EU

The only way to avoid the pandemic devastating lives and livelihoods at an untold scale is for rich countries to mobilise all available resources, said Oxfam in response to a new European Commission plan outlining how the EU will support developing countries in the face of COVID-19.

Rather than protecting vulnerable people from the spread of the coronavirus, the Greek government is using the crisis to absolve itself from its obligations under international and EU law, said Oxfam.

The extreme actions taken by security forces against people seeking asylum and the recent violent attacks against workers for human rights and humanitarian organizations in Greece are an alarming development, said 256 organizations in a joint statement on Friday.

The proposed EU climate law is a good framework for EU climate action over the next decades, Oxfam says. The Commission, national governments and the European Parliament now must enact the law and take swift and decisive action to drastically reduce climate-heating emissions.

European Union member states should urgently relocate unaccompanied children from the Greek islands to safety in their territory, 65 human rights, humanitarian and civil society organisations said in a statement today.

Oxfam welcomes that Europe has begun developing prospects for a real and meaningful partnership with Africa. Ursula von der Leyen’s vision of a truly ‘geopolitical Commission’ must be grounded in European values and result in EU policies that actually work for people in Africa instead of making their situation worse.

A study initiated by the European Commission and released today says that new EU due diligence rules could significantly improve respect for human rights in the supply chains of European companies, says Oxfam.

Panama, the Cayman Islands and the Seychelles have rightly been added to the EU tax haven blacklist. However, the list still proves inadequate, said Oxfam today.

The EU and EU countries must work together to make rules that fairly share the responsibility of welcoming people across Europe. They must stop striking up migration deals and using aid to outsource their responsibility. They must end pushbacks and rights violations at Europe’s borders.

Oxfam advocates for the EU to step up its climate action. It must fulfil its promise to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, increase funding for international action to fight the climate emergency and not promote false climate solutions which fuel hunger by incentivising the use of land to produce bioenergy.