Európai Unió : hírek magyarul

Kyriakos Pierrakakis, President of the Eurogroup, attended the Rencontres Économiques in Aix-en-Provences. He spoke at the plenary session 'One World, Clashing Visions: Who Sets the Standards?'.

Weekly schedule of President António Costa, 6-12 July 2026.

The Council imposed restrictive measures on six Russian individuals involved in the development of chemical weapons, notably epibatidine, which is highly likely the cause of Alexei Navalny’s death.

Madonna hat ihr 15. Studioalbum «Confessions II» veröffentlicht. Sie ist 67 und hat ein künstliches Hüftgelenk. Doch seit ihrem Debüt 1983 ist sie die Queen of Pop. An der Spitze hielt sie sich, weil sie stets auf ihr Gespür für kommende Trends hörte.

Die Schweiz hat sich jahrelang um Klimapolitik gestritten. Auf die neue Hitzerealität vorbereitet ist sie nicht. Ein Wochenkommentar über Ideologie, Pragmatismus – und die Frage, ob der Ökofundi über seinen Schatten springt und sich eine Klimaanlage anschafft.

Ein Waldbrand hat an Spaniens Costa Brava rund 750 Hektar Land zerstört. 40’000 Menschen stecken derzeit in ihren Häusern fest. Die Feuerwehr hat über 50 Einsatzteams im Einsatz.

Kein Formel-1-Pilot hat in Europa diese Saison mehr Punkte geholt als Lewis Hamilton. Schlägt der Ferrari-Pilot auch am Samstag in Silverstone zu?

Sirenen über Moskau, ein unbekanntes Flugobjekt und Gerüchte um eine neue ukrainische Rakete: Hat Kiew erstmals die ballistische FP-9 eingesetzt? Was für die spektakuläre These spricht – und warum Experten weiterhin erhebliche Zweifel haben.

Ein 78-jähriger E-Bike-Fahrer ist am Freitagabend bei einem Unfall in Wädenswil ZH ums Leben gekommen. Eine 20-jährige Autofahrerin kollidierte auf der Zugerstrasse mit ihm. Die Unfallursache ist noch unklar.

After the final vote in the European Parliament on Tuesday, key EP negotiators Andrey Novakov and Virginijus Sinkevičius will brief journalists on the EU air passenger rights rules review.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

The EU welcomes the framework agreement signed by Lebanon and Israel in Washington, which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah enabling the IDF to progressively redeploy out of the Lebanese territory.

The measure intends to protect children by allowing online providers to voluntarily detect, report and remove child sexual abuse material online.

Spokespersons for Parliament and for the political groups will hold a briefing on the 6-9 July plenary session, on Friday at 11.00 in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

Speech by the Eurogroup President, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, on how the European budget supports the euro and expands Europe's productive capacity and long-term prosperity.

A mobile clinic supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in South Africa. The U.S. announced it would cut off funding for HIV projects in the country. Credit: Instagram

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Jul 2 2026 (IPS)

A U.S. decision to cut off funding for HIV projects in South Africa has been condemned amid warnings it could be “catastrophic” for efforts to control the disease in the country.

At the start of last year, the White House had announced massive cuts to U.S. foreign aid, including to South Africa, significantly impacting some HIV projects in the country.

But last month (June 2026), U.S. officials confirmed plans to begin a drawdown of what remaining financial support it was providing through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), saying the money was no longer needed given South Africa’s wealth but also seemingly linking the move to the government’s failure to meet specific U.S. political demands.

HIV experts and activists have warned the abrupt ending to the funding – all financing is expected to end by early next year and funding for most projects is planned to be cut by the end of September this year, according to the U.S. State Department – could drive increased spread of the disease and many avoidable deaths in a country which already has the world’s highest HIV burden.

“The phased withdrawal of U.S. HIV funding from South Africa is likely to have significant implications for HIV prevention, treatment, and community health systems. The withdrawal of funding threatens a wide range of services, including community outreach programmes, HIV testing services, mobile clinics, data and monitoring systems, PrEP delivery, and targeted interventions for populations at highest risk of HIV acquisition,” Bruce Tushabe, an HIV activist and consultant with the South African Litigation Centre-SALC, told IPS.

For more than two decades, PEPFAR funding has been crucial to South Africa’s response to HIV and tuberculosis, providing around USD 8 billion since 2003 to civil society organisations, community health programmes, clinics, researchers, health worker salaries, and government institutions.

Data from PEPFAR itself shows that almost three quarters of people living with HIV in the country are on treatment with some form of support from the organisation.

PEPFAR’s funding is thought to have helped save millions of lives by strengthening and expanding access to prevention, treatment, care, and support services in South Africa.

While over the years HIV treatment has increasingly been covered by state funding – today the state procures 90% of Antiretrovirals (ARVs) using government funds, with the remaining 10% coming from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – PEPFAR money has remained essential for financing much prevention.

Activists say that the withdrawal of funding now, without a proper transition plan in place, could be devastating, especially given how hard prevention services have already been hit by the funding cuts announced in early 2025.

According to media reports in South Africa, thousands of jobs, including at frontline healthcare partners, have been lost because of those cuts.

Meanwhile, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a South African HIV NGO, says community-led monitoring has shown that since the 2025 cuts, 82% of facility managers have reported staffing shortages, 15% of public healthcare users surveyed said waiting times were longer than usual, 30% of public healthcare users surveyed reported not being offered HIV testing when attending a health facility, and 28% of people said it took longer to collect ARVs.

“The withdrawal of this funding at this critical juncture, without an adequate transition plan, threatens to reverse hard-won gains in the fight against HIV and TB,” TAC said in a statement.

“These cuts are not abstract budget decisions. They have real consequences for people living with HIV, particularly adolescent girls and young women; sex workers; people who use drugs (PWUDs); transgender people; gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM); migrants; and people living in poverty. Reduced access to testing, prevention, treatment adherence support, and community outreach will inevitably lead to increased HIV transmission, treatment interruptions, preventable illness, and avoidable deaths,” the group said.

Some studies have estimated a complete, unmanaged withdrawal of U.S. funding for HIV programmes could lead to as many as 296,000 additional HIV infections and up to 65,000 extra deaths by 2028.

Tushabe said there was particular concern over the impact of the funding withdrawal on key and vulnerable populations who often depend on community-led and network-based services that operate outside conventional healthcare facilities.

“Many of these services provide stigma-free, accessible, and trusted points of care that are not easily replaced within mainstream health systems,” he said.

The South African Department of Health has tried to play down the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding.

In a statement, it said that while the government had not officially been informed by the U.S. about the end of the funding, the move was not a surprise and  that the Health Ministry has been working on a “self-reliance plan” to minimise the impact of funding withdrawal since the cuts to U.S. foreign aid last year.

“Thus, there is no need for the public to panic because the transition plan has long been developed, and the implementation has been ongoing,” the Department of Health said.

It added that while PEPFAR had supported the Department of Health in 27 HIV/AIDS ‘high burden’ districts out of 52 districts in the country in eight provinces, public health facilities remain accessible for clients, including those who used to receive health services from PEPFAR funded clinics.

But HIV experts say despite the government’s statements, the HIV response is going to inevitably suffer.

“This is serious,” Linda-Gail Bekker, Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, told IPS.

“Although the health ministry has publicly stated that we should be fine and it is business as usual, [the funding that is being withdrawn] was a large amount of money that supported some very key components of our HIV/TB response, especially primary prevention. Losing this must have significant impact. It may not directly impact the general treatment program, but I have no doubt it is having an immediate impact on many aspects of the HIV response,” she added.

HIV activists have called on the U.S. to rethink its decision.

Speaking ahead of the high-level UN conference on HIV/AIDS on June 22, Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said, “Taking [the funding] away is taking away life-saving support ​from the most vulnerable people. So, that is sad. And I would ask the United States to reconsider their position.”

Other groups, such as TAC, called on the White House to “engage with affected governments, communities, and civil society organisations to mitigate the devastating consequences of the funding withdrawal”.

But amid the calls for a rethink on the move, there is also a deep anger among many activists over the reasons given for the decision.

Reports of the funding stop carried in U.S. media cited a U.S. State Department official saying the funding stop had come “following South Africa’s failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration” and that South Africa “is a middle-income country and is more than capable ​of supporting its own health programs.”

The policy requests included that it pare back its partnership with Iran, end Black Economic Empowerment policies, and condemn race-based incitement to violence, including singing of “Kill the Boer”, an anti-apartheid liberation song. Some have interpreted the latter as a call for violence against Afrikaners.

This has left many activists incensed.

“This is a clear and unambiguous reflection of the U.S. government’s irrational foreign policy conflict with a sovereign country that it is seeking to bully but cannot. It makes a mockery of claims made by the U.S. embassy in South Africa that it is concerned about South Africans living with HIV, when really, this shows it is not,” Fatima Hassan of the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) told IPS.

“The U.S. State Department is claiming that because South Africa is a middle-income country, it should be able to pay for its own HIV response. South Africa is actually an upper-middle-income country, but South Africa pays more to its HIV response than any other non-OECD company, and the epidemiology [situation with HIV in South Africa] indicates that because South Africa’s HIV burden is so astronomically higher than any other country that [financial] solidarity is required,” Asia Russell, Executive Director of HIV advocacy group Health Gap, told IPS.

She said the other political reasons reportedly linked to the decision were indefensible and driven by anti-South African political policies based on utterly unfounded claims of, among other things, “the fiction of a white genocide in south Africa” being pushed by some people in the White House.

Meanwhile, those at the frontline of helping people with HIV and stopping the disease spreading say that politics must not get in the way of saving lives and that regardless of what happens with international funding, essential HIV services in South Africa must be ensured.

“The government must immediately assess the impact of funding losses, mobilise domestic resources where necessary, and ensure that no person is denied access to lifesaving healthcare because of donor withdrawal. The HIV epidemic has taught us a painful lesson: when political decisions undermine access to healthcare, people die. South Africa cannot afford a return to the devastating losses of the past, where we buried comrades every weekend. The gains achieved through decades of activism, scientific progress, and public investment must not be sacrificed,” TAC said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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By Isabel Mestres
GENEVA, Jul 2 2026 (IPS)

Anyone whose life has been touched by cancer knows that care is highly complex.

From first symptoms through diagnosis and treatment, patients may need multiple diagnostic tests, combinations of surgery, systemic therapy and radiotherapy, and input from several specialists, alongside support services such as financial counselling, psychological support and palliative care.

Such a complex chain is inherently vulnerable, with one weak link meaning that a vital referral is missed, test results not delivered, or a patient is lost in the system while awaiting follow-up.

As a chronic disease, cancer tests the full breadth of health systems like few other illnesses, exposing system-wide gaps that affect us all.

In low- and-middle income countries (LMICs), where more people are experiencing and dying from cancer, and resources are limited, the infrastructure that connects the elements of cancer care is often missing.

Health systems in cities offer a unique entry-point for building this connective tissue – for people with cancer and, ultimately, all others. Cities are close enough to patients to reveal the failures in care, and large enough to bring together the institutions, workforce, data and governance needed to fix it.

Cities are ground zero for closing the gap between cancer care policy and delivery in LMICs, which are projected to see cancer incidence rise 142 per cent by 2040 and represent more than half of new cancer cases and two-thirds of deaths by 2050.

Cities can offer the full range of health services that a patient needs: from primary care appointments to discuss initial symptoms to laboratory tests, imaging, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These services are connected by a city governance architecture ensuring patients are referred from one institution to another, treatment is uninterrupted and services are financially accessible.

Cities also serve as referral and treatment hubs for surrounding areas, and even for neighbouring countries, meaning that developing stronger urban systems will undoubtedly create stronger national pathways of care, provided equity is designed in from the start.

This makes the city the most strategic starting point for closing the gap between cancer policy and delivery.

National cancer plans are essential, but they do not deliver care. Patient outcomes will only improve when these are actually implemented. And this requires policies being translated into time-bound, costed, funded programmes, and health authorities being given the governance structure, funding and authority to act earlier and more seamlessly to support better treatment and survival rates.

To transform this and turn policy into practice, governments and funders need to make at least two fundamental shifts.

First, they must move beyond externally designed interventions and invest in locally owned systems that can diagnose their own gaps, set priorities and sustain improvements over time.

Second, governments and funders need to stop treating national policy as proof of delivery and invest in the implementation mechanisms that make delivery possible and strengthen the systems at large.This means sustained investment in robust governance systems, defined referral pathways, sustainable financing and a trained and empowered health workforce.

At City Cancer Challenge (C/Can), we know this approach can work. We have seen how locally-led healthcare reform can ensure the fundamental processes and networks are in place to deliver long-lasting sustainable cancer care.

In Asunción, Paraguay, this approach showed what strengthening health systems means in practice. Improved diagnostic processes meant that women with suspected cancer were diagnosed earlier, started treatment sooner, and ultimately had better survival chances. It also meant that fewer women got lost along the pathway.

Asunción’s success came from coordinated action, not a single intervention. Laboratory quality improved, workforces were trained and empowered, protocols upgraded to international standards, and sample traceability strengthened across hospital services. Because these changes were locally owned and co-developed, they hold. This is what distinguishes real health system improvement from equipment that sits in a locked room, or protocols that disappear the moment external support does.

The value of this locally-owned model lies in its sustainability and scalability. Learnings from Asuncion can be used by other cities to identify bottlenecks in their own healthcare delivery, align institutions and build the local systems needed for better cancer care.

Cities have always been where health systems evolve, integrate and scale. And the impetus for strengthening LMIC health systems, starting in cities, is even greater to address the growing cancer crisis.

Where you live and who you are should not determine the quality of care you receive. Governments and funders should stop looking only at national cancer plans, protocols or new equipment. Instead, they should also ask whether local health systems can deliver timely, coordinated and equitable care, and invest accordingly.

Isabel Mestres, CEO, City Cancer Challenge (C/Can)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Die Spitzen von Union und SPD haben sich auf ein Reformpaket für wirtschaftliches Wachstum und soziale Sicherheit verständigt. Es folgt eine Einordnung von Marcel Fratzscher, Präsident des Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin):

Die Einigung auf das Reformpaket beendet eine lange Hängepartie in der Bundesregierung. Sein Beitrag zur Lösung der strukturellen Probleme Deutschlands dürfte jedoch begrenzt bleiben. Das Paket enthält eine Reihe von guten und sinnvollen Elementen. Vor allem der Abbau von Bürokratie, die Ziele beim Wohnungsbau und die steuerliche Entlastung bis in die Mitte hinein sind positive Aspekte. Es ist aber nicht der große Wurf, sondern eher ein Symbolpaket. Es wird der deutschen Wirtschaft nicht den gewünschten Impuls für Wachstum und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit geben. Es handelt sich um einen politischen Kompromiss mit begrenzten Ambitionen, der die großen Differenzen innerhalb der Bundesregierung zeigt und drei Botschaften enthalten soll: die Entlastung der Mitte, die Flexibilisierung für Unternehmen und eine härtere Linie beim Sozialstaat.

Zudem mangelt es in dem Vorstoß an Gerechtigkeit. Es hat eine soziale Schieflage, da der Fokus auf der Entlastung von Unternehmen liegt, zum Teil zulasten der Beschäftigten. Die Ausweitung der sachgrundlosen Befristung und die teilweise Aufweichung des Kündigungsschutzes als großen Wurf zu verkaufen, ist nicht seriös. Auch durch die geplanten Reformen bei Rente, Gesundheit und Pflege werden vor allem Menschen mit wenig Einkommen und Ersparnissen harte Einschnitte erfahren. Die Begrenzung der Westbalkan-Regelung auf 25.000 Personen pro Jahr kann den Arbeitsmarkt in Engpassbranchen zusätzlich belasten. Unter dem Strich bedeutet das Reformpaket Einschnitte vor allem für Menschen mit geringen, aber auch mit mittleren Einkommen.

Die Steuerreform ist unambitioniert, nicht ausfinanziert und entlastet zwar auch Familien und mittlere Einkommen, aber in absoluten Euro-Beträgen profitieren vor allem höhere Erwerbseinkommen unterhalb der Reichensteuer-Schwelle. Eine echte Entlastung kleiner und mittlerer Einkommen müsste stärker bei Sozialabgaben, Transfers oder Erwerbstätigenzuschüssen ansetzen - dies fehlt jedoch größtenteils. Bei der Steuerreform hat sich die Union durchgesetzt, da die Erhöhung des Reichensteuersatzes ab 250.000 Euro Jahreseinkommen eher symbolisch ist und dem Staat nur geringe zusätzliche Einnahmen verschaffen wird. Der Steuerreform fehlt Ehrlichkeit, denn es gibt faktisch keine annähernd ausreichende Gegenfinanzierung. Dass der bayerische Ministerpräsident Söder die Verhinderung einer Kürzung des Dienstwagenprivilegs als großen Erfolg verkauft, spricht für sich.

The proposal adopted on Thursday will allow faster permitting for electricity grids and renewables projects, to help cut energy prices through the domestic supply of clean energy.
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

Source : © European Union, 2026 - EP

President António Costa travelled to Dublin (Ireland) to attend the opening ceremony of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, where he delivered a speech.

On Wednesday 1 July, President Costa travelled to Dublin to attend the official opening of the Irish presidency of the Council of the European Union. Ahead of the ceremony he met with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.