European Union

Lithuania’s Cybersecurity Centre has launched an investigation into alleged disinformation about where migrants might be accommodated, which according to Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė, has stoked fears among local communities. “I have information about cyberattacks trying to spread disinformation about plans...

German police banned several demonstrations registered for Saturday and Sunday over doubts of whether sanitary measures would be adhered to. Protests under the banners: “The recovery of our fundamental rights,” and “The year of freedom and peace – life after...

Portuguese bars and nightclubs will remain closed until October, after which they can reopen for customers presenting a COVID-19 vaccination certificate or equivalent, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Thursday. Meanwhile in Greece, several islands face the risk of local...

The European Union is "very concerned about the repression" of protests in Cuba and urges the government to release all arbitrarily detained protesters, the EU said on Thursday (29 July) in its strongest statement to date on the matter.

Poland's justice minister on Thursday (29 July) asked its Constitutional Tribunal to examine whether an article of the European Convention on Human Rights breaches the constitution, deepening an international row over the country's judicial reforms.

A group of major French companies have sent a letter to Prime Minister Jean Castex  proposing solutions to best support Europe in its energy transition once France assumes the six month rotating EU Council presidency at the start of 2022. EURACTIV France reports.

Greece has always been Europe's outlier. It faces an implacably hostile neighbour in Turkey under its assertive authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Until Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, Greece had no European Union member state as a neighbour.

The Italian government has reached an accord over a contested reform of the judicial system, a government spokesperson said on Thursday (29 July), apparently putting an end to weeks of friction in Mario Draghi multi-party coalition.

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 26 July – 1 August 2021

The EU issued a declaration on recent events in Cuba.

Statement by president Charles Michel on the political situation in Georgia.

There is news you want to hear, and news you will ignore. These days, Europeans are packing for their summer vacations. The news we don’t want to hear is that by the time we return from well-deserved holidays, the next wave of COVID-19 will have gathered force.

German environmental organisations are calling for flood protection measures to be improved and for a change to the way agricultural soils are used weeks after catastrophic flash floods deluged the country and left more than 200 dead across Western Europe. EURACTIV Germany reports.

French publisher Société du Figaro has been fined by the Commission Nationale d’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) after the website of Le Figaro was discovered to be installing third party advertising cookies without users’ consent. 

While the sustainable development agenda took a back seat during the pandemic, one region in Spain pressed ahead with creating an 'ecosystem for sustainable development goals' to reach global goals locally. To take a closer look, EURACTIV spoke with Marta Marín, delegate of the Basque Country's mission to the EU.

Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp will learn within a month the extent of a fine by Ireland's privacy watchdog over an alleged breach of the EU privacy framework following a binding decision by the bloc's data protection board.

Europe is letting thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses expire while only 1% of people in low-income countries and 28% of the world population has received at least a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

EU agriculture ministers have called for the creation of EU-wide minimum standards for turkey farming, which, despite being the third most slaughtered animal, still lack specific legal regulations for their husbandry.

The European Commission and Hungary agreed to extend until end of September a deadline for Budapest to meet demands on its €7 billion recovery plan, the institution said on Thursday (29 July).

Written by Anna Caprile and James McEldowney.

In May 2020, the European Commission published its ‘farm to fork’ strategy – ‘for a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system’ – along with the EU biodiversity strategy, as part of the implementation of the European Green Deal. In those strategies the Commission set a target of 25 % of the EU’s agricultural land to be under organic farming by 2030, as well as a significant increase in organic aquaculture. These targets aim to contribute to improving the sustainability of the food system, to reverse biodiversity loss and to reduce the use of chemical substances in the form of pesticides and fertilisers. The Commission’s 2021 work programme set out its intention to prepare an action plan for the development of organic production for the 2021 to 2027 period, and the action plan was published on 25 March 2021.

Offering an initial analysis of the action plan, this briefing outlines the measures envisaged and the implications for different stages of the food chain in the EU. It also examines the results of the public consultation launched by the Commission in September 2020 to gather stakeholders’ views on the challenges and opportunities for the organic sector. The views of key stakeholders in response to the publication of the action plan are also covered, along with the initial views expressed by the advisory committees.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Development of organic production in the EU: 2021-2027 action plan‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.