European Union

Throughout Europe countries are running out of protective face masks, most of which are produced in China. Germany imposed an export ban at the beginning of March and now the Czech Republic has followed suit. In France all stocks were confiscated so they could be distributed to health workers. Commentators discuss ways to deal with the shortages.

Most of the European countries that already have lockdown restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic have extended them until Easter or shortly thereafter. However experts and many commentators expect the more or less strict lockdowns to continue beyond that point - and are looking at how to tackle this challenging situation.

A week's holiday on full pay for the entire country, subsidies for businesses and the socially disadvantaged, and the postponement of the constitutional referendum scheduled for April 22: these measures to curb Covid-19 were announced by the Russian president in a televised address on March 25. Since then Putin has not appeared in public. The press wants to know why.

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a scathing statement on Wednesday (1 April) seeking to belittle and ridicule North Macedonia's recent accession to NATO. 

Members of the conservative ‘Croatian Sovereign party’ proposed measures on Tuesday (31 March) to save agricultural production and family farms in Croatia, saying the coronavirus crisis could be a turning point for Croatian agriculture. Members warned that the current Government...

The Danish Conservative People's party has called for the the expulsion of Hungary's ruling Fidesz party from the centre-right European political family, the European People's Party (EPP). "For too long we have watched the democratic decline in Budapest!," MEP Pernille Weiss tweeted. The party has sent a letter to EPP president Donald Tusk. Fidesz is suspended in EPP, but a decision on its membership was delayed earlier this year.

France has successfully managed to recruit 150,000 volunteers to help with harvesting and packing. This comes after the Ministry of Agriculture and the trade unions of the profession called on the unemployed to volunteer for seasonal harvests, particularly fruit harvests....

Cybercrime has rocketed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as many try to exploit people’s fears. Below are tips on how to protect yourself.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Cybercrime has rocketed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as many try to exploit people’s fears. Below are tips on how to protect yourself.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

At a time when stricter measures, special checkpoints or additional police are used to keep Romani communities in isolation or quarantine, mostly in Eastern Europe, we must urge politicians to refrain from discriminatory measures and instead, invest in basic infrastructure to protect all from getting infected, writes MEP Romeo Franz.