Belgium will host Europe’s biggest sportainment park
The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring
The legislation will give extraordinary powers to the government to manage the coronavirus crisis in a more hard-handed way
The Swedish parliament’s Christmas recess has been a short one, as legislators have been called back to deliberate on the government’s coronavirus crisis bill, local media report. Parliament is expected to vote on the fast-tracked legislation as early as 4 January. Health Minister Lena Hallengren told a news conference on Monday that the emergency powers law, if approved, would be in force from 10 January until September.
The government has complained that its hands are tied by the Constitution and wants greater powers to control the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Sweden, which has been sticking to a controversial ‘soft’ approach of managing the pandemic through health recommendations instead of mandatory restrictions, has significantly outstripped its Scandinavian neighbours with more than 6500 daily cases, 8279 deaths registered since the pandemic onset and hospital intensive care units near capacity.
The new law will allow the government to make tougher and quicker decisions, informing parliament just two weeks in advance, or delegate such decisions to local authorities when necessary. Such decisions will involve, among other things, limiting attendance at or closing down (as a last resort) shopping centres, restaurants, bars, and gyms; fining rule breakers who hold private parties or gather in crowded places, and limiting public transport.
Limits on the number of people visiting a park or a public square may also be introduced, but a curfew is out of the question as it would go against the right to free movement enshrined in Sweden's constitution.
The proposed pandemic law was sent for review in December to 129 government agencies, municipalities and organisations, including the ombudsman. The opposition has called on the government to clarify how it will compensate businesses and persons affected by the emergency measures the law would put into force. Lena Hallengren said that a good part of this feedback has been taken into account.
For Christmas, the government toughened coronavirus guidelines by introducing a limit of four persons sitting at the same table in restaurants and masks in public transport.
Citing concerns about humaneness, the legislation aims to discourage the proliferation of the so-called designer pet breeds
Naturally, many aren’t happy - not because of the reduced possibility for prayers, but because they felt it was an attack on welfare
The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring
Some autonomous shuttles in France are now doing their rounds without a human supervisor inside
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38,000 of these fellas help to purify the city air, so why not become friends with them?
2020 and 2021 were zero years for these types of events, but the break has not diminished its reputation
As Europe strives to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, Turku and Dijon are among a group of cities seeking to reach this goal two decades earlier
Some autonomous shuttles in France are now doing their rounds without a human supervisor inside
2020 and 2021 were zero years for these types of events, but the break has not diminished its reputation
Citing concerns about humaneness, the legislation aims to discourage the proliferation of the so-called designer pet breeds
The facility will be located in Hasselt and is set to welcome its first visitors this spring
The European Commission has published its first progress report charting the achievements of the socio-cultural movement that combines beauty, inclusion and sustainability
The 2023 edition of the creative initiative promises to be bigger, bolder and more inclusive
This initiative seeks to integrate the values of the New European Bauhaus into the European Commission’s 100 Cities Mission
Veni Markovski’s take on dealing with disinformation in the European Union's poorest country – Bulgaria
A conversation with the mayor of Utrecht on the occasion of her mission to COP27
A conversation with the President of the European Committee of the Regions, about energy, climate change and the underrated importance of cohesion policy