European Union

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Global Europe Brief, your weekly update on the EU in the global perspective from our foreign affairs news team: Georgi Gotev and Alexandra Brzozowski.

The coronavirus pandemic will turn global economic growth "sharply negative" in 2020, triggering the worst crisis since the 1930s great depression, with only a partial recovery seen in 2021, International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva said Thursday. Georgieva said governments had already taken fiscal stimulus measures of $8 trillion, but more would be needed. She said the crisis would hit emerging markets and developing countries hardest, Reuters reported.

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.    “Given all these divergences, the European Data Protection Supervisor calls for a pan-European model ‘COVID-19 mobile application’, coordinated at...

Although the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the entire eurozone and Europe's economic outlook seems uncertain, Greece’s international lenders do not seem prepared to make any fresh concessions to the country that is still recovering from years of austerity.

EU governments want the European Commission and regulators to take an “ambitious” approach when interpreting the flexibility of banking rules in the coronavirus period, to ensure that money flows to the real economy, according to a draft statement seen by EURACTIV.com.

German economy minister Peter Altmaier said Thursday he expected EU finance ministers meeting later in the day to make progress towards agreeing the €500bn coronavirus rescue package. Talks earlier in the week failed. "I have confidence that [German finance minister] Olaf Scholz, with his colleague [French finance minister] Bruno Le Maire, can push this forward today and we are all working on that together," he said.

Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said Thursday that the EU's failure to agree on a recovery plan for after the pandemic risks the existence of the bloc. "It's a big challenge to the existence of Europe," Conte said. "If Europe fails to come up with a monetary and financial policy adequate for the biggest challenge since World War Two, not only Italians but European citizens will be deeply disappointed," he added.

In an interview with EURACTIV's media partner EFE, the head of Interpol, Jürgen Stock, has urged the world’s citizens to be vigilant and to protect themselves online, warning that cybercriminals are taking advantage of increased internet activity during national lockdowns and the current climate of fear resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Belgium will not join more than a dozen member states in insisting the Green Deal must serve as a basis for the coronavirus recovery, after a dispute among the three regional parliaments and the government nixed the chances of a common position.

Welcome to EURACTIV's AgriFood Brief, your weekly update on all things Agriculture & Food in the EU.

Austria has taken the initiative and held out the prospect of relaxing the measures aimed at containing the coronavirus at the start of next week. In other European countries, too, calls for an exit strategy from the restrictions are growing louder. Commentators discuss the right timing and which criteria should be met.

US Democrat Bernie Sanders has withdrawn from the Democratic race for the US presidency, leaving Joe Biden to run against President Donald Trump in November. But the media see Sanders' mission and ideas as more relevant than ever.