Euractiv.com

Hauliers are already counting the cost of the new post-Brexit border rules after the first week of life with the UK outside the EU’s single market saw truck queues, delays, and supply chain disruptions.

The European Commission on Friday (8 January) refused to provide an answer on whether Germany's bilateral deal with Pfizer-BioNTech for 30 million extra doses has broken the commitment to joint procurement of vaccines.

Russia and China are opposed to a candidate seen as a staunch human rights defender to lead the UN rights body, diplomats say, creating a deadlock just as the US may seek to rejoin the forum it quit in 2018.

Fighting is still going on in several parts of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and almost 2.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, need aid, a UN report said.

The number of illegal border crossings into the European Union fell by 13% to around 124,000 last year, the EU's border agency said Friday (8 January).

For mass vaccination, Bulgaria's strategy appears to rely on a new vaccine by AstraZeneca, rather than on those by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, already approved in the EU, EURACTIV Bulgaria reported on Friday (8 January), based on leaked documents and unofficial information.

The Portuguese presidency of the EU Council is committed to doing everything to conclude negotiations on the reform of the EU's massive farming subsidies programme without overlooking the transition toward a more sustainable food system, the Portuguese farm minister told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

A "perfect storm" of post-Brexit red tape and coronavirus restrictions could threaten the future of the industry, said Scottish seafood exporters on Friday (8 January).

The German government presented on Wednesday (6 January) a bill that plans to introduce at least one woman into the governing bodies of German companies with more than three directors. EURACTIV France reports.

Climate disaster could be curtailed within a couple of decades if net zero emissions are reached, new study shows. EURACTIV's media partner, The Guardian, reports.

The European Commission has sealed another deal with Pfizer-BioNTech to provide 300 million additional doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday. The new deal will add to the existing 300 million doses for a total of 600 million.

More than 50 British retailers, including Tesco and Marks & Spencer, face potential tariffs for re-exporting goods to the European Union, their trade body said on Thursday (7 January), amid warnings this could make Britain less competitive.

The world's poorest countries can expect to start receiving their first Covid-19 vaccine doses between the end of January and mid-February, the World Health Organization said Thursday (7 January).

EU nations are 'progressing at difference paces' in terms of security protocols introduced by the European Commission in order to ensure the safety of next-generation telecommunications networks, the European Court of Auditors has said.

Negotiations on the European Climate Law – including the bloc’s proposed 55% greenhouse gas reduction target for 2030 – are expected to wrap up before the end of June as Portugal makes a climate agreement the “big priority” of its six-month EU presidency, which started on 1 January.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament have raised concerns at the role that social media played in the storming of the US Capitol in Washington, saying the EU's proposed Digital Services Act (DSA) should double down on the spread of conspiratorial material online.

A growing number of lawmakers and government officials from both parties are calling for Donald Trump’s removal from office following the riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday. On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said he would be impeached if not removed by the cabinet. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Human activity will push concentrations of planet-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to levels 50% higher than before the industrial revolution this year, breaching a symbolic climate change threshold, the UK’s Met Office forecast on Friday (8 January).

Italy plans to spend more than €222 billion from various European Union funds to revive its coronavirus-battered economy, a draft government document seen by Reuters showed on Thursday (7 January).

The EU’s plans to strike a ‘strategic partnership’ with Africa were one the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic. After the European Commission set out its stall in a March 2020 strategic paper, summits were cancelled and it is unclear whether EU and African Union leaders will agree on an agenda with the ambition needed for a genuine ‘strategic partnership’ this year.