UK government had previously delayed the new Brexit controls five times, concerned about the impact on British businesses.

Since Brexit, the EU already has border controls and checks for imports from Great Britain.

But this doesn’t affect Northern Ireland. Why? Because uniquely Northern Ireland is still in the EU’s Single Market for goods.

Following the Northern Ireland Protocol, amended by the Windsor Framework which came into effect on 1 October 2023, Northern Ireland exclusively enjoys full market access to both GB and the EU.

Whilst England, Scotland and Wales must endure Brexit border controls for goods exported to, and imported from the EU, those controls don’t apply to Northern Ireland.

Last February, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak waxed lyrical about the benefits to Northern Ireland of being in the EU’s Single Market for goods.

Speaking at the Coca-Cola factory in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, Mr Sunak said his new post-Brexit deal put Northern Ireland in an “unbelievably special position”.

The Prime Minister said the new Windsor Framework meant creating “the world’s most exciting economic zone” with international companies “queuing up to invest” in the region.

Mr Sunak said the Windsor Framework means, “Northern Ireland is in the unbelievably special position – unique position in the entire world, European continent – in having privileged access, not just to the UK home market, which is enormous… but also the European Union Single Market.”

“Nobody else has that. No one,” said Mr Sunak. “Only you guys: only here, and that is the prize.”

So enthusiastic was Mr Sunak in his talk to workers in Northern Ireland about the benefits of the EU Single Market that anyone would think he’s an ardent Remainer.

But of all the post-referendum Tory Prime Ministers, Mr Sunak is the most Brexity.

After his effervescent Single Market promotional talk in Northern Ireland, Downing Street was at pains to point out that his comments should not be seen as endorsing EU Single Market benefits for the whole of the UK.

The PM’s spokesman said the British people had made their decision in the referendum in 2016, but Northern Ireland needed access to both the UK and EU markets because of the Good Friday Agreement and “to avoid a border on the island of Ireland, which nobody wants to see.”

Can you spot the flaw?

Mr Sunak wildly enthusing about Single Market benefits for Northern Ireland, but not endorsing those same benefits for the rest of the UK, which must suffer detrimental barriers to trade with the EU, our biggest export and import market in the world.

This all goes to show that Brexit really is bonkers.

• 1-minute video: Why Brexit is bonkers

• Related post:  New Brexit border controls

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The post Why Brexit is bonkers appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

On Wednesday, Budgets and Budgetary Control Committee MEPs will quiz commissioners Hahn, Reynders and Schmit about the partial release of previously frozen funds to Hungary.
Committee on Budgets
Committee on Budgetary Control

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Wednesday, Budgets and Budgetary Control Committee MEPs will quiz commissioners Hahn, Reynders and Schmit about the partial release of previously frozen funds to Hungary.
Committee on Budgets
Committee on Budgetary Control

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP