European Union

Although the Romanian government is struggling to keep the budget deficit at around 7% of the country’s GDP, the adjustment from last year is still too low to gain praise from Brussels, according to Prime Minister Florin Citu. While the...

Given that monthly living costs for a household with two adults and two children has now reached €1,300 in Bulgaria, 65% of Bulgarians are currently unable or just about able to cover their living costs, according to an annual report...

The GRBAlpha satellite, which is currently in Moscow awaiting its launch abroad a Russian spaceship this spring from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, will be the second satellite constructed in Slovakia to orbit the earth. Researchers from Slovakia, Hungary, and Japan participated...

The loss of Klubrádió’s broadcasting licence, the last independent radio station in Hungary dealing with public affairs issues, has aggravated the EU executive’s concerns about media freedom and pluralism in the country, a Commission spokesperson said on Wednesday. Klubrádió will...

Independent media protested on Wednesday against government plans to impose a new tax on advertising revenue. Daily newspapers filled their entire front page with an appeal to authorities to back away from the idea, accompanied by a ‘Media without choice’...

The only way to resolve the Cyprus issue is to establish two states on the island, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told the Turkish Cypriot community on Wednesday. At the same time, Athens favours an UN-supported solution for a federation, while...

While leaders of the Five Star Movement (M5S) – the largest party in the Italian parliament – are backing a government led by prime minister-designate Mario Draghi, a group of dissident MPs is against Draghi taking the reins. The party...

French President Emmanuel Macron told US President Joe Biden that the leaders could broker a settlement to the long-running trade dispute between Boeing and Airbus, according to a media report on Wednesday (10 February).

To secure and increase its energy generation, Estonia is planning to have its first nuclear reactor, a small modular reactor ready within about ten years. It is set to be located some 100 kilometres east of Tallinn, on the coast...

Russia is actively testing new weapons systems that do not fit into the traditional framework of arms control treaties near the borders of Norway and Finland, according to the annual report by Norway’s Intelligence Service (NIS) released Monday. While the...

There has been an increase in both prescription sleep-inducing drugs and so-called ‘softer’ sleep aids, which are available in pharmacies without a prescription over the past year, according to a report by Febelco, the country’s largest supplier of medicines to...

Germany’s nationwide lockdown will continue until 7 March, Chancellor Angela Merkel and state leaders decided on Wednesday. Until that point, lockdown measures and contact restrictions will largely remain in place, but the current plan outlines a staggered reopening. While hair...

The Czech Republic is mulling the purchase of Russian coronavirus vaccines in order to get a head start in the event the European Medicines Agency (EMA) ends up approving the Sputnik V jab. Meanwhile, Serbia, which has already started vaccinated...

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will host the start of a series of talks on Germany's post-pandemic economic development on Thursday (11 February). The topic of this first dialogue is 'Industry and climate protection using the example of the automotive industry'. 

The European Union rejected on Wednesday (10 February) most of Britain's demands for easier trade with Northern Ireland but said it was examining more flexibility on steel.

Europe needs to "get the economy up and running" to help its youth find opportunities and bridge the gap between school and the workplace, the President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Christa Schweng told EURACTIV in an interview.

This week, the government published some commissioned research on the financial impact of Brexit on UK universities. The work looked at the likely impact of changing demand from EU students in response to various changes in fees and finances. The broad picture of the impact was that while numbers would fall markedly, that would be partly offset by the rising tuition fees. In the case of ‘cluster 1’ (Oxford and Cambridge) that would mean an increase in income, but for the rest of the sector, a drop (especially for cluster 3 (roughly, pre-1992s)). This is much as you’d expect, given the relevant international prestige of institutions and their exposure to international markets. But what the analysis is not, is a full estimation of costs of Brexit to HE. Even within the narrow coverage of the report – students – it does not take account of those factors that are not immediately financial in nature, such as social attitudes in sending countries towards the UK, or the soft power gains of exposing students to life here. Likewise, the scoping of foregone benefits from students remaining to work after their study is limited by some significant gaps in what data is to hand. But students are only one vector of Brexit impacts. Even with continuing participation in Horizon Europe, the UK will lose out on research funding opportunities, mostly because of staff deciding to move out of the country. The attractiveness of British HE as a global convenor of research and higher education more generally is compromised by the restriction of access to the EU. All of which suggests that the costs to the sector will be much more considerable than this report outlines. In some senses, this is a similar situation to the City: a reputation as a global centre seems to work against public policy solutions. Instead, the sector can shrug it all off and thrive mightily [sic], just like before. But this is not a case of carrying on regardless. All clusters are contingent and chipping/hacking away has an effect. In extremis, that might mean a failure of the cluster altogether; maybe not immediately, but further down the line, when it is all but impossible to stem the flow. I’d suggest we run a workshop about this, but that’s not really going to cut it.

The post HE and Brexit appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Europe's medicines regulator said Wednesday (10 February) it has asked all developers to probe whether their vaccines offer protection against new coronavirus mutations, with a view to issuing new guidelines for manufacturers.

The United Nations' top human rights body is to consider a resolution on Friday (12 February) drafted by Britain and the European Union that would condemn Myanmar's military coup and demand urgent access for monitors.

Anxiety, fear, depression, and psychosomatic conditions were on the rise in one third of seven to 17-year olds in a study by University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany out Wednesday. The symptoms, linked to months-long lockdowns and school closures, hit children from poor families and migrant families even harder, the study found. Children who "felt safe and supported in the family," before the pandemic struck would fare better, it said.