EURACTIV.com Archives

New forms of ocean energy are gaining interest globally, and because European companies are leaders on tidal and wave technologies, that is good news for the environment and for the European economy, argues Francesco la Camera.

The major European political groups tolerate corruption and malfeasance among the member parties, says Green MEP Daniel Freund, who also analyses the weaknesses of instruments to fight the misuse of EU funds.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc across a range of sectors in the European single market, the bloc's economic recovery can be aided by making the most of new markets that will emerge in the startup ecosystem, says Eva Kaili.

Oleh Koretskyi, an investigator who has recently been sacked from Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), gave an interview to EURACTIV after stating publicly last month that he was being pressured to continue investigations into former president Petro Poroshenko.

In an exclusive interview, Hikmat Hajiev, head of the foreign affairs department of Azerbaijan’s presidential administration, explains the stakes of a recent armed clash at the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which he calls a deliberate provocation from Yerevan.

The EU's determination to become a global leader in sustainability will be matched by investments in solutions to deliver on the commitments set out in the EU's new food policy, Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told EURACTIV.com in an exclusive interview.

Following a paper in which a group of German Green MPs and one MEP unexpectedly backed the use of gene-editing technologies, EURACTIV spoke to MEP Martin Häusling, agriculture spokesman for the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament, who stressed that nothing has changed for the party, which has historically been vocally opposed to the technology.

Future improvement of the EU Orphan Medicines Regulation (OMP) could involve more centralised processes for all rare diseases at the EU level, the European Organisation for Rare Diseases  (EURORDIS) told EURACTIV in a written interview.

As the EU faces the deepest recession in its history, the bloc's long-contested Cohesion Policy – its regional development instrument – has now become central to the recovery plan. EURACTIV spoke about it with the President of the European Committee of the Regions, Apostolos Tzitzikostas.

Whether in the European recovery plan or the just transition fund, Pascal Canfin says he is in favour of applying the EU sustainable finance taxonomy, which allows drawing a line between gas projects that merit public funding and those that don’t.

The European Commission will unveil later this year a strategy to integrate the retail payment sector in Europe and reduce dependency on third-country credit card firms. Mastercard, one of those players, is supportive of the EU strategy, its senior executive, Jason Lane, told EURACTIV.

Helena Dalli is the first European Commissioner for Equality, an issue to which she dedicated a big part of her life. In an interview with EURACTIV, she said that racism is “alive” in Europe, and called for "thinking 'out of the box'" to address the structural biases inside the Commission.

Georgia hopes it will "quite soon formally get a statement about the so-called European perspective", the executive secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former chairman of the Eastern European country's parliament told EURACTIV in an interview.

Investment in digital infrastructure and better coordination between data scientists and healthcare professionals can play a key role in the prevention of a second wave of coronavirus and future pandemics, healthcare professionals have told EURACTIV.

“Botswana has not been spared by the wave of COVID-19,” says Jimmy Opelo, Permanent Secretary at Botswana’s agricultural ministry, who revealed how his country has had to change its tack on farm policymaking due to the pandemic.

Lack of trust and information about energy performance contracts are the most frequently cited reasons why some municipalities have become sceptical about energy service companies (ESCOs). In the future, greater standardisation should help overcome issues, says Nick Keegan.

Reporting on greenhouse gas emissions should become mandatory "as soon as possible" for companies with more than 250 employees, argues Michèle Lacroix, an EU expert who helped design the EU's landmark green finance taxonomy.

As part of the European Commission's recently revised long-term budget proposal, an increased outlay could go towards the digital up-skilling and re-skilling of citizens. EURACTIV caught up with MEP Victor Negrescu to talk about why this issue has risen to the top of the EU agenda.

As one of the most influential Eurogroup figures during the previous crisis, Thomas Wieser chaired the preparatory meetings of eurozone finance ministers between 2011 and 2018. In an interview with EURACTIV, the American-Austrian economist described the EU’s fiscal rules as “bad practical economics”, in particular for handling a crisis such as the current one.

The EU is currently the second-largest arms supplier in the world, after the US and before Russia, and a new European Parliament report by MEP Hannah Neumann (Greens) is set to urge the Commission and member states to address concerns over the lack of transparency and common arms export rules across the bloc.

Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, told EURACTIV.com in an interview that Europe could have been better prepared to face the COVID-19 if China and the World Health Organisation had offered “better and more reliable information earlier”.

Europe is a hotspot for nuclear weapons and has put the safety of its citizens in the hands of Trump and Putin. Instead, it needs to take the lead in the campaign towards nuclear disarmament, Beatrice Fihn told EURACTIV in …

Iveta Cherneva, a Bulgarian author who writes about security, politics, human rights, and sustainability, and a EURACTIV contributor, has been shortlisted for the position of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of speech.

In an exclusive interview, a high official of Azerbaijan pointed at mafia-type relations between the unrecognized authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh and the government in Armenia as an obstacle for solving the long-lasting conflict. Hikmat Hajiev, head of the foreign affairs department of …