European Union

The EU’s regulatory framework on gene editing is insufficient and risks pushing out research and innovation from the EU, according to a Green MEP, diverging from her party’s strong stance on the matter.

The European Union will require countries to renovate energy-guzzling buildings faster and meet tougher targets on energy savings as part of its drive to meet its climate goals, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

The idea of wearing face masks on public transport used to be anathema. The small number of people who did wear masks on the metro, at least in the UK, got odd looks, as though they were being insulting by refusing to share the same air as us.

France aims to invest nearly €1.7 billion in its 5G market, Industry Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher and Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O announced on Tuesday morning while presenting the country's 5G and future telecommunications strategy that is eyeing a 5G market worth €15 billion by 2025. EURACTIV France reports.

The Google.org Impact Challenge on Climate commits €10M to fund bold ideas that aim to use technology to accelerate Europe’s progress toward a greener, more resilient future. “This kind of support that NGOs like Snowchange are now receiving from Google...

Nordic countries have registered near-record temperatures over the weekend, including highs of 34C (93.2F) in some places. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

Entry into office of a new member of the General Court of the European Union

A court in Belarus jailed former presidential contender Viktor Babariko for 14 years on Tuesday (6 July) after convicting him on corruption charges he denied, sparking condemnation from the West and the embattled opposition-in-exile.

The European Commission is set to do the previously unthinkable – tax aviation jet fuel. Reversing a long-standing policy, the EU executive will apply an EU-wide minimum tax rate on fossil-based kerosene for flights travelling within the bloc.

MEPs discussed the planned activities of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU with Prime Minister Janez Janša and Commission President von der Leyen.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

After a debate on Slovenian Presidency of the Council priorities, Presidents Sassoli and von der Leyen and Prime Minister Janša will hold a press conference today at 11.45.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Tuesday, 6 July

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Taxpayers rather than polluting corporations pay for clean-up operations in Europe due to lax regulation, the European Court of Auditors, an EU financial watchdog, said Monday. "Polluters need to pay for the environmental damage they cause ... Up to now, though, European taxpayers have far too often been forced to bear the costs that polluters should have paid," the court's Viorel Stefan said, after a study of 42 clean-up projects.

"It is in the European Union's very own interests to drive the [enlargement] process forward here," in the Western Balkans, German chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday in a video-summit on the region. French president Emmanuel Macron said he "very clearly" supported enlargement, while EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she wanted to "accelerate" it. Enlargement is currently stuck due to a Bulgarian veto and ongoing Kosovo-Serbia enmity, however.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán is the only EU leader in a new report on 37 national heads who are "press-freedom predators", according to French NGO Reporters Without Borders. Orbán "has steadily and effectively undermined media pluralism and independence since being returned to power in 2010," the NGO noted. Belarus, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Syria's leaders also made the list, which was last updated five years ago.

Germany has lifted its ban on British tourists and said those who are fully vaccinated will not need to quarantine either. It reclassified the UK, along with Portugal, Russia, India, and Nepal, despite concern over the 'Delta variant' of coronavirus spreading there. The UK, also on Monday, said it would lift all restrictions, including mask-wearing, from 19 July, but France has voiced wariness of an EU fourth wave of infections.

EU Council president Charles Michel pledged solidarity to Lithuania in Vilnius on Monday after 560 migrants crossed the border from Belarus last weekend. "Belarus authorities are using irregular migration to try and put pressure on the EU," he said, after Minsk started flying in refugees and pushing them into Lithuania in reaction to EU sanctions. More than 1,200 migrants recently crossed, compared to fewer than 50 in a normal year.

Most EU countries, including Hungary, have voiced solidarity with LGBTIQ protesters in Georgia after a violent mob halted their Pride march on Monday.

Just eight of the 27 EU states have transposed a landmark EU law against plastic waste, which entered into force this weekend, into national legislation, according to the European Commission on Monday, Reuters reports. Even these adopted "bare-minimum requirements", green NGO Zero Waste Europe said. The law bans single-use plastics in straws, plates, cutlery, and cotton-bud tips. It also calls for 30 percent recycled plastic in drinking bottles from 2030.