(Photo: Tony Gonzalez) It is not rare for the EU Council to be out of touch with public opinion. This has happened once again with the EU AI Act, by exempting AI systems developed or used for ‘national security purposes’…
The historic contribution from African countries, many of whom were former colonies, to global CO2 emissions is just three percent. European countries are responsible for 22 percent. (Photo: 350.org) At a time when climate negotiations are shaped by concerns about…
One Polish artist was charged under Article 196 of the Polish Penal Code for “offending religious feelings” with her LGBTQ-centric art works that challenged the belief system of the Catholic church (Photo: Federico Moroni) As far-right parties continue to gain…
The Pantanal wetland in Brazil is an extraordinary ecosystem of global importance – but 17 million vertebrateswere directly killed by the 2020 blazes (Photo: Environmental Justice Foundation) In 2020, Brazil’s Pantanal wetland suffered record-breaking fires, with nearly one third of…
Bridge at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, spanning the polluted river between Poland (right bank) and Germany (left bank) (Photo: Valentina Pop) One of the most precious rivers in Europe faced a severe environmental disaster this summer. That river was the Oder, which forms…
Citizens’ panels can be yet another democratic disillusionment, or they can play a meaningful role in a European democracy (Photo: europe@home competition) In her State of the Union keynote annual speech last month, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen…
A pilot plant in Germany. Carbon-capture and storage is a techno-fix promoted by big polluters that allows them to continue to pollute (Photo: Vattenfall) Despite droughts, floods, heatwaves and crop failure, the oil and gas industry is using sleight of…
Macron’s European Political Community (EPC) has been derided as a deceptive ploy to sideline the enlargement process, or simply a characteristically grandiose but vague proposal coming from the French (Photo: European Parliament) The most important event of the Czech EU…
Free trade agreements offer more than prosperity and growth in the European Union — they are also an important instrument to reduce dependencies on autocratic regimes such as Russia and China (Photo: Timothy M Roberts) Free trade agreements offer more…
‘Friend or Foe?’ France has already been chosen as the location of the new King’s first official visit abroad (Photo: BBC news/screengrab) The state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey some 10 days ago was a ceremony which…
Uyghur detainees in 2017 (Photo: Wikimedia) On 31 August, minutes before the end of the now-former UN high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet’s mandate, her office finally published its long-overdue report on the human rights situation in the Xinjiang…
The Kremlin. ‘We believe that, in the current situation, Vladimir Putin can only profit from an isolation of Russia’s democrats — whether in exile or in Russia itself' (Photo: davidgordillo) With Vladimir Putin’s escalation of the war against Ukraine through…