European Union

Alexei Navalny announced he will return to Russia with the words "meet me", after more than four months recuperating in Berlin from an attempt to poison him with the nerve agent Novichok, the Moscow Times reports. Opposition supporters on social media took his message as an invitation to show up and welcome him. Most commentators, however, expect Russian law enforcement to arrest him at the airport.

The Greek socialist “Movement of Change” party (S&D) has lashed out against the ruling conservative New Democracy party (EPP), accusing it of a right-wing turn putting the country’s democracy at risk.   The socialist leader Fofi Gennimata said the government...

European Commission vice-president Vera Jourova said she is committed to putting forward a proposal to create an independent, inter-institutional, ethics body. "I am convinced that we will see the creation of an independent ethics body," she said. Jourova was mandated for the task and said work is needed in the coming months "to achieve concrete progress" before tabling a proposal.

Major cities across Turkey face running out of water in the next few months, with Istanbul possibly having less than 45 days of water left, due to a lack of rainfall, the Guardian writes. Low rainfall has led to the country's most severe drought in a decade. The Ankara mayor, Mansur Yavaş, said earlier this month the capital had another 110 days' worth in dams and reservoirs.

Former Belgian minister Theo Francken gave one of his party friends the power to put Syrian Christians on a list to get Belgian humanitarian visa. This week that colleague was convicted of human smuggling.

Donald Trump became the first president in US history to be impeached twice, as ten of his fellow Republicans joined Democrats to charge him with inciting an insurrection in last week’s violent rampage in the Capitol.

The Polish government has praised the move as the beginning of long-awaited "re-Polonisation" of media markets - but journalists, media experts and opposition parties see it as an attack on press freedom, and preparation for local elections.

Let's expand the EU with a Health Union where cutting edge research and world-class applications go hand in hand. For this, it is worth being European, believing in Europe, working on Europe, writes European People's Party leader Manfred Weber MEP.

Portugal's minister for science, technology and higher education, Manuel Heitor, on Wednesday (14 January) described space as a "critical resource" in the EU green and digital transition and in promoting "a new future for Europeans".

Step-by-step democratisation has suited Kazakhstan’s national circumstances and interests well, writes Alberto Turkstra who visited Kazakhstan on the occasion of the 10 January parliamentary elections.

A danger to public health – Europe’s fur farms have long been exposed as cruel, but with the recent pandemic a new factor came into play: They are the perfect breeding ground for the virus and a danger to human health.

The adviser to the EU’s top court has issued a recommendation to allow data protection agencies in any EU country to take legal action against Facebook or any other tech firm even if their regional headquarters are in a different EU state.

Lisbon “would very much like” to have the first meeting during its EU Council presidency with new US President Joe Biden to discuss the new transatlantic agenda, said Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Ana Paula Zacarias, said on Wednesday....

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2020/2033 of 10 December 2020 amending Decision 2010/788/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ireland has agreed to proceed with a 2013 complaint challenging Facebook’s transatlantic data flows, Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems said on Wednesday (13 January), announcing he had therefore dropped legal action against Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. The Irish High Court...

Mealworms are safe for human consumption according to a new opinion by the EU Food Safety Agency (EFSA), paving the way for the first EU-wide approval.

Written by Tatjana Evas and Aleksandra Heflich,

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Transport is one of the sectors in which artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are seeing rapid uptake. AI systems can detect patterns in a large volume of data and model complex solutions that enable increased efficiency in decision making and better resource allocation. The biggest transformation in the sector, yet to come, would be the deployment and uptake of highly autonomous vehicles and enhanced traffic management systems.

Many estimations show that the application of AI systems in the transport sector can bring some important benefits to the economy and create jobs, which could help balance out the negative effects that automation brings, such as loss of low-skilled jobs (Chapter 1).

For several years now, the European Parliament has been indicating that the transport sector is key for AI and has been advocating the harmonisation of rules to enhance the cross-border development of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). This could fully exploit their economic potential and enable the EU to benefit from the positive effects of technological trends. In 2021, the European Commission is planning to address the current legal vacuum and will make a number of horizontal legislative proposals addressing AI (Chapter 1.2).

Against this backdrop this report analyses enablers for the development and deployment of AI in road transport. These are: (i) infrastructure, (ii) technology, (iii) investment, (iv) ethics, (v) the legal and policy framework and (vi) social acceptance. Next it identifies the gaps and barriers that still persist and hamper the potentially beneficial development of AI (Chapter 2).

Finally, the report estimates the cost of non-Europe (CoNE) – the cost of not acting at EU level – for AI in road transport (Chapter 3). This calculation is based on the study that underpins this report (see Annex 1). For this purpose, the report analyses in detail only selected AI enablers (EU policies and legislation, and how they could increase social acceptance of AI with regulatory rules). The report presents three sets of EU policy actions ranging from least ambitious – no additional intervention at EU level – to most ambitious, which addresses current weaknesses in the liability regime and strengthens the trust and safety of AI users in road transport.

Figure 1 – Proposed policy actions at EU level that could address some of the identified gaps that hinder the development and deployment of AI in road transport in the EU

Calculations made as part of the study underpinning this CoNE report (Annex 1) point to a potential cost of non-Europe relating to AI in road transport. In 2030, the benefits lost if no further action is taken at EU level on liability in AI and on enhancing the trust of users of AI in road transport could amount to between €231 097 and €275 287 million, were none of the gaps and barriers analysed addressed. This EU action would be also beneficial for employment and could create between 5.181 and 6.147 million jobs.

Table 1 – Estimated direct cost of non-Europe, in 2030, EU-27

Read this complete ‘in-depth analysis’ on ‘Artificial Intelligence in road transport: Cost of Non-Europe report‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

"We are not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021," World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a briefing on Monday, Deutsche Welle writes. Swaminathan emphasised that measures such as physical distancing, hand-washing and wearing masks continue to be necessary in containing Covid-19's spread for the rest of the year, despite the vaccination programs in several countries.

Germany's Christian Democrats are set to elect their new leader among the three candidates vying for top post this weekend. But the winner might not necessarily go on to become the party's designated candidate to run for the chancellorship in this year’s general election.

One of Italy’s largest-ever mafia trials kicked off on Wednesday (13 January), with more than 320 suspected mobsters and their associates facing an array of charges, including extortion, drug trafficking and theft.