Commission head Ursula von der Leyen says the EU must “call out ” rights abuses. In her state of the union address, she said, “We are firm believers in the strength and value of cooperating in international bodies” “It is with a strong United Nations that we can find long-term solutions for crises like Libya…
The world’s leading satellite launch company has called for new rules to combat dangers posed by an “ever congested” space.” The Ariane Group says a “rules book” is needed to tackle the issue to stop space becoming “dangerously congested.” It is estimated that the average individual uses 47 satellites every day and that, by 2025, the…
The S&D group has backed a European Parliament resolution on the EU-China strategy but insisted that the China must first make progress to protect human rights. For the S&Ds the consideration and ratification process for the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) cannot start until the Chinese sanctions against MEPs and EU institutions have been…
The S&D Group has welcomed the news that the Commission will propose a law to fight gender violence before the end of the year. Ahead of an important vote tomorrow, S&D MEPs are urging all political groups to support effective EU action to end gender based violence once and for all. In a debate on Wednesday,…
The European Commission has taken two separate decisions, both related to decisions of the Court of Justice and where the actions of the Polish authorities continue to undermine the functioning of the Polish justice system. First, the Commission decided to request the Court of Justice to impose financial penalties on Poland to ensure compliance with…
The European Commission has disbursed €24.9 billion to Italy in pre-financing, equivalent to 13% of the country’s grant and loan allocation for the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) under NextGenerationEU. Italy is one of the first countries receiving a pre-financing payment under the RRF. The pre-financing will help to kick-start the implementation of the crucial…
German Greens MEP Sven Giegold has called on the EU to offer protection for locally employed civilians in Afghanistan. He said, “The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has also put the local personnel of EU missions in the country at imminent risk. At least 600 local staff and their close family members of the EU Police…
The European Commission has approved its seventh Advanced Purchase Agreement (APA) with a pharmaceutical company to ensure access to a potential vaccine against COVID-19 in Q4 of 2021 and in 2022. Under this contract, Member States will be able to purchase up to 100 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, with an option for 100…
Ensuring access to safe and affordable COVID-19 vaccines around the world, and notably for low and middle-income countries, is a priority for the bloc, says the EU. At the health summit in Rome, on 21 May 2021, President von der Leyen announced that ‘Team Europe’ would share with low and middle-income countries at least 100 million doses…
The European Commission has signed a third contract with the pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer. It reserves an additional 1.8 billion doses on behalf of all EU Member States, between end 2021 to 2023. It will allow for the purchase of 900 million doses of the current vaccine and of a vaccine adapted to variants,…
