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More and more migrants are crossing, Europe is closing its ports and no humanitarian ships are carrying out rescues. As the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, activists fear the Mediterranean is the scene of an overlooked "tragedy".

Food security is one reason why the EU should give 10 percent more money to farmers after the pandemic, Poland has said.

The UK illegally freed City of London traders from VAT obligations, the EU court ruled Thursday, adding Britain would have to pay the European Commission's legal fees in the case, in bitter pills to swallow for Brexiteers. The UK is still bound by EU laws until a transition period ends in 2021. It is currently waiting to restart talks in earnest on future trade relations after the pandemic calms down.

A coronavirus vaccine could be approved at the earliest next year, not in September, as some European politicians had hoped, the head of the EU's medical certification body, the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam, said Thursday. "For vaccines, since the development has to start from scratch ... we might look from an optimistic side in a year from now, so beginning of 2021," Marco Cavaleri said, Reuters reports.

For the German budget, the pandemic means greater expenditures and less income. For the first time since the financial crisis, tax revenues are falling but Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) is not thinking about austerity. On the contrary, another economic stimulus package is planned in June to help boost the economy, EURACTIV Germany reports.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's organisations have denounced a lack of progress in the recognition of sexual minorities in the EU ahead of the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on Sunday (17 May). 

An EU institution known as the EESC has been given until the autumn to initiate a series of reforms to protect victims of harassment and whistleblowers, including against threats, blackmail and bribery attempts.

MEPs are ready to veto the long-term EU budget if they are not included in drawing up and implementing economic recovery efforts to be shortly tabled by the commission.

The European Commission suspended future deliveries of masks for member states - after some countries reported that the masks did not meet EU's standards. Earlier this month, the commission started sending 1.5m masks to 17 EU countries and the UK.

The EU commission vice-president said that as member states relax lockdwon measures, it is time to roll back the state of emergencies that affect democracy and fundamental rights. Hungary said it might end extra powers in June.

The country has become a corona hotspot due to the clergy's stubborn refusal to impose social distancing and to close religious shrines, but also because US sanctions create severe shortages of a medical imports.

Romania, EU's largest exporter of live farm animals to third-countries, gets singled out in the latest European Commission report for bad practices - following the drowning of more than 14,000 sheep last November.

The EU Council decided on Thursday to extend for one more year (until 18 May 2021) the scheme of restrictive measures against cyberattacks. Thus, the council can impose restrictive measures on persons or entities involved in cyberattacks which threaten the EU or its member states, as well as third states or international organisations. Restrictive measures include a travel ban to the EU or freezing assets.

According to a study from the University of Antwerp, half of the people in Belgian remain voluntarily in their own social bubble, as imposed by the lockdown, and refuse to see other people, even though the government now allows them to do so, De Standaard reports. Since this week people can add to their own family circle four extra people to meet on a regular basis.

Russia has defended its integrity on coronavirus mortality numbers, saying: "We never manipulate official statistical data". Its counting methods were "exceptionally precise", Russia's top health official, Tatiana Golikova, also said Thursday. Russia had the world's second-highest infection figure, 252,245 cases, as of Thursday, according to the World Health Organisation, but has recorded just 2,305 deaths so far - a 0.9 percent mortality rate, well below Germany (4.5 percent), for instance.

Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it will take "months" before normal intra-EU travel resumes, Reuters reports. "While it is our policy to resume normal travel for business, leisure, study and visits to friends and relatives [in the EU] as soon as it is safe to do so ... it will be months, not weeks," he said. Germany's interior minister Horst Seehofer said Wednesday his country was aiming for "mid-June" instead.

Offshore banking centre Luxembourg is to face European Commission legal action for not writing the latest EU anti-money laundering and anti-tax avoidance laws into its national legislation, officials said Thursday. The duchy's tax rules let multinationals hide behind shell firms and benefit from "unlimited deductibility of interest" from taxes, the commission said. Luxembourg has a history of going slow on EU laws in the sector until threatened by court action.

Our Call for action calls for a European coordination to ensure the supply and circulation of medicines to deliver equitable patient access by acting in the four main areas. Medicine Supply, Transport, International trade and workforce.

Tawary - L’on apprend d’une source fiable que le résultat du dépistage réalisé, ce jeudi 14 mai, en fin d’après-midi, pour le ministre de...

The Slovenian government late on Thursday (14 May) called an official end to its coronavirus epidemic, becoming the first European country to do so, after authorities confirmed less than seven new coronavirus cases each day for the past two weeks.