European Union

US Ambassador to Serbia, Anthony Godfrey, said on Wednesday (29 April) that his country’s policy toward the Western Balkans had not changed due to the coronavirus pandemic and that resuming the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina remains important for Washington....

Having dropped eight slots, Serbia now ranks 70th of 117 countries included in the Open Budget Index (OBI), Transparency Serbia reported on Wednesday (29 April). The 2019 research gave Serbia a transparency score of 40 out of 100, and the...

The Croatian parliament concluded on Wednesday (29 April) that if parliamentary elections are to be held in July, the legislative house should decide on its dissolution in May. Both the ruling party and opposition are willing to uphold that decision...

A total of 173 million levs (€88.4 million) will be given to small and micro companies that registered a decrease of at least 20% in their turnover this April compared to the same period of 2019. These companies can obtain...

In open defiance of the government, the president of Calabria region, Iole Santelli, issued an order that will allow customers to go to bars and restaurants as from today (30 April), if served in areas with outdoor seating. Open-air markets...

Thirty-four years after Sweden’s former Prime Minister, Olof Palme was murdered in February 1986 in the centre of Stockholm, a breakthrough in investigations may be close at hand. While Swedish police have, so far, not commented on any details or...

The first phase of the exit plan can start next Monday, as “experts say the evolution of the epidemic allows it”. The experts also insist that “the protective measures – testing and contact tracing – should be operational as soon...

Portugal’s Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos said on Wednesday (29 April) that any injection of state funds in the Portuguese flag carrier TAP “will imply” that the government will have more say in the company’s major decisions in the near...

Written by Nicole Scholz,

© s-motive / Adobe Stock.

Medicines shortages have been a growing problem in the European Union (EU) in recent years. As the coronavirus outbreak unfolds, the risk of bottlenecks in the supply of medicines to patients has become particularly high. More broadly, problems with the availability of, and access to, new medicines – most frequently associated with high-priced medicines – have also been a central topic in political debates for some time now.

The causes underlying medicines shortages are complex and multi-dimensional. The European Commission links them to manufacturing problems, industry quotas, legal parallel trade, but also to economic aspects, such as pricing (which is a competence of the Member States). The coronavirus crisis has brought to the fore the geopolitical dimension of these shortages, that is, the EU’s dependency on countries beyond its boundaries, especially China and India, for the production of many active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines.

Solutions to the problem are believed to entail collaboration and joint action, as well as the involvement of multiple stakeholders, including regulators, industry, patients, healthcare professionals, and international players. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Health Organization, in particular, are conducting work to improve access to medicines. Medicines supply-chain stakeholders have all weighed in on the debate, offering explanations and recommendations for addressing the problem.

Key EU institutions, several Council presidencies and the Member States have addressed the challenge of shortages and more broadly, that of safeguarding access to medicines, through various initiatives. The European Parliament has specifically addressed the issue in a March 2017 resolution. Ensuring the availability of medicines and overcoming supply-chain problems revealed by the coronavirus crisis are also expected to be important topics in the Commission’s forthcoming pharmaceutical strategy.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Addressing shortages of medicines‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Although EU membership is Serbia’s official foreign policy goal, Russia and China – and perhaps the USA in the future – are providing something that is much more valuable for the Serbian leaders: a hope that the drawing of the national borders will be possible again, writes Filip Milacic

The European Union's proposed coronavirus recovery fund to help repair the massive economic damage caused should total around €1.5 trillion, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday (29 April).

Looking to save lives and stop the coronavirus by shutting down the nation, the Italian government told workers in March: you stay home and we will pay most of your lost wages.

Business interruption during the coronavirus crisis has caused a 14% fall in demand for electricity in Europe over the past month. Combined with record solar output, this has caused a 39% drop in related CO2 emissions, according to a new analysis.

The French government’s €5 billion bailout of Renault got the green light from the European Commission on Wednesday (29 April), as the EU executive heralded the carmaker's focus on electric vehicle development.

One board says: "You do the shopping for your neighbours: throw the dice again”. Another orders: “You go out without a face mask: go back to the previous square”. Those are some of the rules of a new, educational cum fun, ‘coronavirus board game’ designed for kids in Italy.

The Hungarian parliamentary elections in April 2010 changed the country – for worse. Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz took power for the second time. Today, ten years later, we can see how the prime minister has turned his country into an illiberal state, ignoring the basic principles of the rule of law, writes MEP Udo Bullmann.

Several hundred businessmen, many of them wearing protective face masks, called for an easing of Ukraine's coronavirus lockdown in a protest near the government building on Wednesday (29 April).

A state aid request by Austrian Airlines could be an opportunity to make the carrier more sustainable. But climate conditioning bailouts was recently given short shrift by the EU's transport Commissioner, who is "undermining the Green Deal", according to Austria's Greens. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The European Central Bank could reiterate Thursday (30 April) its power to do more still to cushion the eurozone economy from the impact of the novel coronavirus, analysts said, while maintaining pressure on governments to agree a joint response.

The Russian oil sector seems to be in dire need of seeing the end of Western sanctions, even more than it has been so far, and there is no doubt that they will try to use the current circumstances to change EU countries' stance on the policy towards Moscow, writes Mateusz Kubiak.