Euobserver.com

Only 11 out of the 340 cities analysed by the European Environment Agency had good air quality from 2020 to 2021, according to new data published by the environmental watchdog on Monday. The best cities in terms of air quality include Umeå in Sweden and Faro and Funchal in Portugal. The World Health Organization's threshold for the air pollutant particulate matter was exceeded by 97 percent of the cities analysed.

Doses of the Covid-19 vaccines likely to have been wasted is estimated at 1.1 billion, according to an Airfinity analysis published on Monday. Broken down, around 25 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine were discarded, while 19 million AstraZeneca jabs have been wasted, the report finds. Doses-wastage is estimated to be around 10-percent of the supply produced during the six previous months.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Medicines Agency recommended on Monday that elderly people, and those with medical conditions, should receive a second booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine — as healthcare facilities in several member states are facing again increasing rates of hospital and intensive care unit admissions. The second booster can be administered at least four months after the previous one.

As the summer harvest season begins in Ukraine during wartime, farmers face multiple challenges — while a hunger catastrophe looms.

EU post-pandemic aid to Italy is helping fuel a new boom in young people living the city to try their hand at old-fashioned, organic farming and food production.

One would think that for a country waiting 21 years to start accession talks with the EU, the opportunity to finally do it would be cause for all around festivities and national celebration — instead, for days now, mass protests.

Speaking at arrival of a meeting of EU finance ministers, Dutch finance minister Sigrid Kaag said inflation will drive down standard of living across the continent. "We have to realise we will become collectively poorer," she said. "We have to take care of vulnerable households, but we can not keep compensating. It is financially unsustainable". She added that member states will need fiscal space to invest in climate-change measures.

EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson announced a hub in Moldova to battle organized crime, particularly arms smuggling from war-torn Ukraine. The hub will be a "one-stop-shop" allowing the EU's border guard agency Frontex to support local border agencies.

The European Commission and Morocco said they would worker closer together to fight migrant smuggling, following the tragic events in the Spanish enclave of Melilla where over 20 died trying to scale its fences. "We stand ready to deepen our cooperation," said EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, in Rabat on Friday. Johansson had met with Morocco's interior minister to discuss "new strategies" used by migrants to reach the EU.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell have urged Skopje to accept a compromise deal in its row on history and language with Bulgaria. The deal was "based on mutual respect, trust, and understanding" and would allow North Macedonia to open EU accession talks. "The sovereign decision of the Parliament of North Macedonia will be important to move forward," they said Saturday.

Nine Tory politicians have declared they want to be the next prime minister, in a leadership contest to be decided by September. The list includes junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt, transport Secretary Grant Shapps, finance minister Nadhim Zahawi and former ministers Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, and Rishi Sunak. Foreign secretary Liz Truss is also expected to declare her bid, but defence minister Ben Wallace has ruled himself out.

Dutch politician Neelie Kroes was in talks to work for US transport firm Uber even before she left her EU job as digital and competition commissioner, according to internal files leaked to The Guardian newspaper. She also lobbied the Dutch government on behalf of the firm in 2015, before her 18-month cooling off period had ended, even though the European Commission had explicitly denied her permission to do so.

France has followed Germany in saying Europe should prepare itself for a total cut-off in Russian gas deliveries as the Ukraine war drags out. "Let's prepare for a total cut-off of Russian gas; Today that is the most likely option," he said at a business event in Aix-en-Provence on Saturday, Politico reports. "We have to anticipate and to put ourselves in order of battle as of now," he added.

Ukraine has recalled its ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, after he had spent eight years in the post. Melnyk had in the past stirred controversy by defending Stepan Bandera — a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator. He had also mocked German chancellor Olaf Scholz for his weak reaction to Russia's invasion by saying he was acting "like an offended liver sausage".

A humble "trade representative" from an elite spy unit and a "technician" who did wiretapping — the identities of 21 Russian diplomats kicked out by Belgium help tell the story of how Moscow made Brussels the 'spy capital' of Europe.

The European Commission will unveil its rule-of-law audit of all EU member states this week. Meanwhile, several ministers from the Czech Republic will present to EU lawmakers the priorities of the rotating EU Council presidency for the next six months.

The Kremlin's isolation, and Beijing's tacit endorsement of its unprovoked aggression, has changed the EU's calculations.

Ariane is a former business centre in Brussels converted into a temporary shelter run by the Flemish Red Cross. Almost 1,000 Ukrainians now reside at the centre, a record high. Some have been there 50 days.

The EU is building an €8m secure bunker in Brussels so that leaders can discuss secrets without Russian or other eavesdroppers.

The European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions' Summer Days 2022 two days of debates saw key messages on how the green and digital transitions must be worker-centred.