EurActiv
Spain to drop mandatory facemasks for public transport
Facemasks will no longer be mandatory on public transportation from 7 February, as Spain is one of the few remaining countries to impose the rule, three years after the start of the pandemic, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Thursday....
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Extremist right-wing Quran-burner wants to enter Swedish politics
Rasmus Paludan, who attracted international attention and jeopardised Sweden’s NATO bid by burning the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, declared his intention, as a dual Swedish-Danish citizen, to join the second-largest party, the strong far-right Sweden...
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Austria calls for stronger border protection, hard line on migration
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner demanded more support from the European Commission to ensure better protection of the EU’s external borders at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Stockholm on Thursday. In view of rising migration figures, EU interior ministers...
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TotalEnergies formally prosecuted for ‘greenwashing’
The Nanterre public prosecution office in France started investigations against oil and gas giant TotalEnergies in December 2021 for allegedly misleading commercial practice, investigative media Mediapart revealed on Thursday. The French multinational has been under fire from environmental NGOs for...
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Poland to likely make wind turbine installation even harder
Installing wind turbines, already tricky due to a law that has been in force since 2016, will be made even harder if an amendment the ruling PiS party is currently working on to trigger the release of frozen EU recovery...
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Pandas at the heart of possible China-Finland trade spat
Two pandas China loaned to Finland five years ago could heavily impact trade relations between both countries if Helsinki does not find money to keep them, as the pandemic has dashed all hopes of the expensive animals becoming lucrative tourist...
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Pfizer, Moderna significantly raised vaccine prices for Germany mid-pandemic
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer/Biotech and Moderna imposed significantly higher vaccine prices on Germany in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, documents obtained by German media show. Germany spent €13.1 billion on vaccines, according to public broadcasters NDR and WDR and daily...
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French Ambassador to Burkina Faso recalled amid Macron’s missteps
The French Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Luc Hallade, was recalled to Paris on Thursday (26 January) after a series of French diplomatic faux-pas that took place amid Russia's growing influence in the African region.
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AI Act: co-rapporteurs seek closing high-risk classification, sandboxes
The EU lawmakers spearheading the work on the AI Act have circulated new compromise amendments to finalise the classification of AI systems that pose significant risks and the measures to promote innovation.
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UN: 2023 could see spike in human trafficking cases from Ukraine
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) predicts a 5% increase in detected Ukrainian human trafficking victims in 2023 and 5.6 million Ukrainian asylum applications in Europe, according to a new report.
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The Brief — Russian covert action – cheap and effective
For an official permit to hold a demonstration in Stockholm near the Turkish embassy, a former Russian propaganda TV channel contributor paid 320 Swedish kronor - equal to €28.70. At the demonstration, he made sure somebody burned a Quran.
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75 Years of India and the United Nations [Promoted content]
India is one of the 51 original founders of the United Nations (UN). India, following its independence from Britain on 15 August 1947, “continued” as an original member of the UN. Ambassador (Retd.) Asoke Mukerji retired as India’s Permanent Representative...
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Russia outlaws Meduza news site in latest media crackdown
Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an "undesirable organisation" on Thursday (26 January), effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists.
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Europe’s inertia on migrant returns
Dear readers, Welcome to EU Politics Decoded where Benjamin Fox and Eleonora Vasques will bring you a round-up of the latest political news in Europe and beyond every Thursday. In this edition, we look at how EU leaders are now...
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UNESCO designates Ukraine’s Odesa a ‘World Heritage in Danger’ site
United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, said on Wednesday (25 January) that it had designated the historic centre of Odesa, a strategic port city on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, a World Heritage in Danger site.
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Participatory budgets: growing trend, little impact?
More and more European municipalities are turning to a co-decision tool allowing citizens to decide how to spend local resources, but its impact remains uncertain as low participation levels and limited investment in the process hinder the participatory exercise. The...
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Make the pensioners solve the pensions crisis
Welcome to EURACTIV’s weekly Economy Brief. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. While the public pension reform dominates French political debate, demographic changes will eventually push all EU countries to consider how they finance their pensions systems. One solution?...
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Russia fires volley of missiles at Ukraine after Kyiv secures tanks
Russia sent Ukrainians racing for cover with a rush-hour missile barrage, killing at least one person, the day after Kyiv secured Western pledges of dozens of modern battlefield tanks to try to push back the Russian invasion.
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With Russian gas gone, coal makes EU comeback as ‘traditional fuel’
Coal demand in Europe went up for the second consecutive year in 2022, led by “strong growth” in electricity generation, where it has partly replaced gas as a backup power source, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
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EU mission in Armenia: Opportunity or risk?
Can the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA), agreed on by the EU Council this week, contribute to stabilising a conflict that the International Crisis Group considers one of the 10 most risky conflicts for 2023, ask Mail Negi and Tobias Pietz.
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