Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash Socialist MEPs have voiced “regret” over the failure to classify non-consensual sex as rape under planned new EU laws. After a decade of calls and insistent pressure and campaigning, the EU will finally have the first-ever law to combat violence against women – a solid first step to eradicate the pandemic of…
The three years of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a terrible loss of life and exacerbated health inequalities. The global economy slumped and, worldwide, people’s lives were affected, writes Dr. Hsueh Jui-yuan This experience demonstrated that the present global health governance framework is not effective in responding to threats to global health. Although COVID-19 is…
Brussels Cathedral is set to vibrate – in an unusual way – in a homage to a Middle Ages Saint Hildegard Von Bingen. The city centre cathedral will play host to a musical “tribute” to Hildegard Von Bingen, a 12th century Benedictine Saint. Hildegard of Bingen, also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of…
Photo by Devin Kaselnak on Unsplash The European Greens are insisting that the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, “speeds up” the Parliament’s investigation into possible links between MEPs and foreign powers. This comes, it says, in response to reports that German police have arrested a parliamentary assistant on suspicion of being an agent of the Chinese…
The Ukrainian rap group that won Eurovision is among the headline acts performing at this week’s Balkan Trafik! jamboree in Brussels. Kalush Orchestra,which performs hip-hop music in the Ukrainian language, won the Eurovision song contest in 2022, scoring the highest number of televote points in the history of the competition. The band, which topped the…
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash The EU Copernicus Climate Change Service has published jointly with the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) its state of the climate report. It came out on Monday: Earth Day 2024. The report is based on scientific data and analysis and showcases the “continued alarming trend” of rising temperatures and climate change impacts across…
Photo by Eve Maier on Unsplash The NUJ is among those who have remembered journalist Lyra McKee on the fifth anniversary of her death. The 29-year-old freelance journalist was shot dead while observing a riot in Northern Ireland in 2019. Tribute to her was paid by Seamus Dooley, NUJ Irish secretary. On Monday, he said: “The thoughts of…
Are you in the mood for an uplifting story of love conquering loneliness? If so, a new production that’s heading for Brussels this Spring could be just for you. “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” runs in Brussels for three weeks in June and is an intimate love story that promises to captivate…
Photo by Lisanto 李奕良 on Unsplash Taiwan’s elections in January demonstrated the “resilience” of a democratic society. That was one of the messages to emerge from an event in the European Parliament on Friday. The hearing in Brussels was organised by the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium along with three cross-party MEPs. They were:Petras Auštrevičius (Renew Europe), Vladimír Bilčík (EPP), and Markéta Gregorová(Greens/EFA). They…
Photo by Yellow Cactus on Unsplash From CAP to Iran – MEPs face a packed programme in the last plenary of the current term The Greens/EFA Group says it objects to the Commission’s proposal to re-open the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The group says this will weaken the CAP’s environmental conditionality rules and “remove essential ecological and agronomic…
