The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved EUR 10.2 billion of new financing to support business investment and strengthen economic resilience to COVID-19, accelerate the green energy transition, expand sustainable transport and improve health, education, social housing and urban development. “The COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over, and economic consequences continue to be felt around…
Nuclear energy is an issue like few others, dividing opinion in the extreme over its safety and role in the energy mix. But construction work on new nuclear plants continues apace, with the latest being in Belarus with the Astravets nuclear power plant (NPP). Building work on the twin-reactor plant is coming to an end…
The Czech Senate has voted on a bill that recognises and foresees financial compensation for the forced sterilisation of Roma women in Czechia which took place for decades. The European Green Party and Zelení, the Czech Green Party, said they welcome this important step in fighting discrimination against Roma communities in Czechia. …
Has indoor air quality worsened during the pandemic and what factors such as potential health risks from mineral wool insulation can be addressed? The recent Clean Air Day had the aim of increasing awareness and understanding of air pollution, its effects on both climate change and public health and what needs to be done to…
The Economic Forum, which is the largest economic conference in Central and Eastern Europe, is changing its location. The jubilee 30th Economic Forum will be held in Karpacz on September 7-9, 2021. Located in the very centre of Europe, the hospitable land of Lower Silesia will open up to several thousand conference participants, offering a good…
Who is in charge of space traffic control and potential space traffic jams? Objects in space include launch vehicles, orbiting objects such as satellites of all sizes and international space stations. There is also an increasing amount of space debris; more than 900 000 items have been identified, of which some 30 000 are larger…
The S&D Group in the European parliament said it welcomes the latest annual assessment on the rule of law in the EU but expresses concerns that the report will fail to improve the situation in the Member States without clear and specific recommendation to EU governments. Domènec Ruiz Devesa, S&D MEP who led the Parliament’s work…
The Executive Board of the conference on the future of Europe has agreed to allocate more seats in the Conference Plenary to regional and local elected representatives, as well as to social partners. The sixth meeting of the Conference’s Executive Board was the first one during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council. The Executive Board…
We observe with increasing concern that cyber threats to the security of the Alliance are complex, destructive, coercive, and becoming ever more frequent. This has been recently illustrated by ransomware incidents and other malicious cyber activity, targeting our critical infrastructure and democratic institutions, as well as exploiting weaknesses in hardware and software supply chains. We…
The report on European Data Governance (also known as the Data Governance Act) has been adopted by the European parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy. The Socialists and Democrats included their key objectives in the document. These include a push towards fair European data spaces that enable the use of data for players of…
