EU

The global food system is broken. It is unsustainable for people and planet. The combination of extreme inequality and poverty, human rights violations, conflict and the climate crisis has left hundreds of millions of people struggling to find their next meal. More recently, the sharp food price inflation accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have added fuel to the fire

The EU must relaunch its relationship with Latin America (LAC) by putting the region and its societies higher on the EU agenda. This ‘relaunch’ must focus on ending inequality in LAC – one of the world’s most unequal regions.

Companies cannot be left off the hook for the damage they cause to people and the planet. Precarious working conditions, low wages, and human rights abuses including slavery are rife in supply chains. Women are disproportionately affected as they are overwhelmingly concentrated in the least secure and lowest paid positions in supply chains, and routinely denied to use their voice. 

Civic space is at the heart of change. An open civic space enables people to come together, voice their needs, demand accountability, and fight for justice. However, around the world, governments are cracking down on people’s rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, association and expression, and the environment for civil society is shrinking. For the first time since 2004, there are more autocratic governments than democratic ones. 

Today, EU negotiators have reached a long-awaited political agreement on the EU migration pact. In response, Stephanie Pope, Oxfam EU migration expert, said: “As we hear EU statements celebrating this deal, the question is, at what cost?"

On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, a call for a permanent and immediate ceasefire was projected at Mont des Arts in Brussels. This visual statement, projected in Europe’s capital, underscores the critical need for a permanent ceasefire to end the suffering in Gaza, where, in 54 days alone, more than 14 800 Palestinians (70% of them women and children) have been reported killed and more than 36,000 injured amid intensifying hostilities. 

On Thursday, 1 June, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote on the EU’s new rules to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet: the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). If the European Parliament fails to vote in favour of ambitious amendments, the final text risks being a far cry from what is needed.

Read Oxfam EU's media briefing which breaks down the rules and what MEPs need to do to make them stronger. 

After years of deadlock, EU justice and home affair ministers will seek to reach an agreement this week on two key files: the border procedure which includes the potential detention of children, and the solidarity mechanism which puts relocations on equal footing with financial contributions.   

The European Union has adopted a new approach to foreign policy dubbed the “Global Gateway,” supported by a new European Financial Architecture for Development (EFAD). These policies are a direct response to the state of permacrises that the world finds itself in. It seeks to inject 180-300 billion euros over a period of six years into the EU’s partner countries in the form of infrastructure projects, a green transition and digitalisation. 

Today, Tuesday 5 October, European economic and finance ministers met to approve an update to the EU’s list of tax havens. This comes in the midst of the unfolding Pandora papers scandal and global tax negotiations.