Eurotopics.net

Hungary and Poland have followed through on their threat to veto the EU's long-term budget plan for 2021 to 2027. With this move, with which the two countries are protesting against the plan to penalise violations of the rule of law, they have also blocked billions of euros that were to be disbursed to EU states through the coronavirus recovery fund. Must the EU now renegotiate?

Maia Sandu has become the first woman to be elected president of the Republic of Moldova. In the second round she received 57.53 percent of the vote, while incumbent Igor Dodon trailed behind at 42.47 percent. Sandu, who was prime minister for a short time in 2019, is considered pro-European, but her election campaign was primarily directed against the current leadership. What factors were decisive for her victory?

Just a week after Biontech and Pfizer, US company Moderna has also announced a breakthrough in coronavirus vaccine development: according to the researchers their vaccine is 94.5 percent effective and surprisingly stable at refrigerator temperatures. Can the hurdles on the path to blanket immunization be cleared?

Today, November 17, Greece celebrates the anniversary of the 1973 student uprising against the military junta. But the planned rallies have had to be cancelled because the government has banned public gatherings of more than three people - a restriction last imposed by that very same junta. Is the argument of fighting the pandemic merely being used as a pretext, as left-wing opposition parties suspect?