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Is polio eradication worth it?
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It’s a question that seems almost rhetorical to most public health advocates. “Of course,” they say. “If we can, we should.” This is the conventional wisdom, often presumed to have been settled long ago and to be effectively beyond question...
Euro crisis could see return of polio
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When European governments’ credit ratings were downgraded it became more expensive to raise money for health development projects For the past six years, the GAVI Alliance has been raising money on financial markets through the International...
European think tank (quietly) disowns ex-EU Commissioner and former Taoiseach
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Better late than never: honour has been restored at the IIEA, eventually The Institute of International and European Affairs – a Dublin-based pro-EU think tank with a record of attracting big hitters to address its high-profile events – has q...
European Medicines Agency: a watchdog under fire
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Amid resignations, political spats and question marks over its budget, there’s a new broom at the EU’s powerful medicines authority Pity Guido Rasi. Not for his €200 salary, the generous perks or the swanky Canary Wharf offices, but for the une...
Recyling ideas: A Supersized EIB
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EU leaders seem to have just discovered the EIB but the truth is the bank has grown increasingly active since the crisis broke In the sleepy Luxembourg headquarters of the European Investment Bank they are unsure how to handle their 15 minutes of fam...
Engaging with MEPs 2.0
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My name is Gary and I have a MySpace account. There, I’ve said it. In my defence, I haven’t used it for five years and I now forget the password. However, for dozens of our esteemed Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), wandering alone in th...
Greek doctors call emergency ‘solidarity summit’
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Doctors from across Europe are gathering in Athens on Saturday for an emergency meeting amid fears that the Greek health system is going into meltdown. The hastily-arranged medical summit, called by the Medical Association of Athens, is due to discus...
‘Patient information’: a case study in EU bureacracy
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Three years after it was proposed the EU Information to Patients Directive is in limbo European health ministers have poured cold water on a long-standing EU proposal to allow pharmaceutical companies to provide information on medicines directly to p...
Unhealthy austerity hits Europe
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The reality of budget cutbacks is hitting frontline health services across Europe as governments close wards and patients beg for medicines At the turn of the year, the Czech Republic sent a platoon of army doctors to help neighbouring Slovakia keep...
Greek patients pleading for aspirin
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Chronic drug shortages in Greece have left thousands of patients without medicines and paralysed the drug supply chain. The impact of the ongoing financial crisis in Europe is having a deep impact on patients – and that’s before the possi...
What China wants in return for EU bailout
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Tapping a developing country for cash is a lot to ask so we need not be surprised that China wants something in return So it looks like Europe is asking China to contribute more than €100, 000,000,000 to boost its bailout fund and help save Europe&...
Closer union is essential but may drive us apart
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While closer fiscal union can help solve today’s crisis, the public backlash will cause some Member States to pull away over the next decade. Still, it’s better to separate the currency crisis from the political crisis as simultaneous cat...
EU Summit: Predict the Headlines
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Let’s predict the headlines for the next EU summit: - Day before the summit: EU leaders divided ahead of crunch summit This one comes with stories of how impossible it will be to come to any agreement and how Obama has been on the phone screami...
Eurozone: new rules for new members
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When the EU expanded from 15 to 27 countries between 2004 and 2007, it was presumed that the newest members would go the whole hog and join the euro in due course. In fact, it was written into the terms of the accession Treaty they signed at the door...
Fixated on the future, at the expense of the present
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With Greece on the brink, Brussels is dangerously distracted by efforts to invent new European rules and institutions which will help prevent future sovereign debt crises. After protracted negotiations, MEPs and the European Council – which represe...
Cutting farm subsidies to boost innovation
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The draft EU budget is a win for Geoghegan-Quinn but it won’t make her popular at home. The EU’s budget has been the subject of much wrangling of late, with the usual tug-of-war between interest groups from industry, agriculture and the rest.
Always say never
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Over the past 18 months, observers have noted the alarming frequency with which things that were once ruled out of hand by EU leaders have become the norm. It began with the mantra-esque refrain of “We won’t bail out Greece”, which ultimately m...
Greece defaulting on cash owed to companies
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Fears that Greece could default on its debt tops the EU agenda because it puts the balance sheets of a dozen German and French banks in peril. But Greece has already defaulted on its debts to companies. What is default? EU leaders have been trying to...
Ending the euro ‘permacrisis’
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At every turn the euro crisis gets harder to solve. With every emergency meeting; with every short-term fix, a credible solution to the eurozone’s debt mountain becomes less likely. Europeans are sick of living in a state of permacrisis. We hav...
Postcard from an Accidental Emigrant
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While thousands of young people are fleeing Ireland as the depression deepens, others who planned to return are stranded overseas. This is my story. Lehman Brothers collapsed the week we landed in Brussels. Two weeks later the Irish government signed...
