Thursday
6th Aug 2020
The United States recovery focused on a number of important issues, including unemployment benefits and funding for health care providers, but lacked any programs directed towards addressing pollution, renewable energy industries, and clean technology improvements.
Little wonder the leaders of Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden are unwilling to sign off: they're not going to give money so the Italians can fund a tax cut in the middle of an economic crisis.
The south-eastern EU member state has seen a week of record new coronavirus cases, plus a row in a kebab shop over masks with two MPs.
The EU Commission unveiled on Wednesday a set of guidelines to strengthen the bloc's response to a potential future surge of coronavirus infections - and warned a simultaneous seasonal-flu plus Covid-19 outbreak would place a considerable strain on health systems.
When airlines ignore refund claims, reject them or are only willing to offer vouchers or rebooking, they act against EU regulations. "In each of these cases airlines use their customers as lenders," warns one legal expert.
The European Commission says it is in talks with the US biopharmaceutical company Gilead to secure supplies of remdesivir but won't provide any details. The comments follow the purchase of the world's supply by the United States.
The EU ought to better use regional data on coronavirus travel, a Belgian expert has said, amid confusing national rules.
The European Commission signed this week a €63m contract with the US-based biopharmaceutical company Gilead to secure batches of remdesivir for 30,000 patients with "severe" Covid-19 symptoms - after the US left Europe and most of the world without supplies.
Previous claims that migrants bring communicable diseases to host countries have been debunked by a review of the existing evidence carried out earlier this year. In fact, migrants are currently more at risk of contracting Covid-19 from Europeans.
Italy is experiencing a surge of 'nuovi poveri' [the new poor]; people who managed - barely - to make ends meet before the pandemic, and now find themselves in a very difficult situation.
Several European countries are now warning citizens not to visit Spain, after an increase in Covid-19 cases this month. However, Spanish foreign minister Arancha González Laya has insisted that Spain is still "a safe country".
The new EU4Health programme was the EU's flagship scheme for research and innovation but was brutally cut by leaders during this week's summit - from €9.4bn proposed just two months ago, to €1.67bn.
After gruelling five-day talks, EU leaders agreed on €390bn in grants and €360bn in low-interest loans to hardest-hit member states - after much opposition from the Dutch-led 'frugal' bloc of countries.
EU health policy has three faces: explicit health policy, internal market policy, and fiscal governance. Covid-19 looks like it is transforming all three for the better.
EU leaders will face difficult and fundamental issues on Friday-Saturday (17-18 July), when they attempt to agree on the planned seven-year €1.07 trillion budget and €750bn recovery package.
European culture is in the midst of a crisis. How decision-makers choose to respond now will set the scene for the next decade of cultural and creative life in our union.
Slovenia is a nature-lovers' paradise, with snow-peaked mountains, pristine lakes, and a small Adriatic coastline, but coronavirus restrictions have hit hard at tourism, as EUobserver takes a closer look.
The coronavirus crisis has not created an unambiguous political momentum for the mainstream or populist parties, while many think the EU has been irrelvant, a new study revealed.
There has been a lack of food and of basic necessities in many Roma households, which were already living in a state of extreme poverty and vulnerability: more than 40 percent experienced difficulty in accessing food.
Most EU leaders want an agreement before the summer break, but the Dutch PM, leading the 'Frugal Four', warned there might not even be a deal then. But the ECB's Christian Lagarde has warned of a "dramatic" economic fall.
EU leaders on Friday will share their takes - online - on the €750bn recovery and €1.1 trillion budget plans, before they try to seal the deal at one or two likely head-to-head meetings in July.
MEPs, journalists, publishers and broadcasters urge "much stronger measures" on the European Commission to tackle fake news related to the pandemic, including sanctions and the regulation of algorithms.
If half of European Covid-19-related deaths happened in care facilities, it is largely the result of a long-term suffocation of the sector and a lack of consideration from political leaders to design the world we want to age in.
The public health crisis caused by the coronavirus in member states has pushed the European Commission to play a more active in the field of health, especially funding the development of an effective Covid-19 vaccine.
As western European countries gear up to restart the economy, they look towards Romania and its farm workers and care home workers for a helping hand.
EU health ministers will discuss on Friday plans to have the Commission negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of EU countries, make advaced payments and secure enough vaccines for Europeans.
Belarus' incidence of the disease is currently higher than in Italy. Ukraine and Azerbaijan have counts comparable to Poland and the Czech Republic, where the outbreak had an average intensity. Whereas, Georgia compares well with Greece and Slovakia.
The EU has shamed Russia and China as the main perpetrators of online misinformation about Covid-19, urging social media platforms like Facebook to step up anti-fake news action.
Ahead of EU leaders' first online discussion on the EU recovery and budget plans, EU countries remain divided on the key issues in the economic package. They will need to hammer them out in person in July.
Online classes didn't create but rather highlighted Lithuania's existing, ongoing issue with bullying.
Italy and Germany, among others, opening with almost no restrictions, while Denmark, Greece, and the Baltic states, for instance, proceeding more gradually, with white-lists of who can come in.
Protests against racism and police brutality have spread across European cities despite coronavirus restrictions, following a brutal US-police killing.
Most member states committed to opening borders and related travel restrictions by mid-June, following recent calls by the European Commission to restore freedom of movement.
