European Union

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Global Europe Brief, your weekly update on the EU from a global perspective. You can subscribe here. /// EU enlargement to the Western Balkans has been stuck in a rut for years. But there is a glimmer of...

Belarusian airline Belavia will be banned from all EU countries' airspace from midnight Friday, after EU ambassadors in Brussels agreed the move in reaction to a recent state hijacking, Reuters reports. Over half had already done so ahead of the EU-level step. Belavia flew to some 20 airports in Europe including Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, Milan, Paris, Rome, Vienna, and Warsaw. EU airlines have also been advised to avoid Belarus airspace.

"Today ... the pipe-laying work of the first Nord Stream 2 line was successfully finished. Work on the second line is ongoing," Russian president Vladimir Putin said at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum Friday, Reuters reports. "Gazprom is ready to start filling Nord Stream 2 with gas," he added. The pipeline, to Germany, will be fully completed by 2022, despite Polish and US complaints on its strategic threat.

French company Veolia Group is demonstrating that companies can introduce recycled petroleum-based plastics (PET) plastics into their production chain and still be successful during a conference organised as part of the Green Week. EURACTIV France reports.

CEPA #TheGoodPestManager would like to thank everyone in the pest management industry for their hard work through what has been a difficult year. The industry remains essential to public health, and contributes to the protecting our urban environments and supply chains.

Media freedom throughout Europe needs all the support it can get, but the situation in the Balkans is particularly worrying, participants told an online conference "Media Freedom in the Balkans” organised by EURACTIV.

A series of protests have been staged in front of the European Commission and at a vaccine manufacturing plant in Belgium, calling for temporarily lifting of the intellectual property (IP) rights of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a new light on the compelling necessity of addressing health inequalities across the globe.

Companies and civil society organisations in Germany have opposed a planned expansion of the surveillance of sources and communications which provides for a more stringent application of the so-called state Trojan in an open letter published Thursday. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on MPs on Twitter to oppose the new government coalition announced by opposition leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday. With 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, the coalition has a razor thin majority. Europe's media doubt whether the new government can really bring about change - and whether Netanyahu will really have to step down after 12 years.

After five years of tough negotiations, representatives of the EU states and the European Parliament have agreed on new legislation that will force large multinational companies in the EU to disclose their profits and tax payments. The measure is aimed at boosting tax transparency. Is this a major breakthrough on the path to more fair taxation?

Greece has witnessed five contract killings linked to the mafia and organised crime since April. The Minister of Citizens' Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis has declared war on organised crime and promised to restore order and security. But it may already be too late for that, the media fear.