European Union

The SAFE programme aims to provide loans to participating countries on favourable terms to jointly purchase weapons

Under the agreement, most-favoured-nation tariffs will be reimposed if rice imports surge by 45% compared to a baseline of 387,000 tonnes

The proposal for a Global Europe instrument is included in the post-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF) package, which aims to be simpler than previous regulations and to provide additional flexibility (over and above MFF ceilings). The new instrument merges the Neighbourhood, Development, International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe; the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, humanitarian aid; the Ukraine Facility, the Reform and Growth Facility for the Western Balkans; and the Reform and Growth Facility for Moldova. The impact assessment (IA) focuses on the six corresponding regulations. It falls under the Better Regulation Tool #9 (special case of preparing a new MFF); the scope and depth of analysis are therefore different compared with a non-MFF IA. Although the IA provides an intervention logic and defines the drivers, the problem definition remains vague and unclear. Moreover, the interlinks with objectives and drivers are not detailed in the intervention logic. In accordance with the Better Regulation Requirements, the IA assesses the expected economic, social and environmental impacts for the three policy options. It also compares and rates them against the Better Regulation criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and coherence. Proportionality and subsidiarity are not assessed in the IA, not even in the policy options. In terms of monitoring and evaluation, the IA is limited on data collection methods and on how progress will be measured. The evidence from previous evaluations could have been better integrated in the IA and be used to provide quantitative estimates. The Regulatory Scrutiny Board decided to issue an opinion without qualification given the lack of fundamental elements in this IA. The legislative proposal is aligned with the IA's preferred option.
Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On Monday, Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional agreement on revised rules for the EU’s preferential trade arrangement with developing countries.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

On Monday, Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional agreement on revised rules for the EU’s preferential trade arrangement with developing countries.
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

The Commission plans to defend its climate targets, address investment shortfalls in road infrastructure and reconcile ambitions for shifting traffic to greener modes.

The Commission’s STIP plan is viewed as a positive first step for clean-fuel investment, but stronger measures and funding are needed, industry warns

Author: Philip Ryan recently defended his PhD – Bureaucracy Mapping: Inclusive Design for Institutional Navigation – at University College Dublin. His research interests include inclusive design, bureaucracy, sociology, technology, user experience, trust, privacy, and migration.

Regulating technology can be difficult, and the current explosion of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has left even the companies producing the technologies struggling to keep up. Healthcare applications powered by general purpose Large Langauge Models (LLMs) are increasingly promising to completely change the provision of care. In medicine and in law expecting one tool to be a solution for everything has similar issues. AI as a panacea can be a poison as much as a cure, especially as it removes protection and agency for users and adds workarounds for necessary regulations. While the lack of service and capacity in healthcare could be addressed by products like “AI agents”, their implementation should not be allowed to escape the regulations already in place.

Should these technologies be subjected to regulation such as the Medical Devices Directives when used for diagnosis? Regulation must engage with technologies that engage with health no matter how their providers try to categorise themselves. When every major AI providers’ chatbot gives health related advice, the fig leaf of “not for medical or diagnostic usage” cannot be allowed to frustrate legitimate attempts to regulate healthcare. Technologies powered by AI are part of the tradition of promising a doctor in your pocket (Lupton and Jutel 2015). In 2025, the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is still taking effect against a world economy that is increasingly reliant on the unrealised promise of these technologies. The uncertainty of the Act’s interaction with healthcare still stands (Gilbert 2024). The horizontal approach of the Act makes it “necessary to adopt further guidelines to address the unique needs of the healthcare sector” (Van Kolfschooten and Gross 2025).

Health information online is increasingly provided through AI summaries, obfuscating the origin of the information, inventing falsehoods through hallucinations, and pushing action through confident sounding statements. In replacing web search results, which had become the go to information resource over the previous two decades, they create a dangerous new environment where previously somewhat reliable sources have been replaced by superior looking interactions (Gross et al. 2025). While there has been attention paid to the ability of these LLM’s to encourage self-harm (Yousif 2025), it will be harder to find obituaries attributed to AI’s good intentions and hallucinations, such as dangerous diets, as in a recently reported case of a man poisoning himself after replacing sodium chloride salt with sodium bromide (Burgard 2025).

While precise healthcare regulations may be required, many of the general rules could be used to protect from the excises of big tech. The Digital Omnibus will consider the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), e-Privacy Directive, the Free Flow of Non-Personal Data Regulation, the NIS 2 Directive, the AI Act, the Data Act, the Data Governance Act (DGA), and the eIDAS Regulation (European Commission 2025), and while not primarily concerned with healthcare they all affect healthcare provision. In some cases, healthcare uses provide exceptions to rules. How can clinicians provide care when they do not understand the ramifications of agreements between the user and companies who own the technologies used for diagnoses, that could follow them through their entire life? As new versions of healthcare become more reliant on their services, how can GDPR consent be meaningfully provided, if the technology is so encompassing that there is no meaningful option for healthcare outside of the technology itself.

Correcting the Duck

The European UACES 55th EUHealthGov panels in Liverpool gave me some great insight into the vibrant research into EU health policy. As quipped by a participant of panel, health policies are often like throwing the duck, taking their own path after their initial toss. Iterative bases of regulations such as consultation periods and full engagement with implementation and standardization phase of regulations are extremely important when controlling the development of healthcare. AI is not sustainable or desirable when it is attempting to turn patients into users.

The regression from health policy since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, feels like a missed opportunity, and the realities of an ever-ageing population and more complex healthcare requirements must not be taken over by false promises of innovative technologies. Visibility and public engagement with regulator processes is difficult but vital. The importance of the patient role must be correctly identified and developed into something beneficial within the evolving spaces changed and developed by technologies. Infrastructure path dependency of AI cannot be allowed to decide what best practise is in healthcare. As these technologies become more all-consuming, healthcare cannot just be a pile of money and data to give AI more power.

The imagined future capacities of generative AI must be questioned, and related benefits and dangers be considered as they are inserted in more and more vital services. For example, the increasing environmental effect of using resource intensive AI in healthcare must also come into play. As per the concept of One Health, the health of the planet feeds into the health of its inhabitants. On the nose examples are coming out of the noise and air pollution caused by data centre developments (Tao and Gao 2025). Changes like the EU Commission’s Digital Omnibus exercise process could bring about deregulation and weakening of the Union’s protections, while inclusivity may seem disconnected from regulatory structures, the complexity of any agreement must be assessed, and comprehension by those affected by it should have some level of consideration within regulatory processes are to be imposed. Simplification and coherence should serve the EU’s long-term strategic vision for a competitive, secure, and rights-based digital economy rather than short-sighted deregulatory moves in favour of technologies that may not work.

Innovation and other techno-optimistic concepts are not solely positive. As Correy Doctorow (2025) highlights, the degradation of services can be seen as strongly linked to the ability to avoid regulations through shifting the activity to an application. It’s legal because they did it “with an app”, especially in the case of Uber (unregulated taxi company), Airbnb (unregulated holiday accommodation), and anything calling itself fintech (unregulated banking). Unregulated health is and will be as lucrative as it is harmful. Will Europe function as a fortress for its citizens, or vassal to new extractive practices of global corporations? While protections are designed into projects, deregulation and other forms of degradation could make initiatives like the European Health Data Space Regulation (EHDS) a pre-collection of sensitive information for legitimate or illegitimate actions. Information provided for a service years ago could be used in manners practically unimaginable at the time of consent to the data being stored, or sold on at the end of business (Church and Smith 2025). In the new realities brought about by these technologies, regulations will have to answer more scenarios and hopefully protect ever more marginalized users/citizens.

While it is possible for technologies to simplify healthcare delivery, reducing the power of related laws should be reviewed with caution. The deregulation agenda of technology companies, which can treat many of the harms caused by their actions as externalities and justifiable costs, should be viewed with suspicion, especially in healthcare. The incursion of companies like surveillance data broker Palantir, offers them unprecedented access to healthcare information (Osborne 2024) highlighting the value of such assets and the protean nature of business interests. The EU’s ability and appetite to create and enforce digital policy and data protection rules is currently singular, and adapting to more aggressive regulatory regimes, and the related race to the bottom should be part of the discourse, especially around healthcare.

References

Burgard, B. (2025) ‘ChatGPT Advice Triggers Bromide Poisoning, Psychosis’, Medscape, 10 Jan, available: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/chatgpt-salt-advice-triggers-psychosis-bromide-poisoning-60-2025a1000qab [accessed 1 Nov 2025].

Church, S. and Smith, G. (2025) ‘23andMe sells gene-testing business to DNA drug maker Regeneron’, Los Angeles Times, 19 May, available: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-05-19/23andme-sells-gene-testing-business-to-dna-drug-maker-regeneron [accessed 27 Aug 2025].

Doctorow, C. (2025) Enshittification Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do about It, London: Verso.

European Commission (2025) Digital Omnibus Regulation Proposal | Shaping Europe’s Digital Future [online], available: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/digital-omnibus-regulation-proposal [accessed 12 Nov 2025].

Gilbert, S. (2024) ‘The EU passes the AI Act and its implications for digital medicine are unclear’, npj Digital Medicine, 7(1), 135, available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-024-01116-6.

Gross, N., Kolfschooten, H. van, and Beck, A. (2025) ‘Why the EU AI Act falls short on preserving what matters in health’, available: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1332.

Lupton, D. and Jutel, A. (2015) ‘“It’s like having a physician in your pocket!” A critical analysis of self-diagnosis smartphone apps’, Social Science & Medicine (1982), 133, 128–135, available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.04.004.

Osborne, R.M. (2024) ‘NHS England must cancel its contract with Palantir’, BMJ, 386, q1712, available: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1712.

Tao, Y. and Gao, P. (2025) ‘Global data center expansion and human health: A call for empirical research’, Eco-Environment & Health, 4(3), 100157, available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eehl.2025.100157.

Van Kolfschooten, H. and Gross, N. (2025) ‘Invisible prescribers: the risks of Google’s AI summaries’, Journal of Medical Ethics blog, available: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2025/11/12/invisible-prescribers-the-risks-of-googles-ai-summaries/ [accessed 12 Nov 2025].

Yousif, N. (2025) Parents of Teenager Who Took His Own Life Sue OpenAI [online], BBC, available: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgerwp7rdlvo [accessed 1 Nov 2025].

The post Treating it with an App: AI Techno-optimism Against Regulations appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Balloon incursions, drone disputes, and stranded trucks deepen the rift with Minsk

“You need to show you are doing reforms so that you can get the funding,” Kallas said

Companies urge a ‘careful approach’, workers call for binding legislation

"I would love to be finished on negotiations in Montenegro during our presidency," said Irish Europe minister Thomas Byrne

Written by Marcin Szczepański.

A series of recent economic and geopolitical shocks have led to rising fragmentation of global trade, whereby countries tend to boost economic ties with those sharing similar political values, economic policies and security interests. While a broad retreat from globalisation is not taking place, there are some signs of reconfiguration of supply chains along geopolitical lines.

This is likely to have pronounced effects for EU economy due to its openness and high level of integration into global value chains. The full consequences are unclear at this point and firms’ responses vary, but mitigating the changing trade environment leads to heightened costs, stronger regional flows of goods and priority for measures that could reduce uncertainty.

The EU’s policy focus is on de-risking supply chains, boosting their resilience and creating opportunities through access to global markets. Increasing domestic production and access to inputs as well as diversifying supplies is coupled with supporting multilateralism and targeted partnerships. Many experts, as well as the European Parliament, see the unrealised potential of the single market, easier access to finance, stimulating innovation and digitalisation, as ways forward.

Managing global trade fragmentation is a complex process full of risks and opportunities, which requires crosscutting policy action and a strategic approach. The EU is striving to find a balance between trade openness and the necessary economic security measures. Furthermore, while proposed and launched solutions require a medium to long-term time horizon to deliver, geopolitical developments often happen swiftly, further complicating matters.

Read the complete briefing on ‘EU supply chains in the era of trade fragmentation: Impacts, policies and current debate‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Kallas, Tusk, and Merz keep up pressure to use Russian assets, as Belgium holds firm

A last-minute compromise proposal was rejected by developing countries

Political support remains uncertain amid fears of excessive deficit, persistent inflation and Bulgaria's adoption on the Euro in January 2026

Written by Marie Lecerf.

The EU and its Member States have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and use its definition of disability as a common reference at EU level. There is no other harmonised definition of disability in the EU.

The introduction of the Global Activity Limitation Instrument indicator (GALI) in most of Eurostat’s social and economic surveys offers the opportunity to have a clearer assessment of disability in the EU than before. It confirms that in 2024 the prevalence of disability was higher among female, older and less educated respondents.

The EU combats all forms of discrimination alongside and in support of its Member States. To improve the situation of people with disabilities, it has introduced a series of initiatives, programmes and strategies over a number of decades. The European Parliament has been highly active in the bid to end all forms of discrimination against people with disabilities, since the early 1980s.

In 1997, Article 13 of the Treaty establishing the European Community on the human right not to suffer discrimination on grounds, in particular, of disability, paved the way for a genuine disability policy. The first step in this regard was the adoption of a 2001-2006 action programme to combat discrimination. Later, the 2010-2020 European disability strategy sought to enable people with disabilities to exercise their rights and participate fully in society and the economy.

The 2021-2030 strategy, incorporating lessons learned from its predecessor, seeks to ensure that all persons with disabilities in the EU, regardless of their sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation: enjoy their human rights; have equal access to participation in society and the economy; can decide where, how and with whom they live; can move freely in the EU regardless of their support needs; and no longer experience discrimination.

This is a further update of a briefing, the first edition of which was published in November 2021.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Understanding EU policies for people with disabilities‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Die europäischen Meere spielen eine wichtige Rolle für das Klima, die Wirtschaft und den Alltag unzähliger Menschen. Von der rauen Nordsee bis zum friedlichen Mittelmeer sind diese Gewässer sowohl ein Ort natürlicher Schönheit als auch intensiver Nutzung. In diesem Artikel erhalten Sie einen umfassenden Überblick über die Geschichte, Flora und Fauna sowie die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung der Meere Europas.

Das Wichtigste in Kürze

• Europäische Meere haben eine historische Bedeutung für Handel, Exploration und kulturellen Austausch.
• Vielfältige Flora und Fauna, von Seegräsern bis zu Walen, prägen die Gewässer Europas.
• Wichtige Fischereigebiete: Nordsee, Ostsee, Atlantik und Mittelmeer.
• Umweltverschmutzung und Klimawandel bedrohen marine Ökosysteme und Meeresbewohner.
• Tourismus und Schifffahrtsrouten sind zentrale wirtschaftliche Faktoren für die Küstenregionen.

Geschichte der europäischen Meere

Die europäischen Meere haben eine reiche Geschichte, die sich über Jahrtausende erstreckt. Bereits im antiken Griechenland und Rom spielten Sie eine zentrale Rolle im Handel und in der Erforschung. Die Nord- und Ostsee waren besonders im Mittelalter von großer Bedeutung, da Sie Handelswege für die Hanse bildeten.

Während des Goldenen Zeitalters Europas setzten Seefahrer wie Christoph Kolumbus und Vasco da Gama Segel, um neue Routen zu entdecken und Ihre Reiche zu erweitern. Diese Entdeckungsreisen führten zu einem weltweiten Austausch von Gütern, Kulturen und Technologien. Mit der Zeit entwickelten sich auch Konflikte um die Kontrolle dieser wichtigen Seewege.

Im 20. Jahrhundert erlebten die Meere Europas dramatische Veränderungen durch Kriege und die Einführung moderner Technologien. Der Kalte Krieg führte zur Militarisierung bestimmter Regionen, während die zunehmenden Handelsbeziehungen neue Routen schufen. Heute werden diese Gewässer sowohl als wirtschaftliche Ressourcen als auch als Naturerbe geschätzt.

Empfehlung: Krieg in Europa: Wohin auswandern?

Flora und Fauna der Gewässer Die Meere Europas: Ein Überblick

Die Meere Europas bieten eine reiche und vielfältige Flora und Fauna, die von den kalten Gewässern der Nordsee bis zu den warmen Strömungen des Mittelmeers reicht. Die Pflanzenwelt in diesen Meeren besteht aus einer Vielzahl von Algenarten, deren Vorkommen stark von den jeweiligen Wassertemperaturen und Lichtverhältnissen abhängt. Besonders prägend für diese Regionen sind die Seegräser, welche wichtige Lebensräume für viele Meerestierarten darstellen.

Auf Seiten der Fauna finden sich zahlreiche Fischarten, Weichtiere und Krustentiere. In südlicheren Gewässern, wie dem Mittelmeer, begegnet man häufig Delfinen und zahlreichen Fischarten, während im Atlantik größere Meeressäuger wie Wale zu Hause sind. Auch Seevögel sind typisch für die europäischen Küstenregionen und nutzen das Nahrungsangebot der Meere Europa intensiv. Die Meeresfauna spielt auch eine bedeutende Rolle für die Fischerei, die in vielen küstennahen Gebieten einen wichtigen Wirtschaftszweig darstellt.

‚Das Meer ist alles. Es bedeckt sieben Zehntel des Erdballs. Sein Atem ist rein und gesund. Es ist eine riesige Wüste, wo der Mensch nie allein ist, denn er hört das Leben um sich in einer kontinuierlichen Harmonie.‘ – Jules Verne

Wichtigste Fischereigebiete Europas

Wenn man sich die wichtigsten Fischereigebiete Europas ansieht, stechen einige besonders hervor. Ein bedeutendes Gebiet ist die Nordsee, die für ihren Reichtum an Kabeljau, Hering und Makrele bekannt ist. Auch die Ostsee spielt eine wichtige Rolle, insbesondere wegen ihrer reiche Bestände an Dorsch und Sprotte.

Eines der reichhaltigsten Fanggebiete ist jedoch der Atlantische Ozean, wo man unter anderem Sardinen, Thunfisch und Seezunge findet. Besonders erwähnenswert sind auch das Mittelmeer und das Schwarze Meer, welche verschiedene i bieten, darunter Garnelen und Tintenfische.

Diese Gebiete sind nicht nur für den europäischen Markt entscheidend, sondern auch für den internationalen Handel von großer Bedeutung. Die unterschiedlichen klimatischen und geografischen Bedingungen in diesen Regionen tragen zur Vielfalt der dort lebenden Arten bei.

Umweltverschmutzung der Meere

Die Umweltverschmutzung der Meere Europas ist ein wachsendes Problem. Besonders besorgniserregend ist die Menge an Kunststoffabfällen, die in die Gewässer gelangen. Plastikmüll gefährdet das Leben vieler Meerestiere und hat erhebliche Auswirkungen auf das Ökosystem.

Eine weitere Quelle der Verschmutzung sind chemische Abwässer aus der Industrie sowie Pestizide und Düngemittel aus der Landwirtschaft. Diese Substanzen tragen zur Eutrophierung bei, einem Prozess, der zu Sauerstoffmangel und im schlimmsten Fall zum Sterben ganzer Fischpopulationen führen kann.

Zusätzlich spielt der Schiffverkehr eine Rolle: Öl- und Treibstoffleckagen, wie auch die Einleitung von Ballastwasser, können lokale Ökosysteme erheblich stören. Eine verstärkte Überwachung und die Einführung strengerer Gesetze sind notwendig, um die Wasserqualität langfristig zu verbessern und die Meere Europa für künftige Generationen zu erhalten.

Mehr dazu: Europa Park Wasserpark: Spaß und Erfrischung

.table-responsiv {width: 100%;padding: 0px;margin-bottom: 0px;overflow-y: hidden;border: 1px solid #DDD;overflow-x: auto;min-height: 0.01%;} Meer Besonders wichtige Tierarten Wichtige Fischereiprodukte Nordsee Kabeljau, Hering, Makrele Fisch, Krabben Ostsee Dorsch, Sprotte Fisch, Hering Mittelmeer Delfine, Thunfisch, Garnelen Meeresfrüchte, Sardinen Tourismus an den Küsten

Tourismus an den Küsten – Die Meere Europas: Ein ÜberblickDer Tourismussektor spielt eine zentrale Rolle für die Küstenregionen der europäischen Meere. Jedes Jahr besuchen Millionen von Menschen diese Gebiete, um Ihre Ferien zu verbringen. Beliebte Reiseziele sind unter anderem die Strände des Mittelmeers, die felsigen Küsten der Nordsee sowie die malerischen Buchten der Adria.

Dank eines milden Klimas und atemberaubender Landschaften bietet das Mittelmeer Gästen ideale Voraussetzungen für erholsame Urlaubswochen. Bei einem Besuch an der Nordseeküste können Reisende hingegen charmante Fischerdörfer oder bunte Leuchttürme entdecken. Historische Stätten, wie alte Hafenstädte aus römischer Zeit, ziehen ebenfalls viele Interessierte an.

Freizeitangebote wie Segeln, Tauchen und Surfen locken Abenteuerlustige in verschiedene Regionen. Die touristische Infrastruktur ist in vielen dieser Orte bestens ausgebaut – Hotels, Restaurants und Freizeiteinrichtungen erwarten die Besucher. Besonders auf den Inseln wird eine Vielzahl von Aktivitäten angeboten, um jeden Geschmack abzudecken.

Ausführlicher Artikel: Insel kaufen in Europa: Ihr Privatparadies

Seefahrt und Schifffahrtsrouten

Die Meere Europas spielen seit Jahrhunderten eine zentrale Rolle in der Seefahrt. Historisch gesehen haben die verschiedenen europäischen Mächte Ihre Handels- und Explorationsflotten durch bedeutende Gewässer wie die Nordsee, das Mittelmeer und die Ostsee navigiert. Diese Routen waren essentiell für den Austausch von Waren und Ideen. Heutzutage sind diese Wasserwege immer noch von großer Bedeutung für die Wirtschaft.

Moderne Schifffahrtsrouten bieten schnelle und effiziente Verbindungspunkte zwischen den großen Häfen Europas. Die Nordsee ist besonders wichtig für den Frachtschiffverkehr, da Sie zahlreiche wichtige Häfen wie Rotterdam und Hamburg verbindet. Im Gegensatz dazu erfüllt das Mittelmeer eine doppelte Funktion: Es ist nicht nur ein zentrales Handelsgewässer, sondern auch ein wichtiger Knotenpunkt für den Tourismus.

Ein weiteres bemerkenswertes Merkmal der europäischen Meere ist Ihre geografische Vielfalt. Diese Gewässer erstrecken sich von den eisigen Regionen der Arktis bis hin zu den warmen, sonnigen Küsten des Mittelmeers. Jede Region bietet einzigartige Herausforderungen für die Navigation. Schiffskapitäne müssen auf Stürme gefasst sein, besonders in Gebieten wie dem Atlantik, wo raue Wetterbedingungen häufig vorkommen. Technologien wie Radar und GPS sind daher unverzichtbar geworden, um sicher und präzise navigieren zu können.

Zukunftstrends in der Schifffahrt umfassen unter anderem den Ausbau von Hafeninfrastrukturen und die Anpassung an größere Containerschiffe. Solche Entwicklungen tragen zur Verbesserung der logistischen Netzwerke bei und ermöglichen effizientere Transportwege quer durch Europa.

Bedrohte Meerestiere und Maßnahmen

Die Meere Europas sind Heimat für eine Vielzahl gefährdeter Meerestiere. Einige Beispiele solcher Tiere sind der blaue Thunfisch, die Nordseescholle und verschiedene Arten von Haien. Viele dieser Tiere leiden unter Überfischung, was Ihre Populationen erheblich dezimiert hat.

Eine der wichtigsten Maßnahmen zum Schutz bedrohter Meerestiere ist die Einrichtung von Schutzzonen, in denen das Fischen streng reguliert oder komplett verboten ist. Diese Zonen bieten den Tieren sicheren Lebensraum und ermöglichen es den Beständen, sich zu erholen. Ein weiteres wichtiges Instrument ist der Fangquoten, durch die festgelegt wird, wie viel Fisch eine Nation aus einem bestimmten Gebiet entnehmen darf.

Neben diesen Maßnahmen spielt auch die Bekämpfung illegaler Fischerei eine entscheidende Rolle. Staaten arbeiten zunehmend zusammen, um illegale Fänge zu identifizieren und zu ahnden. Auch Verbraucher können einen Beitrag leisten, indem Sie nachhaltige Fischprodukte bevorzugen und Labels wie MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) beachten. Durch solche gemeinschaftlichen Anstrengungen kann ein großer Beitrag zum Erhalt der bedrohten Meerestiere geleistet werden.

Einfluss des Klimawandels auf Meere

Der Klimawandel hat tiefgreifende Auswirkungen auf die Meere Europas. Eine der deutlichsten Veränderungen ist der Anstieg der Durchschnittstemperaturen der Gewässer, was wiederum zu einer Erwärmung der Meere führt. Diese Erwärmung beeinflusst die Verteilung und das Verhalten von Meereslebewesen erheblich. Einige Arten wandern in kühlere Regionen ab, während andere sich besser an die neuen Bedingungen anpassen.

Weitere wesentliche Veränderung ist der Anstieg des Meeresspiegels aufgrund des Abschmelzens von Gletschern und Eisschilden. Dieser Prozess bedroht besonders flache Küstengebiete und kann langfristig zur Überschwemmung ganzer Küstenlandschaften führen. Küstenstädte könnten somit massive wirtschaftliche und infrastrukturelle Schäden erleiden.

Auch die Versauerung der Ozeane ist eine Folge des Klimawandels. Durch die Aufnahme von CO2 wird das Wasser saurer, was insbesondere für kalkbildende Organismen problematisch ist. Muscheln, Korallen und einige Planktonarten haben Schwierigkeiten, Ihre Schalen oder Skelette zu bilden und aufrechtzuerhalten. Dies hat schwerwiegende Konsequenzen für die gesamten marinen Ökosysteme, da diese Organismen oft am Beginn der Nahrungskette stehen.

Extremwetterereignisse wie Stürme und Hurrikane, die ebenfalls durch den Klimawandel häufiger und intensiver werden, können erhebliche Schäden an Küstenstrukturen verursachen und das Leben vieler Meereslebewesen stören. Die Kombination all dieser Effekte zeigt, wie komplex und weitreichend die Folgen des Klimawandels auf die Meere Europas sind – ein Bereich, der kontinuierlich genauer erforscht wird, um Lösungen und Anpassungsmaßnahmen zu entwickeln.

FAQ: Antworten auf häufig gestellte Fragen Wie wirken sich Mikroplastik auf die Meere Europas aus? Mikroplastik gelangen in die Meere durch den Abbau größerer Plastikabfälle und durch direkte Einträge wie Kosmetikprodukte. Diese winzigen Plastikpartikel werden von Meeresorganismen aufgenommen, was zu gesundheitlichen Problemen und Todesfällen führen kann. Außerdem können Sie in die Nahrungskette gelangen, was potenziell gefährliche Auswirkungen auf Menschen hat, die Meeresfrüchte konsumieren. Welche Maßnahmen werden ergriffen, um die Verschmutzung der europäischen Meere zu reduzieren? Um die Verschmutzung der Meere zu verringern, setzen Regierungen und NGOs auf verschiedene Maßnahmen. Dazu gehören die Einführung von Verboten für Einwegplastikprodukte, die Förderung von Recyclingprogrammen und die Durchführung von Aufklärungskampagnen. Darüber hinaus gibt es internationale Abkommen wie MARPOL, die den Umgang mit Müll und Abwasser im Schiffverkehr regeln. Was sind Meeresschutzgebiete und wie helfen sie? Meeresschutzgebiete sind bestimmte Zonen in den Meeren, in denen menschliche Aktivitäten wie Fischerei, Bergbau und Tourismus stark reguliert oder verboten sind. Diese Gebiete bieten Rückzugsorte für vom Aussterben bedrohte Arten und ermöglichen die Erholung der marinen Ökosysteme. Langfristig tragen Sie zur Erhaltung der Biodiversität und zur Stabilität der Fischbestände bei. Wie beeinflusst der Klimawandel die Fischereiwirtschaft in Europa? Der Klimawandel verändert die Meeresökosysteme erheblich. Erhöhte Wassertemperaturen und veränderte Strömungsmuster beeinflussen die Verbreitung und Fortpflanzung vieler Fischarten. Dies kann zu einer Verringerung der Fischbestände führen, was die Fischereiwirtschaft beeinträchtigt. Darüber hinaus erhöht der Anstieg des Meeresspiegels das Risiko für Küstenfischerdörfer, was wirtschaftliche und soziale Auswirkungen haben kann. Was sind die Hauptquellen der Meeresverschmutzung in Europa? Die Hauptquellen der Meeresverschmutzung in Europa sind Plastikabfälle, chemische Abwässer aus der Industrie, landwirtschaftliche Abflüsse, Ölverschmutzungen durch Schifffahrt, und städtische Abwässer. Diese Verunreinigungen gefährden die marine Flora und Fauna und beeinträchtigen die Wasserqualität. Welche Rolle spielt die EU bei der Erhaltung der europäischen Meere? Die EU spielt eine zentrale Rolle bei der Umsetzung und Durchsetzung von Richtlinien und Verordnungen zum Schutz der europäischen Meere. Durch Strategien wie die Meeresstrategie-Rahmenrichtlinie (MSRL) verfolgt die EU das Ziel, die Meeresumwelt zu schützen und nachhaltige Fischereipraktiken zu fördern. Zudem finanziert die EU Forschungsprojekte und Umweltschutzinitiativen, die zur Erhaltung der marinen Ökosysteme beitragen. Welche Folgen hat die Überfischung für die europäischen Meere? Überfischung führt zu einem drastischen Rückgang der Fischbestände und gefährdet die Lebensgrundlagen vieler Arten. Dies beeinflusst nicht nur die marine Biodiversität, sondern auch die wirtschaftliche und soziale Stabilität von Küstengemeinden, die von der Fischerei abhängig sind. Langfristig kann Überfischung die Erschöpfung der Ressourcen und das Verschwinden bestimmter Fischarten zur Folge haben.

Der Beitrag Die Meere Europas: Ein Überblick erschien zuerst auf Neurope.eu - News aus Europa.

The warning was clear over a decade ago, but Britain failed to listen.

Back in 2014, on the BBC’s Sunday Politics London programme, Andrew Neil was discussing David Cameron’s plan to curb EU migration, a plan driven more by fear than common sense.

Nick Watt, then of The Guardian and now of BBC Newsnight, offered a clear and prescient warning.

“The biggest challenge facing the NHS is two million extra people aged over 70 by 2020.

“How are you going to pay for that?  You’re going to pay for that by having young people working and earning taxes.

“And who’s that? It’s immigrants.”

That was also the time Nigel Farage was gaining traction with his poisonous claim that Britain had too many migrants. And it was the time the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, was bending to Farage’s rhetoric by promising fewer EU migrants.

As we now know, Britain needed every one of those EU migrants, and many more besides. The truth was clear even then.

• Britain had a rapidly ageing population.
• A shrinking birth rate.
• And millions more jobs than Britons to do them.

Yet the pro-immigration argument wasn’t properly made in 2014, just as it isn’t being properly made today. If it had been communicated clearly, we could have punctured Farage’s populist nonsense long before the referendum.

We could have avoided the lies that poisoned public debate. We could have avoided Brexit.

Instead, the lies won, and now the architect of Brexit is attempting yet another comeback.

For the avoidance of doubt, Britain needs migrants because we have a growing ageing population, a low birth rate, and far more jobs than we have people to do them.

This is not a complicated message. But because it has never been properly explained, xenophobia has been allowed to flourish and Britain has lost its way.

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• Watch this short video: Britain’s record low birth rate and why migration matters.

The post The message Britain ignored: Why we need migrants appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Written by Laurence Amand-Eeckhout.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection remains a major public health challenge across the EU and the world. There is a broad consensus at European and international level that, to achieve the goal of ending AIDS as a public-health threat by 2030, efforts must be scaled up on prevention, education, providing widespread testing access, early diagnosis, and access to both preventive and curative care for all, without discrimination.

Background

By attacking the immune system, HIV weakens the body’s defence against other infections and diseases. The most advanced stage of HIV infection is AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Found in a variety of an infected person’s body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk, HIV can be transmitted through sex, blood transfusion, the sharing of contaminated needles, and between mother and child during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. It is not, however, spread by kissing, hugging, shaking hands, or sharing personal objects, food or water. Anyone at high risk of getting HIV can take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine to prevent or at least reduce the risk of HIV infection.

People diagnosed with HIV and treated early can now expect to live for a normal or almost normal lifespan. Infections can be treated to prevent progression to AIDS, by decreasing viral load in an infected body (antiretroviral therapy, ‘ART’). However, ART does not cure HIV infection, and no vaccine exists.

The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is leading the global effort to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 (Goal 3.3).

World AIDS Day, proclaimed by the United Nations in 1988, is marked every year on 1 December. This year’s theme ‘Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response‘ highlights that after decades of progress, the HIV response stands at a crossroads. Severe funding cuts are disrupting life-saving prevention services and many communities face heightened risks and vulnerabilities, threatening decades of progress.

Facts and figures

UNAIDS data show that, in 2024, 1.3 million people worldwide contracted HIV (compared to 3.4 million people in 1996), 40.8 million people were living with HIV (39.4 million adults – aged 15 or older – and 1.4 million children), and 630 000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses.

According to the 2025 report on ‘HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe’ (2024 data), published on 27 November 2025 jointly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2.6 million people have been reported with HIV in the WHO European region (made up of 53 countries covering a vast geographical region from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean), including over678 000 people in the EU/European Economic Area (EEA). In the EU/EEA specifically, over 24 000 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2024, representing a slight 5.7 % decrease compared to 2023 (over 25 000), resulting in a rate of 5.3 per 100 000 people.

In addition, about 1 in 14 people living with HIV in the EU/EEA are still unaware of their status, which contributes to late diagnosis, worse health outcomes, and the continued transmission of HIV. Across the EU/EEA, almost half (48.0 %) of HIV diagnoses are made late, leading to higher morbidity and an increased risk of AIDS-related death.

EU action

Under Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, Member States are responsible for their own healthcare policies and systems. However, the EU can play a supporting role and add value to national action. EU action focuses on prevention and support for people living with HIV. Projects funded under the EU4Health programme (e.g. CORE and European testing week) aim at reducing inequalities and provide support for vulnerable groups (including migrants), such as easier access to information, testing, and community-based services. The EU drugs strategy seeks to ensure a high level of health protection, including measures to reduce drug-related infectious diseases such as HIV. The European Commission is expected to present a new drugs strategy on 3 December 2025. Since the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the EU has invested significantly in research. Horizon Europe supports projects ranging from basic research to the development and testing of new treatments and vaccines. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) contributes to the global HIV response through scientific evaluation, supervision and monitoring of medicine safety. This includes support to help Member States to achieve the UN SDG Goal 3.3 target. In that context, the Commission facilitates the exchange of best practice through the Health Security Committee and dedicated networks on the EU Health Policy Platform.

The ECDC provides Member States with guidance, for example on preventing HIV transmission through substances of human origin and among people who inject drugs. It also publishes reports summarising progress. In its November 2025 report, the ECDC notes that although progress has been made towards achieving UN SDG 3.3 to end AIDS as a public threat by 2030, the EU/EEA remains off track for some targets, notably those related to prevention, testing and treatment. While the number of HIV infections and HIV-related deaths have declined over the last decade, current trends indicate that stronger efforts in prevention, testing and treatment are needed to reach the 2025 and 2030 incidence and mortality targets. Many countries lacked data for some monitoring indicators, making comprehensive assessment difficult.

As highlighted in its 2022 global health strategy, on the world stage the EU supports the Global Fund in its efforts against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. Since 2002, the Commission has disbursed €3.5 billion to the Global Fund and has pledged €715 million for 2023-2025, complementing contributions from the EU Member States. The Global Fund’s Eighth Replenishment Summit took place on 21 November 2025 in Johannesburg (South Africa). Partners around the world pledged US$11.34 billion for 2026-2028; the European Commission and some countries have yet to pledge.

European Parliament position

Parliament has played a leading role in promoting stronger and coordinated HIV/AIDS policies, advocating for comprehensive prevention, a strong human‑rights based approach and the reduction of inequalities in access to HIV services inside and outside the EU. This commitment was reflected in its May 2021 resolution on accelerating progress and tackling inequalities towards ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. In its December 2023 resolution on non-communicable diseases, Parliament called for further research into the development of vaccines and innovative treatment options against HIV, and for Member States to step up efforts to ensure timely testing, diagnosis and access to high quality care, including for vulnerable groups. Throughout the current legislative term, Members have submitted several written questions to the Commission, notably on fighting HIV and AIDS, on restriction of USAID funding for health programmes and, more recently, on the Commission contribution to the 2025 global fund replenishment.

To mark World AIDS Day 2025, the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Victor Negrescu (S&D, Romania), is organising a high-level conference on 10 December 2025 entitled ‘EU at a crossroads: lifespan and gender equity in the HIV response’.

Read this ‘at a glance’ note on ‘Combating HIV/AIDS: Progress and EU action‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.