European Union

A new study on food quality has found detectable differences between European products but said they were not correlated with geography, lending weight to the idea that there is no East-West divide in food quality discrimination in Europe.

It would be wise to impose the equivalent standards of animal welfare on meat imports coming into the EU, according to a top EU official, who said this would be compliant with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, provided it...

Following his address to heads of state or government during the EU summit, President Sassoli will hold a press conference tomorrow at 14.30.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Following his address to heads of state or government during the EU summit, President Sassoli will hold a press conference tomorrow at 14.30.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Belgium's prime minister Alexander De Croo announced on Wednesday that the country will go into four weeks of Easter lockdown, starting from Saturday (27 March).

  The European Regional Development and Cohesion funds, the classical tools of the EU’s cohesion policy, will disburse €242.9 billion euros during the 2021-2027 period, 30% of which will go to greening. In this episode we discuss how the cohesion...

The environment ministers of Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic have criticised the constraints imposed by the "do no significant harm" principle when it comes to EU funding. Others like Denmark, meanwhile, defend strict limits on fossil fuel spending in the EU's recovery plan.

Faced with continuing Covid vaccine shortages in the EU, Ursula von der Leyen has threatened to impose export bans. According to Brussels, at least 41 million doses have been exported from the EU since February, ten million of which went to the UK. Meanwhile British-Swedish manufacturer Astrazeneca has only delivered 30 percent of the agreed vaccine doses to the EU in the first quarter, EU sources say. Europe's press discusses the pros and cons of export bans.

Although most European governments are extremely reluctant to impose further lockdowns and restrictions on their citizens, in view of growing infection rates they see no other option. This makes it all the more important that the measures they take are viewed as reasonable and logical. Which is posing a major problem, commentators note.

Turkey's chief prosecutor last week filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court aimed at banning the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP. It is also seeking a five-year ban from politics for almost 700 HDP members, including its leaders Mithat Sancar and Pervin Buldan. Sancar accused the government of wanting to ban his party because it could not defeat it politically. Commentators agree.