European Union

Over 400 financial firms in Britain have shifted activities, staff and a combined trillion pounds in assets to hubs in the European Union due to Brexit, with more pain to come, a study from New Financial think tank said on...

Written by Mar Negreiro,

© Jackie Niam / Adobe Stock

Coronavirus has accelerated the rise of digital health, a broad concept that includes solutions for telemedicine and teleconsultation, remote monitoring, connected devices, digital health platforms and health apps. The concept also covers the related health data analysis and application in systems based on big data, for instance for epidemiological research and AI-enabled diagnosis support.

Digital technologies are becoming critical in the fight against the ongoing pandemic. They have been used, among other things, for online medical consultations from home and for increasing efficiency in diagnosis and treatment of patients through telemedicine, which, like teleworking and online education, has been a novel experience for many.

Likewise health workers have been using digital technology to diagnose the virus. For instance, China has developed new e-health apps allowing patients to assess their Covid-19 symptoms remotely. Patients with existing critical illnesses, reluctant to go to hospital because of the risk of contracting the virus, have been able to get online consultations from home and have in some cases been monitored remotely. Moreover, thanks to the availability of digital health records and e‑prescriptions in many EU countries, it has been possible to issue repeat prescriptions remotely, limiting unnecessary contact between doctors and patients and reducing the chances of exposure to the virus.

Nevertheless, there are many challenges to overcome as advances in digitalisation of healthcare come with drawbacks. They highlight a widening ‘digital divide’ that risks leaving behind the elderly and socially disadvantaged, who are less able to master or afford the technology. In addition, liability, reimbursement and cybersecurity issues are among the other key challenges that need to be considered, as cyber-attacks on hospitals are on the rise. Meanwhile, the transfer of personal health data is fuelling a debate over who owns and controls that data, raising questions over individuals’ rights to privacy. What is clear is that digital health is here to stay.

Read the complete briefing on ‘The rise of digital health technologies during the pandemic‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Percentage of people (aged 16 to 74) using the internet for health-related activities

Health experts are urging EU policymakers and legislators to review the EU’s legal data protection framework, the GDPR, which is hampering the sharing of pseudonymised health data outside the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).

In our changing Europe, worsening demography is often a catastrophe for democracy. Romania and Bulgaria are good examples of countries depleted of the healthiest part of their population, as hundreds of thousands of their most active and dynamic citizens chose...

On Thursday, the Foreign Affairs and Trade committees voted in favour of the agreement that sets the rules of the future relationship between the EU and the UK.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On Thursday, the Foreign Affairs and Trade committees voted in favour of the agreement that sets the rules of the future relationship between the EU and the UK.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on International Trade

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The event formally launching the Conference on the Future of Europe on 9 May is set to be a ‘hybrid’ of online and physical participation because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the EU Commissioner tasked with guiding the process said on Thursday (15 April).

Greece plans to open its borders to vaccinated visitors from several countries from next week, the government said Thursday (15 April), as the country seeks to restart its badly-hit tourism sector.

The European Union on Thursday (15 April) voiced support for the United States over cyber-attacks it has suffered, including a major hack blamed on Russia, as Washington imposed new sanctions on Moscow.

On Thursday, MEPs debated a citizens’ initiative to ban the use of cages for farm animals, together with organisers of the initiative, Commissioners and representatives of other EU bodies.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on Petitions

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On Thursday, MEPs debated a citizens’ initiative to ban the use of cages for farm animals, together with organisers of the initiative, Commissioners and representatives of other EU bodies.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on Petitions

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EURACTIV Bulgaria’s investigative journalist Valia Ahchieva depicts in her latest production on YouTube a sad reality: a plant protection product called Mocap containing an EU-banned active ingredient is not only being used but also subsidised by Bulgaria's ministry of agriculture.

EU lawmakers moved closer to ratifying the bloc’s new trade agreement with the UK on Thursday (15 April), after the European Parliament’s International Trade and Foreign Affairs Committees gave their green light to the pact.

  This week on EURACTIV’s Yellow Room, we are talking about how some EURACTIV digging led to discussions and examinations over the Commission’s 462 million-euro contracts with several consultancy firms. We are focusing on the Parliament’s next steps and the...

Written by Andrés García Higuera,

STOA delegation virtual visit to the Joint Research Centre

Scientific and technological advances lie at the heart of economic growth, and will be key to the economic recovery post-coronavirus. In line with their mission to support technological innovation, the legislators on the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) recently took part in a virtual visit to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) site at Ispra, Italy – Europe’s leading research campus with a wide range of laboratories and unique research infrastructures. The JRC’s operations at Ispra are geared to providing science-based responses to policy challenges with scientific, technological and socio-economic dimensions, with a number of their key research areas being of particular relevance and interest to STOA, including their research on the economics of climate change, on energy efficiency and transport, and on knowledge for growth.

Initially scheduled for May 2020, this STOA Panel virtual visit took place on Tuesday 16 March 2021, following an introductory presentation of the JRC mission and activities and a formal invitation issued to Members by the Director-General of the JRC, Stephen Quest, at the STOA Panel meeting of 29 January 2021. Although it would have been preferable to visit the site physically to interact with the impressive team of JRC scientists, this virtual alternative allowed eleven Members of the European Parliament to attend the visit organised by Eva Kaili, (S&D, Greece and STOA Chair) – highlighting the relevance of the JRC’s work to policy-makers.

Stephen Quest welcomed the delegation, underlining the need for high-quality science and for information to be shared with policy-makers to provide a service, through them, to wider society. This JRC-STOA cooperation goes beyond research, to knowledge management and better communication between science and policy, in line with the mandate of both STOA and the JRC to assess science and technology and inform policy-making.

The visit began with a presentation of the JRC-Ispra work on Artificial Intelligence with a European perspective and its focus on the health sector. The JRC operates ‘AI Watch‘, the artificial intelligence (AI) observatory for Europe, in partnership with the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT), and supports the development of AI policy through its research activities. This was followed by a session dedicated to ‘The Green Deal’, another of STOA’s priorities, where the Knowledge Centre on Bioeconomy was presented. The next session was dedicated to ‘Quality of Life’, in which the upcoming Knowledge Centre on Cancer (KCC) was presented as part of the European Commission’s activities to tackle cancer, supporting the European Union’s Beating Cancer Plan, the Mission on Cancer, and connecting with some 12 European Commission Directorates-General. The visit continued with a remote tour of some of the JRC laboratories at Ispra, which began by presenting the Vehicle Emissions Laboratory (VELA) and its work in relation to car emission measurements. The delegation continued with a visit to the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment (ELSA) and an overview of its work in relation to energy efficiency and the seismic safety of buildings.

This visit served to provide STOA Panel members with much information and insight into JRC activities, as well as making useful links with experts, in view of future STOA work. The Ispra facility is the biggest centre of the JRC and half the JRC’s staff are based there, with 1 500 people working at its diverse laboratories and research facilities – connected by 35 kilometres of internal roads, at this unique site situated beside Lago Maggiore in northern Italy.

STOA looks forward to further collaborations with the JRC to exploit the synergies that became apparent through this visit, as well as to facilitating follow-up exchanges between experts and STOA Panel members on the topics addressed in these virtual sessions.

Read More: STOA delegation virtual visit to the Joint Research Centre site in Ispra | News

Your opinion counts for us. To let us know what you think, get in touch via stoa@europarl.europa.eu.

To become climate-neutral by 2050, the EU plans to transform its energy system, which accounts for 75% of its greenhouse gas emissions.

For too long conservative and liberal-led governments focused on austerity. As we recover from COVID-19, it is time to refocus the EU on meeting the needs of citizens.

US President Joe Biden has postponed the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. His predecessor Donald Trump had agreed with the Taliban on 1 May 2021 as the deadline for US troops to leave but Biden has now set September 11 - the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington - as the new date. A symbolic gesture, but one that cannot conceal the failure of the West in Afghanistan, as commentators explain.