From the capitals
The Brief, powered by ITI – Defeat in vaccine victory
In the innocent pre-pandemic world, who would have imagined that the EU would one day sue a pharmaceutical giant for not delivering on a contract for 300 million vaccine doses?
Citizens not satisfied with EU’s current state, say MEPs
With the first plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe on Saturday (19 June) designed to have EU citizen participation at its core, some MEPs believe the event could be a catalyst to change the bloc's treaties, while others hope citizens are not used as political pawns. .
Europe’s ‘decade of the kidney’
From improving the availability of all treatment options to the development of home therapy and telemedicine, there are many challenges that need to be addressed by the end of the decade to better the lives of chronic kidney disease patients.... VideoPromoted content
Beyond the Mobile Phone – Leveraging 5G for Automotive
France Brevets, Eurecom, IMT and Qualcomm hosted a conference together to share the success of their multilateral collaboration. They brought together technology experts, academic researchers and intellectual property professionals to discuss the exciting digital transformation of auto by 5G. For...
Time for transatlantic leadership on refugee resettlement
As numbers of displaced people across the world reach an all-time high, it’s time to restore transatlantic leadership on refugee resettlement, writes David Miliband.
Global Europe Brief: Europe’s Biden lessons
Welcome to EURACTIV’s Global Europe Brief, your weekly update on the EU from a global perspective.
Patient autonomy, education must be priorities for tackling kidney disease
With incidences of kidney disease predicted to soar in the next decade, health stakeholders are calling for more efforts to ensure patient autonomy and invest in training for both practitioners and patients.
Kazakhstan says it has upper hand in multi-billion legal case
Legal representatives for the government of Kazakhstan have told EURACTIV they believe the Central Asian country has gained the upper hand in a long-running legal battle surrounding what they called "one of the biggest frauds in the history of international arbitration".
UK suffers ‘disaster’ £2bn drop in EU exports
In the first three months of this year, the UK food and drink sector has taken a £2 billion hit in lost exports to the EU, described by the industry as a ‘disaster’, according to new figures published on Friday (18 June).
How Europol’s reform enables ‘NSA-style’ surveillance operations
“More than 100 million”. That’s the number of encrypted messages that French and Dutch law enforcement announced they had collected after infiltrating Encrochat in 2020, a company selling encrypted communication services and devices.
Digital Brief powered by ITI: EU-US summit, no one-stop shop, UK adequate
Welcome to EURACTIV’s Digital Brief, your weekly update on all things digital in the EU. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. “The US and the EU share the same values around privacy, its protection and democracies and open society, which...
Research on medical cannabis still has funding problems
Research on cannabis-based medicine is still lagging behind in Germany, despite the country has one of the most developed regulatory frameworks for medical marijuana in the European Union.
Pacific undersea cable project sinks after US warns against Chinese bid
A World Bank-led project declined to award a contract to lay sensitive undersea communications cables after Pacific island governments heeded US warnings that participation of a Chinese company posed a security threat, two sources told Reuters.
Europeans struggle for unity on global tax drive
EU finance ministers worked Thursday (17 June) to find European unity on striking an international deal on taxation, with low-tax countries Ireland and Hungary needing cajoling to stay on board.
Lisbon residents confined to region at weekends as COVID spikes
Residents of the Lisbon region will not be allowed to leave the area at weekends as authorities scramble to control a spike in COVID-19 infections, the government said on Thursday (17 June).
‘Hydrogen valley’ projects sprout up across Europe
Projects to create a full hydrogen value chain combining production, infrastructure and use all in one region are sprouting up across Europe, but more needs to be done to accelerate their development, according to supporters.
Draghi takes distance from Russia and China, anchors Italy to the West
Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi has clearly aligned his country with the EU and the Atlantic alliance, with strongly worded messages at the recent G7 and NATO summits that end his predecessors’ ambiguous position towards Russia and China. After years...
Tweets of the Week: Biden Trip, LGBTQI bill, EURO 2020
EU-US relations are seriously rocking, Hungary’s anti-gay law is absolutely shocking and hurrah for the Euros, bring on the mocking!
EU-Serbia: A stagnation comfortable for both sides
No progress in Serbia’s EU integration process appears to be a solution that fits both the EU side which is increasingly critical toward the authoritarian trends in Belgrade and the lack of progress with Kosovo, and the ruling bloc in Belgrade which doesn’t see EU relations as important for its voters, writes BETA agency.
Turkey hosts 15% of world’s refugees, UN report finds
Turkey continued to be the largest refugee hosting country in the world, accounting for nearly 3.7 million refugees, or 15% of all people displaced across borders globally, according to a new report published on Friday by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Eurogroup fails to agree on a calendar to complete banking union
Eurozone finance ministers (Eurogroup) failed to agree on Thursday (17 June) on a calendar to complete the banking union with a common deposit insurance scheme, as Germany continued to oppose any progress unless member states address other issues, including bank exposure to sovereign debt.
Creative Europe programme to provide €2.5bn funding for culture sector
European Commissioner for Innovation and Research, Mariya Gabriel, has said that the Creative Europe 2021-2027 programme will focus on the "economic sustainability" and the "digital inclusion" of the cultural and creative sectors by funding projects for specific challenges.
COVID-19 triggers ‘demographic tragedy’ in Spain
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating not only for the Spanish economy but also, and above all, in terms of human lives: since March 2020 Spain’s mortality rate increased by 17%, with 492,930 new deaths directly or partially related to the pandemic, a historic mark not seen in the Iberian country since 1941.