The Commission has adopted a Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe to ensure patients have access to innovative and affordable medicines and to support the competitiveness, innovative capacity and sustainability of the EU’s pharmaceutical industry. Europe’s Pharmaceutical Strategy has four main objectives: Ensuring access to affordable medicines for patients, and addressing unmet medical needs (e.g. in the […]
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Commission approves contract with Moderna to ensure access to a potential vaccine
The European Commission approved a sixth contract under the EU Vaccines Strategy, this time with the pharmaceutical company Moderna. The contract provides for the initial purchase of 80 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States, plus an option to request up to a further 80 million doses, to be supplied once a vaccine […]
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16.8 million European funds advanced to Spain to fight the pandemic
Seven EU Member States, including Spain, will receive advance payments from the Solidarity Fund to mitigate the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Aid from the Solidarity Fund Germany, Ireland, Greece, Croatia, Hungary and Portugal will also receive advances to cope with the health emergency On Monday, Budgets Committee Members approved €823 million in EU aid […]
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How the pandemic has changed forever the way we teach
This year’s global pandemic exposed as never before the urgent need to revolutionise teacher training as skills centres and vocational education and training schools were closed around the world, forcing a sudden switch to online learning. Countries that had already started investing heavily online and blended education (where digitally-based distance learning is combined with practical […]
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Health threats: boosting EU readiness and crisis management
New EU programme EU4Health aims to strengthen Europe’s health systems to respond better to future major cross-border crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 outbreak has shown the need for EU countries to better cooperate and coordinate in times of crisis and to strengthen the EU’s capacity to respond effectively to new cross-border health threats. Drawing […]
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Impact of COVID-19 measures on the environment
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions imposed to fight the spread of the disease have provided some short-term positive impacts on Europe’s environment, according to a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing published. These include temporary improvements in air quality, lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower levels of noise pollution. However, the assessment also stresses that […]
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Thirteen Spanish entities will receive funding for health research projects
Commission grants EUR 508 million for a total of 75 projects across the EU The last year of Horizon 2020 represents a record in funding for collaborative health research. The 75 projects selected following the evaluation involve 1158 professionals from 58 countries. Following the signing of grant agreements in the coming weeks, they should receive […]
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The Spanish Government declares a State of Alarm
The Council of Ministers, in its extraordinary session yesterday, approved through a Royal Decree the declaration of an initial state of alarm of 15 days, which can be extended to 6 months when the Government makes the request to Parliament next Tuesday, in order to respond to the situation of special risk caused by the […]
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Main results of the European Council meeting, 15-16 October 2020
On 15 and 16 October, EU leaders met in Brussels to discuss the epidemiological situation, relations with the United Kingdom, climate change and foreign affairs, in particular relations with Africa. COVID-19 The European Council assessed the current epidemiological situation, which is unprecedented and gives rise to very serious concern. Leaders welcomed the progress achieved so far […]
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