Category: EU

The European Commission could find it difficult to transfer the first tranche of the recovery funds to all member states according to its calendar, as most plans are expected to be approved at the same time and there will be limited capacity to borrow from the markets. Last July, the EU’s € 800 billion recovery fund was greeted as a historic deal. But its slow implementation, doubts about its size, problems with its ratification in some member states, especially Germany and Poland, and difficulties in drawing up national recovery plans…

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EU nations fell out Thursday (1 April) over how to divide up 10 million extra doses of coronavirus vaccine, with Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic refusing to help five struggling countries. A deal was agreed late in the day to distribute nearly three million doses to “those most in need”, said Portugal, which holds the rotating European Union presidency. But Austria, Slovenia and the Czechs had insisted on receiving their full quota of vaccines under the general shareout system according to population, said a statement from the presidency. A…

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The European Commission has issued assurances to MEPs that Europol’s new decryption platform will not be used to abuse data protection standards and will maintain closely guarded access rights over the data retrieved. However, some MEPs remain unconvinced that the operation of Europol’s technology will be completely free from abuse, particularly in countries where the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary has been called into question. Since Europol launched its decryption platform in December last year, MEPs in Brussels have been seeking clarification on whether the technology…

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The European Commission is stepping up the pressure on the Belgian authorities to end the ban on non-essential travel currently in force until after the Easter holidays. On Twitter, European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said that in a conversation with Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, he insisted that Belgium must respect the principle of free movement of persons in the EU. “The Commission expects an end date for the ban on non-essential travel, and other less restrictive measures, such as testing and quarantines,” he said. Belgium was criticised for its travel…

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The Netherlands has joined other countries in temporarily stopping the administration of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine after the country’s Medicines Evaluation Board expressed concerns about possible side effects. The country will not carry out new vaccination with this vaccine for the next two weeks, until Sunday 28 March, in light of more information being reported about the possible side effects, the Dutch Ministry of Health announced. “Only over the weekend did more become known from Denmark about the patients and what was going on. It turned out that there was…

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A panel of 30 members of Parliament and women’s rights activists from the UK and Europe urged their governments to put human rights at the forefront of Iran policy when they participated in an online conference sponsored by the British Committee for Iran Freedom on International Women’s Day, 8 March, writes Shahin Gobadi. The cross-party speakers called on the UK and EU governments to work together to put pressure on the regime to release all political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, protesters, and dual citizens held under arbitrary charges in Iran, especially…

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Belgium’s national rail company SNCB wants to develop a barometer that can anticipate how many people will be taking trains to the coast, it announced. SNCB met with the National Crisis Centre, the Federal Ministry of Mobility and the Ministry of Interior Affairs on Thursday, along with the province of West Flanders and the coastal communes. The system would use information from the rail company’s travel planner – which people can find in the SNCB’s app and on its website – as most people consult it before boarding a train.

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Marc Giorgetti was the fourth patient to contract covid-19 in Luxembourg. The entrepreneur looks back on this episode and the lessons learned. With a plate full of fresh fruit on one side and his tablet on the other, Marc Giorgetti goes through his photos until he finds shots worthy of a science-fiction film: they show paramedics wearing full protective suits picking him up from his home to hospital at the beginning of March 2020. “I had no fever or symptoms. Then I started having a little bit of a headache…

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The different political youth parties in Flanders are jointly pushing for the abolition of the curfew measure in Belgium ahead of the Consultative Committee on Friday. In a joint press release, the young liberals (Jong VLD), greens (Jong Groen), Flemish nationalists (Jong N-VA), Christiandemocrats (JONGCD&V) and socialists (Jongsocialisten) asked the government for more perspective, calling the curfew “one measure too many.” The curfew has been in force for about four months now, and while the leaders of the youth parties state that the measure was initially useful, the question can…

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More than half of all care providers whose turn it is to be vaccinated do not show up in the vaccination centre in Overijse (Flemish Brabant), according to professor Dirk Devroey (VUB). The main problem is not so much that people do not want to be vaccinated, but rather the loss of emails with invitations, according to Devroey, who is a medical expert in the centre. “People receive a text message, email or letter, but many people apparently do not respond, or do not see the mail because it disappears…

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