In Europe, the period 2020-2021 was to mark the turning point in the fight against plastic waste, one of the most urgent problems of our century. Then came the new Coronavirus: with masks, gloves, and anti-contagion packaging, the risk of a step back is increasingly concrete
Meetings with dozens of assistants and thousands of civil servants fly under the radar of the EU's transparency register. The heads of the pharmaceutical industry, EFPIA is one of the most active lobby groups. In less than a year and a half since the start of the pandemic they have held as many meetings with senior Commission officials as in the last five years.
Last year, more than half of the alerts issued by the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed concerned products from non-EU countries. If these countries are unable to adapt their production chains to EU food safety regulations over the next few years, the risks to European citizens will continue to grow.
The Covid-19 restrictive measures in the Balkans risk putting young people – a segment of the population that has been in constant demographic decline for years – in even more difficulty. A look at the pandemic and the state of the vaccination campaign in the Balkans for the youngest population.
Mainly three things: the number of doctors and nurses and the population density of a region are more important indicators than the number of ICUs in predicting Covid-19 deaths, there does not appear to be a causal association between per-capita numbers of ICUs and deaths from Covid, and excess mortality showed a correlation with the "pandemic waves".
With COVID-19 in the spotlight, refugees and undocumented migrants disappeared from public attention. Precisely what swept these communities away from the agenda, however, disproportionately affected them.
Before the implementation of additional allocations such as the recovery fund, one of the first instruments put in place by the EU was the possibility for states to redirect their own European funds to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. Let's see how this process played out, in Italy and in other countries.
While the EU’s most populous countries are recording the most overall COVID-19-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria had the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths in relation to their populations during the same period.
Last week, the European Parliament called for the better treatment and management of obesity as average obesity levels in the EU have risen by 161% since 1975.
After more than a year of successive lockdowns implemented by European governments to curb the spread of COVID-19, the French authorities are now worried about the mental health of their citizens.