European Union

The Spanish government will send convoys carrying the COVID-19 vaccine and food supplies on Sunday (10 January) to areas cut off by Storm Filomena which brought the heaviest snowfall in decades across central Spain and killed four people.

Hauliers are already counting the cost of the new post-Brexit border rules after the first week of life with the UK outside the EU’s single market saw truck queues, delays, and supply chain disruptions.

The European Commission on Friday (8 January) refused to provide an answer on whether Germany's bilateral deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for 30 million extra doses has broken the commitment to joint procurement of vaccines.

The European Commission refused to comment on whether a bilateral deal between Germany and BioNTech for 30 million additional vaccines is a breach of EU collective purchase agreements - which forbid member states from negotiating separate deals.

Russia and China are opposed to a candidate seen as a staunch human rights defender to lead the UN rights body, diplomats say, creating a deadlock just as the US may seek to rejoin the forum it quit in 2018.

Fighting is still going on in several parts of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and almost 2.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, need aid, a UN report said.

The number of illegal border crossings into the European Union fell by 13% to around 124,000 last year, the EU's border agency said Friday (8 January).

Data released on Friday by the EU's earth observation programme, the Copernicus Climate Change Service, showed 2020 as the warmest year ever recorded - at the end of the warmest decade on record. Last year, Europe saw an increase of 0.4 degrees Celsius in comparison with 2019, the previous warmest year. "[This] is yet another reminder of the urgency of ambitious emissions reductions," Carlo Buontempo, Copernicus service director, said.

For mass vaccination, Bulgaria's strategy appears to rely on a new vaccine by AstraZeneca, rather than on those by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, already approved in the EU, EURACTIV Bulgaria reported on Friday (8 January), based on leaked documents and unofficial information.

The Portuguese presidency of the EU Council is committed to doing everything to conclude negotiations on the reform of the EU's massive farming subsidies programme without overlooking the transition toward a more sustainable food system, the Portuguese farm minister told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

A "perfect storm" of post-Brexit red tape and coronavirus restrictions could threaten the future of the industry, said Scottish seafood exporters on Friday (8 January).

The German government presented on Wednesday (6 January) a bill that plans to introduce at least one woman into the governing bodies of German companies with more than three directors. EURACTIV France reports.

Climate disaster could be curtailed within a couple of decades if net zero emissions are reached, new study shows. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Over the last four years, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called into question and attacked the country's democratic institutions. Now his supporters have invaded the very core of US democracy and forced Congress to suspend its session. While some commentators warn of further damage to democracy, others point to the strengths of the US system.