The 2021 budget priorities should be to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and support the recovery, building on the Green Deal and digital transformation. In the resolution by rapporteur Pierre Larrouturou (S&D, FR), adopted by the Committee on Budgets, MEPs emphasised that “the Union and all of its Member States must show full…
A new report has found nuclear-armed states spent a record $73 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019, a $14 billion increase from 2018 expenditures. The United States, the center of the global coronavirus pandemic, accounted for nearly half of that spending. As the economies of the US, China, France, and Russia all contract, their nuclear spending is…
“Do not lose sight of the geopolitical consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Western Balkans must not fall into the Russian disinformation trap. The region has a better future with the EU”. That is the message from German MEP Michael Gahler, EPP Group Spokesman for Foreign Affairs. He was speaking after the recent EU-Western Balkans…
By Maria Joao Rodrigues All crucial moments in the history of European integration have been like this: a deep crisis, a risk of collapse, a new collective solution. Will it be like this this time around? When the current legislature began, the European Union already had challenges enough: big power games on the global stage,…
A swift return to a fully functional Schengen area is needed to safeguard freedom of movement and ensure the EU’s economic recovery, says the Civil Liberties Committee. Civil Liberties Committee MEPs express their concern about the current situation of internal border controls in the Schengen area and their impact on people and businesses, in a resolution adopted last Thursday…
By Christian Odendahl and John Springford The Commission’s proposed recovery fund is macroeconomically meaningful. The ‘frugals’ should focus less on negotiating away the transfers to harder-hit countries, and more on how the money is spent. The European Commission has turned the €500 billion EU recovery fund proposed by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the…
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen issued a press statement yesterday reporting on progress with the Coronavirus Global Response Initiative which was launched on 4 May. More than 40 countries, United Nations bodies and philanthropies made a pledge towards the research and development of coronavirus solutions at this global event – with…
As a young District Officer in 1984 I watched together with dignitaries from the New Territories of Hong Kong the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sign the Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong together with TENG Xiaoping, the architect of the “One Country Two Systems” mantra. This international treaty paved the way for…
According to some reports, Russia hit a grim Covid-19 milestone this week – it now reportedly ranks second in the world for confirmed coronavirus cases. The Johns Hopkins University says the Russian capital has been hardest hit. Of Russia’s total of 281,752 confirmed cases, over half — 142,824 — are in Moscow. Russia’s mortality figures have…
Anyone living beneath the flight paths of Zaventem Airport will have noticed a massive decrease in air traffic last month. But whilst there was indeed a decrease of 99.3% in the number of passengers going through Brussels airport terminal in April, there was an increase of 52.1% in full cargo volume traffic. The Coronavirus crisis…
