European Union

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed on Tuesday that the Olympics Games in Tokyo have been postponed due to the coronavirus. The IOC president Thomas Bach and the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe concluded that the Olympics Games must be postponed to no later than summer 2021 "to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community."

The Civil Liberties Committee highlights that any extraordinary measure adopted by the Hungarian government in response to the pandemic must respect the EU’s founding values.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The Civil Liberties Committee highlights that any extraordinary measure adopted by the Hungarian government in response to the pandemic must respect the EU’s founding values.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Five European countries have announced plans to derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights, (ECHR), invoking the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Critics, however, fear that this sends the wrong political signal.

Working conditions in Parliament for journalists in light of Coronavirus

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Working conditions in Parliament for journalists in light of Coronavirus

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The co-creator of the Asterix comic books sadly passed away today (24 March) at the venerable age of 92. Albert Uderzo’s Gaulish warriors can teach Europe some useful lessons that we all can learn from - so long as the sky does not fall on our heads tomorrow.

The first payments from the 'coronavirus aid package' are to be made to small and micro enterprises this week, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier announced on Tuesday but rejected once again the idea of European coronabonds. Meanwhile, the country's top economic expert expects a single-digit percentage GDP decline. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The Tokyo summer Olympiad was postponed on Tuesday (24 March) to 2021, the first such delay in the Games’ 124-year modern history, as the coronavirus crisis wrecked one of the last international sporting showpieces still standing this year.

The financial crisis management tool of the eurozone countries must be activated without delay and without conditions, said French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire before the Eurogroup meeting on Tuesday (24 March). EURACTIV France reports.

Water pollution, illegally dumped waste – crimes against the environment are difficult to trace back and prosecute properly. A recent report shows the magnitude and costs of this problem.

France's national medical institute is testing four experimental treatments to combat the coronavirus, including chloroquine, as part of a wider European effort. EURACTIV's partner La Tribune reports.

Written by Anja Radjenovic,

© M-SUR / Shutterstock.com

The unprecedented arrival of refugees and irregular migrants in the EU in 2015 exposed a number of deficiencies in EU external border, asylum and migration policy, sparking EU action through various legal and policy instruments. While the EU has been relatively successful in securing external borders, curbing irregular migrant arrivals and increasing cooperation with third countries, Member States are still reluctant to show solidarity and do more to share responsibility for asylum-seekers.

International cooperation and solidarity is key in helping to manage migration to and between states. Under international law, countries have certain legal obligations to assist and protect refugees that they accept on their territory, but the legal duties of other states to help and share that responsibility are less clear.

At EU level, the principle of solidarity is set out in Article 80 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), however there is currently no consensus on whether it can be used as a stand-alone or joint legal basis for secondary legislation. Furthermore, the notions of ‘solidarity’ and ‘fair sharing of responsibilities’ for refugees or asylum-seekers are not defined in EU law. This has prompted EU institutions, academics and other stakeholders to propose different ways to resolve the issue, such as sharing out relevant tasks and pooling resources at EU level, compensating frontline Member States financially and through other contributions – such as flexible solidarity – and changing the focus of the European Court of Justice when interpreting EU asylum law.

In recent years, the EU has provided the Member States most affected by migrant arrivals with significant financial and practical support, notably through the EU budget and the deployment of personnel and equipment. Nevertheless, the continued failure to reform the EU asylum system, as well as the implementation of temporary solidarity measures based on ad-hoc solutions, has exposed a crisis of solidarity that shows no signs of being resolved. The von der Leyen Commission has made it clear that the new EU asylum system ‘should include finding new forms of solidarity and should ensure that all Member States make meaningful contributions to support those countries under the most pressure’.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Solidarity in EU asylum policy‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Finland's former president, Martti Ahtisaari, has been diagnosed with coronavirus, according to a statement from the office of the president, reported Finnish public broadcaster Yle. Ahtisaari's test results were confirmed on Monday. His wife, Eeva Ahtisaari, confirmed last Saturday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus. Both are 82 years old.

In the fight against the coronavirus pandemic many European countries have gone into varying degrees of lockdown. Some states, like the Netherlands and Finland, continue to rely on recommendations and voluntary action rather than force. European media discuss what makes more sense - and what distinguishes a democracy from a dictatorship in a state of emergency.

The risk of contracting Covid-19 is much higher for older people. Photos of young people having a picnic in the park despite the pandemic are therefore triggering indignation. Some observers see coronavirus sparking a new generational conflict. But will the elderly really be worst hit? And isn't the crisis an opportunity to overcome the conflict?