European Union

Several hundred Frontex guards could be armed by the summer and deployed to EU member states that host its operations. An agreement has already been reached with Greece, says Frontex, the site of its biggest operation to date.

The NGO Klimaatzaak [Climate Case] is taking the Belgian, Flemish, Brussels and Walloon governments to court for breaching their climate obligations, arguing that inadequate climate policy constitutes a violation of standard of care, and human and children's rights.

For years, the EU's "united in diversity" motto has allowed policymakers to claim that conversations on race, religion, colour and ethnicity are foreign to European culture. But a colour-blind Europe is a fairy tale.

The UK is set to shift its focus from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region as part of a planned revamp of its foreign, trade and defence policy announced on Tuesday (16 March), which made scarce references to a future EU-UK...

Listening to European citizens should be a permanent and continuous process - not merely limited to one event which starts on 9 May 2021 and is to finish before the presidential elections in France in the spring of 2022.

“Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition should be routinely included in the management of COVID-19 patients” European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN)

France has long defended the purity of its language with an official list of permitted words, but the launch of a new online dictionary with state support on Tuesday (16 March) underlines how attitudes have shifted.

Six central and eastern European Union heads of government urged Brussels on Tuesday (16 March) to find a "correction mechanism" to fix what they called the unfair distribution of coronavirus vaccines within the bloc.

The Council of the European Union, which is currently chaired by Portugal, on Tuesday (16 March) gave the green light to the Digital Europe programme to fund investment in cutting-edge technology in the EU, in areas such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, with a total budget of €7.6 billion to 2027.

EU-mediated negotiations between the Georgian ruling party and the opposition are yet to bear fruit, the South Caucasian country's prime ministerial visit to Brussels revealed on Tuesday (16 March).

Boris Johnson is one of life’s optimists – it’s one of the reasons why Britons keep giving him the benefit of doubt. And the promise of a ‘Global Britain’ pursuing its new course outside the EU is a suitably grand-sounding project for him. But wishing won’t make it so.

Reducing gender, social or cultural bias in AI technologies is key, said the Culture and Education Committee in a resolution adopted on Tuesday.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

A non-profit group has been raising eyebrows in the Council of Europe for its questionable lobbying activities, a British lawmaker told EURACTIV.

Length of video : 83'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

There is currently no indication of a direct link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare cases of blood clotting, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) has said, although the agency is set to offer its conclusion on the matter on Thursday (18 March). 

Europe's top court ruled on Monday (16 March) that Polish and Hungarian taxes on turnover targeted by the EU Commission for giving an unfair advantage to small businesses over their bigger, foreign rivals were legal.

Despite the fact that present reality offers many reasons to be optimistic, some people are still fearful of what the future holds. Nevertheless the future is what people make of it and ELF believes that we need to make it work for Europe.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has massively reduced revenues of national governments in 2020, NATO allies significantly increased their military spending and eleven out of 30 alliance members reached the target of earmarking at least 2% of GDP for defence, according to NATO's annual report released on Tuesday (16 March).

Europe's top human rights body on Tuesday (16 March) voiced concern over two draft media laws in Poland and warned about the possible "suffocation of independent media outlets".

The interim relief judge of the French Council of State ruled last Friday (12 March) that the health ministry's decision to integrate medical portal Doctolib, which uses Amazon’s hosting services, into its online booking system for COVID-19 vaccinations did not infringe privacy and personal data protection rights. EURACTIV France reports.