European Union

Today, EU ambassadors failed to rubber-stamp the recently agreed deal on new EU supply chain rules. This law — the Corporate Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) — aims to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet. 

Today, EU countries agreed on a renewed EU global health strategy - the EU’s global vision for funding and international cooperation in relation to health. In response, Oxfam EU health expert, Piotr Kolczynski, said: “In the EU’s Health Commissioner's own words, where you live should not determine whether you live or die. But EU countries only pay heed to these words within Europe’s borders. In the rest of the world, the EU is playing the industry's game and undermining the right to health of the world's poorest people. 

When a crises hits, be it an unfolding conflict or a natural disaster, humanitarian aid is a lifeline for people. The EU has a role to play in making sure that peoples’ needs come first, and that they receive live-saving aid and support as is their right.

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 and EU countries must commit to a feminist foreign policy. This means an intersectional feminist approach which puts gender, racial, economic and climate justice at its heart, prioritizes decolonization and puts the voices of those who have historically been least represented, and are often most impacted, at the centre of policymaking. 

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?"

Responding to news that the EU has discarded at least 215 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Piotr Kolczyński, EU Health Policy Advisor at the People’s Vaccine Alliance and Oxfam, said: “This is further proof that the EU wasted millions of its COVID-19 vaccines, hoarded early in the pandemic, as it locked poorer countries out of access.