European Union

The EU is hoping to head off criticism of its distribution of COVID vaccines from African states, after German pharma giant BioNTech announced on Tuesday (26 October) that it would establish its first African site producing COVID vaccines early next year, with EU support.

Diabetes patients will be among the beneficiaries of the much-awaited European health data space seeking to make good use of healthcare data across the bloc, according to policymakers and health stakeholders.

Diabetes remains a major public health concern despite the efforts to increase awareness and reverse its relentless spread in Europe.

Besides Angela Merkel's husband Joachim Sauer, no one else has been closer to the Chancellor than Peter Altmaier, the current caretaker minister of energy and economy. Altmaier is one of the very few German politicians on a first name basis with Merkel.

Through a newly proposed banking package the EU commission is trying to find a balance between increasing financial stability, protecting bank profits and sustainability concerns.

Two major collaborative defence research (R&T) projects, launched under the European Commission’s Preparatory Acton on Defence Research (PADR) and implemented by the European Defence Agency (EDA), came to a close end of October. The results of both projects - OCEAN 2020 and VESTLIFE – will contribute significantly to enhancing European Member States’ defence capabilities in two important domains: maritime situational awareness and soldier protection.

OCEAN 2020

The OCEAN 2020 (Open Cooperation for European mAritime awareNess) project, launched in 2018 and co-funded by the EU with €35.48 million, achieved its main objective which was to demonstrate enhanced situational awareness in a maritime environment through the integration of legacy and new technologies for unmanned systems, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance) payloads and effectors, by pulling together the technical specialists in the maritime domain covering the ‘observing, orienting, deciding and acting’ operational tasks.  As the biggest of all PADR projects with no less than 43 entities from 15 European countries involved, OCEAN 2020 also successfully addressed the problems of integrating EU systems and individual organisations into a coherent framework to increase cost effectiveness and interoperability for joint missions. The variety of assets involved in the project highlighted how a global integration of multi-domain unmanned systems in an operational task force can provide a force multiplier.

The project implementation culminated in two major demonstrations in the Mediterranean (November 2019) and Baltic seas (2021). All in all, the OCEAN 2020 confirmed the EU’s ability to lead innovation in support of Europe’s strategic autonomy in the maritime domain.

Information on the OCEAN 2020 consortium (led by Leonardo) and its 43 members can be found on the dedicated OCEAN2020 website.

VESTLIFE

The second project now accomplished, called VESTLIFE, was signed in April 2018 and granted an EU grant of €2.43 million to develop an ultralight modular bullet proof integral solution for dismounted soldier protection, including a CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear) detection system. The new protective gear provides an increased coverage area whilst maintaining comfort, plus a weight reduction of the ballistic panels. It therefore ensures an optimum balance between protection and comfort, tailoring such a protective surface to the forecasted mission risk. The protection system developed in this project consists of soft panels and hard plates.

 

 

The VESTLIFE consortium Led by AITEX (Spain), also encompassed 5 other participants from 5 countries: CITEVE (Portugal), Brapa Consultancy (the Netherlands), TECNALIA (Spain), Petroceramics (Italy) and FYComposites (Finland).

 

The ability of geothermal energy to provide baseload electricity and flexibility to heating and power systems will be invaluable in order to move towards a 100% renewables-based system, experts say.

The new EU Circular Economy Action Plan is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal for a climate-neutral, resource-efficient and competitive economy.

As Poland’s row over judicial independence continues to escalate, the EU’s highest court has imposed a €1 million daily fine on Warsaw for not implementing its summer orders. On 14 July, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ordered Poland to...

The reaction to the European Court of Justice’s latest ruling on Western Sahara shows the Union can keep calm and carry on if it focuses on what it is able to achieve instead of aiming outside of its purview, writes Elena Valenciano.

Commission v Poland
Principles of Community law
As it has not suspended the application of the provisions of national legislation relating, in particular, to the areas of jurisdiction of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, Poland is ordered to pay the European Commission a daily penalty payment in an amount of €1 000 000

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev is the current favourite to win a second term in the 14 November elections, conducted together with parliamentary elections. However, the problematic COVID-19 situation and discontent over the recently introduced Green certificate might influence the outcome.

The European Commission will reinstate operating grants for health NGOs in the EU4Health programme, the EU's Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has promised after European health NGOs joined forces in an online campaign this week.

EURACTIV travelled to the Una Sana canton in northwestern Bosnia in mid-October for four days to interview institutional and non-governmental actors to present a clearer picture of the migration situation on the EU’s external border. These interviews and first-hand testimonies...

As the world awaits a possible new wave of refugees from Afghanistan to Europe in the aftermath of the fall of Kabul, vulnerable Afghans already on the EU's border face growing uncertainty.

The novel coronavirus has shown glaring deficiencies in the world's collective ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, with none more evident than wealthy countries' self-destructive unwillingness to cooperate on vaccine equity for the benefit of the entire global population.

Council presidency reaches provisional agreement with European Parliament on revised rules for the use of hired vehicles.

The EU issued a declaration strongly condemning the military coup in the Republic of the Sudan.

Information note to journalists on the re-opening of the Council Press Centre

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.