Sunday
13th 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.
It would require between 40 to 75 additional staff to oversee how MEPs spend their monthly €4,500 lump sum on office supplies, according to the European Parliament. An EUobserver Freedom of Information request reveals those calculations are flawed.
The EU is committed to reduce "the risk and use of pesticides by 50 percent" by 2030. However, given the level of controversy and public distrust surrounding EU pesticides regulation over the last decade, which reforms could garner public support?
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.
The European Commission has asked Poland not to question the primacy of EU over national law, eliciting furious rebukes from the Polish government.
Budget commissioner Johannes Hahn promised MEPs that the commission will put forward draft guidelines on how to use the rule-of-law mechanism in the next "few days".
The European Commission on Wednesday (9 June) launched legal action against Berlin, after determining that last year's landmark decision on bond-buying by Germany's Constitutional Court "constitutes a serious precedent" that puts at risk the EU's legal order.
MEPs have urged the EU Commission to put forward a biodiversity law next year, similar to the new climate law - with binding targets for the protection of ecosystems.
This is bad news for all countries in the area, but especially Italy, which has the largest fleet in the EU by number of vessels. Many coastal towns and the welfare of hundreds of thousands of Italians depend on fishing.
Sometimes it takes a little geopolitical competition to acknowledge the sins of the past.
The EU is to extend sanctions on Russia-occupied Crimea, amid a patchy history of compliance.
Greece has declared Turkey a safe country for asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Syria and Somalia. But the European Commission appears to have shed doubt on the claim, saying individual cases still need to be assessed.
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.
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.
Lukashenko's Belarus is increasingly reminiscent of North Korea in its mix of capricious unpredictability and unbridled aggression born out of paranoia, writes Lithuania's foreign minister.
Germany and Hungary have butted heads over EU policy on Hong Kong, in a dispute which made the EU foreign service look silly.
A special audit on how Frontex supports member states in cracking down on "illegal migration and cross-border crimes" has painted a bleak picture of an EU agency, whose annual budget rocketed from €19m in 2006 to €900m in 2021.
EU member states have given the final approval to the €17.5bn Just Transition Fund, intended to support fossil fuel-dependent regions to green their economies - paving the way for EU countries to start receiving the money.
As a membership candidate, Serbia is expected to join foreign policy declarations and restrictive measures of the EU. However, Serbia is unlikely to join the EU measures against Belarus for both international and domestic reasons.
Our investigation reveals war crimes were committed by all parties to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Thousands of civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict. None of the key decision-makers are being held to account.
Russia has threatened to cut off Ukraine's gas for political reasons, immediately after announcing the completion of a new pipeline to Germany.
EU states have so far confirmed to relocate just 20 people out of the some 1,400 that arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in early May.
There will be still a very limited number of people traveling to Strasbourg. Many think it is an early return: those travelling will have to respect the French curfew and will need to quarantine upon their return to Belgium.
As the crisis in Ceuta unfolded, Spain resolutely requested Brussels' support. And it got it.
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.
"For the first time, the offenses against the financial interest of the EU will be investigated in an integrated strategic manner by a prosecutorial body with supranational jurisdiction," EU chief prosecutor Laura Kövesi said.
Investigative journalism in Europe needed "legal" protection from the growing problem of malicious law suits, the European Commission and MEPs have said.
Greece has drawn criticism and scrutiny for alleged widespread pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea, along with the reported complicity of the EU's border agency Frontex. Critics say the agency should pull out of Greece.
The European Commission unveiled its plans for an EU 'digital identity wallet' - an app that will allow citizens to store their national digital identification or driver licence on their phones to access public and private services across the EU.
Hungary has lost a legal challenge against a European Parliament vote that opened the way for the Article 7 sanctions probe into the erosion of democratic standards under prime minister Viktor Orbán's rule in the country. Budapest queried the abstentions.
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.
Denmark has passed legislation outsourcing asylum claims to countries outside Europe. The European Commission says it is illegal under EU - but notes Denmark also has a special opt-out on justice and home affairs issues.
