European Union

Europe could see a "tsunami" of business failures after governments end pandemic-linked aid programmes, worth €1.5 trillion so far, the European Systemic Risk Board, an EU financial watchdog, warned Wednesday. "In a worst-case scenario, the postponed insolvencies would suddenly materialise and trigger a recessionary dynamic, potentially causing further insolvencies," it said. "The current low rate of insolvencies would then be similar to the sea retreating before a tsunami," it added.

Press freedom in Europe suffered "extraordinary damage" due to the pandemic in 2020, according to a report by NGOs for the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, out Wednesday. Penalties for misreporting the events, denials of freedom-of-information requests, and impunity for violence against journalists were parts of the problem. The fact just one person was sentenced for the assassination, in 2017, of a Maltese journalist was not credible, it said.

President Joe Biden wrapped up the first 100 days of his term, proposing a new $1.8 trillion plan, pleading with Republican lawmakers to work with him on divisive issues and to meet the stiff competition posed by China.

"Europe will reach herd immunity in July, latest by August," according to Ugur Sahin, the CEO of German vaccine-maker BioNTech, speaking Wednesday. He was "confident" his firm's jab worked against the Indian Covid-19 variant, he added. Some 68.3 percent of British adults had antibodies in their system due to vaccines as of 11 April, the UK's Office for National Statistics also estimated Wednesday, up from 53.1 percent on 4 April.

The UK is planning to use a National Health Service phone app as its Covid-19 vaccine certificate to facilitate travel internationally this summer, Reuters reported. British transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday that he is working with partners across the world "to make sure that that system can be internationally recognised". The UK will allow international non-essential travel from 17 May. Meanwhile, the EU is preparing its own system.

The French government submitted on Wednesday a bill to strengthen its counter-terrorism law, allowing security agencies to use algorithms to detect activity on jihadist or extremist websites and watch over high-risk individuals after release from jail, Reuters reported. "Terrorists have changed the methods of communication. We continue to be blind, monitoring phone lines that nobody uses any more," said French interior minister Gerald Darmanin.

Switzerland will hold a referendum on same-sex marriage, after opponents gathered some 61,000 signatures calling to put the matter to a national vote, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a petition of the political movement 'Operation Libero' gathered 100,000 signatures in favour of gay marriage this month. The Swiss parliament passed a law recognizing same-sex marriage last December. The Netherlands did so in 2001, leading the way in Europe.

Voicing their concerns, a dozen MEPs warned that EU funds would "disappear in opaque funding structures ... which have the purpose of further destroying academic freedom and institutional autonomy in Hungary".

The EU's Covid-19 travel certificate, the so-called 'Digital Green Certificate', is set to trigger a clash between MEPs and member states on what advantages this document would actually bring for free movement.

Dutch liberal MEP Sophie In't Veld says MEPs should not be required to meet only registered lobbyists. "It is profoundly anti-democratic," she said. But Transparency International EU, an NGO, has described the lobby exemption for MEPs as "scandalous".

While the rationale is allegedly "consumer protection", this amendment to the Farm to Fork strategy clearly has the dairy industry's fingerprints all over it.

The digitalisation of the rail sector will create ‘quality jobs’ but many existing workers will need to reskill to meet the demands of new technology, according to EU employment commissioner Nicolas Schmit.

An attempt to redefine the notion of efficiency to bolster the case for synthetic fuels is simply a smokescreen to hide the truth: that battery electric vehicles are the far more efficient solution, writes Günter Hörmandinger.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for dialogue with Beijing on human rights to resume as soon as possible, in her last government consultations with China as leader of Europe’s biggest economy. Merkel said the regular consultations had during her...

A new law to address the dissemination of terrorist content online was approved by Parliament on Wednesday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

A new law to address the dissemination of terrorist content online was approved by Parliament on Wednesday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

In its latest report published on Wednesday (28 April) the NGO Freedom House warns of an "antidemocratic turn" throughout Europe, “fuelling a deterioration in human freedom with global implications”.

It’s roughly two to three months until millions of Europeans face the decision of where to spend their summer break from this second COVID-19 year. Yet this year’s summer holidays promise to become a minefield of (political) decisions. It’s been...

The protection of geographical indications (GIs) is unlikely to cause any great headache after Brexit, although care will be needed when handling it in future trade talks.

The European Parliament on Wednesday (28 April) formally adopted without a vote controversial legislation which forces online platforms to remove terrorist content within an hour of it being flagged.