Eurotopics.net

Italy has blocked the shipment of 250,000 doses of the Anglo-Swedish Astrazeneca vaccine to Australia in the first intervention since the EU introduced rules on exports of vaccines outside the bloc in January according to which vaccines can only be shipped with official approval. Is the EU in a better position to deal with manufacturers and global competition than some are making it out to be?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented the key points of Turkey's Human Rights Action Plan on Tuesday, which is to comprise just under 400 individual measures - including strengthening freedom of expression, women's rights and the judiciary. Yet at the same time numerous opposition politicians and journalists remain behind bars in the country. Commentators wonder how the US and the EU will respond to this charm offensive.

Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has presented his budget for 2021 and explained the plan for economic recovery and reducing the debt incurred due to the pandemic. In the short term, aid measures amounting to 65 billion pounds (just over 75 billion euros) will continue. From April 2023, taxes on companies' profits will increase from 19 to 25 percent. Commentators take notice, especially since for many the planned measures mark a U-turn.

Even before the European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament cast its vote on its new statute, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ruling party Fidesz has made good on its threat and withdrawn from the group, thus ending years of controversy. For Europe's press it's clear that the two former partners were never a good fit.