European Union

In a wide-ranging interview, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna outlined her country’s EU and NATO agenda, the tense relations with Russia, the issue of vaccines and geopolitics.

As the EU and African Union seek to make up for lost time in 2020 by accelerating talks on a new ‘strategic partnership’ covering political and economic cooperation one of the risks is that the talks take place in a vacuum at high political level with little regard for local communities.

Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.    “Big Tech may contribute to a rapid take-up of stablecoins, which could create systemic risks and even endanger monetary...

France's National Assembly adopted on Thursday (11 February) a series of articles and amendments for regulating hate online and on platforms and introduced steep penalties, as part of the country's much-debated bill on "reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic". EURACTIV France reports.

British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca has dismissed as untrue a statement by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš that he was offered to sign a separate deal with the company for COVID-19 vaccines.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

In Italy, the Five Star Movement is now also willing to join a government led by the former ECB chief Draghi. The members of comedian Beppe Grillo's party voted on the move on Thursday, with 59.3 percent in favour. But commentators doubt that the risk of instability and blockades has been banished, and are already sizing up the next elections.

The Catalans will elect a new regional parliament on Sunday. Now the parties that advocate independence for Catalonia have signed a joint manifesto affirming that they will not form a coalition with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The latter, however, not only govern in Madrid but are also leading the polls in Catalonia. Even separatist commentators shake their heads in dismay.

Even after the row between the EU and Astrazeneca has for the most part been settled, criticism of Europe's approach to acquiring vaccines continues. Commission President von der Leyen has admitted mistakes, but defended the common procurement strategy. The commentaries in Europe's press reflect the controversy.