Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash The Commission has adopted a revision of the Erasmus+ Annual Work Programme for 2023 with a focus, it says, on learners and staff from Ukraine. The overall budget of the programme for this year has been revised upwards to a new total of €4.43 billion, the highest annual financial envelope ever reached…
Photo by aranprime on Unsplash The Commission has presented proposals to modernise driving licence rules, including the introduction of a digital driving licence valid throughout the EU, and new provisions to facilitate the enforcement of traffic rules across borders. More than 20,000 lives were lost on EU roads last year and the majority of victims were pedestrians, cyclists and users of…
Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash The European Commission’s emergency preparedness and response authority has donated 10,000 vials of Bavarian Nordic’s Mpox vaccine to Ukraine. The Commission and Ukraine signed a deal associating Ukraine to the eu4Health programme in July 2022. Ukraine is therefore eligible to receive support from HERA for the second round of Mpox donations, joining 27 other recipient…
The EU has been urged to give the green light to Ukraine’s “swift” accession to the Union “in full respect of enlargement principles.” The demand was made by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) which said it supports establishing a special international tribunal on “crimes of aggression against Ukraine” and points out that support to civil…
Photo by Nati Melnychuk on Unsplash The EU-New Zealand trade agreement has taken a big step towards ratification, with the Commission sending it to Council for signature. Sending the draft decisions to the Council on the signature and conclusion of the agreement is a major step. Once the Council gives its green light, the EU and New Zealand…
Photo by moein rezaalizade on Unsplash MEPs will this week debate the EU’s response so far to the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on 6 February. The death toll in the two countries had exceeded 33,000 by Monday. The World Health Organisation has now warned of a secondary disaster, with tens of thousands of people displaced and in need…
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria earlier this week, the EU has said it is running one of its largest search and rescue operations through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism “to help save as many lives as possible.” On Thursday, EU commissioner Janez Lenarčič in his role as crisis…
Photo by Gabriella Clare Marino on Unsplash A coalition of over 50 organisations in 17 EU member states have delivered a petition to the European Commission demanding to keep the new generation of genetically modified organisms ‘regulated and labelled’. The petition ran from April to November 2022 and received 420.000 signatures. European Commission-president Ursula Von der Leyen announced…
Photo by NOAA on Unsplash The EU has responded with aid after a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale – one of the strongest earthquakes in the region in more than 100 years – struck the region of Gaziantep in Türkiye, which impacted neighbouring Syria as well, overnight. Information is still emerging about the impact…
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has travelled to Kyiv, accompanied by 15 Commissioners, for the first ever meeting between the College and the Ukrainian Government. The meeting takes place back to back with the EU-Ukraine summit, the first since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the granting of candidate status. von der…
