Euractiv.com

COVID-19 vaccines have saved 1.4 million lives in Europe, a new study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) released on Tuesday (16 January) showed. 

In another move to tackle medicines shortages faced across the EU, the European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) launched a Critical Medicines Alliance, an advisory group, on Tuesday (16 January).

This morning, EU lawmaker François-Xavier Bellamy was named as the lead candidate for the French conservative Les Républicains party - effectively kicking off France's EU election campaign. On the side of the far right, the battle lines are being drawn as pro- or anti-Emmanuel Macron, while the left is looking to snatch the president's pro-EU voters.

Two decades since the EU's “big bang” enlargement in 2004, the bloc's long-stalled ambition to accept new members has experienced a striking revival. Yet, beyond the moral and geopolitical arguments lurks a seldom asked question - is there an economic case for enlargement, and if so, for whom, write Mirek Dusek and Andrew Caruana Galizia.

Global certification body the ISCC has revised down the extremely high quantities of used cooking oil reportedly collected in Italy and Malta for biofuels production, saying that the original figures were the result of accounting errors in the submitted data.

EU member states gave initial backing on Tuesday (16 January)  for the creation of a naval mission to protect ships from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in the Red Sea, according to several European diplomats.

From 1 January, Poland started enforcing strict regulations on the sale of energy drinks with caffeine or taurine, requiring an ID for their purchase. However, it was not long before the first beverage manufacturers attempted to circumvent the ban.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged the West on Tuesday (16 January) to show a united front against Russian President Vladimir Putin and to step up its support for Kyiv, especially air defence, to ensure that Moscow does not prevail in the war.

Sweden's government is considering paying pharmaceutical companies to store antibiotics to ensure the availability of older antibiotics in the country.

Most political groups in the European Parliament want a probe into the European Commission's decision to unfreeze EU funds for Hungary, followed by a lawsuit in the EU's top court and a possible motion of censure, while also urging the Council to strip Hungary's voting rights over its rule of law deficiencies.

The EU needs “more and not less” supply from Kyiv, according to sugar-using food producers - a statement contradicting the demands of sugar beet growers, while Romanian farmers are blocking the borders in protest at the growing Ukrainian agricultural imports.

As the deadline to comply with the EU’s Big Tech rulebook is fast approaching, the competitors of the designated gatekeepers are worried they are nowhere near satisfactory compliance.

Spain’s recognition of Kosovo passports has revitalised the debate over Kosovo’s statehood and what this means for Catalonia but the continued comparison of Kosovo with Catalonia is ill suited from the legal and political standpoint, argues Kushtrim Istrefi.

Euractiv Bulgaria interviewed Ralitsa Kovacheva (Factcheck.bg), Marina Tsekova (Bulgarian national radio) and Rosen Bosev (AFP factcheck), who stressed that disinformation in the country is so widespread that it easily influences national politics.

Although gas and electricity prices have receded below their 2022 peak, they are not forecast to return to pre-pandemic levels in the foreseeable future, the European Commission said on Monday (15 January), warning of the long-term economic consequences of high energy prices on the EU's competitiveness.

As EU environmental targets increase in ambition, so too does the temptation for companies to engage in creative climate accounting - to declare climate progress without putting in the hard, and oftentimes expensive, work of reducing emissions.

EU’s François-Xavier Bellamy has been named EU elections lead candidate of the conservative Les Républicains party (EPP) late on Monday (15 January), amid Emmanuel Macron’s poaching of key conservative figures in his new government.

Israel has said its operations against Hamas in southern Gaza will soon enter a less intensive phase, after the militant group's health ministry reported the death toll in the territory had surpassed 24,000.

Finding solutions to address shortages of critical medicines across the EU is a clear priority for the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council, write Stella Kyriakides and Frank Vandenbroucke.

Several EU countries have expressed support for plans to target a 90% emissions cut relative to 1990 levels by 2040. While Hungary is sceptical, France and Germany have yet to take a stance.