European Union

During the COVID-19 confinement, many contagious pathogens were also suppressed; with society opening combined with vaccine hesitancy, outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and whooping cough (pertussis) are on the rise.

In the debate about a follow-up programme after the end of the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), a think-tank close to centre-right EPP has criticised “significant flaws” in the current programme, including the lack of a plan for repaying the joint EU debt.

Is it possible that a single piece of legislation could sway Georgia - an official candidate for EU membership since December - away from its EU path? And if so, does it mean that Vladimir Putin is winning back this former Soviet republic, the birthplace of Stalin?

Monday, 22 April

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Monday, 22 April

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

EU member states are increasingly under pressure to provide Ukraine with urgently needed advanced air defence systems, but efforts are bogged down in national security considerations.

MEPs from left-wing groups in the European Parliament will try to make changes to the Commission’s proposal to relax some environmental requirements in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), to be voted on Wednesday (24 April).

After an unprecedented wave of protests and demonstrations across the EU, and with June's European Parliament elections approaching, EU politicians of all colours are seizing upon the agricultural sector's discontent for electoral gains. 

Lead MEP Elisabetta Gualmini (S&D, IT) will brief media on the Platform Work Directive following the final plenary vote.
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Lead MEP Elisabetta Gualmini (S&D, IT) will brief media on the Platform Work Directive following the final plenary vote.
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Written by Marc Jütten.

The global supply of cocaine is at record levels: in just six years (from 2014 to 2020), cocaine production doubled and led to a 416 % increase in the European cocaine market. Almost all cocaine produced comes from the Andean region: With 61 % of total production, Colombia remains the world’s biggest cultivator of coca, followed by Peru (26 %) and Bolivia (13 %).

Political instability experienced in Andean countries in recent years goes hand in hand with a worsening public security situation and rising cocaine supplies. There has been a dramatic security deterioration, particularly in Ecuador, where the homicide rate rose from 13.7 per 100 000 people in 2021 to about 45 in 2023, placing Ecuador among the top three most violent countries in Latin America.

Illicit drug trafficking is also affecting the EU as never before. In 2021, EU Member State authorities seized 303 tonnes of cocaine – the highest ever amount of cocaine confiscated in Europe. Today, the drug trade orchestrated by organised crime poses one of the most serious security threats to the EU. Almost 40 % of the criminal networks active in the EU are involved in the illegal drugs trade. Some 50 % of all homicides in Europe are connected to drug trafficking.

Against this backdrop, the EU is stepping up its response and has established a series of instruments to fight organised crime, such as the EU security union strategy and the roadmap to fight drug trafficking and organised crime. Moreover, in 2023, the European Commission started negotiating international agreements on the exchange of personal data between Europol and a series of Latin American countries and launched the European Ports Alliance in January 2024.

Cooperation on illegal drug-related issues has become a priority for the strategic partnership between the EU and the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states (CELAC).

Read the complete briefing on ‘EU cooperation with Latin America: Combating drug trafficking in the Andean region‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

The Council adopted a decision to conclude a Strategic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its member states, on the one hand, and Japan on the other.

The EU will soon become a ‘Friend’ (i.e., observer) of the Djibouti Code of Conduct/Jeddah Amendment, a regional cooperation framework to tackle piracy, armed robbery, human trafficking and other illegal maritime activities in the North-Western Indian Ocean, including the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

After months of wrangling, the US House of Representatives has passed a legislative package for 61 billion dollars in aid to Ukraine. Many Republicans also voted in favour. Around nine billion dollars is to be granted as a loan, while 23 billion will be used by the US to increase its own military stockpiles in view of future transfers. The package is to be discussed in the Senate on Tuesday. Europe's press examines the implications of the decision.