Following a three-day fact-finding mission to Beirut, the S&D delegation, led by Vice-President Pedro Marques, and composed of MEPs Isabel Santos, Tonino Picula, Evin Incir and Nora Mebarek, have announced that the Socialists and Democrats will request an urgent debate in the next plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to discuss the dreadful situation…
Month: September 2021
Climate Action Network Calls for Postponement of COP26
Climate Action Network (CAN), a global network of more than 1500 civil society organisations in over 130 countries working together to fight the climate emergency, has called for the UN climate talks – COP26 – to be postponed. The conference is set to take place in early November. With just two months to go, it…
Commission Seeks Penalties against Poland for Failure to Protect Judicial Independence
The European Commission has taken two separate decisions, both related to decisions of the Court of Justice and where the actions of the Polish authorities continue to undermine the functioning of the Polish justice system. First, the Commission decided to request the Court of Justice to impose financial penalties on Poland to ensure compliance with…
Achieving Gender Equality
The European House – Ambrosetti has ccarried out a research study on women’s empowerment, shared with the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Family Elena Bonetti. This was presented on 30 August during the first G20 Conference on women’s empowerment that took place in Santa Margherita Ligure. The results of the work and the Manifesto…
European Banks Using Tax Havens to Protect Profits
NGOs Criticise Commission for Deregulating GMOs
The European Commission has “uncritically followed” the GMO industry’s “wish list” for deregulation of new GMO products, it is claimed. On Monday, over 50 NGOs and farming organisations have shared with the European Commission their critical response to DG SANTE’s working document on ‘new genomic techniques’ (published in April 2021). In the report, civil society…
Impact of Open Source Software on EU Economy
The Commission has published the results of a study analysing the economic impact of Open Source Software and Hardware on the European economy. It is estimated that companies located in the EU invested around €1 billion in Open Source Software in 2018, which brought about a positive impact on the European economy of between €65…
Poland Warns of Security Threat From Russia
Polish ECR MEPs Anna Fotyga and Witold Waszczykowski have labelled recent joint Belarusian and Russian activities around the EU-Belarus border as “hybrid warfare”, also warning against a further worsening of the situation. During a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, MEP Anna Fotyga stated that the situation caused by Belarusian attempts…
Reimagining A More Resilient UN System With Taiwan In It
After more than 200 million infections and over 4 million deaths and counting, the COVID-19 pandemic has raged across the globe, writes Jaushieh Joseph Wu from Taiwan. This has created a profoundly devastating socio-economic impact on our interconnected world, with virtually no countries spared. The pandemic has disrupted global trade, exacerbated poverty, impeded education, and…
UK blocks Popoviciu’s extradition exposing “denial of fair trial rights”
The High Court decision in London that Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu must not be extradited to Romania highlighted concerns about that country’s legal system. Popoviciu’s case exposed that the Romania legal system does not meet the standards expected of a country with membership of the European Union. The robust judgment from the appeal court went…