On 20th July 2021, the European Commission published its new rule of law report. The report emphasises Hungary’s lack of anti-corruption measures and warned that media freedom and pluralism remain at risk.

On 28th June 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report on racial justice and inequality. The findings of the report cite concerns in about 60 countries, among them Belgium.

In a resolution dated 9th June 2021, the European Parliament (EP) called for a stop to subsidising the business empire of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis over conflicts of interest.

As is the case in many other European countries, Spain started to ease COVID-19 related restrictions as new COVID-19 infection numbers began to drop consistently. On 9th May 2021, the state of emergency ended.

As is the case in many other European countries, COVID-19 cases have been declining in Lithuania. The government issued national certificates for people who are either fully vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 or have a negative test.

In Romania, just as in many other European countries, the decreasing number of coronavirus infections and hospitalisations led to the easing of COVID-19 related measures in late Spring, June 2021.

As previously reported on the Monitor, Hungary broke with the centralised vaccine procurement system of the European Union by approving and purchasing Russian and Chinese vaccines that have not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency.

As in many other European countries, COVID-19 related measures started to ease in Poland. There are, however, still several restrictions in place.

After months of COVID-19-related restrictions, measures started to ease in Greece in May 2021. At the beginning of May, restaurants, coffee shops and bars were allowed to reopen. On 15th May 2021, Greece reopened for tourism.

As the number of people in intensive care is steadily dropping in Belgium, previous strict COVID-19 measures are being lifted.