January 7, 2020 - l'Européenne de Bruxelles

How will the Finnish prime minister plan for a 4-day week to work in practice?

January 7, 2020 2996 views

Finland’s recently-elected Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, has announced that she wants to reduce the number of working hours per week in her country. EURACTIV’s partner Ouest-France provides an overview of similar schemes tried across the globe. The typical working week in Finland could soon be this: working six hours a day for four days a week. Currently, people in Finland generally work eight hours a day for five days a week, according to The Daily Mail. During her time as Transport and Communications Minister, Sanna Marin proposed to reduce the…

Iran’s supreme leader cries when a huge crowd mourns the slain general in Tehran

January 7, 2020 2996 views

Iran’s supreme leader wept in grief with hundreds of thousands of mourners thronging Tehran’s streets on Monday (6 January) for the funeral of military commander Qassem Soleimani, killed by a US drone on the orders of US President Donald Trump. As the coffins of General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who also died in Friday’s attack in Baghdad, were passed over the heads of mourners, Soleimani’s successor vowed to expel US forces from the region in revenge. The killing of Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s drive…

EU plans “big increase” in green gas to achieve climate goals

January 7, 2020 2996 views

Production of biogas, biomethane and “green” hydrogen will have to skyrocket by at least 1,000% over the next three decades in order to reach the EU’s climate neutrality objective for 2050, an EU official has said. Renewable gases today already represent around 7% of gross inland energy consumption in the EU, said Antonio Lopez-Nicolas, deputy head of unit at the European Commission’s energy department, making them “an important part” of the bloc’s energy mix. But with Europe now aiming to reach climate neutrality by mid-century that percentage will need to…