The suicide rate among people in pretrial custody is double that of convicted prisoners
In Europe there were 17.5 suicides per 10,000 people in pretrial detention in 2021, while the proportion was 8.54 deaths in the rest of the prison population.
One in five people in EU prisons are in pretrial detention
People waiting for a final sentence often suffer worse conditions than convicted prisoners, even if they're innocent.
Is the EU’s asylum system ready to welcome Ukrainian refugees?
Ukrainian refugees now enter the EU under the aegis of the ultra-fast special protection system, but regular reception centres across the Union are piling up hundreds of thousands of applications and rejecting many. EU members states' asylum systems average more than 15 months of delay.
The postcode lottery of publicly-funded assisted reproduction in Spain
Many autonomous communities are not providing the bare minimum of provision in Spain’s health service and are using stripped back services, age limits and imposing fees in order to avoid providing the service.
Spain, Czechia, Denmark and Belgium are the meccas of reproductive tourism
Barriers in many European countries push thousands of people abroad to access assisted reproductive technology techniques. In some cases, they take out huge loans to pay for the treatments.
More than half of European countries prohibit access to assisted reproduction for lesbians and almost a third do so for single women
The situation is much more difficult for trans and intersex people. In addition to the legal barriers, they face economic stumbling blocks: most public health systems cover only part of the costs or have very long wait lists or narrow access criteria.
Half of all MEPs do not disclose any meeting with lobbies
Regulation of the European Parliament is highly voluntary. Compared to 90 percent of Swedish, Danish or Finnish MEPs who disclose meetings with interest groups, only one out of ten Greek, Polish and Bulgarian MEPs do so.
Antidepressant use in Europe continues to break records
Doctors continue prescribing anti-anxiety medications such as lorazepam or diazepam for long periods despite the risk of addictions. Meanwhile, under-investment in psychological care is making things worse.
Pay up or put it off: how Europe treats depression and anxiety
In many European countries, the availability of psychological treatment in the public healthcare system is inadequate or even non-existent. Barriers such as long waiting lists, co-payments and inadequate resources push people with anxiety or depression – those who can afford it – to the private system.
COVID-19 has paralysed mental health care in Europe
Mental health resources in the European Union were scarce even before the pandemic. COVID-19 has caused a tsunami in mental health, and access to care is more difficult today. About 75 percent of psychiatry services in the EU have been taking place via telemedicine, but this is not a viable option for all patients.
