Democracy
Who will be the EU’s new digital gatekeepers?
With the new Digital Services Act and Digital Market Act, the European Union will favour its own digital sector while promoting innovation, fairness, and more equal market access. Citizens will see their data and digital rights more protected and safeguarded.
EU’s support for Ukraine backed by three-quarters of Europeans
After almost a year of war with Russia, EU citizens still predominantly support Ukraine and the EU’s approach to the crisis. Despite the political, social, and economic costs, EU citizens stand firm behind democracy and appear willing to make sacrifices for it.
Serbia, algorithmic discrimination rehearsals
A new law on social services in Serbia provides for the collection of a large amount of personal data of beneficiaries, to be analysed with an algorithm that evaluates their socio-economic condition. The declared goal is to improve the distribution of resources, but over 22,000 people have already lost the subsidy, without knowing why.
Europe fights the monkeypox outbreak with unequal defences
Only two European Union member states confirm that they had strategic reserves of the most effective and safe vaccine against monkeypox, a smallpox-like virus.
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.
Europe is spending billions to fight immigration: to what end?
Launched in November 2015, the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) was intended to promote stability and fight against “the root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons”. Five billion euros have been approved for 250 projects in 26 African countries. But what results has the fund produced?
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.
How was EUTF money used?
As 2021 drew to a close, so too did the EUTF project, a “trust fund for Africa” created by the EU in order to address the causes of illegal immigration. Analysis shows that a large proportion of this funding was dedicated to border externalisation.
Digital Fortress Europe #3: Automation and surveillance in Fortress Europe
Artificial intelligence and algorithms are at the heart of the EU’s new mobility-control system. High-risk automated decisions are being taken on human lives. It is an emerging multi-billion-euro unregulated market with dystopian 'smart' applications.
