Commission head Ursula von der Leyen says that COP26 is “a step in the right direction.” She said, “1.5 degrees Celsius remains within reach; but the work is far from done. The least we can do now is implement the promises of Glasgow as rapidly as possible and then aim higher.” “I would like to…
An environmental group says that while the EU and European countries helped to secure some advancements on emissions reductions at COP26, it failed to step up and secure a comprehensive package to support climate vulnerable countries. It says the EU now needs to get behind solutions on finance to address loss and damage, scale up…
A year after the Polish Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, MEPs are calling on the government to lift the ban on abortion that puts women’s lives at risk. Last September, a 30-year-old Polish woman died of septic shock because her doctors did not perform a life-saving abortion, waiting instead for the foetus to die because of the…
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has signed off the 2020 accounts and the underlying transactions of all the EU’s Joint Undertakings (JUs) – the EU’s public-private partnerships with industry and research groups. In the seventh of their ten-year life span, most JUs have already implemented approximately 2/3 of their activities within Horizon 2020, the…
The European Parliament’s employment committee has made a big step towards a European directive for minimum wages, which both strengthens and safeguards the different social models in Europe, by approving the report tabled jointly by S&D MEP Agnes Jongerius and EPP MEP Dennis Radtke. The Socialists and Democrats’ have spearheaded the campaign for a European Directive…
Today, 35% of Belgian households consist of one person. In large cities such as Brussels, half of all households are already single-person households. All population projections point to a further increase in this group in the coming decades. So let’s be silly for once. Let’s turn the world upside down and take single people – and…
As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the world, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere keep setting record highs, writes Chang Tzi-chin. The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August 2021 strongly confirmed that human activity has furthered the warming of the atmosphere, oceans, and…
Life for Chinese citizens is hard. Not because they face a lack of resources or opportunities but because of the micro invasions of every aspect of their life by the paramount leader President XI Jinping, writes Jianli Yang. As per the recent news affairs, the Chinese president seems to be on a spree to control…
David Frost (Lord Frost), UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Minister for Brexit, delivered a speech in Portugal today outlining his proposals for Northern Ireland. We publish here without comment the text of his speech in full. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen A year and a half ago, in the days immediately after the UK finally left…
In June 2020, members of the European Parliament endorsed, by a vote of 378-255, a report on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights prepared by Croatian MEP Predrag Fred Matić. The “Matić Report” called for the universal access to safe and legal abortion throughout the European Union. The Forum for Religious Freedom Europe (FOREF) takes no position regarding…
