Monday
14th Jun 2021
MEPs have backed a motion demanding the temporality lifting of intellectual properties rights of Covid-19 vaccines - a symbolic move that puts pressure on the European Commission to change its position on the issue of global access to vaccines.
This means that, following council approval, and after the financing agreement has been signed with EU governments, the first countries can receive pre-financing from the recovery fund, of up to 13 percent of their allocated funds.
The Czech government has lost its fourth health minister during the Covid crisis. But it's new (fifth) one, was actually also the first - making a total of four.
A jab-in-the-arm rather than a bite-to-the-neck is what visitors get if they choose to vaccinate in one of Romania's most famous tourist attractions.
Re-opening to travellers safely stands as the main challenge to relaunch the tourism sector, which in pre-pandemic times accounted for 13 percent of Italy's GDP.
Workers such as United Nurses Association of India are furious that the EU is undermining their best efforts and exacerbating the crisis by continuing to put big-pharma profits ahead of Covid vaccine patent-waivers. Is this what solidarity looks like?
The EU's anti-fraud agency has so far identified more than 1,000 of these suspicious companies, many of which are based outside the EU.
As some member states start issuing the EU's Covid-19 certificate, EUobserver takes a look at what the bloc is doing to restore unrestricted travel in the bloc - a right that has been restricted, even prohibited, during the pandemic.
The EU has submitted to the World Trade Organization a plan aimed at expanding the production of Covid-19 vaccines - seen by Brussels as a quicker and more targeted solution than the intellectual property right-waiver proposal backed by the US.
Europeans' support in their national governments has plummeted since the pandemic began, while the image of the EU and trust in the 27-nations bloc remains strong and steadily increasing, according to two new surveys.
The Covid-19 crisis has revealed that the current European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has neither the funding, the staff or – perhaps most importantly – the authority to lead an effective response to a pandemic in Europe.
The European Commission has updated the common approach to travel measures in the EU, urging member states to gradually lift restrictions - in a bid to end a current patchwork of rules across the bloc.
The EU has agreed to roll out Covid certificates as of 1 July, allowing people to prove their status in order to ease summer travel across the 27 member states.
"To have solved the problem, the unacceptable problem of inadequate access to vaccines, we have to be holistic, it is not one or the other," the WTO chief told the European Parliament's trade committee.
Economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni warned that despite the economic rebound, the risk of worsening poverty, social exclusion, and inequality "is very real".
The European Union has launched a second legal action against AstraZeneca - in a bid to oblige the company to deliver 90 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to EU member states by the end of June.
Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo announced that from 9 June restaurants, cinemas, theatres and fitness centres will be able to open their doors again. Indoor and outdoor events will steadily be able to host more people.
Economy commissioner Paolo Gentoloni said the real challenge is whether member states can stick to their national plans and timelines. However, more than a dozen EU countries still need to ratify legislation to start the funding.
The European Union is now ready to discuss the proposal to waive temporarily intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines - following the historic decision by Washington in favour of easing patent rules.
Madrid conservative leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso has become a political phenomenon mainly because of her success in keeping Madrid open during the worst moments of the pandemic. However, critics accuse her of neglecting health services - while only protecting businesses.
As the EU Commission gears up to scrutinise EU government plans, we take a look at how the recovery policy and politics will shape the next months.
Brussels has recommended member states lift restrictions for all non-EU travellers who are fully vaccinated, and to expand the list of countries with a "good epidemiological situation" - in a bid to boost summer tourism.
The EU's Covid-19 travel certificate, the so-called 'Digital Green Certificate', is set to trigger a clash between MEPs and member states on what advantages this document would actually bring for free movement.
A group of six member states have sent India a shipment of oxygen, medicines, and critical equipment, as the country fights a devastating surge in Covid-19 cases, spurred by the new "double mutant" spreading across the country.
The further the vaccination campaign progresses, the more people will ask: what about the rest of the world? The EU should answer the question loud and clear now before it is drowned out by a rising chorus of criticism.
With the prospect of rolling non-lethal pandemics, and border-checks based primarily on vaccination status, the assertion in the EU's 'green certificate' memorandum that the proposal "cannot be interpreted as establishing an obligation or right to be vaccinated" seems disingenuous.
The European Union has launched legal action against the pharmaceutical multinational AstraZeneca for failing to meet its contractual obligations for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines, and for lacking a "reliable strategy" to ensure timely deliveries.
The EU has the chance to lead the international community out of the biggest crisis of the century. We need to support the request for a waiver to lift patents on Covid-19 vaccines.
My father was one of the 93 percent of Bulgarians over-80 who had not yet been vaccinated.
Viktor Orbán has one key card in his hands: Hungary has still not approved the legislation necessary for the EU Commission to raise money on the markets. However, it will be difficult to hold out on this.
The European Commission said on Thursday it has not yet decided whether to take legal action against AstraZeneca for failing to meet its contractual obligations - but repeated that all options are still on the table.
Bogus Covid conspiracy theories are more often debunked in Facebook in the US than those found in Europe - especially when written in Italian and French, a study has found.
The European Union is sending 651,000 BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccines to the Western Balkan countries - after lagging behind the 'vaccine diplomacy' of Russia, China, and even Serbia, in the region.
