European Union

Moderate ultraviolet (UV) exposure significantly reduces risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and overall mortality, offering health benefits beyond vitamin D production. Balancing sun exposure guidelines while accounting for individual skin types, especially fair-skinned individuals, ensures safer and healthier lifestyle recommendations.

The post Time to Rethink Sun Exposure: Balancing Benefits and Risks appeared first on Euractiv.

The EU should prepare for the "worst-case scenario" of new US tariffs, but the priority should be to prevent them, argues a new Bruegel paper.

The post Analysts: What the EU could offer Trump to avoid new tariffs appeared first on Euractiv.

The largely peaceful protests have shown no signs of abating, even though turnout was slightly lower compared to previous days.

The post Georgia pro-EU protesters defiant as thousands rally for 11th day appeared first on Euractiv.

“If we had Italy on our side, we would probably have a blocking minority.”

The post Warsaw counts on Rome to block Mercosur deal appeared first on Euractiv.

Eurostar, which links France, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, charges prices that are twice the European average, yet fails to deliver better services.

The post Eurostar is Europe’s worst-ranked rail operator, Trenitalia the best appeared first on Euractiv.

In this episode, host Giada Santana and agrifood reporter Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro unpack the EU-Mercosur deal and the controversies it has sparked.

The post Why the EU is divided over the Mercosur trade deal appeared first on Euractiv.

Only one of the two roads forward will unlock the decarbonisation and growth that we all want. This road requires the European Commission and Member States to hold strong on the 2025 and 2035 car CO2 framework.

The post We want European carmakers to succeed, but delaying the rules won’t cut it appeared first on Euractiv.

“I believe that a closer economic relationship between the UK and the EU is not a zero-sum game."

The post UK’s Reeves to pitch ‘business-like relationship’ to EU finance ministers appeared first on Euractiv.

The Syrian president's ousting "shows the weakness of Assad’s backers, Russia and Iran," the EU's top diplomat said.

The post Europeans welcome Assad’s regime collapse in Syria, but caution of aftermath appeared first on Euractiv.

With the Western Balkans, EU officials now increasingly see a realistic chance to actually move things forward.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the meeting was "good and productive" and that the three men agreed to continue working together.

President Bashar al-Assad, who had crushed all forms of dissent, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination.

NATO countries are together producing around 3 million rounds of ammunition a year – similar to what Russia produces on its own.

The shock annulment of the country's presidential elections has plunged Romania into institutional crisis.

Written by Tarja Laaninen.

The European Union now has its first ever Commissioner dedicated to Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef. He has been specifically tasked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen with preparing a ‘strategy on intergenerational fairness’ that takes fully into consideration the impact of today’s decisions on future generations, and seeks feedback from all age groups. Micallef says he will ‘attach particular importance to instilling a true and lasting culture of participatory democracy that applies to all ages, including senior citizens’.

The momentum for this kind of thinking is growing. In September 2024, world leaders convened at the United Nations in New York for a ‘Summit of the Future’, and committed to fostering intergenerational dialogue and ensuring youth participation in national and international forums. Addressing humanity’s most pressing challenges demands the engagement of all generations, as both younger and older people contribute their own unique knowledge, experience, and skills.

This briefing delves into the mechanisms already in place in the EU for listening to young people, and explores the incoming Commission’s plans for further engaging young people in decision‑making processes. From now on, for example, every Commissioner must organise an annual youth policy dialogue dealing with his or her area of competence. Additionally, as of 2025, all new initiatives in the Commission’s annual work programme that are of significant relevance for young people will undergo a specific ‘youth check’.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Intergenerational dialogue: Addressing future challenges and consulting young people in the EU‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

As the rebels pressed their offensive, Russia and Jordan on Friday urged their nationals to leave Syria.

Alice Weidel, who raises her two sons with a Sri Lankan-born woman, is an unlikely public face for a male-dominated, anti-immigration party

The agreed text makes the Paris Agreement an "essential element" of the trade deal, an inclusion Brussels has been trying to secure for years.

Written by Gemma Patterson.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is organising the fifth European Gender Equality Week from 9 to 13 December 2024. Events on the agenda cover how Parliament works to combat gender inequality within different policy sectors and different demographics. This year the week has a special focus on tackling gender inequality in the digital world. Women face growing danger in the digital space, driven by the spread of harmful technologies, disinformation and new forms of online abuse.

Gender equality in the EU is a long-established policy. Increasingly, however, a minority of actors oppose certain aspects, often perceiving gender equality as a zero-sum game that disempowers men. This raises the possibility that there is a need to clarify that EU policies benefit men as well, particularly through tools and data addressing health and education. For example, some EU countries face some of the world’s largest gender gaps in life expectancy and disparities exist between male and female students at post-secondary level. No country or region in the world has yet achieved all the UN sustainable development goals on gender equality.

The week begins with an exchange of views on gender mainstreaming in the EU budget, in conjunction with Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT). The EU adopted gender mainstreaming as its official approach to gender equality in 1997. Priorities were set in the EU’s gender equality strategy to achieve this, for instance by ending gender-based violence, and addressing the pay and pension gaps, gender balance in decision making positions at work and the gender care gap. However, despite these efforts, much change still needs to happen and Parliament is keen to advance legislation for a more just society for everyone. The European Parliament has previously advocated for binding gender provisions that should ensure trade agreements promote equality and empower women effectively.

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Beyond women’s roles in the workplace, it is essential to look at their broader participation in employment and focus on breaking down the barriers that hold them back. EU directives require Member States to establish equality bodies to support victims of discrimination and to combat inequality. Vague rules have caused disparities, with some bodies working with limited resources, independence or mandates. New legislation adopted in May 2024 seeks to strengthen the equality bodies, ensuring they are better equipped to address continued sex discrimination in employment.

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Although they form half the population, women remain under-represented in politics across the EU, despite the clear benefits of gender balance for society and governance. Political parties and media play dual roles as both obstacles and enablers of women’s political participation,  while those women who do succeed in a securing a seat are likely to be held to a higher level of scrutiny and criticism than their male counterparts. Only 39 % of elected Members in the 2024 elections to the European Parliament were women. One seldom-discussed barrier to more women entering politics is gendered violence. This takes multiple forms, from physical attacks to psychological and symbolic abuse, including sexual and sexist comments, online hate speech and sexual harassment.

Violence against women remains prevalent and omnipresent. One in three women in the EU have experienced physical violence, according to a recent survey. Gender-based violence against women encompasses physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence and can take many forms, including harassment, stalking, rape, female genital mutilation, domestic violence and femicide. The violence takes place within the family and intimate relationships, in the workplace, in public spaces and online. Currently, national protection is inconsistent and gaps persist in EU measures to combat this serious violation of rights and barrier to equality. In May 2024, the EU adopted a directive setting minimum standards to criminalise certain forms of such violence, enhance victim support, and improve prevention. Member States now have 3 years to implement these crucial measures.

Digital technologies have both amplified and repressed women’s rights. The digital world has empowered women to connect, share their experiences, and raise awareness about issues such as abuse, as seen with movements like #MeToo. At the same time, it has given abusers and misogynists new tools to amplify harmful content on an unprecedented scale. Recognising the harm of digital violence, the EU has implemented legislation to tackle it, this includes the Directive on Combating Violence against Women, which criminalises serious forms of cyberviolence, and the Digital Services Act, which mandates the removal of harmful content, content that disproportionately affects women. The internet has also become a central tool in facilitating human trafficking, enabling traffickers to recruit, control, and exploit victims through digital means. Europol highlights that adult females in EU Member States are the primary victims of online human trafficking, practices often referred to as ‘cyber slavery’, creating a new set of dangerous circumstances and ways for women to be exploited.

Further reading

• Topical Digest November 2024

"Concrete commitments to halt deforestation by 2030” is one of the key changes made to the agreement, the Commission said.