Author: staff
BRUSSELS — EU lawmakers have clinched a long-awaited agreement on the bloc’s overhaul of its two decades-old pharmaceutical rules — one of the EU’s biggest health files. The revamp is designed to restore Europe’s competitive edge and give companies more certainty that the EU remains an attractive market, while also pushing for more equal access to medicines across member countries. The deal between the Parliament and the Council was struck at 5 a.m. on Thursday, more than two years after the Commission tabled the proposal, which consists of directive and regulation, in spring 2023. It marks a major victory for…
Published on 11/12/2025 – 7:51 GMT+1 •Updated 8:07 Ukraine has reportedly sent an updated version of the 20-point peace plan to the US. President Zelenskyy has called the document “fundamental” to end the war and announced that over 30 nations will join a Coalition of the Willing meeting next week. Our Ukraine Correspondent Sasha Vakulina tells us more on this development. Territory remains a major sticking point in the talks to end the war in Ukraine. Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, joins for a live interview to explain why Kyiv is…
By Christina Thykjaer & Jeremiah Fisayo-Bambi with AP Published on 11/12/2025 – 7:55 GMT+1 US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, as tensions with the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro continue to rise. “We have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, a large, very large oil tanker, the largest ever seized, in fact,” Trump told reporters at the White House, stressing that “it was seized for a very good reason.” Trump added that “other things are going on,” although he did not offer further details and said…
A new World Inequality Report warns that fewer than 60,000 of the world’s richest people — enough to fill a football stadium — own more wealth than half of the entire world put together. The report highlights extreme gaps in income and wealth, which translate into the unequal distribution of political power, with a global elite amounting to 0.001% of the population being three times wealthier than the bottom 50%. In stark contrast to their wealth and power, the top tier “contributes disproportionately little to public finances. Effective tax rates climb for most of the population but fall sharply for…
Published on 11/12/2025 – 6:00 GMT+1 British people spend hours online every day – and half that time is on platforms owned by two tech giants, according to the country’s internet regulator. The regulator, Ofcom, crunched a mix of survey data from over 10,000 adults and various other digital surveys to identify where British people spend time online. Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, accounted for half the total time that British people spent online, the report showed. The average British citizen spent 4.5 hours online per day, with 2…
Die europäische Sicherheitslage steht heute im Mittelpunkt. Mark Rutte, der NATO-Generalsekretär, kommt nach Berlin und trifft den Kanzler. Für Friedrich Merz ist dieses Gespräch zentral, denn es hängt die Frage über allem, wie sich Europa verteidigen soll, wenn Washington sich weiter zurückzieht.Gordon Repinski ordnet ein, welche Erwartungen an das Treffen geknüpft sind und welche Rolle eingefrorene russische Vermögen für die Ukraine dabei spielen Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht Franziska Brantner, Co-Vorsitzende der Grünen, über die Verteidigungsfähigkeit Europas. Sie erklärt, warum die Europäer Sicherheitsgarantien für die Ukraine vorbereiten müssen und weshalb eine kleinere Gruppe schneller vorangehen sollte. Im Anschluss berichtet Marion Soletty von…
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa plan to travel on December 20 for the signing of a contentious agreement with the Mercosur trading bloc of South American countries. The Commission, which has been negotiating the deal for 25 years, is confident a majority of member states will support it. But EU diplomats say the arithmetic remains uncertain, with the split between supporters and opponents still razor-thin. The next ten days will be decisive. The deal was concluded in December 2024 by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay with the EU aims to create a…
Published on 11/12/2025 – 6:30 GMT+1 The European Commission has approved a support package for the construction and operation of Poland’s first nuclear power plant (NPP), declaring it compatible with EU state aid rules. The government in Warsaw has secured funds for the construction of the NPP, which is expected to cost around 192 billion złoty. Authorities in Warsaw said they aimed to support the EU investment by contributing capital of around €14 billion, which would cover 30% of the total project cost. Later in December, 4.6 billion złoty(€1.9 billion) will go to the company leading the project. The power…
The opinion introduces another challenge by calling for “flexibility” for member states. In practice, this means regulatory fragmentation across 27 markets, reopening the door to divergent national spectrum policies — precisely the outcome Europe has spent two decades trying to avert with the Digital Single Market. Without a credible roadmap, reserving the band for hypothetical cellular networks only exacerbates policy uncertainty without delivering progress. Equally significant is what the opinion does not address. The upper 6-GHz band is already home to ‘incumbents’: fixed links and satellite services that support public safety, government operations and industrial connectivity. Any meaningful mobile deployment…
The discussion surrounding the digital euro is strategically important to Europe. On Dec. 12, the EU finance ministers are aiming to agree on a general approach regarding the dossier. This sets out the European Council’s official position and thus represents a major political milestone for the European Council ahead of the trilogue negotiations. We want to be sure that, in this process, the project will be subject to critical analysis that is objective and nuanced and takes account of the long-term interests of Europe and its people. We do not want the debate to fundamentally call the digital euro into…