Balkans Occidentaux

REPORT on the 2025 Commission report on Kosovo
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Riho Terras

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

REPORT on the 2025 Commission report on Bosnia and Herzegovina
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Ondřej Kolář

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Another nine people were injured at an informal settlement in Cleveland late on Tuesday.

Morocco became Africa's first World Cup semi-finalists at Qatar 2022, but how close is a side from the continent to lifting the trophy?

REPORT on the 2025 Commission report on North Macedonia
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Thomas Waitz

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

On Monday, 15 June 2026, from 19.00 to 20.00, the Committees on Foreign Affairs and on Development and the Subcommittee on Human Rights, and in association with the Delegation for relations with Belarus, will hold a joint exchange of views with Andrzej Poczobut, journalist, activist and 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought co-laureate.
Andrzej Poczobut has become one of the most prominent symbols of the repression faced by independent journalists, civil society representatives and political activists in Belarus. Arrested in 2021 and sentenced to eight years in prison on politically motivated charges, he spent five years in detention before his release in April 2026. Members will discuss the human rights situation in the country, the plight of political prisoners, and the European Union's support for democratic forces and fundamental freedoms in Belarus.
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
pursuant to Rule 115(2) and (3) of the Rules of Procedure
on the draft Commission implementing decision on the financing of the annual action plan in favour of the United Republic of Tanzania for 2026
(D115284/01 - 2026/2749(RSP))
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Les élections législatives anticipées du 7 juin confirment la domination de Vetëvendosje et d'Albin Kurti, sans lui offrir la marge de manœuvre dont il disposait après le scrutin de décembre 2025. Marqué par une participation en baisse et l'absence d'alternative crédible, le vote renforce la nécessité de compromis entre les principales forces politiques.

- Articles / Courrier des Balkans, Elections Kosovo, Kosovo Vetëvendosje, Kosovo, Politique

Les élections législatives anticipées du 7 juin confirment la domination de Vetëvendosje et d'Albin Kurti, sans lui offrir la marge de manœuvre dont il disposait après le scrutin de décembre 2025. Marqué par une participation en baisse et l'absence d'alternative crédible, le vote renforce la nécessité de compromis entre les principales forces politiques.

- Articles / Courrier des Balkans, Elections Kosovo, Kosovo Vetëvendosje, Kosovo, Politique

En mai 2025, le meurtre d'une jeune femme enceinte provoque l'émoi en Roumanie. Une loi pour prévenir et combattre les féminicides et les violences qui les précèdent est entrée en vigueur fin avril. Entretien.

- Articles / Femmes violences, Une - Diaporama, Roumanie, Courrier des Balkans

- Agenda / Croatie, France - Régions

- Agenda / Croatie, France - Régions

Next ordinary AFET committee meeting will be held on:

Monday 15 June 2026, room DE MADARIAGA S3, Strasbourg - extraordinary meeting jointly with DEVE and DROI

Wednesday 24 and Thursday 25 June 2026, room ANTALL 4Q2, Brussels

Meetings are webstreamed with the exception of agenda items held "in camera".

AFET - DROI calendar of meetings 2026
Meeting documents
Webstreaming
Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Omar Artan was set to become the first Somali to referee a game at the World Cup finals, but his place in history has been denied by US immigration authorities.

Protesters are concerned about cross-border infection risks and the lack of transparency from the government about the treatment centre.

Scholarships help three women who grew up in poverty complete master's qualifications in the UK.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The world often asks whether we can afford to invest in preparedness before a crisis occurs. The more relevant question is whether we can afford not to. Credit: UNICEF/Carmel Ndomba Mbikayi

By Mario Jimenez and Ifeanyi Nsofor
WASHINGTON DC, Jun 9 2026 (IPS)

When the world learned that Ebola was spreading across parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, one fact stood out above all others: there was no approved vaccine for the virus responsible.

Not because scientists only recently discovered it.

Not because the technology does not exist.

But because the world never made the investment.

 

No Vaccine Exists Because the World Failed to Invest

The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, one of several species that cause Ebola disease. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 2007. Nearly two decades later, as hundreds of suspected infections and dozens of deaths are reported across Central and East Africa, health workers are confronting the same deadly disease without a licensed vaccine or treatment approved to prevent or treat it respectively.

This is not simply a scientific failure. It is a health equity failure.

The outbreak is unlikely to become another COVID-19. Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, making it far less transmissible than airborne viruses. Yet the lesson it offers is no less important. It reveals whose health risks attract sustained investment and whose are allowed to remain neglected.

For years, global health leaders have warned that epidemic preparedness cannot focus only on threats that endanger wealthy countries. Pathogens do not become priorities because of their biological risks alone. They become priorities because of political attention, financial incentives and public visibility.

The result is a troubling pattern: communities facing the greatest risks often have access to the fewest tools.

Bundibugyo virus has caused only a handful of outbreaks since its discovery. Unlike the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, which drove major epidemics in West Africa and eastern Congo, Bundibugyo attracted relatively little research funding and commercial attention. While effective vaccines and treatments were developed for the Zaire strain, investment in countermeasures for Bundibugyo remained limited.

Now the consequences are visible.

 

The Outbreak Exposes a Global Health Equity Gap

Doctors and nurses in eastern Congo and Uganda are relying primarily on supportive care, isolation measures, contact tracing and community engagement to stop transmission. Scientists are racing to develop vaccines and treatments, but those efforts are occurring during an outbreak rather than before one.

The contrast is striking. We are witnessing extraordinary scientific mobilization precisely because the crisis has already begun.

The Cycle of Panic and Neglect Continues

Last week, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced up to US$50 million through its First Response Fund to accelerate vaccine development and support outbreak response. CEPI has committed tens of millions more to advance vaccine candidates being developed by Moderna, the University of Oxford and IAVI. The European Union has mobilized humanitarian funding and emergency supplies. The World Health Organization has activated its highest emergency response mechanisms and is coordinating clinical trials of potential treatments.

Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have some of the world's most experienced Ebola responders. Their scientists, surveillance officers, laboratory teams, community leaders and frontline health workers have repeatedly demonstrated remarkable expertise and courage under difficult circumstances

These investments are essential and deserve recognition.

But they also raise a difficult question: why did it take an outbreak to generate this level of urgency?

Scientists have understood the threat posed by Bundibugyo virus since 2007. Promising vaccine approaches have existed for years. Researchers have identified monoclonal antibodies that demonstrated protection in animal studies. Yet many of these efforts struggled to secure sustained funding once the immediate threat faded.

This is a recurring problem in global health. Funding surges during emergencies and recedes once headlines disappear. Research programs are launched and then abandoned. Preparedness becomes a priority only after vulnerabilities have already been exposed.

The result is a cycle of panic and neglect.

This is where the health equity dimension becomes impossible to ignore.

Health equity is often discussed as a moral imperative. It is that. But it is also a practical necessity.

Countries that rapidly detect outbreaks, share biological samples and alert the world to emerging threats are providing a global public good. The benefits extend far beyond national borders. Those countries should be able to expect that the products of scientific innovation—vaccines, diagnostics and treatments—will also be available to them in a timely and equitable manner.

Instead, we too often ask vulnerable countries to contribute to global security while denying them equal access to its benefits.

Preparedness Requires More Than Vaccines

The outbreak also highlights another reality that deserves greater attention: strong health systems remain the world’s best defense against emerging epidemics.

As Norway’s International Development Minister Åsmund Aukrust recently observed, “No country can face these challenges alone.” Experience from decades of global health cooperation shows that rapid detection, trained health workers, effective laboratories, community trust and resilient primary healthcare systems remain our most powerful tools against infectious disease threats.

Vaccines matter enormously. But vaccines alone are not preparedness.

The countries currently confronting Ebola understand this better than most. Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have some of the world’s most experienced Ebola responders. Their scientists, surveillance officers, laboratory teams, community leaders and frontline health workers have repeatedly demonstrated remarkable expertise and courage under difficult circumstances.

The international response succeeds when it strengthens local leadership rather than substitutes for it.

The broader lesson extends far beyond Ebola.

The next global health security emergency will begin where health systems are weakest, where surveillance gaps are largest and where scientific neglect has been allowed to persist.

The world often asks whether we can afford to invest in preparedness before a crisis occurs.

The more relevant question is whether we can afford not to.

On that test, the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak should make all of us uncomfortable.

 

Mario Jimenez is a health economist working to increase access to immunization in low-income countries. He is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity.

Ifeanyi Nsofor is a public health physician and co-founder of the Africa Behavioral Science Network. He is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity. In 2015, Ifeanyi co-led the African Union’s Intervention to End Ebola and Strengthen Health Systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone (ASEOWA).

The first Somali set to referee at a World Cup finals has been dropped from the list of officials after he was denied entry to the United States.

La Bulgarie sait faire parler d'elle cette année, et en positif : de la première étape du Tour d'Italie début mai à la victoire de la chanteuse Dara à l'Eurovision. En 2026, Sofia fait tourner les têtes !

- Articles / Eurovision, Société, Sports, Culture et éducation, Bulgarie, Courrier des Balkans