Photo by Fadi Alagi on Unsplash The international community including the EU has pledged €5.6 billion for 2023 and beyond, including €4.6 billion for 2023 and €1 billion for 2024 and beyond. The funding pledged at a conference on Thursday aims to support people inside Syria and the neighbouring countries hosting Syrian refugees. Some €3.8 billion of grants…
Photo by Luis Vidal on Unsplash The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, visited Mexico on Thursday (15 June) to meet President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. This was the first visit of the head of the European Commission to Mexico in 11 years and it aimed to relaunch the bilateral relationship and the Strategic Partnership…
Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash The EC says that the “majority” of bathing water sites in Europe met the European Union’s most stringent ‘excellent’ water quality standards in 2022, according to the latest annual Bathing Water report published last week. The assessment, put together by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in cooperation with the Commission, highlights where swimmers can find the…
Photo by Amit Lahav on Unsplash Around 10,000 young people from the EU and beyond last weekend discussed Europe’s future, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the 2024 European elections. On Friday 9 June and Saturday 10 June, the European Youth Event 2023 (EYE2023) featured more than 300 in-person and hybrid activities – debates, discussions, networking…
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash The EU’s main tool for implementing EU cooperation with partner countries has “deficiencies” in the methods for allocating funds and impact monitoring, according to a key report by the European Court of Auditors. With a budget of €79.5 billion between 2021 and 2027, the new Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument –…
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash The EU says that the destruction of Nova Kakhovka dam in Ukraine has led to “devastating humanitarian and ecological consequences.” While evacuations of affected populations are underway, Ukraine has requested international EU assistance in the form of equipment and machinery for relief efforts. In an immediate response, the EU on Wednesday issued…
Photo by Jack Ward on Unsplash The European Union cannot tackle social, economic and territorial disparities through Cohesion Policy alone. All EU initiatives and policies, like the post-COVID recovery plan NextGenerationEU, should fight against inequalities and promote cohesion, which must be a fundamental value of the European Union. This is the main message of the opinion on the…
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash Today there are rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence, changing the way we work. With an increasing population and a warming climate, technology is also potentially helping how the world feeds itself. Selective breeding of crop varieties as practised in the past can now be accelerated by planned genetic enhancements, replacing the…
Photo by Pommelien da Silva Cosme on Unsplash The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommended back in February 2023 to remove the Kingdom of Morocco from the enhanced monitoring process, known as the ‘grey list’. The European Commission has accordingly accepted this recommendation, making the decision after assessing the compliance of the national system with international standards relating…
Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash The European Commission has updated its list of “high risk” third country jurisdictions presenting strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regimes. Two third-country jurisdictions were added to it: Nigeria and South Africa, while two other jurisdictions were taken off the list – Cambodia and Morocco. This list takes into account the changes decided at…
