European Union

The picturesque town of Trakai in Lithuania tells a story of well-intentioned biodiversity and green infrastructure investment nearly costing its old town one-fifth of its trees.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday (21 October) threatened to expel the US, German and eight other Western ambassadors after they issued a rare joint statement in support of a jailed civil society leader.

According to the Investigative Institute of Ján Kuciak, the Slovak government paid out around €24 million to letterbox companies. The money was meant to help small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic. The investigative journalists revealed that the companies have...

The procurement of human plasma as a potential therapy for Covid-19 is one of the latest examples of bioethics nationalism, defined by Jonathan Moreno in this blog as “distinct bioethics standards [which] are formally proclaimed as a matter of right by a sovereign state.”  The race for a Covid cure pushes at the weak seams in the international liberal order in much the same way that Covid appears to be pushing at health care systems.

Data shows that a record 548,000 people were tested for COVID in Italy on Tuesday, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. The spike in tests is linked to the fact that the Covid health pass has been...

The countries around the Baltic Sea have agreed to gear up measures to improve the dire state of one of the most polluted maritime areas in the world. The target set by the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the...

Officials gathered on Thursday to mark the centenary of the 1921 partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney and Chief Whip Jack Chambers joined political and religious leaders at St Patrick’s Church of Ireland...

The Welsh lamb industry could become “economically unviable” as post–Brexit trade deals liberalise farming markets and the “floodgates for imports from across the world” are opened, said the Welsh National Farmers’ Union President, John Davies, on Thursday (22 October). UK...

A law that allows the government to limit margins in the marketing of fuels, published on Thursday, will come into force on Friday (22 October). The law amends several decrees that establish the general principles related to the organisation and functioning...

Around 50 homes have been evacuated Thursday as a dense river of lava approaches the municipalities of Llanos de Aridane and Tazacorte on the Spanish island of La Palma, where a volcanic eruption shows no signs of abating after more...

Bulgarian companies will receive compensation of €55/MWh due to the high cost of electricity from the middle of next month, the Bulgarian caretaker government has announced. The money will come from the profits of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which...

The European Parliament has adopted a tough resolution on the Polish rule of law following Poland’s PM speech in Strasbourg and amid the ongoing crisis. The resolution considers the Polish Constitutional Tribunal as an “illegal” chamber, which adopted a verdict...

Greece’s former Prime Minister George Papandreou announced on Thursday that he will run for the leadership of the “Movement for Change” – the successor of the social-democratic Pasok party and a member of the Socialist and Democrat group in the...

MPs in the National Assembly have adopted the so-called “health vigilance” bill, whose article 2 allows for the possibility of extending the health pass until 31 July 2022. French lawmakers were split over the issue, narrowly passing it by 74...

The United States would come to Taiwan's defense and has a commitment to defend the island, US President Joe Biden said, though the White House said later there was no change in policy towards the island.

EU leaders failed to offer a way forward on Poland's challenge on European legal order in a "serene" discussion that barely lasted two hours on Thursday (21 October), a relatively short meeting by EU summit standards.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EU and African officials are still at loggerheads over whether to waive intellectual property protection for COVID vaccines ahead of a meeting between EU and African Union foreign ministers meet in Rwanda next week.

On Global Encryption Day (21 October), Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations, defined encryption as a matter of life and death. A day earlier, a coalition of EU lawmakers voiced concerns that an upcoming legislative proposal could open the door to mass surveillance.