Adoption of Health Technologies Faster in Low Income Countries

Low- and middle-income countries could soon leapfrog high-income countries in their adoption of new AI-enabled technologies in health, suggests a report led by the Novartis Foundation and Microsoft.  Technologies such as mobile phone trading platforms, e-banking, e-commerce, and even blockchain applications have often been adopted faster and more comprehensively in low- and middle-income countries than…

Call To Scrap Strasbourg

Socialist group leader Iratxe Garcia has added her voice to those calling for next week’s plenary in Strasbourg to be scrapped. She joins other members who fear that having hundreds of MEPs, staff and others converge on the city could pose a serious health risk and lead to the coronavirus spreading far and wide. Garcia, a Spanish…

Run For Europe

The 20 km of Brussels has grown and transformed into a ‘Run for Europe’. With the help of the European institutions, the European Parliament’s Sport Group and many partners, this virtual race will allow all Europeans, from their homes, to play sports and transform this activity into online donations for charities. More than ever, while…

COVID-19 vaccine

The European Commission says it has concluded exploratory talks with CureVac to purchase a potential vaccine against COVID-19.  This is following the positive steps with Sanofi-GSK on 31 July and Johnson and Johnson on 13 August and the signature of an Advance Purchase Agreement with AstraZeneca on 14 August. The envisaged contract with CureVac would…

The EU and COVID-19, what we have learned so far

When life returns to the EU institutions and work restarts after the holiday season, it should be highlighted that the summer was not wasted, writes László Andor. The European Council adopted critical, innovative and to some extent revolutionary decisions to create an effective fiscal capacity against the recession that has been triggered by the COVID-19…

EU’s ‘Green Deal’ must take into account health concerns over mineral wool

The European Commission’s ambitious European Green Deal aims to address the twin challenge of energy efficiency and affordability and states that the European Union and the member states should engage in a ‘Renovation Wave’ of public and private buildings. This policy enjoys broad support and the renovation wave has also become a key element of…

Commission sends PPE to EU Neighbourhood

This week, more batches of FFP2 and FFP3 protective masks are being distributed to Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia from rescEU – the common European reserve of medical equipment set up this year to help countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic. “We are delivering more masks from the rescEU reserve of medical equipment to help the national authorities in…