Sunday
29th Mar 2020
As billions of people are obliged to remain in home quarantine or isolation with possible or proven coronavirus infection, experts agree that these measures can have a negative effect on people's mental health and well-being.
The European Commissioner for equality Helena Dalli has said the distribution of 'LGBTI-free zones' stickers or the adoption of anti-LGBTI resolutions cannot be allowed. Some 86 towns in Poland have so far declared themselves 'LGBTI-free zones'.
Young people in the Nordic countries are among the most privileged in the world - yet many of them feel miserable. The Nordic Council is concerned and aims to find out why.
Viktor Orban has seen to it that public authorities will not pay legal compensation owed to members of two particularly vulnerable groups: Roma victims of segregated education, and prisoners detained in conditions that violate their human dignity.
The European Centre-Right LGBT+ Alliance demands Germany give up its resistance to the Anti-Discrimination Directive and suggest the commission and centre-right parties exert further pressure on Polish and Hungarian authorities to improve conditions for the LGBT+ community and people.
Danes still fear that EU proposals for a European minimum wage will harm their native systems of collective bargaining.
This week Spain hopes it may see the longed-for 'peak' of the epidemic - if measures taken so far prove to be effective in the fight against the coronavirus. Yet the government is set to extend lockdown until 11 April.
Governments are attempting to track the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic across Europe using mobile phone data. When it comes to data protection, exceptions are allowed in times of crisis but must be limited in time and scope, critics warn.
As many European countries face coronavirus-testing shortages, health authorities have warned that there are not enough resources to follow the World Health Organization's recommendation to test as much as possible. Meanwhile, China is providing 50,000 testing kits to Europe.
Returning home has become complicated for many EU citizens - both inside and outside the bloc -as the number of travel and entry restrictions keeps growing globally in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
As citizens are urged to self-quarantine and wash their hands with soap and warm water, what if there's nowhere to hide, if you live in an overcrowded site or shanty-town, and don't have access to clean water and sanitation?
The World Health Organization in Europe urged countries to lift export bans on masks and other medical supplies. "Solidarity within the country and with other countries is essential," the director of WHO Europe, Hans Henri Kluge, said on Tuesday.
Spain's lockdown involves never-before-seen measures, such as nationalisation of private health providers and closure of non-essential shops, but crowds on Monday morning showed teleworking was being only partly implemented.
A caretaker nurse with 23 years experience helping the elderly in Brussels is on the front line of a pandemic that has put the country into semi-lock down.
Member states are taking varying courses of action to fight the spread of coronavirus, despite efforts by the European Commission to coordinate an EU response.
State of emergency laws, some in breach of the constitution, were tabled in the Danish parliament in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.
EU countries have introduced partial travel bans, shut down schools, sports and cultural events, closed cinemas and theatres in an effort to slow down the spread of covonavirus. Fears over the economic turmoil also grow.
"This is the worst crisis Italy has had to face since the end of the Second World War" says Emanuele Felice, professor of economic history at the University of Chieti-Pescara, and economic advisor to Italy's Democratic Party.
The Nordic countries' success in promoting gender equality is a result of targeted government policies and strong civil societies. It has proven not only to be the right thing to do but also the smart thing to do.
EU health ministers voiced concerns about the possible shortage of protective equipment and medicines in some member states, after Germany, France, and the Czech Republic blocked the export of anti-virus gear.
International Women's Day falls on Sunday (8 March). Too few of Europe's 47 nations have a legal definition of rape based on lack of consent. It is time for that to change.
The EU exectuive plans binding measures on pay transparency, and also wants lagging countries to ratify the Istanbul convention preventing violence agaisnt women.
The European Commission is preparing a new post-2020 EU policy on Roma inclusion as part of "A Strong Social Europe for Transition". This new EU Roma inclusion policy is scheduled to take effect in the final quarter of 2020.
The European disease prevention agency on Monday increased the risk of coronavirus infection in the EU to "high," as the outbreak spread to 18 member states. The commission also launched a "corona response team" to work on halting the disease.
Romanian authorities earlier this week confirmed the first, and only, case of coronavirus infection - yet public hysteria over a possible national outbreak hit the country days before.
Refusing entry to people with symptoms would not stop the spread of the coronavirus in the EU, but "systematic" checks at entry points could help, EU experts have said.
The European Commission also urged EU member states to review their pandemic plans and to inform it about their healthcare capabilities in response to the outbreak.
Panic-buying, plus resentment at the media for fuelling the panic, are the paradoxical responses of residents of the Italian towns of Vicenza and Vo', where Italy's first victim of the coronavirus died last Friday.
While the numbers of coronavirus cases rising in Italy, EU authorities urge member states to introduce proportional and coordinated measures, based on scientific advice and risk-assessment evidence - but travel and trade restrictions are not recommended at the moment.
This year's carnival saw Jews portrayed as insects, people wearing fake ultra-Orthodox costumes, crass comments about circumcision and the Wailing Wall, uniforms resembling Nazi attire labelled Unestapo - a play on the word 'Gestapo'.
The European Commission is ready to launch a joint procurement of medical supplies and to mobilise EU funding instruments, although no shortages have been identified in the EU so far, the commissioner for health Stella Kyriakides said on Thursday.
The EU commission wants to roll out a plan and new legislation by the end of the year to help EU countries fight cancer.
While the numbers of coronavirus cases keep rising worldwide, EU authorities insist that the situation in Europe is "under control" - although 21 cases have been registered, across six member states.
