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Provision of clean drinking water, a vital resource and a public good, is considered a matter of public health. Many Europeans already have access to clean and safe drinking water at an affordable price. However, emerging issues such as water scarcity, droughts and the presence of chemical substances or microplastics in water are crystallising societal and environmental concerns. The European Commission is due to make a statement on the right to clean drinking water in the EU during the Parliament's ...

In line with its 2022 global health strategy (GHS), the expansion of international partnerships on health is a priority for the European Union (EU). As the 2020 Africa strategy underlines, the African continent, including at regional and national levels, is one of the EU's strategic partners, not least on health. Nevertheless, it was not until February 2022, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, that health was explicitly included as one of the strategic priorities of the EU–African Union (AU) partnership ...

The new EU global health strategy, adopted by the European Commission on 30 November 2022, has been positioned as a crucial element of EU external policy, geopolitical influence and strategic autonomy. However, maintaining the long term commitment necessary for achieving global health ambitions in turbulent times remains challenging. Against this backdrop, in 2023 the Policy Foresight Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service conducted a foresight exercise involving external experts to ...

Algorithm-generated diets tailored to our individual needs could bring health benefits, but at the cost of having to share our most personal data, such as our DNA. The promises are many, but so are the open questions about interactions between genes, nutrients, environment and health, and the role of socioeconomic factors underlying food choices. Precision nutrition advice, services and products will need to be governed by a range of laws and policies, as they are at the intersection between food ...

During its October I plenary session, the European Parliament is expected to adopt its position on a European Commission proposal to revise a core piece of EU chemicals legislation, which requires proper classification, labelling and packaging of hazardous substances and mixtures to protect human health and the environment.

Treating urban wastewater to remove harmful components is essential to protect human health as well as rivers, lakes and seas. During the October I plenary session, the European Parliament is expected to adopt its position on a European Commission proposal that seeks to reinforce existing rules, adopted more than 30 years ago, and to bring them into line with the EU's climate neutrality, circularity and zero pollution ambitions.

Cannabis is by far the most commonly used illicit drug (referred to as drug in this briefing) in the European Union (EU), where its distribution, cultivation, possession and use (consumption) are largely prohibited. The prohibition of drug-related activities other than those performed for medical or scientific purposes is the defining feature of the international drug control system. Set up by the United Nations (UN), this system is composed of three complementary conventions, to which all EU Member ...

A revision of the Detergents Regulation is expected to be published in the first quarter of 2023. The revision of the regulation is aimed at ensuring consistency with other EU chemicals legislation, adapting the legislation to technical progress as well as reducing administrative burdens. In the context of the EU chemicals strategy for sustainability, provisions may be introduced or reinforced to take account of the combination effects of chemicals and to extend the generic approach to risk management ...

The European Union has been developing a policy on chemicals for more than 50 years. It employs legal regulation as the main policy instrument and aims to protect human health and the environment against the hazardous properties of chemicals, ensuring their free movement within the internal market, while also promoting competitiveness and innovation in the relevant industrial sector. Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (the CLP Regulation ...

This study analyses how governments, public health experts and other professionals communicated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact of these communication strategies. It investigates COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation practices, and how these practices were addressed in the European Union by the Member States and the European Commission. It draws up recommendations to improve responses in the future, including by analysing the role of the Code of Practice on disinformation ad the ...